Image: “FOR ALL” an unfinished Doodles banner started at 16th Annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists, Oct 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])
Post highlights: (1) Events/Activities in and near Skid Row, (2) Thoughts Aloud – Local to Global, (3) Quote of the Month.
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HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood, November 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join
UPDATE 1: EXTENDED!!! – Scratching the Surface: 40 Years of Visual Arts in Skid Row (rooted in part in the artwork stored by our sister org Community Arts Depot) at Skid Row Museum has been extended through Saturday, November 22!
UPDATE 2: Doodles Table at General Jeff Park will be away on Tue, Nov 4, and returns on Tue, Nov 11 with a new time: 3-4:30pm.
- Sat and Sun, Nov 1-2: 11am-8pm: Dia De Los Muertos at Olvera Street Plaza (across Alameda from Union Station)
- Friday, Nov 7 , 7pm: Movie Night at LA Poverty Dep’t ‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
- Fri, Nov 14,5-7pm: Arts Jam at Studio526
- Fri, Nov 21, 12-3pm, Marketplace at LACAN (838 E 6th)
- Fri, Nov 21, 7pm: Movie Night at Skid Row Museum
- Tue, Nov 25, 1030-12: Creative Writing at Skid Row Museum
- Thur, Nov 27: Day of Coming Together in Remembrance, and (Collective Celebration of) Resistance to “Thanksgiving” as Settler- Colonial Revisionism of historic and ongoing geno//dal policies against Indigenous peoples of occupied Turtle Island (aka continental u.s. empire)
- Fri, Nov 28, Dusk: Movie Night by StopLAPDSpying coalition in front of LAPD headquarters (check their instagram for more info)
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
Exhibit: Scratching the Surface: 40 years of visual art in Skid Row open at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway) and EXTENDED through Nov 22nd. 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 FOUR regularopen mics currently in Skid Row:
Weekly – (1) every Thurs, 6:30-9pm at Peace and Healing Center (116 E 5th)
Monthly – (2) every 2nd Friday, 5-7pm, at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St); (3) 3rd Fridays 11a-2p: BuckFest at 5th/San Pedro by Urban Voices Project, (4) every last Friday of the month, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)
THOUGHTS ALOUD
A REWRITING OF KNOWLEDGE*
Poems and stories about the hills and valleys and rivers of occupied Tovaangar (also known as Los Angeles) exist in the thousands in local Indigenous languages: remembered, forgotten, re-membered. The knowledge of their existence is part of decentering this language I’m typing in; or bypassing it altogether.
As an Armenian in these lands, perhaps I can scratch the surface of this feeling by pouring my love of Armenian Highlands and Armenian language into the love I’ve developed for the geography of Tovaangar over the past 26 years.
Արևելքից ու հյուսիսից`
Լեռնաշղթաները,
Արևմուտքից ու հարավից`
Օվկյանոսը,
Գրկում են մեր լայն հովիտները:
(From sunriseside and hyusis- /mountain ranges; /from sunsetside and haraf- /the ocean, /hug the wide valleys)
Արևմտյան գետը,
սողում ա ծովամերձ լեռների հյուսիսային կողմը շոյելով,
հոսում արևելք սեփական բերանը փնտրելու ճանապարհին,
Գտնում լեռնաշղթայի ծայրն ու թեքվում հարավ,
դեպի անծայրածիր օվկյանոսը:
(Paayme Paxaayt /flows by and brushes the hyusis side of the oceanside range,/ goes towards sunrise in search of its own mouth,/ finds the end of the range and turns haraf,/ to the endless ocean)
* * *
Թովաանգար: Թթո…ով..վան…գար: [Tovaangar. Tto… ov..van…gar]
Թթով ո՞վ: [ttov ov?] (someone with mulberries?)
Ո՞վ Վան գար: [ov Van gar?] (who to return to Van?)
Ան… գա՜ր: [an… gar!] (if only) they… would return!)
Ա՛ն` քար: [an! qar] (here, take this stone!) (Վերձրու քար)
Թթով վանք առ: [ttov vanq ar] (take (back) the mulberry monastery)
Թովանք առ: [tovanq ar]
Take [this] charm, delight, merriment. / Become fully engulfed, ecstatic
Թ(ը)վանք առ: [tvanq ar]
Թովանք քար: [tovanq qar]
(This) charming, captivating stone.
(This) charming, captivating rocky land.
Թթ(ո)Վանք գ/ք-ար առ: [tt(o)Vanq g/q-ar ar]
Here, take (this) stone, let it engulf you, return, and take back the mulberry monastery.
*thank you Sylvia Wynter
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“…critique is not a rupture of solidarity but a condition of its possibility. …[W]ords carry the weight of an empire. But they also carry the possibility of return. That possibility depends on our willingness to trace [the words] back to the people, the places, and the politics from which they came from, and to ask what responsibilities we inherit when we speak and write.”
– Sinthujan Varatharajah in “Publishing as Solidarity: Personal Reflections on the Funambulist’s Political Project” in Funambulist N°61
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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Community Artivism 