Email Author Sam Slovick

Awards

• 2007 - Maggies: The Magazine Awards of Western Publishing, published August 3, 2006

  "Dying to Get Off Skid Row"

• 2007 - Maggies: The Magazine Awards of Western Publishing, published March 9, 2006

  "Coming of Age in the Mouth of Madness"

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2011 Stories by Sam Slovick

• Up From the Streets: A Scene From Occupy L.A.

  published Nov 04, 2011

  ​Woodrow Coleman came all the way from Long Beach to see the Arab Spring bloom in downtown L.A. The African-American septuagenarian with deep-set brown eyes and a woolly white tangle of beard s More >>

• Pavement Occupies L.A.: The Revolution Unfolds (VIDEO) (NSFW)

  published Nov 02, 2011

  ​Sam Slovick is sleeping down at City Hall to report firsthand on Occupy L.A. For continued coverage, visit SamSlovick.com. "Mic check, mic check," a voice booms from the PA system in front of More >>

• Pavement Occupies L.A.: The Many Voices of the Movement (VIDEO)

  published Nov 02, 2011

  ​Sam Slovick is sleeping down at City Hall to report firsthand on Occupy L.A. For continued coverage, visit SamSlovick.com. There are many voices to be heard in the movement. The nightly genera More >>

• Hotel Hell: The Ford Hotel Is Given New Life (VIDEO and PODCAST)

  published Oct 13, 2011

  ​For a podcast of this column, click here. Travelle Robertson takes no notice of a large black woman in a bright orange T-shirt exhibiting her substantial bare breasts to passing traffic as he More >>

• Invisible Skins: Aboriginal Americans Get Visible in Griffith Park

  published Sep 29, 2011

  ​Johnny Jackson is an urban Native American. He is clean-cut, well-spoken and looks young for his 21 years. At the moment, he is sitting in a small tent with his mom and sisters, preparing to do More >>

• Angel of Peace: Homies Unidos and the Art of Handgun Alchemy

  published Sep 15, 2011

  ​"I could be kicking it in my projects right now," says Albert Sanchez, intermittently making eye contact and shoe-gazing on the patio at La Fonderie, a bronze and steel foundry on Glendale Boul More >>

• Anger Management: Mauricio Cruz Fights the Power on the Job

  published Sep 02, 2011

  ​Mauricio Cruz doesn't like to talk about himself. He's a gentle person with big, brown eyes, seemingly incapable of malice. "I always tell the truth, so no one can talk behind my back," he offe More >>

• Rome Viharo and the Future: Storytelling, Shamanism and How Social Media Replaces Government

  published Aug 19, 2011

  ​Rome Di Giulio arrived at the Ribbit Tree Dojo on Old Topanga Road for the Topanga Film Festival's transmedia workshop in his signature Darth Vader T-shirt and Bermuda shorts. A forward thinker More >>

• In a Glass House: Police Policing the Police with TEAMS II Technology

  published Aug 15, 2011

  ​Los Angeles is a capacious megalopolis that begins at Tijuana and ends at San Francisco. A rugged portion of that geography falls under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department, se More >>

• The Tattooer's Apprentice: Art Emancipates PostModern Cholo (VIDEO)

  published Jul 21, 2011

  ​The synchronicity between the opening of MOCA's "Art in the Streets" show and L.A. law enforcement's crackdown on graffiti hasn't gone unnoticed by postmodern cholo and tattooer's apprentice Sa More >>

• Precious: Rescued Pitt Bull, Looking for Love

  published Jul 11, 2011

  ​Precious is such a bitch. The compact young blonde struts the patio inside the iron gates just behind the Modernica furniture factory in downtown's Industrial District. Precious is subtly cle More >>

• Life After Life: Decades Behind Bars Can Make You a Better Man (VIDEO and PODCAST)

  published Jun 24, 2011

  ​For a podcast of this column, click here. A man squints in the afternoon sun, taking in a warm breeze on the porch of a meticulously maintained two-story home at the intersection of downtown a More >>

