Los Angeles Downtown News 07-12-21

July 12, 2021 I VOL. 50 I #28

Girl & the Goat

Restaurant offers Windy City whimsy

Class of 2021-22 13 community leaders awarded sabbaticals

+ Huntington’s Disease

Society’s LA Virtual Team Hope Walk

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Patriotism takes many forms

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist f you remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there,” observed comic Charlie Fleischer. Right on! I remember some of it, so where does that put me? I remember planting my butt during a sit-in at Old Main, Augustana Academy’s granite four-story class and administration building near Canton, South Dakota. I can still smell the Murphy’s Oil Soap residue wafting from its wooden floors.

Augustana was a progressive experimental high school, the dream of the late Pastor Robert Nervig. His vision was to bring at-risk kids together (with a holy water sprinkling of farmer’s, missionary’s and pastor’s kids) in a small Lutheran boarding school on the prairies. We students came from as far away as Egypt and as close as Canton itself. Augie rocked my world and changed my life. It was also a perfect reflection of the ’60s: a revolution fueled by casting aside outmoded ideas in the pursuit of idealism.

In that same spirit, the recent July 4 weekend gave my hubby and me an exquisite opportunity to redefine what “patriotic movies” are. We experienced a trifecta of alternative expressions of American patriotism, each featuring history-making events. I highly recommend “Rebel Hearts,” directed by Pedro Kos; “Summer of Soul,” directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” written and directed by Aaron Sorkin.

All three films occur at the end of the 1960s: a decade of turning conventional wisdom on its ear, overthrowing archaic values and calling out exploitation. Passion is also threaded throughout each of these films, a passion I have shared since that time. My lens focuses on the toxicity of patriarchy and how that entrenched mindset stomps on those who question it. My senator from South Dakota, George McGovern — who was an old white man himself — once said, “I’m fed up to my ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”

Currently on Discovery+, the documentary “Rebel Hearts” is an homage to the courageous women of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) order of Catholic nuns. In the ’60s, they rebelled against — and eventually triumphed over — the iron fist of Cardinal James McIntyre of the Los Angeles Diocese. The nuns objected, prayerfully of course, to being treated like children, being forced to wear medieval clothing at all times, and being essentially indentured servants as unpaid teachers. Cardinal McIntyre had created scads of new parochial schools during his “reign.” His Holiness, or rather his cheapness, stocked them with sisters, many of whom had absolutely no training in teaching.

Worse, the nuns were given classes that often had up to 80 students. No wonder some of them thwapped kids’ knuckles with rulers!

IHM Sister Corita Kent became a sought-after artist and the most famous of the nuns, but many of them were just as talented and passionate in their own fields. This excellent, graphically rich film left me with the proverbial, “Why didn’t I know more about these women?!” If you want a shot of joyful, polite and effective civil disobedience, see this documentary.

Hulu is where you can find the next documentary, “Summer of Soul.” In July and August of 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival was held over six Sundays in a Harlem park.

It featured a staggering array of A-list black musicians. Because this was the same time as Woodstock, some dubbed the festival “the Black Woodstock.” Can you imagine if the footage from Woodstock sat in a basement, unseen, for 50 years? No? Well, that’s what

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happened to the Summer of Soul.

Thanks to Questlove’s outstanding film, this footage has finally seen the light of day to all our benefit. Sly and the Family Stone, the 5th Dimension, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone … the list is long and mind-boggling. Performances are woven with interviews of regular folks who attended and with some who had performed there. Tears overflowed for the interviewees and also for us watching the film. Say it with me: “Why hadn’t I heard of this?”

Our July 4 triptych ends at Netflix with “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a political circus of the absurd. Presiding Judge Julius Hoffman exemplified judicial power run amok; it’s unknown whether he was inching toward senility or just an extreme rightwing bigot.

He remains a lesson in why the judiciary is sometimes the only thing standing between a free citizenry and an authoritarian government. Sound familiar? And here’s that refrain again: Why so invisible? Director Aaron Sorkin admitted he was appalled that he hadn’t heard of the trial “the whole world was watching.”

These films demonstrate bold action against all odds and a concerted effort to utilize people’s talents and hearts to right wrongs and expose power for power’s sake. Anyone who feels their efforts have been invisible can relate to these movies.

Thanks to these films, I can still see the beating heart of my teen idealism. Right on!

Contact Ellen Snortland at ellen@authorbitebybite.com.

