Parent Center Directors’ Meeting at Maclay Comm Center

Esther V invited Sigrid and I to attend a meeting of people active with Pacoima area schools.   Others in attendance along with Esther:

Robyn Regan – Los Angeles Education Partnership, which focuses on school readiness

Eva Torres – Pacoima Charter Elementary

Marta Silva -

A woman who recently moved from the town of Imperial (near Holtville)

Chile Nakamera – Olive Visita Middle School

Maria Molina – Maclay Middle School

Blanca ___? - ?

Silvia Vazquez – Sara Coughlin Elementary

Odelia __? -  San Fernando Middle School

Shane Coleman, founder/CEO of Heroes of Life  (Mission: To develop our community’s youth and young adults by providing mutual technological business and other opportunities for the sole purpose on helping them discover and reach their fullest potential, we believe these things are done through caring, sharing, discipline, respect, love and forgiveness.)  Heroes of Life is presenting a community talent show this Saturday, May 8 (11a- 4pm) at El Cariso Park (13100 Hubbard St, Sylmar 91342).  This will also include a farmers market which is actually a regular event there on Mondays from 5:00 – 9pm.

Shane invited participation in both events and spent some time talking about the various programs that they offer and the good they do for local youth and the greater community.

I did a short presentation and invitation to the Parent Center Directors & Robyn about our project including an invitation to talk with Sigrid about the community, to get involved with the project in July and to spread the word about our Pacoima community play.  We also talked for a little while about performance and rehearsal venue possibilities.  A number of ideas for places in San Fernando, not so much for Pacoima locations.  Many of the women requested specific needs information so that they could explore options at their schools, specifically Sara Coughlin (a block away from Maclay Comm Center), Pacoima Charter, and Olive Vista Middle School (14600 Tyler Street - Sylmar, CA 91342).

Each Parent Center Director gave an update about events and classes offered at their schools/centers.  The Los Angeles Unified School District very recently announced that the school year will end one week earlier than originally planned. The last day of school will be June 18 rather than June 25.

Esther invited the Parent Center Directors to stay and talk with Sigrid about Pacoima and a few of them did.  Esther also invited two dynamic longtime Pacoima residents to come talk with us at the end of the meeting:  Steve Martinez and Liliana Hernandez Jarieque.

Odilia who was born in Mexico thinks it very important that we include the fact that communication within the family, between parents and children, is the key to success and survival no matter what the circumstances.  Only one son of many children was unsuccessful in avoiding gang life.  This one son was jumped and drugged with a combination of Ecstacy/Chrystal Meth and almost died from the experience.  People at the hospital recognized him as Odelia’s son and gave him dedicated attention which probably prevented his death.  Unfortunately the drug in his system left him schizophrenia. 

Eva Torres has lived in Pacoima for 28 years, very near Pacoima Charter Elementary & San Fernando Gardens housing.  She also raised many kids and faced many difficulties. She’s been active with the school and the community for a long time.

Marta Silva was born in Mexico and married into a generational San Fernando/Pacoima family.  Her father-in-law owns a market in Pacoima that years ago was in San Fernando.  She has struggled in her family because she and her husband do not agree about discipline and how to parent.  She continues to work in the schools to help families find a way to be strong and get the kids a good education.

Liliana (48) was raised mostly in San Fernando.  She went to SF Elementary, Middle and High schools.  Her mother responded to the trouble all around her family by working all the time.  Liliana and her siblings and her cousins all lived together at her grandmother’s house.  There were so many of them they shared beds and had beds all over the house.  They never thought of themselves as poor.  Her cousins and brothers got into every kind of trouble and a lot of the bad activity—drugs, sniffing fumes, etc—all happened in their garage.  Liliana was first hand witness to a lot of rough activity.  She raised a number of kids and was a strong parent and open communicator with her children which she sees as the key to their success and intelligence in navigating the world.

