The Brief

Paintings of guardian angels, early gender-fluid cosplay and illustrations of spaceships streaking across a starry expanse.

Those are some of the images visitors will experience at a new exhibition at USC that looks at the connections between science fiction, the occult and the LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles.

The art show, called Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation, focuses on the period between 1930 and 1960 and pulls from private collections and USC’s ONE archive — the largest collection of LGBTQ+ materials in the world.

The show will run Aug. 22 - Nov. 23 at USC’s Fisher Museum of Art.

Organizers say it provides a window into alternate realities dreamed up by queer artists who were looking for respite from oppressive cultural norms.

“Science fiction is imagining things like a rocket ship, but we don’t make it yet... and it eventually becomes a reality,” said Alexis Bard Johnson, the lead curator of the exhibit and curator of the ONE Archives at USC Libraries.

“I think there was hope in that structure that other things in society could also change.”

Jim Kepner, cover of "Toward Tomorrow" No. 2, June, 1944

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Courtesy ONE Archives at the USC Libraries

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What you’ll see there

The exhibit features works by Morris Scott Dollens, Marjorie Cameron, Curtis Harrington and other notable artists, writers and filmmakers.

A prolific artist, Dollens sold hundreds of paintings at science fiction conventions. He also produced homoerotic photomontages of the male figure, which will be on display at the exhibit.

Johnson, the curator, said she was struck by the amount of science fiction artwork and ephemera that Jim Kepner, a journalist and gay rights leader, amassed throughout his life. Within that collection were images of partially nude male bodies juxtaposed with spaceships streaking through black space, a black-and-white illustration of a bikini-wearing man standing in ancient jungle ruins and several pieces by Dollens.

“Science fiction fandom and the world of publishing offered a platform and community for queers of all kinds,” Johnson wrote in an essay titled, "The Kepner File: Queer Art and Science Fiction Fandom."

The exhibition also includes several artworks by Cameron, a self-professed witch and L.A. occultist who was married to pioneering rocket scientist Jack Parsons.

As an actress and visual artist, Cameron’s creativity threads through the work of filmmaker Curtis Harrington. Harrington’s video portrait of Cameron, "The Wormwood Star," stands as the only visual record of many of the works she would later burn.

"The Wormwood Star" will also be on view at the show.

"Holy Guardian Angel According to Alesiter Crowley" by Cameron

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Courtesy USC

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Cameron’s piece, "Holy Guardian Angel According to Alesiter Crowley," will be on view at the exhibit, as well as her drawings of Parsons.

In a companion essay to the exhibition, art historian Kelly Filreis referred to Cameron as a "visionary."

“Her influence attests to how deeply the supernatural is intertwined within the histories of transgressive sexualities and alternative spiritualities in Southern California,” Filreis wrote.

What to know before you go

The Fisher Museum of Art is located on the USC campus at 823 Exposition Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Admission to the museum is free.

A catalogue to the exhibit , which includes the essay noted above, is available for purchase.

This story was originally published by The LA Local on Jan. 28, 2026.

The hottest concert in Koreatown this past weekend may have been an impromptu, after-hours, one-man show at a closed shopping mall.

As the clock approached 10 p.m. last Friday, City Center on Sixth was bustling.

Scores of people — along with their families, friends and pets — flooded into the three-story building for a “uniquely LA” experience.

The crowds didn’t gather for Korean eats at H Mart. They came to catch viral saxophonist Nathanial Young.

Sandwiched between a post office and a pharmacy on the ground floor of City Center, Young performed an hour of original music for free to hundreds of people packed around three levels of atriums dotted with blind box stores and skincare shops.

Hundreds gathered at City Center mall in Koreatown to see Nathanial Young, Jan. 25, 2026.

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Andrew Lopez

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The LA Local

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A 27-year-old Los Angeles resident, Young is no stranger to performing in spaces uncommon for jazz musicians — tunnels in Norway, the foot of Teotihuacán’s Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, deserted parking structures and empty churches across LA.

He’s racked up millions of views on his social media videos. As his Instagram handle @NathanialPOV suggests, his posts are often recorded from the perspective of the built-in camera in his Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Young typically announces upcoming performances to his combined 1.1 million social media followers a day or two — and sometimes just hours — beforehand.

For the City Center performance, the announcement drew people from around Los Angeles County, including Will Baker, who told The LA Local he made the drive from North Hollywood.

Before the show began, Baker, 25, leaned on the banister of the mall’s third floor, peering down at a lone microphone stand on the ground floor surrounded by a growing crowd.

“I think it’s awesome that the mall is letting him do this and letting him get a crowd in here and perform for it,” Baker said. “It’s such a cool way to use spaces because we have so many spaces like this in cities all over the place that’d be so fun to hear musicians play in — and they should do it more.”

