The Brief

When you walk into "Ode to ’Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena," a free exhibit at the California African American Museum in Exposition Park, you’re greeted not with pieces of fine art — but a large wall of photos.

Some are black and white, some are color. They show Altadenans over the decades during treasured moments, such as a birthday celebration or family pool time. They’re part of the exhibition’s more than 20 Black artists, all of whom live in or have family ties to the neighborhood.

“One of the first things that I envisioned in my mind was putting together this wall of archival photos, personal family photos, photos of the artists in the exhibition,” said Cameron Shaw, the museum’s executive director. She wanted to show how family and community are critical parts of Altadena life.

The photo mural that visitors see at the exhibit entrance.

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‘Community curated’

“Ode to ’Dena” isn’t your traditional tour of place and history. This exhibition is about the neighborhood’s artistic tradition, which blends the past and present.

Curator Dominique Clayton said the show is bittersweet because it stems from pain, but that it also poses an opportunity for people to learn another part of L.A. County’s cultural history.

Museum galleries usually take a long time to organize, but Clayton said she was able to put this one together quickly. She started working on it in mid-January, just after the Eaton Fire broke out. She said that speed was in part because of Altadena’s supportive community of artists.

“ I like to say it’s community curated,” Clayton said. “ I would talk to one artist. I was introduced to another and another. And so it sort of built itself.”

Some of the artists in the gallery lost homes in the Eaton Fire, including Clayton’s friend Kenturah Davis, one of the artists on display.

Meaning behind the art

These items were curated by Octavia's Bookshelf owner Nikki High as a symbol of the Altadena's Black literary legacy.

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There are a variety of styles and subjects in the exhibit.

The beloved Pasadena bookstore Octavia’s Bookshelf curated a display that shows the Black literary legacy of Altadena and Pasadena.

John C. Outterbridge’s renowned outhouse, a structure that calls out institutionalized racism, brings in the Civil Rights era.

Debris from the Eaton Fire also gets a new life here. A scorched flugelhorn sits next to burned tree branches.

A piece titled "From the Ashes" from artist Sam Pace. The work includes a flugelhorn that was found in the ashes of his neighbor's Altadena home.

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The burned sound bowl from the artist Grandfather.

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A charred sound bowl — used by the artist Grandfather in several of his audio works — was the only item found in his home's ashes after the Eaton Fire.

The show also transcends generations. Davis’ 2-year-old son Micah has two watercolor paintings in the exhibit. He’s the youngest artist in “Ode to ’Dena.”

Watercolor paintings from Micah Zuri Davis-O'Connor. These paintings were done with the help of his grandfather, Keni "Arts" Davis. His paintings, showing before and after looks at lost Altadena places, are also in the show.

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Betye Saar's album artwork for jazz musician Bennie Maupin.

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The oldest is 98-year-old Betye Saar, who has a mixed media installation and album artwork in the exhibit.

The exhibit is an example of change in America, Clayton said. The arts culture now has multiple generations of Black artists, and Altadena plays a big role in that. For example, Kenturah Davis' artworks are joined by ones from her parents. Her mother, Mildred “Peggy” Davis, has handmade quilts on display. Keni “Arts” Davis, Kenturah Davis' father, painted iconic Altadena locations before and after the fires.

One of Clayton’s favorite pieces comes from Marcus Leslie Singleton, who watched from New York as his family lost their home. His oil painting, called “Moses” contains the only reference to fire in the show. It shows Moses as a Black man sitting next to a burning bush surrounded by desert.

Clayton says that piece is emblematic of the hopeful energy she wanted for the whole show — “so that it’s not so much about destruction and disaster," Clayton said, "but really about enlightenment.”

Marcus Leslie Singleton's "Moses." During the L.A. fires, Singleton helped raise money from New York for his family, who lost their home in Altadena.

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Altadenas are everywhere

Shaw said the team leaned into its mission to preserve Black art history and culture after the fires. She hopes that people who have a history with the Altadena area can see themselves reflected honestly in the exhibit.

Shaw also wants folks who don’t have that connection to  learn about the neighborhood’s Black history and community. That goes back to the 1960’s. Until then, Altadena was almost an entirely white community.

