Such a Little Man

Writers Luis A. Vega and Harry Gamboa at their summer play reading at the Ford Theatre. August 26th.

"In the 1960s there was no oasis in the urban desert. The still lifes were painted among the still dead. No one cried over spilled paint. Children finger painted/pointed as their older brothers and sisters danced in the shadows of global atrocities. Napalm bombes were no match for the palms that lined the streets of L.A. Blank-faced mobs surfed on heat waves that crashed onto concrete shores. Police clubs kept the beat to a repressive rumba Love beads got lost among the hate mial. Many could not float upstream on the dry bed of the L.A. River."
(excerpt from Harry Gamboa's essay "In the City of Angels, Chameleons, and Phantoms: Asco, a Case Study of Chicano Art in Urban Tones (or Asco Was a Four-Member Word)" in the CARA catalogue. LACMA is curating a show called "Phantom Sitings" that will open in 2008. The show's name comes from Gamboa's notion of a Phantom Culture. People!!! Read the essay, do your homework. Prepare so that this "phantom culture" (whether you accept the term or not) is justly represented inside and outside of the official show.
http://www.harrygamboajr.com