LOS ANGELES — In an effort to assist restaurants affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, Los Angeles County will launch the Keep LA County Dining Grant Program at 12 a.m. Dec. 3.
The Keep LA County Dining Grant will provide $30,000 to use as working capital for employee payroll expenses, capital to continue operations, payment of outstanding business expenses, and adaptive business practices needed to remain open. Preference will be given to restaurants that provided outdoor dining as of Nov. 24.
The Program, approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 24, and operated by the Los Angeles County Development Authority, will be available to small businesses located in the County of Los Angeles, not including the Cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena, that can demonstrate that their business was impacted by COVID-19 through a hardship due to closure and a reduction in revenue. Businesses that have already received assistance from other Los Angeles County Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act programs are not eligible for this Program.
The application period will begin at 12 a.m. Dec. 3, and be available through 11:59 p.m. Dec.6, or until 2,500 applications are received, whichever comes first.
As new COVID-19 cases remain at alarming levels and the number of people hospitalized continue to increase, a temporary Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be issued to require additional safety measures across sectors. The temporary order will take effect Nov. 30, and remain in effect through Dec. 20, 2020.
Public Health Nov. 27, confirmed 24 new deaths and 4,544 new cases of COVID-19. Currently, the five-day average of new cases is 4,751.
Los Angeles County established thresholds Nov. 17, for additional actions if the five-day average of cases is 4,500 or more or hospitalizations are more than 2,000 per day. A new Health Officer Order would be issued for three weeks that offered additional safety modifications while allowing essential and emergency workers and those securing or providing essential and permitted services to leave their homes.
In the new Order that goes into effect on Monday, residents are advised to stay home as much as possible and always wear a face covering over their nose and mouth when they are outside their household and around others.
The additional safety modifications in the order include the following changes to the existing Health Officer Order:
Gatherings: All public and private gatherings with individuals not in your household are prohibited, except for church services and protests, which are constitutionally protected rights.
Occupancy limits at various businesses; all individuals at these sites are required to wear face coverings and keep at least 6 feet of distance:
Essential retail – 35% maximum occupancy
Non-essential retail (includes indoor malls) – 20% maximum occupancy
Personal care services – 20% maximum occupancy
Libraries – 20% maximum occupancy
Fitness centers operating outdoors – 50% maximum occupancy
Mini-golf, batting cages, go-kart racing operating outdoors – 50% maximum occupancy
Outdoor recreation activities all which require face coverings (except for swimming) and distancing:
Beaches, trails, and parks remain open; gatherings at these sites with members outside your household are prohibited.
Golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball, archery ranges, skate parks, bike parks, and community gardens remain open for individuals or members of a single household. Pools that serve more than one household may open only for regulated lap swimming with one person per lane.
Drive-in movies/events/car parades are permitted provided occupants in each car are members of one household.
Schools:
All schools and day camps remain open adhering to re-opening protocols. K-12 Schools and Day Camps with an outbreak (3 cases or more over 14 days) should close for 14 days.
Closed non-essential businesses/activities:
Playgrounds (with the exception of playgrounds at childcare and schools)
Cardrooms
Because of the high rates of transmission in the community, restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries remain closed for in-person dining and drinking, as customers are not wearing face coverings during their visit which results in an increased chance of transmission of the virus. Restaurants, wineries and breweries remain open for pick-up, delivery, and take-out. Breweries and wineries remain open for retail sales at 20% occupancy.
There are 1,893 people with COVID-19 now hospitalized and 24% of these people are in the ICU. On Oct. 27, one month ago, there were 747 people hospitalized with COVID-19.
Public Health reminds everyone to stay home as much as possible and avoid seeing people you don’t live with, even if you don’t feel sick. Residents are also reminded to wear a face covering over their nose and mouth whenever they are outside their home and around others, as COVID-19 can be unintentionally spread to other people. We can also reduce transmission by keeping a physical distance of at least 6-feet when outside and around others. Taking these simple safety precautions, in addition to washing your hands frequently, will save lives.
