Entertainment Los Angeles (6)
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KCRW Presents: Sapphire with Bookworm Michael Silverblatt
Written by Steven
When she was writing Push, author Sapphire probably had no idea that the Academy Award-winning screenplay “Precious” would be based on it and that a Best Supporting Actress role would result from the screenplay. Her new novel, The Kid, takes up where Push left off, following the orphaned son of the abused lead character Precious…and director Ridley Scott has optioned the film rights to it.
To celebrate publication of The Kid, KCRW’s Bookworm Michael Silverblatt engages Sapphire in a live conversation and reading in an intimate salon setting in West Hollywood, on Sunday, July 24 at 5pm. Seating is extremely limited…but extremely comfortable! Tickets on sale online only at www.kcrw.com/upclose
This special event is part of KCRW’s UpClose series. UpClose reinvents the art of cultural conversation with a series of intimate staged gatherings, featuring KCRW program hosts one-on-one with a variety of special guests from across the cultural landscape. These evenings are recorded as exclusive online content for KCRW.com. Previous evenings have featured Elvis Mitchell (host of The Treatment) in conversation with indie film actress Catherine Keener, television visionary Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), and filmmaker/TV producer Alan Ball (American Beauty; Six Feet Under).
Of the author, host Michael Silverblatt says, “While Sapphire is often known as a taboo breaker and a provocateur, we want to consider her as an artist—not only an African American ground-breaking original, but also a major contributor to the future of the American novel.”
Sapphire is the author of two collections of poetry and the best-selling novel Push. The film adaption of her novel, Precious, received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance. In 2009 she was a recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship.
About KCRW: KCRW 89.9FM, licensed to Santa Monica College, is National Public Radio's flagship station for Southern California. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit represents cutting edge radio at its best, presenting an eclectic mix of independent music, news, talk and arts programming. The terrestrial signal serves Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura Counties, as well as parts of San Diego, San Bernardino, Kern, and Santa Barbara Counties and the greater Palm Springs area. KCRW’s programming is internationally renowned and available worldwide via KCRW.com, including three streaming channels, 27 podcasts and archives of our locally-produced programs and live band performances. Hear KCRW music online, all the time, on the ALL music stream Eclectic24.
UNCF® and BET Partner for UNCF An Evening of Stars® Presented By Target
Written by Steven
Program Will Feature Star-Studded Performances Along With Education Success Stories
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and BET have announced that they will join forces to make this year’s edition of UNCF’s long-running UNCF An Evening of Stars® the most exciting and moving in the program’s 33-year history.
UNCF An Evening of Stars® has long been a showcase both for legendary and fast-rising stars from the music industry—recent performers and prior honorees have included Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend and Stevie Wonder—and for education success stories that embody the spirit of UNCF’s iconic motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” ® Working together, UNCF and BET will combine the program’s star-studded tradition with BET’s proven record of attracting both the music industry’s hottest talent and large, passionate audiences eager to engage in the issues we all face. Additionally, the new program aims to further rally the entertainment industry around the importance of education and the doors it can open.
“Our students and their need for a good education deserve the large and passionate audience that watches BET,” said UNCF president and CEO, Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D. “They deserve the best entertainers performing on stage and speaking out for the right to go to and through college, and they deserve to have their stories told in a way that everyone can connect to. Together, UNCF and BET can create a show that entertains at the same time it delivers on the opportunity to inform and activate new viewers around the UNCF mission of education for all Americans.”
"We’re excited to partner with UNCF for UNCF An Evening of Stars® amplifying their message and assisting in their goal to better support African-American students and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs),” said Stephen Hill, President of Music and Specials Programming, BET Networks. “We have a phalanx of passionate BET folks (many of them HBCU grads) who look forward to producing and airing a great show celebrating the power of education and the need for everyone to engage with UNCF. We must ensure that we can educate our future."
The new UNCF An Evening of Stars® will be a musical variety show punctuated with short video segments spotlighting a few of the 60,000 students whose education UNCF supports every year, making the program a celebration of the best in entertainment and education. In addition, the new format will allow performers to perform the songs they are identified with and want to promote, thereby attracting the hottest talent and music. The show will be taped before a live audience on August 14, 2011 and will air on BET Networks this fall.
This year's show is made possible by Target, Presenting Sponsor of UNCF An Evening of Stars®, and National Sponsors, McDonald's and AT&T. Official, and Major Sponsors include American Airlines, Wells Fargo, BET Networks, Buick and the U.S Army.
