LA Art News November 2017

LA ART NEWS A R T S A N D C U LT U R E F O R A L L O F L O S A N G E L E S VOLUME 5 NO. 8

LAARTNEWS.COM

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

NOVEMBER 2017

ON WOMEN, ART, AND REVOLUTION Linda Nochlin, arguably the founder of the field of feminist art criticism, passed away October 29. In 1971, Ms Nochlin published an essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” It was a complex document, one that provided no pat answers, but rather, led to decades of thought and redefinition.

“But in actuality, as we all know,” wrote Ms. Nochlin, “things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and, above all, male.

The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education—education understood to include everything that happens to us from the moment we enter this world of meaningful symbols, signs, and signals. The miracle is, in fact, that given the overwhelming odds against women, or blacks, that so many of both have managed to achieve so much sheer excellence, in those bailiwicks of white masculine prerogative like science, politics, or the arts.”

“The question ‘Why have there been no great women Faith Ringgold, Early Works #25: Self-Portrait, 1965 artists? has led us to the conclusion, so far, that art is not a free, autonomous activity of a super-endowed individual, ‘Influenced’ by previous artists, and, more vaguely and superficially, by ‘social forces’,” said Ms. Nochlin, “but rather, that the total situation of art making, both in terms of the development of the art maker and in the nature and quality of the work of art itself, occur in a social situation, are integral elements of this social structure, and are mediated and determined by specific and definable social institutions, be they art academies, systems of patronage, mythologies of the divine creator, artist as he-man or social outcast.”

Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail, 1973

Several major museum and gallery shows in Los Angeles at present provide opportunities to look at the

continued on page 2

25th ARROYO ARTS COLLECTIVE DISCOVERY TOUR The Arroyo Arts Collective will embark on its 25th—and final—Discovery Tour adventure on Sunday, November 19.

For a quarter of a century, the Discovery Tour has provided self-guided tour goers with an unparalleled opportunity to meet local artists and to see where and how they work. There are studios inside amazing craftsman homes and in garages, There are views that inspire great art, and there are neighbors who, like you, appreciate art.

Best of all, there is the opportunity to purchase art directly from artists, while learning the story that went along with a piece’s creation.

Please note that while this is the final Discovery Tour, the Arroyo Arts Collective is not going away. It is embarking on the next 25 years of new adventures in new formats.

As a gift to the tour-going public, this year’s tour will be offered for the best price imaginable—free! Expect painting, drawing, mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, fabric art, woodwork and more, with options ranging from affordable holiday gifts to a beautiful piece of art for your living room wall.

Among the more than 100 artists featured on the tour are eight who have participated more than 20 times— Marcela Ciszenski, Raoul de la Sota, Gwen Freeman, Elva Lauter, Linda Lyke, Susan Moss, Barbara Sultan, and J. Michael Walker. These are people who have put their souls into making Northeast Los Angeles widely known for its visual artistry.

Arroyo Arts Collective

Discovery Tour Sunday, November 19 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tour begins at the Southwest Museum 234 Museum Drive, Mount Washington www.arroyoartscollective.org

At Roderick Smith and Linda Miller’s house

A themed preview party will take place at the week before the tour, on Saturday, November 11, from 7-10, at Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Avenue 50, in conjunction with the NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. As this is tour 25, the preview event will be a flapper party; twenties attire is encouraged but not required.

Heading out to Discover the arts of Northeast Los Angeles

2

continued from page 1 time of, and the years following, Ms. Nochlin’s seminal work.

“I was trying to find my voice, talking to myself through my art,” Faith Ringgold would later say of her 1960s work.

“We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85” at the California African American Museum (CAAM) provides an extensive look at works by Ms. Ringgold and other female artists who critiqued stereotypes and portrayed Black revolutionary movements.

The same year that Linda Nochlin published “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”, Betye Saar created a California wine jug with a “mammy” figure on the front and a Black Power fist on the back repurposed into a Molotov cocktail, and she made a short film in which derogatory images of People of Color were juxtaposed with images of Black power and solidarity. Dinga McCannon created a mixed media “Revolutionary Sister,” a warrior image inspired by thoughts on the Statue of Liberty.

“From the 1960s to the 1980s, black women were at the forefront of Civil Rights struggles in the United States,” say the show’s curators.

Dinga McCannon, Revolutionary Sister, 1971 Alison Saar, Sapphire, 1985 “However, in their fight against racism, their efforts to address the concerns and oppressions specific to black women were frequently dismissed by their male counterparts as divisive and secondary to the larger struggle. Simultaneously, they were often suspicious of the mainstream Feminist Movement, since its primarily white, middleclass membership was largely blind to its own racial biases and class privilege.”

“We Wanted a Revolution” uses both fine art and ephemera to demonstrate how Black women developed their own collectives, organizations, and artistic expressions in opposition to both gender inequity and racism.

We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 was organized by the Brooklyn Museum and curated by Catherine Morris and Rujeko Hockley. It will be on view through January Victoria Santa Cruz (Peruvian), Me gridiron negra (They 14. www.caamuseum.org Gloria Camiruaga (Chilean), Popsicles, 1982-84. (A shouted black at me), 1978 group of girls lick popsicles with reciting Hail Marys.

They obsessively pray and lick the popsicles revealing continued on page 3 plastic soldiers.)

A M E R I C A N

F I L M

I N S T I T U T E

AFI FEST F I L M

F E S T I V A L

NOV 9-16

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW AFI.com

NOVEMBER 2017

PRESENTED BY

#AFIFEST

continued from page 2

3

At the time Linda Nochlin wrote “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”, art museums were (and arguably still are) largely Euro-centric enterprises. If people of color were mentioned at all in broader art criticism, the reference was pretty much never in regard to Latinx artists.

The Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA seeks to change that paradigm through an explosion of programming focussing on Latin America and the Chicano U.S. For its part in this undertaking, The Hammer Museum is presenting “Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985.

The Hammer exhibits seeks to reverse the invisibility of Latina and Chicana women and to reappraise their contributions to the art world.

Works by 116 women from 15 countries are featured in the multi-room exhibit. The focus is on experimental art practices—mediums that were considered novel forms of expression at the time, including video, assemblage, installation, and conceptual art.

“For the artists included in this exhibition,” says co-curator Dr. Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, “the female body became a locus of exploration and rediscovery in a radical new visual language that Judithe Hernández, La Santa Descononocida (The Unknown challenged the way of understanding the world.”

Saint), 2017 Traditional confines of portraiture are erased in these works, leaving room for non-linear representations and imagery that uses personal experience as a starting point for political and spiritual analysis.

According to the curators, in the featured artists’ works, “This new iconography based on the body explored both the personal and political realms of representation for Latin American and Latina artists who also employed the body as both an actual and symbolic medium.”

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 will be on view at the Hammer until December 31, after which it will travel to Brooklyn and São Paulo. It is curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta with Marcela Guerrero. www.hammer. ucla.edu

Patssi Valdez, The Aztec Goddess, 2017

The stories of two women whose life stories follow similar routes in different countries are told through two Pacific Standard Time: LA/ LA exhibits at two very different venues.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is presenting the first comprehensive U.S. museum survey of Anna Maria Maiolino.

Ms. Miaolino was born in Italy in 1942 and immigrated to Venezuela as a young girl. In 1960, she moved to Brazil. While her complete body of work to date is prodigious, her career has been punctuated by marriage, relationship to patriarchal power structures, divorce, parenting, and the need to earn a living. The

Judith F. Baca (U.S.), Las Tres Marias (The Three Marias), 1976

Judithe Hernández, Juarez Quinceañera, 2017 continued on page 4

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

continued from page 3

4

stops and starts of life have led to a body of work deeply influenced by political realities and by the particular situation of women within those realities.

Judithe Hernández was born just six years after Ms. Miaolino, but was raised on the eastside of Los Angeles. in her early work, as an individual and as the only female member of the pioneering artist collective Los Four, she was highly regarded as a muralist, and she created some of the earliest work involving interrelationships among feminism, ethnicity, and workers’ issues. Like Ms. Miaolino, Ms. Hernandez never experienced a career a a straight trajectory, in fact experiencing a break of 20 years during marriage, parenting, moving, lack of studio space, and divorce. A large survey of her career is presented alongside the work of Patssi Valdez in “Judith Hernández and Patssi Valdez: One Path Two Journeys” at The Millard Sheets Art Center on the Los Angeles County Fairplex grounds in Pomona.

Ms. Miaolino’s work at MOCA is influenced by minimalism and conceptualism and involves some of the same contemporary art forms seen in the CAAM and Hammer shows. It often deals with the relationship between the individual female body and broader realities. The individual mouth is a site of consumption, but the art addresses cultural cannibalism.

Pieces ranging in medium from photography to performance to room-size clay installation, deal Judith Baca, Uprising of the Mujeres, 1977-79 with lack of voice and with the drudgery and repetitive nature of women’s labor.

Ms. Hernandez work, on the other hand, is clearly influenced by classical Greek and Roman artistic tradition.

But she too deals with the situation of women laborers—in her case, the uninvestigated and ongoing murders of as many as 1,500 to 2,000 factory workers in the Mexico-U.S. border area, a series of work that the artist vows will continue until the killings stop.