It is very important that if you are even mildly sick or think you were exposed to someone with COVID-19 that you stay home and away from other people, especially those at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 and consider being tested for COVID-19.
To date, Public Health identified 387,793 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,604 deaths. Testing results are available for more than 3,681,714 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.
On December 2, Material Concerns featured the third of a three part artist lecture series for the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. Artist Dyani White Hawk will led a discussion titled, A Lineage of Innovation on her use of innovative materials. Last month, RLn featured Doris Sung’s Sm[ART]box project in the first of the series. In part two, Maren Hassinger presented Nature Sweet Nature. The multi-disciplinary artist discussed her career and practice which connects the industrial and natural worlds while incorporating dance, performance, sculpture and collaboration.
The lecture series supports a fundraiser that aids the acquisition of works by black, indigenous, people of color artists and makers of difference. Ticket holders were updated on significant renovations and improvements from the museum’s expansion leading up to the re-opening and sneak peeks into the construction progression as they enjoyed an up close and personal vantage of the transformation of the museum.
Though Kleefeld Contemporary focused its program on material innovation, director Paul Baker Prindle suggested that the idea that mainstream contemporary art foregrounds innovation in productive ways should be critically examined.
Baker Prindle explained that market driven contemporary art is part of a genealogy that descends from from Clement Greenberg, a New York City art critic who said ‘the only good art is art that is avant-garde, that is at the forefront, that is privileging the new, the next, above all else.’
“There are many artworks that are part of that narrative,” Baker Prindle explained. “But what has been challenging is that that narrative has come to dominate how most people think about and look at art.”
Baker Prindle offers a different criterion by which to value contemporary art.
“We ought to be asking this,” he said. “‘New to whom? Innovative according to what?’ What is so exciting about what we’re trying to do with material innovation is to acknowledge the set of questions is far broader and deeper than the questions we’ve asked perhaps in the past, or that particularly mainstream, let’s be frank, white majority run cultural institutions have been asking over the last decades.”
Kleefield Contemporary posits that the job of a museum is to make resources available to artists and art viewers to engage with those questions with as much or as little help from the museum as they want, rather than answer these questions for them.
Dyani White Hawk, a visual artist and independent curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, explained from the perspective of her praxis of art how problematic the ways contemporary art is valued.
White Hawk posited the way that we show and curate work, the way that work is written about, all of those things need to be constantly moving and innovation needs to be happening within those fields or we stagnate.
“That stagnation is usually the way history has played out so far,” White Hawk said. “A certain cultural group or a certain cultural perspective has been elevated to high art or good art. This is a detrimental path to society at large because what we get to see or experience, the growth of humanity would be stunted if we weren’t pushing back and innovating and thinking about how we’re telling those histories.We need to be constantly innovating in order to do that.”
Dyani White Hawk’s Black and White IV, acrylic, vintage beads, porcupine quills on linen. 2016
In her lecture, the award winning artist will narrate how she has come to incorporate glass beads into her paintings while calling attention to the history of trade beads in Indigenous culture. Her work is in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Tweed Museum of Art, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and Akta Lakota Museum, among other public and private collections.
White Hawk said she looks forward to this talk because her practice is an innovative one within the contemporary art world. She utilizes materials and established artistic practices from within her cultural arts practice.
“I didn’t invent any of it,” she said. “I’ve inherited moments of innovations from my ancestors. The prolific use of beadwork in plains culture and in Lakota artistic traditions that came from the moment that seed beads became available through trade and women on the plains incorporated those beads into already established artistic practices. That was a moment of innovation and now in the Americas people look at beadwork and they automatically think about native folks, native arts, that’s how wildly incorporated that moment of innovation became within our culture … but they’re trade items from Europe.”
