newsletter

dwb newsletter 57: We Already Are + Sept’26 Skid Row ArtsCal

/ Senior Doodler

Image: fragments from cover and last page of “We Already Are” bilingual zine created through a collaboration between doodles and paper cameras press, surrounded by snippets of other doodles’ and collaborative publications, namely ԼԱՎ [love] letter to bell hooks (top left), BDS: why it matters? bilingual zine (bottom left), and a section from doodles’ PACBI statement (bottom middle)

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/near Skid Row, (2)Thoughts Aloud, (3)Quote of the Month
____________________________________________________
***SUPPORT Doodles by supporting Arts Depot*** 
1) THIRD T-SHIRT IS HERE! Doodles and Arts Depot swag:) Get one by donating $30 or more to Community Arts Depot (www.CommunityArtsDepot.com)
2) Become a sustaining member at $5/month or more (or donate once $50 or more) & get a t-shirt + art print + wordoodle of your choice.
____________________________________________________

HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood or related to doodles work, September 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. Fri, Sept 4, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at LA Poverty Department’s Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  2. Thur, Sept 10, 10-11:30a- Music and Song Writing with Skid Row Arts Alliance @ Skid Row Museum
  3. Fri, Sept 11, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro)
  4. Fri, Sept 18, TBD – >MARKETPLACE @ LACAN
  5. Fri, Sept 18, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum
  6. Sat, Sept 19, 5pm: “From the Clinic to the Streets” Book Talk with @psychicmilitancypod ‘s Lara Sheehi at Midnight Books (941 E 2nd St) – down the street from Skid Row neighborhood
  7. Sun, Sept 20, 5-7p: Ungovernable Study presents doodling without borders in L.A. at Ktwon LATU Space (3182 W 8 St)
  8. Fri, Sep 25, 3p: Sock Puppets +5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @Skid Row Museum
  9. Fri, Sept 25, Dusk: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters (sometimes location varies, check IG page

    You can VIEW, DOWNLOAD, or PRINT the monthly calendar at doodleswithoutborders.com/calendar

SAVE THE DATE / ONGOING
Save the date: October 10th – End the Geno//de – March for Pa/estine, international day of action.
Save the date: October 24-25 – 17th Annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists, organized by LA Poverty Department
Ongoing: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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)

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

THOUGHTS ALOUD
We Already Are / Մենք Արդեն Կանք

I am very excited to share this now second (after BDS: what it is, why it matters) bilingual zine through a collaboration between doodles without borders and paper cameras press. The zine contains the original and Armenian translation of Yusef Omowale’s essay titled “We Already Are“. You can print your own copy of the zine here or inquire about printed zines by reaching out online or at an in person event.
This is an excerpt from the essay:

[Հայերենը ստորև / Armenian below]

No matter how fundamental, guiding values cannot exist outside of history. Our work, while connected to and informed by the legacies of those who have gone before us, must be rooted firmly in the present. We have arrived at this moment through social movements demanding acknowledgement that we too deserve breath and the joy of life. In response, dominant formations of power have sought to rescue the contradictions of social exclusion and potential attending ruptures, through affirmation, recognition, and legitimacy of minoritized life.

In this context, it is not inevitable that community-based archives represent an alternative to mainstream repositories. In fact, it is more likely that we will serve to undergird the very structures we mean to displace. Today, as foundations, universities, museums, and the like, marshal resources to colonize what remains of the memories of the dispossessed, and author discourses that legitimate such acts — the values we must practice are ones of refusal. Refusal not as an act of negation, but as a condition of possibility.

