Erykah Badu, Lauren Halsey and the Night South Central Took Over the Hollywood Bowl
South Central Came to the Bowl
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey turned the entire Hollywood Bowl into one of her worlds. emajendat, presented by the LA Phil, opened at 6 p.m. with community activations across the grounds: carnival-style game booths, text installations, and kids jumping Double Dutch on the plaza.
At 8 p.m., the music moved to a maximalist, technicolor stage Halsey designed for the night. Erykah Badu and The Alchemist headlined, with Anderson .Paak spinning as DJ Pee .Wee, the Charles Gaines Collective featuring Black Nile and Devin Daniels, and an appearance from Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. The event borrowed its name from Halsey's earlier exhibition of the same title at London's Serpentine.
Who Is Lauren Halsey?
Halsey is a multidisciplinary artist and CalArts graduate whose work is rooted in architecture, community and the visual culture of South Central Los Angeles, where her family has lived for generations. Her sculptures and installations draw on the signage and everyday visual language of the neighborhood, and treat that culture as worthy of monuments.
In 2023, she took over the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This March, she opened sister dreamer, a public sculpture park in South Central that serves as a monument to the neighborhood itself. The Bowl takeover carried that project forward: Halsey teamed with the denim brand AGOLDE on a limited emajendat capsule, with all proceeds going to sister dreamer.
Why It Matters
The Hollywood Bowl is one of the most storied stages in the country, and for one night its whole campus was designed around a Black artist's vision of her own neighborhood. Halsey didn't just decorate the venue. She rebuilt it around community, with games, movement and gathering space before a single note was played.
That is what investment in Black art looks like when an institution gets it right. The LA Phil handed Halsey the full grounds, not a corner of them. The merch sent money back to a monument in South Central rather than out of it. And the lineup, from Badu to a jazz collective led by artist Charles Gaines, tied visual art and Black music together as one culture instead of separate departments.
The Cup of Soul Take
Too often, Black neighborhoods show up in major venues as a theme, a backdrop or a costume. emajendat flipped that. South Central wasn't being referenced at the Hollywood Bowl; it was hosting. The question now is whether more institutions follow the LA Phil's lead and hand Black artists the keys to the whole building, not just the stage.
