John Malpede, directs, performs and engineers multi-event arts projects that have theatrical, installation, public art and education components.  In 1985 Malpede founded and continues to direct the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD), the first performance group in the nation comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people. LAPD creates performances that connect lived experience to the social  forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty. Malpede has produced projects working with communities throughout the US and in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Bolivia.
 
In 2004 Malpede’s project RFK in EKY, was produced by Appalshop, and developed with a host of community partners. This monumental, real-time documentary-style performance by a large community cast, sought to put an historical mirror up to present moment life in eastern Kentucky.  RFK in EKY recreated Kennedy’s original “war on poverty” tour in the course of a four-day, 200 mile series of events that included, performance, installations, and in-depth discussion of historic and current events and social policy.  He involved a number of his closest artist / collaborators in elements of this project including, Henriëtte Brouwers, David Michalek, Harrell Fletcher and Sjoerd Wagenaar.
 
Malpede was fellow at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies during the early months of the economic crisis where, at MIT’s business school, he found divergent points of view on causes, extent and remedies for the economic crisis.  Malpede’s Bright Futures was extrapolated from these contradictory responses that included a business school pep-talk for anxious future quants (financial engineers) and MIT economist Simon Johnson’s condemnation of the financial “oligarchy”. Bright Futures was realized as a performance, but also as a video installation on the MIT campus. The performance was shown at MIT, in NYC’s Performa 2009 Festvial and in 2010 at Ohio University.
 
Malpede has received New York’s Dance Theater Workshop Bessie Creation Award, San Francisco Art Institute's Adeline Kent Award, Durfee Sabbatical Grant, LA Theater Alliance Ovation Award, Individual artist fellowships  from New York State Council on the Arts, NEA, California Arts Council, City of Los Angeles' COLA fellowship, California Community Foundation's Visual Artist Fellowship and numerous project grants.
Also visit: www.johnmalpede.info

LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT - BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2011
Laurence M. Lavin, member since 1996 (President)
Attorney
John Malpede, member since 1988 (Vice President)
Director, Los Angeles Poverty Department
Julia Carnahan, member since 2009 (Treasurer)
Arts Producer
Catherine Gudis, member since 2011 (Secretary)
Historian

LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT - BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2011

Laurence M. Lavin, member since 1996 (President)
Attorney
Laurence Lavin was, until his recent retirement, the Director of National Health Rights Law. Larry has represented thousands of clients in a wide range of problems including health and mental health, housing, community economic development, and family law. He directed Community Legal Services, Philadelphia PA (1971 to 1979), Palmetto Legal Services, Columbia, SC (1980 to 1985), and the Law Coordination Center, Harrisburg, PA (1985 to 1988). He is the author of AIDS, Medicaid, and Women.

John Malpede, member since 1988 (Vice President)
Director, Los Angeles Poverty Department
For 30 years, John Malpede has been a visible figure in the national performance art and experimental theater world. In 1985 he founded the Los Angeles Poverty Department and serves as its director. From 1985-89, he also worked as a welfare advocate for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Julia Carnahan, member since 2009 (Treasurer)
Arts Producer
Julia worked as a line producer and program coordinator for the Los Angeles Festival, and as Associate Producer / Music Producer for the International Festival of Art & Ideas in New Haven, CT. She has worked as a consultant to The Durfee Foundation, Guggenheim Museum, Mass MOCA and the World Festival of Sacred Music. She has been company manager for a dozen productions of Peter Sellars. 

Catherine Gudis, member since 2011 (Secretary)
Historian
Catherine Gudis is Director of the M.A./Ph.D. program in Public History at the University of California, Riverside. Professor Gudis is the author of Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Cultural Landscape. Her next book, tentatively entitled Curating the City: The Framing of Los Angeles, explores the ways in which public art, performance, and history can help frame and socially activate urban space and place in Southern California. In 2011-2012, she will serve as a Getty Scholar, conducting research towards this project.