Lummis Day - 2009

• 2009-home page •

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Sunday, June 7th
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4th Annual Lummis Day Celebration

The 4th annual Lummis Day festival, set for Sunday, June 7, will feature a kaleidoscopic collection of performers, including Wil-Dog (a member of L.A.'s acclaimed Ozomatli), perennial “Best Los Angeles Country Band” winners I See Hawks in L.A., virtuoso blues guitarist legend Carlos Guitarlos, poets Ruben Martinez and Suzanne Lummis, members of the Chicano comedy group Culture Clash, plus Pilipino, Native American, Mexican and Pacific Islander folk artists, poets and visual artists of various stripes and traditions.

For the community, it's a party with a purpose, a “kumbaya” for the various ethnicities and cultures that share the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods. And last year's attendance--about 9,000 people showed up--has turned it into one of the area's biggest annual events, a signature community arts and music showcase for the Northeast Los Angeles area ( including the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Hermon, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and Glassell Park).

Tonga Puppets - Opening Ceremonies, 2008 - The Arroyo Arts Collective's Tonga Puppets
parade is a traditional opening ceremony for the performances at Sycamore Grove Park.

The Festival was organized by activists and neighborhood council representatives in 2006 to celebrate the area's history and cultural diversity. Lummis Day showcases musicians, poets and artists who live and work in the area and was designed to strengthen the ties among community's cultural, commercial and community resources.

The program has grown in size and stature and now includes an educational program for Los Angeles teachers, a series of poetry readings and workshops that are held in public library branches throughout Northeast Los Angeles, an annual poetry reading and music recital at the city-administered park, Lummis Home, a Festival of music and dance performances at Sycamore Grove Park and an annual art exhibition held at the Autry National Center's Casa de Adobe, just across the street from the Festival's main center of activities at Sycamore Grove Park.

The Grammy-winning band, The Mariachi Divas, 2008

Organized by community activists and members of neighborhood councils that serve the Northeast Los Angeles Lummis Day was named for author, adventurer and early advocate of multiculturalism, Charles Fletcher Lummis. In 2008, 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.

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 local musicians Severin Browne, Ann Likes Red, Cuban-born musician Juan Carlos Formell, Severin Browne, Danza Azteca Cuahtlehuanitl, Pilipino folk ensemble Panama Rondalla, east L.A. rock band Quinto Sol, poets B. H. Fairchild and Suzanne Lummis the Tongva-Gabrielino Native American Dancers.

Culture Clash members Richard Montoya & Ric Salinas were among the highlights on stage 2.

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 Suzanne Lummis and cellist Kevin Buck.

Jackson Browne, 2008

The 2008 Lummis Day event took place on June 1 and was headlined by Highland Park native son Jackson Browne. Other performers included 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 gonalez, Cathie Sandstrom and guitarist Carlos Guitarlos, the “I Tell Stories” troupe of actors and storytellers, the Cypress Park Folkloric dancers, and others.

Media sponsors for Lummis Day include TV stations KMEX and KTTV and public radio station KPFK. 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-- help underwrite the event.

LA Councilmember Ed Reyes, CD1, & 2008 Lummus Day MC Hal Eisner, KCOP

In a city obsessed with myth-making but starved of its own history, the neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles, which emerged as Southern California's first “art colony” in the 1890's, continue to play a vital role in L.A.'s cultural life and historical tradition. Nourished by our City's multicultural population, the creative spirit of Northeast Los Angeles remains vital in its music and dance, its art and its cuisine.

Pavillion Crowd, 2008

Northeast L.A.'s cultural resources are unmatched in Southern California. The Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the city's oldest museum, towers above the Arroyo. Some of Los Angeles' architectural treasures, saved from the wrecking ball, are now located a few blocks away, collected at Heritage Square Museum. And also nearby are some of its most historically significant landmarks: Lummis Home and Casa De Adobe. There's the 200 acre-plus Debs Park, home to the Audubon Center educational facility, the River Center of Cypress Park, Sycamore Grove Park and the sprawling campus of Occidental College.

Eliot Sekuler
818-535-9178
lummisday@yahoo.com