LAVA adds to LA Art Walk Thursday

LAVA Does the Downtown L.A. Art Walk with a day of free cultural and literary events

WHAT: On Thursday, April 8, during the Downtown LA Art Walk, LAVA (The LosAngeles Visionaries Association) presents a day-long series of free cultural and literary events, including the unveiling of John Fante Square (11am), an Esotouric walking tour of lost Bunker Hill & the Historic Core (noon) and author John Buntin's lecture on Mickey Cohen and the LAPD at the L.A. Athletic Club (7pm)

MORE INFO:
http://lavatransforms.org/johnfantesquare
and
http://lavatransforms.org/lanoir

In 2009, under the Directorship of Richard Schave and his Curator wife Kim Cooper, the Downtown Art Walk rolled out some very popular official Art Walk programming that was attended by thousands of visitors, including guided walking tours, the psychedelic Hippodrome performance shuttle and curated salon-style conversations by noted experts. Those programs ended when Schave and Cooper stepped down from the Art Walk in November, but for the April 8 Art Walk, they're bringing some of these exciting programs back under the banner of their new independent cultural consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association).

Launched in February 2010, LAVA is already making a splash with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of Visionary contributors. On Thursday, April 8, LAVA enlivens the Downtown Art Walk with a day full of provocative events celebrating the rich culture, architecture and urban fabric of Downtown Los Angeles.

LAVA's April 8 Art Walk schedule kicks off at 11am, when Councilwoman Jan Perry will unveil an official City of Los Angeles sign designating the highly-trafficked intersection of 5th Street and Grand Avenue -- at the foot of Fante's beloved Bunker Hill and next to the Central Library where Charles Bukowski discovered Fante's classic "Ask the Dust" -- as JOHN FANTE SQUARE.

Speakers at the dedication ceremony are scheduled to include John Fante's daughter Victoria Fante Cohen and son Dan Fante (reading original poems about his father), biographer Stephen Cooper, Fante Square nominator Richard Schave, Director Tom Hyry of Library Special Collections at UCLA (which recently obtained the Fante Papers), former resident of historic Bunker Hill Gordon Pattison and Councilwoman Jan Perry.

Immediately following the dedication (approximately noon), LAVA founder Richard Schave will lead a free lunchtime walking tour of John Fante's downtown, adapted from his Esotouric bus adventure JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL (next scheduled April 17). Walking tour locations will include the site of the lost Bunker Hill neighborhood, a ride on the newly restored Angels Flight Railway, a lunch break in Grand Central Market, and a toast to John Fante in the last Skid Row bar, the King Edward Saloon, which has declared April 8 to be John Fante Day with $2 draft beer for visitors bearing fliers. The walking tour ends at 5th and Los Angeles Streets, and attendees can then return to John Fante Square via the Gallery Row district, where Art Walk exhibits will be on display in various galleries.

MORE INFO ON THE DEDICATION AND TOUR:
http://lavatransforms.org/johnfantesquare

By 7 pm, the Art Walk street scene will be in full force, with thousands of urban explorers strolling the sidewalks of the Historic Core. LAVA invites savvy Art Walkers to take a break from the sidewalk crush and experience a fascinating lecture on historic crime and punishment, held in the plush, historic environment of the private Los Angeles Athletic Club, as best-selling "L.A. Noir" author John Buntin presents "Just the Facts: Chief William Parker's War on Mickey Cohen and the Los Angeles Underworld." In his talk, which is a preview of his April 10 Esotouric bus adventure "John Buntin's L.A. Noir," Buntin will explain how the bitter rivalry between these two very different men shaped the culture of the LAPD and the history of 20th century Los Angeles, first as lieutenants to older, more powerful men, then directly with each other. In the process, the two men intersected with the agenda¹s of some of the most powerful and colorful figures of the twentieth century, from Robert Kennedy to J. Edgar Hoover to press magnates Harry Chandler and his nemesis, William Randolph Hearst; from studio head Harry Cohn of Columbia to entertainers Jack Webb, Frank Sinatra, Lana Turner, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Reservations are required for this free lecture. TO RESERVE OR FOR MORE INFO visit the event page on the LAVA website -
http://lavatransforms.org/lanoir

LAVA is dedicated to celebrating the possibilities of positive public space, so LAVA celebrates the Downtown Art Walk as one of L.A.'s urban treasures.

Stay tuned for more LAVA happenings during future Art Walks and throughout the month.

ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in theirwork. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER --proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- LAVA brings together L.A.'smost visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, social historian JOAN RENNER, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO,"Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at
http://lavatransforms.org/apply

To learn more about LAVA, please visit
http://www.lavatransforms.org