Opening Celebration

To mark the opening of Bridge Projects and the installation of Phillip K. Smith III’s new work, 10 Columns, the Los Angeles-based collective Bridge to Everywhere and poet Mandy Kahn have been commissioned to activate the exhibition space through music and poetry.

Bridge to Everywhere’s program of cross-cultural contemporary music features works by Los Angeles-based composers Derrick Spiva Jr, Reena Esmail, Juan Pablo Contreras, Philip Graulty, and James Waterman, including two world premieres. The program explores connections found across diverse musical traditions, including Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, traditional West African music, Mexican folk music, Western classical music, and jazz. From flute, violins, and Hindustani vocals to electric guitar, tampura and percussion from around the world, the collective strives to build new bridges between instruments, genres, cultures, and people.

Mandy Kahn will read a commissioned poem written in response to the works of Phillip K. Smith III. She is the author of two poetry collections, Glenn Gould’s Chair and Math, Heaven, Time. Her poetry was included in The Best American Poetry 2018 and was featured in former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s newspaper column American Life in Poetry. She has given readings at Cambridge University and London Review Bookshop in the UK, has been interviewed by BBC Radio, Flaunt, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.

Both Bridge to Everywhere and Mandy Kahn will perform these works around the exhibition space throughout the evening, activating different locations and inspiring connections among music, poetry, 10 Columns, and Bridge Projects as a whole.