Chil Kong and Philip W. Chung.

More than a few months ago I had the pleasure to sit with two of the co-founders of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and breathe in the trademark passion that has fueled the company’s 10-year body of work. Researching their production history (I only discovered them in 2006) triggered a genuine sense of loss for the plays I had missed and the realization that 2009 is it! Their last play, GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS opened November 14th (see separate post) and will be running through December 20th. Suffice to say this is your last chance to be touched by the courageous and fiery duo who lost their funding after their first play all because of a bare bottom.

SS: Let’s go back to the beginning. After the L.A. riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh urges the new generation of Asian American playwrights to tell their own stories to counteract the media’s tendency to portray Asian Americans as immigrant store owners who fall victim to violence.

Chil Kong: Yes. Soon-Tek Oh mobilized us. But it was more about the energy between Phil, Tim Lounibos, Bokyun Chun and I. We were passionate about our vision of the future of Asian American theater and we each had our own ideas about how we wanted to see a theater function in Los Angeles and we talked and talked and talked about it for four months. A lot of it had to do with timing for us; we were at the right place at the right time. We started forming when East West Players was moving from their small black box to their big theater so there was a gap. We filled that vacuum. We’ve been very lucky. From that Lodestone was born.

SS: What is the meaning of the word Lodestone?

Chil Kong: We had so many names. Tim Lounibos did some research and he found out about those magnetic compasses which Chinese explorers used to guide them.

SS: What did you set up to explore?

Philip W. Chung: Up until that point and to a certain degree now a lot of Asian American theater revolves around certain themes, certain subjects; it has to address the Asian American experience. Are we doing plays by South Asians? Are we doing plays by Vietnamese? They have to be inclusive. Because those theaters already existed, we didn’t feel we needed to do that. It gave us a chance to not be confined by those kinds of criteria. If we wanted to do a new play by a White writer then we could do it and we have. If we wanted to do Tennessee Williams, we could. That was the only philosophy and it hasn’t really evolved.

Season 4: 2002-2003

SS: Lodestone, like many small theater companies in LA, has not-for-profit status. Does it influence the choices you make? Do you have to do plays that are community oriented to get grants?

Chil Kong: Yes and No. Yes for certain things we will definitely go after those grants. No because we never wanted to pick the material that we wanted to do based on financial consideration. We didn’t want our choices based on “now we have to get this grant so we have to do a play about this issue.” We always had to stay at a certain level but that’s fine because it gave us creative control.

SS: What do you mean by “a certain level”?

Philip W. Chung: The smaller you are the lower your budget, the more creative control you have. The idea is to work from that model, which represents a lot of theaters in LA, where you don’t have to be depending on those grants. We have picked materials where we thought no one was going to come and see this. But it was ok because artistically it was something we wanted to do and that was more important. If it’s artistically sound, that’s the first criteria.

Chil Kong: It is very dangerous for a company to let their choices be directed by grants, it’s a wag the dog contest. Now, instead of your artistic vision driving your company, it is a commitment to different funders. Now it’s propaganda, now you’re doing things for money. Ultimately the good artistic material will have an audience. After 10 years we’ve been accustomed to that.

Philip W. Chung: We lost most of our funders after our second play LAUGHTER, JOY & LONELINESS & SEX & SEX & SEX & SEX, which I wrote. The subject matter turned them off.

Chil Kong: At the end of the run, I spent a week on the phone with two of our biggest funders screaming at me about betraying them. They were upset because there was a man’s naked butt on stage. I remember being very frustrated and yet laughing. The worst times are also the best times. That experience told us we were doing the right thing.

Philip W. Chung: The play actually ended up doing very well with our audience.

SS: Who is the Lodestone audience?

Chil Kong: Young Asian Americans in their 20′s and 30′s. We wanted to find plays that spoke not only to the founders but to our peers.

SS: Have they been a faithful audience?

Philip W. Chung: It’s still a hard audience to get. We’ve obviously made it this far, we wouldn’t if we didn’t have that audience backing what we did. It’s been enough to sustain us. Also, 30 to 40% of our audience is non-Asian. Old White ladies came to see our recent production of Tennessee Williams’ SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER but I doubt they’ll come back.

Chil Kong: We committed to a market that time and time again theater has never been able to draw, you’re talking about the college and post college demographics and they’re just very difficult to get. If you look at the average theatergoer, they’re in their 50′s.

SS: How did you reach them?

Philip W. Chung: From the beginning we really emphasized that our energy was different. It was reflected in the plays we produced. At the time, they weren’t the type of material that Asian American theater was tackling. That energy was thoroughly new.

SS: Can you describe how different you were?

Philip W. Chung: We put on plays that spoke to our generation.

Chil Kong: Traditional Asian American theater has some reference to an immigrant story. Even though I wasn’t born here, I was here since I was young. I was tired of those stories about our parents’ generation and their angst about being Asians. It wasn’t an issue for us, we wanted to move on. Our function was aesthetics over ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: We are dealing with being Asian Americans in a lot of our work, but in a different way. Previous generations of Asian American theater were about justifying that they were Americans. A lot of the stories dealt with being immigrants and the internment of Japanese Americans. Now reclaiming that history was important. But our generation doesn’t need to prove that we are American anymore – that’s a given – the plays that we do start from a place where we ARE American. So the question becomes, what are the other issues that we’re dealing with?

Season 7: 2005-2006

SS: Some of the plays you’ve produced, like TEXAS by Judy Soo Hoo, have nothing to do with ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: It’s true. In Annette Lee’s comedy A DIRTY SECRET BETWEEN THE TOES, which Chil directed, the two main characters have to be Asian Americans but the story is about class and moving into this new neighborhood and being outsiders. It would have worked if they were Black or Latinos, the energy would have been different though because it was written about Asian American kind of yuppies. But these are the kinds of plays we’re interested in.

Chil Kong: Even with Angela Kang’s WHEN TIGERS SMOKED LONG PIPES, which was inspired by traditional Korean folk tales, we made them very contemporary, we did it as a co-production with the Orphans’ Theater Company; we had a mixed cast. In the style of the directing, the costumes, the set, in the way that the script was written with contemporary references, it felt like a uniquely American theme even though it was based on Korean folk stories.

SS: You say you don’t have any angst but a lot of the plays that you have produced were very violent whether they were about romance or politics.

Chil Kong: We have a reputation for doing work that’s dark but I don’t think that’s completely true. Violence and sex are topics we like to visit, because traditional Asian American theater hasn’t dealt with these subject matters. They have the reputation to produce work that is nice and not really challenging. Most of our early violent plays were about formulating that new identity. We were going to create plays that would be challenging, edgy, uncomfortable.

TERMINUS AMERICANA, about American gun violence, written by Matt Pelfrey, who is a white writer, was one of our early productions. We were in rehearsals when 09/11 happened. We were scheduled to open a few weeks after the attack. The cast and crew got together to discuss if we wanted to continue with the play. It’s the story of this guy who’s involved in an office shooting where all his co-workers get shot and it sends him on this journey across America where, in the end, he himself turns into an office shooter. It very much resonated with what was happening on 09/11 because the main character was acting like a religious fundamentalist. Everyone agreed that we wanted to reflect on things that were happening right now. We moved forward with the play and it ended up being at that time our big critical success. We got rave reviews, people were commenting on how timely it was even though it wasn’t intended.

