ARTS

Art in L.A.: “The New Avant-Garde,” the first installment of the Los Angeles Festival and CalArts-sponsored monthly lecture series, “Art in the Life of L.A.,” will be held at 6:30 tonight at Pacific Design Center. Hosted by Festival director Peter Sellars and CalArts President Steven D. Lavine, the program will be moderated by performance artist Tim Miller. Panelists include visual artist May Sun, performance artists Theresa Chavez and Keith Antar Mason, and John Malpede, director of the theater group Los Angeles Poverty Department. . . . Also tonight will be an Artists Against Homelessness town hall meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the California Afro-American Museum. Those scheduled to appear include Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., Rita Coolidge, Taurean Blacque, Sinbad and Bill Duke.