The Milwaukee Public Library has sent out a call for artists to make a placemaking or public art gesture at their new East Library branch. Deadline for submissions is December 9th. Click the links below to find out more information!
http://www.mpl.org/EastLibrary/EastExteriorArt_rfq.pdf
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/pressrelease/placemaking-opportunity-at-the-library/
My Daily Constitution: Constitution Café: “The Right to Vote and American Constitutional Democracy”
Led by: Roderick Bohannan Indiana Legal Services, and Amos Brown, Host, WTLC-AM Radio
At: Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 414 West Vermont Street, Indianapolis 46202, 317-634-7002
The Riverwest Public House Cooperative, Greater Milwaukee Committee and MKE<->LAX present a conversation between Linda Pollack and Sara Daleiden, who both have practices based in Los Angeles that focus on the arts, the economy and cultural exchange. Linda and Sara will explore national tendencies with placemaking through major funders such as ArtPlace America’s Innovation Grants and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)’s Our Town Grants. Linda will share a Midwestern iteration of her project My Daily Constitution generated in Indianapolis as a case study of placemaking in extension of a public art dialogue. With My Daily Constitution, Linda generates an expressive public platform for conversation about democracy, where an active interpretation of the U.S. Constitution connects to the values of a local place.
My Daily Constitution:
“Constitution Who?” Hip Hop Poetry Slam + Open Mic
Featuring DJ Dicky Fox
Glendale Mall First Floor Indoor Court , 6101 N Keystone Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46220, 317-251-9281
Milwaukee-based contemporary art scene documentary group CHIPS, featuring MKE<->LAX talent Brad Fiore, has recently posted this interview they conducted with MKE<->LAX director Sara Daleiden. Watch the link below and click here to visit CHIPS’ website to view other interviews.
MKE<->LAX advisor and talent Nate Page has started a Kickstarter for his upcoming endeavor, “Fill My Studio with Gravel and Come Visit”. Go to the Kickstarter page to learn more!
Starting August 30th, two Iraq war veterans will embark on a five-month long journey from Milwaukee to Los Angeles. Their goal is to raise awareness for the Milwaukee coffee shop, Dryhootch, which supports local veterans and their families. Click the links below to find more information.
Original Fox News article, “Two Iraq war veterans walking from Milwaukee to Los Angeles”
Saturday, August 10, 10am – 1pm: GET UP 2 GET DOWN is a community beautification effort organized in conjunction with short live performances in the area around the Watts Towers. We need volunteers! BBQ and art activities will be provided for those who participate. Support provided by Food 4 Less, Ralph’s, LA’s Office of Community Beautification and other businesses is the area. Location: Watts House Project, 1726 E. 107th Street, Los Angeles, 90002.
We invite you to join us in “GET UP 2 GET DOWN: Saturday Morning Neighborhood Clean-up” is organized by Watts House Project and MKE<->LAX. This unique neighborhood clean-up combines the collective action of community beautification with live music and performers. The clean-up is one-part civic duty and one-part performance: volunteers from the Watts community and around Los Angeles will walk along a predetermined route to pick up debris on the sidewalks and streets and, at random moments, a group of performers participating in the clean-up will stop and play sets of music or spoken word. We plan to recruit additional volunteers along the way and culminate the clean-up at Watts House Project where participants will eat BBQ and have additional opportunity to take part in art activities. 
Watts House Project is collaborating with MKE<->LAX to create this multi-level experience that entails an element of community engagement, neighborhood beautification, and artistic expression. Altering the visual and audio experience in Watts is only part of the objective. MKE<->LAX and WHP are committed to community engagement through the arts and reinterpreting the environment through agency and creativity.
Artists and performers participating:
SYCONS
The SYCONS are Solar Powered DJs, audio/visual artists, and alt energy, alt transport activists. The group combines their passion for music with solar tech to delight and inform crowds at events around the country. The humans behind the group, Sycon CD (CD Gee) and Sycon MX (MX Farina) use everything from laptops, turntables, samplers, digital audio mixers, portable PA systems all powered by their solar powered DJ Station along with solar backpacks and solar briefcases. Join The Sycons mailing list for updates:SyconMusic@gmail.com
La Chamba
La Chamba began with a love and respect for Peruvian Chicha music. Its deep Amazonian Cumbia, Salsa and Afro-Latin groove along with the psychedelic feel instantly inspired them to create their own unique blend of the sound. They were moved not only by its personal and social message, but by the parallels that exist in the pulse of barrios across Latino America.
Coming from humble working-class Los Angeles communities, La Chamba amplifies the realities that make them who they are by adding a rhythm to the daily bustle of life.
Raul Baltazar
Raul lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. and Mexico City, Mexico. He received his BFA in Sculpture and New Genres and Master in Fine Arts/ Public Practice Degree at Otis College of Art and Design. He has exhibited throughout Los Angeles and internationally. He is also a performance artist who is currently working on ritual interventions, aesthetics of violence, urban myth and politics of fiction. One of Baltazar’s urban mythological characters is Tochtli 7 (the Aztec bunny) in which is part of a larger project named, The Bunny House. The Bunny House is an ongoing creative site of artistic production, art venue and informal residency. Currently, Raul is creating work related to systemic violence legal and illegal, aesthetics of violence, specifically in NARCO culture, local and transnational gangs related to US imperialism.
Rodrigo Martí
Rodrigo Martí is a Mexican-Canadian artist whose work is primarily concerned with the aesthetics of political struggle, notions of resistance, self-expression and social engagement. He is working between sculpture, performance and drawing. His practice considers modes of political efficacy in contemporary art and culture production. He explores communality and forms of shared ecstasy has led to thematic streams such as insurgent barricade, the intersection of education and activism, and spatial politics via unsanctioned structures/activities such as festivals. Rodrigo received his MFA in Public Practice from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA.
ABOUT
Watts House Project is an artist-driven neighborhood redevelopment organization, wherein artists and design professionals, in collaboration with the Watts Towers area residents, employ art as an economic and community development engine to promote and enhance the quality of residential life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. WHP brings residents together in a creative partnership with artists, architects, design professionals, and volunteers to revitalize the neighborhood and re-imagine the environment through inventive programming, community involvement, and functional and creative housing renovations.
MKE<->LAX investigates cultural exchange between two American regions, with Milwaukee and Los Angeles as epicenters, through residencies and public programs. Under the direction of Sara Daleiden, the initiative’s goal is to expand the discussion about cultural exchange across the boundaries that typically isolate ideas regionally. MKE<->LAX’s base intent is to move between regions to ask questions about the influence location, size, market, cultural values and other regional factors have on production of the arts and cultural identity.
For more information on:
Watts House Project, please contact Trinidad Ruiz, Programs Director at truiz@wattshouseproject.og or visit www.wattshouseproject.org
MKE<->LAX, please contact Sara Daleiden at info@mke-lax.org or visit www.mke-lax.org.
MKE <-> LAX talent Special Entertainment has come out with a new project based off of the podcast “On Cinema“. They have created an app that features over 17,000 different humorous movie reviews by podcast hosts Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington.
Read more about it on the A.V. Club website by clicking here.
Read more about “On Cinema” by clicking here.
Click here to read about “40 Famous People from Wisconsin” featuring a list of Wisconsin natives that are now considered Hollywood stars.
A new find, Time Out Los Angeles published, “Los Angeles movies: 50 films that best capture the essence of LA“, in September 2012. Click here to begin the list, and here to see Mark Escribano’s MKE <-> LAX project, Milwaukee Movie.