The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → 
Life! Apr 20, 2022
View of ArtNight Pasadena 2019. | Photo courtesy of City of Pasadena
by
share with
Here’s a list of fun things to do in and around LA this week because no one has time to search the depths of the internet for social events.
TCM Classic Film Festival
Hollywood | April 21-24 | filmfestival.tcm.com
Movie lovers unite to enjoy classic films on the big screen in various venues around Hollywood, with the people who made them. The official opening night film is “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” with special guests Steven Spielberg, Drew Barrymore, Robert Macnaughton, Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace and Kathleen Kennedy. Each day has an extensive schedule that includes movies like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Annie,” “Tootsie,” “Spartacus” and “A League of Their Own.”
Street Art Live
Magic Box LA | 1933 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90007 | April 22-July 3 | thelume.com
Embark on a multi-sensory trip through the world of street. With 360-degree moving visuals and a curated musical score, you will be immersed in the era and location in which the piece was created like New York, London, São Paulo, Melbourne and Berlin.
“The Sound Of Music”
La Mirada Theatre | 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638 | April 22-May 15 | lamiradatheatre.com
The beloved musical of Maria and the Von Trapp family by Rodgers and Hammerstein comes to the Southland.
Gran Torneo Charro
Pico Rivera Sports Arena | 11003 Sports Arena Drive, Pico Rivera, CA 90601 | April 22 | ticketon.com
The tournament will feature charreadas, pialadero, escaramuzas, caladeros, and a family charra. Aside from the equestrian skills, there will be live music from multiple bandas and dancing.
Pittance Chamber Music: Liebeslieder!
First United Methodist Church | 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011 | April 23 | pittancechambermusic.org
Members of the LA Opera chorus — mezzo-soprano Melissa Treinkman, tenor Edmond Rodriguez and baritone James Martin Schaefer — are joined by soprano Elissa Johnston, with LA Opera conductors Grant Gershon and Jeremy Frank on piano four hands for the complete “Liebeslieder” of Johannes Brahms.
Amir ElSaffar And His Rivers Of Sound Orchestra
The Soraya | 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330 | April 23 | thesoraya.org
Revered Iraqi-American trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar fuses elements of traditional Middle Eastern modal music and American jazz to create a mesmerizing sonic hybrid that moves into a free state of uninhibited musical exploration. His diverse and virtuosic 17-piece pan-Arabic Rivers of Sound Orchestra features Middle Eastern masters as well as U.S. jazz stars, including guitarist Miles Okazaki, drummer Nasheet Waits, and woodwind legend J. D. Parran. The Chicago Tribune said “ElSaffar’s melismatic trumpet lines conveyed tremendous lyric beauty, his phrases bending and twisting in ways that Western ears are not accustomed to hearing…among the most promising figures in jazz today.”
Old Town Monrovia Wine Walk
Library Park | 321 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016 | April 23 | eventbrite.com
Stroll through Old Town Monrovia, exploring its unique array of businesses, while sampling various wines at participating locations.
Angel City Sports Firecracker Fund Paralympics Day
Terasaki Budokan | 249 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012 | April 23 | angelcitysports.org
Angel City Sports will host a free “learn and play” Paralympic Sports Day. Event participants will experience various adaptive sports, including wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, goalball, blind soccer, and table tennis. Clinics will be held free of charge and are open to everyone living with or without a disability as well as the visually impaired. Participants will be led through each sport by coaches that include top adaptive sport clinicians, Paralympians, and Olympians. Equipment and assistance will be available to everyone who would like to participate across all the sports.
Wellness Festival
Jeff Seymour Family Center | 10900 Mulhall St., El Monte, CA 91731 | April 23 | instagram.com/p/CcYSxx6FLb2/
This free community event will feature giveaways of diapers, baby formula, food boxes, hand sanitizer, refillable water bottles, books and more. In addition to a live DJ, there will also be medica screenings, COVID-19 tests and vaccines, flu shots, Covered California Enrollment, yoga, tree planting, food demonstrations, workshops, education planning and more.
