L.A.’s Giving a Boost to Ethnic Arts : ‘Gold Mine’ of Tradition Seen in Immigrant Communities

While they are at it, sprucing up the Statue of Liberty for its centennial, they should also move the symbol to where it belongs--out here in Los Angeles Harbor. After all, this is where the immigrants are heading.

This is the place where every ethnic group, including whites, is a minority. Melting pot for sure. You can take a trip around the world without leaving Los Angeles County.

As demographer Kevin McCarthy of the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica put it: “Los Angeles is the new Ellis Island.”

City and county--where a stroll of the streets affords a symphony in more than 100 languages, where once a month in Koreatown several dozen senior citizens arise at daybreak to renew their Old Country tradition of sweeping designated sidewalks, where a bank in Chinatown still has an abacus on each of two tables for those who calculate the old-fashioned way, where the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in San Pedro plays that nation’s anthem every time a Norwegian ship passes through the harbor.

It is altogether fitting and proper, then, that a few months ago the city established a Folk Arts Program.

Pressed to Abandon Cultures

“Many newcomers here are so intent on assimilating that they come under a lot of pressure to abandon their traditional cultures,” Susan Auerbach said.

Auerbach, coordinator of the new program, spent two years in a Greek village while researching her master’s thesis in ethnomusicology (musical anthropology), but it hasn’t taken her long to discover the gold mine of folk art here that needs preservation and presentation.

“I have been and will be pounding the pavement to try to ferret out rare individuals who are keeping this folk art alive in their communities, especially the lesser-known people,” she said.

“We are looking for those traditional arts and artists who are the most precious, least known, and most distinctive to Los Angeles, and who are interested in sharing their talents and cultures.”

Take the oud fellows.

“Just the other day I visited a family of oud makers who are in their third generation of it,” Auerbach said. “They have a shop where they make and repair ouds for the Arab and Armenian musicians in our area.”

The skill of working with these stringed wooden instruments was brought here from Lebanon by the late father of Ara Najarian and the latter’s son, Viken. While the operation takes place in Santa Ana, many of the customers are from Los Angeles.

The county also is home to about 80,000 American Indians, from various tribes, many of them living within the city. And they have numerous powwows at school gyms and recreation centers.

Youths Aren’t Learning

“This is certainly one tradition we want to help the community retain,” Auerbach said. “For one thing, a lot of the younger Indian residents aren’t learning this part of their heritage.”

She envisions classes taught by elders who could pass along the finer points of powwow protocol and dancing, and craft sessions involving such skills as beadwork.

To accomplish this, the city Cultural Affairs Department has at its disposal a $50,000 grant from the California Arts Council, which it plans to distribute to deserving nonprofit projects.

Auerbach will administer the grants, which will be reviewed by local folk arts specialists. Applicants should contact her at (213) 485-2433. A workshop on the grants will be held at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 22 at Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park.

Survival Takes Priority

“There seems to be a period after any immigration when people seem much more concerned with plain old survival,” she said.

“They are too concerned with making a living to be involved with cultural activity. As time goes by, however, they may begin to adjust their identity and stake out their own niche in American society. They reconnect to their heritage--and it is this that we want to encourage and discover.”

Auerbach mentioned the powwows because she recently attended one.

“Los Angeles is the largest urban American Indian enclave in the United States. In the early 1950s, the federal government sponsored a relocation program that brought the city thousands of migrants from the reservations.

“They have periodic powwows in many areas of the city and county. I went to one at an Eagle Rock recreation center that had a turnout of about 300 to 400.”

‘Richly Textured Event’

These social events are private, and usually no photos are permitted, but the folk arts coordinator gave a word picture of what happens: “It is a richly textured event with many things going on at once. There is an emcee. Two or three large drums are each surrounded by six to 10 player-singers. The singing often sounds high-pitched, loud and intense to ears that aren’t used to it.

“The costumes of the men may include feather headdresses, ribboned shirts and leather leggings, and, of the women, long appliqued dresses, Indian jewelry and long-fringed shawls.

“Others in attendance sit on folding chairs and socialize with old friends, some of whom visit from reservations. In a food area, fry bread is available.”

So many sections comprise the Big Orange; there is so much in the way of folk art to be preserved and presented. On Sundays, on the grounds of the Wat Thai Temple in North Hollywood, a class is taught in the traditional art of vegetable carving.

A Rose From a Turnip

Maybe you can’t get blood from a turnip, but you can get a rose. A squash takes shape as a penguin, a carrot becomes a candle, a watermelon becomes a mountain.

“It is decorative art that is used for feast centerpieces, or is put on the altar as temple offerings,” Auerbach explained. “The class is ongoing, and sometimes chefs attend.”

One of the first events she is planning is a festival in Barnsdall Park shortly after the Thai New Year in mid-April.

Another treasure the city wants to preserve is that of Afro-American needle arts.

“There are women in South-Central Los Angeles very skilled in quilting, tatting, embroidering, crocheting,” Auerbach said. “The methods and patterns show the influence both of Africa and of the South.

Rainbow of Traditions

“In Compton there is a woman who will turn 80 this year, Madie Ray, who has a wealth of knowledge not only on needlework, but on home remedys, recipes, storytelling. It is this kind of person that we are trying to find in order to set up workshops.”

The beat goes on.

“Los Angeles has the third largest Jewish community in the world--after New York and Tel Aviv,” Auerbach said. “We have already been talking with a Sephardic cantor regarding a concert.”

Then there are the Yugoslavians, a large community of whom live in San Pedro.

“They already have church groups and clubs engaged in traditional arts,” Auerbach said.

Armenian Festival Possible

In Artesia is an enclave of Portuguese, who have a club and numerous feasts.

Armenian traditions include harvesting olive trees; they do so at Barnsdall Park. On the horizon, possibly, is a festival to coincide with that local practice.

Cambodians have gravitated here in recent years, especially to Van Nuys and North Hollywood.

“But at the moment there is no traditional cultural outlet for their children,” Auerbach said. “One Cambodian association is applying to us for funds for a master Cambodian dance teacher to work with the youth of the community.”

Cultures Being Showcased

Latinos, Iranians, British, Germans, French, Japanese, Chinese, Scandinavians, Arabs, Greeks, Filipinos, Vietnamese--all you have to do is peruse the specialties offered on the shelves of most local supermarkets to know that Los Angeles is a special kind of community.

And now, the folk culture these ethnic groups bring is being showcased--courtesy of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

This is the third urban American community to have a folk arts coordinator, the others being Baltimore and the borough of Queens.

The L.A. coordinator is paid through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which she hopes will be renewed after her year is up.