2016 Conversations in Place at Rancho Los Alamitos

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NEWS RELEASE Media Contacts

June 1, 2016 Claudia Jurmain

562.431.3541

Conversations at “the intersection of space, human life and animal existence” at Rancho Los Alamitos in 2016

Long Beach, Calif. – Sustaining a tradition of lively, informative, and entertaining conversation at the historic Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, Conversations in Place 2016, now in its fifth year, will range from the world of development, politics and power, to science, technology and the humanities and to music across the species – Including a performance by the Grammy-winning band Quetzal.

“We’ll take a measure of today’s development scene and sort out the priorities, power players and interests that define a vibrant community and region,” says Claudia Jurmain, founder of the series. “We’ll consider the possibilities and predicaments of mixing the power of science and technology with the perspective of humanities, and listen as speakers and performers redefine the landscapes of home and place in Southern California.”

Conversations in Place 2016 brings together key urban and civic leaders from Long Beach and Los Angeles, including the dynamic young Mayor of Long Beach, the much celebrated CEO of an award-winning development company, and a leading-edge architect whose firm is helping reshape Long Beach and the region. Other guests include renowned scholars in the sciences and the humanities from CSULB, UCLA, USC, and a Caltech bio-engineer, a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Other celebrated guests include the new director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, a Native American cultural educator and artist, acclaimed writers focused on contemporary literature, the environment and culture, and a band famed for its commitment to social justice and storytelling through great music.

This year’s guest moderators are Alan Pullman, AIA & founder of Studio 111; William Deverell, Chairman of the Department of History, USC & Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; and Oliver Wang, CSULB Associate Professor of Sociology, DJ and NPR Contributor

Bringing together an array of diverse perspectives, the conversations in 2016 will explore how places are defined by the intersections that occur when lives, histories, art, politics, science and nature sometimes cross, but increasingly meet and come together. Today Southern California is being remade by creative encounters at every level, from the micro to the macro, in science and technology in tandem with the humanities, and in words, images, music, design, and public policy.

Discounted series subscriptions and reservations for individual conversations can be made online at rancholosalamitos.org, by phone or by requesting a series brochure.

The 2016 “Intersections” series of Conversations in Place includes:

Bridging Communities: A Measure of Today

Sunday, September 11, 2016 from 1:30–3:30 PM

New business models that mix talented perspectives which connect regional priorities, economic and environmental issues and which also honor the storyscape and networks of support, intersect today. However, parameters are in flux and visions of a well-made place don’t always agree. To explore this intersection, Conversations in Place 2016 has invited:

§ Mayor Robert Garcia, the youngest of 28 mayors in Long Beach’s history. He previously represented the First Council district (including a large downtown area, parts of the Port of Long Beach, and some of the densest, most diverse urban areas in the nation).

§ Wayne Ratkovich, President/CEO of the Ratkovich Company. His celebrated firm has developed over 16 million square feet of new mixed-use, industrial and repurposed historic properties in Los Angeles County. He was named a Life Trustee of the Urban Land Institute in 2011 and is an Emeritus Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

§ Deborah J. Weintraub, AIA, LEEDAP Chief Deputy City Engineer and chief architect in the Bureau of Engineering for the City of Los Angeles. She currently oversees the Los Angeles River Revitalization effort, whose master plan has been awarded an AIA Urban Design Award.

§ Char Miller, the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College. His books include Public Lands, Public Debates: A Century of Controversy (2012), On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest (2013) and America’s Great National Forests, Wilderness, and Grasslands, with photographer Tim Palmer (2016).

§ Michael Bohn, AIA, Design Director of Studio One Eleven, an award-winning, integrated practice of architecture, landscape, and urban design located in Long Beach and a division of the international firm of Perkowitz+Ruth Architects.

Science and the Humanities: A Meeting of Minds

Sunday, October 16, 2016 – 1:30 to 3:30 PM

The intersection of science, technology and the humanities is the meeting of creative, collaborative thinking and the “continuum of possibility” from diverse perspectives. In imagining something different, science and the humanities explore and verify conditions and aspirations that will lead to home. Our guides along the way are:

§ Lori Bettison-Varga, President and Director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. She embraces science advocacy and education in the region and the world. “Science is dynamic, progressive, and builds upon itself,” she says. “What we know has evolved, and that makes us appreciate the responsibility we have to our natural world.”

