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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / APOLAKI: Film Screening and Artist Talk

APOLAKI: Film Screening and Artist Talk

Sunday December 10, 2023 | 2-5 pm
Philosophical Research Society
3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Limited free parking available on site
Free admission – RSVP to rsvp@welcometolace.org

Join LACE and Micaela Tobin (White Boy Scream) for a special screening of APOLAKI: OPERA OF THE SCORCHED EARTH. Following the screening, Micaela will host an artist talk with artists and collaborators Jay Carlon, Carlo Maghirang, and the Liyang Network. Light refreshments will be provided.

ABOUT APOLAKI: OPERA OF THE SCORCHED EARTH

APOLAKI: OPERA OF THE SCORCHED EARTH is a new experimental opera by Filipino-American composer Micaela Tobin in collaboration with installation designer Carlo Maghirang and dancer/choreographer Jay Carlon. Continuing her celebration of the pre-colonial mythologies of the Philippines, Tobin’s new work tells the story of Apolaki, the precolonial God of Sun and War, who finds themself lost in a foreign and unfamiliar land (present day Tongva Land/Los Angeles) after being displaced from the Philippines by Spanish colonizers. This opera is a radical meditation on the complex relationships between settler colonialism, migration, and diaspora, and invites the audience to join Apolaki in this immersive pilgrimage, premiering at the historic and storied Zorthian Ranch overlooking the Los Angeles Basin.

Learn more about APOLAKI: OPERA OF THE SCORCHED EARTH here.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Micaela Tobin is a soprano, sound artist, and teacher based in Los Angeles, CA who specializes in experimental voice and contemporary opera.

As a sound artist with a background in opera, Micaela integrates voice and electronics within the genres of noise and drone music. Her work incorporates ritualized gesture and amplified object-symbolism and explores her diasporic identity as a first-generation Filipina-American. Micaela’s vocal practice is based in building connections between the physical voice as a means of empowering one’s ‘inner’ voice and challenging colonial stories and systems. 

Composing primarily under the moniker “White Boy Scream,” Micaela dissects her operatic and extended vocal techniques through the use of electronics, oscillating between extreme textures of noise, drone, and operatic sound walls. Her most recent full length album, “BAKUNAWA” (Deathbomb Arc) includes elements of sonic ritual, ancient myth, and ancestral memory. Of the album, Steve Smith of The New Yorker Magazine asserts that “opera would do well to pay attention.” The album was ranked #9 Release of 2020 in The Wire Magazine. In May 2021, Micaela premiered the cinematic adaptation of the album through REDCAT, titled “BAKUNAWA: Opera of the Seven Moons.”

As an opera composer, Micaela premiered and earned a five-star review for her first original experimental opera, entitled “Unseal Unseam,” at the world’s largest art festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in summer 2016; the work was described as “hypnotic” and “paralyzingly beautiful,” by New Classic LA after its U.S. debut in October 2017. Her most recent opera, “Belarion: A Space Opera” which premiered at the American Legion Center in Pasadena, CA in February 2019, is about the magickal practices of JPL founder Jack Parsons.

As a performer, Micaela played the principal role of Coyote in the critically acclaimed opera, SWEET LAND (dir. Yuval Sharon & Canuppa Luger; Comp. Raven Chacon & Du Yun). She also performed with The Industry in their groundbreaking opera, “Hopscotch, a mobile opera for 24 cars (dir. Yuval Sharon).” She has also toured with hip-hop experimentalists clipping. on their 2017 tour with The Flaming Lips. Micaela also appeared as a principal vocalist in the premiere of Ron Athey and Sean Griffith’s automatic opera, “Gifts the Spirit”; and as a soprano soloist alongside Annette Bening in the play “Medea” at UCLALive.

Micaela is currently a voice teacher on faculty at the California Institute for the Arts and teaches through her private studio, HOWL SPACE, in Los Angeles, CA.

Jay Carlon was born and raised on California’s Central Coast, Carlon’s work is inspired by growing up the youngest of 12 in a Filipino, Catholic, and agricultural migrant-working family. He is committed to connecting his art practice to sustainability and his personal and collective journey of decolonization.

Jay’s work has been presented in Los Angeles at REDCAT NOW Festival, The Broad Museum, Los Angeles Dance Project, Annenberg Community Beach House, LA Dance Festival, Electric Lodge, Los Angeles Performance Practice D+R Residencies, homeLA, and Beach Dances; in New York at 92ndY and The CURRENT SESSIONS; in Phoenix at Breaking Ground Festival; in Monterrey, Mexico at Espacio Expectante; and in Bangkok, Thailand at Creative Migration. Jay is a performer and directing associate with aerial spectacle theatre company Australia’s Sway Pole, where he has performed at the 2014 Olympics, the 2016 World EXPO, and the 2018 Super Bowl.

Carlon has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Palissimo, Oguri, No)one. Art House, and danced for Rodrigo y Gabriela on Jimmy Kimmel Live (choreographed by Annie-B Parson), in Solange Knowles’ art film Metronia (2018) choreographed by Gerard & Kelly, and was appointed Choreographic Associate for Kanye West’s opera, Mary (2019).

Photos by Raymundo Barrera.

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, LACE, Performance, Screening, Video Tagged With: apolaki, performance art video, Screening

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As part of a special Mother’s Day celebration in As part of a special Mother’s Day celebration in 1990, Freshly Wrapped Candies headlined a two-night celebration of motherhood at LACE, featuring an eclectic group of artists, musicians, poets, and performers. 

Among them was Anna Homler (@homlerian), who will be performing with Jeff Schwartz and David Javelosa (@microwave_buddha) during “ENDURANCE” next Sunday, May 17. 

Pictured here: Freshly Wrapped Candies performing; swipe to see the event’s flyer. Wishing a lovely weekend to all the moms and mother figures!
Printed Matter’s 2025 LA Art Book Fair is happen Printed Matter’s 2025 LA Art Book Fair is happening soon at the ArtCenter College of Design! From May 15-18, stop by Booth C13 to say hi to the LACE team and browse our publications. 

LAABF (@printedmatter_artbookfairs) features artists and collectives, small presses, institutions, galleries, and much more. Check out their website for a full calendar of events. We hope to see you there! @printedmatterinc
Happening May 16 and 17, “ENDURANCE” presents Happening May 16 and 17, “ENDURANCE” presents performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. 🔶 

Pictured here is “BLACK GOLD/FEVER,” a 2011 multi-media performance by Ulysses Jenkins. The performance called back to the artist’s 1980 piece, also performed at LACE, entitled “Columbus Day: a doggerel.” Utilizing dance, video projections, music, and spoken word, “BLACK GOLD/FEVER” measured the toll placed upon the environment and Indigenous peoples. 

See Ulysses Jenkins and the Dark Bob as part of “ENDURANCE.” This event is free to attend with RSVP. Tickets are going quickly, and LACE has created a wait list to accommodate interest. Click the link in our bio for more information. 

Please note: Because seating is very limited for this program, we ask that if you can no longer attend, you release your ticket so someone else may attend. Performance line-up subject to change.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth at Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth at the @latimes Festival of Books this past weekend! 

And a big shout-out to our friends in the @latimesfob booth, who are always doing vital work: @centerforlanduseinterpretation, Equitable Vitrines, @gyopo.us and @lapovertydepartment. 

Polaroid photo by @funkentelekison
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