Fierce Females at USC's Ground Zero Performance Cafe November 9th

The same group of women who put on imMEDIAte Justice are still at it. Women's Creative Collective is presenting spoken word and activist duo climbing poeTree at Ground Zero Performance Cafe on November 9, 7pm-9:30pm, completely free of charge and open to the public.

Ground Zero is a spacious and simultaneously intimate space on USC's campus. I saw Staceyann Chin, anot there in 2008 when she appeared as a part of USC GLBT Assembly's programming. She performed and also read from her then-forthcoming memoir, The Other Side of Paradise.

What's a "Griot"? Is it verb? Is it noun? Is it animal? Is it vegetable? Wikipedia says:

The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards. According to Paul Oliver in his book Savannah Syncopators, "Though [the griot] has to know many traditional songs without error, he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events, chance incidents and the passing scene. His wit can be devastating and his knowledge of local history formidable." Although they are popularly known as 'praise singers', griots may also use their vocal expertise for gossip, satire, or political comment.

Sounds good to me.

Women's Creative Collective presents
Griot and Riot: Poetry, Storytelling, and Writing Workshop for Radical Change with climbing poeTree
November 9, 7-9:30pm
Ground Zero Performance Cafe

615 Child's Way (on USC's Campus)
Open to the public & Free of Charge

Spend Earth Day-time with CSU, Earth Day-night with TNP

Community Services Unlimited, Inc. is an organization I volunteered with in 2008 at their Thursday produce stand. This Earth Day, they're holding their 2nd Annual Earth Day South LA Event! 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact: Neelam Sharma
(310) 780 0426, Neelam@csuinc.org

Spanish Media Contact:
Denise Burger, (323) 627-4782, d.burgher@sbcglobal.net

Information: (323) 299 7075 or www.earthdaysouthla.org

EARTH DAY SOUTH LA

SAT, APRIL 17, 11AM-6PM

SOUTH LOS ANGELES GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS,

SCHOOLS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS COME TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE EARTHDAY AND TO EXPLORE THE THEME OF WATER 

The 2^nd Annual EARTH DAY SOUTH LOS ANGELES EVENT, Saturday April 17^th 2010 from 11am to 6pm will be at Normandie Avenue Elementary School, 4505 S. Raymond Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045. A growing movement in South Los Angeles area has serious momentum and is being expressed through the arts, workshops, and food culture.

Presented by CSU Inc, SOL Foundation and the Normandie Avenue Elementary School, EDSLA over a hundred artists will participate in performances and ceremonies of Music and Dance, Community Mural, Graph Art Pieces, Recycled Art Exhibit and Fashion Show, and an Art Sale. Local food will be showcased with recipe demos, food vendors and produce for sale. Information tables will showcase the work of our partners and other community organizations.

Earth Day South LA (EDSLA) will include performances by Aceyalone of Freestyle Fellowship, Mystic, La Santa Cecilia, Asklyn Atkins, 2Mex, Rifleman, Dyane P, Buyepongo, Caribbean Dynamics, LA Samba Kids and the Normandie Avenue Elementary School Student Orchestra. Dance features the World Famous LA Breakers, Just Wanna Step and Bharata Natyam.  The event will begin with a gathering call from the Freedom Sounds Korean Drumming and an opening ceremony by Azteca Dancers.  A featured project will be the Southern California Library’s Sounds of Justice presented by Jeremy Sole (KCRW) and Kaos Network Beat Cypher Collective.

Normandie Avenue Elementary will be beautified with live graffiti art by Cre8, Duce, EnkOne, and Jeyd curated in collaboration with I.C.U. Art and a Community Mural, Art Sale, Recycled Art Exhibit and Fashion Show curated in collaboration with Liliflor Collective. A Hip Hop Poetry Room will feature an Open-Mic and workshops from BessKepp, NHS Poetry Club and the Get Lit Players. A mini EDSLA Film Festival will show films that reflect the work for a sustainable community, for example, A Drop of Life and The Power of Community. Workshops include Composting, Fruit Tree Pruning, Yoga, Capoiera, Healing With Herbs, Son Jarocho Dance, Recycled Art, How to Start a Food Not Bombs Chapter, Bike Safety and Maintenance and African Drumming. Also on offer will be activities for kids and a local fruit pick.

“Beyond organic” local produce will be featured in cooking demos by chef Gino Campagna (star of Kitchen Kids on AOL.com), Chef Jason Michaud of Local, Sirena Pellarolo from East Side Café and Lisa Nunez Hancock and youth of U R What U Eat. Produce will be available for purchase at the South Central Farmers booth. Pure fruit smoothies, iced herbal/fruit teas, tamales and salads will be on sale.

Our Partners include Councilmembers Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, Bike Oven, City Year, Caracol Marketplace, Community Build, Eastside Café, Food Not Bombs, Hunger Action Los Angeles, Garden School Foundation, Hip Hop Association, I.C.U. Art, LA Conservation Corps, Kaos Network Beat Cypher Collective, Lilliflor Collective Studios, NAES Environmental Club, SOL Cooperative, South Central Farmers, TreePeople, USC Student Activists for a Beloved Community, Southern California Library, and WORKS USA.

We are proud to offer this high quality event in the community, FREE for the community.  There is a suggested donation of $5+ to help cover the costs of the event, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds nor for not making a donation.

Together we envision an annual Earth Day event where community residents in South Central come together in a safe environment to have fun, celebrate our foods and cultures, learn about and participate in sustainable practices, and connect with each other and organizations working to make positive change in our neighborhood.

