Take Me to Your River: A Cultural Atlas of the LA River, is 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.
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.
Take Me to Your River exists both digitally, through an interactive website, and physically, by means of public programs. Online, the website will house stories from community members alongside photographs and short videos that document the lived experiences of residents in these communities. Offline, public programs will seek to encourage the sharing of histories between community members in an effort to keep these collective memories alive. Engaging artistic interventions will further facilitate this discussion amongst the residents of these neighborhoods.
As we embark in the cultural asset mapping process, we are dedicated to listening and being in dialogue with the communities we serve, and working collaboratively to establish deeper ties with residents to tailor relevant, accessible arts and cultural programming.
This work is ongoing; visit our website to nominate someone within our area of focus to share their story or submit your own.
SUPPORT
Take Me to Your River, and related programs, are 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.
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
