Lifestyle
Chloë Sevigny and Cory Kennedy Honor the Downtown Poets

Phantoms from a vanishing downtown have been summoned to St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery final Friday for the Poetry Mission’s fifty fifth anniversary gala. The group is an everlasting harborage for New York Metropolis poets, and the occasion introduced a number of generations of the inventive group underneath one steeple to rejoice the spoken phrase.
Attendees in fits, robes, indoor beanies and sleeveless turtlenecks chatted within the aspect aisles through the cocktail hour. Some questioned if this quasi-formal affair, with $500 seats and a step-and-repeat, squared with the Poetry Mission’s bohemian previous and its affiliation with penniless bards.
“There’s just a little grumbling about, ‘How can poets cost cash for this sort of factor?’” mentioned Anne Waldman, who was the group’s director from 1968 to 1978. “I say we have to hold this place going, and we’ve got to develop up and be a part of the tradition.”
The eclectic checklist of writers, musicians, actors and designers mirrored that outreach. Daniel Lopatin, the experimental digital music producer who performs as Oneohtrix Level By no means, mentioned his favourite poet was Clark Coolidge. “The phrases are virtually nonsense,” Mr. Lopatin mentioned. “It’s very a lot rooted in his jazz follow, and I worship him.”
Subsequent to him was Cory Kennedy, an embodiment of the “indie sleaze” period of the mid-late-aughts, who wore a gauzy tee and pencil skirt, each Calvin Klein. She joked that she was a fan of a recent warrior-poet. “Zelensky’s not unhealthy,” she mentioned.
Dinner was served within the nave. An extended desk close to the stage included Chloë Sevigny, Zac Posen, Nate Lowman, Andrew VanWyngarden and Arden Wohl. Leek French dressing arrived with mozzarella di bufala.
“I believe honoring the upsetters is essential,” mentioned Ms. Sevigny, who wore a pink, black and grey ball robe by All-In, which had the confectionary sheen of a raspberry-glazed doughnut. “There’s a really cool era that at the moment are our elders,” she mentioned.
Dasha Nekrasova, an actress and podcaster, sat just a few tables away. She wore a black costume from Brock Assortment and darted exterior to smoke with a cadre of seatmates.
Elsewhere, Paul Slovak, an editor at Penguin Books, sprinkled lore over roast rooster with fava beans. He was on this identical room for a 1997 recital of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Street,” and Allen Ginsberg’s stay recording of “Wichita Vortex Sutra” in 1994. “I believe it’s a really golden second for poetry,” he mentioned. “There are a lot of, many supremely gifted younger poets.”
The after-party was held at the back of the church and company spilled out right into a backyard patio. Telfar Clemens, the designer, and Juliana Huxtable, the artist, have been available for theatrical poetry performances and a D.J. spinning dance music.
Mr. Posen, the style designer, was requested if poetry is likely to be having a style second. In spite of everything, Demna Gvasalia learn a poem by Oleksandr Oles on the Balenciaga present in Paris, Loewe cited the poetry of Sylvia Plath as an inspiration for its newest present, and types like Valentino and Tory Burch not too long ago collaborated with writers.
“Clothes may be poetry if worn by the correct particular person,” Mr. Posen mentioned, “or the fallacious one.”

Lifestyle
Trump plans to name himself chair of Kennedy Center, fire board members

President Trump announced Friday that he planned to take over as chair of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
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President Trump says he is taking over leadership of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. He declared himself chairman of Washington D.C.’s long-celebrated cultural institution on Friday. In doing so, he’ll replace billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, an ally of former President Joe Biden who was set to chair until 2026.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote he was immediately terminating “multiple individuals” from the center’s Board of Trustees “who do not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Trump said he would soon announce a new board, “with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He also called out the center’s programming.
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
A representative for Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of private equity giant Carlyle, said he had “no comment” about the news. But a statement from the Kennedy Center said they had received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to the board of trustees, though they were aware that board members received termination notices.

“There is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members,” read the statement. “However, this would be the first time such action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board.”
The statement also referred to the “strong support” the center had received throughout its history “from members of Congress and their staffs—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.” The Center has had “a collaborative relationship with every presidential administration,” the statement elaborated, with “a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the arts in a non-partisan fashion.”
During his first term as president, Trump did not attend the Kennedy Center’s annual gala; performing artists protested his administration and threatened to boycott Kennedy Center events at the White House.
It wasn’t immediately clear which Kennedy Center board members Trump would oust. During his presidency, Biden appointed several members to the center’s board, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Democratic National Committee finance chair Chris Korge. TV producer Shonda Rhimes is the board’s treasurer, and musician Jon Batiste is also on the board.
According to the center’s website, President Dwight D. Eisenhower conceived of an “artistic mecca” in the nation’s capital in 1955. Eisenhower signed a law establishing the National Cultural Center, and President Kennedy then led fundraising efforts to build it. In 1964, two months after Kennedy was assassinated, the cultural center opened in his name as a “living memorial” to present classical and contemporary music, opera, dance, and other performing arts from the U.S. and around the world.
Over the years, the Center has showcased and honored many performing artists, including Fred Astaire and Marian Anderson, in 1981 to last year’s honorees, The Grateful Dead, Frances Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater.
Among those performing at the Kennedy Center this weekend are the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a staging of the musical Schmigadoon.

Lifestyle
L.A. Affairs: We had a good connection. Why did he break up with me before Valentine’s Day?

