The Brief

The rain eased up Friday, making way for beautiful skies through the weekend. Hopefully you got a chance to be out and about, enjoying some of the events we highlighted in last Thursday's edition.

There's more rain on the way for Southern California starting Wednesday, but there's still plenty of indoor art and fun to be had — including some early Valentine's Day delights! From dancing it all out at the Mint on Wednesday night to getting tattoos while enjoying delicious bites in Chinatown, this week has plenty of options for finding entertainment without getting soaked.

For more to explore, visit LAist.com where you can check out the best Valentine’s Day deals for under $100, learn how to foster pets that were found during the wildfires, and learn about the next generation of folk dancers keeping the traditional Lunar New Year of lion dancing alive.

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After the 2022 midterm election, a gap appeared to be shrinking on U.S. college campuses.

The turnout rate for student voters at community colleges was catching up with the rate at public four-year institutions, data suggested. What was a gap of 9 percentage points for the 2020 election had shrunk to just 3 in 2022.

"This told us that we needed to be doing more to support community colleges in their efforts to engage their students," says Clarissa Unger, executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, a nonpartisan network focused on boosting civic engagement on campuses.

"We would love to be able to see the 2024 data to see if those extra efforts to support community colleges did help [fully] close that gap," Unger adds.

But that data is now on ice.

In March, researchers at Tufts University announced that they've halted releasing statistics from the go-to source of school-level data on student voter registration and turnout — the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. And the key source of student information needed to produce NSLVE reports, the National Student Clearinghouse, pulled out of working on the study going forward, after a more than decade-long partnership.

It's all part of the fallout from an extraordinary investigation into the study by the Trump administration's Education Department.

In a press release touting it as a move to "protect" the integrity of U.S. elections, Trump officials said they launched the probe in February to look into unspecified "reports" that NSLVE is in violation of a federal student data privacy law.

Many privacy experts, however, are skeptical of the accusations, which echo claims first raised by right-wing election activists.

Both Tufts University and the National Student Clearinghouse maintain they have not violated the privacy law. A Tufts statement emphasizes that NSLVE, which started in 2013, is a nonpartisan study "that seeks to understand whether students vote, not who they vote for."

Still, school administrators and other student voting advocates tell NPR they're already feeling the impact of the Trump administration's investigation in a midterm election year. The loss of data from new NSLVE reports has left the over 1,000 colleges and universities that participate in the study in the dark, as they try to figure out how to increase turnout among the voting-age cohort that is least likely to cast ballots in the United States.

A focus of right-wing election activists became an Education Department probe

So far, the Education Department has not identified the source of what it described as "multiple reports alleging that the process of compiling NSLVE data involves illegally sharing college students' data with third parties to influence elections."

The department's press office declined to comment to NPR.

But Cleta Mitchell — a Republican election lawyer who took part in President Donald Trump's failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election — revealed a backstory during an online meeting of right-wing election activists in March.

In 2023, a fellow activist named Heather Honey, Mitchell explained, posted online a document she wrote about NSLVE. It claims that colleges and universities appear to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act when they give the National Student Clearinghouse permission to share their student enrollment records for the study. The document also raises suspicion about Catalist, a Democratic-aligned data firm that was once involved with the study. The firm compiles public voter records from states and previously gave them to the clearinghouse to match with student information.

Tufts has maintained that its study is designed to comply with the privacy law.

Last year, Honey was appointed as the deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

Heather Honey leaves the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., in 2024. The right-wing election activist wrote a document criticizing the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement before she was appointed deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

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"One of the things that she did was send over her report and a proposal to the Department of Education — to Linda McMahon, the secretary of education — to say, 'You've got to stop this,' " Mitchell said in a recording of the meeting uploaded by a group called Pure Integrity Michigan Elections.

Mitchell went on to describe the National Student Clearinghouse's decision to stop its work on NSLVE as "100% the result of the work" of Honey and activists in Michigan.