Judith Baca leads a tour at the Great Wall The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Presents Anna Maria Miaolino continues at the museum’s Grand Avenue campus through the end of 2017. It is organized by Helen Molesworth and Bryan Barcena. www.moca.org Judith Hernández and Patssi Valdez: One Path Two Journeys continues at the Millard Sheets Art Center through January 28. It is curated by the center’s director, Thomas Canavan, with substantial input from the two artists. www.lacf.com. Although Ms. Hernández and Ms. Valdez are both known for their prominent roles in the genesis of Chicano Art, this exhibit is not primarily a history lesson. Upon entering the large gallery, the viewer is met by both 1970s photographs and recent images by two of the art world’s most talented colorists.

Laura Aguilar, Three Eagles Flying, 1990

In 1979, Los Angeles artist Judith Baca was in Cuernavaca, Mexico at El Taller Siquieros for a training workshop for muralists. A mural team, consisting entirely of men, proposed the subject of “the women’s question” as a theme for the mural they would then design and paint. The team argued that women are the primary conduits through which consumerism and hence capitalism is supported, concluding that political struggle is also a struggle against women’s tendencies toward consumerism. The team wanted to present an image of a woman with her arms and legs spread, with goods being forced down her throat through a funnel. continued on page 5

NOVEMBER 2017

5

STAFF Publisher/ Creative Director Cathi Milligan Managing Editor Margaret Arnold Intern Vince Caldera Contributors: Margaret Arnold, Cornelius Peter, Brian Mallman, Jeremy Kaplan, Amy Inouye, Stuart Rapeport, Cathi Milligan, Jennifer Hitchcock, Tomas Benitez, Harvey Slater, Kristine Schomaker, Larisa Code, Madame X, Luis Antonio Pichardo, Martha Rozga, Linda Kaye LA Art News is published monthly at the beginning of each month.

LA Art News is available free of charge. No person may, without prior written permission from LA Art News, take more than one copy of each monthly issue.

Additional copies of the current issue are available for $1, payable in advance, at LA Art News office. Only authorized LA Art News distributors may distribute the LA Art News.

Copyright No news stories, illustrations, editorial matter or advertisements herein can be reproduced without written consent of copyright owner.

IT FINALLY FEELS LIKE FALL The weather is behaving. Fall has arrived. Of course that means the holidays... yes, we just had Halloween and the extended Baseball season (Sorry Dodgers. You rocked it though!), and holiday season means retail therapy, or not, depending on your take. There are craft fairs and shin digs and Small Business Saturday, which everyone needs to support. Stay away from the chains...buy handmade!! Buy art!!

Pacific Standard Time is still going strong so get out there and see art. Go to the Getty and LACMA and MOCA and the Vincent Price Museum and the Fairplex in Pomona and the Annenberg and the Hammer and the Fowler and so many other venues. There is so much wonderful art to see.

Thanks, Cathi Milligan Publisher, LA Art News

How to reach us LA Art News 5668 York Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90042 323-387-9705 Contributions cathi@laartnews.com Calendar information margaretnelaart@gmail.com Sales - cathi@laartnews.com sign up for our newsletter at laartnews.com Where’s Monica?

continued from page 4 As counter to this rape image, Ms. Baca designed “Uprising of the Mujeres,” an image with an indigenous woman leading a struggle against military spending, the formation of a police state at the expense of social welfare, and the exploitation of workers.

“Uprising of the Mujeres,” a portable mural, is on display at California State University Northridge (CSUN), as part of the university’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibit, “Judith F. Baca’s Experiments in Collaboration and Concrete.”

Ms. Baca is best know for her monumental work, “The Great Wall,” a 2,754 foot-long mural depicting California history from prehistoric times to the 1950s from the perspective of the State’s ethnic peoples, that runs along the concrete wall of the Tujunga Flood Control Channel in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. The mural, begun in 1976, is an ongoing project executed by successive generations of more than 400 young people under the auspices of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).

Plans are in the works to extend the mural on toward the present and to build an observation bridge over the channel out of recycled debris harvested from the river. Once completed, the bridge will make the connection between social justice and environmental justice, between healing the river and healing ourselves.

Judith F. Baca’s Experiments in Collaboration and Concrete will remain on view at CSUN through December 16. It is curated by Mario Ontiveros. www.csun.edu The Great Wall may be seen along the Tujunga Wash, parallel to Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

Laura Aguilar, Nature Self-Portrait #2, 1996 Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA contribution from the Vincent Price Art Museum, brings the themes present in the CAAM and Hammer shows forward a generation. The exhibit includes more than 130 fine art photographs, drawn from the 1980s through 2007, including nude self-portraits, many shot in relationship to landscapes.

Ms. Aguilar uses her own body, and those of others, as both personal and political statement. While previous artists have investigated issues of the body in relationship to broader reality, Ms. Aguilar make matters more complex as she uses photography to navigate through her identity, across multiple layers of issues regarding gender, ethnicity, body image, sexual orientation, class, physical challenges, and depression. Yet she puts the brakes on any temptation to over-intellectualize her work, writing on one piece, “it is my connection to la raza, where I get to be proud, chicana. myself understanding did not come from ‘chicano studies 101’. i grew up in it, thats how i lived. all the working class connotations it gives, i’m proud of.”

Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, will continue at the Vincent Price Art Museum through February 10. It is curated by Sybil Venegas. www.vincentpriceartmuseum.org

Laura Aguilar, Grounded #112, 2006/2016

courageous enough to take the necessary risk, the leap into the unknown.”

—Linda Nochlin

“What is important is that women face up to the reality of their history and of their present situation, without making excuses or puffing mediocrity. Disadvantage may indeed be an excuse; it is not, however, an intellectual position. Rather, using as a vantage point their situation as underdogs in the realm of grandeur, and outsiders in that of ideology, women can reveal institutional and intellectual weaknesses in general, and, at the same time that they destroy false consciousness, take part in the creation of institutions in which clear thought—and true greatness—are challenges open to anyone, man or woman,

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

6

NOVEMBER 2017

7

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

8

THE DE-MEXICANIZATION OF DURANGUITO BARRIO, EL PASO, TEXAS

by JIMMY CENTENO

A group of participants engaged in an intercultural North-South dialogue in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico were invited to witness the long battle to safeguard several historical Mexican heritage barrios on the verge of destruction by city officials and Paso Del Norte group (PDNG) of investors. These investors aim at building a 180 million-dollar profitmaking complex despite the committed opposition (Paso del Sur activists) of the community and their allies. Several community members from Duranguito (Little Durango) have left and others have chosen to stay to fight the city.

The PDNG is made up of more than 350 business and political leaders from both sides of the border. On Thursday September 28, 2017 after the conference on post globalization, decolonization, and transmodernity, the group consisting of several scholars, philosophers, activists and students whose origins extended from La Patagonia (the most southern end of South America) to Canada took up the invitation to visit Duranguito, the first Mexican barrio in El Paso, Texas established in 1858. Duranguito is the most recent barrio under attack.

Duranguito as it is known, is under siege by developers, the business class, binational interest groups (Mexican and North American capitalists) and city capitalist managers. The practical impact of tearing down the historical community and replacing it with a ‘multi-purpose’ arena is to impose the de-Mexicanization of numerous irreplaceable barrios. The multi-million dollar mega project profits would flow straight into the hands of developers. The plan was sold to city managers as a benefit to generate employment, a pitch that lacked transparency and raised red flags amongst the local residents of El Paso. The developers and their allies in city government presented arguments that are all too familiar to those struggling against gentrification of a community that predates the boundaries of the Southwest.

Duranguito played a role in El Paso’s history. For example, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 Duranguito and South El Paso served as the headquarters and strategizing grounds for Mexican revolutionary Francisco Madero before becoming president of Mexico. At another time one of the buildings served Pancho Villa as storage for ammunition and supplies for the Mexican Revolution Division del Norte Army. Additionally, a lawyer’s home situated within one of the last remaining Victorian era buildings in El Paso, helped Villa gain amnesty from the de la Huerta government in 1921. It is considered the second Ellis Island for it has served as a transitional point for many immigrants traveling into other cities of the United States.

An encampment activist and philosopher, Malissa Arras Grossman, at the site of the disputed location briefed the visiting group on Duranguito’s history and the present struggle. Residents and activists want to preserve the Union Plaza; it gives a sense of place and origin that interferes with no one except the profit seekers. Supporters of save Duranguito also are advocating to register Duranguito’s last remaining Victorian buildings as historical landmarks, something the city has refused to acknowledge.

According to a report by El Paso Times, a survey by Hardy-Heck-Moore Inc, “identified a four-block portion of Duranguito that could be eligible for a larger National Register of Historic Places district designation.”

It is a Mexican barrio of working class people with small local businesses, artisans, and community spaces. The argument to modernize the designated zone for development has been supported by a racist and classist narrative. A misleading campaign by privately hired consultants, paid with public funds projects the image of a community that is aging, poor, and without purpose and contrasts this with the aspiring middle-class professionals who could take full advantage of “development”. The public and the neighborhood associations were insufficiently informed on what took place during several closed doors meetings between city officials and developers. The misuse of funds to pay private consultants without any community representation/input has raised many questions regarding the mismanaging of public funds designed to exclude the voices of the residents of Duranguito.

A PowerPoint presentation of a focus group study by Glass Beach Firm revealed a racist xenophobic content that was paid for by the City to the tune of $100,000 of public funds. The following is an excerpt that describes the language in this power point presentation: On 7-19-06 a special executive meeting was held at the Convention Center that was not open to the public. At this meeting the project study was criticized for being unprofessional as well as prejudiced against the elderly Hispanic population of El Paso. The study includes images of an elderly Hispanic man with the words “dirty, lazy, gritty, uneducated, Spanish speaker.” It represents the image of El Paso that the Glass Beach firm would like to replace with images of an Anglo-American actor—Mathew McConaughey and a European actress—Penelope Cruz—as the models of the new upwardly-mobile creative class of young people who “enjoy entertainment.”