***

Առաջնորդող արժեքները, նույնիսկ եթե հիմնարար են, պատմությունից դուրս գոյություն ունենալ չեն կարող։ Մեր աշխատանքը, որքան էլ ոգեշնչված լինի մեր նախորդների ժառանգությունից, պետք է խորը արմատներ ունենա ներկայում։ Մենք այսօրվան ենք հասել ի շնորհիվ հասարակական շարժումների, որոնք պահանջել են ընդունել, որ մենք նույնպես արժանի ենք ապրել և լինել երջանիկ։ Ի պատասխան՝ գերիշխող ուժերը փորձել են պահպանել սոցիալական չընդգրկման հակասությունները և խուսափել դրանցից բխող հնարավոր խզումներիից՝ հաստատելով, ճանաչելով և օրինականացնելով փոքրամասնություն դարձրածներին։

Այս համատեքստում ինքնըստինքյան չէ, որ համայնքային արխիվները այլընտրանք դառնան գերիշխող պահոցներին։ Իրականում, ավելի հավանական է, որ մենք սկսենք ծառայել հենց այն համակարգերի պահպանմանը, որոնց մտադիր ենք դիմակայել: Այսօր հիմնադրամները, համալսարանները, թանգարանները և նմանատիպ կազմակերպությունները միջոցներ են հավաքագրում գաղութացնելու այն, ինչ մնացել է զրկվածների հիշողություններից։ Երբ ստեղծվում են այս գործողությունները օրինականացնելու համար խոսույթներ, մենք պետք է առաջնորդվենք մերժման արժեքներով: Մերժումը ոչ թե որպես ժխտում, այլ որպես հնարավորության պայման:

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“What would it mean if the pre-condition is liberation?”

– Lara Sheehi, host of Psychic Militancy Podcast speaking on Radicals in Conversation and channeling Frantz Fanon, underscoring that psychoanalysis begins with Fanon

__________________________
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

____
To reply to this post, click “Reply” if you are viewing this as an email newsletter, or send an email to
info @ doodleswithoutborders. com

dwb newsletter 56: Alignment with Liberation +Black Aug’26 Skid Row ArtsCal

/ Senior Doodler

Image: Black August collab banner created at Doodles table at LA CAN’s Black August commemoration in Aug 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/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, August 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. Mondays, Aug 3, 10, 17, 24, at 8am PST online – Black August Study: Blood in My Eye with Black Power Media on YouTube.com/ @blackpowermediareloaded
  2. Thur, Aug 6, 3-6pm, 11th Annual Jamaican Independence Day Celebration with DJ Sir Oliver at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
  3. Fri, Aug 7, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at LA Poverty Department’s Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  4. Wed, Aug 12, 7p: MOVIE in the PARK @ General Jeff Park (movie start at dusk)
  5. Thur, 10am – SRAA MicroGrant Workshop @ Skid Row Museum
  6. Fri, Aug 14, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
  7. Sat, Aug 15, 1-4pm: COFFEE HOUSE by Urban Voices @ InnerCity Arts. Check urbanvoicesproject.org for details
  8. Fri, Aug 21, 5pm – Black August event / commemoration at LACAN (838 E 6th St, Skid Row neighborhood)
  9. Fri, Aug 21, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  10. Fri, Aug 28, 3p: Sock Puppets + 5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
  11. Fri, Aug 28, Dusk: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters (sometimes location varies, check IG page
  12. Sat, Aug 29, 2-5pm: “Hotels in Crisis (Again)” new performance by LA Poverty Dept, and “Rise Up!” concert by The Elderman at Skid Row Museum
  13. Sun, Aug 30, 6-10pm: Mutual Aid Social @ The Smell (247 S Main St)

    You can VIEW, DOWNLOAD, or PRINT the monthly calendar at 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
• ONGOING: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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)

THOUGHTS ALOUD

ALIGNMENT WITH LIBERATION
There is no controversy in seeing organized alignment with working class rooted Indigenous sovereignty movements and Black liberation movements as the only hope for liberation of everyone in Turtle Island from 534 years, 407 years, 250 years of colonial anti-human suffocation.
These liberatory themes find parallels and reverberations around the world, from Pa/estine to Sudan, Congo, Haiti, Armenia and beyond.

With this in mind, to live inside u.s. empire means you have an obligation to find out about Black August, study the history of Black August, the commemorations and activities associated with Black August (Malcolm X Grassroots Movement‘s Resistance Handbook is one starting point: bit.ly/BARHandbook), including learning and contributing to the fight for release of Black political prisoners and by extension support all prison abolition work: Free Them All!

