Joe Hill Plaque Unveiled
Arts Cuisine Entertainment FEB 2 - 15 • 2017
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
ENTERTAINMENT Feb. 3
Benjamin Hudson, Antoinette Perry American violinist Benjamin Hudson served as concertmaster of leading orchestras in New York. Antoinette Perry has appeared throughout the U.S., Europe, and China as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with many of the world’s greatest artists. Time: 12 p.m. Feb. 3 Cost: Free Details:www.palosverdes.com/ ClassicalCrossroads/FirstFridays.htm Venue: First Lutheran Church & School, 2900 W. Carson St., Torrance The Jennifer Keith Quintet Timeless pop, jazz and standards—ranging from the 1930s through the 1950s—are brought to you with first class musicianship and energy. Time: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 3 Cost: Free Details: www.theskyroom.com/entertainment. html Venue: The Sky Room, 40 S. Locust Ave., Long Beach
Feb. 4
Retired ILWU leaders Art Almeida, above, and Dave Arian spoke at the unveiling of the Joe Hill Memorial plaque. Almeida holds up a copy of an IWW Little Red Book. Photos by Slobodan Dimitrov.
Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land in the sing-along style of Pete Seeger. The president of the the Southern California Pensioners Group, Greg Mitre spoke on how quickly the pensioners got behind the Joe Hill memorial and raised most of the funds to cover the cost of its production. Harbor Commissioner and former ILWU Local 13 president Dave Arian made praised the Port of Los Angeles for its help in making the Joe Memorial a reality. The event concluded with Joe Hill’s most significant songs: The Preacher and the Slave and The Rebel Girl sung by The Mourners, Laurie Steelink and Ralph Gorodetsy, both grandchildren of Wobblies.
King Washington Sit down with King Washington and hear the latest of their new material and see both acoustic side and other new tunes off their new upcoming album, due in early 2017. Time: 8 p.m. Feb. 4 Cost: $20 Details: http://alvasshowroom.com Venue: 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro Fartbarf Three unassuming, well-mannered and funloving fellows from a town near the sea and collectively known as Fartbarf, captivate audiences with relentless melodies, robotically tight rhythms and danceable beats. Time: 12 p.m. Feb. 4 Cost: $10 Details: www.alexsbar.com/event/1400361fartbarf-long-beach Venue: 2913 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
Feb. 10
Adrian Marcel Adrian Marcel picks up the torch for Oakland and timeless rhythm and blues on his debut mix tape, 7 Days of Weak. Time: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 Cost: $20 to $200 Details: www.solvenue.com/event/1395582adrian-marcel-carson Venue: SOL Venue, 313 E. Carson St., Carson
Feb. 11
GRAND
VISION
PRESENTS
Willie Watson Folksinger, songwriter and leading pioneer in the renaissance of traditional and old-time music. Tickets & Info:
310.833.4813 | GrandVision.org
The Grand Annex | 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Feb. 12
Stars of Tomorrow This top international ensemble of advanced students from the renowned USC Thornton
THEATER Feb. 4
Andy Anderson Andy Anderson is a site-specific performance created by Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre for the Midcentury Anderson House. With original music performed live by Yvette Cornelia and the Treehouse, intimate choreographies will happen in the living room and kitchen, the master bedroom and the zen garden. A culminating performance by the pool will will draw on the architecture of the home and secretive behaviors of the 1960s culture of the Rancho Palos Verdes community. Time: 4:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 4 Cost: $150 Details: house-performance.com Venue: Disclosed to guests only, Rancho Palos Verdes
Feb. 10
Best of the Show The Best of the Best is an emotional journey through all production themes previously explored by Long Beach Community Theatre. Time: Cost: $20 Details: longbeachcommunitytheater.com, lbplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach Evita Musical Theatre West presents Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical masterpiece Evita, Eva Peron’s passionate and unforgettable true story of her meteoric rise to become Argentina’s most influential first lady. Time: 8 p.m. Feb. 10 through 12, 17 and 18, and 23 through 25, 1 p.m. Feb. 12, 19 and 26, 2 p.m. Feb. 18 and 25, and 6 p.m. Feb. 19 Cost: $20 Details: (562) 856-1999, ext. 4; www.musical. org Venue: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach,
Feb. 11
