Reconstructing Collective Memory and holding space in Leimert Park Village

Abstract

This research project is an ethnographic narrative that combines African Healing Drum Workshops with Popular Education (PE) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology as a tool for an emancipatory pedagogy that brings about a collective healing. It sheds light on an awareness of the potential future of the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles and serves to counteract what many believe to be the genocide of cultural traditions and the environmental pollution and destruction of what Hawaiians call a Heiau–a sacred place, resulting from the Metro Rail construction, attendant gentrification and the environmental violence that this area is currently undergoing. The project took four years to complete and involved more than 300 formal and informal interviews, ethnographic notes, cinematic performances, and community mobilization. It draws from many local community partners to implement community development strategies that are asset and resiliency based, building upon the inherent strengths of the African American family, community, tradition and culture. My personal relationship to drumming in Leimert Park and my community participation are the links to my theoretical orientation of grassroots community organizing, which blends depth psychological inquiry with liberatory critical community psychology, archetypal psychology, and eco-psychology praxis. This project will be used to assess the needs, assets, and visions of the Leimert Park community.