"And so that's a real victory lap and one that I think we ought to celebrate," Mitchell added.

Mitchell and Catalist did not respond to NPR's inquiries. Honey referred questions to DHS' public affairs office, which said in an unsigned statement to NPR: "Heather Honey has not had involvement with the Department of Education's investigation. Her 2023 report is PUBLIC."

Brendan Fischer, who tracks the far-right election activist movement, sees Mitchell's comments as the latest connection between the activists and the Trump administration.

"This really shows the power and influence that a network of election conspiracy theorists are having over government policy and over the way that elections are run and civic participation is studied," says Fischer, the director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan voting rights group.

Since the 2020 election, Mitchell and other activists have built a grassroots network that's often attacked efforts to encourage voting among populations that they perceive support the Democratic Party. During the March meeting of Michigan activists, Mitchell criticized efforts to boost student participation in elections as attempts to "really gin up the Democratic turnout on college campuses."

On the same day as Mitchell's comments, another opponent of NSLVE publicly hailed the end of the National Student Clearinghouse's involvement with the study — the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank set up by former members of the first Trump administration, including McMahon, the current education secretary.

"AFPI is encouraged that students are finally being protected," said Anna Pingel, a campaign director at the think tank, in a statement that called the development "an important step toward ensuring that sensitive student data is not exploited for political purposes." The statement also said that AFPI sent a letter to the Education Department earlier this year with concerns about NSLVE and potential violations of student data privacy protections.

Fischer at the Campaign Legal Center — whose attorneys have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration — points out that Trump officials are investigating NSLVE at the same time the administration faces multiple legal challenges to its murky handling of people's data, including state voter registration, Social Security and IRS records.

"There is a certain irony in the Trump administration repeatedly violating privacy laws and then turning around and shutting down this program studying college student participation in democracy, by arguing that it may have violated federal privacy law," Fischer says.

Colleges face tough decisions about whether and how to promote student voting

The Education Department in February sent a guidance letter to colleges and universities that advises school administrators to hold off on using "any NSLVE report or data this year" until the department's investigation is complete. The letter mentions the "number of enforcement options" the department could use against schools that are found to violate privacy law, including withholding or clawing back federal funding.

Amanda Fuchs Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs at the Education Department during the Biden administration, sees the move as a "scare tactic."

"It's very unusual to send out a letter like that when there are no findings and nobody is found to have done anything wrong," Miller says. "A lot of these schools are small schools, community colleges, under-resourced institutions that may not have a general counsel's office to figure out what this means. And if they get this letter and they think it's putting them at risk, their Title IV funds at risk, their federal financial aid for students at risk, this [study] would be the first to go, which would be an understandable immediate reaction if you don't know what it really means."

Jackson State University students sign up to vote in Jackson, Miss., on National Voter Registration Day in 2023.

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Before the current Trump administration, the department has historically kept its data privacy investigations off the public's radar to try to encourage schools to more quickly correct any violations, explains Amelia Vance, a student data privacy expert who leads the Public Interest Privacy Center.

"It's really unusual to have these investigations talked about, announced, confirmed across the board," Vance says.

And if there are indeed any violations, the department could try to find ways to allow for the study to continue because, Vance adds, "the way the law was written, it gives a ton of discretion to the Department of Ed in order to allow for flexibility."

But for now, Melissa Michelson — dean of arts and sciences at Menlo College, a Hispanic-serving and Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander-serving institution in California's Silicon Valley that has participated in NSLVE — says many school administrators are bracing for potential tough decisions.

"I'm a political scientist and I believe strongly that everybody should vote," says Michelson, whose research focuses on voter mobilization. "But if I have to choose between being financially responsible and ensuring that Menlo College can stay open because our students can receive Pell Grants or continuing to participate in NSLVE and getting this data to inform our civic engagement coalition, I'm going to pick financial responsibility every time."

