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"Lummis Day"
2008
The Third Annual
Festival of Northeast Los Angeles
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Sunday, June 1, 2008
10:30am - 7pm
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Come Celebrate the Spirit and Diverse Culture
of L.A.'s Northeast Neighborhoods
with Food, Music, Art, Poetry and Dance !
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Lummis Day: The Festival of Northeast Los Angeles, a celebration of the city's diverse culture and rich history, will begin 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 performances, puppetry, art exhibitions and food service will continue through 7:00 pm. A broad cross-section of the city's cultural traditions will be represented at the community-building event.
Admission to all Lummis Day events -- at Lummis Home and Sycamore Grove Park -- is free.
PLEASE NOTE: Ray Alende and Albina Ferryra, have done an extraordinary job in printing and putting up our banners, printing the bus ads at a price below cost, and amending last year's banners at no charge. We gratefully acknowledge their generous contribution to, and participation in, the Lummis Day event. |
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Lummis Day - Schedule of Events - June 1, 2008
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Lummis Day - Artists / Performers
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Poetry at Lummis Home • 10:30 am
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This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc., with a grant it received from The James Irvine Foundation |
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Suzane Lummis’s (host) poetry has appeared in major literary publications in the U.S. and U.K. She is director of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, which has produced eight city wide festivals since 1989, and editor of the online literary magazine www.speechlessthemagazine.org. Last year WriteGirl, the organization that mentors and publishes teenage girls, honored her with one of the first Bold Ink Awards, for “fierce women writers who inspire us.” She teaches beginning through advanced poetry for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and has also taught for Loyola Marymont and Emerson College. |
| Steve Kowit edited The Maverick Poets, the first anthology of accessible American poetry. His book on writing poetry, In the Palm of Your Hand, remains one of the most popular books in the field. His most recent collection is The First Noble Truth, winner of the Tampa Review Prize. He is the recipient of a National Endowment fellowship and Two Pushcart Prizes. He lives in the back country hills of San Diego and teaches at Southwestern College. |
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Mike Sonksen, also known as Mike the Poet, is widely acclaimed for his live performances, contributions to international publications and legendary city tours. Poet, journalist, historian, teacher, he’s published in the L.A. Citybeat, O.C. Weekly, New Angeles, Long Beach Business Journal, Kotori, L.A. Weekly and many others. Mike graduated from UCLA in 1997. His book I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGeLES! has received rave reviews and has been added to the curriculum of local universities and several high schools. |
| liz gonzález, a fourth generation So Cal native, grew up sixty miles east of Los Angeles in Rialto, California. Her work has been widely published and has appeared in BorderSenses, Cooweescoowe, Luna, Cider Press Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, New Delta Review, and in anthologies such as Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles and Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She is the author of the limited edition chapbook Beneath Bone, published by Manifest Press. She teaches writing for college at Long Beach City College and creative writing through the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. |
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Cathie Sandstrom’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Runes, Lyric, Solo, Cider Press Review, ART/ LIFE, Periphery, and in the anthologies Open Windows, Blue Arc West, So Luminous the Wildflowers and Matchbook. Her poem “You Again,” is in the artists’ books collection at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and in the University of Southern California Library. Twice a winner in “Poetry in the Windows,” sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective with funding from the Lannen Foundation, she was also a winner of the Periphery Prose Poetry contest. |
Carlos Guitarlos (music) is best known to the Los Angeles music scene as the lead guitarist/ songwriter for the notoriously raucous Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs (immortalized in the Van Halen song of the same name). During the 1980’s, the Northeast Los Angeles native also recorded with Tom Waits and The Breeders before it all fell apart.
