East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park on March 14, 2024.
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Jules Hotz
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CalMatters
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Topline:
Scammers have stolen more than $10 million in federal financial aid from California’s community colleges in the last 12 months — more than double what they stole in the prior year.
The backstory: In 2021, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office reported that about 20% of college applicants were likely fake. In January 2024, the state said it was up to about 25%. Now it’s around 34%, according to the most recent data from the last calendar year. “Those are all the ones that are stopped,” said John Hetts, executive vice chancellor for the data team at the chancellor’s office.
Why it matters: The scammers that aren’t stopped have stolen millions in taxpayer dollars. CalMatters reported that these fake students received more than $5 million from the federal government and nearly $1.5 million from the state, according to anonymized reports that colleges submitted to the state from September 2021 through December 2023.
Impact: Faculty say they’re exasperated from working as detectives, trying to suss out which students are real. They say scammers are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to infiltrate classes, using tools like ChatGPT to pose as students. Students say these fraudsters are taking coveted seats and preventing them from enrolling in classes they need to graduate.
Read on... for more details on how this affects students.
For years, scammers have targeted community colleges across the state, posing as students in order to steal money from scholarships or government financial aid.
Recent state reports suggest the problem is getting worse, and college leaders say they’re worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Department of Education could hamper fraud prevention and investigations.
Now it’s around 34%, according to the most recent data from the last calendar year. “Those are all the ones that are stopped,” said John Hetts, executive vice chancellor for the data team at the chancellor’s office.
The scammers that aren’t stopped have stolen millions in taxpayer dollars. CalMatters reported that these fake students received more than $5 million from the federal government and nearly $1.5 million from the state, according to anonymized reports that colleges submitted to the state from September 2021 through December 2023.
Faculty say they’re exasperated from working as detectives, trying to suss out which students are real. They say scammers are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to infiltrate classes, using tools like ChatGPT to pose as students. Students say these fraudsters are taking coveted seats and preventing them from enrolling in classes they need to graduate.
In the last 12 months, colleges reported giving more than $10 million in federal dollars to fake students and over $3 million in state money. Data from the first few months of 2025 show that colleges have already given away more than $3 million in federal aid and over $700,000 in state dollars.
The scope of fraud is “relatively small,” said Chris Ferguson, a finance executive at the chancellor’s office, especially when compared to the roughly $1.7 billion in federal aid and $1.5 billion in state aid given to California’s community college students last year. He also said it’s likely that colleges have improved their ability to detect fraud over time, potentially inflating the reporting numbers.
State lawmakers have allocated roughly $150 million toward cybersecurity since 2022, and the chancellor’s office has brought in numerous tech companies — including ID.Me, N2N, and LexisNexis — to help authenticate students. But Hetts said none of these interventions will ever completely eliminate fraud because each time the state gets better at fighting fraud, the bad actors adapt — the tech equivalent to the “Red Queen hypothesis.”
College leaders also rely on the federal education department to help find scammers. The department is broadly responsible for administering federal financial aid and for preventing and investigating related fraud. The office that administers federal aid has lost about half of its staff through layoffs, voluntary buyouts and retirements. California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently joined other Democratic attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over these cuts, alleging that they violate the U.S. Constitution.
Although not technically part of the lawsuit or the layoffs, the education department’s Office of Inspector General, which is responsible for fraud detection, has also lost staff due to buyouts and early retirements. Since Oct. 1, the Office of Inspector General has lost “more than 20% of its staff,” said Catherine Grant, a spokesperson for the office, including “experienced auditors and investigators.”
“As for how these staffing changes affect the Office of Inspector General’s ability to investigate student aid fraud in California, we are committed to fighting student aid fraud wherever we find it,” Grant said. “But we are limited with what we can do based on our limited resources.”
Fake students using AI
In 2023, librarian Heather Dodge started to notice something odd about the students who took her online research course at Berkeley City College. To connect with students and make the class more engaging, Dodge said she always began the course by asking students to submit a video introducing themselves using their webcam or an iPhone.
