The Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center
Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center was the nation’s first and most influential minority owned and operated multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multidisciplinary visual and performing arts institution, arising “out of the ashes” of the 1965 Watts Rebellion.
The Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center stands as a beacon for artistic expression, fostering multicultural influence in the performing arts scene. Co-founded by C. Bernard “Jack” Jackson and Dr. J Alfred Cannon, it emerged from the 1965 Watts rebellion against police brutality. The Center showcased numerous productions to over 30,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District within its first five years, emphasizing multiculturalism. Notable figures like Denzel Washington , Beah Richards, and Carmen Zapata launched their careers here, embodying the Center’s commitment to diversity. Today, Jackson’s legacy persists in Leimert Park, transcending boundaries.
Healing Through the Arts
Its founders, UCLA dance department pianist and composer C. Bernard Jackson and UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute faculty and staff member Dr. J. Alfred Cannon, envisioned that LAICCC would employ the performing and visual arts in healing the scars of the rebellion, improving mental health, and increasing cross-cultural communications among Los Angeles’ many diverse ethnic communities who shared similar issues of discrimination on social, justice, cultural, educational, and economic issues.
Breaking Barriers in Entertainment
LAICCC’s core philosophy of non-traditional and colorblind casting on both the creative and technical fronts has enabled thousands of previously excluded minorities to pursue careers in the entertainment business. LAICCC alumni encompass an unparalleled “who’s who” of actors, writers, producers, directors, choreographers, videographers, dancers, musicians, and technical personnel whose influence continues to the present day.
A Lifelong Commitment
Built in 1929 “The Boulevard Theatre” was a part of the Loew’s theater movie palace during the golden age of cinema. It was later operated by Fox West Coast Theatres, before being acquired by the Thriftimart Corporation, Inner City purchased and renovated the theater in 1966 and remained until 1972 when it purchases the Masonic Temple at Pico Blvd. and New Hampshire Avenue.