Philip W. Chung: But it wasn’t a commercial success. People didn’t want to go see a play after 09/11 about some guy going crazy and killing people. But the critical success reinforced our desire to tackle this kind of material. We were not going to be afraid and yes we accepted that sometimes the audience was not going to be there for it. But the audience that did come got a lot out of it. It was still kind of funny, it wasn’t a downer.

More theaters are doing Matt’s plays now. Back then none of the white mainstream theaters did because he was ahead of the curve. We live in a world that is more violent after 09/11. People are more aware of that. I feel very proud that we were one of the few people who did a production of Matt’s and that it wasn’t an Asian play yet it spoke to our generation.

When playwrights like Matt Pelfrey or Judy Soo Hoo write work for you, then their style is going to define the company to a certain extent. Another one of Matt’s plays we did was FREAK STORM which was about a guy getting married and one of his buddies comes to see him and it turns out they raped a girl back in high school. It deals with how these guys who did a very violent act against another person, think it’s forgotten but it comes back to haunt them in the most inopportune time.

Season 3: 2001-2002

SS: What is your relationship to the city of Los Angeles? How has the city informed or influenced your work?

Chil Kong: Because of Hollywood, of film, you have access to a higher level of talent in Los Angeles, with the possible exception of NY, even though I feel we are ahead of them here. You talk to people in other cities like Seattle and they are always complaining that they don’t have enough Asian American talent.

Philip W. Chung: There is no other city in America that has this large number of Asian Americans. You have so much diversity and still there are a lot of walls and boundaries and misunderstandings. The whole world’s here in a way. It does create a specific kind of identity, tension and unity as well.

SS: What were the surprises over those 10 years?

Chil Kong: Having been around for 10 years. We were thinking more like 5 years.

Philip W. Chung: One thing that you learn is that you never know how something’s going to turn out. You can think one way but you have no control. You can think something’s great and people don’t get into it. Or some plays do well that we didn’t expect, like my play THE GOLDEN HOUR. I thought it would do poorly because it was about faith and loss and all these sort of downer subjects but it ended up being a big commercial and critical success. Our audience may have just been in a receptive place to accept a play that reflected what they may have been feeling in a post 9/11 world.

SS: On your website you posted a message saying you’re not ending Lodestone because you hate each other.

Philip W. Chung: What has sustained us has been mutual respect. There was a time when we talked about going to the next level and becoming an institution, buying our own theater. But that’s not artistically rewarding. I don’t think we’re going to get better. We’ve peaked in terms of what we’ve done. Everything we’ve produced has at least been interesting. It’s really hard to continue doing the same thing.

For example the Group Theater in the 1930′s, they did hard hitting socially relevant work. They had an impact, I’m not comparing myself to them but they lasted about 10 years. After they ended, some of the members like Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets and John Garfield went on to do their best work but I would argue that that was the direct result of the 10 years they put in as a group.

Conversely, if the group still existed, they would have been tied down. At some point you have to move beyond that and into a different artistic mind-set, even if at times you work with the same people. It’s the natural evolution.

SS: What is it you want to do that you couldn’t have done with Lodestone?

Chil Kong: I’m in the middle of editing my first feature as a director. I had to stop all of it. I had to do Lodestone’s taxes and we had a major problem with our website so I’m revamping all of it. It’s a 40-hour week job that doesn’t pay. We can also move on and do work that has different aesthetics. I’d like to do light comedies, but at Lodestone we do dark comedies. We can now start thinking differently; we don’t have to concentrate on how we would present our work for Lodestone.

Philip W. Chung: I knew from the beginning the plays I wanted to write for Lodestone. My last play, MY MAN KONO, is not appropriate for Lodestone. That play will be produced in the near future. You’re still working with some of the same people but you’re doing something different.

SS: Do you know who might succeed you?

Chil Kong: There are a lot of smaller companies coming up. There are more people doing it than when we started. There are more resources and opportunities now. If you have passion, you can do it. I’m glad we kept to our commitment to always move forward. I am ecstatic about our last season.

SS: It’s interesting that in the kick-off show, TEN TO LIFE, one of the founding members, Tim Lounibos, is making his debut as a writer. It’s an end but also a beginning.

Philip W. Chung: It is. The pieces were developed knowing that it was our last season by some of our veteran writers and Tim. It is directed by Alberto Isaac who also directed CLAIM TO FAME and THE TROJAN WOMEN for us. It’s four twisted one-acts touching on the bizarre and unnatural.

Chil Kong: I directed the second play, CLOSER THAN EVER. It’s a musical about a group of friends who become closer as they get older. But it’s also about the frustrating and weird things that happen to us like friends changing and lost love…and getting old, yes! There’s a beautiful song about getting old!!! (laughs)

SS: Tell me about the closing play?

Philip W. Chung: I wrote it, it’s called GRACE KIM AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. It will be directed by a Lodestone regular, Jeff Liu. It’s one of those plays I knew I wanted to write from the beginning. I wanted it to reflect our identity and our history. It’s very much inspired by old screwball comedies but it’s a comedy/drama. It’s a gift to our audience. But it’s so specifically for Lodestone that it will never be performed again. It’s your one and only chance!

Season 8: 2006-2007

Denise Munro Robb and the 44th President of the U.S. of A.

I was stunned to learn recently that Denise Munro Robb won tickets to last month’s Town Hall Meeting with our President, considering she had also won the coveted tickets to Obama’s inauguration last January! Did this red-head’s membership in the Green Party give her the luck of the Irish? On reflection, I conceded that maybe all is fair in love and war if Denise, who has dedicated her life to stand up for what she believes in, can beat the odds and win the lottery twice. When Denise ran for City Council District 4 in 2001, the LA Weekly gave her this heartfelt endorsement:

“Denise Munro Robb, (is) a resourceful, committed activist who successfully spearheaded a yearlong fight to halt the destruction of historic apartment buildings, many of which offer decent affordable housing, in her Wilshire-area neighborhood. She’s also been active in the Green Party and local environmental causes — as a candidate, she’s earned the Sierra Club’s highest possible rating… The hitch is that the 39-year-old Robb has little chance of winning. Conventional wisdom dooms her candidacy, in large measure because her campaign embodies the very attributes that make her appealing, including her refusing to accept donations from developers and lobbyists. She’s going to raise about $25,000 in a race where the top spenders could blow half a million. So while urging voters to support her, we also have to note distinctions between the moneyed candidates.”

Smiling Spider: Did campaigning at the local level make you feel closer to the President even if you ran your campaign more like a Dennis Kucinich than an Obama?

Denise Munro Robb: That’s interesting, I forgot about that no, I didn’t feel connected in that way because Obama had millions (he raised over 700 million) and I raised $60,000.  They just don’t take you seriously unless you have tons of money. What do we have in common? Obama and I both taught Constitutional law (I was a Teacher Assistant) and we both are concerned about the killing of the constitution by the Bush administration. And of course, we’re both cute!

Smiling Spider: Dennis Kucinich had to go to court to be admitted in some of the debates. Didn’t you complain at the time of your campaign that you were shunned?

Denise Munro Robb: Yes. I forced them to put me t in a debate where I wasn’t intially welcome.  Then towards the end of the campaign my volunteers and I were listening to the radio and we heard the top two best funded candidates in my race being interviewed. So we stormed the radio station and made them put us on. The next show invited me to stay as a guest for a full hour!  It was pretty wonderful.

Denise Munro Robb in DC, January 20th, 2009.

Smiling Spider: You won a ticket to the inauguration, what “privileges” did it give you over the sans-tickets like me?

