Lifestyle
YG Organizes Peace Walk Between Rival Gangs
![YG Organizes Peace Walk Between Rival Gangs YG Organizes Peace Walk Between Rival Gangs](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/e6/16by9/2024/08/19/e634ff26fc18450ebf3978997f88f556_xl.jpg)
Brandon Espeleta
YG‘s making peace over a hearty meal … organizing a walk to put an end to years of strife between rivals Compton gangs — and breaking bread, or in this case buns.
The rapper led the truce and walk Sunday … joined by members of the Treetop Pirus and Fruit Town Pirus gangs, family members and kids as they journeyed through the streets of Compton.
During the walk, YG stopped off for food at Tam’s Burgers … bringing the whole squad into the small little shop with music bumping and the rapper even showing off some of his dance moves.
YG actually picked up a bite to eat at the shop … and he wasn’t the only one — many marchers ate right alongside the rapper.
The walk started at Gonzales Park — a local hangout — where YG posed for pics … with different attendees rushing in and out of frame to get their photo taken with the star.
![081824_yg_sub_kal](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/0a/16by9/2024/08/19/0a737536d5c942ed85c69b2483f23191_md.jpg)
Brandon Espeleta
One of YG’s famous friends, The Game, also showed up to support YG’s event … taking photos underneath a shady tree to stave off the L.A. heat.
We’re told this was more than a symbolic gesture … with YG helping to facilitate long-term dialogue between the two sides — recently persuading both sides to come to the table.
![YG](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/17/16by9/2020/06/08/171a31ba81ac5d2892c1596a28a2da91_md.jpg)
June 2020
YG — whose new album “JUST RE’D UP 3” dropped Friday — is a socially conscious rapper … even recording a music video putting the police on notice at a Black Lives Matter Protest weeks after George Floyd’s murder in 2020
Sems he’s working hard to maintain peace here too … and, a full stomach always help.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Lifestyle
Alain Delon, cinematic heartthrob and one of the most beloved French actors, has died
![Alain Delon, cinematic heartthrob and one of the most beloved French actors, has died Alain Delon, cinematic heartthrob and one of the most beloved French actors, has died](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5616x3159+0+0/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F41%2F4f%2F63cb3b694b4ea36fc60cfa312e06%2Fgettyimages-508337568.jpg)
French actor Alain Delon in 1976.
AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Actor Alain Delon has died. His icy good looks established him as an postwar international celebrity who enjoyed a long commercial film career in Europe. Delon starred in more than 80 movies over six decades, including such classics as Le Samouraï and The Leopard. He was 88.
An agent for one of Delon’s sons confirmed the death. His three children released a statement on Sunday to the news agency Agence France-Presse saying the actor had died peacefully at his home in Douchy, France.
Born in a wealthy Parisian suburb, Delon endured a tumultuous early life. His parents divorced when he was 4 years old. He spent his childhood shuffling between a foster family, various relatives and boarding schools, where he developed a reputation as a troublemaker and petty thief. At 17, Delon enlisted in the French navy, serving in what was then French Indochina for four years. After his service, he worked odd jobs, including as a waiter and a longshoreman, and started dating an actress — Brigitte Auber — who would be his entry into moviemaking.
Delon started getting attention as a screen starting in the late 1950s. One early role was as the lead in a French/Italian sex comedy called Faibles Femmes, or Women Are Weak.
“This young man, whom some genius press agent has helpfully tagged ‘the French James Dean,’ has long silky hair, high cheekbones and a loose-jointed, soigne air,” wrote New York Times critic Bosley Crowther in a dismissive 1959 review of the film. “He smiles come-hitherly and generally is condescending to the lovelies, who flip for him. He rides a motorcycle and affects the hauteur of a ‘cat.’”
Delon’s status as a cat-like global sex symbol was confirmed the next year in the psychological thriller Plein Soleil, or Purple Noon, directed by René Clément. It was the first film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Clement’s camera swoons over Delon, who plays Ripley, as he glides through a seaside market in an impeccable white linen shirt. Even the famously cranky Patricia Highsmith adored his performance.
“This Ripley doesn’t promise happiness,” wrote critic Anthony Lane in a 2024 New Yorker article called “Can A Film Star Be Too Good-Looking?” It’s a filmic mash note to Delon. “Here is someone, evidently, from whom we ought to steer clear, yet we can’t get away from him. We can’t even look away.”