And in the middle of a midterm election year, schools that do decide to carry out their plans to mobilize student voters will be forging ahead with out-of-date data.

"That's troubling because for most schools, this is an iterative learning process," Michelson says. "You do something in one year, you get your data back and you see, 'Hey, what looks different? Did we get better in getting out the vote among our male first-year students? How are we doing with those business majors?' Without feedback from what they did in 2024, it makes it more challenging for schools to decide what to do in 2026."

The NSLVE investigation is not the first time colleges have struggled with Trump administration guidance on student voter registration

Miller, the former Biden official, notes that many college administrators were already having a hard time interpreting earlier guidance from the Trump administration on student voter registration.

Last August, the Education Department issued a letter saying that to avoid "aiding and abetting voter fraud," schools "may limit the list of recipients" when distributing mail voter registration forms so students who schools have reason to believe aren't eligible to vote aren't included. Federal law, however, requires certain higher education institutions participating in federal student aid programs to "make a good faith effort" to distribute forms "to each student enrolled in a degree or certificate program and physically in attendance at the institution, and to make such forms widely available to students at the institution."

The same letter also said schools cannot use federal work-study funding to employ students to help register voters or assist at the polls. But the department's Federal Student Aid Handbook does not include that restriction for students employed by schools for on-campus work.

"This has caused lots of confusion for schools and a chilling effect in doing critical work that promotes voting among college students," Miller says.

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has asked the Education Department to reconsider its August guidance, which they say "undermines decades of bipartisan recognition that encouraging voter registration is a core public interest function of institutions of higher education."

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2026 NPR

President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East will "remain in place" until an agreement is reached with Iran, and its implementation takes hold.

His comments followed a shaky start to a two-week ceasefire. Israel continued its strikes in Lebanon, killing hundreds on Wednesday, Gulf Arab countries also reported some drone and missile attacks on oil refineries and power plants, and according to reports Iran had shut down the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway, largely blocked during the war, is a key shipping route for about 20 % of the world's oil and gas.

The uncertainty was also felt by the markets on Thursday, diminishing gains made a day earlier, with oil prices rising and stocks dipping. Brent crude, the international standard, was at $97 per barrel, or up by 2.4%.

Trump warned that strikes on Iran would resume if Iran did not comply with "the REAL AGREEMENT reached."

"If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the "Shootin' Starts," bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before," he said.

He also reiterated that the deal would not allow nuclear enrichment in Iran and would keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

"It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The White House denied the reports on Wednesday that Iran closed the strait, saying they are false and that there was an uptick in traffic in the strait on Wednesday.

People enjoy the last day of Passover and the first day of the ceasefire on April 08, 2026 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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Here are more updates from the region:

Click the links below to jump down to a specific section.

Peace talks |Gulf countries' defense upgrade | Lebanon | Killed Journalists | Strait of Hormuz

Peace talks to resume, while confusion remains over the terms of the current ceasefire

High-level talks between the U.S. and Iran are slated to start on Saturday in Islamabad, with the mediation of the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. His government acted as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran to secure the two-week ceasefire. The White House announced that Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. delegation.

But confusion remains over the basis of the plan for those talks, with Iran insisting on a 10-point plan that includes its full control over the Strait of Hormuz, removal of sanctions, and accepting Iran's right to enrichment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Iran's 10-point proposal was "literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump." Trump initially called a plan from Iran "workable."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 8, 2026 in Washington, DC.

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Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which is observing a national day of mourning on Thursday, drew condemnation from Iran and criticism from Pakistan. The dispute over whether Lebanon is included in the ceasefire terms remains unresolved. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement Wednesday morning that his government supports Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but that the ceasefire doesn't include Lebanon. Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif had announced the Iran-U.S. ceasefire, would also take effect in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it insists the U.S.-Iran ceasefire includes Lebanon. But the militant group said, "if the Israeli enemy does not adhere" to it, then "no party will commit to it, and there will be a response from the region, including Iran."

