What is civic memory? And how might LASA contribute to on-going conversations about civic memory in LA or create new ones? On November 14, we gathered via Zoom to think about these questions and to hear from LASA students. Bill started the day helping us better understand the concept and with a conversation about the city’s Civic Memory Working Group.
LASA students then offered 3-minute presentations on something that means “civic memory in Los Angeles” to them. They shared photographs and descriptions of people and events acknowledged already throughout the county as well as visions for both updates to those acknowledgments and ideas for new pathways of civic memory.
We digitally encountered street signs and murals, built installations, and suggestions for revisiting histories via in-person conversations with the school board and other elected leaders. We heard calls for thinking about civic memory from Dolores Huerta to Vin Scully, Japanese American fishing communities on Terminal Island to Mt. Lowe, and fighting anti-blackness and realizing the promises of the 1968 school walkouts.
We invite you to check out some of the student presentations that will be rolling out on ICW’s social media platforms this winter– @husc_icw on Instagram and Twitter.
We also welcomed Laura Dominguez, one of the members of the city’s team, a founding board member of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, and a PhD candidate in History at USC. She shared her journey from high school junior through questions of historic preservation/heritage conservation – including a short film on the Black Cat, and into her current work.
We are so grateful for all our students and adult leaders this 2020. We hope you all have a restful break and look forward to reconvening Zoom LASA in January 2021.