Kind-Hearted Compassion in Action

Posted on by Diversions LA

 

 

 

Saturday December 12th was the date for the “Elevate Genius” fundraising event held at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana, but the purpose of the event is on-going throughout 2016 for non-profit Kind-Hearted Compassion in Action. The organization is dedicated to supporting artists, musicians, and activists from adverse circumstances,helping them to share their works, “in order to create positive and uplifting social change,” according to organization co-founder and Orange County attorney Pamela Tahim.

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Pamela Tahim, center

Tahim‘s brother, Jesse Tahim, a musician and lyricist, started this project, a movement to make mainstream hip-hop music more socially conscious. Jesse Tahim asked for his sister’s help to start the program, but passed away before his dream could be realized. Pamela Tahim, along with psychologist Dr. Sonia Singh, went on to found this organization, which offers mentoring, funding, and partnering for artists.

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Pamela Tahim explains “Our goal is to spread peace and compassion through music and the arts, through the words musicians select, or the type of art displayed. At our December event, headliner Bizzy Bone from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, keynote speaker and music manager Steve Lobel, and other speakers from Southern California all echoed the importance of empowering those who use art and music to spread these messages.”

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Along with a wide variety of musical performers and additional speakers including FOX 11’s Christine Devine, an art exhibition was an integral part of the evening, depicting homeless or marginalized individuals who have lost their lives.These powerful portraits underscored the importance of spreading the positive to prevent brutality, abuse, and corruption. Words, music, and images – all vitally important ways to change negative events both politically and personally, according to the tenets of Kind Hearted Compassion in Action.

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With over 500 attendees, funds raised from the event will be used for artist and musician grant recipients and for future programs. For more information on this program and its efforts to empower at risk artists, visit www.kindheartedcompassion.org

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Provided by Dea Shandera Hunter

Burning Down the Art: Dani Dodge “Peeled & Raw”

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Artist Dani Dodge at Peeled & Raw
Artist Dani Dodge at Peeled & Raw

What better holiday gift than this? A look at Dani Dodge’s exciting installation piece, “Peeled & Raw” at LA Art Core Brewery Annex. This Sunday, December 27th, Dodge will be setting fire to the fears and apprehension expressed through the piece.

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The actual burning is symbolic of the burning resonance of the work, which you’ll find seared into your mind from the moment you see it.

At the opening in early December, Dodge described her piece as focusing on fear and what happens when it is covered up rather than faced.
Viewers participated in the piece by tearing away layers of wallpaper on the exhibits walls, writing their fears on the torn scraps, and then dropping them to the ground. These expressed fears will be burnt at the closing prior to the dismantlement of the piece itself.

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See this exhibit, experience its catharsis, and let the message it presents ignite. Losing fear equals freedom.

Dodge says “I’m thrilled with how things are going, with how comfortable people feel with letting their fears go. I love hearing that so many people have felt freed by the experience.”

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The experience is that of a full-scale installation designed to resemble a living room with green floral wallpaper covering not just the walls but the figures seated in the room and the furniture they’re sitting on.

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Seated on a small sofa, Dodge’s two figures are watching a television set where a loop of black and white footage runs continuously describing – what else – but wallpapering. The old footage is narrated by a modern voice, recorded in 2014. In short: time is mutable in the expression of fear.

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“I’ve been thinking about something like this since I lived in a fixer-upper home, and as I was trying to get it cleaned up, we had to peel the wallpaper off,” Dodge relates. “When we came to the last layer, we uncovered this beautiful Parisian scene, watercolors of women. It reminded me of the fact that for so many years we’ve tried to cover things up, making so many mistakes in this society. We’ve covered up beauty by letting our fears run amuck instead of dealing with issues in positive ways.”

The catalyst for Dodge to create this piece now was the mass shootings at Charlie Hebdo in Paris. “And the aftermath,” Dodge explains, “of how people were treated, about the demonizing of ordinary people because fears were not being dealt with appropriately.”

Dodge designed the exhibit so that each person who comes into the room-sized installation can think about what they fear and express it. “We’ve made huge mistakes as a country. I’m trying to address the inappropriateness of stereotypes now, but that’s not the only fear I’m asking people to express. Everyone has different fears of how they look on Facebook, how to earn a living. All the fears are going to be burned, which is a great way to start the New Year fresh,” Dodge attests.

To create her work, Dodge, a former journalist, purchased vintage wall paper at the Manzanaar Interpretive Center. Peeling back the layers of that paper is, Dodge, says like peeling an onion – there’s nothing at the core.

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“Peeled & Raw” remains on view through December 27th at LA Artcore Brewery Annex located at 650 A South Avenue 21 in DTLA. Join her just after the holidays, from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday December 27th for a look – or a second look – at this wonderful piece and to participate in the burning of fears at 2 p.m. outside the gallery. After a reception, the installation will be dismantled – so go – what are you afraid of?

  • Genie Davis, ALL PHOTOS, Jack Burke

 

Awake and Sing: Clifford Odets’ Relevancy Assured

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Awake & Sing logo

At the Odyssey Theater in West Los Angeles through the end of this month is a terrific staging of the Clifford Odets’ classic, Awake & Sing. A three act play about three generations of a Jewish family in New York during the Depression, the story is about repression and overcoming it, about poverty and the attempt to rise above it, about the rich getting richer and the divide between rich and poor getting wider.