“It’s a very low bar,” she said, but “I started noticing that there would be a handful of students that wouldn’t submit that assignment in the first week.” First, she would send them a message, and then, if they still didn’t respond, she’d drop them from the class.
As long as the teacher drops a student within a certain time frame, in this case the first week, their enrollment in that class is void, and the student can’t seek financial aid for that course. After the first week, however, it’s harder to remove them.
This semester, she said she started with 35 students. Within the first week, she kicked out a few students who didn’t submit a video, but four students found a workaround, sending her a written response instead. The text was generic, she said, “like something ChatGPT would write,” but she wasn’t willing to drop them from the course.
“Are these students who are having technological challenges? Maybe they didn’t have a webcam, maybe they didn’t understand the assignment. It was really hard to suss out what was going on with them.”
Dodge said she’s also worried about how it looks to drop so many students in a class. Community colleges’ funding is largely pegged to enrollment, and the Peralta Community College District, where Dodge teaches, is suffering from enrollment declines and faces major financial losses. “If they see I’m running a class that starts with 35 students and ends with 15, that looks terrible.”
Throughout the class, the four suspicious students continued to submit generic assignments, and eventually, she said she reached out to each one to set up a Zoom meeting. Two never responded. One student did meet with her but said that their camera and microphone weren’t working, so they texted instead. The other student appeared on camera but could hardly speak English, Dodge said. Each time she would ask a question over Zoom, the student would silently wait for their phone to translate. She said the student’s answers “were basically nonsensical.”
Bots impersonate homeless students, former foster youth
By statute, California’s community colleges are required to accept any legitimate student, and state leaders have spent decades trying to make it easier for students to enroll. Community college students must sign an affidavit, swearing the veracity of their information, but otherwise, many colleges don’t independently verify a student’s address or identity.
“We serve a large proportion of students who may not have documentation for a variety of reasons,” said Hetts, with the state chancellor’s office, such as students who are homeless, those who are undocumented, and those who are leaving the foster care system or don’t have a relationship with their parents.
Students walk through the MiraCosta College campus in Oceanside on Sept. 26, 2024.
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Adriana Heldiz
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CalMatters
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The state chancellor’s office contracted with ID.Me to provide verification through the state’s college application portal, but students aren’t required to use it. However, local districts can impose more stringent requirements.
For a while, Nicole Albo-Lopez, the deputy chancellor for the Los Angeles Community College District said her district was more lenient with college applicants who appeared to be homeless or former foster youth, but “the bots figured that out.”
Last year, she said the district purged roughly a quarter of all class registrations because of potentially fraudulent activity and changed its policy, requiring almost all students to verify their identity. It also paid Socure, an identity verification company, just over $250,000 to help with its fraud detection.
But fraud attempts persisted nonetheless. As wildfires raged through Los Angeles County in January and community colleges raised millions to support students who lost their homes, scammers swooped in. Enrollment at East Los Angeles College suddenly doubled that month, but many of the students were likely fake, said Albo-Lopez. “People probably thought there was going to be fire money.”
At the San Diego Community College District, where instances of fraud are also on the rise, Student Services Dean Victor DeVore said his district has found potentially fraudulent students who passed the ID.Me verification process. Now, he said his district screens all applicants, even those who have verified their identity through ID.Me.
When you direct less resources to combating fraud…you’re going to get more fraud.
— John Hetts, Executive Vice Chancellor for the data team at the chancellor’s office
Dodge said she asked administrators at the Peralta Community College District for help with all four suspicious students in her class since she no longer had the authority to drop them from the course. The district ultimately removed both students who had agreed to meet with her over Zoom, but she said that the other two students — the ones who never responded — are still in the course. Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for the district, said that those two students are “under review at this time.”
Regardless, Dodge said that both students failed the class.
