Layers of Los Angeles - Frances Anderton, Lauren Bon, Norman Klein and Mimi Zeiger in Conversation

Layers of Los Angeles: Memory and Speculative Futures of Place - Frances Anderton, Lauren Bon & Norman Klein in Conversation. Moderated by Mimi Zeiger. Recorded on December 7 at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.
Author Frances Anderton, environmental artist Lauren Bon, and urban historian Norman Klein approach the city of Los Angeles from different perspectives and fields: together they will discuss how L.A.'s unique history, architecture, and environment have shaped the city. The conversation was be moderated by L.A.-based critic, editor and curator Mimi Zeiger.
L.A. history and fiction require a unique historical template in order to discover its hidden structures and story. Contrary to the conventional myth, the city is by no means ungraspable. It is layered in very unusual ways and the story of these layers began as a set of policies from the late 19th century onwards. Even if these policies are long gone, they still affect the city today, shifting L.A.’s infrastructure tectonically. They powerfully affect ethnic, environmental, architectural, and racial stories in the city's fabric and can hide its vectors of power. As the city grew in the early 20th century and agglomerated rapidly, it annexed over sixty little towns by 1925. Ever growing, decade by decade, L.A. is now a deeply layered metropolitan region of over fifteen million people- what urban historian Norman Klein calls the New Byzantium: a crossroads city state.
In a conversation with moderator Mimi Zeiger, acclaimed L.A.-based critic, editor and curator, the panel examined how L.A.’s unique history, architecture and environmental art have responded to these challenges and various cultural layers. The panel seeks to explore the paradoxes of L.A., how it is simultaneously centralized and decentralized, and what this can tell us about the city today. How will L.A. confront the challenges of a new age of globalization? How can these different approaches unveil insightful perspectives about the city's past, present, and the potential paths it might take in the future?
Participants: Frances Anderton, Lauren Bon, Norman Klein, Mimi Zeiger
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Horses and Candles, the name of my upcoming book! :)