Ebony Beach Club shows why partying is a restorative practice. Whether you’re in need of healing from witnessing or experiencing pain — in the world, in yourself — celebration offers a clean slate.
Salt water can cure a wound in myriad ways. Being in it and around it, feeling its presence wash upon you — it has the power to cleanse you from the inside out. Brick knows the transformative pull of the ocean. It’s what led him and his close friend, Gage Crismond, to start the surf and arts collective Ebony Beach Club.
Ebony Beach Club was originally started by a man named Silas White in 1957. At the time, there were other Santa Monica beach clubs that were offered, but obviously Black people weren’t allowed. His whole idea was: There’s no place for Black people to have leisure. Leisure has always been a tool of white supremacy. He opened it at 1811 Ocean Ave., put up a big sign, 2,000 members signed up.
There’s so much space for healing through that. People are sharing the wetsuits, sharing the board, there’s so much exchange going on. We’re in the sun and we’re touching the water. It’s like a party with the option to heal or find something new. People are challenging themselves, but then they can just come right to a party [on the beach] and be accepted and hugged and embraced by others that look like them. I call it like putting the medicine in the candy.
It makes me emotional, like on the verge of tears looking at the scene, because I just know this is something that I’m gonna think about on my deathbed one day. I’ve done a lot of things and I’ve learned a lot along the way. I feel like what’s happening now is the most unexpected turn of all of my skills and experiences coming together in a place that is useful and healing and important.
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