Two women who share a love for Guatemala find a way to go–and give–back.

The lure of travel is often the desire to both lose and find oneself, to somehow be changed. For Caroline West and Laurie Levin, Guatemala was that place, a destination that transformed their lives. Yet neither had been back for 30 years, nor had they ever traveled there together. That all changed last fall when the two, longtime friends and colleagues, set out on a ‘mission of love and return,’ spending 10 days together in Antigua, a city in the central mountains of Guatemala famous for its cobblestoned streets and well-preserved Spanish colonial architecture. Caroline West, 91, has collected Guatemalan textiles since the 1960s and is the author of ‘Threads of Identity,’ published in 1995 by UCLA’s Fowler Museum in honor of its opening exhibit of the same title. Palisadian Laurie Levin, 58, and the author of several nonfiction books, spent two years in the late 1970s living, photographing and conducting anthropological Ph.D. research in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, a remote Indian village high in the mountains. Brought together through their association with the Fowler Museum, the women were profoundly affected by their respective experiences with the Maya people, so much so that each had vowed to return at some point in their lives to give something back. ‘I fell in love with Guatemala on my very first trip,’ West recalls. ‘Every time I went back I was more in love with the people. Even though they were poor and looked down upon by the non-indigenous populations, they still were happy and radiated a kind of joy you don’t often find.’ West believes much of that contentment comes from their rich artistic traditions, particularly weaving, an art that has been a distinctive part of their culture since before the arrival of the Spaniards. Ablaze with dazzling hues and intricate patterns, Guatemalan textiles continue to be created on backstrap looms in much the same way they have been for centuries. Although the great days of the Maya civilization are long gone, the Maya are far from a vanished people. Millions still live in their old lands, which include modern Guatemala and parts of Mexico, and adhere to ancient customs. Many continue to wear their traditional dress, colorful costumes unique to each highland village, though the influence of the modern world is increasingly evident, with cell-phone holders, high-heeled shoes, and an occasional ‘Hard Rock Cafe’ T- shirt seeping into view. Back at West’s Santa Monica house, where she has lived for 30 years, her affection for all things Guatemalan makes a pure statement. Exquisite textiles, both hanging and fashioned as pillows, and one-of-a-kind folk art pieces, most from Latin or South America, fill every corner. West first started making treks to Guatemala in the early 1960s, a time when few tourists were there. Spotting the intensely rich textiles was a revelation to her. Eager to spread the word about these newly found treasures, she orchestrated various showings of Guatemalan art around Los Angeles, all culminating in the ‘Threads of Identity’ show at the Fowler. Levin’s graduate work in anthropology led her to Guatemala when she was 27. ‘As soon as I arrived, I knew I was in a magical place,’ says Levin, who lived alone among the indigenous Maya in a far-flung village. Though her thesis was on land tender, her attentions quickly turned to weaving, something she observed happening everywhere. ‘I tried my hand at it and it was disastrous,’ she recalls. ‘Me, too,’ West chimes in, followed by much laughter. The joy West and Levin feel toward Guatemala is closely matched by the obvious pleasure they derive from each other. ‘Coming from this country where everything is so abundant, you really learn as an outsider what the difference is between what you need and what you want,’ Levin says. ‘It gives you pause. It’s given me pause for the last 30 years.’ After being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Levin had to leave Guatemala and return to the U.S. in a hurry. Left behind was all her research, which was later boxed and shipped to her. ‘They were never opened, ‘ says Levin, who associated the boxes with the trauma of her illness and recovery. The boxes contained hours of recorded research interviews in the native language still spoken in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, along with nearly 300 photographs. ‘But always in the back of my mind I wanted to do something with these materials, to finish off that cycle of my life.’ Fast forward 15 years, when happenstance led West and Levin to meet (West’s son was a neighbor of Levin’s in Santa Monica Canyon). Levin lent some of her photographs of Guatemala to the ‘Threads of Identity’ exhibition at the Fowler, which West co-curated. It was another decade before the two like-minded souls made the journey to Guatemala together. West decided it was time to donate a valuable work of art by Andres Currucchich, the first Mayan painter who gained worldwide fame, to Guatemala’s Museo Ixchel, a museum dedicated to indigenous art. Levin, too, felt a pressing need to return her extensive cultural-heritage research to those to whom it rightfully belonged, donating her now-historic photograph collection to CIRMA, a research institute in Antigua. The photographs will be exhibited at the Museo Ixchel next fall. Another mission of West’s is to have her ‘Threads of Identity’ exhibition catalogue reprinted in Spanish. During this last visit, she went to the marketplace armed with the book, creating instant communication with the Maya as she opened the pages to their delight. ‘It’s an acknowledgment that their mastery means something in the world,’ West says. ‘I didn’t co-author the book as an academic feat. I did it out of love for the Guatemalan people and the many lessons I’d learned from them and their way of living.’ The catalogue, long out of print, is scarce and West is always on the hunt to unearth old copies. Levin’s taped interviews, recorded 30 years ago with elders of Todos Santos Cuchumatan, are in the hands of PLFM, an organization that works to preserve Mayan language and culture. ‘I didn’t complete my Ph.D.,’ Levin notes. ‘This is finishing it on my own terms. It’s exactly the way it pleases me.’ ————– Reporting by Staff Writer Nancy Ganiard Smith. To contact, e-mail: smithpalipost@gmail.com

A classical Persian music concert, featuring guest artist Rowan Storm and the Lian Ensemble, will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 12 at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda. Storm, a resident of Athens and Los Angeles, grew up in Brentwood, attended St. Matthew’s School and graduated from PaliHi, where she was known as Ronnie Hicks. She and the Iranian-American musicians will provide vocals and instrumental music founded on Sufism and the mystical poems of Persia. The public is invited to the concert with tickets ($25) available at the door at 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact (310) 573-7787, ext. 4 or 395-0718. Storm’s devotion to the classical music of Persia comes from her strong connection with the Eastern music tradition experienced in Iran most recently, but first in her hometown of Los Angeles 35 years ago. Storm’s early years were no different from many kids growing up in the Palisades. She attended local schools–St. Matthew’s and Palisades High School, but her path became clearer through experience and circumstance. ‘I was at a concert of classical Persian music in Hollywood around 1967-8, which was a spiritual epiphany. I thought, ‘this is it, completely.” Soon after, Storm met some others who were playing the music, more accurately called Radif, and began to play and deepen her knowledge of the ancient tradition. Radif, and in many ways all Persian artwork, springs from and works toward the reunification of man with God. It is based on the Sufi belief that music reflects the first words of God, which elicited such ecstasy when Adam first heard them. And that the musical system was meant to allow the recreation of the music of the heavenly orbs by mankind. In other words, it is spiritual music. ‘Radif is the name of the repertoire of classical Persian music,’ Storm says. ‘It is a collection of nonrhythmic musical pieces that were compiled around 100 years ago from oral tradition. It is a memorized form and internalized. No notation, no sheet music. There is a lot of improvisation; the players may respond to the audience or to the time of day.’ The music is delivered typically by a small ensemble of players and a vocalist. The instruments often include a tonbak, or hand drum; santur, which is an ancestor of the hammer dulcimer, the daf, or frame drum and the tar, the most widely used plucked instrument in Iran today that resembles a fretted lute with six strings. During her college years, Storm was introduced to Musical Missions of Peace founder Cameron Power, who was the first musician to open the door for her, helping her out of her head to participate with others in the pursuit of–and enthrallment with–Middle Eastern music. In 1993, she closed her architecture/builder business in New York City and moved to Greece to study the music and ‘understand the cultural connection between the East and the West.’ She learned to play and teach the drums of the goblet family, which includes the Turkish dumbek, or tonbak in Persian. She was introduced to the master of great Persian classical music, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, with whom she studied and performed with for 5 1/2 years. Certainly the capstone of her understanding and appreciation of the music came about with her visit to Iran upon the invitation of the Iranian government for three months in the spring of 2006. ‘Because I can communicate in Zabane Farsi (Persian language), I enjoyed the freedom to speak to the people and learn more about their beliefs, their poetry and culture,’ she says. ‘I went to Kurdistan, which is off-the-radar-area of Iran and stayed with a woman who is head of the dervish order for two weeks. ‘The thing I want Americans to know about is the amazing hospitality in Iran, where the guest is primary even if the host has nothing. I also want all of us to know that poetry is such a deep part of Persian culture, even among the illiterate. Rumi is probably the most widely recognized of the six major Persian poets. The classical Persian music is based on that poetry.’

