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OASC at the Bilbrew - New Members Welcome & Author Talk with Pamela Samuels-Young, Award-Winning Author of "The Law of Karma"
Join OASC, Co-sponsored by Council District 2, Supervisor Holly Mitchell, on June 29th to Welcome New Members and Hear Pamela Samuels-Young, Discuss Her New Book, "Sounds Like A Plan"
Join OASC for opportunities to explore the AC Bilbrew Library through various programs. Named in honor of AC Harris Bilbrew, a groundbreaking Renaissance artist and influential leader in early Los Angeles, this cultural center is a true gem within the LA County Library system. This year, all our events will align with the national ASALH theme: African Americans in the Arts. We are proud to have Danny Bakewell Jr. serving as our 2024 Black History Chair for the entire year, not just during Black History Month.
- Meet authors and librarians;
- Learn about the library's services and programs;
- Join OASC and its mission to promote Black History;
- View the painting and mask collection;
- Utilize the Black Resource Center for research;
- Book a meeting space;
- And so much more!
About Pamela Samuels Young
Pamela Samuels Young is an attorney and author of more than a dozen legal thrillers. Her novel, Anybody’s Daughter, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction. A former television news writer, Pamela is a native of Compton, California, and a graduate of USC, Northwestern University and UC Berkeley’s School of Law. Her most recent legal thriller is The Law of Karma. Sounds Like a Plan, co-written with Dwayne Alexander Smith goes on sale July 9, 2024. You can visit Pamela’s website at
X.com/apsy
facebook.com/pamelasamuelsyoung
More About the Library
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was instrumental in the library obtaining funding through a Model Neighborhood Development Program to build a 21,000 square foot library with a capacity to house 100,000 books. Designed by Vincent Proby, an African-American architect the A C Bilbrew Library houses the Black Resource Center founded by OASC member and librarian Joyce Sumbi, which supports research and study on social, historical, musical, and cultural aspects unique to the “Black Experience” such as Juneteenth and Kwanzaa. From 1980-2008, A C Bilbrew Library has hosted the County Library’s African American History Month Celebration. An interactive Living Legends digital display is featured in the main lobby. The library is located in an unincorporated area west of the City of Compton.
About A.C. Bilbrew
A. C. Harris Bilbrew (March 12, 1891–June 4, 1972) was an American poet, musician, composer, playwright, clubwoman, and radio personality known as Madame A. C. Bilbrew who lived in South Los Angeles. In 1923, she became the first black soloist to sing on a Los Angeles radio program. She also hosted the city's first African-American radio music program, The Gold Hour, in the early 1940s. The A. C. Bilbrew branch of the LA County Library in Willowbrook was named in her honor. The daughter of Rev. H. S. Harris, 1st CME, her initials were her given name; she was named for two nuns whom her mother had liked. She attended Texas College in Tyler,] and studied music at the University of Southern California.Bilbrew was active in many ways with performing arts in the African-American community of South Los Angeles. She played church organ, produced pageants and plays, gave dramatic readings, accompanied a jubilee quartet,[13 and directed choirs. In 1923 she became the first black soloist to sing on a Los Angeles radio program.In the 1930s she performed "pianologues" and led a musical sextet.She was the host of the city's first African-American radio music program, The Gold Hour, broadcast on KGFJ from 1940 to 1942, and was also the announcer on The Bronze Hour, which she produced with Gilbert W. Lindsay. Her on-air guests included California governor Culbert Olson in 1942. She also performed on a tour of the eastern United States in the 1940s.She was a popular speaker in church and women's groups into the late 1960s,and was known as "Madame Bilbrew" in the community.