Pencil This In: NextAid Benefit, Mary Pickford Films, Author Discusses Coming of Age in Prison
BENEFIT*
As you read earlier on LAist, nonprofit organization NextAid holds a Los Angeles benefit in their multi-date/multi-city World AIDS Day 2009 (WAD2009) campaign. Starting at 7 pm tonight at the Marrakesh House in Culver City, there’s a full slate of performers including comedians Whitney Cummings and Ben Gelb, and music by Louis Vega, Turntables on the Hudson with DJ Nickodemus + Nappy G & Brazilian Drum Troupe + Todd Simon on trumpet. The $75 ticket also includes open bar, light food and dessert.
ART TALK
LACMA presents Conversations with Artists: Natalie Bookchin tonight at 7 pm in the Brown Auditorium. In conjunction with The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection, currently on view at the museum, LA-based artist Natalie Bookchin talks about contemporary web-based self-portraiture. The event is free, but tickets are required. They’re available one hour before the program.
LEARN
Tonight at 6:30 pm The California Endowment presents its Center Scene public program A Question of Freedom: Learning, Survival and Coming of Age in Prison with author Dwayne Betts. In 1996, then-16-year-old Betts became a statistic when he carjacked a sleeping man in a parking lot. He spent nine years in adult prison and uses his book and his experiences to confront questions about violence, race, opportunity and the criminal justice system. Betts is now national spokesperson for Campaign for Youth Justice, program director of D.C. Creative Writing Workshop and founder of YoungMenRead. The program is free, but RSVPs recommended.
BOOKS
Diesel, A Bookstore in Brentwood hosts Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl tonight at 7 pm to celebrate the publication of their new Gothic young adult novel, Beautiful Creatures, It’s the story of “Lena Duchannes and Ethan Wate and their intertwined fates amongst the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South.”
FILM
Tonight at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood at 7:30 p.m, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences continues the series “A Century Ago: The Films of 1909 - The Stars are Born” with a night of Mary Pickford films. The Academy, which Pickford helped found, presents films including "They Would Elope," "The Trick That Failed," "A Midnight Adventure," "The Mountaineer's Honor" and "To Save Her Soul" with live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla. General admission - $5, Academy members and students with a valid ID - $3. ***This event is SOLD OUT. A standby line will form on the day of the event, and standby numbers will be assigned at approximately 5:30 pm.***
MUSIC
Two music events that we have to mention again, too: John Adams, the Kronos Quartet and the LA Phil’s New Music Group at Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight at 8 pm; The Section Quartet plays rock holiday tunes with strings at Largo tonight at 8 pm.
*Pencil pick of the day
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