El Dia de los Muertos celebration at East Los Angeles’ Self-Help Graphics was a joyfully ghoulish evening teeming with striking senoritas in half-skull fashion, evocative art commenting on past and present colonialism, altars to community mainstay who had passed, homemade eats and hand-made jewelry, sugar skulls, skeleton artwork, rock and traditional acoustic bands, children’s workshops, and a solemn, powerful Aztec fire dance. The gorgeous mosaic digs housing Self-Help Graphics look like they might stay in the world of the living for a little more time thanks to a recent generous donation, so checkcheckit out while you can. It’s exterior and the treasures it holds might not be around forever, but our memories of seeing them will linger even in death.
