St. Elmo Village, a Los Angeles-based charity offering weekly workshops for children and adults, will host a photographic storytelling showcase on Saturday, June 15th.
St. Elmo Village initially existed as a mere group of dwellings on St. Elmo Drive in Mid-City, Los Angeles. The surrounding neighborhood, predominantly African American and Latino, was at the point of visual deterioration. In the mid-sixties, Roderick and Rozzell Sykes rented a couple of the dilapidated homes with the intention of creating an art space for the local community. The nephew and uncle duo were both thriving visual artists whose passion resulted in a 50+ year long success story, with St. Elmo Village still providing educational resources to this day.
St. Elmo officially opened its doors in 1969 and was incorporated as a charity organization in 1971. It continues to reach out to the local community, offering a place for individuals to explore and develop their creativity. The message of the village has always been:
“Do your best, no matter who or where you are. Eliminate ‘I can’t’ and discover the rewards of ‘I can’!”
St. Elmo Village is where we live – a place where people can meet as people first, to share those feelings, those things one wishes to share without dictation. Working together in a place like the Village we are reminded of the things that we have in common rather than those that separate us. The philosophy of St. Elmo Village is that all people are creative and powerful in their own way. Through sharing the creative process, we encourage self-confidence and self-esteem through the arts. St. Elmo Village has been providing art workshops, festivals and numerous enhancement programs in the surrounding neighborhood and the Los Angeles community at large. The Village emphasizes pride in self as well as in our environment, which instills a desire to build up!
Funding from the Golden Globe Foundation is used for St. Elmo Village’s photography workshop, “Photographic Story Telling,” integrating the fundamentals of black-and-white photography with filmmaking basics to capture and create compelling stories.
