LA Brain Terrain

Today’s meeting of the Historical Society of Crescenta Valley covers the story of one of the most dynamic leaders of the local Indian tribes.

Dee Dominguez,  Tribal Chair of the Kitanemuk Tribe of Tejon Indians, and  famed storyteller and basketweaver, will speak to the society about Toypurina, a Tongva medicine woman.

Toypurina, was a Tongva medicine woman who opposed the rule of Spanish missionaries in California, and led an unsuccessful rebellion against them. Born in 1760, Toypurina was 9-years-old when the Spanish settlers first invaded what is now the Los Angeles basin. She was 11 when Mission San Gabriel was begun, and 21 when Governor Felipe de Neve founded the City of Los Angeles. In time, Toypurina rose to be a powerful spiritual leader, respected for her bravery and wisdom. It is for this reason officials chose to portray her on our La Crescenta Library History Plaque, to represent the Tongva period of history in the Crescenta Valley.
Our speaker, Dee Dominguez, is the Tribal Chair of the Kitanemuk Tribe of Tejon Indians, and is a famed storyteller and basketweaver.

The presentation is on Monday, July 21st at 7:00 p.m.  at the La Crescenta Church of Religious Science

Located at the intersection of Dunsmore and Santa Carlotta

I run the LA Chapter of the Dorothy Parker Society. We are having our first event this month. Join us for an evening of frolic and LA history in the 20s.

We will have time to get to know each other during cocktail hour between 6:30-7:30 in the Casa Del Mar bar.

• Thursday, July 31 at 6:30-10pm Casa Del Mar, 1910 Ocean Way

Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 581-5533
Around 7:30 pm, historian Alison Jefferson
will give a brief slide show about the special history of the beach
area, nicknamed “The Inkwell,” in front of the Casa Del Mar, the
site of a beach club popular with Dorothy Parker’s crowd in the 20s
and 30s.

Alison Jefferson works for Historic Resources Group as a historian.
She has a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology from Pomona College in
Claremont, California and her Master’s in Historic Preservation from
the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on
Southern California vacation spots frequented by African Americans
during the segregation in the 20s and 30s.

Tags: beach, Dorothy Parker, history, lit

Tags: art, design

Hey, the Hammer Museum just started a blog. Good for them. The first posts contain dispatches from a staffer (?) who was in China during the earthquake in May.

TEACH AFRICA

A special Africa-education orientation program
Friday, June 27, 2008
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
James West Alumni Center
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

US Agency for International Development, Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership, The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, and the UCLA African Studies Center

present

Special guest Ngugi wa’ Thiong’o

World renowned African novelist, theorist of post-colonial literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine

Featuring

* Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally
* His Excellency Amadou BA, Ambassador to the U.S. from the Republic of Senegal
* Dr. Sarah Moten, Chief, Education Division, USAID Africa Bureau,
* Dr. Gail Ifshin, The Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership
* Bernadette B. Paolo, Esq., The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa
* Noelle LuSane, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations

This event is free and open to the public, with a special invitation to principals, superintendents, instructional coaches, and teachers. This event, along with introducing the Teach Africa Program, will provide information and resources available for educators interested in enhancing their instruction on Africa.

RSVP required to africa@international.ucla.edu or call 310-825-3686.

Cost: Free with RSVP; parking is available in lot 6 for all-day ($8) and pay-by-space.

NextBook.org, the smarty pants journal out of New York, hosts the Los Angeles Festival of Ideas on Sunday, June 29, 2008, 9:30am to 5:30pm
The Freud Playhouse and MacGowan Little Theater at UCLA.

The festival explores the theme of Jewish Geography, considering place, design, memory and imagination. The lineup includes:
The Shape of Los Angeles
Julius Shulman, in conversation with Aaron Paley
June 29, 2008, 11:00 AM

At Home on the Couch
Shalom Auslander and David L. Ulin, in conversation with Joanna Smith Rakoff
June 29, 2008, 1:15 PM

West of Eden: Jewish Ideals and the Greening of LA
Mia Lehrer and Andy Lipkis, in conversation with Rabbi Zo� Klein
June 29, 2008, 1:15 PM

Things Past: Memory and Space
Big Deal Architect Peter Eisenman and Daniel Mendelsohn, in conversation with Wendy Lesser
June 29, 2008, 2:45 PM

Larger than Life: Romancing the Lower East Side
Ben Katchor and Joan Micklin Silver, in conversation with Eddy Portnoy
June 29, 2008, 2:45 PM

The Places We’ve Been
David Biale, Frederic Brenner, and Dora Levy Mossanen, in conversation with Jonathan Kirsch
June 29, 2008, 4:15 PM

If I had the $15 for the entry fee, I’d so be there. If anyone goes, send me a recap.

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

- Aldous Huxley

Morono Kiang Gallery hosted a panel on June 14th about the fading of L.A’s mural culture in “Against the Wall: The Ruin and Renewal of L.A.’s Murals” . .

Ed Fuentes of LA Eastside posted his recap on Saturday.

On the panel were Judith Baca, Artistic Director of SPARC and Professor of Art at UCLA, Man One, owner of Crewest, Yreina Cervantez, muralist and Associate Professor, Department of Chicano/a Studies CSUN City of LA Department, Pat Gomez of Cultural Affairs, and USC Adjunct Professor Micheal Woo…The subtext of the meeting of the mural minds was to jump start awareness for plans to restore the famous image of Anthony Quinn dancing in front of the Victor Clothing Company . . –– During the panel, Baca claims if a small percentage of the million dollars spent for graffiti abatement was earmarked for SPARC, the problems of tagging would be reduced significantly through programs established 20 years ago

Between tagging and red tape, murals are under fire.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced next year’s Walk of Fame star-honorees: Harry Shearer, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Cameron Diaz, Robert Downey Jr., Tim Burton, Leslie Caron, Charles Durning, Ralph Fiennes, William Petersen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Stamos, Mark Burnett, Chuck Lorre, Kenny “Baby Face” Edmonds, Dave Koz, The Miracles, Doug Morris, Rush, Shakira, KFI radio personality Bill Handel.

Chuck Lorre? I bet his star will come with a thousand word vanity card in teeny tiny type listed under his name.

Ask any armchair scholar of comic books and he or she will go on and on about how American Jewish culture informed the development of Superman and other favorites from the Golden Age of Comic Book Superheroes. Here’s a chance to learn more about their precursors–the vibrant comic strips found in the Yiddish press of the early 20th century.

Eddy Portnoy explores the unique history of Yiddish cartooning on Saturday, June 28 @ 8 pm when Yiddishkayt LA Presents

Comic Strip Jews: Cartoons from the Yiddish Press
Lecture and Slide Show with Historian Eddy Portnoy.

Thousands of cartoons appeared in the Yiddish press where Yiddish cartoonists held a mirror up to Jewish society in an attempt to expose hypocrisy and wrongdoing. Most interestingly, they mined traditional Jewish texts and customs to create uniquely Jewish cartoons.

Please RSVP to (213) 389-8880 or events@yiddishkaytla.org
by email Suggested contribution of $5, reception to follow. Co-sponsored by The Workmen’s Circle.

I am so there. Who’s with me?

Tags: comics, Yiddish