The Avila Adobe was built in 1818 by Francisco Avila and has the distinction of being the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles, California. It is located in the paseo of historical Olvera Street, a part of Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, a California State Historic Park. The building itself is registered as California Historical Landmark #145, while the entire historic district is both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.The Plaza is the third location of the original Spanish settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles sobre el Río Porciúncula, the first two having been washed out by flooding from the swollen Río Porciúncula (Los Angeles River). The Avila Adobe was one of the settlement's first houses to share street frontage in the Pueblo de Los Angeles of Spanish colonial Alta California.The walls of the Avila Adobe are 2.5- thick and are built from sun-baked adobe bricks. The original ceilings were 15ft high and supported by beams of cottonwood, which was available along the banks of the Los Angeles River. Though the roof appears slanted today, the original roof was flat. Tar (Spanish: brea) was brought up from the La Brea Tar Pits, located near the north boundary line of Avila's Rancho Las Cienegas. The tar was mixed with rocks and horsehair, a common binder in exterior building material, and applied to beams of the roof as a sealant from inclement weather.
Located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, is the premier venue for the expression of traditional and contemporary art and culture from the Mexican, and Mexican American perspective.
Founded in 1970, VC has been a pioneer in the development of Asian Pacific American film, video, and media. VC was founded by Duane Kubo, Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, and Eddie Wong. Along with a core group of artists, filmmakers, photographers, and educators, VC’s founders began searching for visual resources to build a greater consciousness of Asian Pacific history in America. Fueled by the burgeoning Civil Rights and Anti-War movements, they set out creating learning kits, photographing community events, audiotaping stories, and collecting historical images of Asian American lives. In the 1970s and 80s, VC took on several ambitious projects in the independent film production arena. That first period of production saw the creation of over fifty films and videos, as well as the production of several educational filmstrips and major photographic exhibits – visual statements on the history and contemporary issues of Asians in the US. VC premiered the first ever full length Asian American film in 1980: Hito Hata: Raise the Banner. This landmark film was a building of a community-in-progress, involving artists, professional media personnel, scholars, community organizations, and countless number of individuals and community businesses in the making of the film. In the 1990s and 2000s, VC transitioned from a film production collective to a full-service media arts center. While VC still produced films in this period, the organization also provided support services for Asian American artists and filmmakers, workshops and trainings for the community, and more presentation opportunities for independent media in Los Angeles. Throughout our history, VC programs have evolved to meet the changing needs of a diverse Asian Pacific Community of over 25 different languages, cultures, and nationalities. The organization has created award winning productions, nurtured and given voice to our youth, promoted new artistic talent, presented new cinema, and preserved our visual history. Today, VC continues to be a conduit for the Asian Pacific global communities to the American public through its numerous arts programs. Our programming includes: the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and year‐round screenings and exhibitions; the Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists; the Digital Histories video production and digital storytelling program for senior citizens; a Media Development Fund for independent filmmakers; and C3: The Conference for Creative Content. Visual Communications is also home to the VC Archives, one of the largest photographic and moving image archives on the Asian Pacific experience in America. We see media as a powerful tool to create and share meaningful perspectives, and our programs ensure that the AAPI community has access to the resources tell their unique stories.
The Union Center for the Arts anchors the northwestern end of the Little Tokyo Historic District. It was formerly Union Church, the combined home of three Japanese American congregations, was completed in 1923. With the onset of World War II, it was in front of this building that residents of the district joined the residents of Terminal Island, whose community had been razed 48 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Residents lined up with a single suitcase allowance awaiting transportation to join 10,000 people sent to the War Relocation Center in Manzanar in 1942. Most of those transported to the internment camps lost all of their property, and were unable to return to living in their old community after the war, scattering the population throughout the city. During the war the building was used as a community center for African Americans arriving from the deep south in search of work in wartime industry as part of the 'Great Migration'. The neighborhood had some of the only housing in the city that did not have restrictive housing covenants based on color, and quickly became highly populated. Three years into the war, the neighborhood was renamed Bronzeville, and was home to crowded conditions and 'breakfast clubs' - jazz clubs that were known to stay open until dawn. In 1943, a part of the 'Zoot Suit Riots' spread into the area. At the close of 1945 the Japanese Americans gradually began re-establishing a community center, where LIttle Tokyo remains a very diverse part of central Los Angeles. The building located on Judge John Aiso Street was damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, leaving it unusable. The Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation completed a multi-million dollar renovation of the building in 1998 to house three arts organizations - the East West Players, Visual Communications and LA Artcore, and is a successful example of adaptive reuse.
THE AGE OF PORNOGRAPHY Written by Rob Waller Directed by Anthony Laques Starring Tucker Bryan and Matt Sobel The first play written by Rob Waller, lead singer of the critically acclaimed folk/country band I SEE HAWKS IN LA, The Age of Pornography takes place at the end of Labor Day Weekend, 1996 in an apartment in San Francisco’s Western Addition District. It’s the early dawn of the digital era. Before cell phones. Before Yahoo. Before Monica Lewinski. Tom and Albert are roommates and best friends since middle school. But their relationship has reached a critical point. Tomorrow Albert is leaving for graduate school on the East Coast. Meanwhile, Tom is plotting his rise to rock and roll stardom. In the midst of all these transformations, the two friends accomplish a dizzying sexual feat. Now, bound together by a 1960′s 3M Wollensak reel to reel tape recorder, they need to make sense of the night, pack the apartment, and make their peace with each other and themselves. The four performances will take place in the Vignes Arts Spaces, a collection of work/live lofts in the arts district near Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. We've been working hard to recreate San Francisco in the mid-90s and we'd like to invite you upstairs into Tom and Albert's apartment for an intimate and unique theater experience. Shows will be on the following days at 9pm: Friday and Saturday February 25th and 26th Friday and Saturday March 4th and 5th Tickets are $10. Doors open at 8:30 for guests on the RSVP list and 8:45 for the general public. To be placed on the RSVP list please e-mail the names of everyone in your party to [email protected]. Produced by Daniel Superman Lawlor and BAL Theatre Works