Clockshop presents Reading and Listening by Moonrise to mark the closing of the underpinning by artist Rodrigo Valenzuela at Clockshop, featuring performances by poet Cynthia Dewi Oka, musician Nailah Hunter, and DJ Xica Soul on Sunday, March 24, 2024 from 3:00–5:00 PM.

LOCATION CHANGE: Due to forecasted rain on Sunday, this event will be hosted indoors at Clockshop. See location details below.

Due to location change this event has reached max capacity and tickets will be checked at the door.

A poet based in Los Angeles with roots in Bali, Indonesia, Cynthia Oka accesses precarity as a politic and source of strength. Her work is a hybridity of form across genres, spanning poetry, documentative nonfiction, and archive to make seen the historical emergences and subjects of displacement, such as in Fire Is Not a Country (Northwestern, 2021), an exploration of the marks made by our colonial inheritances. Nailah Hunter is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist whose compositions act as an ingress and portal into the mystical disclosures and elisions of the natural world, as witnessed in her debut album Lovegaze released earlier this year. Hunter’s entrancing vocals combine with the ethereal qualities of her harp to conjure images of ancient ruins, lapsed structures, and the resiliency of nature beyond the human.

Designed to be staged within the sculptural boundaries of the underpinning at Los Angeles State Historic Park, the performances will consider the gradations of access to beauty and aesthetics—who has access to public lands, from whom is it withheld, and for what function are they designated? A container for these questions, the underpinning considers intentional placemaking lacking elsewhere in the built infrastructures of Los Angeles. 

The evening will be joined by Los Angeles-based DJ and radio host Xica Soul, an uninhibited and boundless selector known for her genre-spanning, energetic sets that spark connection and make a dance floor move. 

Enjoy tacos made from fresh, seasonal ingredients and refreshments made available by Cinco Cazuelas.

This event is free and open to the public. Clockshop suggests a $5 donation to support our Reading and Listening by Moonrise series.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cynthia Dewi Oka
Originally from Bali, Indonesia, Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of four books of poems, most recently A Tinderbox in Three Acts, (BOA Editions, 2022) and Fire Is Not a Country (Northwestern University Press, 2021). A recipient of the Amy Clampitt Residency, Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and the Leeway Transformation Award, her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Oprah Daily, POETRY, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, Hyperallergic, and elsewhere. An alumnus of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she has taught creative writing at programs and colleges nationwide. For fifteen years, Cynthia served social movements for racial, gender, climate, and migrant justice as an organizer, trainer, and fundraiser. Based in Los Angeles, she currently works as a strategic consultant and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Adi Magazine.

Nailah Hunter
The LA-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter has been recording mystical folk and ambient-inspired music since 2019, releasing a series of singles and two EPs: Spells and, most recently, Quietude. Now signed to Fat Possum, Lovegaze is Hunter’s debut full-length, an enthralling album that draws listeners into her enchanting cosmology. As the daughter of a Belizean pastor, Hunter began her musical journey in the church, where she played drums and guitar and sang in the choir. She continued on to study music at CalArts, where she studied vocal performance and was given her first harp lesson. Associating the instrument with fantasy, psychedelia, and dream worlds, Hunter became an immediate devotee, locking herself in a room for six hours a day to practice the instrument. To make Lovegaze, Hunter decamped to a small coastal city along the English Channel where she began recording demos with a borrowed celtic harp. The resulting collection, Lovegaze, is a bewitching testament to the resiliency of the natural world.

Xica Soul
Xica Soul is a DJ and radio host based in Los Angeles, an uninhibited and boundless selector known for her genre-spanning, energetic sets that make a dance floor move. She is a natural music communicator, manifesting vibrant synergies and diverse sounds in uniquely-crafted sets, born from her relentless fixation to dig for kaleidoscopic tracks that spark connection. It is part of Xica Soul’s ethos: to create a safe space for dancers of all backgrounds to express themselves and build community, both on and off the dance floor.

ACCESSIBILITY
Arrival
Clockshop is located at 2806 Clearwater Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039.

Parking options
There is street parking surrounding the building. If you are driving, we recommend searching for parking on Clearwater St, Fruitdale St, and Worthen Ave. Please be mindful of two-hour parking on Ripple Street. We always recommend carpooling or ridesharing as parking availability can be impacted by neighbors like Salazar and Zebulon.

If you plan to arrive by bus, there are two bus stops nearby: 603 on Fletcher/Ripple and 182 on Fletcher/Crystal. If you are planning to bike, you are welcome to bring in your bike for safe keeping during the event.

Restrooms
There are two all-gender public restrooms on site.

NOTE
This event was originally scheduled to be a closing performance for the underpinning by artist Rodrigo Valenzuela at Los Angeles State Historic Park. We encourage attendees to see the artwork while it’s on view through Sunday, March 24.