Community

CSArts-SGV Welcomes its First Group of Incoming Students

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 19 August 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

August 14, 2017 marks a milestone for the Duarte Unified School District (DUSD) when CSArts-SGV officially opens its doors to admit the first group of incoming students to the Art School. A welcome festival on August18 will celebrate this much anticipated event.  

An off-shoot of the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), CSArts-SGV offers high caliber academic and arts education for students in grade seven through eleven for the 2017-2018 school year, and will expand to twelfth grade the following school year. It was established in 2016 by the California School of the Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization modeled after the nationally recognized OCSA.

CSArts-SGV students have ten arts conservatories to choose from including acting, classical & contemporary dance, classical voice, commercial dance, creative writing, instrumental music, integrated arts, musical theatre, production & design, and visual arts.  

“For years I’ve dreamed of serving more students who have a passion for the arts,” declares     Dr. Ralph Opacic, founder and executive director of the OCSA and chief executive officer of California School of the Arts. “Our partnership with DUSD has created an opportunity to provide the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding communities with the same quality academic and arts instruction, unique school culture, and unparalleled value that we have established at OCSA over the past 30 years. We not only train talented students in their respective art forms, we also produce highly engaged, creative students who succeed in top-ranking colleges and in careers of their choice. Our students go on to become Broadway stars, musicians and artists, as well as engineers, doctors, and entrepreneurs.”           

Image taken from CSArts-SGV website

According to Janelle Kruly, director of public relations and communications, approximately 695 students have enrolled but they are still accepting applications on a rolling basis. An estimated 66 percent of incoming students are from San Gabriel Valley, with the rest from Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Fresno counties.  

There is much in store for the upcoming school year including: the all-school musical – the Tony award-winning ‘Pippin’ to be held at Azusa Pacific University in November; a cross-disciplinary Master Artist Series which brings nationally renowned guest artists and master teachers to provide extraordinary learning opportunities for students; through a partnership with Descanso Gardens, students will have performance opportunities at the lauded ‘Enchanted: Forest of Light.’     

Three students – Asia Aragon, Victoria Camacho, and Braden Maniago – share their thoughts about their desire to be attending the new arts school.  

Fifteen-year-old Aragon, who will be attending the commercial dance conservatory, is transferring from La Salle High School in Pasadena where she was a sophomore. She had been involved in La Salle’s Arts program. At the same time, she was a junior varsity golfer and swimmer.

Aragon heard about CSArts-SGV from a friend, went to the open house, and decided to apply.  She relates, “I liked seeing the different types of arts and how all the students were excited to be having a school dedicated to the various art fields. I’ve been dancing since I was six years old – I go to the Pasadena Civic Ballet. I’ve been in many performances for them.”

Image of Asia Aragon as ‘Binibining Pilipinas’ taken from Facebook

In fact, Aragon’s resume reads like a professional’s. She has appeared in national commercials, music videos, short films and theatre productions, and has recorded voiceovers. She played the lead role of Kim in ‘Stealth’, an award-winning short play from the American Film Institute.  Her film credits include: ‘Willy Wonka: The Musical (as Violet Beauregarde); ‘Aladdin Jr’ (as Princess Jasmine); ‘Annie’ (once as Annie and twice as Pepper); ‘White Christmas’ (as Susan Waverly); ‘South Pacific’ (as Ngana); ‘The Big Bad Musical’ (as Sidney Grimm); and ‘The Doll’ (as Monica). 

An alumna of the Broadway Artists Alliance in New York City, Aragon was nominated for the 2015-2016 National Youth Arts (Junior Division) Lead Actress Award for her portrayal of Jasmine in ‘Aladdin Jr’.

Aragon has modeled as the American Girl doll Ivy Ling for the American Girl/Flintridge Guild Fashion Shows for five years. She also holds the title of Miss Century City Teen USA 2017 and will compete in the Miss California Teen USA Pageant.

Says Aragon, “I hope CSArts-SGV helps me thrive and challenge me in my dance career and journey as well as prepare me for college. I plan on pursuing a degree in the Arts and am looking forward to possibly attending Juilliard, NYU, UCLA or USC.”

Victoria Camacho is a twelve-year-old and rising eighth grader. Coming from Northview Intermediate in Duarte, she was aware that her former school was going to be replaced by CSArts-SGV. 

“I have always been interested in visual art but I don’t currently get any formal training – I just teach myself by constantly drawing on my sketchbook,” Camacho discloses. “I would really love to be doing this as a future career so I went online to learn more about the OCSA and CSArts-SGV and decided to audition.”

Braden Maniago and Victoria Camacho | Courtesy Photo

The audition for the visual art involved drawing three different things. Camacho relates, “There were about 20 girls who auditioned with me; we were seated at two large tables with several objects on them.  Our first task was to draw our hand. The second was to pick one of the articles on the table to draw; I chose a seashell. The third took the longest because we were asked to select three items, place them together, and draw them. The first two tasks took about 20 minutes each while the last one took between 30 to 40 minutes.”

“I found out at the end of February/early March that I had been accepted and I was so excited!,” Camacho enthuses. “This is a huge opportunity. For the next five years I get to attend a regular school during the day and go to the visual arts conservatory in the afternoon. After high school I am thinking of going to college to get a Bachelor of Arts degree.”

Camacho adds, “I enjoy sketching because I get to express my feelings through art. I would really like to be an animator in the future.”  

An avid reader, Camacho prefers mysteries and thrillers. She frequents bookstores where she picks up New York Times bestsellers. One of her favorite reads was Marieke Nijkamp’s YA fiction, ‘This is Where it Ends’.                   

Braden Maniago is a home-schooled 14-year-old from Arcadia, a rising ninth-grader. He states, “I have been acting for several years so I’m home-schooled through K-12 to give me more time for acting and dancing classes. However, it could also be boring studying alone at home so I’m happy to be going to CSArts-SGV. I can practice reading scripts and interact with another actor.  This gives me the structure that I don’t have right now.”

“I’m passionate about acting and I’ve always thought I’m meant for it, which is why I want to go to CSArts-SGV ” adds Maniago. “My parents are very supportive of what I do. My mom was actually the one who told me about the new school. Both my mom and dad went with me to the Open House.”

It was meeting Robin Williams while working as a background actor on a show that inspired Maniago to pursue acting and studying for it. He relates, “I didn’t know who he was at the time but I remember him telling me that it’s hard for aspiring actors to break into Hollywood. I also realize that the challenge increases exponentially for Asians. I want to be the first Asian to be cast in a role that’s not particularly for an Asian; I really want to change the industry.”

For Aragon, Camacho, and Maniago, being recognized for their talent without qualifying their specific ethnicity – to be acknowledged despite being of a different race, not because of it –  would be a giant leap in the right direction for the Arts. For them, CSArts-SGV will pave the way for that future.                           

Pasadena Master Chorale Ends Season with ‘Looking to the Future’

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 22 June 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

The last concert in the 2016-2017 season of the Pasadena Master Chorale is a momentous event for its Executive Director, Jeffrey Bernstein – their rendition of original compositions in a show called ‘Looking to the Future’ brings to a close another successful year.  

Proclaims Bernstein, “Since we started we have always been involved with young people singing with us.  It’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do – to create opportunities for young people who love choir music to learn about it and perform it.”  

“The most exciting student program, by far, is ‘Listening to the Future’, the mentoring initiative we began last year,” explains Bernstein. “Through an application process, we select composers from local private and public schools. We team them up with a composer mentor who meets with them every week from November through June. They write music for us and we perform their work. PMC’s final concert of the year is entirely composed by high school students and it’s quite stirring.” 

Bernstein adds, “It’s a very interesting process for these young students to experience. They spend months alone in a room in front of their computer or with a piece of staff paper writing their composition. Their faces light up when they hear a roomful of 60 people transform that music off the page. It’s utterly thrilling when that happens!”

This year’s young composers Katherine Beggs, Elise Logan, Sean Segal, Tiffany Shi, and Olivia Shue will prove their musical talent when PMC presents their original work on June 25 at the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena. These young composers were mentored by Nilo Alcala, who came on board last November.

