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Recap Meeting - everyone is welcome!
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Lummis Day Recap Meeting - Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 PM at Ramona Hall

The Lummmis Day committeee will meet at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 5 to go over the success of Sunday's event and to discuss our ideas on things that need improvememnt next year.

Thanks to everyone on the commiteee, to the artists who participated and to the thousands of people who joined us for making the second annual Lummis Day such a wonderful event.

As always, all Lummis Day committeee planning, discussion and all roles on the committee are open to all Northeast L.A. community stakeholders.

Please email additional agenda items for this meeting to: lummisday@yahoo.com

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Lummis Day MCs announced
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KCOP/Fox's Hal Eisner and KPFK's Fidel  Rodriguez are Lummis Day MCs

Veteran Fox and KCOP reporter Hal Eisner and KPFK FM 90.7 radio personality Fidel Rodriquez will serve as MCs at the second annual Lummis Day, appearing at Sycamore Grove Park, (4900 N. Figueroa Street) from 12:30 pm - 7:00 pm on Sunday June 3.

The two broadcasters will introduce performers including Quetzal, Ollin, the Evangenitals, the Susie Hansen Latin Band, Ann Likes Red and the Greger Walnum Blues Band as well as dance groups Ballet Coco, Likas Pilipinas Folk Arts, the Cypress Park Folklorico Dance Group and Danza Azteca Cuahtlehuanit.


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NEW: about Lummis Day
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Six Neighborhood Councils Sponsor "Lummis Day"

“Lummis Day” is presented by Occidental College and sponsored by the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council, the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council, the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council, and the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council, making it the first time since the formation of Los Angeles' neighborhood council system that a single non-municipal event has been jointly sponsored by six neighborhood councils.

Supporting organizations include the North Figueroa Association, Los Angeles City Council Districts 1 and 14, SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans), the Department of Recreation and Parks, the Historical Society of Southern California, Heritage Square Museum, the MTA, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Arroyo Arts Collective, Poets & Writers Magazine, the L.A. Poetry Festival, Rock Rose Productions, Future Studios, Orchestrada Audio and other community organizations.

The event will feature musicians, artists, dance groups, restaurants, poets, and historical displays representing an array of the region's ethnic and cultural groups.

The Lummis Day Festival will be staged at Lummis Home, 200 E. Avenue 43, where the program will begin with an 11:00 am poetry reading followed by a “trek” along the route of Arroyo Seco riverbed to Sycamore Grove Park, 4900 N. Figueroa Street. At Sycamore Grove Park, music, art, multi-cultural performances and food service will run continuously from noon to 7:00 pm.

Last year's inaugural Festival drew over 1500 people to Sycamore Grove Park and Lummis Home. Over 25 community groups, a dozen galleries and half dozen restaurants participated.

Lummis Day takes its name from Charles Fletcher Lummis, who served as the L.A. Times' first city editor upon his arrival in L.A. in 1885. Lummis was also one of the city's first librarians, founded the Southwest Museum and helped introduce the concept of multi-culturalism to Southern California.

The Festival organizers hope the second annual event will again serve to celebrate the diverse culture and history of the Arroyo neighborhoods, strengthen linkages among cultural, commercial and community resources and create a framework for future civic, creative and commercial growth in Northeast Los Angeles.

"Search to Involve Pilipino Americans" to Support "Lummis Day"

Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) has joined Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles as a supporting organization.

SIPA (www.esipa.org) was founded in 1972 and provides health and human services as well as community economic development and arts/cultural programs for youth and families in multi-ethnic Historic Filipinotown and the Los Angeles Pilipino American community. SIPA will help identify Pilipino performers for the Festival and will outreach to the Pilipino community on the Festival's behalf.

"Lummis Day" Poet Steve Abee to Read at Arroyo Seco Library, 5/20

As part of its participation in the Lummis Day Festival, the Arroyo Seco Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library will present a Sunday, May 20 reading by Steve Abee, the El Sereno-based poet, novelist and teacher who is among the four writers who will participate in the Lummis Day Festival's poetry reading and opening reception.

Abee's reading will take place at the Arroyo Seco Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, located at 6145 N. Figueroa Street in Highland Park and will begin at 4:00 pm.

Abee is the author of the novel The Bus: Cosmic Ejaculations of the Daily Mind in Transit (Phony Lid Books), and King Planet(Incommunicado), a collection of short stories and poems.

