d. Sabela grimes

Sabela grimes turns the park’s center stage into a social space: an ad-hoc nail salon and a platform to promote dialogue on the themes of masculinities, toxic masculinity, and patriarchy. The artist welcomes audiences in: “Come talk it out with us, come get your nails painted…” With various low tables stationed throughout the area, adorned with incense, candles, and pillows, the artist creates an informal and inviting scene, expanding the practice of self-care into an opportunity for community connection. Participants step in, receive manicures by one of grimes’s many collaborators, and hang out. By occupying space and designating it as a site for difficult, yet critical, conversations, the project imbues the act of being-in-communion with generosity and the potential for transformation.

d. Sabela grimes is a choreographer, writer, composer and educator whose interdisciplinary performance work and pedagogical approach reveal a vested interest in the physical and meta-physical efficacies of Afro-Diasporic cultural practices. Described by the Los Angeles Times as “the Los Angeles dance world’s best-kept secret” and as “one of a mere handful of artists who make up the vanguard of hip-hop fusion,” Grimes is considered one of the most imaginative and innovative artists in his field. His AfroFuturistic dance theater projects like World War WhatEver, 40 Acres & A Microchip, BulletProof Deli, and ELECTROGYNOUS, consider invisibilized histories and grapple with constructed notions of masculinity and manhood while conceiving a womynist consciousness.