The Listen List: September

A monthly collection of what we are visiting, eating, drinking and paying attention to. This month, the Listen List stays close to Los Angeles, moving through food, books, coffee, community and the spaces shaping conversations across the city.

TO SEE: Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Built Environment

This September, Black Portraiture[s] comes to Los Angeles for a three day gathering exploring the Black built environment, both physical and imagined.

Taking place at UCLA from September 28 to 30, the programme brings together conversations around photography, architecture, urban planning, art, film, music and migration, examining the ways Black communities have created, documented and imagined the spaces around them.

For us, it is the questions around memory, place and belonging that make this one worth paying attention to. How do the spaces we build become part of our collective histories? And what happens when Black communities are given the opportunity to document those spaces for themselves?

TO EAT: Flavors From Afar

Flavors From Afar is a Pan African bistro in Los Angeles using food as a way into stories of migration, memory and culture.

Founded by Meymuna Hussein Cattan, the restaurant celebrates recipes and culinary traditions from across Africa and its diaspora, while creating employment and development opportunities for refugees.

They host a tonne of events and it’s a great co-working space during the day, truly feels like a community hub.

TO JOIN: Caffeinated Fridays

Born in Los Angeles, the weekly coworking series moves between POC owned coffee shops around the city, bringing together creatives, entrepreneurs, remote workers and professionals to work and meet each other over coffee.

The gatherings are free to attend and intentionally support smaller local coffee businesses in the process. For anyone craving more community in their working week, this is one to keep on your radar.

TO VISIT: Lore

A bookstore should be somewhere you can linger.

Based in Leimert Park, Lore is an independent Black owned bookstore and community space with a particular focus on Black art and design, alongside a wider collection of books and objects. They host community events and book signings.

COFFEE SHOP: Harun Coffee

Next door to Lore is Harun Coffee, which reopened this year after a major redesign.

The new space places an even greater emphasis on African coffee traditions, serving Ethiopian coffee alongside food and an evening listening lounge designed for performances and community gatherings.

Harun reflects something we are particularly interested in at Listen: the coffee shop as more than somewhere to buy a drink. At its best, a cafe can become a third space, somewhere ideas are exchanged, people meet and culture is made.

Harun understands that assignment.

The Listen List is our monthly edit of places, people, books, food and ideas worth making time for. Find a new edition on the first of every month.