“Electric Moons” with author Dr. India Mandelkern
Hosted by L.A. City Archivist Michael Holland
A Marie Northrop Lecture
Join us Sunday, February 11, 2024, at 2 p.m. at the Mark Taper Auditorium in the Central Library.
The first lecture in the 2024 Marie Northrop Lecture Series will be a discussion with Dr. India Mandelkern about her new book "Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles is famous for many things: its traffic jams, its taco trucks, its palm trees, its sunshine. “Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles” explores one of its most overlooked design legacies — its streetlights. In “Electric Moons,” India Mandelkern examines the art and politics of street lighting in Los Angeles from the 1880s to the present day.
Join Michael Holland of the Los Angeles City Historical Society for an afternoon conversation with Dr. India Mandelkern about her new book "Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles.”
INDIA MANDELKERN PHOTO FROM http://www.homogastronomicus.com
About the Author
India Mandelkern was born in Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of Middlebury College. She received her PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley. Since then, she has worked as a curator, consultant, and critic, and has written on art, culture, design, and the social connections that they sustain for a variety of publications, such as Vice, Curbed, Los Angeles Magazine, Roads & Kingdoms, Wine & Spirits, Eater, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. From 2016–2018 she served as a fellow at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she studied the intersections among placemaking and public art. There, she created Chris Burden's Urban Light: A Field Guide (2018), an alternative historical take on one of LA's most iconic landmarks. She currently works at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (LACMTA) and lives in Los Angeles.
Location
This lecture series is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles City Historical Society and the History Department of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library. Lectures are held in the Mark Taper Auditorium, on the first floor of the Central Library, 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles. For ADA accommodations, call (213) 228-7430 at least 72 hours prior to the event.
The library garage is located on the east side of Flower Street, just south of 5th Street. Flower Street is one-way, south. Parking is $1 from 1:00-5:00 with a library card. (Anyone arriving too early or choosing to stay in the garage past 5:00-5:15 would be charged $8.00 for the day.)