Communities Come Together to Celebrate Lesley Taplin
Ed Fuentes
The Downtown community remembers Lesley Taplin in a service at Vibiana.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It would take more than a power outage to keep Downtown from honoring one of its most beloved community activists.
The Lesley Gilb Taplin Memorial Celebration switched its program order around to cope with a DWP outage that left Vibiana powerless, and people from all over Downtown mingled and dined while generators were being delivered.
It made for a resourceful, adaptable, smart, graceful and patient evening––and became a testament to Taplin’s way of looking at the world.
The biggest applause of the night came from residents and community leaders from Skid Row, who cheered when the list of the projects led and inspired by Taplin were read.
A small touch, but very telling of what Lesley represented: Photos and articles about Taplin were displayed in the back of the room, including the words of those who commented here at blogdowntown.
No community left behind.
Tyra Gilb on May 09, 2009, at 04:39PM – #1
Thank you Ed for this posting, and most especially for your beautiful photography of my sister's memorial. I have posted your photos on a website so that all may enjoy your beautiful artistry. The site allows for uploading of additional photos, so it will probably eventually grow with images from various other people who attended the memorial. But your own images are deeply poetic, magical and irreplaceable. Thank you so much.
http://gallery.me.com/tyragilb#100102