Los Angeles Downtown News 04-05-21

April 05, 2021 I VOL. 50 I #14

Long Live Art Viva LA celebrates the city’s culture

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OPINION

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Covered California will help OPINION

The Seven Stages of Creativity

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist eo Tolstoy said, “Spring is the time for plans and projects.” This year, American women all over the country are making plans to remove hair that has enjoyed a hirsute hiatus during lockdown. Many of us are also starting new projects, including me. I love crafting bold new endeavors, but I don’t enjoy administering them once they have taken hold. I am what they call “a creative.”

If you’re a creative or happen to know one, I’d like to share with you a spot-on meme that has been around for a few years. It perfectly encapsulates the experience of creating something from nothing:

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The Seven Stages of Creativity This is awesome!

This is OK. This isn’t working.

This is poop.

I am poop.

Hmmm, this isn’t so bad after all.

This is awesome!

Repeat…

I can see this at work all over my life — relationships, writing and, especially, when it came to the theater. In the early ’70s, I started a theatrical company with friends. We were all women who had plenty of theater experience and knew how much the field was skewed toward men. The norm at that time was that most plays were written by men and featured at best two roles for the gals versus eight for the guys. Worse, our typical parts were either as madonna or whore. Sometimes a play had one of each — woo-hoo! We wanted to create a new kind of theater, a training ground for both us and the audience, reflecting women’s lives as actually lived. And so we did.

1. This is awesome! — Theater of Process debuted in Santa Barbara with the audacity of being comprised of all women, all the time. We also debuted new works written by women.

2. This is OK — As with most projects, reality soon set in as we creatives grasped how much work it would require. We produced three plays opening within weeks of each other to rotate in repertory; just one would be a huge undertaking. And then there was having to sell tickets to everyone and their aunties.

3. This isn’t working — I was in charge of subscriptions because I had a set of highly developed “invite until I drop” muscles. The rest of the company? Not so much. To get butts in seats, I had the idea of running an ad in the Santa Barbara News-Press. It read: “Put a little play in your life! Subscribe now. 19 women nightly.

Call 805-555-1212.” Soon the phone started ringing off the hook from men looking for “a little play” … A week later, at a late-night rehearsal, the Santa Barbara PD vice squad burst through the doors to shut us down. We did sell more tickets.

4. This is poop — With three concurrent shows prepped by 19 people, clashes were inevitable. We broke into classic tribalism. The labor people were sure they could run things better than we could in management. Secretly, we wished they’d shut up and just mutiny already. We felt that if their back-seat driving was better than our madly careening around curves, we would happily give up the wheel.

5. I am poop — Much of the discontent was focused on me. I suspect that was because I was not very nice. I get tense and uptight when I’m scared, OK? I didn’t know how to manage my own fear; instead, I got bigger and louder. My management partners had my back, and they were happy I was the lightning rod that took some of the heat off them. I eventually apologized to everyone for getting them into this “All Women Theater” mess.

6. Hmmm, this isn’t so bad after all — We went all-out to invite everyone we knew to our company opening. The party was terrific. The Men’s Auxiliary group was stellar. People had a great time, and we raised enough money to pay everyone in the company … except management.

7. This is awesome! — When the reviews came out, we discovered that they liked us; they really, really liked us! The Los Angeles Times came to Santa Barbara to do a cover story for the Sunday Calendar section. Ms. Magazine ran a piece about our bold experiment in theater.

I know not everyone is into doing big projects that involve other people like our theater did. But the Seven Stages of Creativity apply to any size project, from arts and crafts to writing a short story or a novel, or even making a movie. (Definitely making a movie!)

Meanwhile, have a lovely spring and see if you can start a project of your own using this wisdom. Pass the Seven Stages on to the dreamers in your life. As the great Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”

Ellen has written a column continuously since the early ’90s. She also coaches writers. Contact her at ellen@authorbitebybite.com.

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Covered NEWS California will help

Viva LA celebrates the arts and culture of Los Angeles

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer he Viva LA team is on a roll and spreading its passion and joy throughout the City of Angels.

After a soft launch last December, it’s planting the art of Viva LA around the city through a multiartist exhibition in Pershing Square to blue flags it wants flying all around the city.

