NEWSLETTER: focused reps

Hey hey hey!

Things are toning up and taking shape all over the place. Our once flabby electorate stepped out and found some new muscle, now we got the O. Then our wobbly-kneed civil rights movement figured out how to stand tall and walk the talk. Now we are watching the incoming administration take shape, slack-jawed. It's all a bit surreal, but I think the O is one fancy dancer (have you checked out the Obama Hustle or the Obama Slide, don't sleep), and we will soon come to know him in a way we have always wanted to know a president. (Watch those empty senate seats fill up with Obama supporters and the Hilraisers in the administration tow their new bosses party line, heh heh heh). Or will we? You know, this newsletter is all about the intersection of arts and politics, and though he is bringing much light, the arts, and their cost-saving, job-creating impact are not quite up on the O's list. Like initiating a green economy, this could be a missed opportunity. Any historian of the US Great Depression will tell you all about the WPA Project which not only built infrastructure, but employed hundreds of artists of all types to do a vast array of applied, civic art making. The google-enabled prez-elect is already defragging his netroots to figure out what to do with his private social network of one million. If you used my.barak.com, please respond to the questionnaire and put the arts up there as a human right and economic opportunity. For now, let me advise you to get ALL your car repairs done NOW, cause parts is gonna get scarce in a month or two. It is a great time to finally join that car pool or get that monthly transit pass.


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 right now is a gentle breeze, thankfully, a welcome respite from the soot-filled gusts of last week. Last week was also action packed, and though I looked for stuff to pad the newsletter with (hence this hour), I'm very excited, with afro pick in hand, to recommend these choice events for this weekend.


DIAVOLO DANCE SPACE, directions
616 Moulton, Los Angeles, CA 90031
California Touring Project
Friday and Saturday, November 21 – 22 at 8pm Sunday, November 23 at 6pm
$20 general; $16 student/seniors/dance professionals, advance purchase here. Cash at door
WOOO! This one is stirring up the precious remnants of the dance critics: LA WEEKLY & LA TIMES & FLAVOR PILL all say GO! This is definitely a show that you must see. Casebolt & Smith have put together an intense evening of works that you don't want to miss, especially rare in its generational sweep. Get your tickets and I'll see you there on Saturday night.



GLORIA KAUFMAN DANCE THEATER, directions
120 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Sheetal Gandhi and Krenly Guzman in Concert
Friday & Saturday, November 21 & 22, 8:00 - 9:30 PM;$15/$8; Parking is $9 in Structure 4
This will be a memorable evening as well. Furious refashionings of contemporary and heritage, this program will challenge you to see movement for the luxurious, cross-cultural language it is. I'll see you there tomorrow.


FREUD PLAYHOUSE, UCLA, directions
The Blue Dragon, presented by Robert Lepage/Ex Machina
Wed-Sat, Nov 12-15 at 8pm; Sun, Nov 16 at 7pm; Tue-Fri, Nov 18-21 at 8pm; Sat, Nov 22 at 2 & 8pm; $60/$40/$15 UCLA students
Okay, so for most of this week, I have not felt the urge to put this on the afrologics list, but the work sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, that means I have to figure out how to get there for the matinee on Saturday. From the website:
One of the true visionaries of modern theater, Québécois director, actor and storyteller Robert Lepage creates emotionally vivid and visually enthralling works that ponder the mystery and wonder of life. The Blue Dragon follows the lives of three characters in modern China, including the ambitious young artist Pierre Lamontagne, a character first introduced in Lepage’s 1985 masterpiece The Dragons’ Trilogy. The resulting intersection of their lives and the underlying collision of Eastern and Western, modern and ancient, and establishment and subversive values brings about fundamental changes for each.


SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL/LA
1238 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (between Glendale Blvd and the 110 fwy)
For All Time
Oct 30 - Nov 23, 2008, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 3PM; come early and pay what you can, order on line for $20
The fearless Pat Payne joins Cornerstone Theater on a community production as a thespian--watch out now--to present this highly charged play about violence, incarceration and forgiveness. The play is about to close and has gotten a decent review in the LA Times. Worth the freeway time to go and see how art is a tool for policy change.



CENTER FOR PERFORMANCE STUDIES, UCLA, directions
Royce Hall and The Broad Center, campus map
Actions of Transfer: Women's Performance in the Americas
Thursday - Sunday November 20-23
This conference kicked off on Thursday and will go through Sunday. Packed with some of the more edgy female artists from South and Central America, the conference will also present a number of US scholar-practitioners. Tonight, Friday, go check out "Open_borders: Improvisation Across Networks, Distance, Timezones," coordinated by Adriene Jenik and Charley Ten, this performance is actually a collection of presenters who are waaay off-site. Should be interesting to see! I'm going to scoot over to this in a bit! Bumming that I could not respond to this call for papers when it circulated...But this means that if you are headed up to see Krenly & Sheetal, you should go early enough to see this performance as well, because parking will be awful, not to mention traffic.


"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!


ECHOPLEX
1154 Glendale BLVD, Los Angeles CA 90026
Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era, film by GS Media Group
November 22, Doors @ 8 PM, all ages; $15
This film will likely shake you up if you think you know hip hop. I've seen a few versions, and Thomas Gùzman-Sanchez is adamant about undoing our reliance on easy, sloppy terms and quickly shifting memory. The last bit has gotten him into a whole bunch of trouble. People have the right to forget; does not necessarily make them liars. That said, his reliance on television variety shows to help set a time line for the evolution of "break dancing" is just sheer genius. The battle for truth still rages on though, so you can expect a lot more films on the topic from a number of "OGs" round the globe. Go check this one out and you will get to see many of the masters in the film, throw down live. Kenny Ortega hosts the jam after the film.

ACTION
Self Help Graphics, an amazing community arts centro in East LA, has been forced into a crisis by their landlord, no surprise there, but it is SHOCKING because their landlord was...the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of the Catholic Church. This is literally insult to injury as the church sold off the building to cover legal expenses from sexual abuse cases that could have been avoided had they not tried to hide unstable and mentally ill priests among the pobre and brown (read, "folks who don't count but who's money we'll take anyway"). BASTA! Here's the link to Self Help Graphics, which houses Home Boys T's among other things. They were not notified of the sale, have been in the spot for 35 years, and now..well aren't we tired of hearing this story in LA? So, donate some funds, go to the holiday sale, and make your voice heard: projects that work, we want to protect. www.myspace.com/selfhelpgraphics



ONGOING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
I hope to drop a dispatch a bit later to invite you out to dance with me in a studio! YAY!
DANCEBank is going on a super short break for Turkey Day as is Kinky Stretch at The Open Space. I am still working to have the masterminds behind Funkamentals and Groundcore bring you some classes. Ahem, fellas, done called you out!




LOVELY!
I hope you made it out to LACMA for the Machine Project takeover. We had a blast for the first four hours of the day. Check out their photo feed on Flickr. Also, we made it to the Against H8te rally and protest: yeah! I'm happy to hear the supreme court of California taking up the case so quickly, but please continue to bring the love on this issue. The Holy Daze is upon us right when massive layoffs are predicted and food banks are already running out of food. If you've got a yard, donate the space to a garden effort. If you know someone sitting on an empty lot waiting for the value to go up, convince them to allow a community garden to go in. We must keep ahead of the collapse with open hearts, active minds, and engaged hands. There is precious little city governments will be able to do for us--they are laying off too--so let's put our efforts to good use. Time to meet up. Stay tuned...

in love,
-Anna

ps: today i am transferring the e-mail newsletter to gmail. if you get the newsletter twice, many apologies, but i beleive that only a portion of the list actually gets the newsletter regularly. the new address is afrologic@gmail.com. look out for more reviews and pictures in afrologica.