Despite an Eighth Court of Appeals order to halt the demolition of the eight remaining Victorian buildings located on 305-315 Chihuahua street, 215 W. Paisano Drive, 216 and 220 W. Overland Ave the DMR Demolition contract company deployed a bobcat bulldozer to punch holes in the buildings at key structural points early Tuesday morning September 12, 2017. The attempt was apparently aimed at weakening the structures and have city officials condemn the historical landmarks as structurally unsafe.

On August 2, 2017 the County of El Paso Commissioner, David Stouts, reported, “Given this and previous evidence of historical assets in the Duranguito neighborhood, I’m still in disbelief as to why the city would insist on erasing its own history by razing the buildings full of memories and significance in favor of a box of an arena or a multipurpose cultural performing arts center.”

A recent order by an Austin Texas judge has temporarily ruled out any activity to demolish Duranguito. The ruling has brought some relief for defenders and allies of Duranguito. A call for a referendum is on the negotiating table that will let voters decide if the sports arena should be built or come to an end. Activist and Professor David Romo Dorado, feels that despite the victory “The city will contest any legal referendum by all legal means possible to continue with the construction of the arena.”

One of the few political supporters to preserve Duraguito’s heritage and historical significance is El Paso state senator José Rodriguez who has come under fire when he firmly stated the following: “To capture what El Paso really is, you need to accept the Mexicanness, the Mexican American, and indigenous roots of El Paso, […]. There’s too many people who say, ‘I want us to move away from that. I want us to be like Gringolandia, like all the other homogenized American cities.’ El Paso is unique. You can’t find a place like this anywhere.”

In conclusion, Duranguito is a contested space in the struggle to preserve historic memory as well as the community life of a neighborhood. The vandalism of buildings by developers and the subsequent police action against the defenders strikes at the heart of community’s identity and sense of place. The ideology of progress under capitalism has infringed on the sovereign right of people to live and grow in the community. The face to face encounter of the scholars from the conference and the neighborhood defenders gave rise to a mutual recognition of the urgent need to stop the destruction of historic Duranguito. At the same time the Mexican is required to be invisible, he or she is also expected to be ready at hand for exploitation. Jose Carlos Villalva, an El Paso Real Estate Manager puts the dislocation of Duranguito’s residents in the following irrational Orwellian manner, “When we move them somewhere, it is not because we chose it, it is because they were given options and they chose which ever one was best for them.”

In an act of inadvertent transparency, the developer’s consulting firm determined that residents and their allies no longer deserve to call Duranguito home (they must be removed). We stand in solidarity with those resisting the destruction of Duranguito’s historic buildings and with the call of displaced residents, the respect for their dignity, justice and the immediate end to build the arena at any cost! From Duranguito to Boyle Heights (Los Angeles, California) the de-Mexicanization/gentrification of communities must cease to be a showcase for investors and destructive policies based on removing families and communities in the name of profits. This is a call for action!

Contacts: https://www.facebook.com/PasoDelSurEP/ Davidromodorado@gmail.com

NOVEMBER 2017

9

RE-READING ALICE, FINDING HOPE IN WONDERLAND

by Margaret Rozga

Puerto Rico still choked with flood water. California in flames. 800,000 young people facing the loss of their DACA protection. Millions anxious about a possible cutoff of their health insurance. People at a concert gunned down. I don’t need to continue this list. You know. You know all too well this and more.

And you can’t wake up, as Alice in Wonderland does, and find it all a bad dream. When you wake up, you don’t find yourself safe after a quiet nap on a placid river bank with your comforting sister nearby.

Lately I feel like Alice but in an all-too-real wonderland. Like Alice I’m always wrong, always too big or too small. It’s not for me literally my physical size, too big to enter the garden at the bottom of the rabbit hole, then after drinking the potion that magically appears, too small to reach and lift the key to the garden gate. Rather in this US wonderland, it’s my ideas and strategies: too small to solve the problems at hand or too large, requiring resources out of reach.

Like Alice, I try to be polite. Like Alice I find my polite comments ignored by those who assume power over the situation. Like Alice, I find my questions mocked or answered with riddles. The hookah-smoking caterpillar orders Alice to explain herself, and when she tries, he curtly replies that he doesn’t see what she means. When she pleads that her situation is confusing, he flatly contradicts her, “It isn’t.” His advice? “Keep your temper.” It sounds like familiar advice to women: control your emotions; don’t be hysterical.

Things go from bad to worse. The March Hare, the Hatter, and the Doormouse bristle when she takes refuge at their table. They tell her there is no room when empty chairs abound.

Their tea party proceeds with agitated changing of seats.

When she moves on, she finds the environment full of the unpredictable and the dangerous, including danger at the top, a croquet-playing Queen of Hearts whose court is staffed by minions no more substantial than a deck of cards. This person in power also loses her temper at the slightest provocation and orders Off with her head.

Poor Alice. She has to go it alone. At least she wakes up and finds that the nonsense and danger she faced was only a bad dream. What about here where such nonsense and danger is a daytime reality? The fact that 100 years ago Lewis Carroll could so aptly nail these traits and tactics means there is an identifiable pattern. This is a journey where one is first ignored, then mocked, and then threatened. Knowing that pattern lessens its seeming unpredictability, allows one to anticipate what’s next and prepare.

Alice’s sister offers an alternative to this nightmare. Her sister stays awake and reads. What her sister reads may not be known, but among us, we know books that can bolster our imaginative power and creative spirit. Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark does this for me. Solnit writes about often being “amazed at the lack of bitterness on the part of many of those who have most right to it”. She also names what she sees among some friends: “It was as though many of us didn’t know how to be this other kind of person, this person who could speak of big dreams, of high ideals, of deep emotions, as though something more small-scale and sarcastic was the reduced version of self that remained to us.”

Reading Solnit jump-started my belief in dreaming big. I believe that creating the images of the city, state, and country we need puts us on the path to realizing them. Of course that doesn’t immediately restore the power grid in Puerto Rico, guarantee health care, pass sensible gun laws, provide homes and jobs, provide a seat at the table, take down walls. Yet the ability to imagine a future of social justice points to a way out of the rabbit hole.

Unlike poor Alice who had to go it alone, we are not solitary Alices. We have others with whom to collaborate. Together we can imagine how, where, and what. We can imagine the city, state, region, country we need. We can talk back to this nightmare. It need not swallow us up. We can speak up. Speak out. With our words. With our art. With our bodies. Taking a stand. Or taking a knee. Or taking a seat like Rosa Parks, like the Freedom Riders, and like participants in the sit-ins. The United Farmworkers also showed the way and gave us key words. The first step is to dare imagine that yes, we can.

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

HIGHLAND PARK INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

10

Capacity audiences walked the red carpet at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival, held at the Highland Theatre in October. The opening night feature was “Tyrus,” about acclaimed artist and Disney visionary Tyrus Wong.

Congratulations to all the film festival winners...

HIGHLAND PARK INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL 2017 WINNERS BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY “Lost Face” BEST SCORE “Bones”

JURY BEST FEATURE “The Icarus Line Must Die” directed by Michael Grodner

JURY BEST DOCUMENTARY “Ovarian Psycos” directed by Kate Trumbull-LaValle, Johanna Sokolowski JURY BEST SHORT FILM “Clarity” directed by Dustin Brown

JURY BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY “Jeanne Cordova: Butches, Lies & Feminism” directed by Gregorio Davila JURY BEST FOREIGN SHORT FILM “What Remains of You” directed by Kevin Dresse

JURY BEST ANIMATION “Pandas in the Mist” directed by Thierry Garance, Juan Rodriguez

JURY BEST DOCUMENTARY HONORABLE MENTION “Going Places” directed by Aaron Mostow

AUDIENCE CHOICE BEST SHORT FILM (Cine Now! The Latino Lens Shorts Program) “Luchadores” directed by José Emmanuel Varela AUDIENCE CHOICE HONORABLE MENTION BEST SHORT FILM (Cine Now! The Latino Lens Shorts Program) “Welcome Back” directed by Matias Nilsson AUDIENCE CHOICE BEST SHORT FILM (City of Angels Shorts Program) “The Space Between” directed by Taren Maroun

AUDIENCE CHOICE HONORABLE MENTION BEST SHORT FILM (City of Angels Shorts Program) “A Date in 2025” directed

by Ryan Turner AUDIENCE CHOICE BEST SHORT FILM (Women on the Verge Shorts Program) “I Got You Babe” directed by Ashton Avila and “Sound of my Drum” directed by Tani Ikeda

AUDIENCE CHOICE HONORABLE MENTION BEST SHORT FILM (Women on the Verge Shorts Program) “My Name is Maria de Jesus” directed by Marcella Ochoa AUDIENCE CHOICE BEST SHORT FILM (HLP Cinematic Spotlight Shorts Program) “Serve” directed by Martin Ibarra

AUDIENCE CHOICE HONORABLE MENTION BEST SHORT FILM (HLP Cinematic Spotlight Shorts Program) “Lessons” directed by Greg King AUDIENCE CHOICE BEST SHORT FILM (Mind Benders Shorts Program) “AmeriKa” directed by Ryan Ward

AUDIENCE CHOICE HONORABLE MENTION BEST SHORT FILM (Mind Benders Shorts Program) “Cul-De-Sac” directed by Damon Russell Photos: Tim Karau

OXY ARTS SPACE The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on what it would like to see in Occidental College’s new Oxy Arts space, coming soon to York Boulevard. Two Creative Exchange workshops will be held: one on Tuesday, November 14, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and a second on Saturday, November 18, from 10 a.m. Both workshops will be held in the lower level of the Herrick Chapel building.

