Black Butterfly

Anansi and Salima sit cross legged in the sunny grass after days of intense rain. They sip on butterfly pea flower tea across from each other.

ResidencyLiliana EppsMarch 5, 2024Artist Feature, Anansi

Aya Umoh is Using Data to Create Culturally Impactful Artwork

Can machine learning algorithms accurately reproduce the subtle nuance of emotional expression present in traditional dance forms? This is just one of the questions artist, performer, data scientist, and tech entrepreneur Faith "Aya" Umoh explores in her technological-meets-anthropological Level Ground residency show. Raised in Miami in a Nigerian-American family, Aya earned a Master's from Boston University in Biostatistics and Public Health, and she's on a mission to use AI to tell stories in ways that we rarely see.

ResidencyLiliana EppsMarch 5, 2024Artist Feature, Aya Umoh

Artist Gemma Jimenez's First Solo Show Centers on Reimagining How We Move Through Los Angeles

For artist Gemma Jimenez, moving through Los Angeles is not a passive act.

The person who commutes by bus for hours each day to clean houses for work will experience a much different Los Angeles then the person who drives from their house, to work, in their Tesla.

That's the crux of Jimenez’s first solo show at NAVEL, ‘From A to B and Everything in Between.’

ResidencyLiliana EppsMarch 5, 2024Artist Feature, Gemma Jimenez Gonzalez

LG @ Sundance!

We are so excited to be part of the Sundance Film Festival this year!

Production IncubatorLiliana EppsJanuary 24, 2024

Let's hear it for our community!

It's been a whirlwind year at Level Ground! 2023 has seen us weather changes and challenges, exciting new partnerships, and emerging avenues for connection, care and visibility. And we couldn't have done it without the support and unending brilliance of our incredible community.

Collective, Production IncubatorSamantha CurleyDecember 12, 2023

Chance Calloway on Faith, Resilience and the Magic of Myth-Making

Level Ground Collective Artist Chance Calloway is a limitless talent—as a screenwriter, author, director and musician, his artistry and the influences that have shaped it are staggering.

CollectiveLiliana EppsNovember 8, 2023Artist Feature, Chance Calloway

Otherwise Histories, Otherwise Futures

With support from Level Ground, the Center for Documentary Studies is now accepting applications for the Otherwise Histories, Otherwise Futures DocX development lab. If you’re interested in developing a documentary project with Level Ground, we encourage you to apply!

Production IncubatorSamantha CurleyOctober 30, 2023

Book Brunch Reading List

On August 26 our amazing community gathered for brunch (at Superba in Hollywood for the foodies out there!) and everyone brought a few books for a show and tell.

CollectiveSamantha CurleySeptember 6, 2023

Leslie & Beka Go Back to School

Staff Artists Rebekah Mei and Leslie Foster are headed back to school, this time as educators. They’ve both been part of Level Ground from the very beginning (in 2013) and were our first volunteers to transition to part-time staff 5 years ago. In the last year, they’ve both started full-time jobs in education and are leaving the Level Ground staff team – but not our community!

Collective, ResidencySamantha CurleySeptember 4, 2023Staff News

Langston Alimayu says connection is all that matters.

Painter, musician, curator and all-around creative Langston Alimayu is chiefly concerned with honesty—in creativity, in community building, and within the art world as a whole. A self-taught native of Los Angeles, Langston pours that very energy of jovial, whimsical originality into every piece of work they bring to life.

CollectiveSamantha CurleyAugust 9, 2023Artist Feature, Langston Alimayu

Welcome to Our 2023-24 Resident Artists

This year, we received an overwhelming response for the 6th cycle of our art residency program. The number of applications in our open call nearly doubled! It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that we welcome 4 new artists to the Level Ground residency program!

ResidencySamantha CurleyJuly 31, 2023

Rebekah Mei examines motherhood and the art of letting go.

Level Ground staff artist Rebekah Mei—a mother, sister, daughter, activist and familial archivist—is in an active state of creative unification. Unification, that is, in the linkages between lineage and domestic life, matriarchy and art, and feminine labor and motherhood.

CollectiveSamantha CurleyJuly 19, 2023Artist Feature, Rebekah Mei

Jade Phoenix is tapping into queer rage in her first short film, JAMIE.

Writer. Actress. Filmmaker. No single label can constrain the artistic expression of Angeleno artist, Jade Phoenix. Now Jade is taking on the role of director in her newest short film JAMIE, about a transgender Filipinx woman who comes to reconcile with her family on the night of Manny Pacquiao’s last fight. Is there anything more Filipino or femme queer rage than the boxing ring?

Production IncubatorRebekah NeelJune 9, 2023Artist Feature, Jade Phoenix