Mike Sonksen
Equally a scholar and performer, Mike Sonksen, also known as Mike the Poet, is a 3rd-generation L.A. native acclaimed for published essays, poetry performances and mentoring teen writers. Mike teaches at Woodbury University.
L.A. based lyricist and musician Blackbird considers each track he produces a film score.
For all the talk of rivalry and disdain between San Francisco and Los Angeles the two cities have far more in common than they do differences.
The mix of rocky coast, dense forest and steep cliffs make the landscape around Big Sur especially picturesque and sometimes dangerous.
The "dog days of summer" may be here, but Los Angeles is exploding with literary events, live concerts, art shows and city tours. Mike the Poet examines the writers, artists, musicians and venues keeping summer spirit alive in Los Angeles.
Hollywood is a loaded word with many meanings. There's Hollywood the district of Los Angeles, Hollywood the movie industry, some use Hollywood to describe all of Southern California, some use the word to describe someone who's become too "Hollywood." I...
Otomisan has served home-style Japanese food in Boyle Heights for more than five decades.
At the newly opened Grand Park in downtown L.A., City Hall's architectural majesty is akin to the Washington Monument. Plus two great summer reads involving gangsters and hair metal.
This ode to the underground art movement shares a list of artists deeply embedded in the city's fabric: stellar individuals teaching love and working with urgency, going places and making it better.
Los Angeles is home to a countless number of poetry ambassadors -- and Billy Burgos honors them in a series of beautifully painted portraits.
From Charlie Chaplin to Phil Spector, Black Dahlia to the Hillside Strangler, the dark allure of L.A. noir lives on.
From Stockton to Portland, Africa, Israel, New York and back to L.A., it's all the same -- geography and the built environment form the landscape of our dreams.
Besskepp's celebration of the rich history and racial diversity of his hometown of Stockton stands in stark contrast to Forbes Magazine's declaration as one of America's "most miserable cities."