TODAY- West Hollywood
WEHO PRIDE Arts Festival and the City of West Hollywood presents
Angelic Troublemakers Exhibition
June 1 – August 24, 2023
West Hollywood Library, 2nd floor, 625 N San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free to attend, no RSVP needed. Open during regular library hours
Angelic Troublemakers is an exhibition of digital drawings and photographs relating to the theme of LGBTQIA+ Pride at the West Hollywood Library. “We need in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” – Bayard Rustin.
Free to visit, open during regular library hours. Please check the hours before visiting: https://lacountylibrary.org/west-hollywood-library
Library Hours
Monday – Thursday: 11:00am – 7:00pm
Friday – Saturday: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm – 5:00pm
WEHO PRIDE Arts Festival
40 DAYS OF LGBTQ+ PROGRAMMING FROM MAY 22 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2023
The City of West Hollywood celebrates pride with its WeHo Pride Arts Festival, which runs from Harvey Milk Day (May 22) through the end of June Pride month (June 30). The Arts Festival has taken place since 2008 and was formerly known as One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.
Other Programs include:
My Own Private Rodeo, by Coyote Park
June 1 – June 30, Hours: Fri – Sun, Noon-5pm
ONE Gallery, 626 N Robertson Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free, Open to the Public, No RSVP required.
In collaboration with ONE Archives Foundation, the City of West Hollywood and HIT presents My Own Private Rodeo — an exhibition of new works by Coyote Park. Navigating the world in a body that has been desecrated, reclaimed, brutalized, and empowered, Coyote Park asks, “What does it mean for myself to exist in a way that my elders weren’t allowed to?” These works move through feelings of grief, mourning, loss, pride, redemption, and play. It is in the deepest place of isolation, where Park finds a site where they are their personal spectator of their own pain – their own transformation. A rodeo of aching glory: where they are the hunter, the hunted, the bull, and the rider.
Beautiful Things Craft Market
Saturday, June 17, 2023, 10am – 5pm
Plummer Park Community Center, South Patio and Rooms 5 and 6, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046.
Free, Open to the Public, No RSVP needed.
Beautiful Things is a craft market by local LGBTQIA+ artisans and craft-makers. This indoor/outdoor market is free to attend and open to the public. Shop the curated selection of ceramics, fibre and textile crafts, hand-made jewelry, and more. On the same day in Plummer Park, there will also be an LGBTQ Comic Con presented by arts grantee Prism Comics and a casual day in the park organized by Women’s Freedom Festival. Parking will be tight, please consider taking public transit or rideshare.
Queer Book Bazaar
Saturday, June 24, 2023, 10am-6pm
Fiesta Hall in Plummer Park
Free, Open to the Public, No RSVP Needed.
The Queer Book Bazaar is a market and exhibition of local book dealers, independent publishers, and literary vendors. Live performances by queer musicians, dancers, and performance artists will be scheduled throughout the day on the Fiesta Hall stage. A full line-up of performances will be available soon.
Boris Dralyuk: Lecture and Poetry Reading
Saturday, June 24, 2023, 11am
Fiesta Hall in Plummer Park, 1166 N Vista St, West Hollywood, CA 90046
Free, Open to the Public, No RSVP Needed
West Hollywood has for several decades been home to a large community of Russian-speaking émigrés from the lands of the former Soviet Union, but the history of Russophone LA goes back much farther. Throughout the 20th century, thousands of people fleeing war, revolution, and repression in the Russian Empire and the USSR found peace, if not always happiness, in Southern California. Among them were poets like Alexander Voloshin (1886-1960), Vladimir Korvin-Piotrovsky (1891-1966), Vladislav Ellis (1913-1975), and Vladimir Dukelsky (1903-1969), who gained fame as a composer and lyricist under the name Vernon Duke. Boris Dralyuk will share his translations of their work. These poems of exile have only grown more poignant and timely in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has brought a new wave of refugees to the Southland.
Rick Castro & Sam Sweet
Saturday, June 24, 2023, 2pm
Fiesta Hall in Plummer Park
Free, Open to the Public
Rick Castro and Sam Sweet present a new publication of images about hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard, circa 1986-1998. A panel discussion will be followed by Q&A and book signing.
Rick Castro is a photographer, filmmaker, and writer who has lived and worked in Los Angeles for his entire life. He made his first image in 1986 and from then on immersed himself in homoerotic fetish photography. In 1996, he directed Hustler White, starring Bruce LaBruce. From 2005 to 2017, he owned and operated Antebellum Gallery, the only fetish art gallery in America. Over the course of his career, he has created portraits of Gore Vidal, Kenneth Anger, Ron Athey, Alice Bag, Peter Berlin, Michele Lamy, and the 14th Dalai Lama. He has collaborated on fashion editorial for Christian Dior Homme, Cartier, and Rick Owens. His publications include Castro (DPR Press, 1990) and 13 Years of Bondage: The Photography of Rick Castro (Fluxion Editions, 2004). He regularly posts new imagery at instagram.com/castrrick.
Sam Sweet is a writer, publisher, and archivist specializing in lost heroes and miniatures histories of Los Angeles. He is best known as the author of ALL NIGHT MENU, a collection of L.A. microhistories spread across five booklets. Each volume contains eight addresses and each address connects to a different time period, subculture, and section of the city. ALL NIGHT MENU has since grown to encompass visual publications, a photographic archive, and an oral history series. His work can be found at samsweet.info and allnight-menu.com.
Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape
Tuesday, June 27, 2023, 8pm
Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Free, Reservations Required (Reservation link available soon)
This brand-new feature-length “mixtape” unearths and reintroduces a stunning, singular body of work by the enigmatic Kati Kelli, an outsider video artist and digital native whose subversive online uploads push at the seams of the digital form. For nearly a decade before her passing in 2019, Kati ran “Girl Internet Show,” a YouTube channel, parasocial experiment, and epically deranged one-woman universe built from scratch in her bedroom. This hand-made mixtape by Jane Schoenbrun and Jordan Wippell features a lovingly curated selection of Kati’s online work, unreleased videos, and her first (and final) short film opus “Total Body Removal Surgery.” A discussion with filmmaker Jordan Wippell will follow the screening.
CAN YOU FEEL IT? Dance performances
Sunday, June 25, 2023, 2pm
West Hollywood Park at the base of the Aquatic and Recreation Center grand staircase, 8750 El Tovar Pl, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free, Open to the Public, No RSVP Needed.
CAN YOU FEEL IT? is a curated selection of live performances and original dance works by local dance companies, independent choreographers, and performances artists in West Hollywood Park. This is an outdoor event that is free and open to the public. Unreserved seating will be available on the steps of the West Hollywood Aquatics and Recreation Center. Please bring sun-protection — umbrellas and hats are recommended.
Double Screening—Showgirls (1995) + Showgirls 2: The Cut (2013),
hosted by John Early and Rena Riffel
Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 7pm
Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Free, Donations Accepted, Reservation Required (Reservation link available soon)
Join John Early (Search Party, 30 Rock) and Rena Riffel (Showgirls and director of Showgirls 2: The Cut) for an iconic evening of live performance and film. In Showgirls, a carefree erotic dancer in Las Vegas named Penny witnesses the rise and fall of one of her co-workers. In Showgirls 2: The Cut, Penny follows her dream to become the star dancer on a television show — a satirical parody and cautionary tale of traveling down the path toward a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For additional information, visit the website @
https://www.wehopride.com/artsfestival
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