RSVP is encouraged but not required at www.oxy.edu/events/oxy-arts-creative-exchangeworkshop-0.

Anticipated opening of the Arts Space is Fall of 2018.

CONGRESSMAN JIMMY GOMEZ ON FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH Congressman Jimmy Gomez issued the following statement after signing a resolution that recognizes October as Filipino American History Month: “This month, we celebrate the culture and contributions of the Filipino community, which have helped transform Los Angeles into a cultural and economic powerhouse. From the American labor and civil rights movement to the small business owners and teachers, the Filipino community has written an unforgettable chapter in the history of our city and country. As the representative of Historic Filipinotown, I proudly celebrate the rich history of the Filipino American community.”

NOVEMBER 2017

11

El SERENO COMMUNITY ARTS DIA DE LOS MUERTOS FESTIVAL AND ALTAR WALK October 21 on Huntington Drive

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

12

X DAY IN L.A.

Los Angeles’ house punk band, X, was honored at Los Angeles City Council October 10.

City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell led the presentation, applauding the band on its 40th anniversary and declaring X Day in Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of Councilmember O’Farrell’s office.

SEE WHAT YOU MEAN: AN EVENING OF INSURRECTIONS WITH HARRY GAMBOA, JR. Saturday, October 28 at the Getty Center

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy Harry Gamboa, Jr. shoots a fotonovela in the Getty courtyard

Small Business Saturday - Shop Local Jazmin Urrea, Red 40 An installation featuring Flamin’ Cheetos

NOVEMBER 2017

13

A MID-CENTURY INSPIRED WINTER WONDERSHOP IN EAGLE ROCK Leanna Lin’s Wonderland takes you into the holiday spirit with “Winter Wondershop!”, a holiday art show and pop up presented in the Eagle Rock venue by Clover Scout.

Clover Scout is a collective of Art Center College of Design illustrators and alumni who are inspired by mid-century art and design. They will present art and products including prints, stationary, home decor, pins, and more—unique products for holiday gift giving.

“Winter Wondershop!” opens Saturday, November 18, with a reception from 6-9 p.m., and will run until January 18.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland 5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard www.LeannaLinsWonderland.com

Ellen Surrey of Clover Scout

Alexander Vidal of Clover Scout

Loris Lora of Clover Scout

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

NELAart

14

On the Secon Elysian Valley, art and eateri the updated l

Northeast Los Angeles Arts Organization, Inc.

November 11, 2017 - 7pm - 10pm

(Individual Gallery Hours May Vary. CHECK Gallery web sites for individual information. Just because a gallery is listed does not mean it’s open this month)

38. Highland Cafe 5010 York Blvd.

323.259.1000

1. Avenue 50 Studio 131 No. Avenue 50 323. 258.1435 avenue50studio.org

20. Toros Pottery 4962 Eagle Rock Blvd 323.344.8330 torospottery.com

2. Bike Oven 3706 No Figueroa

21. Kinship Yoga/Wonder Inc. 5612 Figueroa St.

39. Kindness and Mischief 5537 N. Figueroa St. www.kandmcoffee.com

3. Namaste Highland Park 5118 York Blvd. www.namastehighlandpark.com

22. Tierra de la Culebra 240 S. Ave 57

40. Civil Coffee 5639 N. Figueroa St.

23. Cactus Gallery @ Treeline Woodworks 3001 N. Coolidge Ave

41. Possession Vintage 5119 York Blvd. www.possessionvintage.com

24. Huron Substation 2640 Huron Street Los Angeles, CA 90065

42. The Situation Room 2313 Norwalk Ave.

4. Offbeat 6316 York Blvd www.offbeatbar.com 5. Council District Office #1 Gil Cedillo 5577 N. Figueroa St. 6. Future Studio 5558 N Figueroa St. 323 254-4565 futurestudiogallery.com 7. Collective Arts Incubator 1200 N. Ave 54 collectiveartsincubator.com 8. The Art Form Studio 5611 N Figueroa St. Suite 2 www.theartformstudio.com 9. Vapegoat 5054 York Blvd.

323.963.VAPE 10. ETA 5630 N. Figueroa St. 11. Adjunct Positions 5041 Coringa Dr. 12. Matters of Space 5005 York Blvd www.mattersifspace.com 323.743.3267 13. Mi Vida 5159 York Blvd.

14. Vintage Tattoo Art Parlor 5115 York Blvd.

15. Antigua Coffee House 3400 N. Figueroa St. www.antiguacoffeehouse.com 16. Align Gallery 5045 York Blvd. www.aligngallery.com 17. Leanna Lin’s Wonderland 5204 Eagle Rock Blvd. www.leannalinswonderland.com 18. The Rental Girl 4760 York Blvd. http://therentalgirl.com 19. Mindfulnest 5050 York Blvd.

323.999-7969

NOVEMBER 2017

25. Ball Clay Studio 4851 York Blvd. ballclaystudio.com 26. MAN Insurance Ave 50 Satellite 1270 N. Ave 50 323.256.3151 27. TAJ • ART 1492 Colorado Blvd. www.tajartinc.com 28. The Greyhound 570 N. Figueroa St. 29. Urchin 5006 1/2 York Blvd.

30. Arroyo Arts Collective @ Ave 50 Studio 131 North Avenue 50 arroyoartscollective.org 31. Living Room 5807 York Blvd. livingroomhome.com 32. Vapeology 3714 N. Figueroa St. 323.222.0744 33. Pop-Hop 5002 York Blvd. www.thepophop.com 34. Social Studies 5028.5 York Blvd.

35. Occidental College 6100 Campus oxy.edu 36. The Glass Studio 5668 York Blvd. www.theglassstudio.net 37. Earth Altar Studio 1615 Colorado Blvd earthaltarstudio.com

43. Bookshow 5503 Figueroa St. www.bookshow.com 44. Vroom Vroom Bitsy Boo 5031 B York Blvd.

45. The Quiet Life 5627 N. Figueroa St. thequietlife.com 46. The “O” Mind Gallery 200 N. Ave 55 theomind.com 47. Apiary Gallery at The Hive Highland Park 5670 York Blvd. www.thehive.la 48. Rock Rose Gallery 4108 N. Figueroa St. 323.635.9125 49. Imperial Art Studios 2316 N. San Fernando Rd. 50. Pop Secret 5119 Eagle Rock Blvd.

51. Showboat 6152 York Blvd. showboatgallery.com 52. Leader of the Pack 5110 York Blvd. www.leaderofthepackvintage.com 53. Short Hand 5028 York Blvd. shopshorthand.com

15

nd Saturday of every month galleries, businesses, and artists in Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, , and Lincoln Heights open their doors a little later in the evening and welcome visitors. Use this map for locations of ies, grab someone you love, get some dinner, and enjoy some art. Friend NELA Art Gallery Night on Facebook for last minute list.

50

37

27

17 20 42

35 18

25

11 44 12 16

41 48 14 31 13

31 36 47

4 29 34 9 23 5 26 3 5319 3 38

7

1

30

51

40 5 8 4 10 46395 28 43 6 21 2 2

48 49 23

32 2 15

24

Visit us at NELAart.org LA ART NEWS

NELAART SECOND SATURDAY OCTOBER 2017

Día de los Muertos Group Show at Cactus Gallery

16

Clients from the Northeast Wellness Center, Heart of the Matter Works on trauma, healing, and recovery, at Avenue 50 Studio

Tata Serena Rastrelli, Catrina Domenico Scales (Nobu Happy Spooky), La Dulce Muerte Día de los Muertos Group Show at Cactus Gallery

Rosalie M. López, Dedication to Elsi & Tito, The Parents of the Neighborhood, at Avenue 50 Studio Rosa Limon, Time Pieces of history and family connected by a 100 year old sewing machine Día de los Muertos/Honoring our Ancestors at Avenue 50 Studio

NOVEMBER 2017

Leonard Greco, Hadesville Hellmouth, The Arroyo Arts Collective at Avenue 50 Studio

17

The Artform Studio, live model styled by Sherry Younge

Jodi Bonassi, Syrup Hellmouth, The Arroyo Arts Collective at Avenue 50 Studio

Intersections at Future Studio

Halo Bahnam, Look Here Momma, Look and See What I’ve Done…I’ve Gone Thru Your Stuff and Now All Hell’s Begun (Parts 1, 2 and 3) at Future Studio

Angela Tran, Inner-Outersight at Namaste Highland Park

Tom Lasley, Regrets Hellmouth, The Arroyo Arts Collective at Avenue 50 Studio

Manny Cuchilla at Vapegoat

Suzette Vidal and Margaret Sosa, Border Crossings, an altar dedicated to family, dreamers and the families of dreamers Día de los Muertos/Honoring our Ancestors at Avenue 50 Studio

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

18

AUTUMN SALAD WITH A VEGAN CAESAR TWIST I love making hearty, colorful, nutrient dense salads for dinner. Some salads consist of a variety of fresh, raw vegetables. For this filling-yet light autumn salad, I used leftover oven roasted yams. But leftovers or not, you can roast up some yams, beets, rutabagas, and put together a delicious, plant-based entree salad in less than 30 minutes. The ingredients in this salad give it a Caesar-like nuance, but a little simpler with lemon, garlic, and plant-based fats being the focus.

