[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HXcsgRY1unTSSqSHfianPWxQXh7bVS8E"] RECENTLY I visited the LACMA and saw a number of shows, including the exhibit devoted to Noah Purifoy's work. Purifoy, who art critic Christopher Knight recently said "may be the least well-known pivotal American artist of the last 50 years," was a black Southerner who became a crucial part of the art movement that rose after the … [Read more...]
Remembering Rodney King
IT'S not often that a theater performance stops me cold. But last week's Rodney King, a one-man-show by Roger Guenveur Smith at the Bootleg Theater left me both impressed and a little shaken up at the very least.When I moved to LA in 1997, the city seemed like a sunny, youthful, high-spirited place after a few years in New England. But underneath the good times, there was a sense that I was living … [Read more...]
Remembering the Civil Rights Years
LIKE a lot of people, I knew the reputation of Eyes on the Prize, the famous documentary about the civil rights movement in the Deep South in the '50s and '60s. But watching all six hours of it was simultaneously spirit-rousing and soul-crushing as I watched the movement beaten back time and time again.The documentary, which originally broadcast in 1987, has been out of circulation for decades, … [Read more...]