Chasing Monsters from Under the Bed performance. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Poverty Department.
Music & Performance

Chasing Monsters from under the Bed

  • This is a past program

Copresented with Los Angeles Poverty Department

Collaboratively created, written, and performed by Los Angeles Poverty Department cast members and codirected by Henriëtte Brouwers and John Malpede, Chasing Monsters explores the process of recovery from mental illness and homelessness at a time when thousands of homeless, mentally ill people are abandoned, feared, and threatened by aggressive policing. 

Coffee and tea to follow.

Los Angeles Poverty Department: 30 Years of Art and Urban Advocacy

Founded in 1985 on Los Angeles’s Skid Row by the performance artist, director, and activist John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department is made up principally of homeless or formerly homeless people and has been an uncompromising force in performance and activism for almost 30 years. LAPD makes artistic work to change the narrative about people living in poverty, aiming to create a community of compassion and inspire the next generation of artists. 

Believing change is about exchange, LAPD blurs categories and confounds expectations, bringing together arts organizations, social services, activists, and homeless people to speak out on issues such as housing, mental illness, the war on drugs, and mass incarceration. 

All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from an anonymous donor.

Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, an anonymous donor, The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, and all Hammer members.

The Hammer’s digital presentation of its public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.