2021 Award Recipients
Cast Photo of "Our Town" 2022
2022 Award Recipients
How I Learned What I Learned - 2023
2023 Award Recipients
Having Our Say
2024 Award Recipients
Beloved Community Initiative at UCLA – Event & Award Highlights
This page showcases photo highlights from recent Beloved Community Initiative (BCI) events and awards at UCLA and in Los Angeles. Since 2021, BCI has partnered with the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center to present the "C. Bernard Jackson Bridge Builders Award," honoring individuals who embody the values of the “Beloved Community” philosophy espoused by Josiah Royce, embraced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and demonstrated in the city of Los Angeles by arts advocate, C. Bernard Jackson. Annual gatherings include play readings, community discussions, and award luncheons, celebrating the spirit of the Beloved Community across campus and in the city Los Angeles.
Browse the gallery to explore moments from these meaningful events and recognition.
A Filmmaker's Perspective
Filmmaker Doug Harris, a participant in the April 21 'Healing Community' workshop, graciously provided this video he shot at the event:
Honoring Legacy & Building Bridges
For more complete information on Beloved Community Awareness Week 2023 events, please visit uclabelovedcommunityinitiative.org and click on 'Beloved Community Awareness Week.'
The Beloved Community Initiative (BCI) was launched at UCLA in 2015 with a mission “to explore and advance The Beloved Community as a global vision for the 21st century.” uclabelovedcommunityinitiative.org
The Beloved Community Initiative offers immersive interdisciplinary multimedia experiences utilizing the legacy of the philosopher Josiah Royce, who developed the concept of “A Beloved Community” and for whom UCLA’s Royce Hall is named, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on the UCLA campus in April 1965 in which he expanded on the concept of “The Beloved Community.”
The first Beloved Community Awareness Week took place in April 2019. At the inaugural Beloved Community luncheon, the first UCLA Bridge Builders Awards were presented to the distinguished engineer Shelby Jacobs ’56, a “hidden figure” of the U.S. Space Program who was project manager of the Apollo-Soyuz orbiter, and former Congresswoman and Ambassador Diane Watson ’56, the first Black member of the Los Angeles Unified School District school board and the California State Senate.
In 2020 the Bridge Builders Award winners were former California Assembly member The Honorable Dr. Shirley Weber (’70, M.A. ’71, Ph.D. ’75), now California’s first Black Secretary of State; and Reverend Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program, and former pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.
Building upon a legacy of unity and justice, the Beloved Community Initiative (BCI) at UCLA draws inspiration from philosopher Josiah Royce—for whom Royce Hall is named—and from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s April 1965 UCLA address, in which he expanded on the notion of a “Beloved Community.”
The first Beloved Community Awareness Week launched in April 2019. At that inaugural luncheon, the first UCLA Bridge Builders Awards were presented to Shelby Jacobs ’56, distinguished engineer and project manager of the Apollo–Soyuz orbiter and a “hidden figure” of the U.S. space program, and Ambassador Diane Watson ’56, trailblazing public servant who became the first Black member of both the LAUSD school board and the California State Senate.
In 2020, the award honored Dr. Shirley Weber ’70, M.A. ’71, Ph.D. ’75—current Secretary of State of California and the first Black person to hold that role—and Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation organization.
In 2021, the Bridge Builders Award was renamed the C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Award.
The 2021 Awards were presented to the entrepreneur Mathabo Kunene, Executive Managing Trustee of the Mazisi Kunene Foundation Trust, Durban, South Africa, and Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Medicine & Public Health and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture.
Beloved Community Awareness Week 2022 began virtually on April 19 with the annual BCI luncheon, at which the 2022 C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Awards were presented to Nobuko Miyamoto, songwriter, dance & theater artist, author, and founder and artistic director of Great Leap, Inc., and UCLA alumnus and pioneering filmmaker Ben Caldwell, founder of KAOS Network in Leimert Park.
Three days earlier, LAICCC provided a preview of Beloved Community Awareness Week with the “Our Town LA” play reading, our first live theatrical production since the pandemic shut everything down in early 2020.
LAICCC’s participation in Beloved Community Awareness Week and the renaming of the Bridge Builders Award for C. Bernard Jackson are two important steps in honoring and strengthening the bond between Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center and the fertile ground at UCLA where C. Bernard Jackson and Dr. J. Alfred Cannon were planting the roots for ICCC in 1965.
By 2021, the award was formally renamed the C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Award. That year’s honorees were Mathabo Kunene, Executive Managing Trustee of the Mazisi Kunene Foundation Trust of Durban, South Africa, and Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, UCLA Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Latino Health and Culture.
2022 saw the virtual iteration of Beloved Community Awareness Week beginning April 19, with the 2022 C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Awards bestowed upon Nobuko Miyamoto, songwriter, dance & theater artist, author, and founder/artistic director of Great Leap, Inc., alongside visionary filmmaker Ben Caldwell, founder of KAOS Network in Leimert Park. A few days prior, LAICCC presented a live theatrical preview, “Our Town LA,” marking their first in-person production since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and signaling a strengthened bond between LAICCC and UCLA, rooted in the legacy of C. Bernard Jackson and Dr. J. Alfred Cannon dating back to 1965.
In 2023, the award was presented to Glynn Turman, esteemed actor and longtime LAICCC alum, who accepted one of the two 2023 C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Awards innercityculturalcenter.org+1.
Most recently, in 2024, the C. Bernard Jackson – UCLA Bridge Builders Awards were presented on June 11, 2024, at The Bridge in Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. The honorees included Aurea Montes-Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Community Coalition, and Charles Floyd Johnson, Emmy-winning CBS television executive producer known for shows such as The Rockford Files, Magnum, P.I., Red Tails and NCIS
(For more information about The Beloved Community and ICCC’s origins at UCLA, click on the UCLA Roots page under the “About” tab of this website.)