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EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski STAFF WRITERS: Andrew Checchia, Andres De Ocampo, Julia Shapero CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Kamala Kirk ART DIRECTORS: Arman Olivares, Stephanie Torres STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Luis Chavez CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Myriam Santos ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Laris

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John Kim

Laura Jimenez

Martha Arevalo

Alberto Retana

Liz Herrera Submitted photos

Tim Carpenter

Adam Murray

Alexandra Suh

13 community leaders awarded sabbaticals

By LA Downtown News Staff owntown Los Angeles-based Durfee Foundation has named its 2021-2022 class of sabbatical fellows.

In its 25th year of funding this program, and in light of the extraordinary need following a year marked by intersecting crises and a global pandemic, the foundation more than doubled the number of awardees. There are 13 fellows in the 2021-22 cohort.

“Nonprofit leaders, community organizers and people at the front line, providing support and social services to LA’s most vulnerable, kept our communities afloat with a superhuman lift in this past year,” said Claire Peeps, executive director of the Durfee Foundation. “They put themselves directly in harm’s way for all of our good, and now is the time to take care of them in return.”

This year’s awards represent a $1 million investment by Durfee in leadership renewal.

Awardees’ organizations receive $60,000. This includes $50,000 for awardees to travel, reflect or otherwise recharge in whatever manner they propose, for a minimum of three consecutive months; and $10,000 to advance the skills and well-being of the organization’s staff, and also to reward those who carry extra responsibility during the sabbatical.

“Nonprofits are under constant pressure to do more with less, and their leaders often experience extraordinary emotional burdens, stress, and burnout in their jobs.” said Stella Chung, program manager at the Durfee Foundation.

“Sabbaticals are more common in the academic and private sectors, but are most needed in the nonprofit sector. We want to close that gap and show that rest and rejuvenation are a necessity, not a luxury.”

The Durfee Foundation has funded over 100 sabbaticals to leaders in Los Angeles since 1997. Evaluations have revealed that sabbaticals help organizations retain their leaders and help shift leaders’ perspectives from daily management to distributed leadership and generative thinking and activity. Organizations also benefit from having an opportunity to plan and strengthen their capacity. Sabbaticals can create a permanent shift in the culture of work-life balance for both the leader and the organization’s staff.

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Zachary Hoover

Maria Calanche

The 2021-22 class of sabbatical fellows Martha Dina Arguello Martha Dina Arguello is the executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR-LA). PSR-LA advocates for policies and practices that improve public health, eliminate nuclear and environmental threats and address health disparities.

Martha Arévalo Martha Arévalo is executive director for the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN). CARECEN empowers Central Americans and all immigrants by defending human and civil rights, working for social and economic justice and promoting cultural diversity.

Maria ‘Lou’ Calanche Maria “Lou” Calanche is the founder and executive director of Legacy LA, a youth development organization. Legacy LA builds the capacity of youth to reach their full potential and equips them with tools to transform their lives and community.

Tim Carpenter Tim Carpenter is the founder and executive director of EngAGE, a nonprofit that provides arts, wellness, lifelong learning, community building and intergenerational programs to seniors and families living in affordable senior and multigenerational apartment communities in California, Oregon and Minnesota.

Liz Herrera Liz Herrera is the executive director of El Nido Family Centers, a social service nonprofit agency. El Nido strives to build healthy families by providing community-based social services in some of the most underserved communities in Los Angeles County.

Zachary Hoover Zachary Hoover is the executive director of LA Voice, a multiracial, multifaith community organization that awakens people to their own power, training them to speak, act and work together to transform the county into one that reflects the dignity of all people.

Laura Jiménez Laura Jiménez is the executive director at California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ). CLRJ is a statewide organization committed to honoring the experiences of Latinas to uphold their dignity, their bodies, sexuality and families.

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Martha Dina Arguello

Christine Mirasy-Glasco

Tara Peterson Submitted photos

John Kim John Kim is the executive director of Advancement Project California, a multiracial, multigenerational racial justice organization working to expand educational opportunities for California’s children, create healthy and safe neighborhoods, build participatory and representative communities and shift public investments toward equity.

Christine Mirasy-Glasco Christine Mirasy-Glasco is the executive director of Upward Bound House (UBH). UBH’s mission is to eliminate homelessness among families with children in Los Angeles by providing housing, supportive services and advocacy.

