Investing in Black Los Angeles’s Future
Destination Crenshaw’s goal has always been clear: to create the most dynamic expression of Black American culture in the United States. But we are creating more than just spaces to experience Black culture. We are uplifting our community through economic development and job creation. We are creating beautiful community spaces where people can come together to heal, grow and fight for social change. We are planting a new urban forest to counteract decades of environmental injustice in South Los Angeles. And all along the way, we are engaging with the South Los Angeles community to ensure this project doesn’t just become a monument to Black LA, but is a celebration of our legacy while helping to build our future.
Your support helps Destination Crenshaw deeply engage the South Los Angeles community to gather support for our community-inspired public art and streetscape design project that aspires to celebrate the history and contributions of Black Los Angeles.
Our project is infrastructure. Our purpose is prosperity. By building along the corridor, we are laying the foundation for long-term economic opportunity for the people living in our community. We are doing this in two ways:
First, we have committed to hiring 70% of Destination Crenshaw’s workforce from the local community. This will be instrumental not only in giving people jobs now, but propelling members of our community into sustainable careers in the construction trades with projects across the city for years to come. Second, we are building up the boulevard into a commercially thriving corridor of Black-owned businesses, through our ongoing DC Thrive program. With targeted partnerships focused on small business support – from social media marketing to technical assistance – Destination Crenshaw is providing critical assistance that Black businesses and creative entrepreneurs need to weather the current crisis, grow, and thrive alongside the planned cultural and architectural improvements on the corridor.
For far too long Black communities have endured sustained disinvestment with their voices and needs ignored. So, when it was determined that a new Metro line would cut through the South LA community, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson saw an opportunity to bring visibility and public-private investment to South LA. He understood, though, that building anything without the voices of the people would result in a project that failed to meet their needs. Thus, Destination Crenshaw was born – not out of bureaucracy but out of a collaborative process with community to ensure a collective sense of ownership of this project and the spaces it would create.
Destination Crenshaw has always been a project for the people and by the people. As we grow, we will continue to meet our community where they are and listen to the voices of those to whom this project belongs. In doing so, we will stay responsive to community needs and ensure that Destination Crenshaw is truly representative of Black LA and the future we want to build.
The Crenshaw District is the cradle of Black American creativity — home to endless innovations in music, dance, fashion and the visual arts, and we are making sure everyone knows it. More than 100 planned artworks are destined from the corridor, making Destination Crenshaw the largest public/private Black art program in the U.S. and possibly the world. Over the course of the next several years, we will showcase the brilliance of dozens of emerging, mid-career and established Black artists grounded in the Crenshaw community. Their work, murals, sculptures, and monuments will be featured not only in the community spaces, but also on buildings along the 1.3-mile stretch creating a free, publically accessible experience. With new and refreshed murals, iconic sculptures, world-class landscaping and architecture and artistic programming, Destination Crenshaw is building a permanent platform and model for the impact of Black artists and art in the community.
