Joan Baez grabbed a rope and was hoisted 50 feet up an old walnut tree for the first day of her tree-sitting protest, serenading a contingent of reporters Wednesday with folk songs.
Rock star Ben Harper gave an impassioned speech, with his wife, actress Laura Dern, looking on supportively.
Actress Daryl Hannah emerged from a green tent she is calling home, saying she passes the time at night by strumming chords on her miniature guitar.
Hollywood has come to South Los Angeles in a last-ditch effort to save a community farm that is slated for development.
Their legal options exhausted and fundraising efforts stymied, the 350 farm users who for several years have been trying to preserve a 14-acre urban oasis did that very Hollywood thing: They appealed to celebrities for help.
The scene Wednesday had the feel of a 1960s concert that Baez might have headlined, with ponytailed environmental activists grooving to her songs. They mingled with the mostly Latino immigrants who tend small plots of vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and cactus, a popular Central American food.
It's far from certain that the celebrities can save the farm, which came to life after the 1992 riots when the city leased the land to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
Ralph Horowitz bought the land from the city in 2003 and in recent months has been trying to sell it off for development.
A nonprofit group tried to buy the land and preserve the farm, but it announced last week that it was $10 million short of Horowitz's $16.3-million asking price.
Some in the community support him, arguing that the area would benefit from the jobs that would come if the land at Alameda and 41st streets were developed.
Still, the injection of celebrity has brought new interest from the media and surrounding community to the preservation effort, which seemed to be flagging in recent weeks.
Using a microphone sent up to her makeshift treehouse, Baez told reporters and activists that she felt a strong affinity for the immigrants who use the land to grow food, saying it reminded her of her father's roots in Mexico.
"Although I don't speak Spanish, I saw my people and my ancestors here in the cactus and in the ... medicinal plants as I was shown around," said Baez, who began her tree-sitting vigil Tuesday night. "I was astounded and I was moved, and I associated very strongly with the brown-skinned people here."