FBI investigates fraud
Colleges are required to submit monthly reports about suspicious applications to both the state and to the U.S. Department of Education, though colleges say the federal government rarely informs them about what it does with that information.
Through a public records request, CalMatters found that in June 2022, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into a fraud ring at Los Angeles Harbor College and West Los Angeles College, where scammers used the identities of “at least 57 individuals” to steal more than $1.1 million in federal aid and loans over the prior four years. In another memo, the Department of Education alerted the FBI about a fraud ring tied to Los Angeles City College that was enrolling people in classes “for the sole purpose of obtaining financial aid refund money,” potentially stealing over $1 million using the identities of 70 different people.
Grant said the education department is still working on the Los Angeles fraud investigations but declined to comment on them, since the department has a policy of keeping information about ongoing investigations confidential.
Since 2020, the education department has also investigated financial aid disbursements at Merced College, Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz County and College of the Siskiyous in Weed. Another four California community colleges have reached out to the department for help regarding fraud or concerns about the misuse of federal aid, according to the department’s records.
Community college leaders say they wish they heard more from the federal government about its fraud investigations, and some say the silence is worrisome, especially now that the education department has lost so many staff.
For Hetts, with the chancellor’s office, it’s a direct correlation: “When you direct less resources to combating fraud…you’re going to get more fraud.”
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published June 22, 2026 5:00 AM
Nikki Hill, left and Claire Wadsworth at La Copine with their cookbook.
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Sheva Kafafi
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Courtesy La Copine
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Topline:
Claire Wadsworth and Nikki Hill — the life and business partners behind La Copine, the cult-favorite restaurant near Joshua Tree — have released their debut cookbook, La Copine: New California Cooking from an Oasis in the Desert. On Thursday, June 25, they come to The Crawford in Pasadena for Cookbook Live, an onstage conversation and live cooking demo presented by LAist in partnership with the James Beard Foundation.
Why it matters: A decade ago, the pair bought a Flamingo Heights restaurant with a contract signed in a pickup truck, paid for with a $5,000 wedding fund, no lawyers and seven days to find the rest of the money. What they built became one of California's most singular dining destinations: a globe-hopping but unfussy menu, come-as-you-are hospitality, and a devoted following of locals, road-trippers and celebrity regulars.
Why now: The cookbook is out, and the June 25 event is a rare chance to see Wadsworth and Hill outside the desert — cooking a signature recipe live and, in Wadsworth's case, performing music as St. Claire.
It all began with a business contract signed inside a pickup truck in the desert — with little more than a dream and a song — and became something far bigger than anyone could have imagined.
That's the story ofLa Copine, the cult-favorite restaurant that helped redefine what dining in the Mojave Desert could be.
"I would not advise anyone to do what we did," says Claire Wadsworth, who, along with her wife and partner Nikki Hill, bought the restaurant with a $5,000 check from their honeymoon fund — no lawyers, no inspection, and seven days to come up with the rest of the money.
At the time, Wadsworth and Hill were ready to sign a lease on an L.A. restaurant space. Hill was working as a sous chef under Antonia Lofaso at Scopa in Venice, a chef she still counts among her closest mentors and friends. Wadsworth was in the music industry: a musician herself, trained at Berklee College of Music, who also ran the front desk at the Village recording studio in West L.A. There, she mastered the craft of hospitality, learning the food and drink orders of the high-profile clients who came through — Elton John's non-alcoholic Heineken, Weezer's penchant for vegan fare.
A cult favorite in the desert
Eleven years later, La Copine has become the kind of place people plan whole trips around — a remote desert restaurant that draws road-trippers, locals and a steady stream of famous fans alike. Set near Joshua Tree, it pulls in music from every direction: over the years it has fed and hosted the likes of Big Thief, Jenny Lewis, Courtney Barnett and Patti Smith, with neighbors like Pappy & Harriet's and Rancho de la Luna feeding the same creative current.
La Copine's hand-lettered sign stands roadside in Flamingo Heights, near Joshua Tree.
