creative

Natalia Bryant has made her debut as a creative director with a short film that features a subject matter with which she’s very familiar.

The 70-second piece is called “Forever Iconic: Purple and Gold Always,” and it’s all about the worldwide impact of the Lakers — something Bryant has experienced throughout her life as the oldest daughter of one of the Lakers’ great icons, Kobe Bryant.

The film, posted online Wednesday by the Lakers, is a fast-paced tribute to the team and its fans. It features a number of celebrity cameos — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani takes batting practice wearing a Lakers cap; current Lakers star Luka Doncic yells “Kobe!” as he shoots a towel into a hamper; fashion designer Jeff Hamilton creates a number of Lakers jackets; actor Brenda Song obsessively watches and cheers for the team on her computer; Lakers legend Magic Johnson declares, “It’s Showtime, baby!”

Mixed in are shots of regular fans paying tribute to the team in their own ways.

“This project was an amazing, collaborative environment with such creative people and we all came together to try and portray the Lakers’ impact, not only in L.A. but around the world,” Natalia Bryant said in a statement released by the Lakers. “Everyone has their own connection to the Lakers. I hope those who already love this team watch this project and remember what that pride feels like. And if you’re not a Lakers fan yet, I hope you watch this, and it makes you want to be.”

Bryant, who graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in May, included some famous Lakers clips, such as LeBron James arguing, “It’s our ball, ain’t it?” and her father hitting a buzzer-beating shot against the Phoenix Suns during the 2006 playoffs.

“Such an honor to be apart of this project!” Bryant wrote on Instagram. “Thank you @lakers for having me join as creative director💛lakers family forever”

Lakers controlling owner and president Jeanie Buss also posted the video on Instagram.

“Cheers to the millions of fans around the world who make the Lakers the most popular team in the NBA!!” Buss wrote. “You are the best fans in the league. Congratulations and huge thanks to the amazing @nataliabryant who helped bring this film to life for her creative director debut.”

Lakers superfan Song also posted a number of photos related to the project on Instagram, including one of herself with Bryant.

“Lake show for life,” Song wrote.

Bryant responded in the comments, “For life!”

Compound in Long Beach is hard to pigeonhole into any category because it’s so many things at once, and at the same time, is a singular L.A. experience. The peaceful, 14,000-square-foot cultural complex’s primary focus is to promote wellness through the avenues of contemporary art, food, healing workshops, live performances and community building.

Upon entering Compound, you’ll find yourself in a serene and minimalistic sculpture garden that leads to Union, a restaurant helmed by local Baryo chef Eugene Santiago, who cooks with seasonality, sustainability and Southeast Asian flavors in mind. The all-day restaurant caters to the different needs of the community — as a place to get coffee, cocktails, as well as lunch and dinner.

Go deeper into Compound and you’ll see artwork seamlessly blend into the complex. Currently on display until August is Southern California artist Fay Ray’s “Puerperal” exhibition, an exploration on the female identity, motherhood and the postpartum experience told through porcelain and architectural sculptures and photo collages.

One of the hallmarks of Compound’s program is its wellness workshops that include sound baths, guided meditation, drum circles, tai chi and healthy cooking demonstrations. General admission to Compound is free, and many wellness and art workshops are also free or paid through a sliding scale.

Enhance the creative experience: Check Compound’s events schedule to attend the complex’s regular open mic nights featuring poets and musicians over dinner and drinks, or take it one step further and sign up for a slot to perform.

In this week’s newsletter, we have a chat with Susan Gubar, whose new book, “Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists,” profiles seven creators who found a second wind in their advancing years. We also look at recent releases reviewed in The Times. And a local bookseller tells us what’s selling right now.

Seventeen years ago, Susan Gubar was handed a death sentence. A distinguished professor emerita of English and women’s studies at Indiana University and the co-author (with Sandra M. Gilbert) of 1979’s “The Madwoman in the Attic,” a groundbreaking work of feminist literary theory, Gubar in 2008 was staring down a terminal cancer diagnosis. A clinical trial involving an experimental drug prolonged her life and gave her the impetus to tackle a new project about seven artists — George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O’Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Lou Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks and Katherine Dunham — who entered a new phase of creative ferment and productivity as they grew older.

I talked to Gubar about her new book, the myth of old age and the persistent stereotypes attached to female artists who may be perceived as having outlived their usefulness as creators.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

✍️ Author Chat

Can you talk about how the book came about?

In 2008, I was told that I had 3-5 years to live with late-stage ovarian cancer. The standard treatment was ineffectual. But then in 2012, my oncologist encouraged me to enroll in a clinical trial that was experimenting with a new drug. After nine years in the trial, she then urged me to take “a drug holiday” since long-term use of the medication could cause leukemia. I am still on that holiday. An unanticipated old age made me appreciate the wonderful gifts longevity can bestow.

In researching your subjects, what do they all share in common?

All of my subjects are artists who experienced the losses of aging. They needed canes and wheelchairs and helpers while they suffered the pains of various diseases and regimens. One coped with blindness, another with deafness and still others with the loss of intimates. Yet in the face of such deficits, they used their art to exhibit their audacity, mojo, chutzpah, bravado. They’re exemplars of Geezer Machismo.

