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.
Los Angeles is a rapidly aging city in a rapidly aging county. In fact, over the next 15 years, LA 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 LA 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. The radio stories, photo essays, and additional content can be found on the project website: kcrw.com/goinggrayinla.
“Going Gray in LA: Stories of Aging Along Broadway” was made in collaboration with KCRW Public Radio (89.9 FM), and with generous support from the Eisner Foundation.
