CULTURE.

01The Art Market Grew Last Year. Mostly at the Top.

By Culture · 3 min

02Who Gets Paid When the Painting Sells Again

By Culture · 3 min

03The Momentum Is Real. So Are the Numbers Under It.

By Culture · 2 min

04The Artists Who Took the Machines to Court

By Culture · 3 min

05Who Pays for the Wall

By Culture · 2 min

The rooms.

THE CALENDAROpenings.

THE RECORDHistory.

§ 2026FEATURED

AT HOME.

Between Memory & Place

SUNDAY BEST.

New painting and collage from the Southland

HALO ECONOMICS.

Marcus Dade

HAND TO HAND.

Quilts, salvage and the things we keep

HOLD STILL.

Three photographers of the Southland

The contact sheet.

ALL (56) ↗︎

§ POSTER

At Home, opening poster

Compton Art & History Museum · 2026

§ POSTER

At Home, cookout poster

Compton Art & History Museum · 2026

Rooftop Bird

Andesh · 2026

Corner Mural

Andesh · 2026

Bronze in the Plaza

Andesh · 2026

The Hill Street

Andesh · 2026

Brick and Wire

Andesh · 2026

Afternoon, Street Level

Andesh · 2026

The Gathering

Andesh · 2026

Curbside

Andesh · 2026

Stone Marker

Andesh · 2026

§ ARTWORK

Boundless Echoes, open call 2

Boundless Echoes open call

Murals.

Soul Sounds

by Culture · 2025

Degnan Blvd, Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA

Morning Tide

by Culture · 2026

E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA

Blue Line

by Culture · 2025

Willowbrook Ave, Willowbrook, CA

Grandmother's Garden

by Culture · 2026

E 103rd St, Watts, Los Angeles, CA

Library Dreams

by Culture · 2025

Long Beach Blvd, Lynwood, CA

Ancestors Gate

by Culture · 2026

S Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA

The portraits.

ALL (45) ↗︎

§ MUSICb. 1987

Kendrick Lamar

Pulitzer-winning rapper, songwriter, co-founder of pgLang

§ MUSICb. 1981

Beyoncé

Singer, songwriter, director, founder of Parkwood Entertainment

§ ARTSb. 1986

Ryan Coogler

Filmmaker, Black Panther and Sinners, co-founder of Proximity Media

§ SPORTSb. 1997

Simone Biles

Gymnast, the most decorated in the history of the sport

§ MUSICb. 1989

SZA

Singer and songwriter, SOS

§ MUSICb. 1965

Dr. Dre

Producer, rapper, founder of Aftermath Entertainment

The come up.

ALL CREATORS ↗︎

A New Day Foundation

NONPROFIT

Julia Lee Performing Arts Academy

PERFORMING ARTS

Compton Art & History Museum

ART

The Slow Burn Quintet

ARTIST

Kofi Langston

ARTIST

Amara Whitfield

ARTIST

Isaiah Moreau

ARTIST

Simone Avery

ARTIST

Bunny Price

ARTIST

Theo Marlowe

ARTIST

On the calendar.

ALL EVENTS ↗︎

§ Fri, Oct 307:30 PM

OCT

Reggie Toussaint: Deacon's Orders

THE BRASS LANTERN

§ Sat, Nov 77:00 PM

Bunny Price: Detention

MARIGOLD HALL

§ Fri, Nov 137:00 PM

The Late Set Live

THE SABLE ROOM

§ Sat, Nov 216:30 PM

Soft Spoken Live: On the Rooftop

JUNIPER TERRACE

§ Sat, Nov 288:00 PM

01Life Insurance, Without the Sales PitchIt is the cheapest way most families ever transfer real money to the next generation, and it is sold badly enough that people buy the expensive version or nothing at all.02Pay the Debts in This OrderThere are two methods, one is mathematically better and the other one people actually finish. Plus what to do about a collection account, which follows different rules entirely.03Retirement, When Nobody in Your Family Had OnePensions are gone, Social Security replaces less than people think, and the system now assumes you will work it out yourself. Here is the whole thing in plain words, in the order it matters.04Do Not Pay to Get Your Own MoneyRefund anticipation products, paid preparers and filing fees take a meaningful cut of the largest cheque many households see all year. Free filing exists, and so does free in-person help.05You Do Not Need Twenty PercentThe belief that a house requires twenty percent down keeps more people renting than any lender ever has. Several loan types need three percent or nothing, and down payment assistance is sitting unclaimed.

