RFK in EKY, The Robert F. Kennedy Performance Project, is a series of public conversations and activities centered around the real-time, site-specific intermedia performance that recreated, on September 9th and 10th 2004, Robert Kennedy’s two-day, 200 mile “poverty tour” of southeastern Kentucky in 1968. An Appalshop project directed by John Malpede.
At a time when the Obama administration has renounced the “war on
drugs” rhetoric, making a major shift in policy by acknowledging the
U.S.’s culpability in the international drug trade, the Los Angeles
Poverty Department (LAPD) is embarking on a Bolivian tour for the South
American premiere of Agents & Assets. The project brings together victims
of the "War On Drugs' in Bolivia and the U.S., people who have
experienced first hand damage to their communities, their families,
themselves.LAPD will be in residence in Cochabamba, Bolivia to rehearse the Spanish
language performance of AGENTS & ASSETS with a combined
cast of LAPD'ers and Bolivianos. AGENTS & ASSETS will be performed in Cochabamba, Potosi,
Oruro, La Paz, El Alto, Sucre and Santa Cruz. Each performance will be
followed by public community discussion.
THE REAL DEAL, a documentary chronicling the evolution and impact of
the homeless performance group Los Angeles Poverty Department
(L.A.P.D.) and founder John Malpede. Produced by the Halo Group, THE
REAL DEAL was directed by Tom Jones and written by Jones and John
Malpede.
Los Angeles Poverty Department was founded in 1985 by director, actor, activist, and writer John Malpede. At its inception, LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people. LAPD is dedicated to building community on Skid Row, Los Angeles. Since 1985, the company has offered performance workshops that are free and open to the Skid Row community— partnering with numerous social service and advocacy groups, including SRO Housing, Inc.; LA Community Action Network; The Downtown Women’s Action Coalition; St.Vincent DePaul Center; The Salvation Army’s Women’s and Men’s drug recovery programs; and the Inner City Law Center.
Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) creates performance work that connects lived experience to the social forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty. LAPD is committed to creating high-quality, challenging performances that express the realities, hopes, and dreams of people who live and work in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, and is dedicated to building community and to the artistic and personal development of its members.
March 2, 2007, Washington There are approximately 754,000 homeless
people living in the United States. One in five of the homeless are
children. “On a yearly basis the total number of homeless fluctuates
between 2 and 3 million” says Philip Mangano, the director of the Bush
Administration's Interagency Council on Homelessness. The army of
homeless is growing because the housing costs are rising faster than
benefits and social services. Other causes are domestic violence,
drugs, the closing of mental hospitals and the lack of reintegration
back into the society after imprisonment. Although blacks make up 12 %
of the population in the US, they represent 45% of the homeless. One in
every 6 homeless people is a woman.
July 11 - Aug. 24: AGENTS & ASSETS in BOLIVIA
THE REAL DEAL, a documentary chronicling the evolution and impact of
the homeless performance group Los Angeles Poverty Department
(L.A.P.D.) and founder John Malpede. Produced by the Halo Group, THE
REAL DEAL was directed by Tom Jones and written by Jones and John
Malpede.
