Category Archives: art

A Prayer for Juarez Art Activism Starts this Week

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Not all art is about someone creating an object in passionate solitude, unveiling it at the trendiest gallery and selling it for (what would seem to most) an excessive price. Since 2001, I have been engaged in what I call art activism. Art activism is about pointing out something that is lacking in society in a more amplified way than just one painting or sculpture in a gallery. Perhaps in Picasso’s times his one painting of Guernica created that buzz, but in post modernism, we have to step up our game.

My current project began in the summer of 2009. It is called A Prayer for Juarez. If you feel that you have known and seen works on the murders in Juarez in excess—it has been due to a handful of artists who have vowed not let this art topic disappear until something is resolved for the people of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. It’s not a Mexican-thing, it’s a humanitarian circumstance. When we come together to resist and witness an injustice, we create a dialogue within ourselves to begin to change the world hierarchy on what is valued. We do not have to accept matters, because they are not in our immediate sight. We are the guardians of all that lives on our planet and together have the power to stop any injustices. It begins with being informed.

During the month of March 2010, we will begin this dialogue through new works and voices in this art struggle against injustice. You are invited to attend these powerful exchanges of ideas through art, performance and testimony. Each week (here on LAeastside) look for our posts on A Prayer for Juarez. All events are free, except this Friday’s play (March 5) by Dr. Ana Nogales on human trafficking called “Don’t Call Me Baby”. All events take place in Josefina’s new theater space Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights, 2102 1st Street (corner of St. Louis), except “Don’t Call Me Baby” which is 1 block west at the smaller Casa 0101 Theater. Street parking is free (imagine that, in LA)! Continue reading →

Botanica de Amor wrap up

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For the second year in a row Self Help Graphics auctioned off some of the most eligible bachelors this side of the river. Can you believe that someone was bought off for $600 !?!?!? Yeah, $600 and I’m not talking about monopoly money here folks. Never in my life have I seen to women out bid each other like that. It was madness I tell ya, but all for a good cause, SHG. Here’s a few pics I took of the day and a quick rundown.

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Random’s Rundown

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Feliz Año Nuevo de la Luna everyone. I’ve been busy with Taco Tech the last few days and haven’t had time to catch up. I have a long list of things to blog about and post. That’s why I came up with “Random’s Rundown.” Like any great idea, this happened while I was in the bathroom. Last night I was making notes on info that I need to post ASAP for y’all to read and I was thinking to myself if I should do single post or bunch everything together. Chimatli already has that covered with the Botanitas post, so I started thinking and then BAM !! It hit me. I’m basically giving everyone the run down on what’s going…. PRESTO “Random’s Rundown.” All the news that is not fit to print, but still hella important. In this installment, Metro meetings for planning on bikes, Mardi Gras with Ollin, Juarez Documentary screening and more from IMIX.

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Notice Served: IMIX Books Fundraiser

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IMIX Books has been open for about 6 years and has served the community extremely well. But times are very tough and we need your help. A fundraiser is being held on Friday February 19th.

I met the owner, Elisa, when she worked at Premiere Aztlan in the Montebello Town Center more than 10 years ago. We have been good friends ever since. This woman is dedicated to books and to the community. She worked at Sisterhood Books, Midnight Special Books, Premiere Aztlan, etc. Remember those places? She later had a space at Mercado La Paloma off 37th and S. Grand. She then opened IMIX Bookstore in Eagle Rock and has provided an invaluable community resource. Besides a fine selection of literature and progressive titles, how many artists has this bookstore helped?

In these desperate economic times, mom and pop stores are hit the hardest. IMIX is one of the last independent bookstores in the ELA/NELA area. In fact, all the bookstores where she was once employed are gone. We will not let IMIX Books suffer the same fate, will we? Our community helps our own, right? See you there.

Suggested Donation is 15$ (sliding scale). No one will be turned away at the door. Children free!!

*Note: you can also donate here*

**chimatli wrote about IMIX here.

***flyer borrowed from DJ Phatrick

Is Villaraigosa Creating a “Police State” in LA?

