Blog Post #4 : San Juan Hill and Leimert Park

By: James Dalrymple

The relationship between art and community can be seen through both Thelonious Monk's relationship and experience with San Juan Hill and with the Los Angeles citizens' relationship with Leimert Park. Music can help build a community and music can help foster a feeling of unity even if there are many divisions amongst the citizens of that community. In both San Juan Hill and Leimert Park, citizens of the community bonded together over music. This connection between music and community helped inspire Monk's work and it also helped foster a feeling of unity among the citizens of Los Angeles.

Leimert Park was an area which was torn apart by the race riots of 1992 and 1993. The area surrounding Leimert Park was a central area of protest during the Rodney King riots and general protests that occurred during those two years (Film). After the race riots and after all of the damage and destruction that occurred in the city of Los Angeles, black citizens felt a need to express their feelings and emotions- and they did this through art. Leimert Park became a place for freedom of expression- especially through the display of art and the performance of music. This park became a central place where people could express their feelings and their emotions and bond together over the beautiful creation of music (Lecture in class on Leimert Park).

Thelonious Monk was living in San Juan Hill New York when he was creating and performing a great deal of music (Kelley 18). Similar to the situation in Los Angeles, Thelonious Monk was living in an area that had "stories of crime and violence" that dominated news paper headlines (19). This area is where "the largest concentration of black musicians" lived (19). In this town, Thelonious Monk was able to develop his craft and was able to develop a very original and distinct form of jazz music that has been hard to replicate by artists in later generations (22). San Juan Hill was very important in the role it played in influencing Thelonious Monk's work- just as any culture plays a role in inspiring an artist. "The black residents of San Juan Hill… established a strong sense of community," and this community was led by music- whether at church or at clubs.

The area that one resides can play a huge role in establishing one's sense of expression. In Kelley's work it is clear that the community where Monk grew up helped him create a unique and individual form of jazz music. In the film on Leimert Park, it is clear that the community helped foster creativity and expression through the performance of music.







*Side note- I commented on Bryan's blog post : http://blackstudiesbybryan.blogspot.com/2015/03/thelonious-monks-hill-above-chaos.html#comment-form *