White Hawk said the applications of beadwork, quillwork and cultural art forms have been happening since before there was a contemporary art scene “on this land base.” By utilizing those items White Hawk ensures they are seen, recognized and respected in all spaces as opposed to just the Native arts gallery. She elaborated, the innovation in that move is more about pushing back against the hierarchies that have deemed art by particular people done within particular mediums as one thing and pushing back against the hierarchies that say this is art, this is fine art and this is something other.
“That’s the moment of innovation in the work,” she said. “The beadwork is not innovative in the fact that I’m not making it up, I’m borrowing from those innovative traditions.”
Kleefeld Contemporary Evolves
Kleefeld Contemporary recently edited its mission statement, an edit that followed a reconsideration of the museum and the community it is supposed to serve.
“We’ve moved away from talking about the museum as a building but rather talking about it as a community of people,” Baker Prindle said. “[The museum] thinks of itself as a community with a building.”
Baker Prindle said so often when you hear nonprofits talk, they often discuss the community they serve — and staff is frequently part of that community. The museum, he noted, is not just powered by volunteers, staff, visitation and investment, it’s powered by the conversations that both the staff and community are having together in front of art. This plays out in small ways, like adjusting their social media approach by resiprocating to people when they send messages.
One of the changes to occur is the inclusion of community members in the decision making process when it comes to acquisitions. Kleefeld Contemporary will put online a slate of artworks they are interested in for people to give their opinions on which artworks they think the museum should acquire. Kleefeld Contemporary also offers educational resources to the community through their Artist Series Videos on YouTube with Plugged-In Virtual Connections videos and the Art Encounter series.
The museum has questioned every decision it has made for reopening, keeping the community in mind. For example, they are building new restrooms with no gender designation and private fully enclosed stalls and a common wash basin. Baker Prindle noted that many non binary and transgender people are afraid to go to public restrooms. The new facilities also have a lactation suite.
“I’m glad CSULB is thinking this way,” Baker Prindle said, citing ideals such as making sure the museum’s furniture is ADA compliant, or having quiet hours for people who live on the autism spectrum. “All these things are to [help] people participate.”
After years of financial, environmental, and operational challenges, the Victoria Golf Course in the City of Carson is on track to be transformed into a state-of-the-art community hub for recreation, community gathering, and economic development.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a lease with Plenitude Holdings, LLC for “The Creek at Dominguez Hills” on the southern 94 acres of the site. The Creek at Dominguez Hills includes over half a million square feet of commercial and privately-operated recreational uses, including an enhanced driving range, a seven-acre traditional golf practice facility, a multi-use sports facility, a sky diving facility, an outdoor adventure park, and a 6.6-acre public park. These facilities, which will be complimented with a club house, retail stores, restaurants, and a sports health and wellness building, will bring a plethora of recreational amenities suitable for all ages and interests.
“The redevelopment of Victoria Golf Course will be transformative for the City of Carson, the South Bay, and the region at-large,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who authored the motion to authorize a lease with Plenitude to redevelop the site.In summary, the Creek at Dominguez Hills will:
Exponentially increase recreational opportunities in Carson;
Generate additional revenue for the County’s Department of Parks and Recreation that can be reinvested in park programs in underserved areas;
Create hundreds of construction and permanent jobs; and
Support economic development in the South Bay region at large.
The proposed redevelopment of the site was first contemplated in November 2017, following direction from the Board to the Department of Parks and Recreation to explore expanded uses of County golf courses, including developing more community-based programs to ensure properties were better utilized to serve a broader section of the population. A 2016 Countywide Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment identified the City as an area with high park need. As compared to the county average of 3.3 park acres per 1,000 residents, the City currently has only 1.5 park acres per 1,000 residents.
In 2019, the Board approved a lease for the Carol Kimmelman Athletic and Academic Campus on the northern portion of the golf course, which will include a tennis center to be operated by the United States Tennis Association Foundation, sports fields, and a youth-focused learning center operated by the Tiger Woods Foundation.
