GETTING TO KNOW MAKEDA CHEATOM

Makeda Cheatom, founder and director of the Worldbeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park, remembers her childhood and teen years as a difficult time for Black San Diegans and other people of color.

A desire to make things better is what has kept her here all these years — she’s 78 and moved here when she was 2 months old. She’s still dedicating all her time and energy to making the Worldbeat Cultural Center a space for celebration, education and unity for all cultures. It has definitely not been easy, but she says she’s seeing the results of her hard work in a changing San Diego, and though many community accolades.

In the past decade, she has had a mural dedicated to her in East Village, won the President’s Award from the NAACP San Diego Branch and been inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame, among other highlights.

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If you could only listen to one musician for the rest of you life, who would it be?

Bob Marley.

What’s something you’ve never done but would like to do?

I would like to have a healing resort. I would like a place for people from the city who get burned out to

come get good food and have you just sit. Usually when we go on a vacation, we’re tired from the vacation, when we get back, we’re still exhausted. I’d like to put it together with healing music and put everything together so you could rest. I’m still serving. That’s crazy. It’s still about you.

Who is the biggest inspiration in your life?

My culture, coming from such a poor family, you always have inspiration. For me it was a teacher. It just happened to be a Black teacher. The other teachers were mean. They didn’t care about us. She was a substitute teacher. She said I was going to be in show business and that I was going to really be somebody.

Do you have a mantra or a motto you live by?

Love, forgiveness and to be grateful. I think that’s No. 1, to be grateful for every moment you’ve got and live in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh has taught me mindfulness and also, another great leader I met years ago, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, going right with Thich Nhat Hanh, is about living in the present moment and just be grateful for everything around you. And to watch your cravings. We don’t need a new car every year . ... Live simple. You don’t need all those things, because they’re old. After you get the new dress or the new car, and then later on you just keep craving, craving, craving. So be satisfied the way you are, the way you look. You’re beautiful. Really keep taking that time to be still and go within. That’s my mantra.

On what was on her mind when she opened the Worldbeat Cultural Center:

San Diego was a hard place to grow up in. I’d been here all my life . ... For people of color, it was very hard. I just wanted to do something for Black people, my people, and then I realized that the Worldbeat is for all people because I hung out with so many different people of the world . .... Unity is so important for all of us . ... The Worldbeat Center was founded to heal the world through music, art, dance and culture, and that’s what we have to do, to heal the world with culture. I’ve traveled.

That’s why I wanted the Worldbeat Center. It’s a cultural center where everyone’s welcome.