Wishing you a New Year filled with favors and divine gifts /Շնորհավոր Նոր Տարի*, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and of doodles without borders,
*the new year congratulatory phrase in Armenian translates as “Favor/ [divine] gift filled New Year” (Շնորհավոր նոր տարի [Shnorha-VOR nor ta-REE])
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HIGHLIGHTS in and near SKID ROW, January 2024
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join
1) Thursdays, 7-9pm: Open Mic @ CreatingJusticeLA Peace and Healing Center (116 E 5th St)
2) Monday, Jan 15 – check LACAN page for Martin Luther King Jr Day related activities
Tues, Jan 16, 10:30-12 Creative Writing @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
Friday, Jan 19, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at LA poverty department‘s Skid Row Museum
Friday, Jan 26, 5-7:30pm, Open Mic with Lorinda@ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
Here you can find a Printable/Online Monthly Skid Row Calendar of some arts and community activities in and around Skid Row neighborhood.
ONGOING
Thur-Sat, 2-5pm, extended to Jan 18, 2024: Enough is (never) Enough: Hard Truths and the People Who Live Them – exhibit features photographs and text by artist and educator David Blumenkrantz, along with works by four photographers who have lived experience with homelessness: Bobby Buck, Cleta Felix-West, Lelund Hollins and Ian Storm. On exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway).
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Feb 2024: 24th Annual Skid row neighborhood’s celebration of Black History. Stay tuned, look for updates from UCEPP, for day and time.
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DOODLES IN 2023
In 2023, doodles without borders participated in many arts-community-cultural activities in Skid Row neighborhood and beyond, from our regular weekly spot in General Jeff park, to LA State Historic Park for the Kite Fest, to Windsor and Verdugo Parks in Glendale. You can find most of the banners we created in 2023 here.
Throughout the year I had the pleasure of coordinating LA Commons’ led community mural led by amazing artists _showzart_ and Natosha, and supported by a dozen no less incredible community artists: Queen Mama Tabia, Tom Grode, Linda Leigh, Mozart, Adrian, Coach Ron, Ray, Lorraine, Unkal Bean, Gary Brown, Jay, Kaniah, and Tyler. The mural, which also made an appearance at last year’s Festival, is dedicated to late General Jeff, and incredible organizer and activist in Skid Row neighborhood. The park formerly known as Gladys Park, is in the process of being renamed after him.
We at Doodles are not waiting for the city, and finished the year with a General Jeff Park banner.
THOUGHTS ALOUD
As an immigrant from Armenia, South West Asia (so called Middle East), current resident of occupied Tongva Land (aka Los Angeles), a descendant of geno//de survivors most of whose lands are occupied by present-day Turkey and Azerbaijan, a working class cisgender man, as a creative person, I’ve been paying more and more attention to how my work is aligned with collective liberation work wherever I am. The work in Skid Row neighborhood has never been in a vacuum, and its important to underscore what the alignments are: Black Liberation movement, alignment with Indigenous (including Latinx Indigenous) Liberation, Queer and Trans liberation, housed and unhoused tenant unions, and working class leadership to name a few.
All these connections are global, they transcend borders. And this year brought so much more clarity to Local-Global connections; the money spent by u.s. empire on funding the intensification of geno//de of Pa/es//nians by /s/ael (and by extension the global weapons sales that funding geno//des and mass vio/ence across the planet, from Kashmir to Congo to Artsakh Armenians, very personal to me) is precisely the money NOT spent on housing, education, food, arts and cultural access here in Skid Row neighborhood and in every neighborhood across u.s. empire. The mainstream reason given for funding this geno//de–namely safety of J3ws–is completely bogus, as articulated by anti-z/on/st J3w/sh orgs from J3w/sh Voice for Peace here to groups the world over: z/on/ism is an anti-sem/t/c settler colonial European imperialist project and at the heart of jeopardizing safety of J3ws everywhere. Within collective liberation framework–against all systems of oppression and for all the people–the work for Free Pa//stine = Liberation for Everyone!
My silence, Your silence, Our silence about the geno//de in Pa/es//ne is directly deepening every racial, gender, economic inequality and oppression in our so called united states, and weakening struggles against all geno//des and economic/social mass vio/ence, from Congo to Kashmir to Artsakh to Tigray and beyond.
And arts and culture and creativity are integral both to coming together and not being silent!
– Recourses, readings, actions to take in solidarity with Pa/es//ne: bit.ly/FATIMASOLIDARITY
– A good starting point for Indigenous orgs in Turtle Island: Red Nation, as well as more locally in Tongva Land (aka Los Angeles) – Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy
dwb ONLINE:
1) Doodles without Borders (dwb) is now on Instagram / Facebook.
2) There is a monthly dwb Skid Row Community & Arts Calendar. If you do community strengthening work in Skid Row and know of an event/meeting that should be on there, please share.
3) Latest addition – dwb wishlist! You can find it here: bit.ly/dwbwishlist
Why support storage of Skid Row artist work?
Support Artwork Storage as a Human Right (and Collective Responsibility)
A shameless plug asking for your support of Community Arts Depot, a sister project addressing the vital need for artwork storage and access focused on Skid Row neighborhood members and residents.
Artwork Storage as a Human Right – a glimpse from the Community Arts Depot story.
UPDATE: We received a mini-grant from Skid Row Arts Alliance as well as a grant from CCI which will help to cover rent, insurance, and other expenses, many thanks to both groups!! And to all the individuals who have supported and continue to support us; we could not have gotten here without you!!! More details to come in the coming months, including possible additional resources we may be able to expand! We still continue to need support as this project’s sustainability is wholly dependent on grassroots support. To donate to the campaign click HERE!
Quote of the month / incantation for 2024
“It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.”
– Thomas Sankara, socialist revolutionary, president of Burkina Faso 1983-1987, until his assassination supported by the Western capitalist imperialism
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For previous newsletter(s), go to www.doodleswithoutborders.com homepage
Community Artivism 