Purple Noon made Delon one of the highest-paid French actors of his era. He started his own production companies and branched out into singing, recording at least one hit, “Paroles, paroles” in 1973 with the singer Dalida, who was also a romantic interest.
Although he tried, and failed, to build a Hollywood career, Delon’s co-stars in European productions included Jane Fonda, Burt Lancaster, Charles Bronson, Yves Montand and Brigitte Bardot, as well as German star Romy Schneider, with whom he was romantically involved. Their highly publicized breakup in 1964 was one of the many scandals that would mark his off-screen life.
Those included the mysterious murder of his bodyguard in 1968, salacious rumors of exclusive sex parties, an unacknowledged child with the singer and model Nico, allegations of abuse from his other children and forays into far-right politics that many peers in the film industry found off-putting. Delon enjoyed a long friendship with National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose politics were openly racist and antisemitic.
Over the years, Delon was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or and a César Award for Best Actor. Although he was best known for playing handsome, amoral criminals, Delon showed range and artistic ambition on screen, especially as he aged.
In 1976’s Mr. Klein, a film he also produced, Delon starred as a self-absorbed gentile merchant mistaken for Jewish during World War II, and handed over to the Nazis by the Vichy regime. And in 1984’s Un Amour de Swann, based on a novel by Marcel Proust, he played a supporting role, as a depressive gay aristocrat, who helps Jeremy Irons’ main character find love.
Delon left behind an outsized, idiosyncratic cultural footprint. The band The Smiths used a still from L’Insoumis (The Unvanquished) featuring the actor’s brooding face as the cover for their 1986 album, The Queen Is Dead, and Madonna’s song “Beautiful Killer” is an homage to the actor. Director Quentin Tarantino credited Delon as an influence on his breakthrough film Reservoir Dogs.
“I could see Alain Delon in a black suit saying, ‘I’m Mr. Blonde,’” he told an interviewer, according to New York magazine.
In 1991, Delon was named a Chevalier of France’s Legion of Honor, later promoted to Officer. Much of his later work was in television and on stage, and his last screen credit was as himself in the 2019 French film Toute Ressemblance. That same year, after he suffered a stroke, his children began a long, public fight over his care. In early 2024, a French judge placed Delon under legal guardianship.
Edited for the web by Clare Lombardo. Produced for the web by Beth Novey.
Lifestyle
A dark musical comedy about witches has Ukraine enthralled. Here's why
![A dark musical comedy about witches has Ukraine enthralled. Here's why A dark musical comedy about witches has Ukraine enthralled. Here's why](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x1688+0+213/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffb%2Ffc%2F7cf728e24dc79b06f86a4aaa9324%2Funknown-2-5-43-29-pm.jpeg)
A scene from a Ukrainian production of The Witch of Konotop. At the window, Olena, played by Mariia Rudynska, is the love interest of the main character but does not love him back. And a three-witch chorus is seen right.
Ivan Franko Theater
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Ivan Franko Theater
KYIV, Ukraine — Witches are having a moment in Ukraine. Both feared and revered, these beings are thought to possess supernatural powers that can be used for good and bad. Over the centuries, witches have been blamed for all kinds of things happening to Ukrainians: droughts, floods, diseases — even falling in love and starting wars.
Now they have taken center stage in a dark musical comedy titled The Witch of Konotop, with performances selling out all summer at the historic Ivan Franko Theater in the capital Kyiv.
Folklore brought to life
Based on the 1833 satirical fiction by Ukrainian writer Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, the story pokes fun at Ukrainian literature’s tendency to focus on sadness and tragedy. It takes place in the 1600s and follows the main character, Zabryokha, a Cossack military leader, in his unsuccessful journey to do away with witches whom he blames for his misfortunes.
Throughout the fast-paced, witty hour-and-a-half production, the audience is treated to beautifully detailed Ukrainian folk costumes and stunning vocals set to traditional Ukrainian music.