We met at the car wash. Seated in the shade, we struck up a conversation about our Thanksgivings. He asked to meet the next day at Lifeguard Tower 17 to surf. When I showed up, Jon, already in the water, waved and smiled at me. We surfed together, fulfilling a romantic dream. We laughed in between waves.
On our second date, we lunched at a Japanese restaurant, where he asked about my values and dreams. We realized how alike we were. On our third date, we held hands as we walked our rescue dogs in a park.
Two months in, he asked, “Can I propose to you after six months?”
I said, “Yes.”
Three months in, he drove me around his ideal neighborhood, asking if I could see myself living there and joking that he, his daughters and I would all watch “Chopped” together.
I wanted it all: the proposal, the neighborhood, the two daughters, him.
But Jon broke up with me — a day before Valentine’s Day — in a rambling voicemail. I was so confused that I emailed him for clarification. He wasn’t ready to settle down until his daughters left for college, and he had to overcome his ex-wife’s infidelity.
I believed we’d eventually reunite like in a rom-com: We’d paddle through waves and kiss across our surfboards.
Yet on the summer solstice, I spotted his SUV at the beach. My eyes jumped to his white surfboard and an unfamiliar blue board on top of his car. I panicked, wondering whose surfboard lay atop his.
After all, Jon had recently texted me about surfing together again. Hearing from him had appeased my bruised ego.
Spotting the surfboards piqued my curiosity. With the crowd, I remained unseen, trudging toward the water, while trying to catch sight of him and his surf partner. My annual solstice dip didn’t produce any elation. Instead, confusion and jealousy had settled in. Leaving, I spotted Jon beside a woman with a tanned body, her bikini top overflowing with D cups above a toned belly. I never saw her face.
With his texts, Jon had buttered me up: how great my cooking is, how nice I am to my dogs, how cute I am. Then he called, and I answered. He wanted to surf, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I needed more mea culpa. And just like that, he disappeared.
But there he snuggled beside a perfect body — a far cry from my petite, curvy self.
Days later, Stacey, a CrossFit acquaintance, posted a picture standing beside a surfboard with a red stripe down the middle, a board like Jon’s.
A few weeks later, she messaged me, admitting she was dating Jon, and saying if he showed up at CrossFit functions, she didn’t want me to be surprised. Two days later, I’d be volunteering at an event Stacey was competing in.
She signed off with “I hope there are no hard feelings.”
I responded: “Absolutely no hard feelings. Kick some ass in your competition.” And I added a smiley face emoji.
The relief of knowing lasted 20 minutes. I thought I’d obsess less now, instead, a new problem presented itself: Why her and not me?
At the event, Stacey complimented me on how cute I looked. (I worked cleavage, braided pigtails and a trucker hat.) A minor victory for me. When our eyes met, Jon and I nodded at each other from across the competition area.
As I was leaving, he signaled for me to stop. After amicable chitchat, he asked why he never saw me around.
“I was surprised when I saw your car at San Onofre,” I told him. That’s a surf spot about 20 miles south of our local spot. When we dated, we never left our ZIP Code.
“Why didn’t we see you out there? You should have said hi.”
I must have made a face because he added, “We’re all adults. You should have surfed with us.”
“I’m not going to surf with you two.”
“It’s not like we’re all kumbaya out there,” Jon said.
About a week later, while walking on the beach, I spotted Jon and Stacey surfing off the lifeguard tower Jon and I surfed at and the same break where we kissed in between sets.
Stacey and Jon had now been together longer than we were, yet I still struggled with their coupledom. She signed him up as her plus-one for the CrossFit holiday party. I didn’t go. I stopped going to all CrossFit events. I quit surfing at the beach where we had surfed together and where I first stood up on a board.
But Jon and I weren’t a great fit. I had ignored red flags because he was cute, funny and kind, and he loved the ocean too.
But my heart, my brain and my ego would not accept his new relationship. I felt like the epitome of a cliché: wanting what I couldn’t have. Although I didn’t want him, my self-esteem plummeted when I saw Stacey because I could only think: Why did she win?
I eventually realized I was only punishing myself. I translated Jon and Stacey’s successful relationship into a score: She won, I lost; he won, I lost.
When I finally returned to CrossFit’s holiday party a year later — solo — Stacey came with a new boyfriend. How did that happen? Two relationships to my none.
Two weeks later, Stacey and I attended a workout, which coincided with her birthday. I asked about her plans. “My boyfriend’s cooking me dinner. Not Jon. My new boyfriend.” Then, she smiled.
Between sets, I mustered up the courage to say, “Speaking of Jon, I owe you an apology for giving you bad vibes when you were dating him. That was my issue.”
“You never did, but I understood why it would have been hard on you.”
I thanked her and realized I’d forced myself into a competition that neither Stacey nor I needed to be in. Jon was never the prize.
And I didn’t need to apologize to her. I needed to forgive myself for the unnecessary pain I added to a difficult situation. I doubted myself so much. I gave them power over me, my workouts and my time on my board, on the waves and in my beloved ocean.
The author teaches creative writing at a local arts high school. She’s on Instagram: @littlemighty
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
Lifestyle
'Love Hurts' has big fight-movie skills : Pop Culture Happy Hour

Ke Huy Quan in Love Hurts
Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures
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Ke Huy Quan in Love Hurts
Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures
In the new action movie Love Hurts, Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan stars as a real estate agent who has remade his life after leaving the employ of his terrifying gangster brother. But when a beautiful and mysterious former associate (Ariana DeBose) returns into his life, everything goes haywire. The movie has hand fighting and a touch of romance–just in time for Valentine’s Day.
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