There has never been more worldwide attention on the creative culture of Los Angeles.
Each Week, ForYourArt highlights select cultural offerings throughout the week ahead to help you PLAN ForYourArt.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22
Roger Guenveur Smith: In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Bootleg Theater (Echo Park)
8pm
In honor of what would have been the artist's 50th birthday, Roger Guenveur Smith will create an intimate solo performance for Jean-Michel Basquiat.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24
L.A. County Holiday Celebration
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Downtown)
3-6pm
Celebrate the diversity of Los Angeles with seasonal music and dance. Performing groups include: Gabriella Axelrad, the Young Men's Ensemble of the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, the Albert Jubilee Singers, Antics Performance, Loch & Key and many more. This event is free.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 2
Sunday Studio and Xenakis Film Series, Part II
The Geffen Contemporary and MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown)
1pm and 3pm
Learn about how artists from Latin America explored perception and sensation in a guided tour of the exhibition Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, followed by a workshop with artist Janice Gomez at the Geffen Contemporary. MOCA Grand Avenue will host screenings of Orient-Occident: Images d'une Exposition (1960), directed by Enrico Fulchignoni, and Something Rich and Strange (1992), written, produced and directed by Mark Kidel/BBC and RM Arts, in conjunction with the exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 4
A Small Act
Hammer Museum (Westwood)
7pm
A screening of the award-winning documentary, A Small Act, the story of Chris Mburu, a young man from Kenya who became a Harvard Law School graduate and human rights lawyer for the United Nations. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Jennifer Arnold, and producers Patti Lee and Jeffrey Soros.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5
Los Angeles Arts Month Kick Off Festival
Music Center Plaza (Downtown)
12pm
The kick off for the 2011 Los Angeles Arts Month, featuring performances by David Hidalgo and Louie Perez of Los Lobos, and theatrical selections by About Productions.
Vertigo
Hammer Museum (Westwood)
7pm
Julian Hoeber's installation, Demon Hill is an homage to the anxiety-producing "gravitational mystery spots" of the American roadside. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Hammer presents two nights of film, screening Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, on January 5, and Jacques Tati's Playtime, January 6. Both films will be shown in 70mm.