Image: Collaborative “Black LA’s Skid Row Neighborhood” (36×60) view of General Jef Park banner created during Music Center’s Easy Mornings at Gloria Molina’s Grand Park event (April 2026)

Kind light / Բարի լույս* to you, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and doodles without borders,
^{*morning greeting in Armenian translates as “kind light” (բարի լույս [baree looys])}

Reply/Reach out if you are interested/planning to participate in the May Day march and/or rally tomorrow (May 1st). There will be an Armenian Working Class group, and potentially a Skid Row neighborhood working class group marching with respective Doodles banners!

Post highlights: (1) Events/Activities in and near Skid Row, (2) Thoughts Aloud, (3) Quote of the Month.
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***SUPPORT Doodles by supporting Arts Depot*** 
1) TWO T-SHIRTS ARE HERE! Doodles and Arts Depot journey into swag has begun:) Get one by donating $30 or more to Community Arts Depot
2) Become a sustaining member at $5/month or more (or donate once $50 or more) & get an exclusive t-shirt and art print or wordoodle of your choice.
____________________________________________________

HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood, May 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

1. TOMORROW: Fri, May 1, 10am: MAY DAY MARCH from MacArthur Park. 12noon – MAY DAY RALLY at LA City Hall
2. Sun, May 3, 11a-3p: Mother’s Day Event at General Jeff Park
3. Fri, May 8, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
4.  Sat, May 9, 2-6p – People’s Kite Fest @ LA Historic State Park
5. Fri, May 15 – Nakba Day: for local events/gatherings, check instagram.com/pymlaocie
6. Fri, May 15, 10a-2p: Community Day at Care Campus and UMEYA
7. Fri, May 15, 12-3pm: Justice and Wellness Marketpalce at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
8. Fri, May 15, 7pm: NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
9.   Sat, May 16, 12-3pm: C’Mon Sing by Urban Voices across 4 locations in downtown LA
10.  Sat, May 23, 12-4pm: Walk the Talk – Skid Row neighborhood parade and performances
11. Fri, May 29, 3p: Sock Puppets + 5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
12. Fri, May 29, Dusk: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters

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
• ONGOING: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 2-5pm.
• Save the date: Juneteenth at General Jeff (Gladys) Park with Sir Oliver. Check with Skid Row Parks Board posts for specific day/time closer to the date!

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) 1st/3rd Fridays 11a-1p: BuckFest at Care Campus (442 S Crocker) by Urban Voices,  (3) every 2nd Friday, 5-7pm, at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St); (4) every last Friday of the month, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)

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THOUGHTS ALOUD

ACTION VS HISTORICIZATION
It so happens that April 24, the (2 year) anniversary of the start of the student encampments in solidarity with Palestine in LA region coincides with the (111 year) anniversary of the commemoration of Armenian genocide. 

And the students at Oxy SJP have chosen to define their relationship with *anniversary* through ACTION.
Which is against the tide of mainstream (i.e. whitestream, colonial, capitalist, patriarchal) institutional push to HISTORICIZE, to which unfortunately Armenian commemorations have mostly been relegated to in the recent decades.

Historicization often swallows and coopts entire movements, pushing us to become passive, sometimes allowing to study and reflect, may be even diagnose, but never to treat.
Taking collective action is to turn that study and diagnosis into treatment, into radicalization, into resistance.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“The colonialist bourgeoisie had hammered into the native’s mind the idea of a society of individuals where each person shuts himself up in his own subjectivity, and whose only wealth is individual thought.
Now the native who has the opportunity to return to the people during the struggle for freedom will discover the falseness of this theory… …will discover the substance of village assemblies, the cohesion of people’s committees, and the extraordinary fruitfulness of local meetings and groupments.“

– Frantz Fanon, “The Wretched of the Earth”


__________________________
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

doodles without borders is just starting to scratch the surface of our collective, abolitionist, liberatory work and I look forward to much much more together!

With much love and joyful commitment to universal equitable access to housing, healthcare, education, arts and cultural spaces, and a strong and vibrant community locally and globally, across timezones, beyond borders, 
Հայկ [hike] / Hayk

Image: Skid Row is Part of Working Class banner created during the summer of 2025

Kind light / Բարի լույս* to you, dear neighbors, artists, collaborators, community partners, co-conspirators, supporters of arts in Skid Row and doodles without 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, (3) Quote of the Month.
____________________________________________________
***SUPPORT Doodles by supporting Arts Depot*** 
1) TWO T-SHIRTS ARE HERE! Doodles and Arts Depot journey into swag has begun:) Get one by donating $30 or more to Community Arts Depot
2) Become a sustaining member at $5/month or more (or donate once $50 or more) & get an exclusive t-shirt and art print or wordoodle of your choice.
____________________________________________________

HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood, April 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

1. TODAY: Thur, April 2, 2-3:30pm: Meet and Greet BBQ at UCEPP – their new location! (522 E 6th St)
2. Fri, April 3, 6:45p: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters
3. Fri, April 3, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
4. Sat, April 4 and 18, 10a-2p –Doodles Arts Table at Easy Mornings family event at Gloria Molina’s Grand Park
5. Thur, April 9, 10-11:30a – Skid Row Arts Alliance Community Meeting @ Skid Row Museum
6. Fri, April 10, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
7. Wed, April 15, 7pm: Hotels In Crisis (Again) – PANEL DISCUSSION @ Skid Row Museum
8. Fri, April 17 – 1-3pm: Town Hall at LACAN (838 E 6th St)
9. Fri, April 17, 330-530p: Filmmaker Workshop @ Skid Row Museum
10. Fri, April 17, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
11. Sun, April 19, 1-4p: Resource Fair by Skid Row Brigade  @ General Jeff Park
12. Sun, April 19, 5pm: Rise Again Concert by Urban Voices @ Lafayette Park (615 S Lafayette Park Pl)
13. Fri, Apr 24, 3p: Sock Puppets + 5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
14. Fri, May 1 – find a MAY DAY event, march, protest near you!

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
• ONGOING: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 2-5pm.
• Save the date: May 23, Skid Row neighborhood’s Walk the Talk 2026

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) 1st/3rd Fridays 11a-1p: BuckFest at Care Campus (442 S Crocker) by Urban Voices,  (3) every 2nd Friday, 5-7pm, at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St); (4) every last Friday of the month, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)

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THOUGHTS ALOUD

This month the Thoughts Aloud section is excerpts from “Toward a Revolutionary Charter for Comprehensive Liberation” call for alignment “with the masses in their steadfast fight for liberation.” (March 2026).
Though the primary addressees of this call are Arab intellectuals, it applies to every cultural worker, public thinker, narrative shaper to find their alignment with this call, where ever you are in the world. And it is also a compass for working class revolutionary, abolitionist steadfastness in the face of reformist, destructive colonial, capitalist voices and pressures, so necessary locally in every corner of working class the world.

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Return to the Masses: A Call for Revolutionary Intellectual Alignment
Amílcar Cabral, founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, coined the concept of “returning to the source” as a call to re-root liberation in the lived reality of the people. It was not a nostalgic gesture, but a strategic imperative: for Cabral, the popular masses—their authentic culture and extraordinary willingness to sacrifice—formed the first and most essential line of resistance.
…
The Cultural Alternative of Resistance …
Democratizing knowledge and turning ideology into material force
Revolutionary ideology is not a collection of slogans. It is a framework that clarifies the geopolitical dimensions of the struggle and exposes structural exploitation, including the intersecting interests that link sectors of Arab society with imperial powers & Z/onist settler project. At the same time, resistance environments provide intellectuals with lived experience, practical knowledge and concrete facts that prevent theory from drifting into the abstractions of liberal discourse.
The shared destiny of the fighter and the intellectual transforms knowledge from an intellectual luxury into symbolic weapons that operate side-by-side with material weapons. This connection grants resistance action its historical meaning, its existential horizon and its moral legitimacy.
This charter calls for reclaiming national decision-making from elites accustomed to acting as intermediaries and agents, and returning it to the masses and the social environments that sustain resistance and shape history through their sacrifices. It is a call to move beyond the politics of begging towards the dismantling of colonial structures.
…

Full text of this call can be found here.
There is also an excellent discussion of this call to alignment (youtube link) on Psychic Militancy Podcast.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Being in community also means you realize that every every stream has its source. What do I mean by that? That our culture is important. We come from somewhere. We come from traditions. We come from a set of values that give us a road map to being in and creating community. We have to build on our cultural wisdom, values, practices, and principles”

– Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills, one of the formulators of Emotional Emancipation Healing Circles, grounded in the experiences of the Black diaspora, speaking at “Systemic Change In Action” event organized by Charles Porter as part of Cosmology and Community: Networks of Liberation exhibit in 2023 at Skid Row History Museum and Archive

__________________________
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

doodles without borders is just starting to scratch the surface of our collective, abolitionist, liberatory work and I look forward to much much more together!

With much love and joyful commitment to universal equitable access to housing, healthcare, education, arts and cultural spaces, and a strong and vibrant community locally and globally, across timezones, beyond borders, 
Հայկ [hike] / Hayk