Hundreds gathered at City Center mall in Koreatown to see Nathanial Young, Jan. 25, 2026.

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Andrew Lopez

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The LA Local

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Hundreds gathered at City Center mall in Koreatown to see Nathanial Young, Jan. 25, 2026. (Andrew Lopez / For The LA Local) Young began his set promptly at 10 p.m., without an introduction or opening act.

He quickly commanded the boisterous crowd of hundreds around him, quieting them with the croons of his saxophone.

Many listeners sat with their eyes closed, allowing the notes to overtake their senses.

For Geraldine Lonsdale and her friends Nicole Carre and Paulina Paredes, the soulful tones of Young’s sax drew the trio of Koreatown residents into the mall after grabbing dinner and drinks nearby.

“We couldn’t see him because everyone’s so tall… so we went up the escalator and were like, ‘Okay, this is cool.’ But then we’re like, ‘Is he famous?’” Lonsdale laughed.

Paredes said the sound echoing off the walls and glass added a nice touch to an otherwise unassuming mall.

“I feel like this also grants greater access to this type of music because usually, to listen to this kind of music, you have to be at a jazz club or symphony — not at a mall in the middle of K-town,” Carre added.

In a second-floor corner away from the crowds, Edmond Smith of Chatsworth closed his eyes and listened to Young’s last few songs.

The 35-year-old has seen Young and his collaborators perform across LA before — most recently at a church in downtown.

While shopping malls may represent a bygone era of American consumerism, where young people of decades past would congregate, Smith told The LA Local that Friday night’s performance reminded him of the power of community engagement in such a setting.

“It’s wonderful to see live music, and it’s even more beautiful to see everybody participating in that space that we can all share and experience together,” Smith said.

Temperatures are on the rise these next few days and breezy Santa Ana winds are back, triggering wind advisories for some L.A. County mountains.

The warming spreads from the coasts to valleys to the low desert where temperatures will reach the mid-70s up to the low 80s. Downtown Los Angeles, for example, will reach up to 82 degrees.

The Antelope Valley, meanwhile, will stay cooler with max temperatures from 64 to 67 degrees.

And there's a wind advisory out for the Santa Susana, West San Gabriel and the Highway 14 corridor, where wind gusts could reach up to 50 mph. Those conditions are expected to last until 2 p.m.

The U.S. Senate has until Friday night to approve a package of funding measures or else risk another government shutdown. That package includes funding for child care subsidies, Head Start, and other services for young kids.

Senate Democrats have said they oppose the spending measure because it also includes funding the Department of Homeland Security. They want new restrictions on immigration enforcement, and to split it off from the other funding bills in the package in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti by federal officers.

In addition to Head Start and child care, the bills in the six-part package include funding for infant and early childhood mental health, maternal health, and home-heating assistance,

“There is no reason that funding for children, for babies, for meeting their very basic needs should be contingent on whether or not ICE gets funding,” said Melissa Boteach, the chief policy officer at Zero to Three, an advocacy organization for babies and young kids. “[Young kids] are in the most rapid stage of brain development. They have immediate needs that need to be met.”

Head Start disruption: What could happen?

The last government shutdown in the fall lasted 43 days, and several Head Start programs in California nearly closed; at least one temporarily shut its doors. Boteach said there may be a few centers that are immediately affected, and others later on if a shutdown drags on, depending on when the center’s grant cycles starts.

Those most at risk are programs that have a Feb. 1 start date, said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, of which she estimated there are around 6-10.

Head Start is a federally-funded program that provides early education and other services to children in low-income families. “ For many of these children, these are also the most nutritious meals that they get every day [at Head Start],” Cottrill said.

“It's not guaranteed that they'll close their doors if there is a government shutdown. It really depends on whether they have other funding sources,” she added.

Federal funding for childcare subsidies for low-income children (which is administered through the state) is also part of the funding package. Earlier this month, President Trump said he would freeze that funding to California, though that action has been tied up in court.

“There's already been a good deal of instability in these programs and for families who rely on them and are just hopeful that the Congress can finish this off and, uh, be able to move forward,” said Donna Sneeringer, president of the Child Care Resource Center, which runs Head Starts and child care subsidy programs in the Los Angeles area.

“[Parents] feel very insecure — these temporary pauses… the family's lives don't pause,” said Mary Ignatius, who heads Parent Voices. “ Real harm happens to the child care providers, the families, and the children who cannot afford any delays."

In August 2024, the city of Los Angeles approved an agreement to pay more than a half-billion dollars to resolve a substantial number of schedule and compensation related disputes with the main contractor it hired to design, build and operate the LAX Automated People Mover.

It was thought at the time that some of that money would be passed down to subcontractors who were working on the 2.25-mile long elevated train, which is still scheduled to begin shuttling travelers around airport terminals and to the greater L.A. Metro system later this year.

