Great Leap, Inc.

Home
United States
Los Angeles, CA
Great Leap, Inc.

Since 1978, Great Leap has been creating and presenting performing arts workshops and lectures that bring together diverse ethnic communities nationally.

Art | Race | Culture | Faith | Earth
Great Leap creates bridges to a more just world, weaving performing arts, cultural practices, and community engagement to transform our relationships to the Earth and each other.

12/03/2025

❤️ This # GivingTuesday, your gift helps Great Leap nourish our connections to each other, our practices, and places that matter.

Great Leap is advancing every day in our 40+ years of diverse storytelling and community building through performing arts and community engagement. Great Leap facilitates intergenerational moments of discovery, movement, and joy, while nurturing relationships across cultures and bringing people together through dance, music, storytelling, and shared experience. Through ongoing programs such as , , and partnerships with producers at USC Visions & Voices and AKB Media & the Ford, Great Leap continues to create places of connection for our communities.

Your support helps us continue activating public spaces, uplifting unheard stories, and creating artistic moments that belong to everyone.

11/05/2025

Today we celebrate the visionary, leader, and creative force behind Great Leap. Alison’s passion for community, storytelling, and the arts continues to inspire everyone around her — from our team to the artists and audiences whose lives she touches through her work.

Thank you, Alison, for your leadership, laughter, and kindness. Wishing you a joyful birthday filled with love, rest, and celebration! 💛

10/28/2025

This week, we celebrate the legendary David Hidalgo, founding member of Los Lobos, prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and one of the most influential voices to emerge from East LA.

From garage rock beginnings to Grammy-winning global recognition, Hidalgo’s music blends Mexican folk traditions, soul, and rock into stories that honor the lived experiences of his community.

He now brings that legacy to the Memory & Return panel this Thursday, October 30 at USC, which will explore the album’s deep cultural roots. Don’t miss it!

🗓️ Thursday, October 30
📍 USC (Visions and Voices)
🎟️ Free & open to the public

Panelists:
Moderator – Josh Kun, Vice Provost for the Arts, USC
Martha Gonzalez – MacArthur Fellow, Composer/Producer, Artivista
Ofelia Esparza – NEA Heritage Fellow, altarista, storyteller on the album
Akira Boch – Emmy-winning filmmaker, Let the City Speak

Produced by Visions and Voices at the University of Southern California and supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

10/09/2025

We are so honored to have Quetzal Flores joining us for our Labor of Love Panel! Not just a Grammy-winning artist, but a visionary cultural organizer and movement builder, Quetzal will share his insight on the power of art & community in shaping justice.

From founding Quetzal in 1993 to producing 100+ recordings, his artistry has always been in service of collective memory and transformation. He is deeply committed to fostering regenerative, culture-rooted movement work — from his years leading health equity & arts programs with ACTA to now guiding cultural strategy with Community Power Collective, where he helps build power for tenants, workers, and low-income communities across East LA.

Quetzal’s practice is rooted in shared humanity, using collective songwriting, ancestral cultural practices, and accountable relational work as tools of resistance and reimagination. He challenges us to move beyond protest, to build sanctuary and carry power from the ground up.

We are so excited to hear his wisdom and stories at the panel. Stay tuned — you won’t want to miss it.

Labor of Love Panel (free & open to all!)
Saturday, October 12 | 2:00–4:00pm | JANM Democracy Center

10/03/2025

Faith Santilla is a powerful poet, community organizer, and voice for justice whose work bridges art, politics, and collective memory. She first rose to national attention when she won a poetry slam on the 92.3 radio show in Los Angeles in 1998—and she’s been using words as tools for healing and resistance ever since.

Faith’s writing has been published in anthologies like Empire of Funk and Legacy to Liberation, and she was featured in the documentary Beats, Rhymes and Resistance: Filipinos and Hip-Hop in Los Angeles.

Beyond the page, Faith has devoted over two decades to labor and community organizing. Her art is deeply rooted in social justice, giving voice to marginalized communities and using poetry as a connector between stories and movement.

