BLACKATLAS.COM - LOS ANGELES

For me there is Hollywood and there is Los Angeles, two closely linked but distinctly different places.  When I fly to LA to do business a spend a lot of my time in Hollywood, not the geographic area, but an entertainment business state of mind, which encompasses a lot of buildings, restaurants, clubs and sound stages.  So the Hollywood of the mind is actually scattered all over the city.

But the City of Los Angeles (and Beverly Hills and Santa Monica) are much more complex and cozy than outsiders think. Over the past 28 years I’ve averaged three trips a year to LA and, as recently as 2007, I lived in the city for six months. So while I don’t know LA like a native, I do know it much better than your typical tourist.

That’s why the separation of Hollywood as a state of mind and LA, the city, is so powerful for me. Because of its sprawl and its many hidden neighborhoods LA is also a place where history is hidden -- sometimes in plain sight. So for this blog I thought I’d use some little known black history as my guide around town, using the past as a way to introduce folks to places & spaces in the present.

Black folks have a long, complicated history in the city of Angels; a history Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins mystery novels have mined for material so beautifully over the years. Today black Los Angeles is shrinking as places like Inglewood and Compton experience black flight. Even the broad area known as South Central Los Angeles, whose hard knock existence was chronicled in films like ‘Boyz in the Hood’ and ‘Menace II Society,’ has undergone a profound change. Just a few years ago the area was officially renamed South LA by the city council, a reflection of its changing personality and population.

WILLIAMS’ WORLD

I’m sure that name change would very much-interested Paul Revere Williams, a black architect who played an important role in the visual definition of this celebrated city. Despite racism that would prevent him from walking in the front door of buildings he’d designed, Williams had a quite varied career. Before his death in 1981 Williams designed major public spaces as well as private homes with clients that included dancer/actor Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson and singer Frank Sinatra.

Hollywood is home to one of Williams’ most utilitarian buildings, the Hollywood Y. Located on Schrader, just up from Sunset Boulevard; this athletic facility serves Angelinos from Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake and even West Hollywood. Before my celebrated retirement from basketball (what, you missed my farewell tour?), I used to catch runs at the spirited games played on the Hollywood Y’s two regulation full courts. In the games there you’ll find yourself battling for rebounds against stand up comedians, record producers and other folks who have time to play ball during weekdays. The building also has a full range of classes, fitness machines and is very family friendly.

The area in Hollywood surrounding the Y is undergoing a massive re-development. A huge W Hotel will be opening soon at Hollywood & Vine as will a Whole Foods. Loft styled apartments have reclaimed many vintage buildings and nightclubs proliferate including Les Deux on North Las Palmas Ave., which is very popular for post-premiere bashes. On the Highland end of Hollywood Boulevard is the Kodak Theater, where the Academy awards are held, and the Chinese theater, where the footprints of many generations of stars are immortalized in concrete. And those stars on Hollywood Boulevard still line the street and are pretty regularly updated. My friend Chris Rock was just awarded one a couple of years ago.

On Cahuenga, just two blocks from the Y, Aklia’s Rehab Salon, a black owned space run by Aklia Chinn, who’s been selling Egyptian/Afrocentric influenced jewelry and providing hair care and skin treatments since 1995. The shop is a little gem of black entrepreneurship in Hollywood just a block away from CNN’s Los Angeles headquarters and Amoeba Records, one of the nation’s last great record stores.

Using Williams’ architecture as a guide I traveled across Sunset, heading west and passing by the flashy hotels and sidewalk cafes for West Hollywood to the more exclusive area known as Beverly Hills. You can immediately feel the difference between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Sunset widens, the greenery abounds and pedestrians disappear. The tall trees obscure the many palatial homes behind them and give Beverly Hills a posh, even intimidating feel.

One of William’s most famous buildings is obscured by such trees, though anyone who’s anyone in Hollywood is comfortable driving up to the front of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The hotel opened in 1912 and Williams was hired to renovate and update the place in 1943, a task that took him four years to complete.

The Beverly Hills Hotel has been associated with power and status. With its distinctive green & peach color motif, its long, secluded driveway and popular private bungalows, this place screams old school Hollywood glamour. It is the irony of this place is that a black man, who’d be considered an outsider, created such an insider hang out.

If you are looking for a peek at star power its regularly on display at the hotel’s famous Polo Lounge. Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston and Jamie Foxx are just a few of the folks I’ve spotted having lunch there over the years, not to mention the many studio executives and producers who frequent the place. Anybody can make a reservation and get a table, but where that table is located is definitely based on you’re A, B or C level status. The most desirable tables are outside and offer a nice view of, as Aretha said, who’s zoomin’ who. The secluded bungalows offer privacy and secrecy; so if you roll by don’t be surprised to be paparazzi with long lens cameras across the street.