Although only a rising senior at Westridge School, Katherine Beggs is already looking forward to college to pursue music and meet new people from different places to expand her worldview. But she thinks her high school life is something she will always cherish for the friends she made and the amazing people she has met. She is particularly glad to be part of PMC’s ‘Looking to the Future’ concert.

Beggs chose to arrange ‘O Waly Waly’. She states, “It is a traditional English folk song which I first heard as an arrangement by Benjamin Britten. It had a beautiful melodic structure and made me want to write my own. The visual imagery and figurative language in this song is very vivid which I tried to enhance with the music I wrote. It took me about three months, working one to two hour-sessions a few times a week.  Nilo and I exchanged many drafts before I finally felt like the piece was complete.”

“My original composition is called ‘Yo No Tengo Soledad’ (I Do Not Have Loneliness), a Spanish poem by Gabriela Mistral,” continues Beggs. “The poem’s message is that one is not alone when they are with the people they love. It reminded me of a lullaby that a mother would sing to a child and that is what I wanted to convey with my song. For the greater part of the piece, I have the basses and tenors sing a repetitive melody to emphasize an element of constancy and comfort.”

“This was surprisingly much easier to write because with the folk song I had to add on to a pre-existing melody and structure and I didn’t want my piece to sound similar,” discloses Beggs. “With my original composition I was able to create something completely new without fear of copying someone else’s.  Without that restriction I had a lot more artistic freedom to write as I pleased.”

Beggs declares, “Hearing something that was just in my head being performed by real musicians for the first time was completely surreal and extremely gratifying at once. It is really wonderful to hear a choir singing what I wrote because I can definitely feel the emotion – it’s vastly better than listening to a computer automated playback.”

Image taken from Pasadena Master Chorale website

Recent Pasadena High School grad, Elise Logan, plans to engage in music throughout her life. She reveals, “My AP Music Theory class was so much fun and introduced me to the world of composition. I enjoyed being around smart, young, driven, and talented musicians. I had a lot of collaborative and individual musical experiences through that class and grew a great deal as a musician and as a student.”

In the fall, Logan is heading to Barnard College, in the heart of New York City, to take further studies in this field. She says, “The newfound independence that comes along with being an out-of-state college student excites me.”

For her folk song arrangement, Logan did ‘Wade in the Water.’ She elaborates, “It is an African-American Spiritual which is very familiar and common in my family and my culture. This piece manifests themes such as faith, patience, resilience, and trust in the face of hardship – all of which are relatable and relevant. The idea solidified in three weeks but it took the entire duration of the program (November 2016 to June 2017) for me to completely revise the piece and get it ready to be performed.”

Logan’s original composition is titled, ‘The One that Could Repeat the Summer Day’. “I wanted to create a piece that contrasted the gloomy ‘Wade in the Water’. Reading Emily Dickinson’s poem about the beauty and celebration of sunrises, sunsets, and summer days inspired me to musically illustrate simple joys,” she explains.

Contrary to Beggs’s experience, Logan thinks this was more difficult to write, “The folk song already came with a melody; I only had the text upon starting my original composition so that meant I had to write the melody, rhythm, and harmony myself.”

“This was my first time writing music to be performed by other people; having the opportunity to have a professional choir sing my original work was a blessing,” Logan expounds. “This experience has been extremely educational and artistically rewarding. It’s an incredible feeling to hear professional musicians bring my compositions to life within minutes.”                

Pictured left to right: Sean Segal, Olivia Shue, Jeffrey Bernstein, Nilo Alcala, Tiffany Shi, Katherine Beggs, and Elise Logan | Courtesy Photo

Sean Segal, who graduated this month from La Canada HS, says his favorite high school experience was his choir tour to Seattle, Hawaii, Spain, and Italy. He will be attending the University of Michigan in the Fall, where he will be pursuing a double major in jazz and multidisciplinary studies in music. His long-term goal is to score a film.

“For my folk song, I chose to do an arrangement for ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’”, says Segal. “I thought it would only be an exercise so I did something I could have fun with. It was the first thing that came to mind when I heard ‘folk song’ – it was meant to be fun and light. It only took me several hours to write; not too long, but it went through a few changes.”

Continues Segal, “My original composition is called ‘At That Hour When All Things Have Repose’, a poem by James Joyce. I knew I wanted to do it when I read it – it had the right length and had powerful images, which would be perfect with great music. It proved to be harder for me since I had to start from scratch; I had no existing melody to base it off of. It took me weeks to write – making sure each part worked and made sense.”

“People really bring your work to life when they sing it,” Segal says. “When you hear it for the first time it jumps off the page. Some moments are gratifying and some make you recognize when an idea doesn’t work so well. Sometimes you can tell something was good just from the choir’s reaction. It was the ultimate learning experience.”

A recent graduate of La Canada HS, Olivia Shue, will be attending California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition. It’s a small arts college that offers courses in music, theatre, art, film & video, dance, and critical studies. Students can take classes in classes besides their chosen major. She’s excited to be a part of  a community of artists.   

Shue’s folk song arrangement is called ‘Ondokusan’. She explains, “It’s a song I sing at my Buddhist temple and the Japanese text is a few words by Shinran Shonin. I chose to arrange it because it is my late grandfather’s favorite piece out of all the other songs we sing at Buddhist services. I procrastinate a lot so it’s hard to say how long it took me to compose it, but I would say probably just a week. When I finally got down to it, I was very motivated to arrange it.”

“I actually wrote two original compositions,” Shue says. “The first original song was called ‘Fire & Ice’ and it was based off a Robert Frost poem of the same name, which was about the beauty and horror of the destruction of the world. But I ended up submitting ‘Song of the Open Road’, a poem by Walt Whitman.  It’s actually kind of funny because last year I composed an original Walt Whitman piece in the same key.  What’s strange, too, is that writing ‘Fire & Ice’ had been a struggle but ‘Song of the Open Road’ practically wrote itself. I finished it in two days sans review or correction.”

This year marks the second time Shue is writing for PMC’s ‘Listening to the Future’ program. She discloses, “Now it feels natural to have them sing my work. I recently had my first string composition premiered on June 2nd, so I’m getting used to having my piece performed. The first time, however, was surreal.”

Rising senior at San Marino HS, Tiffany Shi, is a young woman whose interests lie in both music and math. She participates in her high school’s local division of Girls Who Code and loves the idea behind the club and its inclusive atmosphere. Mentors from JPL and Caltech work with them every Friday.

“I decided to arrange a folk song titled ‘Lavender’s Blue’ after my friend introduced it to me. I just loved the simple melody,” Shi relates. “My original composition is titled ‘Live Not in Vain’, which is set to the words of Emily Dickinson’s poem, ‘If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking’. I love Dickinson’s writing, and after a few weeks of searching through different poetry archives, this poem’s uplifting tone and words really resonated with me and inspired me to write this piece.”

Shi shares a little of Beggs’s, Logan’s and Segal’s experience when she says, “Writing the original composition was a bit harder than arranging a folk song if only because we had to start from scratch and interpret our own poems. At the same time, however, it was really nice to have the freedom to create without the constraint of a given melody. It was a lot of fun.”

“It’s such an amazing feeling to have your piece read for the first time – it’s the culmination of all your effort and it’s a revelation when you see your work as something real. There’s so much going on – from recognizing what you need to change, to finding your favorite part of your own composition – but underneath it all is just a sincerely deep gratitude to the amazing choir, director, and mentor(s) who made it happen,” Shi concludes.

Image taken from Pasadena Neighborhood Unitarian Church website

An important figure for all these young composers is Nilo Alcala, who shepherded them this year to the project’s successful finish. He describes his part, “My role as mentor is to equip them with the compositional tools they need to bring out from within them their own compositional voice. I guide them through the creative process and help them craft and polish their works into its optimal form. It is also my job to constantly inspire them to be an ever improving version of their composer selves. When they get stuck at a certain point in their writing, it’s up to me to nudge them forward or steer them in the right direction.”