Led by Andre Miripolsky and Christian Mitman, the team wants to see the phrase “Viva LA” as ubiquitous as the Big Apple’s “I heart New York.” The two logos are based on Miripolsky’s iconic artwork — one a heart sporting wings and the other featuring a halo ringing the A of LA.

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Viva LA created six blue flags with the different logos on them.

Photo courtesy of Viva LA

Explosion of art The brand is designed to promote and celebrate LA’s creative culture, which is why the team was excited to have an art exhibit in Pershing Square throughout March.

The center of the exhibit was a 15-by-30-foot mural by Miripolsky featuring stylized versions of the signature Viva LA and Heartwings logos. But the exhibit didn’t stop there. Miripolsky was exhibiting artist and curator as he found six other diverse artists who each did a 9-by-9-foot interpretation of the logo that showcased their own art styles.

“We only had, like, a week for those people to do the work,” Miripolsky said. “They did it on a 2-by-2 canvas, and it was blown up. The six different people’s work really related to each other incredibly well.”

The other six artists were Angelica Russell, Jill Sykes, Kent Yoshimura, M., Montana Mills and Sona Mirzaei. Each had distinct styles and diverse experiences. One was a multimedia specialist, another a skilled animator and yet another specialized in botanical art.

Miripolsky sought them out for their differences but also for their common love of LA and creativity.

Miripolsky said he hadn’t curated in a long time.

“I look at the wall as one piece, so that the dynamic of having six 9-by-9s like that with the different styles is a fantastic situation, an emotional situation,” Miripolsky said.

“All these artists and their work really complement each other, so it all worked together as a whole. I couldn’t be happier.”

The artists were told they had to have the logo in the center of their work, but otherwise they could do whatever they wanted. Still, they reflected their different experiences with LA. “They all just exude the different backgrounds they have without saying a word,” Mitman said. “That’s the other thing I love. They tell little stories about the diversity of LA and working together as a group.”

Making a mark Miripolsky spent most of his childhood abroad, often in underdeveloped countries, before settling in Los Angeles decades ago. When he arrived from Seoul, South Korea, he wanted his work to create a legacy for the city, a way of showing what the city meant to him.

“My absolute goal was to make a mark with art in the city,” Miripolsky said. “Now, after 51 years, with the advent of Viva LA coming online, I am literally making a mark — as marky as you can get! For me, personally, it’s a fantastic thing to have that opportunity to make a legacy forever.”

He came up with the phrase in 2006 but only partnered with Mitman a few years ago, which is when the brand began to take off.

While it has been something he has been working toward for years, the pandemic gave him a break from his other work. He could then focus on Viva LA with Mitman.

“Now more than ever, the various communities of LA need to rally together to support and amplify diversity and the creative culture of our beloved city and the overall message of hope,” Miripolsky said. “I have been an artist and lover of LA for over 50 years, and for this Viva LA exhibition to come to life in a location like Pershing Square is nothing short of a miracle. We hope that this fantastic Viva LA art is able to bring some joy to everyone during these challenging times.”

Viva LA had an art exhibit in Pershing Square throughout March.

Photo courtesy of Viva LA

Spreading the joy Mitman said the exhibition gave a way to launch a sponsorship concept that will allow money to be raised for other art exhibits throughout the city.

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Diverse artists each did an interpretation of the Viva LA logo that showcased their own art styles.

Photo courtesy of Viva LA

“Viva LA is really for everyone, and the city doesn’t have any money to invest in something new right now,” Mitman said. “If everyone gives a little, every individual or business contributes a little, there is so much we’re going to be able to do. This show was a chance to kickstart that.”

Clune Construction was one of the first big sponsors to help finance the Pershing Square exhibit. Mitman said it has a long history of supporting the creative culture in LA. Bulletin Displays donated 11 billboards along major highways to promote the Viva LA launch, and Pershing Square Park Advisory Board/Art-Squared Gallery also contributed as a financial sponsor.

If all LA supports Viva LA, Mitman said, it will be able to sponsor a film or culinary festival, things that will boost everyone economically.

“It will be so exciting that other cities will have a hard time catching up with so much focus on the cultural events that attract people,” Mitman said.

To spread the news, Viva LA created sky blue flags with the different logos on them.

