The cultural loss no one talks about: The Eaton Fire, John Outterbridge and the erasure of Black history

by Minister King X (Pyeface)

Black History Month and the stories we choose to remember

Every February, America pauses to acknowledge Black History Month. Schools teach about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, corporations roll out their predictable tributes, and politicians give speeches about Black contributions to society. But what about the Black history that isn’t neatly packaged? What about the history that’s actively erased?

The Eaton Fire, which raged through Altadena in January 2025, wasn’t just a natural disaster. It was an assault on Black cultural memory. It burned through a historic Black enclave, wiping out generations of homeownership, and destroyed the Outterbridge family home, which housed the legacy of the legendary artist John Outterbridge (1933–2020), a pioneering sculptor, arts educator and former director of the Watts Towers Arts Center. Yet, mainstream media barely acknowledged it.

This Black History Month, we ask: Who decides which Black stories get remembered? If history is erased in real time, who will fight to preserve it?

In this conversation, Minister King X (Pyeface) sits down with C-Note to discuss why a Bay Area newspaper — the San Francisco Bay View — is covering this story instead of Los Angeles media and how the Eaton Fire represents a broader pattern of Black cultural erasure.

Why is a Bay Area newspaper covering this instead of L.A. media?

Minister King X: C-Note, we’re sitting here in the middle of Black History Month talking about the Eaton Fire, one of the biggest cultural losses Black Los Angeles has ever seen. Why is it a Bay Area newspaper, not an L.A. publication, covering this?

C-Note: The Bay has always been a center for Black radical journalism. The San Francisco Bay View covers what mainstream media won’t. L.A. media prioritizes celebrity and white cultural landmarks. If the Getty Museum had burned, if Hollywood had lost some of its history, it would be front-page news.

Black Los Angeles has always had to fight to be seen — whether it’s the Watts Rebellion, the L.A. Uprisings of ’92, or now, the Eaton Fire. Black History Month isn’t just about remembering the past; it’s about recognizing how Black history is being erased right now.

Black History and the media’s priorities

Minister King X: Man, we’re in Black History Month, and what’s the mainstream media talking about? They’re still focused on the Pacific Palisades Fire like that was the only thing that happened.

C-Note: Fires don’t just destroy homes; they destroy history. When Black cultural landmarks are lost, they’re rarely mourned in the same way as white spaces.

In 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre wiped out Black Wall Street, and it took a century for America to even acknowledge it. How long will it take for L.A. to recognize the loss of the Eaton Fire? Every February, they want to celebrate Black achievements. But will they honor the Black art, homes and history that just went up in flames?

Who was John Outterbridge? A Black History Month reflection

John Outterbridge was a griot, a keeper of Black history through art. Born in 1933 in North Carolina, he saw beauty in discarded materials and transformed them into art that told Black stories. His Rag Man and Containment series documented the resilience of Black communities. Outterbridge was not just an artist; he was a cultural archivist, turning discarded materials into powerful social commentaries on race, history and displacement.

As director of the Watts Towers Arts Center, he nurtured Black artistic expression for nearly two decades. The Watts Towers, an iconic folk-art structure built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia between 1921 and 1955, became a symbol of resilience for Black and Brown communities in South Los Angeles. Outterbridge’s tenure at the center helped elevate it into a globally recognized hub for African American and Chicano artists. His work is in the Smithsonian, the Studio Museum of Harlem and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), yet his loss in the Eaton Fire was ignored.

Did Outterbridge himself perish in the fire? No, he passed away in 2020, but the legacy he left behind — his archives, artwork and personal history — was vulnerable to destruction in the fire that claimed his family home. His daughter, Tami Outterbridge, had been preserving his life’s work, making her home a living repository of Black art history. If Black History Month is about honoring our past, why isn’t Outterbridge’s legacy being uplifted in February?

Tami Outterbridge, the keeper of a legacy, now displaced

Minister King X: Black History Month is about preserving legacy. What happens when the keepers of that history lose everything?

