• KATHIE FOLEY-MEYER   website
• LA ARTCORE   website
• THE ROBEY THEATER COMPANY   website
• MIGUEL ATWOOD-FERGUSON   website
• CHRISTOPHER JIMENEZ y WEST, Ph.D.
• HILLARY JENKS, Ph.D.
• ANTHONY MACIAS, Ph.D.

• PROJECT BRONZEVILLE CREATOR -
          KATHIE FOLEY-MEYER     website

  
  

  KATHIE FOLEY-MEYER is a graphic designer and mixed-media artist based in Los Angeles, and the owner of createstudio design. Her clients include arts-related nonprofits and for-profit companies in the fields of architecture, art, law and health care. She received an MFA in Critical Studies from California Institute of the Arts and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She also studied graphic design in the UCLA Extension Design Communication Arts and the Art Center at Night design programs. Kathie was a student in the neon class at Pilchuck Glass School in the summer of 2010.

  
  

  She has exhibited her artwork at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and galleries in Texas, Illinois, Kentucky and Oklahoma. In 2011 her work was exhibited in Artists Unite for Japan, a group show put together by Art From the Ashes (AFTA) and the Japan Society in Culver City, California to benefit victims of the earthquake, and in 2012 her work was part of AFTA’s Wellness Works, a group exhibition supporting the construction of a school-based health center at Hollywood High. Her sculpture “Brown People, Glass House” was part of the Museum of Neon Art’s Home Sweet Home exhibition at the 2012 Orange County Fair.

  
  

  Kathie served on the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) Board of Trustees from 2006-2012 and was a docent with the LA Conservancy. She was also a member of the Artist Advisory Group and Artist Selection Panel for the Metro Art Expo Line. She is a Pre-Qualified Public Art Consultant with the CRA\LA for 2009 - 2012. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).

  
  

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• EXHIBITION AT LA ARTCORE     website

  LA ARTCORE’s mission is to help develop the careers of visual artists of diverse backgrounds, bringing innovative contemporary art to the public, and provides educational programs by professional artists for people of all ages.

  
  

  LYDIA TAKESHITA, Founder and Executive Director - As a native of Little Tokyo and with her lifelong roots in the Downtown Los Angeles area, she remembers quite clearly the war years, the forced relocations, and the breakup of the Japanese American communities in Los Angeles. She has witnessed the changing face of the area, from Bronzeville to its modern development as a museum hub and cultural center. As an art professor at Cal State Los Angeles, she helped form the organization known as LA Artcore to provide exhibition opportunities for her students in 1979 under the umbrella of the school's nonprofit status. Her organization has changed shape over the years, adapting to the arts climate in the downtown area, and the specific needs of artists. From a collective that featured professional and legal advice, to a widely circulated magazine, Visions Art Quarterly, that extended opportunity to include many art writers (many of whom are living legends today), to its modern form as two galleries exhibiting the diversity our city has to offer.

  
  

  In 1990, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley recognized Visions Art Quarterly and Artcore by declaring an LA Artcore Week. Rita Williams (City Council, 9th District) gave her a certificate of appreciation. In 1998 a space in the repurposed building that is now the Union Center for the Arts, a historic site for the Little Tokyo and Bronzeville stories, was granted to her in recognition of her heritage and unremitting service. Mayor Richard J. Riordan issued a Congratulations and Certificate of Commendation for the opening of the new gallery. She is also listed on the Heritage Registry of Who's Who. Lydia continues to devote her time and leadership to the organization, a service record of over 30 years, and thousands of artists provided with opportunities to advance their careers.

  
  

  ALEX SLATO, Board Member - Prior to joining LA Artcore’s Board of Directors, Alex was VP of Exhibitions and Special projects for the Museum of Latin American Art, managing the Development and Curatorial departments. He was born in Venezuela, however, he has lived much of his life in the U.S. A third generation art dealer and auctioneer, Alex entered a career in the field of the arts early in his life, becoming the Director of a prestigious gallery in Caracas, Venezuela, at the age of 17. He attended Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Venezuela, where he studied Mass Communications, specializing in Film and Journalism. At the age of 20, he became an auctioneer for the most important auction house in Venezuela. During the following years, he opened offices in Miami, Mexico City and Buenos Aires, where he was responsible for establishing a strong market for many Latin American artists. In 2002, he moved to Long Beach, California to assume his executive position at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA). In addition to his career as a professional auctioneer, Alex has participated in numerous international art fairs, been a frequent judge for a variety of juried art exhibitions, and has been a guest curator for more than 20 exhibitions in museums throughout the U.S. and Latin America. Alex is currently the official auctioneer for MoLAA. He is a member of the National Auctioneers Association, the Florida Auctioneers Association, the California Auctioneers Association and the International Society of Appraisers.

