Never Stop Planting – Social Forest Community Celebration
Overview
Join us for an outdoor celebration as we kick off the first day of planting for The Broad’s reforestation project, Social Forest: Oaks of Tovaangar, at Elysian Park. Enjoy a day filled with nature-based workshops and engaging activities designed and led by Indigenous Tongva artists and educators, and local environmental groups. Attendees will experience Tongva concepts and language, with opportunities to learn about native plants and acorn processing, play games, participate in nature walks, and plant native oak trees.
Inspired by Beuys’s influential 1982 work 7000 Eichen (7000 Oaks) in Kassel, Germany, Social Forest centers the unique cultural, historical, and environmental context of Los Angeles. With themes of environmental justice and political reconciliation, the project shines light on Tongva perspectives on land and ecology. Shuttles between The Broad and the Elysian Park planting site will be available for the February 8 celebration, and planting and boulder placement will be completed by March 2025.
Photos 1 and 3: Lazaro Arvizu, Jr. leading a workshop and a workshop image, courtesy of the artist; Photo 2: Photograph taken in Elysian Park, Los Angeles, 2024. Photos by Elon Schoenholz Photography, courtesy of The Broad
Tickets include same-day access to The Broad. Tickets to this event do not include access to Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013), and must be booked separately.
For information on our current visitor policies, visit Know Before You Go & FAQ. Visitor policies are subject to change.
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North East Trees
North East Trees is a community-based, non-profit organization that helps heal environmental injustice through urban forestry, nature-based design-build, habitat restoration, and workforce development. Our work in underinvested communities in Los Angeles County helps to build climate resiliency through stewardship, planting, design, and community engagement.
Lazaro Arvizu Jr.
Lazaro Arvizu Jr. (Gabrielino/Tongva) is an artist, educator, musician, and researcher dedicated to the culture of the First Peoples of Los Angeles. Born in the Los Angeles Basin, he is knowledgeable of the landscape and cosmology of the Gabrielino culture. He has worked for over twenty years facilitating creative and meaningful cultural experiences to people of all ages and walks of life.
Desiree Renee Martinez
Desiree Renee Martinez is Gabrieliño (Tongva), an archaeologist and Tribal Relations and NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA Director at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona. Desiree received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA in Anthropology from Harvard University. Desiree is a co-Director of the Pimu Catalina Island Archaeological Project that melds archaeology with traditional knowledge in collaboration with Gabrieliño (Tongva) community members. Desiree’s life has been dedicated to obtaining the skills and knowledge necessary to combat the wanton destruction of Native American sacred and cultural sites.