Adam Murray Adam Murray is chief executive officer of Inner City Law Center (ICLC), a nonprofit poverty law firm serving the most vulnerable individuals and families in Los Angeles County. ICLC provides legal representation and advocacy to thousands of homeless and working poor clients.

Tara Peterson Tara Peterson is the chief executive officer of the YWCA Glendale and Pasadena. The organization is dedicated to eliminating racism and empowering women and works to end gender-based violence, promote girls’ empowerment and advance racial justice.

Alberto Retana Alberto Retana is the president and CEO of Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization that works to help transform the social and economic conditions in South LA that foster addiction, crime, violence and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy.

Alexandra Suh Alexandra Suh is the executive director of KIWA (Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance). KIWA combines organizing, leadership development, services and policy advocacy in order to improve the lives of immigrant workers in low-wage industries in Koreatown and build a foundation for social change.

HDSA Los Angeles Team Hope Walk goes virtual

By LA Downtown News Staff he Huntington’s Disease Society of America’s Los Angeles Chapter will host the Los Angeles Virtual Team Hope Walk at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 17. Participants are encouraged to choose their own course — whether it’s their own house, driveway, neighborhood, local park, hike trail or even treadmill.

Huntington’s disease is a brain disease that is passed down in families from generation to generation causing deterioration in a person’s physical, mental and emotional abilities.

It deteriorates their physical and mental abilities usually during their prime working years and has no cure. Every child of a parent with HD has a 50% chance of inheriting the faulty gene that causes the disease.

There are approximately 41,000 symptomatic Americans and 200,000 at-risk of inheriting the disease.

In less than 10% of cases, juvenile Huntington’s disease affects children and adolescents.

JHD usually has a more rapid progression rate than adult-onset HD; the earlier the onset, the faster JHD progresses.

HD is described as having Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases — simultaneously. HD is characterized by a triad of symptoms, including progressive motor dysfunction, behavioral disturbance and cognitive decline.

The Huntington’s Disease Society of America is the premier nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of everyone affected by HD. From community services and education to advocacy and research, HDSA is the world’s leader in providing help for today and hope for tomorrow for people with HD and their families.

Team Hope is HDSA’s largest national grassroots fundraising event, which takes place in over 100 cities across the United States and has raised more than $14 million for HD since its inception in 2007.

Info: greaterla.hdsa.org or HDSA.org

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President Joe Biden said the Dodgers transcend sports and are cultural icons during the team’s visit to the White House on July 2.

Photo by Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers

Clayton Kershaw, pitcher and eight-time All-Star participant, was the spokesman on behalf of the baseball team at the White House.

Photo by Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers

President Biden recalls Dodgers’ cultural influence

By Grant Greabell LA Downtown News Staff Writer resident Joe Biden said the Dodgers transcend sports. Instead, he said during the 2020 World Series champions’ July 2 visit to the White House, they’re cultural icons.

“The Dodgers are a lot more than a baseball club,” Biden said. “They really are.

They’re a pillar of American culture and American progress — and that’s for real.”

The Dodgers ended their 32-year World Series drought last season by beating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager won World Series MVP. Though Seager won the coveted World Series MVP award, it was pitcher Clayton Kershaw who acted as a spokesman for the ballclub in the White House.

Kershaw is a three-time National League Cy Young Award winner, 2014 NL Most Valuable Player and eight-time All Star. He’s one of the best players to sport the Dodgers name across his chest.

Kershaw said the Dodgers’ title meant more to the country than just stamping their place in history as champions.

“Last season was a special one for us, but it was also a challenging one for our country. And our hope was that we were able to provide just a little bit of joy and comfort and relief to our fans that were going through some tough times,” Kershaw said.

The Dodgers then presented the president and Vice President Kamala Harris their own Dodgers jerseys. Harris, a San Francisco Giants fan, was not the happiest when accepting the gift.

The president then spoke on the importance of baseball and how it affects the equity of America.

“Look what baseball has done,” he said. “Look at the makeup of this ballclub and the makeup of the ballclubs all across the league. I really mean that. It’s gigantic.

Look at who’s managing this club. You know, I mean, it matters. And you send a message that is profound.”

The Dodgers are 54-34, as of July 8, just behind the Giants in the NL West standings.

“For the way this team is built and from the way it’s built, I suspect many of you, as I said, may be back visiting soon,” Biden said.

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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were both given their own Dodgers jerseys.