Born in Santa Monica, he holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles and has taught Middle School English in Los Angeles for 12 years. The writing program he initiated for students at Thomas Starr King Middle School was the subject of a recent Los Angeles Times feature story.

On June 3, Abee, along with fellow authors Suzanne Lummis, Lynne Thompson, and Charles Harper Webb will be reading from new and published work in an outdoor garden setting at the opening Lummis Day Festival reception, sponsored by Poets & Writers Inc.through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation. 

Admission to the May 20 reading at the library and to the all events at the June 3 Lummis Day Festival are free. For details about the May 20 event and general information about the Arroyo Seco Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, call 323-255-0537.

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NEW: about the Cinco De Mayo Fundraiser
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Author Margo Candela, born and raised in Cypress Park, will serve as MC.

Born and raised in Cypress Park, Margo received her first 14 years of formal education at local schools: Loreto Street School, Nightingale Middle School, Franklin High School and Glendale College. She left the neighborhood to earn a B.A. from San Francisco State.

Publisher's Weekly described Margo as "an engaging writer" in noting the publication of her first novel, "Underneath It All," in January of this year. Her second novel, "Life Over Easy," is due for publication in October and she's currently hard at work on her third.

Margo will be introducing the fundraiser's line-up of entertainment.

Award-winning Lummis biographer Mark Thompson will appear at a Cinco De Mayo “Lummis Day” Fundraiser at Heritage Square Museum (3800 Homer Street), joining poet/performance artist Linda Albertano for an evening of history, poetry, music, wine and refereshments in a unique outdoor setting amid L.A.'s most historic houses.

Collectors of memorabilia, art and books will find an assortment of rare items available for purchase at a silent auction.

A cyanotype self-portrait of Charles Lummis that was made available to the Braun Library for fund-raising purposes has been donated by the Autry National Center to a silent auction to be held at the Cinco de Mayo"Lummis Day" Fundraiser.

Other items in the auction include  a "behind the scenes" tour of Heritage Square with a wine and cheese reception led by the Heritage Square Museum president; a gift basket from the Southwest Museum store plus one dual membership to the Southwest Museum and Autry Museum of the American West; autographed Lummis biographies; an autographed copy of Rio L.A.: Tales from the Los Angeles River, signed by authors Patt Morrison, Mark Lamonica and designer Amy Inouye; an autographed Neon Noir catalogue (featuring the Coldest Beer in Town sign on Figueroa) signed by photographer Tom Zimmerman; an autographed book by Gore Vidal; original artwork donated by local artists and galleries, dinners at local restaurants and pieces of fine jewelry.

The fundraising event is scheduled from 6:30-9:00 pm on Saturday, May 5. Admission, which includes all refreshments, is $35 in advance and $40 at the door. All proceeds will help underwrite the second annual“Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles” on June 3.

Guests who wish to take a short, complimentary, docent-guided tour of the historic Heritage Square Museum should arrive before 5:45 pm.

To purchase tickets, email LummisDay@yahoo.com, click on PayPal instructions, or phone 818-535-9178.

Mark Thompson is author of the acclaimed Lummis biography "American Character: The Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest," honored as "Best Biography of 2002" by the Western Writers of America. An avid urban- backyard farmer, the Kentucky-born writer maintains and edits the website "Seasonal Chef" providing amateur and professional chefs with information about seasonal produce and farmers' markets. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to a broad range of publications ranging from The New Republic to the Thai International Airlines inflight magazine.

Linda Albertano, who was among five poets chosen to represent Los Angeles in Amsterdam's "One World Poetry Festival," is a musician, performance artist and poet who has appeared at the L.A.Theater Center and The John Anson Ford Theater as well as Beyond Baroque, the Knitting Factory, and other literary/spoken- word meccas.

Lummis Day: The Festival of Notheast Los Angeles will be presented on June 3 by Occidental College with the support of the Mount Washington Association, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Autry National Center, the Arroyo Arts Collective, the Historic Highland Park and Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Councils, over dozen other community organizations and City Council Districts 1 and 14. Events are scheduled from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm at Lummis Home and Sycamore Grove Park.

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Contact: Eliot Sekuler (818) 535-9178
Or email: lummisday@yahoo.com