*Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the nations largest literary festival is one for the history books. It is hard to believe that this was the 23rd annual installment. The book festival was held April 21-22, on the beautifully maintained campus of the University of Southern California.
The Festival of Books featured a plethora of authors, over 500, celebrities, musicians, artists and chefs. An estimated crowd of 150,000 attended this years Festival of Books.
The Festival of Books was free and opened to the public. Festival attendees could purchase Festival Passes-this provided advance reservations for up to 20 conversations.
The USC Marching Band opened the show at 10:00am with arrangements of classic, popular tunes.
Los Cambalache presented an entertaining, inter-active set of Son Jaracho for the kids with a program entitled Los Animales en el Son Jaracho/Fandango!. This special concert, a multi-cultural children’s performance was presented by LA Libreria. Children’s and their parents were thoroughly engaged with their opening tune “Siquisiri.” The party continued with “Gallo” with the kids imitating a gallo (rooster). Their fun set continued with “Buscapie la Percussion,” followed by “Conejo” (rabbit) “Iguana D,” and closed their set with a rousing version of “LA Bamba.”
The Kinetic Winds, were founded in 2017. They performed a nice set of tunes that they arranged with their creative touch. The members of the group are Amber Wyma-bassoon, Sergio Coelho-clarinet, Chris Fujiwara-oboe, Sean Holmes-horn player and Emma McCartney-flute.
Festival attendees and I crissed crossed the campus to attend a number of event throughout the day. The book panels, conversations, signings were enhanced with panels on food, culinary culture and engaging and informative cooking demonstrations.
Sunday’s cooking demonstration featured the Smollett Family in a funny, family talk about their cookbook-The Family table. The cookbook features recipes of Louisiana cuisine and their take on other classic dishes to delight everyone’s taste buds. Each member of the family contributed recipes to the cookbook, that is available on-line, or wherever books are sold. Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Jazz Smollett-Warwell cooked an Oyster PO’BOY, with Jussie Smollett and Jake Smollett preparing a mouthwatering Chicken Lasagna Taco. I’m sure that reading about these dishes are making you hungry. All of this wonderful cooking demonstration were held on the Pacific Sales Cooking Stage.
The Blue Agave is the brainchild of renowned studio guitarist and popular USC music instructor Andy Abad and Latin Grammy nominated vocalist and guitarist Stephanie Amaro. The Blue Agave delivered a set of Latin classics with a dark, surf twist. Their captivating set consisted of the tunes “Besame Mucho,” Veredan la Tropical,” “El Gavilan,” “Historia de un Amor,” and the popular tune “Malaguena.”
Comedian and actor Mike Epps, author of “Unsuccessful Thug: One Comedian’s Journey from Naptown to Tinseltown. Mike Epps had a funny, engaging and frank conversation with Jeffrey Fleishman on the Los Angeles Times Main Stage.
Actor Leslie Odom Jr., of the smash Broadway musical Hamilton discussed his memoir Failing Up: How to Take Risk, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning. This popular conversation was moderated by Mary McNamara on the Los Angeles Times Main Stage.
Singer, songwriter, choreographer and dancer, Tiah Gina is a well known R&B vocalist on the campus of USC. I believe that she has the skills and talents to take her career to another level after witnessing her crowd pleasing set at the Festival of Books on the USC Stage. Her electrifying performance featured the tunes “I Will Survive,” “Molasses,” a SZA medley, “Where Do We Go,” followed by an original tune “Time” and closed her set with a medley of Cardi B songs.
The heat was on during the final musical performance of the Festival of Books. A dash of picante sauce was added to the mix for good measure during the by the USC Thornton Afro-Latin American Jazz ensemble (ALAJE). This talented group performed a great set of Afro-Cuban music with a jazz sensibility. ALAJE focuses on the rhythmic traditions of Latin America, with an emphasis on the music of Brazil and Cuba. ALAJE is a crowd favorite at cultural events and festivals throughout Southern California. The group has evolved into a “little big band” featuring awesome students arranged music. This tight ensemble is led by the faculty director Aaron Serfaty.
This last paragraph serves as reminder that it is time to dust off your dancing shoes, regardless of the genre of music, in preparation for the upcoming outdoor concert series/festival season in beautiful, sunny, Southern California.
Ricky Richardson is a Southern California based writer, music reviewer and photographer. contact him via: [email protected]
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