Locco Lingo began as a grassroots exploration of space, culture, and sound in the heart of Leimert Park, California—a neighborhood known for its historical significance within Los Angeles' Black community. The project first took shape in a hair salon called Heroic Entertainment on Degnan Blvd., where founder Tru (who grew up with a deep connection to barbershop and salon culture) saw an opportunity to bridge cultural spaces with the power of music. The hair salon, a cornerstone of Black and Brown communities, became a safe, creative haven for artists, musicians, and performers, cultivating a unique environment that combined the essence of communal gathering with interdisciplinary artistic expression.
In its inception in 2013, Locco Lingo created a space where Black and Brown youth could explore music and performance, transforming the everyday space of the salon into a cultural hub. The project was co-facilited by DJ and Producer Siid and offered a platform for underrepresented voices and provided a space for curiosity, experimentation, and artistic growth. True to its roots, it was an incubator for interdisciplinary performance-based art and marked Tru's first foray into curating, learning essential skills in audio-video production, event organizing, and creative collaboration. What started as a series of intimate gatherings with small audiences quickly evolved into a cultural movement, where skateboards, music, art, and fashion collided in a dynamic, living archive of local talent.
From 2013 to 2018, Locco Lingo was both a performance series and a community activation, fostering a sense of belonging and artistic freedom in spaces that often lack access to resources. In Leimert Park, it highlighted the importance of location and spatial design in cultivating safe environments for Black and Brown creativity. When the series moved to Pasadena’s skate shop, Crown Roots, it expanded its scope, integrating skate culture as part of the event series, with ramps outside to showcase the creativity and athleticism of local skateboarders. The exploration of space, performance, and community-building continued, drawing in LA-based artists such as MnR, K. Solar, GENWUNNER (formerly Shango!Zeropoint.) Huey Briss, Zeroh, Lorraine Chia, Carter Ace, Willow Smith, Tyler Cole, Hugh Augustine & Many more.
Through performances, meetings with attendees, and an emphasis on collective storytelling, Locco Lingo became more than a music series—it was an evolving social experiment and research initiative on how cultural spaces can be activated to serve marginalized communities. It also became a space for social and political dialogue, providing an opportunity for Black and Brown communities to reclaim agency over spaces and events that reflected their cultural, social, and artistic identities.
Today, Locco Lingo stands as a critical point in our research that informs a broader understanding of interdisciplinary performance art, communal activation, and the power of reclaiming spaces within marginalized communities. The project offers insights into the cultural resonance of hair salons, skate shops, and other everyday spaces, transforming them into stages for experimental art and music. It serves as an archive of the creativity, resilience, and ingenuity of young Black and Brown artists in Los Angeles.
Looking back, Locco Lingo laid the groundwork for future initiatives that explore sound, space, and community-building. It functioned as a precursor to current projects continuing the tradition of using music and performance as conduits for exploring identity, culture, and history. Locco Lingo is a testament to the importance of fostering spaces for experimentation and healing within underrepresented communities, emphasizing the vital role of cultural production in these environments.
As Locco Lingo evolved, so did its impact, ultimately functioning as a critical site of research for understanding how space and culture intersect through music, art, and movement.
Locco Lingo was an early iteration of what has now become a much larger conversation about sound, space, and the power of community-driven creativity. It reflects the ongoing commitment to exploring how cultural spaces can be reimagined to better serve marginalized communities. As a research project, Locco Lingo stands as a valuable archive of creative practices and cultural activation, proving that the intersection of sound, space, and identity holds immense potential for community healing, growth, and social change.
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