626 Night Market Mini
Lot 27 | 1324 5th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 | April 23-24 | 626nightmarket.com
Starting a new series of events in Downtown Santa Monica from 1-10 p.m., 626 Night Market Mini will have food vendors like Shake Ramen, Tao’s Bao, Chick N’ Skin, Ghostix and Rockin’ Gyoza.
Festival Of Books
USC | University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089 | April 23-24 | events.latimes.com
Bibliophiles unite to celebrate the best books of 2021. This year’s lineup includes over 500 authors, poets, artists, chefs, celebrities and musicians. Additionally, the festival hosts over 250 indoor and outdoor events featuring discussions on current events, literature, pop culture, readings, performances and cooking demonstrations.
Opera: Diana Damrau & Nicolas Testé
The Broad Stage | 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 | April 24 | thebroadstage.org
Global superstar and Metropolitan Opera favorite, Diana Damrau returns alongside famed bass Nicolas Testé for a fun and lively program of opera, operetta, lieder, and songs. They will be accompanied by Maciej Pikulski on piano
Pomona Swap Meet & Classic Car Show
Fairplex | Gate Number 17, La Verne, CA 91750 | April 24 | fairplex.com
The Pomona Swap Meet & Classic Car Show features hundreds of vendors selling everything from car parts to accessories, and, of course, restored classic cars on display.
Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse
LACMA | 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 | April 24-Oct. 9 | lacma.org
Highlighting fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen’s tailoring and dressmaking skills, the exhibition examines the different disciplines, imagination, innovation and artistic process that defined McQueen’s career. The exhibition will display McQueen garments from the Collection of Regina J. Drucker alongside artworks from LACMA’s permanent collection.
LA’s Original Beach Comedy Show
Will Rogers Beach | 15800 Pacific Coast Highway, Los Angeles, CA 90272 | April 24 | eventbrite.com
What’s more relaxing than a night of laughs on the beach as the sun sets? The lineup includes Morgan Jay (semi-finalist on NBC’s “Bring the Funny”), Michael Blaustein (MTV’s “Punk’d” and Amazon Prime’s “Inside Jokes”) and Chip Nicholson (top finalist of the San Diego Comedy Festival and Best of Fest winner of Arizona’s Big Pine Comedy Festival).
The Past, Present, and Future of the James Webb Space Telescope: Seeking Our Origins In Stars And Galaxies
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens | 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 | April 25 | huntington.org
Dr. R. Paul Butler, of the Earth and Planets Laboratory for the Carnegie Institution for Science, discusses extrasolar planets and the “realistic prospects of direct imaging and spectroscopy of Earth-like planets around nearby stars within the next generation.” There will be a musical performance before the lecture starts.
“Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen” LA Premier
Museum of Tolerance | 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035 | April 25 | eventbrite.com
Catch a sneak preview of this new documentary, narrated by Jeff Goldblum, chronicling how Norman Jewsison’s efforts to recreate Jewish life in Russia on the big screen. Following the screening, there will be a Q-and-A,moderated by the director of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, with Oscar-nominated director Daniel Raim, producer Sasha Berman, co-writer Michael Sragow, and actress Michèle Marsh, who played Hodel in “Fiddler On The Roof.”
Selena Paint Night
FemPower Den | 421 S. Glendora Ave., West Covina, CA 91790 | April 25 | eventbrite.com
Get rid of those Monday blues with a Selena-themed painting party featuring pizza, drinks and trivia.
Yoga In The Garden
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden | 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007 | April 26 | arboretum.org
Register for a strengthening and tension-releasing evening of yoga in a lush garden sanctuary.
Cue & A With Robert Kraft Featuring Kris Bowers
The Broad Stage | 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 | April 26 | thebroadstage.org
The evening features conversation, clips, commentary, live demonstrations and an audience Q & A with Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist Kris Bowers, whose recent credits include “Bridgertont” and “King Richard.” Cue & A is moderated by Kraft, Academy Award-nominee and President of Music at 20th Century Fox from 1994 to 2012.
