"Leimert Park Village is a historic center of Black culture and commerce. Its continued survival depends on customers, events, tourists, and new audiences."
Karen A. Clark said this in September. She co-owns The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center and is treasurer of the Leimert Park Village Merchants Association. She said it while the association was explaining why a poorly coordinated event can hurt the businesses it's meant to bring customers to. October tests both halves of her sentence eight days apart. On Saturday, October 17, Crenshaw Boulevard hosts a festival with its own shuttle network, three stages, and a published transit plan. On Sunday, October 25, the Village holds its own smaller gathering on Degnan, at a size set by the people who open their doors there every week.
The two weekends draw different crowds, and they work differently. One brings in a crowd and has the logistics to absorb it. The other depends on visitors finding the block and the block being ready when they arrive. This fall, the merchants have asked out loud for that readiness to be planned.
Saturday, October 17: The Boulevard Runs Its Own Logistics
Taste of Soul returns for its 21st year on Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free. The festival runs along Crenshaw Boulevard from Obama Boulevard south to Stocker Street, which puts its southern end a short walk from the Village.
The music is spread across three stages. The Los Angeles Sentinel's festival page has confirmed times for the Bakewell Media stage, and it lists the Gospel and KJLH times as coming soon.
| Stage | Who's on it | Confirmed time |
|---|---|---|
| Bakewell Media's Sounds of the Soul Stage | Thelma Houston | 3:30 to 4:05 p.m. |
| Bakewell Media's Sounds of the Soul Stage | Switch | 4:20 to 5:10 p.m. |
| Bakewell Media's Sounds of the Soul Stage | Midnight Star | 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. |
| Brenda Marsh-Mitchell Gospel Stage | Deitrick Haddon, headliner | Not yet posted |
| Radio Free KJLH Music Stage | Lucky Daye | Not yet posted |
The 2026 program also lists "A Taste of Soul Train" with Tony Cornelius and the Soul Train Dancers. The early slots fill the day before the headliners. Faleisha Reese, an Inglewood singer-songwriter who was a featured solo artist in 2025, plays from 11 to 11:45 a.m.
The vendor directory sorts food into BBQ, soul food, seafood, chicken and wings, African and Caribbean, Latin, Asian and international, desserts, and frozen treats. Named vendors include Beignet Spot, All Seasons Catering, and Bailey Rae Events. The Sentinel updates the directory as vendors confirm, so the list may still change before the 17th.
How the festival moves people
A crowd that size needs its own logistics, and the organizers publish them:
- K Line stations along the route. Expo/Crenshaw is at the north end. Martin Luther King Jr sits in the middle. Leimert Park, at Crenshaw and Vernon, is a short walk from the south end.
- Park-and-ride. The Metro Expo/Crenshaw lot at 3412 Crenshaw Boulevard has 502 spaces at $3 a day.
- Shuttle pickups. Shuttles leave from the Crenshaw High School public lot at 5010 11th Avenue, Dorsey High School, Bethany Church Lots 1 and 2, Hillcrest Elementary, Tom Bradley Elementary, and Audubon Middle School. They run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Drop-off. The festival drop-off point is Crenshaw Boulevard at Stocker Street, which is the end closest to the Village.
- Bus. Line 210 runs along Crenshaw. The organizers point riders to metro.net for festival-day service changes.
On October 7, the Sentinel reported that Metro will run a lounge at the festival. It will cover reduced-fare programs, rail safety, and upcoming projects. We found no published city notice listing street-closure hours or cross-street closures. Anyone planning a Saturday drive across Crenshaw should check closer to the date.
The Corridor Between the Two Weekends
This year, the walk from the festival's south end toward the Village goes along a corridor that has changed since summer. In a September 4 letter published by L.A. Focus, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson wrote that "all fencing along the corridor has been taken down." He described the fence and K-rail removal, done with Mayor Bass, as producing a net increase in public parking.
The fences are gone, but much of the project behind them isn't built. In mid-August, the Los Angeles Times reported that the parks, landscaping, and art installations of Destination Crenshaw had not been finished. Harris-Dawson's letter says he expects Sankofa Park, which he called the project's "crown jewel," to open in 2027 and the full project to be finished in early 2028. Those are his projections, not set dates. Festivalgoers walking south will pass an open sidewalk alongside unfinished parks and art sites.
