8th Annual Festival de la Gente - Día de los muertos

Because there's more to Halloween than dressing up as a...well, you get the point.

Entonces, celebra el día de los muertos.

Good music, good eats, good people.

On the streets of Los Angeles at the historic 6th Street Bridge.

Saturday, October 27, 2007
11 am-10pm

Sunday, October 28, 2007
11am-8pm

For more info check out the website at:
http://www.festivaldelagente.org/

Events for this weekend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2007
Contact: Tezozomoc
818-892-5248

South Central Farmers Tianguis

Celebrating the Continuing Resistance of Indigenous People Around the World

WHAT:
1) Bringing Food to the Hood- Organic produce
2) Workshops and Food Demonstrations
3) Music and Entertainment

WHEN:
Date -- Sunday, October 7, 2007
Time -- 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

(Also…Please Save the Date for our Dia De Los Muertos Celebration on Sunday, November 4th)

WHERE:
On 41st Street (between Long Beach and Alameda)
The SCFHEF Community Center & Gallery
1702 E. 41st Street
Los Angeles , CA 90058

(Metro: Exit Blue Line Vernon Station and walk four blocks North)

WHY:
The South Central Farmers stand in solidarity with the continuing resistance of indigenous people around the world. Specifically we recognize the up coming Continental Indigenous Encuentro in Mexico, Anti-Columbus Day, and the March Against Police Brutality.

WHO:

• Traditional Danza Azteca-Chichimeca & Music
• Children's Workshops and Stories
• Holistic Care & Products
• South Central Farmers Cooking Demo
• And More!

As part of their commitment to keep Bringing Food to the 'Hood , the SCFHEF hosts a monthly Tianguis marketplace in collaboration with various community-based organizations, artisans, and local merchants . Every first Sunday of the month, the Tianguis transforms public space surrounding the original 14-acre farm into a site for healthy eating, healthy economics, and healthy relationships.

Events to check out for this weekend

For those of you who who are kept up late at night because of the racket that those damn LAPD helicopters make, this may be an event for you. But if this one may be too intense, you might want to try the Los Angeles inauguration for the 2007 Swerve Festival:

Swerve Festival is a new annual festival dedicated to celebrating West Coast creative culture and its community inspired by art, film, music and action sports. The three-day celebration will be held in Los Angeles to bring together a dynamic group of innovators and thinkers and to spotlight some of the most exciting work to come out of these creative disciplines.

Basically good music, good art & film, good eats, good people. Go ahead and get your swerve on. I know I will.

Because you can never get enough shopping in LA

For up to $70 million, you too can get a brand new 500,000-square-foot mall and a Lowe’s home improvement store. But wait, there’s more! Today’s package – brought to you by the lovely developers of Midtown Crossing – also includes a wonderful, three-story parking lot. Call within the next 15 minutes and you can get the limited edition Starbucks and Jamba Juice gift set for free!!!

Okay, so this article in the LA Times didn’t exactly use an announcement like this for the new 10-acre retail development that is to be built in Mid-City within the next 16 months. But at the current rate of revival projects that the city is undergoing (Spring St., downtown, USC, and so on) Los Angeles may as well be called “The City of Dislocation.” So a 20 second spot on a late-night infomercial could be somewhat feasible in this sweeping “wave of gentrification.”

Centered on the crossing of San Vicente and Pico, Mid-City has long been a neglected neighborhood after the 1965 riots and 1992 uprising left the area in economic decay. The boarded-up Sears is just one of the artifacts that serve as a testament to the region’s plight. Darnell Hunt, director of African American Studies at UCLA, called the development “momentous” since retailers have always been reluctant to build there.

But while the gentrification has mixed reviews from residents, local business owners, and city officials, Midtown Crossing is already set to bring in the largest and first major project that Mid-City has ever seen. Drawings for the mall already show similarities to the Grove. Great. Good luck finding parking and fending off the hordes at the after-Thanksgiving Day sales.

But in a neighborhood that has been struggling for the past 40 years and is still predominantly working-class, how willing are big-city developers to assess, let alone provide for a community’s needs? Other than increased foot traffic and cash flow (which go hand-in-hand with car congestion), what about current living wages and local businesses? Will the community’s residents be able to reap the rewards? And at what point does “new mall” mean “move out” for the neighborhood’s poor?

An older article from USA Today offers an interesting take on gentrification and how the poor are not really “pushed out.” The 2005 article, however, doesn’t specifically include Los Angeles as an example. LA Weekly published a more recent article on this topic, explaining how Angelenos, poor and rich alike, are no exception to the Ellis Act – or the condominium uprisings and spawn of $4 latte/gelato shops.

I, myself, enjoy a small Salvadoran pupuseria over a Baja Fresh or Chipotle any day.