Take Me to Your River Publication Launch

Take Me to Your River Publication Launch

Details

Thursday

October 8, 2026

6:30–8pm

Clockshop

2806 Clearwater St

Los Angeles, CA

Description

Join us at Clockshop on Thursday, October 8, for the book launch of Take Me to Your River / Llévame a tu río, a bilingual publication companion to our community storytelling initiative centered on the four rapidly gentrifying and changing neighborhoods of Elysian Valley, Cypress Park, Glassell Park, and Atwater Village. This publication features five newly commissioned essays by local residents, a collection of photographs, and excerpts from the oral histories gathered over the course of the project.

Over the course of the evening, hear from all five commissioned authors (Betty Avila, Sandra de la Loza, Ruben Molina, Maryam Hosseinzadeh, and Annette M. Kim) who will read a short excerpt from their essays. The event will explore themes of childhood nostalgia, punk activism, growing up alongside the unique neighbor that is the LA River, and responding to gentrification forces that seem too powerful to combat. A brief discussion and Q&A will follow with project leads and editors, Darío Herrera and Julia Meltzer. 

Celebrate community with us, as we honor the stories, people, and moments that shaped and continue to steer these neighborhoods forward. Ruben Molina will DJ a collection of soul and blues 45 vinyl tunes, inspired by his upbringing in Elysian Valley throughout the evening.

RSVP Here
Thursday, October 8, 2026
6:30–8:00 PM
Clockshop


SPEAKERS
Betty Avila is a cultural worker whose career has centered on the intersection of arts, equity, and social justice with a focus on community building, public space, and youth empowerment. During her leadership tenure at Self Help Graphics & Art, she helped secure the organization’s permanent home by purchasing and repaying the mortgage on its building and launched its renovation capital campaign. Currently serving as program officer at the Perenchio Foundation, she continues to advance equitable support for Los Angeles artists and arts organizations through grantmaking. She is the board chair of LA Más and a board member of the Little Tokyo Service Center. She is a passionate advocate for cultural equity and justice. She grew up in Cypress Park and still calls Northeast LA home.

Maryam Hosseinzadeh is a community arts organizer who has lived most of her life bouncing between the two ends of the Arroyo Seco, from Altadena to Northeast LA. She spent a formative portion of her childhood in the 1980s in Glassell Park and returned to the community in 2010. Her research-based walks and other projects bridging the gap between personal memory, archives, and the street have been presented by the Armory Center for the Arts, Human Resources, and the Feminist Center for Creative Work, among others. She created neighborhood walks of Glassell Park and Cypress Park for Clockshop as part of Take Me to Your River.

Sandra de la Loza was born and raised in the land of the Tongva (also known as Los Angeles). She is a daughter of pachucas and pachucos whose roots extend to the lands of New Mexico and Northern Mexico. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, she was aware that the many stories of this land and its people were absent or misrepresented. This discrepancy has guided her interdisciplinary artistic practice. Within her artwork, she uncovers and shares the understory of the flora, fauna, and people of this land through walks, photography, video, plant-based knowledge, public works, installations, and deep listening.

Ruben Molina is a prominent independent scholar, soul music collector, and DJ. He holds an extensive collection of Mexican American and soul music recordings, which he has compiled since he was a teenager in 1960s Los Angeles. His publications include The Old Barrio Guide to Low Rider Music (2002), Chicano Soul: Recordings and History of an American Culture (2007), Down by the River (2024), and The Dreamy Side: Rhythm & Blues and Chicano Culture in 1950s Los Angeles (2026). Molina shares his soul music collection through his DJ sets, which have been enjoyed all over the world.

Annette M. Kim, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy. She is also the Director of SLAB, the spatial analysis laboratory at USC Price that advances the visualization of the social sciences for public service through teaching, research, and public engagement. She also holds a courtesy appointment at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Her research experiments with ways to recover data of overlooked peoples and phenomenon by incorporating fieldwork and humanities knowledge into spatial analysis. She utilizes critical cartography and spatial ethnography to re-conceptualize contemporary urbanism and find more inclusive and humane ways to design and govern the 21st century city.


ACCESSIBILITYParking and Arrival

  • By car: There is street parking surrounding the building. If you are driving, we recommend searching for parking on Clearwater St, Fruitdale St, and Gilroy St. Please be mindful of two-hour parking on Ripple Street. We always recommend carpooling or ridesharing as parking availability can be impacted by neighbors like Salazar and Zebulon.
  • By bus: There are two bus stops nearby: 603 on Fletcher/Ripple and 182 on Fletcher/Crystal.
  • By bike: You are welcome to bring in your bike for safekeeping.
Wheelchair AccessibilityClockshop’s courtyard and building are wheelchair accessible.
RestroomsThere are two all-gender, single-stall restrooms on-site.