They’re being offered to businesses, private residents and civic organizations for $148 each.

“If everyone buys one, not only will the city look beautiful but the funds that are generated by everyone getting one $148 flag would basically allow us to create culture-based events in all these neighborhoods and start getting people out again,” Mitman said.

“We’re moving in a slow, manageable way — not huge events but small, local ones.”

Viva LA has reached out to groups such as the LA Restaurant Association and the Realtor Association, which can send notices to all their members about the flags. Flags are also being given to each City Hall.

“We’re getting volunteers to walk the streets and drop off a worksheet to every business that is open and encourage them to go online and buy a flag,” Mitman said. “We tried to price it at a level where almost everyone could participate.”

Planning mural tours Mitman said that when he was at Pershing Square doing 3D scans of the exhibition, people kept walking by and taking their picture in front of it. It’s why Viva LA hopes to start funding murals citywide, letting the heart wings fly everywhere.

“I think it will really be an interactive experience that people can see and do,” Mitman said.

“They can take a Harley tour and have an interactive map where you go around to all these areas and take photos of the wings. In time, it will help jump start the economy. People will stop and have lunch. They’ll stop and buy a T-shirt. They’ll start with little things.”

Because the murals don’t require crowds, they are pandemic friendly and can be managed on social media.

“It is just a really great opportunity to get people engaged with art and the city,” Mitman said.

Both are eager to see Viva LA take off so that they can boost city pride and allow residents to come together with hope and joy.

“I think the pandemic is what’s going to really allow the Viva LA to take off,” Mitman said.

“We started it two or three years ago, planning to launch it last year when everything shut down. The more we were home, and people were dying, it really started to get all this energy around it because before it was nice. Now we really need it.”

2109 Sichel Street, Los Angeles ● www.SacredHeartLA.org

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Covered NEWS California will help

ESG Prizes awarded to 6 LA building owners

By LA Downtown News Staff he Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge celebrated its seventh annual Innovation Awards to a virtual audience of nearly 200, presenting the city’s most prestigious sustainability prizes to Los Angeles’ “Best Buildings” of 2020.

While dozens of nominees submitted compelling case studies, a distinguished panel of judges from the commercial real estate, academic and environmental policy spheres selected just one winner for each of six categories.

The judges were tasked with identifying those demonstrating exceptional ingenuity in energy and water efficiency and commitment to environmental, social and governance goals for their buildings, all while navigating the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19.

Challenge Executive Director David Hodgins noted that the organization’s annual awards event is about much more than energy efficiency.

“A lot of times we think of ‘innovation’ in terms of technological advancement, but this is also about people. Innovation is a human concept. We’re talking about innovation in process: the way that we partner, the way we develop projects, the way we think about what’s possible and the way we engage with our communities,” Hodgins said.

“All of today’s finalists are leading by example. They’re showing it’s possible to do what is necessary. They’re not just innovating in terms of energy and water performance, they’re also enhancing measures to protect health and wellness and instituting new policies and programs to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within their organizations and throughout their communities.”

The energy and water use reductions achieved by this year’s participants bring Los Angeles closer to achieving the goals set forth by LA’s Green New Deal, which seeks to put Los Angeles on a course to reach the science-based targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord.

In a keynote address, Lauren Faber O’Connor, Los Angeles’ chief sustainability officer, commended the field of finalists for their work.

She noted that their work complements findings in the city’s recently completed LA100 study, which indicates that a 100% renewable grid is achievable by 2045 or even sooner.

“What the study reinforces for us is the critical nature of energy efficiency and the extraordinary value that electrifying buildings and transportation brings to the overall system

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and to the economy. It brings down system costs and vastly increases the health benefits to society — efficiency is the key to reaching our 100% clean energy goal,” she said.

LA City Councilmember Kevin De Leon and Senior Program Adviser at the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for the U.S. Department of Energy Maria Varga also spoke at the event.

“Los Angeles was one of the original partners in the Better Buildings Challenge in 2011 and continues to lead the way,” Vargas said.

“The work you’re doing in Los Angeles continues to serve as a model for others, not only in California but across the country. Our challenge is huge, but our ambition is bigger, and I know together we can make this work.”

