^{Image: Doodles attempt at an (iron transfer) t-shirt, using an Oct 2023 banner. Full image is titled Organized Working Class en route to Collective Liberation and can be seen here.}

Kind light / Բարի լույս* to you, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and of doodles without borders,
^{*morning greeting in Armenian translates as “kind light” (բարի լույս [baree looys])}

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 neighborhood, February 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

1. Sat, Feb 1: 5pm: EXHIBIT OPENING: Tents and Tenants: After Echo Park Lake @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
2. Thur, Feb 6, 5pm: 10th Annual Bob Marley Day Celebration by Sir Oliver. At Skid Row Museum  (250 S Broadway)
3. Thur, Feb 6, 6pm: SRCIC’s Black History Month celebration @ STAR Apartments (240 E 6th St)
4. Fri, Feb 7, 7pm: “Earth Mama” MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
5. Sat, Feb 8, 5pm –  The Giving: there is a history of the streets: Screening + panel discussion at LACAN (838 E 6th)
6. Fri, Feb 14, 5-7pm: Arts Jam Open Mic @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
7. Sat, Feb 15, 10a-2p: 25th Annual Skid Row neighborhood’s Black History Celebration at San Julian Park.
8. Tue, Feb 18, 10:30am-12noon, Creative Writing at Skid Row Museum
9. Fri, Feb 21, 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
10. Fri, Feb 21 @ 7pm – Tenants in the Streets panel discussion at Skid Row Museum.
11. Fri, Feb 28, 5-7:30: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dep’t Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
12. Fri, Feb 28, Dusk: Movie Night by StopLAPDSpying coalition in front of LAPD headquarters (check their instagram for more info)
    
    To view or print the full monthly calendar, go to doodleswithoutborders.com/calendar

Pa/est/ine + Skid Row Actions: some places to find local downtown LA and nearby actions that make local Skid Row to global connections: Pal Youth Movement – LA, Organize – LA, StopLAPDSpying, LACAN

SAVE THE DATE / ONGOING
Tents and Tenants: After Echo Park Lake @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), February 1 to March 31, 2025

OPEN MICS as places to come together, and plant seeds of collective struggle.
There are at least THREE 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 last Friday, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)

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THOUGHTS ALOUD
in • դի • vi • դու • էլի • sm
in [dee] vi [doo] [e-LEE] sm

wordoodles without borders | Armenian-English

դի [dee] ֊ dead body, corpse
դու [doo] ֊ you
էլի [e-lee] ֊ again

        Individualism: a system that produces դի֊s (corpses), էլի (again) and էլի (again), with դու (you) at the center, disattached from collective responsibility or care, and celebrated for it, until դու (you) are the next դի (corpse).

        Individualism: one of the most destructive tools of (neo-)liberalism: the deliberate ideology of pitting people against each other, competing with each other, and blaming each other for systemic oppressions: capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, white supremacy.

        In that sense, any gathering has anti-capitalist potential. Any gathering is an opportunity to expose the terrible violence of these systems.

        Any gathering is an opportunity to remember that there is only one inherent right we have: the right to collective struggle. The protection of human needs, nature, connection to land, and a dignified life are predicated on assuming responsibility for collective, caring, permanent struggle.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“…there is also the FEAR question. …One of the things that we talk a lot about is that in the FEAR there is also the DEMAND.
The person who is afraid of not paying rent, does not want to pay rent.
The person who is afraid of not paying rent, is angry because they have to pay rent.
The person who is afraid of not paying rent, is terribly angry because the housing conditions are not the conditions that they want. …
How do we… change the fear, and focus on the anger and the frustration? The Tenants Union is the one that provides that space.”

– Leonardo Vilchis in Abolish Rent w/ Leonardo V and Tracy Rothenthal on The Dig podcast, January 2025

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.