The Kimmelman Campus is anticipated to attract between 75,000-100,000 visitors in its first year, and the Creek at Dominguez Hill’s recreational amenities are anticipated to attract an additional 600,000 visitors a year. In comparison, the Victoria Golf Course has attracted an average of 43,000 annual users over the past three years.
The Creek at Dominguez Hills will be constructed by workers from the local community. Over 300 construction and 750 permanent jobs will be created, which is a stark difference from the 11 jobs that support current golf course operations on the site.
In its first ten years, including while the project is in its construction phase, the County anticipates generating more than double the rent revenue compared to the current golf concession. This revenue will be used by the Department of Parks and Recreation to support its general operating costs and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in new annual revenue that can be invested in park programming in underserved areas across the County.
Following surging COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, Nov. 24, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health or Public Health has confirmed 51 new deaths and 3,692 new cases of COVID-19. This is the highest number of deaths reported since Sept. 9.
COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to accelerate at alarming speed. There are 1,575 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 26% of these people are in the ICU. Just two weeks ago, there were 888 people with COVID-19 hospitalized.
The increases in cases and hospitalizations must slow to avoid overwhelming our hospitals and healthcare staff, and save lives.
Anytime a person removes their mask and interacts in close distance with others not in their household, even outdoors, they risk either infecting another person with COVID-19 or becoming infected themselves. The longer that interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.
Public Health said it is critical that everyone follow the simple public health safety measures that provide protection from COVID-19 and minimize spreading it to friends and family.
Everyone should stay home as much as possible and limit going out to what is essential for the next two to three weeks to slow the surging cases and save lives. Staying home as much as possible, always wearing face covering securely over your nose and mouth when out and avoiding being near anyone not in your household are the simple actions that slow the spread of COVID-19. Public Health urges residents to connect virtually with friends and family members you do not live with.
Testing results are available for more than 3,600,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive. The cumulative positivity rate has increased. The cumulative positivity rate remained 9% over many weeks.
To date, Public Health identified 374,134 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,497 deaths. Upon further investigation, 194 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.
LONG BEACH — To further protect against the spread of COVID-19, in the midst of an alarming rise in cases and hospitalizations, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued an updated Health Order that prohibits on-site dining. The changes are effective at 10 p.m. Nov. 25.
The new Health Order prohibits on-site dining, including outdoor dining, at restaurants, brewpubs, breweries, bars, pubs, craft distilleries and wineries. Any service of food or beverages, including alcoholic beverages, where a customer remains on site to consume the food or beverages, is prohibited.
Restaurants, which include brewpubs, breweries, bars, pubs, craft distilleries and wineries may operate for drive-thru, curbside, doorside or other outdoor pickup and delivery under certain conditions, which are specified in the Restaurant Protocol of the Health Order.
The city issued an updated health order Nov. 20, to further protect against the surge in COVID-19 cases, in alignment with the State’s health order requiring a statewide curfew. These further restrictions, which are in alignment with the County of Los Angeles, are informed by data and a concern for the health of Long Beach residents.
COVID-19 cases, which now number 15,226, are rising rapidly in Long Beach. During the past two weeks, the number of new cases has increased by more than 120% — a much steeper curve than the City saw during the summer surge. The positivity rate is now at 5.8%, compared to 2.9% at its lowest, and the most recent five-day average case rate is 34 per 100,000, up from a low of 6.9 per 100,000. While hospital capacity in Long Beach remains available, hospitalizations are climbing throughout the region, including at Long Beach-area hospitals. COVID-19 hospitalizations for hospitals that serve Long Beach-area residents have increased 248% from 25 on Nov. 1 to 85 on Nov. 22.
Demand for testing also is high. The city broke all testing records Nov. 20, when 2,534 tests were conducted. The city continues to expand testing and surpass State requirements. People may schedule an appointment online or by calling 562-570-INFO (4636). Appointments can be made up to three days in advance.