Some changes along the corridor are complete. On September 23, the city marked the end of more than $500,000 in façade improvements at six Crenshaw businesses. They are Closed Loop Engineering, Vergee's Palace De Bella Donna Salon, Angeles Vista Veterinary/Pet Medical Center, and three businesses in the Smith Moore Building: COMPROTAX, L&K Electric Corp., and SME Home Services. The work includes new storefronts, signage, accessibility upgrades, and public artwork. It was paid for through the city's JEDI Zone program, which covers Crenshaw from Vernon Avenue to 60th Street. Destination Crenshaw managed the project with office42 architecture and Coleman Construction, a Black- and woman-owned South Los Angeles contractor.
Sunday, October 25: The Village Works at Its Own Scale
Eight days after the festival, the Village holds its own gathering, and it is much smaller.
LA Commons lists the Leimert Park Art Walk for Sunday, October 25, from noon to 4 p.m., with a fashion theme. That same afternoon, Sunday Jazz at The World Stage, 4321 Degnan Boulevard, features Devin Daniels. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. The host band plays from 3 to 4 p.m., and an open jam runs from 4 to 5 p.m. Admission is $15, or $10 for musicians sitting in on the jam. The two events overlap, so it's possible to walk the Art Walk in the early afternoon and be at The World Stage for the 3 p.m. set.
The World Stage series runs monthly. Devin Daniels is also listed for November 22 and December 27. The Village guide describes the series as part of a year-round jazz program that also includes the 7th Annual Leimert Park Jazz Festival at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.
The October 25 Art Walk will be the first one held in Ben Caldwell Square. On August 30, the corner of W. 43rd Place and Leimert Boulevard was renamed for Ben Caldwell, the filmmaker and educator who founded KAOS Network. The Village guide credits him with turning a community media lab into an incubator for generations of artists, filmmakers, and musicians. The renaming marks the Village as a place where artists have been trained and supported, not just a place where events are held.
Harun Coffee is a short walk away on Degnan Boulevard. It held a grand reopening in January, and the Sentinel described it as a coffeehouse with an evening speakeasy program.
One event that won't be on the fall calendar is the Leimert Park Village Book Fair. Its organizers are promoting a 20th-anniversary edition on Saturday, March 13, 2027, at the South Lawn East of Exposition Park.
Why the Merchants Asked for Coordination
The two weekends are set up differently because of what happened in early September. A 5K was planned for Sunday, September 6, starting in Leimert Park and continuing along Crenshaw. According to the merchants association's account in the Los Angeles Sentinel, the businesses and community organizations it would affect had not been notified through the online events request form before the run was publicly promoted. The organizers apologized and moved the run to Elysian Park after talking with community leaders.
The merchants explained their concern in practical terms. A poorly coordinated event can block access, interrupt activities already scheduled, affect parking, and change whether customers can reach a business. For merchants working on narrow margins, they said, the cost is economic. The association also stated that it doesn't see protecting Black culture and welcoming other visitors as conflicting goals, and that cultural respect, public access, and economic survival have coexisted in the Village for decades.
Taste of Soul and the Village Sunday fit that view. The festival plans its own logistics, from park-and-ride spaces to shuttle hours, before anyone arrives. The Art Walk and the World Stage set run on the Village's own calendar, scheduled by the venues and organizations that are there every week. Both draw new audiences, and both are planned with the businesses along their routes. The Leimert Park Village Merchants Association represents brick-and-mortar businesses in the Leimert Park zip code, and membership is open to any business there.
Our Leimert Park neighborhood page has more about the area. For the rest of the Village's weekly calendar, our earlier piece on the Sunday shape of Leimert Park Village covers the summer schedule, and our look at the K Line extension explains what that vote did and didn't change for the Leimert Park station.
If you own in Leimert Park and are thinking about how Destination Crenshaw's 2027 and 2028 timelines could affect a future sale or renovation, The Alton Jones Team can go through the corridor's timelines with you and help you plan around them. Schedule a Consultation when you're ready.