Photo by Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, 30, was scheduled to start his team’s Fourth of July game.

Instead, he’s on administrative leave.

Photo courtesy of LA Dodgers

Pasadena police investigating alleged Bauer assault

By Matthew Rodriguez LA Downtown News Staff Writer asadena resident and Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer is expected in court Friday, July 23, to determine if a recently placed, temporary restraining order will be made permanent.

A 27-year-old woman accused Bauer of assault. Major League Baseball placed Bauer on a paid, seven-day administrative leave July 2. The Pasadena Police Department is investigating the matter.

“The order is a result of a recent assault that took place at the hands of Mr. Bauer where (the accuser) suffered severe physical and emotional pain,” said attorney Marc Garelick to TMZ, who first reported the story. “We anticipate there will be criminal action against Mr. Bauer, and it is our hope law enforcement will take our client’s allegations and case seriously.”

Bauer and his attorney released a statement denying the allegations of any nonconsensual interactions and claim that it was “a brief and wholly consensual relationship” on two occasions that began in April 2021.

“We have messages that show (the woman) repeatedly asking for ‘rough’ sexual encounters involving requests to be ‘choked out’ and slapped in the face,” Bauer’s attorney Jon Fetterolf said in a statement.

According to published reports, the woman said she started crying and shaking, when Bauer said, “I’m here. You’re safe.”

Fetterolf continued, claiming the woman drove from San Diego to Bauer’s residence in Pasadena where she began to “dictate what she wanted from him sexually and he did what was asked.”

Fetterolf claimed she left without incident during the first encounter. After the second and final encounter, the woman claimed she had sought medical care in San Diego for a concussion.

Published reports said she was diagnosed with head and facial trauma. Since then, the two have not corresponded nor met for over six weeks.

“Her basis for filing a protection order is nonexistent, fraudulent and deliberately omits key facts, information and her own relevant communications,” Fetterolf said. “Any allegations that the pair’s encounters were not 100% consensual are baseless, defamatory and will be refuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Major League Baseball launched its own investigation into the matter.

“The Dodgers were made aware of the allegations against Trevor Bauer late this afternoon and immediately contacted MLB, which will be handling this matter,” the team said in a statement. “The Dodgers take any allegations of this nature very seriously, but will have no further comment at this time.”

Bauer, a former UCLA Bruin and reigning Cy Young, is in his first season with his hometown team, with an 8-5 record. Bauer, 30, was slated to start the Fourth of July game at Washington.

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Girl & the Goat offers Windy City whimsy

By Frier McCollister LA Downtown News Contributing Writer hef Stephanie Izard is known for impulsive decisions. One weekend in 2000, she visited friends in Chicago. At the time, she was also completing her culinary training at Arizona’s Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

Suffice it to say, she extended her stay in Chicago.

“I just had such a good time, I had my stuff shipped out from Arizona,” Izard said. “My sister was being nice that day. I just asked her to pack up my stuff and ship it out. So, things like that. I just kind of do things.”

Likewise, Izard’s decision to open her first restaurant independently came randomly and quickly. She was 27 years old and working as a sous chef for the first time at a small restaurant in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

“One day, one of the cooks just said to me, ‘You’re really good at this. You should open your own restaurant.’ I said, ‘OK’ and so the next week I quit my job,” Izard recalled.

Nearly a year to the day after the conversation, she opened her first restaurant, Scylla in Bucktown.

“I just like to do things on a whim sometimes,” she said laughing.

A blend of whimsy and fortuitous timing has followed most of Izard’s career. That said, her latest leap of faith has been years in the making. The Los Angeles rendition of her Chicago flagship restaurant — Girl & the Goat — opens on Mateo Street, in the Arts District, this month. The Chicago restaurant opened in 2010, following another set of fortunate timings.

Izard operated her first venture, Scylla, on her own for three years.

“That’s when ‘Top Chef’ called,” she noted. “I had just sold my restaurant, three days before, to another chef. That’s why I say everything happens for a reason. The timing was so perfect.”

Izard won that season and was the competition’s first winner to be deemed “Fan Favorite.”

Through the show, she was introduced to her current partners, Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm of BOKA restaurant group. Again, it was a chance meeting at a restaurant that led to the conversation that ultimately resulted in the partnership that produced Girl & the Goat.

“They asked if I was interested in talking further about opening a restaurant.,” Izard said.

