It’s Memorial Day weekend, folks, and the season of summer is almost here! I hope you get to spend time with friends and family this holiday weekend, eat good food, and enjoy some extra time to work on that “base tan.” However, if you’re looking for something a tad more cerebral than just a beach day or backyard BBQ, perhaps one of the events below will tickle your fancy.
Arts, Culture, and Entertainment
On Saturday, May 28, Craft Contemporary will host an Exhibition Opening Reception from 6-9 p.m. to celebrate the new exhibitions Many and The Sum of the Parts: Dimensions in Quilting. Also on view will be the special project Many More, a community print exchange portfolio. Guests enjoy first access to the galleries, complimentary beverages, and a live DJ. Tickets are $12 or free for members. No reservations required.
Also happening on Saturday, May 28 is the Community Coalition’s Culture Cures Festival featuring a musical lineup of local LA artists, a community resource fair, art walk, and food and merch vendors! I love festivals. Community Coalition’s mission is 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. The festival is free and open to all from 12-5 p.m. The event will take place at the Community Coalition building at 8101 S. Vermont Ave. Please register here.
LACMA is bringing the music this week with several music programs starting Saturday, May 28 with Classical Around Town with the ABC+ Ensemble. Join the ensemble at Charles White Elementary School from 1-2 p.m. for a concert by the ABC+ Ensemble, featuring a string quartet of leading BIPOC musicians performing family-friendly music, with a Q&A to follow. This will be a fun and intimate presentation geared toward families and those who want to learn about classical music in a more laid back setting. Please note that visitors will be required to wear face masks. 
Next up is LACMA‘s eclectic and award-winning Art & Music series The Portable Universe, presenting Colombian musician Luis Fernando Franco Duque on Sunday, May 29 from 2-3 p.m. Duque will play ancient Colombian ocarinas in the galleries of The Portable Universe, “a groundbreaking exhibition showcasing the materiality and knowledge of ancient Columbian cultures from an Indigenous point of view.” P.S. This program will be in both Spanish and English. 
And lastly, Jazz at LACMA will be filling the air again on Friday, June 3 from 6-8 p.m. with a performance by the Matt Gordy JazzTonite Sextet. Drummer, arranger, and composer Matt Gordy has had a successful four decade career that includes performances and tours with Tony Bennett, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, and the Boston Symphony.
The American Legion Post 43 is home to the Hollywood Legion Theater, and this Memorial Day the Legion will remember the brave men and women of the armed forces with a 3 p.m. screening of William Wyler’s epic drama The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946): “a profound and sensitive film that focuses on the lives of three veterans who return home to civilian life in small-town America after serving in the Pacific.” The winner of eight Academy Awards, this film is said to have forever changed the narrative about how films dealt with veterans’ affairs. Tickets are $15 for the general public and free for Post 43 members, veterans, active duty military personnel and their families.
Chevalier’s Books keeps bringing the book talk magic with two more in-person events this week starting on Monday, May 30 with Marissa R. Moss and her book, Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be. The “full and unbridled” inside story of the last twenty years of country music through the eyes of Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kacey Musgraves. Then on Wednesday, June 1 at 7 p.m., Francesca Giacco will be in-store discussing and signing her novel Six Days in Rome, described as “decadent and deeply evocative – a stunningly cool and stylish debut,” so don’t miss it!
And even more art and talks for you happening on Tuesday, May 31 courtesy of the American Artist: Shaper of God opening reception and conversation at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT). In celebration of said opening, LACMA Art + Technology Lab grant recipient American Artist, and Octavia E. Butler scholar Ayana Jamieson, who also happens to be a mythologist and depth psychologist, will discuss science fiction writer Octavia Butler’s “continued resonance in contemporary life.” Curator Adam Kleinman will moderate the discussion to be followed by audience Q&A. Public reception will be from 5–7 p.m. with the conversation to follow. The theater is located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex.
And The Ebell Chorale will celebrate its return to in-person performances this week on Wednesday, June 1 at The Ebell of Los Angeles. “She Sings…”, the chorale’s spring concert and luncheon, will feature songs with lyrics by famed poets Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and William Blake, as well as composers from Haydn to modern times. So come on down to the club for a delightful morning of music with the chorale, a vital part of the Ebell’s history for more than 90 years! The concert will begin at 11 a.m. followed by a luncheon at noon. Tickets are $45 for non-members and $35 for members.
Then, on Thursday, June 2, The Ebell will switch gears from lyrical poetry and singing to a heady discussion between former US Attorney General Eric Holder, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Sam Koppelman about Holder’s Book Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote (A History, A Crisis, A Plan). “A brutal, bloody, and at times hopeful history of the vote; a primer on the opponents fighting to take it away; and a playbook for how we can save our democracy before it’s too late.” Tickets are $45 and include one signed copy of the book that you’ll receive the night of the event. Masks will be required. Doors at 6:30, Talk at 7. Co-presented by Chevalier’s Books and Eso Won Books.
Opening just last week, two new exhibitions at The Broad are now available for your viewing pleasure. The first, but in no particular order, is Takashi Murakami’s Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, a display of his “expansive artistic universe” which will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at The Broad, and will feature 18 works, old and new, that explore globalization, postwar Japan, pop culture, and religious iconography. One of the most widely recognized artists working today, Murakami’s body of work spans fine art, fashion, animation, film, and more. 
The second special exhibition, This Is Not America’s Flag will feature more than twenty artists highlighting the endless ways artists explore the symbol of the American flag. The exhibit was developed conceptually in the summer of 2020 during the groundswell of activism for racial justice and was inspired by two works in the Broad collection, Flag (1967) by Jasper Johns and African-American Flag (1990) by David Hammons. Lastly, don’t miss compelling programs, presented all month long in association with both exhibits, family art-making workshops, and more! Get tickets here.
Local Government
Your local NC, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council has just one meeting on the books this week for the Resilience Committee on Wednesday, June 1 at 7 p.m. Click here to view the calendar for details.
And the Mid City West Neighborhood Council will wrap up our events list with two gatherings starting with weekly Wednesday Walks on Wednesday, June 1 and the Planning and Land Use Committee on Thursday, June 2. Click here to check Mid City’s calendar for details.