De Leon added: “The people on the front lines of sustainable buildings are in effect our modern-day pioneers. These are the people and the teams that will make our cities healthier and, by virtue of their work, improve the quality of life for everyone so we can all breathe clean air into our lungs.”

The LABBC presented awards in six categories to the following winners.

Industry Leadership (Private Sector): Hudson Pacific Properties Despite challenges posed by a global pandemic, the company seized the opportunity provided by reduced occupancy to ramp up efficiency efforts and achieved 100% carbon neutrality across all operations through a combination of energy efficiency, on-site renewables, renewable energy certificates and verified reduction credits. Hudson also introduced its proprietary “Better Blueprint” platform to serve as the basis for setting and tracking ESG goals, including committing to expanding its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

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Industry Leadership (Public Sector): Los Angeles Community College District Since 2014, LACCD has completed 51 state-funded energy-efficiency projects, reducing energy costs by nearly $1 million per year. The district doubled down on its commitments in 2020, passing its Clean Energy & Sustainability Resolution in July 2020 to establish the most aggressive and comprehensive sustainability goals in the California community college system.

Hometown Hero: Vallarta Food Enterprises Inc. A growing Southern California grocery store chain with more than 50 locations, Vallarta’s 2020 renovation of a new 59,837-square-foot store in Madera yielded a 21% reduction in water use and a 0.5% reduction in energy use (during increased operating hours), as well as a 33% drop in waste going to landfills, representing some 4,800 tons.

Energy Performance: CommonWealth Partners City National Plaza, the 3.7 millionsquare-foot office property in Downtown Los Angeles, saw a 19.1% reduction in energy use in 2020, with a 38.1% reduction at the property since 2013. This progress remarkably put owner CommonWealth Partners 80% of the way toward its 2050 emissions goal.

Affordable Multifamily Performance: Jonathan Rose Companies When construction completes this year, Miramar Tower will be the first high-rise residential building to successfully electrify its existing gas-fired central hot water system. Carbon emissions are expected to decrease by 53%, and water use is already 16% below a 2016 baseline.

Water Performance: Barings LLC & Transwestern The 25-story Downtown LA office building known as 801 Tower realized a 26.9% reduction in water use in 2020 by implementing software that allowed tenants to request HVAC on demand. That built on a long-running effort that has driven water use down 65.8% since 2015. Measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 also proved beneficial to the building’s overall performance.

After naming award winners, the LABBC announced the launch of a new initiative called Low Carbon Leaders, a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to support LABBC partners’ work to demonstrate real-world pathways to zero net carbon.

“Today’s winners and finalists prove that it’s possible to meet and exceed sustainability targets while also navigating a pandemic and engaging on important social issues,” Hodgins said. “They are leading the way as we step into this new reality — and the work is just beginning. Low Carbon Leaders is the start of a new phase, a new platform to facilitate the sort of radical collaboration that will be necessary in order to effectively address the climate crisis.”

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Covered DINING California will help

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The Persian-inspired Chad burger will be available through April 27.

Submitted photo

Umami Burger celebrates ‘Chad’ with new patty

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor mami Burger in Downtown LA will celebrate the new TBS comedy “Chad” with a Persian-inspired dish, which will be available through April 27.

The burger draws inspiration from the show’s narrative and exploration of Persian culture, as well as 14-year-old Chad’s coming-of-age years and his quest to be popular in high school. The burger features a Kofta patty made with onions, garlic, herbs and spices. The patty is then topped with lettuce, tomato, mint cucumber yogurt, parsley and Kewpie mayo.

It comes with a recipe card for guests to recreate it at home with each new episode that airs, as well as a QR code for them to scan that links to the show’s website.

“As Umami Burger continues to explore partnerships in the entertainment world — whether it be music, film or television shows — we viewed TBS’ newest sitcom ‘Chad’ as an opportunity to really get creative with a burger recipe,” said Sam Nazarian, C3 CEO and founder.

“Umami Burger prides itself on celebrating unique flavor combinations, being truly one of a kind, and standing out in its own way, which is why we easily bonded with and related to the character of Chad and thought, ‘Why not explore that cultural coming-of-age story through a burger?’”

“Chad” stars Nasim Pedrad (“Saturday Night Live,” “New Girl,” “Aladdin”), who also created and produced the show.

