Metabolic Studio Twain Tour: L.A. Creek Freak Historic Bridges Excursion


This December, the Metabolic Studio teams up with L.A. Creek Freak for a new installment in its “The Twain” Trolley tours. The December tours will showcase a dozen of Los Angeles’ iconic historic downtown bridges.

These monumental City Beautiful bridges, over the Los Angeles River and in Downtown L.A., were built between 1906 and 1932 and represent a hopeful forward-looking moment in the city’s history of growth and expansion. Many of the beautiful concrete-arch spans are targeted for demolition; this tour will spur conversations on the bridges’ significance - past and future.

What: Twain Trolley tours of the Downtown Los Angeles bridges
When: Fridays, December 3rd and 10th 2010
Trolley departs 1pm, returns 3:15pm
Where: The Metabolic Studio, 1745 North Spring Street, Unit 6, Los Angeles CA 90012

How much: Tour is free, but space is limited; reservations are strongly recommended - please RSVP to [email protected]
Note: tours include three short walking stops (approximately 5 minute walks) – wear comfortable walking shoes.

All tours will include commentary by Joe Linton, author of Down by the Los Angeles River and contributor to the L.A. Creek Freak blog. Each trip also includes special guest conversationalists:

Friday December 3rd:
Mike Woo – L.A. City Planning Commissioner
Eloy Torrez - artist

Friday December 10th:
Matt Coolidge – Center for Land Use Interpretation
James Rojas – Latino Urban Forum

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Jerri Allyn & Inez Bush
Friday, August 20, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission

Debating through the Arts / Presentation and Interactive Workshop


Can you imagine including artists on the world stage at the UN, advocating for cultural participation in global affairs? This Salon will begin with a brief presentation by Bush and Allyn about a daylong theatrical event on Dec. 5, 2009, based on a Model United Nations paradigm. The performance included 4 teams of artists acting as UN Delegates, creatively debating the pros and cons of Freedom of Expression, and Gentrification and Cultural Equity.* The presenters will note how this model is evolving for Debate #2 on Sept. 26, 2010 at St. Elmo Village.


After the introduction, Bush and Allyn will conduct an interactive workshop that provides a “taste of the Debates.” The two will begin by facilitating a 15 minute discussion with Salon participants that distinguishes two sides of the following question, and how it effects Metabolic Studio, their neighbors, and / or downtown LA:


Gentrification and Cultural Equity: Can community members and local governments ensure cultural equity in the revitalization of their neighborhoods? How do we resolve the class war? Participants will then break into small groups to brainstorm “win / win” solutions – which can be as wild as one can imagine - for the issue debated. All will gather again to share the small group creative ideas, and to conclude the Salon workshop. The participating artists in Debate #1 included: Marjan Vayghan, Shana Nys Dambrot, Micol Hebron, Marissa Mercado, Michele Jaquis, Rosalyn Myles, Carol McDowell, Marcus Miceli, Juna Amano, Trinidad Ruiz, Beth Peterson; a socially-engaged lunch was provided by Portable City Projects with Jules Rochielle and Flora Kao.


Jerri Allyn has an MA in Art and Community from Goddard College (VT). Allyn creates site-oriented, interactive installations and performance art events that become a part of public life. The Artist Educator often collaborates, working extensively with new art genres. Allyn is a co-founding member of The Waitresses and Sisters of Survival, public performance art groups. Internationally exhibited, she has received a Rockefeller Foundation Residency, Italy; an International Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fellowship, Mexico; NY State Council on the Arts, LA Department of Cultural Affairs, and National Endowment for the Arts grants, among others.


Inez S. Bush, M.A. in Education, Leadership and Change, and BFA in Graphic Design, is an entrepreneur, creative director, graphic designer, trained facilitator and coach. Currently an Arts Consultant, she guides school districts in arts education implementation by developing and implementing integrated arts curricula, arts programs and professional development for educators. Ms. Bush is also co-founder, CEO and Creative Director of Gramercy Partners, Inc., an award-winning marketing, communications and design firm. Her thesis and lifework is focused on identifying the key to sustaining arts education and arts integrative methods in educational practices.

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Gabriella Salomon
Friday, August 13, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission


Intuitive Chefing; the art and science of simple salads

In this salon we will explore and learn about the art and science of making salads. We will begin with a brief overview of raw foods from a flexitarian perspective, including what ingredients, tools, and resources are essential for a healthy diet and lifestyle. Then I will share my secrets to making salads more creative and delicious, as well as demonstrate a recipe (or 2 if we have time) for a dressing that will bring new life into your salad bowl.

Gabriella Salomon, aka Raw Mama, is a certified Spiritual Live Foods Instructor, aspiring nutritionist, and a new member of the Metabolic Studio team. She trained at the Tree of Life Rejuevenation Center, one of the world’s leading spiritual, vegan, raw and live food healing centers. Gabriella began working out of her home in Santa Cruz, California, delivering raw lunches to local community members, and quickly made her way into the downtown farmers market through a unique and innovative business model for a food collective. Currently, she works for the Metabolic Studio as the kitchen manager of the Strawberry Flag Project at the West VA hospital. There she works with veterans to bring healthy food to the table and share alternative ways of creating community around healing nutrition.

