BLACK ARTS CAMP is a six-week full day program with a Black Studies curriculum designed for students ages five through twelve. The program centers daily art-making and performance practice.
Each day students work on art and performance projects that help them to learn and understand Black Studies concepts. Each week there is a different thematic focus across the areas of Black Oral Traditions, Chocolate Cities, Music & Murals, African Fables and Black American Legends, Africa Week, and Civil Resistance. The curriculum channels art and performance to help students learn about historical success over adversity, the wealth and richness of the African diaspora, and contemporary tools for building and maintaining our communities.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT
At the conclusion of each week, students present what they created and what they learned to an audience of their family members.
Dr. Wilson is a tenured associate professor of Black Studies at California State University, East Bay.
She completed her doctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the School of Theater, Film and Television earning her degree in Performance Studies with an emphasis in African Diaspora studies.
She is completing a book manuscript that traces transnational song as labor in the life of Marion Williams, a US State Department performer and Kennedy Center Honoree.
SPONSOR: Anonymous Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. - AGO Chapter
Project: Poetry and Hip-Hop Performance
(Note: Mon June 19 is a federal holiday)
- Spoken Word artist-in-residence
- Hearing and learning poetry, rap, and short stories
- Learning strategies for dynamic communication and empathy
- Collaborating to memorize Black-authored poems
- Collaborating to create student-authored poems
- Learning corresponding gestures and movement
- Skill Development: public speaking
- Making/designing bespoke T-shirts
SPONSOR: Learning Culture Consulting
Project: Urban Design Physical Model
- Collaborating to build a city
- Each student contributes 2 structures
- Learning about historic Chocolate Cities
- Learning about Black elected city officials
- Creating candidates, holding elections, and voting for city officials
- Playing the “circulate the dollar game”
- Learning how to start a business
- Field trip to visit local Black businesses
NAMED SPONSOR TBD | Sponsor This Week
Project: Street Dance, Graffiti, and Public Art
- Visual artist-in-residence
- Dance artist-in-residence
- Listening to and learning about Black music genres over time
- Learning social dances that correspond to respective music styles
- Performing dance routines
- Participating in dance lines / battles
- Contributing to sections of a class mural
- Field Trip to see Los Angeles murals
NAMED SPONSOR TBD | Sponsor This Week
Project: Theatrical Production
- Theater / Dance artist-in-residence
- Hearing and learning African fables & Black-authored short stories
- Adapting and performing stories for staged presentation
- Creating masks and costumes
- Learning choreography / movement / staging / blocking
- Emphasis on ethics and empathy
- Soft skill development: kindness and conflict resolution
NAMED SPONSOR TBD | Sponsor This Week
Project: Visual Art and Book Making
- Visual artist-in-residence
- Each day, each student pairs with a peer to research an African country
- Listening to music specific to each country or region
- Viewing fabrics and fashion specific to each country or region
- Creating original art elements to contribute to a collage for that country
- Compiling student art into a single book on Africa
- Original student art available for auction, proceeds to camp
NAMED SPONSOR TBD | Sponsor This Week
Project: Parades and Protest
- Music artist-in-residence
- Learning and practicing Black choral/choir music and embodied percussion
- Learning and practicing Freedom Songs
- Hearing and participating in a drum circle
- Researching contemporary causes for equity and equality
- Creating signs and banners to march for respective causes
- Learning about public expressions of Black joy (ie: parades)
- Learning about marches for justice over time
- Walkable Field trip / Parade to Leimert Park with banners and signs
by Maya Angelou
Get started with one $25 fee per family. We will add each child as an applicant and invite your family to enroll. Registration is nonrefundable.
You can pay camp fees upfront (*financing available), or with customized installments, and/or apply for financial aid.
Complete family contact and enrollment forms using Brightwheel..
Note: Enrollment is only guaranteed with payment or an active payment plan while spaces remain.
The weekly tuition fee per child is $300. Scholarships and sibling discounts are available on a case by case basis. We will generate invoices upon registration. Tuition is due 2 weeks before each session.
The registration fee is waived or credited for families who pay-in-full, choose a financing, or begin a payment plan by May 26th.
*Financing options through Affirm or Klarna are displayed at checkout. Those who choose a financing option at checkout will have completed all payments to the Camp and will make payments directly to the financing processor.
Families can indicate if they would like to apply for a scholarship with the registration form. We expect to raise funds through the month of May and will continue to award scholarships in the order that requests have been made.
Our 501(c)3 Fiscal Sponsor is The Ivy Heritage Foundation, with a 20 year history of service in Los Angeles and affiliation with the Alpha Gamma Omega Chapter (founded 1927) of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (founded 1908).
Trina Wiggins
Jolan Smith
Farrah E OShea
Rasanah Goss
Corey J Matthews
Anndretta Lyle
Dr. Senta Georgia Newell
Kimberly Griffin
Dr. Alicia Morehead-Gee
Capril Anderson
Nicoli Richardson
Jabrina Robinson
Bernadette Armand
Stacy Kirk
Dr. Jamal Bryant and New Birth MBC
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, Alpha Gamma Omega Chapter
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Beta Psi Lambda Chapter
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View Park - Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, CA 90043
"... she was expressing that her time there made her feel proud of being Black - and for that I am grateful to you all at the Black Arts Camp. You did a spectacular job. The experience was exactly what I hoped it would be and more." - E. A.
A celebration of African Diaspora culture for young learners of all abilities & backgrounds ages 5 to 12.