Some events as a soul soother after the LA wildfires:
This afternoon come and sew with us online! Embroidery Basics, 5 PM PST. Livestreamed on YouTube. Get started with embroidery basics! Learn chain, stem, and your basic stab stitch to outline images or spell out your deepest desires and fill them in with ladder and satin stitches. If there is time, we'll cover feather stitching and french knots. Create your own small artwork and get out some built up rage by stabbing fabric multiple times. To join in the fun, bring embroidery needles, embroidery floss, fabric, and scissors. Nice to have but not required is thread wax. If you have an embroidery hoop, great, but if not I'll show you how to fake an embroidery hoop with cardboard and straight pins or tape. Sunday January 19th join us at the Los Angeles Makery! 2-5 PM PST, 260 S. Los Angeles St, 90012. There's a group show on the ground and second floor, a solo show by Julie O'Sullivan in the SubTerra gallery, art therapy with Monica Marks, and donations of art supplies for artists and others affected by the LA wildfires. Donate art supplies or pick up what you need; we got you. Saturday January 25 join us in the Zoom room for Genius Teatime and Favorite Foods! 3:30-4:30 PM PST This Genius Teatime we're asking for your genius in feeding your community! Let's talk about your favorite food preparations and ideas that A. are low cost, B. can be used in times of low supplies/access and C. taste amazing! This is also a good place for talking about alternative food supplies, home growing, and mutual aid. Could prove to be both useful and tasty in the times to come. As always, NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds), but if you have it to spare donations will go to the Hollywood Food Coalition. Take good care of yourselves in these turbulent times, my friends. We need each other. XO Laura
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I had a newsletter planned… and then the LA wildfires happened. I’ll get to it later. So far my home is safe, we got power back, and the water is good to drink. We will see what happens when the winds pick back up but it is okay for now. Many thanks to the many people who offered me shelter and help!
My old neighborhood in Altadena pretty much burnt to the ground and so many friends have lost everything they had. The air is awful and the RSV I got two weeks ago is not improving quickly. PLEASE use KN-95 or better masks out there and use steam to clear our your lungs- a lot has burnt, and many of the places that did had plastics and asbestos and who knows what all in them. I can offer folks fresh filtered water, since many of our neighbors can’t use theirs due to contamination in the water treatment facilities. We also have a LOT of windfall avocados. Get in touch if you need either thing. I am in shock and in mourning, but I am here and and alive and grateful I can help spread good information, since there’s a lot of miserable nonsense going on around about LA. Stop that, please. The truth is bad enough. According to Katie Stubblefield (thanks for this): “The rumors are exhausting. Let me help. 1. The federal response is great 2. The governor is doing a wonderful job 3. The mayor is on top of this 4. If this was arson, both it and climate change can both be the cause of this nightmare. 5. We are better lifting each other up than tearing each other down. 6. You can get accurate real-time fire information with the Watch Duty app.” (Can verify, Watch Duty is awesome, and if you have it to spare these volunteers are doing amazing work.) Also, LA housing prices are obscene. Don’t use that as some kind of gotcha metric. We are dealing with that here everyday and most of us (myself included) can barely manage rent. On to links and information for wildfire help… -Super helpful links from Mutual Aid LA. -LA Artists, sign up here if you are able to help with temporary housing, storage, clean up, and/or paperwork and info relating to insurance claims. -Mask Bloc LA is handing out masks to help with the smoke- and of course disease prevention! -Hollywood Food Coalition is continuing their terrific work in keeping folks fed. Great links and advice from Elizabeth Aquino. -Terrific information from a wildfire veteran on navigating insurance and other claims. -Good advice from another fire veteran- thank you, Leah Knecht!- on managing insurance claims and dealing with debris/clean up after the fires. It’s super toxic ash out there, my friends. Seriously. -These are lists of Go Fund Mes for the many folks who have lost everything in the Eaton and Palisades fires from Renee Reizman and Rachel Davies. More lists: Black families displaced in the Eaton fires; Latinx families displaced by the fires; Disabled people displaced by the fires; and a master list of LA disaster support compiled by the folks at Mutual Aid LA, among others. I have not verified these personally (there are too many) but I know several ones from the Eaton fire that are valid and that I’ve seen cross referenced in other lists. It is always worth checking to make sure. If you know of other ones, please help out and add them to the list! And for the love of all things good, do not force toxic positivity on folks. When your friends and coworkers have lost everything, it is profoundly unhelpful to tell them that their feelings and their things don’t matter. Let them feel how they feel and see what you can do to help. Be careful out there, my friends. Love you. XO Laura |
A. Laura Brody
I re*make mobility devices and materials and give them new lives. Sometimes I staple drape. Archives
January 2025
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