Public Spirits

Public Spirits is a publicly-accessible, free performance festival on Friday, October 23, 2026, featuring Pau S. Pescador, Ryat Yezbick, Jade Kuriki-Olivo, and Da Ron Vinson. The festival unites diverse communities at public and civic sites in Los Angeles’s Chinatown around urgent social themes in anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections. The festival will feature commissioned performances that engage with urgent social issues affecting members of marginalized and targeted communities. Public Spirits foregrounds the diverse identities of artists and participants, inviting them to work together to transform systems of exclusion through active civic engagement. Public Spirits will take place on October 23, 2026, from 9:30 am to 11:59 pm at public sites in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. Da Ron Vinson will perform in the LA State Historic Park three times, from 10 am to 11 am, 1 pm to 2 pm, and 4 pm to 5 pm. Jade Kuriki-Olivo will perform twice at the Chinatown Metro Station, from 11 am to 1 pm, and 2 pm to 4 pm. From 12 pm to 8 pm, Pau S. Pescador’s one-hour multimedia video will screen eight times on loop at the Performance Building. From 8 pm to 10 pm, Ryat Yezbick will perform at Metabolic Studio. From 10 pm to 11:59 pm, the festival will conclude with a closing celebration and talk back with artists and community leaders at the Golden Dragon Restaurant to encourage dialog about the festival. Public Spirits is part of High Performance: A 2-Year Conference presented by PAM with the GRI, Highways, 18th Street Arts Center, and LACE.