vani sanganeria

Knock LA • 28th February 2024

Inside UCLA Student Workers’ Fight for a Truly Public University

For Menelik Tafari, losing a day’s worth of pay could mean losing care for his daughter, who was born with serious health complications earlier this year.

“My daughter has been on seizure watch, in [hospitals], and she’s needed more care and more support,” Tafari said. “I’ve had to opt to be a stay-at-home dad — not working and not teaching — really just focusing on my child.”

Tafari is a native Angeleno, lifelong public educator, and fourth-year urban schooling graduate student at UCLA. Befor

Knock LA • 19th February 2024

Student Workers Move Closer to Unionizing at USC

Two and a half years before the historic graduate worker strike at neighboring University of California, Kritika Pandey canceled her flight back home to New Delhi from Los Angeles. As COVID-19 cases grew rapidly in LA, she was forced to extend her stay as an international student worker at the University of Southern California on a $30,500 stipend that barely covered her initial nine months of rent and living expenses in LA.

“During the pandemic, I really had to struggle to make ends meet while

LA Public Press • 18th February 2024

This is how liquor licenses play a role in gentrifying Highland Park

HIGHLAND PARK — Angela Gonzales-Torres has no problem with a cheeky Fig Leaf Negroni served up on a laid-back patio on a Tuesday afternoon. She does have a problem with her neighborhood turning into a playground for the rich, she said, which is why she filed with the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to protest Highly Likely and its alcohol permit when the restaurant opened in Highland Park last July.

“I was photographing these staple establishments — the 98 Cent Store, the affordable

LA Public Press • 18th February 2024

Health concerns prompt LA City Council to reject changes at Van Nuys Airport

Eric Gill said that at times, the air around Van Nuys airport is so thick with jet fumes that “you could cut it with a knife.”

Gill, from Sun Valley, is just one of many residents opposing a new management lease at Van Nuys Airport (VNY). They believe that changes to the airport could lead to an increase in emissions — which is why they attended an LA City Council special session to oppose helicopter company Helinet Aviation’s

L.A. TACO • 18th February 2024

An Egyptian Immigrant Takes on Birria and Border Culture Outside Tijuana’s Centro Islamico ~ L.A. TACO

A few blocks from the beachfront row of Jalisco-inspired birria vendors, Egyptian aromatics cut through the traditionally spiced, ancho, and guajillo chile-scented ocean mist of Playas de Tijuana, where Mohammed Gamal sets up shop in front of the Centro Islamico de Baja y Masjid Omar. It’s Tijuana’s most prominent Islamic cultural center and mosque—serving Arabic migrants, Muslim mosque-goers, and longtime residents of the Tijuana borough.

Gamal’s most popular staple on his menu is also the nam

Annenberg Media • 17th February 2024

Audio: Tattoo artist headlines queer disco nights at Honey's

On the back patio of now one-year old bar Honey’s – one of L.A.’s few nightlife spaces dedicated to lesbian, non-binary, trans and queer women in the city – artist Devon Davis tattoos partygoers.

Here is Vani Sanganeria speaking with Devon Davis, founder and tattoo artist at Baby Grae Ink in Los Angeles.

Daily Trojan • 17th February 2024

Queer nightlife becomes ground zero to L.A.’s monkeypox response

On the corner of 4th Street and Broadway, Brian Sullivan and his husband spent Friday night at Precinct, a popular gay bar in Downtown Los Angeles. It was their first night out since news of the monkeypox virus broke in the queer community.

Drawn in by familiar strobe lights pulsing to the DJ’s ‘80s disco mix, Sullivan weaved through tipsy strangers and barely audible conversations to the dance floor. He spent the last few weekends, Sullivan said, trying to find monkeypox vaccines for him and h

USC Annenberg • 24th June 2023

Video: UC Graduate Workers Strike - Day 1

Represented by the UAW union, a coalition of the UC’s teaching assistants, postdoctoral scholars, and academic researchers have been negotiating with the university for a new contract since March 2021. Their key issues include fair compensation, job security, affordable housing, support for parents and disabled workers, and protections from bullying and harassment at work.

10th June 2023

Audio Q&A: Highland Park resident protests alcohol permit for cafe Highly Likely

(Photo by L.A. TACO) Angela Gonzalez-Torres says corporate newcomers to her Highland Park neighborhood are displacing longtime residents and small businesses. As president of the volunteer-run Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, she began protesting prominent L.A. restaurateur Carey Mosier’s request for an alcohol permit for his new cafe Highly Likely last July. In an interview with Vani Sanganeria, Gonzalez-Torres explains how too many bars and too little regulation from local government has changed Highland Park from home to an “amusement park,” and what can be done to reinvest in the local community moving forward.

Annenberg Media • 10th June 2023

Award-winning journalists Cerise Castle and Mc Nelly Torres on the strength it takes to run toward danger

Journalist Cerise Castle was covering protests in response to George Floyd’s murder for a local radio station in 2020 when a Los Angeles Police Department officer shot her with a rubber bullet. She was left with a severe leg injury and a doctor’s mandate to leave the field for six months of bed rest.

“In that moment, as a Black woman in journalism,” said Castle, “I just did not feel comfortable sitting down and being still.”

Days after she was shot, Castle read about an 18-year-old security gu