“At first, I turned them down, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to become part of a restaurant group, because I already had my first restaurant. After I gave it some thought, I wanted to work with them, to learn more about being a better restaurateur. After going on a show like ‘Top Chef,’ the expectations are little higher. I wanted to partner with them to make sure it was elevated from what I had done before.”

Izard uses a pastry metaphor to describe the dynamics of their partnership. “(It’s) like three pieces of pie. Rob is really into the finance and business end of the restaurant. Kevin was focused on front-of-the-house and I was really focused on back-of-house,” she said. “Now we all do different pieces of the puzzle. It’s a nice partnership.”

Her partnership with the experienced restaurateurs also enabled an impressively swift expansion of her activity, while showcasing her genuinely diverse culinary influences. Her diner/bakery Little Goat opened in an expansive space just across from the restaurant in 2012.

That was followed in 2016 by Duck Duck Goat, whose imaginative menu is captioned as “Reasonably Authentic Chinese Food.”

“I opened Duck Duck Goat when I was seven months pregnant, so that was super fun,” Izard said with a laugh.

Finally, the Peruvian-influenced Cabra Cevicheria, which opened in The Hoxton Hotel in Chicago in March 2019, was Izard’s fourth restaurant in less than 10 years. In the meantime, Izard was acknowledged by the James Beard Foundation, as the Best Chef Great Lakes in 2013, after Girl & the Goat had been nominated for Best New Restaurant in 2011.

In the midst of the pandemic, the talented chef’s impulses did not waver.

“On a whim, we opened a bakery called Sugar Goat,” she said.

Using a portion of the Little Goat space for the new operation, the pastry and cake shop opened in November last year. With nationwide delivery available, a second Chicago location is in the works.

The opening of Girl & the Goat on Mateo Street represents a longer, more methodical pro-

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Beef short rib is on the menu at Girl & the Goat.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Guests can try king salmon crudo if the taste for seafood arises.

Photo by Luis Chavez

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Covered DINING California will help cess, though fortuitous timing again came into play. Katz and Boehm were approached nearly four years ago about the courtyard space at Palmetto Street and Mateo.

“My partners flew me out to look at this space, because they just loved the neighborhood so much,” Izard recalled. “It’s hard to look back on the last year and find good things about it, but timing-wise, we were just about to open. And then the world shut down.”

Though her chef de cuisine Jason Beliveau moved to Los Angeles nearly two years ago and Izard was finalizing the menu in March, they hadn’t yet staffed for Los Angeles. The buildout of the kitchen and dining room was inevitably delayed, but finished in August.

Izard weathered the pandemic in Chicago.

“I was in Chicago the whole time,” she said. “We shut down all of the restaurants. We were very proud to be able to keep all our (furloughed) employees on insurance through the entire pandemic.”

Between all the operations in Chicago, she has more than 500 employees.

As for Los Angeles, the Girl & the Goat will not mirror its big sister in Chicago. Izard is tweaking dishes here. A peek at the Chicago menu provides clues and a sense of Izard’s compelling and playfully diverse range of sensibilities.

Regarding the evolution of the Los Angeles menu, “It’s pretty much there, I have one more dish to put together,” Izard said.

“There are probably five or six (dishes) that are near identical to things we’ve done in the past, whether they’re on the menu there or not.”

Stalwart menu highlights from Chicago include goat liver mousse ($16) served with marmalade mostarda, ramp giardiniere and pickles with housemade crumpets and biscuit crackers; chickpea fritters ($15) with sumac and green chutney and goat yogurt; and the sticky glazed pork shank ($32) served with shiitake mushrooms, strawberries, hoisin mayo and hot mustard with naan and lettuce cups.

When in Los Angeles, fresh local ingredients are also an inevitable influence.

“Just today, I made a new oyster dish. We got these oysters from (Baja),” she said.

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“They’re super plump and yummy. We’re roasting them with Vietnamese sausage, with yuzu kosho butter and serving them alongside a clam baguette. We make a baguette with clam juice in it. So, you can soak up the butter and the sausage and eat the oyster with the yummy baguette. I put that together this morning.”

Find them on the new LA menu as “pacifico” oysters ($16), along with the lamb sirloin skewer ($22) with pickled rhubarb relish and the goat curry ($32) with masa chips and pickled vegetables.

The goat inclusion comes from the meaning of her last name. In the French Pyrenees, “izard” refers, colloquially, to the local species of mountain goat. Still, the family’s European background doesn’t provide a central influence on her cuisine.

