Hear in the City | radio realities from the urban landscape

Loitering in public space

Posted on April 7, 2013 by hitc

What does it mean to “loiter”? To occupy and frequent a space without a monetary transaction or other purposeful agenda in mind? This episode, we look at modes of Social Practice Occupy L.A. as Performing Public Space continues it’s Come in; We’re Open show at the Da Vinci Gallery at Los Angeles City College. The show continues through April 16th. Artist Chris Cuellar will host a loitering session on April 9th, from 9am-5pm on the campus of Los Angeles City College.

Here’s your chance to revisit Occupy L.A. on the day the authorities tore down the encampment at City Hall in November of 2011 and protesters moved, for a brief respite, to the Los Angeles State Historic Park only to be greeted by a falanx o LAPD and Sheriff’s officers waiting for something bad to happen. Why do we care now? Just listen…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ""loitering", "Chris Cuellar", "Come in, "Owen Driggs", 90.7FM, Hear in the City, KPFK, Occupy L.A., Radio realities, We're Open" | Leave a comment

of marathons and assholes

Posted on March 27, 2013 by hitc

On this episode:

“Whenever I see a plain, industrial building, I just have to wonder: who’s being screwed behind those frosted, black windows?” -Robby Herbst, Llano del Río collective on the Antagonist’s Guide to the Assholes of Los Angeles.

“When you are at kilometer 30…that’s when the pain and the absurdity of the marathon come into focus.” -Fernando Llanos, visual artist from Mexico City on running the Los Angeles Marathon.

featuring original music and covers by Mi Reyna.

Posted in arts, film, and music, City of Los Angeles, civil rights, community arts, culture in the city, economy and equality, music, street art, Uncategorized, video, work | Tagged "Fernando Llanos", "Llano del Río Collective", "Mi Reyna", "Robby Herbst", 90.7FM, Hear in the City, KPFK, Mapping The City, Sara Harris | Leave a comment

Air

Posted on February 12, 2013 by hitc

This episode, we launch a three-part series from radio art collective, RadioSonideros called Air. Water. Earth. It was first broadcast as part of a floating radio station on the Staten Island Ferry in 2007: The FM Ferry Experiment.

Also in the show: Mexico City, mega-city of horrid air quality wins a sustainable transport award for it’s Eco-Bici program…The films of Jean Rouch, and a follow-up to our Pit Bull show.

Posted in Air Check Series, air pollution, arts, film, and music, bicycling, City Government, culture in the city, economy and equality, film, Mexico, Neighborhood/Area, Pit Bulls, public health, radio, Special Series, sustainability, transportation, Two Wheels and a Mic, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Uncategorized, urban environment | Leave a comment

Difficult Dogs

Posted on January 16, 2013 by hitc

Dogs are a man’s (or a woman’s) best friend. They teach us. We teach them. For better or for worse, dogs are our creation– historically owing the existence of their kind to humans, and as such, they are our responsibility. The shelters are full of dogs that people could not handle. What to do about it?

Larry Hill with his dog, Ryder.

Petey was a Pit Bull

Puppies waiting for the training circuit

There is no more vilified dog in today’s society than the Pit Bull, AKA The American Staffordshire Terrier, The Pit Bull Terrier, The American Bull Terrier, The Pit Bull. This breed has been outlawed or restricted in cities across the state and the country because of attacks on humans and on other dogs. It’s not the first time a breed has been maligned and it won’t be the last. But, there is a duality in these dogs, and they look to people for guidance. This episode takes us to two non-profits trying to do right by the most rejected breed of the day, Puppy Imprinters, and The Downtown Dog Rescue.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Voting from jail in California

Posted on November 5, 2012 by hitc

On the week before the November 6th general election, we visit Men’s Central Jail in downtown L.A. to witness a first-time-ever push by a coalition of community organizations and volunteers to register inmates and former felons who are eligible to vote in Los Angeles County. Listen to Hear in the City live on KPFK on Tuesday at 2:30PDT for election coverage from the swing-state of Nevada.

Jump to the end of the show to hear the delightful voices of the Los Angeles Theater Academy‘s Do-Re-Mi LATA children’s choir in honor of El Día de los Muertos.

Posted in 2012 election, arts, film, and music, civil rights, criminal justice, culture in the city, election coverage, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, music, theater | Leave a comment

lost archives of a career photographer

Posted on October 10, 2012 by hitc

Our radio station, KPFK in Los Angeles, is calling: support our non-commercial airwaves! It’s L.A.’s home for Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera. While we break for that cause, listen to this latest episode of Hear in the City.

We enter a collection drawn from old boxes recently found in a house sold after the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. The boxes belonged to the hard-working and versatile photographer, Lola Alvarez Bravo. Inside, was a treasure of documents and unedited photos and correspondence from a half century of travel and changing times. The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California is showing the collection to the public for the first time. Our arts editor, Jesse Lerner, interviews the curators of the show, Rachel Arauz and Adriana Zavala. View an archive of Lola’s photos at the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona.