Some additional starting points points:

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

– George Jackson, “Bood in my Eye” 1970


__________________________
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

____
To reply to this post, click “Reply” if you are viewing this as an email newsletter, or send an email to
info @ doodleswithoutborders. com

dwb newsletter 55: Imagination to Liberation + July’26 Skid Row ArtsCal

/ Senior Doodler

Image: Skid Row Still Here sign created at the Doodles arts table setup during LA CAN’s arts and cultural presence at ArtNight in Downtown LA, June 2026. Many thanks to all the Human and Civil Rights Committee members and supporters creative lettering!

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, July 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. Sat, July 4
  2. Sun, Jul 5, 4:30-8pm: Elements of Mutual Aid (a documentary screening) in Boyle Heights (2708 E Ceasar Chavez)
  3. Wed, Jul 8, 7p: MOVIE in the PARK @ San Julian Park (movie start at dusk)
  4. Fri, July 10, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
  5. Fri, July 17, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  6. Wed, July 22, 7pm: Hotels in Crisis: Panel Discussion with Vancouver’s Downtown Eastsider SRO Collaborative @ Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
  7. Fri, July 31, 3p: Sock Puppets + 5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
  8. Fri, July 31, Dusk: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters (sometimes location varies, check IG page

    You can VIEW, DOWNLOAD, or PRINT the monthly calendar at 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
• August 6, 2026: 12th Annual Jamaican Independence Dy celebration in Skid Row neighborhood, with Sir Oliver
• ONGOING: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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)

THOUGHTS ALOUD

INVITATION TO IMAGINE TOGETHER

What if “normal” is 250 years of irreformable, individualist, capitalist colonial white fas/ist society rooted in geno//de, exploitation of the working class and anti-human oppression that manifests as anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, misogynist, anti-trans, ableist, anti-communist, etc

Imagination is our most powerful survival tool.

And a component of liberation as a present-day collective practice of imagining beyond an irreformable empire. 
Don’t do it alone. Together let’s actively devote more and more of our lives to collective liberatory struggle.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH (English, with Armenian translation)

“Like a net, we tie ourselves to one another to stop the dailiness from getting through; we tie ourselves tight enough so none of us get lost along the way. Maximal commitment, minimal loneliness, to paraphrase a comrade.” 

– Fargo Tbakhi, Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Geno//de

«Ուռկանի պես, կապվում ենք միմյանց, որպեսզի առօրյան մեզ կուլ չտա։ Այնքան ամուր ենք կապվում, որպեսզի մեզանից ոչ մեկը  ճանապարհին չկորչի, կուլ չգնա։ Վերաձևակերպելով պայքարակցիս խոսքերը` առավելագույն նվիրվածություն, նվազագույն միայնություն»։

– Ֆարգո Տբախի, «Նշումներ արհեստի մասին. գրելը ցեղա///անության ժամին»


__________________________
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

____
To reply to this post, click “Reply” if you are viewing this as an email newsletter, or send an email to
info @ doodleswithoutborders. com

dwb newsletter 54: The politics of collective power beyond elections + June’26 Skid Row ArtsCal

/ Senior Doodler

Image: Skid Row + Little Tokyo neighborhoods: our right and collective fight to remain. Doodles arts table activity at the UMEYA+Care Campus Carnival Day in May 2026, highlighting the continued collaboration, common struggles and common goals of the two neighborhoods.

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, June 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. Look out for local Working Class rooted LGBTQ+ Pride Month activity/event recommendations in Doodles instagram stories throughout the month!
  2. Fri, June 5, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  3. Fri, June 12, 5-7pm: ARTS JAM Open Mic at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St)
  4. Thurs, June 18, 11am-3pm – JUNETEENTH w/ Sir Oliver and Skid Row Advisory Board at General Jeff (Gladys) Park
  5. Fri, June 19, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)  
  6. Fri, June 26, 3p: Sock Puppets + 5-7:30p: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
  7. Fri, June 26, Dusk: Movie by StopLAPDspying in front of LAPD headquarters (sometimes location varies, check IG page
  8. Sun, June 28, 1-4pm: Community Resource Event by Skid Row Brigade @ General Jeff (Gladys) Park

    You can VIEW, DOWNLOAD, or PRINT the monthly calendar at 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
• ONGOING: Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway), Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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)

THOUGHTS ALOUD

Get up, come cast your vote, so they will shoo you away

Elections are perhaps the most common association with political participation, and so are a great starting point for discussing what is political, how all our social participation is political, in relationship with the political. The latest Armenian-English wordoodle takes on the word “election”, and this Thoughts Aloud section expands on the text from the original post.

