Earlier this week the WorldBeat Cultural Center obtained a long-sought 25-year lease to guarantee a space for Black culture in Balboa Park decades to come.
Upon entering the iconic WorldBeat Cultural Center — with all its amazing murals — it's hard to imagine it used to be a dilapidated old water tower.
"When I used to ditch high school, I would come over here to the water tower and hang out," Makeda Dread Cheatom recalled. "I never thought that I would have a cultural center out of this water tower."
But that’s the building she got 30 years ago as a space for African American representation in the park. Over the past three decades the WorldBeat Cultural Center has pursued a mission to unite the world through music, art, and culture.
As founder and executive director, Cheatom has now made the Center's future more secure.
"We just received our 25-year lease, so we've been working on that for a long time," Cheatom said. "We deserve to have a center in the park. We are the mothership for the the black community."
She has also been working on a plan for a cultural plaza between WorldBeat Center and Centro Cultural de la Raza.
"We're going to have the mayor and city officials come to the WorldBeat Center and come to our Cultural Plaza," Cheatom added. "I want a cultural plaza, and I can't believe it. That's why you have to have, Kujichagulia, self-determination. It's all happening. It may take a while, but just keep going, kids. Go to your dreams. Make your dreams happen. The WorldBeat Center is a dream for all of us, and it's happening. So that's exciting."
WorldBeat is celebrating that with a big lease-signing party on Tuesday with the mayor and city officials in attendance.
