Things are a bit quieter this week with the holidays and all, so I hope you’ll be spending this down time with your favorite people. And whether they be secular or religious, or a little bit of both, your Easter, Passover and Earth Day traditions and celebrations are your own. However, if you feel like it might be time to start a new tradition, perhaps one of the events below will catch your fancy.
Arts, Culture, and Entertainment
Change up your wellness routine with Immersive Van Gogh Yoga, a unique hybrid yoga-art experience in a multi-sensory art installation space. People of all fitness levels are welcome to enroll in this 35 minute yoga class, which includes 25 minutes of post-yoga access to the exhibit. Each workout is designed to challenge the body and inspire the mind; choreographed in harmony with the music, sounds, light, and moving images from the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. This week’s session is on Saturday, April 16 from 7:30-8:05 a.m. Bonus: All participants will receive a sample of kefir from sponsor Lifeway Foods. The cost is $55 per class, a 4 class package is also available. And what great timing, a BOGO offer is happening right now for a limited time!
Chevalier’s Books has another full schedule, with four events happening April 19-22. The first is Book Talk! with Deborah Cohen on Wednesday, April 20. Cohen’s book, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial, an account of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, “took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism,” will be the subject of the discussion. Learn about the extraordinary story of John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson, who managed to land exclusive interviews with Hitler and Mussolini, Nehru and Gandhi. Pre-order a copy of the book here. Bilingual Poetry Night is also on the menu this week on Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m. Click here to view Chevalier’s calendar.
Me being a member of Gen X and all makes the Gen X Festival at the Walt Disney Concert Hall an exciting prospect. Showcasing a generation in all its glory, the weekend long festival will begin on Friday, April 22 with the Voices of a Generation concert. Watch and listen as Thomas Adès conducts an evening with an international menagerie of Gen X composers, featuring violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the US premiere of Adès’ Märchentänze. As a post-concert bonus, Thomas Adès will take to the stage as a pianist with Pekka Kuusisto for two duets! Tickets range from $99 to $214. The Colburn Orchestra will also be performing this week. Click here to check the full calendar.
Calling all US-based Printmakers! Starting now, the Craft Contemporary would like to invite all interested printmakers and art lovers to participate in the Many More: Print Portfolio Exchange & Exhibition, which will be exhibited from May 29 – Sept 11. Many More is an opportunity for printmakers to connect with one another, collect each other’s work, and for their work to be shared with the museum’s audience. The portfolio exchange and exhibition will coincide with the museum exhibition, Many, that presents artists who create multiples as a way to highlight values of sharing and creating community. Learn more about entry requirements here. Entries must be received by May 16.
Community
If you’re an early riser and/or a fan of vintage shopping, there’s a big one-day-only estate sale somewhere in Hancock Park starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 16, and running until 2 p.m. According to the organizers, items offered include “Mid-Century furniture, jewelry, signed artwork, collectibles, pottery, crystal, Vintage Mills slot Machine, kitchenware including KitchenAid mixer & coffee maker, Modani Mid-Century glass table, exercise equipment, plants, pet carrier, folk art,carvings, Italian vases and bowls, patio sets, books, Antique Dictaphone, Industrial Mid-Century butcher block, vintage lamps, planet mobile, film poster feat. Sally Kellerman, Emeco Metal Chairs, vintage Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe photographs, 1940 Life magazines and much more.” For more infomation, photos, and the address (which will be available after 4 p.m. today), see https://www.estatesales.net/CA/Los-Angeles/90005/3240819.
Also, don’t forget that the Melrose Village Wednesday Walks are back, sponsored by LAPD’s Wilshire Division Community Police Advisory Board, the Mid City West Neighborhood Council, and Melrose Village neighbors. If you live in the area, meet at the corner of Spaulding and Waring Ave. at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, to walk in a group, meet the LAPD Senior Lead Officer for your neighborhood, and get to know your neighbors.
Holiday(ish) Stuff
As you gather with family or friends on Sunday, April 17, why not have Easter Sunday: The Fifth Gospel: Bach Livestream playing in the background? Presented by Baroque Chamber Orchestra Kontrapunktus, along with an arts grant from the City of WeHo, The Fifth Gospel by Johann Sebastian Bach (aka “The Fifth Evangelist”) will be led by Dr. Ian Pritchard and performed by some of the finest, young classical musicians in the world! This FREE Live YouTube event will start at 3 p.m. No reservation needed. This will be their fifth and final livestream concert, so don’t miss out!
Have you been looking for a unique Easter celebration in the form of a boozy tea party? Well, look no further, Spring High Tea & Highballs at the Lilly Rose at The Wayfarer DTLA is here to delight you all through April and May, with tea, light bites, pastries and seasonally inspired one-of-a-kind tea cocktails! You can also create your own highball from a lovely selection of spirits, if you so choose. The hotel is located at 813 Flower Street and the cost is $50 per person. Hours are Wed-Sun from 2-6 p.m. Tables are still available on Easter Sunday, so stop wasting time and make a reservation already.
I’m a little late to the game here (by about a month), but it’s better late than never. Also, the rabbit is one of the 12 symbols of the Chinese zodiac, representing longevity, peace, and good luck, so this little nod to Easter seemed fitting. Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is now on display in the Zev Yaroslavsky Plaza at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Weiwei’s 12 bronze sculptures reference a long and ongoing story of “cross-cultural exchange and collision between China and the West”, beginning with a mid-18th century fountain at Yuanmingyuan. The fountain, commissioned by Emperor Qianlong and designed by Jesuit priests, was used to tell time: 12 zodiac animal sculptures each spouted water for two hours (or one shichen) each day. So cool! The museum is open every day except Wednesday.
If you haven’t been to the LA Zoo in a while, or outside for that matter, now’s the time to go! In honor of Earth Day the Zoo is presenting you with Wild for the Planet, a program celebrating our special sphere in the sky all month long. Focusing on “conservation, sustainability and the natural renewal that spring brings”, program activities will include an Earth Expo, Animal Enrichment (i.e. pic to the left), a California Condor Station, and a Honey Tasting hosted by the Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association. All happenings except honey tastings ($3) are free for members with paid admission ($17-$22). The hours are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. P.S. If you have any old handheld electronics lying around, bring them to the Zoo to recycle! Funds go to gorilla conservation initiatives through the Gorilla SAFE program.
Local Government
This week, on Sunday, April 17, at 4 p.m., via Zoom, Hang Out Do Good’s “Looking Local” candidate conversation features CD 13 candidate Kate Pynoos…and there will be a second session at 5 p.m., featuring CD 9 Candidate Dulce Vasquez. Sign up here for the Zoom link if you’d like to attend.
Your local NC, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council has just one get together this week, in the form of an online Outreach Committee meeting on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. Click here to view the calendar for details.
And the Mid City West Neighborhood Council will wrap up this week’s events with four items on the calendar, starting with the Transportation and Sustainability Committee and Public Safety and Well-Being Committee who both have meetings on Tuesday, April 19, followed by MCW’s weekly in-person Wednesday Walks on Wednesday, April 20, and the Outreach and Civic Engagement Committee on Thursday, April 21. Click here to check Mid City’s calendar for details.
