Pencil This In: Storytelling and Obama's First 30 Days
The Hammer Museum gives Barack Obama his 30-day job evaluation. / Photo by Vera♥Tai via LAist's flickr pool.
STORIES*
Think you got the gift of gab? Then head to The Moth's monthly LA StorySLAM tonight, keeping the theme of “Love Hurts" in mind. Sign up, and if you're one of the 10 people picked, keep your story down to five minutes. And make it good. If you don't have the gift of gab, then just come down and listen. The evening begins at 7 pm at El Cid. Listen to sample stories here.
TALK
The Hammer Forum presents “The First 30 Days: The New President’s Plans, Priorities, and Pitfalls” at 7 pm at the Hammer Museum. Thirty days into President Barack Obama’s administration, the event examines the new presidency within a historical context. The discussion will be led by political scientist Dr. Theodore Lowi who has been the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University since 1972. He has written or edited more than a dozen books, including The Pursuit of Justice, co-authored with Robert F. Kennedy.
LECTURE
Art Historian and Curator Alvia J. Warlaw of the University Museum of Texas Southern University speaks on “Collecting African American Art in the 21st Century” at the Getty Center today at 4 pm. The lecture is part of the annual Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance series. Warlaw discusses the impact of young artists, new collectors and institution building through history. She’ll analyze the role of historically Black colleges and universities in the preservation of African American art. There will be a reception following the lecture.
ART
Also at the Getty, an exhibit featuring the work of sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652-1706) opens today. “La Roldana's Saint Ginés: the Making of Polychrome Sculpture” will highlight the relatively unknown artist’s masterpiece “Saint Ginés de la Jara” as an example of “Roldana's vigorous and masterful carving and to examine the intricate process of polychromy.”
THEATRE
The Threepenny Opera opens International City Theatre's 2009 season at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center with lower-priced previews happening tonight through Thursday. First performed in 1928, Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s play was a revolutionary musical theater production that “mocked the bourgeois political movement of pre-Hitler Germany.” Weill's score fused American jazz with German cabaret captured the ironic tone of the lyrics. “Part acid social criticism, part bittersweet romance, the now eighty-year old saga of ‘Mack the Knife’ and his entourage of criminals and whores has never lost its theatrical punch.” The production runs through March 22 and the preview tickets are $32.
*Pencil pick of the day