Liliana thinks that the younger generations need to know and value where they came from, what came before to help them respect parents and older generation.

Steve M (42) was born and raised in Pacoima.  He had a strong governing mother and a few different Mexican step-fathers.  He went to many schools including Laurence Middle School in Chatsworth as part of 70s integration plan. Steve works in gang intervention.  He told us the story of how he came to do that:  In 1993 he was working as a carpenter in Las Vegas and coming home to Pacoima on weekends & between jobs to be with his fiancé and 3 step-sons.  Someone called him and invited him to participate in a gang truce meeting and he agreed.  Two days before the meeting he was out in his car picking up his little brother and other younger people from school and he saw some gang kids jumping younger/smaller kids.  Jumping as defined as “beating on,” and in this case with (a) baseball bat(s).  Steve has a temper that (back then) became physical.  He stopped the car and told them to stop.  One of the gang went to the back of their van and came back with a gun and shot at Steve in his car, then the gang kids took off in the van.  Steve was mad and chased them, anticipating their route.  They shot at him again and he could feel the bullets go by him, could feel the heat of one on his face as it went by his head.  He got out of the car and the guy with the gun approached him and changed clips right in front of Steve while keeping his weapon pointed directly at him.  Steve was shot in the shoulder and the chest.  The younger people with him were unharmed.  Steve drove halfway to the hospital before he passed out from loss of blood.  Two days later he was late to the gang truce meeting.   When he spoke about the need to end the violence among gangs in the community, he mentioned that he’d been shot and that the people who shot him were in the room.  Everyone stood and shouted and reacted with anger and threats, but Steve would not identify the shooters and argued for all to stay in conversation to reach a truce.  He works with a non-profit called Victory Outreach (I think) and grassroots/community project called Valley Unity Peace Treaty.

Liliana and Steve talked some about what it was like to grow up in the 70s/80s in Pacoima/San Fernando.  They sited examples of economic and cultural injustices such as freeway placement, building SFHS across the street from a slaughter house, the lame parks in their neighborhoods growing up.  They talked about the changes in how Spanish-speaking kids are treated in school.  They talked about the changes in gangs and gang-culture. They talked a lot about changes in how culture influences youth’s attitudes toward adults and authority.  The talked about the challenges of LAUSD for youth in schools then and now.  They talked about changes in the community due to the closing of Lockheed and GM plants. 

Paula Donnelly

Institute Director

venue update

On Friday Juliette and Sigrid and I met with Esther V. She heads a program called THRIVE and has been involved and connecting people and service organizations in Pacoima for many years. Additionally, she is on the board at Pacoima Charter Elementary School and she is life long friends with the Vice Principal at Maclay Middle School.

MACLAY COMMUNITY CENTER

She has recently taken over a space adjacent to Maclay Middle School-- it's called MACLAY COMMUNITY CENTER. Formerly a small elementary school connected to the middle school, the Center is a series of 4 or 5 "portable" buildings. Each building has 2 classroom size rooms, often with a connector door in the wall between the 2 rooms. The first bldg at the center has a reception office, and a meeting/reception room. A second building is empty and might be set up as a day care space in future. Another building has staff offices in half and a conference room in the other half. There is also a kitchen area and a shaded outdoor lunch area with picnic type table-benches for small people. All this area plus a smallish parking area is chain-link fenced in. I believe from what Esther said that it is all under her purview.

Two fence "walls" are shared with the middle school. Another is shared with a yard & office for LA Police Dept that specifically serves the local schools. The fourth border is to the street. The opposite side of the street is residential.

MACLAY MIDDLE SCHOOL MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM

ALSO, Esther took us onto the Maclay Middle School campus to meet the vice principal, to see two spaces there, to get information about potential obstacles for use of school space in July and to lay groundwork for asking to use school campus space.

The two Maclay campus spaces are an outdoor grassy plaza with a small raised stage area and a square of walkways all around. It is lovely but I do not think they would ever let us use that space because it would ruin the grass there.

