Metabolic Studio Public SalonJerri Allyn & Inez BushFriday, August 20, 2010 @ NoonFree 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 SalonGabriella SalomonFriday, August 13, 2010 @ NoonFree 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 SalonLeslie GersicoffFriday, August 6, 2010 @ NoonFree 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 SalonLuis ItuarteFriday, July 30, 2010 @ NoonFree 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 SalonRick MillerFriday, July 23, 2010 @ NoonFree 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 SalonFrances DinkelspielFriday, July 16, 2010 @ NoonFree 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

More Information:

www.francesdinkelspiel.com, www.towersofgold.com

Metabolic Studio Public SalonMichael WilkenFriday, July 9, 2010 @ NoonFree Admission

Native Peoples of Baja California and the Creation of New Spaces for Cultural Revitalization

Baja California, Mexico is a land of remote and rugged coasts, mountains, and deserts only a few hours from downtown Los Angeles. For thousands of years, native peoples have made their homes in the peninsula’s unique landscapes; hunting, gathering and fishing in annual cycles of movement. Through knowledge of the natural world passed on over generations, they have learned to interact with local plants, animals and natural habitats in ways that have provided them with food, medicine, tools and shelter. They have developed technologies for the production of basketry, pottery, bows and arrows, cordage and carrying nets, stone tools and housing.

Today, Baja California’s artisans and environmental specialists are finding new value in the expertise inherited from previous generations, as they are invited to teach their skills at US reservations, museums, state parks and universities. Traditional arts, originally made for use in daily life, have evolved into valuable art objects and prized trade items that embody the region’s indigenous culture and history. This multi-media presentation uses photographs, music and lively narrative to show how Native Baja Californians are creating new spaces for the revitalization of the original cultures and languages of this land. Learn about how Mexican and US volunteers are collaborating in the creation of the Tecate Community Museum, an innovative new space for indigenous culture.

Michael Wilken is an anthropologist specializing in indigenous peoples and the native environments of Baja California. He has documented traditional lifeways of the Kumiai and Paipai peoples, and has developed lifelong collaborative relationships with many indigenous artists and cultural authorities, helping to promote sustainable livelihoods and cultural revitalization. His writings have been published in both academic journals and popular magazines such as News from Native California. Wilken lectures in American Indian Studies at San Diego State University where he is also a student in the Masters program in Anthropology. He is currently collaborating with the non-profit organizations Corredor Histórico CAREM and Fundación La Puerta to create the Tecate Kumiai Museum, set to open in fall of 2010.

Image courtesy Michael Wilken

Metabolic Studio Public SalonRobby Herbst & Katie BachlerFriday, July 2, 2010 @ NoonFree Admission

A Map For An Other LA: Post-Politics or Otherwise

This past winter the Llano Del Rio Collective released it’s first Guide, “A Map For An Other LA”. This guide highlights projects within Los Angeles that act as if they constitute an other possible city; one whose ethics are based on sharing, cooperation, creativity, land economic and food justice. Post-politics by some is described as the progression from party based, policy driven, activity towards action based autonomous action. This Salon will explore Llano Del Rio Collective map and the ideas which inspired the project, as well as the remaining questions concerning autonomy within public space.

Robby Herbst is an agent of the Llano Del Rio Group who recently produced A Map For An Other LA. This is the first guide published by the Llano Del Rio Group in what will be a series of provisional publications aiming to instigate the expansion of the social and political imaginations of Los Angeles. The next Llano Del Rio Guide will look at attempts by individuals to intervene in the functioning of the city through the creation of temporary or permanent “scores”. He is a recipient of a Warhol Foundation Artist Writers Grant. Currently his artwork can be seen in the Berlin at the NGBK in a group show, titled in German, Theater of Peace. He is an adjunct professor of New Genres Art at USC and a faculty member in Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Art.

Katie Bachler drew the Map For An Other LA. She is an educator focused on the intricacies of nature and possibilities of alternative economies in Los Angeles. She recently co-curated a beet-in (celebration of the beet) at her studio space in Highland Park. She makes gardens, dances with Bodycity, and just received her Masters from USC's Art in the Public Sphere program.

Visit the Llano Del Rio website

Image: Another LA Map, courtesy Llano Del Rio Collective