“I’m French and German, do I pull from (that) solely? Not even slightly,” she said.

“I’ve done a lot of traveling through different parts of Asia. That’s where I get most of my inspiration, proudly. It’s just celebrating different flavors from other places. There are little shout outs on our menus to many different cuisines, pulling things from different parts of the world. That’s just how I think about food.”

The pandemic rejiggered the factors surrounding the restaurant’s opening.

“It’s been a test to see how we can restructure this to make a little more sense in the long run and not go back to exactly how we were doing it before,” Izard said.

Like every other operation looking to resume business in its dining rooms, staffing has not been easy.

“In the end, once we get through the staffing challenges and get through the summer, I think we’ll be in a really good spot,” she said.

Girl & the Goat 555 Mateo Street, Los Angeles girlandthegoat.com

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Time and place inspire Ladies’ Room exhibition

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer hen the pandemic forced many to go into lockdown, one solace was time spent outdoors — taking walks, sitting on porches, enjoying picnics, jogging or engaging in any of numerous other activities that could be done alone or in one’s own pod.

For artists who are trained to notice things, this opportunity led to new creations capturing the natural environs of Los Angeles.

Ladies’ Room, a Downtown Los Angeles gallery that features the work of women and nonbinary artists, is displaying two related solo shows that feature artists who did just this. The show is entirely online at ladiesroomla.org.

Julika Lackner is exhibiting “Twilight” and Ariel Dill is exhibiting “Four O’Clocks” through July 24. With works painted almost exclusively during the pandemic, the two exhibitions capture the same spirit using very different styles and techniques.

Lackner’s oil and acrylic paintings are born out of the city’s twilight hours, landscapes that she viewed from her wrap-around porch and combining several of her previous styles. Dill’s watercolors were inspired by walks with a rambunctious child taken at 4 p.m. daily.

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Ariel Dill found inspiration for her watercolors while taking daily 4 p.m. walks with her toddler during the pandemic and observing the flora and fauna in her neighborhood.

Submitted photo

Julika Lackner painted scenes of Los Angeles skyscapes at twilight throughout the pandemic. The vertical lines reflect the lights of the city.

Submitted photo

Twilight brings out lines of light Born in Berlin in 1980, Lackner lives and works in Los Angeles after earning her MFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2006 and a B.A. from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2001.

“I started painting representationally when I was an undergrad in 2001,” Lackner said.

She was painting the interiors of subway stations in Berlin because she was fascinated with how the artificial light changed in those spaces. When she arrived in Pasadena, her work changed, though she was still fascinated with light.

“I changed into painting Los Angeles at night, but it was still pretty representational,” Lackner said. “It was all about paint and the orbs of light in the fog and that big dome of LA sky that is always lit.”

She then began to paint in a more abstract manner, delving into atmosphere and space. She started a series of linear landscapes that were mostly of places in California, but also other big spaces like Yellowstone, Death Valley and Yosemite — what she called all the heavy hitters of dramatic landscapes.

Then 2020 came and the lockdowns grounded her.

“For the very first time, I thought I should paint my view,” Lackner said. “I live in Eagle Rock, and we have a wraparound deck and I’d never thought seriously to paint it.”

She watched the sunset every night, taking photos she could refer to while painting. She merged her style from grad school with her linear landscapes by bringing in colored lines that represented the light that is in the city reflected into the sky.

Lackner said it is tricky to paint the LA skyscape because so many people have attempted it and others know it well. She navigated the conflict between what her eye saw with the images she carried in her head.

“I really love this northeast area of LA and the hills and the lights,” Lackner said.

“A lot of people would say, ‘That looks like my view.’ It’s funny because it is a ubiquitous LA view that a lot of people have or know. It is immediately recognizable to those who know it.”

At first, she resisted including landmarks that would pin down a view, but eventually the LA skyline made it into the paintings.

There are 20 pieces in the exhibit, but she created 60 paintings in this series, ranging in size from 5 by 7 inches to 48 by 60. Each is numbered.

She called “Twilight 29” a good example of the series. She painted it in 2021 and said it is special to her.

“It has the elements that speak for all of them — the gradient of the night sky and it goes into an orangey sunset,” Lackner said. “It also has some clouds that exemplify the atmosphere and then the stripes. The clouds kind of go into the

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Covered California will help ART & CULTURE stripes. It seems translucent. The view is personal to me as it is exactly my bedroom view.”

