Los Angeles Poverty Department
Festival for All Skid Row Artists
by Sohrab Mohebbi

Under the bright Californian winter sun, on January 27th and 28th artists from all over Skid Row neighborhood in down town Los Angeles came to Gladys Park for Los Angeles Poverty Department’s second annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists. While with over 11,000 residents, the 52 block is primarily portrayed as the homeless capital of the U.S in the dominant rhetoric, it is the largest site of concentrated services, resources and creative solutions, making it a place for visionary thinking for social and political problems. And as the festival makes it clear, it is certainly not in lack of artistic talent, in spite of all the injustice, discrimination and poverty. During the two days of the festival, over 70 musicians, poets, spoken word artists, actors, stand up comedians, performers and visual artists shared their talent with over 800 people who danced, listened, watched and had a great time. X man Orchestra, brought the sound equipment and set up the stage, Waterman was there with his water bottles and cups giving water to the thirsty, and Cal State LA students helped registering artists and took photographs and all participants went home with a pair of yellow “Skid Row Artist: MENACING COOL” shades.

At Los Angeles Poverty Department we believe that art is the common in the community, bringing people together from all walks of life. Festival for All Skid Row Artists, made possible through funding from California Arts Council, is an open venue for our community to show and share their work with other fellow art enthusiasts. Walter Fears, a member of the Skid Row Playaz and the Los Angeles Poverty Department reflects “art has the power to make people feel good about themselves, each other, and ultimately the community.” This year, not only did the festival showcase Skid Row’s brightest stars, the open mic section of the program was used by new artists to step up for the first time. Beyond bringing together community talents, the festival also helps us collect data and information about the artists in the neighborhood. This data we include in our growing Skid Row Artists’ registry, which currently has over 400 members. The information from the  registry is shared with other initiatives, such as Black History Month.

Robert Gupta & his Street Symphony

This year the festival featured six acts from other parts of LA, to encourage artistic exchange and bring folks from all over to witness and appreciate Skid Row’s artists at work. Among these acts was LA Philharmonic’s Robert Gupta and his Street Symphony who played Mozart’s G major on the composer’s 256th birthday. “We had such a blast playing for the LAPD Skid Row Artist's Festival - the connection with this totally human community, truly onsite, hands-on outreach to an audience on Skid Row reminds us why we make music,” said Gupta after finishing his 15-minute set.  

Our partners from other grass root organizations from the neighborhood were also present, helping with the event. Hayk Makhumuryan from LAMP Art Project helped with the community outreach, showing the work of the Project’s artists. Together with Natalia Aguilar, LAMP Art Project also provided arts materials and organized and supplied the creativity stations.

Creativity Stations

These stations created an environment where visitors could produce their own visual art works. Others were also involved, from United Coalition East Prevention Project, to LA Community Action Network, to ‘3 on 3’ Skid Row Basketball League, Union Rescue Mission (URM) and Skid Row Artist Collective.

Crushow Herring

The many visual and performing artists who participated filled the festival with life."Life is art. The street is art. I'm just an artist and art is me," said painter, graphic designer, rapper and business man Crushow Herring while his son worked at a creativity station painting a portrait of him. Born in Missouri and raised in South Central LA, Crunshow has been rapping for seven years, creating what he called “New Era Folk Songs.”

Another artist, New Orleans native, Ciera Payton performed an excerpt of her one-woman show, “Michael’s Daughter,” a work told through her incarcerated father’s point of view. Ciera’s father has been in prison since she entered high school. Ciera’s purpose for

Ciera Payton

performing this piece was to connect with the audience at the festival, many of which had similar experiences to her dad’s.

G-Nut, a skid row artist born and raised in Los Angeles, performed his local hit called Mike Jack. G-Nut’s music sends a valuable message for teens and misguided adults.

G-Nut

The list of artists continues with Paul Mitchell, who calls himself a “visual art worker.” Paul started painting while he was disabled for three years to help him keep a positive attitude. He

Paul Mitchell

gets inspired by the location of the festival and responds to it through his art by creating visual stories.  Painter Christopher Como, mentioned how he likes to capture the emotion and the essence in his picture, creating a work that is both aesthetically pleasing for the viewer and

Christopher Como

self-therapeutic. Artist King Howard finds Gospel to be great music to communicate a modern message, believing “so much can be accomplished in people by simply groovin’ them the way they need to be grooved—if

King Howard & Don Ovan Johnson

you will.” A musician known as “Twin - Skid Row Flowin” creates music that mainly expresses how he feels about the stereotypes that are put on the Black Men of Skid Row, and the tough challenges facing what

Twin - Skid Row Flowin

he calls the inner-city male. These are only some artists featured at the Festival for All Skid Row Artists. As Allegra Tepper writes on USC Annenberg’s Neon Tommy blog: “the festival was above all else an attempt to overcome the circumstances, and a successful one at that. One performer, Mary Barnes, or Queen Mary as she prefers to be called, said it was ‘God's way of letting us know we still count, that we have to give ourselves a chance again.’"

All photos by Henriëtte Brouwers, except Ciera Payton’s, which was taken by Xiomara Sasha Díaz. Creativity Stations photo features Flo Hawkins drawing Paul Mitchell.

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The Los Angeles Poverty Department receives funding from the California Arts Council’s Creating Public Value Program, which supports arts organizations in rural and underserved communities, and is managed by Lucero Arellano .