Shape-Up Saturdays with Theo Marlowe

THE CORNER BOOTH

§ Thu, Dec 37:00 PM

DEC

Nia Okafor: Performance Review

COPPER KETTLE THEATER

§ Fri, Dec 187:00 PM

DEC

The Late Set Holiday Hang

LANTERN & ASH

“

We don’t cover the culture. We in it.

CULTURE · ISS.8

Money.

ALL (6) ↗︎

§ MONEY· 2 MIN

The Side Money Has Tax Rules

Braiding hair, driving, selling plates, cutting grass. Side income is real income, the tax works differently from a paycheck, and the deductions people never claim are worth more than the surprise bill.

BY CULTURE

§ MONEY· 2 MIN

The Side Money Has Tax Rules

Legends.

He Built the Blood Bank, Then Quit Over ItCharles Drew developed the methods behind large-scale blood storage and ran the program that supplied wartime Britain. When the military ordered blood segregated by race, he said it was unscientific and resigned.

§ LEGENDS· 2 MIN

She Trained Barefoot and Won the Gold

Alice Coachman had no access to training facilities, so she ran on dirt roads and jumped over rope tied between sticks. In 1948 she became the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal.

BY CULTURE

She Went to Register and Lost EverythingFannie Lou Hamer tried to register to vote in 1962, was evicted the same day, and spent the rest of her life making the country hear what that cost. Her testimony was so effective a president interrupted it.

He Bought a Camera at a Pawn ShopGordon Parks called it his choice of weapons. He used it to become the first Black photographer at Life, then the first Black man to direct a major Hollywood studio film, and he never had a lesson.

He Stole a Confederate Ship and Sailed It to FreedomIn 1862 Robert Smalls, enslaved and working as a ship's pilot, waited for the white officers to go ashore, dressed in the captain's hat, and sailed past five Confederate forts with his family aboard.

She Was Fifteen, and She Was FirstNine months before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat in Montgomery and was arrested. She was one of four plaintiffs in the case that actually ended bus segregation.

§ LEGENDS· 2 MIN

She Trained Barefoot and Won the Gold

The Come-Up.

ALL (6) ↗︎

§ THE COME-UP· 2 MIN

A Debut About Where She Comes From

Bryce-Davis released Evolution through Lexicon Classics, an autobiographical record about family, Blackness, ancestry and artistic freedom. Debut albums about ancestry are a choice, and usually a good sign.

BY CULTURE

“Lagos Is Already Deciding the Next Sound”Mavo's rise inside Nigeria's Afrobeats ecosystem has accelerated, with a debut album building anticipation. The global crossover conversation keeps happening after Lagos has already voted.READ IT →“Number Four With No Machine Behind It”BeMyFiasco's debut album climbed to number four on Apple Music's R&B chart without a major push. That is not luck. That is what a slow, real build looks like when it finally surfaces.READ IT →“How an Independent Artist Actually Breaks”Not virality. The artists who last build a small number of real listeners, own the relationship, and release often enough to be found twice. Here is the mechanic, in order.READ IT →“The Bay Area Rapper Up for Best New Artist”Miles Minnick was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2026 BET Awards. He is a Christian rapper out of the Bay, which is a lane the industry keeps treating as niche while it quietly outsells things.READ IT →“Usher and L.A. Reid Signed Him. Watch What Happens.”JayDon is the new addition to Mega, the label Usher and L.A. Reid built, with a project called Me My Songs & I. A signing like that is an endorsement from people whose whole job is being right early.READ IT →

§ THE COME-UP· 2 MIN

A Debut About Where She Comes From

The Studio.

ALL (13) ↗︎

§ THE STUDIO· 3 MIN

Los Angeles Spent 2026 Building Rooms for Art

A new museum building over Wilshire, a fair at an airport, a landmark show of Black photography at the Getty. The city had one of its biggest art years. Here is what happened, and what it means for the artists who live here.

BY CULTURE

How a Wall Actually Gets PaintedEvery legal mural starts with the same unglamorous sequence: an owner, a permit, a contract and a primer. Here is the order, so the first one does not become a code violation.

Somebody Decided What You SeeA curator chooses which works hang, in what order, next to what, with which wall text. Those decisions are invisible by design and they shape the argument a room makes about who matters.

The Five Ways Artists Actually Get PaidAlmost nobody lives on gallery sales. The working artists you know are running four or five income lines at once, and knowing what they are is the difference between a practice and a hobby.

