The Downey Art Vibe is producing a first class arts event at the Downey Civic Theatre lobby, this Thursday November 10th at 8PM.
Participating artists include: Eddie Blanck, Jose Cervantes, Carolina Del Toro, Jorge Del Toro, Jordan Dunn, Gabe Enamorado, Valentin Flores, Don Lamkin, Monique Pucciarelli, Jamie Lennon Rowland, Roy Anthony Shabla, Jenny Vargas, Alina Wilson.
DJ Dren, cash bar, photo booth, food, $5 at the box office.
Here is the event page on facebook. Click to say you’re attending, and invite your friends by pressing “Select Guests to Invite.”
The Downey Art Vibe was co-founded by Valentin Flores and Gabe Enamorado, two photographers with a love for Downey that envisioned a cultural revolution here in the city. A couple years ago, I attended an event featuring a friend and local artist Sergio Robleto, and was shocked to find that someone was taking an active role in bringing the arts to our community. It was still awhile after that when I began to be inspired to get involved myself. I’ve lived in Downey most all of my life, and the common knowledge is there’s nothing here for artists, so you focus your time elsewhere. Taking the local arts movement seriously was not my idea, in the least. These guys are the inspiration.
The main topic this month is considering what it would take to create a small venue theatrical space in Downey. The Downey Civic Theatre has a sizable rehearsal room upstairs that will soon reopen after having asbestos abatement. It’s a big empty room, but if you put on your vision goggles there could be a 90 seat theatre up there. But it would basically have to be funded, furnished, and equiped from scratch. Not to mention figuring out an operating model that balances all the needs of no-budget theatre production, city politics, and the realities of theatre management. Then there’s the question of keeping that space busy with quality work and developing an audience for it. All simple stuff.
I always thought poetry readings would be one of the later additions to a city’s push into arts and culture. But now Downey will have its very own poetry reading series, which is a co-production with the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and the Downey Arts Coalition. Through the hard work and literary efforts of John Brantingham, the vision and drive of artist/poet Roy Anthony Shabla, and support from other members of the DAC team this first evening presentation is Friday night at 9PM. This month features poets David Caddy and Ara Shirinyan. There will be an open mic before the featured readings for the first 10 who sign up the night of the event. If you miss this one (don’t), plan on the next one– it’ll be back the third Friday of each month.
