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Tag archive for: Los Angeles

November 1, 2023
sandmeie
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Season 4, Episode 3

Posted in Episodes, and Season 4

[Update] Heritage and Hope at the Mafundi Building in Watts

After the Watts Rebellion of 1965, Black architects Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a Late Modern building for the Mafundi Institute, a cultural organization. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as a place of creative expression, community, and healing. The popular Watts Coffee House has called the building home for decades. Now commonly called the Mafundi Building, this neighborhood treasure needs some TLC and new programming by and for the community.

We featured the Mafundi Building in Season 1, when it faced demolition and USC Materials Conservation students used it as their case study. MHC alum Rita Cofield, a lifelong community member and longtime champion of the building, joined us for the first episode. Now executive director of Friends at Mafundi and Project Leader of the Getty’s African American Historic Places Los Angeles initiative, Rita returns with an update on exciting developments. We follow the update with the original episode. This is a long one, but stick with it—you’ll be glad you did.

The original episode was dedicated to the memory of Jerome Robinson—scholar, MHC alumnus, and friend—pictured at Disneyland Paris in 2017 with Save As co-host Trudi Sandmeier. Jerome Robinson and Trudi Sandmeier at Disneyland Paris

Read MoreSeason 4, Episode 3
October 9, 2023
olnick
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Season 4, Episode 2

Posted in Episodes, and Season 4

[Update] Bunker Hill Refrain: Resurrecting a Lost Community

From 1930s census cards to virtual reality, the Bunker Hill Refrain project just keeps getting cooler. This multi-year effort is using data to reimagine downtown L.A.’s Bunker Hill—a historic, vibrant neighborhood razed in the urban renewal/removal of the 1950s. Dr. Meredith Drake Reitan offers an update on the project, which is digitally rebuilding the neighborhood block by block. Hear the latest on this great partnership to illuminate the social cost of urban renewal, inform more thoughtful planning going forward, perhaps even reconnect the community. Then hear the original episode from Season 1!

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April 21, 2022
sandmeie
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Season 2, Episode 13

Posted in Episodes, and Season 2

Tabula Raza: A New Table for People-Centered Conservation

As a kid, Laura Dominguez would sit under the kitchen table during tamale season, listening to family stories as the grownups handed her corn husks to play with. Now she’s one of the people setting a new table for heritage conservation, with community as the centerpiece. In this episode, Laura shares the personal roots of her professional path, her doctoral research into the origins of conservation in Los Angeles, and a glimpse of the future she’s helping to shape.


Read MoreSeason 2, Episode 13

March 31, 2022
sandmeie
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Season 2, Episode 12

Posted in Episodes, and Season 2

Disco and Diversity in Armenian L.A.

You may know that Greater Los Angeles has the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. But you might think it’s concentrated in the city of Glendale and Hollywood’s Little Armenia. Recent alum Erik Van Breene found pockets of Armenian Americans throughout the county while researching his thesis, Not So Little Armenia: Conserving Armenian Heritage Sites in Los Angeles. In this episode, Erik shares how these enclaves formed in waves of immigration from the 1910s through the 1990s. He also gives us a glimpse of the vibrant Armenian economy encompassing food, media, and music–including a recording studio that drew Armenian artists from around the world in the 1970s. That means disco, which you do not want to miss. And he makes the case for mapping and more to conserve Armenian sites before it’s too late.


Read MoreSeason 2, Episode 12

University of Southern California