Denise Munro Robb: Oh boy, the privilege to stand out in the cold for 5 or 6 hours before the ceremony began.  The privilege to be pushed around like cattle.  After waiting in one line for HOURS someone with a bullhorn would say “you’re in the wrong line, silver ticket holders must be over here” and people who came hours after us were already way ahead of us by then. We were able to stand near the reflecting pool but we couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t even tell who Obama was. The video screen had a tree in front of it so we couldn’t see that way either.  Also, there were multiple sound systems that seemed to be crossing each other so we literally couldn’t hear anything.  The only thing I really liked was that I was with all these other people having a shared moment in history.  The energy of the city was exciting.

Smiling Spider: What was your most memorable moment?

Denise Munro Robb: Walking through a tunnel afterward for a couple of hours trying on our way back home.  Also most subway stops were closed and buses couldn’t move so it took us many many hours to get home.  We walked part of the way.  I was in a lot of pain, as I have some back issues. A highlight was meeting my Congressman Adam Schiff. And eating cookies in his office.

Denise’s view for most of the inauguration.

Smiling Spider: How different was the town hall meeting with the President?

Denise Munro Robb: I loved loved loved the town hall.  Instead of 1 or 2 millions of people, only 1000 were present. Obama was near us and I could see and hear him and he did NOT pre-screen questions the way Bill Clinton did.  He was amazing and talked about poverty and homelessness (at which time I started to openly sob because I had never heard a president talk at length about these issues) and the need for national health care.  He can’t help us with education much although he will increase some federal funding for schools.  But they’re only a small part of the budget. As a teacher I’m concerned though because we have an 8 billion dollar shortfall in public schools.

Smiling Spider: We know Obama is charismatic and talks from the heart, but what was the purpose of that town hall meeting? What did he have to say to Angelenos specifically?

Denise Munro Robb: I think he wanted to find out what California needed from the stimulus packet as we’re getting a lion’s share of federal monies to try to save our state.  We’re in big big trouble.

Obama at Miguel Contreras Learning Center. March 19th, 2009.  Click here for full text of town hall meeting.

Smiling Spider: As a member of the Green Party, are you satisfied with Obama’s energy policies?

Denise Munro Robb: Well, he didn’t speak about it but I hear he supports “clean coal” which is ridiculous.  He did talk about solar power which I loved and he’s already started implementing the greening of homes as a way to create jobs and combat global warming but we are a long way from doing what needs to be done.  After seeing the movie “FUEL” by Josh Tickell I learned there are many alternative fuels that we can start using right now to cut emissions in half or more. Algae may prove to be the best renewable source of fuel and there are even microorganisms that “eat” plastic, etc.  I know Obama is committed to science (he’s said as much in many speeches) so I hope that a lot of money will go into speeding up the process.  Israel, among other promises, is already planning to be oil free in a short time or at least have all electric cars in just a few years.  Also, Germany is way ahead of us environmentally (as usual… the Green Party was founded there).

Lastly, Greens and others are very concerned about the war on Afghanistan.  We see it as a continuation of the failed Bush administration.  Afghanistan is a terribly poor country and all that we have done has just increased the opium trade as a means for their survival.  I don’t know why we need a “war” to get a few crackpots who are threatening us. What happened to the original plan to get Osama Bin Laden? The CIA was supposed to bring a special elite team to go in and find him. That was the original intent.  Surveillance, intelligence, doesn’t require bombing of innocent civilians.  Obama may end up in another endless war/quagmire and at this time in our history (aside from being morally wrong) it’s dangerous for our failing economy.

Smiling Spider: What are you focusing in on these days?

Denise Munro Robb: I still run the Miracle Mile Action Committee (even though I’m living in Pasadena) but I’m trying to scale back because I need to finish my Ph.D.  My contributions now involve teaching college students.  I give them extra credit for volunteering and various other activities and so far a number of my students have signed up to help with the Southwest Voter Education Registration Project, South Central Farmers, Health Care for All and the League of Women Voters.  I plan to spend the next 10 or 20 years teaching young people about why it’s exciting to be involved in politics, either running for office, as an activist or simply participating at a local level to effect change.

I’m still active with the Green Party too and we’re busy educating people about alternative fuels, weaning ourselves off of foreign oil. We just hosted Josh Tickell who made the movie “FUEL” and I took my students to the movies as a group to see it.

Smiling Spider: And on the comedy front?

Denise Munro Robb: You can see me on Saturday, May 2nd in Culver City at The Spot, 4455 Overland Avenue @ 7:30pm. The show is free and the food is pretty good. They have ice cream too!!

Denise Robb performing last September at the “Stand Up for Obama” fundraiser. My favorite Denise joke: “I have car insurance but no medical insurance, so whenever I get sick I have to get in my car and smash it up.”

Denise Munro Robb has appeared on A&E, Lifetime, MTV and Comedy Central.

“LA Views II” is the second installment of the Company of Angels’ hugely popular Playwrights Group project, “LA Views,” which debuted in 2008. Among the inspirations for this show are Enrico Caruso, Sessue Hayakawa, Alla Nazimova, Pola Negri, Mabel Normand, Ramon Novarro, Mary Pickford, and Rudolph Valentino.

Luminaries of the Silent Era are the inspiration of contemporary Los Angeles playwrights Damon Chua, Leon Martell, Jamison Newlander, Henry Ong, S. Vasanti Saxena, Lilly Thomassian, Brenda Varda and Kyle T. Wilson.  This moving and comic chronicle, set during the heydays and nowadays of Downtown Los Angeles’ Alexandria Hotel, shines a light on the parallel lives of those who have inhabited this building in its heyday and those who dwell in its present embodiment. This production examines lives once lived at their most celebrated, while contrasting the reality of current existence that approaches irrelevance and obscurity.” www.companyofangels.org

Finding myself in the company of actor/poet Xavi Moreno at an exclusive private screening of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” in Boyle Heights last weekend, I decided Xavi was the perfect spokesperson for CoA’s new production. One reason is that he performed in two significant plays last year which highlighted L.A.’s history present and past:  the exuberant Company of Angels’ staging of  Ricardo A. Bracho’s “SISSY“,  about affirming one’s difference on the streets of 1970′s Culver City, and Cornerstone Theatre Group’s “FOR ALL TIME” written by KJ Sanchez, a heart wrenching examination into how civilians and convicts alike are affected by the consequences of their actions and by the laws of California’s  justice system. The other reason for making Xavi Moreno’s the ambassador to “LA VIEWS II”?  He’s one of those rare actors who can claim L.A. as his native city.

Company of Angels members Richard Azurdia and Xavi Moreno in Boyle Heights.

Xavi Moreno:  I was born, raised and staged “East”of the LA River in the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights. The house I grew up in has a view of the Hollywood sign from the front porch. I wasn’t inspired by seeing the sign every day – I couldn’t – it was always smoggy. It’s in my blood. My parents have always been entertainers. I was placed on stage 2 months after my birth. I played “Baby Jesus” in a comedic production of “El Nacimineto” that featured my pops as Jose and several other known Mexican actors at the famed El Million Dollar stage in Downtown. That was my first on-stage performance, naked and I’m still not equity..haha.

