March 23, 2010

For immediate release:

The Studio for Southern California History hosts
its fourth annual fundraiser: An Affair in April.

Saturday, April 24, 2010
6 pm – 10 pm
525 Alpine Street Suite 103
Los Angeles, California 90012

The Studio for Southern California History (Studio), a non-profit organization dedicated to critically chronicling and disseminating the region’s social history in order to foster sense of place, is hosting its annual fundraiser. Tickets prices are $25 for Studio Members and $40 for non-members—children are free with a paying adult.

This fundraiser will include entertainment provided by Max Benavidez and Lennie Bluett. Benavidez will read his haunting and beautiful poem “Durango” and Bluett will sing and play the piano. The night’s events will include a raffle where guests may purchase tickets to win Studio products related to Southern California history (like playing cards, t-shirts & guides) and tickets to local movie and sporting events. There will be a silent auction where guests may bid on and win donated artwork from Los Angeles legends like Michael Amescua, Leo Limón & Linda Vallejo. Food will be provided by Los Angeles’ Hop Li Restaurant, the LA Pizza Kitchen and Pasadena’s Green Street Restaurant.

The Studio’s annual fundraiser is its only event where there is a price to attend. Since opening in 2006, the Studio has hosted free programs including an oral history program, exhibits, walking tours and workshops. It has gathered over 50 oral histories and conducted histories in communities in Crenshaw, East and West Los Angeles, Ventura, Watts and Chinatown. The Studio currently boasts a reference library of over 1,100 publications related to Los Angeles history and hosts multiple web-based research projects through the LA History Archive (www.lahistoryarchive.org). The Studio partnered with TOWN HALL LA for an Evergreen walking tour in October 2009 that is now on KPCC FM 89.3 radio station’s online magazine. In January 2010 local news channels 2, 9 & KOCE announced the Studio’s walking tour schedule as worthwhile events to attend in the region.

Max Benavidez is an award-winning author of six books including Gronk (UCLA CSRC and University of Minnesota Press) and Maria de Flor (Lectura Books). A former university professor and administrator, Benavidez is currently completing a novel, a book for young adults and a screenplay. He lectures widely and has presented his work at universities, libraries and conferences around the world.

Lennie Bluett is a pianist, singer, actor and dancer with a resume that includes films with stars like Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne and Grace Kelly. In the 1980s Lennie worked as a piano bar entertainer with Royal Viking Lines. His most requested songs are “Georgia on My Mind” and “As Time Goes By.” In addition to his annual gig at the Studio, he performs regularly in Morocco at a club designed especially for him and at El Cid’s on Sunset Boulevard. Bluett’s story has been told on television’s American Movie Classics as well as many other local news outlets for his history to Gone With the Wind as well as Cabin In the Sky.

Tickets may be purchased at the Studio for Southern California History or by visiting the Studio’s website after April 1, 2010.