Though our country is divided politically, the San Pedro Faith Consortium stands united in our call for peace, civility and respect. Made up of religious organizations, such as San Pedro Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church of San Pedro, Temple Beth El, The Garden Church and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, we are proud to represent a diverse religious group of people of different colors, backgrounds, and beliefs.
For the past several years, we have become increasingly alarmed at the polarizing rhetoric, misunderstandings, and misinformation that has driven a wedge between us. We are troubled by arguments that have pulled friends and family members apart. Our nation is in a moment of painful transition, but we hold hope that healing is possible. After all, we share a great deal in common. We are united in our love for San Pedro, California, and the United States of America. We are all deserving of respect, safety, freedom to pursue our dreams, and the right to be heard. We also have a responsibility to one another.
If we wish to repair the fractures in our community and within our world, we must begin by seeing the humanity even in those with whom we disagree. We must be brave enough to hear one another, courageous enough to admit when we are wrong, and optimistic enough to build a better future. No leader, however talented and inspiring, can heal a nation on his own. It is up to each of us to do our part.
Rabbi Cassi, Temple Beth El, San Pedro
Random Acts of Kindness
I am a disabled veteran of WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars. While shopping at Stater Bros on Oct. 23, at around 3-4 pm, a kind lady shocked this 95-year-old.
I am so humbled by her kindness, I had to write to you.
While I was at the checkout, I was going to pay my bill but was told it was taken care of by the lady next in line. I do not know her name. I have lived in Downey for 75 years and never been thanked for my service to our country, like this lady did for me today.
I hope someone in Downey shows her this message and tells her I will think of her as the Egg Lady every day as I have breakfast.
May God bless her always.
George Johnson, Retired U.S. Navy, Downey
The Chicago Honor Initiative
I am excited to share news about the non-profit company that I started and preside over. It is called the Chicago Honor Initiative (C.H.I. Project) in conjunction with Windy City Entertainment, inc. It addresses the issue of gun violence in Chicago and the senseless killings — this year alone there have been over 3,500 shootings in Chicago, with over 600 of those resulting in death. Each weekend, the number of shootings and deaths seem to increase, with many victims being innocent bystanders. This is totally unacceptable. Chicago is in a state of emergency, and one of the goals of the C.H.I. Project is to find solutions to this epidemic. We want to create alternatives for young men and women in gangs to see a future for themselves, to understand the consequences of their actions, and most important, change the narrative for violence being the only viable solution to a problem.
On Feb. 11, 2021 from 5 to 9 p.m. (CST), we are planning to present our first “Chicago Peace Symposium” via Zoom.
Private virtual rooms will provide opportunities for gang members to speak freely, listen intently to one another, and collectively work to end the destruction of gang violence. We want to take a deeper look at the trauma many are facing and initiate a pathway to forgiveness for those who have caused the unspeakable pain that too many have suffered. One of our goals is to provide badly needed services in a variety of areas. This is where you come in, my friend. To make something of this magnitude happen we need you! We are seeking tax-deductible sponsorships of $1,000 to $10,000, and contributions beginning at $25. We have made this easy, safe and secure through PayPal on our WCE website, www.WindyCityEntertainment.net
During my search to find solutions to put an end to the gang related violence in Chicago, I thought of you because I feel you share my sentiments about what is happening. I am a Chicago native, living in Los Angeles, but my heart is always with our people in Chicago. With your help, our virtual Chicago Peace Symposium will be the giant step in bringing about positive change.
Richest blessings to you and yours.
Windy Barnes Farrell, President, Windy City Entertainment Inc., Chicago Honor Initiative, San Pedro
Traditional knowledge as blueprint for a sustainable future
Partners in marriage and in business, Nalika Gajaweera andAnuradha “Rudy” Edirisinghe are the duo behind the eco-conscious, fair-trade textile business, Monkey Mind. Launched in 2019, Monkey Mind specializes in products made from the ancient art of hand looming by Sri Lankan artisans and makers.