ել  • եկ • քշեն
[(y)el][ek][k’shen] / election

Arm | Eng Dictionary: ել [(y)el] – get up; եկ [(y)ek] – come; քշեն [k’shen] – (so) they will fend you away, shoo you away

This wօ՜դoodle/ wordoodle is not against voting. 

But elections for public office in US capitalist racist society* (and all capitalist countries) are a form of political theatre, where you are convinced to GET UP, COME cast your vote, only to have your working class needs and opinions FENDED AWAY. They are happy if you drink the kool-aid, and they are equally happy if you are disillusioned in voting. In both cases you are an atomized in-di-vi-du-al legitimizing their irreformable colonial death cult. 

So, if voting is your only push back on this 250 y.o. u.s. capitalist colonial imperialist political project, which you and we all living inside it have been hijacked to legitimize–don’t do it.

If you are involved in political or organizing or community groups, but you still center elections / election cycles –don’t do it.

But if you understand that elections and elected officials will do nothing lasting for us, unless there is a working class and oppressed peoples’ led collective power outside electoral politics (which becomes stronger than the capitalist monied interests).
If you understand the centrality of contributing to the cultivation of such collective power, and that electoral politics in US capitalist racist society will always try to co-opt and destroy building this kind of collective power.
And especially if your contribution is not individual, but is what you’ve committed to as group, as a member of a collective liberation minded political group.
And if your contribution is informed by your social and geopolitical positionality.
If you do your best to practice this type of political participation, and see voting as a SMALL, inessential, tactical tool in this framework–then vote.

Upon voting, lovingly and caringly curse all the candidates to experience just 10% of pain and suffering of the oppressed and exploited peoples, UNTIL these candidates and electeds abandon the political theatre that actively and intentionally perpetuates our suffering, and join the work of strengthening working class and oppressed peoples’ led collective power.

*Thank you Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly

If you are looking for a voter guide in LA region, Knock LA is one of possible options: https://knock-la.com/knock-la-progressive-voter-guide-june-2026-primary-election/

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Think about the body you live in: with every breath you breathe in and out, the idea that your body has permanent borders between what’s inside and outside it is revealed to be a fiction.
…Truer than the fiction of borders is the messy reality of how life operates in the zone between binary markers … Borderlands as spaces populatated by migrants drawn across fake national borders, by citizens living inside fake national borders, by nonconforming people who have the courage to live in between gender norms, and by people from all over the world speaking 167 different languages in Jackson Heights.”

– Steven W. Thrasher, from The Viral Underclass: the human toll when inequality and disease collide


__________________________
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

dwb newsletter 53: May Day, discovering collective power +May’26 Skid Row ArtsCal

/ Senior Doodler

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.
____________________________________________________
***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)

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.

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

dwb newsletter 52: Return to the masses, to our roots + April’26 Skid Row Arts Calendar

/ Senior Doodler

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)

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.

…
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.

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

dwb newsletter 51: Love, Joy, Community + March’26 Skid Row Arts Calendar

/ Senior Doodler

Image: Fragment from a cardboard sign created sometime in 2024

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])

DEAR READERS, PLEASE NOTE: the newsletters from now on will be coming directly from/as the blog posts! (no longer from mailchimp). If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.

