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Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 – from 7-9pm – Presentation by author Erick Lyle – Hosted by Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), 838 E 6th Street, Los Angeles CA 90021.

“The Back 9” is coming.  Los Angeles Poverty Department and artist Rosten Woo are creating a playable miniature golf course themed on the re-zoning of LA and its consequences –as its first application is in downtown LA.  Will it facilitate displacement or acknowledge the long term, low-income resident community?  Dum da dum dum.
LAPD will also make a performance that will take place in the mini golf course, addressing the same themes. The mini golf course is set to open at the beginning of May and the performances will take place in June.  Meantime the project kicks off with a series of conversations and workshops, organized by Woo, LA Poverty Department and Materials and Applications.

The first presentation / conversation event features Erick Lyle the creator of the legendary zine SCAM.  For decades Lyle has organized, written and made art about homelessness, housing and displacement.  He worked as an organizer for W.R.A.P. (Western Regional Organizing Project) in San Francisco, he squatted and created the 949 Cultural Center in the Mission District – and he wrote about it in his brilliant and hilarious book “On the Lower Frequencies”.  After being evicted from San Francisco, he came back to organize “Streetopia” a community visioning of “utopian futures, while facilitating mutual aid and prefigurative political art and organizing projects.”  He spent much of last year traveling the country talking about “Streetopia” and “discussing gentrification, making presentations with and learning from ant-displacement activists.”   In his February 21 presentation, Erick asks: What does Community control look like –in the era of Trump?

ERICK LYLE: What does community control look like? In the new Trump Era, cities like Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco have rushed to reassure that their governments intend to oppose new restrictive federal immigration policies and to reinforce these cities’ status as Sanctuary Cities. But as homeless sweeps and evictions continue to endanger communities of working class and people of color in these cities, we have to ask what does “sanctuary” mean in the era of rampant gentrification? The ongoing crisis of rampant gentrification and displacement will only be exacerbated by the anti-immigrant policies and large-scale privatization of education and public housing proposed by Trump. What are some ways that communities have resisted similar oppression in the past? How do we organize to build power on a neighborhood level today? Could the path to resisting Trump lie in doubling down on anti-gentrification efforts? Join author, Erick Lyle, for an overview of recent radical municipalization and mutual aid projects from around the world that offer inspiration and concrete tactics that might be of use in the new anti-Trump resistance. Audience discussion about neighborhood resistance ideas for Los Angeles to follow.

“The Back 9” event #2:  Friday March 4, 1-3 pm.
Hosted by Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN).
Presentation and Workshop with Jonathan Crisman, looking at income inequality and alternative economic models.  Jonathan Crisman is the director of No Style, a design and publishing practice, and with Jia Gu he forms LABOR, an interdisciplinary art and architecture studio.

Rosten Woo is an artist, designer, writer, and educator living in Los Angeles. I make things that help people understand complex systems, re-orient themselves to places, and participate in-group decision-making.

Materials & Applications (M&A) is a non-profit organization dedicated to building a public culture of experimental architecture in Los Angeles. Our mission is to advance innovative and critical ideas about architectural design through public projects and programs. We produce outdoor installations, workshops, and dialogues in collaboration with architects, artists, and communities.

The mission of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) is to help people dealing with poverty create & discover opportunities, while serving as a vehicle to ensure we have voice, power & opinion in the decisions that are directly affecting us.

This program has been made possible by a grant from the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts with additional support from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.