MLWC

Episode 3: WattStax “The Black Woodstock”

In 2009 the Watts Towers Arts Center celebrated “50 years of inspiring art.”  Today it is being dismantled. Unthinkable?  All Watts Towers Art Center classes have been canceled. The Educational Coordinator/Art Instructor has been laid off.  6,000 youth are out of classes.  The Watts Towers and the Arts Center provide a long and unique history of tireless community action and struggle in the history of Los Angeles.  But they have proven time and again how vital the Towers are and how they have remained a symbol of hope, creativity, resistance–locally and internationally.  Stand with community arts and with the communities that support the arts.

Please, write to:

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa  mayor@lacity.org

Olga Garay, Gen. Mgr. Dept. of Cultural Affairs:  Olga.Garay@lacity.org

Councilwoman Janice Hahn:  janice.hahn@lacity.org

Share the struggle.  Spread the word.

Sign the petition: ‘Watts Towers Arts Center Rescue’ http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stopculturalgenocide

“As advocates for the preservation of Art and Culture, the undersigned request that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council immediately remove the Watts Towers Art Center (WTAC) and the Charles Mingus Youth Art Center (CMYAC) from the city’s list of art facilities that are slated for privatization.  The Watts Towers Art Campus provides invaluable art education, cultural programming and open green space to under-served youth and community members as well as providing a cultural destination to the diverse national and international tourists that visit the Simon Rodia Watts Towers.  Cultural Tourism is the leading industry in Los Angeles. Attracting over 300,000 visitors annually, the Watts Towers are designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, California Historical Landmark and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.  The Watts Towers Cultural Art Park needs to remain in the public domain.  Please join us to stop Cultural Genocide by asking Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council to remove the WTAC and the CMYAC from privatization by signing your name below.”

INTRODUCTION BY: MILES MOSLEY

WattStax: Official Trailer

Click Continue to view clips from this awe inspiring, unsung documentary.

Episode 2: Cornel Fauler “A Whisper of Greatness”

Here in Episode 2 of the “Black History Month Tribute Series” we interview Cornel Fauler. A Los Angeles native, Cornel is now best known as one of the founding members of “The World Stage,” which was a home for myself and most, “inner-city” Los Angeles based musicians to find their legs and develop their sound, particularly in their youth. He also made a name for himself as a drummer with Dizzy Gillespie, Evelyn Cane, Azar Lawrence, and Doug Carn.
Now, at age 55, Cornel shares his reflective experience on how and why the live music scene in Los Angeles deteriorated from a thriving innovative cultural experience, to nothing but a whisper of it’s greatness.

Original Score provided by Kamasi Washington and Miles Mosley.

Cornel Fauler Part I
 
Cornel Fauler Part II
 
Cornel Fauler Part III
 

Click Continue for more about Cornel and the wonderful community programs he currently provides.

Episode 1: Jerry Mosley “The Natural”

Here is Episode One of a series of interviews, accompanied by an original score, that I have planned for the month of February. Black History Month began in 1926, and it is important to me, as an artist, to pay tribute to those who came before me, those who braved their way through a much crueler and confusing world just so that I could have the opportunities I’ve cherished in my life.
This first episode is with my father Jerry Mosley, in which he talks about the true origin of the “Natural” hairstyle. I’ve always enjoyed my father’s stories, and I hope you do too.

“THE NATURAL” By: Jerry Mosley

Here is a gallery of images of some of the names you’ll hear mentioned.

Click CONTINUE to read the full transcript.

Power to the people,
theStarM,

Miles Mosley