California African American Museum recently opened an exhibit called How Sweet the Sound on Feb. 8 and it runs until Aug. 26 and requires no entrance fee.
The exhibit explores the Los Angeles history of gospel music, civil rights, black churches, the Great Migration in the 1940’s, and other amazing snippets of history.
The museum is easily accessed via car or public transport, many people that came to the museum either parked somewhere else or took public transportation to elude the $12 (cash only) parking fee.
As soon as you walk into the exhibit you are engulfed by gospel music coming from a speaker directly above you. Each wall has something new to listen to or read.
The exhibit is very heavy laden with text, so if you plan on visiting the exhibit make sure you are ready to read large amounts of text. Which was odd, at an exhibit featuring gospel music that most of the information had to be read rather than listened to. Also with the amount of reading one must do in the exhibit it would of been nice to have some places to sit.
Often times in the history books we are given in school, they highlight the major events that happened during the Civil Rights movement, which is understandable because of how large the movement was. But this exhibit gives you the stories and the events that took place right down the street, or near your house.
It is always nice to be able to relate to history is someway, whether it be personal or you know where the location of that event took place.
The exhibit was far from lacking in information, if executed in a more auditory way I believe the experience would of been a lot stronger and impactful.
