the hills here are changing and we're becoming the neighborhood watch to aggressively defend our positions. 🏗🏚
nine triple zero eight index. coming soon
i love you all (except karen and tom) 🖤
#percussion #practice #meditation
"Weather was one of my top priorities while commiting to a new city. Well, weather and safety. Coming to America, I knew there were informal rules for Black people to exist. We went everywhere across Los Angeles. I mean everywhere! The Palisades. Santa Monica. Brentwood. Hancock Park. Not a single person coming out those houses looked like me. Reflecting back, I know my realtor must have been exhausted. At the end of the day, I just wanted to live in a neighborhood where I could walk around in peace and not get harassed because of the color of my skin. What a sad metric we even have to consider. SKIN! (laughs) I think we saw somewhere around 100 homes across the city? I was beginning to feel a little hopeless, but when we accidently stumbled upon Baldwin Hills, I felt a sense of relief. I knew I was home."
-Neighbor #30, Baldwin Hills Estates
#90008index #felemaye #storytelling #neighborhooddontplay #interview #remembrance #blacklosangeles
I am honestly overwhelmed. Reading through your messages and affirmations over the last few days has been such a gift!
My dad was an avid reader and the official keeper of our family archive. Growing up, he would divide the LA Times sections among us. Delina and I'd be itching to get up and go watch Sister Sister reruns or whatever else was on, but he made us read from front to back lol. I’d dive into what I call the "fun sections" just to see the creative possibilities of our city while waiting for the ritual to end so I could go eat Mama's kitcha fit fit. 😏
When I moved to New York, he’d physically cut out articles he knew I’d find them interesting and save them for me to read. If the story couldn't wait, he'd read them to me over FaceTime while we had our dinner together. It was his way of keeping me close to home, no matter the miles.
To now have this story told in the same pages he used to make us sit and read feels wild. It’s a reminder that Geza Ḥlmi and the 90008 is an Angeleno story. Knowing that this resonated with so many of you makes this homecoming feel even more intentional. 🥹
Special thank you to: @latimesimage , @elisawoukalmino@pictorialreference , @hoodmidcenturymodern , @savannahsinhal@flaaames@1000000000devwilllll@linaaaaaye@princessaleakim , @leelai , Berhe, The Estate of Ato Yemane Ghebremichael, Mama, Daddy watching over us, and of course my bebiye.
There is so much more to come, but in the meantime, I’m just happy to be back and meeting more of you. It truly feels good to be home. ☀️🌴 Love you all. 💙🙏🏾
My family looked at countless homes throughout Los Angeles, and they didn’t really feel moved by anything, until one day they stumbled upon this. My parents made the transaction immediately, because the house, the views and the intentionality of the way the space was designed just spoke to them both. They are design nerds. They value the preciousness of beauty, be it in a space or an object. They just wanted to make sure that their future family would live in a beautiful and serene place.
If you’re familiar with the building tradition in Eritrea, it’s not a special or glamorous thing to title a house. So most houses are named after the family. For the purpose of creating a sense of anonymity for our family we call our home “Geza Ḥlmi.” “Geza” is equivalent to villa or casa. “Hil’mi” means dreams. So it’s more of an ode to the feeling, a space to dream.
—@felemaye at the link in bio
Subject @felemaye
Words @hoodmidcenturymodern and @pictorialreference
Photos @hoodmidcenturymodern
Art director and editor @savannahsinhal
Producer and photo editor/retoucher @flaaames
The first time Felema Yemaneberhan invited me over was maybe in 2025. I know it was sunny and warm, but I can’t figure out the season in L.A. from that. Pulling up to Felema’s home in Baldwin Hills Estates, the first thing I saw was a Japanese garden tucked on the right side of the home’s facade. The Black neighborhoods like Baldwin Hills Estates, Ladera Heights and View Park all sit hillside with some of the illest views in the city. Nah, like for real. The white curved walls offset with those two Miami Beach electric-blue mosaic columns, a single rose and an ADT home security sign took my eye. I didn’t even notice the facade was windowless until Felema said something.
The home was developed in 1983 by Edward and Lynn Edward Ivie, and designed and completed by Black builder and Cal Poly grad E. Michael White in 1985, who lived in the home with his family. Felema and her family moved in just five years later. As soon as she told me the crib was built by a brother I said, “Yo, is this some Black postmodernist architecture?”
At the link in bio, Jerald "Coop" Cooper (@hoodmidcenturymodern ) and Rossen Ventzislavov (@pictorialreference ) chat with architectural designer @felemaye about Black postmodernism and the legacy of her family home.
Subject @felemaye
Words @hoodmidcenturymodern and @pictorialreference
Photos @hoodmidcenturymodern
Art director and editor @savannahsinhal
Producer and photo editor/retoucher @flaaames
