Don Palabraz

This Saturday in Santa Ana, art exhibit goers will be treated to an artistic voyage from Rome, Italy to Santa Ana! Put together by Lilia Lamas, the event at the 511 space will feature the print and photographic works of six Italian artists. The exhibit pieces come courtesy of the Stamperia del Tevere in Rome. Lamas, who is also an assistant to art lecturer Gregorio Luke, spent the better part of last year in the boot shaped country and offers OC an opportunity to see what’s going on there artistically. Doors open at 6 p.m. and unplugged acoustic performances by Street Spirit and others will set the tone for the opening.

In an ongoing update to the story of the shutdown of Grrl Fair 2010 last weekend, I was able to obtain from a Santa Ana city official source the reason as to why the international women’s day event couldn’t take place. It’s a subject that generated a lot of reader comments last time around.  I’m still awaiting information from Councilwoman Michele Martinez on a new permit plan related to this story but in the meantime check out the updated OC Weekly blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/cancellation/grrl-fair-shut-down/

The Southern Manifesto

Back in the day on March 12th, 1956, the so-called Southern Manifesto was introduced in a Congressional speech by Representative Howard Smith. An identical version initially drafted by Senator Strom Thurmond was also presented in the U.S. Senate as well. The Manifesto was in direct response to the Supreme Court Ruling in the case of Brown v The Board of Education. The decision that called for the mandatory desegregation of schools in the United States was seen by lawmakers who signed on to the document as a substitution of “naked power” for “established law.” The Manifesto actually went on to claim that the landmark civil rights ruling had the effect of “destroying the amicable relations between the white and the negro races.” It further stated that it “planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.”

I’m sure our black listeners and others are having a good chuckle at that characterization!

The press release reads as follows:

On Friday March 12, the Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise charter school (LAAAE) is holding a benefit concert featuring international folk artists Inti-Illimani at the Los Angeles Theater Center (514 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013)

One show only starts at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale at http://thelatc.org/

The concert will celebrate LAAAE’s recent charter renewal by the Los Angeles Unified School District.  On March 2, 2010, LAUSD voted unanimously to approve the school’s charter for an additional five years.

In support of the Chilean earthquake victims, LAAAE is offering a limited number of community concert tickets at $30, reduced from $100.  A percentage of these ticket sales will be donated to the Chile Earthquake Relief Fund via the Chilean Embassy.

A Raisin in the Sun

Back in the day on March 11th, 1959, “A Raisin in the Sun” became the first play written by an African-American woman and directed by an African-American man to stage on Broadway. The storyline centered on the decision of a black family to move from the south side of Chicago to an all-white neighborhood. Named after a line in the famed Langston Hughes poem “A Dream Deferred,” the play echoed the life experience of the playwright Lorraine Hansberry whose own family had to file litigation under similar circumstances in Chicago. The cast and crew of “A Raisin in the Sun,” featured the talents of the likes of Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier who help the production open to acclaim.The Ethel Barrymore Theater erupted in applause on opening night and critical praise followed soon thereafter. Hansberry’s work brought new black audiences to the theater, but also introduced existing white audiences to an artistic representation of African-American life they had previously been unexposed to.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why the New York Times would go on to call “A Raisin in the Sun,” a play that “changed American theater forever.”