A conscious consumer checks out an artivist's vending booth at December's Anti-Mall

​For the past ten years, LA Chicano All-Stars (as we like to call them) have put together a community event known as the 'Anti-Mall' every December. The annual "People B4 Profit Marketplace" brings artists, musicians, craft and food vendors together in one place to celebrate conscious consuming and it's coming to OC on Saturday!

The event's roots trace back to activist connections made in Chiapas with Mexico's Zapatista rebels. "Since my very first visit there in 1996, I talked to activist and musician Rosa Martha Zarate," says Anti-Mall co-founder and lead producer Laura Palomares. "We wanted to help the Zapatistas and instead of just donating money, they asked us to sell things for them." Since that visit and every subsequent trip back, Palomares would return with products from cooperatives and set up vending booths wherever she could in and around LA. More >>

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Flickr user Daisey.Sue

​In addition to being one of the major corporate donors behind the "frozen in carbonite" Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial D.C., retail behemoth Walmart has been aggressively targeting urban black communities.

As part of that effort, the company is airing a commercial this year where boulevards named in honor of the slain civil rights leader are positioned as cornerstones where Walmart seeks to "stand together as one" with the community.

Scenes of a barbershop, the Apollo Theater, and a church couple together with narration that alludes to Dr. King's "dream." It would all seem like prime material for The Onion-style satire, if only it wasn't all too real.More >>

​Two years ago today, the single "This is It" by Michael Jackson was released in forward promotion of the concert documentary of the same name. The film gave audiences a glimpse into the King of Pop's comeback tour, and went on to become the highest grossing ever in its genre. Jackson's death, which til now dominates our TV sets via Dr. Conrad Murray's trial, made concert promoter AEG more of a household name than it already was. But how many people know what the "A" in the acronym stands for? More >>

R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

​As more information from the July beating death of Fullerton homeless man Kelly Thomas by six police officers surfaces, two new songs by local singer-songwriter Julian Porte and rapper BNF give their perspective on the subject of police brutality.

Singer-songwriter Porte, 25, a Santa Fe Springs resident who makes a living as a street musician, wrote "The Ballad of Kelly Thomas" in the wee hours of last Thursday morning. It inspired him after having a conversation with his mother about the case that has riled up many Fullerton residents for weeks. (Listen to it after the jump.)
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el-centro.org

A weekly volunteer meeting at El Centro in 2009

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OC Weekly file photo

Carolina Sarmiento

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It's been a hectic week since the Weekly first broke the news that SanTana's El Centro Cultural de Mexico will soon find itself without a space to host its classes and community programs. In that time, the Voice of OC and The Santa Ana Register blog have chimed in on the issue. The two media outlets raised the relationship between Irv Chase, the controversial property owner of many of the buildings Fourth Street businesses rent out, and the Broadway Improvement Co. that owns the Knights of Pythias building in question. (His father-in-law Allan Fainbarg is a substantial stakeholder) More >>

​El Centro Cultural de Mexico, a long standing non-profit in the city of Santa Ana, faces eviction by mid-July. The award-winning organization has been housed for the past five years at the Knights of Pythias building on the corner of West Fifth Street and Broadway. The location had been one of stability for El Centro's numerous free programs, including their notable son jarocho jarana classes, even as multi-year leases with the building's landlords transitioned to a month-to-month contract. Then, on June 9, unexpectedly, the non-profit received a 30-day notice--the minimum allowable--to vacate the premises. More >>

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