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® AUGUST 14 - 20, 2020 / VOL. 42 / NO. 39 / LAWEEKLY.COM 2 WEEKLY WEEKLY You’ll be ready LA | 2020 , when your dream home is. August 14-20 August | With a SureStart® Pre-approval1, you’ll benefit from: WWW.LAWEEKLY.COM • Confidence throughout your home search • A competitive advantage over other homebuyers without a pre-approval • The ability to act quickly with a complimentary pre-approval letter Ask how you can get ahead in the home buying process. John Twyman Rosalia Yang Home Lending Officer Home Lending Officer 818-470-6095 626-922-5859 [email protected] [email protected] citi.com/johntwyman citi.com/rosaliayang NMLS# 727951 NMLS# 818004 Terms, conditions and fees for accounts, programs, products and services are subject to change. This is not a commitment to lend. All loans are subject to credit and property approval. Certain restrictions may apply on all programs. This offer contains information about U.S. domestic financial services provided by Citibank, N.A. and is intended for use domestically in the U.S. 1Final commitment is subject to verification of information, receipt of a satisfactory sales contract on the home you wish to purchase, appraisal and title report, and meeting our customary closing conditions. There is no charge to receive a SureStart Pre-approval. However, standard application and commitment fees will apply for the mortgage loan application. ©2020 Citibank, N.A. NMLS# 412915. Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender. Citi, Citi and Arc Design and other marks used herein are service marks of Citigroup Inc. or its affiliates, used and registered throughout the world. 284801 - LA Weekly Ad - Campbell.indd 1 8/6/2020 1:31:35 PM 3 LA WEEKLY WEEKLY | JAugust 14-20 JAugust , 2020 | WWW.LAWEEKLY.COM my life. From then on, I started eating tacos through marriage, pregnancies, divorces. It became my staple.” Aft er saving every penny from various cor- porate jobs over the years, she continued on the THE SKY IS THE LIMIT FOR taco trail, fully aware that she wasn’t the only kid on the block. “Starting a business, I never thought ‘oh, will it work?’ I said, ‘I’m doing tacos and I’m going to do tacos the best that I can.’ I was always taught BARBARA BURRELL not to care what it looks like, go for it and do Black Restaurant Week spotlight on the success story behind Sky’s Gourmet Tacos your best. Good, better, best. Th at’s what you BY MICHELE STUEVEN strive for,” says Burrell. She called it Sky’s Gour- met Tacos, named aft er her mother’s favorite 40’s era restaurant Sky’s in Atlanta, Georgia. Her he electrifying convergence of taco stand aft er growing weary of the corporate business. Th e day he was killed, my mother motto became “Mexican with a splash of soul.” a pandemic and the Black Lives world in 1992. “I tried to get a loan at the bank. told me I had to go right back into the business Aft er a lot of struggle, better things were start- Matter movement has changed the Th ey all laughed at me, even though I had good to help keep it alive. Even though I was in the ing to unfold. Although she never met him, she landscape of Los Angeles forever, credit. Of course I saw the diff erences, but I had midst of my health inconvenience, the taco had credits an undercover Jonathan Gold review redefi ning the city as we know it to go on. I borrowed money from my sisters and become such an integral part of a bigger pic- in 1998 for putting Sky’s Gourmet Tacos on and leaving us in a new normal with more ques- my family and was self-funded from the fi rst ture. I wasn’t in touch with big pictures at that the map. She soon outgrew her taco stand and Ttions than answers. But for the dauntless spirit day. Right or wrong, we just opened the doors. moment – the why’s. I just wanted to survive. I moved down the road into her larger current and success story that is Barbara Burrell – the Th at was the beginning of a journey that is still had to keep pushing.” location in 2018. She opened the Sky’s Gourmet sky is the limit. not complete. We’re still on that road.” Burrell came to L.A. from Waukegan, Illinois, Market Place in Marina del Rey and will be It’s Black Restaurant Week and the owner of But there have been plenty of bumps along in the ‘70s as a divorcee with kids in tow. It was opening a downtown location for takeout and Sky’s Gourmet Tacos, Burrell is celebrating her that road. in that a small town outside of Chicago she delivery on August 15, which will feature the 28-year-old business in Mid City that she has “Just as the business got going, my fi ancée discovered the taco. She caught on to tacos one signature items she has become famous for, fought all