Welcome to the Game Grid
The kids’ audible joy melds with the bleeps and bloops of arcade machines that are old enough to belong to their parents. Air hockey pucks smack around the tables, punctuating the laughter and talking that fills the room.
The 2,500 square-foot facility is packed, almost every machine occupied by an eager kid or parent trying to get to the next...
The spirit of driving
It’s seven in the morning at Willow Spring International Raceway, in Big Willow, California. The sun starts to heat up and the sound of roaring engines stupefies one’s hearing. Crowds of spectators as well as drivers wearing colorful racing suits gradually fill up the place.
Dane Remo steps out of his little red Mazda Miata with a casual demeanor,...
Louder than Words
Two women, two artists, from two different countries share one common voice.
A voice against injustice and inequality, a voice against sexual assault and domestic violence, a voice, “Louder Than Words.”
Sexual assault is rooted in history. When a land army was victorious, the women were captured and raped. This problem has never disappeared, however, in times of peace, they were...
MusicAli Speaking
The sound of seventeen carefully blended voices fills the room in a swelling crescendo as the cohesive group of UCLA students concentrates on executing the songs they’ve spent more than one hundred hours rehearsing. One soprano with shiny dark hair and a powerful falsetto stands out among the assembly.
Ali Hepps is a 19-year-old student starting her sophomore year at...
A life reclaimed
Photo by Monica Salazar
Thrown to the ground by her boyfriend, Karen Gonzalez curled up in an attempt to protect herself from his stomping and kicking. She caught her breath, screamed and managed to fight him off and run toward the phone. But before she knew it, she was pinned to the bed with his knee pressed against her neck...
Mother Plucker
Photo by: Sonia Gurrola
Five blocks from MacArthur Park, on a gloomy secluded street east of downtown Los Angeles, you will find the Mother Plucker Company. Entering the concrete building there is a showroom full of feathers. Willy Zelowitz, a true artist, is the owner of this magical feather shop.
Over 40 years ago with a $40 bag of feathers, Zelowitz...
City of sewage
If you thought cleaning rotten eggs sitting in your fridge was bad, think again. An aroma of urine and feces roams the underground city known as the sewers. Four hundred million gallons of raw sewage are being pumped into Hyperion Treatment Plant a day making it the city’s largest wastewater treatment plant. Located in southwest Los Angeles, the...
Emotionally Strong, Mentally Empowered
Photo by: Monica Salazar
It’s third down from the 25-yard line and the Pierce College football team is looking to hold its ground against Santa Barbara City College. Bodies are flying and colliding explosively. Amid the violent clashes, Brahmas’ defensive lineman Ron Young Jr., maintains a smile. The thought of going into battle would make many people tremble, but Young’s...
A Page in Time
Home to more than 250,000 books and no database to keep track of them all, The Last Bookstore is a literary treasure hunt where you truly never know what you might find. The store buys, trades and sells used and new books, LPs, DVDs and CDs. They also host readings, concerts, plays, film screenings and more.
Entering, you leave...
Gamer dream team
After hours of work, the birth of a video game comes to reality for 18-year-old Leilani Toone. Face etched in deep concentration and buried in drawings, moving objects appearing on two computer screens, a short-haired blonde head bobs up from a desk smiling at her partner in crime, her dad.
The game started for Toone, a student at Pierce...