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 sports a... 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 City Ha... 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 general assem... 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 walks G... 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 don his t... 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 Boulevard i... 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 offers quie... 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 who pl... 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, serving s... 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 Sal Sanch... 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 clever, lo... 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 and Sout... 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," Charlie con... 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. Now 19, t... 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 placed in ... 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 leopard b... 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 drenched cus... 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 sixth ... 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, crumpl... 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 want to... 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, buff and g... 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 >>