Episode 1: Renee and Kinte interview Cynthia Exum. Exum's current projects include producing the annual Leimert Park Book Village Fair,
12/11/23
Hosts:
Kinte
Renee
Guest: Cynthia Ethusian Exum https://www.instagram.com/leimertparkbf
Cynthia Ethusian Exum is the Founder and CEO of Exum and Associates, a community relations and project management firm, and has been in business for over 30 years.
As a Consultant and Special Event Expert known as a visionary planner and community builder, Exum's client list includes the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the State of California, Southern California Gas Company, Los Angeles Philharmonic, California Council for the Humanities, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Sacramento State University, Pan African Film and Arts Festival, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, African Diaspora Foundation, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, to name a few.
Exum has completed a Master of Arts in Public and Social Research Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles, graduate law courses at the University of Oxford in London, England, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is an alumnus of the prestigious California State Senate Fellows program. Exum is also co-author of "Images of America: Leimert Park" with Maty Guiza-Leimert -- the wife of Walter H. Leimert, whose grandfather developed the area in 1927. This publication was the first pictorial history of the area.
Some of her notable project achievements include Production and founding designer of the first city-wide African American Heritage Month Celebration with partners Our Authors Study Club, Inc., the City of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Her work would lay the foundation of later established Latino Heritage Month and Asian Month Celebrations for the City of Los Angeles.
As producer and designer for the 1996 POW-WOW Convention cultural outreach program, Exum designed community planning policy documents and multi-cultural tours for metropolitan areas, including Koreatown, Southwest Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, and East Los Angeles.
As coordinator of the Center for California Studies "Rethinking California's Public Life" series (funded by the California Council for Humanities), Exum conceptualized, produced, and facilitated three public forums and eight-stage statewide community meetings.
As California State Senate Fellow, drafted Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR 33) for a Blue-Ribbon Statewide Commission to examine the status of non-violent offenders and make recommendations on improving California State Prison System. Several states have adopted the Commission's proposals in their penal systems.
Exum's current projects include producing the annual Leimert Park Book Village Fair, a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization dedicated to creating strategic community initiatives and year-round educational programming in collaboration with its partners. Now considered a beloved and much-anticipated community institution, the book fair has grown to be one of the most significant urban literary events on the West Coast. Its mission is to promote, encourage, and advocate literacy, education, and the love of reading throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
