'Point to Hope': Lumen Awards Highlight Community and Changemakers
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta headlined an event that honored L.A. filmmakers and charity leaders, and fired up the crowd for change in challenging times
When 94-year-old civil rights icon Dolores Huerta was born during the Great Depression, “the country was devastated,” she said. What came out of that difficult time: “The New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, workers got rights to organize and to [create] a labor union. An education system was formed.” The same occurred in the 1960s and ’70s, she attests, as the country was ravaged by the Vietnam War and protests, and out came advances in the environmental, LGBTQ and women’s and civil rights movements.
Even in this fraught period that the U.S. is experiencing now, with a rollback of American humanitarian aid abroad and of DEI initiatives here at home, Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and was a crucial labor rights and social justice advocate in the 1960s and ’70s, is confident that a more progressive movement will come in response. “We can just get ready,” Huerta told a crowd at Casa del Mar hotel on Feb. 26, “because out of this dark period now, there is going to be a lot more progress in the future.”
Speaking with El Norte and Selena director Gregory Nava, Huerta laid out her hope for what’s to come at The Impact Lounge’s Lumen Awards, which — amid the wildfires and anxiety over Trump’s rapidly shifting policies — served as a welcome dose of optimism for those in attendance. Huerta and Nava’s discussion was the highlight of the lunch event, which honored inspiring filmmakers and changemakers in the L.A. area.
Nearly halfway through the ceremony, Impact Lounge founder and CEO Heather Mason bragged to the crowd, “I told you that this was not going to be like any other awards show you’ve been to, and I hope you’re happy about that.” Unlike the Oscars, the Lumen Awards saw some speakers get creative. Case in point: WalkGood LA’s Etienne Maurice, whose organization fights for racial equity through the arts, began his remarks with a rendition of “This Little Light of Mine,” with the crowd readily joining in. And after instructing the crowd to say the names of Ahmad Aubrey, George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, he closed with a reminder of who his organization aims to honor.
“You might see us do yoga. You might see us run. You might see the joy, the light that we have in all of us,” he said. “So as we continue to celebrate, let’s not forget those who have passed. Let’s not forget those who some of us have forgotten about.”
Another speaker who made an impassioned plea was My TRIBE Rise’s Heavenly Hughes, whose Altadena-based grassroots organization tries to meet the needs of working-class, elderly, and disabled Black residents in the area. The wildfires, of course, multiplied the importance of her cause, and while emphasizing that they would need help “for the long haul,” she had an emphatic message about the future of the region.
“There’s vultures trying to destroy our legacy in Altadena,” she said. “We also know that they’re coming to wipe us out by taking our land. And we continue this mission to say: Altadena is not for sale.” Some of the loudest applause of the afternoon ensued.
Watch Duty cofounder and CEO John Mills, whose fire-tracking app rose to No. 1 on the App Store in January as thousands of Angelenos turned to it for updates, knows all too well about the effects of the natural disaster. Although he sees future devastation as inevitable, he also — like Hughes — remains hopeful about people’s ability to fight through it. “These fires are going to continue to keep coming, unfortunately.” But, “Fire binds us together,” he added. “It’s not going to tear us apart.”
In the filmmakers category, the Lumen Awards honored The Wild Robot director Chris Sanders and producer Jeff Hermann, as well as Real Women Have Curves director Patricia Cardoso, Bring Your Own Brigade director Lucy Walker, Bucks County, USA co-director and producer Robert May and the recently shuttered Participant Media. Other individuals and charities recognized in the Changemakers portion included Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley and Portrait Creative Network, Altadena Girls’ Avery Colvert, XPRIZE and CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) co-founder and CEO Ann Lee.
Naturally, much of the talk during and around the event revolved around the wildfires. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker, whose 2021 documentary Bring Your Own Brigade asks if anything cane be done to prevent and mitigate the increasingly common disasters, is right at the heart of it.
“My heart broke with these fires,” she said, “because I didn't want the film to be relevant, and I don't want to be here now.” But, like many of the afternoon’s changemakers, she’s grateful if her work “shines a light and if the film can be a resource” because, in the end, “it does point to hope.”