‘The Cookout,’ honoring Black history in tennis, starts in Southern California, with an eye on impactful growth

LOS ANGELES—Last Sunday, at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center on the grounds of the Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex, the skies were blue and wind-free, the temperature in the 60s. This was the setting for The Cookout: An Event Honoring Black History in Tennis.

For six hours, 200 tennis players would run, swing and hit on four of the venue’s 12 courts. Some were beginners. More were intermediates. Others were experienced, clearly having played a mix of junior, high-level NTRP, or college tennis. All engaged in various drills and games.

Midway through, there’d be a break and time to take in a discussion about Arthur Ashe (disclosure: I moderated that dialogue). Then it was back to the courts, where instructors Manny Fortune, Porfirio Cervantes and others fed ball after ball.

Posters of great Black players adorned the courts, including Ashe, Venus and Serena Williams, Frances Tiafoe, James Blake, Mal Washington and Naomi Osaka. A tidy row of exhibitors was also present. There was Summer Body Moisturizer, 11 Dollar Sunglasses, Fa’s Rare Accents, Frankly Beautiful Juices, Shear Convenience, a hair salon; and Grand Slam LA, a lifestyle tennis boutique. On donated pairs of tennis shoes. A few yards from the courts were two food trucks.

Music echoed across the venue, one song after another played by DJ Aye Jaye, a prodigy of prominent DJ, Osh Kosh. Osh had also brought 25 children to the event, all part of her non-profit, Dreamers Youth. As sounds from Stevie Wonder, Brandy and Kendrick Lamar filled the air, event organizer Erika Bond shared her vision.

“This is all about expanding the sport,” said Bond, who ran the first edition of “The Cookout” in 2024. “Tennis is the healthiest sport you can play. It gives you skills that you need like resilience, focus, determination.”

An excellent player who lettered at Prairie View A&M University in Houston, the 32-year-old Bond came to LA eight years ago and works for City of Hope, a prestigious Southern California-based hospital, as a transformation manager (a form of strategic consulting). In addition to those responsibilities, Bond is the founder of the All-Love Racquet Club. Currently, All-Love exists in traveling form—an enterprising mix of events and instruction that have been held all over Southern California.

“All-Love blends elements of culture like music, fashion, art, and food to each event,” reads the club’s website.

We foster an environment where everyone—regardless of background—feels encouraged to participate, connect, and enjoy their experience.

Bond’s big ambition is to create a physical facility that will house a new tennis club. For now, she’s gained significant expertise in using tennis events as a fast-paced and engaging community-built tool.

“It’s important for us to have these events,” said Esther Hendershott, director of community tennis and diversity, equity and inclusion for the event’s major sponsor, the USTA Southern California. “Everything we do has community embedded in it. These events introduce people to tennis that have never played. They encourage people who are starting to play to play more. And then it motivates people to join adult leagues and play more tournaments. It feeds into everything the section does.”

“Events like this are exactly what we’re looking for to take tennis to the people,” said USTA Southern California executive director Trevor Kronemann. “We’ve got very strict goals with the USTA—to get 35 million people playing tennis by 2035.” Just last week, the USTA announced there were 25.7 million tennis players in America (up 1.9 million from 2023).

As Kronemann took in The Cookout, he discussed the section’s plans for similar events—not only at tennis courts, but in parking lots, shopping centers, schools and beyond—throughout Southern California, a community effort that Kronemann and the section’s president, Bob Hochstadter, have informally dubbed “Taking it to the Streets.”

In the history of tennis, no one did that more extensively than Arthur Ashe. Legend by now is the story of how, in 1969, Ashe, along with his best friend, Charlie Pasarell, and philanthropist Sheridan Snyder, formed the National Junior Tennis League, tennis’ most successful grassroots program. From the original vision shaped by Ashe, Pasarell and Snyder, there are currently approximately 300 NJTL (now known as National Junior Tennis and Learning) chapters throughout the country, annually serving nearly 200,000 youth.

The featured guest for Sunday’s dialogue on Ashe was Chinyere Nwonye, who works as an historian at UCLA on the Arthur Ashe Legacy Project, an epic effort that over the last few years has conducted extensive interviews with more than 100 people who knew Ashe. In the course of her talk Sunday, Nwonye addressed a wide range of Ashe’s accomplishments, from singles triumphs at the US Open and Wimbledon, to groundbreaking trips to South Africa during its apartheid years, to the way Ashe used his platform to pursue social justice and equality.

One notable local example came in Los Angeles 50 years ago, when Ashe strongly suggested that the all-white Los Angeles Tennis Club allow Otis Smith, an enthusiastic young player, to become the club’s first Black member. That indeed happened. Smith went on to letter at Ashe’s alma mater, UCLA and run an NJTL chapter.

To a great degree, The Cookout brought to life one of Ashe’s many insights: “Start where you can,” he said. “Use what you have. Do what you can.”

“The demand in tennis is for something that’s more culturally relevant,” said Bond. “So that’s why I’ve created events like The Cookout. And then it’s so amazing that you can learn about the history as well.”

If all goes to plan for Bond, Hendershott, Kronemann and others who took part in The Cookout, more history will likely be made quite soon throughout Southern California.