Umami Burger will offer free Chad burgers from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, in celebration of the show’s premiere, available to in-person diners while supplies last.

The Chad burger will be also be available for purchase from the same LA locations via takeout and delivery through major platforms Postmates, Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.

Info: umamiburger.com

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Covered DINING California will help

Homegirl Café: Feeding hope

By Frier McCollister LA Downtown News Contributing Writer ounded in 1988 in East Los Angeles by Father Greg Boyle, Homeboy Industries has grown to be the world’s largest and most comprehensive gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program.

Since the beginning, one of its most publicly visible operations has been the Homegirl Café, its restaurant and catering service that serves as a training and career development platform. Originally, it was designed specifically for the benefit of female clients, those related to gangs or victims of domestic abuse.

“The café was built to give the women associated with gang life or women coming out of prison an opportunity to work, to have their own environment,” said Arlin Crane, Homeboy Industries’ vice president of social enterprise.

Crane joined the organization in 2010 and expanded the focus.

“Nine years ago, we started blending everything through the training program, so men and women (were included).”

The mission’s intent is to provide those with a criminal background a way to escape the cycle of violence and incarceration that plagues local communities affected by street gang activity.

“Our vision is to take the demonized and stand with the demonized, so (we) stop throwing people away,” Crane said.

Crane works closely with Mariana Henriquez, the director of culinary operations, to manage the café, the bakery and the catering operation.

“What we do at the café, or any of the enterprises, is once you’ve been working on yourself and you’ve been using all the services Homeboy offers you to re-enter, you come into Homegirl Café and we teach you resiliency,” Crane said. “We teach you work readiness. We teach you what it’s like to have

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to clock in, to take direction from a supervisor.”

It’s not ordinary job training. The focus is mindfully crafted around the clients’ background and emotional reality.

“But the difference with us as employers is we’re actually trauma informed,” Crane said.

“So how we train, how we teach, how we engage is all based on the trauma model. It’s not to retraumatize people as they re-enter.”

In 2000, Homeboy Industries moved to its impressive facility and headquarters on the corner of Bruno Street and North Alameda, skirting Chinatown. Then, the Homegirl Café again provided its public face with a beautiful sunlit dining room that could seat 70 guests.

As the pandemic descended last year, Crane and Henriquez had to quickly pivot the business, given the vulnerability of their employees.

“Immediately, with our community — with the gang violence and addiction and all the trauma — what we don’t want is our staff not having purpose,” Crane said.

Crane was already supervising nine enterprises under the Homeboy banner. With Henriquez, she was soon establishing the next one.

“We immediately — Mariana and myself and the leadership team of the café and catering — we built a new business, which is called Feed Hope. We pivoted the café and the catering team to fight food insecurity. We named it Feed Hope just to feed our community. We wanted to give our community purpose. We wanted to make sure they were fed.

We wanted to make sure all the needs were being accommodated.”

The program expanded rapidly and effectively.

“We ended up partnering with government agencies, different homeless shelters and different nonprofits and we started a contract meal business, which launched April

Bakery items, coffee and assorted beverages are available at Homegirl Café & Catering’s takeout window.

Photo courtesy of Homegirl Café & Catering

1 (2020),” he said.

“By April 21, we had sent out our first delivery, and by August, we were doing 4,200 meals a day.”

He and Henriquez fully maintained their staff.

“We were really blessed,” Crane said. “We didn’t have to lay anybody off. So, between the café and catering, we had 20 people on the ground with us through the pandemic on Feed Hope. Then, in August, we launched our own distribution team. We started making all the deliveries, and we then added an addi-

tional 30 people for delivery and driving.”

Unfortunately, the café was closed, and its menu of Latin-fusion favorites were no longer available to the general public. The kitchen and dining space were dedicated solely to the massive effort put behind Feed Hope.

The café reopened its takeout window on the corner on Jan. 25, with breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The menu is limited, but takeout diners will likely be met at the window by the ever-affable Hector Rodriguez, who can easily guide the ordering process.

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Welcome to the Wild World of Online Dating!

Breakfast and lunch are available from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the takeout window.