In anticipation of the soon-to-be completed recreation of Kent Twitchell’s mural of the ‘Old Woman of the Freeway’ on Valley Institute of Visual Art (VIVA) gallery’s west wall, VIVA is honoring six women who have managed to succeed as artists, overcoming the cultural barriers and biases of the dominant male art world. In conjunction with The Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art, VIVA presents ‘Women of a Certain Age,’ from January 17 through February 10 at the gallery, 13261 Moorpark St. in Sherman Oaks. Palisadian artist Joan Vaupen was invited to participate in the exhibition, not because of her age, but because of her exploration of nontraditional media, which many women have chosen, feeling excluded from the male-identified fields of painting and sculpture. All of these artists work in nontraditional media, assemblage, watercolors and mixed media. They also share an interest in political activism and community service, which visibly imbues their work with powerful meaning and inspiration. Vaupen turned her attention to making art full time 15 years ago, after retiring from teaching in the Santa Monica school district, where she also administered the elementary art programs. ‘After I retired, I used my pension money to support my studio at Santa Monica Airport, and over the years have compiled a lot of work,’ she says. Fifteen of her pieces, which form a retrospective of her work, will be exhibited. Born in Seattle, Vaupen graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in art and, midway through studying for a master’s degree, found her first job in Japan, teaching arts and crafts to civilians who worked for the military. She returned to California in 1960 and eventually moved to the Palisades at the end of that decade while also finishing her master’s degree in painting from Cal State L.A. Her passion has been exploring alternative materials, and experimenting with ways of doing things ‘better or differently.’ Often working outside the boundaries of canvas and paint can be challenging. When, for example, Vaupen was making her Plexiglass fortune cookie series, she heated the Plexi in order to bend it. ‘It is always a challenge, hoping it won’t break while coaxing it to bend, because Plexiglass remembers flat,’ Vaupen says. Most recently, she has been working with industrial titanium, which, while valued for its tensile strength, is almost impossible to cut. When trying to clean it, Vaupen used a burr, creating a moire, which she then blasted with heat to produce a rainbow of colors in a beautiful pattern. Vaupen will also include a number of her trenchant political commentaries, including ‘Hollywood Smoke House,’ which lambastes the movie industry for promoting smoking on screen. ‘Today they’re still paying movie stars to smoke,’ she says. In another painting, ‘Gold Star,’ Vaupen presents the American flag, with one gold star in the field of blue. The red and white stripes lay in wavy horizontal lines like bandages covering dead soldiers’ faces.

Photographs by JIM KENNEY Although his early morning trips to the Malibu Lagoon have everything to do with birds, Jim Kenney makes it clear that he’s not an official birder. ‘I’ve photographed 80 or 90 species and I know all of these birds thoroughly,’ he says. ‘But I’m not in the same league as a birder, nor do I want to be. I’m primarily a photographer.’ During the past few years, Kenney, a longtime Palisadian, has trailed birds with much the same zeal he had previously devoted to documenting flora in the Santa Monica Mountains. ‘Instead of 30 years photographing wildflowers, it’s only been three years with birds,’ explains Kenney, who is renowned as an expert on local plants. Kenney, a retired dentist, turned his outdoor attentions to the Malibu Lagoon when physical problems made it difficult to continue hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. ‘When I first started, I knew nothing about birds, I mean zero,’ says Kenney. ‘Now I’ve become obsessed. I go three or four times a week in the early morning.’ Kenney speaks with both authority and enthusiasm about the diverse array of winged creatures he spots at Malibu Lagoon. Teeming with resident shorebirds, the lagoon also attracts more than 200 species that stop during their annual migrations. The snowy egret, a small, delicate all-white heron adorned with showy plumes during breeding season, has come into Kenney’s viewfinder just twice in three years. In one photograph, Kenney captures the bird in full mating dance animation. Kenney is especially pleased with a close-up shot of a sora, lyrically composed to include the bird’s reflection in the water. Though common, the sora, a small marshbird with a yellow bill, is secretive and often hides in the reeds, making it hard to photograph. The brown pelican, always a spectacle for its ability to plunge from the air into water to catch food, has the added attraction of sporting a bright yellow head during breeding season. Double-crested cormorants, known for spreading their wings to dry them, are a common sight, as are four varieties of terns: royal, elegant, Caspian and least. ‘Although winter is the best time to see birds that are here as part of migration, the four terns are here summer and fall,’ Kenney notes. The lagoon, located off Pacific Coast Highway at Cross Creek Road, is where Malibu Creek meets the sea. It empties into the Pacific Ocean at world-famous Malibu Surfrider Beach, a destination for approximately 1.5 million visitors each year. Kenney marvels at how birds continue to thrive at the lagoon despite continued pollution issues and the impact of humans. ‘There used to be 90 percent more estuaries in California,’ he says. Malibu Lagoon has undergone many changes in recent history. Used as a dump site in the 1950s and ’60s, it later was filled in and housed two baseball fields. It was in 1983 that the California Department of Parks and Recreation initiated a restoration of the former wetlands that involved excavation of three channels to reintroduce tidal flow and seeding with salt marsh plants. ‘A lot of photography is happenstance and luck, but you have to be prepared,’ says Kenney, who arrives at the lagoon with his digital camera as early as 7:30 a.m. to take advantage of the early morning light. ‘Rarely do I see birders with a camera,’ he says, noting how there’s a certain element of trust associated with their methods. ‘What surprises me is that more of them are not photographers,’ he adds. ‘It would confirm whatever they saw.’ Reporting by Staff Writer Nancy Ganiard Smith. To contact, e-mail: smithpalipost@gmail.com

