The Legacy Arts Project is a place where you can learn the artistic traditions of Africa & the diaspora, while adding your life experience from other places.

Photos by Erin Perry

The mission of the Legacy Arts Project, Inc. is to preserve, promote, and create Africana arts that honor the history, heritage, and cultures of Africa diaspora in ways that advance healing and wellness, education, and community empowerment.

The origins of the LAP begin with its founder Linda ‘Imani’ Barrett and her love of the arts. An avid dancer and arts enthusiast, she was influenced by Selma Burke, an artist during the Harlem Renaissance, who created an arts center in Pittsburgh as an arm of her art center in Harlem, New York. There Sister Imani was exposed to a range of art forms that allowed her to experience the power of the African legacy. Around the same time, Sister Imani joined the Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble, led by the late Bob Johnson. Here they experimented with art, delving into dance forms inspired by Africans throughout the Diaspora.

These experiences became a part of the foundation and formation of the LAP. From this platform, Sister Imani was able to bring together artists from the community to gather and share in expression. Drummers and dancers, elder and youth, played rhythms and danced. Interspersed with that has been spoken word, poetry, singing, and visual art. The LAP has been a space used to cultivate and share a variety of art forms, bringing the community together to grow.