I was very sad to hear the news of artist and activist Faith Ringgold’s recent passing. Throughout her incredible career she created work in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, and narrative quilts. She also wrote and illustrated several children’s books- including the wonderful Tar Beach, based on one of the quilts, which won several awards.
Pictured above is American People Series #20: Die, 1967, currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
From the museum about the work-
Recalling her motivation for making this work, Ringgold has explained, “I became fascinated with the ability of art to document the time, place, and cultural identity of the artist. How could l, as an African American woman artist, document what was happening around me?” Ringgold’s American People Series confronts race relations in the United States in the 1960s. This mural-sized painting evokes the civil uprisings erupting around the country at the time. On the canvas, blood spatters evenly across an interracial group of men, women, and children, suggesting that no one is free from this struggle.
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (1/11-1/14/18)-
Thursday
Shannon Lay is opening for Ablebody and So Many Wizards at The Hi Hat
MOCA Grand Avenue and LA Film Forum are hosting the film screening- Estrellas de Ayer: Latin Camp– “a new constellation of Latina/o American fascination with Hollywood starlets: José Rodríguez Soltero’s classic Lupe (1966); the celebration of decadentism in the Colombian film Pasión y Muerte de Margarita Gautier (1964), by Enrique Grau & Luís Ernesto Arocha; and other films that pay homage to Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Lupe Vélez, replete with campy nods to the star system” ($15)
The LA Art Show opened yesterday and continues today until Sunday
The LA Launch Party for Oral History Project’s Women of Rock is tonight at Zebulon with live performances and discussion panels with artists that include Phranc, Neon Music, Alice Bag, Patty Schemel and more
Poet Srikanth Reddy will be giving a free reading and book signing at Hammer Museum
Luna are playing at the Moroccan Lounge with Big Mother Gig opening
Friday
Artist Carolina Caycedo will be speaking as part of a participatory book launch/event at LACMA that begins in the exhibition A Universal History of Infamy, and includes performances by Marina Magalhães, Isis Avalos, and Samad Raheem Guerra (free)
Sextile are playing at The Hi Hat with Flat Worms and Warm Drag opening
The Egyptian Theatre is showing a double feature of The Florida Project and Shadow of the Vampire with a discussion in between the films with Willem Dafoe
Emily Wells is playing at the Bootleg Theater with Haunted Summer opening
Red Aunts are playing with The Lamps and Des Roar at The Echo
Saturday
Sadly, gallery and event space Machine Project is closing its doors- for their final event they are having a print sale from 2-6pm, followed by a closing party with beer and surprise performances
The Bookstore at MAF is hosting a reading with writers Alissa Bennett and John Marr- Bennett will share two of her essays about dead celebrities and Marr will read from his work chronicling tragic accidents (both will be signing their respective zines after)
Neon Indian and Holy Ghost! are playing DJ sets with Gigamesh at Exchange LA
American Culture are playing with Plague Survivor at Zebulon
Sunday
The California African American Museum is hosting an all day symposium to mark the closing of the exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85- with opening remarks by Alison Saar honoring her mother Betye Saar and Samella Lewis, Faith Ringgold in conversation with her daughter Michele Wallace, a workshop, a performance, a closing reception and more (free but register)
White Magic are opening for Linda Perhacs at Zebulon