Iran condemned the continued assault on Lebanon and said it was the U.S. government's responsibility to put an end to it. In a post on social media, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, "The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments," above a screenshot of the Pakistani statement including Lebanon in the truce.

Trump, meanwhile, echoed Netanyahu's understanding of the deal. Asked by a PBS reporter why Lebanon was not included, he said, "Because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal. That'll get taken care of too."

Gulf countries seek to upgrade their defense ties to the U.S.

As the U.S. and Iran prepare to enter negotiations on Saturday, Gulf Arab countries are seeking to enhance defense cooperation with the U.S. military, an official from the region, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to outline these demands publicly, told NPR.

Gulf countries have relied on U.S. defense systems to intercept recent Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The official said Gulf countries want a U.S.-Iran deal to include a framework to protect energy facilities in the region and a way to enforce freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Much of the oil, gas and fertilizer passing through the strait to markets in Asia comes from the Persian Gulf.

On Thursday, the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers held their first official phone call since the war started. A statement issued by the Saudi foreign ministry said the two "discussed ways to reduce tensions to restore security and stability in the region."

Lebanon mourns over 250 killed from Israeli attacks

Church bells rang across Lebanon and warplanes tore the skies Thursday morning as the country observed a national day of mourning following the deadliest day of the current Israeli invasion. More than 250 people were killed Wednesday, according to Lebanon's civil defense, in Israeli attacks that hit densely-populated residential areas far from Hezbollah's strongholds, including along Beirut's seaside Corniche promenade.

The Israeli military said it conducted the largest attack so far, with 100 strikes in 10 minutes in Beirut on Wednesday, killing the nephew of a Hezbollah leader. The military issued evacuation orders for the capital's suburbs, but then attacked central Beirut. That city has swelled in recent weeks with people fleeing the Israeli invasion in the country's south, which has displaced more than a million people. More than 1,160 were wounded in Wednesday's strikes, according to the country's civil defense department. Lebanon's army said four soldiers were among those killed.

Rescue workers search for people after an Israeli attack hit a residential building in the Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood on April 8, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon.

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On Thursday, Israel struck a bridge in Lebanon. Hezbollah, which had held its fire on the first day of the ceasefire, fired rockets into northern Israel on Thursday.

The violence marred the start of a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in the wider Middle East war. But Israeli officials justified the assault by asserting that the new deal did not include a pause in its fight against Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it's outraged by such attacks in densely populated urban areas. Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani explained why Israel made a surprise attack on Beirut.

"Leading up to this operation, we've seen Hezbollah disperse over different areas, taking advantage of the warnings that we provide for civilians to also hide for themselves among the civilians, moving, trying to scatter their operations in different locations and to hide behind civilian locations," he said.

Watchdog says 3 journalists killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Gaza

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday Israeli airstrikes killed three journalists in Lebanon, and Gaza.

Al Jazeera said its correspondent Mohammed Wishah is the 11th journalist from the network to be killed in Gaza.

Two years ago, Israel said Wishah was a "key terrorist in Hamas" who posed a threat to its troops.

The Israeli military repeated that allegation in a statement after his killing on Tuesday, but did not say why he was targeted six months into a ceasefire in which hundreds have been killed in Gaza.

Also Tuesday, CPJ said reporters Ghada Dayekh and Suzan Khalil were killed in a blitz of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon that hit Hezbollah and civilian neighborhoods.

One of the journalists worked for a Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Israel's military has killed more than 260 Palestinian journalists in Gaza in the past two and a half years.

CPJ says Israel's attacks on the press should be independently investigated as war crimes.

As Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, confusion reigns and ships remain idle

Trump has repeatedly said that the deal is dependent on the free movement of ships in the Strait of Hormuz to ease the global energy crisis. The strait is a critical throughway that carries about a fifth of the world's oil and provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Before the war broke out, Iran allowed an average of 120 to 150 ships per day to sail through unimpeded. But in the last five weeks, that traffic has come to a grinding halt. And despite Tuesday's announcement of ceasefire terms that required Iran to reopen the strait for safe passage, more than a hundred ships remained effectively stalled.