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On Saturday morning I had coffee with a Los Angeles city worker, who (among other of his colleagues), is disturbed at the direction city leadership is laying out the LA Game-‘o-Life board. This week Mayor Villaraigosa said regarding the economic crisis fueled job cuts, “I don’t do this because I want to, I do this because I must.” Within this “a man must do what a man must do” blanket statement are also choices. In a city of approximately 40,000 city workers, there are 10,000 police and between 5,000 & 6,000 in the fire department, making them 40% of the city workforce. LA city workers have been appraised that Villaraigosa wants to focus on public safety first, translated means that other services in the city will suffer, but not the police forces.

Across my desk this week were dialogues about student actions being planned regarding the cuts in education, the closing of more parks in the city, the dissolution of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department (I got somewhere around 50 email petitions, which helped overturned this plan—gracias artistas!), an alarming price increase menu on traffic tickets with added rules (drivers beware!), gentrification plans to mow down more eastside historic buildings, and Pearl Art Store selling everything at 75% off (looks like they are going down).

As the students have noted in their various cries for continued funding, this city spends more on prisons and those who can imprison us, than things that can uplift us as a humanity, such as community spaces, art and education. I cringe to think what sort of summer we are headed for in LA. More negative places to be pushed into, armed monitors of humans to catch you erring, climbing prices on everything, mom and pops closing all around us, polluted city drinking water, no jobs, gas that cost more than a blood transfusion and no light at the end of the tunnel. My free-thinking art friends say “let the whole thing crash, we have survived worse.” I am starting to picture myself teaching an impromptu class to eager students on the street corner where they have been locked out of their schools.

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

PRISON INC Opening Saturday 2.06.10 at Crewest Gallery DTLA

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(click to enlarge image)

I saw a preview of a few pieces this past Monday and there’s some amazing sh*t that is above and beyond the usual prison art. DON’T MISS OUT. If you don’t make the opening then for sure make it out to see this show before it bones out.

GO TO CREWEST.COM FOR MORE INFO

**** “ Not recommended for a younger audience, but then again neither is prison.”- Man One aka Man Uno

2nd Annual Anarchist Bookfair: Some Pics

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It’s a bit late, and other people have covered it but here’s a few pics I took of the recent LA Anarchist Bookfair at beautiful Barnsdall Park. Yes, when we’re not burning and looting, we do take some time to catch up on the latest theories and practices to be found in print, its ammo to fuel the anger. Haz click para la rabia!

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To Love & Die in East L.A.

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I have been in artiste/producer-mode recently. I’m so excited about our 2nd Annual La Botanica de Amor luv-fest for Valentines Day!! Since this is just one of Leslie Saiz’ and my brilliant ideas, making its second return—we R so proud. Last year an exclamation point became “alive”—as El Random Hero proclaimed “I want to find love!” Pachuco 3000, Abel Salas and I devised a whole male date auction with prizes. It was fun, funny and fundraising for the arts—YAY–I luv it!! read more Last time we did it (La Botanica, that is) the custodian (caught up in the excitement) jumped on the auction block and was bought for a home repair visit (ahem). Pachuco says it’s because he has the gift of salesmanship—(everyone, rub his head for luck.). This year Random is behind the scenes, scoring some delicious dinners-4-dos prizes; Pachuco is lining up the prime bachelorhood (because he says, “They gotta be chulos!”); and I am firing up my tarot cards for some ‘tell-it-like-it-is’ live love advice. To Love & Die in ELA, curated by Leslie Gutierrez Saiz opens too—why?–because only the artists on the eastside can break-it-down about our crazy-love lives verbally & visually (refer to image above)—it’s a Bonnie & Clyde thang, don’t ya know? Cheyenne is baking cup cakes and (ladies!) muralist Raul Baltazar (one of the bachelors-to-be-auctioned) is getting mas chulo every minute. More poetry, more music, more sweet treats, more art, more limpias para el amor, more love advice, more chances to find your ‘otro”, mas de todo! February, 13, noon to 5pm @ SHG, 3802 Cesar Chavez Avenue, ELA AND grab lunch there with Comida y Cultura!

City Arts Organizations Need Your Help

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This exhibition, co-curated by two Department of Cultural Affairs employees and taking place in the Municipal Gallery of the City of Los Angeles is exactly the kind of innovative programming that’s threatened by the proposed staff and budget cuts. This show brings together 60 artists who represent the thriving experimental nature of Los Angeles’ art scene, possibly the first gathering of size in LA of artists of this experimental generation, raised on a diet of relational aesthetics and a dissatisfaction with the art world in general. Our city is being recognized as an art capital today because of the risks and experiments of the artists gathered in this exhibition.

