Los Angeles has resonated with song long before electronic recording. This episode traces the city’s audio origins back to its First Peoples, the Tongva. Learn how this Indigenous community stays attuned to cultural practice while envisioning new pathways. On this episode of Deep Routes, L. Frank, The Calderon family, Moira and Wallace Cleaves, Mercedes and Robert Dorame tell stories that will help you listen more deeply to Los Angeles. This is Deep Routes, Songs from Tovaangar.

Deep Routes is a radio series produced by dublab in partnership with Metro Art and with support from Cal Humanities and the Eastside Arts Initiative. Deep Routes explores the music histories embedded in the Los Angeles landscape and the transit topographies that connect them. You will hear interconnecting dialog from different music scenes, themes of identity, and civic themes that correspond to LA neighborhoods, featuring in-depth interviews with local artists, business owners, and community leaders. Fundamentally we aim to identify lesser told oral histories, and the ingredients required to allow musical cultures to prosper.

Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back) (detail), 2023, Mercedes Dorame

The Calderon family performing at Union Station

Carry by L. Frank

Tongva Monument by Robert Dorame

This program was made possible through support from the Eastside Arts Initiative and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit California Humanities website for more info at: calhum.org.