A year and a half later, a major subcontractor alleges it still hasn’t received a penny of the tens of millions of dollars it says it’s owed from the settlement, which the city funded using public money it generates from airport-related fees and charges.

Early last year, LINXS, the main contractor, initiated a lawsuit blaming the subcontractor, Rosendin Electric, for deficient work. Rosendin Electric has responded in court filings, calling the lawsuit part of LINXS’ scheme to withhold settlement proceeds. The subcontractor has accused LINXS of engaging in “secretive, deceptive and improper conduct” and blocking testimony on key documents.

“Subcontractors whose work generated those funds are entitled to understand and recover their rightful share,” lawyers for Rosendin Electric wrote in court documents from October 2025. “Transparency here is not merely procedural; it is a matter of public trust and legal obligation.”

The design and construction of the train has been rife with disputes between the city and main contractor, leading to cost overruns that have eroded public confidence in the last piece of a rail-only connection to LAX. The case involving Rosendin Electric is one of at least two lawsuits that detail how LINXS’ relationship has frayed with the people the contractor hired to bring the long-awaited train into service.

LAist’s reporting for this story is based on publicly available documents related to the legal battle.

LINXS and Rosendin Electric declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Jake Adams, deputy executive director overseeing $5.5 billion in LAX upgrades, including the People Mover, said Los Angeles World Airports “provides contract‑level oversight, but does not track how a developer allocates funds internally.“

LINXS sues Rosendin, blaming subcontractor for bad work and delays

Rosendin Electric anticipated completing its role on the project in July 2022, three years after it entered into a nearly $262 million contract with LINXS, according to court documents. LINXS hired the subcontractor to provide the labor, construction and assembly of various electrical components of the project, including the technology that powers the train and fire and life safety systems, according to an excerpt of the subcontract included in court filings.

Rosendin Electric’s lawyers said in court documents that despite “pervasive disruptions,” the subcontractor has continued to work on the project. The subcontractor’s lawyers continued, saying the company “relied on the expectation” that it would receive its “fair share” of any compensation the city provided to LINXS related to project delays.

The company wasn’t alone in expecting the funds to be filtered down.

According to a July 2024 presentation to the Board of Airport Commissioners, city staff said the settlement would be “advantageous” because it would ensure “subcontractors are paid sooner…providing cashflow to facilitate schedule certainty.”

In August 2024, L.A. City Council approved the agreement, known as the global settlement, to cover a wide swath of issues, including timeline, access to the airport’s IT network and compensation.

The settlement was to be paid out in increments as LINXS completed certain project milestones. All of the project milestones have been met except the final one, which is opening the train to the public. So far, that means the city has paid out more than $430 million.

Five months after the settlement was approved, LINXS filed a lawsuit against Rosendin Electric claiming breach of contract.

LINXS, which is a joint venture between four large international engineering and construction companies, alleges in its complaint that Rosendin Electric provided “defective construction services” that “deviated from technical requirements” and caused delays to the project.

Rosendin Electric denies the claims in LINXS’ lawsuit and later filed a cross-complaint.

LINXS’ alleged “secretive, deceptive and improper conduct”

Rosendin Electric claims the legal action LINXS initiated soon after the global settlement agreement was forged amounts to “excuses” that the contractor “began manufacturing” to avoid paying out settlement proceeds.

Among other allegations in its cross-complaint over breach of contract, Rosendin Electric claims LINXS:

• Rejected the idea that the subcontractor is entitled to any amount of the settlement.
• “Embarked on a scheme” to retain all of the settlement proceeds for itself by going after subcontractors who assert a “rightful claim to a share of recovery.”
• Stopped paying Rosendin Electric entirely, including “routine progress payments” unrelated to the settlement. 

In the latest development in the legal battle, Rosendin Electric’s lawyers said LINXS is trying to avoid testifying about two documents that “conclusively demonstrate that (Rosendin Electric) is entitled to prompt payment of tens of millions of dollars” from the settlement.

Another subcontractor sued

Within a month after the 2024 settlement was secured and before its legal action against Rosendin Electric, LINXS had also sued the design and engineering firm it hired in 2018 for breach of contract.

In its September 6, 2024 complaint, LINXS alleges that HDR overcharged for its services and produced work that “deviated from technical requirements.” That subcontractor denied the claims and later issued a cross-complaint, alleging LINXS owes more than $57 million for the work it’s done on the project.

Rosendin Electric’s lawyers called into question the timing of the lawsuit against HDR.

“LINXS could only advance this position after securing the LAWA Settlement because claims of fundamental design defects by its own design team would otherwise have provided LAWA with powerful defenses against LINXS’ claims for delay and compensation,” lawyers for the company have argued.

Both cases are ongoing.