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- These people and organizations deserve their flowers. We're giving it to them.
These people and organizations deserve their flowers. We're giving it to them.
YOU deserve a shout out.
Aaricka Washington
May 16, 2025
My favorite place to get flowers for my loved ones is from the local vendors who sell roses on the sidewalks of Downtown L.A., specifically down Hill Street. Today, I’m in the mood to give some people and organizations some virtual flowers.
For months, we’ve been producing quality coverage around the environmental impacts, human toll and what happens next in Altadena after the Eaton Fire. We want to highlight (in no particular order) some of the people and organizations we’ve had the privilege of working with and are forging relationships with that we immensely respect for their continued contributions in their communities. Here's a shout out to:
💐Holy Assembly Church of God In Christ members unloaded 1,100 book donations for fire-impacted kids delivered by AfroLA staffers.
💐 The Altadena Rebuild Coalition of Black architects who are helping residents through the long, daunting process of rebuilding in efforts to preserve families’ homeownership and generational wealth.
💐The Inclusive Action’s Open-Air Worker Emergency Fund offered $500 direct cash assistance to outdoor workers.
💐 Octavia’s Bookshelf, the Pasadena area’s only Black-owned bookstore, cleared it’s shelves to make way for bottled water, food donations and other critical items for fire survivors.
💐 Community Aid Dena, a network of volunteers, stepped up to continue a verified database of GoFundMe campaigns for residents’ needs and rebuilding efforts.
💐 The Flintridge Center turned it’s parking area into a mutual aid hub, staffed in part by residents who themselves lost their homes.
💐 Fit Collective coordinated volunteers to accept in-person and mailed donations, sort inventory and deliver supplies for fire survivors with diabetes.
💐The incarcerated firefighters who were on the frontlines during the wildfires. Royal Ramey deserves a special shoutout for founding the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, or FFRP, to help other formerly incarcerated firefighters like himself find a path to stable employment upon their release.
💐 We’re looking forward to partnering with DenaGood Foundation which is committed to fostering mental well-being and strengthening community resilience. We will support their DenaDay (details to come), a health and wellness-centered day to allow Eaton Fire survivors and community members to come together for a day of peace.
THANK YOU to everyone who made our coverage possible by sharing their stories, connecting us with community members, offering their expertise and co-publishing our work as partners.
Please read our Medium post for links to our coverage of these community groups and their impact.
Afro Latine children’s book author Instagram Live series
Our next guest in our Instagram Live series spotlighting Afro Latine children’s book authors is Jasminne Mendez. Jasminne is an award-winning author. She received a Pura Belpré Honor Award for her book Aniana del Mar Jumps In in 2024. She has also written other books including Islands Apart: Becoming Domnican American, Josefina’s Habichuelas, and Where Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed. Originally from Houston, Texas with roots in the Dominican Republic, Jasminne is also a poet, playwright, translator, and professional audiobook narrator.
She has a new book coming out in September called The Story of My Anger. Afro LA communities reporter Marina Peña will be chatting with Jasminne on Instagram Live (@afrolanews) May 23 at 1:00 pm PDT.
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Please let us know what you think. Email me at [email protected].
FEATURED STORY
(Credit: Miriam Berkley)
Since the January wildfires in Los Angeles and the inauguration of Donald Trump, more people have become more aware of science-fiction writer Octavia Butler's two Parable books – Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.
The novels, which were written more than three decades ago, predict a futuristic California ravaged by climate change, political upheaval and poverty. To make matters worse, regressive president has just been elected.
What do we make of Octavia Butler's predictions of the future in 2025? How can we find hope in her characters of creating a better world for ourselves? And how do we even prepare a go-bag in times of emergency's like her Black teen heroine Lauren Oya Olamina?
Read Shady Grove Oliver's latest fascinating essay about what hopes Octavia Butler gives to us now that more people are becoming aware of her work.
SUPPORT AFROLA
We’re continuing our Spring Into Action: Unapologetically Black & Blooming Campaign. For the next couple of months, we will be sharing reasons why you should become a sustaining supporter of AfroLA.
First up, listen to some of our AfroLA reporters share some reasons why donations are important to the work we do. (Click the image below to play the video.) Then go to afrolanews.org, click on the Donate tab and give us some love!
