“Takachizu: Staying Home,” an afternoon of stories about making a home and staying there in the face of rising rents and evictions in Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and Lincoln Heights, will be presented on Saturday, Jan. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. (doors open at 1 p.m.) at 249 S. Los Angeles St. (between Second and Third streets) in Little Tokyo.
KCRW’s “Going Gray in LA,” Little Tokyo Service Center, and Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) join together to share stories from these communities about what it means to make a home and what it takes to stay there — featuring stories from Little Tokyo Towers, Miyako Gardens, and Metro @ Chinatown Senior Lofts.
The event will also feature portraits of Little Tokyo Towers and Casa Heiwa seniors by Las Fotos, a virtual reality walking tour with Grace Chikui by Form follows Function, a multimedia presentation from Fonografia Collective, and a video portrait from Anti-Displacement Artists Network.
The event, which will be conducted in English, Japanese and Cantonese, will include home-cooked snacks and refreshments from Little Tokyo and Lincoln Heights.
The event is participatory. Bring an image, an object, or a story that represents to you the beauty of finding a home or the struggle you’ve had to stay in it.
Seating is limited; RSVP to [email protected].
The venue is not fragrance-free, but organizers respectfully request that participants come fragrance-free by refraining from wearing or using scented fragrances, perfumes, lotions, hair gel, deodorant, etc., and if washing clothes to wear beforehand, not using fabric softener or fragranced dryer sheets. The best is to wash clothes with baking soda and scent-free laundry detergent. However, it should be noted that some of other attendees might not come fragrance-free.
Takachizu, from the Japanese words takara?(treasure) and chizu?(map), is a community show-and-tell gathering space designed to identify and reflect on that which is most valuable, celebrated, and in need of protection in Little Tokyo. Treasures of Little Tokyo are being gathered until Feb. 1. Schedule an appointment, or drop by during open hours, Fridays from 3 to 5 p.m.