Photo courtesy of Homegirl Café & Catering

The menu features two salad options: the Mighty Cucumber salad ($9) with cucumber, celery, arugula, bell pepper, asparagus, radish, pickled red onion and cilantro with a serrano pepper vinaigrette; and El Caesar ($10) with grilled chicken and romaine complemented with grilled corn, cotija cheese and a chipotle Caesar dressing.

There are four sandwiches: the BLTTC ($8.50), a BLT riff that adds turkey and “burnt cheddar” on focaccia; a traditional tuna salad with lemon aioli ($8); the Sunrise breakfast sandwich ($7.50) sporting two eggs, bacon, avocado and cheddar on a ciabatta roll; and the standout crispy carnitas ($10) dressed with arugula, pickled red onion and salsa.

Finally, under the heading “Essential” are the xilaquiles ($10), tossing tortilla chips with a choice of two fried eggs, chicken or carnitas dressed out with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, red onion and cilantro. Bakery items, coffee and assorted beverages are also available.

By the way, Homeboy brand guacamole and salsas are available locally at Walmart, Gelson’s, Stop & Shop and Ralph’s. The bread and baked goods from Homeboy Bakery are

routinely sold at a number of local farmers markets.

Soon enough, the café will be up and running again.

“We’re actually in the process now of getting the café reopened,” Crane said. “It will be open pretty soon and we’ll have indoor and outdoor dining again.”

In the meantime, the proven success of Feed Hope propels the program.

“Feed Hope still has traction, ” Crane said. WORLD WELCOME TO THE WILD “It’s already its own business now.

We will be OF ONLINE DATING! finding additional kitchen space off-site. The café will reopen and be a training program. …thinking about dipping that toe “Feed Hope will be our production kitchen into the online dating pool? onlineour “dating for our contract meals and…need workanwith ca-detox?” …want to filter out the men tering department.” who waste your precious time?

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What about Taco Tuesdays?

Learn what it means to be cushioned, submarined, stashed, breadcrumbed, kittenfished, and “Taco Tuesdays willorbited, comezombied backorabsolutely, ” identify the red flags when smitten by that cute guy who attempts to Crane said.manipulate your emotions and trust!

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APRIL 5, 2021

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

Mike Posner to climb Mount Everest in honor of his dad

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor ike Posner has spent the last 11 years climbing the charts. Now, the Detroit-born singer-songwriter-producer will attempt to summit the tallest mountain on Earth — Mount Everest.

But it’s about more than him, just like his six-month walk across the United States in 2019. He’s raising money for the Detroit Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm.

“They’re just doing incredible criminal justice reform work in our city,” said Posner, via Zoom from a training site in Colorado in late March. He planned to leave for Nepal on April 2 for his late-May trek.

The 33-year-old Grammy nominee — for his song “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” — has been training for a year and a half. He said walk-

M

ing through the Rocky Mountains inspired him to try to conquer Mount Everest.

“I walked from the Atlantic Ocean — Asbury Park, New Jersey — to the Pacific Ocean, Venice Beach, California. When I got about two-thirds of the way through, I went up and over the Rocky Mountains.

“That’s when I started to dream about Mount Everest in a real way.”

He knew it would take a lot of hard work and dedication, but it didn’t scare him away.

“But I told myself, ‘Look, I’m doing something really hard right now,’” he recalled about the walk. “The walk gave me the courage to dream about this.”

Someone else has inspired Posner as well. Posner chose the Detroit Justice Center to honor his late father, Jon Posner, who

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Mike Posner grew up in a mostly Black community in suburban Detroit. That inspired him to donate money to the Detroit Justice Center.

Photo courtesy of Brian Bilicki

was a criminal defense attorney in Detroit for 40 years before dying in 2017. Posner’s fundraising goal is $250,000.

“After my dad passed away, I felt stuck under the weight of my own life,” Posner said on his GoFundMe page. “In 2019, I walked across America in order to find out who I was when I wasn’t ‘Mike Posner, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter.’”

He added via Zoom, “My dad, rest his soul, passed four years ago. Before he died, he was a criminal defense attorney in Detroit.

“I’ve had the opportunity to have Zoom calls with them, and they’re doing work that would make my dad beam with joy.

It’s a way for me to raise money and honor my father as well. So, for anyone reading, please donate whatever you can to our GoFundMe page.”

Posner, whose latest album is the late2020 concept piece “Operation: Wake Up,” said he’s not necessarily putting down his music temporarily to tackle Mount Everest.