![Main character Zabryokha, played by Nazar Zadniprovskyi, and his cunning assistant, Pistryok, played by Mykailo Kukuyuk, spend much of the play blaming others for their misfortunes and conspiring. They eventually turn to a witch for help, in hopes she can change their fates.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbd%2F62%2Fd9c570634b929904bacad596b1a6%2Fimg-4963.jpg)
Main character Zabryokha, played by Nazar Zadniprovskyi, and his cunning assistant, Pistryok, played by Mykailo Kukuyuk, spend much of the play blaming others for their misfortunes and conspiring. They eventually turn to a witch for help, in hopes she can change their fates.
Ivan Franko Theater
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Ivan Franko Theater
There is rejection, there is love.
And there is, of course, a witch hunt.
Additionally, in a twist that echoes today, the main characters receive orders to join a campaign to fend off an overreaching czarist Russia.
![Ukraine invasion — explained](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/03/04/2022-03-01t175456z_190705021_rc2rts9rml0z_rtrmadp_3_ukraine-crisis_sq-e4e6322908731572c4041e607bb879c7ca382ba1.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
One play, many takeaways
Life under a sinister Russian threat might be the most obvious theme from this play. Yet, a quick survey of the cast and audience at a recent performance reveals the production’s true flexibility.
“Don’t kill women, don’t mess with women,” says actress Kateryna Artemenko, who plays one of the townswomen mistaken for a witch. She spoke to NPR backstage before the show.
“No, it is not a joke, of course,” Artemenko says. “The main message is about people trying to fool their destiny, but destiny will find them.”
Actor Nazar Zadniprovskyi, who plays the ill-fated Cossack commander Zabryokha, views this play as a lesson in avoiding responsibility. The two lead characters avoid going to military drills so they don’t have to go to war, he says, and many people see a parallel with Ukrainian men dodging conscription today.
Zadniprovskyi also attributes the play’s popularity to the clips that have gone viral on social media. There, Ukrainians from all walks of life weigh in.
![Scenes of destruction at the Factor Druk printing house, one of Ukraine's largest, can be seen days after it was hit in a Russian missile attack, on May 27.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x2000+500+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb4%2Fc5%2Fba5480b648c6a7d5a4cb1725c103%2Fllc01903.jpg)
Audience member Markian Halabala of Kyiv says seeing buzz about the play online is what first piqued his interest. He says it was difficult to get tickets because the play sells out so quickly. When he finally saw it, he felt the message was that you shouldn’t interfere in God’s will — like Zabryokha does in the play when he asks a witch to cast a spell on a woman to make her fall in love with him, even though she loves someone else. Halabala likens it to Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to interfere in Ukraine’s path forward as an independent nation.
However, theatergoer Olha Vasylevshka of Kharkiv says she thinks the play is about love.
“Of course if the love is true, it doesn’t need any outside assistance,” she says, laughing. “But if the love is not true, nothing can help it, not even a witch.”
Sold-out shows
Critics say audiences’ many interpretations of The Witch of Konotop are just one reason it’s been so popular.
Ivan Franko Theater press liaison Olena Kyrychenko-Povolocka told NPR the production has filled their nearly 800-seat house for every performance this summer and she expects to continue that success. The play has dates on its website through mid-September.
Another reason for the play’s popularity may be its ties to not only Ukrainian folklore, but also to Ukraine’s real-life town of Konotop known for witches.
![Neak, a 43-year-old Ukrainian graffiti artist, mixes green paint at a workshop in Kyiv, Ukraine. His ETC graffiti crew works to camouflage cars to be sent east to the front line of the war with Russia.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4432x4432+1479+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa7%2F2e%2Fda72268542ebbb3a67104aebd539%2F5g8a5291.jpg)
Near the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, a video surfaced online of a woman shouting at a Russian soldier sitting atop a tank.
“Do you even know where you are?” the woman shouts in a raspy voice. “You’re in Konotop — every second woman here is a witch.”
She goes on to warn the soldier he will never get an erection again.
The video went viral in Ukraine, not just because of the woman’s defiance, but also because the video was from Konotop and Ukrainians immediately got the reference.
![Promotional photo from the dark, musical-comedy The Witch of Konotop](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F07%2F87%2F938fb640450bb5b6f161f8a15af0%2Funknown-3.jpeg)
Witches have long been a staple of Ukrainian folklore. Believed to have other-worldly powers, they were often scapegoats for when bad things happened — such as droughts, floods or disease. In the play, the witches — seen here played by Anna Rudenko, Anastasiia Rula and Kateryna Artemenko — serve as a chorus and a plot device.
