{"id":268797,"date":"2026-04-15T08:48:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T08:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T08:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T08:48:26","slug":"in-a-new-monument-for-south-central-lauren-halsey-cements-her-loved-ones-as-landmarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268797\/","title":{"rendered":"In a new monument for South-Central, Lauren Halsey cements her loved ones as landmarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_dropcap_Bibliophile_s.png\" <\/p>\n

Someone said heaven is on the corner of 76th and Western.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nearly 90 degrees on a Saturday in South-Central and \u201csister dreamer lauren halsey\u2019s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles\u201d<\/a> is gleaming and activated.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people fill the streets that surround it in lit, ecstatic union. Parliament-Funkadelic is playing a live show onstage while we stomp the pavement in faithful entrancement. The line forming for fittingly swaggy merch becomes a site for sweet reunions unfolding one after another \u2014 some version of \u201cthis is crazy, this is amazing, this is L.A.\u201d being thrown back and forth on a loop. On the sidewalk, generations play spades in the shade and the joyful screams of children emanate from a custom bouncy house adorned with an Egyptian pharaoh bust. Across the way, skateboarders do their thing on the Neighbors Skate Shop ramp<\/a>, flipping and flexing, making sculptures out of their bodies in midair, while others double-dutch or Hula-Hoop in exacting harmony.<\/p>\n

This block party \u2014 multigenerational, multivibrational \u2014 is in celebration of the sand-colored sanctuary and sculpture park that is \u201csister dreamer,\u201d a direct expression of its spirit and purpose.<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From left to right: Andre \u201cSketch\u201d Hampton, Emmanuel Carter, Lauren Halsey and Kenneth Blackmon.<\/p>\n

Artist Lauren Halsey<\/a> has been dreaming and scheming on this sculpture park for 17 years. (She has the Photobucket receipts to prove it.) The paper trail follows from her third semester studying architecture at El Camino College, when she used to take long bus rides down Western and project her ideas onto empty lots, cutting them together in Photoshop \u2014 part-planning, part-manifestation. Variations of these ideas have appeared at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the now-iconic Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project at the Hammer,<\/a> the rooftop at the Met and the Venice Biennale. But \u201csister dreamer\u201d has always been the goal \u2014 a way to go beyond only representing or depicting her community and giving back to it in a tangible way.<\/p>\n

The location of \u201csister dreamer\u201d is specific and important \u2014 for one, it\u2019s the former site of neighborhood ice cream staple Gwen\u2019s Double Dip, a history honored at the block party through a pop-up parlor created by Halsey\u2019s studio. But it\u2019s also because Halsey grew up around the way and can trace her family history back more than 100 years to this place. She comes from a long line of people who have served their community and taught Halsey to do the same. \u201csister dreamer\u201d is the culmination. Both a once-in-a-lifetime artwork and a free, public venue where every day, from dawn till dusk, people can live and imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, the conceit was to summon all the types of experiences of Blackness in one place, the project being a vessel or container for all of that expression,\u201d Halsey says. \u201cIf I could create spaces that democratize Blackness because they\u2019re gorgeous, they\u2019re inclusive, they pay homage to all of us, that\u2019s just a cool type of unity I want to see. And if I could do that through funk as the language, it would also be fun and playful and attract the energies I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lauren <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, the conceit was to summon all the types of experiences of Blackness in one place,\u201d artist Lauren Halsey says about \u201csister dreamer.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see L.A.\u2019s newest architectural monument in effect is to experience people being celebrated. This public artwork and its function \u2014 as in, this party and the space\u2019s purpose \u2014 feels like a mirror, a temple to self, a shrine to funk, a dedication and invitation to experience what is still so divine and aspirational about the present moment. Writer Douglas Kearney<\/a> illuminates it strikingly in the curatorial statement etched into a back wall in \u201csister dreamer\u201d: \u201c\u2026 it\u2019s the sacred phenomenon of luxe space that remembers without memorializing, celebrates without eulogizing. An anti-tomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life in its most beautiful forms \u2014 the poetic, artistic range of Black life in South-Central \u2014 is on display everywhere you look here.<\/p>\n

