Erin Aubry Kaplan

Where’s Omar?

Erin Aubry Kaplan
A gathering Tuesday in the Compton City Council chambers of reform-minded citizens was nothing new -- in fact, it‘s been routine in such chambers for some time now, at least since the local election season kicked off earlier this year. But considering that Mayor Omar Bradley’s latest power move has......
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Sleeves Like Wings

Erin Aubry Kaplan
The lately refunkified eastern stretch of Sunset Boulevard owes a big style debt to a small shop called Josh and He Yang Studio. Actually, the aging sign outside reads “Cosmos,” a seeming non sequitur until you step in and take a look around, and then it‘s serendipity. Josh Grenell and......

The King of Compton

Erin Aubry Kaplan
Photos by Ted SoquiI DON'T COME HERE. AS I DRIVE THROUGH COMPTON on my way to meet Mayor Omar Bradley, past faded but neat rambling houses and islands of large shade trees, I realize that in all the years I've been informally covering black Los Angeles, I've been strenuously avoiding......

Soul Battle

Erin Aubry Kaplan
Back in 1996, the 9th City Council District made the papers when a tree was cut down for no particular reason. It had thrived for decades at 43rd Street and Central Avenue and had been festooned by residents as a community Christmas tree. In a neighborhood grown accustomed to crime,......
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Femme Mystique

Erin Aubry Kaplan
Dense and diverse as it is, Los Angeles is still considered by some theater intelligentsia as a bit of a rube, a city that may contain the world but not one that the world necessarily comes to when it presents new ideas on the stage. In a modest but significant......

A Man of Big Affairs

Erin Aubry Kaplan
I was formally introduced to Marcus Garvey through a small but ambitious black newsmagazine I used to write for called Accent L.A. Garvey was a perfect cover subject for us -- one of those important but underexposed black figures that deserved more notice than history, or the media in the......