“It’s never fully on hold, and I’m always tinkering and playing and listening,” he said. “Listening is a big part of my artistic journey and discovering new music.

“Sometimes it’s old music, but it’s new to me, discovering stuff, and studying it and learning it. It becomes a part of where I go on my journey.”

However, “I really have to sit down and do an album. I can’t really be thinking

about Mount Everest in the back of my head and do music. Making an album is its own Mount Everest, man.”

Posner, who has homes in Colorado and suburban Detroit, is training with Dr. Jon Kedski.

“He’s basically in control of my schedule and my life,” Posner said. “He said, ‘We’re going to climb this mountain on this day and this and this and this.’

“I do other stuff in between that. Before this pandemic, it was just the two of us climbing mountains a lot. Then the pandemic hit, and we were still just outside, the two of us climbing mountains a lot. In that way, I was definitely very buffered from the pandemic.”

While packing, Posner said he’s looking forward to the spiritual, physical and fundraising climb.

“I was born in Detroit, but I grew up in Southfield, Michigan, which is a largely Black city,” said Posner, whose sister is a civil rights attorney in New Orleans. (“She’s way cooler than me.”)

“Most of my friends who lived on my street were African American. I saw some of the unfairness and injustices. All of my buddies had at least one horror story with the police before they were 18, just being harassed on varying degrees of severity.

“I certainly didn’t have a story like that.

I think what drives me is what I’m passionate about.”

Just the facts GoFundMe: mikeposner.com or gofundme.com/f/Everest Mike Posner Twitter/Instagram: @mikeposner Detroit Justice Center: @justcitydetroit (Twitter); @detroitjusticecenter (Instagram); on the web at detroitjustice.org

APRIL 5, 2021

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DOWNTOWN NEWS 11

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

DTLA serves as backdrop for free art exhibit

By Sarah Donahue LA Downtown News Staff Writer t was only a matter of time before LA’s creatives would organize a public art-viewing experience that was stimulating yet safe during the pandemic.

For one night, six Downtown Los Angeles buildings will be illuminated with thought-provoking digital art projections created by internationally acclaimed artists for a public experiential exhibition “LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light.”

Downtown-operated nonprofit NOW Art LA Foundation curated the works and is inviting the community to experience the self-guided, walkable tour through five blocks of the South Park district from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10. The event is free, and registration is not required.

The idea was conceived by NOW Art Foundation’s founder and director, Carmen Zella, at the end of last year, “when the pandemic just seemed to have a never-ending timeline and there was no light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

“And that’s a really beautiful analogy, because we’re providing light in darkness with this project, literally.”

Artists’ works speak to relevant themes like inclusivity and diversity, “voids and shattering realities,” local-global interconnectedness, “environmental failure” and sustainability, as well as the “healing nature of water.”

The stories told through the works will allow people to reflect, heal and get reinspired after a turbulent year.

The artists will convey their messages through sound and video, transforming each building as they’re illuminated with projections. However, “It’s not only a video exhibition.

It’s a video experience,” Zella said.

Some exhibits will also feature augmented reality, multichannel video art, immersive experiences as well as live performances.

Attendees can use a special QR code to access a walking map and to hear audio messages from the artist. Headphones are recommended, as is a peek of the map in advance.

The 45-minute tour has a 2- to 5-minute walking distance between exhibits. Attendees must wear masks at all times, and social distancing is required. The event will also be livestreamed at luminexla.com/experience.

“Each one of the artists is approaching their site in a completely different way,” Zella said.

She added there are metaphors and subtext hidden within each piece, and all the site-specific works are “incredible across the board.”

The exhibited visual and digital artists include Akiko Yamashita, Luciana Abait, Carole Kim, Sarah Rara, Nancy Baker Cahill and Refik

I

Anadol.

This project “engages the voice that makes this city so rich and vibrant,” Zella said. Amplifying local artists’ works and providing an artistic space for the public is “so important — more so now than ever,” she added.

Featuring Los Angeles artists was a “key aspect” of this exhibition, Zella said. It created a way for artists to connect with their community.

“The community and especially the artists deserve a lot of praise here,” she said.

