Clockshop

South of Fletcher: Stories from the Bowtie is a multi-platform storytelling project by Fonografia Collective that will launch this September. Follow along as we explore the rhythms of this unique site on the brink of major change.

In January 2017, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, Clockshop launched Counter-Inaugural, a series of talks addressing local and national politics through a cultural lens. A year after the election, we are presenting our last talk in this series. ACLU Southern California legal director Ahilan Arulanantham, writer and PhD candidate Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and award-winning filmmaker Alex Rivera joined us for a discussion about immigration and deportation.

Since the 2016 election, artists, curators and arts organizations alike have responded to this presidency with work that seeks to understand (and possibly upend) our current political systems. See: Counter-Inaugural. What are the stakes of such engagement? What role can art play within politics? On May 30, 2017, Anne Ellegood and Erin Christovale, curators of Made in L.A. 2018, and What, How & for Whom, curators of the 2009 Istanbul Biennial, joined us to discuss Curating Within a Heightened Political Moment. This conversation was part of WHW's Clockshop residency. Learn more here: https://clockshop.org/project/whw/

On May 9, 2017, Douglas Goodwin introduced specific threats to our electronic privacy, and outlined defensive and offensive actions we can take to mitigate them. For more information about this event or to view video documentation, visit https://clockshop.org/event/douglas-goodwin/.

On April 4, 2017, Rudy Espinoza, CEO of Leadership for Urban Renewal Network and Dan Flaming, President of the Economic Roundtable joined us to discuss their work and ideas on income inequality. For more information about this event, visit http://clockshop.org/event/rudy-espinoza-dan-flaming/

Ecologist and professional forager Nance Klehm led a walk at the Bowtie Project exploring the human uses and ecological functions of the native and spontaneous vegetation at the site. On this walk we will investigate how the vegetation relates to the ecology and vitality of the soil that supports it. Surface Walk is part of Nance Klehm’s Bowtie Project residency titled Double Pairing. Learn more about her residency here: clockshop.org/project/double-pairing/ Learn more about the Bowtie Project at clockshop.org/bowtie.

On March 21, 2017, Timothy Snyder joined us to discuss his new best-selling book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. In this book, Snyder offers readers a guide to identifying and understanding the frightening parallels that exist between our current reality and the realities faced by Europeans of the twentieth century during the Third Reich. For more information about this event visit http://clockshop.org/event/timothy-snyder-on-tyranny/

On January 31, 2017, Robin D.G. Kelley and Robin Coste Lewis reflected on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” This letter was written in response to a public statement of concern issued by eight white religious leaders of the American South about the civil rights movement’s tactics of nonviolent direct action. Kelley and Lewis reflected on this historic document, and discussed what we can learn now from the resistance strategies King championed. Suggested Reading & Viewing Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963 Beyond Vietnam, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967 I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck, screening January 30, 2017 at the Hammer Museum This event was part of Clockshop’s Counter-Inaugural, a series of talks addressing the misogyny, hate speech, and climate change denial that dominated the 2016 presidential campaign. It was recorded by Tom Carroll.

Lynda V. Mapes has been reporting on environmental issues for the Seattle Times since 1997 with a specific focus on river health and Native American communities. These points of focus merged in her 2016 coverage of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock. On January 24, 2017, Mapes was joined in conversation by mark! Lopez, executive director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. Much of Lopez’s organizing takes place in communities adjacent to the southern portion of the Los Angeles River. In this conversation, Mapes and Lopez spoke about what we’ve learned from Standing Rock, and how those lessons relate to LA River revitalization. This event was co-presented with California State Parks and Friends of the Los Angeles River. Suggested Reading & Listening Will the Los Angeles River Become a Playground for the Rich? Richard Kreitner, The Nation, March 10, 2016 Reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline… ft. Lynda V. Mapes, The Overcast podcast, November 4, 2016 Exposing Injustic

UK journalist Laurie Penny has been covering the 2016 presidential campaign through a feminist lens with dark wit and an eye toward her native country’s alarming Brexit vote last summer. On January 10, 2017, Penny was joined in conversation by Neelanjana Banerjee, managing editor at Kaya Press, to discuss misogyny, sexism and female flesh under capitalism. This event was co-presented with Women’s Center for Creative Work. Suggested reading: “Against Bargaining” Laurie Penny, The Baffler, November 18, 2016 “I’m With the Banned” Laurie Penny, Medium, July 21, 2016 “What Women Problem?” Laurie Penny, Medium, July 18, 2016 Clockshop’s Counter-Inaugural is a series of talks addressing the misogyny, hate speech, and climate change denial that dominated the 2016 presidential campaign. This event was recorded by Rounak Maiti.

Ayana A.H. Jamieson is the founder and director of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network. In December 2016, she led a bus tour through Pasadena and Altadena, California, exploring Butler's hometown and the ways its landscapes and politics influenced her worldview. In this episode, Tom Carroll of Tom Explores Los Angeles talks with Jamieson about this tour.

In a city as big as Los Angeles with such a well-documented car culture, we often hear that you need a car in LA. But what can the experience of public transit offer a writer? What about an artist? In this episode, we take a ride from West Hollywood to Downtown with commissioned Radio Imagination artist and LA-native Lauren Halsey. Halsey’s work takes inspiration from her neighborhood in South LA and the visual culture of small businesses throughout Los Angeles. Like Butler, she gets around on public transit, but there was a time when she used to drive...

'Kindred' is Octavia E. Butler’s most popular novel. It was published in 1979 and the seed for it was planted at Pasadena City College, where Butler was a student. This fall, over 2,500 Pasadena City College students will read Butler’s novel as part of their “One Book, One College” initiative. What is it about 'Kindred' - a novel that’s more fantasy than science fiction - that makes it so popular?

Nicole M. Mitchell is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. In 2008, she released Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia E. Butler, followed by her 2014 release of Intergalactic Beings (Xenogenesis II). Both albums are inspired by the writings of Octavia Butler. On October 27, 2016, Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble will perform songs from both albums at the Huntington Library, featuring new and old collaborators exploring updated interpretations of the themes explored in Butler's work. More info here: https://clockshop.org/event/xenogenesis-suite-a-musical-tribute-to-octavia-e-butler/

Radio Imagination artists Mendi + Keith Obadike and Connie Samaras dive into Octavia E. Butler's archive, gleaning inspiration from her notes to produce new work of their own. For more information about the Radio Imagination exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts, click here: https://clockshop.org/event/radio-imagination-the-exhibition/

Butler rode the bus for nearly an hour everyday to get to the Central Library downtown—reading, writing and researching. What does her dedication to public libraries tell us about who she was as a writer?

Octavia E. Butler died unexpectedly at 58. After her death, a group of curators and writers have sorted through her papers, working to reveal the writer and thinker we didn't come to know in her lifetime.

How a kitchy sci-fi film became a source of inspiration for Octavia E. Butler and the writers who came after her.

Merrilee Heifetz met Octavia E. Butler as a young agent looking for writers. What followed was 20 years of letters, conversations and insights into someone breaking the borders of fiction.

Writers Tisa Bryant, Lynell George, Robin Coste Lewis, and Fred Moten premiere new works of poetry and creative nonfiction under the stars in the Clockshop courtyard. For these commissions, each writer spent an extended period of time working in the Octavia E. Butler archive at The Huntington Library.