About UNCF An Evening of Stars®
UNCF An Evening of Stars®, formerly the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars®, first aired in 1979, and since that time has become one of the longest running and most successful televised events in U.S. history. Over its 32-year history, UNCF An Evening of Stars® has raised more than $200 million that has helped hundreds of thousands of students attend college and graduate. In recent years, UNCF An Evening Of Stars® has featured a Who's Who of remarkable talent, including Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Chaka Khan, Ne-Yo, Nancy Wilson, Beyoncé, Anita Baker, Jill Scott, Whoopi Goldberg, Fantasia, Joss Stone, Jennifer Hudson, Michael Bolton, Natalie Cole, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Hall and Oates, Ziggy Marley, Maroon 5, and scores of others. UNCF An Evening of Stars® received NAACP Image Awards for its 2006 tribute to Stevie Wonder, its 2008 tribute to Smokey Robinson and its 2010 tribute to Lionel Richie. Learn more about UNCF An Evening of Stars® at www.UNCF.org.
About UNCF
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities across the country. UNCF supports education through scholarships and other programs, by supporting its 38 member colleges and universities, and by advocating for the importance of minority education. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding 21 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. The UNCF logo features the torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."® Learn more at www.UNCF.org.
About BET Networks
BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.
Direct from Broadway John Leguizamo in “Ghetto Klown”
Written by Steven
Direct from Broadway, John Leguizamo’s “Ghetto Klown,” directed by Fisher Stevens, opens for fifteen performances only from September 30 to October 16 at The Ricardo Montalbán Theatre. The press opening is October 2 at 5 pm.
Leguizamo said, “I love that all my peoples are showing up to witness the latest chapter of my life on stage; I want to keep this show open until I’ve messed up my 10 year old son enough for him to be my understudy.”
Conceived and performed by Emmy and Obie Award winner John Leguizamo and directed by Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens, “Ghetto Klown”is presented by WestBeth Entertainment.
Tickets go on sale on Sunday, July 31 at 10 am at tix.com or call 800-595-4849.
“Ghetto Klown” is the next chapter in John Leguizamo’s popular personal and professional story. It is his fifth one-man play, his third on Broadway, and follows in the uninhibited tradition of his Mambo Mouth, Spic-O-Rama, Freak, and Sexaholix…a Love Story. In Leguizamo’s trademark style, the piece explodes with energy, heating up the stage with vivid accounts of the colorful characters who have populated his life. He takes audiences from his adolescent memories in Queens to the early days of his acting career and on to the sets of major motion pictures and his roles opposite some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Leguizamo explains, “Ghetto Klown”is all the things I say to my therapist and my manager, but would never want the general public to know. It’s cheaper than a lawsuit and I get to take a bow at the end. It’s like Wikileaks but with no international manhunt. Yet.”
“Ghetto Klown” was showcased in earlier incarnations in cities including Philadelphia, New Haven, Santa Fe, Louisville, La Jolla, Berkeley, Toronto, and at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival
The Broadway critics weighed in:
“He has sabor: tasty, textured, and very funny… It adds up to a vivid, generous, irresistible evening of multi-cultural mischief. – New Yorker, John Lahr
“Ferociously funny. He takes us way beyond laughter.” - Bloomberg, Jeremy Gerard
Leguizamo is “intensely talented…a preternaturally gifted impressionist…He can hold a room rapt … this is after all, a man who bit Lee Strasberg. And he still has more than a few teeth left.” - New York Magazine, Scott Brown
“4 stars. ‘Ghetto Klown’ finds him in fighting trim and eager to take on all comers…It’s great fun to watch him up there in the ring where he belongs…A performer of electric charisma.” – Time Out New York, Adam Feldman
“Latino dynamo John Leguizamo struts up a storm in a hugely entertaining one-man show.” - Time Out New York’s Critics’ Pick
WestBeth Entertainment, Arnold Engelman – President, is a producing/promoting organization that has successfully and consistently produced critically acclaimed, financially successful, groundbreaking entertainment for 30 years. From Eddie Izzard to Billy Connolly, Mike Myers to Lewis Black, Wigfield to Hedwig, and The Family Guy to Tenacious D, WestBeth has been the creative catalyst, partner and producer of some of the most innovative productions across the nation. WestBeth is presently represented on Broadway with John Leguizamo’s GHETTO KLOWN at the Lyceum Theatre. WestBeth will also be promoting Eddie Izzard’s STRIPPED TO THE SHORE at Shoreline in San Jose and STRIPPED TO THE BOWLat the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Recent productions include Eddie Izzard’s January 2010 US Arena Tour – THE BIG INTIMACY TOUR, AN EVENING WITHOUT MONTY PYTHON directed by Eric Idle and BT McNicholl, Eddie Izzard’s sold out 34 city 2008 American Tour STRIPPED, as well as Billy Connolly’s TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG (North American Tour); and Lewis Black’s NOTHING SACRED (Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall), and the four month Off-Broadway run of STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG in New York City. Please visit www.westbethent.com for more information.
