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Event
Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works: Short Plays on Environmental Justice
The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division (PERF) announces the launch of its Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works. The initiative invites South Los Angeles artists to create short subject works in the disciplines of theater, dance, music and film.
The inaugural Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works: Environmental Justice, challenges local playwrights to develop, write and present a short subject stage play in the areas of Health, Air Quality, Open Space and/or Climate Change. PERF is proud to announce Allison M Keating and Stephan Collins-Stepney as the commission winners.
Staged readings of the new works will be followed by a talk-back with the playwrights, community groups, and representatives from the Los Angeles City Plannings Environmental Justice Policy team. Please bring your questions on the issues, and the works presented.
The event will be held at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd. 90016, on Monday, September 30, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. The program is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Reservations are recommended. The NHPAC Cafe will be open for refreshments for purchase.
About the commissioned artists and their works:
CLIMATE CAFE by Allison M Keating
When the worst of climate change is being lived through, when our cousins are stranded on shrinking islands, when our families are scattered climate refugees, when the fires burn and we live our lives in cooling centers, how do our souls survive? Like any war, in community. A Climate Cafe is a gathering where we share stories and feel comforted through the collective emotional toll of enduring Climate Change. This play explores three Climate Cafes offering hope through community resilience, imagination, and care.
ALLISON M KEATING is an interdisciplinary artist and director of provocative live performance. Her artistic projects are relevant to our specific contemporary moment of NOW, charging people to examine and question, to provoke community engaged discussion in a hopeful effort towards perception change and empathy. Keating works to ensure the experimental arts thrive in Los Angeles by fueling a culture of collaboration, resource sharing, support and sustainability, both economic and environmental. Recent projects include On Death Paper Tape at Angels Gate Cultural Center; Finally, a Play about Joy at El Segundo Museum of Art; The Identity Project at Highways Performance Space; Hiking Podcast at Machine Project; and various trans-media performances online and at non-traditional sites across LA. Keatings artworks have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts National Park Centennial Program, California Arts Council, Center for Performance at CalArts, Center for Cultural Innovation, and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Keating has a dual MFA from California Institute of the Arts in theater directing and integrated media.
DEADLY GANGS by Stephan Collins-Stepney
Zenobia, a Black woman, has leaders of three of the deadliest gangs tied up in her home: Boil, Defot, and Stocky. She tells them that they need to take accountability for what theyve done to poor Black and Brown communities. Through their discussion, questions are answered. Who are the real villains? Who is responsible for solving the problem? What can be done to improve this community issue?
STEPHAN COLLINS-STEPNEY is a professional playwright, screenwriter, actor, and theatre director. Holding an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Queens University of Charlotte, his plays have been produced throughout the U.S. Collins- Stepney's stage play, FREEDOM, and his one-person Black history show B.A.D. (Black And Defiant) were considered Best Bets at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2007 and 2008. His play about the lives of Bert Williams and George Walker in The Legacy of Two Real Men, was featured at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a screenwriter, Collins-Stepney is an alum of RespectAbilitys Entertainment Lab, Kidscreen Diverse Voices Mentorship, and the Athena Film Festival Writers Lab, for which he received the Loreen Arbus Fellowship. His work is unapologetically Black and his goal is to dispel damaging Black stereotypes. Collins-Stepney is currently a remote English professor at his undergraduate alma mater, Morgan State University.
DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Environmental justice is defined in State law as the fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of people of all races, cultures, incomes, and national origins, with respect
to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws,
regulations, and policies. The principle of environmental justice ensures equal and
equitable protection from environmental and health hazards, while giving people fair
and equal access to the planning and decision-making process. To learn more visit: The
Environmental Justice Policy Program at https://planning.lacity.gov/plans-
policies/environmental-justice.
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LocationNate Holden Performing Arts Center (View)
4718 W. Washington Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90016
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 13 |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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