LAPD formed in Skid Row in 1985 as a performance group of, for, and with residents and workers, and is still making art to strengthen the community and get the real deal out to “normalville.” Biennially since 2012, “Walk the Talk” has taken to the streets as a performance/parade to honor people who live and work in Skid Row and whose initiatives have made it a place for solving the problems other people have given up on.
“Walk the Talk” is a people’s history of Skid Row. Every two years, a new group of honorees is selected. The project includes a community nominating process, video interviews of honorees, performances created from these interviews and performed at a spot chosen by the honorees in a parade with portraits and a brass band, and the archiving of all of the above.
This exhibition, Walk the Talk 2014-2024, coincides with a mural featuring portraits of the people recognized in the initial iteration of Walk the Talk in 2012, which has just been installed in the courtyard of the Skid Row Care Campus, 442 Crocker Street. The mural will have its official public opening ceremony later this summer. These portraits were created by street artist Mr. Brainwash and represent 36 early community builders whose work has influenced Skid Row’s history and this present moment.
“The Campus’ services reflect what Skid Row residents have long identified as urgent needs,” said LAPD Artistic Director John Malpede. “It is the latest example of the long history of community work by and for the people of Skid Row, and the perfect home for our ‘Walk the Talk’ mural. If not for the sustained efforts of these and other grassroots visionaries, Skid Row would have been bulldozed and by now be gentrified. Each transformative act is also a generative act—giving rise to new initiatives that make the community stronger.” It’s been a long time coming.
This project, originally envisioned as a one-time event, better fulfills its intent of building community as a recurring event. This exhibition, “Walk the Talk 2014-2024,” focuses on the 48 honorees of the past 10 years. In 2014, Brian Dick created the portraits on big banners. In 2016 the paintings of Pairoj Pichetmetakul were carried through the streets, in 2018 ShowzArt created the portraits on plywood, in 2020 artist Man One designed the portraits, in 2022 Dakarai Akil created them as collages, and in 2024 they were drawn by Hayk Makhmuryan. The portraits, and LAPD’s interview and performance videos are featured in the “Walk the Talk 2014-2024” exhibition.
All honorees throughout the project’s history are archived and publicly accessible on LAPD’s “Walk the Talk” Reduct website, a dynamic element of the Skid Row History Museum & Archive’s historically significant community archive. The site is a valued resource used by researchers, educators, students, journalists, artists, advocates, and community members seeking to better understand the history of Skid Row.
