This button is from the Old Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee festival, in 1974. It is a made of white paper with red ink covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. The center has a rectangular cut-out for inserting a nametag. The button is printed and handwritten:
OLD SACRAMENTO '74 LEVIN TABLE A-1 DIXIE LAND JUBILEE
The Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Old Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee) was an annual event held every Memorial Day weekend in Sacramento, California. Organized by the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the festival was launched in 1974 and presented its final festival in 2017.
Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.
This badge is from the Sacramento Dixieland Jubilee Jazz Festival, in 1995. The button is a made of white paper with black and silver lettering covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. There is a rectangular hole in the button for a name tag. There is red ribbon attached to the back of the button. The button is printed:
SACRAMENTO [image of riverboat] FLOYD LEVIN JAZZ JUBILEE 1995
(The ribbon is printed):
MEDIA
The Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Old Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee) was an annual event held every Memorial Day weekend in Sacramento, California. Organized by the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the festival was launched in 1974 and presented its final festival in 2017.
Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.
This button is from an American Federation of Jazz Studies conference. It is made of white paper with black ink covered with a clear film, on a two-piece metal button with a pin back. The button is printed:
American Federation of Jazz Societies, Inc.
The American Federation of Jazz Studies (AFJS) was formed in 1985. The organization works to facilitate communication among jazz societies, festivals, and presenters. The AFJS hosts national and regional meetings committed to the preservation, performance, and advancement of jazz.
Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.
This badge is from the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Festival, in 2001. The button is a made of red paper with black and white lettering covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. There is a rectangular hole in the button for a name tag. There is red ribbon attached to the back of the button. The button is printed:
SACRAMENTO [image of riverboat] Floyd Levin JAZZ JUBILEE 2001
(The ribbon is printed):
EMPEROR 1985
The Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Old Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee) was an annual event held every Memorial Day weekend in Sacramento, California. Organized by the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the festival was launched in 1974 and presented its final festival in 2017.
Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.
This flyer was designed by Irma C. Lerma Barbosa and Kathryn Garcia, members of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), to promote the 1974 Conferencia Femenil (Women’s Conference ’74) held at the Centro de Artistas Chicanos de Aztlán, then RCAF headquarters, in Sacramento, California.
Organized and led by Lerma, this day-long conference centered on increasing access to available support and acts of mutual “ayuda” (aid). The objective was to bring together women from the community and connect them to essential resources on career pathways, traditional medicinal healing, family planning, and the impact of affirmative action for ethnic Mexican women. At the heart of the event was the fundamental acknowledgment of Chicana’s central role in the struggle for social change. The panels fostered intergenerational conversations where Chicanas discussed their distinctive experiences, rethinking their place in the home, the family, the Chicana/o Movement, and U.S. society at large.
The 1974 Conferencia Femenil (Women’s Conference ’74) was the first women’s conference organized by the RCAF and co-sponsored by the Washington Community Council and the National Education Task Force de la Raza, now UnidosUS.
The Royal Chicano Air Force
Formed in 1970 as the Rebel Chicano Art Front by Sacramento State professors, José Montoya and Esteban Villa along with their art students, the collective became known for their posters and murals. As was true of other artists at the time, their art was not individually signed, but marked with the group’s initials: RCAF. After being confused with the Royal Canadian Air Force, they decided to call themselves the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF). After moving off-campus and establishing the nonprofit Centro de Artistas Chicanos in 1973, the RCAF was joined by members of La Raza Bookstore and Breakfast for Niños Program as well as other university students and professors, writers, photographers, musicians, dancers, community activists, and politicians. Together, they produced posters and community murals, art exhibitions, and literary programs as well as provided a free breakfast program for children, arts programs in schools, Chicano sports activities, and organized countless cultural and civic events and initiated annual spiritual ceremonies.
About donor:
Irma C. Lerma Barbosa is a Chicana Yaqui painter, printmaker, muralist, performance artist, Chicana civil rights activist, and community organizer deploying art to elevate marginalized voices and ignite collective action in the long struggle for social justice.