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) THE 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, March 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. TODAY: Fri, Mar 6, 7pm: Movie Night “The Farewell” at Skid Row Museum
  2. Sat, Mar 7, 2pm: NO WAR ON IRAN – Protest @ LA City Hall
  3. Sun, March 8, International Working Class Women’s Day.
    24 Hours of KPFA’s International Women’s Day (IWD) 2026 Programming airs Sunday, March 8th at 6 am PST to Monday March 9th until 6 am PST (at 8:30AM PST Other Armenias podcast representing Non-Western Feminisms)
  4. Wed, March 11, 7pm: Hotels In Crisis (AGAIN) – WHAT TO DO? – at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
  5. Thu, March 12, 10-11:30a:  Skid Row Arts Alliance Community meeting with SRAA MicroGrant presentations and a mosaic workshop with Dawn Mendelson
  6. Fri, Mar 13, 5-7pm: OPEN MIC at Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
  7. Fri, Mar 20, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT @ Skid Row Museum
  8. Sat, Mar 22, 12-4: César Chávez Family Day at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
  9. Fri, Mar 27, 5-7:30: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
  10. Fri, Mar 27, 7pm/ Dusk: Outdoor Movie Night by StopLAPDspying
  11. Sat-Sun, Mar 28-29: 10a-6pm: Chumash Day Native American Powwow in Malibu (24250 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265; from Skid Row: Metro E Line, then Bus 134)

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
• 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) (on break til Feb 2026); (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
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY that
LOVE, JOY, and COMMUNITY are all anti-american?

Just one rubric to bring the point home: in LA region alone, at least 1.5 MILLION housed tenants are rent burdened, meaning these fellow tenants take away from food, from medicine–let alone putting a bit of money aside for an emergency fund, or (how dare we!) a little vacation–so rent can be paid. That is predictable state sanctioned vio/ence, fear, devastation as well as condition for homelessness (72,000 are unhoused in LA County currently, and that’s just the official figure) is vio/ence and dea/h on MASS SCALE.

u.s. empire is brilliant at lulling the minds of many us living in the imperial core (inside united states) with seeming conveniences, with normalizing our own oppressions, and looking past the obviousness of this empire being a local and global machine of mass vio/ence and mass dea/h.

Plus add this:
– 7 unhoused tenants die predictable, preventable dea/hs in LA County EVERY DAY
– the deeply anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-Latino/e nature of the united states creates the divisions necessary to maintain its all encompassing anti-poor, anti- working class politics, which are central to the 250 year old regime’s very existence
– ICE raids and kidnappings are wh/te sup/emacist cruelty–of anti-Native bounty hunters, of “slave patrols” and of police departments–made more visible again,
– state vio/ence against trans and queer people and women is rampant,
– the colonial, often geno//dal campaigns in Pa/estine, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan, Venezuela, Cuba, now Iran, and beyond are the global mirror to the “domestic” policies: amplified scale of vio/ence and devastation

What does it mean to want to live a “normal” life in u.s. empire, when this is the reality of u.s. empire?

Skid Row neighborhood as one of many places that know that these struggles are nothing new, and that voting itself has never changed things. Only organized community action beyond voting. Skid Row is a hyper local reminder of the irreformable mu/derous vio/ence of u.s. empire. Skid Row is affected by the same oppressions AND is part of the interwoven practices of resistance.

LOVE, JOY, AND COMMUNITY are not themselves resistance, but they are the things the empire craves to take away here and everywhere in the world, and they are the things we must band together collectively, locally and transnationally to defend, practice, and keep.

None of us are free, until all of us are free.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“without us imperialism
i would be home

between saffron
and za’atar

not learning
the taste
of exile”

@daliah.lina

– Daliah Lina, Palestinian-Iranian Radical Poet | Anti-Racism Educator



__________________________
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 ոֆ 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

dwb newsletter 50: Mechanics of Liberation +Feb’26 Skid Row ArtsCalendar

/ Senior Doodler

Image: “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. Mark your calendars for this year’s celebration: Friday, Feb 6, 2026, 4-7pm!

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, (3) Quote of the Month.
____________________________________________________
***SUPPORT Doodles by supporting Arts Depot*** 
1) THE T-SHIRTS ARE HERE! Doodles and Arts Depot journey into swag has begun:) Get one by donating $30 or more to Community Arts Depot, or come to Bob Marley Day on Fri, Feb 6th and buy
one in person!
2) DONATE $10 or more , get Doodles “Quotes of the Month” 2026 calendar zine.
3) Become a sustaining member at $5/month or more (or donate once $50 or more) & get copy of 2026 calendar, an exclusive t-shirt and art print or wordoodle of your choice.
____________________________________________________

