The landscape is a beautiful confluence of geometry – Cahuilla tribal land, small ranchos and trailer parks, palm gardens and polo grounds, rimmed by mountains in purple and gold.
– Susan Straight
A native Californian and award-winning author, Susan Straight creates a story map of the streets of Coachella, beautifully photographed by Douglas McCulloh.
There may be nowhere in America where the ancient and the new coexist so closely, and where multimillion dollar enterprises like music festivals and golf course communities and desert mansions are within sight of beet fields, date palm gardens, migrant workers and residents of mobile home parks. There is beauty everywhere in this valley surrounded by riven mountains, laid out in geometric precision with streets named for some Presidents and avenues crossing green fields and silver crowns of palm.
-Susan Straight
See the entire story map HERE.
We were proud to include Susan in our We Are the Humanities video series. To celebrate over 40 years of grantmaking, programming and partnerships, we invited a group of prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. Her words are captured in the video below and live on our website.
