Sunday, March 9, 2 pm.
African Americans and the Beach: An illustrated talk on Santa Monica's former Inkwell Beach & Our African American Surfing Community, Sunday 9 March 2008, 2 pm.
The Santa Monica Conservancy and Calvary Baptist Church are co-hosting an illustrated presentation on the historic "Inkwell" Beach and the history of the African-American surfing community in Santa Monica. The "Inkwell," south of Pico Blvd. and Casa del Mar Hotel, was a popular beach hangout for African Americans from the 1920s to the '60s, long after racial restrictions on public beaches were invalidated in 1927. The City recently installed a plaque to commemorate this important gathering place.
Facilitating the panel discussion will be Alison Rose Jefferson, Historian with Historic Resources Group. Joining her on the panel will be Rhonda Harper, an African-American female surfer of the Black Surfing Association (BSA), and documentary filmmakers Portia Scott-Hicks of Los Angeles and Paul Richardson of Monterey, California. Scott-Hicks is developing a documentary about the BSA called "Soul on a Wave." Richardson is in the process of producing a full-length documentary entitled, "Deeper Shade of Surf," about first and second generations of African American surfers. They will share information about Nick Gabaldon, a Santa Monica native who was the first documented black surfer from the 1940s, and other local surfing pioneers of African American descent.