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Bookish Visions at LAVA’s Sunday Salon

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On August 29, LAVA put out a call for culturally curious Angelenos to gather in the upstairs dining room of Downtown’s historic Clifton’s Cafeteria for our sixth monthly Sunday Salon.

After scattered conversation and dining, an eager group gathered ’round Visionary David Kipen as he shared his inspirations for opening Libros Schmibros, Boyle Heights’ new bookshop and lending library, which on budget-crisis Mondays now replaces the nearby Ben Franklin Public Library as a place for the neighborhood’s bookish sorts to get their fix. David spoke to the group for a time, then table-hopped, coming away with promises of many book donations and visits to his comfy, Gold Line-convenient storefront.

Next up, Visionary Eva Montealegre, in literary guise as mystery scribe Eva Batonne, introduced the LAVA community to her debut Joan Lambert mystery novel, Resurrection Diva (2009), then read a tough-as-nails interrogation scene by popular demand. She sold and signed numerous copies of her book, making sure to first keep one back to give to David Kipen for his lending library. For more info on Resurrection Diva, visit www.evabatonne.com.

Closing out the afternoon’s program, Visionary collaborators Holly Witham and Nicholas Hosking, co-founders of The Moveable Theatre Company, talked about the Company’s mission and site-specific projects, from the recent Zane Grey Playwriting Contest, with the winning entry performed in May at the Western author’s former home in Altadena, and their upcoming staged reading of Yasmina Reza’s Tony award winning Art, at  LA Contemporary Exhibitions. And in the last few moments of the Salon gathering, discussion turned to a very special unproduced play about historical Los Angeles literary lights which we just might see produced by MTC in the future.

For photos from the Salon, click here.

The Sunday Salon is always held on the last Sunday of the month, from noon to 2pm upstairs in Clifton’s Cafeteria at 7th & Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. Put it in your calendar, and we hope you’ll join us on September 26, for surprises soon to be announced.