Lauren Halsey’s Summaeverythang Community Center Adds to the Social Fabric of L.A.

One Saturday morning this fall, signs on neon poster board circled a parking lot near Crenshaw Boulevard and 54th Street in South Central Los Angeles bearing handwritten messages: “Support Black Workers,” “Fresh Fruit,” “Fresh Produce.” In a corner of the lot, cardboard boxes filled with food sat at the ready as masked volunteers directed traffic and loaded offerings into cars. In addition to fruits and vegetables, each box contained a packet of information about jobs and professional training opportunities assembled by the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, which had collaborated with the newly founded artist-run project Summaeverythang. “These boxes,” said Lauren Halsey, “I thought we could use them as vessels to communicate.”