C-Note: Tami Outterbridge wasn’t just John Outterbridge’s daughter — she was the steward of his legacy, along with her own legacy as a Hollywood screenwriter. The Eaton Fire destroyed her home, along with potentially irreplaceable pieces of her father’s artwork and archives, along with her works as a writer.

This wasn’t just her personal loss; it was a loss to the entire art world. We talk about Black generational wealth, but what about generational culture? What happens when our history isn’t just stolen, it’s burned to the ground?

Black Altadena, a community on fire, literally and figuratively

In 1980, Black residents made up 43% of Altadena’s population. By 2020, it had declined to 18% due to gentrification. Eighty-one percent of Black residents in Altadena owned their homes, far above the national average of 44%.

The Eaton Fire destroyed or severely damaged nearly half of those Black-owned homes. What the government, banks and developers couldn’t erase through policy, the fire did in a single night. This Black History Month, we must recognize that Black history isn’t just erased in textbooks. It’s erased in real time through displacement and disaster.

What if the Watts Towers had burned?

Minister King X: Let’s put this into perspective: What if the Watts Towers had burned?

C-Note: Would the city have mourned? Would there be a fundraising campaign? Would the mayor make a statement?

L.A. cherishes the Hollywood Sign, the Griffith Observatory, the Getty Museum — but does it cherish Black landmarks the same way? The Watts Towers stands, for now. For decades, preservationists have fought to keep them from crumbling due to neglect, while other historical sites in L.A. receive millions in restoration funds. Outterbridge understood that the Watts Towers weren’t just an art installation; they were a defiant declaration that beauty and culture could thrive in marginalized spaces. But how long before something else happens and the Black community is left to fight for its preservation alone?

Black cultural loss is systemic

The Eaton Fire isn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a larger history of Black erasure.

Seneca Village was demolished for Central Park. Black Wall Street was burned down in Tulsa. The Fillmore District in San Francisco was gutted by “urban renewal.” Every Black History Month, they tell us to honor our past, but when we try to hold onto it, we’re met with indifference.

John Outterbridge’s work reminds us that discarded materials — whether literal objects or entire histories — can be reclaimed and reassembled into something powerful. The loss of his archives and home in the Eaton Fire should serve as a wake-up call. If we do not actively preserve our history, it will be erased, whether by flames, policy, or neglect.

The final question: Who will fight for Black art?

Minister King X: C-Note, we’re wrapping this up. What’s the message you want people to take from this, especially during Black History Month?

C-Note: We always say, “Give us our flowers while we’re here,” but what happens when those flowers are burned down before we can even smell them? Black art, Black culture, Black history — it’s all under attack. If we don’t fight to preserve it, no one will. The Eaton Fire was an erasure of history. And history tells us one thing: If we don’t document and defend our past, they’ll rewrite it without us.

Minister King X: When we see this sort of ripple effect become a dark side of gentrification, what is your truth to be told about this effect? 

C-Note: It’s very sad. It’s displacement. We can’t establish generational wealth. Home ownership is a vital commodity in handing down generational wealth, but you can’t do so if you are constantly being displaced. In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma, American Blacks had built up so much equity in this Southern city, it became known as Black Wall Street. Imagine that, Wall Street in the South?

After that, there was the Great Migration, because Southern whites made it politically and economically unlivable in the South. Here in Los Angeles, one of the negative effects of illegal immigration was the Black homes lost due to eminent domain. Back in the day, Black outcries went unheard when they raised the question, “Why are we building all these new schools?”

The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana, was 98% Black American with a 59% home ownership rate. This was before the Category 5 hurricane in 2005. Since then, rising housing costs, gentrification and inadequate disaster relief hindered their return. 

Let’s not always blame well-off developers, as in gentrification. Sometimes it’s natural disasters; sometimes it’s politicians and their misguided policies, such as freeway choices and using eminent domain; other times it’s surrounding communities, as in Tulsa, or our neighbors, as in burning crosses on lawns. 

Minister King X: While I was incarcerated in Lancaster State Prison, I wrote and performed a play titled, “We Must Find Our Wings,” which was written about the Oakland Ghost Ship fires, where we lost many artists and activists to a terrible fire. With that being said, how do you, C-Note, intend to use your art to bolster these sorts of stories and not only raise awareness but support for the community impacted by the Eaton Fire?