Alcala continues, “For those who will pursue composing as a career, it is also the mentor’s responsibility to prepare them for a possible career as a choral composer – not stopping at the skills and technical aspects but going into character. It is sometimes said that talent is overrated but work ethic is timeless. I would like to think that I’ve somehow imparted in them the necessary work ethic for success – being well prepared, punctual, positive, humble, teachable, courteous. And, above all, I want them to be passionate about their art.”

All these qualities are present in Alcala himself. An immigrant from the Philippines, he arrived in the United States armed only with his innate ability and his passion for music. And that relocation happened in a roundabout way. 

Alcala had earned a degree in Communications and was working for a non-profit in Manila when he decided to go back to school to earn a degree in music composition at the University of the Philippines.  That proved to be a pivotal move for Alcala as he got the opportunity to showcase his music internationally when he won several music competitions. He also joined the Philippine Madrigal Singers and sang in concert tours in several countries. 

In 2007 Alcala received the Billy Joel Fellowship that enabled him to get a master’s degree at Syracuse University in New York. In 2009 he earned the Young Composer Award from Seattle-based ‘The Esoterics’ and an ‘Ani ng Dangal’ (Reap of Honor) Award from the Philippine president. 

After being granted an EB-1(Extraordinary Ability) status, Alcala moved to Los Angeles. On December 15, 2015, his project commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Alcala creates orchestral music for the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra and is currently writing a piece commissioned by the Manila Symphony Orchestra to be premiered this August. He composes for visual media and has scored a number of Filipino feature films. He recently scored ‘Candlestick Park: The Beatles’ Last Concert’ – a promotional short for Ron Howard’s Grammy-award winning film ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week’. He is music director/in-house-composer of Club Six Studios, a Silicon Valley-based mobile video game company.

The young composers PMC has chosen for this year’s student program have much going for them. The inspiration they draw from Alcala’s personal journey, fueled by Bernstein’s mission to give students the opportunity to hone their skills and follow their dreams, will most undoubtedly culminate in a triumphant concert.    

‘Listening to the Future’ is likewise a fulfillment of sorts for Bernstein, champion of young people and music-making. Through this concert, he is assured that the art form continues to flourish.                                                                   

It’s Blooming Roses at The Huntington

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 18 May 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

No single flower has moved more bards – from Robert Burns to William Butler Yeats – to  wax poetic than the magnificent rose.  And nowhere are the roses more cared for and celebrated than at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino where they are displayed in stunning splendor.                          

Tom Carruth, who became the E.L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Collection in 2012, presides over The Huntington’s vast assortment of 2,500 plants and 1,250 varieties. 

Prior to his arrival here, he spent 25 years as a hybridizer for Weeks Roses, the country’s leading wholesale grower, where he led the company’s hybridizing efforts.  In his long career he has won more awards from the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) organization than any other living hybridizer.   

“My hybridizing career ended when I took this position,” reveals Carruth.  “As curator of the rose collection I’m responsible for ensuring the plants are vibrant and alive, and for bringing in new parts to the collection.”

In the five years he’s been at The Huntington, Carruth has organized all the labels and  systematized the collection records.  He has expanded some of the beds, added arbors, rebuilt trellises, repaved pathways, re-landscaped, modified irrigation, tested the soil, and even established a dramatic new entrance to the rose garden.  He has also taken on a mission to identify older cultivars that were ‘collectible’ quality and custom propagating them to replace the weaker shrubs in the garden.  

   

The Rose Garden at The Huntington | Photo courtesy of The Huntington

But Carruth gets the most fun studying the plants, “As a horticulturist I just observe – plants talk to you and you listen.  This is an old garden so the soil is impacted and we started amending with gypsum.  I noticed the roses were getting too much shade so we pruned out some trees.  Some of the old plants which were struggling to live responded to the care and started to turn around.  We had agapanthus going down on both sides of the trellis which were so overgrown they were in the rose roots and were strangling the roses.  We divided up the agapanthus and for two years we just let the roots get some air.”

Originally a cutting garden for Mrs. Huntington, the flowers were grown for production with 50 shrubs of each variety – she was fairly nearsighted and she loved having big bouquets in the mansion.  According to Carruth records from that time showed that one year 9,000 roses were cut to bring to her house.  Today it is a vast collection with just one or two of each kind to show the history of the rose.

The Huntington’s Rose Garden is a veritable history lesson that traces the story of the rose from ancient times to the present day.  Growing on the south side of the pergola leading from the Shakespeare Garden to the Tea Room are roses that represent the early history of the flower dating back to the pre-Christian era. 

On the north side of the pergola are Tea and China roses, introduced into Europe from Asia around 1800.  Says Carruth, “The Chinese were known to have been working with this flower for over 2,000 years.  The whole collection behind the trellis were roses that came here in the tea ships and were the ones that gave us repeat flowering; up to that point roses bloomed only once a year.”

The central part of the garden is dedicated to roses of the modern period when the first hybrid tea rose, called ‘La France’ was introduced.  The hybrid tea went on to become the most popular class of rose of the 20th century, with thousands of known varieties.   According to Carruth, ‘Ophelia’ dating to that period was crossbred in the garden and is in The Huntington’s collection.         

Carruth explains, “The roses are classed by color but not planted by color.  We want to keep the integrity of each variety – the China Teas are all in one location, the older hybrid has its devoted area, and the fragrant roses are in two beds closest to the Rose Garden Tea Room.  That makes it easy for us to direct the public when they ask.”

“Roses have several natural fragrances like fresh cut apples, spice, lemon blossom, myrrh, damask, honey, violets, and all sorts of combinations of those,” adds Carruth.  “It’s fun to watch people get a whiff of the fragrant flowers while they wait for their table in the Tea Room (for information and reservations, call 626/405-2236 or huntington.org/dining).  We have a variety out there that smells like Lemon Pledge and over here we’ve got one that reminds you of Ponds Cold Cream.  Down there we have something that’s white licorice and smells strongly like licorice candy.”

Photo courtesy of The Huntington

“Everyone loves walking around, reading names, and looking at the dates,” observes Carruth. “Many visitors, who don’t’ necessarily know much about growing roses look for classics like ‘Mr. Lincoln’, ‘Peace’, or ‘Sterling Silver’ – bed number 17 in the collection – which is a silvery lavender and is a repeat bloomer.  ‘Sterling Silver’ is interesting because that was the first hybrid from a female hybridizer, in a male-dominated field. We also have the everyday version, ‘Stainless Steel’, which is a much easier plant to grow and has bigger flowers, that’s similar in color and fragrance.”  What he failed to mention, however, is the fact that ‘Stainless Steel’ is a rose he developed in the 1990s as a more robust version of the fussier ‘Sterling Silver’.

The roses at The Huntington bloom from mid-April to November.  Explains Carruth, “This year, because of the rain, we had an elongated pruning season resulting in an extended spring bloom. We’ll have color throughout because we manipulate the plant in the beginning so they don’t blossom all at once. People will see roses every time; we even have a smattering of them in time for the Rose Parade.”

It would surprise people to know that The Huntington does not have a large staff tending to the garden. Carruth discloses, “I have two gardeners who work three acres of roses so we depend heavily on our volunteers.  Right now I have 52 rose garden volunteers deadheading, weeding, watering, and anything they’re willing to do. Some people love to deadhead and prune so I see them in winter and I may not see them during the summer. We’ll take whatever level of interest they have. They get prime time – they come in early in the morning before visitors arrive – when it’s beautiful and calm, and not hot.”

You’ll know that Carruth, and his staff and volunteers, take painstaking care of The Huntington’s roses when you see the glorious flowers in bloom. The next time you visit, go for a stroll on the grounds to take in the breathtaking beauty and heady fragrance laid out before you. When you do, you undoubtedly wouldn’t be able to help stopping to smell the roses.               

Little Free Library Takes Us Back to a Kinder, Gentler America

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 4 May 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Whoever pronounces no one reads books anymore – the kind that’s not on an electronic device – has probably not heard of or seen a little free library (LFL). It looks a bit like a birdhouse, except it isn’t sitting in a tree but propped up on a stand in front of people’s yards and contains books for people to borrow and take home to read.  It has of late become a worldwide phenomenon and has been known to start conversations among neighbors who might never have had occasion to chat until now.    