The other space is, to me, the best indoor space we've seen yet-- the MPR - Multi-Purpose Room. Good acoustics, a stage space we could use as a stage or not, some backstage support area options, enough room to stage the play on the floor with a variety of audience configurations. And there is a disco ball.

Access to school spaces is complicated:

We'd need approval and permission from the principal, Ms. Arriguen.

The school needs to be "open," either in session with a program or, if not open for a program, at least open because staff are on contract at that time-- mostly the principal. There is no getting around this factor. It's tied into the city-wide school district and rules about having a Plant Manager present when the school is open. The Plant Manager has all the keys. It's like having a House Technician at a theater.

Even in all these circumstances, the usual LATEST time for an activity on campus is 9:00pm.

The principal might start back to work July 26.

This school might be in a "bridge" session starting July 28.

ESTHER FACILITATED OPTIONS

Here are things that are very appealing about Esther's community center facilities:

Good neighborhood in relationship to the community (ie: accessible) and good proximity to our housing home-base. Also it is a place that community comes to/will come to for community related events and services. Feels neutral.

Potentially 24 hour access. Definitely later access than anyone else seems able to offer so that we could have evening rehearsals as we'd like to.

Fenced in and next to a police facility-- safe.

Storage and support spaces, including kitchen for occasional use.

The classrooms at Esther's space are small for rehearsal-- half the size of what is usually best/available. If only there wasn't a wall between the 2 rooms!!

There is a driveway yard that, while not appealing to Juliette, could be an outdoor venue. Kerry would definitely need to take a look and see what his evaluation is regarding capacity and technical needs.

I am intrigued by the MPR on Maclay Middle School Campus-- it could be a great and INDOOR space! pursue the MPR at Maclay and see if we can manage to move in there for 10 or so days at the end of July.

OTHER OPTIONS

Other ideas with their own challenges and obstacles so far are all connected to schools and city parks. With LAUSD schools we will encounter the same problems as at Maclay but with probably less sway from Esther and maybe in less helpful locations. It is so so so ideal for rehearsal and performance space to be in proximity to each other as well as Discovery Charter Prep.

With charter schools the hours might be easier.

We might make some headway with Pacoima Charter Elementary-- it's a charter and Esther is on the board there. Their theater-like space is smallish and has fixed chairs. We should maybe try to see it properly. (X and I saw an Unusual Suspects performance there in November.) This school is still in good proximity for community access and in relation to the home-base location.

With parks (Humphrey and David Gonzalez parks are in the area of Discovery) and anything outdoors security and lock-up is a big issue. I think parks are unlikely to provide and/or allow storage of anything overnight.

There is a Baptist Church on Norris-- still in the right location zone-- that might have space, but it really does not feel neutral there to me. We can ask around and see what local opinion is about that. We have never been inside there.

Unknown at this time but there might be some other building in the area that is not in use. I'm not sure how to pursue this. Maybe Kerry can help with this inquiry.

seniors - attempt #2

we went back to Broadus Senior Center on April 23 to talk with folks during their lunch.
they also had kareoke during that lunch -- it seems like it happens a few scheduled days a week and most of the folks I spoke with had no use for the kareoke, it was mostly one guy doing the singing and it was his set-up!    anyway the sound system was not very good, but loud.  Xanthia and Juliette and Sigrid and I went to work after a quick announcement that we wanted to talk with folks about Pacoima.  Initially we worked in teams of two-- JC & Sig at a table and me & X at another table, after awhile though X & I split up.  Maybe J & S did too, I don't know.

Sigrid had some ideas of questions for folks before we went in.


It was a crazy and intense hour in how some folks wanted to talk a lot and others kept wanting to introduce a bunch of other folks who had knowledge so it was a bit awkward to try to listen well to people one at a time. 

