About Us
The World Stage is an educational and performance arts gallery in Leimert Park Village, the heart of L.A.’s African-American cultural community. “The Stage”, as it is affectionately called, was founded in 1989 by the late world renowned master jazz drummer Billy Higgins and by poet and community arts activist Kamau Daáood in an attempt to fill a cultural void that existed in the Los Angeles community. Initially formed as a loose collective of artists and arts supporters, The World Stage has grown to assume a pioneering and pivotal role in the flowering of an arts movement in Leimert Park that has been hailed as the black cultural mecca by the Los Angeles Times. The mission of the World Stage is to provide leadership to secure, preserve and advance the position of African American music, literature and works in the oral tradition to a local, national and international audience by providing workshops where classic and emerging forms of creative expression can be supported and presented.
Through weekly workshops in music and literary arts, The World Stage provides the community with quality arts education and links youth with elders in the African American cultural tradition. The great pianist, composer and spiritual force, the late Horace Tapscott and drummer Cornel Fauler founded the weekly jam sessions and Masters series; Akilah Nayo Oliver, Nafis Nabawi, Anthony Lyons and Michael Datcher along with Kamau Daáood founded and developed the Anansi Writer’s Workshop; and Don Muhammad served as manager for a decade. Our master classes have been conducted by musicians such as Max Roach, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, and Geri Allen and literary giants such as Sonia Sanchez, the Watts Poets, the Watts Prophets, Yusef Komunyakaa, South African revolutionary poet Keopisitle Kgositsile, and countless other unsung heroes of the World Stage. Workshops are offered to the public for $5 but no one is turned away for lack of funds.
The World Stage fosters exchange and interaction between artists of all ages and levels, and provides a place for self-discovery, experimentation and critical feedback in a nourishing environment. The fruits of this fertile mixture are the many notable alumni who have honed their creative skills through training and exposure at The World Stage. Some of these artists include musical groups B Sharp Jazz Quarter, Young World Stage All-Stars and Black Note; bestselling authors Michael Datcher and Jenoyne Adams; Pulitzer Prize nominee Ruth Forman; vocalist Dwight Trible; Sundance Film Fellow Nyesha Khalfani; author, poet, publisher and radio personality Peter J. Harris and many others. The World Stage also exposes the community to arts through regular jazz performances, poetry readings, and events such as the Kwanzaa Music Festival and an annual concert featuring nationally acclaimed artists. This year the World Stage celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a benefit concert in honor of Billy Higgins at the Ford Amphitheatre.
Co-founder Kamau Daáood has said, “I am a devout artist, a poet. I have honed my skills in small community arts venues. I have witnessed the power of the arts as a vehicle for self-discovery, revelation, inspiration and healing. Words, sounds, shapes, colors and movement used to build bridges of understanding between human hearts. Art is a higher language beyond our native tongues. It is the light that cuts through dogma and spiritualizes our moments and grounds us in the sacredness of time.”
