September 27: A presentation by ALISSA WALKER. She writes about LA transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy. She launched the website, Torched, which “trains a critical eye on the civic investments and policy decisions that Los Angeles is making in preparation for its megaevent-hosting era, including the 2026 World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and most notably, the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Luncheon to be held at Stoneview Nature Center, 5950 Stoneview Drive, Culver City CA
90232.
October 11: What is historic in Los Angeles? How does a landmark get made? Who gets to decide? These are especially complex questions when it comes to LA’s LGBTQ heritage since much of it had to be hidden. KATE WOLF, editor at large at Los Angeles Review of Books, and RAFAEL FONTES, an urban planning professional working for Los Angeles City Planning, will discuss the intricacies of historic preservation in Los Angeles, in a conversation moderated by LIZ BROWN.
Rafael Fontes is an urban planning professional currently working for the city of Los Angeles. In addition to work experience in architectural design, drafting, and project management, time spent volunteering abroad proved formative. Above all, he seeks to combine a professional commitment to the built environment with a love of history. He has both a Master of Heritage Conservation from the USC School of Architecture and a Master of Planning from the Price School of Public Policy at USC. Rafael recently completed his graduate thesis, Gaining a Foothold: Conserving Los Angeles’ Queer Eden(dale). Kate Wolf is one of the founding editors of The Los Angeles Review of Books, where she’s currently Editor At Large and co-host and producer of its weekly podcast, The LARB Radio Hour. She’s written for Bookforum, Art in America, n+1, East of Borneo, Frieze, X-TRA, Night Papers—an artists’ newspaper she created and edited with the Night Gallery in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2016—and The Nation. She’s also the co-founder of Veggie Cloud, an art house film program in Highland Park.
Luncheon to be held at Velaslavasay Panorama, 1122 W. 24th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
This luncheon is generously sponsored by Jonathan Aronson and Joan Abrahamson.
October 25: A pre-election Town Hall discussion on the most consequential presidential race to decide the fate of America’s democracy, moderated by LAIH Fellow MARTY KAPLAN.
Luncheon to be held at USC’s Wallis Annenberg Hall (ANN) | The Sheindlin Forum, Room 106 | 3503 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
This luncheon is generously sponsored by The Norman Lear Center.
November 22: Writer GUSTAVO ARELLANO discusses his beat as a columnist for
the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. Arellano is the author of Orange County: A Personal History. He was formerly editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, and penned the award- winning “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answered any and all questions about America’s spiciest and largest minority. Gustavo is the recipient of awards ranging from the Los Angeles Press Club President’s Award to an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.” Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.
December 13: Field Trip “Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics.
Curator-led tour of “Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics,” exploring the late artist’s fusion of technoscience, activism, and art. The exhibition tackles issues like environmentalism, health, and social justice, reflecting da Costa’s use of tactical biopolitics to challenge societal norms and reclaim collective power.
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) presents this exhibition in collaboration with the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) and the Department of Cultural Affairs for PST ART: Art & Science Collide, part of Pacific Standard Time, a major arts event featuring over 50 exhibitions across Southern California exploring the intersections of art and science. The tour is led by Ana Briz, curatorial assistant at LACE and Ph.D. candidate at USC. Briz focuses her work on BIPOC, queer, feminist, and anti-racist art and culture.
January 22: Dinah Lenney is author or editor of six books, including Snapshots, The Object Parade (Counterpoint, 2014), and Coffee (Bloomsbury, 2020). The Institute’s co-director and USC Professor of English David L. Ulin is editor of the journal Air/Light.. He is the author or editor of nearly 20 books, including the novel Thirteen Question Method; Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, shortlisted for the PEN/DiamonsteinSpielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award.
February 14: A presentation featuring ALLISON AGSTEN. She is the inaugural director of USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication. In her role, she develops strategic priorities and conceptualizes initiatives to bolster public understanding of climate change. Current projects include the energy transition podcast series, Electric Futures, of which she serves as executive producer, and a report on the state of climate communications in the U.S., of which she is the primary author. She was recently named one of COP28 UAE’s 50 inaugural global Actionists in recognition of her contributions to the field of climate communication.
February 28: A field trip to NHM commons .
NHM Commons is the Natural History Museum’s new 75,000-square-foot wing in Exposition Park, where science, nature, and culture come together. Jeff Chapman, NHM’s Director of Interpretation guides our tour through this vibrant community space features a landscaped plaza, gardens, and exhibits like Gnatalie, a 75-foot-long sauropod, and L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective by Barbara Carrasco. Visitors can also explore displays showcasing local community scientists and the Museum’s research.
This luncheon is generously sponsored by Leo and Dorothy Braudy.
March 14: LAIH Fellow and Los Angeles Poet Laurate Emerita LYNNE THOMPSON
presents: The Artist at the Crossroads of Craft & Culture, History & Myth. She’ll discuss her approaches to craft; the demands of the writer’s craft versus the responsibility for critically-
engaged writing; as well as combining forms and the elements that center her new book, Blue on a Blue Palette, which uses allusions to nursery rhymes and Bible verses, as well as to musicians, writers, and visual artists exploring the tension between creation and the political while addressing the status of woman and the marginalized—racially, culturally, and historically.
This luncheon is generously sponsored by Albert Litewka.
March 28: MEITAL YANIV, an Israeli-American queer feminist. explores grief and themes
from her book, bloodlines, demonstrating how liminality can provide space to withdraw
from patriotism to more accurately understand the world.
bloodlines is an epic and intimate dive into the Israeli apartheid regime from the
perspective of an ex-Israeli/ex-Zionist soldier. Born into a Sephardic and Ashkenazi lineage
of in/famous war heroes and pillars for the state of Israel, Yaniv traces their paternal family
narrative from surviving the Holocaust of the second world war to migrating to Palestine and their subsequent indoctrination as Zionist colonizers and defenders of the state of
Israel.
April 11: A field trip to The CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL GRAPHICS with
founder/executive director and LAIH Fellow CAROL WELLS and archives director, EMILY
SULZER, through the archives of CSPG, an educational and research archive that collects,
preserves, documents, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary
movements for social change. Using its more than 90,000 human rights and protest
posters and prints, CSPG creates traveling and online thematic exhibitions, and
publications. CSPG is advancing the power of art to educate and inspire people to action.
For three decades CSPG has been creating a special community of international artists,
activists, donors, curators, students, and teachers who share a passion for the power of
political art to educate and inspire people to action.
CSPG’s posters are unique, primary, historical documents which reveal histories of
struggles that are often hidden, and more often forgotten. CSPG’s growing collection is one
of the most diverse visual resources in the world representing posters from the 19th
Century to the present—including the largest collection of post-World War II posters in the
United States.
Luncheon to be held at The Center for the Study of Political Graphics, 3916 Sepulveda Blvd,
Suite 103, Culver City, CA 90230.
April 25: A presentation by MICAH GOTTLIEB, a film archivist and programmer, who, in a
very short time, has built a thriving art cinema series with the non-profit Mezzanine and
launched an independent film festival here in LA. He’s created innovative partnerships with
streaming platforms such as Mubi and other film venues, like Vidiots. In the midst of online
media overwhelm, he’s building a community of IRL cinephiles.