Halsey has made accessibility a priority in her own work, as well. Earlier this year, she opened sister dreamer, a free public sculpture park in South Central where nearly 22-foot Egyptian-style columns and sphinxes monumentalize her family, friends, mentors, and neighborhood heroes. Programmed by Summaeverythang Community Center, the nonprofit Halsey founded in 2019 around art, education, and wellness, the park is meant to be enjoyed as much as admired, with jazz performances, Kemetic yoga, art workshops, album-listening parties, and programming for kids. At the Bowl, she was working on a vastly different scale, but the impulse was much the same: to make the world, then invite people inside.
Halsey had been imagining some version of this collision between art and music for years. “I’ve always wanted to combine objects and musicians and a large audience,” she said. At first, the venue was beside the point, but then she started to think about where she would actually want to hear music. “I was like, well, let me intentionally choose my favorite place,” she said. “Let me see if I can get the Bowl to date me.”
A friend introduced her to Johanna Rees, the LA Phil’s vice president of programming and creative partnerships, and Halsey made her pitch. “She was like, ‘I can imagine that,’” Halsey recalled. “I was like, ‘Okay, well, let’s imagine it.’” The Bowl had worked with filmmakers, studios, and performing artists to create immersive experiences before, but had never invited a fine artist to bring in bespoke work and completely reimagine the space. There was, however, one rather important piece Halsey needed. “She was like, ‘Get a headliner,’” Halsey remembered.
Halsey had spent years deliberately building relationships with musicians she admired, often hiring them to play the after-parties for her exhibitions. Badu was already in that orbit. Halsey texted her a rendering of what she was imagining. “I was like, ‘Did you ever imagine performing in something like this?’” she said. “She was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’” When Halsey returned to Rees with Badu attached, the response was immediate: “Okay, boom, you got a show.”
