^{Image: Fragment from a “Working Class United…” t-shirt from Doodles without Borders, March 2025}

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])}

Happy International Workers’ Day! Apologies for a belated email, and hope that you found your way to participate in May Day activities wherever you are. 
ALSO: Doodles weekly Arts Table will restart next week, and will be on Tuesdays, 4:30-6pm, at General Jeff Park.

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

1. TONIGHT: Sat, May 3, 5-9pm: Songs of Liberation with Another Adam Smith at the Other LAPD’s 🙂 Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), music starts at 7pm.
2. Tue, May 6, 4:30-6p: Doodles w/o Borders weekly Arts Table IS BACK! @ General Jeff  Prk
3. Fri, May 9, 5-7pm ARTS JAM @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
4. Fri, May 16, 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
5. Fri, May 16, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
6. Sat, May 17, 2p-6p – People’s Kite Fest @ LA Historic State Park
7. Fri, May 30, 5-7:30: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dep’t Skid Row Museum
8. Fri, May 30, 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)
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)

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THOUGHTS ALOUD

Starting Points

Edited and translated fragment from the introduction section of a recent Doodles Without Borders related presentation and zine workshop at the FemLibrary in Yerevan, Armenia.

I only have one person’s experience, with its inherent limitations. 
So as a starting point to the Starting Points, (1) who am I, why am I talking (WAIT) and (2) who are my people?

(1) who am I, why am I talking
A working-class person, a tenant with no generational wealth or homeowner family to drop back on, a descendant of survivors of genoc/des, growing up in a post-Soviet country at war, emigrant from Armenia (i.e. South West Asia, SWANA region, so-called Middle East) to the occupied Tovaangar, Turtle Island (aka Los Angeles, u.s. empire); as well as a non-Black, non-woman, non-trans person living in a capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist, settler-colonial, imperialist country with a singularly devastating global influence. 

I move through the world as a cis-hetero man. In other words, I benefit from many privileges under the mu/derous patriarchal system. 
I want to point out two privileges, which inevitably remain (even among the most progressive or revolutionary beneficiaries) until patriarchy or any other oppressive system is disassembled and replaced:

First is not knowing (or cluelessness, ignorance). That is, as long as an oppressive system still exists, being a representative of the dominant group means that it INDISPENSABLY limits your ability to understand the human experience of the oppressed group. The oppressive system literally requires your de-humanization from universal human experience in order to function. Cultivated not-knowing is a tool for invisibilizing the vio/ence against oppressed people and groups (poor people, women, queer and trans people, inferiorized immigrants, disabled people, etc.). 
Actively contributing to the work of dismantling the oppressive systems whose “protected identities” we carry is the only means to fight against the cluelessness they require of us.

Second is unearned authority. That is, patriarchy (or any oppressive system) bestows its beneficiaries with an authority–direct or indirect– that has nothing to do with any actual merit.
As long as any oppressive system exists, a beneficiary of that system should always be treated with at least some level of suspicion (perhaps to be understood as a practice of collective care). And any feeling of “unfairness” that the beneficiary may feel, they should take out on working to dismantle those systems of oppression.

One of the ways I try to account for both my privileges and oppressions is by working to align with abolitionist over reformist practices and end goals, and contributing to collective liberation struggles led from the peripheries.

(2) Who are my people? (a nod to Ella Baker for first introducing me to the importance of this practice)
Just a few categories from what could be a very long list, and could also start with listing of ancestors:

• The working class, 
• Tenants,
• Those who question the violence of heteronormativity, and point it out as violence,
• Locally: people of Yerevan, of Yerrord Mas and Zeytun neighborhoods; also people of Glendale, Skid Row, Los Angeles region,
• Regionally and globally: people of Armenia, of Artsakh, people of South West Asia, of Global South and of borderlands,
• Immigrants for social and economic reasons; 
• the Armenian diaspora and all diasporas and diasporans
• People who experienced/ are experiencing or are directly affected by genocide
• Etc.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“I am not one of those who romanticize struggle for its own sake.
I want to win. I actually want to win.”

– Vijay Prashad of Tricontinental, speaking at the Washington Bullets episode of Upstream podcast, where he’s quoted from his interview on Guerrila History podcast


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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