Monkey Mind products include clothing, accessories and home goods—like their reinvented ergonomic bean bag and many kinds of carriers, including yoga mat bags, handbags, laptop and cross body bags, to name a few. Their bestsellers are the beanbag, the Ghoni dress that Nali says just falls on you and is actually really beautiful and the newest product she has much hope for— stuffed wild animals made of kapok, a natural, silky fiber from pods from the kapok tree.
To understand the story of Nali and Rudy is to realize their deep respect for Sri Lankan culture and how its ideals can shape consumerism for a sustainable future. Monkey Mind challenges established norms of the fast fashion industry by developing new methods of rural carbon neutral textile productions. Plus, it serves as a social enterprise that provides women with flexible, fairly paid employment within the community they live in.
Origins
The couple grew up in Sri Lanka but Nali was born in the United States, in Virginia Beach, a coastal city in southeastern Virginia. Their respective careers connect directly to both the ideals they grew up with and the philosophy behind Monkey Mind.
Nali, a cultural anthropologist, earned her Ph.D. at University of California Irvine in 2013 for her research on humanitarian work in Sri Lanka. She now works for the Center For Religion and Civic Culture at USC, mostly studying American Buddhist communities in the U.S.
Rudy has a background in grant writing and in international development work — mostly donor funded and nonprofit implemented projects. Sri Lanka is barely 10 years past a three-decade civil war whose casualties included the survivors of human rights abuse. Rudy’s nonprofit worked in designing information systems to make the work of nonprofits more productive in the area of human rights governance and labor. The couple met while Nali was doing field work.
After coming to the U.S. they considered the art and crafts they grew up with and wondered how the American market would respond to those items. Though coming from a very traditional Sri Lankan background, they found the items had transcultural appeal.
“They are traditional products with a modern twist,” Rudy said.
Nali first created a yoga mat bag, which was an experiment for the budding business. She had travelled to Africa a year earlier and bought a Kente cloth yoga mat bag made by women who were a collective of human trafficking survivors.
“I thought it would be amazing to make a yoga bag out of Sri Lankan handloom textiles,” Nali said. “They are made of very bright colors and sturdy material because its hand loomed on a traditional wooden loom. So it’s totally mechanical and not electronic. It’s very sustainable.”
Discovering the Makers
Friends introduced Nali and Rudy to Sri Lankan designers, who in turn referred them to artisans. The result is Monkey Mind, a short chain of creativity and production that draws from the traditional craft principles, cultivates cottage industries but ultimately bridges Eastern and Western aesthetics.
As an example, Rudy pointed to one of those companies, Kantala — highlighted on the Monkey Mind website— which works with traditional agave fiber weavers in Sri Lanka. Kantala does all the coordination, the quality control, the designs, everything. They support the artisan community in many ways. What’s striking is they also run enterprise resource management platforms where everyone in the supply chain is connected on the internet. And the artisans have become an independent artist co-op that Kantala works with.
“It’s cool that that kind of innovation can happen with multiple hands, Nali said. “We are one part of that chain of production, like in a capitalist way but we are one element of that to help it in a more ethical fashion.”
A Rich Sri Lankan History
Handloom materials are very ubiquitous in Sri Lankan households. Rudy suggested connecting with a producer of handloom textiles, Barbera Sansoni, a well-known anglo and Sri Lankan artist now in her early 90s. Sansoni developed the signature handloom esthetic of Sri Lanka, notably the way in which she coordinated bright colors.
“To match is mediocre. To clash, divine,” is her mantra,” Nali said. “She would never use black, it was banned from her color palette because that is not good for the mental health of the makers of the fabric.”
They contacted Sansoni’s design team to ask if they had an interest in Monkey Mind being a distributor for them in the United States. It became a trusted relationship among fellow Sri Lankans.
