Column: Meet the Black people remaking LA's Leimert Park — one building and one event at a time
LOS ANGELES -- Tony Jolly sounded tired.
When I caught up with him last week, it had only been a few hours since tens of thousands of people had descended on Los Angeles' Leimert Park neighborhood to celebrate Juneteenth — and since the much-hyped, multi-block festival that he helped organize for the holiday abruptly went from phenomenal to frightening.
"It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen," he told me wistfully.
Indeed, people were happily crammed shoulder to shoulder next to a stage situated on a narrow block of Degnan Boulevard, a few feet from the entrance to ORA, the cafe Jolly owns with his wife, Tina Amin.
Grammy winner Jazmine Sullivan had been scheduled to perform, but never made it on stage because, according to Jolly, a group of teenagers started lighting firecrackers as a "practical joke."
Videos circulating on social media — at one point trending nationally — showed people running from what many assumed were gunshots, stepping on each other and knocking over vendor booths in a frantic stampede. Meanwhile, a McDonald's got ransacked around the corner. And Amazon Music, which had been livestreaming the festival, cut the
