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October Surprise
October Surprise: Creative Interventions & Underground Politics in Northeast Los Angeles October 8-11
http://www.theoctobersurprise.org/
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Projects in & around LA-Highland Park, Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, Lincoln Heights
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: AUG 18
Contact us with questions and proposals: email: opencall@theoctobersurprise.org
ph: 323-449-9019 (English)
ph: 323-227-5861 (Español)
or mail proposals to:
October Surprise
c/o Flor y Canto
3706 N. Figueroa Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90065
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October Surprise
This is our city, let's live in it!
Open Call for Artists, Activists, Social Interventionists, Architects, Gardeners, Solar Engineers, and others
for site-specific projects in and around Northeast Los Angeles to celebrate our neighborhoods and
strengthen creative, grassroots power
-East of the LA River and stretching up along Figueroa and the Arroyo Seco, Highland Park is girdled by
Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Glassel Park and Eagle Rock. Highland Park is but one town among
many that we could all call home.
Global Capitalism asks us to ignore the unique histories, experiences and knowledge that each spot of
earth provides its residents. We become global drifters - just one more consumer wearing a Hard Rock
Café T-shirt from Bangkok, Paris or Disneyland.
In response, October Surprise calls for site-specific installations and interventions that make THIS place
our home. We are calling for work that reveals and celebrates the past, present and possible futures of
Northeast LA.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> What: - October Surprise will converge artists, activists and
the community to celebrate our neighborhoods and strengthen creative, grassroots power, using site-
specific installations, interventions, art, monuments, performance, and other events.
- Projects will be situated throughout the neighborhood.
Where: -We are calling for projects throughout Northeast LA along the boulevards and arroyos; in the
public spaces, community places and private homes.
-The Arroyo Arts Collective at 135 N. Ave. 50 in Highland Park will serve as a convergence, or meeting
space, where participants can present and discuss their work. Additionally, we are interested in hosting
pertinent lectures. And though the gallery space can be used to present documentation of projects and
ideas, we are specifically looking for site-specific projects throughout the neighborhood.
When: -Projects will occur on the long weekend of October 8, 9, 10 and 11, 2004. Documentation of the
events will remain in the gallery through October into the first week of November and Election Day.
(Ongoing projects are encouraged.)
Why: -We hope to help reveal a city to itself and energize its communities. One month before the election,
we are organizing this event to show where democracy really lives--in our neighborhoods, streets and
homes. Now is as good a time as any to strengthen political and cultural discussions where it really
counts- at the grassroots.
How: -Send us a proposal by August 18. This is a non-juried exhibition but we would like to have a basic
participants list for organizational purposes (including for fundraising, publicity, and for a possible
catalogue). (Note: Having your proposal by August 18 will help us help you realize your project)
-We don’t need a fancy resume, just articulate some of your ideas and tell us how you connect to this
place called Northeast LA.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Questions to get you thinking: -What memories of the
neighborhood inform the way you live there today? -What are the neighborhood’s specific histories and
geographies? -What was it like to party at Flat Tops, to cruise Arroyo Seco Park? Where can teens hang out
now? -Where locally must racism and classism be addressed? What specifically can be done to reduce
racial and class-based injustice and tension? -How can the diverse populations of the area find an
equitable common ground? Where have they found common ground in the past? -Who and what are the
political forces that make real change in our community? -How can we make the power-holders more
accountable to all of the neighborhood’s long-term interests? -Will a Food 4 Less and a Trader Joes ever
exist on the same block? How about a locally owned store that sells inexpensive healthy food? -The new
Gold Line brings alternative transportation and more gentrification; what does this all mean? -What ways
can we better live close to this beautiful land- should the hilltops be lined with windmills generating
electricity? Could the hillside neighborhoods support orchards to feed the city? -How can we strengthen
the local economy to enrich the grass roots? -What fun, beautiful, exciting things can you and your friends
make happen here?
-As we barrel toward an ugly national election with frightening implications for our country, it’s time to
also ask questions about our immediate community and figure out how to at least make this small patch
of earth better for all. Projects should speak to an audience that is as diverse as the neighborhood. Take
the dare. Find the language.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Northeast LA: October Surprise unfolds in a neighborhood
that has a long history of art, politics, and cultural activism. This area once was the home of the
indigenous Tongva, old west outlaws, old time Hollywood elite and the artists and intellectuals of the Arts
and Crafts movement.
The area gradually morphed into a neighborhood of a mixture of classes with all the inherent tensions that
implies. Today’s residents' live in a surprising demographic patchwork with socioeconomic groups are
scattered across the landscape. Italians, Philippinos, Mexicans, Central Americans and others hold onto
niches carved out in LA’s oscillating real estate market and changing social attitudes. Today, upwardly
mobile newcomers from Silverlake, West Los Angeles and elsewhere snatching the funky old houses, their
tastes and interests changing the neighborhood again.
Many residents are oblivious to the continued radical traditions of the area. Many others are unaware of
social technologies that can change the way we all live in our towns. National consumer trends and media
driven taste tell residents that family histories and local sagas are forgettable in the broad scope of the
brave new world. New tastes have brought in stores selling the latest necessity of Global Capitalism in
stores that threaten to replace the seemingly mundane auto body shops and beauty parlors that line
Figueroa and neighboring streets.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Background: -October Surprise is based on an event known as
the DSLR (Department of Space and Land Reclamation) which originated in Chicago in 1999. These events
invite artists and activists to converge at a central location and then go out into the city and create artwork
about the social issues of the city. For more info on DSLR see: http://
www.counterproductiveindustries.com http://www.dslrwest.org http://www.freewords.org/biennial/
fbdir.html
See also Portland Oregon’s City Repair Project http://www.cityrepair.org/projects.html
-October Surprise’s title refers to Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election year duplicity. He illegally bargained
covertly with the Iranian government to postpone freeing the American hostages until after the November
Presidential election in order to reflect badly on incumbent Jimmy Carter. http://www.skepticfiles.org/
socialis/spriseoc.htm
Gentrification in Highland Park http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/35086.php
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