Lerma was born on June 10, 1949, in Elko, Nevada, to Yaqui Mexican parents with ancestral roots in the Pascua Yaqui Nation in Arizona and the Sierra Mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico. She grew up in Roseville and North Highlands in Sacramento County, California. Lerma became politically involved at an early age. As an agent of change, she worked with local community members and university students to identify and address issues affecting the Mexican community, participating in some of the most influential youth-led organizations of the Chicana/o Movement. Lerma joined the Brown Berets of Sacramento in 1969, later co-founding the Royal Chicano Air Force/RCAF in 1970 and Las CoMadres Artistas in 1992. From the late 1980s-1990s, she continued her commitment to social justice and civic engagement by working in the public and private sectors, including as president of the California State Employees Association, District Labor Council 787- Service Employees International Union.
This button is from the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Festival, in 1994. It is a made of white paper with black and red printing covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. There is a rectangular hole in the middle of the button for a name tag. The button is printed:
SACRAMENTO [image of riverboat] FLOYD LEVIN JAZZ JUBILEE 1994
The Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Old Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilee) was an annual event held every Memorial Day weekend in Sacramento, California. Organized by the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the festival was launched in 1974 and presented its final festival in 2017.
Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.
In the late 1970s, Rodolfo “Rudy” Cuellar, an artist in the Royal Chicano Air Force, repurposed aprons from another screen print job to design and print this apron for La Raza Bookstore, located in Sacramento, CA. Established in 1972, the bookstore was the brainchild of RCAF member Philip “Pike” Santos who collaborated with Sacramento State University (presently CSUS) students, including Juan Gutierrez, Pete Hernández, Gilbert Gamino, and Louie "the Foot" González, to bring the idea to life. Two years later, future executive and artistic director Terezita “Tere” Romo joined as a volunteer. The main mission of the bookstore was to redress the lack of access to Chicano/a, and later Native American, publications.
In 1980, Tere Romo secured funds to add an art gallery, Galería Posada. The gallery served as an important platform for creating and amplifying Chicana/o and Native American art and culture. It became La Raza Galeria Posada to reflect this additional component. The organization, nurtured by artists, writers, community members, and activists, became a social hub and cultural center, offering literary and musical programs, art exhibitions, and fostering community activism. La Raza Galería Posada ceased to exist in 2014.
The Royal Chicano Air Force
La Raza Bookstore and La Raza Galeria Posada were part of the Royal Chicano Air Force. Formed in 1970 as the Rebel Chicano Art Front by Sacramento State professors José Montoya and Esteban Villa, along with their art students, the collective became known for their posters and murals. Montoya and Esteban Villa, along with their art students, the collective became known for their posters and murals. As was true of other artists at the time, their art was not individually signed, but marked with the group’s initials: RCAF. After being confused with the Royal Canadian Air Force, they decided to call themselves the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF). After moving off-campus and establishing the nonprofit Centro de Artistas Chicanos in 1973, the RCAF was joined by members of La Raza Bookstore and Breakfast for Niños Program as well as other university students and professors, writers, photographers, musicians, dancers, community activists, and politicians. Together, they produced posters and community murals, art exhibitions, and literary programs as well as provided a free breakfast program for children, arts programs in schools, Chicano sports activities, and organized countless cultural and civic events and initiated annual spiritual ceremonies.
About donor:
This object was donated by Irma C. Lerma Barbosa, a Chicana Yaqui painter, printmaker, muralist, performance artist, Chicana civil rights activist, and community organizer deploying art to elevate marginalized voices and ignite collective action in the long struggle for social justice.
Lerma was born on June 10, 1949, in Elko, Nevada, to Yaqui Mexican parents with ancestral roots in the Pascua Yaqui Nation in Arizona and the Sierra Mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico. She grew up in Roseville and North Highlands in Sacramento County, California. Lerma became politically involved at an early age. As an agent of change, she worked with local community members and university students to identify and address issues affecting the Mexican community, participating in some of the most influential youth-led organizations of the Chicana/o Movement. Lerma joined the Brown Berets of Sacramento in 1969, later co-founding the Royal Chicano Air Force/RCAF in 1970 and Las CoMadres Artistas in 1992. From the late 1980s-1990s, she continued her commitment to social justice and civic engagement by working in the public and private sectors, including as president of the California State Employees Association, District Labor Council 787- Service Employees International Union.