She began the series in April 2020. When the pandemic started, she was working on her linear landscapes and commissions. Then she saw a photo she took on her phone of the night sky from her deck and was inspired.

“I was trying to capture the twinkling lights in the hills,” Lackner said.

“It had this very warm feeling. I wanted the twinkling lights, but I didn’t want the dark, dark night sky. That time right after the sun went down has this really nice way of bringing the city lights up into the sky. It’s just a gorgeous time of day.”

She said she had never painted sunsets. In her 20 years of painting landscapes, she avoided sunsets and sunrises and the subsequent pinks and oranges. The change received a warm reception.

“People really responded positively to it,” Lackner said.

“That makes a difference. I had an immediate positive response and that was very encouraging.”

Flora and fauna jumped out Ariel Dill has returned to Los Angeles after moving to the East Coast to earn an MFA from Hunter College in New York.

Her series is made up of watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper. It uses visual languages of surrealism, children’s book illustrations, Japanese prints and the Los Angeles surroundings.

As she painted during the pandemic, she noticed her pieces were influenced by her neighborhood and the nature surrounding Los Angeles.

“Basic things you see all the time here just walking — these have shown up in the work,” Dill said.

At first, she didn’t realize she was creating a series — they were just her watercolors, works she was planning to use in a book. After she made the book with a friend, she continued art that took shape around a specific time and place — much of it influenced by being in lockdown with a 3 1/2 year old.

“She did her preschool Zoom and stuff like that and what we always ended up doing was this walk at 4 p.m.,” Dill said. “I felt like we had to change it up and go outside and do something. It is that time of day before it really starts turning into evening.”

As her daughter stuck to her schedule, it forced her to be aware of the time and what she was seeing — the flowers that were intensely blooming, the gardens and the trees.

“It just made sense — what I was feeling and what the work was doing,” Dill said.

“It’s a series about time and I’d make the paintings and it was an ongoing thing. I’d make them at certain times of day.”

She focused on certain flowers and fauna all within the framework of creating a schedule with her child.

“There wasn’t anything else to do, so we had to do that,” Dill said. “That was actually the high point of the whole lockdown — these fun walks that happened in the pandemic. Sometimes she’d be on her scooter or her trike.”

With more than 50 paintings in the series, she presented them to Annie Wharton, the gallery director and curator who chose pieces for the exhibition.

Dill had another show, “Waves,” with Wharton in January 2020. Wharton returned to her for the online show.

“She said, ‘I want to show this.’ People in other countries could access it,” Dill said.

“It is the right format for this work. It’s almost like seeing them as book pages or something.”

Dill’s pandemic walks provided her initial, visual research the way her other works took clues from old postcards, children’s books, nature catalogs or the way lights hit the wall.

“When I’m actually painting, I use that information, it becomes a jumping off point,” Dill explained. “I’m painting and then the painting takes over and I’m not so much thinking. I’m letting the painting dictate what is happening.

“Twilight” by Julia Lackner and “Four O’Clocks” by Ariel Dill WHEN: Through July 24 WHERE: ladiesroomla.org

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Theater invites audience to solve a mystery — blindfolded

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer rtsUp LA’s Theatre by the Blind program is inviting folks to find out if they’re good at solving mysteries — blindfolded.

“Private Eyes: A Blind Experience” was written by performers with vision impairments and is performed by blind actors.

“We do a lot of writing our own original plays,” said the show’s director, Greg Shane. “We thought it would be interesting to do an interactive blind experience where the audience would get to step into the shoes of someone who is blind.”

Tickets must be ordered by July 15 to give Theatre by the Blind time to mail a box to ticketholders. The box contains an evidence pack, clues and participant blindfolds.

“There are different clues, like you have to figure out what key fits a certain lock and there is a bunch of keys,” Shane said. “Everything is timed, and all the challenges relate to figuring out who the actual guilty party is.”

At 8 p.m. Thursday, July 29, the audio play begins. Each ticketholder will be provided a link and there will be an audio recording that takes them through the mystery play.

“As you’re doing the recording, you are doing all these different challenges,” Shane said. “It brings the theater to life at home. It’s very different than anything else we’ve ever done. COVID put us in a situation where we had to toss around new ideas.”

At the end of the play, the audience determines the guilty party.