What kept the inspiration wheel rolling was my babysitters: El Chavo del Ocho, El Chapulin Colorado, La India Maria and novelas like Rosa Salvaje and Carusel de Ninos. My parents were always working so these folks took care of me and when the T.V was shut off, it was my turn to shine and that’s when my crush for live theater began and I have endured a lifelong love/hate relationship with the stage ever since. Theater has stereotyped me, personalized me, released me, and brought me many of my best travels, friends, and experiences, while it has also held me back and held me down. Theater is the foundation that all my accomplishments have been built upon. It’s the fuel that jets me always a step ahead of the pack.

When Xavi’s life is not engulfed by theater, he performs as one of  Los Poets del Norte.

Xavi: At Company of Angels, we represent Los Angeles.  We are Gay! We are the vendor at the Hoover freeway exit selling oranges, we’ve experienced racism and hate war, we protect historical landmarks destroyed and restored. CoA is like LA is in different colors, shapes and sizes; we are in every direction from Indiana Ave to PCH, from San Pedro to Angeles Crest. We are every corner, block – make it 5th & Spring or Rodeo & Wilshire.

We help give voice to the voiceless stories that exist in our communities in every tongue, in every home, apartment, tent or cardboard box and now loft. We tell you the realness of our streets, the smut beneath the perils of LA’s spider-web freeways, and while we hold on to this history as the oldest professional repertory theater in Los Angeles, we stay true to our roots, we speak out, we live, we share, we make love, destroy, dream, make YOU dream, scream, laugh, cry, we create, impersonate and celebrate…we take the stories from every corner and create theater for Los Angeles by Los Angeles, playwrights, actors, directors. CoA Loves LA!

Actors/Directors Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin.

Xavi: In LA VIEWS II, I play Cole in Damon Chua’s “Fresh Cream Pie” inspired by the late silent film comedienne Mabel Normand who, by searching my historical archives, is buried in East L.A at the Calvary Cemetery. Anyways this piece is set in present day Alexandria Hotel – I figure that cause it deals with YouTube, I don’t think YouTube was on 8mm back in the Alexandria heydays?? In “Fresh Cream Pie,” Cole and pal Mick, played by Mel Rodriguez, chat  up during a graveyard shift at the job about jealousy, million dollar lottery dreams,  sexual fantasies, you tube videos… I can’t tell you what happens you have to see it for yo-self…..see you at the 5th & Spring crossroads..

LA VIEWS II: TALES OF PRESENT PAST will be performed April 17th – May 10th, Fridays and Saturdays 8pm
Sundays 3pm &7pm @ The Alexandria, 501 S. Spring St. 3rd Floor, Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90013
(plenty of safe street parking available.) For more information go to www.companyofangels.org.

Tickets: $20 General, $15 Students & Seniors. Box office: 323-883-1717. Purchase tickets online at
www.brownpapertickets.com/events/59877.

DIRECTORS:
TONY GATTO / JAMISON NEWLANDER
LUI SANCHEZ / NURIT SIEGEL

ACTORS:
KAREN ANZOATEGUI / JUANITA CHASE / MAURICE COMPTE
MARISSA GARCIA / JESSICA KOCHU / CURTIS KRICK
DARRELL KUNITOMI / JONATHON LAMER / JOSHUA LAMONT
JOYCE F. LIU / ERIC MARTIG / XAVI MORENO
ONYAY PHEORI / MEL RODRIGUEZ / BRIAN ROHAN
SARAH ROSENBERG / TARTA SMITHEMAN / MARCO TAZIOLI

Betsy Kalin.

I wrote this story for the second issue of “Brooklyn & Boyle,” a monthly magazine about Art & Life in Boyle Heights and Beyond. It was originally published in December of 2008.

When Connecticut transplant Betsy Kalin was approached to make a documentary on Boyle Heights, nothing in her activist and filmmaking background had prepared her for the obstacles ahead: “Boyle Heights is the richest area that I’ve ever been in contact with,” Kalin confesses after two years of total immersion in the neighborhood’s history, past and current. “How do you choose one amongst the million great stories? That was the biggest struggle.”

Her starting point was photographer and entrepreneur Eric Waterman, who originated the project and produced it. “It has such resonance for him because his family is from Boyle Heights,” says Kalin. Even though Waterman’s parents left in the 1940′s and Eric was raised in the valley, his family would talk about Boyle Heights all the time and would often bring him back to visit. This is a story Kalin would hear time and again as she began researching the neighborhood. “People who lived in Boyle Heights in the 20′s are still going back and feel a strong attachment to it, and people who live there now share the same passion,” Kalin remarks. “I don’t hear people in my neighborhood say ‘I was raised in West Hollywood, what a great place!’ Why does Boyle Heights have this power that other neighborhoods don’t have?”

Kalin found answers in the friendships of 50 plus years featured in the film: Floyd Jeter, the first African American to receive a track USC scholarship in 1955, and his Russian Molokan neighbor Bill Novikoff; Marsha Vasquez, Momo Yoshima and Dian Harrison, three women activists who met at Belvedere Junior High School. Kalin even captures on camera 89 year-old Japanese American Cedrick Shimo‘s visit to his old home. Forced to leave their house after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Cedrick’s family was sent to internment camps never to return to Boyle Heights to live. Saul Ines, a 30-year old Mexican American Cal Arts student who now lives in the house with his parents, welcomes Cedrick home and the men instantly bond over their shared upbringing.

Cedrick and Saul’s first meeting. Photo by Martha Nakagawa.

Titled FRIENDS IN COMMON, Kalin’s documentary tells the story of Boyle Heights’ multicultural friendships from the 1930′s to the present and how history affected its residents. From there, the film’s central theme evolved into a lesson in building community. “How come Boyle Heights was able to function as a multiethnic community before the word multicultural was even invented?” asks Kalin. “It wasn’t a community that was built on assimilation. It was a community where, if you were a Russian Molokan, you went to the Molokan church, but that didn’t preclude you from having friends from other backgrounds. Of course there was racism. It’s not like it was Utopia. I think there were 80 different nationalities at Roosevelt High School. We’re that diverse now but we don’t have that sense of community across backgrounds. I want people to look at these stories of friendships and yes these are friendships but they’re also representative of community. If these people hadn’t talked to each other, they wouldn’t have the richness that they now have.”

Kalin was also drawn to the film because of all the political activism that was going on at the time. “You had, among others, the Mexican revolutionaries, the Eastern European Jews who fled because they were Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists. These movements are all based in class, in working together, and in acceptance of people from different backgrounds.” Kalin stresses that these groups shared a history of persecution in their native countries and, after escaping to America, ended up in Boyle Heights because they were all forbidden to move to other neighborhoods by the racially-motivated covenants laws.

Touched by Boyle Heights’ power, Kalin is hoping one day to become one of its residents. “Walking the streets today you really get this amazing sense of community which is absent from a lot of places in Los Angeles.” But Kalin is also aware of the frictions between old and new immigrants. “Boyle Heights is an immigrant neighborhood that’s shifted its whole life and will keep on shifting. I’m just sad that a lot of people who live there now don’t know Boyle Heights’ rich history.”

Bill Novikoff and Floyd Jeter.

FRIENDS IN COMMON is still a work in progress. The passionate director is looking for residents to loan her their home movies and photographs and she can still be seen filming in the neighborhood. “We have amazing footage of the East LA classic football game. It’s Garfield vs. Roosevelt High. 20,000 are in attendance for a high school football game. It’s incredible!” Past resident Floyd Jeter is seen on the bleachers beaming with pride: “It’s 2 different schools but one community!’

For more information on the film, go to http://www.bluemediawater.org . Betsy Kalin can be reached at itchybee@gmail.com.

