The Los Angeles Cultural Renaissance

The cultural renaissance is here in Los Angeles. It's ART: music dance spoken word painting photography: creativity propelled with gravity.

        It's back to the basics, strip away all the gloss and plastic and stick to material substances.  The emerging culture is progressive yet simple.  Bold strokes of creative resistance designed for the emancipation of the human spirit.                     

        The cultural renaissance is here in Los Angeles.    

THE SPECTACLE OF LOS ANGELES  RESONATES WITH THE MOST RECENT EVOLUTION OF WORLD CITIES.  World cities have always been looked to as the ultimate expression of a particular period; 21st Century Los Angeles represents the culmination of global cross acculturation; the newest dynamic culture way past gen-X.  The interplay of natural disasters, the entertainment industry and social hostility create a hyper-reality.               

LA is the world capital of modern phenomena such as mixed marriage/gangster rappers/Kosher burritos/personal vehicles/super-highways/mass media and urban multiculturalism.               

Los Angeles is the newest major World City.  Almost all the other mega-metropolises i.e. Tokyo, Cairo, Rome, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Bombay, Shanghai have urban histories dating back thousands of years.  Los Angeles is the instant city that grew to 20 million people in one century.  There are no age-old traditions to inhibit the growth of the emerging culture.               

LA's yearning for the future is mightier than its ties to the past.             

INNOVATIVE FORMS OF ART                  

music and poetry are evolving from the fusing of collective influences.  There are several recent examples of indigenous Los Angeles culture rising from multiculturalism.  Ozomatli's music is fused from Latin and hip-hop influences.  Their members come from every race and hood of Los Angeles.   The Black Eyed Peas' flavor of hip-hop celebrates the cultural mosaic with their range of instruments and live performances.             

Sublime's music fuses reggae, rock and hip-hop.                     

The radio show Chocolate City hosted by Garth Trinidad plays jazz, electronic, underground hip hop, classic rock, spoken word and timeless funky sounds like early Stevie Wonder.  You never know what he s gonna play next but you can bet it'll be soulful.             

Poets like Jerry Quickley host frequent events like Words, and 33 1/3rd.    His grassroots approach has him curating events featuring bomb poets like Kamou Dauod, Jeffery McDaniel, Exene Cervenka, the Visionaries and ole school LA impresario Aceyalone.  Jerry can rip a piece like a motherfucker, too.              

'Da Poetry Lounge held at the Greenway Court Theater on Tuesday Nights at 544 North Fairfax is the closest thing LA has to the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City.  The top notch poets rockin' at 'Da  Lounge match the ill skills I've seen at the Nuyorican.  'Da Lounge regularly draws 250 to 300 people to hear poets hollerin'.  Co-hosts Dante, Poetri, Shihan & Gimel work hard to keep the night flavorful.              

Club promoters like Lady Copper become celebrities by bringing party people together from all over the city.  Multicultural jammies blending hip-hop, punk, gothic, gays, b-boy culture, electronic soldiers, ill gear cavaliers- check Nappy @ 'Da Roots held at Fais Do-Do & Bliss @ Josephs.              

Firecracker in Chinatown is one of the premier spots of LA's underground. Held at Grand Star Restaurant at 940 North Broadway, the actual building is in an alley between Broadway & Hill Street. Action form the club often spills into the alley where a flavorfull cosmpolitan crowd of colorful kids, hip-hop heads & artists kick it. Resident beatfreaks Logic, Wing Ko, Coleman, Praise One, & Alfred Hawkins spin hip-hop, house, soul & rare groove. Downstairs a karaoke piano bar includes a sax player & bassist playin' lounge tunes. People go back & forth while the smiles keep rolling.  Firecracker burns bright on the 1st, 3rd & 5th Friday of every month. Promoters Lisa Yu of Urb & Daryll have created an underground legend.             

Kronick magazine started in LA by Meshak Blak is an underground chronicle going global with bomb coverage of hip-hop, skateboarding, electronic and club culture.  Meshak writes comical record reviews and dreaditorials.              

These new artists are giving the people want they want.  In these days of rapid cultural evolution, contemporary art must match the speed of societal dynamics.             

The new artists of Los Angeles are producing groundbreaking work.             

Inclusive, not exclusive, the new trans-cultural funkiness has something for everybody.  The most beautiful results of the emerging culture are still surfacing.             

                STAY TUNED!                    

LA is the social capital of the Pacific Rim.             

The influx of people to LA from all over the world perpetuates a dynamic milieu. There are other multi-cultural metropolises such as Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and London; however, none of them have quite the charismatic mix that exists in Los Angeles.             

LA is statistically the most varied and the youngest of world cities. The fusion of Latin, African, Asian, European and American influences meld here more than anywhere else. The urban form that has evolved as geographer Ed Soja says, "represents the world in connected urban microcosms."         

These new artists are giving the people want they want. 

These days contemporary art must match the speed of societal dynamics to attract an audience. 

The new artists of Los Angelesare producing groundbreaking work & commercial success. 

The greatest way to attract the masses is to assimilate various influences.  

Inclusive, not exclusive, LA's transcultural funkiness has something for everybody. 

The most beautiful results are still surfacing.

             Los Angeles has it's own will, it’s own impetus for change,

a desire to evolve at the same pace as the society that gave it

life.    From mixed marriages to ethnic violence social faultlines

lie within the landscape just like the tectonic plates. 

The Golden State's landscape's natural and social   explosiveness keeps emotions as charged as the world we live in.  As the 21^st Century evolves the colliding layers of Los Angeles’ reality will gain more steam, driving a culture train thru a city so funky we can’t even imagine it yet.