The first of our Boyle Heights Project programs brings to the Watercourt Conrad Romo’s cool Tongue and Groove monthly offering of short fiction, personal essays, poetry, spoken word and music. Each of the program’s ten artists will represent the resonance of Boyle Heights' multiethnic (Latino, Jewish and Japanese) past and present.
The Artists (so far)
Ralph Brannen :: Marvin Farber :: Simone Gad :: David Kipen :: Josefina Lopez :: Xavi Moreno :: Ollin :: Luis J. Rodriguez :: Conrad Romo :: Amy Uyematsu :: Momo Yashima
Ralph Brannen as a youth attended church at a Buddhist temple near First St. and Evergreen Ave. He has recently retuned to acting and filmmaking and is providing voice over work in Momo Yashima’s documentary. BACK TO TOP
Marvin Farber BACK TO TOP
Simone Gad is born to holocaust survivor parents from Poland. Her family emigrated and settled in Boyle Heights in 1951. She is a visual/performance artist and has been exhibiting paintings and collages in museums and galleries locally, nationally and internationally for 41 years. She is a 6 times grants recipient and included in numerous publications. BACK TO TOP
David Kipen founded the Libros Schmibros lending library and neighborhood bookshop at 2000 E. First St. in Boyle Heights. He has been the book editor and critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and director of literature at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he developed and ran The Big Read initiative. David is the author of "The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History" and translator of Cervantes' "The Dialogue of the Dogs". BACK TO TOP
Josefina Lopez is an award-winning screenwriter/playwright/novelist and wrote the screenplay to the Sundance Audience Award winner Real Women Have Curves. She is the Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater Art Space in Boyle Heights where she presents plays, film festivals and teaches and empowers a new generation of Latino and women writers. She is currently working her first film Detained in the Desert, which is her personal protest to the anti-immigrant laws in Arizona. www.casa0101.org BACK TO TOP
Xavi Moreno co-founded Los Poets del Norte an essential spoken word duo born out of the seabed of rebellion of Boyle Heights - rhythmically vocalizing the untold urban corridos for the understanding of the Xican@ reality. BACK TO TOP
Ollin formed just after the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 by twin brothers Scott & Randy Rodarte, OLLIN (Nahautl for movement/earthquake), continues to steadily rock audiences all through out the southwest United States, and beyond. Their music is a true mezcla (mix) of their East LA Chicano punk rock roots and their affinity for all folk music made by and for the salt of the earth. Their multi-cultural musical explorations have made OLLIN a known name in the burgeoning punk-world music genre. The band is: original member and multi instrumentalist Angel Juarez , musical director/bassist Gil DeSoto, drummer Josh Duron, on trumpet Johnny Tisnado, and, pues claro, The Rodarte bros. BACK TO TOP
Luis J. Rodriguez is one of the leading Chicano writers in the country with fourteen published books in memoir, fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, and poetry. Luis' poetry has won numerous prestigious local and national awards. He is best known for the 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Luis is also the founder of Tia Chucha Press, one of this country's premier small presses. And co-founder of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural-a bookstore, performance space and workshop center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley www.tiachucha.com BACK TO TOP
Conrad Romo produces Tongue and Groove LA, a monthly reading event at the Hotel Café, now into it’s 7th year. He also produced Palabrazilla, a 2 day 12 venue collaboration of spoken word venues from around LA. Stay tuned for the return of Palabrazilla. He has studied with Lynda Barry and Jack Grapes. He has been published in Tu Ciudad, Latinos in Lotusland , Los Angeles Review, Wednesday Magazine and elsewhere. He can be reached at www.tongueandgroovela.com BACK TO TOP
Amy Uyematsu’s poetry grows out of the conflict between her wish to belong to the culture around her and her strong sense of ethnic identity — like many Japanese Americans during World War II, her parents and grandparents were interned. A high school math teacher, she has published three collections: 30 Miles from J-Town; Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain; and Stone Bow Prayer.
Momo Yashima is an actress and a documentary filmmaker. She is working on an educational documentary about the Resister of Conscience of WW2 from Heart Mountain- young Japanese American men who chose to fight the United States Government in a court of law, as to the constitutionality of the “relocation” camps and the drafting of men out of the camps, This film is entitled, A DIVIDED COMMUNITY.
About MMM
Please note the specially marked MMM events on the schedule. These programs will be followed by facilitated audience discussions designed to give everyone participating the opportunity to share reactions to the presentations and to discuss the different messages that people get from these performances. In a community as diverse as Los Angeles, it is inevitable that different people will see different things in the performance. The Music, Movement Meaning program is your opportunity to talk with other audience members about the performance you have experienced. Everyone is welcome – please plan on participating.