Jessica Koslow

CORE, according to its website, was started by a scrappy team of idealists determined to ease the suffering and destruction around them. One of those idealists was actor Sean Penn, who met CORE’s (Community Organized Relief Effort) co-founder, Ann Lee, at a displacement camp in Haiti while responding to the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, that killed more than 220,000 people and left another 1.5 million homeless.

Since 2010, CORE has grown into a global team and, on Jan. 7, 2025, the organization prepared to respond to what would become the tragic aftermath of the wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

CORE Program Area Manager Matt Gsell lives in Sherman Oaks, just between both fire areas. He is responsible for the 14 caseworkers who each work with about 35 clients/families from the affected areas. CORE helps with everything from basic needs to rebuilding, housing to educational support — “anything that people need to get them back to where they were pre-disaster,” said Gsell. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

As the co-founder and CEO of the e-commerce platform Stan, John Hu identified a problem: Even the most promising creators rarely get the resources or funding to turn early momentum into sustainable businesses.

Successful entrepreneurs find solutions, and so Hu launched the Dare to Dream Challenge to, according to its press release, “flip the traditional American Dream narrative, moving away from the ‘white picket fence’ ideal toward a new version of success defined by creative freedom and doing work you love.”

More than 2,500 creators from around the world shared their dreams as part of the 2026 challenge, which ran from late 2025 through early 2026, with the winners announced on February 27. The grand prize is $100,000 to dedicate 2026 to building your dream, and five runner-up Creators each received $10,000 in funding. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Bryant Acosta may look young, but his resume is impressive. As a chief creative officer, he has built systems using advanced technology and helped shape global brands. As the CEO of Nightbreed, he has brought communities together through events that amplify marginalized voices and create safe spaces for all people.

He is also a first-generation American, openly gay Latino, and he is running for LA mayor alongside around 40 other candidates.

“I did my research on my opponents, and I don’t see anybody that’s bringing the experience that I’m bringing to the table,” said Acosta. “No shade to people, but there are a lot of community organizers, lawyers, people that are working in the public space, but they don’t have the organizational skills and multimillion-dollar budget experience. They don’t have multidisciplinary team experience. I feel like that is my lane and I’m sticking to.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

There are quite a few characters roaming around on Venice Beach, so why would the beachfront paddle tennis courts be any different? Loving both the sport and the eclectic beachside community, Sveinn Ingimundarson and S.D. Saltarelli picked up their cameras and began to shoot the players and the game. The result is “Kings of Venice,” which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival this month and won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

“We both have a deep love of Venice,” said Saltarelli. “Sveinn and I were both out in Venice Beach, playing this little sport, paddle tennis, and Venice is just a magical place. It attracts some magical people, and we decided to try to put a camera on them, and we think we ended up with something kind of magical.”

According to the documentary, in 1961 there were over 8,000 paddle tennis courts in the U.S. Today only 50 remain, and 11 are in Venice Beach. The game is similar to tennis except it is played on a quarter-sized court with a lower net, wooden paddles and a tennis ball with its pressure reduced by a hypodermic needle. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Executive Director Valarie Gomez has been working at the West San Gabriel Valley YMCA for 21-plus years. This is not the most impressive Y-related trivia relating to her life. Her grandparents met at the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA on 4th and Hope Streets after World War II. 

“My grandmother was a part-time bookkeeper, and my grandfather didn’t want to go back to Nebraska, so he came to California for the opportunity of growth and development — very similar to what the Y offers — and he landed at the Y because of the boarding that they had at the downtown YMCA,” said Gomez. “They met and fell in love, and they both stayed at the Y. My grandfather did the printing until the last 10 or 15 years of his life. Unfortunately, they’re not living anymore, but I wish they were because I could share this joy with them that I found at the Y.” . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

Feeding the cats in the neighborhood is not the problem, according to Jasmine Jones, a longtime DTLA resident and creator of the group DTLA Cats. Everybody leaves food out in the neighborhood. The bigger issue, and the one Jones has been tackling for the past five years, is saving lives through trap-neuter-return (TNR and rescue, reducing shelter intake and euthanasia).

TNR consists of trapping the stray community cats; bringing them to a veterinary clinic to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated and treated for fleas; allowing them to recover safely for a short period of time; and then returning them to the only home they know, which is outdoors.

“It’s the most humane and effective way to reduce the suffering and overpopulation of outdoor cats,” Jones explained. “It prevents endless litters from being born on the streets, reduces fighting and roaming, and helps cats live healthier, safer lives. Los Angeles has one of the largest stray cat populations in the country, and downtown is no exception. This work is urgent, and it’s very local.”
. . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

When Jill Weiss Ippolito leads yoga classes at juvenile halls, she often hears, “Yoga, what’s that? Then she sits down and says, “I was a kid in juvenile hall myself,” to which the response usually is, “What were you arrested for?”

Ippolito responds, “I didn’t run fast enough.”

Ippolito admitted that she doesn’t look like somebody that the juveniles could relate to but that has not stopped her from remaining committed to UpRising Yoga’s (URY) mission: To offer yoga life skills programs for those incarcerated and underserved communities. . . .

Read the entire article in Pasadena Weekly.

Like peanut butter and jelly or Snoopy and Woodstock, dinner and a movie are a classic combination. Kicking off this January, the Culver Hotel on Culver Boulevard is hosting “Feast & Film,” an Old Hollywood style experience that pairs a three-course dinner with a movie screening across the courtyard at the art-deco designed Culver Theater.

“We did get moviegoers dining at our restaurant, but that’s not actually how we came up with the idea for Feast & Film,” explained Danielle Goller, General Manager at the Culver Hotel. “We hosted a ‘The Golden Screen: A Cinema Series’ that we started last year. It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the hotel and the 100th anniversary of MGM. The Culver Theater played original MGM movies and after guests saw the movie, they would come to our speakeasy lounge, the Velvet Lounge, and have a themed bite and drink.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

When Oliver Alpuche worked at Nike, he was asked to create an authentic running community. As he began to produce events and build community, he realized that work can be so much more than a job; it can spark inspiration.

“It lit a fire within me,” he explained. “When I opened a bar downtown called Redline, I still had that same passion. As I looked at starting my own business, I asked, how do I build an authentic queer community?”

In 2015, three gay bars opened in DTLA: Precinct, Bar Mattachine and Redline. One of Alpuche’s goals was to create a queer community hangout, but he also had bigger plans. DTLA Proud was born the following year to, in Alpuche’s words, let greater Los Angeles know about its vibrant gay community and nightlife. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

On Dec. 31, 2024, Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband touched down in Nassau, Bahamas, to celebrate their 43rd anniversary and her recent retirement from teaching photography for 20 years. One week later, the Eaton Fire burned down their home.

“I not only lost my home, but I lost all my equipment and my photo studio,” said the founder of Altadena Photographers, a volunteer-driven organization created to help creatives recover from the Eaton Fire. “We were trapped in the Bahamas. My son kept telling us, don’t come back to LA. There’s no place to live. He was also displaced. In February, I started to formulate the organization and by the time I came back on March 11, it was already in full swing.”

“I decided to start the organization because I was looking online at what was happening in our community, and I saw that Brandon Jay had started Altadena Musicians,” she continued. “I know that I’m not the only photographer in Altadena. I know I’m not the only artist in Altadena. I commented on a post he made, and I said, who’s taking care of the photographers? And he said, why don’t you? I took him up on the challenge.”. . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.