Details about the strait's status remain unclear. While Iran announced it had ceased transit operations in response to Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon, the White House denounced the reports as false and said closing the waterway would be completely unacceptable.

If the strait was open, hundreds of other ships in and around the strait still chose to stay put out of an abundance of caution. Ship owners, insurance companies, and seafarers say they are seeking clarity as Iran threatens to attack any vessel transiting without permission.

Erik Broekhuizen, a U.S.-based ship broker and energy consultant with Poten & Partners, told NPR that another concern for the ships is Iran's decentralized military command.

"You don't really know who to talk to, who is in charge, and whether all the sort of regional commanders have gotten the memo that the strait is open and they should stop attacking vessels," Broekhuizen said.

More than 20 ships have been attacked by Iran since the war began.

Operators are also confused by Iran's new fee system and how payments will be collected as the government rolls out new toll procedures. According to analysts, several oil tanker operators said they have paid at least $1 million to transit the strait.

An English language VHF broadcast was blasted to the hundreds of ships in and around the strait on Wednesday. It warned those aboard idling ships that they need permission before they try to transit.

Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Jackie Northam in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 NPR

If you’re also wallowing in disappointment about your L.A. Olympics tickets (preliminary handball, anyone?) or lack thereof, I’m right there with you. Let’s hope future drops have a few more reasonable tickets available for those of us who don’t have $1,000 to see Katie Ledecky swim her heart out.

Much more attainable? Couchella, the annual streaming event for Coachella, which is on this weekend and next, right in your own living room. And slap on that SPF if you’re desert-bound. This weekend is also the kickoff for L.A. Climate Week, with events ranging from a planet-friendly Food Day Festival in West Hollywood to a conversation on climate futures in Malibu; it’s also the last weekend for the Getty exhibit How to Be a Guerrilla Girl.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can say, "mazel tov," to proud bald eagle parents Jackie and Shadow and grab your tickets for the Moth Mainstage on April 15 in downtown L.A. and April 16 in Irvine for the first time!

Events

Patrick Martinez: Left in Ruins

Through Saturday, April 11
Charlie James Gallery 
696 Chung King Road, Chinatown 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Patrick Martinez

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Charlie James Gallery

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Patrick Martinez’s neon signs with activist messages have become part of the L.A. landscape over the past several years. His work in neon responding to the immigration raids in L.A., along with new paintings, drawings and sculptures, gets an inspiring solo show at Charlie James Gallery in Chinatown — make sure to get there before it closes Saturday night.

LA Climate Week

Through Wednesday, April 15
Various locations
COST: VARIES; MORE INFO

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Olivia Peay

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LA Climate Week

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L.A. Climate Week is here again, with dozens of events encouraging more planet-friendly living. Join the L.A. River Crawl through Elysian Valley on Saturday, check out Arts & Culture Day for a Living Planet downtown, taste healthy foods at the Food Day Festival at Plummer Park on Sunday or take on the tall order of making climate issues funny at the Let’s Not Die! Open Mic night at Frogtown Brewery.

The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville

Through Friday, May 1
Whitefire Theatre 
13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks
COST: $40; MORE INFO

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Jeff Lorch

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Borne Identities

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Mamie Gummer (Emily Owens, M.D., The Good Wife) and Gigi Bermingham (Loot, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) take the stage at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks for the new Southern Gothic comedy, The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville. Written by Julie Shavers and directed by Daniel O’Brien, the play follows a woman returning to her hometown for the Fourth of July.