The brown rice cakes provide a crunchy gluten free substitute for croutons. Have some fun and feel free to improvise as you go. caesar-style autumn salad with roasted yams and pomegranate seeds 1 small-medium yam, cut into thumb-sized cubes 1 tbsp. avocado oil 1 heart of romaine lettuce 1/2 bunch of tuscan kale 1 lemon, juiced 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp. liquid aminos or coconut aminos 1 small shallot, chopped (about 1 tbsp.)

1 garlic clove, chopped 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast 1 tbsp. hulled hempseed 2 tbsp. raw almond meal or almond flour 1/2 tsp. sea salt 1/4 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper 1 brown rice cake made from 100% brown rice 4 tbsp. raw pepitas 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (about 1 pomegranate, seeded) Preheat oven to 400° F. Toss the yams in 1 tbsp. of avocado oil and roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until tender. You can also use pre-roasted, leftover yams or any other root vegetable for variety and convenience.

While the yams are roasting, prepare your salad. Clean and cut up the lettuce as you would for a Caesar salad. De-stem the kale, and julienne into thin strips. Refrigerate the lettuce and kale while you prepare the dressing In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, 3 tbsp. olive oil, liquid aminos, garlic, and shallots. Mix with a fork or small whisk until blended.

To complete the salad, combine the lettuce and dressing. Add in the nutritional yeast, hulled hempseed, almond meal, salt, and pepper. Crumble the rice cake into the salad into pieces about the size of croutons. Add about 3 tbsp. of the pepitas. Blend it all together, taste for seasoning adjustment, and divide onto 2 entree or 4 side plates. Sprinkle the remaining pepitas and pomegranate seeds over the top. Serve immediately.

Harvey Slater is a chef and nutrition coach residing in Highland Park. You can find more healthy recipes like this one on his blog: thewholedishblog.com

NOVEMBER 2017

19

CLASSES IN NELA

Besides being a haven for artists and creative types, Northeast Los Angeles is the home of a fine array of arts classes, especially the industrial arts, but not limited to them. Below is a list of some of the businesses in the area that have classes. Do check with the facility to verify times and prices of their classes. As we find more places we will bring that information to all of you.

Adam’s Forge 2640 N. San Fernando Rd. Los Angeles, CA 90065 Adamsforge.org You may email Nancy with questions at blacksmithclasses@gmail.com Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events.

Check out a Discovery class.

The Glass Studio 5668 York Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90042 323.387.9705 info@theglassstudio.net Check www.theglassstudio.com for a list of glasses ranging from glass blowing and torchwork to fusing and slumping and jewelry making.

O&M Leather www.ommleather.com For information about scheduling email them at ommeather@gmail.com Toros Pottery 4962 Eagle Rock Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90041 323.344.8330 Blue Rooster Art Supply Company blueroosterartsupplies.com blue@blueroosterartsupplies.com 4661 Hollywood Blvd LA, CA 90027 (323) 302-5613 They offer a variety of art classes. Check their web site for more information about their classes and events.

Ave 50 Studio 131 No. Avenue 50 323. 258.1435 avenue50studio.org Guitar Lessons. Check their web site for more information for this and other classes.

Molten Metal Works 3617 San Fernando Rd Glendale, CA 91204 moltenmetalworks.net Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events. They’re in a new location next to Community Woodshop.

Cool new space!

Rock Rose Gallery 4108 N. Figueroa Street Highland Park, CA 90065 (323) 635-9125 www.rockrosegallery.com Visit: Rock Rose Gallery News, Instagram & Twitter Ball Clay 4851 York Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90042 310.954.1454 ballclaystudio.com Intermediate Ceramics Pottery Class 6 class sessions $240 Check web site for start date A Place to Bead 2566 Mission St San Marino, CA 91108 626.219.6633 aplace2bead.com Find a variety of jewelry making classes, including stringing and wirework.

Bullseye Glass 143 Pasadena Ave. South Pasadena, CA bullseyeglass.com They offer a full range of kiln forming glass classes as well as regular free artist talks.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland 5024 Eagle Rock Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90041 323.550.1332

Community Woodshop 3617 San Fernando Rd Glendale, CA 91204 626.808.3725 www.community woodshopla.com These guys offer a wonderful selection of classes from beginner to advanced, membership, and private lessons. Please check their web site for more information and a list of classes.

Stained Glass Supplies 19 Backus Street Pasadena, CA 91107 626-219-6055 Classes are ongoing Barndall Art Park 4800 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90027 323.644.6295 http://www.barnsdall.org Check they’re web site for upcoming classes.

Los Angeles County Store 4333 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039 / 323-928-2781 Please check their web site for a listing of all of their classes and special events.

Sugar Mynt Gallery 810 Meridian Ave. South Pasadena, CA 626.222.7257 sugarmynt.com Paint and Pinot Twice a month. Check their web site for more detail.

Check Leanna’s web site for a current list of workshops and events.

WINE OF THE MONTH Larisa Code

Note: Create joy, one sip at a time.

Featured Wine: Skouras’ Moscofilero Color: Light white/yellow Varieties: 100% Moschofilero Vintage: 2016 Price: Under $20 Country: Greece Region: Peloponnese Did you ever run into someone after 18 years and at first think, wow, he looks older, then only to have your brain racing, oh shit, I bet he’s thinking the same thing about me. If you’re lucky, he might say, you look even better now…I said if you’re lucky.

Well, I just did, last night, and it is the perfect theme for this wine, for this wine is so young, bottled in September 2016. And, if you drink it now, you will enjoy it immensely, but, there is a strong possibility that if you let it age a bit, it will be even better—just like, I hope, we are all, better that is, over time.

Greek wines can be special if you find the right one, and Moscofilero is special. Because of its youth, it is incredibly aromatic. Because of its short skin contact (4 hours), short aging over fine lees all in stainless steel, you get a flowery—a bit of honeysuckle—extremely crisp wine. There is an overwhelming and long lasting finish. It may be the best part, only due to the intro of floral and hints of citrus, which make the finish what it is. Did you ever drink true Chablis; one that doesn’t come in a giant jug at the grocery store for $5.99?? If you have, that would be how I describe the finish of this wine. It wraps around the sides of your tongue and shocks your taste buds with the dryness and flavor. It is fun!!

Pairing with veggies is a great choice, a cucumber and feta salad with roasted potatoes was my favorite. But, as always, I aim to please, so I paired it with pan fried scallops and rice with much success. It would be wonderful with Greek food too, a rich seafood stew or moussaka. The heaviness of the food together with the lightness of the wine is a recipe for pure joy, from head to toe.

The music should be complex, like the wine itself. Obviously, some Greek Tavern style music would be fun, but if that is not your thing, or you have no idea what I am talking about (as I only think I know), then what about M.C. Hammer’s “We Pray” on repeat…just kidding. Classical music, soft and Mozarty would work, as would something soft with a female vocalist.

The time of day and setting is tough as our nights so suddenly became cold, but I say, if you’re pairing it with a heavier dish, indoors, dimmed lights or candlelight would be divine. If you go with the lighter fare, a late afternoon al fresco would be just fine.

Flowers, white tulips, freesia or a bouquet of mint and roses would be lovely. Lovely like a young wine, like a young you, and lovely like the you you are now and the you you will become.

Gia Mas (for your health)

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

20

ACCIDENT

by Luis Antonio Pichardo Embrace me.

Take me.

Straighten me out.

Fix my crooked, mutated body, mutilated by shrapnel and horizons made vertical by your hit.

Sand me down.

Sculpt me.

Paint me a new life without wheels, chromed or silver; flying seats have no place in my day.

Incarnate me.

Resurrect me.

Forget your past and feed your soul with the present sound of glass shattered along your road and the murmur of my heart at the point of sneezing.

Don’t let me die.

Don’t let me crack.

Save me.

Stitch my memories between your fingers and inhale my pain, filling my lung instead with time and reason.

Take me.

Caress me.

Remember that life had its own speed.

WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU

By Linda Kaye

when it happens to you that's when you pay attention to the festering wound the bleeding sore that was burned by the door that was opened last November 2016 don't you remember? oh what is it fake news? when it happens to you your heart beats faster the walls come down that protected denial that the worlds are colliding the drought doesn't subside your plants are dying the wood is rotting the paint chips peel away revealing years of neglect like your face did which no cream could heal once the last facial peel came off wasn't that the trick? when it happens to you do you feel obliged to respond that you knew all along about the deaths in Cambodia, Syria and south-central LA? What happened to you all those years before when Disney was king Coca-Cola reigned supreme movies guided our choices as TV hosted specials deliciously delivering reality on a plate a guiding light bold and beautiful denials delight? when it happens to you and so close to home that your guard was let down and your words spoke the truth that your hatred was real towards the sins of your kind and the rug was pulled out and you fell down the hole that unlocked all the pain that you suffered in life from the marriage that was planned by the culture that was wronged with no clues from the dead so when it happened to you you were left all alone to decipher what's just without forethought or might you just left it to rot with all the others that night Linda Kaye writes poetry and produces poetry events in the local NELA area. She recently produced a socially and politically inspired event at “The Wall” border of Tecate, Mexico on the Jacumba, Ca. side of the US. That event was filmed for an upcoming documentary short to be released next year 2018. Her most recent book “Sexy Stuff ” is available now for purchase. www.lindakayepoetry.com Twitter: lindakayepoetry Instagram: Lindakayepoetry

Copyright Avenue 50 Studio. From "Trees of Life," a publication and event in support of traffic safety and an end to pedestrian fatalities on North Figueroa Street and in Los Angeles

NOVEMBER 2017

Madam X

;By Jen Hitchcock

21

As a woman, there is a lot of stuff that will bring to tears to my eyes these days: tears of rage, tears of sadness. I would venture to guess that a lot of us spend more time crying than we did last year at this time. But there is one thing in particular that I keep reliving, that always chokes me up. They are the words I said to my daughter as I was tucking her into bed the night of the election. “When you wake up, we will have our first female president. You live in a time of great historical significance.” (Yes, I really was that dorky, and over-confident. Ugh. ) I remember being so choked up and full of excitement—that my kid was going to come of age in a time that saw our first black president passing the torch to the first woman to lead our country. This image meant everything to me. But alas, she instead woke up to, well, you know.

