A Legacy of Healing: Blu Arts & Wellness Gallery Brings Healing and Culture to Downtown Long Beach

Tiffany Parra playing sound bowls during Wellness Wednesday's at Blu Arts & Wellness Gallery located at 580 Pine Avenue

The Blu Arts and Wellness Gallery in Downtown Long Beach—located at 580 Pine Avenue—has quickly become a hub for community healing, creativity, and cultural connection. Founded by the late Rhonda Love and her partner Greg Johnson, the space is part of a broader effort to transform vacant downtown locations into vibrant arts and culture hubs.

"This was her dream to create this space," Johnson said. After Love's passing on July 22, 2025, Johnson made a commitment to honor her legacy by ensuring the center continues to serve as a place of joy, restoration, and community.

Since its official opening on October 1, Blu has hosted live poetry readings, the NAACP Long Beach Town Hall, and launched a weekly "Wellness Wednesday." The center also features a collective of Black artists whose work is displayed and available for purchase, along with Second Sunday events that showcase live acoustic soul and jazz.

“We’re just here to continue the vision of Rhonda Love,” Johnson said. “Continue the vision of what we’ve been doing the last 10, 11, 12 years, and that is arts and culture—building arts and culture bridges globally. And we’re excited to enliven the arts in downtown Long Beach. And we're promoting culture—our culture.”

Among those helping realize that vision is health and wellness coach Tiffany Parra, whose own journey mirrors the center's mission of healing and transformation.

Parra's transformation began nearly two decades ago after a health scare in 2008.

"I was gaining weight. I was agitated all the time," she said. "My A1-C was like 9.7."

A normal A1C range is below 5.7%. A level of 6.5% or higher indicates diabetes, placing Parra's reading far beyond the threshold.

“I already had symptoms,” she recalls. “I was having neuropathy in my feet. Just tingling and a little numbness.”

She initially attributed the symptoms to long hours sitting at her desk, but the reality was more serious. With her son only four years old at the time, she knew she needed to make drastic changes—for both of them.

Parra remembered the strict dietary limits she’d followed during pregnancy when she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

“I knew the worst diet ever,” she said. That structure ultimately became the foundation for her transformation.

She swapped her love of chocolate for low-sugar alternatives, adopted smaller portion sizes, and slowly rebuilt her relationship with food. The changes gave her enough energy to start moving again.

“Let me walk a mile,” she said. “Then all the sudden, that mile turned to two miles, and this is all at lunch time.”

With a consistent diet and movement, Parra lost 120 pounds in three years. The shift in her physical health helped strengthen her emotional and mental well-being, giving her the clarity to leave toxic relationships and finally prioritize herself.

Her journey even led her back to her faith. “I got baptized again,” she said.

Parra's path also introduced her to sound baths—something that deeply connected with her childhood memories of playing percussion with her father.

“I just started going to the park, and I really was playing just to soothe me,” she said. “I started going out to the beach and just sharing the frequency. Because it’s all connected to our chakra.”

As she perfected her craft, sound baths became a core part of her work.

Today, Parra is the owner of Phoenix Fitness Fanatics, offering weight-loss coaching, her three-volume series Becoming a Girl Powerhouse, and meal-prep sessions. And now, she brings her sound healing practice to Blu Arts and Wellness Gallery, contributing to its growing ecosystem of artists, healers, and community leaders.