Join the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles (ISLA) & the Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL) as we welcome historical consultant Kathy Kobayashi. This is part of the Vicki Ruiz Visiting Scholar Program funded by the Andrew Mellon Arts & the Urban Experience Grant.
Reception 5:30-6pm
Talk begins at 6pm
The Shades of LA at the Los Angeles Public Library is a well-used and well-loved collection of almost 10,000 photos, copied from the diversity of LA’s family albums. They not only represent a wide range of people previously missing from public collections, but they are also important because they show people from inside their communities, inside their families, and not simply the way outsiders might view them.
These photos were collected in the 1990s through a grass-roots community history project, involving 1000 donors and volunteers over more than seven years. The Shades of LA Project was led by the visionary Carolyn Kozo Cole, head of the the LA Public Library Photo Collection, who recently died. Kathy Kobayashi worked closely with her throughout the project. She will talk about the process of collecting the images and the stories behind them, and she will also share many of the particular photographs.
Kathy Kobayashi is a third-generation Japanese American from Texas, who has lived in Southern California for more than 40 years. As a historical consultant, she worked on Shades of LA and other projects with Carolyn Kozo Cole at the LA Public Library Photo Collection, and they co-authored the book, Shades of LA: Pictures from Ethnic Family Albums. She also worked on the statewide Shades of California project, and she has been on the board of Photo Friends for 20 years.
Earlier, she was an undergraduate at Rice University, a Thomas J. Watson Fellow in Europe and East Africa, and a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, studying American social history for a master’s degree. She also taught at UC Riverside and worked for the California Council for the Humanities.