The LFL was an idea concocted by Todd Bol in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin, who built a wooden container to resemble a one-room schoolhouse. He then mounted this on a post which he installed on his lawn then filled with books as a tribute to his mother – a book lover and school teacher.

Relates Bol, “We had a garage sale one day, and people who saw our little free library hugged it, kissed it, took selfies, and talked to it like it was little puppy. There was this little sparkle of energy and kinship that brought people together. So I started to make them and I gave way 30; then the media began covering us.”        

In 2012, LFL became a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world.    

Today Bol’s simple brainchild can be found in all 50 U.S. states where there are more than 50,000 registered LFL book exchanges and in over 70 countries around the globe. People in even the remotest and farthest-flung nations, including Ghana, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam now have access to free books.          

California was a little late in joining the movement, according to Bol, but has been the fastest growing in the past two years. In the Los Angeles area, it was a brief article in the newspaper about the LFL that ignited the fire that’s now ablaze and spreading in earnest.     

Karen Hovanitz is the steward of the Florecita Farm Little Free Library in Altadena, charter number 3727.  She says, “It was built by my then 94-year-old dad from a 1920s-era window from the Habitat for Humanity Restore and scraps of pine from his garage. The handle is made from vintage wooden thread spools.  It sits by the street in front of our home which was originally the store for Florecita Farm. It was installed in 2012, the very first LFL in Altadena.”

“This neighborhood encompasses 144 households in a self-contained region that was developed from a dairy, chicken, and citrus farm in the 1950s,” Hovanitz describes. “When we moved to Florecita Farm in 1987, it was a fairly geriatric area. It has since dramatically changed and today there are many young families with children living here. Books for young children, from less than a year old to seven, are taken most quickly and are seldom returned. There are several middle readers so I try to have a supply of YA novels for them; recent fiction is popular among adults. Adult and YA books always come back. The LFL is largely self-sustaining through donations. Occasionally I purchase children’s books from the Salvation Army to replenish stock.”

Continues Hovanitz, “Residents love the LFL; they enjoy donating books. Even if they don’t use it, they like knowing it’s there. It’s part of what makes our community special. I met Todd Bol recently and learned that one of his highest priorities, in addition to getting books into the hands of readers, is fostering community. Having a LFL promotes pride and ownership of community.”

“Because our neighborhood is somewhat isolated, I think almost all LFL patrons are from Florecita Farm.  Hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders do pass through and may use the library. Although a homeless gentleman frequents our neighborhood; I have seen him on the chair by the library to read and I’m glad he feels comfortable. I love surreptitiously watching from my kitchen window as elementary-age kids ride up on bikes and skateboards to use the LFL,” concludes Hovanitz.   

                           

In Pasadena, there are 31 charter LFLs scattered throughout the city’s 23.13 square miles. Sue Feldmeth, who lives on Oakdale Street, had noticed some of the little libraries but didn’t know about the organization. She says, “I had seen them and heard about them. I thought there were just individuals who came up with designs and built their own library or book nook. I wanted to do something like that and when I went online I found out there was an official organization that did exactly that. It also offered for purchase kits to make the little houses or little libraries already made. Although it wasn’t cheap, I bought one; I figured it was one less project to give to my husband.”

Feldmeth explains, “About a year ago I did some spring cleaning and cleared out my children’s books to make room on the shelf.  I had a few boxes of these perfectly good books that someone else could read so I thought it was time to get my little free library going. I felt it would be a good way to get rid of my books and share them with others who would enjoy them.”

 “What’s funny, though, is that we’ve been getting book donations. Now I have thrice as many  as when I started out. I had been trying to get rid of them but ended up having to make room for more books in my home … so that backfired a little bit,” chuckles Feldmeth.

“I know people would return the books they borrow but now I’m really glad when they don’t,” Feldmeth adds. “I realize some feel uncomfortable not leaving a book in return; I put up a sign saying they can take a book and leave one, or pass the book along to someone, or keep it if they love it.”

“When we first moved here in 1999, when my now college freshman son was a year old, we were one of a few families with young kids,” discloses Feldmeth. “Now there are several school-age children in our area, so I decided to have a small box on the ground filled with children’s books to make it easier for small kids who can’t reach into the little library.”

“There’s a lot of foot traffic on our street – little kids on their way to school, neighbors walking their dog – so our library gets used a lot. Our LFL has space for two rows of books and when I see it down to one row, that’s when I put in a new group. I attach circle stickers to categorize them – adults, teens, YA, and children’s books. That’s also how I keep track of what’s going out and what’s coming in,” Feldmeth says.

“Our little library sits in the shade outside our house and I’ve been putting out a basket of lemons from my tree to share with people who come by. We have so many that we can’t possibly eat or use them all,” discloses Feldmeth. “It’s like killing two birds with one stone, really – encouraging book reading and building neighborliness.”  

       

Another Pasadenan, Robin Trickett, reports she learned about the LFL by happenstance, “I stumbled across it one day while I was driving around town. Then I kept seeing one or two of these tiny houses with books when I would take my kids to school. So I thought, ‘Okay, I need to stop and find out what this is all about!’ Once I started to read up on it I had to join the book movement – both my husband and I are big readers and I wanted to encourage our kids to be the same. What a wonderful way to give back and encourage reading in the community!”

“About six months ago we put up our LFL. I find there is a lot of interest in the free library on our lane, not just from the 20 families that live here but also from delivery people and folks working at the houses on our street,” adds Trickett. “We are the stewards of our library and we select new books to put in weekly.  Right now there are more children’s books than anything else but I mix it up with novels, cookbooks and bestsellers as well. My goal is to share my love of reading and I cover a variety of choices to appeal to everyone.”

Sean Moriarty, on Rose Villa, first saw the LFL in Chico, in Northern California. He says, “My sister-in-law has one. It piqued my interest so I did a little research online and learned more about it. What a fantastic idea! Then for Christmas last year she and her partner gave me a little library as a present.”

“Our LFL has been up for a few months and we’ve seen a pretty lively response. In fact my kids just informed me our supply is low so I would have to fill it back up again,” Moriarty states. “I’m not terribly scientific about what I stock it with. I have young kids so I make sure there are children’s books in the little library. And I read pretty widely – fiction, biography, history, you name it; we have books of general interest.”

Sums up Moriarty, “I see some books coming back and a few new titles showing up. It’s still early but over time we hope we see more books that we’d need a bigger library! I hope that people who respond to it appreciate it, are excited about it, and care. If we had a million of these across America we’d be a better country.”                           

A similar sentiment was expressed to Bol one day at a recent conference he attended. He recounts, “The former governor of Wisconsin came up to me and said, ‘Todd, what’s going on in America right now – this divisiveness and polarization – that’s not us. The Little Free Library is more representative of who we are and what we are. We reach across the aisle and across the street. We pick each other up and make one another’s life better – we don’t care who they are or where they’re from.’” 

For all of Bol’s good intentions, however, there are naysayers out there. He is very much aware of them and offers this analogy, “I believe a community is like a beehive: if everything’s done right it will produce honey. But oftentimes it’s beaten with a stick and yelled at. I don’t subscribe to all the negativity out there. I’m proud of LFL and how we’re making it a better world. I sound old-fashioned and corny but reality is before us every single day – we see it.”    

The scope of the LFL’s outreach has widened since 2012. Through its Impact Fund, Bol intends to put LFL in communities where it would make the greatest difference – trailer parks, apartment buildings, high-need neighborhoods.        

Bol launched an initiative to put a little library in every police department across the country – over 14,000 of them, according to him. There are currently four dozen LFL in police departments in Detroit, Cleveland, Raleigh, Chattanooga, and New Orleans, among other cities. He says the L.A. Police Department has a LFL in every precinct.       

“We also recently unveiled the Action Book Club which identifies authors and publishers who demonstrate community engagement,” adds Bol. “We ask people to sign up with us, read one of the books, go out and fix things in their neighborhood, then report back to us. One of my favorite stories is about this group of fourth-graders in Lafayette, Louisiana, who collected 100 pair of new socks and gave them to the homeless. We’re gathering tales of people doing good around the world, one neighborhood at a time.”