§ Michael H. Dickinsen, Zarem Professor of Biology and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology and head of the Dickinson Lab. “Understanding how brains combine information from different senses to make appropriate decisions,” he says, “is one of the central challenges in neuroscience.” He is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and a past recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

§ William Deverell, Chairman of the History Department at USC and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. His books define the political, social and environmental history of the 19th and 20th century American West. His latest co-authored book is Water and Los Angeles: A Tale of Three Rivers (UC Press, October 2016),

§ Ursula K. Heise, Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies at the Department of Englishand the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at UCLA. Her research and publications focus on environmental literatures and cultures in Western Europe, North America, Latin America, and Japan. Her most recent book isImagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species(August 2016). § Hannah Landecker, Director of The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics which considers the ethical, legal, and societal implications of the biological sciences and genetics. Her work has focused on the social and historical study of biotechnology and biomedicine.

§ D. J. Waldie, author, essayist, and commentator. He is a life-long resident of Lakewood and its former Deputy City Manager. He also is a commentator for KCET and a contributing editor of the Los Angeles Times.

The Sonic Landscape: Moving Messages

Sunday, November 6, 2016 – 1:30-3:30 PM

More than ever, the landscape of sound is a shared space where we are invited to listen to, heed and be moved by old and new messages. In conversation (and musical performance) will be:

§ Quetzal (Quetzal Flores & Martha Gonzales), Grammy-winning East LA Chican@ band deeply committed to social justice, activism and education. Quetzal has performed at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center’s Homegrown music series, and is featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition on Chicano music. Quetzanimales, the band’s sixth release, and inspired by animals in urban space.

§ Oliver Wang, Associate Professor of Sociology at CSULB. He’s been a DJ since 1993, including ten years at KALX FM in Berkeley. His recent book, Legions of Boom (2015), focuses on Filipino American mobile D.J. crews in the San Francisco area.

§ Josh Kun, Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. His work centers on the arts and politics of cultural connection, with a focus on popular music, the cultures of globalization, the US-Mexico border and Los Angeles.

§ Greg Bryant, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture at UCLA. A cognitive scientist, he studies the evolution of vocal communication and social behavior in humans but with an interest in the direct connections between all species.

§ Craig Torres is descended from the indigenous communities of the Yaavetam (Los Angeles) and Komiikravetam (Santa Monica Canyon), known today as the Tongva or Gabrielino Indians of San Gabriel Mission. A cultural educator of Tongva history, culture and current issues, he is inspired by his Tongva heritage, combining traditional art forms with digital media.

Attending Conversations in Place 2016

Tickets for individual Conversations in the series are $25. Subscriptions to the three-part series are $60. Series ticket holders receive a discounted ticket price and a 15% discount in the Rancho Gift Shop on the day of the Conversations.

Reservations are required. Tickets may be purchased online at rancholosalamitos.org or by calling Rancho Los Alamitos at 562.431.3541.

Founder, Conversations in Place:

Claudia Jurmain, founder of Conversations in Place and the series director, is the Director of Special Projects and Publications at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, California. She began her work as a research historian at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery, and since has produced award-winning projects for museums, sites, and educational institutions across the country, including the concept design and content for the new Rancho Center at Rancho Los Alamitos. She is co-editor of California - A Place, A People, A Dream (1986), author of Planting Perspectives: The Landscape at Rancho Los Alamitos (2000), and co-author of Rancho Los Alamitos – Ever Changing and Always the Same and O, My Ancestor: Recognition and Renewal for the Gabrielino-Tongva People of the Los Angeles Area, which both received national awards from the American Association for State and Local History.

About Rancho Los Alamitos

Rancho Los Alamitos, the Ranch of the Little Cottonwoods, is owned by the City and people of Long Beach and operated by Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation as a public/private cooperative venture. Pamela Seager is the award-winning Executive Director of the Foundation. Twice listed on the National Register, Rancho Los Alamitos is the ancestral village site of Povuu’ngna. The 7.5-acre site was once part of the largest Spanish land grant awarded in California. The site is twice listed on the National Register of Historic Places – for its significance as Povuu’ngna and for the cultural and natural evolution of its landscape.

Rancho Los Alamitos includes four acres of historic gardens primarily designed by the Olmsted Brothers from the 1920s through the 1930s, the core of an adobe rancho house from about 1800, and an early 20th century barns area. The award-winning Rancho Center, with permanent exhibition space and the restored barns area, features the blending of regional culture and the natural environment through time, including the Native American, Spanish and Mexican periods, the ranching and farming era, and mid-20th-century life. A place for all time, today Rancho Los Alamitos speaks to Southern California, yesterday and tomorrow.

Rancho Los Alamitos gratefully acknowledges the following sponsors of

Conversations in Place 2016:

Metabolic Studio

IMPRINT Culture Lab

Studio 111

Mike Sfregola & Sue Shanley

Marjorie & Robert Rivera

Gelson’s