Standing in the open-air cube that is the oculus of \u201csister dreamer,\u201d most people have their gaze pointed up, seeing \u2014 what else? \u2014 themselves. The entire space is dripping in the dense Black L.A.-meets-Egyptology that has become Halsey\u2019s signature. People run their fingers over carved reliefs telling the rich story of a neighborhood, culture and creed, reflecting the folk art that has existed in South-Central since forever. The hand-painted signage and hood graphics are familiar, the mantras and spiritual emblems \u2014 \u201cBe Ye Who Ye Is,\u201d a spiral of cornrows wreathed on the back of a head, the comma-curve of an XL nail \u2014 are personal. Known legends stare back at us \u2014 hi, Sika<\/a> \u2014 and others are finally given agency, including the Black women who were killed at the hands of the Grim Sleeper in the 1980s, their faces framing the entrance of the oculus like guardian angels. <\/p>\n

\u201cLauren Halsey in her work brilliantly represents the range of contributions, resistance and resilience by our communities including the collective work I have been part of demanding payment for all caregiving work, and working for justice, dignity and visibility for the scores of Black women who were victims of serial murders in South L.A. and who were marginalized dehumanized and treated as throwaway women,\u201d says Margaret Prescod, founder of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These carved reliefs span dimensions of the Black L.A. experience \u2014 there\u2019s so much joy, there\u2019s this overdue reverence too; another, fuller frame. All of this is a result of Halsey\u2019s obsession with the way her community speaks to each other through visual language. There are five infinity fountains, also clad in carvings, punctuating the space while fragrant native plants perfume the warm, dry L.A. air, identified by information cards written in Halsey\u2019s recognizable script. L.A.-based Current Interests<\/a> served as the project architect, while Phil Davis <\/a>came in as the landscape designer.<\/p>\n

There are eight Hathoric columns and eight sphinxes in \u201csister dreamer\u201d that honor local heroes, community workers and Halsey\u2019s friends and family. \u201cI love this sort of ceremonial procession as you walk through the sphinxes and columns \u2014 these figures who have created safe space for me, literally, conceptually, spiritually,\u201d Halsey says. DaVinci, Bopbop, Barrington, Damien, Janine, Margaret, Susan and Rosie stand 22 feet tall, kissing the sky. While Dominic, Aujunae, Bobby, Monique, Glenda, Robin, Londyn and Antoinette ground us, warm expressions on long sphinx bodies, serving as ultimate anchors.<\/p>\n

\"Image \"Michael <\/p>\n

Michael Towler and Dominique Moody.<\/p>\n

\"Barrington \"Robin <\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing it in person, yeah, that was different. Compared to the work you\u2019re doing in community, boots on the ground, and then actually seeing your picture, or you know \u2014 your face \u2014 on something like that, it is something you\u2019ll never imagine,\u201d says Robin Daniels, co-founder of Sisters of Watts, who is depicted as one of the sphinxes in \u201csister dreamer.\u201d<\/p>\n

First debuted in \u201cthe eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (i)\u201d as part of New York\u2019s skyline, this marks a homecoming for the columns and sphinxes. L.A.\u2019s sons and daughters, mothers and grandmothers, uncles and aunties, leaders and stewards, artists and musicians, holding court on native soil. These are people, Halsey says, \u201cwho have summoned a love and care that I\u2019ve admired, both on a micro and macro level.\u201d Those depicted include Halsey\u2019s mother, whom she wanted to put on a physical pedestal for her family, for the neighborhood, for the public \u201cto see her in the light that I experience her in every day,\u201d she says. There\u2019s her little brother, whom she describes as \u201cmy BFF \u2026 love incarnate,\u201d and her now-teenage cousins, who were kids when Halsey was doing mock-ups in their grandmother\u2019s backyard. \u201cI\u2019m [having] difficulty expressing the words because I\u2019m overwhelmed with emotion. This is not easy work,\u201d says another cousin Damien Goodmon, one of the columns and CEO of Downtown Crenshaw Rising<\/a>\/Liberty Ecosystem<\/a>. \u201cPeople see the glamour and all the awards, but it\u2019s hard, and I can only imagine how difficult it is for her to carry this as a person who\u2019s not necessarily always that public. She\u2019s been trying to do this for years \u2014 lifting up that tremendous history.\u201d<\/p>\n

In creating a new monument for her city, Halsey has made her loved ones landmarks in L.A.\u2019s architectural legacy \u2014 cementing them as giants in its rich universe. \u201cWhen I saw my face I was shocked,\u201d says Rosie Lee Hooks, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus<\/a>. \u201cIt was so personal and me! I am not used to seeing myself so clearly. Lauren is a carrier of the culture. She is a storyteller, a griot. A documentarian, an architect, a dream-catcher. Keeper of our community and world culture. She honors all those who came before her, are here now and those to come. Right on with the right on.\u201d<\/p>\n

