St. Elmo Village co-founder Roderick Sykes, whose Mid-City Black art enclave and community center nurtured generations of creative minds and served as a gathering place for the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, has died. He was 75.
Sykes had complications related to Alzheimer’s disease and died at home in the village, said his wife, Jacqueline Alexander-Sykes.
Sykes and his uncle, Rozzell Sykes, both visual artists, founded St. Elmo Village in 1969. The area originally consisted of a derelict collection of 10 Craftsman bungalows near Venice Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, which the two men cleaned up and used as a hub for like-minded people of all ages interested in exploring creative pursuits.
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