Help us continue to deliver quality journalism into your inbox.
We wholeheartedly appreciate your generosity. We need your support to keep this momentum going.
THE ROUNDUP
By Alvin Buyinza (Capital B)
While Black students and professors at Harvard applaud school leaders’ attempts to stand against President Trump’s funding cuts, they face internal problems on campus. Harvard has been rolling back the diversity, equity and inclusive initiatives that have long supported and provided a sense of safety for the students.
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By Cody Alcorn (11Alive)
The family of 30-year-old pregnant Adriana Smith told Atlanta’s 11Alive news that even though she was declared brain dead more than 90 days ago she is being kept alive because of Georgia’s six week abortion ban.
This story makes me think about Kat Stafford’s Associated Press project which examines health disparities in Black communities. Her first story in the series focused the reasons why Black women in the U.S. are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy or delivery more than any other race. One reason (as evident in Adriana’s case)? Doctors don’t take them seriously when the women complain about an issue.
* * *
By Brookie Mcilvaine (Tudum by Netflix)
It’s time for a nice, smooth palate cleanser.
Since we’re a Black publication based in Los Angeles, I would be remiss if I made no mention of Mara Brock Akil’s Forever season 2 renewal on Netflix just six days after its release.
The show, which is an adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic 1975 novel Forever…, is about Black teens in L.A. in 2018 who are trying to balance friends, sports, post high school plans and family life all while navigating their new romance that definitely has its challenges at times. It’s a refreshing take on a teen drama. Every single character is given a depth and breadth of personhood including the parents which I feel like is rare. Black representation in TV shows and movies deserve to be seen and heard completely.
Other news articles I’m reading:
Mara Brock Akil invites us to the vineyard in Forever (Tudum by Netflix)
MORE STORIES
by Kilo Martin
(Courtesy Central City Neighborhood Partners)
Dance parties. Sewing circles. Gardening.
These are just a few activities that Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP) community center offers Westlake residents. Their goal? To build connection while reducing stress for a predominately Latine community that was not only one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by the COVID pandemic, but also faces a wealth of long-held cultural stigmas pertaining to mental health and mental illness.
“Healing doesn’t always look like talking to a therapist,” said Diana Alfaro, CCNP’s assistant executive director. "It can be creating something with your hands, moving your body, or just being around people who get you.”
The center also offers job training and food distribution in addition to these active events. Residents like Leslie Martinez say that it's been helping her fight anxiety, depression and panic attacks after losing her job.
“Me enfermé del corazón y de colesterol. Y el doctor me recetó que viniera a hacer ejercicio,” said resident Leslie Martinez.
Dressed in suede boots and a festive sweater, Leslie swayed with friends and neighbors on a night last December. Zumba classes at CCNP, held three times a week, have helped her fight anxiety, depression, and panic attacks after she lost her job. This dance floor has become a sanctuary, a safe space where community and movement come together to heal the body and the mind.
AfroLA contributor Kilo Martin spoke with several members of CCNP for a story about the healing power of community dances. This story is in collaboration with LA Radio Incubator program.
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By Armon Owlia
Autistic "masking" or "camouflaging" refers to adopting superficial non-autistic behavior. This behavior may be self-imposed or taught through therapies such as applied behavior analysis. Masking behavior in autism may make diagnosis more difficult, and it is correlated with an increased risk of death by suicide. (Credit: MissLunaRose12 via Wikimedia Commons)
On April 16, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy called autistic kids severely impaired, claimed autism was preventable, and said most autistic people could never contribute to society. AfroLA’s Armon Owlia wrote that it wasn't just rhetoric, it carried "federal weight". "It was the latest installment of a narrative built over decades—one where autism is treated not as difference, but as disaster," he continues. For several decades, autism has been sculpted by fear more than fact.
The developmental disability isn’t a straight line from “mild” to “severe.” It’s a neurological difference—a map of how brains process, perceive, and interact with the world. Some autistic people are nonverbal, others argue cases in court. Some need daily living support, others just need employers who don’t vanish after the disclosure form.
In this latest essay, Armon delves into how the framing of RFK’s speech dehumanizes people with autism as well as the shameful history of how autism has been perceived. He also names some organizations that are fighting for the rights of autistic people. Read it here.
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