7th Annual ACCA-SoCal
ACColades:
A Salute to Women Who Inspire Us
Thursday, June 24, 2010
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Annenberg Community Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Highway
Santa Monica, CA 90402
ACCA-SoCal and Hogan Lovells invite you and a guest to attend the 7th Annual ACColades event; a cocktail reception at the Annenberg Community Beach House where we will honor:
Bernita R. Walker
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Lula Washington |
Guests will enjoy drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and live music on the oceanfront terrace as the sun sets on the Marion Davies Guest House. In addition, a special performance by youth dancers from the Lula Washington Dance Theatre will be presented during this event.
RSVP by June 17
ACCA members - RSVP online here.
Hogan Lovells guests - RSVP online here.
For questions, please contact Amy Powell at +310 785 4730 or at amy.powell@hoganlovells.com, or Betty St. Marie at +213 443 1105 or at socal@acc.com.
BERNITA R. WALKER is the founder and executive director of Project: Peacemakers, Inc., a non-profit that addresses the lack of public knowledge concerning the dynamics of domestic/family violence and its influences on each of us. Bernita has dedicated her life to the support of families escaping domestic violence. A retired Los Angeles deputy sheriff and a domestic abuse survivor, Bernita has counseled more than 3,500 victims and trained more than 1,000 community members in the fight against abuse. Growing up on the musician’s circuit with her father, blues singer Aaron (T-Bone) Walker, Bernita remembers being confused by racism, encountering "whites only" signs and service stations that would sell them gas but wouldn't allow them to use the restrooms. The strength she displays protecting families from the menace of domestic abuse was inherited from her multiethnic heritage. "My mother was the granddaughter of an Irish slave owner, my great grandmother was believed to be Native American or Mexican. My grandmother was a very dark African American," she says. Bernita learned fortitude from their collective struggle against slavery, encroachment, and war. Perhaps what keeps her going are the stories of the women who took their lives back after living in fear. She meets them often and knows their gratitude.
LULA WASHINGTON is the founder and artistic director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, a contemporary modern dance company, school, and youth ensemble based in South Central Los Angeles. Lula founded the company in 1980 to provide a creative outlet for minority dance artists in the inner city, as well as low cost and free dance classes to neighborhood children through an after school program called: “I Do Dance, Not Drugs!” Remembering her own impoverished childhood, she wanted to make access to dance classes affordable and within reach of children from the low income neighborhoods. Today, Lula and her company are revered across the U.S. and around the world. While Lula is best known for works that explore issues of contemporary African-American life, history, and culture, she also provided movement and choreography for the feature film, AVATAR.
The ANNENBERG COMMUNITY BEACH HOUSE was originally developed during the Gold Coast era of the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst for actress Marion Davies. The Davies estate featured a mansion of 100-plus rooms and an ornate marble swimming pool. The Beach House was a hot spot on Santa Monica's Gold Coast, with Hearst and Davies entertaining luminaries from the Hollywood set, such as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and other stars of the day. In 1947, Joseph Drown purchased the property from Davies and converted it into Oceanhouse, "America's Most Beautiful Hotel," along with the Sand & Sea Club, a limited-membership beach club. After the Oceanhouse venture ended, the main mansion was demolished in 1956. After all remaining structures were damaged from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Wallis Annenberg, who held fond memories of visiting the Sand & Sea Club, learned of the City of Santa Monica's struggle to identify funding for a year-round public beach facility. She enthusiastically offered to help, and The Annenberg Foundation provided a $27.5 million grant that paved the way for the site's rehabilitation.
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