March 17 – April 6: “SETTLEMENT” by SOIT and LAPD @ the BOX gallery

Performances: April 4, 5, 6.

Los Angeles Poverty Department has invited SOIT to Los Angeles and will produce SOIT’s ‘Settlement’ project at The Box Gallery at 805 Traction Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. ‘Settlement’ performance project will be created in three weeks and led by Hans Van den Broeck with two dancers from SOIT, Belgium, the Los Angeles Poverty Department’s performers and additional performers from the artist community in Los Angeles: dancers, performers and actors.  The creation process at the BOX gallery will be open to the public.  SOIT is a Brussels based contemporary dance company founded and directed by Hans Van den Broeck. The ‘Settlement’ work process generates a temporary, self-made, self-sufficient fictitious village, separated from the rest of the world, as a metaphor for transitional settings in modern society (refugee camps, detention camps, homelessness, alternative gatherings, sects…). The conflicts and dilemmas arising from being trapped in a transitional situation with limited options are translated into movement.

May 24: Walk the Talk

Walk the Talk is no ordinary walk. It’s a parade! A brass band, Paradigm Brass, (plus pick up musicians), lead the way. It’s a performance! LA Poverty Department brings the neighborhood to life with performances along the parade route that pay tribute to neighborhood initiatives of men & women whose contributions to the community call for a big, blaring celebration. It’s an epic history of Skid Row! This year LAPD is turning our Walk The Talk peripatetic performance into a two-year re-occurring event that brings the history of the community to life and keeps it alive.

May 30 & 31: Highways 25th anniversary

Highways in Santa Monica, has transformed the LA performance landscape by creating a performance space where the ideas and works of gay and lesbian performers and people of color were welcome.  LAPD was the first group to perform at Highways.  We’re bringing back one of our earlier shows for these performances—at the moment the main contenders are either the wild and crazy, “No Stone for Studs Schwartz”, which initially rocked and enthralled LA’s underground.  Or maybe our most controlled and beautiful performance of all time, “Red Beard, Red Beard”, a duet for Kurosawa film and live performers, which was celebrated when given a beautiful production in Paris in 2008, but which was seen by only a few Angelinos when presented in 2000 in a small hotel space in Skid Row. Which impulse will win out?  Wild and crazy or subtle and gestural?  Don’t know yet. Stay tuned.

October 18+19: 5TH annual Festival For All Skid Row Artists

Next year Los Angeles Poverty Department and partners UCEPP and Lamp Fine Arts Project will produce the Festival for All Skid Row Artists for the 5th time in Gladys Park. We are looking forward to another weekend of activities that identifies artists in all genres who live and work on Skid Row. Neighborhood artists perform and show their artwork. LAPD collects information about the artists, documents their work and creates an artists’ registry and an archive of their work. We want the world to see that Skid Row is a neighborhood, a community that’s home to many creative people!!

Fall 2014: PHOENIX IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

In September, Los Angeles Poverty Department will begin working on a new production: “Phoenix in the Sky With Diamonds,” a theatrical performance centering on mental health issues. This show will explore the creativity, resilience and challenges of Skid Row residents struggling with these issues, including the experiences of people such as Phoenix Rupp and Ron Allen, friends who, having accepted their mental illnesses, went on to reinvent themselves and lead rich lives. Their hard-earned wisdom helps to create a culture of understanding that permits life-altering insights and transformation.

Los Angeles Poverty Department projects are made possible with the support of: