This is kinda rare, so I thought I might pass it along.
A positive story in the Los Angeles Times about my hometown, Inglewood. Its a short article about a fledgling art commune. The commune hosted their second annual exhibition several weeks back:
A positive story in the Los Angeles Times about my hometown, Inglewood. Its a short article about a fledgling art commune. The commune hosted their second annual exhibition several weeks back:
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks21-2009nov21,0,2335042.column
latimes.com
SANDY BANKS
An underground renaissance in Inglewood
A gallery tour shows a thriving art community hidden in a gritty, industrial area.
Sandy BanksNovember 21, 2009
I was tired of staring at that blank space on my hallway wall. For years, I'd been searching for just the right artistic statement for the spot at the bottom of my stairs -- something to brighten my mood when I stumbled down bleary-eyed in the morning, and calm me as I headed upstairs to bed at night.
The Inglewood Open Studios art walk last weekend sounded like the perfect marketplace. With 16 local artists showing paintings, photos and tapestries, surely I could find something colorful, culturally resonant and -- forgive me -- cheap. [must "cultural resonance" be "cheap"? kzs]
I expected African masks, [And?? kzs]watercolor images of children at play and paintings of rural women balancing baskets on their heads -- images that might speak to me.
What I found were creations that went beyond my pedestrian sensibilities -- sculptures fashioned from junkyard finds; canvases dotted with chunks of paint, molded into giant geometric designs.
And artists whose passions just might spark a beleaguered city's cultural renaissance.
::
I thought I'd landed in the wrong spot when I pulled up to the East Hyde Park Boulevard address for the start of the art walk. It was a brick storefront with bars on the door. Across the street, the sidewalk was piled with clothes and toys, tended by two women straight out of a Frida Kahlo painting.
The art gallery was airy and bright, the guest book only had names on a few lines and the hors d'oeuvres looked untouched. I grabbed a map and began the tour. The next hours would take me through studios hidden behind auto repair shops, tucked between dry cleaners and beauty salons; into giant, light-filled salons and cluttered alcoves that looked like college dorms.
The art walk was a coming-out party for the eclectic, loose-knit confederation of artists -- aging hippies and college professors, a professional architect, a self-styled urban griot, muralists and photographers -- turning Inglewood into an unlikely haven for avant-garde art.
The Inglewood Open Studios art walk last weekend sounded like the perfect marketplace. With 16 local artists showing paintings, photos and tapestries, surely I could find something colorful, culturally resonant and -- forgive me -- cheap. [must "cultural resonance" be "cheap"? kzs]
I expected African masks, [And?? kzs]watercolor images of children at play and paintings of rural women balancing baskets on their heads -- images that might speak to me.
What I found were creations that went beyond my pedestrian sensibilities -- sculptures fashioned from junkyard finds; canvases dotted with chunks of paint, molded into giant geometric designs.
And artists whose passions just might spark a beleaguered city's cultural renaissance.
::
I thought I'd landed in the wrong spot when I pulled up to the East Hyde Park Boulevard address for the start of the art walk. It was a brick storefront with bars on the door. Across the street, the sidewalk was piled with clothes and toys, tended by two women straight out of a Frida Kahlo painting.
The art gallery was airy and bright, the guest book only had names on a few lines and the hors d'oeuvres looked untouched. I grabbed a map and began the tour. The next hours would take me through studios hidden behind auto repair shops, tucked between dry cleaners and beauty salons; into giant, light-filled salons and cluttered alcoves that looked like college dorms.
The art walk was a coming-out party for the eclectic, loose-knit confederation of artists -- aging hippies and college professors, a professional architect, a self-styled urban griot, muralists and photographers -- turning Inglewood into an unlikely haven for avant-garde art.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
I had a fleeting thought that maybe this was the beginning of a gentrification misadventure but I sorta doubt it. Its still kinda rare to see white people in Inglewood.
I can remember back in the day watching nice cars filing in and out of town by way of Manchester Ave. to or from a Laker game at the Inglewood Forum.
The Lakers have since abandoned us for more glamourous digs in Downtown Los Angeles. (And I now live a stone's throw from what Laker fans understand to be enemy territory--Boston.)
I have occasionally heard rumors about white folks "taking back Inglewood." I have come to regard these rumors as urban legends--nothing has ever materialized. Well, actually something has changed. Inglewood is still one of the blackest cities in the nation, but it now has a majority Latino/a population. But in the eyes of most white folks, Inglewood remains something like Sudan or DRC--its a place that tourists are advised to avoid. It is not difficult to find travel advice online warning people to stay away from Inglewood. I googled this one using the keywords "avoid inglewood" a few hours ago:
I can remember back in the day watching nice cars filing in and out of town by way of Manchester Ave. to or from a Laker game at the Inglewood Forum.
The Lakers have since abandoned us for more glamourous digs in Downtown Los Angeles. (And I now live a stone's throw from what Laker fans understand to be enemy territory--Boston.)
I have occasionally heard rumors about white folks "taking back Inglewood." I have come to regard these rumors as urban legends--nothing has ever materialized. Well, actually something has changed. Inglewood is still one of the blackest cities in the nation, but it now has a majority Latino/a population. But in the eyes of most white folks, Inglewood remains something like Sudan or DRC--its a place that tourists are advised to avoid. It is not difficult to find travel advice online warning people to stay away from Inglewood. I googled this one using the keywords "avoid inglewood" a few hours ago:
Any areas of town we should avoid?
Avoid Inglewood and Compton, especially at night.
[Source: Tango Diva]
LOL!
Apparently the dude who issued this particular warning, Taylor Canel, is a professional soccer player and played collegiate soccer at UCLA. He is on Facebook so I thought I might heckle him. But then I remembered that my mom, who still lives in Inglewood, tells me more-or-less the same thing. "Kwame! Don't go out at night," she warns, "times have changed!" .
On the flip side, when I attended UCLA, I avoided Westwood after midnight for fear of encountering drunken white guys. And when I was a kid I can recall that I sometimes would catch a bus alone from Inglewood to Redondo Beach (see map, roughly 13 miles southwest) to go fishing.
View Larger Map
On a few of these excursions a random crakkka would shout "nigger!" from a passing car. It didn't happen often, but it happened. So, no, I won't bother heckling Taylor. Danger, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
On the flip side, when I attended UCLA, I avoided Westwood after midnight for fear of encountering drunken white guys. And when I was a kid I can recall that I sometimes would catch a bus alone from Inglewood to Redondo Beach (see map, roughly 13 miles southwest) to go fishing.
View Larger Map
On a few of these excursions a random crakkka would shout "nigger!" from a passing car. It didn't happen often, but it happened. So, no, I won't bother heckling Taylor. Danger, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
But I am left wondering that if Taylor's friends avoid Inglewood then how the hell are they gonna see the avant-garde art show? Or would they even care?
tags: Boston, crime, Celtics, compton, gentrification, inglewood, Lakers, redondo beach, stereotypes, the Inglewood Forum, urban legends
tags: Boston, crime, Celtics, compton, gentrification, inglewood, Lakers, redondo beach, stereotypes, the Inglewood Forum, urban legends
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