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Sheva Fafai
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Courtesy La Copine
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What keeps people making the drive is a globe-hopping but unfussy menu — dishes pulled from France, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and beyond, built on fresh ingredients and a come-as-you-are spirit that treats a curious first-timer and a longtime regular exactly the same. It's food that's adventurous without being precious, the kind that has earned the restaurant a cult following and a reputation as one of California's most singular places to eat.
Inside the cookbook, each chapter opens with its own illustration.
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Sheva Kafai
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Courtesy La Copine
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That sensibility is now a cookbook. La Copine: New California Cooking from an Oasis in the Desert , written with James Beard Award–nominated author Ben Mims, translates the restaurant's dishes — and its philosophy — for the home kitchen.
On June 25, Wadsworth and Hill bring it to Pasadena forCookbook Live, an onstage conversation and live cooking demo presented by LAist in partnership with the James Beard Foundation. Wadsworth will also be giving a short performance under her alias St. Claire.
The food
The menu at La Copine refuses to sit still. Take the bánh mì, which started as a special, born from a craving for Southeast Asian flavors and an unwillingness to drive two hours to the San Gabriel Valley for the real thing. Their version leans indulgent: pork belly with a house five-spice-and-brown-sugar rub and yuzu kosho — a spicy Japanese citrus-chile paste — folded into house mayo. The galette complète, inspired by Gabrielle Hamilton's writing on the savory buckwheat crêpes of Brittany, is naturally gluten-free and built with ham, gruyère, a fried egg, and a tangy apricot gastrique. And the Sichuan noodles, a loose riff on dan dan, swap fermented black garlic for pickled mustard greens, tahini for Chinese sesame paste, and mushrooms for pork — vegan-friendly by design.
Staying affordable for their community
Beyond the food itself, Wadsworth and Hill consider affordability part of their mission at La Copine. In a town where, by their estimate, the median income is around $25,000, they aim to appeal to both diners accustomed to high-end prices and locals living on a fixed income.
The pair share the story of one of their favorite regulars, Patty, who lives on Social Security and comes in once or twice a month. She's open about what she budgets — about $50 a visit for the salad Copine, a glass of wine, a panna cotta, and a cup of gazpacho. "Patty needs to be able to come in here and afford the meal," they say.
Their goal, they say, is to make food so good that people forget what they spent, without making it so expensive that they're afraid to walk in.
Dessert lined up on the pass — proof the sweet end of the menu gets the same care as everything else.
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Sheva Kafai
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Courtesy La Copine
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Music + food
When speaking with the La Copine couple, one thing becomes very clear: music is almost as central to the restaurant's concept as the food itself. Recalling the night they met, Hill says she was working a catering gig when Wadsworth put on a song by the band Devotchka — a group they both loved — a moment that signaled to each of them that they'd found their type. It now opens their cookbook.
To them, music is "woven into the fabric of our restaurant."
When it came to laying out the dining room, Wadsworth gave up a table to make space for a piano, so that she and visiting musicians could perform. She plays under the name St. Claire and hosts cabaret nights; a nomadic piano tuner now shows up to tune the instrument for free, won over by the fact that they sacrificed a table for it.
Ultimately, what Wadsworth and Hill hope visitors take away has less to do with any single dish than with a state of mind. Slow down, they say. Take in the view. Do nothing for a while.
"La Copine is a happy place in the universe," Wadsworth says.
The new AI art museum Dataland is officially open to the public.
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Refik Anadol Studio
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In this edition:
Dataland opens, Chris Fleming at the Largo, Stud Country beginners night and more of the best things to do this week.
Highlights:
Cross learning to country line dance off your bucket list at Stud Country’s weekly queer line-dancing party at Los Globos. Mondays are for beginners; Thursdays, you’d better know what you’re doing or fear the trample! Howdy, pardner.