We are honored to have Faith join us for Labor of Love, where she will bring her words, her energy, and her witness to our shared space. Join us in community, in remembrance, in resistance—and in celebration of her ongoing journey.

Labor of Love Panel (free & open to all!)
Saturday, October 12 | 2:00–3:30pm | JANM Democracy Center

Labor of Love Concert: Commemorating 60th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike
Saturday, October 25 | 8-10pm | The Ford

09/30/2025

Great Leap is excited to partner with the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum to present:

Labor of Love Panel Discussion: Workers, Arts, and the Struggle for Justice

Sixty years ago, Filipino and Mexican farm workers stood shoulder to shoulder in the Delano Grape Strike, igniting a movement that reshaped labor history and inspired generations of organizers and artists. Labor of Love revisits that pivotal moment, opening with filmmaker Juan Mejia’s piece on the strike and carrying its lessons into today’s urgent struggles.

This free public program brings together artists, scholars, and organizers who are deeply rooted in the ongoing work of labor, justice, and creativity.

Panelists Victor Viesca (Cal State LA), Faith Santilla (artist and organizer), and Quetzal Flores (musician & organizer), will join moderator Jim Herr of JANM’s Democracy Center for a conversation about how movements are remembered, inherited, and renewed. Together they’ll explore how music and artistry have always fueled collective action—whether in the fields of Delano or the streets of Los Angeles—and how those tools remain vital as communities today face climate crises, inequality, and threats to democracy.

Labor of Love is more than a panel—it’s an invitation to reflect, connect, and imagine. Come and be part of a gathering that celebrates the courage of past generations, honors the creativity that sustains movements, and plants seeds for the struggles ahead.

Join us at the Democracy Center on 10/12/25 at 2:30pm
This program is free and open to the public.

09/23/2025

Our hearts are so full🧡 Thank you to everyone who came out to FandangObon and helped bring this gathering to life. From the artists and altar makers to the dancers, musicians, volunteers, costume team, and every single community member who showed up—you are the spirit of FandangObon.

This festival is about honoring traditions, remembering loved ones, and building new connections across cultures and generations. Seeing the plaza filled with music, dance, color, and joy reminded us once again of the power of community. None of this would be possible without your energy, creativity, and love.

We are deeply grateful to walk this journey with you, and we can’t wait to continue growing together. Thank you for making this year’s FandangObon so special!

Thanks to our partners for their support! .cdc

09/21/2025

The date for the Grand Opening Doubleheader is now officially announced! RSVP now for a seat to attend this historic event in person.

09/16/2025

Join us on Saturday 9/20/25 right at 4pm for a new opening ritual helping our communities to celebrate perseverance and resilience. Come back into the circle. Come share your voice and move your body. Come listen and receive. Come share energy.

Come Join the Circle! It takes a village to connect folks and build! Great Leap’s FandangObon is grateful to our partners at Sustainable Little Tokyo - Little Tokyo Service Center, Little Tokyo Community Council, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, and Japanese American National Museum for all of their support in making this event possible.

, .cdc

06/05/2025

Come join us on Sunday, June 15, 2025 from 10 am - 1pm for a special Father’s Day Grief Crafting Session. Whether you are feeling the recent or ongoing loss of yours Father or Father Figure - you are invited to come to join. Or maybe you are just feeling grief or loss about the world right now - you are also invited to join! Grief Crafting, an ongoing practice developed by DeLa (aka Great Leap’s Alison De La Cruz) is a space to honor grief/loss and to share words while we craft, fold, write, and make with our hands. No experience necessary. Visit greatleap[dot]org for more info and to RSVP. Coffee, Tea & Snacks will be provided.

Address

120 N. Judge John Aiso Street Suite A
Los Angeles, CA
90012

Telephone

+12135347163

Website

http://www.greatleap.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Great Leap, Inc. posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Great Leap, Inc.:

Shortcuts

Want your establishment to be the top-listed Arts & Entertainment in Los Angeles?