FEATURING:

Vocalist – acari, Carina Valdes | Mixed Media Artist – Allegra J. Bick-Maurischat | Mixed Media/Chicano Artist – Armando Delgado-Franco | AWỌ Center – Folake Phillips, Founder | Painter – George Rivera | Executive Director – Jeremiah Davis | Poet – Mayra Flores | Poet – Mighty Mike McGee | Asian Man Records – Mike Park | Painter – Pragati Sharma Mohanty | Painter/Muralist – Roan Victor | DJ Toonin – Yareli Rivera | Multidisciplinary artist – Yuting Wang

This issue, Profile 18.4, our 76th, is my last as the head of CONTENT Magazine. I have been looking to pass on the leadership of this magazine I founded 14 years ago for a few years. Even in the hiring process with David E. Valdespino, Jr., I told him I was looking to hand over the reins in a couple of years. Soon after David came on staff, it was evident that he has the skills and desire to direct Content into the future. I look forward to seeing how he, Jasmine Bridges, SVCreates, and all the great contributors will carry the mission of featuring South Bay creatives into the future.

There really is no other message I can communicate in this last “Cultivator Notes” than, “Thank you!” Though I get much of the credit for Content, the reality is that it has always been a collaboration—from the willingness of my wife, Sarah Garcia, who gave me the support to venture out and start a print publication in the digital age, to the very early-day volunteers like Mary Matlack, Flora Moreno de Thompson, Jeff Gardner, Brandon Roos, Stan Olszewski, Stacy Ernst, Terra Wood-Taylor, Odile Sullivan-Tarazi, Connie Martinez, Kristen (Pfund) Garcia, and all the SVCreates staff. And there are so many more that I cannot list them all, but your willingness to see and act on the vision that the South Bay has a vibrant and active creative scene is what has made it possible.

To you all, I thank you for helping, contributing, supporting, and seeing the vision. Thank you, and here’s to many more years of celebrating our local creatives. Thank you all for your friendship and support.

Daniel Garcia, THE CULTIVATOR