It has been quite a time and we've only just begun. Let's mend with thread, art, mutual aid, and by taking action.
Mending and making with love: -Visible Mending workshop at Underdog Bookstore today from 12-2 PM PST. Bring something to mend. Space is limited, so sign up now! -Embroidery Basics Feb. 9 from 2-2:30 PM PST at the Los Angeles Makery- get up close and personal with embroidery stitches. -And Embroidery Basics with Fun-A-Day LA online February 21 at 5 PM PST, streaming live on YouTube! Art to remind us of joy and creativity: Playtime 3 opens at the Los Angeles Makery Sunday, Feb. 2 from 2-5 PM. Join the TELEPHONE artist game and be part of an international arts event! Mutual aid for folks affected by the LA wildfires: -California creatives! Donate art supplies to artists who lost their studio spaces in the fires, or pick up supplies if you are in need at the Los Angeles Makery. -A list of links and information (also check the comments) -And a full list of resources and folks who need help courtesy of Mutual Aid LA and many others. And excellent advice from sociologist Jennifer Walker: 1/ Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness. 2/ Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events. 3/ Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon. 4/ Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context 5/ Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload. Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance. Take action AND take good care of your hearts, my friends. We need each other. XO Laura
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Some events as a soul soother after the LA wildfires:
This afternoon come and sew with us online! Embroidery Basics, 5 PM PST. Livestreamed on YouTube. Get started with embroidery basics! Learn chain, stem, and your basic stab stitch to outline images or spell out your deepest desires and fill them in with ladder and satin stitches. If there is time, we'll cover feather stitching and french knots. Create your own small artwork and get out some built up rage by stabbing fabric multiple times. To join in the fun, bring embroidery needles, embroidery floss, fabric, and scissors. Nice to have but not required is thread wax. If you have an embroidery hoop, great, but if not I'll show you how to fake an embroidery hoop with cardboard and straight pins or tape. Sunday January 19th join us at the Los Angeles Makery! 2-5 PM PST, 260 S. Los Angeles St, 90012. There's a group show on the ground and second floor, a solo show by Julie O'Sullivan in the SubTerra gallery, art therapy with Monica Marks, and donations of art supplies for artists and others affected by the LA wildfires. Donate art supplies or pick up what you need; we got you. Saturday January 25 join us in the Zoom room for Genius Teatime and Favorite Foods! 3:30-4:30 PM PST This Genius Teatime we're asking for your genius in feeding your community! Let's talk about your favorite food preparations and ideas that A. are low cost, B. can be used in times of low supplies/access and C. taste amazing! This is also a good place for talking about alternative food supplies, home growing, and mutual aid. Could prove to be both useful and tasty in the times to come. As always, NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds), but if you have it to spare donations will go to the Hollywood Food Coalition. Take good care of yourselves in these turbulent times, my friends. We need each other. XO Laura I had a newsletter planned… and then the LA wildfires happened. I’ll get to it later. So far my home is safe, we got power back, and the water is good to drink. We will see what happens when the winds pick back up but it is okay for now. Many thanks to the many people who offered me shelter and help!
My old neighborhood in Altadena pretty much burnt to the ground and so many friends have lost everything they had. The air is awful and the RSV I got two weeks ago is not improving quickly. PLEASE use KN-95 or better masks out there and use steam to clear our your lungs- a lot has burnt, and many of the places that did had plastics and asbestos and who knows what all in them. I can offer folks fresh filtered water, since many of our neighbors can’t use theirs due to contamination in the water treatment facilities. We also have a LOT of windfall avocados. Get in touch if you need either thing. I am in shock and in mourning, but I am here and and alive and grateful I can help spread good information, since there’s a lot of miserable nonsense going on around about LA. Stop that, please. The truth is bad enough. According to Katie Stubblefield (thanks for this): “The rumors are exhausting. Let me help. 1. The federal response is great 2. The governor is doing a wonderful job 3. The mayor is on top of this 4. If this was arson, both it and climate change can both be the cause of this nightmare. 5. We are better lifting each other up than tearing each other down. 6. You can get accurate real-time fire information with the Watch Duty app.” (Can verify, Watch Duty is awesome, and if you have it to spare these volunteers are doing amazing work.) Also, LA housing prices are obscene. Don’t use that as some kind of gotcha metric. We are dealing with that here everyday and most of us (myself included) can barely manage rent. On to links and information for wildfire help… -Super helpful links from Mutual Aid LA. -LA Artists, sign up here if you are able to help with temporary housing, storage, clean up, and/or paperwork and info relating to insurance claims. -Mask Bloc LA is handing out masks to help with the smoke- and of course disease prevention! -Hollywood Food Coalition is continuing their terrific work in keeping folks fed. Great links and advice from Elizabeth Aquino. -Terrific information from a wildfire veteran on navigating insurance and other claims. -Good advice from another fire veteran- thank you, Leah Knecht!- on managing insurance claims and dealing with debris/clean up after the fires. It’s super toxic ash out there, my friends. Seriously. -These are lists of Go Fund Mes for the many folks who have lost everything in the Eaton and Palisades fires from Renee Reizman and Rachel Davies. More lists: Black families displaced in the Eaton fires; Latinx families displaced by the fires; Disabled people displaced by the fires; and a master list of LA disaster support compiled by the folks at Mutual Aid LA, among others. I have not verified these personally (there are too many) but I know several ones from the Eaton fire that are valid and that I’ve seen cross referenced in other lists. It is always worth checking to make sure. If you know of other ones, please help out and add them to the list! And for the love of all things good, do not force toxic positivity on folks. When your friends and coworkers have lost everything, it is profoundly unhelpful to tell them that their feelings and their things don’t matter. Let them feel how they feel and see what you can do to help. Be careful out there, my friends. Love you. XO Laura Coming up at at the Los Angeles Makery!