Ivan Franko Theater
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Ivan Franko Theater
There’s been an overall push to celebrate Ukrainian culture and literature since Russia’s invasion. Putin has repeatedly said victory means nothing short of Ukraine not just losing its sovereignty — but also its identity.
Ukrainians’ renewed interest in their own culture has driven them back to theaters. Almost all functioning theaters in the country have returned to selling tickets to full houses, according to Olha Baibak with the National Union of Theater Workers of Ukraine.
“There is a growing interest in the theater throughout the country,” Baibak wrote in an email to NPR. “New audiences have come, people go for communication, for therapy, to live some kind of experience.”
She says they also come to get away from reality.
Performing also offers actors an escape.
Actor Mykhailo Kukuyuk, who plays the character Pistryak, the main character’s cunning assistant, says it’s sometimes difficult to block out the challenges and horrors of war happening outside the theater. But performing is an honor that reminds him what he believes Ukrainians are fighting for.
“For theater, for good-looking, beautiful women. It’s the details, the sparks that make us alive — it’s hard to put into one sentence,” he says.
Polina Lytvynova contributed to this report from Kyiv.
Lifestyle
For $5, Radical Sewing Club teaches you to mend clothes like an anticapitalist
![For , Radical Sewing Club teaches you to mend clothes like an anticapitalist For , Radical Sewing Club teaches you to mend clothes like an anticapitalist](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a8ac021/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5014x2632+0+288/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F17%2Fe7%2F5b05f3de4af4a8843e01930b0e79%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-8-gmf.jpg)
On a balmy summer evening, Sary Gil of Norwalk tediously repairs one of his T-shirts with red thread using decorative stitches that look like rosebuds. You wouldn’t know it, but just three weeks ago, he sewed for the first time. Ever since, on Wednesdays after work, he’s attended Radical Sewing Club in Huntington Park.
His motivation was simple: He wanted to learn to sew so he could fix damaged clothing like this T-shirt. “My first day here I learned using the practice stitching guide. They started me with the back stitch, into the split stitch, into the blanket stitch, and the flowers. … I wasn’t sure how the class was structured, so I came in blind,” he said. But once founder Scout Quiquivix explained that the club was started to fight against fast fashion and, by extension, capitalism, his interest deepened. The new skill was more in line with his morals than he realized.
Founded in 2023, Radical Sewing Club teaches practical hand sewing and mending skills every Wednesday night. For $5 (though no one is turned away for lack of funds), predominantly Southeast Los Angeles residents gather at Art Space HP, a multiuse spot with a leftist bookstore, coffee shop, art gallery and community programming area.
At the Radical Sewing Club class, Scout Quiquivix, left, shows beginners the length thread should be before putting it through a needle.
For the record:
12:07 p.m. Aug. 9, 2024An earlier photo caption stated Natasha Dominguez used a pattern to learn new stitches. It was Rosario Calatayud-Serna. The story also previously misspelled Art Space HP.
![A pile of spools holding several different colors of thread.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b058151/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4314x2894+0+0/resize/1200x805!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F94%2Fed%2F3722a29a47ebb99cda5d003ec4f3%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-6-gmf.jpg)
Various colors and sizes of threads on spools during the Radical Sewing Club class.
Fast fashion — when clothes are made quickly and cheaply to meet rapidly shifting trends — has been on the rise for years. But recently, so has resistance to it. Shein, a brand synonymous with fast fashion and beloved by Gen Z, updates its website with 10,000 new pieces per month, according to NPR, testing what shoppers want and then deciding what to produce in mass quantities. Shein describes this strategy as being “on demand,” but some discerning shoppers call it “ultrafast fashion.”
The Radical Sewing Club is among a growing number of Los Angeles communities preaching sustainability in fashion. Others are Suay L.A., which used to offer mending services in the past and currently offers community dyeing services (between $5 and $50 per dyed item), and Other Lives Studios, which offers classes in upcycling practices like fabric painting and decorative mending ($50-plus per class).
Back at the Radical Sewing Club meeting, a dozen sewers and hopefuls gathered around a square of shared tables. Some are here for the first time, while others, like Gil, have become regulars. Due to the fluctuating flow of attendees, there is no single lesson for each meetup. The $5 suggested fee covers materials like needles, thread, fabric for patching and more — some of which Quiquivix purchases, some of which has been donated.
