The Brief

From neighborhood celebrations and museum exhibitions to comedy shows and movie screenings, there are lots of fun things you can do in Southern California this Juneteenth on Thursday.

First, if you aren’t already familiar with the history of America’s newest federal holiday and how it’s been celebrated for decades in L.A. (specifically Leimert Park), you can quickly brush up with this article by former LAist associate editor Aaricka Washington.

Then, take your pick of events happening in SoCal on or around Juneteenth (Thursday, June 19):

Juneteenth Eve (Wednesday)

Wednesday, June 18, 7:30 p.m.
Bri Giger’s Prideteenth Show
The Elysian
1944 Riverside Dr., Los Angeles
COST: $16 + $4 fee; MORE INFO

This annual all-queer, all-POC variety show at the nonprofit alt-comedy theater The Elysian features live music, comedy, acting and poetry. The “celebration of Black queer power” is presented by actress, activist and comedian Bri Giger and Club Cleo.

The holiday (Thursday)

8 a.m. - noon 
Black Folk Juneteenth Freedom Day Ride
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to Leimert Park
COST: FREE, BUT REGISTRATION REQUIRED; MORE INFO

Join cyclists from all over Southern California for this second annual bike ride that “promotes Black excellence, Juneteenth, and safe cycling in one of the world's best cities.” It’s a 9-, 14-, or 19-mile group ride through central L.A. that ends at the Leimert Park Village Juneteenth Celebration.

11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Leimert Park Village Juneteenth Celebration
Leimert Park Village, Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Celebrate Juneteenth where many say the holiday was first celebrated in L.A. back in 1949, with live music (drum circles, jazz, and DJ sets), poetry, line dancing, health and wellness resources, and a fashion show at Sole Folks at 5 p.m.

Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Altadena Historical Society Juneteenth Celebration and Luncheon
Loma Alta Park
3330 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena
COST: $30-35; MORE INFO

The historical society’s fourth annual Juneteenth celebration will feature a luncheon, photo exhibition, quilt drawing and an awards ceremony for scholarships awarded to local students affected by January’s Eaton Fire.

The scholarship award is named after Ellen Garrison Clark, a Black educator and civil rights activist who fought against slavery and was buried in an unmarked grave in Altadena after she died in 1892. The historical society raised funds to purchase a headstone for Clark and unveiled it during their 2021 Juneteenth celebration.

Noon - 3 p.m.
Museum of African American Art
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza
Level 2, Suite 283
3650 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Visit the Museum of African American Art on Juneteenth and get a free tote bag (while supplies last) when you bring in a receipt from any Baldwin Hills Crenshaw retailer. Tour the museum’s collection and share what “Freedom Is…” to you.

3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Gallery Conversation: Costuming Black History with Sharen Davis
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
COST: FREE WITH ADMISSION; MORE INFO

Make a trip to the Academy Museum and enjoy a conversation with Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated costume designer Sharen Davis (Watchmen, Ray, Dreamgirls) about memorable costume designs from her 30-year career.

5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Repossessions and Reparations
California African American Museum (CAAM)
Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles
COST: FREE WITH RSVP; MORE INFO

Celebrate Juneteenth with a visit to CAAM to check out all their exhibitions, but specifically on the evening of Juneteenth, for a curator-led tour with artists in person from Repossessions (Feb. 14 - Aug. 3), a group exhibition reflecting on reparations for descendants of enslaved African Americans. The event also features a panel discussion with Reparations4Slavery and The Reparations Project, moderated by guest curator Bridget R. Cooks.

8:30 p.m.
The UCB Juneteenth Improv Extravaganza
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
5919 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles
COST: $11.96-17.94; MORE INFO

Prepare to laugh — either in person (at the UCB Theatre) or at home (for the livestream, also available for 7 days after) — during this show made up of four teams of Black improvisors. The show is hosted by comedian Ronnie Adrian.

8:35 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. 
Rooftop Cinema's Celebrating Black Cinema Series
888 S. Olive St., 4th Floor, DTLA
COST: FROM $23; MORE INFO

Check out one or both movies screening at Rooftop Cinema for Juneteenth: 1997’s Love Jones starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long, and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2000 film, Love & Basketball, starring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan. Or if Saturday works better for you, the rom-com Brown Sugar (2002) is playing at 11:10 p.m.