Also on that night, The Theatre by the Blind will launch a Kickstarter campaign for the musical “The Braille Legacy.” They had rehearsed for six weeks when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

They need money to bring it to fruition. Shane wanted to make sure they continued to have opportunity to come together to create and perform.

At the end of the show, vision-impaired actors will provide testimonials.

“During COVID, we lost a lot of grants,” Shane said. “Art grants became medical grants. We’re in a shortage but it is a very exciting production.”

“Private Eyes” features 13 vision-impaired actors from ages 8 to 80. Some of them have been with Theatre by the Blind since it launched in a gymnasium 16 years ago.

Theatre by the Blind is the country’s only theater troupe comprised entirely of blind actors. It uses theatre-based programs and original performances to support blind and visually impaired people to become self-sufficient.

A

Director blazes trail Shane has been with Theatre by the Blind since its beginning. He had been volunteering for Changing Perceptions, which told the stories of vision-impaired adults. It inspired him to create an organization that would give vision-impaired adults the chance to become other characters, to act and perform on stage.

Changing Perceptions dissolved when the woman who ran it died from a brain tumor. Shane reached out to a college friend and the two of them formed a nonprofit, one that would give a voice to people who didn’t have one.

Shane is blind — his first eye surgery was when he was 3 weeks old and his

next one was at 3 months. His childhood was filled with people telling him what he couldn’t do because of his lack of sight. He defied those predictions and found a way to make everything possible.

His background inspires him to encourage others at the Theatre by the Blind to be brave. During first rehearsals of any production, participants do a full run from one side of the stage to the other following his voice. He said it builds trust with him and with others.

“Movement can be very terrifying,” Shane said.“I remember being so afraid to move, unsure of what I was going to hit. I want to give people the chance to move freely in space. They memorize the stage; they play sighted characters. They don’t play blind unless the script calls for it.”

Participants have done all sorts of things on stage from skateboarding and inline skating to magic tricks where they disappear from the middle of a stage. The goal is to make anything possible regardless of disability.

Company creates unique challenges for mystery play “Private Eyes” is designed to help audiences understand things that blind and vision-impaired people do on a regular basis to navigate the world.

Narrators, or detectives, will instruct the audience and guide it through the experience. Shane said once they came up with that concept, it helped to solidify the story.

“The detectives are commenting on the action, and it puts audience members in the role of detectives as well,” Shane said.

The next step was creating challenges. Shane took modern, day-to-day things that people have to do — how does a blind person know how to distinguish money? How do they work with textures to figure out what clothes they are going to wear? How do they know what key fits a lock?

“We made a list of day-to-day things that they might do that we could put into the show for someone who doesn’t do those things on a daily basis and create challenges around it,” Shane said.

The group brainstormed tasks and built them into the challenges in a way that fit the story.

Shane said he found the experience to be fun.

“It’s fun to challenge yourself and be creative,” Shane said. “It’s a great thing to do with the family or alone.”

He has two reasons why the public should buy tickets. The first, people need the connection and fun of theater. Also, it gives the audiences insight into a visually impaired person’s life.

“I think you really do get that insight in this experience,” Shane said.

“It opens your eyes and changes your perceptions on the vision-impaired community.”

“Private Eyes: A Blind Experience” by Theatre by the Blind WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 29; tickets must be purchased by Thursday, July 15 WHERE: Online/virtual COST: $25 INFO: https://tinyurl.com/ablindexperience

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Professor Abayachi passed away on 26 June 21 at 920pm with family & friends in Los Angeles California. He was 83 yrs old.

LAUSD Professor Ali Abayachi advanced Mathematics Calculus teacher honorably served our citizens at several Universities & High School educational institutions; San Diego State, USC, Occidental College, Los Angeles City College, Evans Adult School, Belmont High School & Carson High Schools within LAUSD to name a few for over “55 years”. He was awarded 3x for developing questions for the “National SAT” nationwide.

“San Miguel School” San Diego CA, awarded Professor Abayachi the “Sword & Shield ‘’ for dedication. The City of Los Angeles 4th district councilman Tom Labonge awarded him appreciation for his outstanding service. His accomplishments included, Masters of Arts in Education, BA of Science, BA of Mathematics, BA of Arts, w/teaching credential/ Major in Physics/ BA Minor Mathematics. A tribute has been created in his honor. Please feel free to visit www.forevermissed.com/mohammed-ali-abayachi/about

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