Home and Jazz Giants
Massenburg’s Home and Jazz Giants is located at 7011 South Figueroa Street, inside the Progressive Home for the Elderly. The mural’s representations of prominent African American jazz figures convey a sense of pride and nostalgia. In the way Massenburg depicts figures as overlapping with one another, the artist suggests that they are all connected as part of the same community. The first panel on the left depicts a woman as the largest figure which suggests the significance and centrality of strong women within the African American community. The color palette in the mural gestures towards pan-African unity: yellow, red, blue, and green are also present on the flags of African nations. Abstract shapes in the mural suggest the form of a topographic map, in which divided landmasses overlap one another. One might read these forms as the African diaspora blending into a united community aware of its past, present, and future potentialities.
Written by Farhana Akther, c/o '24