Join LAVA for our first free monthly Sunday Salon since November 2011. We return to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber’s Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.

On the last Sunday of each month (returning from hiatus on Sunday, February 24th), LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

The Salon will be broken into two distinct presentations each lasting about 45 minutes. You are encouraged to order food and beverages from the counter downstairs, and bring your meal upstairs. 

Presentation One:

Social historian Mark Wild will present on the history of Street-Speaking in Los Angeles (1880-1940), the subject of his book Street Meeting: Multiethnic Neighborhoods in Early Twentieth Century Los Angeles (UC Press, 2005). This talk will focus on locations in downtown Los Angeles which served as nexuses for protest in early local labor, social justice and political movements. From Suffragettes, Women Christian Temperance Union organizers, Rescue Mission preachers, Wobblies, Socialists, Communists and everything between, Mark will illuminate a rich and forgotten history of downtown Los Angeles as a political space, a theme that has again become timely with the Occupy LA protests shining a light on the privatization of downtown’s public spaces.

Presentation Two:

For the latest installment of urban historian Richard Schave’s site-specific discussion series “The Flâneur & The City,” Richard (Esotouric bus adventures) is joined by architectural historian Nathan Marsak (1947project, On Bunker Hill) for a slow motion drive through Broadway, Hill and Olive Streets circa 1946. Their source is the Internet Archive’s recently discovered B-roll footage filmed by Columbia for the Rita Hayworth vehicle Down to Earth. This is Beth Short’s post-war city, a bright, populated and thriving Downtown that positively thrums with energy. Marvel at the neon lights, the late-night coffee houses, the drug stores, the all night theaters of Broadway, the street life. The slow motion sequences will be broken up with supporting photos of buildings in question. You can expect a fair amount of digressions, and a chance to ask questions. At the conclusion of the tour Nathan and Richard will take the group on short walking tour of Broadway from 6th Street to 4th Street and back again. The tour is free, but registration is required.