• Charlie Gets Out: Gender-Bending Performer Braves His 'Hood (VIDEO and PODCAST)

  published Jun 10, 2011

  ​For a podcast of this column, click here. Charlie Romero is a small, exotic island just off the east coast of Echo Park, nestled in a sea of tidy bungalows in East L.A. "I'm a hot mess," Char More >>

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  San Simon's Revenge: Carlos Offended the Underworld God, So Now He's Ducking the Cops (VIDEO and PODCAST)

  published May 26, 2011

  ​For a podcast of this column, click here. Carlos is cocooning. The sound resonating inside the pupal casing of his mind is the dull thud of shock. He's been here before, when he was a kid. No More >>

• Temple of Scream: Relishing the Horror of a Hollywood Franchise

  published May 05, 2011

  ​ Deep in the far reaches of Montebello, in a secret temple, a young monk arranges sacred objects on the altar with exacting specificity. Each item is invested with hallowed significance and pla More >>

• Homeless in Venice: Travelers Come for the California Dream and Stay for the Concrete (VIDEO)

  published Apr 23, 2011

  ​ It's another postcard day at Venice Beach, the Washington Square Park of L.A. Aging kooks and crackpots in an eternal time warp freely express themselves like it's 1967. There's a guy in a le More >>

• The Lost Tribe: Weathering the Storm in the San Fernando Valley (VIDEO)

  published Apr 06, 2011

  ​ Molly doesn't seem to mind the torrential downpour across the street from Sun Valley Park on a Sunday morning. The svelte young brunette makes her way down a sidewalk, through a maze of drenc More >>

• The Free Association of Anarchists Plan to Unleash a Weapon of Collective Organization (VIDEO)

  published Mar 25, 2011

  ​ Tobie Castle is one of the last to arrive at Chuco's on Sunday morning. The 17-year-old self-proclaimed socialist/anarchist street punk came from East L.A. to Inglewood with a comrade for the More >>

• Taking the Bait: What Happens on TruTV's Bait Car Happened to Guillermo

  published Mar 10, 2011

  Guillermo came to L.A. from the village of Soyapango, El Salvador, when he was 4 years old. His belly swollen with parasites, he rode on his uncle's shoulders as they navigated a well-worn trail in th More >>

• Freeway Rick Ross: From drug-trafficking and CIA connections, to a biopic directed by Nick Cassavetes, the former 'Donald Trump of crack' becomes the patron saint of South Central

  published Feb 24, 2011

  ​The wad of crumpled $20 bills stashed under Ollie North's pillow had Freeway Rick Ross' fingerprints all over it when the CIA got caught slanging rocks in South Central back in the '80s. Grimy, More >>

• Inside the Nickerson Gardens Projects with Rapper Jay Rock: "They can call anyone a terrorist, a gangbanger, and put cameras in your neighborhood."

  published Feb 17, 2011

  ​Papa Dad didn't make the big Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on MLK Boulevard. He was shot dead on Jan. 3 at 103rd and Crenshaw. Jay Rock and Punch didn't attend, either. It's a turf thing. They More >>

• The Black Thing

  published February 10, 2011

  Papa Dad didn't make the big Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on MLK Boulevard. He was shot dead on Jan. 3 at 103rd and Crenshaw.... More >>

• The Gizmo Matrix: A Barrio Banger's Journey, from Packing Plant Pentaro to Aspiring MMA Superstar

  published Jan 20, 2011

  ​"They call me Gizmo, I'm trying to go fuck somebody up," the man says with the manufactured intensity of someone who has been locked up 10 of his 27 years. He is 5 feet 6, 170 pounds, bald, buf More >>

• The Gizmo Matrix

  published January 20, 2011

  "They call me Gizmo, I'm trying to go fuck somebody up," the man says with the manufactured intensity of someone who has been... More >>