Crenshaw at the Crossroads

 From Alta Journal 

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There’s a gentle bend along Crenshaw Boulevard, southbound from the 10 freeway, that tells me—always—that I’m nearing home. I feel it in my body. It triggers a wave of emotion—a mix of gratitude and wistfulness and worry. Protect this at all costs.

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Outside, a vivid patchwork backdrop whizzes by: the last-century signage—cafés, wig shops, ghosts of nightclubs, fast food, incense shops. And, too, slashed down the center, the progression of the Metro K Line light rail construction, orange cones, canary-yellow directional signs, and those variable-message boards warning “one lane.” The boulevard has been consumed by all this tearing up for years, and that has dramatically altered its feeling. I take in both what’s vanished and what remains, in one glance. I always see both. It’s my Angeleno’s way to navigate a changing place.

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I ease into that bend, spot the spire of the Vision Theatre as it rises into view. Its turquoise tower serves as a beacon, a gateway to a specific Black L.A.

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On this balmy afternoon, I’m moving with another purpose—threading my way to an interview with Jason Foster, who is the president and chief operating officer of Destination Crenshaw, an in-the-works high-profile civic/public arts project sunk smack within the boundaries of my childhood neighborhood. “It’s coming!” people have reported to me in tones that don’t always convey the full scope of their sentiments. I’m left to wonder: Like a storm? Like a train? Like a lifeboat? Billed as an “outdoor museum,” and slowly materializing along a 1.3-mile stretch of Crenshaw from Leimert Boulevard to 60th Street, the ambitious public-private endeavor has already sprung up as a conversation topic within my artist and community-organizing cohort, buzzing on the edges of my consciousness..."

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