Today, December 1st, is Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning organized by Visual AIDS with arts organizations and institutions in response to the AIDS pandemic. It is also World AIDS Day, an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the disease.
Every year since 2010, Visual AIDS has commissioned a video program that is then shown at various venues around the world. The short films presented this year consider the impact of HIV and AIDS beyond the United States.
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (12/5-12/8/19)-
Thursday
Artist Catherine Opie is giving a walk-through of Lari Pittman’s exhibition at Hammer Museum at 6pm
The Make-Up are playing at Zebulon with Seth Bogart
If you missed Visual AIDS’s screening of STILL BEGINNING for Day With(out) Art you can see it tonight at MOCA Grand Avenue (free)
Director Jazmin Garcia will be speaking at The Broad as part of their series The Logic of Poetry and Dreams (free but reserve ticket)
Lisa Prank is playing at the Bootleg Theater with Rose Melberg, and Worriers
Protomartyr and Show Me The Body are opening for Daughters at the Belasco Theater
Sasha Sloan is playing at the Fonda Theatre with Winnetka Bowling Club
Friday
Constitution Happy Hour returns to Hammer Museum with UC Irvine political science and law professor Rick Hasen discussing the First Amendment and campaign misinformation.
The Theatre at The Ace Hotel with CAP UCLA is screening Dawson City:Frozen Time with a live score composed by Alex Somers and performed by Wild Up. The film tells the story of the discovery of over 500 silent film reels from the 1910s and 20s in Dawson in north western Canada in the 1970s by a construction crew who found it buried in a subarctic swimming pool.
Cocoa Concerts continue at Union Station with latin jazz group Conganas. There will also be a cocoa bar, Santa selfies, a Candy Cane Lane and more (free)
Surfbort are playing at Lodge Room with Dumb Fucks and Nice
Sonny & The Sunsets are playing at The Hi Hat with The Gonks and The Flusters
Saturday
Queen of Jeans are opening for From Indian Lakes at the Moroccan Lounge
Earl Sweatshirt will be at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for a conversation on art, music, and life with Cheryl Harris (his mom). (free, 1-3pm)
Artist Frank Ockenfels 3 will be signing his book at Fahey Klein from 2-4pm
Photographer Todd Hido will be signing his book, House Hunting (Remastered) at Arcana Books from 4-6pm
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (11/29-12/1/19)-
Friday
Justus Proffit is playing a free show at the Monty Bar to celebrate the release of his new EP Return to Zero- with additional performances by The Freakees, Macko, and Laundry Boys
Bob Baker Marionette Theater is celebrating its Grand Opening at its new location in Highland Park with a day of free puppet shows on the hour starting at 11am, celebrating the six decades of the theater. Additional exhibits, activities, and more will occur throughout the day, with historic Bob Baker photography and a virtual reality Bob Baker experience next door at MorYork. At 7:30pm is the ticketed event, Rise of the Harlequins! The BBMT Season Kickoff, which includes behind the scenes videos, a puppet show, a party with a DJ and cake and more.
Zebulon is hosting a free screening of the 1970 Czechoslovak New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders followed by a dance party
Rhondavous, a one night festival, is taking place at Catch One with 14 DJs, 4 rooms and 2 floors + they are having a Black Friday sale on tickets.
Kah-Lo and Kennedi are opening for Bea Miller at the Fonda Theatre
Saturday and Sunday
Jackalope is having a free Underground Art Fair at Grand Central Market, a chance to buy unique goods from independent makers
Sunday
Hammer Museum and MOCA are partnering with Visual Aids for the 30th Annual Day With(out) Art. This year the program is STILL BEGINNING featuring seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow (free).