Relocating to San Francisco, Carlos could be found for several years paying his dues on the streets of that city, playing guitar to earn his keep. More hard living landed Carlos in a San Francisco hospital fighting for his life with congestive heart failure. Returning to L.A. with a new outlook on life, Carlos recorded the roots rock and blues album, Straight From the Heart, an eclectic collection of 17 original tunes that embodies the diversity of Carlos’ work. Longtime fans and critics have warmly greeted his new recordings and his career resurgence. |
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Lummis Day Poetry Workshop Poets
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William Archila earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon, where he was given the Fighting Fund Fellow Award. He has also been awarded the Alan Collins Scholarship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Locally, he is also a 1999 PEN Center USA West Emerging Voices fellow and also a winner of Poetry In the Windows II and III, a project of the Arroyo Arts Collective. His poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, AGNl, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry International, The Los Angeles Review, Notre Dame Review, Blue Mesa Review and The Portland Review among others. His work will also appear in Puerto del Sol. His first book, The Art of Exile, is forthcoming from Bilingual Press. |
| Lory Bedikian earned her MFA from the University of Oregon, where she received the Dan Kimble First Year Teaching Award in Poetry. Her collection of poetry has been selected as a finalist in both the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition and the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Competition. She has been published in various journals including Connecticut Review, Heliotrope, and Poetry International. She currently writes a column, “Poetry Matters,” for the Armenian Reporter. |
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| Following the opening reception and poetry reading at Lummis Home, the event shifts to Sycamore Grove Park at 4900 N. Figueroa Street, where music, dance performances, puppetry, art exhibitions and food service begins at 12:30 pm. A broad cross-section of the city's cultural traditions will be represented at the community-building event. |
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Changing Spirits Drum Circle has been performing their dramatic and stirring traditional music in service to the community for five years. Members of the Drum Circle represent different Tribal Nations including the Dine, Pauite, and Black Feet. Their intent is to play for all the people and they have notably performed at Cal State Long Beach Pow Wow, Kateri Circle Pow Wow, Wild Horse Pow Wow as well as conventions and festivals. At Lummis Day, the Changing Spirits Drum Circle will perform the Smudging Ceremony to free the spirits and will then accompany the puppet procession along the Arroyo and into the park, opening the Festival with the Honor Song. |
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Music at Lummis Day Festival
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Jackson Browne, a former Highland Park resident whose family helped found L.A.’s first arts colony in the area over a century ago, returns to Northeast Los Angeles to perform at the Lummis Day Festival and make his first public appearance in the neighborhood since he rose to prominence over three decades ago as one of the music world’s greatest writers and performers.
Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He’s been honored with inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2004) and the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame (2007). |
Classic songs in the Jackson Browne songbook include “Rock Me on the Water,” “Jamaica Say You Will,” “The Pretender,” “These Days,” “Doctor My Eyes,” “Take it Easy,” “For a Dancer,” “Somebody’s Baby,” “Lives In The Balance,” and “For Everyman,” all of which have become evergreen hits for him and many other recording artists all over the world. His album, Running on Empty sold some seven million copies worldwide and the album’s title song appeared on the soundtracks of the films Salvador and Forrest Gump. Other Jackson Browne songs have been included on the soundtracks of over two dozen major motion pictures.
Browne’s legacy as an advocate for social and environmental justice is as influential and enduring as his music.
In 2007, he received the Chapin-World Hunger Year Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award. In 2004, Jackson was named an honorary Doctorate of Music by our neighborhood’s Occidental College, for “a remarkable musical career that has successfully combined an intensely personal artistry with a broader vision of social justice.”
In 2002, he was the fourth recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, given to artists whose works exemplify the environmental and social values that were essential to the great California-born author. His recent two albums of solo acoustic performances earned a Grammy nomination and additional worldwide acclaim. He is currently working on a new studio album. |
As a group, Cava seamlessly blends traditional son, cumbia, ska, salsa, Peruvian soul and jazz into a sound that also bears the Jalisco roots of its founder and namesake, a.k.a. Claudia Gonzalez.
Cava’s musical influences range from legendary artists such as Celia Cruz, Chayito Valdez, Benny More to Nina Simone, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday. Together, the ensemble features piano, electric-keyboards, bass, trumpet, drums, timbales and Japanese taiko drums. Cava writes most of her own songs.
Cava has appeared extensively in TV and film and made her network television debut at age eight in the Norman Lear-produced “a.k.a.Pablo,” starring Paul Rodriguez. More recently, she appeared as a musician in Universal Pictures’ “Along Came Polly,” starring Jennifer Aniston. Cava has shared engagements with Ozomatli and Compay Segundo of the Buena Vista Social Club. Her album, “Cava,” is available on the internet. |
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The Chapin Sisters was created when the three sisters got together in a Los Angeles recording studio in the Spring of 2004, instigated by their brother Jonathan Craven. He had hatched a plan to have them cover some pop, new-wave and gangsta-rap songs as a joke, with the punchline being their beautiful voices and the natural way they fell into stunning three-part harmony. But soon, once Abigail had flown in from NYC and the trio began rehearsing, the joke was over; the sisters realized that they had created something powerful and unique that couldn’t be treated lightly.
When that weekend’s recording of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” landed them in heavy rotation on Los Angeles’ influential KCRW and indie radio stations across the country, their premonition was confirmed. |
Over the next few years, they spent evenings writing and arranging the songs that would become The Lake Bottom LP. Even with a cursory listen to the album or a live performance, it’s immediately clear that these women have been singing harmony together their entire lives. Born into a household in Brooklyn where music was the family business, these three spent endless car rides working out canons and three-part choral pieces to pass the time. They couldn’t help but have picked up a thorough grounding in traditional American roots music and folk-rock from Abigail and Lily’s father three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Tom Chapin.
