Babe In The Woods
By Carmen Johns
It took me a long time to realize that I live in a bad neighborhood. In fact, it took me up until about three months ago when a girl I knew named Lily Burk was abducted five blocks away from my house and then killed. I moved to the outskirts of K-town when I was around eight years old, and the idea of merely spending time on my front porch alone, day or night has always seemed slightly unsettling- so why did it take nine years for it to really click?
(This is Carmen’s first piece for MPM. In its honor, we’ve put together a double feature. My story, of the same name, is after the jump.)
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The Corner
This past spring Anna Bosch of Ruido Photo, in Spain, and El Faro, in El Salvador, came to Los Angeles to document Central Americans as they pursue the American Dream. Elder Ulloa is one such Central American (he’s from Honduras) pursuing exactly this dream (he left the maquilas of San Pedro Sula for money and mobility in the United States, making it across the border on his third try after two arrests and one kidnapping by Los Zetas, the narco-turned-life dealers in Mexico). His story in the U.S. is largely set on The Corner. Also available en Español.
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The Takeaway
Esperanza Elementary is up for bid, and Ms. Thompson isn’t having it. Shortly after L.A. Unified resolved last month to open up 200 of the district’s lowest-performing schools to outside control, Esperanza included, the first grade teacher and school union’s Chapter Chair sent an email to MPM written in bold, the subject line in all caps: FIGHTING A CHARTER TAKEOVER. We interviewed her and other teachers at Esperanza to see what exactly the fight entails. We spoke with a local charter school’s union VP. We talked to parents at both schools, and we asked the Director of the District’s Charter Division just how likely a charter takeover at Esperanza is by the time the next school year starts. His answer? “Very likely.”
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Happy One Month
MacArthur Park Media has been live for exactly one month today, and we think we really love life on the web. LA Daily wrote about us, and so did Boing Boing. LAist, Univision, and Marketplace sent fan mail, the last of which was serious enough to make Antonio of MPM’s Tamales on the Run a national radio star on their show today. Many neighbors have written; some of the nice ones have commented. More than 1,000 people have visited MPM in this first month, a lot of them via a search for “macarthur park fake IDs” which I find amazing.
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Tamales On The Run
MacArthur Park Media’s first multimedia piece! Produced in collaboration with Anna Bosch of Ruido Photo. Starring Antonio Bautista. Also available en Español.
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Hollywood Comes to Home Depot
MPM cannot take credit for this hilarious music video, starring not one but four MacArthur Park residents: Miller, Tino, Orlando, and Eduardo. All we (I) did was hang out on set the day it was filmed and take notes. Following is a list of people actually responsible for Jesús, then beneath that an article I wrote for the LA Weekly about Tino for the February 19th edition. Read that here.
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MacArthur Park Postcard
I taught first grade at a public school here last year and we were lucky, really lucky, to have volunteers from 826LA visit us and write with us on mondays. The tutors were in fact so thoughtful and so kind that when one of them went away to New York for a couple of weeks, [...]
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Pleased To Meet You
MacArthur Park is a place many people come when they need immediately a fake ID and a tamale cart. They come from Mexico and El Salvador and mountains in Guatemala so rural and so remote that they do not even speak Spanish, but Kanjobal, K’iche’, Chuj. They come from trains and vans and the small space beneath the spare tire in trucks and they come here, to MacArthur Park, to start. It is a baffling, chaotic place to begin to assimilate and it is in this chaos that their view of America first takes shape.
