Our growing collective collection of personal stories, oral histories, and documentary footage capture the necessity of Little Tokyo’s First Street North as a site of cultural, familial, and political importance. They detail how the diverse, multicultural communities represented in the area lived their lives amidst a backdrop of change and attempted redevelopment, and how their daily activities manifested concerning these attempts.
These intimate personal accounts elucidate stories having taken place within, around, and about First Street North’s remaining thirteen buildings, and are a testament to the power of benign and familial storytelling as important forms of historical documentation. It allows us to record history from the ground-up - starting with individuals, families, and communities - in order to understand how real people within Little Tokyo navigated the complexities of a growing Los Angeles: a city which has historically failed to hold space for its underrepresented minority populations.
FSN: Open wants to provide a vehicle to hold this space, and share these important histories through two lenses: the neighborhood's thirteen historic buildings and a conceptual basis of openness. FSN: Open is an open-source, curated platform for storytelling and sharing, and seeks to open up a space where personal stories are valued and able to breathe freely.
In 2018 and 2019, Artists part of the +LAB Residency Program via Little Tokyo Service Center laid the groundwork for FSN: Open, creating projects and artworks centered around the themes of community control, self-determination, and redevelopment. FSN: Open seeks to continue to uphold the community values of Sustainable Little Tokyo, facilitating the practice of stewardship, belonging, collective and self-expression, well-being, and intergenerational movement building in order to ensure a holistic and equitable approach to this historic space.
We look forward to sourcing additional stories and histories from our communities in reflection of our shared values.
First Street North: Open recognizes First Street North’s presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Gabrielino/Tongva People — the original stewards of the Los Angeles area — and honors both the land and generations of native peoples who cared for it throughout its history. FSN: Open is committed to a learning based on this history of displacement, and using this knowledge to learn how to better steward the former lands of the Gabrielino/Tongva people.
Our deepest gratitude to our supporters who made this project possible:
Aratani Foundation, California Arts Council, California Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities.