December: A Fix-It Clinic December 21, 2-3:30 PM. Learn quick hand sewing fixes! Bring your clothes and soft goods (like stuffed animals and throws) that need repairs. Masks required day for Opulent Mobility 2024 December 22, 1-4 PM for our immune compromised guests! Artist talk for Opulent Mobility 2024 December 29th 1-2:45, gallery viewing after. Hybrid meeting in person and on Zoom with ASL interpretation; register at the link for the Zoom. As a side note- did you know about the ugly laws that kept disabled folks in America out of sight in public up through the 1970s? Yeah, that existed. Get a rundown here. This is one of the many reasons why I am so passionate about re-imagining disability as opulent and powerful. January: Embroidery Basics January 5, 2-3:30 PM. Learn the basics and get out that rage by stabbing fabrics multiple times with sharp objects! Fun AND cathartic. Visible Mending January 19, 2-3:30 PM. Visible mending makes repair fun, meditative, and beautiful. Bring your clothes and soft goods that need a little love. Let's mend the world, not trash it. XO Laura Create With Fierce Joy 🔥
In the newsletter this week: OM 2024, the pros and perils of commune building, a Fix-It Clinic, mending news, and ways to protect and defend ourselves and loved ones in these turbulent times. Click on the image for the full details. Let us take good care of each other. Image description: Flyer for Opulent Mobility 2024 with a graphic of three diverse smiling Deaf women in a row; the woman in the center makes a link using the thumb and forefinger of each hand. Text reads: Opulent Mobility 2024, Culture Means WE BELONG by Bev Hickson-Snook. You are cordially invited to Opulent Mobility 2024 at the Los Angeles Makery! December 5-29, 2024, 260 S. Los Angeles St, LA CA 90012. Artists: Amabelle Aguiluz, Megan Bent, April Bermudez, Rora Blue, Rebecca Bond, Becca Cerra, Kat Chudy, Yaron Dotan, Susan Else, Patricia Fortlage, Dellis Frank, Kellie Gillespie, Bronte Grimm, Ash Hagerstrand, Bailey Hammond, Bev Hickson-Snook, Nicola Hopkins, Sandy Huse, David Isakson, Suzann Kundi, Heidi Latsky, Ellen Mansfield, Monica Marks, Joy Murray, Kristen Olinger, Julie O'Sullivan, Lia Pas, Tom and Linda Peters, Annelies Slabbynck, Emily Tironi, Lisa Tomczeszyn, Rachel Ungerer, and Kemi Yemi-Ese. Celebrate disability in all its forms! While the news of the world is gutting, we will still join together to make some magic. Please enjoy a sneak peek at Opulent Mobility 2024! And please also take good care of your hearts. We need strength and compassion more than ever for these rough roads ahead.
Hosted at the Los Angeles Makery, 260 S. Los Angeles St. LA, CA 90012 December 5-29th, 2024 and online at www.opulentmobility.com. Open Saturday-Sunday 12-5 PM, weekdays by appointment; call (213) 392-2611. The wonderful artists are Amabelle Aguiluz, Megan Bent, April Bermudez, Rora Blue, Rebecca Bond, Becca Cerra, Kat Chudy, Yaron Dotan, Susan Else, Patricia Fortlage, Dellis Frank, Kellie Gillespie, Bronte Grimm, Ash Hagerstrand, Bailey Hammond, Bev Hickson-Snook, Nicola Hopkins, Sandy Huse, David Isakson, Suzann Kundi, Heidi Latsky, Ellen Mansfield, Monica Marks, Joy Murray, Kristen Olinger, Julie O'Sullivan, Lia Pas, Tom and Linda Peters, Annelies Slabbynck, Emily Tironi, Lisa Tomczeszyn, Rachel Ungerer, and Kemi Yemi-Ese. Events: Preview Thurs. Dec 5 from 6-9 PM on DTLA art night featuring the Makery holiday market! Opening Sun. Dec. 8 from 1-4 PM with live music from Tom Peters Sun. Dec. 15 11:30-12:30 PM Disability Drawing Club hosted by Renee Reizman (masks required). Afterwards, view the show from 1-4 PM. Sun. Dec. 22 from 1-4 PM masks required for immune compromised guests Sun. Dec. 29 at 1 PM PST/4 PM EST/9 PM GMT online artist talk with ASL interpretation, show viewing until 4 PM. Contact us to ask for a video walkthrough of the exhibit. It has been a whirlwind lately.
