The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division’s (PERF) EMPOWERMENT project returns for its third year. Honoring women artists and activists who have impacted and redefined the human experience. EMPOWERMENT is a six day festival-style week of performances, social action, creative workshops, and documentary screenings. In 2025, EMPOWERMENT will honor the work of Academy Award winner Edith Head and Grammy Award winner Etta James. Both American born and rooted professionally in Los Angeles, Edith Head is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in the film industry while Etta James is an American singer songwriter famous for her deep and earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll is considered to be one of the greatest voices of her century.
The EMPOWERMENT: Edith + Etta celebration will include six days of performing arts celebration for all ages at DCA’s Lankershim Arts Center, located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District at: 5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. All festival events are free and open to the public. For more information, please call: (213) 270-8200.
The Six Day Line-Up:
Edith Head Film Fest
Tuesday, April 29, 8:00 p.m. • All About Eve (1950)
Wednesday, April 30, 8:00 p.m. • The Emperor Waltz (1948)
Friday, May 2, 9:00 p.m. • To Catch a Thief (1955)
Live Music
Thursday, May 1 and Saturday, May 3, 7:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 3:30 to 4:00 p.m.
Sips & Sounds: PopUp Music Coffee House
Friday, May 2, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Youth Activities
Saturday, May 3
2:00 to 2:30 p.m. • Etta James Sing-a-long
2:30 to 4:00 p.m. • Designing a Superhero Costume
4:00 p.m. • Afternoon Animation Association: The Incredibles (2004)
Documentaries with Talk Backs
Saturday, May 3, 12:30 p.m. • ETTA
Sunday, May 4, 2:00 p.m. • EDITH
Live Dance & Spoken Word
Saturday, May 3, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 4:00 p.m.
Meet the 2025 Commissioned Artists:
Cantilever Collective
A Los Angeles based performing arts group focused on building community through interdisciplinary collaboration and movement-based exchange. The collective works primarily in the contemporary dance realm; using dance as a way to alchemize pain, while also celebrating joy, connection, and love! For Empowerment: Edith + Etta, Cantilever Collective is creating a dance piece that follows the journey of three paper dolls as they explore how genuine expression can transcend barriers, evoke shared humanity, and create impactful connections.
Diamondback Annie
An LA-based dancer, drag artist, and violinist, Diamondback Annie grew up in small-town Utah, where she roped goats in the local rodeo. She utilizes costuming to drive the narrative of her live performances, and her shows often feature historic costume pieces by designers like Bob Mackie, Ret Turner, and Bill Belew. Annie’s performance for this series is an homage to Edith Head’s wardrobe for legendary silent film star Gloria Swanson for the film Sunset Boulevard.
Rio Diaz
A Los Angeles resident, Rio is a writer, poet, curator, and muralist dedicated to amplifying underrepresented stories through art and cultural narratives. Although she has been writing poetry for many years, she has never shared her work publicly, keeping it as a deeply personal aspect of her creative journey. For this commission, she will be creating “The Dance of Resilience.” Through a merging of contemporary dance and the imagery of spoken word, metaphorical words and movements will weave a poignant story of resilience, echoing the twists, turns, and leaps of life’s journey.
Mélissa Guérin-Torres
A French performer, choreographer, and mixed media artist, she fuses her ballet and contemporary dance background with performative exploration. For Empowerment: Edith + Etta, Mélissa is designing costumes inspired by Edith Head and choreographing a piece that celebrates the body’s resilience, creativity and joy, influenced by the transformative energy of Etta James.
Camille Imperial
A Filipino-American choreographer, originally from the Philippines, and now based in Los Angeles, she specializes in contemporary fusion, blending diverse movement styles. She will be choreographing a contemporary jazz solo that explores the cultural and societal restrictions placed on women, particularly women of color, and the transformative power of music.
Anna Goodman Herrick
A Los Angeles-based poet and author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken to Whole (Monkfish, 2024), she has performed at the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Library of Congress, and in Bloomsday on Broadway, in addition to being a writer for the Oprah Winfrey Network, ABC Family, and MTV. A queer performer with less apparent disability, she creates multisensory spoken word performances that develop pathways for accessibility. She is creating ALL I COULD DO WAS CRY IN GOLD LAMÉ for Empowerment: Edith + Etta, inspired by Etta James’ iconic song and Edith Head’s legendary gold ballgown for Grace Kelly— commemorating resilience, style, and humor, celebrating how we keep shining.
Celeste Lanuza
A Latina Los Angeles creative artist, Celeste Lanuza combines original music and spoken word with dance. She is a dancer, teacher, and college Lecturer of dance and her work has been performed at the Korean Cultural Center, Lula Washington Dance Theater, and Debbie Allen Dance Academy to name a few. For this commission, she will be creating a piece inspired by Etta James’ involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and her song At Last and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
Clara Auguste Mohagen
A choreographer, educator, data enthusiast, and performance artist originally from Haiti and currently based in Los Angeles, her artistic style bridges the cosmic and corporeal, weaving movement with memory and space. For this project, she will be reinterpreting and embodying a classic piece of music by Édith Piaf, to explore modern resilience, with the hopes of empowering the audience to find strength in their own stories.