JOHN HARTFORD/BOB CARLIN • CELTIC MUSIC • CONTRADANCING • KIDS MUSIC/BOOKS • CD REVIEWS FREE Volume 2 Number 6 November/December 2002 A BI-MONTHLY NEWSPAPER ABOUT THE HAPPENINGS IN & AROUND THE GREATER LOS ANGELES FOLK COMMUNITY PAINTING“Don’t you know that Folk Music is THEillegal in Los Angeles?” TOWN –Warren Casey of the Wicked Tinkers MURALS IN LOS ANGELES BY VALERIE COOLEY here is a good side to bad traffic and I found it the other day. The 405 south of Century had slowed to inches per minute – not unusual – but, for a change, I was in the spot I would have chosen, right alongside the L.A. T Marathon mural. I crept past, able to study the runners’ faces as they strode, clear-eyed and confident, through graffiti up to their chins. They were unconcerned and I was happy. Los Angeles has so many murals that almost any little excursion will net you a view of some, whether you stay on the freeway or bolt desper- ately for freedom into unfamiliar neighborhoods. You can see a few murals from the freeway – the picture of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in downtown L.A. comes to mind – but you’ll see more (and more safely) if you get off the freeway and browse the surface streets. It is a fine way to cope with traffic that has gone from bad to worse. One of my better escapes was into Highland Park from the Pasadena Freeway. Figueroa Street was a virtual art gallery. The Arroyo Furniture Store’s long sidewall was crowded with Aztec, Mayan, Native American, and African American PHOTO BYPHOTO COOLEY VALERIE themes, including the feathered serpent, Mexico – Tenochitlan “The Wall That Talks,” 1966 – private – Arroyo Furniture – 6037 N. Figueroa at Ave 61, Highland Park. Quetzalcoatl and Cesar Chavez. The low walls of Artists: Andy Ledesma, John Zender Estrada, Rafael Corona, Jaime Ochoa, Dominic Ochoa, Isibel Martinez, Oscar de Leon, Mario two parking lots bore sophisticated graffiti art. Mancia, Jesse Silva, Anthony Ortega and Jerry Ortega. Farther along was a new construction site, with a chain link fence protecting little more than one can be seen from the street. Ironically, though, the Mexico’s bloody civil war started in 1910 and wall, the lone remnant of a recently demolished Beverly Hills post office still houses one of the lasted for years. While revolutionary soldiers building. On the street side of the wall was an few New Deal murals that illustrates the miseries fought for economic progress and human rights, angry mural protesting against politicians who of the Depression, and that alone might be worth political and artistic activists Diego Rivera, David spend money on the military but not on schools the cost of parking. Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco – and libraries, and depicting them as book-burning In East L.A., on the other hand, you will find subsequently the three big names in Mexican art Spanish conquistadors and Nazis. The protest hundreds of murals. This is the mother lode of PAINTING THE TOWN page 21 must have worked because a new library was L.A. wall art. There’s everything from pre- being built on the site and the mural was to be Columbian designs, Virgins, Aztec warriors, trib- preserved. Down the road, however, was a mural utes to dead brothers, current social commentary, full of marchers bearing signs commemorated the revolutionary soldiers grappling with the powers IN THIS ISSUE EDITORIAL...............................................................2 people who fought in vain against California’s of corruption. The large Hispanic population there INTERVIEW..............................................................3 anti-immigrant proposition 187. has built on a legacy of the great Mexican revolu- Bob Carlin on John Hartford’s last album, Hamilton Ironworks Not long ago, in her Los Angeles Times col- tionary wall painters and their murals are power- KEYS TO THE HIGHWAY ................................... 4 umn, Drive Time, Mary McNamara wrote about ful. Judith Baca, the artistic and organizational Striking the Right Chord the joys of getting lost in L.A. and, in my opinion, force behind many public mural programs, was THE VOICES IN MY HEAD...................................5 born there and her energy and vision have flowed Tribes, Vibes, & Metaphors these murals are one of those joys. Most of us are ANCIENT CHORD MUSIC.....................................6 so oriented to our city in terms of freeways that out over the rest of the city, inspiring and empow- Liz Carroll and Malinky CD reviews we have forgotten about the roads people used 50 ering whole communities. CELTIC MUSIC RESOURCES...............................6 years ago to get across town. Seeking out murals, Baca is responsible for many of the murals Where to find CDs locally & on the Web a pleasure in itself, can also introduce you to alter- you’ll see elsewhere. In 1976, she and two other CONTRADANCE MUSIC........................................7 women (filmmaker Donna Deitch and artist A New Musical Genre nate routes to take for pleasure or expediency. CONTRADANCING .................................................7 Amaze your friends by veering off clogged free- Christina Schlesinger) started the Social and An Amusement Park Ride We Make For Ourselves ways and zipping across town on North Public Arts Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, DAVE’S CORNER ................................................... 