An Evening Of Wine And Balance For Women
The Saltner Wine & Cicchetti | 108 E. Colorado Blvd., Monrovia, CA 91016 | April 26 | eventbrite.com
This is an evening designed to relax you. Tough Love Fitness will guide attendees through one hour of mindful movement and stretching to get rid of those pesky aches and pains. After the class, taste some wines from around the world.
Drag Kween Karaoke
The North End | 6423 Yucca St., Los Angeles, CA 90028 | April 26 | eventbrite.com
Join comedian and musician Jeffrey Waterman for drinks, karaoke and a fun night of drag.
Feist
Shrine Auditorium | 665 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007 | April 27 | shrineauditorium.com
Featuring all new music, Feist has developed “Multitudes” to feel like an intimate, communal experience. The in-the-round performance “muddies the roles between audience and performer, observer and its subject,” according to event organizers.
John Craigie Performs The Beatles “Let It Be (Lonely)”
The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever | 5970 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | April 27 | eventbrite.com
Acclaimed singer-songwriter John Craigie performs The Beatles “Let It Be (Lonely)” with special guests Jenny O, Moorea Masa, Lucy Clearwater, Jennah Bell and Rachel Mazer
KingQueen, Ally Hills, and Jasmine Crowe
Madame Siam | 1723 N. Hudson Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90028 | April 28 | songkick.com
KingQueen, an LA-based award-winning pop-rock band, is hosting an official EP release party at Madame Siam.
“Star Wars” Original Trilogy
El Capitan Theatre | 6838 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028 | April 28-30 | elcapitantheatre.com
Watch the original “Star Wars” trilogy at El Capitan ahead of May 4. Start with “A New Hope” on April 28, followed by “The Empire Strikes Back” on April 29, and finishing it all off with “Return of the Jedi” on April 30.
A Special Zócalo Music Presentation: How Immigrants Composed L.A.
ASU California Center at the Herald Examiner | 1111 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015 | April 28 | eventbrite.com
Cellist Evgeny Tonkha and violinists Roberto Cani, Ana Landauer and Erik Rynearson of the Los Angeles Opera perform the music of L.A.’s immigrant composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Reena Esmail.
ArtNight Pasadena
Pasadena | April 29 | ArtNightPasadena.org
Enjoy music, dance, visual art, theater, art-making, storytelling, history, and food trucks across the city. Some of Pasadena’s most popular arts and cultural organizations are opening their doors for the night and offering free admission. Shuttles will be available to transport visitors from venue to venue.
Florence + The Machine
Los Angeles Theatre | 615 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014 | April 29 | florenceandthemachine.net
The alternative, indie rock duo behind “Dog Days Are Over” and “King,” has won multiple award for their genre-defying music.
Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra
Walt Disney Concert Hall | 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012 | April 29 | laphil.com
Jeff Goldblum and his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra light up the stage with classic jazz.
Broadway Celebrates The Soraya
The Soraya | 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330 | April 30 | thesoraya.org
Eden Espinosa, Joshua Henry, and Megan Hilty join forces with Richard Kaufman and the CSUN Symphony for a program which includes songs from the late Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George and Company,” plus numbers from “Wicked,” “Hamilton,” “Carousel,” and more.
What Is A Western? Film Series: “Boyz N The Hood”
The Autry | 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027 | April 30 | theautry.org
Introduced by Tyree Boyd-Pates, associate curator at the Autry, who will explain the film’s significance as a Western, commemorate the 31st anniversary of “Boyz n the Hood” starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube. According to the Autry, the film series “explores the wide range of movies that can be considered Westerns, and the ways in which they shape our understanding of the American West.”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”
LA State Historic Park | 1245 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 | April 30 | streetfoodcinema.com
Watch Peter Parker battle villains from the multiverse alongside old and new friends. The movie starts at 8 p.m. but show up early to enjoy a bite from one of various food trucks.