Information on Kalin’s first documentary, “Hearts Cracked Open” about Tantra for women who love women, can be found at www.heartscrackedopen.com.

Marsha Vasquez & Momo Yoshima. Photo by Betsy Kalin.

Ofelia Esparza by Gil Ortiz. Tropico de Nopal fashion show 2006. Copyright Gil Ortiz/Tropico de Nopal.

The photograph on Ofelia’s head piece is that of her mother’s great grandmother, Mama Pola, and Ofelia’s baby brother.

“In 2001 for Day of the Dead at Self Help Graphics, Ofelia recreated a prison cell in a corner of the gallery. She intended the entire installation to represent “grief for the living dead”–those who are in jail, their loved ones, and others around the world who lead lives that are unfulfilled, tragic, or lack freedom. At the foot of the bed she assembled a small traditional ofrenda made from materials that would be available to prisoners: papel picado made from newspapers, paper flowers of toilet paper, small offerings of pictures and flowers. Thus she celebrated a universal human condition in a truly traditional Mexican manner.” Alliance for California Traditional Arts.

To celebrate Ofelia Esparza’s first solo exhibit, I asked the artist to answer a few questions knowing that what Ofelia truly deserves is to be the subject of a documentary or a book about her life and the lives of her ancestors for whom she builds altars year after year not with grief but with a deep love and admiration for the blessings her ancestors received and the hardships they lived through and conquered, if not within their time, at least within hers.

Ofelia Esparza’s peace altar for the LA VS. WAR art show, April 2008.

Smiling Spider: Who are the artists who have influenced you the most?

Ofelia Esparza: There are many artists I have come to admire and from whom I draw inspiration today. But there are three who have been in my sights since I was a child. The first one has been my mother from my earliest recollections. She never called herself an artist, she didn’t learn her art in school, but her resourceful, creative spirit, her imagination sparked my own beginnings in my life and love for creativity and art.  Thus, I have been greatly influenced by the Mexican folk art that I have been surrounded by for most of my life.  During my childhood, folk art, brought back from my mother’s visits to Mexico every year, mirrored my mother’s own style of bright colors and handmade decorations for her home altars and our celebrations.  Perhaps this is why- as a very young girl, when I discovered Diego Rivera (from postal cards my mother sent me on her trips) I was drawn to his images of people who resembled me or those in my life around me, and by the familiarity I found in Rivera’s images of people engaged in activities I recognized.

Later, by the time I was in junior high school, I discovered Charles White in his book of portraits called “Images of Dignity”. I was always drawing things around me, but especially faces of people- mostly my own. White’s graphite drawings of ordinary people in his life, was an inspiration to me to keep drawing and striving for likenesses in my images. As I got older I began to understand why White called his portraits images of dignity– something I recognized in people around me–they  had not written a book nor held any degrees, but many commanded respect through their hard work, and carried themselves in dignity despite their humble possessions or limited resources. Charles Whites’s influence has held me to this day.

Charles White, “Spiritual.”

Ofelia Eparza: In more recent years I have been enthralled by Helen Frankenthaler‘s free, flowing colors in her abstracts. And most recently, although I resisted really looking  into her work and her life ( I suppose I was put off by the excessive, blatant use of her images- which I think is demeaning of her work), Frida Kahlo has become one of my most admired artists. I believe I see something of my mother’s spirit in her. There are several contemporary artists, mostly young-  who join in inspiring me,  reminding me that art has no boundariess and that I can go on as long as I want to.

Ofelia Espara’s altar to commemorate Sister Karen Bocalero, founder of Self-Help Graphics.

The Smiling Spider: How do you renew your art as an altar maker when you get commissions year after year?

Ofelia Esparza: My past work, and the thought that I want to explore different ways of presenting the concept of remembering loved ones, is what drives me to an idea for the next project. I also have to include the ideas that come up in the brainstorming sessions with my son Xavier ( who will most likely build the frame or the foundation for my altar) and now with my daughters Rosanna and Denise who have been working closely with me these past couple of years. The first consideration, of course, addresses who is being commemorated, or if there is a theme to be considered, how will this best be correlated? Well ahead of the final configuration of the altar is the research gathered on the intended dedicated or the theme of the piece and/or the event and any writing that this will entail.

Smiling Spider: Can you share with us the process involved.

Ofelia Esparza: I have to configure the space and any restrictions or constraints of space and regulations of the venue. Collecting materials, artifacts, or memorabilia, and determining colors of fabrics, walls, etc, all come into play in order to begin construction. Usually, there are purchases of materials and supplies to be made for each altar. This is quite an involved endeavor, but when the altar is finally finished; when I and all who have worked on the installation stop to contemplate our creation, we  experience a strong feeling of accomplishment and admiration for the work and our coming together in a true community effort.  I always feel somewhat sad to have to take it down when it is time to do so. I want to linger and contemplate – not only the work but especially the person or the people honored here. In the process, I know that we made a connection with those who are no longer here. It is also nostalgic for me to know that this work will never be here again- will never be duplicated- it is an ephemeral piece.  But then,  I know there will be another altar- a different one next time. I look forward to the work, but it is the process that stays and will be added, not only to my resources from previous work, but to the long list of remembrances of those whom I have honored throughout my many years as an altarista.

Ofelia Esparza with daughters Rosanna and Elena in front of the altar commissioned by the Museum of Chicago, Day of the Dead 2005.

Kanzo. BH Life Film Festival fundraiser. Photo by Sam Hernandez.

frankiely: Tell us about your first encounter with Burlesque.

KANZO: My first time was at the Fourty Deuce on Melrose where they do a mainstream kind of burlesque. I felt so empowered by it. I didn’t feel ashamed to watch. It was such a relief to feel good about something that can be considered bad. This was not degrading to women, men were not throwing money at them saying come over here and do this sexual act for me. It was accepted in the room that this was a performance and I was so taken by the connection the girls had with the audience since I’m a performer as well. I was blown away by what they did and how they did it with such confidence. They didn’t take everything off and they were able to captivate and suspend the audience’s attention by teasing them… which is what it’s about.

Laurel & Hardy, picture found on www.dvdbeaver.com.

frankiely: Can you expand on that? Being a French woman by trade, burlesque to me evokes Laurel & Hardy usually with their clothes on.

KANZO: Burlesque in major cities has changed over time, it died and was revived and died again and was revived again. What is interesting here in Los Angeles is that the girls make a comment, maybe political, social or cultural like La Cholita…

KANZO: She’s a great performer and dancer, her persona comments on how we see Chicanos or Latin people in our culture today, maybe not immigrants from Mexico or Central America but the pocha, if you want to say the term… the Chicana of Los Angeles. She dresses up in very traditional forms of folkloric dresses but she has her twist for the new generation. She represents neo-burlesque, the new wave, the new Chicana, what it is to be a Latina in today’s L.A.

Each performer has their own personality, their own act. Ruby Champagne calls herself the Mexican Spitfire of Burlesque; her inspiration comes from the 1930′s Golden era of Mexican cinema. She’s got the glamorous look. Her routines are very classic, it’s not just about the body and about stripping, it’s about her as this persona and you follow her dialogue, her dance, and yes it involves taking off clothes but it’s really about the revealing of the personality.

Ruby Champagne. Photo by Laura Creecy.

frankiely: That’s hot! I bought Playgirl Magazine recently and of course amidst all these pictures of naked men, it’s the one who showed not just flesh, but brains and personality in his interview who got me really turned on.

