Last Sunday in Vista Hermosa Natural Park three other local LA writers and I each read original short stories about The End of Water. In their stories we met a weatherman who tells uncomfortable truths, a species of whale that may be extinct (and may always have been), a carwashero seeking justice for his father, and a scientist testing her theory that we can solve the problem by turning wine into water. These stories were originally read by actors as part of the 2015 LitCrawl in LA. The participating authors were Chris Iovenko, Henry Hoke, A.R. Taylor and me, Bronwyn Mauldin.
The End of Water wasn't an ordinary literary event, though. I organized this reading to be part of VisionLA '15 Fest, a climate action festival that brought together artists across Los Angeles to demand our leaders take meaningful action to stop climate change at the UN COP '21 negotiations in Paris. After the reading the four of us had a chance to talk on video about climate change, what we expect from our leaders and what artists have to offer in this struggle to slow the warming of our planet. That last question is a particularly important one. People tend to think of artists in terms of the final product: a book, painting, dance or play. But what we really have to offer is in the way we think. We have the ability to imagine a world that doesn't exist. We are constantly in a state of combining ideas and materials that don't obviously fit together, thereby reinventing the world. For example, imagine if we replaced our planet-harming industrial-scale infrastructure - especially around transportation and energy - on a human scale? If we can build a network of small farm-to-table food systems, why not a network of small roof-to-laptop electrical grids? Vista Hermosa Park was a beautiful location for the reading, and holding outdoors turned out to be perfect. The park is almost hidden on the edge of downtown LA. It was designed as a watershed, complete with green roofs, native landscaping and a cistern under the parking lot to capture any runoff. If you've never visited, I highly recommend it, as a break in the middle of the work day or on a lazy weekend afternoon. Here are a few photos from the reading. Enjoy!
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I don't often have an excuse to wear my jersey for the Greek national football team, but today as I headed to the LA Central Library downtown for a marathon public reading of Homer's great epic poem, The Odyssey, I was definitely in the tank for Team Ελλάδα. This fantastic event was just one in a series of Odyssey-related activities around LA this October organized by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. The Odyssey Project has included lectures, shadow puppet shows, readings by living poets and a modern Greek-style vase by Peter Shire that's traveling the County. It was jointly sponsored by the library, the Library Foundation and an organization called Readers of Homer. They organize these giant participatory readings of The Iliad and The Odyssey all across the country. Turns out, they're onto something. More than 200 people signed up to participate in LA. The reading ran from 10 a.m. until 5:30 (or so) p.m., with people coming and going throughout the day to read their assigned segment, or just sit in the audience and listen. The room was ringed with white curtains and the lights turned down low. Images of old maps, roiling seas and ships were projected onto the walls, changing from time to time to match the story. A low, droning, haunting music played in the background. The text appeared in superscript above the readers' heads. I was reader #80. Backstage in the green room I ran into David Kipen of Libros Schmibros, who launched The Big Read when he was at the National Endowment for the Arts. He was reader #77, and we giddily whispered to each other about how exciting this event was. While reading his section, he briefly donned a glittery gorgon hat. Reader #79 read her lines in Spanish, and played a recording of a song as part of her segment. Reader #81 read her first few lines in ancient Greek. That's the kind of enthusiasm I'm talking about. As I rehearsed my own lines and listened to others reading theirs, it was the emotions that really struck me. In the brief 33 lines I read on stage, Odysseus was, by turns, bombastic, sarcastic, arrogant and brave. I've read The Odyssey at least twice before, but never really felt the story or the character of Odysseus quite so clearly. That's what public engagement in the arts is all about, and we literary people know how to do it right. Photos by Melissa Wall
What happens when a group of diverse women writers take on gun culture in America? You get The LA Word: Exploded Guns. The LA Word is making our second appearance at this year's LitCrawl NoHo, October 22 at 9 pm. I'll be reading with four other terrific writers you should be reading. Our work this year will include memoir, fiction and conceptual poetry, all on the theme of guns. That's right: we're putting the "verse" in "controversy." But don't just come for us. This year's LitCrawl NoHo promises to be even bigger and better than last year's fantastic debut. More than 170 Los Angeles-area writers will be reading at 30 events across North Hollywood. The readings take place in coffee houses, bars, restaurants, art galleries, comic book store, a sex shop and more. The LA County Library's bookmobile will be on hand, as will the LA Public Library's Library Store on Wheels. The LA Word will be reading in the lobby of the Laemmle NoHo 7 movie theatre (map) at 9 pm. LitCrawl readings begin at 7 pm and run in three rounds. I'll be reading with The LA Word in round three, beginning at 9 pm. After our reading is done, head over to a party at the Federal Bar, where GuerrillaReads (another literary project of mine) will screen video readings of many more LA authors. All LitCrawl events are free. Come hang out with LA's best and most provocative writers. Get all the details and meet my fellow LA Word writers here. Learn more about the LitCrawl NoHo here. THE LA WORD: EXPLODED GUNS
