PARADE * PERFORMANCE * MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND MAY 26, 27, 28:1 TILL 5 PM

SATURDAY, May 26: 1PM start > 800 E. 6th Street - to Gladys Park

SUNDAY, May 27: 1PM start > 530 S. Main Street - to San Julian Park

MONDAY, May 28: 1PM start > 800 E. 6th Street - to Central City Community Church

Los Angeles Poverty Department’s new production "WALK the TALK" is no ordinary walk. It’s a parade! It’s a performance! It’s visual art dancing down the street! The parade will pay tribute to 36 men and women whose contributions to the community call for a big, blaring celebration. We'll be holding high 36 gorgeous portraits of these hardworking people created by bighearted, big brained street artist Mr. Brainwash.

Join the parade, and come watch history come alive! Bring your tambourine, your kazoo, your cowbell, your laughter, your attention. A brass band, Paradigm Brass, (plus pick up musicians), will lead the way.

The parade /performance will take place on 3 consecutive afternoons, May 26, 27, 28 from 1 till 5 PM. Each parade will take a different route through Skid Row and tell a dozen neighborhood stories. On Saturday, May 26 we’ll tell 13 stories along the route. One stop will be at Gladys Park, home court of the Skid Row 3 on 3 Basketball League, where we’ll tell the story of the league’s founder, O.G. Man. One of the stops on the next day’s parade will be on Los Angeles Street, where in 1979, Rosa Alvarez and Jill Halverson first created the Downtown Women’s Center as a day center. On Monday we’ll start out on Main Street and end up at the Central City Community Church of the Nazarene on San Pedro St. Those celebrated along the route will include Tony and Lucy Stallworth who started the joyous Wednesday night Karaoke at the church over a decade ago.

Walk the Talk is a celebration of a long process of community engagement that began in 2007, and has included performances, exhibitions, public conversations, interviews, drawing, writing, singing and improvising – with the aim of enlisting community brain power to identify initiatives and people whose actions who have helped weave the social fabric of Skid Row.

Go to http/lapovertydept.org/ for complete parade routes.