Encore: The LAPL Mixtape, On Wax is the culminating celebration and all-star audio exhibition bringing audiences together at Central Library to experience the gospel, jazz, and hip-hop lineages that shaped Black Los Angeles.
The program features Calvin B. Rhone of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Los Angeles Chapter; Deborah Swan of the Hefflin Legacy Foundation; a live jazz performance by Keith Rushmoore; and Soul Train legend Damita Jo Freeman with a special dance demonstration. Through music, storytelling, performance, and community, Encore celebrates Black musical traditions as living archives that continue to inspire and shape Los Angeles.
In partnership with ALOUD and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, LAPL Mixtape, On Wax celebrates this living archive through a series of genre-focused Stack Sessions—vinyl listening experiences hosted in library branches. Participants gather among the stacks to share records, read liner notes, and explore how Black Southern sound traditions took root in Los Angeles and continue to influence the nation’s cultural landscape.
- September 19: Verse 1: Gospel Testimonies — In conversation with Calvin B. Rhone of GMWA LA at Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library
- October 17: Verse 2: Jazz Chronicles — Featuring the Hefflin Family at Vernon – Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Branch Library
- November 7: Verse 3: Hip-Hop Cuts — Dialoguing with DJ R-Tistic at Baldwin Hills Branch Library
Featured Guests:
Tyree Boyd-Pates
Tyree Boyd-Pates author, historian, curator, writer, DJ, social entrepreneur, and international speaker. Boyd-Pates explores Black culture through a contemporary lens and actively mobilizes communities of color using journalism, social media, education, and historical advocacy. His work has been prominently featured in a variety of major media outlets including The New York Times, Vogue, and The Hollywood Reporter, Tyree’s innovative history exhibitions continue to inspire thousands of visitors to museums and encourage fresh engagement with history.
Pastor Calvin Bernard Rhone
Pastor Calvin Bernard Rhone is a celebrated Los Angeles pastor, singer, and gospel composer with over four decades of international ministry. After rising to national prominence in the 1980s working alongside the legendary Reverend James Cleveland and the Los Angeles Gospel Messengers—and penning hits recorded by Tramaine Hawkins, Daryl Coley, and Donald Lawrence—he established a thriving solo career. Today, he carries his musical legacy forward as the pastor of Hope of Glory Christian Center, Chapter Representative for the Los Angeles Chapter of the GMWA, and a newly appointed member of the GMWA National Board of Directors.
Deborah Swan
Deborah Swan is a cultural historian, author, educator, and founder of the Hefflin Legacy Foundation. She is the granddaughter of legendary Los Angeles impresario Leon Hefflin Sr., creator of the historic Cavalcade of Jazz concerts held at Wrigley Field from 1945 to 1958. Swan spent years conducting archival research and collecting rare photographs, newspaper accounts, programs, and firsthand stories to restore Hefflin’s remarkable contributions to American music history. Her book, The Impresario: Leon Hefflin and the World’s First Annual Jazz Festival, documents this extraordinary legacy and brings renewed recognition to a pioneering chapter of Los Angeles jazz history.
