This project was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Council for the Humanities, an independent non-profit organization and a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit 222.calhum.org
This site celebrates the musical and cultural legacy of Boyle Heights through the story of the Phillips Music Co. It has been created with the support of the California Council for the Humanities and Grand Performances.
From the 1930s to the 1980s, The Phillips Music Company--run by the late Bill Phillips-- was more than a music store or a record shop; it was a space for democracy where diverse urban communities gathered to explore cultural traditions and invent contemporary musical languages. As a home to Mexican-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and Asian-Americans, Boyle Heights--which was named after its early Irish immigrant land owner-- has historically been one of the great models of the mash-up that is Los Angeles identity, a neighborhood of new immigrants long celebrated for its heterogeneity that for many decades thrived precisely because of its populations were negotiating their often strained relationships to the democratic promises of the city of LA and the state of California.