Afterward, we had to just sit down outside in the shade and decompress.  Sigrid had gotten stuck spending too much time with one unpleasant (to say the least) man who dominated her time with racist opinions and "facts" and lots of generally bad energy.  But we also met some cool people and started to get a better sense of the history of the Black community in Pacoima.

Here are Sigrid's questions-- which, as is often the case, you don't get to much of-- and some summary notes about some of the conversations Xanthia & I had/people we met.

here are some questions for the seniors...
when & why did you come to pacoima?
three changes that you have experienced living here?
what is one landmark or place that is indicative of pacoima?
what are some of the characteristics, landmarks, things--good and bad that people say about following neighboring communities?
  (for example Silver Lake is known for having lots of artist.)
  Arleta
  Lakeview Terrace
  Sylmar
  San Fernando
  Panorama City
  Mission Hills
what do you want to see in a play about pacoima?
2 stereotypes. 2 truths. about pacoima

Table #1
African-American woman whose name I did not get
•    Moved from Berkley to Los Angeles then Lake View Terrace
•    Not much to say about anyplace but LVT and not much to say about LVT really
Salvador
•    Works in Sylmar, Lives in Burbank
•    Shared his opinion that boxing is always popular in low-income communities because athletes can make a living at it w/o a lot of resources
•    Also has the plan about being cremated and ashes
Linda
•    Landmarks:  Hansen Dam
•    Glenoaks wasn’t paved
•    Van Nuys Blvd as late as the 50s had strawberries and corn fields
•    Victory Outreach Pentecostal church on Bradford, works to end gangs
•    A lot of churches
•    Classic car show
•    Games—pool and cards

Table #2
Shirley Eddigs
•    Lived in Pacoima since 1958, on border with San Fernando
•    Hansen Dam park, police on horseback
•    Star of Bethlehem Parade
•    Garden of Angels
•    Calvary Baptist
•    Many churches and they would schedule their events on different days so each could support/participate in the others’
Louise Moten
•    Lived in Pacoima since 1963
•    Lots of orange and lemon trees
•    3rd black family in neighborhood
•    Guardian Angel Catholic Church on Leighigh, my kids went to Fenton Ave. School
•    No yard sales now or selling food
•    5 kids, 15 grandkids and great grandkids
•    South side of Van Nuys was white, North side was black
•    William Marshall-TV actor
•    John Amos, good times
•    Olive View=Olive Trees
•    Good neighborhood place, people look out for each other, neighbors watch out for her, invite her to quinsiñeras

Neighborhood Council Meeting #2

Juliette and Sigrid and I attended the Pacoima Neighborhood Council Meeting on April 21 – 6:30 – 8pm in the Community Room at the Community Center. At the beginning of the meeting there were about 9 people on the council and 6 “stakeholders” in attendance in addition to us from Cornerstone.

Here’s the Pacoima Neighborhood Council: Elizabeth W, Rebecca L, Richard M, Edward J, Ruben Garcia (Pres.), Ms. Pringle, R Rubio, Rosetta S, Alana L. (vice pres was absent.)

The council did not have quorum and so could not vote on any new business. Instead they began with announcements and public comments, which usually happen at the end of the meeting. I was late to the meeting so I was surprised but happy when I walked in to find that Juliette was addressing the board about our project. The board asked a lot of questions and expressed full support (though not voted and official support) of our project. We shared our flyers and newsletters with everyone. We expressed our need for rehearsal and performance venue though no one had specific suggestions. We told them that we are seeking more people to talk with to help inform the story. A number of board members said they would do an interview with Sigrid. Others were excited to audition for the play. We talked longer about the project with the council than I ever imaged we would! One board member commented that the board chair seemed to be auditioning right now.

Here’s who else was there: Mrs. Long, Councilmember Long’s mother who attends every meeting; 2 people from Pacoima Beautiful to share an announcement and invitation to an Earth Day event; Elena and Martin Lopez, who were present to get appointed and formally join the council; two newly elected council people—Grizelda O and Reggie K who is our contact person at United Methodist Church.