KANZO: Exactly. There’s another performer called Lulu Lunaris who is from Guadalajara, she is hilarious, she’s very influenced by Middle Eastern and Gypsy forms of dancing. She incorporates a lot of belly dancing in her performance like back in the carnival days in the American circus. Burlesque was introduced by these women who appeared in freak shows and represented the exotic. As Americans we love the exotic, we are allured by it, we also love that these dancers allow us to travel, like Lulu and her Egyptian dance. When you see something from far away you’re entering a new world and your imagination starts to play. Like you’re French and it evokes a certain erotic flavor… passion and…

frankiely: I do see that light in men’s eyes when they find out: “Ah… you’re from Fraaaannnccce!” (laughs)

KANZO: It’s almost like they start watching a film and on stage the same thing happens because all the dancers have their own themes and they allow the audience to play with their imagination. That’s the difference between strippers and burlesque dancers. Striptease is like bham! here it is, you see the body, you got nothing to work with and as an audience maybe you just want to get off or whatever. But with burlesque you come to enjoy a performance and you allow yourself to be lost just like when you watch a film or a play.

Lulu Lunaris. Photo by Laura Creecy.

KANZO: Victoria Vengeance’s act is very varied but definitely Gothic and gory. I remember the first time I saw her and Charlotte La Belle Araignee (The Beautiful Spider) – a French name -they would take these very traditional themes like Christmas, Halloween, Love and would twist them in totally unexpected bloody ways (laughs.) The holidays are very popular among the burlesque crowd because dancers get to comment on something we all have to participate in as a community, whether we want it or not. A lot of people feel “Why do I have to do this on this day, why do I have to celebrate it in this way?” Well you can attend a show at 11pm and see the burlesque dancers perform their own version of Valentine’s Day. Often it’s a juxtaposition of things like Flame Cynders has a set where she starts with a very fairytale view of a female wearing a white dress with rhinestones (representing ice) and then she turns it into a fire number where she takes off pieces of her clothes unveiling red hot fabric. Burlesque dancers definitely comment, each in their own way, on how we view things and challenges those beliefs like a lot of art strives to do.

Hair, make-up and clothing by Victoria Vengeance.

frankiely: Tell me about your experience as a burlesque show emcee.

KANZO: Katynka Martinez, the director of the BH Life film festival, a festival of women’s films at CASA 0101 in Boyle Heights, told me in December 2006 that they were going to do a fundraiser during the festival. She invited burlesque dancers and asked me if I wanted to host the event. I was like “Hell, yes!” I wanted to go into stand-up comedy at the time so it was a great opportunity for me.

Because the dancers are so feminine I decided to go for a more masculine look. The band that night was a rockabilly band so I went for a 1940′s look. I wanted to make it about the dancers, not about me. I peeked from behind the curtain as much as I could. When I emceed the show at the Whisky it was a different kind of crowd, the men in the audience excepted strippers, they were rather rude but as an emcee you have to be able to handle that type of crowd and get them on course. You cannot arrive on stage with a script, you’ve got to feel your audience.

frankiely: Tell me why the majority of the burlesque audience is female. You’d think men would flock to be teased that way.

KANZO: Women feel empowered by burlesque. Maybe the dancers have beautiful bodies, maybe they don’t. Maybe they relate, they think: if they can go up there with that confidence and look the way they look, I can achieve that too. We’re always thinking we’re not pretty enough, our boobs are not big enough… these women go up there with the bodies they have and they don’t care. They feel beautiful. The female audience loves it because they’re celebrating themselves by watching the dancers. You have Renea’ Le Roux who is a voluptuous woman from Georgia. She was Miss Viva Las Vegas 2006, she’s one of the best performers in LA. The way she carries herself, her personality, you’re just drawn to her. When they’re on stage and when they feel great, you feel that great.

“Southern Belle from Hell” Renea’ La Roux.

KANZO: It’s also shifting our views of what a woman is supposed to be and do. Oprah recently invited this guy who had a baby, he’s a transgender female to male who kept his female organs to reproduce. We’re constantly challenged to what we believe our roles are as to gender and class. Burlesque is getting bigger because it’s shaking away at the foundation of tradition. It’s also important for Latinas to be represented and to be able to feel accepted as they are and live the way they want to live.

frankiely: It’s true despite living in 2008 women are still pigeonholed into very specific roles. We both have masculine and feminine elements within us yet sweet is less threatening thus more attractive to men than strong. I recently saw the cutest little cat in a street of Santa Monica.

There was something regal about the way it sat there in the middle of the street and for a moment I felt as if I was being greeted by a God. I went home and for some strange reason I opened my Mythology book looking for a cat goddess. I found Bastet, a goddess sometimes depicted with both a lion-head because it represents the fierce protector in women and a cat head, the cat being our more nurturing and purring side. Ancient Egypt sounds way more modern to me than our modern Western times.

KANZO: Nobody likes to be put in a box. As a society we have to question the limitations that are put upon us because of race, gender, class. I’m certainly not typical. When I dressed to be the emcee I wanted to play with the feminine/masculine roles. For example I have big breast, so I’m seen as feminine but I also wear men’s clothes – and I’m not a butch dyke but one day I might want to wear a tie and be in my protector/aggressor mode, or one day the softer side might want to come out.

frankiely: Like Mary J Blige sings in “Feel Like a Woman” on her latest album “Growing Pains.” Sometimes we just want to be taken care of and protected and sometimes we enjoy being on top! At the same time there’s no doubt in my mind that men are subjected to their own limitations of what a guy should do or not do or should feel or not feel for fear of being taunted as not being man enough or maybe too manly/aggressive.

KANZO: Yes! Guys in the audience get really uncomfortable when Bobbie Burlesque, the only male burlesque dancer in Los Angeles, comes on. They go outside to smoke. He also challenges the notion of what it means to be a man. He does all kinds of different acts, including vaudeville. He also strips, but like the other girls it’s about a performance. He’s really good at it.

frankiely: That’s a fact I’ll be very happy to check (laughs.) Seriously, I find this fascinating. What is his act?

KANZO: Here’s a guy in a role that a woman usually partakes and like the women, he goes “You know what, I don’t care what society says, I’m gonna do this.” Once again it changes the definition of what the culture allows and what the culture rejects. Men are under a lot of pressure too, you look at men’s magazines and on ads all the men have perfect bodies.

frankiely: And God forbid a straight guy might feel aroused by Bobbie’s act!!! You mention women going to see the shows because they feel empowered. A lot of women are taking pole dancing classes as a way to own their sexuality rather than be ashamed of it. I wonder how men deal with theirs. The accepted notion is a woman stripping for her man, why not a man learning to strip for his woman?

Bobbie Burlesque ~ Tease-O-Rama 2007.

frankiely: Since you’re an actress and a stand-up comedian, have you ever been tempted to do your own act?

KANZO: Yes but I’m also scared!!!! I have taken my clothes off for a drawing class. I wanted to know what it felt like and I found it really freeing. But for now I’m focusing on my comedy and my acting career with the Company of Angels.

frankiely: Where do you go in L.A. to see Burlesque?

KANZO: You can check the M Bar, there are also shows at El Cid sometimes on Thursday nights. Bordello is also having a lot of shows. Definitely check out The Monday Night Tease at 3Clubs on Vine and Santa Monica every Monday night with Lili VonSchtupp – an absolutely fabulous woman.

Kanzo.
Photo by Mikel Healey.