I had the chance to spend several hours at Dataland, the world’s first AI art museum, ahead of its opening and to speak with its founders, the artists (and married couple) Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç. The pair have brought to life something truly unique, and we’re lucky to be in L.A. to experience it.
I saw Chris Flemingat a Netflix Is a Joke Festival event, and now I’m kind of obsessed with their quirky, offbeat humor. They’re doing a standup set at the Largo — which will definitely be longer than their fleeting but excellent Widow’s Bay turn as the shaman who gets sucked up into a tornado (IYKYK).
The World Cup and the Hollywood Fringe theater festival may not have a huge Venn diagram of overlapping fans, but perhaps the closest is the theatrics of England fans singing "It’s Coming Home" loudly at Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica (get there early if you want a seat for the England match on Tuesday). Then head to the theater to check out sporty Fringe shows Ball Boy, where comedian Ben Fisher recounts his experiences as the gay son of a baseball umpire, or go catch Kickball: The Musical(self-explanatory!).
If music is more your thing, Licorice Pizza’s picks for the week include supermodel and eyebrows icon Cara Delevingne’s two special showcases at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Monday and Tuesday; also on Monday, shoegaze legends Heavenly make their own comeback at the Regent.
Tuesday, rapper and singer Isaiah Rashad is at the Grammy Museum, and singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert plays her first of two nights at the Wiltern. Also on Wednesday, Khalid plays the Greek, Madison Beer and Thủy play the Forum, Britrockers Bôa play the Bellwether, and rising U.K. electropop star Girli is at the Lodge Room.
On Thursday, Summer Walker is at the Crypto.com Arena, and Killswitch Engage with Machine Head are at the Hollywood Palladium.
16th Annual Zócalo Book Prize Event: America, Can We Take Down the Walls Between Us?
Thursday, June 25, 7 p.m. ASU California Center Broadway 1111 S. Broadway, Downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Zócalo Public Square
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Anand Pandian, the winner of the 2026 Zócalo Book Prize, will join political strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid for a conversation about Pandian’s winning book, Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down. From fences around our houses to the "walled gardens" of the internet, our real and imagined borders are the focus of Pandian’s work. Plus, Deborah Ager, winner of the Zócalo Poetry Prize, will read her winning poem, “Letter from Indialantic.”
Rod Lightning & the Thunderbolts of Love
Thursday, June 25, 6 p.m. Concerts on Cañon Beverly Cañon Gardens 241 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Celebrate Pride with a free early evening concert in Beverly Hills, featuring classic hits from Rod Lightning & the Thunderbolts of Love.
29th Annual Dances With Films LA Festival
Wednesday, June 24, 4 p.m. The Art of Sharing film screening Chinese Theatre 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood COST: $26.90; MORE INFO
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Courtesy GPPR
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The annual indie film fest Dances With Films continues through June 28, but this Wednesday is a great chance to see the block of documentary short films in the lineup. The docs include The Art of Sharing, which follows Michelin-starred chef and artist Minh H. Phan during her artist residency with Food Forward, a California nonprofit dedicated to rescuing fresh surplus produce that we’ve featured in Best Things to Do for their annual Zest Fest and volunteer opportunities.
Dataland
Ongoing 100 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. COST: FROM $49; MORE INFO
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Refik Anadol Studio
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I had the chance to spend several hours at Dataland, the world’s first AI art museum, ahead of its opening, and to speak with its founders, the artists (and married couple) Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç. The pair have brought to life something truly unique, and we’re lucky to be in L.A. to experience it. You enter into a deeply immersive (I know, overused word, but it’s true) world that takes you to the rainforests of the Amazon and into the connected networks that exist across nature. It’s a totally new way of going to a museum, and I think there’s a lot that other institutions that could take notes on how to make art and technology feel visceral and relevant. It just opened last week and is a permanent installation that takes more than two hours to really see, so plan accordingly.
