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My last day of school was May 20, and all that was left to do was wait to hear if Yollocalli was going to continue in the summer or not. Thankfully, that was not the case.

When programming started in the summer, we were blessed with the generosity of Yollocalli, which provided us with all the audio nerd tech imaginable: headphones, mic stand, fancy mic, juicy cables, and wait for it… CHIPS! NPR IS QUAKINGGGG!

This summer, art critic Lori Waxman writes reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weekly this summer, art critic Lori Waxman writes reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the seventh week.

A year that has forced us to step into our light and where evil keeps falling more into the darkness. Like with many humans across the world, quarantine enforcements provided me with the space to go further within to transmute that darkness into light. Before COVID-19 hit, I was entrapped and about to tie the knot. An engagement that was built upon trauma bonds and codependency. ‘Please don’t ever leave me’ is not a form of saying ‘I love you.’

“What are you?”

This question may seem so simple, yet, it always demands a different response from me. It’s exhausting, although I wouldn’t say that is because race is a sensitive topic for me, as it may very legitimately be to others. It’s much more a matter of having too many unsuccessful interactions. This is about questioning how we’ve allowed our differences to define us to the extent of being tokenized for them. It’s our diversity being unjustly marketed, our struggles being glorified, and our individual characteristics being narrowed down to a race category that doesn’t even describe who we really are.

Weekly this summer, art critic Lori Waxman writes reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the sixth week.

Little Village Plaza is a business center where more than a hundred vendors sell goods and services to the residents of the neighborhood and visitors. Many people cherish good memories from the plaza; including me: my first birthday cake came from the LaBaguette Bakery, which is located in the plaza to this day. With the “development” of Little Village Plaza, the livelihoods and memories of many residents will be wiped away by a systematic progress that was neither truly needed nor wanted by La Villita. To stop the displacement of the vendors in Little Village Plaza, they will hold a community meeting on August 5th, 2020 at the parking lot of the Discount Mall.

This summer, art critic Lori Waxman writes weekly reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the fifth week.

The one feeling that everyone who has lost someone during the pandemic have in common is grief. Whether the loss was a result of the COVID-19 disease or not, the feeling is the same. Somehow, along with grief, many feel alone. My family wanted to have a novenario for both family members, but we understood the fact we could not gather. Instead, the rosarios were held over Zoom calls. When we could not physically be with each other, praying together, albeit through an app, was better than nothing.

Quarantine Day 103-108 in the life of artist Grant Reynolds.

Quarantine Day 98-103 in the life of artist Grant Reynolds.

Art critic Lori Waxman writes 60 word/minute reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the third week of reviews.

I'm making a list / to see who's been naughty or nice and / if I wake up tomorrow / I'm on the winning side / of LIFE.

Art critic Lori Waxman writes 60 word/minute reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, Lori reviews M. Carmen Lane, Eli Bornowsky, Rachel Epp Buller, John Salhus, Ellen Rothenberg, and Lily Prince.

Quarantine Day 92-97 in the life of artist, Grant Reynolds.

Our world is a messy one; so was Bruegel’s. If Bruegel has anything to teach us in this moment, perhaps it’s that what appears to be disorder from one perspective is coherent at a higher level. If we lose a few of us, we can go on, but each death hits harder than the one before.

There there has been no fundamental change in power relationships in this country in the past 50 years, since the days of the Panther Party. There are simply now a whole host of blacks in the Democratic Party who administer and manage the mass black incarceration regime that was imposed after the black rebellions - and that includes the activities of the Black Panther Party - of the late 60s.