The Lake Bottom LP is the trio’s full length recording debut. Recorded in Los Angeles in the Summer of 2007 with producers Thom Monahan (Lilys, Devendra Bandhart, Vetiver) and Mike Daly (Whiskeytown, Grace Potter), it is being released by Plain Recordings. |
Artichoke is best known for two concept records about scientists, one for every letter of the alphabet, called 26 Scientists, Volume One: Anning–Malthus and 26 Scientists, Volume Two: Newton–Zeno. The former was featured in a New York Times science section article in 2005. Artichoke is currently looking for a label to release the second one, which is all finished and mighty groovy—according to the few who have heard it.
This year, Artichoke is recording a concept record on the theme of honeybees. It will be called simply Bees. They are fascinating creatures, whose lives can be easily compared with our own - at least for the purposes of writing pop songs. |
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Artichoke is also writing and recording some songs for an album called Historic Highland Park. This will include the rave-up biographical song “Charles Lummis.” Charles Lummis was a prominent writer, founder of the Southwest Museum, and an advocate for preservation of the lands and cultures of the Southwest. The band is very excited to play the song at Lummis Day on June 1.
Bandleader Timothy Sellers is collaborating with some swell musicians to record Bees and Historic Highland Park. Daniel Leyson plays guitar with Artichoke and has an excellent band of his own called the Eternal Triangle. Juli Crockett and Lisa Dee from the Evangenitals are singing and jangling the tambourines on these records. JPL rocket scientist Steve Collins plays the theremin. David Hurlin—master of the tabla—is our drummer. Artichoke records and rehearses in a big old house on Figueroa street in Highland Park that is sometimes called Greeen Records. And yes, there is an extra “e.” It makes Artichoke slightly greeener.
For show dates, music, and other information about Artichoke, please visit http://myspace.com/artichoketheband |
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Ann Likes Red has been playing in and around the Highland Park/Northeast LA/California scene since the Clinton Administration. Led by journalist/community activist Eddie Rivera, the band has performed all over the state, from the venerable Mr. T’s Bowl to Occidental College, the LA Marathon, the San Francisco Bay to Breakers, ArroyoFest, and the Highland Park and Eagle Rock Music Festivals.
Once described by New Times as “working class roots rock,” Rivera describes the band thusly, “It’s big drums, cool vocals, and noisy guitars, kinda like the Ramones meet The Buckinghams at Slash’s house.” |
This year’s show will include appearances by members of various Northeast LA bands, including Mt. Washington resident and blues howler Greger Walnum, and Randy and Scott Rodarte, from the band Ollin. Other appearances, including a very special guest appearance, are still being planned.
Rivera is a founding member of the Lummis Day Committee, and the publisher of the Arroyo Seco Journal, media sponsor of the Lummis Day event for the third year in a row.
Ann Likes Red is Rivera, guitars, vocals, and economic development; Caris Arkin, guitars, vocals and rigatoni; Christina Michelle, bass, vocals and tight jeans; Deborah Ray, keyboards, vocals and lipstick; and Dave “The Rave” Auslender, drums and social espionage.
The show is the kickoff of the Ann Likes Red Summer 2008 Tiny Little Tour. |
Founded and directed by trumpet player Cindy Shea in 1999, the all-female Mariachi Divas are continuously making big waves on the Los Angeles music scene. Mariachi Divas is a unique, multi-cultural ensemble representing the true flavor of Los Angeles, and over the years has been represented by women of: Mexican, Cuban, Samoan, Argentinean, Columbian, Panamanian, Puerto Rican, Swiss, Japanese, Honduran, Peruvian, and Anglo decent. Cindy Shea states, “Music is a way of uniting our cultural backgrounds.”
Mariachi Divas has been featured at the Arrowhead Pond, Universal Amphitheatre, Staples Center, Greek Theater, Santa Barbara Bowl, the LA Forum for the 2005 “Premio La Gente” Live TV Awards Show and the LA Shrine at the 2006 Alma Awards. They have also accompanied Grammy winning artists such as: Joan Sebastian, Jenny Rivera, Marco Antonio Solis, Pablo Montero, Graciela Beltran and Paulina Rubio. The Divas appear in the mariachi documentary “Viva El Mariachi.” |
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| The Divas also had the honor of performing at the inaugurations of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and California State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mariachi Divas have made television appearances on shows such as: Despierta America, Control, Vista LA, Primer Impacto, Escandalo, LATV’s “Adelante Hispanos,” Sabado Gigante, Off the Roof, De Todo Un Poco, BBQ with Bobby Flay, Primera Edicion, Atrevete, 12 Corazones, Bienvenido a Casa, and recently appeared oncamera in two independent films, Dead Man’s Shoe and La Dentista in which their music was also used as the movies’ soundtrack. The Divas recently released their 4th CD Canciones de Amor. |
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Dance, dance, DANCE !