First-timers can use provided embroidery hoops to practice a variety of stitching techniques. Once they’re comfortable, they can practice those stitches on clothing they bring in to mend. At this gathering, Quiquivix paces among attendees, teaching how to thread a needle (“Make sure the string is as long as your hand to your shoulder”) and answering questions, all with rescue dog Cinnamon in a pet carrier backpack.
![A person sitting in a chair with their dog, looking out of the window.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b5add84/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6552x4370+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe7%2Fab%2F7ec4d074418192e6b12855dd2dea%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-11-gmf.jpg)
Scout Quiquivix, with their small dog Cinnamon, runs the Radical Sewing Club.
![Scout Quiquivix uses a template to show beginners different stitch techniques.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/08c9944/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2361x3542+0+0/resize/800x1200!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F19%2F0c%2F9b50172c48f28491ceee7da16952%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-9-gmf-1.jpg)
Scout Quiquivix uses a template to show beginners different stitch techniques.
![A person with orange-dyed bangs works on a sewing design at the Radical Sewing Club.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c9cbf2a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2250x3375+0+0/resize/800x1200!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2Fc5%2F66efa60945f6ac2ba7999058eebf%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-4-gmf-1.jpg)
Veronica Tadeo of Los Angeles works on a sewing design at the Radical Sewing Club.
Brenda Ceja of Whittier brought in a ripped pair of pants for her second visit to Radical Sewing Club. Before attending, she had no sewing experience. “I think this is very important because it’s a life skill that’s not being taught to people anymore. I can teach others the skills I learn here. It has a ripple effect, ” she said.
This rings true for Quiquivix, who works as a manager of a thrift store by day and grew up in a suburb of Pomona. They learned to mend, sew and buy secondhand from their mother. During the pandemic, they discovered social media videos of creative embroidery used for not just design but repair. Quiquivix initially sought commission work mending others’ clothing but then decided to channel their experience and learned patience from working at youth summer camps to teach a class.
The radical element of the club is rooted in anticapitalist values. “The fact that we’re repairing our clothes in a highly capitalist society is radical. It’s radical to fix something versus throwing it away and buying something new,” said Quiquivix. This mission is more apparent to some attendees than others, but Quiquivix doesn’t mind. “If I can just get somebody to come in and learn how to sew and learn how to repair their clothes, and that’s all that they got from it, they’re still going to go home and repair their clothes and they’re still doing something anticapitalist,” they said.
Matthew Gardea and Sofia Guevara of Downey joined Genevieve Quiquivix, Scout’s wife, at a table. Gardea and Guevara, who found the club on Instagram and have attended once before, are working on embroidering a decorative patch with the Radical Sewing Club logo. Genevieve Quiquivix is using red, green and yellow thread to create a design to repair holes in the heel of a sock.
![A close up of hands darning a sock.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b6e7cb4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5741x3827+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F8a%2Fedcebdf34c41a58c423dbc97f56c%2F1460874-wk-radical-sewing-club-2-gmf.jpg)
Genevieve Quiquivix darns a sock using a weave pattern.
“There’s been a stigma in the past that if you do this [mending] you’re poor. This breaks down those walls,” said Genevieve Quiquivix. Guevara agrees: “In school, when I’d wear secondhand pants that I altered so they’d fit me, kids would make fun of me. I’m glad this is normalized. It’s fun to fix your clothes.”
Amanda Tapia, a worker-owner of FTP Cafe, also inside Arts Space HP, believes Radical Sewing Club is critical for the Latino community in Southeast L.A.. “A lot of us grew up with abuelas where this skill was so natural to them. As children of immigrants being forced into assimilation, we’re claiming these skills again. … We’re learning ways to fight capitalism, stay in alignment with our values and maintain our culture in a more radicalized way, which I think is beautiful.”
As attendance grows, Scout Quiquivix hopes to enlist a second teacher. In the meantime, regular attendees are teaching their newfound skills to first-timers. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the whole world,” Quiquivix said.
Follow @radicalsewingclub on Instagram for more information or join every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Art Space HP: 3382 E. Florence Ave., Huntington Park.
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