Disco and Diversity in Armenian L.A. Cindy Olnick 0:00 Today on Save As a warning: this episode may cause hunger and the urge to dance. Trudi Sandmeier 0:14 Welcome to Save As a podcast that glimpses the future of heritage…
Tag: Los Angeles
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.
Community-Led Advocacy: Saving Places and Building Power Cindy Olnick 0:00 Today on Save As, we’re taking it to the streets with heritage justice hero Rosalind Sagara. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation. I’m Cindy…
Culture, Community, and the Holiday Bowl Cindy Olnick 0:00 Today on Save As, we catch up with one of the first graduates of USC’s Heritage Conservation program, who since then has driven every single street in Los Angeles. Find out…
Yettem: A Garden of Eden for Armenian California [00:00:00] Trudi Sandmeier: Today on Save As, we’re going to answer the very important question of what taxidermy and bicycles have to do with Armenian California. [music] [00:00:17] Cindy Olnick: Hello, and…
These Walls CAN Talk: Heritage and Hope at the Mafundi Building in Watts Trudi Sandmeier 00:08 This is Save As, a podcast that glimpses the future of heritage conservation through the work of graduate students at the University of Southern…
These Walls CAN Talk: Heritage and Hope at the Mafundi Building in Watts
As L.A.’s Watts neighborhood reeled from the 1965 Rebellion against systemic injustice, Black architects and civil rights activists Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a place of healing and hope. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as the home of the Mafundi Institute (“mafundi” is Swahili for artisans or craftspeople), which provided a vital creative outlet for self-expression and Black empowerment. Now widely known as the Mafundi building, this Late Modern gem is a rare symbol of art and culture with an uncertain future.
USC’s Materials Conservation class studied the building this term, using pandemic workarounds to assess everything from the windows to the coffee shop’s collection. Join us for a humdinger of a season finale about the Mafundi building’s history, significance, condition, and precarious situation. Learn about the class project from instructor Peyton Hall, FAIA and students Arabella Delgado, Emi Takahara, and Melissa Miller. And hear from alumna Rita Cofield, a lifelong community member and part of the grassroots preservation effort, about what this place means to the people of Watts and how you can help.
| This episode is 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. |  |
Bunker Hill Refrain: Resurrecting a Lost Community Cindy Olnick 00:34 Today we are talking about a subject near and dear to the hearts of many — the area of Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles. Trudi Sandmeier 00:41 Yeah, most…
Bunker Hill Refrain: Resurrecting a Lost Community
Bunker Hill looms large in the collective memory of Los Angeles. Once a tony enclave of Victorian homes, the downtown neighborhood became a vibrant and diverse community before being razed in the urban renewal/removal of the 1950s. Much has been made of the architectural loss. But who were, and what came of, the thousands and thousands of people displaced? A very cool USC project called Bunker Hill Refrain seeks to find out. High tech meets low tech in a vast effort to capture, map, and analyze data from a trove of 1930s WPA census cards. Coupled with oral histories, the data can help illuminate the social cost of urban renewal, inform more thoughtful planning going forward, perhaps even reconnect the community. Hear from students, faculty, and staff about how the project came about, how it works, and how you can get involved.