Los Angeles— The 3rd annual Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles event, a free, public celebration of the diverse culture and history of the L.A.’s Arroyo neighborhoods will take place on Sunday, June 1, featuring musical, visual, culinary and literary artists representing an array of the region’s cultural traditions.

This year’s Lummis Day event will be presented by the Annenberg Foundation and the Autry National Center, with over a dozen community organizations, neighborhood councils, City Council Districts 1 and 14, the Department of Recreation and Parks and public radio station KPFK acting as sponsors.

Principal activities for the event will be staged as Sycamore Grove Park at 4900 N. Figueroa Street, where music, art, multi-cultural performances and food service begins at 12:30 pm, and at Lummis Home, 200 E. Avenue 43, where the program will begin with an 11:00 am poetry reading followed by a "trek" led along the route of Arroyo Seco riverbed. The Festival will feature musicians, local restaurants, dancers, performing artists and visual artists representing many cultural traditions of the Southern California region.

Last year’s event drew over 3,500 people to events at Sycamore Grove Park and Lummis Home. Over 25 community groups, a dozen galleries and half dozen restaurants participated.

Lummis Day takes its name from Charles Fletcher Lummis, who served as the L.A. Times’ first city editor in 1876. Lummis was also one of the city’s first librarians, founded the Southwest Museum and helped introduce the concept of multi-culturalism to Southern California. The Lummis Day Community Foundation–composed of a broad cross-section of community activists-—hopes the third annual event will again serve to celebrate the diverse culture and history of the Arroyo neighborhoods, strengthen linkages among cultural, commercial and community resources and create a framework for future civic, creative and commercial growth in Northeast Los Angeles.

The Lummis Day program includes an educational curriculum offered to teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School system which has already provided training and background to over 40 area teachers in the history, geography, demographics and cultural life of Northeast Los Angeles.

A program of reading and presentations in Los Angeles libraries, begun on a modest scale in 2007, is expanding this year to include events on four consecutive Saturdays beginning April 26 at the El Sereno Branch Library and continuing with events at the Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library (May 3), the Eagle Rock Branch Library (May 10), the Cypress Park Brnach Library (May 17. The series will culminate in a Saturday May 24 party at the Southwest Museum’s Braun Library with music, poetry, an open mic, refreshments and a book sale. All events are free and open to the public. The Lummis Day Library program and the Festival’s June 1 gala poetry reading at Lummis Home are sponsored by Poets & Writers Inc. through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

"Lummis Day" is presented by the Annenberg Foundation and the Autry National Center and sponsored by the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council, the Department of Recreation and Parks, public radio station KPFK 90.7, SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans) and the North Figueroa Association with the support of Los Angeles City Council Districts 1 and 14, the Mount Washington Association, the Heritage Square Museum, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Eagle Rock Arts Center, the L.A. Poetry Festival and other community organizations.

Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania and offices in Los Angeles, California.

Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

The Autry National Center was established in March 2003 following the merger of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Women of the West Museum, and the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Leveraging the resources and talents of these three institutions, the Center’s mission is to explore the experiences and perceptions of the diverse people of the American West, connecting the past with the present to inform our shared future.

Lummis Day information and updates are available at www.lummisday.org. Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast L.A. is organized by the Lummis Day Community Foundation, Inc.

Felix Wong, the owner of Cafe Corridor who is famous for its Latte Art, is definitely more than a coffee junkie. Other than meticulously selecting and carefully roasting its beans at its own facilities, Coffee Assembly provides a wide range of coffee related services such as event catering and coffee workshop.