“There’s a saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’” Bol expounds. “That’s a statement of observation. The statement really should be ‘how can I be a part of the village?’ What we want is for the LFL to be the spark for people to make things better through literacy, books, conversation, dialogue, and action.”                                                      

Lofty objectives and noble aspirations aside, at core the little free library simply takes us back to a time when we would walk up to our neighbor’s house to share a plate of freshly made cookies, or to borrow a cup of sugar to bake some. For most of us that outcome alone makes it a better world already.     

Monrovia High School Students Perform on A Noise Within’s Stage

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 27 April 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

This past Tuesday night, April 25th, 23 drama students from Monrovia High School (MHS) put on a production of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ at A Noise Within (ANW) in Pasadena. The partnership was a first for both the high school and the classical theatre company.

Nathanael Overby, MHS drama teacher who came on board in 2012 and was responsible for expanding the school’s drama department, advanced the partnership with ANW. He states, “A Noise Within clearly takes a unique approach to theatre – they have a quality and creativity unequaled by other professional groups. That was something I wanted my students to emulate.”

“We have been performing on our stage, which is quite impressive, but being on a professional stage would be an exciting experience for my students,” continues Overby. “ I wrote a proposal to partner with ANW and discussed it with Patrick Garcia, the director of performing arts for the Monrovia Unified School District, who reached out to ANW. When ANW’s artistic directors agreed to it, I began working with Alicia Green, the director of Education and Community Outreach at ANW.”

Concurs Green, “The director, Patrick, and I came together to discuss the proposed partnership and we decided to do ‘Lear’ as it worked best for the school and us. From the outset Nate and I worked to ensure students had a great experience and understood what it takes to do a show in a professional space.”

Overby adds, “This partnership is so much more than the students being able to perform ‘King Lear.’  We were able to join ANW’s cast for their table read of ‘Lear’ and we watched ANW actors perform it on stage. This gave my students the opportunity to join a professional cast on their journey on a production – to experience what it’s like to put on a professional show by observing ANW’s cast at several different points in their process. Furthermore, I want to develop a connection with ANW to inspire my students to pursue work with them after they graduate.”                     

“All students attended first rehearsal, some attended opening night, and all students came to a student matinee in mid-March,” Green said the week before their performance. “We wanted to immerse them fully in every step of the way – what it takes to make a full production a reality!  Nate worked with the students at Monrovia on the show and I am looking forward to having them come for the first time on Monday, the 24th, to rehearse on our stage, and then perform it the following night.”

Monrovia High School | Photo by Alicia Valdez / Monrovia High School website

While the show was put on at ANW, it was truly a student production as Green relates, “Other than providing one tech person to help set up the lights/sound they need, their technical director and students will be running all of the technical elements and stage managing the show. We are here to support them, but this is their show and we encourage them to make the space their own!”

“We are constantly looking for ways to engage students in the world of classical theatre,” Green says about ANW’s outreach. “Equitable access is of key importance, and we continue to grow and develop our education program through attendance at student matinees and evening/weekend performances, in-school residencies and workshops, full-school partnership programs, pre-show engagement activities, post-show conversations with the artists and our free study guides. Ideally, every student would have the opportunity to participate in some way with our programing to enhance their education!”

A Noise Within has its ‘Summer with Shakespeare’ camp and Saturday conservatory classes where students perform on its stage and in the building. This past Tuesday’s performance of ‘King Lear’ by Monrovia High School students, however, was a first for this kind of project.

According to Overby, MHS had two drama classes back in 2012 when he came to teach at the school. He says, “Now we have a full-time department offering five different periods of drama, including a Stagecraft class and an Honors drama course. We also started out with one performance a year; we are currently producing three a year which includes at least one musical and one play. This year we produced ‘Dracula’ in October, ‘Urinetown the Musical’ in March, and now ‘Lear’.”

‘King Lear’ was the capstone to a great year for the school’s drama students. And what better venue to fully realize the essence of one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works than in Pasadena’s premier classical theatre company. 

Indeed it was a dream come true for these Monrovia High School students. How propos that their performance took place towards the end of A Noise Within’s own season they called ‘Beyond our Wildest Dreams’.  

Apache News at Arcadia High School Sets Journalistic Standards

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 16 March 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Monday through Friday, from 11:03 am to 12:02 pm, finds 20 of Arcadia High School’s (AHS) brightest broadcast journalists and technicians producing the week’s 15-minute Apache News (APN) show. 

This Advanced Video Production class runs its weekly meetings pretty much how television stations conduct theirs. Ryan Foran, Public Information Officer for the Arcadia Unified School District, who was a broadcast news reporter in the past, has high praises for this class.  

Foran says, “If you walk into KABC anytime today during their production meeting, it would look exactly like this – the news team will be talking about ideas, reporters will be pitching stories to the news director. When these kids go to college this is what they’ll see.”

“It’s a popular course and is difficult to get into,” according to Frank Nunez, who teaches the class. “Once the posting goes up, students have to attend an informational meeting to learn about the course prerequisites. There’s an application process, which includes an interview, and two teacher letters of recommendation are required. They have to have finished beginning and intermediate courses to be eligible for this capstone course, which they can take in junior and senior year. It is UC-credited and is one of the few Pathways in AHS.”        

It takes at least ten hours to create Apache News, which AHS airs every Friday during fourth period. Everyone in Nunez’s class contributes in some capacity and each is graded based on attendance, participation, and content. It’s a very time-consuming and intense course as seniors Andre Salcido, Simone Chu, and Will Atkinson can attest to.

Salcido, who writes documentaries and edits political news for APN, says, “There’s a required   daily class attendance – fourth period – and we also have to be enrolled in the after-school class that meets twice a week. We cover Saturday sports events on top of that, so we’re putting in a minimum of ten hours per week.” 

“But everyone likes this class because of the resources available to us; we know it prepares us for college,” Salcido adds. “The experiences I’ve gained have put me further along than the average student going into this field. While I had initially thought of taking film studies, I developed an interest in documentaries and last year I completed a multi-part project about the California drought. It was something which had never been done before – my documentary group used HD cameras and travelled to the Central Valley for weeks interviewing people, gathering case studies from area residents. It became a finalist in the Arcadia Film Festival and we were even invited to the Water Symposium ‘Save the Water’ where we showed our film and spoke about our experience.”

“This year I’m working solo on a documentary about mental health and have been talking with students with mental illness. At one point we got an invitation to interview the Director of Health Services for California. So there we were on a plane and I thought ‘I couldn’t believe the school is paying for us to fly to Sacramento for this class – we are in one of the best courses in the country!,” enthuses Salcido.        

Meanwhile, Chu, APN’s Breaking News and Political News expert charged with studio scriptwriting and editing, is an accomplished journalist herself.  She is currently editor of AHS’s newspaper and is a student columnist for the L.A. Times’s ‘High School Insider’. 

One of Chu’s recent segments for APN took her all the way to Oroville to cover the dam and ensuing spillway damage during the heavy rains in the state. She says, “I called up people in the area and I dialed into a press conference with the town”.

As political specialist, Chu was busy during the 2016 presidential elections. She discloses, “Before the elections I was running around the campus getting student opinions. We also held a mock election and compared our results with the rest of the nation. More recently, when Sean Spicer (White House press secretary and communications director for President Trump) banned certain media outlets from attending a press briefing, I was able to get a comment from New York Times Washington bureau reporter, Eric Lichtblau, for a story I was writing.”               

Handling two of the most exciting news assignments will keep Chu on her toes and in the thick of things. “Journalism has been my aspiration since elementary school,” she claims. “That’s why I pursued newspaper writing and when I had the chance to try out for APN, I took it. It’s intense but it’s a fun kind of intense. And the best part is that everyone is passionate about what they do; it’s quite refreshing to be working alongside people who give their best to put on a show very week.”

Atkinson is APN’s sports producer, tech manager and gag creator. While he is mostly behind the camera, he has reported for a few stories, is APN’s sports announcer and soccer commentator.  He creates the intro gags for the show and even acts in them.    

