Hansberry Initiative collaborators and local artists will be present for the unveiling of To Sit A While in Gloria Molina Grand Park. They will share information about Lorraine Hansberry’s legacy, offer details about the upcoming activations and share more about the Lilly’s scholarship program.

Scheduled Speakers and Performers:

Julia Jordan, The Lillys Executive Director

Alison Saar, To Sit A While sculpture artist

Adrian Dunn and Singers (courtesy of WACO Theater Center)

Open to the public. Additional participants to be announced at a later date.

Using Alison Saar’s sculpture honoring Lorraine Hansberry, titled To Sit A While, as inspiration, this workshop invites participants to use movement and play to explore their own creativity. The workshop will include elements of dance and poetry, starting with guided movement interacting with the sculpture, and moving into a one-word storytelling exercise. Co-taught by CTG Teaching Artists Estela Garcia and Aja Houston, this family-friendly workshop is open to up to 20 people of all ages, experience levels and abilities.

This workshop will engage a group of up to 20 teens and adults in devising and performing a theatre piece inspired by To Sit A While, Alison Saar’s sculpture celebrating Lorraine Hansberry. Participants will begin in Grand Park, interacting with and exploring the sculpture. They will then walk to the Music Center Annex to develop a collaborative, movement-based piece, and will then begin to layer in text. Finally, participants will return to Grand Park for an informal presentation of their piece, which will be viewed by those enjoying the park. Co-taught by CTG Teaching Artists Estela Garcia and Aja Houston, this workshop is open to up to 20 people aged 16 to adults, and of all experience levels and abilities.

WACO will also host a panel discussion in collaboration with Support Black Theatre, designed for young and aspiring writers. The panel will include LA based writers and playwrights who will share information about their career paths. Participants will also learn more about the Lilly’s Lorraine Hansberry Initiative Scholarship.

A vibrant outdoor gathering place, Gloria Molina Grand Park is a beautiful public park for the entire community in Los Angeles County. With expansive green space for gatherings large and small, Gloria Molina Grand Park celebrates the county’s cultural vitality and is host to community events, cultural experiences, holiday celebrations and many other activities that engage and attract visitors from all communities. The 12-acre Gloria Molina Grand Park, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022, stretches from The Music Center on the west to City Hall on the east and is easily accessible by Metro via the B/D (formerly Red/Purple) line to the Civic Center/Grand Park station. The park was named one – 15 – of American Planning Association’s 10 “Great Public Spaces” in the U.S. for 2013. Working closely with the county, The Music Center is responsible for all operations and programming for the park.

https://grandparkla.org/

One of the nation’s most influential nonprofit theatre companies, Center Theatre Group proudly continues their more than 50-year tradition of using the art of theatre to broaden horizons and illuminate new perspectives. Their mission is to serve the diverse audiences of Los Angeles by producing and presenting theatre of the highest caliber, by nurturing new artists, by attracting new audiences, and by developing youth outreach and arts education programs.

https://www.centertheatregroup.org/

WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Center
in 2017 by Richard and Tina Knowles Lawson, WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Center is a performing and visual arts organization dedicated to the empowerment of Los Angeles artists, young people and stories of the African diaspora. They present, commission and develop artistic works to provide artists and young people a platform and voice to showcase their creativity.

https://wacotheatercenter.com/

Support Black Theatre is a service organization dedicated to capacity-building Black theatres, developing Black artists, and cultivating Black audiences in Los Angeles. Their commitment is to Black people, Black stories, and Black autonomy. Support Black Theatre creates a support system which prioritizes artist health, organizational resilience, and radical unity amongst theatre makers and the community Support Black Theatre serves.

https://www.supportblacktheatre.org/

Estela Garcia, a Los Angeles born native, is an actress, director, movement coach, deviser, community engagement specialist, mask maker/performer, and teacher. She received her MFA from Dell’Arte in ensemble based physical theatre and was a student of the Viewpoints originator, Mary Overlie. In addition to being a resident teaching artist with Center Theatre Group, Garcia is Movement faculty at CalArts and at South Coast Repertory. As a director/movement coach, Estela worked with Kinan Valdez on Popul Vuh: Heart of Heaven, coproduced by Center Theatre Group and El Teatro Campesino, was Puppetry Director for South Coast Rep’s The Long Road Today, and numerous award winning productions with Rogue Artists Ensemble. As an actress, Garcia is best known for her portrayal of surrealist painter Remedios Varo in a play by the same name that she developed and toured to several performance venues, most recently at 2018’s [LAX] Performance Festival. Garcia has been a guest artist at Cal State LA, The University of Irvine, Cal State Northridge and East LA Magnet where she helped lead the creation of Ensemble Created Devised Work. In addition, Garcia has led art making, playwriting, mask performance and acting workshops to underserved communities in LA and Orange County.

Aja Houston is a Los Angeles based playwright and teaching artist that hails from Everywhere, USA via Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Madison, NJ, Rochester, NY and The Bay Area. Aja creates with passion, politics, and magic to build off-kilter, uncanny, and whimsical worlds that humanizes people of the Black diaspora. Aja is a graduate of the M.F.A in Dramatic Writing program at The University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, The Road Theatre Under Construction Playwrights Group, and a provisional member of Antaeus Theatre’s Writer’s Lab. Some of Aja’s work includes: Terrorist is Spelled K-A-R-E-N (developed at The Road Theatre, ATLA Virtual Stage Festival 2020, Under Construction Zoom Festival 2020) Journey to Alice (Eugene O’Neil Theatre Conference Semi-Finalist 2019, New Works Festival III at Pasadena Playhouse 2019, Inkwell Theater’s Max K. Lerner Fellowship 2018) Counting (Inkwell Theatre Max K. Lerner Fellowship 2019, New Works Festival II at USC’s Massman Theatre 2018) The Flight of Emina and Zubaida (Playwright’s Arena, Iron Tongues Festival 2017) Floating on Credit (Dionysian Literary Magazine, Published 2017) Remembrance (DC Black Theatre Festival “Festival Favorite” 2014) and The Spooks (Towne Street Theatre 10 Minute Play Festival 2014). ajahouston.net