Overview
This may well be the only work of non-fiction that began life as a bus shelter....
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In spring 2000, Los Angeles artist J Michael Walker noticed that in this city named for a saint (Nuestra Senora de los Angeles), there ranged dozens of streets named for saints.
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He received a small grant to portray Downtown's "saint-streets" in city bus shelters - essentially, talking about the streets on the streets.
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As he began researching the histories of the streets and the stories of the saints, interesting points of convergence revealed themselves --
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San Julian Street, where the city's homeless and the clinics serving them gather, was named for a saint who wandered the earth before serving and sheltering other wanderers.
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Tiny, forlorn Santa Clara Street, southeast of Downtown, mirrors the saint's vow of poverty; and the sweatshops there complement her patronage of embroiderers.
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And so it went, street by street, saint by saint.
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After portraying this first cluster of saint-streets, J Michael set off across the City of the Angels, neighborhood by neighborhood, for eight years, until he had uncovered and revealed each one:
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All 103 of the streets named for saints in L.A. --
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All the Saints of the City of the Angels
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Above photograph of San Pablo Street installed in Los Angeles city bus shelter, taken Fall 2000 by Sally Stein.
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This website, all images and all text Copyright 2008 by J Michael Walker, except as noted. All rights reserved
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