Image: Fragment from a drawing for the “Artists against Art-Washing: aiding and abetting unhoused communities” flyer, even happening this Sat, March 1, 4-7:30pm at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
Kind light / Բարի լույս* to you, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and doodles w/o borders,
*morning greeting in Armenian translates as “kind light” (բարի լույս [baree looys])
UPDATE: Doodles Table at General Jeff Park will go on break after Thursday, March 13th, and will return in May, on Tuesdays 4:30-6pm, restarting Tuesday, May 6th, 4:30-6pm!
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, March 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join
- Sat, Mar 1: 4-7:30pm: ARTISTS AGAINST ART-WASHING: aiding and abetting unhoused communities @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Sat and Sun, Mar 1-2, 11am-5pm: LA Zine Fest at Broad Museum (get FREE tix)
- Thur, March 6, 6pm: Women Leading Change by Skid Row Coalition @ STAR Apartments
- Fri, March 7, 7pm: “Marcel the Shell with Shoes on” MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum
- Fri, Mar 14, 5-7pm: Arts Jam Open Mic @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
- Fri, Mar 21, 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
- Fri, Mar 21 @ 7pm – The Liberatory Living Room as part of Tents and Tenants exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Fri, Mar 28, 5-7:30: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dep’t Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Fri, Mar 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 (Regular museum hours are Thur, Fri, Sat 2-5pm)
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
It’s Not a Holy War
About a year ago I read a poem at a local open mic by Pa/estinian poet Rafeef Ziadah called “We Teach Life, Sir” written back in 2011 or earlier, about Pa/estinian resistance to /srae/i geno//dal violence. It was well received, but the person who went after me commented–I know in good faith, but as if to say that this is nothing we can influence or change (and repeating the erroneous view that it’s “a religious feud”, and that its supposedly been going on for hundreds or thousands of years)–“it’s a holy war.”
So I wrote this poem as a response.
There is no holy war,
What happens there is deeply connected to
what happens here.
What happens there IS what happens here.
There is no holy war,
There is only unholy discrimination, oppression, dispossession, and lots of death,
In the name of… no, not God. But starts with a G and ends with D nonetheless.
In the name of Greed,
Entitlement to land, to so called “private property”,
at the expense of fellow human beings
and
at the expense of respectful, loving, joyful relationship with nature and in nature.
May all who have perished be remembered, honored, and defended.
There is no holy war,
there are no conspiracy theories that outweigh
The things right in front of us.
Everything,
that is standing in the way
of our liberation
is right in front of us.
Capitalism,
White Supremacy,
Imperialism,
Patriarchy.
Thank you bell hooks.
Capitalism
gives birth to ableism,
Gives birth to toxic individualism,
Gives birth to property rights
Above
responsibility to people and nature.
Gives birth to glorified greed and backstabbing,
Exploiting our need to survive
To convince
some of us that capitalism is right…
In the name of Father, and Son, and the holy spirit – capitalism!
Capitalism Gives birth to thinking that there is nothing beyond capitalism.
But there is.
***
White supremacy
gives birth to dehumanization,
Gives birth to anti-Blackness,
Gives birth to colorism,
Gives birth to whiteness as property.
White supremacy hijacks the souls and
Steals the humanity of all those who benefit from whiteness,
Weaponizes it in order to try to destroy Black, Indigenous, Brown, immigrant,
ALL humanity.
Fails, fails, FAILS, at this task miserably, but brings enormous suffering and violence in the process.
White Supremacy gives birth to thinking that there is nothing beyond white supremacy.
But there is.
***
Patriarchy gives birth to misogyny,
Gives birth to queerantagonism and transphobia,
Gives birth to compulsory hetero-normativity.
Much like white supremacy,
Steals the humanity of all those who benefit from patriarchy.
Patriarchy hijacks masculinity and uses it as a tool of oppression.
Gives birth to thinking that there is nothing beyond patriarchy.
But there is.
***
Imperialism gives birth to a God-given, I mean Greed-given
“right” to try to destroy peoples and cultures,
Imperialism
Gives birth to modern militarism,
Gives birth to military industrial complex,
Gives birth to the modern geno//dal structures rooted in the nation state formation,
Gives birth to European settler colonies of so-called united states, so-called canada, so-called australia, so-called new zealand, so-called argentina, numerous others, and the more recent addition – so-called state of /srae/. All of them in deep collaboration with European nation states and in service of global capitalism, with u.s. empire calling the shots.
No religious, cultural, or human value is more important to imperialism,
then capitalism,
and its own hegemony.
Imperialism Gives birth to thinking that there is nothing beyond imperialism.
But there is.
***
It is important to name these systems of oppression, so they cannot hide.
Thank you Paulo Freire.
To start being abolitionist
means to imagine all the abundance, and love, and joy that the world can hold, so that prisons will not be necessary.
To keep being abolitionist
is to never forget what we are abolishing, lest the powers that be
trick us into thinking that a little better conditions in the prisons is abolitionist,
That a little higher pay for life-sucking exploitation is abolitionist,
That free pizza from the blood drenched mayor’s office or [even or especially when our rep is now nice] council district 14 is abolitionist.
Our struggle is joyful, and Loving, and communal,
ONLY joyfully, lovingly, and communally can we keep and grow our collective work.
Because joy is liberating and anti-capitalist
Love is liberating and anti-american
And community is liberating and anti-colonial.
The struggle for collective liberation has a place for everyone,
Because from Black LA’s Skid Row neighborhood to Haiti, to Armenian Artsakh and to Palestine,
None of us are free until all of us are free.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“what the birds know is the way home
it begins with a door that cannot find its
own name
the bird who stitches the last sky
must sing the name into existence
and the door opens into the burning of the world…”
– beginning of “Last Sky World Burn”
by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi
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.
…
For previous newsletter(s), go to www.doodleswithoutborders.com homepage
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Community Artivism 