Calendar Listing for Ghetto Klown
Dates: Friday, September 30 to Sunday, October 16
Press opening Friday, September 30
Venue: The Ricardo Montalbán Theatre
1615 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028
Schedule: Tuesday through Saturday at 8 pm; Sundays at 5pm
Prices: $42.50 to $115; premium available.
Tickets: Web – www.tix.com
Phone 800-595-4849
Box Office at theatre – 1615 N. Vine Street, Hollywood
Box Office information – 323-461-0663
Info: Visit www.ghettoklown.com
www.twitter.com/ghettoklown
www.facebook.com/ghettoklown
Enjoy Free Summer Concerts in Levitt Pavilions at MacArthur Park
Written by Steven
In the middle of MacArthur Park, the Levitt Pavilion provides free, live concerts five nights in a week during the entire summer season, taking word-class music and joy to an underserved community.
As the number and frequency of Free Concerts happening in Los Angeles are announced, you must have been waiting to find out what’s what, where it is at, what’s on the show and who will be hosting it. The Levitt Pavilions at MacArthur Park, situated at the northwest corner of the park close to an intersection of West 6th Street and S. Park View Street, will be celebrating its inauguration night on July 7, 2001, Wednesday, at exactly 5 in the evening.
The celebration of the Levitt Pavilions at MacArthur Park will kick off with the Harmony Project, which is a nationally renowned award-winning youth orchestra that performs a tribute to the Beatles. The Levitt Pavilions at MacArthur Park will also showcase the colorful culture of El Salvador by featuring the Groupo Algodon, who will be presenting a musical combination of tropical Meringue, Cumbia and Carribean. For a full calendar listing of the performing artists and schedules, you may visit www.levittla.org.
It was in the year 2007 when the Levitt Pavilion has been inaugurated and since then, more that 120,000 people have gathered in Macarthur Park to enjoy music under the stars and picnic on the grassy lawn. The open lawn shapes into a natural amphitheater where people gather with picnic dinners, blankets and lawn chairs.
Calendar of Events:
WHAT: The 5th Annual Concert Series presented by the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts
WHEN: Every Thursdays to Sundays, starting the 19th of June until the 4th of September 2011. Every Thursdays through Sundays, concerts in the evening start at 7 pm. Sunday’s Children Shows start at 4 pm, unless changes are noted. From June 30 to July 3, there will be no performances.
WHERE: The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts at the MacArthur Park, situated close to the intersection of West 6th Street and South Park View Street right across the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
INFORMATION ABOUT PARKING: The following are some areas where you can park but these areas are pay parking with fees ranging anywhere from 5 dollars to 10 dollars:
- · 2509 Wilshire Boulevard parking lot
Tickets are absolutely free of charge and are available for all ages. So mark your calendars, as MacArthur Park is sure to be another totally cool place to enjoy your 2011 Summer time concerts this summer season. For more information, you may call at: 213 384-5701.
Hollywood Bowl Gives Tribute to the Legends of Reggae
Written by Steven
The Hollywood Bowl has prominently featured itself in the annals of our history and pop culture. Legendary classical composers, world famous orchestras and countless performance artists of all genres have performed inside its half shell hollow for generations and continue to do so to this very day. It has been an enduring symbol for America’s culture and a great historic pride for the people of Los Angeles for nearly a century. First to open its doors to the public in 1922, It has endured through two great wars and countless government changes and historic turmoil and will forevermore be etched in our collective memories as one of the bastions of the performance arts in our country. This month of July the Hollywood Bowl will pay tribute to the Reggae music genre and the historic changes that the music has brought with it withReggae Night X: Tuff Gong Worldwide and Ziggy Marley Salute Legends of Reggae, this coming July 31, 2011, Sunday.