How to Walk Into a StudioOpen studios and first Fridays are free, everybody is welcome, and most people never go because they are afraid of not knowing what to say. Here is what to say.

Buy the First Piece for Under Two HundredCollecting sounds like something other people do. The entry point is a print, a study or a small work from somebody local, and buying one does more for a working artist than a year of admiring the big ones.

§ THE STUDIO· 3 MIN

Los Angeles Spent 2026 Building Rooms for Art

Tech.

Your Resume Can Be a RepositoryA resume is a claim about you that somebody has to take on faith. A public record of your work is the same claim with the evidence attached.

§ TECH· 3 MIN

Raising Money When the Room Looks Like That

Black founders receive a share of venture capital so small it is usually written as a decimal. That is a fact to plan around, not a reason to stop, and the alternatives are better than they were.

BY CULTURE

You Can Ship Something This WeekendThe gap between people who build things and people who intend to is not talent. It is that one group finishes something small and the other keeps planning something large.

The Security Job Starts at the Help DeskCybersecurity has the loudest shortage in tech and the most gatekept entry, and the actual route in is a job most people looking at the field refuse to take.

The Password Is On Its Way OutThe thing replacing it cannot be phished, cannot be reused, and cannot be leaked in a breach, because there is nothing on the server worth stealing.

The Internet Discount Ended. What Replaced It.The federal broadband benefit ran out of money and millions of households absorbed the increase quietly. Three programs still exist, and almost nobody was told.

Delete Yourself From the Data BrokersHundreds of companies you have never heard of sell your address, your relatives and your phone number. California now runs one request that reaches all of them.

§ TECH· 3 MIN

Raising Money When the Room Looks Like That

Black founders receive a share of venture capital so small it is usually written as a decimal. That is a fact to plan around, not a reason to stop, and the alternatives are better than they were.

Game.

Flag Football Is an Olympic Sport NowThe 2028 Games are in Los Angeles and flag football is on the program, which means a medal event is being built in this county, right now, out of players who are currently in middle school.

FEATURE

§ GAME· 3 MIN

The Sports Careers That Are Not Playing

A tiny fraction of athletes go professional. A far larger number build careers inside the industry, and almost nobody is told those jobs exist while they still have time to aim at them.

BY CULTURE

The Concussion Rule Every Parent Should KnowEvery state has a law about head injuries in youth sports. It is short, it is strict, and the people most likely to break it are the family in the car on the way home.

The League Finally Has LeverageRatings, attendance, expansion and valuations all moved at once, and for the first time the players negotiating are arguing from a position of strength rather than gratitude.

Travel Ball Costs More Than CollegeYouth sports became an industry that sells access, and the families paying the most are frequently the ones least able to. Here is what it actually costs and where the help is.

The Recruiting Calendar Nobody ExplainsFamilies find out about the deadlines after they have passed. The registration, the contact windows, the transcript rules and the divisions nobody mentions.

The NIL Money Reached High SchoolA sixteen year old can now sign an endorsement deal in most states. Almost nobody has explained the tax bill, the eligibility rules, or who is allowed to sign.

FEATURE· 3 MIN

The Sports Careers That Are Not Playing

A tiny fraction of athletes go professional. A far larger number build careers inside the industry, and almost nobody is told those jobs exist while they still have time to aim at them.

Entertainment.

The Audition Moved Into Your Living RoomCasting rarely puts you in a room first anymore. What used to be a performance is now a file, and the file is judged on things nobody warns you about.

§ ENTERTAINMENT· 3 MIN

Nobody Bought Your Film. Release It Anyway.

The festival did not lead to an offer, and that is the normal outcome, not the failure. There are four ways to put the film in front of people yourself, and they pay differently.

BY CULTURE

Read the AI Clause Before You SignYour face and your voice are now separately licensable assets, and the paragraph that decides who owns them is buried on page nine of a contract most people skim.

The Union Card, and How People Get OneThree doors lead into SAG-AFTRA, and almost nobody walks through the one they were told about. Here is what each actually requires, and what it costs once you are through.

Where the Money for a Film Comes FromNobody writes a cheque for a movie. It is assembled from grants, tax incentives, presales, equity and deferrals, and understanding the stack is the difference between a script and a shoot.

Horror Became the Most Honest Genre We HaveBlack horror went from a niche to one of the most reliably profitable lanes in film, because the genre lets a filmmaker say things plainly that a drama would have to soften.

