DUNBAR HOTEL | SOUTH LOS ANGELES
Dancers wrapped their limbs around staircases and brought empty dust-filled rooms to life in Dancing at Dunbar, performed at the historic Dunbar Hotel. Based on Life’s Tragedy and Sympathy by the building’s namesake, Paul Laurence Dunbar, the performance highlighted the significance of this often overlooked South Los Angeles treasure. Build in 1928, the Dunbar Hotel was a pillar of the Southern Central African American community is Los Angeles for decades. The hotel is known for hosting the first NAACP national convention in the western US, and for housing such legends as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday at the time when African-American performers were not allowed to stay in major hotels. Today the building is a affordable housing unit owned by Thomas Safran & Associates. Photo credit: Frances Chee