This was largely because of redlining. When it was banned in 1968, a “white flight” in Altadena ensued. One of L.A. County’s first middle-class communities with Black people emerged there, known as the Meadows. Today, Altadena is 18% Black — roughly double the rest of the county.

“ Dominique says something so beautiful, which is that there are Altadenas everywhere,” Shaw said. “And that doesn’t mean that Altadena is replicable, but that there are Black places worth protecting.”

And Clayton has an idea for how visitors can put that into action with the artists.

“ Take a moment to look them up,” she said. “Read about them, learn about them, tell someone else about them.”

“Ode to ’Dena” will be on display through Oct. 12. Visitors can check out the free exhibit at the California African American Museum in Exposition Park.

By the end of January, students will have returned to two of the three public school campuses burned in the Palisades Fire one year prior, though their classrooms are temporary.

Palisades Charter High School students are scheduled to return to their campus Jan. 27. They’ve been in a refurbished Santa Monica department store since April.

“ I am just overwhelmed with gratitude for the constant support that has been shown for our school and for our families, our teachers, all of our administrators and staff,” said Principal Pamela Magee at a press conference Tuesday with Los Angeles Unified leaders. Pali High is an independent charter high school located on district property.

In June, the LAUSD Board approved a $604 million plan to rebuild the high school, as well as two burned district elementary schools— Marquez and Palisades.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the three campuses’ new buildings will open in 2028— shaving two years off of the original 5-year timeline.

“ These projects will come in on time or ahead of schedule,” Carvalho said. “These projects will come in at or below budget, and these projects will honor the resilience, the determination, the courage and yes, the suffering and the sacrifice of the community of the Palisades.”

About the costs and the design

The district plans to use money from the $9 billion bond voters approved in 2024 to help pay for the rebuild, but also anticipates some reimbursement from its insurer and FEMA.

District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring, said Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes. She said the plan is to rebuild with future environmental risks in mind.

“ From the earliest design stages, wildfire resiliency has been treated as a core requirement and not an add-on,” Tokes said. For example, using fire-resistant concrete blocks, installing enhanced air filtration systems and planting shade trees where they won’t hang over buildings.

Environmental testing preceded students’ return to the fire-impacted campuses. Director of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety Carlos Torres said the district continues to monitor air quality through its network of sensors and is developing a plan for periodic testing.

“We just can't just walk away,” Torres said.

Enrollment is down at all three schools compared to before the fires, but district leaders say they are confident families will return to the rebuilt campuses.

“I find it hard to believe that this community won't come back to its former glory,” said Board Member Nick Melvoin, who represents the Palisades. “We gave a lot of thought in an accelerated timeline to rebuilding for the next century.”

Marquez Charter Elementary

What’s the damage? The campus is a “total loss.” More than three dozen classrooms, administration buildings, the school’s auditorium and playground burned down.

How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $202.6 million

Where are the students? Students returned in September to portables covering about one-third of the campus. There’s also two playgrounds, a garden, library and shaded lunch area. Enrollment has dropped 60% compared to before the fire from 310 to 127 students.

What’s next? District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring.

Palisades Charter Elementary School teacher Ms. Davison talks with her students in their new classroom on the campus of Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet last year.

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Brian van der Brug

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Palisades Charter Elementary

What’s the damage? About 70% of the campus was destroyed including 17 classrooms, the multipurpose room and play equipment.

How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $135 million

Where are the students? Students continue to share a campus with Brentwood Science Magnet. Enrollment has dropped 25% compared to before the fire from 410 to 307 students.

What’s next? District-contracted architects are finalizing their designs and plan to submit to the state for approval in the spring.

Palisades Charter High School, pictured in December 2025, is scheduled to reopen to students Jan. 27, 2026.

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Palisades Charter High School

What’s the damage? About 30% of the campus was destroyed including 21 classrooms, storage facilities and the track and field.

How much has LAUSD budgeted to rebuild? $266 million

Where are the students? Students started the school year in a renovated Sears building in downtown Santa Monica. Enrollment has dropped 14% compared to before the fire, from 2,900 to 2,500 students.