Even from your K.A.G.E.?

C-Note: We’re doing it now. Working with you and the owners of the Bay View, the Ratcliffs, we’re raising awareness and educating the community, not just my community in L.A., but the Bay Area and every community across these United States whose attempts at home ownership, the lynchpin to generational wealth, are constantly being undermined and attacked.

Minister King X: With that being said, should we now coordinate from L.A. to the BayArea and get all artists and advocates involved with a project that can be exhibited at Joyce Gordon Art Gallery and Geoffory’s Inner Circle in Oakland’s Black Artist District, where the City Council is struggling to support these Black businesses?

C-Note: Absolutely! I’ve watched you get out of prison after doing 24 years, organizing the community around social issues, especially carceral issues. That’s why your name rings in the streets of Cali. You’re known from L.A. to the Bay as a go-to artivist (artist-activist). To not have been out six months and to have organized the first annual Ratcliff Awards, now that was something there. 

But I am not going to miss this opportunity to take aim at the philanthropic world. Because they have a deep seated funding prejudice against grassroots activism. 

It just sickens me to no end that myself, yourself and the Ratcliffs are financially struggling during a time of great philanthropic braggadociousness. They need a DEI program for philanthropy. Providing grants in the 21st century to the same people with bachelor’s and master’s degrees ain’t going to cut it. They got some real OGs out here who have been doing grassroots activism since the 20th century, long before the philanthropic community demarcated a formal educational litmus test. 

I talked to Tami, and she’s going to apply to the Mellon Foundation art grants for people who earned their living in the creative economy but lost their homes due to the Eaton Fire. You know I am going to keep my eye on the Mellon Foundation, as they have a $125M grant for carceral related art creations, and you and I haven’t seen a half a penny. I mean, how much authentic prison art the Ratcliffs have collected over the decades, and these philanthropic organizations have done nothing to help them archive these important pieces of American history.

Call to action: Black History Month is more than a celebration; it’s a responsibility

• Demand that cultural losses from the Eaton Fire be recognized.
• Support Black art institutions like the Watts Towers Arts Center.
• Amplify the stories of artists like John Outterbridge so they aren’t erased.

For media inquiries, contact C-Note

If you are interested in meeting the world’s most prolific prison artist, he’d love to hear from you. To contact C-Note, follow these easy steps:

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Add: Donald Hooker K94063

State: California

Facility: CSP-LAC

Write mail to: Donald “C-Note” Hooker, CDCR #K94063, P.O. Box 4430, Lancaster, CA 93539

Or support through a donation via JPay (website or app):

State: California

Prison number: K94063

Name: Donald Hooker

Meet Minister King X: Minister King X (Pyeface), of California Prison Focus / K.A.G.E. Universal, was born in Oakland California. Minister King X is an artivist, journalist and advocate for liberation of Elders and the Prisoners’ Human Rights Movement. A former political prisoner, he spent six years in federal prison and 18 years in California state prison, where he was the youngest New Afrikan organizer during the 2011-2013 California Prisoners’ Hunger Strike. He continues to work extensively with grassroots organizations like Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) to challenge mass incarceration and systemic oppression. Minister King X is co-organizer of Community Artivists Read Book Club, which he hopes to introduce to prisoners in Solano State Prison and Maryland State Prison along with his theatre courses with Leah Joki from No-Joke Theatre. His writing in the San Francisco Bay View focuses on the erasure of Black history, the struggles of the incarcerated, and the cultural resilience of Black communities. He can be reached at 510-213-4008,

email [email protected].

@OfficialMinisterKingXPyeface Instagram

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Listen to “WORLD ON FIRE” by Minister King X Pyeface on Spotify,YouTube, iTunes, Pandora, iheartRadio.

The post The cultural loss no one talks about: The Eaton Fire, John Outterbridge and the erasure of Black history appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Source: https://sfbayview.com/2025/02/the-cultural-loss-no-one-talks-about-the-eaton-fire-john-outterbridge-and-the-erasure-of-black-history/