Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was a city of opportunity for African Americans. Leaving the surrounding cotton fields behind, they built churches, schools, clubs, and businesses; they were tied together by Friday night football games, dance halls, a newspaper, and charitable organizations. At the same time, Hattiesburg, like the rest of the South, was a …
“in times like these
to have you listen at all, it’s necessary
to talk about trees.”
So wrote Adrienne Rich in her poem “What Kind of Times Are These?” Human beings, when faced with difficulty and uncertainty, seek meaning, connection and perspective in cooking, faith or music. But in the most challenging situations, poetry plays a special role, helping us name …
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More than half of our nation’s fruits and vegetables are produced by California workers—who often risk their health to put food on our tables. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, farmworkers have been designated “essential workers” along with doctors and nurses. Yet most farmworkers lack health care coverage, even as they …
EVENT UPDATE:
As a convener of public events in the city of Los Angeles, we want you, our audience, to know that we are committed to the health and well-being of our community. The situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is rapidly changing, and the California Public Health Department has issued guidance pertaining to events in areas with potential community spread.
With …
Native American artists have long used explorations of the future as a way to reflect on the present. Contemporary Native artists, from the Mohawk sci-fi multimedia artist Skawennati to the Navajo photographer Will Wilson, are using innovative techniques to create visual art, literature, comics, and installations to build on that tradition and reframe it in a modern context. Often described as “Indigenous …
Even in a city where people dare to be different, Zev Yaroslavsky stands out. Zev, now director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, has packed several lives into one lifetime, reshaping himself along with his fast-changing city. The child of immigrants from what is now Ukraine, Zev first drew …
