Lummis Day

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Known as the “Festival of Northeast Los Angeles”, Lummis Day has become a signature community arts and music event in the neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles, showcasing the community’s considerable pool of musicians, poets, artists, dancers and restaurants representing a kaleidoscope of ethnicities and cultural traditions.

For the community, Lummis Day is a party with a purpose, a “kumbaya” for the various ethnicities and cultures that share the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods. In 2008 attendance reached 9,000 people – making it into one of the area's biggest annual events.

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[edit] Charles Fletcher Lummis

Lummis Day was named for author, adventurer and early advocate of multiculturalism, Charles Fletcher Lummis.

Lummis settled into Northeast Los Angeles in 1895, and built his home from Arroyo Seco river rock on the borders of the Highland Park and Montecito Heights communities. Celebrated as a city of Los Angeles and state of California Historical Monument, the Lummis Home is included on the National Register of Historic Places [1], the List of California Historical Landmarks [2] and is owned and maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. A few years later, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian opened to the public in nearby Mount Washington, created by Lummis as the first public museum in the city of Los Angeles and operated today by the Autry National Center.

[edit] Lummis Day 2009

The 2009 event,[3] set for June 7, plans to feature a diverse collection of performers, including Wil-Dog Abers (a member of the famed Los Angeles band Ozomatli) with his group "La Banda Juvenil"; perennial Best Los Angeles Country Band-winners I See Hawks in L.A.; virtuoso blues guitarist legend Carlos Guitarlos and his band; poet and journalist Ruben Martinez; poets Gail Wronsky and Suzanne Lummis; members of Chicano comedy and theater troupe Culture Clash; Native American singer Glen Ahhaitty; and Filipino, Native American, Mexican and Pacific Islander folk artists and visual artists of various stripes and traditions.

[edit] Past events

The festival was organized by activists and neighborhood council representatives in 2006 as a celebration the history and diversity of the Northeast Los Angeles communities (the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Hermon, El Sereno, Sycamore Grove, Lincoln Heights, and Glassell Park) and was designed to strengthen the ties among community’s cultural, commercial and community resources.

Since 2006, the Lummis Day program has grown in size and stature and now includes an educational program for Los Angeles teachers,[4] a series of poetry readings and workshops that are held in public library branches throughout the area,[5] and annual same-day events at three separate locations: a poetry reading and music recital at Lummis Home; a festival of music and dance performances at Sycamore Grove Park;[6] and an annual art exhibition held at the Autry National Center’s Casa de Adobe.[7]

Since 2006, the principal Lummis Day event has been held on the first Sunday in June. The first event, on Sunday, June 4, 2006, featured East L.A. rock band Quinto Sol, musician Severin Browne, Ann Likes Red, Cuban-born musician Juan Carlos Formell, Danza Azteca Cuahtlehuanitl, the Tongva-Gabrielino Native American Dancers, Pilipino folk ensemble Panama Rondalla and poets B. H. Fairchild, William Archila and Suzanne Lummis.

In 2007, Lummis Day performers included Quetzal, Ollin, the Evangenitals, the Greger Walnum Blues Band, the Susie Hansen Latin Band, Likas Pilipinas Folk Arts, Ballet Coco Folklorico, Rene and His Marionettes, poets Lynne Thompson, Charles Harper Webb, Steve Abee and cellist Kevin Buck.[8]

The 2008 Lummis Day event[9] took place on June 1 and was headlined by Highland Park native son Jackson Browne.[10] Other performers included the celebrated comedy ensemble Culture Clash, Latina fusion rocker Cava, the Chapin Sisters, the Mariachi Divas, Artichoke, Ann Likes Red with guest star L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, poets Steve Kowit, liz gonzalez, Cathie Sandstrom and guitarist Carlos Guitarlos, the “I Tell Stories” troupe of actors and storytellers, the Cypress Park Folkloric dancers, Ballet Coco and the Puppets and Players Little Theatre.

The same year, the Lummis Day organizing committee formed a California corporation, the Lummis Day Community Foundation, Inc. and was granted federal non-profit status as a 501(c)(3) organization.

Media sponsors for Lummis Day include TV stations KMEX and KTTV, public radio station KPFK and the Arroyo Seco Journal.[11] The Annenberg Foundation, the Autry National Center and the Northeast L.A. neighborhood councils (the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the Eagle Rock neighborhood Council and the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council) and community organizations The Highland Park Historic Trust and the Mount Washington Association help underwrite the event.

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/ca/Los+Angeles/state5.html
  2. ^ http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21427
  3. ^ http://www.lummisday.org/
  4. ^ http://www.lummisday.org/2009/2009-Workshops.htm
  5. ^ http://www.lummisday.org/2009/2009-LibrarySeries.htm
  6. ^ http://www.laparks.org/dos/parks/facility/sycamorePk.htm
  7. ^ http://www.nelalive.net/2008/05/casa-de-adobe-a.html
  8. ^ http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/a_walk_in_the_park/4694/
  9. ^ http://www.metro.net/news_info/press/Metro_071v.htm
  10. ^ http://www.nelalive.net/2008/04/jackson-browne.html
  11. ^ http://www.asjournal.net/
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