My goodness gracious! We are almost done with 2008! So I "should" put together a list of tops and bottoms for the year. Whoops! Did I say that? I meant "best" and "worst" but as you can likely guess, that is so not my style. Maybe "expansive" and "contractive" (or would that be regressive). Anywhoo, I don't want to do that just cause I got some love from each and every event/performance/museum/gallery opening I went to in 2008. I also learned soooo much! I want to thank each of you for being the teacher when it was your turn. I likely will venture a "10 things I would do if I were _________" list everyday on the blog for the last 10 days of 2008. Item #100: If were sane, I would not make such propositions. But I ain't, so check out the blog to see what I'm up to and post your own lists! Remember my insane analogy of mold, Blogo and Obama? Well it appears that Emmanuel is likely going to have to do that hustle "hisself" to get out of the skank. We shall see. I foresee a bizarre collapse of a good poriton of Obama's cabinet in the early days during appointments, forcing him to look to more liberal minded folks for a hand. With that in mind, who are the frenemies on the Inauguration Committee?! Rick Warren?! Alright, I can tell you exactly who they are and will do so in the action section of the newsletter. You've got some e-mails to send. This is OUR inauguration, not the Democratic Party's. A place at the table?! Maybe they are afriad of all those guns that got purchased right after the O made history? Additonally, the axe has begun to fall locally in LA on the lovely neck of the Arts. Aside from MOCA mucking up its own budget (oooh, I just thought about the Madoff runoff, omigawd), LAUSD just stopped all payments to all arts providers in the schools. Wham. Just like that. Er uh, I thought when you got fired, you got 2 weeks notice? Time to bake some cookies, host a video watchin party, dj for free to raise those funds, or just send some cash directly to your local artist; by the look of things, aside from the dudes sweeping out all the abandoned personal property after foreclosures, the other growth industry is performance art. Check it.
Afrolicious. Afrologia. Afrodelic. Afropoesia. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro? Fractal, improvisational, polemical, but always moving with spirit and in service to lifting us all up! That's the Logic of the Afro--sign up, read up, be up--you can move mountains, now make it beautiful
BLOWIN BACK DA 'FRO this week is the massive potential of the incremental. Check dat! We might very well have to change that phrase "go big or don't go at all." It's more like what Muhammad Ali said "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," except now, you got to be a whole swarm with a DIY portable cocoon that you slip into ever so often for the costume change. Fractally fabulous.
TONIGHT
THE UNKNOWN THEATER
1110 North Seward Street, Hollywood 90038
Killing Game by Eugene Ionesco, directed & designed by Chris Covics
Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 6PM CLOSING DECEMBER 21ST; $18 advance, $24 @ the door
If you have not noticed, I've got a big streak of the absurdist a-runnin through my brain. Ionesco is a favorite absurdist, though after 8 years of dubbya capped off with a pair of size ten shoes (still giggling!), will you really think the play all that absurd? All the more reason to go.
MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART, directions&info
628 Alamitos AV, Long Beach, CA 90802
En La Noche @ MOLAA
Friday, December 19th 6 - 10 PM
Contra Tiempo is in da house for this, the last event in what looks to have been a hot series. Hopefully this is the last of the year and not, well, ever. Salsa class with CTD, then a DJ Saoco spins Latin grooves and finally the night concludes with a performance by Esprit Afrique. Long Beach aka Strong Beach doin it to ya Afrodiaspora stylee. Now, where did I leave my helicopter?
MACHINE PROJECT
1200 D North Alvarado, Los Angeles, CA 90026, map a location
Poetry Delivery Day
Sunday, December 21, Dawn till Dusk Call the Poetry Hotline (213 448 7668)
This is for all of you folks out in Echo Park/Silver Lake: If you live within a one-mile block of Machine Project Headquarters, you can dial up and have a poem deliverd to your doorstep. Now, I think if you look around on the map link I have provided and find a comfy place in which to hang, you are within your rights to dial up a poem for delivery. I'm just sayin'. That's what I would do if my kids would cooperate. Joshua Beckman and Anthony McCann are your bards to order.
IN THE AFRIVERSE
OAKLAND/BAY AREA
DANCE MISSION THEATRE
3316 24th ST, San Francisco, CA at Mission
AQUI E AGORA & SEMPRE, concept, choreography and direction by Isaura Oliveira
Saturday, December 20th 4 PM; $10 - $15, sliding scale, children are free.
My first instructor in Brazil is pouring honey all over the bay and invites you to come and have a taste. This is the culmination of a month long workshop held at The Dance Brigade's Dance Mission Theater. If you are headed to the Bay, or were looking for a reason to go up, here is a good one.
"This creation vividly evokes the rites of Orisha and Caboclo traditions through dance, theater and music in an experimental Brazilian piece."