  

“I was recruited for this class and couldn’t be happier for agreeing to do it; this program taught me to work well with others,” Atkinson pronounces.  “We put in countless hours not because we’re getting paid but because we love doing it. And it has its flattering moments as I discovered when we were shooting the middle school play ‘A Monster Ate my Homework’. I was setting up the systems when a bunch of 8th graders asked, ‘Are you Will from APN?’ My tech director, Justin, told me they had been talking about my great hair for a while.” So much for preferring to being anonymous and a behind-the-scenes guy.    

According to Nunez, Atkinson is responsible for creating a relationship between APN and AHS’s sports teams and coaches. One of the reasons APN has been more visible lately is its expanded sports coverage and live streaming that started this year. It is a point of pride for Dr. Brent Forsee, AHS principal.

“I was with a bunch of friends one day watching an AHS game on my phone when they said ‘Hey, let’s watch that; how do you get that on TV?’. So we hooked it up and we all watched the livestream on TV. They were very impressed with the camera work and the play-by-play. It was all done very professionally,” tells Forsee.  

Ryan credits this degree of professionalism to Nunez, who has an extensive background in film technology and TV production. Before teaching Advanced Video Production at AHS full time this year, he had been travelling for ESPN’s sports broadcasts, flying the SkyCam for football games on cable television. He has won three Emmy Awards for his work. 

“It’s Mr. Nunez’s real-world experiences in livestreaming you see now on Fox Sports that’s allowing our students to get the high level of training in putting on a live sports event – using multi-camera sets on shoots,” Ryan declares.

While Nunez taught in college, he didn’t really set out to teach full time. He reveals, “I come from a live sports background; it’s something that I really enjoy. I was on the fence about taking this job because I didn’t know if this was quite the right time – I expected a much longer career in film and video. Bill Citrin, the previous teacher, roped me into teaching part time and it evolved into a full-time job. But it’s nice to get the chance to bring in that element of sports production, which I really miss, into this environment. I love the high energy games we go to.”      

“There’s quite an old history to this program. I was at an alumni event and had a conversation with the previous instructor, who told me that this began in 1986 as a sort of industrial tech class,” Nunez relates. “They built the very first camera they used for it – a toilet paper roll was utilized for the lens. Then it took off in 1997-1998 with Bill Citrin, who expanded the course to what it is today.”

An AHS alumnus himself, Nunez attended from 1998 to 2002 and was in Citrin’s class. He states, “I can say first-hand that I took this course and then when I went to UC Santa Cruz I didn’t touch a camera for two years until I started a news broadcast in college. I pretty much created that show based on this program and it’s still running there today. I got so much more experience here than in film school. I was so prepared; I had a leg up once I got to project management – shooting a film, pre-production work, etc. – all of which I had done here on a weekly basis.”

Nunez has big plans for the course, including creating a new weekly show, adding more sports themes, increasing content. He says, “We don’t call it a class; we’re professionals. I have very high expectations and I keep raising the bar lest we become complacent. We won’t rest on our laurels.” They have, in fact, begun work on a late-night comedy-style bonus show, the first episode of which they hope to air in early April.

When Forsee pronounces, “I’ve been extremely impressed with these students’ commitment to journalism. I could put us against professionals in the industry as far as what they’re practicing and learning,” it is a testament to the school’s confidence in the integrity of Apache News and the team that produces it.                                 

No Boundaries in Art and Talent at PUSD

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 9 March 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

There is no shortage of artistic talent among Pasadena students as the upcoming 12th annual ‘No Boundaries’ will once again prove.

Scheduled to open on Friday, March 10, which coincides with ArtNight Pasadena, and running through March19, at The Shops on Lake Avenue, this art exhibition provides a platform for young artists in the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) to showcase their two- and three-dimensional art. Presented free to the public, gallery hours are Monday to Friday, from 3 to 6 pm; Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 pm. 

The exhibition is also a host site during ArtNight Pasadena on Friday, March 10. ‘No Boundaries 12’ is housed in a commercial space on 345 S. Lake Avenue lent for the occasion by Merlone Geier Partners as a giveback to the community. It will be a shuttle stop during the citywide free evening of art, music, and entertainment when Pasadena’s most prominent arts and cultural institutions open their doors.

ArtNight Pasadena, sponsored by the City of Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the Division of Cultural Affairs, is an ongoing partnership between the city and local cultural institutions. Twice each year, many of the city’s non-profit arts and cultural establishments open on a Friday night to provide a variety of art, culture, and music to the public free of charge.           

According to Jennifer Olson, District Arts Education Coordinator for PUSD, the first ‘No Boundaries’ was started by a former Pasadena high school teacher, Alex Schultz, and the former PUSD District Arts Coordinator, Marshall Ayers. It has always been a group effort involving Arts teachers, community arts partners, parents, and volunteers.

Olson relates, “The first year it was just middle and high school student work and it was all put up in one night in the wind tunnel at Art Center. The next year the District Arts Office decided to include every school, and the structure was set that informs how we still do it today. There is an arts representative designated at each school who selects between 12 and 32 artwork per school, depending on the size of the school and whether it is an elementary, middle or high school.”

All 26 PUSD schools submit their highest quality work which are organized visually (2D, 3D, video), rather than thematically. The exhibit is a monumental undertaking given the number of students and schools involved. 

“It is a gargantuan effort!,” Olson agrees wholeheartedly. “We started accepting delivery of artwork February 2, and the exhibition doesn’t open until March 10. So there are several weeks of registrar work – entering all the student information and statements – mounting all the artworks, and then of course building out the space, curating the art pieces, hanging the show, marketing, and event planning.” 

Continues Olson, “For many years we have had a district arts team/community arts team, and this is a major endeavour undertaken by that group. We also work with the Pasadena Educational Foundation to help us find volunteers to help with all aspects.”

“‘No Boundaries’ is a true community effort,” proclaims Olson.“We work side-by-side with our community arts partners, teachers, and parents to make this exhibition happen. By that, I mean if you walk in on any given day during installation, these folks are the people painting the pedestals, nailing up the student statements, and installing the promotional posters.”

Rochelle Branch, manager of the Cultural Affairs Division of the Pasadena Planning and Development, created ‘Bridging Boundaries’ in 2007 as an offshoot of ‘No Boundaries’ to expand access and highlight the collaboration between the City of Pasadena, and PUSD’s Arts Education. She says, “‘Bridging Boundaries’ references the connection between the city and PUSD, but also the geographic location of what we call the Student Art Wall which is near City Hall bridge.”

“Arts Commissioners and a member of the community attend the installation of the PUSD’s ‘No Boundaries’ exhibition and select artworks based on high artistic quality and merit,” Branch explains. “They provide a small tag that says ‘Arts & Culture Commission selection awardee for Bridging Boundaries Exhibition’. Everyone who goes to ‘No Boundaries’ will see the selected art.”

“When ‘No Boundaries’ ends on March 19, the selected pieces are taken to a professional framer and mounted in two installments at ‘Bridging Boundaries’ exhibition hall outside City Hall Council Chambers,” adds Branch. “The city contracts with Pasadena-based artist, Denise Seider, to curate ‘No Boundaries’ and ‘Bridging Boundaries’. For about five months, each student group will have its artwork up for public viewing.”

“Students get back their artwork professionally framed and get city-wide acknowledgement of the quality of their piece. They get to come with their families and friends and see their creation outside of City Hall,” Branch concludes.
          

Olson shares that sentiment when she declares, “The greatest joy of this project is seeing students come in with their family members, bursting with pride when they find their artwork and they see that it is professionally displayed like a ‘real artist’”.

This joint collaboration – among the City, PUSD, and Pasadena’s arts and cultural organizations – celebrates, showcases, and shares students’ artistic talents with the entire community. But more than public recognition, these young talented students’ self-satisfaction in their accomplishments may be the greatest reward of all.             

Pasadena Master Chorale Fosters Young Musical Talents

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 17 January 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Jeffrey Bernstein, Artistic and Executive Director of the Pasadena Master Chorale (PMC), has always been into music and music-making. He started playing the piano when he was eight years old; when he was 13 he sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in a choir. 