“Many people steal these ideas and replicate them,” Nali said. “This is actually high art and there is a lot of trust involved in our relationship with them.”
Sri Lanka’s 3,000-year history provides Monkey Mind with many and varied opportunities to connect its consumers with cultural authenticity. Rudy elaborated, in in pre-colonial times Sri Lanka was the leading center of metal production and produced some of the best metal work in the ancient world; some components for Damascus Steel were traded from Sri Lanka. As well, weaving culture, the skill Sri Lanka is most associated with, also has a deep, rich history since the middle ages.
Unfortunately, colonialists stole some of the best specimens of handwoven fabric in Sri Lanka. Not only do many of those items now reside in museums of the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, but Sri Lankans don’t even have some of the best pieces. To illustrate, Rudy noted recently a professor who contributed to a book written by a famous fabric technologist in Sri Lanka, commented on a step by step, reverse engineering guide on how to make a specific cloth, a garment a king in the1400s would wear. Reading how the fabric was constructed, the professor said, gives you a window into the advanced intellectual culture of peasants in Sri Lanka in the 1400s.
“Even the Sri Lankan origin story has the handloom woven into it which is really beautiful,” Nali said.”
Creating Balance in Accessibility
The couple has noticed, both in the U.S. and in Sri Lanka, the consumer goods available in any big box store are very cheap. Conversely, many items in Monkey Mind’s collection are heirlooms that you can pass down for generations.
“Traditionally made products, especially those Monkey Mind works with, answer the questions that U.S. consumers are asking about consumer responsibility, environmental responsibility, social responsibility,” Rudy said. “Things need to last, need to be sustainable, be environmentally friendly, [it’s] that whole idea about buy better, buy less.
This is their motivation for Monkey Mind and it’s a delicate balance.
“There is a segment of the consumer market that is expecting Target or Marshalls level prices,” Rudy said. “We cannot meet those because we only work with companies and artist communities that work with fair trade principles. That’s one of our evaluation criteria.”
If they’re getting items for cheap, it’s suspicious Nali said, because it’s either cheap materials and badly made or people are not getting paid. Monkey Mind maintains a certain price level to ensure their makers receive a reasonable reward from it. It also has to be sustainable for them to do this with the costs of living in L.A. while they run and operate an international business.
They want Monkey Mind to maintain its level of business — not to build it as better but to sustain them. Nali sees it as sustainability for everyone, for their makers, for themselves and for their customers to be a consumer of their products.
“The way the world economy is structured, for me the real question is not why is this sustainable handmade stuff so expensive, Rudy said. “The real question is why are these other things so cheap?”
Both of their careers in Sri Lanka have been built on working with rural communities and vulnerable populations.
“Even though Monkey Mind is not immediately connected with those populations, it can actively contribute in ways to sustain those communities and make a direct benefit to them,” Nali said.
“Adding to what Nali is saying, unfortunately, many of the traditional industries we work with are severely stressed,” Rudy said. “Now, because of COVID-19 but even before, even Sri Lankans started buying stuff from China. The handmade artists are distinctly at a disadvantage in that situation because people often buy the cheap stuff. They need markets outside of the country now to sustain the communities.”
What Rudy and Nali enjoy most is the relationships they have with their designers and makers.
“So much has happened within the last year, in Sri Lanka, for the economy in general, which has made business and manufacturing so hard,” Nali said. “As a country that has gone through 30 years of war, they are resilient. Right now you can see that again in support that people have towards each other.”
“It’s much more holistic than a transactional relationship,” she said. “They’re almost kinlike relationships. We knew we wanted to work with these communities. We didn’t know if something would sell or not but we wanted to build this relationship and see how it goes.”
A typical annual fundraising gala for Long Beach Opera goes something like this: there’s a big swanky party, with donors shelling out big bucks to eat, drink, enjoy performance, and hear about the upcoming season their generosity is making possible.
