^{Image: 2024 Walk the Talk honorees, celebrating visionaries, artists, activists of Skid Row neighborhood. Portraits by Hayk Makhmuryan, arranged by him in a way to reveal an image of the Pa/est¡nian flag. May 2024}

Kind morning /Բարի լույս* to you, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and of doodles without borders,
*the morning greeting in Armenian translates as “kind morning” (բարի լույս [baree looys])
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Post highlights: (1) Events/Activities in and near Skid Row, (2) Thoughts Aloud – Local to Global, (3) Quote of the Month.

HIGHLIGHTS in and near SKID ROW, June 2024
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join
Friday, June 7, 7pm, Movie Night at LA poverty department‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)

Sat, June 8, 11a-4pm: Afro-futurist Ancestor Masks & Fans workshop , led by LA Commons @ LA Central Library

Wed, June 12, 6p – MOVIE in the PARK @General Jeff  or San Julian Park

Fri, June 14, 5-7pm: Arts Jam Open Mic @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)

Sat, June 15, 10:30a-3p: Juneteenth Celebration at CA African-American Museum (near Figueroa/ Exposition)

Tues, June 18, 10:30a-12pm: Creative Writing @ Skid Row Museum

Wed, June 19, 1-5pm – JUNETEENTH with Sir Oliver at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)

Friday, June 21, 12-3pm – Marketplace at LACAN (838 E 6th St)

Friday, June 21, 7pm: Movie Night at Skid Row Museum

Sat, Jun 22, 10a-12p: Parables Convening: an Octavia Butler Celebration at LA Central Library

Friday, June 28, 5-7:30pm, Open Mic with Lorinda @ Skid Row Museum

Fri, June 28, Dusk: Movie Night by StopLAPDSpying coalition in front of LAPD headquarters

To view or print the full monthly calendar, go to doodleswithoutborders.com/calendar

SAVE THE DATE
August 8 or 9: Opening Reception of the Windows of Bronze Little Tokyo project, Skid Row and Little Tokyo shared past, present, and future.

ONGOING
1) “Welcome to Covid Hotel” at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway) until December 2024
2) “Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West” at Wende Museum in Culver City, including a number of Skid Row neighborhood artists is up until September 2024. Entrance is Free. Fri-Sun 10a-5p (10808 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230)

OPEN MICS as places to come together, and plant seeds of collective struggle.
There are at least FOUR open mics currently in Skid Row neighborhood:
Weekly – (1) every Thurs, 6:30-9pm at Peace and Healing Center (116 E 5th)
Monthly – 
2) every second Friday of the month, 5-7pm, at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
3) every third Friday, 12-3pm as part of LACAN‘s Marketplace (838 E 6th St)
4) every last Friday, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)
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THOUGHTS ALOUD
NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY AS RESISTANCE
Last month in Skid Row neighborhood included the Walk the Talk parade and Come Together and the unveiling of the General Jeff Mural at the Skid Row park now named after him. In other words, taking community (and you know we don’t use the word “community” lightly here at Doodles; community as inherently anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, among other things) control and care of a more and more visible Skid Row neighborhood identity through arts and cultural work!
Skid Row Neighborhood …Pride! …Art and Music Legacy! …Vision! …Archives! …Open Mics! …Creating Justice! …Harm Reduction! …Roots, Culture and African diaspora!
It was an absolute honor to be the community coordinator for the mural project, and above all, to make the portraits for this year’s honorees, all of whom I’ve known for many years! I think of these portraits as a mini-series, and the collective title for them in my mind is “We Already Are”, an homage to a short essay by So California Library’s Yusef Omowale, who talks from the Black/ African diasporan perspective rooted in Black radical tradition, and in the process gets at the heart of a collective liberation framework for everyone.
An LA Times article also highlighted all the honorees and asked me about the portraits:”Each of the portraits has a map of Skid Row neighborhood — 3rd to 7th and Alameda to Main — and then zooms in on one part and imagines, for instance, a street being named after Gary Brown. The work that happens in the Skid Row neighborhood is not in a vacuum. It’s part of the larger work. It’s important when we make global connections — there is a genocide happening in Pa/est¡ne now — to ask how it is related. Because actually, it is related to things that happen that are sometimes very local. One direct way is that the money that’s not going to places like the Skid Row neighborhood is going overseas to bombs.”
#SkidRowConnected = Free Pa/est¡ne = Free Skid Row = loving, caring, joyful collective liberation work
 

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) dwb wishlist!  You can find it here: bit.ly/dwbwishlist 

Able and interested to SUPPORT Doodles?
Support Artwork Storage as a Human Right (and Collective Responsibility)
Community Arts Depot is 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. This project’s sustainability is deeply dependent on grassroots support.  To donate to the campaign click HERE!
Email us for donating directly via Venmo, Paypal, or other ways.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Every month in u.s. imperial calendar is yet another oppressed minority month. Is yet another way that the system works tirelessly to co-opt and integrate. And invariably there are voices pushing against this cooptation. June is Pride Month, LGBTQIA+ Month, and it is no different.

[We are] “…living in a historical moment in which the conservative anxiety and despair about queers bringing down civilization and its institutions… is met by the anxiety and despair so many queers feel about the failure or incapacity of queerness to bring down civilization and its institutions, and their frustration with the assimilationist, unthinkingly neoliberal bent of the mainstream GLBTQ+ movement…
…[Y]ou can be victimized and in no way be radical; it happens very often among homosexuals as with every other oppressed minority. (Leo Bersani). This is not a devaluation of queerness. It is a reminder: if we want to do more than claw our way into repressive structures, we have our work cut out for us.”
― Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts

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For previous newsletter(s), go to www.doodleswithoutborders.com homepage

For this Newsletter in full: https://mailchi.mp/cfbfee263946/walk-the-talk-roots-may2024

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