Charles Porter, Project Coordinator for United Coalition East Prevention Project [UCEPP], a community-baseddrug prevention program in downtown Los Angeles, has been working in the Skid Row Community since 1999, collaborating with community members to engineer campaigns to bring necessities, amenities, and agency to Skid Row. A hallmark of Charles’ work is the use of music, poetry, and the cultural heritage of the African diaspora to engage, educate and mobilize Skid Row community members.

Charles’ and UCEPP’s contributions include a major role in the creation of the Skid Row Community ReFresh Spot, a 24-hour outdoor space providing access to showers, washing machines, toilets, and other amenities, staffed by Skid Row residents and those with lived expertise, a seeing more than 500 uses of services a day. Additional contributions include the formation of a Row Skid Parks Committee (that eventually attained official recognition by the City Recreation and Parks Department, helping to lay the foundation for a Park Advisory Board) and advocacy with LAUSD that resulted in the district’s expanding resources to address the needs of homeless students.

The exhibition: “Cosmology and Community: Networks of Liberation” weaves together five components beginning with Charles’ family history and origins in a historic free Black New Jersey community, the role of mentors, and his education at Howard University. The second part of the exhibition explores philosophy, recovery, wellness, healing, and the quest for meaning, examining social model approaches utilized in Skid Row to create healthy lives and communities. The third part of the exhibition focuses on culture and explores Charles’ incorporation of cultural learning, music, poetry, and African traditions in his work in Skid Row. The fourth component highlights community formation and transformative community-led initiatives to increase safety, expand resources, provide support, and strengthen neighborhood ties. The final component highlights the need for voice, agency, and responsive systems that facilitate autonomy and increase accountability.

Original poetry on the gallery walls, narrating the components of the exhibition were written by Charles who also informed the creation of referential mural elements created by Dimitri Kadiev, Joshua Grace, and Ellie Sanchez. Each station will have video, audio, and a notebook of historical and contemporary documents. Musical performances, public conversations, and theatrical events are being planned for the run of the exhibition, which will be up through July 31.

Curatorial and production support for Community Curator Charles Porter, is provided by LAPD / SRHM&A’s directors John Malpede and Henriëtte Brouwers, and archivists Henry Apodaca and Zachary Rutland. This is the first exhibition in SRHM&A’s “Community Curator” exhibition series.

Friday, April 14 (6:30pm): Utilizing Our Skid Row Parks for Making a Safe Space.
Panel: Charles Porter in conversation with Christopher Mack, Hayk Makhmuryan, Alisa Orduna and Henriëtte Brouwers. This discussion will highlight the work to activate and support Skid Row parks as venues for cultural exchange, community, and wellness. We will also discuss advocacy and investment to provide essential support and amenities for all patrons, including people experiencing homelessness.

Saturday, April 22 (2:00pm): Music is My Sanctuary
Performance: Musical event with Filipé Garcia Villamil, master drummer and Charles’ mentor and teacher.
Panel moderated by Charles Porter with Filipé Garcia Villamil, DJ Ade, Jamael Dean, Rickie Byars and Ray Lewis. A discussion of local musical artists regarding their music and its relationship to spirituality and healing. 

Saturday, May 20 (12 noon):  Systemic change in action: Empowerment, emancipation, equity, and accountability.
Panel, moderated by Charles Porter with Mary Lee, expert on public health advocacy to address land-use policy, who will discuss historic impacts of inequitable practices and current implications, and Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills, a formulator of emotional emancipation healing circles and member of the State Reparations Taskforce, who will share her local work grounded in the experiences of the Black diaspora. This panel will discuss efforts to address institutional racism and systemic harm. We will spotlight best practices for addressing trauma, engaging system impacted individuals, challenging policies, and repairing harm.
Mary Lee will talk about harmful land use practices such as redlining, over-concentration of uses and remedial ones such as expanding healthy food access, land trusts, cooperatives etc., and Dr. Grills will talk about healing circles, a national Covid/stress survey, Refresh Spot data and her work re: reparations in CA.

Friday July 7, 7pm   Screening of UCEPP’s Oral History Project.
Screening and discussion with the youth who were involved with UCEPP’s Youth Program in 2010.

Charles Porter walks through the 5 stations of the exhibition on opening night.

April 14: Utilizing Our Skid Row Parks for Making a Safe Space.
Panel: Charles Porter in conversation with Christopher Mack, Hayk Makhmuryan, Alisa Orduna and Henriëtte Brouwers. This discussion will highlight the work to activate and support Skid Row parks as venues for cultural exchange, community, and wellness. We will also discuss advocacy and investment to provide essential support and amenities for all patrons, including people experiencing homelessness.

April 22: Music is My Sanctuary
Panel & Performance: moderated by Charles Porter with DJ Ade, Jamael Dean, Rickie Byars and Ray Lewis.
A discussion of local musical artists regarding their music and its relationship to spirituality and healing.

May 20: Systemic Change in Action: Empowerment, Emancipation, Equity, and Accountability.
Panel, moderated by Charles Porter with Mary Lee, expert on public health advocacy to address land-use policy, who will discuss historic impacts of inequitable practices and current implications, and Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills, a formulator of emotional emancipation healing circles and member of the State Reparations Taskforce, who will share her local work grounded in the experiences of the Black diaspora.

This panel will discuss efforts to address institutional racism and systemic harm. We will spotlight best practices for addressing trauma, engaging system impacted individuals, challenging policies, and repairing harm. Mary Lee will talk about harmful land use practices such as redlining, over-concentration of uses and remedial ones such as expanding healthy food access, land trusts, cooperatives etc., and Dr. Grills will talk about healing circles, a national Covid/stress survey, Refresh Spot data and her work re: reparations in CA.

July 7, 2023: Screening We’re Not Bad Kids! & panel
Concept/Videography- Franklin Arburtha
Runtime: 26 min.
O&A moderated by Charles Porter with the original NOT BAD kids: Adelene Bertha, Kevin Cedano, Lamar Profit and Roshawn Cornett.

We’re Not Bad Kids is a 2004 documentary showing the lives of young people living in Skid Row. The film spotlights the social conditions they endured as well as their engagement with United Coalition East Prevention Project (UCEPP). The documentary incorporates footage shot by Franklin Arburtha and his peers living in the Ford Hotel. UCEPP staff alongside Franklin worked with Paul Sabu Rogers to edit, record, and incorporate additional interviews and perspectives challenging the narrative that unhoused Black and Brown youth in Skid Row were a source of trouble.