Bob Baker Day

Sunday, April 12, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.  POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 20
Los Angeles State Historic Park
1245 N Spring St., Downtown L.A. 
COST: FREE (SUGGESTED DONATION $25); MORE INFO

It’s back! The 12th annual Bob Baker Day takes over the L.A. State Historic Park for a full afternoon of puppets, art, food and local vendors. Take a break at the L.A. Public Library’s “Rest Nest,” plus check out stalls from the Academy Museum, the Colburn School, Heritage Square Museum and many more. And, of course, check out puppet, music and clown performances all day long on two stages.

BagelFest West

Sunday, April 12, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Audrey Irmas Pavilion
3643 Wilshire Blvd., Koreatown
COST: $69.40; MORE INFO

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Vicky Ng

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Settle the "best bagel in the West" battle once and for all (or at least for now, until the next NYC or Montreal transplant arrives) at BagelFest West. From the Bay Area’s Boichik Bagels to local favorite Belle’s to Inglourious Bagels in Carlsbad and even Hey Bagel in Seattle, the West Coast doesn’t play when it comes to the delicious, holey breakfast delight. You can taste more than 20 different bagels with your ticket — so come hungry and ready to carb-load.

Emma Straub in conversation with Susanna Hoffs

Friday, April 10, 7 p.m.
Skylight Books 
1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

Straub in 2016. She'll be at Skylight this weekend.

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Desiree Navarro

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Emma Straub’s novels are some of my smart, modern favorites — like All Adults Here and The Vacationers. She’s also the owner of a lovely bookstore in Brooklyn, Books Are Magic. She brings a little of that magic to Skylight Books in Los Feliz (where she’ll be chatting with absolute '80s icon and author Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles) about her new novel, American Fantasy. You can also catch Straub talking about her books and career when she heads to the Clifton C. Miller Community Center in Tustin on Monday as part of A Slice of Literary Orange.

FusterCluck 6

Saturday, April 11, 7 p.m.
The Earl Gallery 
4408 W 2nd Street, Mid-City
COST: $15 ADVANCE, $20 DOOR; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy The Earl Gallery

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Part art market and gallery, part stand-up comedy show, part excuse to eat fried chicken, FusterCluck gathers up-and-coming local comics for a stand-up show at The Earl Gallery.

Dar Williams 

Sunday, April 12, 7 p.m.
Troubadour 
9081 N. Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood 
COST: $44.84; MORE INFO

Dar Williams plays The Troubadour this weekend.

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Noam Galai

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The 1990s are alive and well, as Lilith Fair favorite Dar Williams plays the Troubadour. The singer-songwriter’s latest (and lucky 13th!) studio album, Hummingbird Highway, draws on her more recent experiences as a playwright and songwriting instructor. I will now have "What Do You Hear in These Sounds" in my head for a week.

Gold Diggers: YEAR

Sunday, April 12, 7 p.m.
5632 Santa Monica Blvd., East Hollywood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy PopCult

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Enter a mystery year once a month on Sunday night, kicking off this week at Gold Diggers in East Hollywood. Born out of a DJ night that started in San Francisco in 2008, the actual YEAR is a surprise until you walk in the door — it could be any time from 1963 till now. Curated by Dennis “The Menace” Scheyer, the night features a specialty cocktail, experimental films and art, and a surprise live performance. Here’s a hint for this month’s YEAR.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

In a subculture long defined by masculinity, chrome and hydraulics, Tina Blankenship-Early carved out her own lane as a lowrider pioneer.

For more than 30 years, Blankenship-Early has been immersed in a scene historically dominated by men. She’s been featured in publications from The Wall Street Journal to Essence Magazine.

There are many firsts attached to her name. She’s known in the culture as “First Lady,” she was the first woman member of her car club, Super Natural Lowriders, and the first to be named Woman of the Year for Lowrider magazine in 2023 — appearing on the magazine’s cover the following year for a special edition honoring women lowriders.

She was even inducted into the National Lowrider Hall of Fame in 2012, according to the Peterson Automotive Museum, and her cars include a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice named “Game Killa” and a 1961 blue Impala featuring a painting of Michelle Obama on its trunk.