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Cypres Park Folklorico Dance Group is made up of girls six to 13 years of age and is joined in occasional performances by the dancers’ mothers who practice faithfully twice a week just like all the other participants. The group is led by instructor Rolando, who has studied a variety of dances and has been leading the Cypress Park Folklorico Dance Group for many years. The group stays busy year-round performing at events held in Cypress Park and proudly representing it in the surrounding communities. |
| Esteban Coronado, a gifted teacher and artist, is the director-choreographer of Balet Coco. The dance troupe is composed of children from the community, schools, and parks and recreation programs. Mr. Coronado’s success with Ballet Coco makes the group a regular attraction at Olvera Street and the Rose Bowl Parade (for eight years), among many other local venues. In 1997, members of Ballet Coco were invited to a Friendship & Peace tour in Europe where they performed at the Vatican, Notre Dame, the Palace of Versailles, and at the United Nations. Mr. Coronado currently teaches at Cal State University’s Conservatory of Fine Arts and he offers dance classes at the Ramona Community Center. Ballet Coco’s assistant directors are Jorge Rivas and Lester Galindo. |
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Renowned both for their artistry and their community involvement, Kultura Philippine Folk Arts is a not-for-profit, community-based arts organization established in June 1992 by Founding Director Celia Difato to produce Philippine cultural arts programs for all California audiences. One of its main goals is to enhance the general public’s appreciation and understanding of Philippine heritage. Throughout its 16-year existence, Kultura has maintained an exceptional level of cultural, artistic and organizational achievement and has nurtured an extensive network of member participants, volunteers, audiences and collaborative relationships within the arts community. |
| Kultura has performed extensively at dance concerts, city- and county-wide multicultural arts festivals, educational, religious, civic and community events and has been recognized for outstanding leadership and cultural contributions by the City of Glendale Arts and Culture Commission, Philippine Arts Council of Pacific Asia Museum, Philippine Consulate General and Department of Tourism, Filipino-American Business Association, Glendale Unified School District and the City of Carson, among others. |
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The Giant Puppets that lead the procession from Lummis Home to Sycamore Grove Park were designed and built by members of the Arroyo Arts Collective and student volunteers over the past several years. The puppets are constructed of papier mâché, big sticks and fabric. They require several people to manipulate.
The puppets welcome us all and remind us to respect our history and environment, and to work and live together in harmony and peace. Representing many artistic and social traditions, they incorporate images from California and Southwest mythology, as well as from our natural environment. Puppets and artists believe in peace. The puppets have appeared in several parades, including the Northeast Los Angeles Christmas Parade and the Lummis Day Procession. |
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The Arroyo Arts Collective was established in 1989 as a community organization of artists, writers and performers who live and work in Northeast Los Angeles, including the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Mt. Washington, Montecito Heights, Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights and Eagle Rock. Historically rich in tradition, the area bordering the Arroyo Seco was Los Angeles’s first cultural center at the beginning of the 20th century and the site of the Southwest Museum, the city’s first. A large concentration of artists continues to reside in Northeast Los Angeles, in some of the city’s most thoroughly multicultural and richly diverse neighborhoods. |
| Stop by the Arroyo Arts Collective table on Lummis Day anytime between noon and 3 pm to make sunprints and cyanotypes with photographers Cidne Hart and Kevin Hass. Try this 150-year old photographic process for free. They will provide pretreated paper. You can chose (or bring with you) objects or film negatives or you can draw on clear plastic to place on the paper. Expose it in sunlight and rinse it in water to make a one-of-a-kind dark blue print you can take home. For all ages, but participants should be at least five years old. Only if the sun is shining! |
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Family Corner • Para Los Niños
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Puppets Tramp Across the Continent will be presented by Carol Colin and Ted Waltz at the Lummis Day Festival on our new “Family Stage.” The story is lifted from the pages of Charles Lummis’ colorful memoir of his 1884-85 walk from Cincinnati to Los Angeles. This 20-25 minute performance uses puppets, props and backdrops made by children and adults attending last year’s festival. |
| Puppets and Players Little Theater creatively re-invents the ancient art of marionette theater with masterful marionettes, colorful stage sets, exquisite lighting and state of the art sound that all combine to leave a lasting impression of puppetry at its best. Their performances, which combine classical marionettes, hand puppets and live performers, are presented on a beautifully crafted European-style marionette theater-on-wheels that enchants their audiences even before their performances begin. |
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We Tell Stories is a multi-ethnic community of artists that seeks to educate and nurture young audiences by reconnecting them with the ancient powers and wisdom of storytelling and theatre. Performances by the We Tell Stories group blend storytelling and audience participatory theatre to bring world folklore, fairy tales, literature, legends, and mythology to joyful life. Entertaining and educating children since 1981, We Tell Stories performs at schools, theatres, art centers, libraries, festivals and special events—reaching over 110,000 people annually. |
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Restaurants and more !