As you may have heard, 2020 is not a typical year. But in the spirit of “the show must go on,” after being forced to cancel most of its 2020 season, Long Beach Opera is moving forward with plans for 2021, finding (to quote Executive Director Jennifer Rivera) “creative ways to bring the incredible collaborative art form of opera to audiences once again.”
LBO has also come up with a creative way for those generous big donors to help create a new kind of gala: the 2020 Songbook, an “UnGala” featuring world premieres of 20 short vocal works — commissioned by the donors themselves and created by emerging composers — reflecting on some aspect of the 2020 experience.
“The resulting ‘2020 Songbook’ will serve as an artistic time capsule of this very unusual time, as well as contributing to the creative economy by encouraging the creation of new works,” says LBO.
Jessie Cox’s video featuring Derrell Acon.
The commissioned composers were selected and mentored by a quintet of heavy hitters in the opera universe, including Anthony Davis, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year for The Central Park Five, which Long Beach Opera world premiered in June 2019 at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Annie Gosfield, David Lang, George Lewis, and Du Yun round out the group, adding another two Pulitzers, two Guggenheims, and a MacArthur Genius Grant to their collective trophy case.
The range of themes in the 20 works (each three to five minutes in length) includes the silence brought on by the pandemic; what breathing means to sick, oppressed, and climate-affected citizens; missing indigenous women and girls; a recent Brigham Young University decision to rescind a decree allowing same-sex relationships; and meditation and dating during lockdown.
While some of the composers (who hail not just from the U.S. but also Canada, New Zealand, Iran, and various European countries) fashioned their compositions into traditional performances, others employed a variety of videographic techniques, including stop-motion animation, shadow puppetry, mobile projection, and iconographic storytelling.
“The video productions are as diverse as the compositional voices and will tell their own story about how opera and classical music can move towards more digital forms of art creation, illuminating perhaps a silver lining of the pandemic for creative artists,” says LBO. “[…] Another important component of the 2020 Songbook is the emphasis on new classical music creation in the digital era. Because all of these new pieces were created during the pandemic, they were all created specifically for a digital medium, a frontier opera and classical music has previously shied away from.”
Therese Wong’s video featuring David Castillo.
The evening will be hosted live by Metropolitan Opera star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, along with the above-mentioned quintet of mentor composers. Unlike your typical LBO gala, the 2020 Songbook UnGala can be attended (virtually, of course) by people who lack the donors’ deep pockets, with tickets going for $75 or only $25 “for artists, students, or anyone experiencing financial hardship (honor system — no proof required).” Two-thirds of all full-price ticket sales goes directly to the artists themselves.
“[T]he idea that we could actually contribute to the ailing artists economy and also fundraise and also support new works seemed like a wonderful place to start [our 2021 season],” says Rivera. “[…] We felt that the artistic lens these composers could provide would offer us all an important way to process what we’ve all been going through.”
LOS ANGELES —As new COVID-19 cases remain at alarming levels and the number of people hospitalized continue to increase, the Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be modified to restrict dining at restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars as the five-day average of new cases increased to more than 4,000 cases. The modified order will take effect Nov. 25 at 10 p.m.
To reduce the possibility for crowding and the potential for exposures in settings where people are not wearing their face coverings, restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars will only be able to offer take-out, drive thru, and delivery services. Wineries and breweries may continue their retail operations adhering to current protocols. In person dining will not be allowed, at minimum, for the next 3 weeks.
The week of Nov. 16, Los Angeles County established thresholds for additional actions if the five-day average of cases is 4,000 or more or hospitalizations are more than 1,750 per day, to restrict in-person dining at restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars.
If the five-day average of cases is 4,500 or more or hospitalizations are more than 2,000 per day, a Targeted Safer at Home Order will be issued for three weeks. The Order would offer additional restrictions while allowing essential and emergency workers and those securing essential services to leave their homes.