What Cancelled Actually Means NowA show with an audience gets cancelled and everybody blames the audience. Usually the decision was made on a spreadsheet about cost, licensing windows and a tax write-down, before most people finished watching.

§ ENTERTAINMENT· 3 MIN

Nobody Bought Your Film. Release It Anyway.

The festival did not lead to an offer, and that is the normal outcome, not the failure. There are four ways to put the film in front of people yourself, and they pay differently.

Wellness.

ALL (2) ↗︎

§ WELLNESS· 3 MIN

Grief Does Not Take Three Days

Bereavement leave assumes you are finished by Thursday. Grief arrives in waves for years, it shows up in the body, and there is a difference between grieving and being in trouble.

BY CULTURE

Nobody Is Taking the CornbreadMost diabetes advice tells Black families to stop eating their own food. The useful version keeps the table and changes the technique, and the technique is where almost all the numbers actually live.

§ WELLNESS· 3 MIN

Grief Does Not Take Three Days

Bereavement leave assumes you are finished by Thursday. Grief arrives in waves for years, it shows up in the body, and there is a difference between grieving and being in trouble.

Nobody Is Taking the Cornbread3 MIN

The Plug.

HOW TOMake It Official in One WeekYou have been selling out of a kitchen, a trunk or a phone. What you will learn: the five steps that make it a real business, in order, and which ones are free.3 MIN · STEP BY STEP HOW TOBuy the Car Without Losing the DealMost of the money lost on a used car is not lost on the sticker. It is lost in the finance office, after you have already decided. What you will learn: the four numbers that matter and the order to fight for them.2 MIN · STEP BY STEP HOW TOWhat to Say, and What to Do AfterWhat you will learn: the few sentences that protect you during a police stop, why the argument is never won at the roadside, and exactly how to document and file a complaint afterward.3 MIN · STEP BY STEP HOW TOThe First Paycheck Paperwork Nobody ExplainsA young person's first job comes with four forms that decide how much money they keep and whether they are building anything. What you will learn: what each one does, in plain words.3 MIN · STEP BY STEP HOW TOThe Paperwork That Keeps the House in the FamilyMost Black family wealth that disappears does not get spent. It gets lost to a missing document. What you will learn: the four papers that decide what happens, and which one overrides a will.3 MIN · STEP BY STEP HOW TOLower Every Bill in One AfternoonPhone, internet, insurance, utilities, medical. Most household bills are negotiable and most people have never asked once. What you will learn: the order to do it in and the exact sentence that works.3 MIN · STEP BY STEP

§ THE PLUG· 3 MIN

Scam-Proof the People You Love

The scripts are always the same three: urgency, secrecy, and a payment method that cannot be reversed. What you will learn: the tells, the one rule that defeats most of them, and what to do in the first hour.

BY CULTURE

§ THE PLUG· 3 MIN

Scam-Proof the People You Love

The Tea.

“The Cookout Has Rules and You Know Them”Nobody wrote them down and everybody follows them. A light and serious look at the unwritten constitution of the function, and why a culture that codifies nothing still agrees on everything.READ IT →“The Costumes Came Out of the Vault”A Broadway exhibition put Cynthia Erivo's Color Purple costume, Eartha Kitt's from The Wild Party and Jeremy Pope's from Choir Boy in one room. Clothes are receipts, and these ones have been kept.READ IT →“The Group Chat Is the Real Network”Nielsen does not measure it and no executive can buy it, but the group chat decides what gets watched, what gets cancelled and what becomes a season. Here is how to run a good one.READ IT →“The Awards Went Home”The Caribbean Music Awards moved to Trinidad and Tobago for the first time, held September 19 in Port of Spain. An awards show relocating to the place the music comes from is a bigger deal than it sounds.READ IT →“Wanda Gets the Record Empire”The Drop: A Snowfall Saga arrived September 8, following Wanda and Leon through 1990s Los Angeles while West Coast hip-hop goes off like a bomb. The best character on Snowfall finally gets the story.READ IT →

§ THE TEA· 2 MIN

Lock In: The Fall Watch List

September dropped a Martin revival, a Snowfall spin-off, A Different World on Netflix and a new Saturday Night Live season. Here is the whole slate in one place so nothing slips past you.

BY CULTURE

§ THE TEA· 2 MIN

Lock In: The Fall Watch List

September dropped a Martin revival, a Snowfall spin-off, A Different World on Netflix and a new Saturday Night Live season. Here is the whole slate in one place so nothing slips past you.

Resources.