- Social:
Ron Finley Project
Ashley Carter is an executive assistant at the Ron Finley Project.
PROFILE
Ashley Carter
Guest
FROM Ashley Carter
Design and Architecture
Gangsta gardener South LA's "gangsta gardener" Ron Finley wants to bring locally-grown food to areas that desperately need it, and to change ideas about what it takes to make a healthy community. But his lush garden near the Farmdale Expo Line station is under threat because the property has been sold to investment company Strategic Acquisitions, which wants to redevelop the entire site. It was sold to them by the bank that repossessed the property. Ron Finley in his garden in South LA Photo by Avishay Artsy DnA hears about Finley's efforts to raise the money to buy the property back, and gets a tour of his garden in South LA, from its sidewalk bursting with banana plants, sunflowers and a canopy of woven branches in which to shoot the breeze, to the hidden Eden in an empty swimming pool in his backyard, filled with plants in pots, old sinks, a wagon and other receptacles that capture Finley's imagination. "My whole thing for the way I garden here and in urban areas is not for production, not for maximum yield, it's for beauty," he tells DnA. "Every sense in your body can be affected in the garden and that's what I want to do."
Recommended
Art Talk
Victor Hugo Drawings at the Hammer Hunter Drohojowska-Philp discusses the 19th-century author’s visual talents.
Martini Shot
Child’s Pose This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I struggle to wedge myself into child’s pose during yoga, while the woman next to me ignores the teacher entirely and just stretches out. It’s a lightbulb moment for me.