Taco was cordially invited by Brady Brim-DeForest of Found Gallery to take a peek at their current exhibition of Irene Kai’s photo essay: “What do you see?” I jumped on the opportunity to discover a new gallery and to see why, according to the press release, “Princess Margaret was shuffled past an art exhibit at the Royal College of Art in London in 1976. College officials deemed Irene Kai’s work too provocative for even the liberal minded Countess of Snowdon. The images caused a major uproar within the Royal College of Art staff, which took two months to settle and caused the Royal College to change its hiring policy.”

frankiely: How is a show that was judged shocking in 1970’s London relevant in Los Angeles of 2008?

Brady Brim-DeForest: What was shocking to me was that this show had been in New York City and London but had never made it to Los Angeles. Many LA galleries are very SoCal-centric. They show contemporary art made in LA – so we were interested in showing a retrospective of an old show, one that has been around for a while – one that had perhaps lost a little bit of its luster. It’s definitely not as shocking now as it might have been in 1976 London but it’s still relevant – especially in an American society that still struggles with its own sexuality today.

frankiely: What have people’s reactions been like?

Brady Brim-DeForest: This image (above) generates the most negative reactions, some people feel disgusted by it. Some are intrigued. Either way, it regularly produces a very visceral reponse in the viewer.

frankiely: I think it would have been interesting not to refer to the 1976 scandal in your press release to witness people’s reactions free of the knowledge that they might be shocked. Why did you make that choice?

Brady Brim-DeForest: We had an endless series of discussions about this particular point – but we determined that the best way to get people to the show, in a city dominated by endless noise, was to tell them a story that would pique their interest, appeal to their inner voyeur – and it worked! Ultimately, it is better for us to push through the noise, and encourage people to see the work, than to get lost in the shuffle.

frankiely: The fact that informing the audience that the pictures are sexual in nature is the best way to get people into your gallery makes a point that this exhibit is still relevant today.

Brady Brim-DeForest: Definitely. Nudity and sexuality are much more acceptable in European culture than in America today. What strikes me as funny, however, is that during the time that these photos were taken, “Deep Throat” was all the rage on this side of the pond. I can’t imagine the same film enjoying that kind of reception in the States today. Maybe we have become more conservative as a society over the last thirty years?

frankiely: That first picture definitely had that “Ooohhh what am I seeing here?” effect on me… but the more I paid attention to the photographs the more I was drawn by their sweetness, humor, the poetry a la Georgia O’Keefe and yes that liberating feeling.

Brady Brim-DeForest: Some people are disappointed because they expected to be shocked and they find out rather quickly that they are not. There’s a mix of excitement and disappointment. From that perspective it’s been great to watch people’s reactions.

frankiely: Every time we’re confronted to how we feel about something, it’s a great mirror for where we are at as individuals and as a society. Is that Found Gallery’s goal?

Brady Brim-DeForest: To a certain degree, it is. We’re interested in showing artists and producing shows that no other gallery would take a chance on. We love to explore art as a process. For instance, the Joint Custody Project, which this year paired 44 artists of different disciplines, twenty-two each in Berlin and LA, to work together. The show opens in Berlin on June 28th and the reception for the LA artists will be here on July 5th. You can see them at work on jointcustodyproject.blogspot.com.

I see a flying elephant. You have until the closing reception, Saturday, June 28th between 7 and 10pm, to be attended by Irene Kai, to tell us what you saw. Found Gallery, 1903 Hyperion Avenue, LA, CA 90027. Tel: 323-669-1247. www.foundla.com

I first met artist Rosanna Esparza Ahrens in early November of 2007 at the El Gallo Cafe when East LA was preparing for Dias de los Muertos. Rosanna is Sticky Rick’s Artistic Director, a business created by her husband Rick Ahrens to connect the world’s stickiest artists and provide them with their sticker printing needs. Rosanna and I met again recently at her home in her native East Los Angeles. This interview is the result of these two encounters.

TACO: By mistake I just went to meet you across the street at the El Gallo Bakery, but as soon as I entered the bakery I realized this was no mistake, I was totally swooned over by the sweet aroma and the welcome of a very unlikely character who tempted me to bite into, not an apple, but a voluptuous piece of bread. There was something blatantly erotic in that act. It was as if Death was challenging me to bite into flesh i.e. live fully! I’ve heard people say Dias de los Muertos is for people obssessed with death but this character seemed awfully alive to me… and definitely naughty!

Rosanna Esparza Ahrens: I hear this too. But death is not something you can avoid, it’s all around us. Look, the El Gallo Cafe where we are sitting right now is an old mortuary! (Laughs)

Blue Calavera by RoZANna.

TACO: There is a puzzling prevalence of skull imagery everywhere in LA, in fashion, bumper stickers, advertisement etc. but most of it is aggressive and charged. Your skulls are so incredibly peaceful. You come from a family of artists whose body of work spring mostly from the Day of the Dead tradition. Tell us about this early influence.

REA: My grandmother made her roots here from Mexico, she never called herself an artist but she truly was one. Her art was cooking and cake-making, she was the go to person for wedding cakes, any kind of cakes. She also drew. She made all these paper decorations, flowers, garlands for her Nativity installations at home. My grandmother made four altars a year, one for was for Sabado de Gloria, the Saturday before Easter and this one was always white representing the Resurrection; one for Dia de los Muertos, the other one was for Our Lady of Guadalupe which is December 12, and the fourth altar was for her Nacimiento or the Nativity installation. Except for the Nacimiento, my grandmother’s altars were not big, they were just little niches up on the wall or on a table but their presence was always felt. On the other hand the nativity scene was a monumental altar which filled the whole living room, with everything to scale from Jesus, Mary and Joseph to dinosaurs and alligators. (laughs!)

My grandma collected figurines, they’ve been in the family for more than 70 years, some were imported from Italy, they’re beautiful. She also had little pieces from Mexico. My grandma would make the nativity scene look like it took place in Mexico. It never looked like Bethlehem, I mean they weren’t Hebrews, they were Mexicans! (laughs) My grandfather would build terraced platforms and lots of little villages. My mom, Ofelia, started painting backdrops on big canvas that looked like the night sky cityscape of Mexico City or Guadalajara.

Artist Ofelia Esparza in front of the altar she designed for the 2007 Pico House’s art exhibit: “Sacred memory: honoring the dead across cultures.” Ofelia told me the altar wasn’t truly completed until you lit the candles. But the fire regulations of the ancient Pico House prevented her from lighting them.

TACO: Were those backdrops the first art work your mother created?

REA: She’d already been drawing since she was a little girl but those paintings were an accomplishment, they were beautiful with the church tops, the domes and the mountains, the North star.

TACO: How old was she?

REA: Probably in her teens.

TACO: How did she go from doing altars at home to making these large community altars she’s famous for?

REA: When Self Help Graphics relocated at its current location in 1979 my mother volunteered to teach art workshops to the kids from the community; she also participated in the printmaking classes. The Dia de los Muertos and other Art Exhibits lent themselves to the altar installations. When the founder, Sister Karen Bocalerro, died, my mother was asked to head the special community altar for the beloved Sister. There were so many people bringing tokens of love and rememberance the installation was monumental. Roughly about then she started making these gigantic altars every year which are displayed in several locations in and around East LA and get dismantled when the celebrations are over. My mother has also been commissioned to design Day of the Dead altars in Glasgow (Scotland,) Chicago, San Francisco.

