The acquittal of the officers involved in the beating set off the riot that saw an innocent white trucker, Reginald Denny, being pulled from his truck and beaten nearly to a pulp by an angry mob, another video horrifying to witness decades later. Bless the brave souls who rescued and saved his life.

Just as hard to experience, in the same month as the Rodney King beating, was the security camera video of Korean convenience store owner, Soon Ja Du, shooting and killing black teenager Latasha Harlins for attempting to steal an orange juice. Her voluntary manslaughter verdict was suspended, with the judge fining her $500 and community service, outraging the black community and resulting in the mass destruction of Korean-owned businesses during the riot.

What’s not painful is the strength of each actor’s performances in multiple roles in Twilight Los Angeles, 1992. Anna Deavere Smith originally conducted dozens of interviews and shaped their own words into this play. She portrayed—uncannily—every person she spoke with, in their tone of voice and character, including members of the community, leaders, activists, politicians, academics and the officers who beat Rodney King, while attempting to unravel how things turned out that way.

These five actors—Hugo Armstrong, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Lisa Renee Pitts, Jeanne Sakata, and Sabina Zúñiga Varela—have achieved something remarkable; a play that is both new and old, as impactful as it was the first time when everything was still raw. They inhabited their characters even as they switched rapidly from one to another.

I have a personal interest in this play: because of it, KCRW, the public radio station where I spent my career, created “Which Way, L.A.?� with Warren Olney, a multiple-award-winning program that I co-produced in its first five years on air.
Has anything really changed in our racially-divided society, locally or nationally? I can’t honestly say it has. Can you?

The New Hammer Museum
The Hammer Museum is now a world-class destination for art goers, with its $90 million expansion and renovation, moving away from the great masters that Armand Hammer collected and toward the wild world of contemporary art. The lobby, now visible from the street on the corner of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, has added the former bank building next door, an outdoor space on Wilshire, and a gallery on the third floor to highlight contemporary works from its collection, a move spearheaded by museum director Ann Philbin.

The lobby is literally enmeshed in 800 pounds of a deep red yarn, interwoven throughout the space and up the stairs. Called “Network,� it’s an immersive piece by Chiharu Shiota, and you can choose from any number of interpretations—including a massive nest, the human body’s arterial system, our community and neural connections—subject only to your imagination.

In the building next door, Rita McBride has created a laser display called “Particulates,� using 16 high-intensity neon green laser beams to create a high energy field of focus. The space was partially left unfinished, adding to the dust that the laser light bounces off. Just outside is Sanford Biggers’ sculpture, “Oracle,� just look up from the sidewalk, it’s unmissable.

The new gallery of contemporary works is worth a trip all its own. “Together in Time� features newly-acquired works in diverse mediums by multi-ethnic emerging Los Angeles and international artists. It’s a revelation. You’ll see pieces by Mark Bradford, Noah Davis, Jimmie Durham, Lee Mullican (from 1951), Eleanor Antin, Nicole Eiseman, Christina Fernandez and dozens of others. Just go. You’ll get it. And it’s free! hammer.ucla.edu

Jean-Michel Basquiat:
King Pleasure
A fantastic four-gallery look at the life and works of the highly gifted but far-too-short-lived artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has been organized by his sisters. It’s a truly eye-popping and contextual exhibition of everything from his childhood drawings to the multi-million-dollar graffiti-esque street-art canvases and wood paintings he is renowned for. This is a family’s perspective, not a scholarly treatise and it’s truly refreshing.

There are re-creations of his family home and studio—and even his actual bicycle—with ample video interviews to explain what motivated his work, how he exploded onto the art scene...and left it too young. It’s at the Frank Gehry-designed The Grand LA, directly across from Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall. But try to find parking somewhere other than at The Grand, which is pricey to the point of absurdity. kingpleasure.basquiat.com

Sarah A. Spitz is an award-winning public radio producer, retired from KCRW, where she also produced arts stories for NPR. She writes features and reviews for various print and online publications.