Hello Eastsiders!  I live in the Harbor Area, but this affects the whole city, so I’ve asked to borrow this soapbox for a minute.

The Department of Cultural Affairs is being threatened with a 24-48% staff cut, the elimination of the entire $2.2 million grants budget and there is a motion to eliminate the ordinance that guarantees a %1 “hotel bed tax” that forms the core of the Department’s budget.  These cuts will cripple the department, and the elimination of the grants program will spread the pain out, further crippling the ability of scores of non-profits throughout the City to deliver key programming.

There are hard working people at the Department of Cultural Affairs who will lose their jobs, and kids who will not get an arts education if these cuts pass.  Small businesses and individual contractors who provide services to arts organizations will be hard hit.  Artists who desperately need support and venues for their work will find it gone.  I will likely have to cancel upcoming programming at Angels Gate if these cuts go through, and I know that other arts organizations will be even harder hit than the one I work for.

This situation has been developing for several days now, and even now as I write this there is a meeting about the elimination of the grants program.  I have a whole series of posts up at my site that go into detail about the cuts, you can read about it here, here and here.  Arts for LA has also been on top of this, and their site has lots of information as well.  The Times is barely covering this, at the time I’m writing this, the Culture Monster blog hasn’t even addressed the issue.

How you can get involved and make a difference

Angels Gate Cultural Center, in partnership with the Grand Vision Foundation, will be hosting a letter writing party tonight, February 1, at the Grand Annex on 6th Street in Downtown San Pedro from 5:30-8:00 pm.  We will provide paper, pre-written letters, writing assistance, pens, envelopes.  We will write letters to the city council, Council District 15 councilmember Janice Hahn and the Mayor’s office, letting them know how important the Department of Cultural Affairs and its services are to you and your families.  Your words can change things.

If you can’t make our letter writing party, you can write a letter online via Arts for LA’s website.  If you don’t live in the City, but enjoy the services provided by the DCA, you should direct your Emails to either council president Eric Garcetti.  You can write all of them if you like, too.  It’s easy.

Write a letter online here.

You can also contact your councilmember’s office directly, via the City of Los Angeles website. Nothing gets their attention more than a barrage of phone calls.

Marshall Astor
www.marshallastor.com

UPDATE, click ahead

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Made outside the USA

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When I walk, I tend to look down at the ground. Not because I’m depressed or anything like that, mostly because sometimes it’s easy to over look things that you would normally wouldn’t see. Like multicultural man-hole covers.  I’ve found a few a these all over downtown, there are also a few out there that were made in India as well. What I like about these covers is that there is a rather simple explanation behind them, rather than some other implied meaning behind them, to be interpreted by individuals for their own accord.

Basically what’s going on here is that the city has two contracts with two steel manufacturing plants, one in Long Beach and one in Alhambra. These two plants have been making the cities covers for the past few decades and it turns out that they are the ones that outsource their work to either Mexico and India. Funny how things like that work. Still, it says a lot about our city, whether it’s implied or not. It says everything about me, guess that’s why I love it.

Rambling On My Mind: The 12th Annual Latino Book and Family Festival Day 2 – Mission Complete

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Day 1 recap right here

Let the words of Helena María Viramontes serve as an introduction.

After months of exasperated apprehension, Day 2 of the 12th Annual Los Angeles Latino and Family Festival is here. Mission Accomplished. You see, Virginia, there is a Satan. Like Santa, I received thousands of letters asking me to give them a little something something. Day 1 was not enough, the masses clamored for more. I heard you, my peeps. Now, will you shut the… Of course, there were some scrooges who wrote/commented that my Day 1 report was not polite enough. Bah! Those scattered patrons of the mainstream like their artists untouchable. Here, like in The House of Usher, everybody gets touched. On with the show.
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Comic books, beer and magic and realism in contemporary Chicano literature

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I’ve never seen an Andy Warhol up close and person. Eh, I’ve never been a fan of anything “pop,” except for the kind fizzy kind. I saw it at the L.A. Art show. It’s aight, I would do a post, but I’m kinda tired right now, so bear with me until I get to it later. Probably after the show ends. If you wanna check it out, go to goldstar and get $10 tickets like I did. However, there are some other great events happening this weekend that are worth mentioning besides the Anarchist book fair. You won’t be disappointed. And in the spirit of Art month, go out and get your art on.

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