Library Bar Sunday Salon – Los Angeles Visionaries Association / LAVA Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:17:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8 LAVA Salon May 2015 /video/salon515/ Sun, 31 May 2015 17:40:20 +0000 /?post_type=video&p=5193

The Photography of Kristin Bedford: Race, History & the Divine

Los Angeles-based photographer Kristin Bedford will be presenting her series of photographs about the legacy of the African-American religious leader Father Divine. The body of work delves into issues of race, American religious history, and the mystery of enduring faith.

Father Divine, known to his followers as God, once had tens of thousands of devotees in 1930s Harlem. To the outside world Father Divine died in 1965, but for his followers he “lay his body down” and is still with them as he always has been. Now in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, eighteen of the remaining celibate followers live with Mother Divine at Father’s estate outside of Philadelphia. In 2013, Kristin Bedford spent five weeks living with and photographing this community.

The followers, who call themselves “The International Peace Mission Movement,” are living a way of life and performing rituals created over eighty years ago by their God. With the lack of new followers, their movement is likely in its final chapter. Bedford had the chance to experience and photograph their traditions before they fade away.

The Father Divine presentation will be followed by an exclusive sneak peek of Bedford’s current photography project.

Biography

Kristin Bedford is a Los Angeles-based photographer who focuses on long-term visual studies of where we live – the streets we walk down, the places we worship in, the homes we create, and the spaces between them all. Her subjects have included religious movements, street culture in numerous urban centers, and the modern day legacy of historic African-American communities.

Kristin’s website

NY Times LENS Review

Youtube Channel link for LAVA Sunday Salons
]]> LAVA Salon April 2015 /video/salon415/ Sun, 26 Apr 2015 17:35:29 +0000 /?post_type=video&p=5192

Join poet and memoirist Joan Jobe Smith for an afternoon of poetry & storytelling at the LAVA Sunday Salon. The newly published Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl by long-time Long Beach, California resident Joan Jobe Smith, is a picaresque True Tale, a 50-year Glotessey spanning the 1965 Los Angeles Watts Riots, near death at the hands of a homicidal ex-husband, the counter-culture go-go swinging let-it-all-hang-out 1960s-‘70s, single Motherhood and Feminism. Rarely does a natural poet and historian such as Joan Jobe Smith endure such ordeals and challenges and survive to tell the tale. It is a Tale written with go-going panache and patois, and heart, courage and humor to make our lives richer and wiser. The event will be a series of short Q&As with LAVA’s Richard Schave on milestones from the memoir, punctuated by Joan reading poetry selections which span her career.

Excerpts from 5-Star Reviews of Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl:

“Charles Bukowski said the inimitable Joan Jobe Smith’s writing ‘has the reality of force properly put down on paper; she cuts herself loose into the stratosphere.’ Joan’s heart is so damned big. She’s not only cut herself loose into the stratosphere, she takes anyone who wants to go with her along for the ride. And now we have this raw-edged, honest, beauty of a book…” —L. Jakiela, Creative Writing Professor, University of Pittsburgh

“Vividly conjures up the dark shadows and wisecracks of a Film Noir, set in 1960s-‘70s L.A., with a cast of glamourous yet vulnerable dancers, slimy bosses, wharf rats (both rodents, ex-husband and customers) with walk-ons by celebrities (Dick Dale, Ike and Tina Turner) amongst the burgeoning pop music and drug counter-culture of the era. Energized by Joan Jobe Smith’s poetic eye and exuberant syntax, these true Tales will enthrall readers, revealing its author as a brilliant chronicler of her Noir-ish life and times.“—Jules Smith, London’s Times Literary Supplement

“I just finished reading Joan Jobe Smith’s Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl. She has such a descriptive, poetic talent for words as she weaves her true life tales of love, jealousy, near murder and trials. Bukowski advised her to write about her go-go girl years. I admire her ability to bring scenes from the ’60s and ’70s so vividly to life.”–Linda King

Youtube Channel link for April 2015 LAVA Sunday Salon
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Architectural Historian Nathan Marsak, the LAVA Visionary of the Year for 2015, presents on the forgotten architectural landscape of nineteenth-century Los Angeles—a lost world whose most salient impulse was toward the imposing, rough-hewn blocks of the Romanesque.

The common narrative regarding the visual development of early Los Angeles usually involves the native vernacular of the pueblo, which one may still visit in any number of extant adobes; from there, following some historic boom times, we Angelenos and visitors alike are regaled by the wondrous Beaux-Arts high-rises of downtown. If pure Victorian architecture is considered, one likely turns attention to the Eastlake and Queen Anne examples along Carroll Avenue, or to the used-car lot of gingerbread, Heritage Square.

This does a disservice, asserts Marsak, to the wonderland of Richardsonian Romanesque, Romanesque Revival, and Romanesque-hybrid office blocks and civic structures that once defined our city. A confluence of money and local pride, primarily in the late-1880s, resulted in what was arguably America’s greatest center of the style, short-lived though it may have been. The ethos of the City Beautiful movement, skyscraper construction, and other factors contributed to its demise.

It is especially striking that these structures, whose construction exuded solidity and permanence, should have been removed on so great a scale. Besides illuminating twenty of the most notable lost masterpieces, Marsak’s lecture will visit those few remaining examples of the style. Attention will be given as well to the styles that fought for dominance in defining Victorian Los Angeles, e.g., French Empire.

 

Youtube Channel link for October 2011 LAVA Sunday Salon
]]> LAVA Salon February 2015 /video/salon215/ Sun, 22 Feb 2015 18:20:14 +0000 /?post_type=video&p=5185

Join LAVA Visionary and art historian Dr. Paul Koudounaris, author of “Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs” and “The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses” for a very special presentation inaugurating the relaunch of the monthly LAVA Sunday Salon at Library Bar.

Demonically-Possessed Cats with Dr. Paul Koudounaris

Does your cat do things like:

spit fire?

speak in tongues?

levitate?

shape shift?

wantonly kill people for no apparent reason?

This behavior may be more than simple bad kitty syndrome—your cat may be possessed by a demon. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, there is an entire history of demonically-possessed cats. Felines were once considered by theologians to be easy prey for demons, who could enter their bodies and wreck incredible havoc on mankind. And did you know… demonically-possessed cats are still believed to be with us today?! Dr. Paul Koudounaris has immersed himself in the study of demonic cats, in order to to give a talk on this sadly neglected topic. Cat lovers will like this lecture, and cat haters will like it even more. Neither side will ever look at a domestic cat the same way again.

Please note this lecture has been given by Dr. Koudounaris in abbreviated forms about town, but this only time he will present the full lecture in Los Angeles.

Youtube Channel link for LAVA Sunday Salons
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