In broad terms, these subjects are all exceedingly relevant today. In personal terms as well, some things never change. If a pregnant girl is not immediately married off today, if old men no longer listen to Enrico Caruso for inspiration, there is still a desire for adventure, for freedom; there are still taboo relationships disapproved of among families; there are still mothers who cling to their grown children – we have a term for that now, helicopter parents. There are still the conflicts that beset a family over money or the lack there of, there are still the conflicts that represent dreams of a better life and the necessity for someone to buck up and shoulder the burden of keeping the family unit together.

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But Odets asks, all of this at what cost? At what cost the quest for freedom? At what cost the persistence in keeping the family unit intact when maybe, just maybe, it would be better to let it fragment? At what cost to society when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and there is no way out but revolution?

This all sounds terribly weighty, and certainly the content is fraught with intensity. But what is the most pleasurable about this production, and the gift of Odets love for language and character through dialog, is the acting.

A showcase for every actor on stage, the emotional range that leads to a third act climax guaranteed to have you swiping at your eyes – this play depends upon stellar casting, and achieves it.

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The matinee performance we saw had an alternate in the key role of domineering mama Bessie Berger; but Melissa Weber Bales more than aced the part. Every actor seethed with vitality, from Richard Fancy as un-self-examined rich Uncle Morty to Robert Lesser as sad father Myron Berger, Melissa Paladino riveting as Hennie who resents her arranged marriage to nebbish Sam Feinschreiber ( a touching Gary Patent), David Agranov as tough war vet turned petty criminal Moe Axelrod, James Morosini as Ralph, Hennie’s slightly wet-behind-the-years brother ( a difficult role in a part that seems dated in his unrequited love for an “orphan girl”), and a powerful Alan Miller as the pivotal grandfather, Jacob.

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Director Elina De Santos gets emotions to a boil and lets them bubble over artfully; Odets fast and layered dialog does not disappoint.  The Odyssey’s intimate seating plunges the audience directly into the well-designed Berger’s period living and dining area.

For a fine drama, something in and of itself to be thankful for this Thanksgiving; for a timeless approach to personal and political choices – Awake &Sing! Or awake and snag some tickets.

The Odyssey Theater is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda; check website at www.odysseytheatre.com for ticket availability.

 

Why You Should Go to Vernon, California – DABSMYLA Before and Further

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DABSMYLA's Before and Further - All Photos: Jack Burke
DABSMYLA’s Before and Further – All Photos: Jack Burke

Just south east of downtown LA’s arts district lies the industrial enclave of Vernon. A tiny town with political corruption battles, a few fast food eateries, and lots and lots of warehouses and factories. So why do you want to go there?

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Photo: You might just be able to own chairs kind of like those – Modernica is producing some limited edition recreations.

For DABSMYLA’s astonishing installation art takeover of a factory workplace at the  Modernica furniture factory.

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Blacklight room

What is DABSMYLA? It’s a who, or rather two who’s, a thoroughly blended duo of married artists. A true creative partnership, the couple has melded not just their names but their artwork, and created among other works this 4,000-square-foot installation that looks like something you might’ve dreamed as a movie set.

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And it’s only there until November 15th, so don’t hesitate to grab your significant other, friends, family, and camera to go see it.

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Don’t worry about things like parking and admission costs: there’s plenty of the former in a guarded lot adjacent to the structure, and none of the latter: it’s free. Less crowded than the Broad and a super-fresh interpretation of modern art.

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“Before and Further” is the title of what could be the home of the Cat in the Hat if he was hip and kind of into the 60s.

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Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and furnishings that include limited-edition fiberglass shell chairs available for purchase through Modernica are all a part of the artists’ collaboration with Modernica.

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Inspired by DABSMYLA’s own shared process of creation, Before and Further is a house that has modern asethetics, pop art, giant cat faces, binoculars trained on a tiny elf figure perched on the roof of an opposite structure, a black light room with glowing cartoon faces, a black and white television running video art, a hi-fi portable stereo you can listen to, a secret movable clock and peep hole through which you can view the artists’ workshop.

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Look behind the clock and peek inside: we did!
Look behind the clock and peek inside: we did!

The duo call the piece an “adventure in modern living and artistic partnership,” for visitors it’s a wonderful mash-up of the surreal and the real. It’s the Modernist movement, its a gentle promo for original Modernica furniture creations, its a transformation that Alice in Wonderland would appreciate after going through the looking glass.

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What would you do if you could completely gut and revitalize a creaky 1930s era Spanish Revival house perched on the lot of a factory where the furniture is made one piece at a time?

Chances are, you might have thought of something like this. If you’re DABSMYLA of course.

If not: visit 2901 Saco Street in Los Angeles Thursday through Sunday from noon til 7 pm UNTIL NOVEMBER 15th.  Yes, it’s lit up at night. No, you can’t live there, no matter how much you want to. Besides, do you really, really want to live in Vernon?