8 Broadway, Cesar Chavez, or Martin Luther King. a multi-cultural arts center that produces, exhibits, ON-GOING STORYTELLING EVENTS ............. 8 Point out murals along the way and savor the distributes and preserves public artwork. MUSICAL BOOKS FOR KIDS.............................. 9 small town atmosphere where people still buy HISTORY CLEAR YOUR THROAT ......................................10 things in tiny stores. If you do not have the time Los Angeles, with well over 1500 murals, has CSUN Student Discovers Tuvan Throat Music WOODY IN THE WOODS ................................... 10 or the money to visit foreign countries, just zip off been described as the Mural Capital of the World. ON-GOING MUSIC HAPPENINGS.....................11 the freeway for an hour or two, and try to guess This is a recent phenomenon, a happy combina- CALENDAR OF EVENTS ...............................12/13 what languages are printed on those store signs. tion of nationalities, ethnicities, social changes, ON-GOING DANCE HAPPENINGS....................14 The first thing to do is to make a permanent and circumstances. Most of the murals have been KIDS’ CORNER .....................................................15 home in your car for Robin J. Dunitz’s book, produced since 1968. Prior to that there were New Column Dedicated to Folk Arts for Kids of All Ages Street Gallery, a Thomas Guide, and some Auto about a hundred mosaics that Millard Sheets and JOURNEY AROUND THE GLOBE .....................15 Club street maps. I personally prefer big, conspic- others began designing for the Home Savings of Annual World Storytelling Festival uous maps because they seem to invite passersby America banks in the early 1950’s. Before that TOP TEN / FAVORITES.........................................16 to stop and help. Dennis Stone, Dave Soyars, DorothyAuyong were the New Deal murals started during the FEATURED ORGANIZATION.............................17 The numbers and types of murals you see will Depression And even before that was the Russ & Julie’s House Concerts depend largely on the area you choose to visit. For Mexican Revolution which would eventually DONOR SUPPORT & RECOGNITION ............ 19 starters, don’t even bother cruising Beverly Hills have a tremendous effect on public art in the CD REVIEWS..........................................................22 for murals. Only two of the 13 that Dunitz lists United States, especially in California. SPECIAL EVENTS .................................................24 Page 2 FolkWorks November-December 2002 EDITORIAL elcome to the You probably realize that PUBLISHERS & EDITORS Wconclusion of there is an amazing amount of Leda & Steve Shapiro another suc- work that goes into the creation LAYOUT & PRODUCTION cessful year of FolkWorks. of each issue of FolkWorks. It Alan Stone Creative Services We hope that you have been is done by a small but growing enjoying the newspaper and group of volunteers. After com- FEATURE WRITERS Joanna Cazden have been finding it useful. pleting the September/October The Voices in my Head The end of the year is a time issue, we realized that if we did Roger Goodman to reflect, a time to spend not get more help in doing all Keys to the Highway with friends and family, a the things that needed to be Gaili Schoen, Kids Corner time to give thanks and done, we would not be able to Dave Soyars, Dave’s Corner exchange gifts. continue publishing. We put out Dennis Stone, CD Reviews There is a renaissance an appeal and have received Mike Tackett, Zookman happening in the world of very positive responses from a folk music. The seeds that group of new people. We are in EDITORS have been sown over the the process of reorganizing the Marie Gruno • Valerie Cooley last thirty years are now way we work: we are forming Chuck Galt • Nicole Galland Stan Kohls • Britt-Nicole Peterson blooming. There is more working committees and divvy- Diane Sherman wonderful folk and tradi- ing up the work. We look for- tional music available to us ward to making this succeed so CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dorothy K. Auyong than in any time in history. BYPHOTO SONYA SONES that we can continue to improve Valerie Cooley • Hilary Field It is the confluence of peo- BY LEDA & STEVE SHAPIRO both the publication and the Sharon Goldwasser • Gus Garelick ple who are interested in organization and grow strong Jason Howe • Rik McCormack this “sub-culture” and technology, the ability to easily into the future. If you are interested in participating, Tom (Tearaway) Schulte record music and distribute it though the Internet as see page 4 for a current list of the ways you can help well as the conventional means. On the other hand, the and do not hesitate to contact us.