Getting to Know Our Streets: Daylong Bearing Witness Retreat
Saturday, March 1 • 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. PST • In-Person Only
Stewarded by Sensei Jitsujo Gauthier, John Kyogen Rosania & Joe Parker
With Tongva Cultural Collective Speaker Virginia Carmelo
“Indian Alley in Los Angeles’s Skid Row has played a sad, even tragic, role in the lives of many Natives who relocated there in the 1950s and ‘60s. But the area’s reputation as the seedy underbelly of the city has gone on far longer than that. After more than 125 years, the area now known as Indian Alley is finally experiencing a shift, starting at 118 Winston Street, where murals by well-known Native artists call out for remembrance, healing, and strength.”
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EVENT INFO
Join us for a day to explore how the street affects us and how we affect the streets. Together, we will walk, listen, bear witness, eat, do council, and offer the Gate of Sweet Nectar ritual. We will have the special opportunity to hear from Tongva Cultural Collective Member Virginia Carmelo about the history of this place and her embodied wisdom. Participants will have the opportunity to gently stretch their ‘window of tolerance’ around hesitations, fears, feelings, and resistance to engaging with life – past, present, & future – on the streets!
A group of us will walk from ZCLA to what is known as Skid Row’s Indian Alley and take the bus back. Others may meet us at the Creative Justice Center at there at 12:00PM. Please pack yourself a bagged lunch.
SCHEDULE
(Tentative, subject to change based on causes and conditions)
9:30 a.m. Gather
10:00 Walk Downtown
12:00 p.m. Meet at Creative Justice Center
12:30 Walk to Skid Row’s Indian Alley
1:00 Lunch (bring a Bagged Lunch)
2:00 Council (at City Hall Park)
3:30 Prepare/beg/gather things for Gate of Sweet Nectar ritual
4:00 Gate of Sweet Nectar
4:45 Speaker: Tongva Elder Virginia Carmelo on Indian Alley’s history followed by Q&A
6:00 p.m. End (return to ZCLA/Home)
EVENT STEWARDS
Sensei Jitsujo T. Gauthier is a Zen priest, preceptor and Dharma Holder at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, as well as a member of the Zen Peacemakers International. She received Dharma Transmission (denbo) from Roshi Egyoku in 2024. She is also an Assistant Professor and current Chair of the Buddhist Chaplaincy department at University of the West in Los Angeles County. She explores and practices of the Three Tenets in the classroom, chaplaincy work, as well as within seated meditation.
John Kyogen Rosania is a zen priest and ZCLA Board member. He was the 2023-2024 Shuso (Head Trainee) under the guidance of Head Teacher, Sensei Katherine Daiki Senshin Griffith, and has been a residential student at ZCLA since 2015. He works as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst-in-training in community mental health and in private practice.
Joe Parker is an uninvited settler of European ancestry and has collaborated with the Tongva and other Indigenous communities in the Los Angeles area for fifteen years. He has experience leading workshops in anti-racist and decolonial practices, California native plant uses, and in Indigenous allyship skills. He retired in 2020 from a career teaching and publishing in Intercultural Studies at Pitzer College.
Virginia Carmelo was born in Orange County, California and raised in Fullerton, California. Her paternal side is California Native American: Gabrielino/Tongva (Pronounced Tong–vey) and Digueno/Kumeyaay tribes. Virginia received her B.A. from CSU, Fullerton, in Ethnic Studies. During that time, being influenced by and involved in the social movements of the sixties, she began dance studies that led her to study indigenous dance with two prominent masters in the Los Angeles area
Virginia was teacher to five of her 6 children for a 5-year stint of home schooling. Currently, they take part in preserving and sharing the Tongva culture. The family endeavors to revitalize Tongva tribal song, dance, and regalia.
Today, the group “Toveema” can be seen performing both ancient and modern tribal song and dance at many prominent venues throughout Southern California. They take pride in the making of all regalia and instruments, using natural indigenous materials.
In 2004, Virginia was led to research the Tongva language. A portion of the tribal language was recorded during the early 1900’s and last spoken around 1930. Thanks to linguist, Pam Munro and language programs, this California Indian language is being spoken again after 80 years being silent.
From 2001 to 2012, Virginia served as a Tribal Council Member of the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation, the tribe indigenous to the entire Los Angeles Basin. From 2005 to 2010, she served as Tribal Chairperson.
QUESTIONS
Contact: Sensei Jitsujo Gautier – jitsujo8@gmail.com or Kyogen Rosania – kyogen@jrosania.com.
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