“The cars are the main focus, but it’s the people of the community for me,” Blankenship-Early said. “The realness and the people who are all about the cars and the culture made me want to be deeply involved.”

Blankenship-Early’s legacy highlights a shift within lowrider culture where women are no longer viewed as just passengers or eye candy but are celebrated as creators and competitors. Because of her influence, women are joining car clubs that specifically cater to them, like the L.A.-based Girlz in the Hood and Thee Lady Lowriders.

Women began creating their own car clubs in the 1970s, according to the automobile magazine Motor Trend. Over the past decade, there’s been a resurgence of all-women car clubs in California.

Les Riley, longtime lowrider and member of the Super Natural Lowriders, told The LA Local he didn’t see a lot of women in the culture nearly 40 years ago when he first started, and he knows having a lowrider is not an easy or cheap hobby.

“She’s doing everything that the men are doing and probably doing it better,” Riley said of Blankenship-Early. “So I take my hat off to her.”

Blankenship-Early went from watching lowriders to building them

Blankenship-Early, 58, said she was about 8 years old being raised in Watts when she first saw guys lowriding.

Her chance to work on a lowrider came with her best friend’s father.

“I’ve always wanted to lowride, but what actually made me go ahead and do it — my best friend, her dad, me and him built his ’66 Impala in his garage, and he would take me riding with him all the time,” she said.

In 1988, she said she bought a Nissan 200 SX, and after watching her neighbor install an audio system in the car, she taught herself and began installing them for local car clubs.

After installing an audio system for Super Natural Lowriders' then-President Andre Jones, she was asked to join the club as its first woman member in 1998.

Former club Vice President Gerald Hill gave her the nickname “First Lady.” Today, she holds the title of vice president, a role she said she’s using to plan food drives for unhoused people in the community and backpack giveaways for local students.

And the sense of community she’s found within lowriding has extended far beyond South L.A.

“Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve made friends in other countries that I chat with on a regular basis,” Blankenship-Early said. “It’s opened up worlds for me that I probably would’ve never encountered.”

During a Super Natural Lowriders meeting at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro on March 15, member Kenneth Jones told The LA Local that Blankenship-Early has been in a leadership role since he joined the club.

“When I came into the club, Tina was already here influencing the club and doing a lot of things,” Jones said, adding that having a woman in the car club’s leadership is cool and she knows what she’s doing.

Blankenship-Early owns a lowrider named ‘Game Killa‘

Blankenship-Early has owned at least three lowriders in her lifetime.

“The first lowrider I bought was a 1984 [Buick] Regal, and that was a whole different experience for me,” Blankenship-Early said. “I remember being excited to pick it up from the hydraulics shop.”

She bought her award-winning lowrider, a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice named “Game Killa,” for $500 in 2005. It took her three years to transform it from a shell into a car built for cruising and competition.

The car was named by fellow club member Ivan Lopez, who told her she’d be “killing the game” after seeing photos of the car’s transformation.

Game Killa has earned dozens of awards, appeared in music videos and even appeared in ads for the 2015 film “Straight Outta Compton.”

Blankenship-Early was given the nickname “First Lady” after becoming the first woman to join the Super Natural Lowriders in 1998. Her second car, a blue 1961 Impala also named “First Lady,” pays tribute to former first lady Michelle Obama.

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LaMonica Peters

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Blankenship-Early owns another customized lowrider: a 1961 blue Impala fittingly named “First Lady,” that sits in her home garage. The car has painted murals of former First Lady Michelle Obama on the trunk.

When she isn’t driving one of her lowriders, Blankenship-Early operates a street sweeper for the city of Los Angeles, a job she’s had for the past eight years.

She said she likes to spend time with her husband and family, while helping to take care of her aging mother. But Sundays are for cruising.

“They know Sunday is my day,” she said. “You have to have some time for yourself to just breathe.”