I know there will likely be a lot reflection in the media about this past year over the next month. Reflections that will reopen the what-the-fuck-is-going-on-howcan-people-be-so-dumb wound. Reflections feeding the deep gut-wrenching depression felt about how drastically different things are at the hands of this toxic man.

I’m not sure my tear ducts can take it, but hey. Maybe there is hope…

The other day a thick-necked white dude in a pick up truck cut me off, bigly. I was heading south on a wide San Fernando Valley street. He was coming out of a parking lot on the opposite side, and obviously REALLY wanted to go the same way I was heading, as he cut across traffic, illegally crossing a double yellow line and left turn lane and zoomed in front of me. Just as he did this, the light turned red, making the situation even harder to navigate. Did I mention that he was also towing a huge trailer on the back? Oh yes. That. I had to slam on my breaks, and just missed the end of his trailer by a hair. As I backed up and got into the left turn lane (where I was heading) I saw his window go down as I pulled up.

“Here we go,” I thought, preparing myself to be yelled at by the puffed up chest and combative attitude that often happens when men know they have made a mistake. I rolled mine down ready to give it right back. What I was met with instead was a gentle hand wave, and a polite “I’m sorry.” He even averted his eyes a bit, not wanting to look me in the eye.

Of course, I was taken aback and wanted to smile and shout “It’s OKAY!!” But I fought it and didn’t. Even though this was a nice gesture, it was also the gesture that should have happened, without note. The Trumpian Age has made me realize all the more the unnecessary swooning society does over men when they act as another human should act towards women. I gave him a slight nod and turned away. I do have hope though, thinking that it is the tiny baby steps of everyday acknowledgement and kindness that will bring us to a better place.

BOOK SHOW EVENTS Saturday November 4th 7pm-9pm Queer Coloring Night Hosted by Stacked Deck Press Come color! All materials provided Wednesday November 8th 8pm Angry Nasty Women Feminist Writing Group Woman-centered writing prompts $5 donation Thursday November 9th 7pm-9pm Silent Book Club Hosted by Moni No assigned book. Bring one to read or get one at Book Show!

Tuesday November 14th 7pm sign up 7:30 start Comedy Open Mic Hosted by Sumukh Torgalkar Free

October 22nd a SASSAS (the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound) program was performed at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. A clear day at a site overlooking the entire city.

Two performers did a minimalist sound performance that included knocking a rock on the ground and dragging cymbals across the patio.

Drawing by Stuart Rapeport.

Wednesday November 15th 7:30pm-9:30pm Historia “Frenemies” Storytelling Free Thursday November 16th 8pm Laughterhouse 5 Comedy night Hosted by Sumukh Torgalkar Free Friday November 17th 7pm Reading 3 With Matthew Sherling Free Saturday November 18th 6pm Reading & Discussion with Philip Barragan “Fatizen: The Graphic Novel” & Kristin Dwan “Baptism By Fire” Free ONGOING EVENTS and WORKSHOPS Collage & Cry Monthly, every 1st Tuesday 7pm-9:30pm collage night All materials provided Five dollar donation EAT ART OPEN MIC Monthly, every 1st Friday 8pm sign ups Poetry and Prose open mic

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

22

ART HAPPENINGS AROUND LOS ANGELES PRESENTED BY SHOEBOX PR UPCOMING OPENINGS Ellen Gallagher: Accidental Records Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles 901 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, 90013 Opening November 3rd 6-8pm Jessica Dalva & Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman Nov. 3 – 26 La Luz De Jesus Gallery 4633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, 90027 Opening November 3rd 8-11pm Love Machine Inside - Performance Piece FAB-gallery 2001 Main St, Santa Monica, 90405 November 3rd 7-9pm Procthetics Curve Line Space 3348 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, 90065 Opening November 3rd 7-9pm WE ARE NASTY WOMEN, the exhibition Nous Tous by Citizens of Culture 454b Jung Jing Rd, Los Angeles, 90012 Opening November 3rd 6pm 18x18 Art Show Opening Reception MADE by Millworks 240 Pine Avenue, Long Beach, 90802 Opening November 4th 6-9pm Adam Beris: Soft Bananas Fabien Castanier Gallery 2919 La Cienega Blvd, Culver City, 90232 Opening November 4th 6-9pm Addiction ShockBoxx 636 Cypress Ave, Hermosa Beach, 90254 Opening November 4th 7-9pm Art in Place.

433 Pine Avenue, Long Beach, 90802 Opening November 4th 2-6pm B A C K S P A C E / D E L E T E new works by Nike Schroeder Walter Maciel Gallery 2642 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, 90034 Opening November 4th 6-8pm brittle peace NowSpace 5390 Alhambra Ave, Los Angeles, 90032 Opening November 4th 7-10pm Christian Rex van Minnen - Artist Opening Reception RICHARD HELLER GALLERY 2525 Michigan Ave, B-5A, Santa Monica, 90404 Opening November 4th 5-8pm DTLA Long Beach Ave. Lofts Open Studios 1250 Long Beach Ave, Los Angeles, 90021 November 4th 4-7pm Drench by Amy Green PØST 1206 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, 90015 Opening November 4th 7-10pm FARM to TABLE Brainworks Gallery 5364 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, 90019 Opening November 4th 5-8pm Gala Porras-Kim: An Index and Its Histories Commonwealth and Council 3006 W 7th St Suite 220, Los Angeles, 90005 Opening November 4th 5-8pm Hover, Vibrate, Swell, Reverse Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles 1206 Maple Avenue, 5th fl. 523, Los Angeles, 90015 Opening November 4th 7-10pm LAndscape - Opening Reception Monte Vista Projects Opening November 4th 7-10pm LAVA re-launch and art showcase Small Green Door 2075 S Atlantic Blvd, Los Angeles, 90040 Opening November 4th 7-11pm “Pace” - Opening Reception Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts 727 South Spring St (Between 7th & 8th Streets), Los Angeles Opening November 4th 6-9pm Phyllis Green “Life After Life After Life” Chimento Contemporary 622 S Anderson St, Spc 105, Los Angeles, 90023 Opening November 4th 5-8pm Same Side of the Bed The Diogenes Club 2915 Knox Ave, Los Angeles, 90039 Opening November 4th 7-10pm ‘Self-Portrait’ by Alex Israel Mixografia® 1419 E Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, 90011 Opening November 4th 2-4pm

NOVEMBER 2017

The Sense of Things Opening Reception at Durden and Ray 1923 S. Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles, 90021 Opening November 4th 4-7pm Space Angels | Bunnie Reiss Solo Exhibition Superchief Gallery L.A. 739 Kohler St, Los Angeles, 90021 Opening November 4th 6-11pm United Colors of L.A. 3463 E 26th St, Vernon, 90058-4126 Opening November 4th 7pm Virginia’s OPEN HOUSE Beacon Arts Building 808 N La Brea Ave, Inglewood, 90302 Opening November 4th 1pm Bryan Ida Portrait LA Artcore 120 Judge John Aiso St, Los Angeles, 90012 Opening November 5th 3-5pm Chris Kallmyer: All Possible Spaces Crossroads School, Sam Francis Gallery 1714 21st St, Santa Monica, 90404 Opening November 5th 3-6pm Eleven Lamperouge Fine Art 660-6 South Ave 21, Los Angeles, 90031 November 5th 1-4pm Three Dimensional Stimuli, and Reflected Versions Elevator Mondays 1026 Venice Blvd, Suite E, Los Angeles, 90015 Opening November 6th 7-10pm Three Bodies CGU Art 251 E 10th St, Claremont, 91711 Opening November 7th 6-9pm Unseen and Misremembered: a solo exhibition by Katherine L. Ross A-B Projects 251 E 10th Street, Claremont,91711 Opening November 7th 6-8pm Tiny Steps: A Mini Retrospective, works by Lavialle Campbell Los Angeles Southwest College Gallery 1600 West Imperial Highway, Los Angeles, 90047 Opening November 9th 5-7pm Off the Wall and a Holiday Party at Shoebox Projects Shoebox Projects 660 South Avenue 21 #3, Los Angeles, 90031 Opening November 10th 6-9pm 2017 Inglewood Open Studios 808 N La Brea Ave, Inglewood, 90302 November 11th and 12th 12-5pm David Krovblit “Shells” | John Nyboer “The Real Future” Lois Lambert Gallery & Gallery of Functional Art 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica, 90404 Opening November 11th 6-9pm “Portraiture - An Exhibition” Curated by Shane Guffogg Orange County Center for Contemporary Art 117 N Sycamore St, Santa Ana, 92701 Opening November 11th 5-8pm “There is no elephant in this room.”