A Murder is Announced The Long Beach Playhouse is pleased to present the Agatha Christie classic, A Murder is Announced in its Mainstage Theatre. In Christie style, the play takes place in a house with several occupants. Time: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, through Feb. 11 Cost: $14 to $20 Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse. org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
Ongoing
Romeo and Juliet Rehearsals You are invited to Elysium for each and every Romeo and Juliet rehearsal. Time: 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Mondays and [See Calendar, page 16]
February 2 - 15, 2017
Saturday, Feb. 11
7:30 pm Door • 8 pm Concert
Willie Watson Watson, formerly of Old Crow Medicine Show is a leading pioneer in the renaissance of traditional and old-time music. Time: 8 p.m. Feb. 11 Cost: $25 to $60 Details: www.grandvision.org Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Lockout Station Drawing upon flamenco and jazz-fusion influences as well as the avant-garde, Lockout Station uses complex harmonies, difficult grooves and winding melodies to evoke impressions of strange and other-worldliness. Time: 4 p.m. Feb. 12 Cost: $20 Details: http://alvasshowroom.com Venue: 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro
A Special Evening of Music for Friends and Lovers Treat someone special to a truly memorable Valentine’s Day. Enjoy a delicious dinner followed by a seductive concert experience featuring the smooth stylings of some of today’s top contemporary musicians. Time: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 Cost: $70 to $175 Details: (562) 424-0013; www.rainbowpromotions.com Venue: Terrace Theater, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach
School of Music was selected by Director of Chamber Music Karen Dreyfus and coached by Professor of Violin and Chamber Music Lina Bahn. Time: 2 p.m. Feb. 12 Cost: Free Details: (310) 316-5574 Venue: Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, 26438 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates
The Local Publication You Actually Read
On Jan. 28, more than 100 people gathered at Liberty Hill Plaza at the foot of 5th Street on Harbor Boulevard to celebrate San Pedro’s adopted son Joe Hill and unveil a plaque, designed by artist Suzanne Matsumiya and renowned sculptor, Eugene Daub, in Hill’s name. Daub’s sculptures grace three different state capitals as well as a Rosa Parks sculpture at the National Statuary Hall in Washington D.C. International Longshore and Warehouse Union Coastwide Poet Laureate Jerry Brady read an original piece entitled Tribute to Joe Hill which in addition to offering a laudatory praise of his bravery, provided a biographical sketch of Hill’s life. Following the reading, Random Lengths News Publisher James Preston Allen delivered a revised rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill and his original song, Who Knows Who’s Going to Save this City, accompanied by harmonica player and former Random Lengths News editor Erik Kongshaug. Art Almeida, San Pedro’s most highly noted historian, followed the performance by orienting the crowd geographically to explain the symbols embedded in the plaque. He began by identifying the location of old Beacon Street, which had been torn down and restructured over the past three decades of redevelopment efforts. He followed by explaining the location of the hill upon which Upton Sinclair was arrested for reading the constitution in 1923. Almeida explainined the location of the jail in which Hill sat for his organizing activities in San Pedro, more than 10 years prior to the arrival of Sinclair. “Upton Sinclair was not a Wobbly,” Almeida said “The fact is, he had some funny ideas about organizing, but the one thing he liked about the Wobblies was theirs songs, their themes and their freedom of speech.” The plaque, from left to right, depicts labor strife between workers and the police in the foreground and a stretch of Front Street circa 1900. The middle of the plaque is a relief of Joe Hill and his guitar and the right panel of the plaque depict imprisoned workers singing from the little red book comprised of Hill’s songs. Vivian Price, chairwoman of the Labor Department at Cal State University Dominguez Hills connected the struggles of The Knights of Labor and their Industrial Workers of the World successors to build a big tent union and their fight for justices across racial and gender lines to the contemporary resistance movement against President Donald Trump. Recording artist Dianne Michelle, delivered her rendition of Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson’s Ballad of Joe Hill but called it instead Ode to Joe Hill, which was followed by her rendition of
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