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Food, food, FOOD !
The event will include activities for children and families. Restaurants serving Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and Thai food will provide an international smorgasbord of snacks. Community booths will offer information regarding local issues and activities.
THE BLAZING GRILL
Four years ago, Mr. Robert Lin (Lin Yao Guo) began traveling to local farmers markets with his Blazing Grill serving potstickers, prawns, eggrolls, and tasty chicken and beef barbeque. For the “healthy atmosphere on sunny days, watching kids and parents enjoying themselves,” he likes working outside. The Blazing Grill can be found at Highland Park, East Los Angeles, Atwater, El Segundo and Tustin farmers markets. Mr. Lin plans to open several Blazing Grills.
EL BUEN SABOR
4306 Figueroa St. • LA, CA 90065
From a desire to be self-employed, Mario and Maria Menjivar opened their successful restaurant, El Buen Sabor, one year ago. Their son, Edson, manages El Buen Sabor and buys the fresh ingredients for their traditional Salvadorian fare, including delicious hand-made drinks such as El Pamarindo, fresh fruit Ensalada, and Salvadorean Horchata.
CHINESE/KOREAN BARBEQUE
Finding themselves working long hours, 7 days a week, Mr. and Mrs. Pak Wong decided to close their restaurant. They now enjoy more free and flexible time with their Chinese/ Korean Barbeque booth working at local farmers markets, street fairs, and festivals, such as Chinese New Year’s celebration. Pak and Yee Chun Wong are particularly proud of their Korean short ribs, chicken and beef on a stick, and very popular Taiwanese sausage.
EL HUARACHE AZTECA
5225 York Blvd. • LA, CA 90042
This family enterprise, which opened at its present location in 1997, features a traditional sopes variation from Mexico City, in the shape of a shoe. Their clientele has grown to include Anglos, Latinos, Asians, college students, and others from the local population.
ITALIANO’S PIZA
5101 York Blvd. • LA, CA 90042
From three small food stands Italiano’s Pizza grew to an art-filled dining room with Italian, Ecuadorean, and Cuban food specialties. Vidal Sangolqui emigrated from Ecuador to apprentice at his Italian uncle’s restaurant in Pennsylvania. After coming to Los Angeles, Mr. & Mrs. Sangolqui opened two restaurants in Highland Park and a new one in Pico Rivera.
MIA SUSHI
Rudy Martinez became tired of driving downtown for good sushi, so he decided to create Mia Sushi on Eagle Rock Blvd. right next to his business, Piedmont Financial. Mr. Martinez also owns Marty’s Bar and can be seen on the TV show Flip This House (A&E). He is supported in his businesses by his sister, Carmen Casey, who is a busy and valued, “jack of all trades.”
EL PESCADOR RESTAURANT
In 1983, Manuel Ortiz’s dream came true when he opened the first El Pescador Restaurant with the blessings and guidance of his parents, Don Carlos and Isidora Ortiz. Younger sons followed suit. Now, El Pescador Restaurants number 13. The Ortiz family (Carlos Sr., Isidora, Manuel, Raul, Jesus, Carlos, Abel, Gustavo, Vicente, Horacio, Victor, Alejandro, and Eliazer) thank God, their customers, and family union for their success.
LOS PIBES
Irene and Ernesto Guzman and their family have been serving local farmers markets (including South Pasadena, Eagle Rock and Montrose) for 17 successful years. Los Pibes (meaning “the children” in Argentinean) offers cotton candy, churros, and shaved ice treats in 13 flavors. Mrs. Guzman credits their success to hard work, big servings, and delicious flavors, such as piña colada, banana, and comerindo. |
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Take the Metro Gold Line to SouthWest Museum Station for Lummis Day
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Community groups information booths