HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS? Illegal Evictions and Foreclosures Hit Kids Hard

                                                

DJ / SPOKEN WORD BY KPFK’S BREAKBEATS & RHYMES AND SESSIONS LA    

More than one million children in California are facing eviction. Many of these evictions are due to illegal foreclosures. 

A move can be a loss for any child, leading to separation from friends, neighbors, and teachers.  Foreclosures add additional instability – parental distress, jarring displacement, sparse living conditions, even homelessness. Children are the invisible victims of the foreclosure crisis. The impact on children can be serious. Kids who have been evicted risk facing:

Separation from friends, teachers and neighbors                                                                            Poor academic results                                                                                                                       Mental and physical health problems                                                                                             Feelings of shame, anger and withdrawal

DO YOU THINK THIS IS FAIR?                                                                      Unscrupulous investors, realtors, property managers and bankers are illegally evicting families, throwing women and children on the streets with traumatic effect.

 Occupy Fights Foreclosures is hosting a block party to provide a safe space for the children to talk about what they have been through.  You are invited to listen to what these young people have to say.  All are welcome. Come with a sense of compassion and respect.

JOIN US 12 PM – 5 PM, SATURDAY DEC 15, 2012  @ Harambee Preparatory School 1609 Navarro Street Pasadena, CA.

Kentifrica: The Journey Starts At Leimert Park

 

LOS ANGELES Join us Sunday, October 28 from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. at the Leimert Park Art Walk for Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle’s Kentifrican Travel Narratives, a performance piece exploring the cultures of the nomadic people of Kentifrica, where the history of Kentucky and the ancestral heritage of West Africa converge. The event will feature Kentifrican artifacts and a concert of songs for safety on the road performed on Kentifrican instruments. Hang out at our sidewalk cafe, sampling food made from traditional Kentifrican recipes.  This summer, Kenyatta Hinkle (Cal Arts, M.F.A.’12) was the youngest artist to participate in the Hammer Museum’s Made In L.A. 2012 at. Her work is currently on display at BAILA con Duende, a group exhibit at Watts Towers (September, 2012 – January, 2012.)  This month, Kenyatta is showing at the Bindery Projects in St. Paul, MN.  In November, her work can be seen at  The Studio Museum in Harlem. The Trailer Trash Project is hosting Kentifrican Travel Narrativesin collaboration with Ben Caldwell’s Kaos Films.   Kentifrican Travel Narratives: Transversing Boundaries                         Leimert Park Art Walk                                                                                                   Leimert Park Village, Los Angeles, CA 91804  map                                                   Sunday, October 28 – 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.                                                                                For more information, contact:  thetrailertrashproject@gmail.com   THE TRAILER TRASH PROJECT is a project of the Pasadena Arts Council’s EMERGE Fiscal Sponsorship Program. Click here to donate on-line.

Echo Park Tribute to Woody Guthrie – July 14

Okie Gets Genre-Bending Facelift

Art by R. Crumb.

How do you get a neighborhood of Hipsters and Hip-Hoppers to celebrate a hillbilly musician named Woody?  It’s not as difficult as you might think. Musicians of all genres have a soft spot for the hard-traveling, plainspoken troubadour and his uplifting songs about living through tough times. The issues addressed by many contemporary musicians are the same that Guthrie wrote about in Los Angeles more than 70 years ago  – bank foreclosures, homelessness, deportations, migrant labor, union busting, racism and other forms of discrimination.

New Look for 1951 Spartan by Architect Patrick Tighe

Thanks to prize winning architect Patrick Tighe of Tighe Architecture for his sleek new design for our 1951 Spartan Trailer.  What do you think? We Welcome comments! 

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 TRT_Rendering Set_2-5.28.2012

Downsized: Real Stories of Homeless Children

Downsized: Real Stories of Homeless Children, A Multimedia Exhibit

 Trailer Trash is taking it to the streets streets.  We want to tell the stories of children

Our Mobile Recording Studio

living with their families in cars and trailers parked along the streets of Los Angeles.  We’re also want to hear from children whose families are facing foreclosure.  To get started, we need to buy a used van to tow our mobile recording studio – a 1972 Aristocrat trailer.

Trailer Trash is a member of Fractured Atlas. Donations through our Indie GoGo Campaign are tax-deductible!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE THROUGH INDIE GOGO

 ”…a  concerted effort to place children’s rights at the centre of urban decision-making is the only way to narrow the gaps [of inequality] and build a more equitable and prosperous urban future.”                                                             -UNICEF’s  State of the World’s Children 2012 

Occupy The Hood

Occupy activists pitched tents in Bertha Herrera's back yard to help her fight eviction.

January 5, 2011 by Lydia Breen                                                                                              Acting on a tip from Occupy the Hood, The Trailer Trash Project was on hand to report for KPFK  from the home of Bertha Herrera when deputies from L.A. County Sherriff’s Department broke into her residence of more than 30 years and evicted her. By her side when they entered were a dozen or so members of Occupy L.A., there to offer support.

Occupy Ports: Trailer Trash Report on KPFK 90.7 FM

Clare Holzer (Occupy LA): "I am here to protest the corruption and fraud of huge firms like Goldman Sachs, the banking system and corporate sponsorship of politicans all that needs to change."

Trailer Sows Ground With Creative Seeds

Our 1951 Spartan Trailer served as a video

The rain didn’t stop us from having fun on Sunday November 20 when our 1951 Spartan Trailer served as a video booth for people to record their stories about food access and equity at Cornerstone Theatre’s Block Party.
The party was the last in a two-week series of events called Creative Seeds – performances, discussions and learning opportunities – that kicked off a major Cornerstone Project, The Hunger Cycle – nine world premiere plays that will be performed over the next five years. In preparation for a show we plan for July, Sam Breen performed Bob Dylan’s poem “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie” accompanied by musician Kevin Robinson. Share YOUR stories of hunger and food at www.cornerstonetheater.org.  Cornerstone will post them on their blog and use them to inspire their work on the Hunger Cycle.

NOMADS Mix It Up, Make It Up On Human Rights Day

Artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle's shows her portrait of a fellow citizen of Kentifrica to kids with the NOMAD Lab Art Project

The NOMAD Lab Art Project for children celebrated Human Rights Day on December 10 by envisioning a world – real or imagined – that they would like to live in. Multimedia artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle and musician/composer Kevin Robinson led the event, held in an apartment complex at the Valle del Oro Neighborhood in Santa Clarita, CA., where the children live.  The Trailer Trash Project organized the event in collaboration with NOMAD Lab founder Evelyn Serrano, who uses art to encourage children to work together build a peaceful, tolerant multi-cultural neighborhood.

Food For The Soul: Special Report From Occupy LA

Evan visited Occupy LA, using the brownies he made as a friendly way to start conversation about the Occupy Movement: "I thought it would be nice to spread the brownie love."

If an army travels on its stomach, what do occupiers do?  To find out, we talked with protestors at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The interviews we collected were filed November 9 on KPFK’s “Uprising” radio.   Click here for the full story and  here for audio only