odds – as a single African American dropped dead of a heart attack,” says Burrell summer when, at age 12, she begged her moth- like marinated lobster tacos, shitake mush- mother of two – to not only sustain, but expand. in Sky’s bricked courtyard. “He was about 42 er to take her to a restaurant with the picture of room tacos a wild rice and yam burrito as well As she tells it, it was all of those setbacks (and and we had enjoyed so much together. Th en a taco painted on the outside. her highly acclaimed cheesecake which comes healthy amount of spite) to which she credits I was diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. “I wondered what that thing was. Tacos were in original, pineapple, caramel crunch, and her success and survival. Th ankfully, I had these great two boys who not a staple back then, especially in a one-horse mango fl avors. Plans are also underway for a “I saw the problems sure; I saw the issues of could hold up the business while I went through town in Illinois. We had no diversity in that national line of sauces and seasonings, and a lo- being an African American,” Burrell tells L.A. treatment. Th en my youngest son was killed area. I can’t tell you if it was good or bad, but I cation within the Ram’s stadium post-COVID. Weekly about wanting to open up her own in a motorcycle accident. He loved the taco can tell you it was the jumpstart of the taco in Despite a turbulent year for the restaurant 4 WEEKLY WEEKLY LA | 2020 , August 14-20 August Jamie Johnson Good pictures Nikolas Murray, Glazed Ham | Growing Up Travelling for McCall’s Magazine, circa 1940, courtesy of George ART Eastman Museum and Nikolas Murray Photo Archives industry, the grandmother of two’s undying foundational and exceptional work of modern the diverse voices, eclectic styles, and canonical faith and perseverance always have her look- Black artists, as well as the salient role of the col- careers of artists from Yayoi Kusama to Miran- ing for the silver lining, with the intersection SIX NEW ART BOOKS TO lectors who champion them. Drawn from the da July and the Guerrilla Girls, each woman WWW.LAWEEKLY.COM of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter world-class collection of Bernard I. Lumpkin tells a story of “resilience, tenacity, sacrifi ce, movement being especially signifi cant – she and Carmine D. Boccuzzi, this book considers and steely determination,” throughout a col- has nothing but respect and admiration for the LOVE NOW AND SOON the work of a new generation of Black artists orful, animated, witty, warm, and withering young people leading the charge. And at time when Burrell sees businesses Th ese titles off er beauty, story, and inspiration to brighten including Mark Bradford, David Hammons, critique and celebration of what it takes to make “Black Lives Matter and the pandemic have closing around her, she feels as if her own doors Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Meh- it. thamesandhudsonusa.com. gotten everyone’s attention and Black Restau- were closing – which only happened once in her your shelves retu, William Pope.L, LaToya Ruby Frazier, rant Week has never mattered more,” Burrell business history, when martial law was declared Henry Taylor, Mickalene Th omas, Sadie Bar- DIY Art Projects by Thomas Bärnthaler BY SHANA NYS DAMBROT says. “We’re all at attention right now and there during the Rodney King riots. nette, Jordan Casteel, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, In typically gorgeous Phaidon style, 50 in- is a vehicle called Black Restaurant Week that “I know the sweat and tears that it takes Noah Davis, Deana Lawson, Eric N. Mack, ternational visual designers and artists have has opened up for diverse cultures and their to keep the business going, even in the good Christina Quarles, and Brenna Youngblood. pulled together a proper syllabus of simple, menus and a black woman doing tacos. Th at’s times,” she says as tears well up in her own new art season is upon us, but 1839 -- deployed across chapters like Props Edited and with evocative text by acclaimed sophisticated DIY art and design projects. With tremendous support and value.” eyes. “Th is is teaching every business owner with the “new normal” restric- and Poses, Hand Painting, Clouds, Th e Rem- writer Antwaun Sargent (author of Th e New an eye towards aff ordability and accessibility Black Restaurant Week was launched in 2016 something else – don’t take those good times tions on travel and gatherings, brandt Eff ect, Night Photography, New Angles, Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art when it comes to varying skill sets, each project by founder Warren Luckett in Houston in or- for granted.