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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / A Heart Misshapen (A LACE Valentine’s Extravaganza)

A Heart Misshapen (A LACE Valentine’s Extravaganza)


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A Heart Misshapen (A LACE Valentine’s Extravaganza) 
Special performance by Carmina Escobar 
DJ set by Sonido del Valle
February 14, 2024, 7–10 PM
Garibaldina MB Society, 4533 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90065
No-host bar / Free limited parking 
RSVP here, free ticket, suggested donation $10

LACE’s infamous Valentine’s Day bash is back with A Heart Misshapen! Join LACE at the Garibaldina Society in Highland Park for a Valentine Extravaganza! This will be the ultimate Valentine’s date night, with cabaret, music, dancing, libations, and a free raffle!

A Heart Misshapen premieres La Cantadora Shamana de Cabaret, an experimental sonic performance by extreme vocalist, sound, and intermedia artist Carmina Escobar. The night will culminate with a dance party extravaganza with a DJ set from Sonido del Valle.

About La Cantadora Shamana de Cabaret 

How does terror shape itself? How does the body free itself from a history that deforms the erotic of its descendants? What sexual love arises from a heart misshapen by the seed of oppressor and the egg of the oppressed? In Cantadora, Shamana de Cabaret, Carmina Escobar creates a performative ritual; part opera, part incantation, and part comedic examination of her life as an erotic export—a woman-creature, bird-spirit, in whose veins boils the antagonist sex of oppressor and oppressed product of the clashing mixing of the mestizo heritage. 

Creating sonic feather costumes that dress her as a bird, a showgirl, and a shaman, Escobar performs a score derived from her own familial and erotic history as it entwines with a fantasy of her namesake Iris Chacon, a Latin American cabaret performer, and the archetype of The Horrifying Mother on the prehispanic cosmogony. 

Photos by Ray Barrera

About the Artist

Experimental vocalist Carmina Escobar is a creative performer, interpreter of contemporary music, improviser, sound and intermedia artist from Mexico City. Her work focuses primarily on sound, the voice, the body and their interrelations to physical, social and memory spaces. She has intensely explored the capacities of her voice developing a wide range of vocal techniques that she applies not only to her performance and creative practice but also to investigate radical ideas and concepts regarding the voice.

Collaborators: Asher Hartman, Fernando Vigueras
Costume Designs: Beck+Col, Liz Goetz, Jerónimo García Naranjo 

Sonido Del Valle has been the only record store in Boyle Heights since 2016. They specialize in Latin LPs, CDs, and Cassettes, and stock most other genres including Jazz, Soul, Rock, Freestyle, House, Hip Hop and MORE. Sonido Del Valle house DJs spin your favorite tunes.

Press

Featured in PAM, Laura G. Gutiérrez reviews A Heart Misshapen.

Vedette and Mesoamerican Iconography — A Review by Laura G. Gutiérrez

Support

A Heart Misshapen is supported by the National Performance Network.

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, Exhibition, Installation, Performance Tagged With: Asher Hartman, Cantadora, Carmina Escobar, Fernando Vigueras, iris chacon, Shamana de Cabaret, valentines day

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We’re grateful to everyone who joined us at “T We’re grateful to everyone who joined us at “This Home, Forever,” curated by 2025 LACE Emerging Curator Nahui Garcia. The two-day event featured performances by: @0ll668 @perras.bravas @lapovertydepartment  @michelelorusso @pacoimatechno @jakioeoeo

These performances took place during a fraught weekend for Los Angeles, with sirens and helicopters heard across downtown Los Angeles. On Sunday, @perras.bravas performed “Borderland Feelings,” a piece that seeks to shed light on and gather testimonies about the experiences, emotions, and demands that emerge when crossing the border. Participants were invited to share their border-crossing experiences by writing or illustrating them on a butterfly. These butterflies were later read aloud during the performance and placed on a body, symbolizing how the border becomes a scar that marks those who cross it.

This performance, along with the rest of the program, felt especially significant on that day. LACE remains committed to presenting socially-engaged projects and was founded as an experimental artistic space for freedom of expression and art that is socially and politically engaging. 

We’re glad to have shared space with LACE friends, collaborators, and colleagues, as well as new friends. 

Photos by Angel Origgi. (@angeloriggi)
Please join us in welcoming two new members to the Please join us in welcoming two new members to the LACE team! 

 🌟 LACE’s new Communications + Event Coordinator, Ida Tongkumvong is a Los Angeles-based arts administrator and marketing professional with a passion for expanding access to the arts and fostering inclusivity within creative spaces. She holds a B.A. in Communications from UCLA. Her previous roles with Sounding Point, the LA Phil, and CAP UCLA deepened her commitment to broadening arts access through strategic partnerships, inclusive programming, and dynamic storytelling. With a keen interest in public art and community-based initiatives, Ida brings a thoughtful and collaborative approach to audience development and creative event planning within L.A.’s contemporary arts landscape. Outside of work, you’ll often find her at a flea market or estate sale, always on the hunt for a one-of-a-kind find.

 🌟 LACE’s new Production + Operations Coordinator, Johnny Young began making his mark on the Los Angeles arts scene as Gallery and Programming Manager for the Juicy Beats Artist Exchange Lounge in 2000. He has worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), where he played a key role in production and management for their First Fridays program; he was also selected for the prestigious Diversity Apprenticeship Program (DAP) at The Broad, a competitive initiative aimed at training the next generation of museum and gallery professionals from underrepresented communities. Johnny brings a sharp eye for detail, a commitment to equity in the arts, and a dedication to amplifying voices that challenge the boundaries of convention.
Did you get your tickets for “This Home, Forever Did you get your tickets for “This Home, Forever” happening this weekend? “This Home, Forever” is a stage, a forum, and a dynamic workshop nurtured by a group of artists and activists devoted to and inspired by Los Angeles. Learn more and get your tickets at the link in our bio. 

Held on the rooftop of the historic Bendix Building, performances will be presented with a 180 degree view of downtown Los Angeles. See performances by: @0ll668, @perras.bravas, @lapovertydepartment, @michelelorusso, @pacoimatechno, @jakioeoeo. 

Behind-the-scenes photos by @andreuuua  @selene__preciado and @abwyman
We’re still reminiscing about “ENDURANCE,” w We’re still reminiscing about “ENDURANCE,” which took place Saturday and Sunday, May 16–17. The series celebrated elder artists and their longstanding committment to their practices, through both performances and interdisciplinary work. Swipe through to see portraits from the two evenings, taken by Ray Barrera (@dreamfishcommuter).

Support LACE’s future, free public programs by making a donation at the link in our bio.

Performers pictured, in order of appearance: Hirokazu Kosaka, Awilda Sterling-Duprey (@awildasterling), Sheree Rose (@msrosebush), Sharon Kagan (@sharonkagan), Anna Homler with David Javelosa and Jeff Schwartz, Gloria Enedina Álvarez, Oguri, The Dark Bob, Barbara T. Smith and Ulysses Jenkins, Alice Bag (@alice_bag), Kid Congo Powers (@kidcongopowers), and Kamau Daáood.
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