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What's "Lummis Day" all about?
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Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles, is a celebration of the city's diverse culture and rich history, and will be presented by Occidental College beginning with an 11:00 am poetry reading at nearby Lummis Home. Lummis Day activities will continue at 12:30 pm in Sycamore Grove Park, where music, dance and puppet performances, art exhibitions and food service will continue through 7:00 pm.
Lummis Day takes its name from Charles Fletcher Lummis, who joined the L.A. Times as the paper's first city editor in 1876. 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.
Charles Fletcher Lummis
- walked to LA from Ohio - |
Lummis Home |
Lummis in his den |
Charles Lummis |
Kaleidoscope of NELA Arts at Lummis Day
Authors Steve Abee, Suzanne Lummis, Lynne Thompson, and Charles Harper Webb, each representing a singular current in contemporary poetry will read at the opening reception at Lummis Home, sponsored by Poets & Writers and the Historical Society of Southern California. The poets will be reading from new and published work in an outdoor garden setting. Cellist Kevin Buck will also perform.
Following the opening reception, the Arroyo Arts Collective will lead a trek along the Arroyo riverbed to Sycamore Grove Park where the remainder of the day's events will staged. The procession will be preceded by giant puppets designed and created by local artists and inspired by Tongva-Gabrielino Indian imagery.
The Festival's musical and dance performers represent the broad range of traditions, genres and sensibilities that flourish in the Northeast L.A. neighborhoods, including the inventive spin-offs of Chicano rock created by Quetzal and Ollin, the alternative folk punk-a-billy of the Evangenitals, fiery Latin jazz and salsa by the Susie Hansen Latin Band, working class roots rock by Ann Likes Red and virtuoso, straight-ahead blues by the Greger Walnum Blues Band. Dance performers include Phillipino folk perfomers, Kultura Phillipine Folk Arts, Mexican folkloric dance by Ballet Coco and Native American ensembles, the Tongva-Gabrielino Native American Dancers and Danza Azteca Cuahtlehuanit.
Work by Northeast L.A. artists will be presented by the Arroyo Arts Collective and Rock Rose Productions and the Cactus Gallery. The Festival will include activities for children and families, including puppet performances by Renee and His Marionettes and the Puppets and Players Little Theater. Restaurants serving Mexican, Filipino, Italian and Thai food will be vending an international smorgasbord of snacks. Community booths will offer information regarding local issues and activities.
In conjunction with the Festival, the Arroyo Seco branch of the Los Angeles Public Library will mount an exhibit on Lummis and his work during the last week of May. Additionally, the Southwest Museum will mount an exhibit on Lummis, open Saturdays and Sundays from May 5th through July 8th, 12 noon to 5:00 pm. pm. And the Avenue 50 Studio will present two artists -- Raoul De la Sota and Pola Lopez -- at the Southwest Museum's lobby on the Festival weekend. Admission is free.
Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles 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, 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), the Autry Center for the American West, public radio station KPFK 90.7, the Arroyo Seco Journal, the Boulevard Sentinel and Poets & Writers Magazine.
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.
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Contact: Eliot Sekuler (818) 535-9178
Or email: lummisday@yahoo.com
