Walk the Talk 2016

The parade starts at noon at the corner of E. 6th Street and Stanford Avenue, (zip 90021).
Download the Walk The Talk newsletter here for more information about the honorees and parade route.

Parade & Performance route:
We will walk from UCEPP’s corner space on E 6th Street and Stanford up E. 6^th street to:
* LA Community Action Network: performance in the front of LA CAN honoring General Dogon and on the roof garden, honoring Becky Dennison. * Gladys Park: performance honoring A.J. * Cross the street and go to the Hippy Kitchen and perform in front of the mural on Gladys Avenue, honoring Carol Sobel. Back to E 6^th street and walk down to San Pedro Street, right turn at the corner and stop at * Lamp Community, honoring Hayk Makhmuryan and next door at the * Center for Community Health Downtown, honoring Chris Mack. Cross 5^th street. * Performance under the big tree in front of the Downtown Women’s Center, honoring Katherine McNenny. Then cross San Pedro Street and walk back to 5^th street, turn right onto 5^th street and walk West towards the LA Mission, turn right at the corner into Wall Street and turn left into Winston Street, then cross Los Angeles Street and turn right.
* The last performance will be on the West side of Los Angeles Street, between Winston street and 4^th street, honoring KevinMichael Key.

May 18 + 20: Come Together events at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive
Featuring 8 community movers and shakers talking about the work they do and why they do it.

An evening of performances and presentations by people who are making visionary contributions to life in downtown Los Angeles. 2016 Walk The Talk nominees were invited by community members and asked to present their work.  The people invited will make 10-minute presentations, in any form they see as appropriate, about what they are doing in Skid Row. The presentations can take the form of a performance, a demonstration or a lecture. The presentations happen back to back, combining the insight and passion of both inviters and presenters.
‘Come Together’ events are based on a randomizing concept for structuring events, conceived by 2006 Alpert Award winning artist Harrell Fletcher, a collaborating artist on Los Angeles Poverty Department’s UTOPIA / dystopia project.

Wednesday, May 18, at 6pm, “Come Together”
Community organizer Steve Diaz will speak on Tenant’s Rights and Fair Housing issues, Marc Trotz, Director of Housing for Health, LA County Department of Health will present about his C3 outreach/engagement project, and filmmaker and activists Tony Anthony and Andreea Teodorescu will present their work and show excerpts of their “Skid Row City” movie and pictures.

Friday, May 20, at 7 pm, “Come Together”
Melvin Ishmael Johnson of Dramastage Qumran, visual artist Lynn Rossi will show photos from her Evolution of the Revolution series, musician Franc Foster will present Music and Art in Recovery and community architect Theresa Hwang will talk about the Skid Row Design Collective.

At the Skid Row History Museum & Archive: 440 S. Broadway, mezzanine level, Los Angeles 90013.
Exhibit hours: May 18 – July 31, 2016 – Friday, Saturday, Sunday from 2-5pm.
Opening reception: Wednesday, May 18 from 5-6pm.

THE “WALK THE TALK” EXHIBITION features portraits, interviews, transcripts and performance scripts and videos of 52 people who have lived and worked in Skid Row and have been instrumental in creating a neighborhood in which the interests of its low income residents are prioritized and their voices heard.

At a time when Angelinos are living homeless throughout LA County, and government is looking to adequately respond, this archive is an important resource. It features groundbreaking initiatives that have proven transformative because they recognize and employ the humanity, wisdom and creativity of Skid Row residents to solve problems and build community.

The exhibition features people who have been recognized in Los Angeles Poverty Department’s biennial Walk the Talk parade of 2012, 2014 and 2016.

The show is curated by LAPD and designed by LAPD in collaboration with Robert M. Ochshorn. Ochshorn is a researcher at the Communications Design Group (San Francisco), where he designs media interfaces for extending human perceptive and expressive capabilities. Ochshorn is an on-going collaborator with the Skid Row History Museum & Archive, having designed the museum’s inaugural exhibition “Blue Book / Silver Book” in 2015. Ochshorn will build on the architecture developed for the “WALK THE TALK” exhibition to organize and make accessible the entire collection of the Skid Row History Museum & Archive.

For the “WALK THE TALK” exhibition, Ochshorn has written software that allows instant and parallel navigation of hour-long interviews from transcript to video and back again of these 52 historically significant Skid Row figures. This archive will also be searchable by subject (e.g., “Gladys Park”, “Jan Perry”, “Department of Social Services”, “Skid Row musicians” etc.) The “WALK THE TALK” exhibition allows for non-linear, digitally reconfigured navigation through the content — activated by each visitor — a mechanism for each visitor to experience the exhibition uniquely.

Pairoj Pichetmetakul is painting the portraits of our honorees.
Together, Lifestyledezine and Los Angeles Poverty Department have featured Pairoj as the artist in this year’s Walk The Talk parade. Pairoj is a former Buddhist monk who engages with homeless people and paints their portraits. Taking inspiration from Chinese scroll paintings, Pairoj paints his subjects on 10-foot-wide by 150-foot-long rolls of canvas. Pairoj will paint a portrait for each honoree on a canvas, which we will carry with us  in the Walk The Talk parade.