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

  1. Fri, Feb 6, 4-7pm: Skid Row neighborhood’s 11th Annual Bob Marley Day with Sir Oliver, at Skid Row Museum
  2. Fri, Feb 13, 5-7pm: OPEN MIC at Studio 526 (526 San Pedro)
  3. Fri, Feb 20, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT @ Skid Row Museum
  4. Sun, Feb 22, 1-4pm: Spread the Love Community Day with Skid Row StreetBall League at General Jeff Park
  5. Thur, Feb 26, 9:30a-1p: 26th Annual Skid Row neighborhood’s Black History Celebration, at General Jeff (Gladys) Park.
  6. Fri, Feb 27, 5-7:30: OPEN MIC @ Skid Row Museum
  7. Fri, Feb 27, 6p/ Dusk: Outdoor Movie Night by StopLAPDspying
  8. Sun, Mar 1, 10a-1pm: Humanitarian Day with Skid Row StreetBall League at General Jeff Park

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
• Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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) (on break til Feb 2026); (4) every last Friday of the month, 5-7:30pm with Lorinda at LA Poverty Dept‘s Skid Row Museum (250 S. Broadway)


**WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DOODLES ARTS TABLE this month??**
– Weekly @ General Jeff Park, Tuesdays 3-4:30pm this month.
– Bob Marley Day: Feb 6th, 4-7pm at Skid Ro Museum
– Leftist Armenian Hangouts (date/location TBD, follow Doodles on instagram for updates)
– 26th Annual Skid Row neighborhood’s Black History month celebration – Thur, Feb 26th, 9:30am-1pm

THOUGHTS ALOUD

BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU:
MECHANICS OF SURVIVAL, MECHANICS OF LIBERATION
”Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” is always a trap, unless there is genuine power balance. And in the case of systemic oppressions (capitalism, wt supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism) “the hand” is the hand that steals from us, steals our lives, uses what it stole to exploit and oppress us, and now ‘feeds’ us the millionth of what it stole: rations to keep us alive so more of our labor can be stolen, until we die.

band together
take the hand’s hoarded means of life
(anything it gives or does not give)
but give the hand zero credit
(redistribute; include yourself in the redistribution)

delegitimize the hand
bite the hand
strategize collectively to abolish the hand

QUOTES OF THE MONTH – a pairing

“Ancestral voices sing songs reaching through time and space
Healers that fight, teach, and laugh in battle,
Soldiers, survivors, sages.

Conjuring worlds of wonder
Reclaiming roles of power
Restoring broken bonds
The wholeness of We”

– Charles Porter, a descendant from a Black / African diasporan freemen family lineage, one of the organizers of Skid Row neighborhood’s annual Black History Celebration events (26th annual this year) through UCEPP,  and curator of 2023 “Cosmology and Community: Networks of Liberation” exhibit at Skid Row museum

“We treat Black History Month like a museum exhibit. It should be a survival manual. …If you aren’t studying the mechanics of survival, you are wasting the inheritance… Ida B. Wells didn’t just “endure” injustice. She bought a Winchester rifle. …Fannie Lou Hamer didn’t just “march” for the vote. She built food systems. … The “peace” you are trying to keep is actually just compliance. If you are waiting for a racist system to validate your “boundaries,” you have already lost.”

– Christabel Mintah-Galloway, Registered Nurse. African. Lesbian. Storyteller (instagram.com/christabelmintahgalloway), in a post made on Feb 1, 2026. Per post’s central message to go beyond quotes, read the entire post and pick up the reading recommended in it.

__________________________
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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dwb newsletter 49: New Year, Collective Struggles +Jan’26 Skid Row ArtsCalendar

/ Senior Doodler

Image: “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. Mark your calendars for this year’s celebration: Feb 6, 2026!

