Hoofing through history
Autry National Center offers hot history and hotter dancing
By Carl Kozlowski 07/03/2008
The Autry National Center is one of America’s coolest museums all year-round, but starting tonight it’s becoming LA’s hottest Thursday nightspot, as the annual Sizzling Summer Night series kicks off with a performance by local world-music favorite Yari More.
The rest of the summer series will feature LA’s best Latin bands performing mambo, son, Latin jazz, charanga and Afro-Cuban numbers from 6 to 9 p.m. every Thursday in July and August. Visitors can also check out the museum’s current exhibits “Cowboys and Presidents” and “In All the Saints of the City of the Angels,” during evening hours those nights.
The intriguing “Angels” exhibition features the works of Los Angeles artist J. Michael Walker, who uses the saints and the streets bearing their names to uncover the soul of the City of the Angels. With 103 streets named for saints, LA connects to a time when Spanish settlers bestowed upon new territories the names of saints to invoke their protection. Land developers and urban planners wanted to garner the saints’ protection as well, providing a counterpoint to the popular image of LA as a city of conflict, hedonism and questionable morality.
“Cowboys and Presidents,” meanwhile, focuses on the nation’s fascination with the intersection of cowboy culture and politics, from Theodore Roosevelt through George W. Bush. If you’re looking for a reason that Connecticut-schooled GWB calls for getting’ our varmint enemies “dead or alive,” this might shed some light on the subject.
You (and your posse) should head over to 4700 Western Heritage Way in Griffith Park for the festivities. Call (323) 667-2000 or visit www.autrynationalcenter.org.
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