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It’s not always easy to locate the origins of The Discourse. Terms like “intention,” “doing the work” and “unlearning” might be on-trend vocabulary now. On trend for whom? Angelenos wonder. These aren’t just pedagogical buzzwords in L.A.; they’re how we make it home.

Ask any person who has attempted to get off the 10 at Hoover or Vermont, or tried not getting stuck going to San Pedro, what happens when you do so without intention. (You miss the exit.) “Doing the work” is top of mind as we glance at organizers offering free phone charges to unhoused people while the luxury towers cast shade over Little Toyko; it’s what we think about walking past some neighbors sweeping aside the unattended nails loitering in the middle of Wilshire. The people of L.A. know what it takes to reveal beauty: unlearning the many stages of fugazi that created the eyesores in the first place.

The beauty of L.A. is intuitive. We get credit around the world for what’s above the hood but here, beauty is just as much about feeling as it is about looks. What moves us is having some skin in the game. The pushes, pulls, pokes are really just signs that love can hurt so good. Beauty punctures — and we would have it no other way. We seek out that space of vulnerability; the search for where beauty resides is a shared experience. Angelenos are proselytizers of process. Our desire to reveal beauty moves us, bonds us, empowers us to be accountable to its promise. We know what could be. So we use our imaginations; in our mind’s eye our beloved city looks like it does in our dreams.

Issue 5 is titled “Reverence.” Your warm embrace has arrived in the form of art, stories, conversations — tender hugs from L.A.'s very own. Julissa James bears witness to the humanity contained in the faces of loved ones drawn on bodies by some of the best portrait artists around. Jean Chen Ho mines the rawness of loss in the form of a thirst trap. Mr. Wash shares his gift of empathy with AJ Girard. Taylor Renee Aldridge talks to Texas Isaiah about the photographer’s “ability to evidence parts of ourselves that we don’t know or intentionally conceal.”

Seeing, thinking about or creating beauty begins from a place of deep respect, love. Los Angeles has been doing the work. It’s time The Discourse took an intentional westward turn.

Ian F. Blair
Editor in chief

This L.A. artist’s DMs are open. And everyone — even Drake — is sliding in

This L.A. artist’s DMs are open. And everyone — even Drake — is sliding in

Fulton Leroy “Mr. Wash” Washington is putting his story to the best use for the world Read the story 👨🏿‍🎨
Tattoo their name on your body if you love them. Get their face if you really care

Tattoo their name on your body if you love them. Get their face if you really care

Artists Nikko Hurtado, Arlene Salinas and Steve Butcher take you inside one of the most intimate energy exchanges in the world: tattoo portraiture Read the story ✍️
Grieving via thirst traps

Grieving via thirst traps

Can posting a photo of myself on Instagram wearing a triangle top string bikini help process the nothingness of loss? Read the story 🥀
Issue 5 cover

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Issue 5: Reverence

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What am I supposed to do with my sideburns? Feel no shame and style them as you wish

What am I supposed to do with my sideburns? Feel no shame and style them as you wish

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Unpacking the layers of the self never looked so tender Read the story 🪞
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Entrepreneur Nyakio Grieco, leader of the beauty and hair-care vanguard, knows what’s next Read the story 💆🏾‍♀️
Styling Myself: Rhuigi Villaseñor

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From From Zegna’s Pure Cashmere Overshirt to Esquivel’s Jolene boots, you’ll be ready for those cold fall nights out in the city Read the story 🍷
The Drip Index is here to fill those fall planners with the best L.A. has to offer

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