Stud Country beginner night
Monday, June 22, 8 p.m. Los Globos 3040 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake COST: $20; MORE INFO
Cross learning to country line dance off your bucket list at Stud Country’s weekly queer line-dancing party at Los Globos. Mondays are for beginners; Thursdays, you’d better know what you’re doing or fear the trample! Howdy, pardner.
Chris Fleming
Tuesday, June 23, 8 p.m. Largo at the Coronet 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Melrose COST: $50; MORE INFO
Chris Fleming performs at the Largo this week.
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Arturo Holmes
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Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival
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I saw Chris Fleming at a Netflix Is a Joke Festival event, and now I’m kind of obsessed with their quirky, offbeat humor. They’re doing a standup set at the Largo — which will definitely be longer than their fleeting but excellent Widow’s Bay turn as the shaman who gets sucked up into a tornado (IYKYK).
Live reading: Mrs. Alving & The Captain, Los Feliz
Wednesday, June 24, 7:30 p.m. Echo Theater Company Atwater Village Theatre 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Hamish Linklater's new play will get a free reading this week.
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Michael Loccisano
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Getty Images
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Oh look, another Widow’s Bay reference from me. Y’all really need to watch this show. But I digress. This time, the featured actor from the Apple TV hit is Hamish Linklater, who wrote a new play — Mrs. Alving & The Captain, Los Feliz —and is also in the cast. Get in early and check out this free reading of the new comedy with Echo Theater Company.
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Mariana Dale
has been reporting on changes in LAUSD’s leadership since the FBI searched the superintendent’s home in February.
Published June 22, 2026 12:37 AM
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has resigned as leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
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Genaro Molina
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has resigned as leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District, four months after the FBI searched his home and office.
Why now: A district spokesperson confirmed a letter of resignation from Carvalho on Sunday night. The reason for the timing wasn’t immediately clear.
The backstory: FBI agents searched Carvalho’s home and office on February 25. A Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant, but declined to provide additional details. Within days, LAUSD’s board voted unanimously to place Carvalho on paid administrative leave “pending investigation” and appoint longtime district administrator Andres Chait as acting superintendent. The district did not respond to LAist’s questions about whether the “investigation” referenced is federal or internal. Carvalho declared his innocence in a March statement and expressed a desire to return to his job.
What's next: Chait remains acting superintendent, but the board is expected to take up a discussion of the district’s leadership at a meeting this Wednesday. The status of the federal investigation into Carvalho is unclear. The L.A. searches are linked to a search of a Florida home associated with the company LAUSD contracted with to create a short-lived AI tool.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has resigned as leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District, four months after the FBI searched his home and office.
A district spokesperson confirmed a letter of resignation from Carvalho on Sunday night. The reason for the timing wasn’t immediately clear.
"The Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership," the district said in an overnight statement. "Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve."
FBI agents searched Carvalho’s home and office on February 25. A U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant, but declined to provide additional details.
The district did not respond to LAist’s questions about whether the “investigation” referenced is federal or internal. The L.A. searches are linked to a search of a Florida home associated with the company LAUSD contracted with to create a short-lived AI tool. Carvalho declared his innocence in a March statement and expressed a desire to return to his job.
Chait remains acting superintendent, but the board is expected to take up a discussion of the district’s leadership at a meeting this Wednesday. The status of the federal investigation into Carvalho is unclear.
Heavy Manners co-founder Matthew James-Wilson organizes library books in the Echo Park shop.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Topline:
Heavy Manners Library, a multipurpose event space in Echo Park, is moving. The organization hosts classes, music shows and more.
Why now: The library is getting too big for its current space, but still wants to remain in Echo Park. Staff were able to find a place nearby.
What's next: Heavy Manners will be holding shows and workshops until the end of the month. It plans to reopen at its new location by mid-July and will hold volunteer moving days over the next two weeks.
Read on to find details …
Heavy Manners Library, a beloved multipurpose event space on Alvarado Street, is hitting a big milestone. The organization, which hosts classes, music gigs and art exhibits, has outgrown its current location.
