Elevation

Beauty has a way of summoning us. It beckons the spirit to try it on for size. We’re not just talking about the large Amazon delivery box full of exactly one bottle of toner that arrives at 7:26 p.m., minutes before it’s time to head out for dinner at Mother Wolf. Or the cosmetics pop-up fire sales. Or the probably too clever wheat-paste ads on fences trying to get you to walk inside the new flagship store. Beauty tempts us from different places — commercial, sacrilegious and sacred. It lures us in with the strength of its promise.

She’s staring at you in her metallic bikini as you pass by her on the 10. They’re walking in slow motion in a short procession through the Arts District as a cameraman films for a new campaign. He’s recommending the latest performance-enhancing supplement for your workout: Pedialyte. The images that one encounters in Los Angeles are fantastically marketed to Angelenos’ deepest desires. The brand ambassadors make you feel as if beauty is within reach. They look, for all intents and purposes, beautiful.

It’s easy to get caught up in ideals — what beauty should look like and why. The representations and oversimplifications are omnipresent. But no matter who is put forth to represent the correct version of the ideal — who is hired to be the standard bearer of real beauty — Angelenos are keen on finding ways to access beauty on their own terms. They set up shrines in the mirror. They lay their clothes out on the bed. They set up the makeup kit and put the record on to get in the zone. Ritual is about carving out space for the magic to happen.

What transpires in that space is the work of seeing beauty as it is, understanding its potential and realizing what it can be through labor. It takes practice to be and to become who or what one wants to be.

Toward a working definition of beauty. That’s what “Elevation” is all about. In this issue, we examine beauty as a state of being, a process of realization. We thought it would be nice to show you the magic of becoming that happens when the self is free to figure things out. So our contributors took the prompt and we're excited to show you what they came back with. Author Rembert Browne unpacks what it felt like coming of age as a boy without a hairline. Musician Arima Ederra tells us how L.A. gave her the air to embrace who she is. Writer Devan Díaz homes in on what tweezing can do for the soul. Critic Jason Parham explores healing through song, revisiting the oeuvre of the Smokey Robinson of hip-hop, Nate Dogg.

We also were interested in the beauty that unfolds when no one else is around. Filmmaker Rikkí Wright let us hang with her during her self-care sessions. Photographer Naima Green followed artist Lacey Lennon on her morning spiritual at Kenneth Hahn. Those aren't the only regimens we observed from up close. We won't spoil everything, but you might leave feeling inspired to adopt a routine of your own.

Just make sure you commit to the bit. “The great hope of beauty,” Parham reminds us in his Nate Dogg opus, “is to awaken.” Let "Elevation" be the alarm going off in your head to get out there and see the beauty for yourself.

Ian F. Blair
Editor in Chief

Image logo by Sean Dong For The Times