We had the good fortune of connecting with Aaron Castillo-White and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
We live in troubling times. This is a world that for some, feels meaner, crueler, and isolating than at any point in recent memory. Kultur Mercado works to remedy that with events focused on cultural connection and opportunity.

Our events are shaped around the idea that we should talk up to people rather than down, different communities should interact with each other, and that our events should, to the greatest degree possible, be judgment-free. What that looks like is free events, with food and drinks provided, and ensuring that we always have volunteers to greet first-timers to ensure that we are not only building a community but making people feel welcome at a time when many feel the opposite.

This year, we’re in the process of expanding our programs and resources to include activity sheets, self-run cultural programs, and culturally-conscious games you can take, print, and use in your communities to help export positive ideas and outcomes outside our home base of Southern California.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In the past year, I spearheaded LA Yiddish Day, helping to reunite and reconnect the disparate elements of a community of cultural and linguistic activists who hadn’t all joined together in nearly a decade. This all-day free event with workshops, art, and live music got off the ground in less than 70 days and brought together nearly 400 people interested in Yiddish, a minoritized language and cultural community, and its allies.

It wasn’t easy to pull off and was made possible through the relationships I’ve made over the last 8 years in Los Angeles and with the invaluable support of the many organizations and partners we’ve built along the way. My co-leads for the event, Ruth Judkowitz and Rabbi Zach Golden were excellent sounding boards and together, we made a successful event whose impact has been catalyzed by a renewed sense of community among Yiddish speakers.

This year, based on the success of the last, we’re already building more partnerships and moving to a larger venue to ensure we can accommodate the growing demand for this community.

What I’ve learned is that it is easy to take everything upon yourself and hard to both trust others and let things be outside your control, but you will often find that it in the process of building this trust, you build community, you bring in new people, and sometimes, will come off pleasantly surprised. Also, prepare for a lot of paperwork in getting big events off the ground and don’t be afraid to contact other eventsw organizers to help you navigate making your events successful.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
LA is a constellation of scenes rather than a single center; it’s more like fifty-something suburbs in a trench coat, with the exception of Downtown, so the joy, and the abject horror, is in the movement.

On day one we’d start slowly on the Westside: coffee and bagels at Isaac Jyan Bread, maybe check out the beach, and then into the galleries. A highlight would be Guest House Gallery, run by artist Kour Pour, which captures something essential about LA, serious art presented with warmth and experimentation. From there we’d move toward mid-city for more exhibitions at Reisig and Taylor Contemporary or the Nazarian/Curcio Gallery. Both are great spaces showing artists making work in exciting ways, though they offer very different directions and kinds of artists, which also helps to round out the city as a whole.

That kind of day moving from studio-like galleries to artist-run spaces feels like the heartbeat of the city’s art world.

The night would belong to music. LA’s live venues are still the heartbeat of the city, which continues to move eastward.
Depending on the show, we might end up at Permanent Records Roadhouse, a beloved hybrid of record shop, bar, and live venue where you can discover a new band while flipping through vinyl. Other shows could take us to Zebulon or Lodge Room, both of which capture the magic of LA nightlife—music, art, and conversation all blending into the same evening.

Oh, and if the timing worked out. We’d go to Gothicumbia, the greatest current dance night in LA, no question.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are too many people and organizations to name, so I’ll limit it to the few that stand out for different reasons. Sarah Benor at the Jewish Language Project has been an incredible mentor, bridge-builder, and now organizational partner to my work. Anne Bray, who recently retired from Freewaves, stood as a bastion for community experimentation for cross-cultural programming and free expression in the arts for over 40 years without ego ever getting in the way. It was Anne’s quiet persistence that helped to breathe life into so many corners of the art world and introduce so many different parts of LA’s cultural life to one another. These two women in particular have been incredible influences on my thinking and work.

Website: https://www.kulturmercado.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kulturmercado/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kultur-mercado/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KulturMercado

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChPo4nuN-3S_fYF2ZDwhWKQ

Image Credits
mustafa rony zeno, jackie castillo

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