^{IImage: “We… Rebel now” banner from Skid Row neighborhood’s 10th Annual Bob Marley Day celebration (Feb 6, 2025) by Sir Oliver and Sir Oliver Productions}

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])}

NOTE: Doodles Table at General Jeff Park is on break and will return on Tuesday, May 6, 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, April 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

1. Thur, April 3: 7pm: Mutual Aid Across LA @ All Power Books (4749 W Adams –  CONNECT ACROSS TOWN!)
2. Fri, April 4, 7pm: Everything Everywhere all at Once + Q&A w/ directors! @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
3. Fri, April 11, 5pm: OPENING OF Studio 526 “Walk with Me” exhibit at Skid Row Museum
4. Mon, Apr 14, 7p: What Was Liberalism – public talk @ Skid Row Museum
5. Fri, April 18, 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
6. Fri, April 25, 5-7:30: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dep’t Skid Row Museum
7. Fri, April 25, 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
Walk with Me exhibit by Studio526 @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), OPENS on Fri, April 11, 5pm
(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

Let’s make it socially unacceptable…

These days all I can think about are the work of local groups and larger networks of mutual support that explicitly tie their work to larger working class centering power building goals.
To this end, a section from an unfinished poem and a paragraph from an old but periodically updated text on Use of Language in Skid Row:

Let’s make it socially
Unacceptable to see a liberated future 
unless it includes
Disassembling 
and recreating 
this country 
in the image 
of its liberation struggles.
I want to see a liberated Turtle Island,

Rooted in Indigenous liberation movements, Black radical tradition, abolitionist feminism,
And the struggles of all working class, liberation-minded people.

People who know that identity politics without class consciousness is the violence of neoliberalism,
Class consciousness without identity politics is a willful contradiction at best,
But class consciousness and identity politics together 
give us a glimpse of Free Pa/ est /ine, of a liberated Artsakh,
give us a glimpse of collective liberation.
_____

Locally and globally, working-class oppressed people led, collective liberation struggles already align with Skid Row. Our common struggle must be to find ways to cultivate, grow and defend spaces where the need for universal protections for all basic human needs is the baseline. For each person’s individual responsibility to align with the collective responsibility to build power that will extend this baseline to the entire world.

---

QUOTE OF THE MONTH / PAIRINGS

“It’s important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps [us] from doing [our collective] work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. …Somebody says that you have no art so you dredge that up. … None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing.” 
– Toni Morrison
Data Fix-ation zine by StopLAPDSpying starts with this quote, and inspired using it as one of the quotes
Audio and transcription of full speech from which the quote comes.

“Pay it no mind.”
– Marsha P. Johnson
Bio statement about Marsha


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

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.