Placekeeping in Green Spaces

Green space, park access, and trees

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The area Levitt LA serves is extremely diverse, largely consisting of Mexican, Central American, and Indigenous Latin American communities. The surrounding high-density immediate area of Westlake is comprised of 73% Latinos; 17% Asian-Americans/API; 5% Caucasians; 4% African-Americans, and 2% Other/mixed and is a majority immigrant neighborhood. There is a prevalence of low-wealth households and many face challenges around housing and food insecurity.
The historical injustices Levitt LA attendees have endured are exacerbated today by continued systemic discrimination and marginalizations that create disparities in access to education, healthcare, employment, and housing. Linguistic profiling, restricted language access, and anti-immigration rhetoric create fear of being perceived "undocumented" leading to self-censorship and reduced participation in community life. 

The only fully bilingual outdoor music venue in the region, Levitt LA targets outreach to Spanish-speaking audiences and is committed to bringing all Angelenos free, high-quality music concerts to which they may otherwise not have access. Programming takes place at the bandshell in MacArthur Park and is curated to honor the majority Latino audience that attend, often including Latin American Indigenous communities in LA County who have historically been excluded and underserved in our community.
Each year, Levitt LA presents an annual full season of free summer concerts at MacArthur Park, gathering over 600,000+ people since 2007 from all walks of life to enjoy live music. The concerts inspire families and people of all ages to engage with the park, celebrate the cultural diversity of Los Angeles, and enrich thousands of lives by building a safe, vibrant community gathering performing arts space. Programming intentionally selects artists that resonate with, and are connected to, the many diasporic communities that make up Los Angeles.
This work is the foundation for the organization’s placekeeping efforts, a community-based approach that uses arts and cultural expression to maintain and preserve the qualities of a place, including its physical environment, social fabric, and cultural heritage. This “green third space” is a public space where regulars and people who frequently use the park can come together for social interaction, separate from their home and work.

There is a restoration of dignity that comes with acknowledging and reaffirming a person's inherent worth and value after they have suffered social, economic, and emotional harm. Levitt LA’s placekeeping efforts prioritize engaging these voices in creating programming and activities designed to restore a sense of community, honoring of cultural heritage, and access to the arts. 
To engage other stakeholders in this work, Levitt LA is the primary organizer of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), a group of 20+ organizations and offices that are invested in improving the quality of life at and around MacArthur Park. Over 80% of the members groups from the CAC lead activities during the concerts. Some of the groups include KYCC, CHIRLA, LA Commons, ArtDivision, LACMA, and HOLA. 
Levitt LA is positioned to help other cities design and implement green third space/placekeeping strategies in their communities, resulting in more social cohesion across Los Angeles.