LIVE TALK: Making Our Neighborhood: How Two Community Journalists Came Together to Redefine Storytelling in East Hollywood, presented by Samanta Helou Hernandez of This Side of Hoover, and Jimmy Recinos of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast
This two-part informational livestream on how to “Make a Neighborhood” will discuss the gentrification occurring in historically ethnic and working-class Los Angeles communities. Part one will describe how Helou Hernandez and Recinos conceptualized the discussion series and public art project focusing on three themes of historic redlining, current gentrification and present and future housing affordability issues in the Virgil Village and East Hollywood areas. Part two will describe the final installment for the series, “Making Our Neighborhood: The Magazine,” and the importance of memorializing the artists’ exploration in a tangible form for communities to access, while also imparting the need to uplift art and literature in times of hardship.
PERFORMANCE: Thurz
In an intimate setting from his living room, Hip-Hop artist Thurz will perform songs inspired by the experiences in his community from his recent work, MORE THURZ ON THURZDAY, a playlist that featured a new song debuting each week from January through December 2020. The Inglewood native will be accompanied by Wali Ali Jr. on talk box and others.
LIVE WORKSHOP: Musicians as Workers: A Conversation with Josephine Shetty
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there are many examples of music workers building worker power. However, exclusionary union models, individualism, increasing inequality and technological changes in the music industry have also hindered music workers from massively collectivizing or uniting in solidarity with the rest of the working class. Shetty, whose stage name is Kohinoorgasm, dives into the meaning of positioning musicians as workers, building broader movements of music workers and how the public can learn from an existing lineage of musicians organizing to build stronger movements of workers today.
DANCE WORK/INTERVIEW: Rasquachencias performed by Primera Generación Dance Collective
Created by four first-generation artists, Rasquachencias showcases the collective’s past, present and future works to consolidate a vibrant picture of their Mexican American sociality. This dance work explores the power of rasquache play, engaging the possibilities in loud colors, Latinx iconography and recycled juxtapositions to highlight the creative survival strategies produced by the Brown, working-class communities of their heritage.
PERFORMANCE: Love for the Prairie 《苍穹之恋》performed by Chinese Dance Company of Southern California (CDCSC)
CDCSC was co-founded by South Coast Chinese Cultural Center and Pan America Chinese Dance Alliance in late 2019 to provide learning, communication, performance opportunities and platforms for dance lovers in Southern California. The company aims to tell classic Chinese stories with well-known traditional dances, as well as encouraging and inspiring original choreographies to tell stories about American Chinese immigrants. Performed by members of CDCSC, Love for the Prairie demonstrates the Mongols’ love and reverence for their homeland and nature. The Mongols have always regarded the world as a component of nature; they believe that man and the earth coexist and prosper and all the phenomena of nature are the products of the earth. Traditional Chinese: 《蒼穹之戀》“天蒼蒼，野茫茫，風吹草低見牛羊”。蒙古人民對草原的熱愛，對親情的珍惜，淵源而流長，溫暖又沁人心脾。蒙古人民對大自然充滿了敬畏而又不失善良的心靈，人與人的不斷羈絆讓蒙古人民永遠的愛上了這片大地。 蒙古人一向把天地萬物看成是大自然的構成部分，認為人與天地萬物共存共榮，大自然的一切現像都是天地的產物。 《蒼穹之戀》表現的就是蒙古人對大自然的熱愛和崇敬。 Simplified Chinese: 《苍穹之恋》“天苍苍，野茫茫，风吹草低见牛羊”。蒙古人民对草原的热爱，对亲情的珍惜，渊源而流长，温暖又沁人心脾。蒙古人民对大自然充满了敬畏而又不失善良的心灵，人与人的不断羁绊让蒙古人民永远的爱上了这片大地。 蒙古人一向把天地万物看成是大自然的构成部分，认为人与天地万物共存共荣，大自然的一切现象都是天地的产物。《苍穹之恋》表现的就是蒙古人对大自然的热爱和崇敬。
