EXHIBITION : THE WORLD RESPONDS TO THE WALK THE TALK ARCHIVE
DECEMBER 8, 2022 – July 2023

The exhibition features all the responses to the Walk the Talk archive.

Walk the Talk is a project of the Los Angeles Poverty Department that honors people who’ve lived and worked in Skid Row and whose contributions to the neighborhood have made it a place for solving the problems that other people have given up on. Skid Row is the place where recovery happens.

Walk the Talk has many elements, including its own website.
In the past year, 12 people: artists, scholars and others from California, Canada and Italy have generated video responses that share what they’ve learned from engaging with the words and ideas of the 76 people celebrated on the Walk the Talk archive website.

On December 8, these responders were present at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive. We screened 5 responses and had a conversation with their makers and the Skid Row people in the Walk the Talk archive, who have inspired each response. Responses we screened were by, Victoria Romano, Helen Kim, Douglas Mungin, Lorinda Hawkins and Vancouver B.C.’s The Right to Remain Collective.

RESPONDERS:
* Victoria Romano is a PhD student in Digital Composition at UC-Riverside.
* Douglas Mungin is a professor at Solano Community College. Douglas’ research explores the performance of space and identity, ranging from the creation of abject spaces, gentrification, and unhoused communities.
* The Right to Remain Research Collective supports the historic tenants’ rights movement taking place in the Single Room Occupancy buildings in Vancouver B.C.’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).
* Helen Kim is a Korean American multimedia artist who utilizes photography, text, interactive performance and relational aesthetics to explore how and where identity is created and belonging can be found.
* Lorinda Hawkins Smith, actor, author, advocate, musician, writer, comedian, award winning filmmaker. Now residing in Pasadena, Lorinda is a former Skid Row resident and is still active in the community.

Funding for the Walk the Talk responses is provided by the special interest license plate featuring the image of Snoopy, with permission and support from Peanuts Worldwide (Section 5169 of the Vehicle Code) for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment.