Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

The Week Ahead -Events for January 21-27, 2023

JAPAN HOUSE LA is debuting yet another super cool exhibit, Designing with Disaster, inspired by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on Fri, Jan 27.

 

Chinese New Year will usher us all into the Year of the Rabbit beginning January 22, and culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 5. And with 16 days of celebrations in between, there’s plenty of chances to catch the festivities this week and next. You can also choose from a varied list of other cool happenings close(ish) to home by reading the brilliant content below. Here’s a preview: Chevalier’s Books’ first event of the year, a midnight temple ceremony, a cornucopia of offerings from the LA Phil, and this really awesome looking exhibit above at JAPAN HOUSE LA.

 

Books, Music, Chinese New Year, and Regenerative Urbanism

Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit are about to commence, and the Midnight Temple Ceremony at Thien Hau Temple will help usher you into the 16 days of celebrations ahead, beginning at 10 p.m. on Saturday, January 21 to 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 22. Visitors can make offerings to deities and burn incense for good fortune, enjoy a traditional lion dancers performance, along with 500,000 firecrackers setting off to scare away evil spirits, making way for a prosperous year ahead! Thien Hau Temple, also known as Chua Ba Thien Hau in Vietnamese and as Tian Hou Gong in Chinese, is a Taoist temple and popular site for worship and tourism in LA. The Temple is dedicated to Mazu, the Taoist goddess of the sea; Guan Yu, the god of war; Fu De, the god of the earth; and Dizang, a bodhisattva from the Buddhist faith are also worshiped at the Temple. It is located in DTLA’s historic Chinatown at 756 Yale Street.

And the LA Phil will be the gift that keeps on giving the music, all day, week, and month long! This first one of the week is for the younger set and it’s The Firebird – Symphonies for Youth on Saturday, January 21 at 11 a.m. Based on a classic Russian folktale, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet is full of magic and romance, with a full performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite set to dance. Recommended for children ages 5 to 11. Tickets are $27. And later on that day, Ravel, Dawson, and Prokofiev will show you how it’s done at 8 p.m., and then again on Sunday, January 22 at 2 p.m. Winner of the Solti Conducting Award, Berlin-based American conductor Roderick Cox presents a rarity, along with Ravel and Prokofiev: William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony. Tickets are $20-$199. Then, it’s Argentine organist Hector Olivera’s time to shine as he returns to the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage with a stunning Organ Recital, that same Sunday, January 22 at 7:30 p.m. Olivera was a pipe organ prodigy, beginning at age 3 and entering the Buenos Aires Conservatory at 6! He later graduated from Julliard. I don’t even think I was potty trained at 3. Tickets are $20-$64. And to top off a very fine week indeed is John Adams’ Opera, Girls of the Golden West on Friday, January 27 at 8 p.m. True stories of the California Gold Rush come to life in Adams’ most recent opera. Tickets are $20-$216.

The triple threat Hollywood Heritage Museum + Archive + Preservation Society celebrates Marion Davies Birthday this Sunday, January 22, with a presentation and Q&A session by biographer Lara Gabrielle, author of the new biography Marion Davies: Captain of Her Soul, along with rare home movies, an exhibit, and a screening of the 1925 film Zander the Great. “Vivacious actress Marion Davies charmed movie audiences during the 1920s and 1930s with her infectious spirit and mischievous screen personality, overcoming a lifelong stutter. Perhaps more well-known as the companion to newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Davies became a philanthropist and advocate for children on her own terms.” Tickets are $10 for members and $20 for non-mems. Bday celebrations begin at 2 p.m. Hollywood Heritage is open, Fri-Sun, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Looking ahead, Chevailer’s Books 2023 calendar is slowly filling up with its first events of the year, and it starts this week with Donna Spruijt-Metz and her latest contribution to the literary world, General Release from the Beginning of the World, on Wednesday, January 25 from 6-7 p.m. In her book, the author attempts to reconcile the death of the father, the lies of the mother, a hidden half-sister, and the love for a daughter-with the impossible desire to banish the past from the present. “She breaks her own heart to touch yours.” Spruijt-Metz is a poet, a psychology and public health professor at USC, and a recent MacDowell Fellow in poetry, whose first career was as a classical flutist. She attended rabbinical school for a year and a half but decided she needed to write poetry about the holy, and “there are only twenty-four hours in the day.” Oh, and she also translates Dutch poetry into English. Wow, makes you think you should’ve done more with your life, eh? It’s never too late! Check Chevalier’s full calendar here.

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles is back with yet another super cool exhibit, and it’s called Designing with Disaster: Stories from Seven Regenerative Cities<, inspired by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Planned by ArcDR3 (Architecture and Urban Design for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience), and opening on Friday, January 27, the exhibit will introduce the concept of “Regenerative Urbanism” or anticipatory urban design that explores the optimistic possibility of symbioses between humans and the natural and constructed worlds, embracing inevitable disasters and creating disaster-resilient environments. I think my mind just exploded! The experience will also feature illuminated Regenerative City “Wells” with an immersive physical, video, and audio experience for visitors to, um, get immersed in. And stay tuned for the annual Global Japan Forum, featuring renowned architects, academics, and environmental researchers from both Los Angeles and abroad, discussing the lessons learned from the past and how to create disaster-resilient environments. Museum hours are 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. M-F and 8 p.m. Sat-Sun. Exhibit on view through April 2.

 

Community, Food, and Local Government

 

Come learn a new skill amongst your neighborinos at the Wilshire Branch Library on Saturday, January 21. As part of the teen and adult series of workshops the library hosts, Container Gardening is one on the sched this weekend, teaching you how to grow anything anywhere while upcycling old containers. Master Gardener Yvonne Savio will discuss gardening techniques and offer guidelines for a greener thumb. There will be free plants for attendees while supplies last. P.S. this “LA Made” program was made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Class starts at 1 p.m. For ADA accommodations, call (213) 228-7430 at least 72 hours prior to the event. There are other regular programs going on, too, like Yoga for kids and the Cookies and Comics Book Club. Please check the library’s website for more info. Wilshire Branch Library: 149 N. Saint Andrews Pl.

Greater Wilshire Neighborhood CouncilYour local NC, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council is back again this week, making their community a better place, starting with the Transportation Committee on Monday, January 23 at 7 p.m. and the Land Use Committee the following day on Tuesday, January 24 at 6:30 p.m. Click here to view the calendar for deets.

Mid City West Neighborhood Council just doesn’t quit with another fullish schedule of meetings starting on Monday, January 23 for the Homelessness, Refugees, and Renters’ Rights (HRRRTs) Committee, followed by the Social and Racial Equity Committee on Tuesday, January 24 and the Executive Council on Wednesday, January 25. Click here to check MCW’s calendar for details.

And the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count has arrived and will be taking place Tues-Thurs, January 24-26, covering all of LA County except the cities of Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach, which conduct their own counts. The data collected is an essential component in understanding the scope and nature of homelessness and helps the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and its partners deliver services where they are needed most. Homelessness is a humanitarian crisis that takes the support of our entire community to end. LAHSA is a joint powers authority of the city and county of Los Angeles, created in 1993 to help address this long standing crisis. Each of these four components plays a vital role in understanding the state of homelessness in Los Angeles: Demographics Surveys, Shelter/Institutional Count, Youth Count, and Street Count. More volunteers are needed in both the Greater Wilshire and Mid City West areas, and we’ll have a longer story about this on Monday.  In the meantime, you can just jump in and  sign up to volunteer here.

In conclusion of this great curation of events, Foodie Fridays presented by the Ebell of LA< will be happening via the web on Friday afternoon, January 27 at 1 p.m. While many of us (not including me, yet) may have contributed to a community cookbook over the years (The Ebell created their own in 2019), Suzanne Joskow has gone above and beyond that – compiling an archive of nearly 400 community cookbooks from all over LA County. Residents, organizations and co-operatives have all come together to celebrate their tastes and family secrets, giving you a unique and not often seen view into people’s lives. In this iteration of Foodie Fridays, you’ll learn about the Community Cookbook Archive: LA and the California women who contributed, and “how we can utilize it to link our cuisine/food/meals of today with the women of California who have preceded us”. Virtual Ebell programs are free, but donations are always greatly appreciated. Register here.

 

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Julia Christiansen
Julia Christiansen
Julia is a native Angeleno and jack of all trades, having worked in television, visual effects, professional sports, health and wellness, and custom design. She currently resides in El Segundo.

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