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.
____________________________________________________
***SUPPORT Doodles by supporting Arts Depot*** 
1) DONATE $10 or more and get a copy of Doodles “Quotes of the Month” 2026 calendar zine.
2) Become a sustaining member at $5/month or more: get copy of 2026 calendar, an exclusive t-shirt (coming end of January!) and art print or wordoodle of your choice.
____________________________________________________
HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood, Jan 2026
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

  1. Sat, Jan 3, 2pm: NO WAR WITH VENEZUELA protest in Pershing Square, Downtown LA
  2. Fri, Jan 16: 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE  @ LACAN  (838 E 6th St)
  3. Mon, Jan 19, 10am-5pm, Martin Luther King Jr Day, full day of programming at California African-American Museum (CAAM) in Exposition Park (accessible via metro bus or rail)
  4. Wed, Jan 21, 7pm: Hotels n Crisis (Again) – Panel Discussion @ Skid Row Museum
  5. Fri, Jan 23, 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT @ Skid Row Museum
  6. Sun, Jan 25, 1-5pm, Dream Big Community Day by Skid Row Streetball League (@SkidRowBrigade) at General Jeff (Gladys) Park
  7. Fri,Jan 30, 5-7:30: OPEN MIC @Skid Row Museum 
  8. Fri, Jan 30, 5p/ Dusk: Outdoor Movie Night by StopLAPDspying

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
• Friday, February 6th: 11th Annual Bob Marley Day with Sir Oliver
• Hotels in Crisis exhibit at Skid Row Museum (250 S Broadway)
Museum hours are Thu, Fri, at 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) 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) (on break til Feb 2026); (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
RESPONSIBILITY TO COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE
As we woke up this morning, January 3, 2026, to u.s. empire completely ignoring sovereignty and what we regard as international law, invading Venezuela, and kidnapping its president, I am reminded that we have no “rights.” But, we have a responsibility to contribute to collective struggle, to collective power building, locally where we are, and aligning with global struggles that are led by working class, liberaton-minded marginalized groups, from the peripheries and for planetary dignity.
Part of that struggle includes using arts and culture to reframe, see afresh how we relate to where we live and to each other. This poem is a contribution to these kinds of reframings.

[a bumpy տռ-tran-slation of an Armenian language woդoodle wordplay poem, originally written at the տեղն ու տողը⁣⁣ [teghn oo toghe] writing workshop, co-facilitated by @anamotpress and @krotsprots]

Հող կա [hogh ka]: ամերի չկա [ameri chka]
Land exists; ameri doesn’t
The villages of Hahamogna and Maawnga whisper magic into my ear

Hahamogna and Maawnga are two occupied villages of Tovaangar,
on whose land today’s city of Glendale stands

Think of the city as land hidden beneath a thin layer of houses and asphalt.
Everywhere there are trees, grass, hills, and stones sticking out.
The buildings, too, are an inseparable part of nature — what else are they if not temporary mounds of earth shaped by us, humans?

[Hahamogna]
Hoghamog-na. Հողամոգ նա [Hoghamog] [na].
նա [na] – she/he/they; հողամոգ [hoghamog] – magician of the land, conjurer of the land
They… are a magician of the land.
The land works magic. (They) enchant the land. Conjure,
Bewitch,
    Captivate,
    Invent,
Create

…you, me… we.

[Maawnga]
Մանկա [Maanka].
Մանկա [manka] – of the child, belonging to the child
Ման կա [Man] [ka] ման գա [Man ga].
Ման կա [man ka] – the mother exists; Ման գա [man ga] – the mother will come; will stroll
She, the mother, strolls with the child.
Մանկա [Manka] ման գա [man ga].
The mother of the child will come.

Mother and child stroll. Strolling, they enchant and conjure the land.

Nov 2025

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“…[Skid Row] Care Campus building features [LA Poverty Department’s] mural with portraits of 36 community members honored in our first Walk the Talk performance / parade (2012). … Each time we perform [the story of one of those honorees at the Care Campus] there is someone in the courtyard audience who knows that person. Molly Lowery, Mike Neely, Robert Chambers, Jeff Dietrich and Catherine Morris… Skid Row knows its history and uses it to secure the future.”

