On September 24, Clockshop welcome guests to explore Take Me to Your River: A Cultural Atlas of the LA River, the beginning of a three-year collective history and cultural mapping project of the Northeast LA neighborhoods that surround the LA River, including Elysian Valley, Atwater Village, Cypress Park, and Glassell Park.

Take Me to Your River Community Launch
Sunday, September 24, 2023
1:00-3:00 PM
Clockshop
This event has reached max capacity.

Clockshop has collected initial oral histories from individuals that reflect the diversity, contentions, and lived experiences of these Northeast LA communities. The atlas will be a space to preserve the histories of these neighborhoods, as ongoing gentrification displaces local residents and uproots their cultural and social fabrics.

During our community launch, we invite you to explore our new Cultural Atlas website and hear from some of these residents as they share their stories about the past, present, and future of the place they call home.

Residents like Helen Leung, born and raised in Elysian Valley and current Executive Director of local non-profit LA Más, shares:

“Frogtown feels like home to me because my family is still there. My parents, and surrounding my parents' home, are all these memories and connections I have to neighbors to places I grew up with. Everyone is so welcoming because everyone is struggling to make it.”

Spend the afternoon with us to hear more stories like this during our storytelling circles, with a short discussion and opportunities to share to follow. There will be delicious tacos and aguas frescas to enjoy as we explore the cultural atlas through demonstrations of short documentaries, an interactive timeline, and illustrations by Jian Giannini that encapsulate the visual narratives of these communities.

This program is free and open to the public.

This work is ongoing; keep your eye out for an opportunity to submit a story of your own!

If you are unable to attend, but would like to recommend a local Northeast LA cultural practitioner, community leader, resident, or local business or organization to tell their story, please fill out this form.

ABOUT CLOCKSHOP

Clockshop is a Los Angeles-based arts and culture nonprofit. Clockshop offers free public programming and commissions contemporary artist projects on public land to better connect Angelenos to the land we live on.

SUPPORT
Take Me to Your River, and related programs, is supported through generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant, the California Arts Council, The Nature Conservancy, and Clockshop’s generous community of individual donors.

As we prepare for the launch of this project, we would like to express our gratitude to community members who have agreed to participate in the pilot phase of this project, and to all who have advised us along the way. Thank you.

Photographs by Mathew Scott