U-Space kicks off the Music Center’s ‘For the Love of L.A.’ second season

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Las Cafeteras

The Music Center has announced the curators and first featured artists of the second season of their online series, “For the Love of L.A.”

Airing every Tuesday from next week through April 20 on their website and Instagram, this season’s curators are Jason Arimoto and Petrice Oyama of downtown L.A.’s U-Space ukulele music center in Little Tokyo; Leeav Sofer of the Colburn School, Urban Voices Project and the band Mostly Kosher; the Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW) and writer-journalist Eva Recinos.

Arimoto and Oyama’s curation kicks off the season with musicians who contribute not only centers of culture but also economic growth in the city. In a statement on the Music Center’s website, they share that “Music is a part of the identity of each of our featured artists, whose pieces share expressions of strength, adaptability and resilience, from a perspective of everyday creativity with social and economic development activations.”

The first featured artists are also restauranteurs: Christine Araquel-Concordia and Johneric Concordia are locals who were raised in Echo Park and grew their BBQ catering business into the brick and mortar Park’s Finest and Southern-flavored Thunderbolt next door. When the pandemic hit, they organized the Feed the Frontliners Project to directly support healthcare workers (with a limited edition Vans shoe and T-shirt line releasing soon) and are also organizing sponsored meals for unemployed/underemployed hospitality workers.

Following next is Daniel French, cofounder of L.A. indie-hip hop-Latin fusion band Las Cafeteras. The Otis College of Art & Design grad will spotlight his mother’s business, Alicia’s Costumes, which has clothed events, plays, television and film with handmade costumes across Los Angeles County for 40 years. 

And the Shaloha ukulele jam ensemble caps off U-Space’s triplet of artists with a pre-recorded set filmed separately in self-quarantine and brought together for the very first time. U-Space partners with Croft Alley cafe in non-pandemic times with live, interactive play and sing-a-long events in West L.A. under the Shaloha banner.

The episodes air on Feb. 2, 9 and 16.