After the long discussion about Cornerstone’s community play and the Earth Day Event announcement, the council went through a complicated procedures to instate the 2 elected and 2 appointed new board members, and to elect new council positions of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. There were two candidates for president and each got 5 votes so the outgoing president had to make the decision! Very exciting. He made his choice was based on meeting presence over the past year and the losing candidate was elected vice president. Ed Johnson is new President. Rosy is now Vice President. Grizelda is Treasurer. Robert is Secretary.

Another exciting element of this meeting was what was happening outside! In the courtyard a women’s dance for exercise class was going on but it sounded like raucous teenagers. Totally rockin and joyful and loud. Sig and Juliette met some of them & exchanged information. And on the other side of the community room a crowd was gathering for an NA meeting which swooped into the space as soon as the council meeting ended, and that was a really eclectic crowd!

Meetings are 3rd Wednesday of each month. Next one is May 16.

--pd

ESL Class Story Circle #1

Sigrid and I had a story circle of sorts with an adult ESL class at Pacoima Skills Center. The teacher, Arlene Simmons, met us at the community center "fair" last month. She contacted me again and we arranged to spend two class periods with her advanced ESL class. The school, at the Skills Center, is part of LAUSD's Adult Education program.

We joined the class at 6:30 and stayed until 9p. There were 33 people in the class! And the room was full of lots of tables and chairs and not really made for any on-our-feet activities. But the students and Arlene were all very warm and receptive to us. As is usual, we threw out a bunch of our plan over the course of our time there, but that was fine.

We introduced our company and our project and ourselves and our goals for the evening. The goals were for us to learn from them about their lives and viewpoints in this community and to open up some creative ideas for them to explore with us next Monday in a second visit and with Arlene in future classes.

We spent about 15-20 minutes on a series of I-Statements. I had planned it then axed it from the curriculum but brought it along just in case. The list was a little unfocused but it was a great exercise for getting us started. We didn't get to the conversation questions.

We did a check-in around the room-- basic introductions. This was great for us -- and the students were all very patient with each other-- to at least hear names and get a tiny sense of people. People referred to how long they'd been here and sometimes it meant taking ESL classes at the Skills Center and sometimes it meant in this country. A lot of the students have jobs. Everyone is working to improve their English to advance the quality and experience of their life with better work opportunities and for some, to teach their kids English, too.

We did 3 rounds of Cultural Mapping. We worked on writing 5 Senses. I was very glad to have realized that this was a great occasion to use a fill in the blank worksheet for this. Everyone began writing and it took them longer than it does with many groups. But they were really working on it and not only struggling with vocabulary and such. It was also fascinating how different people interpreted the 5 senses and how they translated ideas into English. There are many poets in the class.

Everyone in the class was very generous in how they listened and responded to each other, often helping each other out with translating certain words or ideas. A lot of people shared what they wrote. Sigrid has their written work.

We did a one-word (not) check-out. I gave them the homework assignment of thinking about the 5 senses experience of Pacoima over the next week: look around and notice what stories are happening all around them. And to think of a Pacoima song or music style.

Next Monday we'll spend one more class period with them and it will include some performative exercise, even in the cramped room.

The students all seem very willing to jump into things. I think some of them are interested in the play and maybe auditioning. Also, we are visiting them while they are in a period of working Financial language, ideas and vocabulary. Which might add to their extra creative energy.

In any case, they were very appreciative of the class and what we did together. My favorite check out was one guy who said, "I am happy," (a common check-out choice for this group along with "comfortable") "but I am also thinking about Pacoima a lot. There is a lot to think about."

The very enthusiastic 17 yr old boy-- miguel lopez, 11 months in United States-- is part of the Unusual Suspects project I am going to see tomorrow night at SFHS.

--pd