Open Mind Art Space 11631 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, 90025 Opening November 11th 7-9pm Open Studios at FlechtroNEONics FlechtroNEONics 7712 Gloria Ave #4 Van Nuys Opening November 12th 1-5pm Terrain Biennial Los Angeles, Ana Mendieta Performance Day 3651 Mimosa Dr, Los Angeles, 90065-3507 November 12th 10-7pm Re Composition: A Call and Response Artist Reception CSUN Art Galleries 18111 Nordhoff St, Northridge, 91330 November 12th 4-8pm Chelsea Boxwell MFA Exhibition; ‘Some kinda Alchemy’ Adrienne Cole MFA Thesis Exhibition - “Setting:Home” CGU Art 251 E 10th St, Claremont, 91711 Opening November 14th 6-9pm Heather Gwen Martin / Deborah Butterfield Opening Reception L.A. Louver 45 N Venice Blvd, Venice, 90291 Opening November 15th 6-8pm

Space vs. Time Coaxial 1815 S Main St, Los Angeles, 90015 Opening December 2nd 8-11pm ONGOING EXHIBITIONS Hero , Lucas Raynaud , Collin Salazar , Dcypher Gabba Gallery 3126 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, 90057 To November 2nd “Angles & Energy” La Playa Gallery 2226 Avenida de la Playa, La Jolla, 92037 To November 3 Benjamin Fellowship Group Show CGU Art 251 E 10th St, Claremont, 91711 November 3rd BRAND 45 Works on Paper | Opening Reception Brand Library & Art Center 1601 W Mountain St, Glendale, 91201 To November 3rd HERE/THERE [PST: LA/LA] FM Fine Art Gallery 834 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, 90038 To November 3rd “Phoneme”, Benjamin Lowder Open Mind Art Space 11631 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, 90025 To November 3rd Amir H. Fallah “A Stranger In Your Home” Shulamit Nazarian 616 N La Brea, Los Angeles, 90036 To November 4 Claire Anna Baker: Suspended Wire | Opening Reception, 6-9 PM Moskowitz Bayse 743 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, 90038 To November 4 Fanny Sanín and Latin American Abstract Art L.A. Louver 45 N Venice Blvd, Venice, 90291 To November 4th Hellmouth, hosted by Leonard Greco Avenue 50 Studio 131 N Avenue 50, Los Angeles, 90042 To November 4th Lisa Lapinski ArtCenter College of Design 1700 Lida St, Pasadena, 91103 To November 4 Lois Lambert Gallery- Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA Lois Lambert Gallery & Gallery of Functional Art 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica, 90404 To November 4th Los Super Elegantes: I Am The Door Gavlak 1034 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, 90038 To November 4th Travis Louie Solo Exhibition: Paintings and Drawings KP Projects 170 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, 90036 To November 4th Intercultural Worldwide SM FAB-gallery 2001 Main St, Santa Monica, 90405 To November 5 Pati Lomeli & Narsiso Martinez “Sabrás todo lo que he callado” Balconi Coffee Company 11301 W Olympic Blvd, # 124, Los Angeles, 90064 To November 5 Unintended Consequences - Embrace the Unexpected Chaffey Community Museum of Art 217 S Lemon Ave, Ontario, 91761 To November 5th Dismiss Cypress College Art Gallery 9200 Valley View St, Cypress, 90630 To November 8th Gwen Adler at LACDA LACDA Los Angeles Center for Digital Art 104 E 4th St, Los Angeles, 90013 To November 9th

ONE YEAR: The Art of Politics in Los Angeles, Opening Party! Stepping into the Radiant Future Brand Library & Art Center 1601 W Mountain St, Glendale, 91201 Opening November 18th 6-9pm Wishlist 5 Gabba Gallery 3126 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, 90057 Opening November 18th 7-11pm PINK Pop-Up Show Castelli Art Space 5428 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, 90016 Opening November 30th 6-10pm

continued on page 23

23

HAPPY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS, DAY OF THE DEAD

by Tomas J. Benitez

Cultural appropriation is a highly volatile issue within the arts community. The balance between welcoming participation versus blatant exploitation is ongoing, particularly in public forums, as we see Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, emerge as a major cultural arts celebration in the American landscape. Cultural appropriation is the natural process of a capitalist democracy with an unending voracious appetite for mass consumption.

I was in New York City several years ago, rifling through all the souvenir shops in Times Square, looking for a King Kong climbing up the Empire State Building, a gift for my young son. The owner spotted me and almost immediately ushered me to a kiosk that he thought for sure would interest me. There it was, a display of all things Frida Kahlo on the top shelf, and all things Day of Dead on the bottom. I thought to myself then, “Well, we’ve arrived in America, now what?” We were now part of the commercial kitsch fest that fuels our society.

At the time, I was still Executive Director of Self Help Graphics & Art, the recognized progenitor of Day of the Dead celebrations in this country (along with the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, going back some forty years). When I went back home I shared my experience with the artists and to a one they were disturbed by what I thought had been an amusing incident.

I felt then, as I do now, that a hysterical reaction to my confrontation would not change things. America will find you and fix you whether you need fixin’ or not. America will take your unique recipe from Hamburg Germany for cooking sausage and turn it into twenty billion banal tasting hamburgers sold! Now, mark me, I think cultural appropriation should indeed be resisted with vigor. Disney tried to capture the Day of the Dead franchise a few years ago and was met with defiance and criticism. The result was a new film, COCO, made with much greater integrity by Disney/Pixar, and more significantly, with greater participation from Latinos who are much more knowledgeable about their own culture. A small victory in an industry that, as we have seen in the headlines in recent weeks, thrives on exploitation of many if not all who come to it.

Day of the Dead began as most things Mexicans, a hybrid of Pre-Columbian and European roots. Celebrated in certain states in Mexico, it grew in popularity in the mother country for years before it came North. In the early 1970’s, at the apex of the Chicano Art Movement. As the local artists took the private practices public, Day of the Dead in the United States was born. It was intended to be a vessel by which we could celebrate our roots, art and culture, and recognize the healing power of ritual, particularly with reference to the plague of fratricide and the growing number of local dead due to the Viet Nam War. But it was also the forum by which the Chicano artists could claim a valid presence in the American Landscape. And as we have now seen over the years, we should credit artists for indeed changing the landscape and broader arts culture for all artists and audiences.

The spirit of the early days was to not only to honor the traditional practices of Day of the Dead but to add to them, in the spirit of sharing, contributing the North American variant.

And Chicano artists did, always being loyal and steadfast to the meaning, practices and sacredness of Mexican DDLM, but providing their take, and thus, sharing their culture with the public; a gift to the country we lived in, then and now. That same spirit, led by artists, will stem the tide of appropriation and exploitation. Everyone can participate, but do so with enlightenment, respect, and appreciation. Day of Dead is not Halloween, learn the difference. Rather than reinterpret DDLM to meet your holiday party needs, learn to adjust and embrace the richer value and understanding of DDLM and thus benefit from the wisdom of a culture new to you.

continued from page 22 Last Projects To November 10th “Cache_LA” Opening Reception MINTMOUE To November 11th Mariángeles Soto-Díaz: Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum Opening Klowden Mann 6023 Washington Blvd, Culver City, 90232 To November 11th “A Narrow Passage” Noysky Projects 6727 7/8 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, 90028 To November 12th Chicana Photographers L.A. WEINGART GALLERY 1600 Campus Rd, Los Angeles, 90041 To November 12th Defenders, Refugees & Collaborators MuzeuMM 4817 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, 90016 To November 12th Erin E. Adams Solo Exhibition The Los Angeles LGBT Center Advocate & Gochis Galleries 1125 N McCadden Pl, Los Angeles, 90038 To November 18th LA/LAndscapes: Real and Imagined Studio Channel Islands 2222 Ventura Blvd, Camarillo, 93010 To November 18th “The Avalanche and The Silence” Carnegie Art Museum 424 S C St, Oxnard, 93030

To November 19th Diasporagasm at SBC SoLA Gallery South Bay Contemporary SOLA Gallery 3718 WEST SLAUSON AVENUE, Los Angeles, 90043 To November 19th Cosplay Photography -- Capturing Characters Golden West College Art Gallery 15744 Goldenwest St, Fine Arts Bldg., Huntington Beach, To November 22nd Excavations Rio Hondo College Art Gallery 3600 Workman Mill Road, Whittier, 90601 To November 22nd Anne Seidman: Way Finding Bruce Everett: On and Off the Road George Billis Gallery 2716 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, 90034 To November 25th (real evening buoyancy) Dan Miller - Recent Paintings Diane Rosenstein Gallery 831 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, 90038 To November 25th Lost at Sea Spring Arts Collective 453 S Spring St, Mezzanine, Los Angeles, 90013 To November 28 Artist Gina M.’s Solo show Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 825 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, 90069 To December 1st

Erika Lizée - Solo Exhibition Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 825 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, 90069 To December 1st Shula Singer Arbel Monica Film Center 1332 2nd St, Santa Monica, 90401-1103 To December 1st Juan Downey: Radiant Nature Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions 6522 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, 90028 To December 3rd South of the Border The Loft at Liz’s 453 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, 90036 To December 4th WHEN ICE BURNS, opening reception Porch Gallery - Ojai 310 E Matilija St, Ojai, 93023 To December 4th Museums LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART (LACMA) A Universal History of Infamy To February 19th, 2018 Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage To January 7th, 2018 Sarah Charlesworth: Doubleworld To February 4, 2018 Playing with Fire: Paintings by Carlos Almaraz To December 3rd On the Move: A Century of Crossing Borders To January 28th, 2018

UCLA Hammer Radical Women: Latin American Art, 19601985 To December 31st Andrea Buttner To January 7th, 2018 Tabaimo To December 3rd, 2017 MOCA Anna Maria Maiolino To November 27th, 2017 BROAD Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ Feb 2018 to May 2018 GETTY Happy Birthday, Mr. Hockney To November 26th Art Talks Infinite Clearance: From Burning Man Art to Public Art Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Downtown Central Library 222 East Harvard St, Glendale November 3rd 7-9pm Amir H. Fallah in Conversation with Mallery Roberts Morgan Shulamit Nazarian 616 N La Brea, Los Angeles, 90036 Opening November 4th 4-5pm Contemporary Art Conversations #18 Self Help Graphics & Art 1300 E 1st St, Los Angeles, 90033 November 11th 3-5pm

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

“BURY MY HEART”

24

by Jeremy Kaplan of READ Books READ Books book club has existed for almost 10 years. At our end of summer meeting in September, one of our original members, Sarah, told us about her recent vacation to Chief Joseph/Nez Perce country in Oregon & Idaho. Chief Joseph, I gushed, was the hero of my childhood. His dignified life combining intellect, benevolence, and fierceness—as related to me in books I’d read—formed my model of manhood that on occasion I try to remember to possibly emulate, if I ain’t too busy. I told Sarah and the other book clubbers about a germane vacation of my youth.

