A chance encounter in Watts results in surprising insight

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Teenagers playing basketball, couples flirting on picnic benches, mothers watching their kids on a colorful playground - this is not what I expected from my Watts-neighborhood tour with Shanice Joseph, a 22 year old student who grew up here. "When I tell people I am from Watts they mostly think of the riots in 1965 and second of the Watts Towers," Shanice told me. That was exactly what I had been thinking. I also hat pictures of shootings, yellow caution tape and worried residents in my mind from reports I regularly see on the evening news. And who would have thought we would end up with a thought-provoking interview about art during our project for Reporter Corps?

Walking by a run down former fire house converted into a youth center towards the library and the Watts Towers we watched two street artists patiently covering a huge wall. Philadelphia based NOSEGO created an oversized fuzzy dog head looking towards the street. CURIOT from Mexico was working on hands reaching out towards the dog. In the middle of the mural some strange bone-creatures seemed to walk. The artistst worked fast, on a deadline for the Christmas Parade that was going to pass by the location the next day.

Shanice and I were fascinated. Shanice had a question that had not immediately crossed my mind: "Why should students in Watts be interested in art when there are barely enough resources for core classes like English and Math?" Warren Brand, founder and curator of Branded Arts, who helped initiate and finance the project could not wait to give an answer - how about finding a job in LA or - equally important - finding your own creative voice? Shanice was stopped in her tracks and I will remember that plea for art education whenever somebody asks me about the importance of music, paintings, writings. 

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