A Crystal Filled Closing Party: Place 8 Healing

Credit: Place 8 Healing (Azalea Lee and client)

   We are sad to report that crystal guru Azalea Lee of Place 8 Healing will be closing her gorgeous, sun soaked, crystal filled downtown Los Angeles penthouse.  In its current incarnation, the talented Lee created a soothing and minimalist perch where she performed in-person crystal healings, worked on her jewelry line and sold collector quality mineral specimens.  Place 8 is closing its current jewel box because they have outgrown the location, but Lee has big plans for her next locale.

   As Lee dreams up her next outpost, she will continue to have an online presence, while performing Intuitive Crystal Readings and Distance Crystal Healings.  She will also devote significant energy to her metaphysical fine jewelry line As Above So Below.  Interested in saying goodbye to Place 8’s physical space?  Lee is hosting a closing party Saturday February 25, 2017 from 11-6 pm with mini-readings from Akashic Record and Angel Card.  After the closing party, we will be left day-dreaming about the next beautiful creation Lee has in store for her clients.

Credit: Place 8 Healing

Credit: Place 8 Healing

Make Art History

Credit: Carmen Argote (Carmen Argote, Houses he wanted to build, 2015 (from the site specific installation at Adjunct Positions))

   Home is a seemingly basic word and yet an attempt to define it can conjure up a series of questions.  What exactly is home?  Is it a geographic location, a physical structure, an accumulation of material possessions, or something else entirely?  The upcoming art exhibition Home - So Different, So Appealing: Art in the Americas Since 1957 uses a hemispheric perspective to explore the concept of home.  Sound interesting?  Want to help add an alternative narrative to the discussion of home in art history?  Read on to learn how.

   Home - So Different So Appealing features 95 works by 42 U.S. Latino and Latin American artists and marks the first time a major Los Angeles museum holds an extensive group show focusing on U.S. Latino and Latin American art from the 1950s to present.  This groundbreaking exhibition opens in June 2017 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and then travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in November 2017.  Home is also a part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA and will be the first exhibition to open, thus setting the standard for an unprecedented exploration of art without borders.  

   So, ready to make history?  The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center is organizing Home - So Different, So Appealing and is in the final days of their fundraising campaign.  The storied organization seeks to raise $10,000 to be used for exhibition installation and catalog production.  Want to see truly diverse ideas represented in major museums and in art history?  Then please consider supporting Home by contributing to this special campaign.  

Credit: Livia Corona Benjamin (Livia Corona Benjamin, 47,547 Homes, 2009.)

Celebrate, Hermosa Style

Credit: Christine Farah for Hermosa Journal

  It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  We tend to agree. Images alongside thoughtful stories can educate, empower and enhance our daily realities.  We hope the images and stories you discover on this website inspire you to celebrate your own diversity and create the life you dream of - so you too can live a beautifully diverse life.

A Day of Love

Credit: Christine Farah for Hermosa Journal

  There is no escaping that it’s Valentine’s Day.  On this day of love and friendship we leave you with Rupi Kaur’s brilliant words:

you must

want to spend

the rest of your life

with your self

first

The First-Generation College Student Movement

Photo by: Gretchen Ertl/Boston Globe (Esther Maddox/Princeton, Jasmine Fernandez/Harvard, and Kujegi Camara/Princeton)

   Elite educational institutions have opened their doors to first-generation college students from all walks of life for several years now.  This increase in access to education has also led to documentation and research discussing the challenges faced by these students.  Unfortunately, institutions have not always responded adequately or swiftly to address the needs of this growing population.  Enter the game changing 1vyG.

Photo by: Charlie Mahoney/NYT (Anna Berros/Harvard)

Photo by: Dina Rudick/Boston Globe (Ted White/Harvard)

   The organization was created by first-generation, Ivy League, college students to harness the power of those similarly situated in order to support and advocate for each other.  No longer living and studying in isolation, the group is leveraging their shared reality to empower others and improve the world.  The most recent example of their advocacy is the No Apologies Initiative.  The effort’s objective is to eliminate application fees for low-income and first-generation college applicants, by the 2017-2018 application cycle, in order to increase socioeconomic diversity at elite educational institutions and eliminate a barrier to entrance for applicants.  Now, that’s a win for all involved.  

   Want to learn more about 1vyG?  The third annual 1vyG conference 'From Posts to Progress: Leveraging Social Activism to Actualize Institutional Reform for First-Generation College Students' will be taking place at Yale in late February 2017.

Photo by: Charlie Mahoney/NYT (Manuel Contreras/Brown Universitiy/1vyG co-founder)

Update:

2/20/17 at 3:20 pm.  Updated to include information on the No Apologies Initiative.

This story was originally published on 1/26/17 at 2:00 pm