Central Park | Here is the Central Avenue Jazz Park sign located at the intersection of 42nd Place and Central Avenue in South Los Angeles. This is the site of the Central Avenue Jazz Festival that takes place at the end of July each year. (Photo Credit: Jeffrey Ledesma)
By Jeffrey Ledesma
The Central Stories Project
1. Dunbar Hotel
The Dunbar Hotel, completed in 1928, stood at the center of African-American social, musical, and artistic life from the 1920s to the 1960s. It is now housing for low-income families.
2. Central Avenue Jazz Park
Central Avenue Jazz Park is a small park with play equipment, grass area, and a small stage. It is also the home of the HeArt Project's tile mural highlighting the neighborhood's Jazz history.
3. Central Avenue Jazz Festival
The annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival takes place along Central Avenue between Vernon Ave. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The Central Avenue Jazz Festival began in 1996 and is a free jazz festival taking place yearly on the last weekend of July.
4. Club Alabam
There were over a dozen jazz clubs along Central Avenue, this is one of the more celebrated ones called Club Alabam. Many black jazz musicians stayed at the Dunbar Hotel next door.
5. Tile Mural (The HeArt Project)
The HeArt Project brought teens, artists, and the community together and created a tile mural commemorating the area's Jazz history in the Central Avenue Jazz Park across the street from the Dunbar Hotel in South Los Angeles.
Take out Jazz Quiz!
Street with Jazzy History | Above is a street sign on Central Avenue, a street that holds the Central Avenue Jazz Festival each year on the last weekend in July to help celebrate the neighborhood's jazz history. (Photo Credit: Jeffrey Ledesma)
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