Beyond Juneteenth

Friday, June 20, 7 p.m. - 11 p.m.
KCRW Summer Nights @ CAAM
California African American Museum (CAAM)
Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles
COST: FREE ADMISSION; MORE INFO

This dance party includes after-hours access to CAAM, with food trucks, beer garden and crafts for you to enjoy outside.

Saturday, June 21, noon - 4 p.m.
City of West Hollywood Juneteenth Celebration
647 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Head to West Hollywood Park for food, music, live performances, and vendors from Black-owned businesses.

Saturday, June 21, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Culver City Juneteenth Celebration
Ivy Station
8840 National Blvd., Culver City
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

The City of Culver City Juneteenth celebration features food, activities for kids, and live music performances from BriJolie and Friends and Top Shelf Brass Band.

Sunday, June 22, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Juneteenth in South LA: Team Tennis Tournament & Beginners' Clinic
Jackie Tatum Harvard Recreation Center
1535 W. 62nd St., Los Angeles
COST: FROM $17.85; MORE INFO

For tennis lovers and newbies to the sport alike, All-Love Racquet Club and Fortune Tennis are organizing a tennis clinic and tournament, complete with music, food and backyard games.

A California Senate committee just gutted one of the state’s most substantial DUI reform bills in years, despite widespread support from other lawmakers and families of drunk driving victims.

The bill would have required in-car breathalyzers for anyone convicted of a DUI, bringing California in line with most states. State law currently only requires the devices, called ignition interlock devices, after repeat offenses or injury crashes.

Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat from the Inland Empire and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, provided a hint of changes last week when she said there were amendments to the bill that had been approved unanimously by the committee. This week, an updated version of the legislation emerged, and it effectively killed a key provision to start requiring the devices for thousands of first-time offenders. Such changes are commonly referred to as “hostile amendments” because they are made without the involvement or support of the bill’s author.

Cervantes was arrested for a DUI in a high-profile incident in Sacramento in May 2025. The District Attorney’s Office did not prosecute her after a blood test showed no drugs or alcohol in her system. Cervantes then sued the city of Sacramento and several of its police officers, alleging that that police fabricated evidence and falsely arrested her. Cervantes’s sister, state Assembly candidate Clarissa Cervantes, has herself been convicted of two DUIs in Southern California, according to media reports.

Sabrina Cervantes did not respond to our request for comment for this story. We will update it if she does.

As news of the bill’s gutting spread this week, Kellie Montalvo was left wondering if there’d been some sort of horrible mistake. Montalvo, whose 21-year-old son Benjamin was killed by an impaired driver in Cervantes’s district in 2020, said she was just in Sacramento two weeks ago lobbying lawmakers – including Cervantes – on a slate of dangerous driving bills. Many of those bills have already failed.

“It’s heartbreaking, and I try to tell myself not to lose hope,” Montalvo said. “I mean, California has got to do something. Our numbers are horrific.”

Alcohol-related roadway deaths in California spiked more than 50% in a decade — an increase more than twice as steep as the rest of the country, federal data shows. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken collisions.

Over the last two years, a CalMatters investigation has shown how state officials have allowed dangerous drivers to stay on the road and kill, and how elected leaders have looked away even as the death toll skyrocketed.

For years, lawmakers have tried and failed to require in-car breathalyzers for all DUI offenders. Progressive justice reform groups and the DMV have opposed similar bills in the past, citing fears about unfairly penalizing poor DUI offenders, high costs and the DMV’s aging technology.

Montalvo and other advocates thought this year might be different. The DMV has actively participated in state hearings and, she and others said, provided technical advice to make sure the bill was realistic. Gov. Gavin Newsom also instructed lawmakers last year to continue to work on the state’s breathalyzer laws and develop “a lasting program that strengthens public safety.”

It’s unclear why this year’s bill was gutted at the 11th hour. Public records show that Senate Appropriations committee staff recently expressed concern about costs.

The amendment process is opaque even to Sacramento insiders.

“Honestly it’s sometimes a bit of a black box even for us as legislators,” said the bill’s author, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, an Orange County Democrat. “I am still trying myself to get to the bottom of it.”

Petrie-Norris, who has spent the past three years trying to pass a version of this bill, said she does not believe Cervantes’ personal experience played a role in the decision to amend the bill. She added that she is still working to re-amend the measure after “unintended consequences” that she says would make the policy unworkable for the DMV and hurt California’s eligibility for federal funding.

