Untitled Fires Project

Wildfire relief

San Gabriel Valley

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Climate catastrophe disproportionately impacts low income communities, and communities of color. Similarly, disaster recovery takes care of property and profit before people. This injustice is already playing out in communities impacted by the Eaton fire. Foreign interests have already acquired burned properties for corporate redevelopment, and historically landmarked sites are selling to the highest bidder. The impact of the Eaton fire reverberates beyond disaster recovery and influences issues around affordable housing, community safety, and income inequality. The fundamental issues that lead to such tragic ironies are white supremacy, and our seeming incapacity to care for the earth. We need to change now – to care for the earth, care for the land, care for people instead of profit.

The recent fires in Los Angeles have displaced around one-hundred and fifty-thousand people. Sixteen-thousand homes and properties in two historic neighborhoods disappeared in flames; communities that were created out of generations of love, care, and collective imagining were suddenly and violently dispersed, and the socioeconomic realities of life in Los Angeles were transformed.

Cornerstone’s process centers artistic collaboration across lines of difference and expertise; we make theater but the outcome is more than public performances – communities meet each other, relationships between people who would not have crossed paths otherwise develop and flourish, networks of solidarity are established, and a local ecology of care starts to expand. There is incredible vitality inherent in theater-making and engaged practice is more important than ever right now in Los Angeles.

Working in collaboration with local artists and community members impacted by the Eaton fire, we will devise a process that creates a container for collective healing, artistic expression, and advocacy. We will convene community gatherings that bring displaced residents back together to share their experiences, report on their progress, and find opportunities for shared resourcing. Together we will create a traveling theater work that keeps the story of the fires, recovery, and repair present in the life of our city.

If our work is successful Angelenos will learn about the process of disaster recovery and how it’s unfolding. We will all learn how to advocate for the people who matter most, and work productively against the tyrannical oversight of foreign and corporate investment. We will learn how to care and for whom. Our perception of what it means to be in right relation to the land will shift, along with our perception of what it means to be in right relation to each other. The process of recovery will go quicker than the 4-9 years it takes on average to rebuild a destroyed neighborhood. People will have homes sooner. Networks of care and compassion that question the status quo will develop locally, and find alignment with movements for liberation. The radical story of how communities care for themselves, and model caretaking for the land will take center stage at a time when the world is gearing up for a global sporting event.