Like a West African bantaba — a spiritual gathering place for the community — leafy Leimert Plaza Park is the anchor to Leimert Park Village, a center of L.A.’s African American art and culture. Sunday African drum circles, impromptu domino games and cultural events like the Martin Luther King Day Parade and celebration all find a place within its triangular bounds. The area, developed by Walter H. Leimert and designed by the Olmstead brothers in the late 1920s, began attracting African American musicians and artists in the wake of the 1965 Watts Riots.
Today, the stalwart merchants along Degnan and Leimert boulevards support each other in preserving the traditions of poetry, jazz, blues, crafts and soul food that define the village…