In September, Ed Park was hired as assistant principal in charge of student discipline, school safety and budget at Paul Revere Middle School. Park was an assistant principal at Portola Middle School in Tarzana before coming to the Westside. Although Park is a slight man, who looks as if he could be a student at Revere, he has already garnered the respect of students. He explained that he likes to use pre-emptive measures, including early intervention and making sure that students who have been identified with problems know the code of conduct. ‘They need good guidance,’ Park said. ‘We create a place that shows we mean business, which then provides a good educational environment. Safety is one of my first concerns, and students need to know that bullying and threats are no joke.’ Although school had been in session for only a few months, Park’s style was having an impact. ‘I’ve noticed incredible changes,’ he said in the fall. ‘There are less referrals to my office.’ Park understands what it is like to grow up in a tough environment. In 1976, when he was 8, his parents emigrated from Korea, where his father had worked as a high school chemistry teacher and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. Once in Los Angeles, his dad worked as a chemist and his mom became an assembly line worker. The couple saved their money and bought a market in East L.A., where the population was close to 100-percent Latino. They worked 16 to 17 hours a day. ‘My mom still speaks Spanish better than English,’ Park said. The store was robbed numerous times and family members were held up at gunpoint. Park relayed this information in a matter-of-fact way as if it were a common growing-up experience. From East L.A., his family moved to the Crenshaw area in South L.A. and opened a clothing store. Again, it wasn’t an easy life for his parents. ‘Numerous times members of my family had a knife held to their throat,’ Park said. ‘After the Rodney King trial in 1992, the family store was burned to the ground in less than 20 minutes.’ The day-to-day violence was enough for his parents, and the family moved to the San Fernando Valley, where they bought another store. ‘I would not take back all the things that happened to me in those tough neighborhoods because it gave me a vision of wanting to succeed,’ Park said. ‘It has made me a better teacher and administrator. It helps me to understand some of the students who are living in that kind of circumstance. We lived around gang members and, at the same time, I know there are good families [in that area].’ While Park was growing up, one of the major things his parents emphasized was a good education. He attended Walter Reed Middle School for the highly gifted and North Hollywood High School. He graduated with a business degree from Biola University in Orange County. ‘My original plan was to go to law school,’ said Park, who changed his mind after teaching third- and fourth-grade Sunday school. ‘I loved it.’ He reassessed what he wanted from a job and he realized he didn’t want to be in an office, but out interacting with people. Park started teaching at Christian Way School in Woodland Hills until he was credentialed, and then taught sixth grade at Holmes Middle School. His next stop was Walter Reed, where he worked with some of his former teachers and was elected dean of students by the faculty. After that he went to Portola, and then Revere. He aspires to be a principal, and part of that process is to work in different assistant principal positions. This is the first time Park has worked on the Westside. ‘It is an interesting area in a good way because of the level of the parent organization,’ he said. ‘I am so impressed because of their ownership of the school and their willingness to make it a better place.’ After college Park taught himself how to play drums and bass, which he enjoys in his spare time. He holds a brown belt in judo, but also trains an hour and a half three times a week in Brazilian jiu jitsu, which is termed ‘submission grappling,’ but as Park said, ‘It’s a chess game. It’s not brute strength; it’s about positioning.’ Park also practices yoga daily because ‘the breathing and stretching are important for jiu jitsu.’ He competes in the featherweight division in tournaments throughout Southern California and says that when he turns 40, ‘I’m going to Brazil to train and enter the Mundial Jiu Jitsu Championships. ‘If that doesn’t work out, I’ll take up golf,’ he said jokingly. Park is also executive board member of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture in the United States, which promotes Korean language courses in the school realm. He sees it as a starting point to try and introduce more Asian language courses. He is bilingual and is a member of the Korean Educators Association and one of only three Korean-American administrators in the LAUSD at the middle- and high-school level. Park and his wife, Hannah, live in Glendale with their two daughters, Lindsey, 9, and Abigail, 7. His wife is an assistant principal at Campbell Hall in Studio City, where his daughters attend school. When the school bell sounded the beginning of nutrition, Park excused himself to join students on the campus and said, ‘I am happy and fulfilled with what I’m doing.’