WHEN DID LOS ANGELES GET ITS NAME?

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Please note that our interview with Eva Recinos is now scheduled for January 24th at 7 PM via IG Live. Also note that at L.A. City Council this Tuesday, Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, called for justice in the name of Keenan Anderson; she was joined in these calls by community members speaking out for Anderson, Takar Smith, and Oscar Leon Sanchez, all three of whom were shot and killed by the Los Angeles Police Department within the first week of 2023.

As for this update’s main segment, the first of a new kind for the podcast, we discuss the naming of Los Angeles, the city’s age, what the Mojave and Sonoran deserts have to do with it, and why this info is still relevant for communities today. Sources for the “tid-bit” include the L.A. City Gov’s website, as well as LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas, and Rosten Woo.

For more of these updates and then some, please follow the show on Apple or Spotify, then rate and review us!

And if you’d like to tune into the show from elsewhere, please see the RSS feed here: https://jimbotimes.com/category/podcast/feed/

J.T.

EPISODE 58 – BELMONT HIGH SCHOOL IN THE 1960s

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In our 58th episode, we are honored to chat with Karen “Kiwi” Burch, as well as her sister Cheryl McDonald. The sisters tell us about their respective careers in education through and beyond Los Angeles, their parents’ profound influence on their education, and the diverse student population of Belmont high school as early as 1963. Karen and Sheryl also describe running for the Associated Student government at Belmont high school, the once-prevalent LAUSD practice of “funneling” non-white students to separate schools, redlining’s impact on their families, and their grandparents’ cafeteria at none other than the Central Public Library. A truly can’t miss post-session for fans of our special panel series.

J.T.

EPISODE 29 – MATT SEDILLO, PART II

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In our twenty-ninth episode, listeners are treated to the second part of our interview with Matt Sedillo, for which Sedillo reads some poems right out of the pages of the new Mowing Leaves of Grass from Flowersong Press. We also talk about Matt’s writing process over ten years since Arizona’s disgraceful SB 1070 bill, or the ghost of Jim Crow for Brown communities in the Southwest, as well as the city of Los Angeles’s larger connection to Arizona and the Southwest generally as a “battleground” against racist policies; the Occupy Wall street movement versus the work of groups such as Black Lives Matter today, and more is also discussed. A truly one-of-a-kind session for listeners.

J.T.

EPISODE 28 – MATT SEDILLO, PART I

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In our twenty-eighth episode, listeners hear part one of a two-part interview with Matt Sedillo, a former National Slam Poet from Los Angeles and author of the new Mowing Leaves of Grass, an anthology of poetry that reads like an indictment of U.S. race relations, critiquing its expansionist ideologies over two-and-a-half centuries as well as the political wasteland of the last four years under Trump. I also ask Matt on his thoughts about the Chicano movement in Los Angeles, Walt Whitman’s role in advocating for the Mexican-American “war,” and special places for him in the city of L.A. A truly fun session for listeners, especially the Spoken Word lovers out there.

J.T.