Books, beer, opera on tap at library
This week, we’re celebrating the Huntington Library’s 100th anniversary, tasting beers in DTLA, playing retro arcade games at Union Station, seeing opera at the beach, enjoying Venice’s Abbot Kinney and having bilingual fun at the Central Library.
‘Nineteen Nineteen’
The Huntington Library is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a new exhibition, “Nineteen Nineteen,” that pulls together 275 objects from its vast holdings of over 11 million items.
All the objects on view were made, published, edited, exhibited, or acquired in 1919 — a year that roiled as soldiers returned from World War I, African Americans faced violence during the “Red Summer,” women fought for the right to vote and cripplingly high inflation sparked labor unrest.
“Rather than telling a neat, resolved story, we tried to recapture the jarring experience of life during a year that everyone understood was an inflection point for world history,” James Glisson, one of the co-curators of the exhibition, said. “Empires had fallen in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Millions had died fighting and in a flu pandemic. Delegates at the Paris Peace Conference tried to sew a tattered world back together. Like today, people felt that irrevocable change was underway. The issues of 2019 — immigrant detention, women’s rights and the fight for a living wage — were equally pressing in 1919.”
Objects in the exhibition include posters from the German Revolution, abstract art, suffragist magazines, children’s books, aeronautic manuals, self-help guides for soldiers returning home from World War I and a book handprinted by Virginia Woolf at her kitchen table. There are materials documenting the flu pandemic in Pasadena, national strikes and labor unrest, U.S. Marshal Records, (including mug shots and probation letters from German citizens jailed in Los Angeles during the war) and items telling the story of the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment.
One of the items on display is a 39-foot-long linen map created by the Pacific Electric Co. that depicts in meticulous detail, the transportation and real estate networks running from downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena.
The Huntington, officially known as the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens,
is located at 1151 Oxford Road and is open from 10 am. to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesday.
Admission for adults is $29 on weekends and $25 during the week. Admission for youth 4 to 11 is $13.
Beer Fest
The annual LA Beer Fest returns to the LA Center Studios, 1201 West 5th St., from 3-6 p.m., Sept. 28.
The festival will feature over 200 beers, food trucks, DJs and live music. Event proceeds will benefit Noah’s B-ark, Inc., whose aim is to rescue dogs from shelters and find permanent homes for rescued pets.
General admission is $45. An early admission ticket goes for $60. A “Connoisseur’s Ticket,” which includes exclusive air-conditioned bathrooms, limited edition beers and access to an event deck overlooking the event, goes for $85.
Tickets will not be sold at the door.
For more information and a ticket link, visit labeerfest.la
Retrocade Experience
Retrocade Experience, the arcade rewind, is returning to Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 28 and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sept. 29.
The event will feature over 50 cabinet games from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Visitors will be able to play an eclectic collection of classic arcade games and specialty pinball cabinets including fan favorites “Pac Man,” “Donkey Kong,” “Mortal Kombat” and “Street Fighter.”
Admission is $5 per two-hour gaming session. All games are set to “free play.” Tickets are available for purchase at the door on both Saturday and Sunday. All ages are welcome.
Candy and soft drinks from the ’80s will be available for purchase. A DJ will also be spinning retro tunes.
Opera on the Beach
The LA Opera will do a live broadcast of its latest production of “La Boheme” from 5:30-10 p.m., Sept. 28 at the Santa Monica Pier.
“Staged by theatrical dynamo Barrie Kosky, this new-to-L.A. production sweeps you into the bustling cafés and hidden corners of 19th-century Paris,” laopera.org said. “Follow the triumphs and toils of a band of struggling young artists as they search for love, life and laughter against impossible odds. Is this the most romantic of all operas? We think so!”
Bring your lawn chairs and blankets for this free event. If you RSVP at laopera.org, you can get a free gift.
Abbot Kinney Festival
From the Santa Monica Pier, we travel over to neighboring Venice for the 35th annual Abbot Kinney Festival.
Running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sept. 29, the festival will feature over 350 vendors, eclectic boutiques, artisan eateries, food trucks and booths, kids’ rides and games, four music stages and three beer gardens.
The festivities are held along Abbot Kinney, once dubbed the coolest block in America by GQ magazine, from Main Street to Venice Boulevard.
For more information, including the all-important parking information, visit abbotkinney.org
Libros Festival
The LA Central Library, 630 West 5th St., is hosting a bilingual reading festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 28.
The festival will include storytelling, musical performances, readings from international and LA authors and workshops.
The Latin Grammy-winning music duo 123 Andres are among those scheduled to perform. The duo is noted for lively concerts that get the whole family up and dancing.
Among the writers scheduled to appear is Yesika Salgado, a Los Angeles-based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, culture, city and brown body. Salgado is a fourtime member of Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team, and a 2017 and 2018 National Poetry Slam finalist.
Her work has been featured in the LA Times, Latina Magazine, Univision, Vibe Magazine, Huffington Post and NPR.