'Everyday Courage' event promotes California arts, humanities
A big event Tuesday night in Los Angeles will lift up arts and culture, history and the humanities. The theme is “ Everyday Courage .” The nonprofit California Humanities will present its Spirit of the Humanities Awards. Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, will receive the award for Courageous Leadership. She said California's postwar mistreatment of Japanese Americans remains highly relevant today. "It's critically important that we not only know the history but we understand history, because if we don't know what the lessons of history are, then they can so easily be repeated," Burroughs explained. The evening’s featured speaker will be playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino, which helped spread the word about strikes and marches by Chicano farmworkers in the 1960s. PBS currently features a documentary on the subject, called "American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez." Sen. Ben Allen, D-El Segundo, will be honored as the legislative champion for his support of the film industry and arts education. "They've been an incredibly important part of what makes California special," Allen emphasized. "So much of our global leadership has to do with our cultural leadership, the fact that we're
