RSS FeedsSteve Lopez on Nathaniel Anthony Ayers
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From Skid Row to Disney Hall
Steve Lopez's 5-part series was sparked by his friendship with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless musician with schizophrenia who sleeps each night on one of skid row's most dangerous streets. Lopez has chronicled Ayers' life on the streets in his columns, listed here.
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STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
Nathaniel was shy in our first encounter a few months ago, if not a little wary. He took a step back when I approached to say I liked the way his violin music turned the clatter around downtown L.A.'s Pershing Square into an urban symphony.
CHAPTER 28
Five years later . . .
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
When I saw Nathaniel Anthony Ayers back in his usual location, I had to ask: How could he stand playing a crummy violin when he had a brand new cello waiting for him several blocks away?
STEVE LOPEZ POINTS WEST
The bright young Westchester High School students I was talking to at Thursday's Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting were being cheated.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
I know only part of his story. I know him playing the cello on a dairy crate in the morning sun, suspended somewhere between boy genius and lost traveler.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
Alexis Rivera, owner of Little Pedro's Blue Bongo in downtown Los Angeles, was riding his bike to work one night when he saw Nathaniel Anthony Ayers playing violin near the mouth of the 2nd Street tunnel. Rivera stopped and listened for more than an hour before approaching Nathaniel with a proposition.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
I got the message while I was out of town. The owner of Little Pedro's said Nathaniel had flipped out while playing cello at the downtown Los Angeles club, launching into a belligerent tirade in front of his audience.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
The timing was perfect. I had just asked a Yale professor why there are no mentally ill people living on the streets of Norway, where he helped design some of the most progressive mental health treatment in the world. Then a colleague mentioned she was working on a story about Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies dumping a mentally ill man on skid row in downtown Los Angeles, where thousands of chronically ill people sleep on filthy, rat-infested streets.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
Nathaniel was in a panic over what to wear.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
I could tell something was bothering Casey Horan and Shannon Murray, and it wasn't hard to guess what. They're in the business of patience, and I've got very little of it.
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
First Suite: The Apartment
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
Christmas came a couple of weeks early to the skid row apartment of a soulful gent who goes by the name of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers.
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Stakes Are So High, It's Hard to WaitHelp for Skid Row
MAP OF SKID ROW
At 6th and San Pedro, the JWCH Medical Clinic treats many of the roughly 10,000 people who flop on skid row streets each night.
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