On a summer morning between 6th & 7th grades, I climbed into the back of my father’s blue ’72 Dodge Sportsvan to commence a cross-country journey from Illinois to Los Angeles via the northern route. Driving with my father always had the potential to be exciting/terrifying, as his foot was the bitter avenger crushing his nemesis the gas pedal. The man attached to that foot had recently presented me with his dilapidated mass market copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a book that partially explained the feelings of his right foot. “Read this,” he’d said. “It’ll tell you a lot about the land we’re about to see, the decent people who once lived there, and the bastards who stole it from them.”

It’s a profound gulf one crosses to travel from a place where you vaguely know something awful happened, to a place where someone shows you the details of who, what, and where.

With Dee Brown as narrator and dad the aggressive chauffeur, I gazed at the Badlands and might have thought I was on the moon, except that I now knew that this was where Crazy Horse had ridden, the Ghost Dance had evolved, and that U.S. soldiers had slaughtered Chief Big Foot and his band of Miniconjou nearby on this Pine Ridge Reservation. At a gift store, dad purchased a poster of Red Cloud that hung in his office until the day he retired, and for me a poster of Chief Joseph that has graced the wall of every home I’ve since lived in.

Late afternoon the following day, driving way too fast up the narrow, precipitous Black Hills road, I alternated between wondering if I was the recipient of the same view Red Cloud once admired, and if my father meant to drive us off a guardrail-less cliff so as to join the great chief. Was his reckless navigation the final manifestation of white guilt?

At the age of twelve, I was being told the greatest, saddest story ever told whilst simultaneously moving through the bona fide setting. No greater virtual reality game has ever been invented; in fact, 12-year-olds traveling those roads today would likely miss the experience in order to play a game on the phone their parent bought them. My parent gave me his copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and it made all the difference.

Subsequent to 2 other book-clubbers recalling the book as being intrinsically influential in their life, Sarah nominated it for our first autumn selection. Everyone was enthusiastic, but I felt something more than ardor. In my mind, I reasoned with the great arbitrator of existence that, perhaps, my father could somehow make it to our late October meeting.

Imagine that; the university professor, who began me on the journey, gracing our group discussion at the end of his journey. But I couldn’t simply invite him & assume he’d come. Dad was more than half-a-year into a diagnosis of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

If emotional risks interest you, pick up one of your favorite childhood books some 20-40 years later and see what the fuck happens. See whether or not the Holden Caulfield you always wanted to be has morphed into the Holden Caulfield you’d like to slap upside the noggin. When I’ve said that Bury My Heart… is the most influential book I’ve ever read, I never meant it was the best written; what the hell did 12-year-old me know about literature & technique? It was the concepts discerned from the book—injustice and the necessity of knowing the truth; social justice & the importance of fighting the good fight; the inevitable futility of fighting too far out of one’s weight class; the falseness of the good always prevails narrative—which formed the foundation of me, as it once had similarly forged the spirit of my father. He was atypically animated when I told him that I was re-reading the book.

36 years after my initial reading, the book remains as compelling as the first time and for many of the same reasons. One still staggers from event-to-event, paragraph-to-paragraph, wondering “How the hell…” while imagining yourself alive in the story, and feeling some degree of the futility that the Native Americans (and decent white men) felt. But my adult brain is now better equipped to recognize the political/economic stimulus that pushed America’s policy of genocide (Indians don’t vote; all that money to be made through our Indian Reservation Industrial Complex) and the potential political solutions that came closest to halting it (legal intervention by several decent Americans through the U.S. court system; i.e. Standing Bear v. Crook). And making the connections to our current political climate—the industrial complexes that drive us towards war & rewards mass imprisonment; the pertinence of court appointments & enforcement of existing laws; voting—is not especially complicated.

With the first side of Neil Young’s Native American inspired Rust Never Sleeps playing quietly in the background, these were some of the things we talked about at the book club meeting on Saturday.

We ate buffalo meat, as I had done with my father 36 years ago at Wall Drug. The Chief Joseph & Red Cloud posters, now worn but laminated, hung on the wall behind the cash register. My father died on October 5th. Death is a hell of a thing, and cancer is rough, but thankfully it was no Wounded Knee massacre. Dad spent some of his final moments coughing blood, but not on a frozen field. He was surrounded by his people, in his home, but instead of watching them be shot dead by soldiers, he saw his wife & children accorded the privilege of holding him. All through that book club meeting, I wanted to tell him. Everything. Now I will give my dilapidated mass market copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to my son. But I have two sons, and only one book. I will have to locate a decent used bookstore and buy a second, dilapidated copy,

NOVEMBER 2017

25

AN OUTDOOR ART GALLERY

La Culebra Action League joined the NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night in October with a pop-up outdoor art gallery.

Organizers of the event, as well as the artists featured, are local residents who have been working to revitalize Tierra de La Culebra Park on Avenue 57, south of Figueroa as a community space. The works featured in the park ranged from paintings showcased amidst the trees to large scale installations involving lights, bubbles, and fog.

La Culebra Action League is a committee of the Arroyo Arts Collective.

Infinity Mirror by Eliot Phillips

Gwen Freeman and David Lasky

Alejandro Guevara

Stellar Core by Eric Sagotsky

PEDESTRIAN TUNNEL GETS SPIFFIED UP Highland Park students and residents cleaned up the area around Luther Burbank Middle School and Garvanza Elementary in October, and used the occasion to add some artistic touches to the local pedestrian tunnel. The event was sponsored by City Councilmember JosĂŠ Huizar and coordinated by Monica Alcaraz.

quality printing and design with a personal touch business cards

banners - flags

open mon.- fri.

9am - 7pm sat.

11am - 4pm highland park merchandise

flyers - brochures

headwear

5144 york blvd., los angeles, ca 90042 ph. 323.478.0699 - fx. 323.478.2755

e.yvpdirect@gmail.com LA ART NEWS SECTION A

HISTORIC SIGN LIGHTS UP ECHO PARK

26

The iconic Jensen’s Recreation Center sign on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park is glowing again, thanks to the efforts of neighborhood historians, working in conjunction with building owner Vista Investment Group and City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s office.

The sign, which originally advertised a bowling alley in the building, dates from the 1920s and is made up of 1,300 red, green, and white light bulbs.

Fanciful light bulb signs were once popular along Southern California’s commercial corridors. But the signs were high maintenance (light bulbs burn out), and the Jensen’s sign and the Highland Theatre sign on North Figueroa Street are probably the only ones left. The Jensen’s sign is unique in its animation feature; it operates on a cycle of about 35 seconds, with a little guy bowling alternating with illuminated lettering.

NOVEMBER 2017

27

LA ART NEWS SECTION A

l

Reserve Your New Home Today at www.theerb.com

Offering mixed-use and single-family residences in Eagle Rock. Up to 3 bedrooms + 2.5 bathrooms. Private 2-car garages, rooftop decks with gorgeous views. Prices starting in the high $700,000’s. Arrange your private tour and reserve your home today. Contact us at 323-842-4002 or info@theerb.com.

Eagle Rock 1961 | Dick E. Lowry AIA

Bungalow Retreat with a Pool

1403 Bates Ave, Los Feliz

1404 Oak Grove Dr, Eagle Rock

6225 Saylin Ln, Highland Park

3 BED | 3 BATH | $1,049,000+

2 BED | 1.5 BATH | $1,249,000

2 BED | 1 BATH | $799,000

Hillside Retreat with Studio

Luxury Living in Prime Eagle Rock

Beautifully Remodeled Townhouse for Lease

1725 Burnell Dr, Mt Washington

1680 Hill Dr, Eagle Rock

3004 Hyperion Ave, Silver Lake

2 BED | 1 BATH | $749,000

3 BED | 2.5 BATH | $1,349,000

3 BED | 3 BATH | $4,500/MO

Four New Homes | CielLosFeliz.com

Tracy Do CalBRE #01350025

tracydo.com 323.842.4001 tracy@tracydo.com

New Homes, Rooftop Decks | theGlenLA.com

13103 Victory Blvd, Valley Glen UP TO 4 BED | 3.5 BATH | HIGH $600,000

New Homes with Views | CollineEchoPark.com

1513 Lake Shore Ave, Echo Park 3 BED | 2.5 BATH | CALL FOR PRICING

Compass is a licensed real estate broker (01991628) in the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only.

Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdraw without notice. To reach the Compass main office call 626.205.4040.