Atwater Village News - blog: Occidental College Is Lummis Day Presenting Sponsor

Occidental College will serve as Presenting Sponsor for the second annual Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles event, a free, public celebration of the of the multi-cultural heritage of L.A.’s Arroyo neighborhoods, on Sunday, June 3, featuring musical, visual, culinary and literary artists representing an array of the region’s cultural traditions.

Principal activities for the event will be staged as Sycamore Grove Park at 4900 N. Figueroa Street, where music, art, multi-cultural performances and food service begins at noon, and at Lummis Home, 200 E. Avenue 43, where the program will begin with an 11:00 am poetry reading followed by a "trek" led along the route of Arroyo Seco riverbed. Musicians, a variety of local restaurants, dancers and other performing artists and the work of visual artists representing many cultural traditions of the Southern California region will be featured.

Last year’s inaugural event drew over 1500 people to events at Sycamore Grove Park and Lummis Home. Over 25 community groups, a dozen galleries and half dozen restaurants participated in the event.

Sponsorship of "Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles" is consistent with Occidental’s long history of mutually beneficial engagement with Northeast Los Angeles. Occidental’s Community Literacy Center, Upward Bound – one of the country’s first – GEAR UP, and student-run programs serve hundreds of students from local elementary, middle and high schools. More than half of Occidental’s students participate in some form of community project through the College’s Center for Community Based Learning.

College faculty and staff serve on the boards of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, Solheim Lutheran Home, 20th Century Women's Club, Eagle Rock Community Revitalization and Preservation, and the Northeast Community Police Advisory Board.

Lummis Day takes its name from Charles Fletcher Lummis, who served as the L.A. Times’ first city editor upon his arrival in L.A. in 1885. Lummis was also one of the city’s first librarians, founded the Southwest Museum and helped introduce the concept of multi-culturalism to Southern California.

The Festival organizers -- including a broad cross-section of community groups—hope the second annual event will again serve to celebrate the diverse culture and history of the Arroyo neighborhoods, strengthen linkages among cultural, commercial and community resources and create a framework for future civic, creative and commercial growth in Northeast Los Angeles.

"Lummis Day" is presented by Occidental College and sponsored by the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the Autry Center for the American West, and public radio station KPFK 90.7 with the support of the North Figueroa Association, Los Angeles City Council Districts 1 and 14, the Department of Recreation and Parks, the Historical Society of Southern California, the Heritage Square Museum, the MTA, NELA Bikes, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Arroyo Arts Collective, the L.A. Poetry Festival and other community organizations.