Leave It For the Children: A Visual History of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra

Leave it for the Children: A Visual History of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra blends new and archival images and ephemera to highlight the ongoing legacy of the internationally renowned community jazz organization.

Leave It for the Children: A Visual History of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra explores the sixty-plus years of the legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, the community music ensemble formed in Los Angeles by Horace Tapscott. Through a deep and sustained relationship with a wide range of visual material connected to the Arkestra—personal and sourced photographs, album covers, poster art, music sheets, international newspaper clippings, concert flyers, documentary and feature films, and collected ephemera— this publication traces the history of The Ark and its ongoing iterations, and speaks to Los Angeles’s shifting social and political landscape. Punctuating these archival materials are series of texts from musicians, poets, historians, writers and artists, including Kamau Daáood, Steven Isoardi, Brian B+ Cross, and Lauren Halsey. These contributions—from poetry and essays to interviews and first-person reflections—create a visual document based on, and serving as a testament to, The Ark’s sixty-plus year living history of music and community art.