Got the mid-winter doldrums? Nourish yourself! There are so many ways to feed the soul this January, from fine art to fine food.
Ye Tao, Shanghai Baby.
Los Angeles Art Show
When: January 19-23, 2011
Where: Los Angeles Convention Center
How: www.laartshow.com/index.html
The 16th Annual Los Angeles Art Show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center starting today. Beyond the usual fine art from around the world and from private collections, check out a special Asian Contemporary exhibition presented by 53 Art Museum from Guangzhou, China, curated and sponsored by the prominent Asian art magazines Art Gallery Magazine and Gallery Sights. The Art Show will also include a significant grouping of Chinese galleries who have never shown works outside of China.
Beyond fine art, there’s also book signings, street art, lectures and film screenings including The Rising Tide, a documentary shot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the summer of 2006, exploring China’s march toward the future through the works of some their most talented photographers and video artists. There will even be guided tours in Korean and Chinese.
The Opening Night Premiere Party, which will be hosted by Kat von D (LA Ink), will help The Art of Elysium to expand its program to bring arts to critically ill hospitalized children, and increase substantially the number of school children who visit the Getty through the Getty Museum’s Education Department program for Title-One School visits.
Letters From My Mother
When: Thursday, January 20, 7:30pm
Where: Tateuchi Democracy Forum in the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, 111 N. Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
How: Admission is free, but please RSVP by calling 213-625-7000 or emailing boxoffice@eastwestplayers.org.
East West Players (EWP), in collaboration with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) and Japanese American National Museum (JANM), presents a staged reading of Letters From My Mother by Udaya Kanthi Salgadu and directed by Shaheen Vaaz. The reading will be performed by Asian American notables including Tamlyn Tomita, James Kyson Lee, Camille Mana, and more.
Letters addresses the horror of slavery and human trafficking still occurring in this day and age. It follows Sripa, a young Sri Lankan high school graduate who endured 26 months of forced labor in a household in the United States. Sripa draws strength only from her mother’s letters, until inquiries from a neighbor eventually lead to her rescue. Sripa must then find the courage within her to become an advocate for the abolition of human trafficking.
Developed in the East West Players David Henry Hwang Writers Institute with the support of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, Letters From My Mother is based on the playwright’s true life experience. This reading is presented as part of a month-long campaign to raise the awareness of human trafficking and modern day slavery. To learn more on human trafficking, visit www.castla.org.
A panel discussion and a wine and cheese reception follows the reading.
Dhobi Ghat
When: Opens January 21, 2011
Where: In theaters
How: dhobighatfilm.com
Shai (played by Indian American Monica Dogra) is a modern Indian American woman, on sabbatical from her prestigious job in finance, to indulge her photography hobby in Mumbai. She has a brief dalliance with Mumbai native Arun (Aamir Khan), a gifted but solitary painter, and strikes up an unusual friendship with Munna (Prateik), a handsome laundry boy (dhobi) with ambitions of being a Bollywood actor. As Shai takes an interest in Munna’s life and work in the dhobi ghat (the area in Mumbai where laundry is done), their friendship deepens despite significant class differences, and Arun becomes obsessed with recordings left by a beautiful former tenant of his apartment.
Kiran Rao’s directorial debut, set in the wild and chaotic metropolis of Mumbai, follows four people, separated by class and language, drawn together in compelling relationships. The films stars and was produced by Aamir Khan, one of India’s most popular actors.
Korean Community Day at Fowler Museum
When: Saturday, January 22, 2011, 1-4 pm
Where: Fowler Museum at UCLA, Westwood, CA
How: Admission is free
UCLA’s Fowler Museum is opening up its doors to celebrate Korean arts and culture. Bring appa and unni to this family-oriented day with art workshops and tours of their “Life in Ceramics: Five Contemporary Korean Artists ” exhibit. After the afternoon’s festivities are over, take a stroll around UCLA’s beautiful campus. Fun for the whole family!
dineLA Restaurant Week
When: January 23-28, January 30-February 4, 2011
Where: Restaurants throughout Los Angeles
How: www.dineLA.com/RestaurantWeek
Now’s your chance to try some of the best restaurants L.A. has to offer, all at special prix-fixe prices. From Hollywood’s recently opened W Hollywood complete with a dinner at Delphine, to a coastal getaway at Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows and dinner at Fig Santa Monica, dineLA Restaurant Week offers visitors the perfect excuse to visit Los Angeles and dine at a great value.
Check out participating restaurants here.
ALOUD: A conversation with Andrew Lam and Maxine Hong Kingston
When: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 7 pm
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, Los Angeles, CA
How: www.lfla.org/event-detail/541/Maxine-Hong-Kingston
Acclaimed writer Maxine Hong Kingston.
Don’t miss the meeting of two brilliant minds in modern Asian American literature in casual conversation. Andrew Lam, the editor and co-founder of New America Media, and author of the award-winning Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, and his latest work, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres, talks Asian American literature with Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston, the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior.
The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Kingston grew up active in antiwar activities in Berkeley, but left the mainland for Hawaii in the late ’60’s, where she wrote The Woman Warrior, and China Men, which earned the National Book Award. Her most recent books include a collection of essays, Hawai‘i One Summer, and her latest novel, The Fifth Book of Peace. Kingston was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 1997 by President Clinton. She is currently Senior Lecturer Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.
Looking for a unique taste of the voices of the Vietnamese American experience? Look no further as two award-winning authors celebrate the release of their new books with a special reading and discussion on Tuesday, September 21.
Photo by Marion Ettlinger.
Award-winning authors Monique Truong and Andrew Lam will be reading from their new books, Bitter in the Mouth (Random House) and East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres (Heyday Books), respectively, in conjunction with the Vietnamese Arts & Letters Association (VAALA), at VAALA Cultural Center in Santa Ana, Calif.
Truong, who was born in Saigon and lives in New York City, won acclaim for her first novel, The Book of Salt. The 2010 Guggenheim Fellow follows up her New York Times Notable book with Bitter in the Mouth, a story following Vietnamese adoptee Linda Hammerick who has a special yet burdensome gift — she experiences words as tastes. Boyfriends are orange sherbet or parsnips. Her own name is mint. It’s a real-world neurological condition called auditory-gustatory synesthesia. She writes: “The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another. When I heard the word ‘disappointed,’ I tasted toast, slightly burnt.”
But it’s not just about her unusual sensorial talent. Woven into Linda’s story is the history of her home state, North Carolina, as well as her upbringing as the only one of Asian descent in a southern stronghold.
On the other side of the cultural palate is editor and co-founder of New America Media Andrew Lam’s East Eats West. Following up on his critically acclaimed Perfume Dreams:
Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, the Saigon-born Lam offers a series of essays that shines new light on the bridges that connect two hemispheres into one worldwide immigrant nation. From cuisine and martial arts to sex and self-esteem, East Eats West is part memoir, part meditation, and part cultural anthropology.
Following their readings, the two authors will join University of California, Riverside, professor Mariam B. Lam and writer Ky-Phong Tran in a discussion exploring diaspora, theme, craft and the writer’s life. A wine reception is to follow.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear and meet these two exciting Asian American authors!
DETAILS
Monique Truong and Andrew Lam readings
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
VAALA Cultural Center, 1600 N. Broadway #101, Santa Ana, CA 92706
Free and open to the public
For more info, go to VAALA.
To see where else Andrew Lam will be appearing, click here.
