Announcing Saturday’s Convening Site Visits

Intimate Spaces for Community Building Across LA

You’ll select one site visit experience to engage in for the afternoon. All locations are within a 10–20-minute drive (depending on traffic). Our site visits offer intimate spaces for community building over a shared meal, connection with local BIPOC arts leaders and organizations, and hands-on engagement with the arts. Each experience includes a dynamic workshop, community conversation, and food from local BIPOC restaurants — creating space for reflection, creativity, and joy in practice.

Some site visits are fully hosted by the site’s phenomenal team, while others feature workshops led by AAC community members from across the country.

Registration closes on Tuesday, October 14th at 11:59pm ET.

Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (Ebony Repertory Theatre)

At this beloved cornerstone of Black arts and culture in Los Angeles, we’ll gather for a networking lunch before activating the stage and studios with creativity, laughter, and movement. Together, we’ll honor the theater’s legacy while filling the space with rhythm, story, and joy through three dynamic, community-led workshops:

When the Rhythm Changes: Line Dance as Leadership Practice

This movement-based workshop uses line dance—rooted in Black social dance traditions—as a metaphor for leadership, adaptability, and collective rhythm. Through dance, reflection, and writing, participants will explore how we lead, follow, and evolve together when the rhythm changes, while reflecting on how families, communities, and organizations pass down and adapt core values across generations.

Yes, Let’s! An Introduction to Improv Comedy

This joyful workshop invites participants to explore improv comedy as a practice of creativity, collaboration, and care. Through playful, unscripted games, we’ll reconnect with imagination and laughter—using improv’s “yes, and” principle to build trust, enhance listening, and bring balance and joy back into our work and lives.

Rooted Bloom Writing Workshop

Rooted Bloom invites participants into a meditative space of art-making and journaling to explore belonging, resilience, and healing. Drawing on ancestral wisdom and inspired by Alexander Den Heijer’s reminder to “fix the environment, not the flower,” the workshop uses creativity as a tool for reflection and renewal. Grounded in care and connection, participants will nurture their inner gardens and strengthen collective roots across communities.

California African American Museum (CAAM)

Led by AAC Community Connector Nafeesah Symonette, this site visit begins with a networking lunch and community dialogue, followed by a hands-on stop-motion animation workshop led by the CAAM team, celebrating play, imagination, and joy as pathways to healing. Participants will also enjoy a guided tour of the museum’s galleries and exhibitions.

Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Led by Clement Hanami, this site visit includes a networking lunch, a behind-the-scenes hard hat tour, and a screening of Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement by Tad Nakamura, followed by a community conversation exploring creative leadership, cultural identity, and collective resilience.

Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)

Led by Dr. Judy Baca, SPARC’s Founder and Artistic Director, this session begins with an introduction to the Great Wall of Los Angeles, followed by a hands-on poster-making workshop with Rosy Cortez, Lead Artist of the Great Wall. Together, we’ll reflect on art as resistance, collective healing, and the power of creative memory-keeping.

Art as Resistance: Creating with SPARC

Led by SPARC Lead Artist Rosy Cortez, this hands-on workshop invites participants to reflect on art as a tool for resistance, healing, and collective memory.

Through guided conversation and poster-making, participants will create pieces that honor protest, remembrance, and the power of community storytelling.

Blackbird House

Led by Bridgid Coulter Cheadle, this immersive afternoon begins with a lunch and fireside chat featuring sound bowls and a community conversation, setting the tone for reflection and connection. Participants will then rotate through interactive breakout sessions offering art making, storytelling, and design activities that explore healing, creativity, and collective renewal.

Featured Workshop: Root & Rise: Holding Space for Creative Healing

This restorative workshop invites arts leaders to reflect, reconnect, and recharge through expressive arts. Through guided visualization, story circles, and a mixed-media activity, participants will explore how they “root” and “rise” in their personal and professional journeys. Grounded in ancestral wisdom and creative healing, the session offers space for rest, connection, and reflection—no art experience needed.

Schedule subject to change.