The Broad will be presenting a screening of artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien’s short video, This is Not an AIDS Advertisement (1987, Super 8 transferred to video, 10 min), hosted and co-organized by West Hollywood’s poet laureate, Steven Reigns. Following the screening, Reigns, along with author Meliza Bañales aka Missy Fuego, award-winning author Bernard Cooper, and writer, musician, and choreographer Brontez Purnell, will speak to how HIV and AIDS have impacted their lives personally, and present examples of their own work. (free)
Fowler Museum is screening How to Survive a Plague, having two dance performances, and more for World AIDS Day. This is in addition to the weekly storytelling performances that are part of their exhibition Through Positive Eyes
The Hollywood Christmas Parade is taking over Hollywood Blvd with balloons, floats, marching bands, performers, and more (free)
Craft Contemporary is having a Holiday Marketplace and admission to the museum is free
Feels are playing at Resident with Reckling and Slaughterhouse
Dynasty Handbag’s Weirdo Night is happening at Zebulon with performances by artist Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, Charles Galin, Melanie Magenta and more tba
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend 12/7-12/10/17)-
Thursday
MOCA Grand Avenue is screening ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, a series of short films created for Day With(out) Art, followed by a performance by Kia LaBeija and a discussion featuring Reina Gossett and Kia LaBeija in conversation with Day With(out) Art curators Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. (free)
Midnight Sister is playing at The Moroccan Lounge with Cones and Duk opening
Exhibition artist Felipe Dulzaides and John Loomis, author of Revolution of Forms: Cuba’s Forgotten Art Schools, will be in conversation at LAMAG about the remarkable history and architecture of Havana’s Esculeas Nacionales de Arte (National Art Schools) (free)
Syd (from The Internet) is playing at The Novo with special guests Buddy, Malia and DJ Young 1
Friday
Alex Lahey is playing at The Echo with Dude York and Liv Slingerland opening
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker by Miami City Ballet is at The Music Center until Sunday (12/10)
LACMA is hosting an evening with Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail which includes a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining
Jane’s Addiction are playing a benefit show for Rhonda’s Kiss at the Hollywood Palladium
Saturday
Self Help Graphics is having a Holiday Marketplace which will also include a series of workshops and printmaking demos, music and food
Skirball Cultural Center is hosting a Hanukkah Festival exploring the holiday through the traditions of Los Angeles’s Latin American community- with music, dance, workshops and storytelling (keep in mind this event depends on the fire crisis hopefully being contained by this time)
For the second night of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas, performers include Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Phoenix, Weezer, Morrissey and more
Everything Is Terrible! is having a 10th Birthday Party at The Regent Theater with screenings from their found footage video collection, live puppets and costumes, and more
Today, December 1st, is Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning organized by Visual AIDS with arts organizations and institutions in response to the AIDS crisis. It is also World AIDS Day, an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the disease.
In 2014, on the 25th anniversary of Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS commissioned seven artists/collaboratives to create short videos for a program titled ALTERNATE ENDINGS, which are now available to watch online. This year Visual AIDS has created another video program –ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, previewed above.
Curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett for Visual AIDS, the video program prioritizes Black narratives within the ongoing AIDS epidemic, commissioning seven new and innovative short videos from artists Mykki Blanco, Cheryl Dunye & Ellen Spiro, Reina Gossett, Thomas Allen Harris, Kia LaBeija, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Brontez Purnell.
In spite of the impact of HIV/AIDS within Black communities, these stories and experiences are constantly excluded from larger artistic and historical narratives. In 2016 African Americans represented 44% of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Given this context, it is increasingly urgent to feature a myriad of stories that consider and represent the lives of those housed within this statistic. ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS seeks to highlight the voices of those that are marginalized within broader Black communities nationwide, including queer and trans people.
The commissioned projects include intimate meditations of young HIV positive protagonists; a consideration of community-based HIV/AIDS activism in the South; explorations of the legacies and contemporary resonances within AIDS archives; a poetic journey through New York exploring historical traces of queer and trans life, and more. Together, the videos provide a platform centering voices deeply impacted by the ongoing epidemic.
Next week on 12/7 (Thursday), MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles will be screening this program followed by a performance by Kia LaBeija and a discussion featuring Reina Gossett and Kia LaBeija in conversation with Day With(out) Art curators Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. (this event is free)
In New York it will be screened on 12/4 (Monday) at Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture with a post-screening discussion featuring artists Cheryl Dunye, Ellen Spiro and Thomas Allen Harris in conversation with curators Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. (free but make sure to register as the event at The Whitney filled up quickly)