When you are building an altar, you are creating sacred space where you communicate to your loved one that they are still a part of you and your family. It’s also a reminder that life is short and we will be together again soon. My grandmother communicated the meaning of the Dia de Los Muertos altars quite elegantly, when she referred to Las Tres Muertes (the Three Deaths): “The first one is when you breathe your last breath, the second one is when you’re buried in the ground never to be seen on the earth again and the third one, which is the most dreaded, is when you’re forgotten.”

TACO: Sacred is the word especially in Los Angeles. To me LA is still a gold rush kind of town where people come to strike gold whether it’s enough money to put food on the table for your family or striking a million dollar deal in Hollywood. It’s great to look to the future but the downside is people get disconnected from their past and don’t show interest in LA’s past. The Day of the Dead altars which connect families, communities, and honor the land where they’re buried and their past is in my opinion vital to the greater Angeleno community at large. It’s no surprise East LA has the oldest cemetery in Los Angeles, the Evergreen cemetery. Do you know there is a running track around it they call RIP: Run in Peace!

REA: Being born here I never realized how significant this tradition was for my family’s culture and the fact that my grandmother had been uprooted from Mexico, until I heard my mother gave a lecture at East Los Angeles College. She shared about going to the Calvary Cemetery, which is just right down the street, for Dia de los Muertos as a little girl with her mother and some cousins and they would dress up some of the grave sites even though they didn’t have relatives there yet, but it was my grandmother’s custom to be there for Dia de Los Muertos. Some headstones looked so lonely so they cleaned them up and adorned them with flowers.

Brother Alec in front of one of the family shrines.

TACO: Now tell me how your whole family helps your mother with the creation of the community altars.

REA: My mother gets commissioned to design a certain amount of altars, she starts by sketching and shows my brother and I her renderings. We come up with ideas on how to achieve her vision. Let me make this clear, we don’t give her any design tips at all. We help facilitate the making of the altars. She does give us some design freedom in there too but ultimately it’s what she wants. First off we’ll go shopping for fabric, that’s a big project. We need to know how many altars she’s making, the texture and setting she wants, the color schemes. She has an eye for it. My brother Javier is the builder, he makes the foundation or apparatuses, he’s a sign hanger, he’s got all the tools and he’s great at it. My other brother Ben does anything from large format images and banners to specialized printing on various substrates. Between him and Javier and my brother Leonard they’ll hang it. My mother, my sisters and I take care of the finishing touches, placing the bits and pieces on the altars but when it comes to final placement my mother is in charge, it all has to be in balance, not just the placement of objects on the altars but the colors. I’ve learned a lot from her.

Then we’ll buy the tissue paper to make the flowers. It takes a lot of time. My mom makes most of them while she’s watching TV, and anybody who’s sitting there like her children or grandchildren will help her. I really enjoy this activity. It’s a very social time similar to when my sisters and aunts get together to make tamales for the Christmas celebration. We also teach flower making workshops in the community. After an hour of teaching 10 people they start teaching more people. It’s really cool to see the sense of accomplishment on the faces of the people we teach this art to.

Rosanna and marigolds, 1999.

REA: The whole reason for Day of the Dead and altar making is the celebration of a mystical journey we all have to go through. That’s why in the villages of Mexico the cemeteries are not far from the center of town or just on the outskirts so everybody builds their altars at home then go to the cemetery, dress up the graves with flowers and candles, spend the whole night there and it’s like a big party in the cemeteries. Some of it is very reverent but then there is a very comical and festive aspect to it. Some families put the flower petals from the grave all the way to their door so the dead know where to go because that’s where their ofrenda (offering/altar) is and their favorite things, like their favorite beer or mole. Families also put a glass of water for the dead because they’re thirsty from walking such a long journey.

TACO: Have you continued the tradition? Do you do make altars in your home?

REA: Yes, I have this old vanity mirror with drawers on the side so it has little terrace areas, it’s an altar for my husband’s parents, my dad, my grandmother and godmother.

Right now I’m making marigolds out of tissue paper on stems and I’m going to put skull stickers and leaves on too. I want to sell them for Day of the Dead. Some people say “How can you be capitalizing on something like that?” I say, give me a break! No one is getting rich making and selling Day of the Dead arts and crafts. I think it’s a beautiful thing to create things with your hands. I certainly appreciate handcrafted items to decorate my altar with. I would like to see Self Help Graphics have a Dia de los Muertos market place a few weeks before November 2nd, where people can come and shop for all the things they need to make their altars at home like flowers, candles, sugar skulls, calavera nic-nacs, painting, santos (saints,) religious items, food toys, whatever you would put on your altar.

Marigolds with skulls. 2007 Day of the Dead celebration at Hollywood Forever cemetery. Photo by Justin Kees.

For the full interview, click here.

Clothing of the American Mind ~ 1284 Sunset Blvd. Echo Park, CA ~ (213) 481-2004

I don’t know about other women, but there comes a day when, hearing another girlfriend moan about commitment-phobes, and finding yourself once again justifying my…I mean, their behavior, you realize it’s time to ditch your tomboy days, become a real woman, and commit to someone, or at least something, greater than yourself.

“Why not take refuge in Buddhist precepts?” was my first thought. I had been living by them for years now anyway. I didn’t have to agree with everything, my critical mind would have to endure, I could still think for myself. I joined a silent retreat to meditate upon this most serious decision. I promised, in writing, to observe the facility’s three rules: no lying, no killing of insects, and no engaging in sexual activity. I moved into an adorable cabin, absolutely thrilled by this chance to show my undying commitment. Maybe I was a little too excited. I quickly fell from my Buddhist Nirvana, deep in the woods on day three, when a beautiful male deer lunched near my humble shack, sunbeams striking me, warming me, through the trees like Cyclops’ laser, dissolving what little clothing I could stand to wear in the first place. Something about the deer’s big, brown eyes, and the way this proud buck stood so perfectly erect, rekindled vivid memories of my latest fling.

Click here for the full interview on www.lataco.com.

“If America’s so bad, why does everyone want to be here?” His answer: “When you’re here, you’re less likely to be a victim of American foreign policy.” Diane Lefer (pictured above) from “The Prosperity of Cities and Desert Places”

“Good Morning and Happy 4th of July!… I feel the most patriotic action that I can take today is to be here in support of impeachment and especially impeachment of the poster boy for what is wrong with this administration.” Maxine Waters, opening of the Los Angeles Impeachment Center, July 4th, 2007. The most patriotic action I could take on that same day was to sit down with Diane Lefer, independent and provocative thinker, author of the collections of short stories “Very Much Like Desire,” “The Circles I Move In,” her latest one “California Transit” and the novel “Radiant Hunger.”

TACO: Why did you start wearing an orange jumpsuit in public?

Diane Lefer: I was inspired by an anonymous man in Washington DC who on his lunch hour dresses in an orange jumpsuit, puts a black hood over his head and kneels in front of the White House so that anyone passing the White House has to be confronted with what we’re doing. So I got a jumpsuit and I got a hood, I went around LA, rode buses, walked around. Lately when I do readings for “California Transit”, I show up with the jumpsuit at independent bookstores. I tried to do it at Barnes&Noble at The Grove but security wouldn’t let me in. I said I had to buy a copy of the Constitution and he called for backup. (laughs) What we’re doing is inhumane, illegal, horrible, I hate it but during the holidays I’m sitting on a bus in my jumpsuit and Santa Claus gets on the bus and sits across the aisle from me and it’s funny. You can’t censor out the humor even in the most grim situations.

Click here for full interview on www.lataco.com.