All of your subjects are women, who have a much tougher time in terms of earning respect and attention as they age. Can you speak to the obstacles they had to overcome as they reinvented themselves as artists in their advanced years?

The stereotypical old lady is invisible or risible, but we know that many elderly women thrive. My old ladies did not approach their life stories as prime-and-decline narratives. Instead they reinvented themselves. In part, they managed to do this by changing their objectives as artists. They moved from the stage to the page or from elite to popular forms. Some of them underwent religious or political conversions that energized their last years. They fully understood the losses of old age, but they did not settle for less. Instead, they made much of less.

What’s interesting about these artists is that — contrary, I must admit, to what I thought would have been the case — these women were supported by men who became their benefactors, and helped them to negotiate their careers.

Quite a few of the women that I write about were helped by much younger men in their lives, who became facilitators. This is true for George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O’Keeffe, Louise Bourgeoise, Mary Lou Williams and others. Williams, the great jazz pianist, was helped by a Jesuit named Father O’Brien, who helped her get control of her copyrights. Georgia O’Keeffe, in contrast, has been championed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but she had to leave him in her midlife to establish her autonomy late in life. He was very controlling, even though he definitely established her reputation. She was aided in her later years by a man young enough to be her grandson.

You are an octogenarian, and writing a book isn’t easy, as you know. Where do you find the inspiration and the strength to keep going as a creator?

What keeps me going is what kept my subjects flourishing in their seventies, eighties or nineties. Any sort of creative activity involves expression, which is a great antidote to depression. It may take the form of sculpting, painting, playing an instrument, teaching a dance routine, making a quilt or a garden, establishing a park or a prize, you name it. Without my two current writing projects, I’d be lost. Even (or maybe especially) in our dismal political climate, ongoing creative projects make each day an adventure.

📰 The Week(s) in Books

Heather Scott Partington reviews “Fox,” Joyce Carol Oates’ mystery novel about a murdered pedophile. “Fox has the bones of a potboiler but is supported by the sinew of the author’s elegant structure and syntax,” writes Partington .

Leigh Haber weighs in on Jess Walter’s book “So Far Gone,” calling the author a “slyly adept social critic [who has] clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken.”

Daniel Felsenthal thinks Geoff Dyer’s memoir “Homework” is somewhat meandering, yet “bursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state.”

And Paula L. Woods talked to five mystery writers about the inspirations for their new books.

📖 Bookstore Faves

This week, we’re talking about hot books with Nat Eastman, the manager of Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont Boulevard in Hollywood, the oldest independent bookstore in Los Angeles.

What books are selling in the store right now?

We’ve been moving Percival Everett’s “James” and Ocean Vuong’s “The Emperor of Gladness” hand over fist. Thanks to BookTok, Asako Yuzuki’s “Butter” has become a mainstay on our bestseller list. We also had the honor of hosting Bryan Byrdlong for a reading from his debut poetry collection “Strange Flowers,” and we’ve been handselling it right and left ever since.

What are your perennial sellers?

Kaya Doi’s series of picture books, “Chirri and Chirra,” is a smash hit around here. Joan Didion and bell hooks are reliable customer favorites as well. As an indie shop, though, we love the deeper cuts too — whether that’s “Água Viva,” literally any Yoko Ogawa work or something from our zine collection.

Are you seeing more young people buying books?

Despite all the reports about declining literacy rates among young folk, our children’s section makes up a quarter of our sales. We really try to carve out a space for the next generation of readers with programs like storytime, a middle-grade book club and summer-reading punch cards. To us, messy shelves are annoying everywhere except the kids’ section!

Angelenos love croissants. In recent years the obsession has reached a fever pitch, thanks to new bakeries that have followed in the footsteps of lauded croissant-makers like Proof Bakery and the erstwhile Konbi.

Trendy croissant hybrids have also helped fuel the pastry’s resurgence, including the Cronut, Cruffin and Crookie, as well as viral shapes like cubes and spirals. And while the classic French version has frequently been at the center of L.A.’s croissant craze, in 2025 local bakers are turning to global flavors — reinterpreting the flaky, buttery icon through the lens of their own heritage and childhood memories.

Pastry chef Sharon Wang, owner of Sugarbloom Bakery in Glassell Park, purposely sought to challenge her classic European training when creating her signature kimchi Spam musubi croissant. “The idea came from the diversity of L.A. and also a rebellion against working for an organization that favors only European ingredients,” she says.

In Victor Heights, Bakers Bench chef-owner Jennifer Yee uses the croissant to reinterpret a beloved generational recipe. “The egg roll croissant is something I’m really proud of,” she says. “My paternal parents owned a Chinese restaurant in Columbus, Ohio and they were known for their egg rolls,” says Yee. “It tastes very nostalgic if you grew up in the Midwest eating Chinese American food.”

And that’s just the beginning. In Silver Lake, you’ll find a Cuban bakery with Cubano sandwich-inspired croissants that pay homage to neighborhood history. In Pasadena, one baker is infusing her Persian heritage into a viral croissant shape. From Korean to Argentine-inspired creations, the croissant has become a new creative canvas among local pastry chefs. Here are eight bakeries with globally inspired croissants to try in L.A.