  
  

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• THEATRICAL PRODUCTION OF THE PLAY 'BRONZEVILLE'
            BY THE ROBEY THEATRE COMPANY     website

  The Robey Theatre Company’s mission is to develop, explore and produce plays written about the global Black experience.

  
  

  BEN GUILLORY, Executive Director & Producing Artistic Director - Ben studied at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, and has worked extensively in theatre, film and television for the past 35 years as an actor and director. Currently, Mr. Guillory is the Producing Artistic Director of the award winning Robey Theatre Company, coordinating Robey's playwright lab, directing the Robey play reading series, and serving as instructor for its Advanced Scene Workshop. While at the ACT, Mr. Guillory appeared in Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, Peer Gynt, Desire Under the Elms, Misanthrope, The Cherry Orchard, Othello, Athol Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is Dead for the Arizona Theater Company, The Los Angeles Theatre Center's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Sacramento Theatre's production of Fences, the Mark Taper Forum's Miss Ever's Boys, and the Robey/Greenway co-production of Permanent Collection at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Mr. Guillory won the San Francisco Critic's Circle Award, for his portrayal of Paul Robeson, in the Illustrated Stage's production of, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. For his Los Angeles performances of Phillip Hayes Dean's Paul Robeson, Mr. Guillory won the DramaLogue Award and Special NAACP Theatre Award and for his directing efforts on For the Love of Freedom: Part I, he was presented with an NAACP Theatre Award. Television credits include My Name is Earl, The West Wing, Threat Matrix, Still Standing, Charmed, The Guardian, LA Law, JAG, The Young and the Restless, NCSI, Jack and Bobby. Films include The Color Purple, Our Father, The Tuskegee Airmen, Star Wars, Maid to Order, The Kindred, 3 Strikes, Crawlers, America's Dream and The Harimaya Bridge.

  
  

  JUDITH BOWMAN, Development Director - Judith Bowman is a seasoned non-profit administrator with over twenty years of experience. Over the years, Judith has personally raised several hundreds of thousands of dollars for youth orientated, social service, veterans, arts, cultural, and community building projects. In addition, she has been a member of fund raising teams that have raised funds for civic events, public festivals, educational programs, and economic development projects. Judith was educated at the University of Illinois and Spelman College where she was awarded a BA in English. She holds a JD degree from UCLA School of Law. Ms. Bowman has also studied at the University of Ghana as a graduate exchange student and at Cal State Dominguez Hills in their MA Humanities program. She has traveled extensively (throughout the United States and England as a child with a career Air Force father); Cuba with filmmakers and artists; West Indies; Greek Isles and Athens; Egypt, Cairo and Upper Egypt; Turkey; and Mexico by train to Mexico City and Puebla. She practiced law for sixteen years with eight as Associate Counsel for Sunkist Growers, Inc. She brings that business experience and blends it with her love for the arts and the Humanities to support local organizations that sustain those aspects of our culture.

  
  

  DWAIN A. PERRY, Associate Director/Producer - Dwain graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Communications with a concentration in Theatre. After spending over ten years in Chicago and working in regional theatre across the country, Los Angeles is now where he calls home. More specifically, The Robey Theatre Company. Dwain made his directorial debut at the Robey with their production of Permanent Collection. Other credits include, A House with No Walls, Asst. Director, Bronzeville, Actor, and The River Niger, Director.

  
  

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• THEATRICAL PRODUCTION OF THE PLAY 'BRONZEVILLE'
            BY THE ROBEY THEATRE COMPANY     website

  The Robey Theatre Company’s mission is to develop, explore and produce plays written about the global Black experience.

  
  

  TIM TOYAMA - Co-Writer, Bronzeville - Tim’s plays have been produced at The Complex in Los Angeles, and The Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood. Among them is Visas and Virtue, inspired by Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. Adapted to the big screen, the short film received the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film. His more recent play, Day of Independence, was adapted for PBS. Inspired by his own father’s World War II experience in an internment camp for Japanese Americans, Day of Indepenence received an Emmy nomination. Tim thanks both East West Players’ David Henry Hwany Writers Institute, and the LA Writers Center for their help in developing Bronzeville.

  
  

  AARON WOOLFOLK - Co-Writer, Bronzeville - Aaron was born and raised in Oakland, California. He received degrees in both Ethnic Studies and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. After living and working in rural Japan as an English teacher, he attended Columbia University, where he received an M.F.A. in Film. Fori his first film, Rage! Aaron won a Directors Guild of America award. His short films Eki (The Station) and Kuroi Hitsuji (Black Sheep) won several awards, screened in many international festivals, and continue to be featured on cable television. Aaron was the recipient of an ABC Talent Development Grant, and was later at 2004-2005 Walt Disney Studios/ABC Entertainment Writing Fellow. Aaron’s feature film debut, The Harimaya Bridge, which he wrote and directed, and which stars Ben Guillory, Saki Takaoka, Misa Shimizu, and Danny Glover, was released in 2010. Bronzeville is his first play.

