City Of Los Angeles Department Of Cultural Affairs Presents EMPOWERMENT: CORITA + DOLORES At The Lankershim Arts Center

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division (PERF) launched a new initiative to spotlight and celebrate women who have impacted and redefined the human experience and who epitomize empowerment through the arts, activism, and social justice.

In 2023, the festival's inaugural year, DCA will honor the work of: Corita Kent, an American artist, designer, educator, social justice activist, and former religious sister; and Dolores Huerta, an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Association.

The Empowerment: Corita + Dolores celebration will include three days of performing arts, screenings of documentaries, and service through arts activities at DCA's Lankershim Arts Center at 5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. This event is free and open to the public. Due to limited space, reservations are suggested via Eventbrite. For more information, please call: 213.270.8200.

In a continued effort to support communities across the City, DCA is investing in the North Hollywood (NoHo) Arts District by bringing this celebration of empowerment to the Lankershim Arts Center. PERF awarded commissions to dance and spoken word artists for the purpose of presenting original spoken word or dance pieces that are based on the social justice or civic engagement work of Corita Kent and/or Dolores Huerta.

Funded through DCA's Lankershim Program Fund (LPF), this year's spoken word commissions were awarded to Jacqueline Rose Bernstein and Mandy Kahn. Dance commission winners are Teresa Barcelo, Marisa Ervin, Rosalynde LeBlanc, Sadie Yarrington, and Leah Zeiger. Vanessa Kruz's work will combine both art forms.

The weekend line-up is as follows:

Friday, April 28, 2023

Performance at 7:00 p.m.

Empowerment: Corita + Dolores

A celebration of Corita Kent + Dolores Huerta in spoken word and dance featuring the work of Teresa Barcelo, Jacqueline Rose Bernstein, Marisa Ervin, Mandy Kahn, Vanessa Kruz, Rosalynde LeBlanc, Sadie Yarrington, and Leah Zeiger.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Art Activities from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Button making, art kits and crafts activities presented by the Cortia Arts Center.

Screening and Discussion at 2:00 p.m.

A film screening of "Rebel Hearts", followed by an intergenerational conversation moderated by the Director of the Corita Art Center, Nellie Scott.

Performance at 7:00 p.m.

Empowerment: Corita + Dolores

A celebration of Corita Kent + Dolores Huerta in spoken word and dance featuring the work of Teresa Barcelo, Jacqueline Rose Bernstein, Marisa Ervin, Mandy Kahn, Vanessa Kruz, Rosalynde LeBlanc, Sadie Yarrington, and Leah Zeiger.

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Blessing at 8:30 a.m.

The Aztec dance troop, Danza Divina de Los Angeles, will perform a sacred blessing.

Wellness Fair and Art Activities from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Silk-screening, art kits, and crafts activities presented by Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc.

Screening and Discussion at 2:00 p.m.

A film screening of "Dolores" followed by a conversation with the film's Director, Peter Bratt, and Ms. Dolores Huerta (who will appear virtually). Moderator TBD.

All artists, moderators and speakers are subject to change without notice.

(November 20, 1918 - September 18, 1986) Corita Kent was an American artist, designer, and educator, and a former religious sister. Known as Sister Mary Corita, she was the head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, a school known to be very progressive and welcoming of creativity.

Sister Mary Corita taught a wide variety of different painting styles, with key themes in her work including Christianity and social justice. Sister Mary Corita's primary medium was screen printing, also known as Serigraphy.

Kent created several hundred serigraph designs for posters, book covers, and murals. Her emphasis on printing was partially due to her wish for democratic outreach and affordable art for the masses. Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Due to opposition from the Los Angeles cardinal, the sisters of the Immaculate Heart were eventually forced out of their schools and most of the sisters left the order. Returning to secular life in 1968 as Corita Kent, she moved to the East Coast to work independently. During this period, Kent embraced the many different revolutionary movements in the world at this time such as the anti-Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and Women's Rights movements. Corita Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1974 and continued to work in water colors until her death in 1986.

(Born April 10, 1930) Dolores Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.

Huerta received numerous awards for her community service and advocacy for workers', immigrants', and women's rights, and was the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. Huerta is the originator of the phrase "Sí, se puede" (Spanish for "Yes, it is possible," the motto of the United Farm Workers of America). As a role model to many in the Latino community, Huerta is the subject of many corridos (Mexican or Mexican-American ballads) and murals. As a child growing up in the central California farmworker community of Stockton, CA, Huerta grew up with the belief that society needed to be changed.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Huerta began fighting for economic improvements for Hispanic/Latino(a)(x)/Mexican/Mexican American/Chicano(a)(x) migrant farm workers, set up voter registration drives, and pressed local governments for barrio improvements. As an advocate for farmworkers' rights, Huerta has been arrested twenty-two times for participating in non-violent civil disobedience activities and strikes. Today Huerta remains active in progressive causes and serves on several boards. In California, April 10 is Dolores Huerta Day.