Putting the Wrong Tags on Graffiti, Rap? : Culture: Their roles will be discussed in a presentation that is part of a four-day Smithsonian program.

Graffiti and rap music: Art or annoyance? That’s the question to be probed Saturday in a lecture-demonstration at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

The 1 p.m. event is part of “Many Cultures--One Nation,” a four-day series of talks, poetry and story readings and a dance concert addressing cultural diversity. It begins Thursday at the Irvine Civic Center, with ensuing events there and at the Bowers, courtesy of Washington’s Smithsonian Institution.

It will feature a demonstration by Los Angeles artist Chaz Bojorquez, recorded rap music and a discussion by Bojorquez and Andrew Connors, a curatorial associate at the Smithsonian. The institution frequently organizes and tours such multifaceted programs around the country to bring its cultural and historic resources to those outside the nation’s capital.

Connors strongly maintains that certain forms of graffiti and rap music are not only art, but that their appreciation is crucial to fostering understanding and unity in today’s ethnically kaleidoscopic society.

“In the United States,” he said in a recent phone interview from Washington, “often we equate good art only with pretty landscapes (by Western painters) and good music only with (Eurocentric) classical music. But our country doesn’t work that way. Different people have different ways of expressing their message, and we need to be willing to understand those artists’ backgrounds so we begin to appreciate their contributions to the artistic scene.”

Bojorquez’s roots are the streets of L.A.’s Highland Park, where he grew up practicing illegal tagging, the artist said, using a “Latino-based” style that favored German Gothic typeface lettering.

“It delineated your territory,” Bojorquez explained in a phone interview, and contained a roll call--or the names of members in nonviolent Latino gangs, the “people you hung with. It was about pride in the community.”

Today, Bojorquez uses paintbrushes, not aerosol cans, to express himself. Some of his work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian and Laguna Art Museum. But he draws heavily on what he learned as a youth (the graphic skills and cultural mores), and his art is an investigation of forms of “calligraphy and how markings identify people.”

One Smithsonian-owned piece, which fills a large canvas with Bojorquez’s signature graffiti-like lettering and dark tones, is titled “Placa/Rollcall” (1980). It spells out the names of friends.

“If we assume that the city is a body,” he said, “graffiti tells us where it hurts, and the thing is not to cut out the bad part, but to make the body healthy through dialogue and art.

“You can find out from the dialogue of graffiti that there’s abandonment of the youth, a youth rebellion is going on that’s expressed in their violence and how they’re trying to identify themselves. I’m a bridge between that graffiti and the galleries. In my work, I try to clarify those problems, and show how that graffiti can be beautiful and be strong and can identify who we are.”

On the art versus annoyance question, Connors is quick to stress that he is not condoning illegal graffiti but wants to show how artists such as Bojorquez are able to take such modes of expression and use them positively.

“Instead of saying, ‘You’re a failure unless you paint like Leonardo da Vinci,’ ” Connors said, “we’re trying to say we don’t feel the only way people can succeed is to step out of their background and deny their culture, even if someone’s culture is something that seems as antisocial as gangs. It’s never effective to pretend to be something you’re not.”

Connors argues that many rap musicians have likewise parlayed skills they’ve learned informally into legitimate artistic expression and that they send positive messages with their songs, “instead of going in the direction of gangsta rap,” or writing lyrics full of misogyny or racism.

Kid Frost, also of Los Angeles, is one such rapper, Connors said, citing Frost’s song “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

“In that piece, Kid Frost says that there’s no way that we can succeed if we get locked up. If you mess up in the eyes of the law, there will be no sunshine for you.”

Kicking off the series will be King-Kok Cheung of UCLA’s department of English. She will be keynote speaker for Orange County’s edition of “Many Cultures--One Nation,” which Smithsonian Associates is presenting in 10 California cities. In her talk, “Living in a Multicultural Society: Thriving on Differences,” at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Irvine Civic Center, Cheung will caution against seeing any culture or ethnic group as immutable.

“We don’t think of an American culture, precisely because it’s constantly changing,” Cheung said by phone. “Yet, we think of other cultures as somehow static, and I try to move people away from that. It’s very condescending to view other cultures that way.”

* “Art or Annoyance: Graffiti and Rap Improving Our Cities,” a discussion by Andrew Connors and Chaz Bojorquez, will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. $5. (714) 567-3695. For information on events at Irvine Civic Center: (714) 724-6610.

‘MANY CULTURES--ONE NATION’

A four-day series addressing cultural diversity:

* Thursday, 7 p.m.: UCLA associate professor King-Kok Cheung delivers the keynote lecture, “Living in a Multicultural Society: Thriving on the Differences,” at the Irvine Civic Center, 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine. Free.

* Friday, 7 p.m.: “Ethnic Imagery in the Landscape of Commerce,” a lecture by historian Fath Davis-Ruffins of the National Museum of American History, at the Irvine Civic Center. $5.

* Saturday, 1 p.m.: “Art or Annoyance: Graffiti and Rap Improving Our Cities” with Andrew Connors and Charles Bojorquez at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. $5. See accompanying story.

* Saturday, 3 p.m.: “Saints to Lowriders: The Hispanic Traditional Arts Revival,” a lecture by Andrew Connors at the Bowers. $5.

* Saturday, 7 p.m.: Fiesta Ballet Folklorico performs traditional Mexican dances at the Bowers. $5.

* Sunday, 2 p.m.: “Stories From Around the World,” with music, by storyteller Karen Rae Kraut at the Irvine Civic Center. For ages 6 and up. $5.

* Sunday, 4 p.m.: “The Country of Dreams and Dust: Los Angeles at the End of the 20th Century,” a poetry reading by UCLA Asian American studies professor Russell Leong at the Irvine Civic Center. $5.

* Sunday, 7 p.m.: “American Folk Art,” a lecture by Andrew Connors at the Irvine Civic Center. $5.

Information for Irvine Civic Center events: (714) 724-6610. For Bowers events: (714) 567-3600.