  
  

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• JAZZ CONCERT CURATED BY MIGUEL ATWOOD-FERGUSON     website

  
  

  Multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, music director, producer, DJ, and educator based in his hometown of Los Angeles. In addition to all things music, Miguel is recognized as a community leader and has organized numerous special uplifting events throughout the US. Miguel also does outreach concerts and talks for adults and kids at various schools, social facilities and venues, and volunteers in hospitals and resting homes, where he is able to inspire and enliven audiences with his unique, insightful point of view and beautiful, highly nuanced sound.

  
  

  The depth and range of Atwood-Ferguson’s work is vast, having contributed to over 300 recordings, and countless live concerts. Miguel’s interests are many and he performs, tours and records with ensembles ranging from electronica, avant-garde, jazz, classical, hip-hop, and pop to name a few from countries all around the world. Many long years of practice and study prepared him for what is now a life of constant composing, conducting, performing, improvising, and producing.

  
  

  In orchestral settings, Miguel has joined the likes of John Williams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta, Emanuel Ax, James Galway, Sarah Chang, Feist, Roy Hargrove, Francisco Aguabella, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, Ray Brown, Brad Mehldau, Guru (Gang Starr), Vince Mendoza, and Henry Mancini among many others. As a studio musician, he has recorded for will.i.am, Dr. Dre, Flying Lotus, Raphael Saadiq, Seu Jorge, Heath Ledger, John Cale, Swizz Beatz, Eddie Murphy, Barry Manilow, Joss Stone, Bilal, Michael Bublé, Marisa Monte, Common, Randy Jackson, Travis Tritt, and on Ray Charles’ Grammy winning album ‘Genius Loves Company’. As a featured jazz soloist, Miguel has performed and/or recorded alongside Hubert Laws, Billy Higgins, Brian Blade, Alphonse Mouzon, Airto Moreira, Buster Williams, Saul Williams, Billy Childs, Henry Grimes, Dwight Trible, Patrice Rushen, Ndugu Chancler, Mulatu Astatke, Bennie Maupin, Azar Lawrence, Austin Peralta, Ravi Coltrane, Eric Harland, and Vardan Ovsepian. In addition, he’s been a featured performer on the internationally acclaimed BBC Radio 1 program ‘Worldwide’ in London hosted by Gilles Peterson and on Los Angeles-based stations KUSC 91.5fm, KCRW 89.9fm and KPFK 90.7fm. Miguel has also been a part of 3 TED Conference events as a performer, composer and guest programmer.

  
  

  In 2009 he composed and conducted the historic ‘Suite for Ma Dukes’ concert in Los Angeles leading over 60 musicians, whom he chose and contracted, in tribute to the transcendent modern hip-hop producer J Dilla. As composer and conductor that legendary February night, Miguel featured special guests Bilal, Posdnous (De La Soul), Talib Kweli, Karriem Riggins, Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner, and more. The Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble has featured guest appearances by Sly Stone, Shuggie Otis, George Clinton, Seu Jorge, Leon Ware, Flying Lotus, Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave, Marie Daulne (Zap Mama), J Rocc, Coco (Quadron), Georgia Anne Muldrow, James Gadson, Mayer Hawthorne, José James, Meshell Ndegeocello, Aloe Blacc, Pharoahe Monch, and Ndugu Chancler, among others.

  
  

  In 2013, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s debut record will be released on the Los Angeles indie label ‘Brainfeeder’.

  
  

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• SYMPOSIUM - CHRISTOPHER JIMENEZ y WEST, Ph. D.

  
  

  DR. CHRISTOPHER JIMENEZ Y WEST is on the faculty of Pasadena City College, where his creative and dynamic teaching inspires students to delve deeply into the complexities of American history and grapple with both the aspirations and contradictions of the country's founding beliefs. Dr. Jimenez y West’s diversity and inclusion work began as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley where he co – designed a multiple day diversity training for para-professional student employees that served as the residential life training model on that campus for over ten years. As a young professional in higher education at the University of Southern California he co–founded VOICES, a diversity consulting firm which developed, designed and implemented diversity training for institutions including but not limited to the University of California campuses at Davis, Santa Cruz, San Diego, California State University campus at Los Angeles and Northridge, Western Washington University and Oklahoma State University.

