Event

Civil Rights and Go-Go Boots

In Partnership with KPCC Crawford Family Forum, AboutProductions presents CIVIL RIGHTS AND GO-GO BOOTS: A Groovy Evening of Theater, Live Music, and Chicano History.

This community forum explores the Chicano Movement, East L.A. and L.A. pop culture of the late 60s. Louie Pérez, primary songwriter of Los Lobos is a featured speaker. Community members will explore the late 60s history of East L.A. including the 1968 student walkouts through theatrical excerpts, live music inspired by the Go-Go Era, and a public talk-back. Multi-talented Quetzal Flores, of the band Quetzal, will provide music direction for the evening's live music.

A discussion between a panel and the forum audience will follow each theatrical excerpt and explore how the themes resonate with the racial, political and cultural issues still with us today. The panel, moderated by KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, includes professors Josh Kun, Alma Martinez and Victor Viesca.

Civil Rights and Go-Go Boots Community Forum is part of a series of events featured throughout the year introducing AboutProductions' upcoming original theaterwork, Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe. Set to premiere in 2012, the project is a collaboration between AboutProductions' Artistic Director Theresa Chavez, Associate Director Rose Portillo, and Louie Pérez. All three will engage in the forum dialogue.

Evangeline, The Queen of Make-Believe features the songbook of Pérez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. Their early hit "Evangeline" gives the theaterwork its title. Set in the late 60s, Evangeline centers around a young woman from East L.A. who is a devout daughter by day, and a Hollywood Go-Go dancer by night. Inspired by the music of the late 60s, Quetzal has re-imagined the Los Lobos material for Evangeline.

ADMISSION IS FREE, but RSVPs are required. Reservations will be available on Monday, March 30th.