Five LA writers talk about guns. What could go wrong? Wed, October 22, 2014 at 9 pm (add to calendar) Laemmle 7 in North Hollywood (map) Californians went to the polls on Tuesday - well, at least a few of them did - and I was there to help. It was the first time I'd volunteered to be a poll worker, and what I learned that day confirmed much of what I'd believed about American-style democracy, and left me in wonder that the system works as well as it does. The whole system runs on volunteers. It's fragile in ways I wouldn't have expected. During the week before the election, all the voting machines and materials are distributed to volunteers across the state, where they sit in cars and homes, waiting for election day. At the end of the day I rode to the local Registrar-Recorder's drop-off station in the passenger seat of another poll worker's car with all 73 votes from my precinct in my lap. The voting machine was in her trunk, tied down with rope; folded up voting booths were piled in her back seat. The miracle is that that system really does work. Some poll workers are in it for the money. Some poll workers were there because, like me, they believe in democracy and the importance of our right to vote. The guy I spent the whole day working next to, on the other hand, was in his early 20s and had never voted before. He made it clear it was all about the money for him. Poll workers get about $100 for a 12-hour day, plus $25 if you show up for a two hour advance training. Then again, another guy in his early 20s who ran the other precinct table is a grad student in political science and has worked the polls "ever since I was young." He spent his down time reading W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Some voters come with a single-minded mission to vote for one person in one race. A voter with two young children in tow asked me to show him how to vote, because this was his first time. As I flipped through the pages showing him all the choices and how to press down the InkaVote pen, he said, "No, I'm only here to vote for X-----." I flipped to the right page and showed him his candidate, even though I'd voted for someone else in that race. Other voters are fairly clueless. One older voter with limited English spent over half an hour in the booth. When he dropped his ballot in the box, it was rejected because he'd voted for too many people in each race. I voided that ballot and sent him back with a fresh one, along with someone to show him how to vote for only one candidate per race. Another voter spent about twenty minutes in the booth before coming back to the table and asking for a voter pamphlet. "I don't know so much about the candidates," she admitted a little sheepishly. Who's that sketchy "poll watcher" dude? A gentleman in a pin-striped shirt hung out with us most of the morning. He wore a name tag written in the first language of most voters in my precinct, which is written in a different alphabet from English. When he went over to "help" an elderly couple vote, I got the regional supervisor involved. She happened to be doing an inspection visit at the time. Most of the poll workers with me also spoke their language and could help the voters just fine. Eventually the official LA County Registrar-Recorders Guide for Poll Watchers was pulled out and read. Apparently poll watchers - even those working for political parties or individual candidates - can stand right next to voters and "help" them. A poll worker's job is a lot like a firefighter's. My polling place was inside a fire station, which I'd thought would be pretty cool. Mostly, though, the firefighters ignored us, or seemed a little irritated at our presence. They had to rearrange their trucks, and we were in the way of their crossfit equipment. Most of what they did all day looked a lot like what we were doing: hanging out maintaining the equipment while waiting for something to happen. Then there would be a sudden rush of activity. In our case it might be three voters in line at a time. In their case, it might be a traffic accident calling for the Jaws of Life®. Grownups love stickers too. Some voters took them with obvious pride. Others giggled, or looked a little embarrassed. But everyone took the "I Voted" sticker I offered them. Every single one. This year's Bike Week LA was marked by crazy hot, dry weather, an explosion of wildfires and a bursting crude oil pipeline near a residential neighborhood that left a lot of us wondering if there are any others close to where we live. Turns out Los Angeles is home to thousands of oil pipelines. They promise none of the 10,000 gallons of spilled oil made it into the LA River, at least none that they noticed. My bike to work path takes me down a lovely patch of the river where it isn't entirely cemented in at the bottom. I've seen ducks, geese, seagulls, cormorants, pelicans, grebes, kingfishers, red-wing blackbirds and so many other birds on the river. In the spring, mother ducks tour their clutches of chicks along the water, and for a moment you might not notice the roar of the I-5 freeway just a few feet away from the bike path. Thursday was Bike to Work Day in LA. Mayor Garcetti did his bit to set a good example early in the week by biking to the office, hashtags and all. It hit the low hundreds temp-wise on Thursday, but I definitely saw more bike commuters on the streets than usual. I stopped in at a pit stop early on my route, where they told me they were counting record numbers of cyclists. That's good news for all LA commuters - every bike is one less car blocking your way to work. Once again I organized a couple of bike trains in to my office. On one side of town I met up with Clare and Brandon at Cafe Tropical in Silver Lake. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stop in for one of their amazing guava pastries. We pedaled down through Historic Filipinotown and Westlake neighborhoods to meet up with PK at MacArthur Park. On the other side of town, Tom rode into downtown LA where he met up with Jen, and picked up swag at all the hottest hipster pit stops in the city. Sure, the ride home was hot-hot-hot: 94 degrees at 5 pm when we pedaled out the door. But with plenty of sunblock, cold water and a leisurely pace, we all made it home just fine. Whether you bike to work every day or once a year, it's great to see the world at a pedaling pace. You'll see details of people and places you never noticed before. I'd never been on the LA River before I rode it on my bike. You'll learn the topography of your city, and may even discover some wonderful, unexpected, crazy treasures. If Bike to Work Day LA ever gets its own theme song, I hope it goes something like this: |
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