Bunker Hill and palm tree lore
WHAT: Documentary screening about blacklisted 1950s singer Hope Foye (Ms.
Foye in attendance), LAVA Sunday Salon celebrating old Bunker Hill and
Southern California's palm trees, and Memorial Day tours of 19th Century
Savannah Cemetery in Rosemead
WHEN: Saturday, May 25, 2013, 4-6pm (Hope Foye documentary screening),
Sunday, May 26, 2013, 12-2pm (LAVA Sunday Salon) and Monday, May 27, 2013,
12:30-2pm (Savannah Cemetery tours)
WHERE: See numbered event descriptions below for locations
COST: All events are free, reservations required for cemetery tours,
donations welcome for documentary screening
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below
CONTACT: Kim, amscray@gmail.com, 213-373-1947
LOS ANGELES- Recently honored with a Best Literary Salon award from Los
Angeles Magazine, LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is fast
establishing itself as one of the city's most intriguing arts collectives,
with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing
list of notable Visionary contributors.
This Memorial Day weekend, LAVA's Visionary members host three unique, free
events certain to appeal to Los Angeles explorers and culture seekers.
LAVA's free Memorial Day weekend events play out in this order...
1) "Red Hope: The Blacklisting of Hope Foye" documentary film screening,
Saturday, May 25, 2013, 4-6pm, free (donations welcome). Hosted by LAVA
Visionary Adrienne Crew. Location: Mayme Clayton Library and Museum, 4130
Overland Avenue, Culver City, CA, 90230. More event info at
http://lavatransforms.org/
http://www.
ABOUT THE FILM: "Red Hope: The Blacklisting of Hope Foye" will be screened
at the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City. The film's subject,
Hope Foye, will be at the screening to discuss her life and career. Directed
by Constance L. Jackson and narrated by Keith David. "Red Hope: The
Blacklisting of Hope Foye" explores the life of African American classical
opera singer Hope Foye—her struggles for justice, for survival, and for her
music. "Red Hope" immerses the viewer into the Senate chambers with Hope
Foye and the McCarran Sub-committee of HUAC (House Un-American Activities
Committee) during her interrogation in 1952. The documentary also captures
the richness of Hope's memories and of her today while showing images of the
glamorous young singer, the times, performance stills, and family photos,
all of it bringing Foye and her early career to vivid life. Framing and
defining many of her performances and interviews of today are her
songs—pieces filled with the horror, tragedy, and melancholia of a racist
past as well as the faith and hope for a better future. Every note of pain,
every crescendo of triumph, rings out clearly in the compelling voice of
Hope Foye.
2) "LAVA Sunday Salon." Sunday, May 26, 12pm-2pm. Hosted by LAVA Visionaries
Richard Schave and Kim Cooper. Free, no reservations required. Les Noces du
Figaro (mezzanine level), 618 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90014. More info
at http://lavatransforms.org/
ABOUT THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON: Join LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries
Association for its revived free monthly Sunday Salon series, formerly held
at Clifton's Cafeteria. LAVA returns to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of
Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro
Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber's Cafeteria
(Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of
the Los Angeles Theatre.
On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to
gather in downtown Los Angeles for a structured Salon featuring formal
presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.
The May Salon will be broken into two distinct presentations each lasting
about 45 minutes. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early if they wish to
order food and beverages from the counter downstairs, and bring their meal
upstairs.
Presentation One: "29 Palms" by J. Scott Smith
The presentation will consist of two distinct elements: 1) a projected
35-minute presentation during which photographer J. Scott Smith describes
the origins and creative process behind his "29 Palms" project. After the
talk, join Scott for a pop-up gallery show featuring one or two full-scale
finished works (3’ x 5’) along with a few smaller sized pieces (18.5” x 30”)
on display in the mezzanine.
Artist’s Statement: "'29 Palms' is a mirage of sorts, a photographic
re-imagining of the original oasis of twenty-nine native palms around which
the desert city of the same name developed. Washingtonia filifera, the
Golden State’s only indigenous palm, is featured in this collection
alongside a remarkable variety of geographic transplants that flourish in
Southern California’s benign climate. Captured with a large format view
camera on 8 × 10” film and rendered in high-resolution 38 × 60” chromogenic
prints, the '29 Palms' series is both a typological study of individual palm
trunks and a shimmering reflection of the region’s ethnically diverse human
population. I became aware of the extraordinary beauty of palm trunks when
my beloved dog began to slow in his old age. Walking through a Santa Monica
park lined with palms, I confronted their trunks at close range while Buck
lingered and sniffed around the bases. Their intricate patterns evoked
abstract landscapes and I resolved to create formal portraits by visually
severing the columnar trunks from crown and base. I developed a fascination
with the history of Southern California’s iconic palms and sought out both
typical and unique specimens in public and private spaces."
J. Scott Smith’s website:
http://jscottsmithphotography.
Presentation Two: Old Bunker Hill - One Family's Perspective by Gordon
Pattison
Have you ever wondered what Old Bunker Hill was really like? Have you ever
wished you could have been there to see it? Well, our speaker, Gordon
Pattison, can tell you and show you because he and his family lived there.
The Pattison family owned the Castle and Salt Box, among others of the old
Victorian buildings that were once there. Gordon will tell the story of
Bunker Hill from a personal perspective, through recollections inspired from
historical photographs of Bunker Hill as well as family photos taken there
in the 1930s and 1940s. Old Bunker Hill isn’t gone. It floats ethereally in
memory above Hope, Grand, Olive and Hill Street. And after this Sunday
Salon, it will live in your imagination, too.
3) "Memorial Day tour of historic Savannah Cemetery in Rosemead." Monday,
May 27, 12:30pm-2pm. Hosted by LAVA Visionaries Richard Schave and Kim
Cooper. Free, reservations. Savannah Cemetery, 9263 Valley Boulevard,
Rosemead, CA, 91770. More info at http://lavatransforms.org/
ABOUT THE SAVANNAH CEMETERY TOUR: Join LAVA for a Memorial Day celebration
at Savannah Memorial Park. Established circa 1851 and recently made a
California Historical Landmark (#1046), it is the oldest American cemetery
in Southern California. The City of Rosemead will host an official ceremony
at 10:30am, complete with 21-gun salute and a bagpipe accompaniment. Around
12:15pm, following the city ceremony, LAVA members will gather at the main
gate and at 12:30pm begin their tour of the cemetery. Tours guides, all of
whom have decades of involvement with the cemetery, will recount the trials
and tribulations of the pioneer families who braved the Santa Fe Trail and
the Mojave Desert to make their homes in the lowlands of the eastern San
Gabriel Valley, before finding eternal rest in these hallowed grounds. You
won’t want to miss this very special LAVA excursion which has become an
annual tradition.
Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of one or more
of these LAVA events celebrating the city and encouraging connections.
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 their
work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER—proprietors
of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series
(including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land)—LAVA brings together L.A.'s most
visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers.
Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at
http://lavatransforms.org/
To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org
LAVA founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave and most of LAVA's Visionary
members are available for interviews. A limited number of journalists on
assignment can be accommodated on ticketed events. Contact Kim at
amscray@gmail.com, 213-373-1947.
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