Let The City Know.
It’s now been a year since we launched our newsletter and two years since our panel series together. So we’re celebrating over music and vibes at local Bellevue Park. RSVP to help us plan for our food and drink setup; and bring a friend or two. We can’t wait to see you there!
J.T.
Rhys Langston (@rhyslangston) makes ‘alternative’ rap “that is at the front of experimental trends while remaining accessible and engaging. Think hearing raps breaking language while breaking your neck head nodding to the beats. Like medicine with spoonfuls of sugar, radical Black theory gone colloquial over raw compositions, songs for the cool nerds who neither need to prove their coolness or their nerd credentials.”
Langston and yours truly discuss his latest album, Grapefruit Radio, his background coming up in Silver Lake and Leimert Park, nerd culture, the legacy of Kerry James Marshall, the writing process as a craft, calling out rappers, click-bait culture in its current form, Saul Williams, and more. We also shout out Langston’s new video from the album, In the Suburbs of Babylon.
For more of these cuentos and then some, please follow J.T. the L.A. Storyteller on Apple or Spotify, then rate and review us!
And if you’d like to tune into the show from elsewhere, please see our RSS feed here: https://jimbotimes.com/category/podcast/feed/
J.T.
We catch up with Eva Recinos, originally out of South-Central Los Angeles, and now a seasoned Arts and Culture writer and Creative Non-Fiction writer who focuses on visual art and design, Latinx identity, and education and mental health. Eva was a 2019 finalist in the LA Press Club awards for Arts & Entertainment Feature (Online); 2019 Idyllwild Writer’s Week Nonfiction Fellow; 2020 finalist in the Center for Women Writers International Literary Awards; finalist in the Blood Orange Review 2020 Creative Nonfiction Contest; and a 2021 Pen America Emerging Voices Fellowship finalist.
Our conversation touches on a number of Eva’s articles, including “The Streets Are Made of Anger” for Sin Cesar, “I Want to Speak for Myself, Not the whole Latinx Community,” for Electric Lit, and “You, too, can be touched by Çedouze” for the L.A. Times; we also talk about the challenges of writing, including in terms of frequency, Eva’s experience pitching a new manuscript, and some of her must-read books this season.
You can sign up for Eva’s newsletter, Notes with Eva–which is truly a care-package for writers–HERE, and follow her more closely on IG via @evaiswriting.
For more of these cuentos 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 our RSS feed here: https://jimbotimes.com/category/podcast/feed/
J.T.
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.
Leslie Ambriz joins us for our final episode of 2022 to talk extensively about life and upbringing in Los Angeles, the prolific diversity between neighborhoods and communities in and around the city–including the Orange County area–thoughts on the current media landscape for millennials and families, finding one’s voice as a storyteller, and more.
Leslie Ambriz is a journalist and producer from Southeast Los Angeles, California. She is passionate about documenting stories and issues that affect communities of color, and how art and culture influence our political and social climates. She’s worked on projects for and in collaboration with numerous companies such as, the Associated Press, Spotify, Remezcla, SoulPancake, NBC News, Nike, AfterBuzz TV and more. She has both a Masters and Bachelors degree in Journalism and New Media from the University of Southern California and Biola University.
Read Ambriz’s personal essay on leaving the Christian church HERE. Check out her most recent Spotify original podcast, Identity at Play HERE, and keep up with her reporting work via @LeslieAmbriz_ on IG and Twitter.
J.T.