Sahra Sulaiman

As I sat down to watch the performance by Kalpulli Tlaltekuhtli for the "movement is medicine" segment of the La Cultura Cura Día de los Muertos celebration at Proyecto Jardín, I was (once again) reminded of my encounter with displaced Afro-Colombian farmers in Bogotá, Colombia, a decade earlier.

“I went crazy,” Sherika Simms says quietly of the realization that she would be unable to help her brother.

For much of the time that I lived in Sevilla, Spain, I lived adjacent to the surprisingly still-formidable walls that once surrounded the old city and were constructed (for the second time) in the 11th century.

Starting this weekend, you have the unique opportunity to explore two important neighborhood spaces through theatrical performances.

Sandwiched between 110 fwy on the west, the 10 fwy and the Blue Line tracks to the north, and an industrial area to the east, the All Peoples Community Center sits in a densely packed neighborhood in Historic South Central that seems to have been forgotten by the city. You know things can't be great when a gang can take the liberty of drawing enormous hand signs in the middle of an intersection (below), for the benefit of anyone in doubt about whose territory they are in. And, every time I roll through there, I feel like I and everything around me are being liberally coated in layers of grime.

DATE: November 3, 2013

When I saw the older African-American gentleman standing next to the Dunbar (located in Central Avenue's historic jazz corridor) Sunday morning, holding a mug and observing us as we rode up alongside it, I gave him a big smile and a nod.

Haven't had a chance to get that pesky blood test done yet to see if you've got lead coursing through your veins courtesy of the Exide battery recycling plant in time to meet the Oct. 31st deadline?

"Who wants to ride up the death bridge?" asked Matthew Mooney, livable streets advocate and creator of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Comprehensive Mobility Project subcommittee, as we left the meeting on the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge Redesign in Atwater Village last night.

I looked at my watch and groaned inwardly.