Category: Events

Wine+Words Poetry with Bruce Williams Feb 17

Our third-Thursdays poetry series continues at Mari’s Wine Bar with Bruce Williams as the featured poet. The open mic sign-ups begin at 7:30 PM for the first 10 poets, which begins at 8PM. Mr. Williams will read at 8:30PM. Mari’s is at 8222 Firestone Blvd, Downey, CA across from Porto’s. Wheelchair accessible, but 21 and over only. The Downey Arts Coalition sponsors these events, which are curated by Lorine Parks.

Bruce Williams grew up in Denver and received his PhD from Claremont Graduate University. For years he taught writing at Mount San Antonio College. He has two grown children, Drew, also a poet, and Casey Lynnette, a lawyer, like her mother, William’s late wife, Ellen. The poet still lives on a hill high above San Dimas, California with memories, a mountain-climbing roomer and two Jeeps. But he is spending much of his retirement in a cabin in Yucca Valley, near Joshua Tree Bruce has published several chapbooks: Clothes Poems (Pudding House), Stratification (Inevitable Press) and Everyone In My Support Group Feels Grateful After I Share. His first book length work, The Mohave Road and Other Journeys, has been published by Tebot Bach.

Bruce Williams’ “The Mojave Road and Other Journeys” is simply one of the most breathtaking and heartbreaking collections of poetry I’ve read in many years. These poems constitute a sequence of elegies and a folio of meditations upon illness, death and transcendence, and also upon the nature of late, redeeming love—David St. John

VARIATIONS

June 30

1
Dawn heats the sky,
bird song, dog barks a warning.
The hive in the wash
starts its buzz.

2
Her face
wrinkles into summer.
Her sex and eyes
stay young.

3
She asks,
“Who is this poem about?”
He looks at her
and lies

February 9, 2012
Art on the Vine with Alina Wilson & Maritza Molina

Saturday night, February 4th, opens the next “Art on the Vine” at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd, Downey, CA. The opening reception begins at 7PM and continues until midnight, and the art work will be up all month for the public to view.

Art on the Vine is proud to present the work of Alina Wilson and Maritza Molina. Both are local artists close to the community: Alina from Downey, and Maritza lives in South Gate. Alina presents all new work, having previously shown successful pieces with the Downey Art Vibe at the Taste of Downey and Suburban Renaissance. Maritza (Mares) Molina, who has shown her artwork around the LA art scene since 2006, will present a special themed show for Valentine’s Day.

Maritza’s bio from her website says her philosophy is “Art is a language, art is the self expression of our own soul talking, art is diverse just like every being, art can be so strong that it can move cities and country’s, it can change a person’s life.”

Alina comes from a diverse family background, she describes in her online bio, “Being raised by 3 parents with polar opposite walks of life instilled in me a natural inclination to see the positive and intense similarities among humans. I explore and focus on the likeness between all people and animals and their undeniable connection to nature.”

Come join us for a great night of community, conversation, art, and wine. We will raffle off two original pieces by Maritza and Alina, tickets can be obtained with a $5 donation, and two people will go home with two framed pieces of original local artwork.

Then don’t forget that Sunday, Feb 5th is the “Contraptions” Art Show at Number 34 Barbershop, 9029 Florence Ave in Downey. Click the link to read more about that unique event.

January 31, 2012
Contraptions Funk-Junk Art Show February 5th

In the spirit of bringing you, the Downey audience, unique and interesting art shows, our own Roy Anthony Shabla has conceived and is curating an event February 5th called “Contraptions,” with the subtitle “electrified, mechanized, digitized, funk-junk art show.” With as much technology in the world today, it’s long overdue that these feats of engineering get their own artistic spin.

