‘It’s me and we, fam:’ How Black community leader Duke Givens became a rep for Long Beach’s relief efforts

Any place—Altadena. Palisades. Pasadena. Los Angeles…—would be blessed to have a Duke Givens. Across the past week, they have experienced what it’s like to have the Black community leader from Long Beach dedicated to their cause. And what it is like to have a simultaneously selfless yet highly focused advocate.

Daily, the self-described “Long Beach son” has been taking supplies from the makeshift command center in Bixby Knolls to areas that need him—including this morning, Jan. 14. He’s heading back to Altadena for another round of donation drop-offs and to bring some uplift to a distraught region.

“Little by little every day is how we have to get through—because that little adds up,” Duke said, echoing a common phrase associated with his nonprofit, Care Closet LBC. “‘It’s me and we, fam’—that’s what I say. You know how we do, brother: We get active for our people… I hate what happened, but I love what’s happening because of what happened. Getting the chance to see all walks of life, all backgrounds unite and understand the rent we pay on earth is loving humanity. It’s a blessing to watch it unfold in real time.”

Altadena is an essential part of SoCal’s rich Black history. And Duke Givens could not feel as if its destruction wasn’t slightly personal.

Duke’s high school friend Natasha and her husband Elic moved to Altadena to join one of SoCal’s richest collections of Black families and households. One of the first neighborhoods in SoCal to welcome Black homeowners post-Civil Rights Movement, Altadena has been filled with Black success. Black love. And an overall sense of community. Come last week, the married couple watched their investment in not just their own lives but in the congregation of a Black community (whose presence is being diminished statewide) go down in literal flames.

“Her house got burned down in Altadena,” Duke said, a brutal reality he ended up photographing himself. “We were able to get resources to her and her community, thankfully. And in many senses, we were very blessed in how we were let in to do that.”

Blessed is an understatement. Shortly after the sheriff and national guard stopped permitting outsiders to enter, one of the officers let Duke and team through after seeing his large truck filled to the brim with essentials.

“That officer in the sheriff’s department was so kind,” Duke said. “He said, ‘This one time,’ and we were able to really help out Natasha and her neighbors… Following that, people like Willie McGinest. Senator Lena Gonzalez. Blair Cohn… So many Long Beach people stepped up to allow me and my team to do their part.”

Through photography and presence, a glimpse of the disaster through a Long Beach lens.

“These are images of the despair, brokenness, and hurt, yes,” Duke said. “But also the resilience and love of humanity.”

With his camera on hand during relief efforts, Duke has captured some of the most captivating pictures to come out of the Altadena neighborhood post-fire. Haunting. Inspirational. Brutal. Uplifting. Let the images speak for themselves:

Photos by Duke Givens/Duke Photography.

Duke Givens has always been there for two things: the Black community and Long Beach.

I’ve long said that when one meets Duke Givens, they are immediately confronted by a gravitational charisma. And that charisma is suffused with resonant optimism. It is not a naïve optimism by any stretch. His experiences in Desert Storm and with gang violence alone are proof that Givens’ life has been anything but tree-lined streets and white picket fences, but one enveloped in some hard truths.

It has led him to shift his work in photography—Duke, a longtime friend of Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Nate Dogg, is the photographer behind some of the West Coast’s most crucial hip-hop imagery—and other foci. That has evolved to a focus on homelessness and bettering the community.

“Man, when 4th Street needed help, even with our tiny budget, Duke stepped up,” said Luis Navarro, co-owner of Lola’s and The Social List and a constant presence himself in community efforts. “He is truly an example of a local hero. And that is when it comes to both his work here in Long Beach and communities across L.A.”

Duke Givens is part of a larger effort in Bixby Knolls, which has become a makeshift command center for Long Beach relief efforts.

There is certainly no question: The entirety of the L.A. landscape has collectively decided this is something we will fight together. Of course, some might say that the outpouring of love has been too kind. Donation efforts have become overwhelming to the extend that they are causing a quagmire in communication and organization efforts. 

“There’s no question that the need for things to be streamlined, directed, and efficient needs to be the focus point, especially with efforts here in Long Beach,” Shawn Moore told me when discussing his own efforts to feed first responders and get supplies to evacuees. 

And Bixby Knolls is slowly but surely becoming that. In an entirely grassroots undertaking, the neighborhood has become Long Beach’s epicenter as the county unites in relief efforts, largely thanks to Blair, Shawn, and of course, restaurants like Lola’s.