June 2023

KYCC Launches Table Top Campaign for Cinco De Mayo

The Coalition for Prevention and Awareness in LA Metro (CoPALM) and KYCC’s Table Top Campaign collaborated with eight restaurants and bars to launch the Tabletop Campaign for Cinco De Mayo 2023. The Table Top Campaign disseminated 500 coasters with anti-drunk driving messaging in English and Spanish to customers at bars and restaurants. The materials were shared to remind customers to drink responsibly and practice safe driving habits during the holidays. Read more

Koreatown Storytelling Program to Receive $30,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCC) has been approved for a $30,000 grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), for the second time, to support the Koreatown Storytelling Program. KYCC’s project is among 1,130 projects across the country, totaling more than $31 million, that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2023 funding. Read more

KYCC Hosts Second Annual Unwind Your Mind Youth Summit

KYCC held its second Annual Unwind Your Mind Youth Summit on Friday, April 28, at Anderson Munger Family YMCA. The purpose of Unwind Your Mind Koreatown Youth Summit is to create a safe space for high school students to build community with each other, while unwinding with art, music, and other interactive workshops. Read more

Community Event

California Center for Labor Organizing Career Organizing Summer Intensive Program (COSIP)

The California Center of Labor Organizing is thrilled to announce the inaugural Career Organizing Summer Intensive Program (COSIP). COSIP is a paid summer internship program for entry-level labor organizers, college students, community organizers, and rank-and-file leaders interested in exploring worker organizing as a career. This program will train participants from southern California in the building blocks of labor organizing. The four-week program will consist in training, shadowing experienced organizers, probing workplaces, canvassing neighborhoods, conducting one-on-one meetings, and political analysis and education. Participants will complete the program with a greater comprehension of labor organizing as a science and a career and will attain the rudimentary tools to develop a winning campaign. As a capstone, participants will help plan and execute a day of advocacy at Los Angeles City Hall. On June 15-July 14, 2023.30 hours/week, Tuesday – Friday. More information here

June is..

Nature Photography Day, June 15

Let’s celebrate Nature Photography Day on June 15…we can learn more about nature and enjoy capturing it. Nature is all around us, and you can take part wherever you are, with whatever equipment. Whether you’re a professional photographer or you have your IPhone or Android, we want your best nature pictures!  Please send in your photos to Dabin by Wednesday, June 14 at 3pm.  Most loved photo(s) will win a prize.

Juneteenth

Juneteenth – June 19 (Weekend 6-17 to 6-19)

Here are a few celebrations for the upcoming Juneteenth weekend:

Juneteenth LA County Supervisor Holly J Mitchell

Juneteenth Festival Leimert Park 2023

31st Annual Juneteenth Celebration 2023

Please remember KYCC are providing services on Juneteenth.  If that is an important holiday for you to recognize and you are eligible, please request to use your floating holiday.

* The DEI Commiittee is preparing a more detail review of Juneteenth in our newsletter this month.

Sunglass Day

Please send us your best selfie in sunglasses by Monday, June 26.

The HAJJ

 (Islamic) (pronounced Haj) June 26 thru July 1

Hajj, also spelled ḥadjdj or hadj, in Islam, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim must make at least once in his or her lifetime.

The hajj is the fifth of the fundamental Muslim practices and institutions known as the Five Pillars of Islam. The pilgrimage rite begins on the 7th day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah (the last month of the Islamic year) and ends on the 12th day.

The hajj is incumbent on all Muslims who are physically and financially able to make the pilgrimage, but only if their absence will not place hardships on their family. A person may perform the hajj by proxy, appointing a relative or friend going on the pilgrimage to “stand in” for him or her.

The pattern of pilgrimage rites was established by the Prophet Muhammad, but variations have arisen in it, and the stringent formal itinerary is not strictly adhered to by the mass of pilgrims, who frequently visit the various Meccan sites out of their proper order.

When the pilgrim is about 6 miles (10 km) from Mecca, he or she enters the state of holiness and purity known as ihram and dons the ihram garments; for men they consist of two white seamless sheets that are wrapped around the body, while women may wear sewn clothes. The pilgrims cut neither their hair nor their nails until the pilgrimage rite is over. They enter Mecca and walk seven times around the sacred shrine called the Kaaba, in the Great Mosque, kiss or touch the Black Stone (al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) in the Kaaba, pray twice in the direction of the Maqām Ibrāhīm and the Kaaba, and run seven times between the minor prominences of Mount Ṣafā and Mount Marwah. On the 7th day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah the pilgrims are reminded of their duties. At the second stage of the ritual, which takes place between the 8th and the 12th days of the month, the pilgrim visits the holy places outside Mecca—Jabal al-Raḥmah, Muzdalifah, and Minā—and sacrifices an animal in commemoration of Abraham’s sacrifice. Male pilgrims’ heads are then usually shaved, and female pilgrims remove a lock of hair. After the rajm ritual at Minā, in which pilgrims throw seven stones at three walls (formerly pillars, symbolizing the Devil) on three successive days, the pilgrim returns to Mecca to perform the farewell ṭawāf, or circumambulation, of the Kaaba before leaving the city.

About two million persons perform the hajj each year, and the rite serves as a unifying force in Islam by bringing followers of diverse background together in religious celebration. Once a believer has completed the pilgrimage, he or she may add the title ḥājj or ḥajjī (for a male) or ḥājjah (for a female) to his or her name. The pilgrimage, if performed properly, is believed to wipe out previous sins for the sincere believer. Compare ʿumrah.

(Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “hajj”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Apr. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/hajj. Accessed 18 May 2023.)

DEI Corner: LGBTQ+ Flags And Their Meanings

Birthdays and Anniversaries