For musician Mekala “Mickey” Session, the single-family home he’s lived in in South Central for most of his life is more than just a house.
It’s a creative space where the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra—the Leimert Park jazz and civil rights-affiliated movement founded by musician Horace Tapscott in the '60s—has held its rehearsals for years.
It’s a place where music videos, short films, and documentaries have been filmed and songs spanning multiple genres recorded.
It’s also a place where backyard, “pay the rent” jazz and rap concerts have been hosted with $10 ticket prices.
Session’s garage was even recreated within a 2022 Darol Olu Kae art exhibit at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
More than anything, though, Session’s house and garage are a place that builds community.
“Ras G played my garage for, like, not enough money,” Session told a packed crowd at 2220 Arts in Filipinotown last month, referring to the late Leimert Park producer. “And that nigga did that shit. And then he did it again for 4/20, and then two months later, he was gone.”
“Stuff like that happens in my garage all the time,” Session continued. “It’s not the garage bro, it’s not the house, it’s all of you.”
After Session’s landlord “abruptly” served him with a 60-day notice “for no other reason than wanting to sell the property,” Session decided his best chance of staying in the house would be to buy it.
So he launched a GoFundMe campaign and made an impassioned video explaining his situation.
“My options are, buy the place or move out” by October 31, Session says bluntly in the video. “And I really don’t want to move out.”
“I've used this space, especially this garage, as a creative space for my whole life,” Session says. His parents moved into the single-story South Central home with a garage in the backyard near the border of Inglewood when he was just four years old. Today, he's 29 years of age.
Session describes his garage as a “community space.”
“I’m proud to have people that recognize this space and like coming here,” Session says in the GoFundMe video. “We’ve fostered a beautiful community. A beautiful, artistic, open family really.”
The drummer and Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra band leader hopes to raise at least $30,000 for a down payment on the house. As of this story’s publication, he has received nearly two hundred donations—ranging from a few bucks to over a thousand dollars—totaling nearly $14,000.
Session also organized a benefit show at 2220 Arts and Archives that featured screenings of the short films and music videos that were shot in his garage and at his house. In addition to performances by rapper and vocalist Pink Siifu and multi-instrumentalist V.C.R, as well as the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (with guest appearances by poet Moor Mother and jazz singer Dwight Trible.)
That night, hundreds of Session’s friends, supporters, and family members came together to help him raise $3,000, Session told L.A. TACO, which puts him right around halfway towards his goal.
Session sees what’s happening to him as a symptom of Leimert Park's “slow” gentrification.
“I think it will be way slower than, like, Echo Park or Silver Lake or Highland Park just because the culture in Leimert Park is so, well… dominant,” Session told L.A. TACO during an interview a couple of days before his landlord expected him to pack up and leave. “It really is this community of people that’s been here and really wants to stay here. And stay relevant and pass down the history.”
Session has friends in surrounding communities who have been approached by overzealous developers trying to push homeowners to sell.
“They get a knock at the door and it’s a guy, and he’s got a suitcase full of money. And he’s like ‘sell now,” and they go ‘no, go away please don’t come back’ and they slam the door,” Session said. “And then that same dude comes back two weeks later, three months later with two suitcases full of money.”
Session describes the past few weeks as being “trippy.”
“I’m still waiting on this notice from the LAHD that says that it’s kind of illegal for [my landlord] to 60-day me the way he did,” Session explained. “I guess there’s a listed number of reasons that you can evict someone and just wanting to sell the property is not one of them.”
Session is not sure exactly what’s motivating his landlord to sell; it could be high taxes, or the fact that the rent is “very, very cheap,” or maybe he just needs the money.
“I don’t know…but it seems like he’s not doing the right thing to prioritize not displacing me,” Session said. “It’s giving greedy landlord.”
On Monday evening, Session told his Instagram followers that after a lot of “back and forth,” his landlord extended his tenancy until the end of the year.
“So he gave me an extra 60 days, which to me is just giving me more time to figure out buying this place, [and] all the things that I gotta do to eventually own it or continue my tenancy permanently because again… I’m not going anywhere,” Session said.