  
  

  A native Angeleno, Dr. Jimenez y West transitioned to the academy after completing his doctoral thesis "More Than My Color: Race, Space and Politics in Black Los Angeles, 1940-1968," at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was the first African American man to take a Ph.D. in History from that institution. His service to USC included two years as Director of USC’s Norman Topping Foundation which assists economically disadvantaged and ethnically underrepresented students. He was an adjunct professor at Santa Monica Community College, and served as the curator of history for the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles, California until July 2009, and on the Editorial Board of the journal, The Public Historian (University of California Press).

  
  

  He continues his research as an oral historian for the University of California, Los Angeles Oral History project by chronicling the stories of prominent African American Californians, ensuring these great legacies are known and valued by future generations.

  
  

  Dr. Jimenez y West received his B.A. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley and earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Southern California. He lives in Santa Monica with his wife and two children.

  
  

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• SYMPOSIUM - HILLARY JENKS, Ph.D.

  
  

  HILLARY JENKS is an historian and assistant professor in the University Honors Program at Portland State University whose scholarship focuses on comparative racialization and metropolitan community formation in the twentieth-century United States. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California in 2008. Professor Jenks is currently revising her award-winning dissertation into a book, Home Is Little Tokyo: Race and Metropolitan Development in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles. Using the ethnic enclave of Little Tokyo and the suburb of Gardena in Southern California as case studies, this work argues that racially inscribed spaces such as barrios, ghettos, and enclaves have been key in shaping the distinctive physical and symbolic landscapes of the metropolitan U.S. West.

  
  

  Her next project, The Color of the City: Urban Revitalization and Regional Identities, 1950-2010, will examine the significance of historic preservation and environmental legislation in redirecting investment capital towards central cities over the latter half of the twentieth century, with particular attention to urban centers in the Sunbelt and the Pacific Northwest. Professor Jenks began pursuing this research through a Spring 2012 fellowship with the Getty Research Institute.

  
  

  She has taught many different courses at Portland State University, including “Studies I: Globalization,” “Studies IV: Urban Discourses,” and “Spatial Regimes and Racial Formations” in the Honors Program and a seminar on “Asians in the Americas” for the History Department. Professor Jenks also serves on the Board of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment and is Associated Faculty for PSU’s Institute for Asian Studies.

  
  

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• SYMPOSIUM - ANTHONY MACIAS, Ph.D.

  
  

  ANTHONY MACIAS is Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. His book, Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935-1968 (Duke University Press, 2008), documents Chicano participation in jazz, the zoot suit phenomenon, car culture, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and Latin music. It reveals the links between a vibrant Chicano expressive culture and postwar social and geographic mobility, and it shows how Mexican Americans and African Americans challenged their own segregation across metropolitan Los Angeles while producing hip, cool urban styles.

  
  

  Professor Macías has published on multicultural music and American culture in The Jewish Role in American Life Annual Review, on Detroit bebop in The Journal of African American History, on Latin music and cultural identity in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and on race, urban culture, and municipal politics in American Quarterly. He also has an article on jazz bandleader and composer Gerald Wilson forthcoming in Boom: A Journal of California, summer 2013. The working title of his current book project is "Chicano-Chicana Americana:  National Character, Race, and Representation in Popular Culture."

  
  

  Macías has provided curatorial consulting for the Hollywood Bowl Museum, the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at UC Santa Barbara, the Seattle Experience Music Project Museum, and the Japanese American National Museum. At UCR he teaches a diverse student body in courses such as Introduction to Race and Ethnicity, Introduction to Chicano Studies, Chicanos and Popular Music, Chicana/o California History, and Research Methodology, as well as in graduate seminars. He received a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Culture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley.

  
  

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Art. Theatre. Music. A meeting of the minds. Join us as we bring creative and intellectual energy to shine a light on Bronzeville in 2013. Learn how a little-known period in the history of LA helped to shape the city we have now.

Kirk Silsbee’s 2006 Los Angeles Downtown News article, “Bronzeville Gypsy: How Charlie Parker Lit Up Little Tokyo” features a picture of the jazz legend performing at the Finale Club, described in the article as “a magnet for musicians and celebrities.’ Bronzeville clubs such as Shepp’s Playhouse, the Cobra Room, Creole Palace and Club Rendezvous, featured performances by Parker’s band, (which included a young trumpeter, Miles Davis), and Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington.

We’re going to bring it all to life with an art exhibition, a play, music and an afternoon of exploration and remembrance, and we’re excited for it to be a distinctive series of events in the cultural life our city. We’re raising funds to support all four components: set design and materials for the play, materials and an honoraria for the symposium participants, and to support the musicians for the concert and for promotional materials for the exhibition.