SANTA MONICA SURFERS

From Williams’ landmark it’s a long, winding ride West on Sunset from Beverly Hills out to the Pacific Ocean. At the end of that ride, which takes you through Westwood, Brentwood and Bel Air, you could stop at Gladstone’s, a family friendly, seaside seafood restaurant.

But my search for Los Angeles’ little known black history leads me to make a left on the Pacific Coast Highway and head toward Santa Monica. Santa Monica is home to a famous pier, which has an old school carnival feel because of its quaint Ferris wheel, bumper cars and penny arcade. It’s a very working class ethnic hang for mostly black and Hispanic families.

Away from the pier Santa Monica is very wealthy, progressive city with tons of excellent yoga studios (check out the Yoga Works chain out there if you feel the need to stretch.) A reflection of that aspect of Santa Monica is Shutters, a picturesque hotel right off the beach, which is popular for weekend getaways.

On the beach near Shutters, on a boulder under a shady tree, is a relatively new and noteworthy memorial to the city’s black past. Nailed to that boulder is plaque celebrating two important pieces of beach history. The first is that from the 1920s into the ‘60s a 200-foot stretch of Santa Monica beach was designated for use “colored” beach goers. This segregated swatch of land was, like the more famous strip of sand in Martha’s Vineyard, was called the Inkwell.

So its not surprising that the first known black surfer in Southern California, a Santa Monica high school student named Nicolas Gabaldon, is also celebrated on this plaque. Back in the 1940s, when the area’s surf culture was starting to develop, Gabaldon brought a board and crossed a culture and color line. Today you can be part of the African-American surf community by checking out www.blacksurfingassociation.com.

BLACK BOOKS

I decided to get back on the trail of Paul Williams and to visit one of my favorite black LA institutions at the same time. So I drove from Santa Monica over to Leimert Park, a long standing black community with a strong cultural hub on Degnan Boulevard, where you find various Afrocentric shops, restaurants, and businesses. On this Saturday, turning onto Degnan Boulevard, I passed a drum circle in the park and then parked next to a area where a weekly farmer’s market was in full swing.

On the sidewalks of Degnan is a mini-black version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Community leaders and artists are immortalized in small plaques placed in the sidewalk. One of those is for Paul Revere Williams. That Williams is celebrated right next to 4331 Degnan Boulevard feels right to me, since that is the address of a place dedicated to the documentation of black achievement.

I’m talking about Eso Won Books, one of my favorite bookshops in the country and a place I’ve done at least six events at over the years. Started in 1987 and once located on LaBrea Boulevard, Eso Won is as much a cultural center as a bookstore, since it has an extensive collection of tapes and DVDs dealing with black history here and world the globe. Some of my most stimulating nights as an author have been at Eso Won Books, where a sharp, politically engaged and culturally aware group of readers always attend with great questions and observations.

“Leimert has always been a cultural center,” Says Eso Won Books co-owner Tom Hamilton. “Marla Gibbs had the Vision Theater complex here. The Comedy Act Theater where Robin Harris first became known was located here. So it’s always been a place where people come to and prowl around, especially on the weekends.”

Two Presidents have read at Eso Won (Bill Clinton after his presidency and Barack Obama before) as well as critical thinkers like Michael Eric Dyson and bestselling authors like Walter Moseley and Nikki Giovanni. “When we first had Obama he was just running from State Senate and we had like five people,” Hamilton recalls. “Very nice guy. I’m thinking he looks senatorial, but I don’t know what he’s gonna do. So when he comes out with his second book he tells the publisher there’s a little black bookstore that was very nice to me, so book me there. So he came and it was the week he declared and we sold 800 books.”

When I ask if they have a bio of Paul Williams co-owner says they are sold out, but he tells me the publisher and even recommends another independent bookstore that may have it. It’s the kind of personal service you want, but so rarely receive in the era of chain stores.

When I ask Tom what up coming titles he’s excited about he surprises me by praising Serena Williams’ up coming memoir. He’s read an advance copy and thinks Serena’s honesty, both about her career and personal life, makes him see it as a potential bestseller.

MAGIC PLACES

To end my day trip around L.A.’s various villages I headed over from Crenshaw Boulevard to LaCienega Boulevard where a much more recognizable black icon has two popular businesses. Though Magic Johnson’s movie theaters are nationally known, his Ladera Heights Starbucks and T.G.I.Fridays, located adjacent to each other in an outdoor mall are also signature locations in the city. The Friday’s is known for a lively weekly dating and bar scene, while the Starbucks is a chilled out gathering place for middle class black folks from Ladera, Baldwin Hills and View Park. I get a chai latte and then walk over to the side of the Starbucks where the long running chess matches are well underway.

Four players sit across from each other engaged in mental combat while a small group of men watch closely, talk trash and offer advice. It’s a very warm, intimate community moment in a city that people think of a place of glitz and glamour. You can have a Hollywood experience or an L.A. experience. It’s just a matter of taking the time to look.

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