Asked for an interview to explain the changes to the bill, Senate President Pro Tem Monique Límon’s office referred questions to Cervantes. Diana Crofts-Pelayo, Newsom’s chief deputy director of communications, also declined to answer questions about the breathalyzer bill, saying the office does not typically comment on pending legislation.

While the bill heads into the final days of negotiations, Montalvo and other victims’ families are grappling with deja vu. It was just about a year ago that they were standing in the Capitol with photos of their loved ones and told the bill was doomed.

She stays busy checking in with the parole officer for the Riverside County driver who killed her son. Last she heard, the driver was trying to get her license back after being released early from prison.

Long Beach streets got deadlier last year than they’ve been in a decade. Now the city wants to build a whole new division bent on reversing that, powered by the $5 million it expects to get annually by ticketing people with new speed cameras.

As part of Long Beach’s budget, city leaders are proposing a new traffic safety division, which consolidates two Public Works teams and adds more than a dozen staff who will administer a state pilot program for 18 automated speed cameras around the city.

A proposed traffic safety division

It comes after the city saw a record number of fatal traffic collisions in 2025 — 53 last year, the most in more than 10 years — that includes 32 pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooter riders killed. That eclipsed the number of people murdered in the city that year.

High rates of traffic deaths and collisions coincide with a record number of public requests to overhaul dangerous arterial streets, calibrate traffic lights and add traffic calming measures to neighborhoods known for dangerous driving. Long Beach currently sits on a backlog of more than 1,400 open traffic requests.

Many delays are tied to the 4% completion rate of traffic investigations. Officials explained many of those unresolved cases involve arterial streets the city already knows need expensive, yearslong overhauls. Neighborhood traffic calming requests have also spiked, from about 35 in the second half of last fiscal year to 306 in the first half of this one.

Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie said the shift reflects years of pressure from residents.

She added that the old system wasn’t built for the volume of requests coming in now.

“I think we all recognize that the old ways of managing these requests simply just wasn’t working for the volume that we are seeing come into Public Works,” she said.

Public Works Director Josh Hickman put it more bluntly: “We’re barely keeping up,” citing data that requests have risen swiftly this year compared to late last year.

He explained the current model only adds unnecessary delays, even on simple fixes.

“In order to do street sweeping and in order to enforce parking control, you need to have signs,” he said as an example. “Those require our engineers to review and approve the signs, which are in a different bureau. Once it gets approved, well, then it requires another bureau to go and install those signs.”

The new division could streamline the city's traffic system

This division would alleviate that, he said, by folding the city’s existing traffic engineering and traffic operations divisions into one unit under the Transportation Services Bureau.

The new division will be powered by citation revenue generated from the city’s automated speed enforcement program, a state pilot that will bring 18 cameras to handpicked streets and intersections later this fall, with warnings starting in October and citations beginning in December.

Officials say the cameras will rake in about $5 million a year, half of which will go toward operating costs with the other half restricted to funding traffic-calming projects.

Hickman called that estimate “quite conservative,” in hopes that the cameras will discourage drivers afraid of paying for tickets — which start at $50 for those driving 11 mph over the limit.

New speed cameras

It’s a program that has seen success in other California cities.

In San Francisco, the program’s 56 cameras led to 163,906 citations and brought in $7.2 million in its first year, according to the city’s transit agency. About 65% of drivers who got a warning or ticket didn’t reoffend, and 82% were cited no more than once or twice over the year.

Madhu Unnikrishnan, a spokesman for SFMTA, said that has led to $3 million in street improvements across San Francisco, while the rate of drivers going 10 mph or more over the limit has fallen by 80% in the enforcement areas.

By state law, that money has to cover operating costs first, and anything left over must go toward traffic calming — such as crosswalk upgrades, no-turn-on-red signs, speed humps — within three years. It can’t be spent on anything else, even to help close a city’s budget gap.

Jonathon Bolin, a Public Works bureau manager, emphasized that the point of the cameras is to change driver behavior and discourage speeding, not “bankroll revenue.”

Long Beach’s 2027 budget would add seven new traffic and five new customer service positions to the division. Hickman said the department plans to fill the new positions “as quickly as possible.”

Seperately, the city is also proposing $37.3 million for roadway improvements, curb and sidewalk improvements and traffic safety projects funded by the Measure A sales tax.

An additional effort by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez is looking to place more speed cameras along Pacific Coast Highway.

Bellflower isn’t exactly known for its stand-up comedy culture. But that may be changing.

