Image: The first banner naming and describing the workImage: Fragment from mind map summary of Mar 2025 “Artists Against Artwashing: aiding and abetting unhoused communities” gathering and discussion at Skid Row Museum, published in u.s. Dept of Arts and Culture. Groups and organizations from this effort are now unsurprisingly in the front lines of pushback against ICE raids.
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])
SICK OF ICE – Tuesday, July 1, call in sick and join the community strike and a local action/ gathering near you!
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, July 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join
- Tuesday, July 1, SICK OF ICE Day of Actions across Los Angeles and across the country
- Fri, July 4: A day that reminds us that all empires have a time when they start and a time when they end.
- Wed, July 9, 6pm: Movie night at the Park (General Jeff Memorial (Gladys) Park)
- Fri, July 11, 5-7pm ARTS JAM @ Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
- Sat, July 12, 5-7pm: Opening of Walk the Talk 2014-2024 exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Tue, July 15, 1030-12, Creative Writing @ Skid Row Museum
- Fri, July 18, 12-3pm Marketplace at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
- Friday 7/18, 3-5pmFILM LOVER TO FILMMAKER CLASS with Adam F. Johns
- Fri, July 18, 7pm: Movie night at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Fri, July 25, 5-7:30: Open Mic @ LA Poverty Dep’t Skid Row Museum
- Fri, July 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)
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
L.A. RESISTANCE AND COMMUNITY SELF-DEFENSE
In early June, waves of massively vio/ent, unidentified, masked, anti-human racists with guns, calling themselves “federal agents,” started descending on LA, kidnapping our neighbors (before you say the word “illegal”, here’s a primer on legality), be it at work, near our homes, out of cars, out of hospitals. (To be clear, mu/derous anti-human vio/ence has been here for a long time, more hidden from mainstream in some cases, and largely “normalized” against unhoused and particularly vulnerable categories of working class, Black and Brown, queer and trans, and all manner of oppressed people.) Meanwhile the 77 year geno//dal vio/ence in occupied Pa/es/ine has intensified even more this month, facilitated and funded by u.s. along with the apartheid state of is/ae/, with the addition of attacks on Iran (tacitly supported by tu/key and aze/baijan). The deep, bloodthirsty vio/ence of using–for mass mu/der across the world–the very funds that are kept from going to housing, healthcare, and food access in Skid Row, across all of occupied Tovaangar (LA region), and around the country.
Horrifying, but not new: a microcosm of u.s. empire’s entire history.
And LA pushed back. From organizing Community Self-Defense to vendor buyouts to thinking creatively, and inviting artists into the work, from Day 1 there is resistance and push back against this imperial vio/lence on exploited workers in its interior. Resistance and protest looks differently for different people, and regardless of where you’re comfortable plugging in (and there is place for everyone!), we must remember that the last thing we want to do is deputize ourselves to police our friends and neighbors in “right or wrong” type of resistance against the machine of state vio/ence that is and has been vicious for years, decades, centuries.
From LGBTQ+ Pride Month to Juneteenth events, and all types of gatherings and celebrations used their organizing power to include push back against ICE raids. The goals of resistance are to protect our people, to diminish the harm to targeted people as much as possible, whether it be by delaying agents of state vio/ence, preemptively notifying communities of their presence, and making it clear that ICE agents are pariahs in our neighborhoods.
From community patrols to community defense centers (like this one in Glendale, there are centers like these everywhere) and to No Sleep for Ice campaigns, from Union del Barrio to LA Tenants Union (and their call for community strike on July 1 and associated DEMANDS!) and beyond, organizations and resident groups come together, show that leftist anti-capitalist organizing is where we find community and love (let’s make leftist organizing irresistible!), and invite you to join us!
These strategies and practices did not just spring up, but are the result of decades of organizing rooted in learning from history, from Watts Rebellion and Chicano Moratorium in the 60s and 70s, Union del Barrio’s 40 years of work, to Cop Watch (LACAN Skid Row roots!), Tenant Unions, and Power Ups.
Organizing with “we are the only ones who will save us” and “each one, teach one” frameworks in mind.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“How do we want to remember the people who lost their lives in freedom struggles? … This would be my wish: …I would be happy, if we were more critical about the reality that we have inherited, and less celebratory about a reality we dont even grasp. Because we [are not even willing to] look at the terror baked into the architecture of the state.“
– Joy James in New Bones Abolition and the Function of the Captive Maternal with Joy James (part 1) and “I Do Not Have to Apologize for Reality” – Joy James on Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon (part 2) of Millenials are Killing Capitalism 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!
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For previous newsletter(s), go to www.doodleswithoutborders.com homepage
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Community Artivism 