Organizers received an “overwhelming response” after reaching out to artists and sending out an RFP/RFQ, Zella said.

When the artists were presented with the opportunity to reach a wide audience in a safe, outdoor environment of this magnitude, “they just felt like I’d given them water while we’ve all collectively been walking through this desert.”

Artists responded and showed up with “a lot of passion, enthusiasm and intention, and the community has as well,” she said. “It’s been a really hard moment for everyone, and art has an incredible way of bridging and healing.”

Artists were chosen based on the letters of intent and exhibition history.

Organizers wanted to include widely known artists who haven’t had many exhibitions and “significantly exhibited artists,” which in the end created a nicely balanced collection of works, she said.

“It’s been a beautiful journey to be able to work with them.”

The lineup of digital creators provides an “amazing cross-section of predominantly female video artists, who traditionally are not celebrated as much as their male counterparts,” Zella said.

The first site at 421 W. Pico Boulevard will be illuminated with Kim’s “A Void A Void” exhibit, which explores themes of loss and desolation, drawing inspiration from the pandemic.

The second site at 1154 S. Olive Street will present Rara’s Perfect Touch 2021, which visualizes societal divisions and “invisible entanglements between us, navigating connection alongside distance and loss.”

This site will also show Japanese artist Yamashita’s “Forest Perception,” which gives viewers a way to experience a life-sized forest that will be projected onto the northern and southern walls of 1154 S. Olive Street.

Award-winning media artist, director and “spatial thinker” Anadol will present his “Wind of Los Angeles” exhibit, which uses an immersive, parametric data sculpture approach to turn Los Angeles’ invisible wind patterns into a series of “poetic data sculptures.” It will be projected on the Desmond building at 1066 S.

A rendering of “Wind of Los Angeles,” created by award-winning media artist, director and “spatial thinker” Refik Anadol, turns Los Angeles’ invisable wind patterns into a series of poetic data sculptures.

The exhibit will be projected onto the Desmond building as part of the “LUMINEX” public art tour on April 10 in the South Park district.

Photo courtesy of Refik Anadol Studio

Hope Street.

Abait’s multichannel exhibit at 1025 Flower Street, “Agua,” combines videos of water from around the globe to offer attendees a healing oasis experience.

Cahill’s “Hollow Point 101” exhibit at 420 W. 11th Street offers viewers a “transformative experience,” using video, sound and VR to play with “space, perception and reality,” Cahill said.

She said she hopes people will experience the “inherent transformative potential that will be communicated.”

The immersive exhibit explores themes of resistance and inclusive creative expression, offering a mirror as well as a portal against the building’s wall. Cahill said her exhibit is an adaptation of a piece that was created after Donald Trump was elected president during what she called a “time of tremendous division.”

She explained that she and many artists often create something and “you don’t even understand why you made it.”

However, then a couple years go by and it makes sense, she added. Her piece holds even more relevance and resonance now, she said.

This, combined with the addition of Anna Luisa Petrisko’s layer of sound, was “really important to its reincarnation.” Cahill added she was “really lucky” to collaborate with Petrisko.

When Zella reached out to Cahill about the opportunity, Cahill said it “immediately appealed to me because of how inclusive it was.”

“It was conceived with such generosity of spirit.”

She explained there are “so many institutional barriers to entry,” and there are “so many obstacles for the general public to participate culturally, and that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.”

This exhibition “strips all of that away” and “brings this conversation to the public” without forcing people to travel or pay, she said.

“We belong to each other,” she said. This project “invites participation in the spirit of inclusion, and we desperately need that right now.”

Zella also emphasized the importance of public art spaces, saying accessibility within the art worked is “the bases of my entire career and being as a human.”

“Art is not for the bourgeois. Art should be for all people,” Zella said.

“Art is what makes life worth living, and it should be made as an opportunity for all people, whatever your ethnic, socioeconomic backgrounds may be.”

She added that taking art outside of the “institutional model and allowing art to be accessible to all Angelenos supports our mental health and wellness.”

Art is the driver of so many things, and it’s what makes “humans special and really makes life special.”

“When I was conceiving this project, I really wanted it to be one that I was positioning from the heart,” Zella said.

“It’s like a love note from me back to Los Angeles.”

“Luminex: Dialogues of Light” luminexla.com/experience

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