Performing Artists

1 rating since posting on Monday, March 6, 2006
in Los Angeles
(submitted by Profile No )

Overall Rating

*****

based on 1 rating
Rate It
Advertisement
Advertisement
Prof...
Profile No
offline 1
*****
Check these folks out...
Last friday a friend performed for Grad Students in the Ethnic Studies Dept of UCLA, USC, UCSB to cap off the evening of a conference they had held that day. It was held in a place called Mercado la Paloma www.mercadolapaloma.com which is sort of like an indoor mall/swapmeet kind of joint but they cleared out a space and set up stage and chairs and it was like "Hey kids let's put on a show"....the opening featured a few of the acapella groups from USC I guess because it was just a couple of miles away. I had seen a segment on one of the new shows about how acapella groups are becoming "the rage" on college campuses again. They were fun but I was there to see these folks. I wanted to share their bios and websites and if you have a chance to check them out you definitely should. I met Levan a couple of years ago when we both tried out for an event of black gay pride weekend. We continue to run into support each other. The previous week he appeared in a show I put together and he's curating a show at Highways in Santa Monica...it's well worth the $15.00. Lan Tran and I realize we know each other through a mutual friend and the others Kristian Wong, DJ Handprints, and AR-15 were new to me but enjoyable as well...

LE VAN D. HAWKINS
LeVan D. Hawkins describes himself as ?an artist striving towards the truth?and ?as a bridge between races, sexualities, religions, believers and non-believers.?An LA-based performance artist, poet and writer, his current show "BLACK STUFF", a satire on black male identity, co-written/ performed with Alexander Thomas ( www.blackstuff.net), has been performed at venues such as Dartmouth College (through New York Theater Workshop), UC-Santa Barbara, Highways Performance Space, the National Black Theater Festival and Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, New York.

As a a solo performance artist, he has performed at venues such as UCLA Hammer Museum, Disney Hall? Redcat Theater, Henry Miller Library (Big Sur, CA), The Cali (ie) Hip Hop Theatre Festival at UC Riverside, Dixon Place Theater (NYC), Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego), and Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica, CA). He is the creator, curator and one of the performance poets of "In The Beginning Was The Word", Highways 2nd Annual Poetry/Performance Festival on April 6-8, 2006. A Durfee Grant Recipient, his written work has appeared in such publications such as the LA Times, LA Weekly, LA & SF Frontiers, and Children of the Dream: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black (SImon & Schuster). He is a graduate of Art Institute of Chicago.

LAN TRAN
Writer/Performer Lan Tran has more library cards than credit cards, loves traveling to places where you're not supposed to drink the water, and knows how to jimmy a parking meter. Her work work has been featured on NPR and produced at numerous off-Broadway theaters as well as at New York City Hall. " How To Unravel Your Family", her one woman show, played to a sold-out audience in the Lincoln Center Theater-sponsored American Living Room Festival. Lan also recently presented her work at REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall and her new solo show, " Elevator Sex", will have its off-Broadway premiere at New York's West End Theatre this May. Lan is a 2005 recipient of the PEN/Rosenthal Fellowship and has published fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in literary journals and, most recently, " Lone Stars" a tale about her Vietnamese-Texan upbringing in the anthologies Falling Backwards: Stories of Fathers and Daughters (Hourglass Books, 2004) and Waking Up American (Seal Press, 2005). Lan is a regular panelist and performer at universities across the U.S. including Stanford and Vassar College. She was a finalist for the Heideman award, a recipient of the York Prize and the distinction of Who's Who in America. She has been awarded residency fellowships from Hedgebrook, the Ragdale Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Lan also likes food that no one else likes to eat. For more information see www.lantranonline.com

KRISTINA WONG
Kristina Wong is a nationally presented solo performer, writer, actor, educator, activist, and filmmaker. Described by the East Bay Express as "hilarious but brutal... a woman who takes life's absurdities very seriously," her body of performance work includes short and full-length solo performance works, outrageous street theater stunts and pranks, internet installations, and plays and sketch comedy. She was recently awarded the Creative Capital Award in Theater to create her third full length solo show, "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" about mental illness among Asian American women in a world that's more nuts than we are. This work premieres at Berkley's La Pena Cultural Center a part of their "Community Action Series" funded in part by the NEA in December 2006. She is also completing a novel that she started with the PEN Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellowship. Her spoof mail order bride website is at www.bigbadchinesemama.com.

AR-15
What does it sound like when two white guys raised on rap speak truth to power? It sounds like AR-15 (AntiRacist Fifteen). This political rap duo parties their way to social justice with a raucous mix of club anthems and street chants (think the Beastie Boys meets Public Enemy). The name AR-15 stands for fifteen anti-racist principles that guide the group in challenging white supremacy, and in supporting racial justice work led by radical organizers of color. AR-15 was recently selected as a featured performer alongside stars of the movie RIZE for the Conference on White Privilege; and has headlined a tour for the National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism. National lecturer and anti-racist activist, Tim Wise, calls AR-15, "?o bull, radical hip-hop: the kind that has the potential to redefine what it means to be white in the rap game." AR-15 has worked with national recording artists Atmosphere, KRS-One, dead prez, and The Coup. For more on AR-15 check out: www.AR15entertainment.com


DJ HANDPRINTS
Handprints likes to spin sets at underground Hip Hop events. You'll catch him spinning songs from artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Bush Babees, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Brand Nubian, Pharcyde, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. Also likes to drop mix cds with artists like Jaylib , Project Blowed artist, Mass Hysteria, to a friend bustin freestyles. Spins for internet Radio, www.liveasitgets.com. You could catch DJ Handprints spinnin at Project Blowed on Thursdays and other Hip Hop Events. - Profile No , posted 03/06/06

Performing Artists was recommended for:

Share/Save/Bookmark
post to tribe
recommend or request

search local favorites

search

browse

Advertisement