Jessica Koslow

Friends of Ballona Wetlands has a lot to be proud of. It brought the El Segundo Blue Butterfly back to Ballona, which, according to director Scott Culbertson, everyone thought was gone forever. It hosts more than 5,000 students every year on field trips to the wetlands and including pre-and post-lessons in classrooms that number totals 12,000 student interactions each year. About 74% of the schools it serves are Title I, and it provides about 60 bus scholarships annually to schools.

Forty-seven years ago, a small group of concerned citizens started Friends of Ballona Wetlands to save the wetlands from being developed by businessman Howard Hughes’ heirs. The state of California purchased the land 25 years later, and the nonprofit has an access permit to run education, science and restoration programs. . . .

Read the entire article at Playa Vista Magazine.

Asia Yu grew up in Denver in the 1970s. Her mom was from Iowa and her father from China. She credits her pull to community work to the diverse neighborhood of Park Hill where she lived and the spirit of community organizing that surrounded her.

“I was impacted by the leadership in our city, by the powerful people of color, including the Chicano movement that came out of Denver,” Yu, also known as Asia One, said.

While she was attending community college and taking fine arts classes, she decided to open up a hip-hop shop in an undeveloped part of town near the railroad tracks. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

Create Protest has mailed out over 80,000 artist-designed postcards to voters across the country, who have then handwritten notes on and sent them out to more voters across the country. It is what Create Protest does: It is a community marketplace of message makers — individuals with something to say and a will to act. The artists live around the U.S., many are based in LA, and the items include hoodies, hats and mugs. Certain items are of the moment and others are more evergreen.

Juliette Bellocq, who runs Handbuilt Studio, designed the “Truth Matters” merchandise. Deaf and unable to speak as a child, art became Stephen Glassman’s primary means of communication. He created the “We” items, referencing the first word in the U.S. Constitution. Man One’s designs read “Vote.” His work has been exhibited at MOCA LA, The Getty and LACMA and in 2002, he founded Crewest Gallery in LA to legitimize graffiti. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Two times a year, The Castle Green opens its doors for public tours: in June and for the holidays, which this year is scheduled for Dec. 14. The rest of the year this majestic centerpiece of the city houses 52 fully occupied condominium units and hosts around 50 weddings, among other events.

The Castle Green has been held in high esteem since its origins in 1898, when architect Frederick I. Roehrig unveiled the seven-story annex of the famous Hotel Green at Raymond and Green Streets. Roehrig incorporated Moorish, Spanish and Victorian influences to produce one of the most cherished historic — and only fireproof —buildings in Pasadena.

Crowds gather to roam the 125-year-old halls and grounds and study and savor the building’s domes, arches, pillars, balconies, and verandahs, the Penthouse and the iconic Bridge, which at one time tied the annex to the first part of the hotel complex on the east side of the street. . . .

Read the entire article at Arroyo Monthly.

The bright city lights make it hard to see stars in LA. Sure, you see lots of celebrities — we’re not talking about those kinds of stars — but Angelenos miss out on the ones that appear like shapes up above and fall from the sky. Just two to three hours from LA (depending on traffic), the stars are on parade in Twentynine Palms, a desert gateway to Joshua Tree National Park where the Mojave and Colorado Deserts meet. 

Stay

Just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, there is a new hotel in Twentynine Palms: RESET, with mountain views, minimalist design and the comforts of a boutique hotel. Its 65 rooms are situated on 180 acres that also include a pool and private cabanas. Each room features its own private patio with a stove fire pit. Its most recent addition comes courtesy of a partnership with Celestron, the world leader in telescopes and optics. Now guests can gaze at the stars through StarSense Explorer telescopes, binoculars and the Celestron Origin; RESET is the only hotel in the world to feature it. . . .

Read the entire article at Arroyo Monthly.

On a Friday earlier this month, Emmy-nominated “Saturday Night Live” comedian Kevin Nealon is playing basketball at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, with some of his best pals: Adam Sandler, Dana Carvey and Kevin James. It’s the routine he followed on Sandler’s two-week “You’re My Best Friend Tour.” 

“It’s just a blast,” he shared. “Every day we go to a different city, and when we get to the city we go right to a gym to play basketball or swim. Then we go to the venue and start doing the soundtrack for the show, and it’s the same thing over and over every day for the last two weeks. We go to restaurants late at night, and we just eat too much food, and we laugh, and it’s really pretty surreal.”

Although Nealon enjoys performing in front of crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 people, he confided that he’s more of an intimate crowd guy, which is why he is looking forward to his BroadStage debut. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Although Porchfest seems like a perfect fit for LA, this is not the fest’s first iteration. Ithaca, New York, was the first city to launch this music festival in 2007. And L.A. resident Hélène Udy heard about another Porchfest from her musician friends in Montreal — both fests continue to this day. 

But Udy, who is an actor, director and event producer, had her own vision for Porchfest LA, and it included clowns.  

Udy was involved in a clown show that was produced by her friend who, in 2016, asked her to take it over. Overnight, she got an idea: “Was Ist Dat?” . . .

Read the entire article in The Argonaut.

The seed for Saved by a Story, a nonprofit that hosts free community writing workshops, was planted while Kathy Katims was reading an article about foster youth. One of the distinct pains that people in the foster care system experienced was the absence of somebody to hold their story: riding a tricycle at the age of two, making a friend at five and playing baseball at 11.

In graduate school, when Katims was asked to create a project connecting her field of study, writing, with social justice, she knew exactly where to start.

“I had an idea that if I gathered a group of foster youth and offered a prompt writing workshop, people could hold their narrative for themselves and also share it,” said Katims. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

In 2011, when Pasadena local Kimberly Bautista finished her award-winning documentary about femicide in Guatemala, titled “Justice for My Sister,” her work had just begun. Partnering with survivors, organizers and artists to host community screenings, self-defense trainings and resource-sharing events, she traveled to more than 200 communities and, in doing so, realized she was creating a space for connection, healing and action.

Over the next four years, Bautista began to hatch a plan: launch a nonprofit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) women, nonbinary youth, foster youth and survivors of gender-based violence, called Justice For My Sister (JFMS), focusing on youth leadership, workforce development and systems change. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

The month of October has become synonymous with breast cancer awareness. Yet Westside Family Health Center remains focused year-round on educating and servicing its patients about the second most common cancer in American women.

Last year WFHC celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Federally Qualified Health Center offers services to 13,000-plus patients spread throughout 170 zip codes in Los Angeles.

“The service that we provide is a screening mammogram,” said Felicia Osborn, Medical Director of Reproductive Health and Prenatal Programs. “Some are coming for the first time when they turn 40, and others are continuing their health maintenance. They have had mammograms in the past and either had abnormal ones and are returning for a screening mammogram or they’re continuing their screening mammograms for prevention purposes to detect cancer.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.