Since 2021, comedians like Tisha Campbell, Frankie Quiñones and Jo Koy have taken the stage at The Stand Up Comedy Club in downtown Bellflower.

“We knew that the Downeys, the Cerritos, the Lakewoods, the Long Beaches, the Norwalks, and Compton and Paramount would come,” said general manager and co-owner John Giries. “That was our bet, and it's been working.”

Jo Koy (left) and Finesse Mitchell (right) take the stage at The Stand Up Comedy Club in Bellflower.

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Courtesy The Stand Up Comedy Club

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From a comedy magazine to a comedy club

Giries, a former stand-up comedian himself, grew up in Bellflower. He co-created and helped run The Stand Up Comedy Magazine in the mid-aughts, along with his late friend and fellow comedian Julian Vazquez. Names such as Maz Jobrani, Sebastian Maniscalco and Rachel Feinstein all graced its cover.

After Vazquez’s passing in 2020, Giries decided to put the magazine on hold indefinitely and launch a comedy club.

The Stand Up Comedy Club in Bellflower.

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Audrey Ngo

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Giries’ family was an investor in Hambone’s BBQ Smokehouse on Belmont Street, next door to the Bellflower Theatre, downtown. He recalled seeing that theater for the first time and how it felt like something out of a movie…

“It was one of those moments like "Field of Dreams" where Kevin Costner saw the baseball diamond being built in the cornfield,” Giries said. “And I kind of looked at it and said, ‘you know, I can see it.’”

Tisha Campbell takes the stage at The Stand Up Comedy Club in Bellflower.

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Courtesy The Stand Up Comedy Club

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After doing gut renovations and waiting through the first year of the pandemic, Giries and his wife and co-owner, Scarlett, opened the club in June 2021.

The roughly 2,400-square-foot space space seats 140 and has a full bar with a steakhouse feel. Photos and memorabilia of Robin Williams, Richard Pryor and Phyllis Diller pay tribute to some of comedy’s legends.

Why Bellflower, not Hollywood

Giries had always planned to have famous comedians perform here. He chose Bellflower because it didn’t have the competition of legacy clubs such as the Improv, The Comedy Store or the Laugh Factory. It was also a closer alternative for locals who didn’t want to brave Hollywood traffic and pay for valet parking.

Interior of The Stand Up Comedy Club in Bellflower.

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Audrey Ngo

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LAist

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Interior and stage of The Stand Up Comedy Club in Bellflower.

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Audrey Ngo

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“[Bellflower] fit the criteria of what we wanted to do. It's not in the desert. You're not by the beach and it's easy to get to if you live in a five to 10 mile radius,” Giries said.

“So never L.A. Never thought about it once.”

Landing the headliners

For the first three years of opening the club, Giries focused on getting big-name acts. He had already made connections with notable performers through his magazine, and was able to enlist help from talent bookers including Richard Barrett, who was the entertainment director for The Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. Giries credits Barrett as “one of the best bookers in L.A.”

Since then, Deon Cole, Sheryl Underwood, Paul Reiser, Billy Gardell, Chaunté Wayans and others have taken the stage.

That list is growing.

Stormy Daniels visited the club in July on her "Unicorns in the Kitchen" storytelling and comedy tour. Last week, Jamie Foxx produced and hosted a comedy special featuring Donald Ray “Speedy” Caldwell. All four shows were sold out.

Giries recognizes that the club is still young, but is proud of what they’ve accomplished since opening five years ago.

“No one remembers, ‘Hey, they've been here for 30 years,'" Giries said. “They just remember, ‘Man, that club was kind of cool. They really took care of us. That was really funny stuff there.’”

Even in the era of YouTube tutorials and AI assistants, learning weekend warrior skills — like how to fix a leaky faucet or the brakes on your kid’s bike — is sometimes better IRL.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, a community of DIYers will come together at a Skillshare Fair to teach and learn about things like clothing repair and alterations, how to use power tools, gardening techniques and more. The event is organized by the Los Angeles Tool Library in Koreatown and the Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles.

Vi Hoang-Creton, an event coordinator with the Los Angeles Tool Library, said the benefits of hosting events like this are manifold. It’s great to keep stuff out of the landfill, but it’s also a place to make friends and build community — and save money.

“I mean who doesn’t want to save money, as the economy gets worse and worse, people are trying to lean on each other,” Hoang-Creton said.