Launch delayed until February 7th due to wildfires and recovery
LOS ANGELES, CA, January 31, 2025 (EZ Newswire) — For the 75th year, Our Authors Study Club (OASC) is partnering with the Mayor of Los Angeles to acknowledge African American Heritage Month. Public events begins with a recognition by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday, February 7th and concludes on Saturday, March 2nd, with the popular Black History bus tour of Los Angeles.
“Even in this moment of profound challenge, we are reminded of why the vision of Dr. Carter Woodson—the father of this annual salute to Black history—remains so vital to our community’s resilience,” said Dr. Lura Daniels-Ball, president of OASC. Expressing support, grief and condolences to all victims who lost family and possessions, she also acknowledged the deeply rooted African American community in Altadena, which was hard hit by the blazes.
This year’s national theme, “African Americans and Labor” focuses on “the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds—free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary—intersect with the collective experiences of Black people,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) founded in 1915 in Washington, D.C., by Dr. Woodson. OASC is the Los Angeles branch of the organization. In keeping with this theme, the OASC honorary chair is Yvonne Wheeler, president of the LA County Federation of Labor.
For more information on these free city-wide activities and to RSVP, visit oascla.org/events. The 2025 African American Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, produced by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, includes many free events for all ages, beginning Friday, February 7th. Visit www.oascla.org to download a copy.
This year’s OASC Black History Month events include:
- Friday, Feb. 7th, 9:30 a.m.: Ribbon Cutting. Opening of Bridge Gallery Photo Exhibit, “The Story of Us” by Leroy Hamilton, at the Henry P. Rio Bridge Gallery, Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012.
- Friday, Feb. 7th, 10:00 a.m.: Recognition of 2025 OASC Honorees: Living Legends George Weaver, Brotherhood Crusade. An environmental protection specialist committed to youth development and community transformation; and Richard Brooks, actor, and transformative force in entertainment, whose pioneering achievement during his four-decade career on stage, on television and in films has made a lasting impact on positive and diverse representation; Hall of Fame Cecily Myart-Cruz, President United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and Lynell George, a journalist who crafts revealing stories about L.A., an essayist, a Grammy Award winner for best album notes, and author of “A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler.at the John E. Ferraro Council Chambers, 3rd floor, Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012.
- Friday, Feb. 7th, 12pm or immediately following Los Angeles City Council meeting: Celebrating OASC Champions. Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, founding dean of Charles Drew University College of Medicine who also developed the widely accepted policy of youth violence as a public health challenge; Dr. Richard Allen Williams, founder of the Association of Black Cardiologists; professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and advocate to improve health care for African Americans; Mike Davis, L.A. Public Works commissioner emeritus and former state legislator; Jessie Sherrod, pediatrician who developed an infection control model that improved the health of patients; Darnell Hunt, a UCLA professor, executive vice chancellor-provost, recent interim chancellor and a pioneering scholar on media diversity, and OASC member Mary Louise Reeves, centenarian and education pioneer, at West Forecourt (outside), Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012.
- Saturday, Feb. 8th, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.: A Conversation with Actor Courtney B. Vance. Author of “The Invisible Ache, Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power,” moderated by actor William Allen Young, at Los Angeles Public Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
- Tuesday, Feb. 11th, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.: Roundtable Discussion on African Americans and Labor. Hosted by Dr. Daniel Tabor, president, Move/LA/2025; moderator Marc Brown, co-anchor, ABC7 and panelists Sydney Berrard, Local 105 Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART); Lori Condinus, president of National Action Network, L.A. chapter; Gerald Durant, Stentorians, the LA Black Firefighters organization; Georgia Flowers-Lee, UTLA NEA v.p.; Patsy Howard, SEIU, Local 66 (ret.); Dr. Maulana Karenga, Chair, Africana Studies, Cal State–Long Beach; Robert Turner, Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters,(ret.); and Rev. Donald Wilson, founder, Black Hospitality Workers Union, at the Los Angeles Trade-Tech., Culinary Arts Building, 400 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90015.
- Thursday, Feb. 13th, 6:30 p.m.: City-wide Worship Service featuring clergy from African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baptist Church, Christian Fellowship, Christ Liberation Ministries, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Church of God in Christ and other interfaith ministries at McCarty Memorial Christian Church, 4101 West Adams Blvd., L.A., CA 90018.
- Thursday, Feb. 20th, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.: Standing Together: The Power of Community and Labor Commemorating the L.A. Security Officers Movement,” A discussion about the coalition of civil rights leaders, labor organizers, and security officers who transformed the landscape of workers’ rights in Los Angeles. In addition to bringing dignity and justice to over 4,000 security officers it revitalized the partnership between organized labor and the Black community. The panelists are: State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, Rev. William Monroe Campbell, Anton Farmby, VP SEIU; Rev. K.W. Tulloss, Rev. William D. Smart, and Dr. Maulana Karenga, Chair, Africana Studies Cal State-Long Beach atEl Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, 125 Paseo de la Plaza, Los Angeles, 90012.
- Sunday, Feb. 23, 1:30 p.m.: In partnership with Second Baptist Church, screening and discussion, “Streets Paved in Gold” from the Great Migration: a People on the Move. A series hosted by Second Baptist Church L.A., featuring historians and cultural experts Lorn Foster, Alison Rose Jefferson and Charmaine Jefferson. The event will focus on the second wave of Black American migration that occurred in Southern California between the 1940s and 1970s. 2412 Griffith Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90011. For more info secondbaptistchurchla.org.
- Tuesday, Feb. 25th, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.: 100th Anniversary of the Pullman Porters Union – The Rise of the Black Middle Class and fuel for Civil Rights, film screening and discussion hosted by the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center, 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 800, Los Angeles, CA 90067.
- Saturday, March 1st, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Annual Black History Bus Tour includes the Biddy Mason Wall, Sugar Hill, the Island, Central Avenue, Leimert Park and other locations throughout the city, starting from and returning to Consolidated Board of Realtists, 3875 Don Felipe Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90008.
For more information and to RSVP, visit: https://oascla.org/.
About Our Authors Study Club
Located in Los Angeles, Our Authors Study Club is a community of dedicated individuals who are passionate about Black history: past, present, and future. Our mission is to promote awareness, connection, and investment in the African American and African diaspora experience by providing opportunities for everyone to engage with our history through culture, scholarship, technology, and research. We foster meaningful conversations around the African and African American experience that inspire new books, films, artistic expressions, music, podcasts, blogs, and social interactions across diverse communities.
OASC is committed to preserving our heritage and legacy, which has often been underrepresented in mainstream history, literature, and media. We strive to ensure that libraries, museums, schools, and media that participate in institutionalized bias do not ignore Black lives. We believe that Black history is not just a part of American history, but it is American history. We take pride in recognizing, amplifying, and honoring the contributions of Black Americans.
For more information, visit https://oascla.org. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/OurAuthorsStudyClub.
Media Contact
Lura Ball
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SOURCE: Our Authors Study Club
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