Picks from the people who bring you the Boulevard Sentinel
Art, music, nature, books, movies, food, theater and comedy: There’s summer fun for everyone at locales in and near Northeast Los Angeles in the days and weeks ahead.
Vincent Price Art Museum
If you are into sound, Latinx art and/or performance, you have until July 30 to experience Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art, a major exhibition of Latinx sound practices at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East L.A. College. The exhibit features an intergenerational roster of 30 artists and collectives using sound in dynamic and varied outputs, including visual art, performance, spoken word, music, pirate radio, public protest, and social practice.
One of the major funders for the exhibition is the Mike Kelley Foundation in Highland Park.
Admission is free. Reservations recommended. The museum is open Wednesday – Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Audubon Center at Debs Park
The Audubon Center at Debs Park in Montecito Heights is open Wednesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a full summer roster of free, family-friendly activities. There are family hikes on the second Saturday of each month (July 16 and August 6) from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., followed by kids’ activities. Outdoor movie night, on Friday, July 22, will screen Disney’s Maona. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., there’s a nature walk from 6:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., and the movie starts at 7:45 p.m. For more summer events, including concerts, jam sessions and volunteer opportunities, click here.
Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library
The library, at 6145 N. Figueroa in Highland Park, has reopened after upgrades to the interior. The all-are-welcome book club will meet in-person and online (your choice) on Saturday, July 23 at 3 p.m. The selection is In the Country by Mia Alvar. Goodreads, the online book review, called In the Country “a fantastic debut from Filipina-American writer Mia Alvar.” Follow this link to place a copy on hold. If you want to attend on line, get the link by contacting Sarah Moore, the adult librarian, at smoore@lapl.org or 323-255-1204.
Street Food Cinema
Street Food Cinema, the local outdoor movie and event company, will show 500 Days of Summer, a PG-rated rom-com, on the grounds of the Autry Museum in Griffith Park on Saturday, July 23. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., movie starts at 8:30 p.m., so there’s time before the show to picnic, play audience games and enjoy live music from The Cinnamon Boys, Eagle Rock’s popular Neil Young cover band. Click here for movie tickets (Advance general admission is $19 adults and $10 children ages 6 to 12.) Click here for other Street Food Cinema showings this summer, including at two venues near NELA: Victory Park in Pasadena and Verdugo Park in Glendale.
Clockshop
Clockshop, the pathbreaking art and culture nonprofit in Elysian Valley, will team up with Active Cultures, a nonprofit that explores food and art, to host a free talk and tasting with Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino mak-’amham/Cafe Ohlone and culinary anthropologist Claudia Serrato on Sunday, July 24, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The program, which will be held outdoors at Clockshop (2806 Clearwater St.), highlights indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques, activating taste, smell and memory to inform and further the prospects for survival and revitalization. For more info and to RSVP, click here.
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You still have time to check out these picks from our listings last week by Pablo Nukaya-Petralia.
Shakespeare in the (Griffith) Park
The Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival is on, now through August, with performances by the Independent Shakespeare Company. July features a new special performance of “Knight of the Burning Pestle” — a comedy not by William Shakespeare but by his friend and contemporary Francis Beaumont. The play follows a theater troupe who are interrupted mid-show by audience members with recommendations for the plot, which cascades into more and more proposals and changes. Admission is free (and donations are recommended), but tickets must be reserved beforehand here.
August brings the Bard’s Macbeth. Details to come.
Bob Baker Marionette Theater, “¡FIESTA!”
In 1969, Bob Baker of the eponymous marionette troupe on York Blvd. created “¡FIESTA!”, a puppet “love letter to Latin America” and to his team of Latin American puppeteers. From now through Sept. 18, the theater offers a new iteration of “¡FIESTA!”, a modernized production without the stereotypes of the earlier version. Find tickets for this all-ages production at the link.
In addition to the live show, the theater has created an exhibit of old artifacts and new art related to the original and updated versions of “¡FIESTA!” See it at the theater when visiting for a performance.
Weekly Comedy
Three weekly comedy shows are on the regular in NELA this summer! On Wednesdays, there’s Microdose Comedy at the Fable Bar on Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, featuring a rotating line-up of local comedians and no cover charge.
Nearby, Motherland Comedy returns after a two-year hiatus to Kusina Filipina on Eagle Rock Blvd. for a weekly Wednesday night show, starting July 13. Filipino dining meets quality comedy with an ever-changing line-up of local and established performers.
Comedy Manor at the York Manor in Highland Park takes place every Thursday evening, starting July 14. Manor moves the humor to the basement of the old church, giving it a unique speakeasy vibe. Tickets start at $10.
Film Festival
The annual Highland Park Independent Film Festival, based out of the Highland Theatre on Figueroa St., is open for shorts and feature-length fiction and non-fiction projects from professional and student filmmakers. The final deadline is August 8. More info on how to submit here.