The Opulent Mobility retrospective exhibit and talks at USC are now done. Many thanks to everyone who made them possible! You are awesome and I am so grateful. Check out the recorded talks here, here, and here. Enter the Goddesses 2 and the Art of Costume Couture close tomorrow. These shows have been magical! I am so impressed at the artists and their wondrous work. Join us for the Goddesses artist talk and music by the Evangenitals from 1-4 PM at the Los Angeles Makery and take your last chance to enjoy these spectacular exhibits in person. And of course stay tuned for this year's regular Opulent Mobility exhibit! I really shouldn't say regular- this is much larger than usual and full of astonishing art and artists. So excited to share it with you. The artists are Amabelle Aguiluz, Megan Bent, April Bermudez, Rora Blue, Rebecca Bond, Becca Cerra, Kat Chudy, Yaron Dotan, Susan Else, Patricia Fortlage, Dellis Frank, Kellie Gillespie, Bronte Grimm, Ash Hagerstrand, Bailey Hammond, Bev Hickson-Snook, Nicola Hopkins, Sandy Huse, David Isakson, Suzann Kundi, Heidi Latsky, Ellen Mansfield, Monica Marks, Joy Murray, Kristen Olinger, Julie O'Sullivan, Lia Pas, Tom and Linda Peters, Annelies Slabbynck, Emily Tironi, Lisa Tomczeszyn, Rachel Ungerer, and Kemi Yemi-Ese. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. Now it is time to seek out funding to keep this going. I welcome your helpful suggestions! XO Laura Many thanks to University of Southern California Visions and Voices for bringing this Opulent Mobility retrospective exhibit to life! Thanks also to Professor Julie Van Dam and Pamela Schaff at USC and all the folks who made this possible.
And as always, deep gratitude for the artists: Shelley Barry, Megan Bent, Ciara Chapman, Kat Chudy, Vanessa Cruz, Julie Forbush, Patricia Fortlage, Kellie Gillespie, Bronte Grimm, Ellen Mansfield, Joy Murray, Abigail Stockinger, Emily Tironi, and Rachel Ungerer. You rock my world. Poster text: OPULENT MOBILITY Featuring artists whose work reframes and recalibrates conventional approaches to disability and chronic illness, Opulent Mobility is a group exhibition that opens at the Keck School of Medicine’s Hoyt Gallery on September 25. The show runs September 25th through October 25th. EVENTS Reimagining Disability Narratives through Artistic Practice TUE | 9•24•24 | 12:30 PM TAPER HALL 301, UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS On the day before the opening of Opulent Mobility, artist and curator A. Laura Brody will help us imagine a world defined by disability-centered ethics and aesthetics. Opening Event and Panel WED | 9•25•24 | 12 PM MAYER AUDITORIUM, HEALTH SCIENCES CAMPUS Curators A. Laura Brody and Anthony Tusler, artist Patricia Fortlage, occupational therapist and Limitless Dance co-founder Debbie Wang, and USC professor Julie Van Dam will address the pertinence of disability art practice to disability ethics and aesthetics. Gender, Queerness, Disability, and the Arts TUE | 10•1•24 | 11 AM TAPER HALL 309K, UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS Multidisciplinary artist and queer and trans disability activist Brontë Grimm will discuss their artistic trajectories and aesthetic practices with curator A. Laura Brody. ADMISSION IS FREE. RSVP AT VISIONSANDVOICES.USC.EDU Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Pamela Schaff (Medical Education, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics), Julie Van Dam (French and Italian), Erika Wright (Medical Education and English), Sabrina Derrington (Pediatrics), and Ron Ben-Ari (Internal Medicine and Medical Education). Co-sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine’s HEAL (Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law) Program and the Center for Bioethics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. By popular request:
the Opulent Mobility call for art deadline is extended to September 15, 2024. We could all use a little breathing room nowadays. Many thanks to all who submitted work! It is looking fantastic and I am so excited to put this year's exhibit together. XO A. Laura Brody The latest newsletter goes up tomorrow morning, but you can get a sneak peek now!
In short: -Genius Teatime with Ernie Silva and CandyJoe Dahlstrom is at 3:30 PM PST, August 24 -The Opulent Mobility 2024 call for art deadline is 8/31/24 -Thanks to Visions and Voices for hosting an OM retrospective! The initial lecture is 9/24/24, opening and panel discussion is 9/25/24, and Bronte Grimm will join us for a talk on Gender, Queerness, Disability, and the Arts 10/1/24 -Enter the Goddesses and the Arts of Costumes open 10/6/24 at the Los Angeles Makery Full details in the newsletter. Let's be good to each other in these turbulent times. XO Laura |
A. Laura Brody
I re*make mobility devices and materials and give them new lives. Sometimes I staple drape. Archives
January 2025
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