Salvador Flores
For decades, East Broadway was more than a collection of gay bars. It was where queer Long Beach found community, organized, mourned, fought back and built a neighborhood of its own. As those spaces change, I think understanding what they gave us matters to whatever we decide to build next. Walk down East Broadway today and you might not immediately
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77 ViewsLong before rainbow flags and modern LGBTQ+ language, Indigenous nations had their own understandings of gender, sexuality, spirituality and community. That history reaches from Native nations across Turtle Island to Tongva land here in Long Beach—and continues this October with the return of Indigenous Pride LA. Most of us were taught a version of LGBTQ+ history that begins with Stonewall.
Read More264264 ViewsArts, food, LGBTQ+ representation and the stories shaping our communities A lot can happen in seven days. Some stories dominate our feeds for a few hours and disappear. Others quietly reveal where our communities are heading, who is being heard and what may be changing around us. That is the idea behind this new weekly Playalarga roundup. Every Thursday, we’ll
Read More266266 ViewsThere are festivals you go to because one of your favorite artists is on the lineup. Then there are festivals you go to because you already know the entire weekend is going to be unforgettable. Day Trip has become the second kind. Every summer, thousands of house music fans make their way to the Queen Mary Waterfront, where the backdrop
Read More1.3K1.3K ViewThere are some festivals you hear about for years before you ever step foot inside them. They come up in conversations around campfires, after-hours dance floors, road trips, and group chats full of people who swear, “No, you don’t understand, you just have to go.” For me, Lightning in a Bottle has always been one of those festivals. I’ve been
Read More2.7K2.7K ViewsThere are not many things in Los Angeles that can make me stop and look at the city differently, but CicLAvia has always been one of them. Maybe it’s because we are so used to moving through LA behind a windshield, half paying attention, already thinking about where we need to be next. Maybe it’s because this city trains you
Read More325325 ViewsIn the first part of this series, I talked about five Latina and Indigenous women whose stories shaped art, activism, and culture — from Frida Kahlo to Celia Cruz. Here is another group of iconic Latina and Indigenous women whose stories were just as fascinating, and in some cases completely new to me. Some lived centuries ago, others fought for
Read More430430 ViewsIn honor of Women’s History Month Every year when Women’s History Month comes around, it’s not only a celebration of women in our history and society, it is an opportunity to learn and teach their stories that helped shape the world we’re living in. While researching this piece, I realized that I knew so much less than I thought. Some
Read More637637 ViewsSkyline Festival heads to Ace*Mission Studios for its fifth anniversary, settling into a stretch of downtown that has long held space for creative industries and after-hours parties. The industrial campus along the LA River, near the Arts District, carries that warehouse lineage naturally. Concrete floors, open interiors, and industrial enough to make you feel right at home on the underground
Read More3.7K3.7K ViewsI didn’t learn this history in school.And chances are, neither did you. This article was inspired by a short Instagram video by @ashleytheebarroness that woke up something in me personally and it named a truth plainly. In the early 20th century, Mexican and Mexican American children were routinely treated as intellectually inferior in U.S. public schools—not because they couldn’t learn,
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