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Leslie Gersicoff
Friday, August 6, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission

Fair Trade, Sweatfree Labor and What We Can All Do to Help End Slavery in Manufacturing

How slave labor is "employed"/procured and how to determine certified slave-free production chain - Leslie Gersicoff
El Monte and the birth of the anti-slavery sweatfree movement in the U.S. - Taja McKinney Zisler
Current statistics about slave labor around the globe and at home in the U.S. - Jerilyn Stapleton
More major sweatshop cases in the U.S. (eg. American Samoa) affecting all Americans - Taja McKinney Zisler
Los Angeles Sweatfree Commission/National Consortium and action post card campaign - Floyd Glen-Lambert
CA supply chain bill and and action each person can take - Vanessa Lanza
Resources on where to buy sweatfree products - Taja McKinney Zisler

Leslie Gersicoff is the Executive Director of the Jewish Labor Committee, a social justice organization formed over 75 years ago to bring trade unionists and others out of Nazi Europe's threat of slave labor and death camps. Its current program of educating labor and the general community about the possible signs of human trafficking is aimed at reducing and eliminating slavery in American labor. Leslie chairs LANES, the Los Angeles Network to End Slavery, a coalition of outreach and service groups working to end slavery in Los Angeles County. LANES works closely with CAST, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, to find and restore victims of human trafficking to a healthy life. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and is working, proving there is some link between fiction and reality.

Jerilyn Stapleton is the JLC WR Project Director to End Human Trafficking in American Labor. She is involved with the current creation of a Federal Department of Peace and is very active in NOW and coalitions to end Domestic Violence. Her other affiliations include
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Women’s Committee, American Federation of Television and Radio Artist AFTRA Women’s Committee, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Task Force for Universal Healthcare, Women in Film WIF, CLUW, NWPC.

As CAST’s Volunteer Coordinator Taja McKinney Zisler is responsible for recruiting and managing more than 50 active volunteers who assist with all areas of CAST’s mission. Taja also organizes and runs a 40-hour comprehensive trafficking training program for volunteers held three times per year. Volunteers at CAST answer our 24-hour hotline, assist survivors in our shelter and accompany clients to appointments, provide interpretation (in 16 languages), and provide administrative, outreach and legal support. Taja is also responsible for creating CAST student chapters at universities around the greater Los Angeles area and raising awareness about trafficking through outreach initiatives, community presentations and trainings.
Taja holds a Masters degree in International Social Development from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a BA in International Studies from Boston College. Prior to joining CAST, Taja worked for 4 years in the field of humanitarian relief and development, as a high school teacher both in the United States and Bahamas.

For more information, visit the CAST website and JLC WR.


 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Luis Ituarte
Friday, July 30, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission


The Transformation of Tijuana Through the Arts
How artists and independent art centers are making a difference
The role of Southern California
Consequences in the rest of Mexico

A founding member of Canada’s Artists at City Hall and the street art coalition Alley Art, artist, designer and curator Luis Ituarte has been Director of Cultural Activities for The Olvera Street Merchants Association; art teacher at Plaza de la Raza, and The Junior Arts Center in Hollywood; Programs Coordinator and curator at the Lankershim Art Center and Director of Art in the Park with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (LACAD).

In addition to being a founding member of the Graffiti Arts Coalition and Urbanos L.A., he is a member of Tijuana Cultural Think Tank El Foro Cultural Ciudadano (FOCUC) and a member of San Diego-based arts organization Public Address. Now retired from LACAD, he consults with organizations on both sides of the border, Luis serves as President of COFAC Mexico and Co-founder/Director of Tijuana’s La Casa del Tunel Art Center.

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Rick Miller
Friday, July 23, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission


The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design: A Metabolic Pecha Kucha

The pecha kucha format (20 seconds per slide X 20 slides per presentation) tends toward a rapid-fire staccato of diverse ideas, interests, and projects. In our Metabolic Studio salon, we plan to retain the volume of new thoughts and concepts thrown before us, but to slow the pace at which they are digested by providing greater time and space in which audience and presenters can discuss the material. We are effectively blurring the line between presenter and audience as presenters are drawn from the long-standing audience of Metabolic salon attendees.

Rick Miller is a cultural geographer researching urban landscapes, both abroad, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia as well as locally in Los Angeles. The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design has been operating pecha kucha events in LA since 2004.

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Frances Dinkelspiel
Friday, July 16, 2010 @ Noon
Free Admission

Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

When Isaias Hellman arrived in Los Angeles in 1859, it was more Mexican pueblo than American city. Hellman started as a dry goods clerk and rose to become Los Angeles's most successful banker and businessman. He lent Harrison Gray Otis the funds to gain control of the Los Angeles Times, Edward Doheny the money to find oil, and Henry Huntington the backing to build the region's extensive trolley service. Hellman donated the land for the founding of USC and controlled the city's private water company until 1901. By the first decade of the 2oth century he was president of Wells Fargo Bank and controlled more than $100 million in capital. Come hear the story of the man who indelibly shaped Los Angeles.

Frances Dinkelspiel is an award winning journalist who writes frequently for the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times called her bestselling book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman, "impressively researched and engagingly told."

Image: Isaias Hellman, courtesy of Frances Dinkelspiel

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