Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is a series of artist-led communal gatherings to celebrate the longest day of the year.

This year’s gathering, Sunstead, is conceived by Portland-based artist Meech Boakye, and centers a ritualistic picnic with collective altar building, fortune telling, and meditative offerings to mark the transition into summer. The picnic will feature non-native ingredients often labeled “invasive,” inviting reflection on the political and cultural histories embedded in how plants, and humans, are inherently categorized. Rather than treating “invasive” plants as inherently harmful, Sunstead considers how these ecologies emerge through human histories of trade, displacement, and cultivation.

Our inaugural Summer Solstice in 2025 was a communal picnic, a collaboration between chef Jihee Kim of Perilla LAand artist Eva Aguila, accompanied by a sound performance by Olive Kimoto; a guided nature walk by Andrea Jimenez of Herb Club LA; and a compost performance by artist Cass Marketos. Throughout the evening, Living Earth provided an ambient backdrop of durational solar soundscapes. Hosted at the Audubon Center at Debs Park, the evening unfolded through a series of new work and gestures by artists exploring the concept of rituals, both traditional and contemporary, that connect us to the natural world and to each other.