Reggae Night X marks the 10th anniversary of Reggae in the Hollywood Bowl and will feature the son of Reggae’s legendary patron Bob Marley: Ziggy Marley. It will also feature artists of Tuff Gong Worldwide, Ziggy Marley’s record label (which was also the same name of his father’s own record label). It will feature artists from Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths (collectively known as the I-Threes), Ras Michael and Mighty Diamonds. Added to the line up of special guests is the Wailing Souls. KCRW radio’s Jeremy Sole will host the evening’s event.
Reggae music has been a globally successful genre ever since it came out, and the name “Bob Marley” was practically indistinguishable when people come to think of reggae music. After his death, Bob Marley’s oldest son, Ziggy Marley, has been carrying the torch of reggae music worldwide and continues on in his father’s many social awareness programs. Ziggy himself, an accomplished musician and a repeat Grammy Award winning performance artist, is a very active philanthropist with ties to many global social organizations such as with the United Nations and his own Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment (or URGE).
His music label, Tuff Gong Worldwide—whose original incarnation was founded by his father—was one of the very first music labels that were solely artist-owned, adding another notch to Bob Marley’s vision of producing and distributing socially conscious music free from the constraints of big record labels and their policies.
Aside from Reggae X, the Hollywood Bowl’s repertoire of musical performances is fully booked for the entire year, and July and August’s lineup include multi-Grammy Award winning Sarah Maclachlan (July 15 and 16), The Queen of Country Music, Dolly Parton (July 22 and 23), Michael Feinstein and the Singing Stars of Television featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (July 29 to 30), the Tony-award winning Broadway musical Hairspray (August 5 and 6), En!Fuego: Voices and Guitars Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mujeres de Agua featuring Javier Limon and Buika (August 12 and 13), Walt Disney’s Fantasia featuring John Maceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (August 19 and 20) and legendary composer John Williams in John Williams: Maestro of the Movies (August 26 and 27).
Whatever musical genre you’re craving, the Hollywood Bowl will be sure to satisfy it. Be sure to add The Hollywood Bowl in your itinerary this month and have the chance to check out reggae’s legends inReggae Night X this July underneath the stars in The Hollywood Bowl.
2011 BloomfestLA: Where you Experience Art Out in the Streets
Written by Steven
If you want to experience art out in the streets where it happens every day, check out the 2011 BloomfestLA. This free community festival will be held in the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District where everybody can enjoy eco-friendly fun, good food, arts and crafts, excellent brews by Angel City brewing and Wurstküche and some genuine indie music right on the KCRW stage. BloomFest LA is named in honor of a community activist by the name of Joel Bloom (1948-2007), which celebrates just about everything a”bloomin” in the Downtown Arts District, it could be in the field of music, art and even the environment. The activities in BloomFest LA are so designed to go together with the neighborhood’s revolving outdoor gallery comprised of murals and other forms of artwork by celebrated street artists.
The 2011 Bloomfest LA is a an exciting community event that is organized in partnership with a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promote the Downtown Arts District – the Los Angeles River Artist and Business Association or simply LARABA.
The 2011 Bloomfest LA will be held on Saturday, July 23, 2011. Activities will start at 2 pm and end at 10 pm at the Downtown Arts District in Los Angeles, centered at 3rd Street and Traction Avenue. Admission is absolutely free for all ages.
For more information regarding the event, visit www.bloomfestla.com
For press inquiries, you may call: (310) 403-1720
Information on Parking and Transportation:
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Information about the Downtown Arts District:
It was in the 1980s when the Downtown Arts District was founded as an artist enclave comprising of a 52-block neighborhood. This neighborhood is made up of art galleries and artist studios; nightspots and restaurants such as Angel City Brewing, Metropol and Wurstkuche; industrial businesses, nonprofits such as the Art Share Los Angeles and the Cornerstone Theater Company; coffeehouses such as the Novel Café and Urth Café; creative entrepreneurs and government agencies anchored by the SCI-Arc. The Downtown Arts District is situated right at the center of the city’s new Los Angeles CleanTech Corridor where a business campus will soon to raise in order to develop sustainable technologies.
Information about the Los Angeles River Artist and Business Association (LARABA):
The Los Angeles River Artist and Business Association or simply LARABA, a 501© (4) non-profit organization that was established in the year 1991. This organization is aimed at pursuing the improvement of life and improves opportunities in the Downtown Arts District through the promotion of a lively and healthy economic, cultural and social growth and promoting the community as a creative environment for the benefit of all the citizens of Los Angeles. To know more about LARABA, you may visit their official website at www.laraba.org.
