The Brief

Tarell Alvin McCraney is on a mission as the Geffen Playhouse’s new artistic director.

In the new role, the Academy Award and Peabody Award-winning playwright is preparing for the 2024-2025 season “with a focus on innovative storytelling, community engagement and audience experience,” according to a statement announcing his appointment.

What that looks like, McCraney tells LAist, isn’t just clearing the slate and starting fresh.

“I am interested in who are the people that work at the Geffen and love the Geffen and are already engaged. And can we extend that relationship, can that relationship get deeper, can we invite them to become mentors to other folks and grow our ensemble of writers and directors,” he said.

His reasoning? “Audiences really feel like — I really am interested in that artist because I saw them when they did their first play, or they did their second play, or their first time directing, and I really liked what they were up to, and I can't wait to see what they do next.”

McCraney also envisions theater audiences getting involved with the workshops and writing sessions the nonprofit theater hosts.

“If we can focus on how their engagement, their experience is, we will have done a thing that will invite other folks to join them at becoming lifelong subscribers,” he said.

Expanding access and developing interest

One of the relationships the “Moonlight” writer wants to deepen is the one Geffen shares with UCLA. McCraney, who is currently a professor of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, is not opposed to joining the Bruin faculty.

“I would love that,” he said.

Also, with the Metro Purple Line extension to Westwood underway, McCraney said there’s an opportunity “to engage folks who may not necessarily have the means to drive or drive often, or who even want to drive to come to the campus and be closer to our theater.”

Geffen’s education program, he said, does outreach in communities and expanding access to theater “in places that aren't just within our four walls.”

Homecoming

In 2014, McCraney presented his coming of age play “Choir Boy” at the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen. And now, he said, it's an honor to be appointed artistic director, a role typically given to directors and producers.

“The thing that I bring that may be different, and I don't know that it's completely different, but I know what it means to balance the idea of what a play is from its inside, right? That instinct that says, ‘Oh, I gotta really write this thing. It's important to me,’” he said. “I know how to balance that with also the expectation of, well, people have to see this. People have to understand it, maybe need access to it.”

“I'm a dramatic writer who is always trying to make sure that the audience is in a sharing position with the actors on stage,” he added.

Because of this, McCraney gives an artist time to develop their dream, and when that is realized he is able to marry the expectation of the audience and grow the production of the play.

“Tarell brings a unique perspective as a playwright to lead the artistic vision for Geffen Playhouse,” said Geffen Playhouse Executive Director/CEO Gil Cates, Jr. “This is an exciting next chapter for our theater, and we are thrilled to have his vision and passion at the helm as we navigate the evolution taking place in the arts.”

For the last three years, the record store and music venue Healing Force of the Universe has been operating on a sleepy street corner not far from Pasadena City College. Nearby businesses include a shoe repair store, a nail salon and several auto shops.

“We're kind of in a dead corner,” owner Austin Manuel said. “No offense if anybody lives here, but not a very foot-trafficked area, kind of a hard place to have a store.”

In spite of the location, Manuel said Healing Force has become a home away from home for musicians and music fans. One of them is Bobby Bradford, a jazz trumpet legend who lost his house and personal archive in the Eaton Fire. He performs regularly at the venue. (Healing Force has also partnered with LAist on fire recovery events.)

Its current location is set to close this month, but Manuel and his team are already raising funds to cover a move to another space: G-Son Studios in Atwater Village. The repurposed ballroom was the Beastie Boys' home base when they recorded their classic albums Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Run-DMC and Biz Markie stopped by at one point, and Beck also laid down tracks for his album Odelay there.

Inside Healing Force's space in Pasadena.

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The vibe

Healing Force sells records, of course, but these days it’s more of a nighttime performance space. Manuel said he wants people to feel comfortable striking up conversations after a show.

“I grew up in the church in the South, and I was like, ‘How do I design this so that it feels like a Southern church lady could come in here and feel welcome?’" Manuel said. “ I didn't want it to be too cool.  I wanted it to feel kind of suburban in a way.”

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Though the name might call to mind a cult slogan — and Manuel said they lean into that aesthetic on purpose — it’s actually a reference to the 1970 album Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe by saxophonist Albert Ayler.

At the venue, “people can kind of get … into a meditative zone,” Manuel said. “After the [January 2025] fires, it felt so good to come back together in this room and feel the healing of community.”

Healing Force's stage setup.

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The performances

The shows Healing Force puts on share a common thread: They’re meant to promote peace and relaxation, as well as deep, careful listening on the hi-fi sound system. But they’re an eclectic mix of genres. On one night, you might see L.A. spiritual jazz band Phi-Psonics, who turned a residency at the venue into a live album, Expanding to One.

On another night, you might catch a spaced-out electronic set, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter or a group of session musicians who’ve played with the likes of Paul Simon, Elton John and Lucinda Williams.

About the fundraiser

With the new space on Glendale Boulevard, Manuel said, Healing Force would triple its capacity for concerts, get a bar space and be closer to other venues in Northeast L.A.

“If 1,000 people gave $25, we would get there,” Manuel said – though he also said most people have been giving more.

You can read more about the fundraiser and donate at Healing Force’s GoFundMe.

See the Pasadena space before it closes

The venue is still open at 1200 E. Walnut Street and is holding events through this Halloween weekend. You can see their events calendar on their website.

The racist DNA of Jim Crow discrimination may be embedded in your housing documents.

The language in housing documents that restricts sale or use of a property only to a person of the white race is called a “restrictive covenant,” and in California the practice goes back to the 19th century and continued into the mid-20th century. While housing discrimination persists, the practice was found unconstitutional in 1948.

California counties are reporting mixed progress in meeting the demands of a 2021 law to excise the language from property records.

According to Sylvia Manzo, deputy recorder in the Orange County Clerk-Recorder’s office, the county finished the job in March of this year, removing racist language from more than 27,000 property documents with the help of computer software.

This 1924 property document from Bakersfield includes racist language limiting use of the property in question to people of "the white or Caucasian race."

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L.A. County is far from done. It says that with the help of an outside company hired in 2024, 50 million pages will be examined yearly, which would take about 10 years to finish the job.

Public agencies could use the public’s help.

Language examples

Here’s a 1924 example from a property in Bakersfield. The text reads, “That the lands herein conveyed shall never, at any time, be sold to or rented to or occupied by any person not of the white or Caucasian race.”

Or this language from a 1936 document relating to a Costa Mesa property: “That said premises shall not be sold, conveyed, rented, or leased to, or occupied by any person of African, Mexican, or Asiatic descent.”

How to get it taken out

The Restrictive Covenant Modification Form is at the heart of the effort to remove the racist language from housing documents. Each county has its own process. Some charge a fee; others don’t. Some require a notary certification for the signature; others don’t.

L.A. County:

Registrar-Recorder officials recommend these steps:

• Highlight or underline the unlawful provision on the recorded document
• Complete the Restrictive Covenant Modification Form
• Submit the form and the recorded document by email: RCM@rrcc.lacounty.gov or in person at the Norwalk headquarters at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk
• Mail instructions are here.

Orange County:

The Orange County spokesperson says there may be some properties not caught by its software and urges the public to report them. Here’s the form

Riverside County:

Here’s the Riverside County form

San Bernardino County:

Here’s the San Bernardino County form

San Diego County:

Here’s the San Diego County form

Santa Barbara County:

Here’s the Santa Barbara County form

Ignoring the racist language in property documents, some say, reinforces the legacy of segregation, while taking steps to remove restrictive covenant language is a way individuals and organizations can repudiate policies that sought to discriminate.