I won't be able to make it to the Earth Day celebration as I'll be with my parents, thanking them for the gift of life, but I hope that many people can make it out to Normandie Ave. Elementary to check out all the wonderful activities going on.

After spending the day with CSU & their partner organizations, come chill out in Little Tokyo with Tuesday Night Project at the Aries Party Fundraiser at Oiwake, 122 Japanaese Village Plaza, 8:45p-2a. $10 entry, $7 before 10:30p!

Free Healthcare 4/27 - 5/3: Remote Area Medical Los Angeles 2010

Remote Area Medical was in Inglewood last year-- and they'll be back in Los Angeles April 27-May 3! Free vision, dental, & medical exams at LA Sports Arena. For the RAM LA website, click here.

Please let any health professionals you may know that they are looking for volunteers!

Press release:

On April 27 – May 3, 2010, Remote Area Medical (RAM) will provide free

medical, dental and vision care to thousands of needy individuals in the Los

Angeles area. The free clinic will be held at Los Angeles Sports Arena

located at 3939 North Figueroa Street , near USC.  1,200 people a day will

be treated—possibly more depending on the final number of volunteers and

participating organizations. The event is planned and operated by Remote

Area Medical, a Volunteer 501(c)(3) charity providing free care to

uninsured, underinsured, and indigent Individuals throughout the United

States.  For more information visit:

Free care will be provided to anyone who needs it, without cost of any kind

to the patient, the taxpayer or the government. There is no income test, no

insurance requirement, and no restriction of any kind. Medical and

non-medical personnel will all be volunteers; supplies and equipment will be

donated or provided by RAM. There will be at least 100 dental stations, 45

medical exam rooms, 25 eye exam stations. Dentistry will include cleanings,

extractions, fillings, restorative procedures and root canals. Prescription

eye glasses will be ground and fitted on-site. Minor dermatological and

other medical procedures will be performed. Pediatricians and pediatric

dentists will be present. Follow-up care will be arranged for those who need

it, with most referrals to private sector practices and facilities.

There will be a strong emphasis on education, prevention and self-care.

Mammography, pap smears, chest x-rays, and diabetes screening, blood

pressure screening, and other services will be provided. Healthcare

foundations and agencies will also distribute patient education materials.

RAM/LA is a large undertaking, on a scale to make a significant difference

in this time of great and urgent need. Success is achieved through medical

and non-medical volunteers, local healthcare organizations, equipment and

supply donors, and others who contribute their time, talents and resources.

Help South LA's imMEDIAte Justice win $25k!

Everyone, a wonderful South Los Angeles-based project called imMEDIAte Justice is competing in this month's Pepsi Refresh Everything contest and is trying to win $25,000 to fund their work teaching girls media literacy and sexual health through film-making. 

Here's a sample of what their work helps create:

ImMEDIAte Justice provides education and takes it a step further by providing a means for youth to engage with these issues that impact their lives, to share their stories with each other and with their communities.


Please take just a few seconds to vote for them every day. The top 10 receive funding!




Thank you!

Bambu: Beach Cruisin'

I loved listening to this track from rapper/activist Bambu's second solo album "...i scream bars for the children..." as I biked around SoDo.

"Liquor store--church, liquor store--chicken shack, liquor store--church, liquor store--check cash" is such an accurate description of what a South LA neighborhood is like, and the reason why organizations like Community Services Unlimited, Inc., which provides nutrition education in South LA, are so important to the community.

Since first seeing Native Guns (Bambu, Kiwi, & DJ Phatrick) perform at the Students of Color Conference at UC Berkeley in 2006, I've been hooked to Bambu's lyrics and emphatic delivery. I have great respect for his dedication to LA and to Kabataang maka-Bayan, or Pro-People Youth, a progressive youth organization in Historic Filipino town which was founded in 1999 to "to raise the social consciousness of the youth to organize and mobilize in response to issues affecting our local communities, the oppressed people of the Philippines and other pro-people issues around the world."

Lots of good people doing good work in this town.

What's In A Headline?

Within South L.A.'s killing zone, a haven from violence is about "a mile-wide area bounded by Hoover Street, Halldale Avenue, 73rd Street and 85th Street in Vermont Knolls [that] has had no homicides in the last three years."

The title of this recent article in the LA Times bothered me. A lot. It perpetuates the idea that South LA is a violent, terrible, scary place-- I'm not saying that the area is actually safe, but using this sort of language to talk about South LA does nothing to help dispel the lore of the neighborhood that made the City change the name from "South Central" to "South" LA.

The article itself delves into the ways that the people of that community have created a neighborhood where sometimes they "fall asleep with the doors unlocked because it's so comfortable" because there, "people keep an eye out." To know that an area like this can exist in South LA is definitely news that should be discussed.

The rest of the article, however, points out how dangerous the surrounding area is. It discusses the troubles that plague South LA: gangs, unemployment, lack of opportunity, violence. Then it ends with a story of a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed, with the hypothesis that it happened because he refused to join a gang.


I don't deny that the facts are there. I can't take issue with facts. What I can take issue with is the way this article is arranged-- the way that it talks about South LA makes it sound like the "haven" in Vermont Knolls is a fluke, a stroke of good luck more than a result of people putting in time, energy, and effort into building a safer community.

Why did the headline have to say "killing zone"? Why wasn't it something like "South LA residents work together to create a safe zone in a troubled area"? Would something positive simply not garner enough interest in the readership?

Well, it got my attention, so the ploy worked. I'm still not okay with it.

I haven't lived in this supposed "killing zone," but calling it that isn't going to help the community get better. The article could have used Vermont Knolls as an example of possibility and hope for South LA, but it didn't. That's upsetting.