It isn’t surprising, therefore, that Bernstein’s interest in music grew through the years. He  relates, “Like many people, I came to choral music in school. For me it was in college, at Harvard. That’s a natural place to have terrific experiences of community. In a way I realized I wanted to give that experience to people who weren’t going to leave in four years. I wanted to see what it was like to deepen that sense of community and to be embedded in the broader Pasadena community.”

In 2009 Bernstein founded the Pasadena Master Chorale which he imbued with his own personal stamp to distinguish it from other choral groups. He explains, “For one, we’re auditioned and it’s a pretty rigorous process. We take, on average, less than half the people who audition for us. We also re-audition the group every year so singers have to demonstrate they’re continuing in keeping up. I believe the higher the quality of music-making, the greater the sense of community.”

Bernstein continues, “The other thing that sets us apart, and which I’m very proud of, is our pricing model. Our concerts are offered on a ‘listen first then give’ basis; we sell tickets for zero dollars. We want people to attend our concert then offer a gift to us as they are moved and able.  We started this concept two years ago and our attendance and revenue have since gone up.”                              

“There are obviously people who can’t give very much, and I’m very proud of the fact that our concerts are so accessible to everyone. And there are people who give very generously because they recognize the value of what we do,” Bernstein opines.

Knowing that children are exposed to singing in a choir at a young age – whether it’s through a church or at school – Bernstein established an education program to foster middle and high school students’ love of music.

Expounds Bernstein, “Since we started we have always been involved with young people singing with us. It’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do – to create opportunities for young people who love choir music to learn about it and perform it. The program has grown tremendously and we currently have three offerings.” 

Image of Pasadena Master Chorale taken from South Pasadena News

According to Bernstein, their program for student singers is open to all Pasadena middle schoolers with a teacher recommendation. They rehearse with PMC’s associate conductor, Lauren Buckley Schaer, and perform a couple of pieces at the beginning of two of their concerts – Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and the Brahms concert. 

With a teacher recommendation, high school students who want to get a deeper experience with choral music can join PMC as apprentice singers. Says Bernstein, “They rehearse with us every Monday night as full members and they sing all the pieces the PMC does, including the ‘Requiem’ which we sing in German. This is a much smaller group of students because it is a big demand on their time and requires more familiarity with choral singing.”

Bernstein adds, “This year, we are again holding a program we began last year called ‘Listening to the Future’. Through an application process, we select composers from local private and public schools. We team them up with a composer mentor who meets with them almost weekly starting in November through June. They write music for us and we perform their work. PMC’s final program of the year is entirely composed by high school students. June last year was the first time we put on this program and it was a huge success!”

“We had four composers last year; this year we have six and they’re already writing. During the spring they’ll come to our rehearsal every now and then to hear us sing their composition. It’s thrilling! It’s hard to tell who’s more excited – the students or the singers. It’s great to work with living composers, but to work with someone so young …. This is a rare opportunity for  young composers to have a group play their composition, sing it and take it seriously. It’s almost unheard of. That’s a program I’m very, very proud of,” Bernstein proclaims.                                                         

“I’m a big champion of young people and music-making,” Bernstein expands. “I want our organization to serve the youth at as many different levels of development as possible. For this young composers program, we’re looking for students who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work. They must have had music training – maybe sang in a choir or played in an orchestra or band – and have a teacher recommendation. But we’re not going to judge their potential as creative people; instead we’re here to foster their talent and let them run with it. 

Last year we came up with four completely diverse sets of music. It was beautiful!  We don’t change what composers create, we don’t want to get in the way. We want to encourage creativity and we sing what they write for us.”

Image taken from The Hollywood Times

‘Listening to the Future’ commences right after Labor Day, when PMC publicizes the program and accepts applications. At the end of October, PMC selects the composers who start working with mentors in November. Both mentor and student develop a schedule for what pieces need to be written and when. Each composer will write at least one arrangement of a folk song which should be finished by February and one original composition which they will write from February to April.

Bernstein says of this program, “Composing is a form of communication. Student composers are communicating with the singers and singers are communicating with the audience.  We emphasize that the score has to be neat and without errors. Composers have to take into consideration if the words are easy to read, if the harmony is understandable. 

It’s a very interesting process for these young students to experience. They spend months alone in a room in front of their computer or with a piece of staff paper writing their composition.  Their faces light up when they hear a roomful of 60 people transform that music off the page.  It’s utterly amazing when that happens!”

Pasadena Master Chorale holds five concerts a year. Its 2016-2017 season began on December 11 when the group sang Handel’s ‘Messiah’ at First Congregational Church in Pasadena. On January 15, PMC performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Oratani Theatre in Downtown L.A.  Brahms Unbound follows on April 22 and 23 at the Altadena Community Church. On June 10 and 11, PMC will be back at the Altadena Community Church to sing two pieces: Heinrich Schutz’s ‘Musikalische Exequien’ and Gabriel Faure’s ‘Requiem’. The season ends on June 25 at the Neighborhood Unitarian Church in Pasadena with a ‘Listening to the Future’ concert.

Financial support for PMC comes from the L.A. County Arts Commission, Pasadena Community Foundation, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, the City of Pasadena, and through various fund raising efforts.                 

While PMC has come far since Bernstein founded it, there are more things he wants to accomplish. He wants to one day be able to purchase a building to house their education program, for students to come in five days a week after school, with a staff of people who can provide training – from individual voice lessons to music theory – and who will encourage students to have their own choral group with leadership.

“It’s limitless what you can do and realize what difference you can make in one kid’s life … not just with choral music, but for them to have a place to belong,” Bernstein states wistfully.         

Altadena Library Programs Reflect Multi-Ethnic Community

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 24 November 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

On the second Saturday of every month (at least from October through June), the Altadena Library turns into a hopping and noisy place – descriptions few people would associate with the word library. And that’s by design.

A brainchild of Mindy Kittay, Director of the Altadena Library District, Second Saturday began about a year and a half ago. She explains, “I felt we needed to do something to bring the community into the library for reasons besides checking out a book. We want to provide opportunities for people to create, imagine, and be motivated to learn, grow, and enjoy music, dancing, food, and drink.”

“From 6:30 to 8:30 pm every month, Second Saturday features a band to provide music people can dance to while they eat, drink, mingle and talk,” continues Kittay. “In October we partnered with ‘Next Door’, an online social network for communities. Altadena ‘Next Door’ reaches 4,000 members and they wanted to celebrate in a meet-and-greet where they can see face-to-face the people they’ve been talking to online. So we invited them to our community center for that purpose. About 50 or 60 ‘Next Door’ people came that Saturday then they headed upstairs to eat, drink, listen to music, and dance.”

Image taken from the Altadena Library website

Kittay makes it a point to present a diverse offering. This month, Second Saturday (which will be held on a first Saturday, December 3, because the Christmas Tree Lane lighting is scheduled for December 10) will feature Young Dempsey. Band members Drewin Young, Josh Jones, Matt Lake and Marc Doten will play music from the 50s to 80s to evoke hot-rodded nostalgic doo wop and country sound.  

This month’s Second Saturday event will coincide with the Open Studios Tour weekend which will kick-off with a reception on Friday, December 2 from 6 to 9 pm. The library will be open on Saturday, December 3, from 10 am to 6 pm and on Sunday, December 4, from 11 am to 5 pm.

“The library hasn’t opened on a Sunday in several years but it will be this weekend for Open Studios. It’s where their tours will start, for people to pick up the brochures, maps, and information for the self-guided tour to 23 locations hosting a total of 53 artists,” Kittay says.

Unlike a typical gallery show, the Open Studios Tour provides an intimate view into the artist’s life and studio; it shows where and how ideas are conceived and developed. Visitors get a glimpse of the creative process, which makes for an individualized experience.                          

From January through June, Second Saturday concerts will showcase multi-cultural musical performers: Todd Washington Trio (blues, folk, rock, soul and gospel); Louis Van Taylor Quintet (jazz); DeRumba (Spanish guitar to the beat of the gypsy rumba); Splish Splash Band (folk ‘n blues);  Michael Haggins Band  (funk and smooth jazz); and The Satisfaction Band (dance music Top 40, Latin rock, R&B, cumbias, and oldies).

