HABLA Found err Lili Bernard

Lili Bernard, whose ancestry is Cuban-Jamaican-Spanish-Chinese-British, was born in Santiago de Cuba. When she was four, her family moved to the United States. At the age of sixteen, Lili moved with her family to Tokyo, where (as a teen) she co-starred on Japanese prime-time dramatic television and began exposing her artwork in exhibitions and receiving commissions for her paintings. Upon graduating from the American School in Japan; Lili entered the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at Cornell University, where she also studied drama, German and science. Completing three years at Cornell; Lili left for New York City, where she trained in theatre under Sonia Moore and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in German from the City University of New York. While enjoying some success as a theatre and television actress in New York City and Los Angeles, Lili continued to paint avidly.

		Lili beside her oil painting entitled, "Azucar: La Flamboyante Celia Cruz" © 2007 Lili Bernard

Most recently, Lili’s paintings have been exhibited in the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs William Grant Still Art Center, Ave 50 Studio, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), the Toyota National Headquarters, The Hayworth Theatre, St. Agatha’s Catholic Church and Downtown Art Gallery. In 2009 at the CalArts Arts in the One World Conference, Lili premiered part of her work-in-progress entitled “Ceiba de Cuba,” along with a solo exhibition of her ancestrally-based paintings. "Ceiba de Cuba" is an onstage merging of Lili’s artwork, poetry, playwriting and videography. In this fusion of paintings, performance art, spoken word, video, drama, dance and Afro-Cuban drums; Lili tells the story of life in Cuba and of Lili’s ancestors by weaving reality and fiction.

In drama, Lili's New York City theatre credits include performances at the Puerto-Rican Traveling Theatre Co., Nat Horne Theatre, INTAR, American Renaissance Theatre, Theatre for the New City, Henry Street Settlement, The Pearl Theatre, Cooper Square Theatre, Frank Silvera's Writers Workshop and Plays for Living. In Los Angeles, Lili was a cast member of UCLA Players Theatre Company. She also played the female lead, Maggie, in an all-Black stage production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," at the Arena Theatre at California State University Los Angeles. In television, Lili guest-starred as the zany and very pregnant Mrs. Minifield on “The Cosby Show” and co-starred as Kramer’s Black girlfriend, Anna, on the sitcom, “Seinfeld." Variety commended Lili for her portrayal as Harlan's Nurse in the CBS TV miniseries, "Stephen King's Golden Years." Of Lili’s work as the female lead (opposite Ving Rhames and Eriq LaSalle) in the BBC film, "Murder in Oakland," critic Sean Day-Lewis wrote in London's Sunday Telegraph, "A nerve tuggingly effective performance by Lili Bernard, full of pain, guilt and fear.”

While an actress in New York City, Lili created and ran a mentoring program in her neighborhood of Harlem for disadvantage youth. In 1995, Lili married civil rights attorney Franklin Ferguson. The couple now lives in Los Angeles with their six young children to whom Lili gave birth in a ten year span. In 2001, Lili founded and charted the nonprofit all-volunteer run youth organization, City of Angels Little League (CALL), which continues to successfully serve children in Los Angeles, California. Lili also serves as a long-term board member of the Parent Teacher Organization of her children's school.

In 2007, Lili founded and organized HABLA Harvesting Asian Black Latino Artists, whose focus had been mentoring youth towards careers in the Fine Arts. In August of 2009, Lili began organizing the HABLA Underground artist collaborative for adult artists.

Lili's art studio is located on Chung King Road which is the main strip of Chinatown Los Angeles' premiere art gallery district. Lili dedicates the basement gallery of her art studio as the exhibition space for the HABLA Underground artist collaborative.

Of her painting, Lili writes, “I paint, because I consider it my purpose under heaven, to help spread a little love through colors on canvas that celebrate my multi-cultural native Cuban heritage and impel me to express myself through poetry, drama and videography. I strive, through these mediums, to very personally share with others the spiritual and physical beauty found within the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora. Of her community-organizing and social-activism, Lili says, "I inherited that from my father's father, my Abuelo José. He was an idealist, a multi-linguist, a poet, an author, a painter, an evangelical pastor who founded his own Churches in Jamaica and Cuba, and a veteran Mambí who served as a war correspondent for Cuba. The Mambises were the insurgent Cuban soldiers who fought in the island's war of independence from Spain. My grandfather is a big inspiration in both my creative and social work. I write about that in my website." Click here to read the story of Lili's Abuelo José.