-Isaura Oliveira, Artistic Director and Choreographer
coming up...Dance 4 LIfe, Fundraising concert for Djembefolla Abdoulaye Diakite, Jan 21st @ La Peña
NYC
coming up...Alexandria Yalje at JCCM premiering "TOV," Jan 15th
"Now, where was that other thingamabob I wanted to see last week?" Check the Archives, search by location or artist, or just re-live the bright moments by reading older entries!
coming up back in LA area
"Dance As Civic Duty" a lecture series @ UCR organized by yours truly, FREE, Jan - March
Joe Goode's "Wonderboy" Wednesday, Jan 21st @ UCR 8 PM, tickets now
Kingsley Irons' Rupture @ Unknown Theater,Jan 8th- 18th, tix now
Street Cred 101 @ HIGHWAYS Jan 10 -11, tix on sale now
Any One Home - The Reunion Tour at WAC UCLA, Jan 16 -17
Booty LA with R.A.I.D. will be back with commanding performances for all
i.e. Dance is cooking up some all-ages dance fun, stay tuned
Raphael Xavier is bringin b-boy pain and power moves in workshops and shows
Michael Sakamoto will magically appear
Marcus Quiland-Nazario will already be there when he shows, really
ONGOING CLASSES/WORKSHOPS
While the performance community catches its breath before the mamma jamma of all events, New Year's Eve, dancers can rest easy that they can still get a class or two before the year is out.
Linda Yudin has live drummers for the last class of the year at the Dance Garden! Friday @ 6:30 PM, $15
Simone Forti is setting your kinetic kite loose on the wind of language as part of DANCEBank this Saturday @ 10:30 AM, $12
All class locations can be found on the dance map.
In Oakland, Regina Calloway is bringing to a close her month long celebration-fundraiser of/for Abdoulaye Diakite, our master drummer and former co-artistic director of Ceedo Senegalese Dance Company. He is still in the hospital(!), so if you will be in Oakland, go take class at Malonga Casquelorde Center for the Arts @ Alice & 14th Streets, 4:30 - 6 PM on Sun, 21st, $12 with Regina, Renée Puckett & Bontlé Willis, all my Ceedo homegirls! Then Regine Ndounda will give a smokin Congolese class on the 22nd @ 7:30-9 PM, $12. The Kongo class will be drum fire for sure! For updates on Abdoulaye: www.abdoulayeupdate.com
HOLYDAZE FAIRS & BAZAARS
Well...if you ain't got gifts yet, bettah make them little cute cupon booklets like you did in middle school: "this cupon good for one breakfast in bed" etc.
Really, end of year donations have a LOT of power this year. Seek out a beloved performance space/group/artist and make a pledge for a monthly donation of $10 - $15. That's the incremental I was talking about. Or be a badass and give a monthly amount equivalent to the founding year of the company: 1985= 19.85/mo. Get it? You can make these donations in the name of someone you love, or love to try to convince to behave the way you want them to!
ACTION
Now, I know this is rude. I is from da Souf and I does have hometrainin, but you don't let no snake up in yo house an' expect da party to go right. Unnerstan?! With that said, y'all need to call and e-mail the members of the Inauguration Committee and let them know that you think Rick Warren should be asked to step aside as the celebrant of the invocation and in his place...a praise dance piece should go in. If I had ALL my druthers, I would say Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith should deliver the invocation, but I am biased. Bruh can LIFT IT UP! So the folks:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/
Sen. Harry Reid
http://reid.senate.gov/contact/inde
Sen. Bob Bennett
http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/e
Rep. Nancy Pelosi
http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
Rep. Steny Hoyer
http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/emai
Rep. John Boehner
http://johnboehner.house.gov/Contac
5. Post your letters on the discussion board. Let the whole world know why are you disappointed and outraged!
If you are on Face Book, join: No Rick Warren at Obama Inauguration
Why am I feeling this? Though he is doing much needed work against AIDS/HIV in Africa, he is only there to support "the innocent." This reverberates back in his "holocaust" of abortions. So, to be clear, Rev. Rick Warren is very vocal about his support of Prop 8, by his own admission ignored HIV/AIDS pandemic until the innocent were involved (?!), and does not support a woman's right to choose. Is this the change you voted for?
LAUSD stops payments to artists and art providing organizations.
If the admiral, or whatever his rank was, can get half a million to walk, I KNOW the folks who actually did their jobs can get their checks on time. Call, e-mail, and write to LA Times, Weekly and City Beat.
"Arts for LA has initiated an advocacy campaign urging LAUSD to release the district-wide budget freeze that has halted the delivery of arts education to thousands of students and is crippling arts organizations who provide services as part of the Arts Community Partners Network.
Take Action
Sign the Petition
Get Involved"
Arts for LA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) arts advocacy organization. Our mission is to foster a healthy environment in which the arts and culture may thrive and be accessible to all in our region.
LOVELY!
My goodness. This past weekend we did a marathon of dance madness. I finally got to meet Mecca Vazie Andrews, YAY! Her paddle boat dance as part of Thank Tank 2008 was most inspiring. Later that evneing I went to check out Lula Washington's show at the Broad in Santa Monica. Fierce dancers as always, but dang it, they were not working with much material. I'm hoping for better repertory shows in the future as Ms. Washington makes space for her in-house choreographers. I wrote a l o n g blog about the experience of the day on Face Book. It will migrate to Afrologica presently. Well, the day today was full of obstacles that pulled out moves so graceful, I did not recognize them as my own. I wish you the same as you get into the driver's seat of these momentous changes, cause honey, it is dangerous down there by the tires. Get up! get focused, and drive to your destiny!
in love,
-Anna
