Los Angeles Poets Collection
The Los Angeles Poets Collection contains 41 matted photographs by photographer Sheree Levin, which were exhibited at California State University, Los Angeles in 1982. Accompanying the photographs is a program from The L.A. 2 Scene: Los Angeles Poets Exhibition. The photographs are of local Los Angeles poets. Poets in these photos include Lewis MacAdams who, in 1991, received the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society’s annual Conservation Award. As a political activist, MacAdams is a co-founder of Friends of The Los Angeles River (FoLAR) established in 1985 (and has served as Chair on their Board of Directors). FoLAR has been characterized by MacAdams as a "40-year artwork" to bring the Los Angeles River back to life. Clayton Eshleman, a famous poet in his own right, is also included. Over the course of Eshleman’s life, his work has been published in over 500 literary magazines and newspapers, and he has given readings at more than 200 universities. Eshleman founded and edited two of the most seminal and highly regarded literary magazines of the period. Twenty issues of Caterpillar appeared between 1967 and 1973. In 1981, while Dreyfuss Poet in Residence at the California Institute of Technology, Eshleman founded Sulfur magazine.
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Mel Weisburd Papers
Melvin Irving Weisburd (1927-2015) was a prominent environmentalist, magazine editor, writer and poet. Aside from his work with the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District, Weisburd is well-known for his contribution to the Los Angeles beatnik poetry movement of the ‘50s. This collection consists of manuscripts, poetry, journals, and correspondence, as well as 42 Reel-to-Reels from Weisburd’s private collection.
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Central American Solidarity L.A. Network Collection
The Central American Solidarity L.A. Network Collection was created during the semester of Spring 2017, through the Cal State LA Special Collections & Archives internship of Gladys Garcia. This collection consists of publications and materials related to Central American Solidarity Networks in Los Angeles from the late-1970s to mid-1990s which were housed in the Latin American Studies Center of Cal State LA. These materials were acquired over the course of three decades by a number of faculty members and students in the Latin American Studies program.
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Compton Communicative Arts Academy (CCAA)
The Compton Communicative Arts Academy (CCAA) collection is comprised of images that document African American art and culture, community-based art making, and art-based community making in Los Angeles during the early 1970s. The 200 items in this digital collection were selected from an unorganized collection of over 4,100 photographs, negatives, slides and ephemera by faculty members from the Library and the Liberal Studies Department. The criteria for selection were images that illustrate buildings and places; the Academy's programming, artwork, and performances; artists, artwork, important people and events; and Willie B. Ford, Jr. as a photographer. This phase of the project was part of the California Local History Digital Resources Project supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
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Boyle Heights Collection
A historic Los Angeles neighborhood, Boyle Heights was diversely populated by Jewish, Latino, Russian, and Japanese Americans in the early to mid-twentieth century, and was at one point home to the largest Jewish community in the Western United States. This collection represents the initial accession of the Boyle Heights Archive in 2005 which was intended to benefit researchers who explore the ongoing history of Latino/Chicano/Jewish community relations of Boyle Heights.
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Chinese American Oral History Project
Our collaboration with the Cal State LA Asian/Asian American studies department began in the Fall of 2016. When Dr. Juily Phun’s class began recording its oral histories, Special Collections and Archives worked in the background preparing to collect these stories and preserve them for future generations. As the project has grown, so too has our involvement in it; each class attends a workshop held by Special Collections staff to learn about the transcription and indexing process. By leveraging the power of students perspectives and commitment to the project, we are working together towards the goal of ensuring these stories are accessible to all.
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