Upcoming Events
Catch the Mic: Paris to L.A.
The finale of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad and launch of the L.A. 2028 Cultural Olympiad, featuring poets in Paris and Los Angeles.
To celebrate the finale of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad, DCA organized the Paris 2024 Poetic Games Collaboration. Program partner Beyond Baroque joined the Paris University Club to organize two months of activities for the City of Paris called the Poetic Games. Nearly 50 Los Angeles-based poets will participate in a cultural handover from the City of Paris to the City of Los Angeles, host of the 2028 Olympics. Eight Los Angeles poets will travel to Paris to perform in the finale of the Poetic Games on Saturday, September 7. These include Steve Connell, Shandela Contreras, Chinaka Aziza Hodge, Uchechi Kalu, Edward Mabrey, Steven Reigns, Lynne Thompson, and Sarah Yanni.
Additionally, 28 Los Angeles. poets will perform “Art + Sports” poems, commissioned by the City of Los Angeles, at Catch the Mic: Paris to Los Angeles, on Saturday, September 7, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the Mark Taper Auditorium, Los Angeles Central Library. L.A. poets to perform Cath the Mic include Ashley August, bridgette bianca, Michelle Bitting, Cynthia Alessandra Briano, Shonda Buchanan (MC), hamsa fae, Katie Gomez, Mason Granger, Sonia Guiñansaca, Matthew Cuban Hernandez, Sean Hill, Mona Jean, Aryeh-Or S Katz, Gina Loring, Gabriela Garcia Medina, Monique Mitchell, Nikki Ochoa, Monica Palacios, Christian Perfas, Karyn Peyton, Rhys Langston Podell, Linda Ravenswood, Angelina Sáenz, Mimi Tempestt, jimmy vega, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Pam Ward, Yazmin Monet Watkins. Attendance is free, reserve your tickets here.
These projects are part of DCA’s innovative Public-space Activation Fund grant program with support of Community Partners. Additional event support provided by LA County Arts + Culture and Los Angeles Public Library. To learn more about Public-space Activation Fund and Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad Sport+Poetry programs, visit us here.
Click + to Learn more about the DCA Grants Public-space Activation Fund Cultural Olympiad Program
As part of its innovative Public-space Activation Fund grant program, DCA has entered into a grant-contract with the Venice-neighborhood based and nationally regarded literary arts center Beyond Baroque, which specializes in poetry programs. Beyond Baroque is networking with the Paris University Club which has organized a 2-month long series of activities for the City of Paris called the Poetic Games. Beyond Baroque and the City of LA DCA are watching and learning about how the Poetic Games is being used as the concluding element of the Paris24 Cultural Olympiad on Saturday September 7.
In order to test its capacities and link Paris to LA on the final day of their Cultural Olympiad (September 7), Beyond Baroque and DCA have developed a pilot-project based on the theme of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad, which is “Art+Sports.” Beyond Baroque and DCA posted an RFQ to qualify and rank 50 top-quality LA poets and subsequently commissioned each of them to write a new poem on the theme of Art+Sports. These 50 poems will be presented and published over the next 3 years. Moreover, 14 will be presented in Paris this September and 28 more will be recited in Los Angeles at a proposed “Catch the Microphone Showcase” at 3pm (midnight in Paris on the last day of its Paralympics and Cultural Olympiad) at the LA Central Library on Saturday September 7, which will also be a “watch-party” to experience how the Paris University Club will work with the Theatre de la Ville on a 12-hour “Poetry Marathon” showcasing the prowess of Paris as a city of great poetry.
If the pilot-partnership with Beyond Baroque and DCA is considered a success, and aspects of the Poetic Games from Paris are considered good models for future endeavors in the LA poetry community, then pilot-programs can be incubated for 2028 with a future “passing of the microphone” from Los Angeles USA to Brisbane Australia.
Save the Date
OutFest at the Los Angeles LGBT Center hosts a screening of a documentary film by Barbara Bingly about the FAMA (French American Mural Art) Mural production. The FAMA mural was created by Los Angeles-based graphic artist KATBING and Paris-based graffiti artist Kekli. Together, they designed and painted a new celebratory mural overlooking an important transit plaza in the Quartier Porte de Clignan court neighborhood in suburban Paris.
A reception (6:30 p.m.) and film screening (7:30 p.m.) will take place on Thursday, September 26, 2024, co-hosted by OutFest at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Eventbrite RSVP platform available after September 13.
Recent Cultural Olympiad Programs
PARIS 2024 – LOS ANGELES 2028: Olympic Poster Competition
To celebrate the Paris Olympic 2024 Games and prepare for 2028 host of Olympic and Paralympic Games, the City of Paris and the County of Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture co-facilitated a poster design competition for students from the Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques de Paris (EPSAA), Otis College of Art and Design, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles.
The 24 poster-design selections illustrate and celebrate the strong bond between Paris and Los Angeles, their cultural richness, and the values that bind them over the Atlantic. The exhibition, sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, is on display at City Hall within the Henry P. Rios Bridge Gallery, through August 22, 2024.
We would like to extend our thanks to the students of EPSAA, Otis, CalArts, and ArtCenter, for their contributions and creativity, and to the City of Paris and County of Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture for their facilitation of the poster design competition.
This project is part of a cultural cooperation between the two Olympic cities, Paris and Los Angeles, in partnership with Los Angeles County and the Seine-Saint-Denis region. This project was conceptualized from a learning exchange and partnership managed by the World Cities Cultural Forum, and sponsored by Bloomberg International.
Header image: Salomé Lemoine