Defying the fate that has befallen many small operations in rapidly changing neighborhoods, Heavy Manners is staying in Echo Park.
Yulia Cymbura, head librarian at Heavy Manners Library.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Book by book
Co-founder Matthew James-Wilson came up with the idea for the space while doing research for a book he wanted to write about the evolution of art in the internet age. During the process, he had an epiphany.
Why write just one book when you can provide access to hundreds of them? Why not start a library that doubles as an art space too?
“ You could imagine a gallery show happening in a library, or you could imagine a poetry reading happening in a library,” said James-Wilson.
An illustration by artist Patrick Kyle.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Mixed media collages from artist Patrick Kyle's "How To Be Mean" exhibit.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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The name “Heavy Manners,” James-Wilson said, pays homage to a concept in reggae music that goes back to '70s deejay Prince Far I’s album Under Heavy Manners.
“ Sort of in reference to British colonial culture imposing this etiquette, or heavy manners, on Jamaican culture,” said James-Wilson.
Heavy Manners was just a couple of shelves when it opened in 2021, but through donations by artists and community members, its stacks grew.
The library has hosted more than 1,000 events, from drawing and sewing lessons to live music shows.
A room in Heavy Manners Library where events and workshops are held.
Interior of Heavy Manners.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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A small stage where events are held.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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“The space has taught me, as long as you can keep the calendar full and you can get things that people are excited about, people will share it with more people,” James-Wilson said.
Keep the calendar full
Carly Jean Andrews has been teaching nude figure drawing at Heavy Manners since 2023.
“Yeah, you have all the knowledge in the world on the internet, but it's so much more useful to just come here and have it be really literal,” Andrews said.
Carly Jean Andrews and Bijou Karman, instructors at Heavy Manners, posing in front of one of an art show.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Bijou Karman teaches clothed figure drawing classes and has published zines and books of her fashion drawings through Heavy Manners.
“Today, I was here hand-assembling one of the books, and Carly was very kindly helping me assemble. It's a very community-oriented space where you actually meet people and learn new things,” said Karman.
Bijou Karman's recent art book "Images De Mode" is displayed near the entrance of the library.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Changes on the block
Heavy Manners has been looking for more room to grow its library and event offerings.
The dream was to stay in the area and keep its relationship to Echo Park, despite the changes to the neighborhood, starting with the very block where Heavy Manners sits.
A book nook with a bench and a view of the outside street.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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The nearly century-old restaurant Taix is being demolished, while Silverlake Flea, which ran out of the French Bistro’s parking lot, has moved to Atwater Village.
“ It's a construction site that may be ongoing for a long time. You can sort of feel the sense of change happening, just on our block in general,” said James-Wilson.
Heavy Manners Library, 1200 N. Alvarado St., Unit D, Los Angeles
Days & hours: Mondays, and Thursdays to Sundays, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Membership: $8/month or $75/year. Tickets are available for purchase for individual workshops and events
Heavy Manners Library will remain at its current location through the end of the month.
Volunteer moving days are planned for June 23, 26 and 30. Here's how to sign up.
Luckily, James-Wilson saw a nearby building on Sunset within Heavy Manners' budget and went for it. Their new home, about 400 feet away from the current location, is bigger and more wheelchair accessible. It also has an outdoor area that employees want to convert into a garden, or use for nature-oriented workshops.
Its current space won’t sit vacant though; Whammy Analog Media, a VHS video store expanding from a small backroom to a full-fledged shop, will be taking over.
A shelve with analog media available for check out.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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It takes a village
Recently, Heavy Manners put out a call for volunteers to help move its many books and zines in time for a planned mid-July reopening.
A "Free Zine Library" inside the space.
(
Dañiel Martinez
/
LAist
)
“Because it's really close by, I'm kinda hoping to have just sort of a parade of people each carrying a box across the street,” said James-Wilson. “It takes a village to foster something like this, that is not lost on me.”