– John Malpede, founder of LA Poverty Department in the performance group‘s 2025 Year End Newsletter. LA Poverty Dept is currently fundraising to keep Skid Row History Museum and Archive open, you can donate at lapovertydept.org/help-support-lapd

__________________________
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

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dwb newsletter 48: Words, modern-day oracles, Alkebulania +Dec’25 Skid Row ArtsCalendar

/ Senior Doodler

Image: Fragment from “Alkebulania“ by Kenneth W. Ross, the artwork that opens the “Scratching the Surface” exhibit at Skid Row Museum. Exhibit is open for one last week, til Sat Dec 6th. Open hours: Thur-Sat 2-5pm. This and many original pieces are for sale, and a print of this work is one of the gifts for donating to Arts Depot.

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.
____________________________________________________
***SUPPORT US by supporting Arts Depot*** 
Help Doodles’ sister artwork storage project Community Arts Depot pay monthly rent, and get thank you a gift! There are a few gift options to choose from here.
Stay tuned on Doodles instagram page for more options soon!
____________________________________________________
HIGHLIGHTS in and near Skid Row neighborhood, Dec 2025
Some neighborhood events, celebrations, and parties to join

UPDATE: 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 one last time through Saturday, December 6!

  1. Mon, Dec 1, 11a-2p: Meth Awareness + World AIDS Day at Care Campus – Doodles will be tabling!
  2. Thur, Dec 4, 10am: Skid Row Arts Alliance meeting at Skid row Museum
  3. Fri, Dec 5: 12-3pm: MARKETPLACE FOOD JUSTICE @ LACAN  (838 E 6th St) – stop by Doodles table!
  4.   Sat, Dec 6,12-4pm: Holiday Called Home – Celebration by Urban Voices at Budokan (249 S Los Angeles St)
  5. Sat, Dec 6: 7pm: MOVIE NIGHT “White House Effect” at Skid Row Museum
  6. Wed, Dec 10, 7pm: Hotels in Crisis: then & now:films + performance @ Skid Row Museum
  7. Sat, Dec 13, 10a-2pm: “What is Home?” workshop (registration necessary)  at Skid Row Museum
  8. Fri, Dec 19 12:30-3:30:  Studio526 ART HOLIDAY PARTY @ 526 San Pedro
  9. Fri, Dec 19, 6-8pm: Holiday party at Skid Row Museum
  10. Dec 16-24, 6:30-8pm: Las Posadas at Olvera Street (across from Union Station)
  11. Dec 31, 8pm- Jan 1, 1am: New Year Celebration at Grand Park

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 one last time to Dec 6th. 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:
**Note, many of these are on break until the new year.**
Weekly – (1) every Thurs, 6:30-9pm at Peace and Healing Center (116 E 5th)
Monthly – (2) 1st and 3rd Fridays 11a-1p: BuckFest at Care Campus (442 S Crocker) by Urban Voices Project, (3) every 2nd Friday, 5-7pm, at Studio526 (526 San Pedro St) (on break Nov-Dec 2025); (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
ATTEՆՇԱՆ` WARd wORd wՕԴ

From an Oct 1, 2023 wordoodle post, a reflection on a central tenet of Doodles work. Attention to words and to framings is critical, whether it be in Skid Row neighborhood, in Armenian Artsakh, in Palestine, or anywhere across the world.

WARd: word as violence.
signs that WARds are in use: oppression, bad faith arguments, separation of people, gaslighting, dehumanization, etc.
Add to this list and keep close.

wORd: word as privileged carelessness.
signs that wORds are in use: inattention to meaning, refusal to listen to context, all-sameism, both-sidism.
Add to the list and keep close.

wՕ՜Դ։ word as (breath of fresh) air.
signs that wՕ՜Դs are in use:
thoughtfulness, care, accountability, collectivity, support.
Add to the list, keep the closest, and use often.

Armenian-English dictionary
ՆՇԱՆ [n’shan] – sign
OԴ [od/ ot] – air

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Disability is a portal, a way of focusing our gaze and sharpening our lens on the intricacies of our humanity.”

“Disability is not a “brave struggle” or “courage in the face of adversity.” Disability is an art. Its an ingenious way to live.”

“Disabled people know what it means to be vulnerable and interdependent. We are modern-day oracles. It’s time people listened to us.”

– Alice Wong of Disability Visibility project, an outspoken writer and disability justice activist. Alice dies last month. May she rest in peace and may her legacy be carried on by all of us.

__________________________
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

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