What’s next? Classes will resume at the main campus Tues. Jan. 27 in a combination of surviving buildings and 30 new portable classrooms.

The Trump administration says it’s planning to freeze about $10 billion in federal support for needy families in California and four other Democrat-run states, as the president announced an investigation into unspecified fraud in California.

The plans come on the heels of the Trump administration announcing a freeze on all federal payments for child care in Minnesota, citing fraud allegations against daycare centers in the state.

The state’s Democrat governor, Tim Walz — who ran for vice president against Donald Trump’s ticket in 2024 — announced Monday he was dropping out of running for reelection. He pointed to fraud against the state, saying it’s a real issue while alleging Trump and his allies were “seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”

On Monday, the New York Post reported that the administration was expanding the funding freeze to include California and three other Democrat-led states, in addition to Minnesota. Unnamed federal officials cited “concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens,” The Post reported.

Early Tuesday, President Trump alleged that corruption in California is worse than Minnesota and announced an investigation.

“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

He did not specify what alleged fraud was being examined in the Golden State.

LAist has reached out to the White House to ask what the president’s fraud concerns are in California and to request an interview with the president.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” said an emailed statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal childcare funds.

“Under the Trump administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office disputed Trump’s claim on social media, arguing that since taking office, the governor has blocked $125 billion in fraud and arrested “criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers.”

Criminal fraud cases in CA appear to be rare for this program

Defrauding federally funded programs is a crime — and one LAist has investigated, leading to one of the largest such criminal cases in recent years against a California elected official, which surrounded meal funds.

When it comes to the federal childcare funds that are being frozen, the dollar amount of fraud alleged in criminal cases appears to be a tiny fraction of the overall program’s spending in California.

A search of thousands of news releases by all four federal prosecutor offices in California, going back more than a decade, found a total of one criminal case where the press releases referenced childcare benefits.

That case, brought in 2023, alleged four men stole $3.7 million in federal childcare benefits through fraudulent requests to a San Diego organization that distributed the funds. All four pleaded guilty, with one defendant sentenced to 27 months in prison and others sentenced to other terms, according to authorities.

It appears to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of 1% of all the childcare funding California has received over the past decade-plus covered by the prosecution press release search.

Potential impact on California families

The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times and New York Post.

In the largest category of funding, California receives $3.7 billion per year. The program is known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

 ”It's very clear that a freeze of those funds would be very damaging to the children, families, and providers of California,” said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives "at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.

 ”It is a significant portion of our funds and will impact families and children and providers across the whole state,” she added. “It would be devastating, in no uncertain terms.”

About 270,000 people are served by the TANF program in L.A. County — about 200,000 of whom are children, according to the county Department of Public Social Services.

“Any pause in funding for their cash benefits – which average $1000/month - would be devastating to these families,” said DPSS chief of staff Nick Ippolito.

Ippolito said the department has a robust fraud prevention and 170-person investigations team, and takes allegations “very seriously.”

It remains to be seen whether the funding freeze will end up in court. The state, as well as major cities and counties in California, has sued to ask judges to halt funding freezes or new requirements placed by the Trump administration. L.A. city officials say they’ve had success with that, including shielding more than $600 million in federal grant funding to the city last year.

A union representing California childcare workers said the funding freeze would harm low-income families.

“These threats need to be called out for what they are: direct threats on working families of all backgrounds who rely on access to quality, affordable child care in their communities to go to work every day supporting, and growing our economy,” said Max Arias, chairperson for the Child Care Providers United, which says it represents more than 70,000 child care workers across the state who care for kids in their homes.

“Funding freezes, even when intended to be temporary, will be devastating — resulting in families losing access to care and working parents facing the devastating choice of keeping their children safe or paying their bills.”

Federal officials planned to send letters to the affected states Monday about the planned funding pauses, the New York Post reported. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, state officials said they haven’t gotten any official notification of the funding freeze plans.

“The California Department of Social Services administers child care programs that help working families afford safe, reliable care for their children — so parents can go to work, support their families, and contribute to their communities,” said a statement from California Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel.

“These funds are critical for working families across California. We take fraud seriously, and CDSS has received no information from the federal government indicating any freeze, pause, or suspension of federal child care funding.”