A project Kittay is currently working on is called Community Conversations. She describes, “Using the Harwood Process, we will reach out to every corner of Altadena between now and mid-March, and have a series of fifteen conversations. We want to represent everyone in the community regardless of race, religion, financial standing, or sexual orientation. We want to ask them their aspirations for themselves and the community; their challenges; and how they felt they can help with those challenges.”

“We will compile our findings and create a report which we will present to the Altadena Chamber of Commerce, Town Council, Board of Supervisors, churches, schools, and service  organizations including the Rotary Club,” Kittay says further. “From this process we expect three specific things. First: connections – we will learn about organizations, people and opportunities, and who needs what so we can effectively connect people. Second: partnerships – this will help eliminate duplication of effort. We can partner with someone to provide what we need instead of us reinventing the wheel to fill that requirement. Third: a plan – our strategic plan expires in 2017. We’ll use the information we gather to help us decide how we can better serve our community.”

Image taken from Altadena Library website

Kittay came on board in November of 2014 to lead a staff of 32, and run the main library, which occupies a 10,000 sq. ft. mid-century building on East Mariposa Street, and a branch library, a 1,500 sq. ft. structure on Ventura and Lincoln in west Altadena. She was responsible for the many changes the main library has undergone since. Without spending a dime, she supervised moving around shelves and area partitions to create spaces for specific functions and users. She got rid of books which no one has checked out in years and reorganized the physical area to make it easier for people to locate what they’re looking for.

And there’s much to find. The Altadena Library has over 80,000 items for people to borrow including books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, books on CDs and video games. It has ebooks and eaudiobooks that can be checked out and downloaded from home.

There are 20 laptops and 12 chromebooks available for patrons to checkout for the full day at the main library (but cannot leave the premises). The branch library has three laptops and three chromebooks. Both library sites have 1G WiFi.

Users have access to computers, printers, scanners, and copiers (color and B&W), 3D printers and Virtual Reality equipment by appointment. The libraries have online programs to help with homework and job skills as well as research. Librarians can help with questions and research needs. All the services at both libraries are free except for photocopying, faxing, and printing.  

A community room is available to the public for use as a small meeting or collaboration space.  There is a water conservation garden for people to enjoy on site as well.

According to Kittay, Altadena has about 55,000 residents and has also seen several changes since the Altadena Library opened its doors in 1967. Its population used to be 30 percent African Americans and 10 percent Latinos, the number has reversed to 30 percent Latinos and 10 percent African Americans.

It is Kittay’s job to make sure the library adapts to the shifting needs of the community. But she is undoubtedly up to the task. After all, she gained an excellent experience at her previous job as the Finance Director at Any Think Libraries in Colorado. During the five years she worked there, it went from what the Denver Post decried ‘the worst library in the state’ to winning an IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) Library of the Year award, the highest honor it can achieve. “We reinvented what a library could be,” she declares. 

In the two years since taking the helm at the Altadena Library, Kittay has redefined its functions.  She has created a library that is responsive to the needs of the community – “outward-facing,” she says.

With Kittay steering the wheel at the Altadena Library District, it will assuredly head in the direction where it had never gone before.                                                                                      

Farmscaping Takes Root

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 3 November 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Farmscape, which started out as a small company offering backyard vegetable growing service to Pasadena residents, is slowly spreading the urban farming concept to large businesses whose names most people recognize. 

This evolution has been an organic process which began when a handful of young college students collaborated on what seemed like an ambitious project.  

When Dan Allen was 21 years old, one of his old high school pals was writing an analysis paper for Pomona College about environmental challenges to the biosphere. It just happens that this friend is also a day trader, has made a great deal of money, and would like to do something about it.  

Relates Allen, “He wanted to identify the problem and solve it which, looking back, is a naïve and noble objective at once. But we were 20, maybe 21 years old so that made sense at the time; we were young idealists and optimists who wanted to make the world a better place. I moved from where I was then staying in D.C. out to California, and together with two other childhood buddies from Iowa, we turned a school paper into a business plan and created Farmscape in 2009.”         

Seven years later, Farmscape has a staff of 30 and operates from an office in Eagle Rock that has an outdoor space for growing produce. It maintains urban farms for 30 public and private schools, several restaurants, and a multitude of residential clients in the Los Angeles area. It also has branched out to Northern California which caters to a mostly corporate clientele that counts the San Francisco 49ers ball club, the Giants stadium, and Oracle as customers. And Allen is all of 31 years old.

Says Allen, “Our clients enjoyed the vegetable garden experience with their kids; our subsequent expansion into schools, therefore, was an organic growth. The most satisfying aspect of this business endeavor is the experiential part. It’s working with partners or clients who are inspired by the garden in some way.  Our educational program instills in young children a love of the outdoors and nature. I make it a point to hire people who have backgrounds and skills specific to the project they’re working on. Farmscape’s horticulturist, Melissa Gutierrez, has a great speaking and teaching style. She’s able to build rapport with young kindergartners and get them to taste what they’re growing in the al fresco classrooms.” 

Farmscape teachers hold workshops at 30 L.A. area schools including Clairbourn, an independent pre-K to eighth grade institution in San Gabriel; Valentine Elementary in the San Marino Unified District; and Oak Knoll Kinderhouse Montessori in Pasadena.

Continues Allen, “Then some restaurateurs heard about Farmscape and reached out to us. One them is Chef Niki Nakayama, who used to live in San Gabriel, but has since moved closer to her restaurant, n/naka, in Culver City. She grows the vegetables she uses on her upscale Japanese tasting menus in her backyard garden. Another client is Providence, Chef Michael Cimarusti’s innovative seafood restaurant  in Melrose. 

The Jonathan Club in downtown L.A. is also a client. It has a 5th floor rooftop garden from which the chef and sous chef harvest their vegetables every morning. Farmscape also has raised beds at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) which provide extraordinary seasonal fare for its Ray’s and Stark Bar.”          

“It’s great to work with varied clients because they’re the ones pushing us on to different approaches to growing produce,” claims Allen. With homes and schools, our farmers emphasize that ‘it tastes amazing’ – they don’t lecture on the health benefits. But it’s the restaurants who push us on flavors – they want great tasting produce than what they might otherwise have access to.”                

Now the Los Angeles office is extending its reach to include multi-housing projects and Allen works with several developers in the area to include vegetable garden amenities in their buildings. Farmscape currently maintains a vegetable garden at the Abbot Lofts (in Abbot Kinney) in Venice. The company’s garden is also on display for clients to enjoy at the Traina Developers office in Northridge.    

A most inspired move proved to be opening a Farmscape branch in Oakland, California in February 2014. Lara Hermanson, who declares she’s the company’s second hire, heads that division which currently has eight employees. She is responsible for generating all new business  for Northern California and beyond. Once she lands a project, she brings it back to the office and the install team takes over. From there, the maintenance crew takes care of the garden’s weekly maintenance.      

Hermanson says it was her idea to expand, “I pushed to open in Northern California because I thought it made good financial sense and would lead to more interesting work. There’s a real energy and commitment to innovation; people here like having cool stuff. This has proven true for us – we have more leeway to do better, more creative projects. While L.A. is committed to healthy eating and living, the conversation here is further along. People are past vegetable gardens, they’re into improved water systems, they’re ready to live completely off the grid. It’s easier to close deals here because I don’t have to sell the concept.”

“Most of our Oakland business is corporate,” Hermanson reveals. “Our largest client is Levi Stadium where the San Francisco 49ers play. It has a 4,500 sq. ft. rooftop farm from which the kitchen harvests the produce that’s divided among its various restaurants.”

While she has accomplished quite a lot in the short time she’s been in the Northern California office, Hermanson has her sights on some big names in the area. “I use Apple and Google all day so it would be really awesome if they can be Farmscape clients,” she says.

That wish isn’t too farfetched. As Allen has said, Farmscape’s growth has been very organic. It has taken root and, in time, it will spread far and wide.