Going Gray in L.A.: Stories of Aging Along Broadway

Past Event

Fri, Oct 6 2017 - Thu, Feb 1 2018

All Day

Central Library, First Floor Galleries

630 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
ایالات متحده

About the Exhibit

Los Angeles is a rapidly aging city in a rapidly aging county. In fact, over the next 15 years, L.A. County’s senior population will double, to nearly one-fifth of the total population.

Housing, health care, and the job market will have to adapt to a community that is working and living longer in a city built for the young.

Following Broadway, an 18-mile avenue that cuts through the working-class heart of Los Angeles, journalist Ruxandra Guidi and photographer Bear Guerra (who collaborate as Fonografia Collective) have taken a journey from Lincoln Heights, into Chinatown, through Downtown, and on to South L.A. to find out how our city is changing and what makes life worth living—as we grow old in Los Angeles.

This photo exhibit is part of a year-long multimedia storytelling project that was produced between 2016-2017 for radio, the web, and for public spaces.

Going Gray in L.A.: Stories of Aging Along Broadway was made in collaboration with KCRW Public Radio (89.9 FM), and with generous support from the Eisner Foundation.

Yingchang Song is a 68-year-old Chinese immigrant who gave up his life as a dentist and came to the U.S. in search of adventure after his wife passed away a decade ago. He now makes a meager living as a street musician in Chinatown.
In the early summer of 2016, Mae Matsumoto, 98, (right) enjoyed an outing to the Santa Monica Pier with other Japanese-American residents from a senior housing community in Little Tokyo.
Jumpstart Foster Grandparents program volunteer, Helen Tillery, shows a young student how to hold her pencil during a writing exercise. Jumpstart brings older adults together with children from vulnerable communities to offer mentorship, language skills, and literacy training to help ensure the preschoolers are prepared for kindergarten, and offer seniors a sense of purpose and companionship.
Orlando Estrada, 82, wears several rings crafted by his grandfather decades ago.
Retired nurse and family caregiver, Michelle Cotton, 62 (center right), holds hands with family members during a group prayer on the lawn of her mother, Betty’s house in Hanford, CA. The family came together in 2016 to celebrate Betty’s 81st birthday.
The Zhous - both in their late 80’s - were asked to leave their apartment in a Lincoln Heights single room occupancy (SRO) building after it was sold in 2016. With nowhere to go, they were connected with the grassroots organization, Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, who helped the Zhous and other senior tenants in the building fight back. For the time being, they are able to stay.
Chuy Hernández (right) shares a slow dance with Olegario Martinez at the Lincoln Heights Senior Center’s popular weekly dance. Each Thursday afternoon, Spanish-speaking older adults from LA’s Eastside gather for three hours of cumbia, salsa, and boleros.