Celebrating a cultural and innovative period in African American history — the Harlem Renaissance — the NAACP’s Santa Clarita chapter held its 2026 Harlem Renaissance Gala: The Story of a Cultural Revolution at California Institute of the Arts on Saturday.
The gala was held to honor the golden era of artistry and innovation in Harlem that helped redefine and reshape Black identity amidst the Roaring Twenties.
The Santa Clarita chapter celebrated its fifth anniversary with music, outfits, color schemes and glamour from the 1920s and ’30s.
“Today is an annual gala, an annual fundraiser that the NAACP Santa Clarita branch has. The NAACP is a civic rights organization. In order to help the community with scholarships, partnering with the Boys & Girls Clubs, backpack giveaways, we feed the homeless, we do all sorts of things, so this is just to help. Like most nonprofit organizations, you still have some overhead, and that’s what this fundraiser is,” said Terry Collier, communications chair of the Santa Clarita branch. “Although it takes a lot of hands to put together, this is our way to say to the Santa Clarita community that this is the NAACP, and this is what we do.”
Inviting local dignitaries and community leaders, the night entailed live entertainment, including the playing of the saxophone by Randy Ellis, to give homage to the time period.
“It’s an opportunity to invite the community to get to know who the NAACP Santa Clarita branch is, what we do, how to join, what we look for membership. Some people ask, ‘Is the NAACP only for Black people?’ It’s not — it was created to help people of color or anyone who needs guidance in terms of their civil rights. We’re just full of all shades, and that’s what I like about it,” Collier said. “We’ve had growth in terms of our membership. It’s not just a certain culture or ethnicity: It’s diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s for women. It’s for people who are challenged in any way. We support them.”
Collier was appreciative of CalArts’ efforts to ensure that the organization had a space to hold the gala.
“CalArts has been a wonderful partner, and they make this property available which is huge for us because we’re a small chapter. They understand the difficulties of a nonprofit to be able to move forward and thrive. We’ve also grown because people are seeing that there’s a NAACP out here. People have been excited about the gala and they’re like, ‘Well, Harlem Renaissance? What does that mean?’ We’re going to explain that it was a period of thriving culture, music, art and it’s just celebrating all of that,” Collier said.
Inviting community members to see the culture firsthand, the organization made sure to emulate the time period.
“This is celebrating culture, music, art, so our music is going to touch base on that. Hopefully there’ll be a lot of dancing. What’s also wonderful about having it at CalArts is that students have been walking around and asking, ‘What’s this?’ We’re educating people, and especially our youth about the NAACP. We’re able to verbally tell them what we do,” Collier said.
According to member Melanie Cross, who helped plan the event, the event was planned in less than three months — 87 days to be exact.
“I’m a part of the NAACP, because when you look back through history, you can see that every time that people were advocated for, and every time justice happened, the NAACP was there. I wanted to be a part of it,” Cross said. “We’re a really small group, but when you look around, everybody puts their heart and soul into it, and it’s like walking back in the 1920s. It all came together really well.”
Cross encourages anyone interested in joining to come and learn about a “beautiful place that cares about one another.”
“I think today, that’s the most important thing we can do. I really think when you look across society today, you see a lot of bitterness and hatred, and none of that is here,” Cross said. “I think the only way to abolish it is to come back as a community. Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘A divided nation cannot stand. I think it’s really important we come together.”
