Highways turns 30! The performance space presents Behold! Highways’ Queer Fest 2019 May–June, its annual queer performance arts festival, which appropriately collides with the enduring creative space’s 30th birthday. From May 3rd through June 30, 2019, two months of new LGBTQIA work will be presented by Highways’ extended family of artists, writers and performers such as solo-theatre legend Tim Miller (a founder and original co-artistic director), eminent artist-activist Michael Kearns, the nation’s first out transgender modern dance choreographer Sean Dorsey, and Black Lives Matter Co-founder Patrisse Cullors. Look for specific Dirty 30 anniversary events that bookend the festival (5/3, 5/4 and 6/29). Behold! will also feature such emerging performance artists and curators as Tyler Matthew Oyer, Marval A Rex, Celeste XXX, Moises Josue Michel, Kyoko Takenaka and Shruti Purkayastha. 

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In response to increasing concerns about the future of the planet due to global warming, Los Angeles artists and arts organizations are uniting for VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival, a citywide climate-focused arts festival celebrating the power of art to make change. Happening throughout the greater Los Angeles area from Monday, November 30 to Friday, December 11, 2015, VisionLA ‘15 aims to stimulate a creative response to the climate crisis through arts engagement. The Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary festival has been timed to coincide with the United Nations 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris and is inspired by the concurrent ArtCOP21, a Paris-wide arts festival expressing support for a strong international climate treaty and positive, sustainable change. Read the rest of this entry »

Medicinal Media LLC announces the publication of Heart Medicine: A True Love Story – One Couple’s Quest for the Sacred Iboga Medicine & the Cure for Addiction, an intimate memoir written by Elizabeth Bast, set to release in August 2015. In Heart Medicine: A True Love Story, author Bast shares the story about iboga as a miraculous treatment for heroin addiction for her husband, acclaimed visionary street artist Chor Boogie. In 2014, Boogie experienced a drug relapse after being clean for over 13 years. The new book follows the couple’s journey in search of the sacred plant medicine iboga, indigenous to Central West Africa, known for its spiritual healing and powerful addiction-breaking effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Cornerstone Theater Company and The California Endowment, in partnership with The Black Parallel School Board, will bring the community, policy makers, and the media together to dramatize personal stories of school discipline and to discuss alternatives to harsh practices on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at the State Capitol in Sacramento.  This bridge building event, Talk it Out: A Community Conversation to Fix School Discipline, will feature a dramatic reading of a new play, Willful, performed by students, community members and professional actors, with a focus on the current debate over the excessive use of “willful defiance” in school suspensions and expulsions.  The event is sponsored by the office of Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento and author of AB 420, a new bill that would restrict the ill-defined and overused “willful defiance” rationale for harsh disciplinary measures. Read the rest of this entry »

StudioFeed introduces SubPac, portable tactile audio technology that takes sound to the physical dimension through an innovative device that allows users to actually feel music. For use with any existing audio source, the high-fidelity SubPac allows music to be physically experienced by quietly transferring low frequencies directly to the body. Users experience the ‘boom’ of a kick drum, the warmth of an 808, the expression of a bassist, and the richness of soundscapes through a quiet and portable device. In line with StudioFeed’s community focus, SubPac will launch through Kickstarter on March 5, 2013, with early bird pricing set at $275. The formal launch will take place in Spring 2013. With offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, StudioFeed is a social venture that supports independent music through community engagement and technology development. Read the rest of this entry »

Strength After Cancer, a new post-cancer wellness program, is launching with a garden party hosted in a private Beverly Hills home in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 7, 2012 during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The new program was developed by fitness specialist Jennifer Cheng and nurse practitioner Dale Perry to help cancer survivors create a life of wellness with holistic health support.  Perry is a unique health practitioner – a breast cancer survivor who gained strength and mobility, overcoming muscle weakness and challenges, by developing a protocol with Cheng using specialized rehab exercises and a post-cancer nutraceutical program. The goal of the party is to introduce a new wellness program, based on Perry’s success working in collaboration with Cheng, to select healthcare practitioners, potential clients, the media, and other interested parties in a social setting.  At the event, Strength After Cancer will specifically introduce its innovative pilot program for breast cancer survivors with lymphedema to manage their swelling. Perry will be the featured guest speaker at the event.

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mud-luscious theatre ensemble, in association with Zee Productions and HolliVOX Entertainment, is thrilled to announce an exclusive production of Unwrap the Present: Life (coaching) is a Cabaret, a comical and poignant one-woman show, written and performed by actor, singer, comedienne, cynic and life coach Sonja Alarr, on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills.  The private, invitation-only performance chronicles Alarr’s personal journey from depressed housewife to resurrected artist through a mix of classic and contemporary songs woven together with an autobiographical monologue, humorous insights into the human condition, and handy self-help tips gained from her professional experience as a life coach.

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Listen for Life is honored to bring an impressive roster of world-renowned musicians to three cross-cultural Listen for Life Musicfest 2012 events in Southern California, September 21-29, 2012, to celebrate this year’s International Day of Peace and kick-off a world tour to promote peace around the globe.  Three years ago, the United Nations asked Listen for Life to create music festivals worldwide to raise awareness for Peace Day.  This year’s Musicfest concerts feature legendary blues and rock musicians (present/former band members of Eric Clapton, Guns N’ Roses, Dave Matthews Band, Carole King, Billy Preston, John Lee Hooker, Lionel Richie, Sergio Mendes, Toto, and Asia) who are coming together for the first time to form the Listen for Life All-Star Band to promote world peace through music.  Joining them at all three concerts are top music masters from nine world cultures, sharing their ethnic music traditions individually as well as collaboratively in combination with the all-star band.

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Stepping Up, a multimedia art exhibit about rising up to meet challenges, opens officially to the public with an artist reception on Friday, June 22, 2012 in the Rampart Village office of the United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW), west of Downtown Los Angeles.  The brightly colored, primarily figurative exhibition features works by artists such as Oscar Magallanes, Keba Konte, and Paul Barron.  Stepping Up is the newest gallery installation by ULTCW, which is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The artist reception, which features a DJ, light refreshments, and exhibition artists in attendance, will run from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.  The ULTCW offices are located at 2910 Beverly Blvd. 3rd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057 (877-698-5829).

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Award-winning film Bouncing Cats is the inspiring documentary of one man’s attempt to create a better life for the children of Uganda through the unlikely tools of hip hop and breakdance. Narrated by Common and featuring interviews with Will.I.Am, and K’Naan, the story follows the legendary Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew and b-boy Abramz, the founder of Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU), on a journey to unify, empower and inspire youth in the war torn country that has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a child.  Poverty, disease, and a brutal, mindless war in the region have divided families, displaced millions and led to the abduction and mutilation of tens of thousands of children resulting in the deterioration of identity and culture. Read the rest of this entry »