THE BOX LA
805 Traction Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90013
www.theboxla.com
Saturday, July 22: 11 AM – 5 PM
Sunday, July 23: 11 AM – 6 PM
& Saturday, July 29: 11 AM – 9 PM
All events are free and open to the public.
Space is available first come, first served.
Hot Box: Smokin’ Ideas, Scoopin’ the Dish is a multi-weekend event meant to inspire and evoke care for ourselves and our culture. Our current political, racial, and cultural state has caused individual and mass stress. When the election results were announced, putting more stress on our already socially trying state, I thought what do I have? I have this space (The Box LA), and I have amazing artists and people around who inspire me everyday. So Hot Box was born. I gathered four amazing artists and friends, Dorit Cypis, Gina Lamb, Barbara T. Smith, and Corazon del Sol together to create three days of performances, lectures, workshops, blessings and lessons. This is the time to allow us to find the wisdom that lives amongst us; we hold this wisdom in ourselves and our collective community.
All events are free and open to the public. Space is available first come, first served.
Saturday, July 22
11 AM – 5 PM: Gina Lamb
11 AM – 12 PM:
Black, White, and Re(a)d all over – The Re-education Reading Room
This reading room is on Tongva land
Los Angeles, a.k.a. Yangna, is on Tongva land
We are all on Indian Land
– Blessing and conversation with Julia Bogany, Tongva Elder and Cultural Officer
The Re-education Reading Room is occupied with books recommended by Native American Elders that they hope settlers will read to open space for discussion. The past cannot be changed, but our reading and understanding of it can be. Learning about current struggles and building new relationships with Native American communities is a starting point in process of healing for all of us.
2 PM:
Creative Identity and Resistance – samples from the Ovahness Archive with Sean Milan Garçon
Looking back at 11 years of LA’s House and Ball Scene with Legendary Sean Milan Garçon & Gina Lamb. This conversation will chronicle the history, nomenclature and resistance aesthetics of Ballroom culture accompanied by documentary video clips from Ovahness Ball Archive.
3 PM:
Premiere screening of Beyond the Runways Profiles:
“Enyce Smith – This is Me”, followed by Q&A with Enyce
Enyce Smith is a Legend in the Ballroom scene for his mad skills in dramatic vogue and as a ball commentator… he is “The Voice of LA”. His path to success was not easy, 14 foster placements, struggles with addiction, and living on Skid Row. In this documentary profile, Enyce speaks his truth of never giving up his creative spirit that has lead him to dance, choreography, music, and becoming an activist in the LGBTQ community.
4 PM:
Vogue 101 – dance workshop with Legendary Enyce Smith
Did you ever want to learn vogue like you’ve hit the floor at a Banjee Ball? We know you have… so this is your chance to learn from LA’s hottest vogueing legend, Enyce Smith. Come have fun and dress in whatever makes you comfortable when you go shablam!!!!!
Sunday, July 23
11 AM – 2 PM: Barbara T. Smith
Come Sit With Me
If you are plagued with anxiety, depression, illness, fear for the planet, our country, can’t sleep…
If you walk past The Box on July 23rd, you will be invited to sit down to rest in provided chairs with Barbara T. Smith. Once there, we will go inside to experience an engagement with her, to awaken and heal.
3 – 6 PM: Dorit Cypis
From Corner to Pulse, a performance you can live with.
The artist presents and guides a dynamic and participatory exploration of confinement and release spatially, psycho-physically and socially.
The architecture of The Box is a dynamic container framing and holding us, dynamic living containers.
Walls, corners, folds, breath, glance, touch, whispers and reflections everywhere. Within, around and between each body lie histories, identities in flux. We listen and reach.
Saturday, July 29
11 AM – 5 PM: Corazon del Sol
Pandora’s Box
Kiss it Eat it shit it sing it hide it swing it play it spank it sell it fuck it talk it lullaby it drink it become it kill it laugh it tie it bring it thigh it squeeze it sing it forget it give it deny it defy it
Come one come all! Bring a blanket, whatever it is… do it, share it, sell it for each other, to each other, with each other.
5 PM: Mara McCarthy
Culminating Meditation
As a way to close out Hot Box, I will guide a Mindfulness meditation that encourages one to observe one’s inner self, in all its distractions and anxieties, without judgement, without force, but with a gentle exploration. This is a practice that can serve as grounding and centering and I have found it deeply healing personally. I present it as a tool of self-love and compassion.
6 – 9 PM: Potluck
Bring a dish and join us for a potluck BBQ at The Box. Bring something to share or something to grill. Everyone is welcome!