During this coming Sunday's Leimert Park Art Walk, the legendary corner of 43rd and Degnan will go green.

A community coalition that involves Ben Caldwell of KAOS and USC, LA Cultural Affairs and Los Angeles Council District 10 will be installing five re-made street objects between the Vision Theater and Leimert Plaza Park.

Everybody's asking - What do you want Leimert Park Village to be? You have an opportunity to be part of what's there now and what there is to be.

The next question - What if 43rd Place was pedestrian-only?

The extra wide street separates the Vision Theater - and the people - from the park across the street. What if we could play in that space instead - like the Cowardly Lion fountain in Culver City or the painted green triangle in Silver Lake?

We'll have a 3D Demo of what it would be like if 43rd Place were a park this SUNDAY from 2pm to 5pm,.

There will be five re-imagined objects in the street that are not what they seem:

• A bench to sit on AND makes drum beats.
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  An advertising display that invites drawing and poetry,

  
  
• A planter calls you to play in the dirt,
• A newspaper box tells stories of times past,
• A payphone guides you through the neighborhood.

Brought to you by the participants in USC’s “Tactical Media” class (IML404), KAOS Network, the Leimert Phone Company, USC Media Arts + Practice, and the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, the City of Los Angeles Dept of Cultural Affairs and Council District 10.


Bench Beats

“Bench Beats” is an interactive drum-machine built into a wooden park bench.  Sit down to turn it on, play, collaborate and share music in the community.
The Bench Beats team brought Leimert Park’s rich musical history into the design, encouraging community interaction. Bench Beats invites collaboration by providing two sets of keys for the drum machine, allowing two users to sit and play simultaneously. Come visit the Bench Beats at the Leimert Park Art Walk on March 30th. Take a seat, make a beat!

TEAM: Charmaine Regina, Chris Swiatek, Emily Molina, Robin Giliam, Tim Huang

Find your beats here: https://soundcloud.com/leimertbenchbeats
twitter/Instagram: @BenchBeats
Fb: LeimertBenchBeats
http://iml404-beatsbench.tumblr.com

Sankofa Play Display

An dormant advertising display becomes Sankofa Play Display, an interactive art and poetry canvas to bring out creativity in children and adults alike. One side is a magnetic poetry board, the second a paint-by-number board and the third an information panel. Inspired by the Sankofa bird, we take an underused neighborhood fixture and repurpose it for a more creative, collaborative future.
The collaboration continues beyond Leimert Park’s Art Walk. Show off your works of art online and provide feedback for the Sankofa Play Display’s future.

TEAM: Alison Wotton, David Kim, Edward Saavedra, Eric Camarena, Wesley Groves

Instagram @SankofaPlayDisplay
Twitter @IMLPlayDisplay
http://sankofaplaydisplay.tumblr.com/

Grow it!

At the Grow It! interactive planter you can help invent the plaza’s community planters.  Come by, play in the dirt, share your ideas for the Grow It! community..

Grow It! promotes social gardening. Grow It! asks, how can planters foster community participation?  Emphasizing edibles, we imagine spaces where anyone can Grow It!  Plant the seeds of your choice, then tap into real-life and online social networks to track and nurture your plants. We hope the project expands to other parts of Leimert Park, links with community gardeners and partner organizations to spread edible plants throughout the neighborhood.

TEAM: Althea Soucie Garza, Gabriel Peters-Lazaro, Elisabeth Raff, Nigel Joaquin

instagram: @_teamgrowit
teamgrowit2014@gmail.com
http://iml404-growit.tumblr.com/

Learn It!

Learn It! uses art to bridge past, present, and future. We transform underused Los Angeles Times newspaper boxes to showcase Leimert’s art history.  Our re-invented NewsBox pays homage to the past by integrating how the previous generation received information with how the youth today process theirs. Learn It! reinforces the vibrant culture of Leimert Park and illustrates the many ways in which we draw influences from our own histories.

TEAM: Matthew Chen, Kylie Nicholson, Naim Omari, Mark Pitts, Katee Weimer

http://iml404newspaper.tumblr.com/

Sankofa RED

Sankofa RED used to be a boring old payphone, stranded in a Santa Ana shopping mall. No longer! We rescued it, transplanted new electronics in its belly, gave him that dashing exterior, added a karaoke microphone and tablet display. Now, Sankofa RED becomes your guide to Leimert Park’s events and history. Pick up the phone and let it tell you what’s going on. Or pick up the mike, plug in your tunes, and rock the plaza..

Team: so many people were involved… check out http://leimertphonecompany.net/about-us/

twitter: @LeimertPhoneCo
Fb: leimertphonecompany
http://leimertphonecompany.net/

 n find more information about Weekends in Leimert at http://www.leimertparkvillage.org/, including other events planned for this weekend.