Even if it’s too early to think about the world post corona-virus, I can’t help but reflect that this year will be the sixth anniversary of my blog. I’ve been overtaken by an idea for the special day of the anniversary: free copies of a special, bilingual “magazine edition” of JIMBO TIMES: The L.A. Storyteller for youth and families in the East Hollywood community.
As I’ve noted previously on the blog, my mother owns a newsstand in East Hollywood on Santa Monica boulevard, which this year will actually establish nineteen years in existence. That is correct. The stand is a 2001 baby, which means it’s still just showing this blogger how it’s done. While the wooden frame of the stand itself remains a humble, albeit resilient establishment, nineteen years is a legacy; one that I prize dearly for feeding my love and passion for the written word.
I want this blog to nurture the literacy and future of my community in the same way, but with an even larger, literal “print”; that is, I want kids, along with their mothers and fathers, to huddle together around Los Cuentos, or stories by JIMBO TIMES and other local writers in and around Los Angeles, so that they can experience the richness of arts and literature like we do.
The year following, there is no reason not to make a magazine edition of this blog a quarterly publication to have in circulation around the neighborhood, and in coffee shops and libraries all over Los Angeles. In the magazine, as I do with The L.A. Storyteller online, I will make a call for more up and coming writers and storytellers, both in English and en español, to submit their work for publication in subsequent editions of the magazine.
And in three years, with the momentum, funding, and correct plan intact, I see every reason for making this blog a monthly, printed newspaper for the community to benefit from, replete with a larger editing, design, and storytelling team for all. This, in my view, is the best way to honor my mother’s legacy in the community, which since the earliest days in East Hollywood has been a passion for supporting others with the written word, information, and education.
While I don’t mean to rush, or “get ahead of myself,” I sincerely see every reason to continue pursuing these dreams permeating within my mind, and even every reason to state them out loud for the whole world to know. It all comes down to one reason, though: that life is too short for any of us not to pursue our passions with every iota of will in our power.
All for and all through Los Angeles,
J.T.
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