Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses and events. With in-person concerts, talks, comedy shows, food festivals and other gatherings cancelled, we have turned our events column into a "nonevents" column. It will remain this way as long as social distancing and stay-at-home orders are in effect.
During this difficult time, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.
Hold the bug spray! Summer camp activities are moving indoors and online this year. The Academy presents a family-friendly panel on animation. Writer Colson Whitehead sits down for a chat. Learn about the Pastafarian religion. Help out the Museum of Latin American Art by participating in its online auction.
Kids Crafting Series at Beverly Center
Beverly Center
8500 Beverly Blvd., Beverly Grove
Every two weeks, beginning this Monday, the mall offers a free, take-come crafting kit for kids who are at least three years old. You'll find the kids at the concierge on level 6. Once home, watch a new crafting video on Instagram @beverlycenter. Courtney Colors leads the workshops, which include creating flower pots, butterfly gardens, flower keepsake boxs and flower crowns.
COST: FREE (no purchase necessary); MORE INFO
Family Day: The Art of Animation
The Film Academy holds a family-friendly, online animation workshop hosted by Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life) and Brooke Keesling (Bento Box Entertainment). Listen to panelists Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me), Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin (Trolls), Pete Docter (Inside Out), Michael Giacchino (Up), Miguel Jiron (Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham), Hyun-min Lee (Frozen II), Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Priscilla Wong (Trolls). They'll talk storyboarding, creating flipbooks, music and voice acting. The video will remain online to watch later.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Lapkus and Tompkins Sing the Blues
Comics Lauren Lapkus (The Wrong Missy, OITNB) and Paul F. Tomkins (Mr. Show, Bojack Horseman) will improvise a show for audiences via Dynasty Typewriter's livestream.
COST: $5 - $10; MORE INFO
Adventures in Nature Connected
L.A.'s Natural History Museums holds its summer camp online this year. Registered participants explore new topics in science each week: dinosaurs, dire wolves, alligators and other animals that live closer to SoCal. The DIY take-home activity kits include workbooks with instructions and materials for five days. Virtual camp meets three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) with staff leading activities for 60 minutes. No parental supervision needed. Additional webinars happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
COST: $60 - $75 per week; MORE INFO
Colson Whitehead in conversation with Mary Karr
Enjoy a night with Whitehead, who discusses his writing, life and latest novel, The Nickel Boys, with poet, essayist and memoirist Mary Karr. In the book, Whitehead follows two boys who are sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Watch the conversation on Live Talks LA's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
COST: FREE, though donations accepted; MORE INFO
I, Pastafari
Michael Arthur's documentary focuses on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its followers, known as Pastafarians. They fight for religious freedom and exceptions in laws that are granted to other religions. It opens digitally on Tuesday on multiple streaming platforms.
COST: Varies; MORE INFO
Blood Drive @ Music Center Annex
601 Temple St., downtown L.A.
The Music Center hosts a Community Blood Drive in partnership with UCLA Health. Online reservations are required. Click Blood Drives and enter TMC in zip code / account code box. For platelet donation and COVID-19 positive plasma donations, call 310-567-1720. Blood donors receive a Baskin Robbins ice cream "pint for a pint" while platelet and plasma donors get three pints. Bring a photo ID.
COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO
Mucho Mucho Amor
The documentary about the "magic and mysticism" of Latinx astrologer Walter Mercado opens globally on Netflix on Wednesday. For decades, the gender-nonconforming Puerto Rican psychic captured millions of viewers with his televised horoscopes -- until one day he disappeared. Directors Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch were able to capture his final two years as Mercado struggled with aging and his legacy.
COST: Varies; MORE INFO
Raphael: The Making of a Master
Watch an art history lecture via Zoom as the Italian Cultural Institute of L.A. welcomes Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He discusses the short but rich career of Renaissance artist Raphael on the 500th anniversary of his passing.
COST: FREE, registration required; MORE INFO
Amir Zaki: Where We Read
The Orange County Museum of Art offers this participatory photography project from artist Amir Zaki. He has gathered images from the public to create a collective picture of where we read and how our views compare to others after being engrossed in a book. This project will be on view starting Thursday on OCMA's Instagram @OCMuseumofArt.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Throwback Thursday Lecture
The Santa Monica History Museum hosts a lecture about the Pacific Ocean Park Pier led by Chris Merritt and Domenic Priore, authors of the book Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles' Space Age Nautical Pleasure Pier.
COST: FREE, but donations accepted; MORE INFO
Improv For Television and Film: Acting
The Groundlings Theatre and School holds an educational panel with alumni and special guests to support the comedy troupe's diversity fund. Created and moderated by Groundling Leonard Robinson (Insecure), the discussion features Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Stephanie Courtney (Progressive Insurance's Flo), Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911!) and Gary Anthony Williams (American Dad). They'll share their career experiences and improv tools to help viewers become more adaptable on set.
COST: $25; MORE INFO
Level 8 Drive-In
The Americana at Brand - Rooftop Parking Structure
889 Americana Way, Glendale
Drive up to the rooftop for a screening series held in partnership with Street Food Cinema. Guests can enjoy classic movie snacks (including free popcorn, Icelandic Glacial water and boxed candy) from their cars. Additional foods will be available for advanced purchase. Movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Crazy Rich Asians, The Lego Batman Movie and Black Panther, screen Thursdays through Sundays for the next two weekends.
COST: $30 per vehicle plus $8 per person; MORE INFO
Poetry Basics With Rex Weiner
The Elysian Valley Arts Collective presents a new series of virtual poetry workshops taught by writer Rex Weiner (The Adventures of Ford Fairlane). The hour-long, online sessions will be streamed live on two separate evenings via Google MeetUp with guest artists in attendance. The first session features writer, educator and speaker Shonda Buchanan whose book, Black Indian - A Memoir, explores her family's legacy of being African American with American Indian roots. The second session features artist, writer and educator Harry Gamboa Jr.
COST: FREE with registration; MORE INFO
Comedy Special Tapings @ Tribeca Drive-In; 9 p.m.
Rose Bowl
1001 Rose Bowl Dr., Pasadena
As part of the drive-in series at the Rose Bowl, Comedy Dynamics is filming four stand-up specials (one each night). Watch Dave Helem (Thursday), Ester Steinberg (Friday), Daniel Webb (Saturday) and Erica Rhodes (Sunday) perform to crowds in their cars. Tickets are sold separately from the film screening.
COST: $30 per car; MORE INFO
MOLAA Online Auction
The Museum of Latin American Art opens its first fully online auction with 167 artworks for sale from Latin American and Latino artists, including Leonardo Nierman, Francisco Toledo and Zaida del Rio. Proceeds from this auction will benefit the museum's COVID-19 Recovery Fund, which will help generate revenue to offset losses incurred during the pandemic.
COST: FREE online access; MORE INFO
COLA 2020 Artist Focus Series
This video series examines the works and processes of the 2020 City of Los Angeles (COLA) visual art fellows. Curator Steven Wong and Assistant Curator Brianna Bakke interview artists, including Tanya Aguiñiga, YoungEun Kim, Elana Mann, Vincent Ramos, Jeffrey Vallance and Lisa Diane Wedgeworth, about their practices and connections to LA.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Who doesn't miss going out to eat or stopping by a bar for a drink? Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
