Event series
Worlds of Homelessness

In Los Angeles, where the phrase „Homelessness is just a paycheck away“ is all too well known, the divide between the „haves and have-nots“ is ever-present. While the city is best known for its Hollywood image, it is estimated that 60,000 individuals experience homelessness in LA County on any given night.  Among these are also students and working-class individuals, who have to live in their cars because they cannot afford to pay rent.

Worlds of Homelessness is a project of the Goethe-Institut that offers an interdisciplinary engagement with the issue of homelessness and its many related themes such as the gap between rich and poor, participation, inequality, gentrification, racism, and migration. Worlds of Homelessness brings together local and international artists, architects, scholars, and others to create a platform to share ideas, thoughts and to present their work, as well as examining the wide range of strategies being employed to engage with the many questions and challenges surrounding the issue. 

The project is developed in cooperation with the Los Angeles Poverty Department, which has created art with and promoted the activism of Skid Row Artists for decades; the Thomas Mann House, the renowned and independent architecture school SCI-Arc, the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin and NAVEL, a collectively driven cultural organization.

The event series including discussions, music performances, and film screenings takes place from October 22 – 27, 2019 in Los Angeles at the Skid Row History Museum and Archive, NAVEL, and SCI-Arc, and culminates with the Los Angeles Poverty Department's 10th Annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists on October 26 – 27, 2019 in Gladys Park, Skid Row. 

© Goethe-Institut