The show features multimedia installations and robo-art by Greenie Arts, Carlos Durazo, Roy Anthony Shabla, David R Youel, Ruben Acosta, Ronnie Contreras, Nader Ghassemlou, Kevin Yoshikawa, DC Pimp Angel and many others. Shabla describes that he hopes the show has “a festival atmosphere with performance artists and roving poets… the show is democratic and open to any artist working in the mechanized, recycled junk world… think george herms electrified. think burning man. think multi-media explosion…”

Sunday, February 5th, 2012 outside Downey’s newest barber shop “Number 34,” operated by Downey’s home-grown hair-styling legend Ronnie Contreras. The show is 5pm to 9pm.

Ronnie, his shop, and their hope that it will become a new arts destination for the city, was covered by a great article in The Downey Beat, New take on an old idea: Downey hair cutter to host art shows, poetry at barber shop.

The shop is located at 9029 Florence Avenue, Downey 90240.

Just to add to the spectacle, the Superbowl game will be broadcast inside Number 34. 50 gift bags are promised as well.

Some of the sponsors include:

If you are interested in showing a piece as well, you can contact Roy at his website, RoyAnthonyShabla.com or email guruguynlalaland@aol.com.

[Updated 1/22/12 with new artists]

January 19, 2012
Downey Arts Coalition Meeting January 28th

The next Downey Arts Coalition meeting will be Satuday, January 28th at 12:00PM at the Downey Civic Theatre green room.

The DAC was formed with the goal of bringing together artists, arts advocates, and our local arts organizations for the purpose of discussion, collaboration, and encouragement. Downey has a rich history with the arts, but hasn’t handled the transition well to pass the torch to a new generation of arts & culture. We have a lot of hopes, ideas and goals, but the only way to accomplish them is to work together toward a common vision. There has been a lot going on the past couple months, and many exciting things for 2012, so don’t miss this meeting.

8435 Firestone Blvd. Downey, CA 90241

For more information, contact ajw AT downeyarts DOT com

Here’s a link to the usual Downey Arts welcome message

January 12, 2012
Poetry Night, Wine+Words with Judith Pacht, January 19th

The Downey Arts Coalitions “Wine+Words” poetry series moves to Third-Thursdays in January.

A good group made it out to hear Rick Smith in November. The featured poet this month will be Judith Pacht, reading on Thursday January 19. DAC member Lorine Parks curates the evening.

Pacht is a seasoned poet and teaches poetry workshops on subjects such as “Warping Time in Poetry.” Her newest book, Summer Hunger (Tebot Bach), has won PEN’s 2011 Southwest Book Award for Poetry.

While Pacht likes to play with words and sounds, her poems always reach for a larger conclusion. In “Surfaces,” she speaks of “the business traveler who clinches a merger, the hungry lovers who clinch and merge.” And in “Small Things” her rhythms takes the reader beyond a shared delight in the minutia of daily life and even the subtle interplay of Dodger baseball, to a further understanding:

Praise the sticky pollen on the bee’s
hind legs, the blossom’s private parts, the fruit.
Praise all vowels: masa and metate,
smooth and avocado, quesadilla.
Praise Nomo backing first base on Beltre’s throw,
Cohen reaching Ahmed, Ahmed reaching
words both used to know, speaking, speaking.

The poetry event will begin at 7:30 pm in Mari’s Wine Bar, at 8222Firestone, across from Porto’s, with sign–ups for open mike readings by volunteer local poets. Open mike reading will begin at 8 pm and Pacht will read at 8:30. The audience is invited to stay afterward for informal discussion with Pacht and other poets. Admission is free and there is handicap access and easy parking in the rear.

MARI’S WINE BAR

8222 Firestone Blvd, Downey 90241, between Downey and LaReina

across from Porto’s free parking in back handicap access

For more about Judith, and a complete bio, visit her website at judithpacht.com

January 12, 2012
Ricky Ostendi and Monica Pucciarelli, Art on the Vine January 7th

Saturday January 7th, come experience the artwork of two talented artists from right here in Downey, Ricky Ostendi and Monica Pucciarelli.

