“We are living through a moment in which artists are expected to do more with less, to move between institutional logics and community urgencies, to survive precarity and still be visionary. Too often, artists are spoken about rather than spoken with. Too often, institutions prioritize metrics over lived realities. If we are to build a sustainable arts ecosystem in Los Angeles, institutions must realign, not with trends or mandates, but with artists.”
“The history of Estrada Courts needs to be documented,” says muralist and CAC Legacy Artist Norma Montoya, for the sake of the whole community. “I’m so, so proud that we got this fellowship. It’s not my fellowship. It’s a fellowship that a lot of us worked for.”
“When you make music together, when you dance together, and you have ideas—something clicks in, where you are connected in a very deeper way than having a conversation without that.”
“The beauty of the veranda is profound… It is an inbetween space. It’s not yes or no, it can be maybe. It’s not black, it’s not white, infinite shades of gray… And also it’s a buffer space. It is protection, a barricade between a space.”
“My approach to resourcing has always been rooted in activism… For me, championing artists means encouraging us to embrace our delusions—and push them even further into form.”
“The next thing I know,” Kamau says, “…I’m on stage with a fourteen-piece band behind me, reading my poetry. And then from that point on, I considered myself drafted into the Ark.”