LA Plaza Kicks Off New Programs Saturday With Authors, Music, and More
By EGP Staff Report
LA Plaza de Culturas y Artes Opens two new exhibits on Saturday.
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (LA Plaza) in Downtown Los Angeles will this weekend kick off it’s newest round of public programs with two days of special events free to the public.
Located just across the street from the El Pueblo Historical Monument and the Olvera Street marketplace, LA Plaza is Los Angeles’ newest cultural center, offering an interesting mix of museum quality exhibits on early Los Angeles history and its Mexican and Mexican American roots, as well as a contemporary, state-of-the-art, interactive medium for exploration of everything from art and pop culture to political and social movements, to healthy and lifestyle.
Events taking place this weekend the first installment of Cuentos del Pueblo — a program to bring unique stories, perspectives and opinions to LA Plaza — on Saturday, Oct. 1 from Noon until 5 p.m. Nine Mexican American authors will be on hand to discuss, sell, and sign their recent books, and share the personal, unknown, and unexpected stories that connect each of their works to the historical center of Los Angeles.
Participating authors include:
Melinda Palacio, author of Ocotillo Dreams
Roberta Martinez, author of Latinos in Pasadena
Thelma Reyna, PhD, author of The Heavens Weep for Us and Other Stories
Victor Cass, author of Love, Death and Other War Stories
Olivia Cueva-Fernandez, author of Mexican Americans in Wilmington
Bert W. Colima, author of Gentleman of the Ring
Alex Moreno Areyan, author of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles
Francisco Balderrama, PhD, and Richard Santillan, PhD, authors, Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles
Entertainer, singer, and songwriter Mark Guerrero, son of the late, legendary singer, Lalo Guerrero, will share his own stories and music throughout the day.
Two two-day event continues Sunday from Noon to 5p.m. with the first Tardeada LA Plaza, an afternoon packed with family activities, compelling conversation, and unique events.
Co-presented with Amigos de Siqueiros (http://www.amigosdesiqueiros.org/), the Tardeada includes renowned scholar and historian Dr. Irene Herner Reiss, author of the recently-published Siqueiros: From Paradise to Utopi, discussing Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueros’ 1932 work América Tropical. Whitewashed in 1938, the mural has been at the center of a dedicated conservation project started in the 1980s, and is the subject of a new interpretive center set to open down the street from LA Plaza next year.
Dr. Herner Reiss will lead a conversation titled: Why rescue América Tropical? A Los Angeles archaeological site of the 20th century. She will be joined by writer, musician, and teacher Rubén Martínez, Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing at Loyola Marymount University, author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, and resident artist at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts.
Prior to the conversation, families and children are invited to participate in an exciting and free hands-on art workshop in LA Plaza’s garden.
If you haven’t made it out to LA Plaza yet, be sure to take a look at the other two ongoing exhibits:
LA Starts Here!, which examines Mexican and Mexican American history and identity in Los Angeles. Using iconic artifacts, one-of-a-kind interactive experiences, and captivating films, the exhibit explores Los Angeles’ origins from a dusty outpost of the Spanish Empire to a contemporary global metropolis; and Voces Vivas, a series of short films, based upon personal interviews conducted specifically for LA Plaza, which features a broad spectrum of Mexican and Mexican Americans sharing their personal histories. Personal, opinionated, and provocative; and
Cuentos del Pueblo and Tardeada LA Plaza are free to the public, and discounted admission to LA Plaza’s galleries will also be available each day as follows:
Two adults (18 and over) may attend for the price of one
Admission for all children under 13 is free
Guests attending on their own receive $2 off admission
Additional discounts for military service members, students, seniors, and Metro riders are available
Additional public programs will be announced in the near future.
For information on those and other happenings at LA Plaza, visit http://www.lapca.org.
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September 30, 2011 Copyright © 2012 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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