SUNDAY NOTES 048
A love letter to Los Angeles, and resources due to the wildfire impacts
A Sunday playlist: dear los angeles
A Sunday watch: L.A. Story (1991)
Devoting this Sunday’s newsletter to a love of my life and my home, Los Angeles
It’s been a heavy week here in LA. I spent a few days a few hours away at my parents’ for clean air. While the city burns and my heart aches, all I could do today is share a letter I wrote to a city I found a belonging with, a city I’m in love with.
A love letter to Los Angeles
Dear L.A.,
Thank you for taking me in almost 6 years ago. To call you home has been an honor and a privilege, there is no one like you.
A city of stars: the outcasts, the weirdos, the awkward, the dreamers looking for a place to belong, you’ve given all of us room to exist in all our honest forms.
You are home to the resilient, the hard worker persevering even in the face of rejection—or loss—you give us permission to believe in something as hard as we want to, even if it makes us a little mad. Sometimes it’s all we have. But it’s enough to keep us going. Because here, anything is possible. And our collective belief in something greater than ourselves is what makes you magical.
A city of stars: with every dreamer from every corner of the world together, courage, imagination, innovation, and the need for one another are what holds us together. We are nothing without one another. And everything with.
Here, at home.
[You are home]
With hope and perseverance,
M
Something I’m thinking about:
"The darkest nights produce the brightest stars." —John Green
Something that inspires me:
I’ve compiled a list of resources I’ve been collecting from different outlets and friends’ stories, if you are in need of support or would like to help support the current losses here in Los Angeles due to the wildfires, locally or from a distance.
And a reminder that if you live in LA and feel overwhelmed by what to do or where to go, it’s okay if right now all you can do is breathe. This isn’t a race. We’re collectively processing a lot and our minds and bodies need rest. Being human and showing up for one another comes as a spectrum, we all offer different skills and carry different resources and that is what makes a team strong and powerful. We can support one another in so many different ways in the next weeks, months, and years. Be gentle with yourself.
LA County government Resources - including Uber + Lyft codes for discounted rides + Airbnb sign up form for free temporary housing
Firefighters
Order a meal for a firefighter + first responder through Le Great Outdoor (Santa Monica)
LA Fire Department Wildfire Emergency funding
Fundraisers for individuals and families
Displaced Black families GoFundMe directory (Altadena)
Displaced Latino families GoFundMe directory (Altadena + Palisades)
A fundraiser for artists and art workers organized by Grief and Hope
Displaced artists working in animation GoFundMe directory
GoFundMe directory for various artists (+ their IGs + a list of artist resources)
Free resources if you are impacted
Therapists offering free therapy
Free resource if you have FEMA + Insurance questions
Brands providing free products/care packages
and the many centers, groups, restaurants offering essentials/food/gift cards (like here)
Resources for artists + music industry workers
A list of resources to help artists impacted
Volunteer in the city
Volunteer opportunities around the city with whether or not they are taking donations
I know there are many many more resources and fundraisers going around, these are what I have bookmarked for now. again if you are feeling overwhelmed, you can focus on your immediate circle, you can connect with someone directly, or focus on a group of people close to your heart. and any act matters, no matter how small <3
If you are an artist reading this and you are impacted by the fires, I would love to connect with you and support you, please reach out!
A quote:
“Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The winds shows us how close to the edge we are.
— Joan Didion, “The Santa Ana” (1967)
Until next Sunday, and so much love to you,
In case you missed it:
Last Sunday Notes—SUNDAY NOTES 047