On October 30th, the Center for French Excellence hosted “Building Global and Local Communities: Impact of Olympic & Paralympic Games.” This conference aimed to discuss the impact that the Olympic and Paralympic Games will have on Los Angeles and how we can use this opportunity as a means for cultural exchange.
We started the morning with our first panel, “Hip Hop in the Greater Los Angeles & Grand Paris.” For this panel, moderated by Priscillia Tuiet, we were joined by David Diallo, University of Bordeaux, France, who gave his presentation on “Los Angeles and (greater) Paris: People, Places and Communities in the Building of two influential hip hop scenes”; Edwin Hill, University of Southern California, with “Diasporic Articulations: Street Dance and the Black Atlantic”; and Samuel Lamontagne, University of California, Riverside, who introduced “Racial Geographies of the Olympic City: Paris, Los Angeles, and the Sound of Belonging.” This was an engaging panel that focused on the history, culture, and importance of hip-hop and street dance in Paris and Los Angeles. These two cities have long been hubs for music and dance, and our panelists dove into how these hubs began and the lasting impact they have on their cities and communities.
Our second panel of the day featured Versa-Style Street Dance, a hip-hop company in Los Angeles that serves their community through accessible hip-hop education. We were joined by Inner-G and Siga, two dancers with the company. Their goal as a dance company is to provide a space for expression, learning, and self-discovery through quality hip-hop training. They partner with schools in LA to give dance classes to students and travel to competitions across the world.
Our final panel of the day focused on the logistics of the Games and the plans in place to facilitate cultural exchange while keeping LA running smoothly. We were joined by Mick Deluca, Associate Vice Chancellor, UCLA Student Affairs; Daniel Tarica, Department of Cultural Affairs General Manager, City of Los Angeles; Christopher Torres, the Festival Trail Project; and Jacob Wasserman, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. This panel, moderated by Wilfred Grandhomme, discussed the logistics of the Olympic village at UCLA, the changes in transportation around the city, the work that LA is doing to ensure cultural connection, and the work that independent organizations are doing to bring Angelinos together.
Written by Skylar Regan.