An opening block party like this one \u2014 \u201cthe block party of the year,\u201d as one or 100 attendees put it \u2014 feels like the only appropriate way to mark the realization of a vision this singular and interconnected. And it\u2019s a living, breathing reminder of a tenant that\u2019s been a part of Halsey\u2019s work from the jump: An architectural monument only becomes truly meaningful when people can see a space for themselves there. Architecture, at its best, is people. \u201cSeeing yourself at that scale makes you feel many ways,\u201d says Barrington Darius, an artist and one of Halsey\u2019s collaborators depicted on a column. \u201cSeen, respected and larger than life.\u201d The party is also a slice of what \u201csister dreamer\u201d will be home to every day: music, funk, fashion, art, games and space. (The three pillars of Halsey\u2019s nonprofit Summaeverythang Community Center \u2014 art, education and wellness \u2014 will officially inform the space\u2019s programming, including things like museum visits, film screenings, Kemetic yoga and more.)<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From left to right: Cheryl Ward, Kenneth Blackmon, Monique McWilliams, Rosie Lee Hooks, Michael Towler, Dominique Moody, Andre \u201cSketch\u201d Hampton, Monique Hatter, Christopher Blunt, Robin Daniels, Margaret Prescod, Barrington Darius, Damien Goodmon, Londyn Garrison, Dyani Luckey, Autumn Luckey, Lauren Halsey, Emmanuel Carter.<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From left to right: Cheryl Ward, Kenneth Blackmon, Monique McWilliams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first saw myself as a sculpture in the work, I thought about representation \u2014 how it matters and what that image will sow into the fabric of our youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Monique McWilliams, partner<\/p>\n

\"Londyn \"Autumn <\/p>\n

Autumn Luckey, Emmanuel Carter, Christopher Blunt.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s extra in all the best ways. Hosted by Watts Homie Quan, performers like Roc\u2019co Tha Clown, and Divas and Drummers of Compton keep the energy high near the DJ booth. At one point the sound of a preschooler\u2019s voice singing \u201cThis Little Light of Mine\u201d belts through the streets. \u201cLet it shine, let it shine, let it shiiiiiiine.\u201d Throughout the day, people can\u2019t seem to stop reaching for means of documentation \u2014 their camcorder, digicam, phone, at one point even a palm-size notebook where a young artist from the neighborhood was sketching one of the sphinxes. The desire, or compulsion, to document this moment seems to come from a shared understanding that the opening of \u201csister dreamer,\u201d all of us here together, is a historic event.<\/p>\n

Back in the park, I sit for a while and watch, thinking about how this couldn\u2019t feel more different from a gallery opening. People breathe with the art, they touch it, they feel it, they laugh with it. Goddesses on roller skates glide in buttery figure eights across the glass-fiber-reinforced concrete. Wait, is that Usher dancing with Tiffany Haddish in front of the oculus? Of course it is. Jane Fonda too. Oh, and there\u2019s Kamasi Washington, Maxine Waters, Charles Gaines and Erykah Badu.<\/p>\n

An older Black woman saunters down Western, low and slow, holding a watermelon and mango cup in one hand and her cane in the other. She wears a matching Kelly green set and a bedazzled baseball hat that reads, \u201cRelax, God is in control.\u201d Fly, of course, and yet another example of the brilliance and style of Black people on display today, but it also conjures something Halsey said weeks before the \u201csister dreamer\u201d opening. \u201cPeople don\u2019t talk about God a lot, but I\u2019m just so grateful that God gave me the endurance to continue and push through despite whatever,\u201d Halsey says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a testimony to the power of prayer and ancestors and work ethic and alignment. So, I\u2019m just so tired, but it\u2019s so worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In line for the merch booth, sweat drips down our backs. Even in the heat, multiple people walk by wearing the \u201csister dreamer\u201d X Supervsn collab from head to toe or have already pulled on their \u201csister dreamer\u201d X Come Tees longsleeves<\/a> they picked up from the shop, its signage reading: \u201cTreat yaself don\u2019t cheat yaself!\u201d An hour passes, but we\u2019re all determined to take a piece of this day home \u2014 more than a memento, but proof that we were a part of it. It is that serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see the art last,\u201d a musician standing behind me tells their companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it the dessert?\u201d the companion asks in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the last thing I want to think about. The last thing I want to linger on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lauren