Los Angeles Visionaries Assocation to offer cultural event Sunday

WHAT: On Sunday, April 25, LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) presents an afternoon and evening of free cultural exploration in Downtown L.A. with the second monthly Sunday Salon gathering at Clifton's Cafeteria (noon-2pm), followed by a walking tour from Richard Schave of Esotouric, "The Flâneur & The City: Dutch Chocolate Shoppe " (2:30pm, free, reservations required); followed by an evening multi-media War Child Show from David Caldwell in his Arts District loft (7:30pm, free).

SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon410

WALKING TOUR INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/chocolateflaneur

WAR CHILD SHOW INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/warchild

Launched in February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--thef ounding Director and Curator of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) is already making a splash with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of Visionary contributors.

At the end of March, the new LAVA community came together in the first monthly Sunday Salon at historic Clifton's Cafeteria in Downtown L.A. for the first showing anywhere of Visionary Gene Sculatti's outsider art scroll drawings of imaginary cities, a smash hit for the nearly 100 cultural explorers in attendance. Photos from the first Salon are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623729484726/

LAVA's Sunday Salon is fast becoming one of the hottest (free) tickets for urban explorers seeking intelligent conversation, connection and inspiration- not to mention Clifton's famous home cooking. The Sunday Salon returns to Clifton's Cafeteria this Sunday, April 25, and all are welcome.

From noon to 1pm the schedule is open for dining, exploring the fantasy architecture and historic memorabilia of this landmark restaurant, and making new friends. Then from 1pm-2pm, select LAVA Visionaries will welcome guests to their tables to join them in curated conversations on themes that inspire them. LAVA Visionaries hosting curated conversations include

ALLON SCHOENER, the 80-something New York curator and social historian ("Harlem on My Mind") who recently relocated to Boyle Heights' historic Hollenbeck Palms retirement home and will be exploring the burning question "What is Los Angeles?"

Visionary ANTHEA RAYMOND will explore her specialty, the use of oral history to tell the story of a community, as she did with Ocean Park in her Emmy-nominated documentary "Carnations, Ostriches and Condos."

And LA's beloved weirdo and tour guide CRIMEBO THE CLOWN will strip off the grease paint and appear as his alter ego Michael Perrick, in a free-flowing conversation on a topic to be announced.

Guests are free to table hop, or settle in to enjoy their chosen conversation to the end.

Following the Salon, LAVA founder RICHARD SCHAVE leads the second in a series of free LAVA walking tours, "The Flâneur & The City: Dutch Chocolate Shoppe." This exclusive LAVA tour series, inspired by the work of Water Benjamin and Charles Baudelaire, explores some of the more important issues revealed by the revitalization of Downtown, looking at how culture and history are treated as commodities to be packaged and promoted, while many fascinating aspects of urban life are forgotten. In this installment, we will visit the famous and much-transformed Batchelder-tiled Dutch Chocolate Shoppe. Topics include the proposed revisions to the city's Cultural Heritage Ordinance, the impact these would have on a space such as the Chocolate Shoppe, and a history of the store front from 1914 to the present.

To reserve space on Richard Schave's walking tour, visit http://lavatransforms.org/chocolateflaneur

Then once darkness falls, LAVA Visionary DAVID CALDWELL will be opening his Arts District loft for a free presentation (with complementary refreshments) of his legendary multi-media WAR CHILD SHOW, a sculptured altar embedded with light, sound and video.

The artist says: "War Child is a monumental sculpture, an installation in the form of a magically elaborate altar, 14 feet high, 40 feet wide, and 26 feet deep. It gives birth to a 40 minute experience, a video, sound, and light show performance. The video juxtaposes manipulated images of nature, civilization, creation, and destruction. "

War Child's" 3-Dimensional and technical wizardry entice the audience on a journey.... "War Child" becomes a living, breathing, speaking, organicentity. All of the technology is embedded, and fully integrated into the performance. The living installation impacts space, sight, sound, and memory. A shifting, constantly changing environment envelops the audience, and transports them to another dimension."

Doors open 7:30pm, show begins 8pm, no late entry, free at David Caldwell's Loft (454 Seaton St. Los Angeles, CA, 90013) Contact: David L Caldwell 213-999-7140. Info http://lavatransforms.org/warchild

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.'s most 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's 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 andoutsider 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 andlecturer MAJA D'AOUST, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'AWINTER 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, Warhold star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

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

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