The New Civics ~ Rosten Woo and Damon Rich, Center For Urban Pedagogy ~
~ Fall 2006 ~ 2:00 - 3:00 ~ 12.05.06 ~
Learn techniques of citizenship with CUP as we drop in on Mount Washington, navigate bureaucratic environments and investigate social, political and physical infrastructures. We’ll document and interpret paper trails, public forums, and other visible evidence of politics in Los Angeles, interpolating between primary documents and secondary sources ~
~The last-minute message we received from Fritz, on the eve of our final day of school, was that we were to meet not in the dome, but in Chinatown to talk about and then explore the Grand Avenue Expansion Project (a plan with a serious budget that plans to revitalize Downtown LA).
And so at 8 AM, some of us at 9 AM (stolen cell phones, car trouble, and traffic), met Damon and Rosten in the very center of Chinatown. They came via New York. We introduced ourselves through explaining our relationship to the city of Los Angeles. “I think I’m a sort of cultural tourist,” Tracy said. “I don’t consider it my home, but I dig it.” Katie likes places where tons of people can share a space and experience that space completely and totally differently. “So, of course, I like LA.” LA was the only place that Fritz flew to as a child from Minneapolis, where he grew up, and so he said, “I always imagined it high up, higher than everything else, like it was somewhere up in the clouds.”
Next, we walked (as New Yorkers might) from Chinatown to Downtown. It was a beautiful walk. We arrived, relatively on time, with almost seven pairs of scissors between us (we would be cutting our caprons later on in the day) and managed to make it through the metal detector.
Once inside, we watched a very riveting session starring the county board of supervisors—they mainly delayed dealing with items 5, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 17-19, 23, 25, 26-28, 34, and 37 until after the first of the year but they also posed for pictures with dentists and physicians, everyone with one hand on the award in front of them. I (Devin) mainly stared at the walls of the courtroom, which read: “This country is founded on free enterprise. Cherish and help preserve it.”
When we left—the Grand Avenue Expansion Project was apparently not on the agenda for the day--Tracy sat on the wall, looking quite disturbed by the whole experience, and said, “Remember how we talked about how so few creative people are in power? It’s because no one on the left can navigate through that shit.”
Next stop, the Philharmonic. Sarah’s sister who writes grants for the orchestra was kind enough to give us a thorough and engaging tour, losing her patience with us only once when one Schoolhouse student stood on the podium where the musicians were practicing to take pictures.
The Philharmonic has a lovely patio outside. This is where we sat and talked some more with Damon and Rosten. “Our discussions and walks in Downtown LA made us think about art in public places, it’s social function, and place in the political area,” Pablo recounted. “Very interesting.”
We finished our class with them at a Chinese Restaurant over sautéed string beans and spicy eggplant, our first communal meal consumed outside of Sundown Drive. Mark says he is “glad Damon and Rosten could show us civic engagement.”