Culture Club South Bay is a community platform founded by Allison Hales in the fall 2020 to celebrate diversity and create inclusion in the South Bay. Culture Club South Bay originally started with live events on Zoom during COVID lockdowns that showcased multicultural talent through art, dance, and entertainment, which can be viewed here.

As restrictions began to lift, Culture Club South Bay started hosting its very first live events, including a sound bath and a Juneteenth gathering at the historic Bruce’s Beach Park in Manhattan Beach, California.

In the Fall of 2021, Culture Club South Bay launched its first youth engagement camp at Bruce’s Beach with a goal to unite our youth by celebrating diversity and creating inclusion through surfing, volleyball, arts, education, and culinary experiences.

Culture Club South Bay is committed to hosting our renowned camps each spring and fall for SoCal and South Bay youth to create meaningful friendships.

At Culture Club South Bay, we host all of our events at the historic Bruce’s Beach to uphold the legacy of Willa and Charles Bruce, who opened a beloved beach resort in Manhattan Beach in the 1900s that uplifted community.

In the 1920s, the City of Manhattan Beach displaced the Bruces and 6 other Black families when they took their land away via eminent domain, after attacks from the KKK and Manhattan Beach residents. The land would then sit there, vacant, until a park was built in the 1950s under a new name.

Mitch Ward, Manhattan Beach’s first and only Black mayor, would later change the name back to Bruce’s Beach in 2007.

In 2021, Los Angeles Supervisors Holly J. Mitchell and Janice Hahn helped to build new legislation that would return the land back to its rightful owners, the Bruce family.

On Wednesday, July 20th, 2022, the descendants of the Bruce family received the deed to their land at last, making unprecedented history in the pursuit of justice.

Read more about the history of Bruce’s Beach below, courtesy of the Bruce’s Beach Task Force History Sub-Committee.