Linda J. Albertano, five decades-plus resident of Venice, and remarkable
Performance Artist, Poet, filmmaker and musician died on September 13, 2022.
She and I were both long-time supporters of the Venice BH.
There will be a Memorial for Linda on
Saturday, December 10, 2022, starting at 1:00pm
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice 90291.
Examples of her poetry will be read, and a video of her life will be shown.
The public is invited.
The literary community of Los Angeles anchored around Beyond Baroque among other numerous locations from Venice Beach to the downtown Los Angeles Library lost a significant voice on Sept 13, 2022. Linda Albertano was a longtime resident of Venice, CA, an icon of the LA poetry community, a rare talent among performance artists, and a gifted musician.
Ms. Albertano often incorporated multimedia elements into her poetry events such as original films she created for use as a backdrop, music & dance. She unleashed her intermedia art with groundbreaking performances at such major venues as The LA Theater Center, UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, The John Anson Ford Theater, Barnsdall Gallery, Beyond Baroque, SPARC, LACE, and Highways. She’s delivered her text at the LA Poetry Festival, South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, WORD LA, and ALLEN GINSBERG’S AMERICA (his memorial celebration), as well as places in Europe like London’s October Gallery and Edinburgh’s Edge. Both she & Wanda Coleman were among five poets who represented Los Angeles in Amsterdam’s One World Poetry Festival, a ten-day multinational bash underwritten by the Dutch Government. Albertano’s words are featured on the Venice Poetry Wall with Charles Bukowski and Wanda Coleman among other notables. In the role of evil nurse and executioner, she toured the US, Great Britain, and Canada twice with Alice Cooper.
Albertano’s colleagues and many fans were caught off guard by her unexpected passing. I have been asked to help get the word out. I’m hoping an article worthy of her contributions to the Los Angeles cultural community could appear in your publication before the memorial.
A Voyage LA article from 2018, covered Albertano’s rollercoaster life from a childhood of abuse & neglect through working a phantasmagoria of jobs including performing for the troops with the USO in Viet Nam and touring with Alice Cooper. I was fascinated in my personal conversations with her by her tales of bouncing along in jeeps with a rifle over her lap in the jungles of Viet Nam while touring with the USO. Despite all these adventures, Linda will be remembered most for being a gracious artist, generous in her support of others, and captivating on stage with her ability to continually surprise the audience. I’ve attached a photo I took after a show she did at Beyond Baroque on July 22, 2018. In the photo, she is pictured with her dance ensemble, dressed as sharks, who danced on crutches before a film montage while she recited her brilliant poetry! I’ll always cherish the memory of that performance as well as her provocative political poems inspired by themes of justice, equality, and environmental sanity.
Categories: Art
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