To the Women of Pico-Aliso and the Community of Boyle Heights:
We at BBQLA would like to apologize for our roles as hipster bro gentrifiers who have colonized Boyle Heights with our gallery, used shallow identity politics in an attempt to legitimize our presence, and ignored countless protests by working-class community members and their accomplices in order to pander to the indifferent denizens of the art world. Like Robert Zin Stark of MaRS recently said of his gallery, we acknowledge that the presence of BBQLA and other galleries in Boyle Heights correlates with the increase in rental rates and speculative luxury real-estate development, as well as evictions of longtime local residents, who, in addition to successfully fighting displacement, have also been battling the murderous LA police department, ICE, and a sold out city council.
Being from the Midwest, and originally showing work from artists we knew from Kansas City until we felt like we had to include LA Latinx artists, we admit that we didn’t really know what was going on in Boyle Heights. The rent was cheap and the beer was cold. With some soul-searching and after being convinced to listen to Defend Boyle Heights by some of those close to us (whose emotional labor we ignored for so long), we’ve had a change of heart. And we now realize how ironic it was that we roasted pigs at openings, but we were benefitting from the protection of LAPD, the same pigs who killed 14-year-old Jesse Romero. That’s fucked up.
We deeply regret putting our need to guzzle PBR and to exhibit shitty bro art above the livelihoods of the community members of Boyle Heights. We also apologize for further cultivating rape culture at our bro-tastic openings and will pursue training in sexual harassment awareness and harm prevention for ourselves and our community.
Per the demands outlined in the boycott, we will give the keys to BBQLA to Defend Boyle Heights and will work with the community to open a shelter that provides services to the homeless. BBQLA will get the fuck out of Boyle Heights.