Underground techno and house parties of the 90’s in L.A. may seem a thing of the past in today’s high-profile and expensive atmosphere of raves like the HARD Fest and the chemically-saturated Electric Daisy Festival. In the second half of the show, our music contributor Alvaro Parra has a postcard for us from today’s underground L.A., at Love Fix where party hosts like Xavier De Enciso are well-educated, community-oriented promoters who can still be low-profile while drawing enough cash to come back next month without blowing their cover today…it’s all about the music, the dj’s and the dancing.

Posted in arts, film, and music, City of Los Angeles, culture in the city, Downtown, Long Beach, love, marginalize communities, Mexico, music, photography, photography, public radio | Tagged Adriana Zavala, electronica in L.A., Hear in the City, Jesse Lerner, Lola Alvarez Bravos, Love Fix, Mapping The City, MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, photography in Mexico, Rachel Arauz, Sara Harris. Alvaro Parra, Xavier De Enciso | Leave a comment

a house painted gold

Posted on September 20, 2012 by hitc

On this episode, we visit a humble house on a winding road in the hills of Los Angeles where a group of artists turn one family’s mortgage default and foreclosure story into a lens for looking at a larger problem. With “A Notorious Possession”, artist Olga Koumoundouros squats the abandoned house across the street, paints it gold, and holds economic justice parties.

We wrap up the show with a tribute to Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. Our arts editor Jesse Lerner reads from a first-hand account of the premier performance, 100 years ago in Paris. The ballet, inspired by pagan vernal equinox rituals, was so ill-received on first-performance that it inspired outbursts and boo’s loud enough to drown out the entire orchestra. The Rite of Spring will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 28th: http://www.laphil.com/tickets/dudamels-rite-of-spring/2012-09-28.

Posted in arts, film, and music, City of Los Angeles, community arts, community redevelopment, culture in the city, Cypress Park, economy and equality, marginalize communities, music, Neighborhood/Area, protest, street art, video | Tagged A Notorious Possession, Economic Justice, End Of The Rainbow, Foreclosure Crisis Los Angeles, Gold, Hear in the City, Igor Stravinsky, Jesse Lerner, Mapping The City Through Sound, Olga Koumoundouros, Radio Realities From, Sara Harris, The Rite Of Spring, the urban landscape, Wizard Of Oz | 1 Comment

sports and music making the difference

Posted on September 18, 2012 by hitc

This episode of Hear in the City takes us on a journey to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at Camp Afflerbaugh, one of the 19 juvenile probation camps in Los Angeles County. Affirmative Athletics director Rob Thelusma introduces us to a one-of-a-kind football program designed to instill integrity, discipline, and dignity to the boys who live here.

And our new correspondent, Alvaro Parra, takes us to the Watts Labor Community Action Center to visit Inner Circle Youth, a D.J. project for teens.

(Broadcast on KPFK, 90.7FM, in Los Angeles on September 4th, 2012).

Posted in arts, film, and music, Crisis in Education, culture in the city, economy and equality, education, football, juvenile detention, La Verne, music, probation camps, public radio | Tagged "Alvaro Parra", "Camp Afflerbaugh", "flag football", "Inner Circle Youth", "juvenile detention", "Rob Thelusma", "WLCAC", dj-ing, Hear in the City, Sara Harris | Leave a comment

unique little endeavors

Posted on July 21, 2012 by hitc

photo by Cannon Bernáldez: www.cannonbernaldez.com

Sara was walking through the park looking for a place to photograph a tin house when she noticed a life-size plastic horse being pulled up a ravine on a stretcher by a small team of uniformed rappelers with helmets. As it turns out, this is the Los Angeles Animal Services Small Animal Rescue Team, a one-of-a-kind, highly-trained group of animal control officers who work in shelters around the city and come together twice a month for a full-day practice for dangerous rescue situations.

You can watch them on youtube. In the second half of the program, our arts editor, Jesse Lerner, visits an indy, non-profit, puppet-theater Automata at their new home for the inaugurating puppet-show about genocide and race riots.

photo: http://www.automata-la.org/calendar.htm

Posted in animal services, arts, film, and music, Chinatown, City of Los Angeles, Griffith Park, public radio, puppets, theater, Uncategorized, urban wildlife, work | Tagged 90.7FM, Animal Rescue, Automata, Elmo, Hear in the City, Horse Rescue, Janie Geiser, KPFK, Mapping The City, Puppet Show, Puppeteering, Sara Harris, SMART Los Angeles, Susan Simpson, Urban Space | Leave a comment

wildlife encounters

Posted on July 15, 2012 by hitc

The direct encounter with a wild predator in the urban context is exhilerating, unsettling, and urgent. Something has to happen. On this episode of Hear in the City, Sara confronts a coyote on the street in broad daylight, sending it back up into the hills. Glen Berian followers, take heed. This is not about media spectacle and novel attraction. This about responsible coexistence with animals that deserve respect and awe. We contemplate evolution and inter-species breeding with a visit to a real coydog in a yard on Figueroa Street.