Shana Nys Dambrot
It’s the final weekend at the Creative Resilience festival of art, ideas, music, spoken word, and mutual aid — an art-driven project that amplifies community experience and the voices of BIPOC Angeleno workers, sounding the call for economic justice. Celebrating a shared cultural history of unstoppable resilience, collective action, and rising up against oppressive, anti-progress systems, Creative Resilience is a curated space of safe expression, joy and uplift, systemic overhauls and reimagined futures — things which would perennially benefit everyone, but all the more so in this prolonged period of darkness, threats, struggles, and isolation.
The thoughtfully curated exhibition is full of perennial favorites and more than a few surprises — not least in its eclectic approach that combines works in overtly activist, engagingly narrative, and optically charged abstract styles — along with revisiting portrait series made during the height of the pandemic centering and honoring the real life everyday heroes who kept it all from falling apart. Along with the wide-ranging art show — itself divided into five sections which move through the acknowledgement of tough times, identifies the systemic failings that thwart us, and moves through community support and speaking out, toward a better future — a slate of programs and performances includes music, spoken word, art talks, and mutual aid and resource education and highlights the connection between mental and societal wellness.
Friday, October 14 Special Programming:
- Novena Carmel and Anthony Valadez back-to-back at 5pm
- Estevan Oriol in Conversation with Anthony Valadez at 6pm
- Radical Joy Labor Session with Contra Tiempo Friday, Oct 14 at 7pm)
- Quetzal at 8pm
Saturday, October 15 Special Programming:
- People Organizing and Resisting Evictions and Displacement, by the LA Tenants Union at 12pm
- Starting a Fashion Brand with Dymond Warren at 2pm
- Novena Carmel and Anthony Valadez back-to-back at 5pm
- DJ Rich Medina at 7pm
Sunday, October 16 Special Programming:
- Let’s Grow with Celebrity Chef and Master Gardener Rod Dodd at 12pm
- DJ Budgie with a gospel set at 2pm
- Jimetta Rose and the Voices of Creation at 3pm
Produced by The People’s Project, ultimately the message is one of hope and change, accompanied by specific experiences, shares, and supported directives for achieving it through the momentum of alliances, and the power of the arts to nurture these projects and gather everyone together to do the work.
1922 E. 7th Pl., downtown; Saturday, October 8 – Sunday, October 16, 5-10pm weekdays, 11am-11pm weekends; crla.art.
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