Highly Favored: Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Black History Month Celebration Returns Saturday, February 21 in Hollywood
–
Highly Favored comes to the Anita May Rosenstein Campus as an ode to Black queer nightlife, inspired by the legacy of Jewel’s Catch One.
–
LOS ANGELES, January 21, 2026—The Los Angeles LGBT Center will commemorate Black History Month with the return of Highly Favored, as a two-part cultural program honoring Black queer nightlife in Los Angeles, inspired by the legacy of Jewel’s Catch One. The program culminates with a joyous dance party on Saturday, Feb. 21, at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza on the Anita May Rosenstein Campus in Hollywood.
Framed as an ode to Black queer nightlife, the 2026 edition centers these spaces as intersections of communal joy and resistance. Across visual art and music, Highly Favored traces how nightlife has long served as an essential foundation for worldbuilding, resilience, and collective care for Black queer communities in Los Angeles.
The program begins on Friday, Feb. 13, with a gallery opening at the Advocate & Gochis Galleries featuring artist and photographer Nikko LaMere, founder of the creative studio In The Night. LaMere will debut a special installation exploring Black queer identity and joy through the visual language of nightlife, grounding the broader program in cultural memory and lived experience.
On Saturday, Feb. 21, the experience moves outdoors to the Village courtyard, where Black queer DJs will soundtrack the evening with high-energy sets. The night invites guests to take to the dance floor, uplift one another, and inhabit Black queer nightlife as an act of both celebration and resistance.
“Black queer nightlife in Los Angeles has always been more than entertainment—it has been a space of survival, creativity, and a cradle of resistance for our community,” said Giovanna Fisher, Chief Equity Officer of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “This year, Highly Favored honors that lineage, from the legendary dance floor of Jewel’s Catch One—founded by the late Jewel Thais-Williams, whose vision forever shaped Black queer culture in L.A.—to the artists and creatives of today who continue to build community through joy and art.”
At a moment when attacks on LGBTQ+ rights continue to escalate, Highly Favored creates space for gathering, movement, and community affirmation—centering Black queer joy as both a response and practice of resilience.
In 2025, the Center presented Highly Loved, a one-time evolution of the event focused on collective care for L.A.’s Black queer community following wildfire devastation earlier that year, while intentionally centering collective and self-care for a community significantly impacted. The 2026 program marks a return to nightlife as a site of cultural expression, remembrance, and momentum to move forward.
More information about Highly Favored, including event details, can be found at lalgbtcenterorg/HighlyFavored. Press interested in covering the gallery opening, the main event, or both are encouraged to contact [email protected] to coordinate credentials.
WHAT
Highly Favored
The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s annual Black History Month celebration, Highly Favored, is a bold spotlight on everything Black and queer in Los Angeles.
GALLERY OPENING:
WHEN
Friday, Feb. 13, 2026
6:30-9:30 p.m.
WHERE
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Advocate & Gochis Galleries
1125 N. McCadden Pl.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
FREE RSVP: HERE
MAIN EVENT:
WHEN
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026
6:30-10:00 p.m.
*Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
WHERE
Los Angeles LGBT Center
The Village at Ed Gould Plaza
1125 N. McCadden Pl.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
FREE RSVP: HERE
###
About the Los Angeles LGBT Center
Since 1969, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBTQ+ individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today the Center’s nearly 800 employees provide services for more LGBTQ+ people than any other organization in the world, offering programs, services, and global advocacy that span four broad categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, Leadership and Advocacy. We are an unstoppable force in the fight against bigotry and the struggle to build a better world; a world in which LGBTQ+ people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.
About Nikko LaMere
Nikko LaMere is a Los Angeles-born visual artist whose work explores queer joy, intimacy, and self-expression. Raised by their grandmother, a hairdresser to some of music’s most iconic acts, LaMere grew up immersed in glamour, creativity, and the freedom to dream. Originally trained as a dancer, LaMere learned to build worlds through movement and choreography, a practice that naturally evolved into directing and photography. Their work creates immersive, emotionally rich spaces where fantasy, community, and freedom meet, and has been commissioned by leading artists and global cultural institutions. Learn more and follow their work on Instagram @nikkolamere.