Visit the facebook event page to tell us you’re coming: https://www.facebook.com/events/348368495178962/

Ricky Ostendi attended Warren High School and has his BA from the Art Institute of California. In addition to his painting, he is also a modeler for 3D graphics and a concept artist. His work has been shown as part of the Downey Art Vibe‘s events at the Taste of Downey and the Downey Civic Theatre.

Monica Pucciarelli, originally from Argentina, is a self-taught artist who has been painting for over a decade. Her work is figurative, abstract, and mixed media is my preference both on canvas and paper. She has shown work at The Lankershim Arts Gallery in Hollywood, Gallery Expo in Long Beach, Downey Museum of Art, Cypress Art Faire Juried exhibition, as well as many other juried art shows and exhibit where her art has won numerous awards.

December 31, 2011
Rick Smith featured poet at Wine+Words

Friday night at 9PM is Poetry at Mari’s Wine Bar, this month featuring poet Rick Smith, who long worked in Downey at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital.

The first kiss,

two wrens on fire,

blind with smoke and heat

storming out of the underbrush

of self-restraint

into a trembling

orgasmic future

well above the starving dogs

fast food chains,

the quick fixes below.

This flame will lick the wound

This flame will light up like this.

This flame will consume. from Hard Landings

Lorine Parks is curating the evening, which will begin with an open mic for the first 10 sign-ups. She describes how she came to know Rick.

“I first met Rick Smith thirty years ago when he was playing harmonica and piano in a band and composing such songs as “If it wasn’t for low class, we wouldn’t have no class at all.” Paris and Pennsylvania bred, he told me my Stonewood Travel business’s Music in Hold was crummy music, and proceeded to record a new tape for me. We have been friends and exchanging poems and critiques ever since.

“Smith’s first chapbook was The Wren Notebook, one of Raindog’s Little Red Book Series. In it, his protagonist Wren decides to win the title of Highest Flying Bird by hitching a ride tucked under Eagle. When Wren pops up, at twelve thousand feet and then flies a few feet higher, he almost freezes to death on re-entry. Further, Eagle and the rest of the birds chase him to have their revenge.. . “I held the note/long and rich as I could./ So what if it’s the only note I know?/ It’s my note.”

“All of Smith’s poems have a wry humor but they also have an intensely personal voice. He has an intimate quality to his work and a dead-flat realistic approach to what’s happening. Murder and revenge and a Buick LeSabre from Phoenix have equal place with delicate birds nesting in ruined upholstery in an abandoned mansion on an estate near Philadelphia.”

Smith has a PhD in psychology and worked in Downey at Rancho Los Amigo as a psychologist therapist for head-injured patients. He later established a rehab center in Apple Valley called Back in the Saddle for brain injuries. Read him at your peril. An old wren with one good eye, six feet four inches tall, “measuring out time by that splendid chaos, commotion.”

Live music by members of Downey’s folk band Willow Bend will perform at 8pm. Learn more about their unique brand of music at http://www.willowbendmusic.com

November 18, 2011
Suburban Renaissance Thursday Nov 10th

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.

November 10, 2011
Downey Arts Meeting Saturday Oct 29th 12PM

Hope you can make it to our next Downey Arts Coalition meeting at the Downey Civic Theatre, in the green room. Enter through the office door right off the small street between the theatre and the library. This Saturday October 29th at 12PM.

We start out each meeting re-capping the current news and events happening in the Downey arts scene, so come prepared to report if you were involved. Next we’ll go through some of our potential projects to see what we can push forward. The coalition is here to help inspire you to take action on some of the ideas you’re passionate about, and find support from others who are interested in the same things.

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.

If theatre isn’t your thing, come for the first part at least. For those theatre folk that sat patiently through the visual arts discussions, this is a good meeting to hit up.

October 27, 2011
Wine + Words Poetry Night Friday Oct 21

October 21, 9PM at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd. Downey, CA

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.

October 18, 2011