Latino Comics Expo
Museum of Latin American Art | 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802 | April 30-May 1 | molaa.org
The Latino Comics Expo returns in-person this year with guests, a chalk art workshop and approximately 45 vendors. Special guests will include Jorge Gutierrez (“Book of Life” and “Maya and the Three” director), Rafael Navarro (Sonámbulo), Xaime and Gilbert Hernandez (“Love & Rockets”), Jesse Hernandez (Urban Aztec) and many more.
626 Golden Streets
San Gabriel Valley | May 1 | 626goldenstreets.com
Beginning in South Pasadena and stretching for 5 miles to San Gabriel, 626 Golden Streets temporarily opens stretches of streets for people to walk, jog, skate, and bike. The free event will also feature carnival games, rock climbing, a public and professional chalk art zone and live music.
Cinco De Mayo At The Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl Stadium | 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103 | May 1 | eventbrite.com
This free, family-friendly event aims to reconnect the community with a healthy lifestyle. The event features interactive activities like a Metodo M workout, live entertainment, food, arts, a marketplace and more.
Lila Downs
The Luckman Fine Arts Complex | 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90032 | May 1 | luckmanarts.org
Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning Mexican singer Lila Downs brings her powerful throaty alto and dramatic performances to Los Angeles. Downs sings everything from jazz ballads and blues to norteñas and rancheras.
Psychic Faire
The Indigo Collective | 2990 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 101, Pasadena, CA 91107 | May 1 | eventbrite.com
The fair features discounted psychic readings, reiki healing, natal charts, astrology readings with aura reports, live music and vendors.
Knott’s Boysenberry Festival
Knott’s Berry Farm | 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, CA 90620 | Through April 24 | knotts.com
Knott’s “food-inspired” festival features a lineup of dishes with a boysenberry twist, and desserts and drinks only available during this limited time. The festival also features local crafters, live music, stage shows and fun activities.
“Mixpantli: Space, Time, And The Indigenous Origins Of Mexico”
LACMA | 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 | Through May 1 | lacma.org
LACMA is marking the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital and site of Mexico City. According to LACMA, the exhibition “subverts the traditional narrative of conquest by centering the creative resilience of Indigenous artists, mapmakers, and storytellers who forged new futures and made their world anew through artistic practice.”
Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free
The Canvas at L.A. Live | 944 Georgia St.,Los Angeles CA 90015 | Through May 1 | wakemewhenimfree
Created in collaboration with the Shakur Estate, this exhibit delves into Tupac’s activism, music and revolutionary art through technology, art and artifacts from the rapper’s personal archives.
“Mapping Fiction”
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens | 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 | Through May 2 | huntington.org
This new exhibit focuses on the ways authors and mapmakers have built compelling fictional worlds. The exhibit includes a first edition of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” early editions of Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark, Robert Louis Stevenson’s maps from “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped,” J. R. R. Tolkien’s map from the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings,” and science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler’s hand-drawn maps from notes for “Parable of the Talents” (1998) and her unpublished novel “Parable of the Trickster.”
Renaissance Pleasure Faire
Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area | 15501 E. Arrow Highway, Irwindale, CA 91706 | Through May 22 | renfair.com/socal/
Huzzah! The Renaissance Pleasure Faire is back this year with its infamous lineup of bawdy and traditional songs, comedy shows (some rated NC-17 just for adults), jousting tournaments, aerial performances, magic shows and actors on different stages, ax throwing, archery, turkey legs, hand pies and more beer than you could ever imagine.
“Archival Intimacies: Queering South/East Asian Diasporas”
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries | 909 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007
| Through May 29 | one.usc.edu
Three artists-in-residence at ONE Archives at USC Libraries, Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai, Vinhay Keo, and Pamila Matharu were invited to develop new works in response to the archive. Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai and Keo’s work investigates the remnants of embodied history, migration, exile, and queerness. Accompanying these works is “Satrang at 25: Queer South Asian Diaspora(s) in Context,” on view at ONE, examining the history of Satrang, an organization supporting queer South Asian communities in Southern California and placing its evolution in the context of broader queer diasporic histories.
More from Life!