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

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Image: “¡Para Todos Todo! (For Everyone Everything!)” banner (edited), from 2022, a nod to the Zapatistas, to autonomy, and to abolitionist politics. When the Zapatistas say ¡Ya Basta! / Enough! / Բո՜լ ա, it is a call for unity, and for collective work towards collective liberation.

Wishing you a New Year filled with favors and sacred 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 “[May you have] a New Year filled with favors / (sacred) gifts” (Շնորհավոր նոր տարի [Shnorha-VOR nor ta-REE])
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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, January 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

1. Thursday, Jan 2nd, 3-4:30pm – First weekly Doodles Arts Table of the year. At General Jeff Memorial Park
2. Fri, Jan 10, 5-7pm: Arts Jam Open Mic @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
3. Fri, Jan 17, 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
4. Fri, Jan 17, 7pm, Movie Night at Skid Row Museum
5. Tue, Jan 21, 10:30am-12noon, Creative Writing at Skid Row Museum
6. Fri, Jan 31, 5-7pm: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dept Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
7. Fri, Jan 31, Dusk: Movie Night by StopLAPDSpying coalition in front of LAPD headquarters (check their instagram to confirm and for more info)
8. Sat, Feb 1: Opening of “Tents and Tenants: after Echo Park Lake” exhibit at Skid Row Museum
   
   To view or print the full monthly calendar, go to doodleswithoutborders.com/calendar

Pa/est/ine + Skid Row Actions: some places to find local downtown LA and nearby actions that make local Skid Row to global connections: Pal Youth Movement – LA, Organize – LA, StopLAPDSpying, LACAN

SAVE THE DATE
February 1, 2025 – opening of new Skid Row Museum exhibit
February 6, 2025 – 10 Year Anniversary Annual Bob Marley Day with Sir Oliver! @ Skid Row Museum
February 2025 – Look out for information about 25th Annual Skid Row Black History Celebration, check UCEPP page on IG for more info

ONGOING

OPEN MICS as places to come together, and plant seeds of collective struggle.
There are at least THREE 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 last Friday, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)
…

THOUGHTS ALOUD
A•ԲՈԼ•ITION – a[bol]ition
բոլ [bol] – abundant; enough, that’s enough!
wordoodles without borders | Arm-Eng

Aբոլitionist politic is when love for the world is so abundant, makes it obvious that all comforts of individualized life under today’s oppressive systems is always at the cost of others’ suffering.

Aբոլitionist politic says: enough of this. No more.
No more rent.
No more prisons.
No more vio/ence of capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, colonialism, wt supremacy, and all the fear and hatred of difference–from anti-Black to anti-trans to anti-poor–these systems feed on.
No more exploitation of people, land, and any part of nature.

Aբոլitionist politic makes it abundantly clear: “none of us are free until all of us are free” is a lifelong collective practice. And it’s hard; keeping in mind everyone’s humanity in day-to-day organizing practices is hard, but essential to liberation work.
With permission to be imperfect in good faith.

To a collectivist, aբոլitionist 2025!

To see the full newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/3000896c5b2d/january2025


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 – PAIRINGS

“Instead of doing to settler society what they did to us–geno//ding, removing, excluding–there is a capaciousness to Indigenous resistance movements that welcomes in non-Indigenous peoples into our struggle, because our primary strength is that of relationality, one of making kin.” 
– Nick Estes, The Red Nation Movement, speaking on Democracy Now

“Had Pa/estinians not resisted, their story would have concluded… and they would have disappeared.”
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud, ” ‘The Essence of being Pa/estinian’: what the Great March of Return is really about“

“The LandBack movement is less about a mass real estate transaction that it is about sovereignty, recognition of treaties, and, ultimately, the abolition of united states’ concept of real estate altogether.”
– B. “Toastie” Oaster at bit.ly/LandBackQuestions

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To see the full newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/3000896c5b2d/january2025
For previous newsletter(s), go to www.doodleswithoutborders.com homepage

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