Lawrence Public Library

ELADATL, a history of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines, Sesshu Foster & Arturo Ernesto Romo

eng

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fiction

ELADATL

1133663653

Sesshu Foster & Arturo Ernesto Romo

a history of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines

"In the early years of the twentieth-century, the use of airships known as dirigibles - some as large as one thousand feet long - was being promulgated in Southern California by a semi-clandestine lighter-than-air movement. Groups like the East LA Balloon Club and the Bessie Coleman Aero Club were hard at work to revolutionize travel in the pre-apocalyptic Southwest, with an aim to literally lift oppressed people out of racism and poverty. ELADATL tells the story of this little-known period of American air travel in a series of overlapping narratives told by key figures, accompanied by a number of historic photographs and recently discovered artifacts, with appendices provided to fill in the missing links. The story of the rise and fall of this ill-fated airship movement investigates its long-buried history, replete with heroes, villains, and moments of astonishing triumph and terrifying disaster. Written and presented as an "actual history of a fictional company," this surrealist, experimental novel is a tour de force of politicized fantastic fiction, a work of hybrid art-making distilled into a truly original literary form. Developed over a ten-year period of collaborations, community interventions, and staged performances, ELADATL is a furiously hilarious send-up of academic histories, mainstream narratives, and any traditional notions of the time-space continuum"--, Provided by publisher

Sky city -- Chicken man -- They said someone will come -- Kraken attacks and destroys L.A. zeppelins -- Following years without communications from downtown, This was what our agents reported -- Dear swirling alhambra -- Long light of afternoon -- The famous TV show -- So our best efforts were undone -- The last to know -- Dear swirling alhambra -- Ball lightning and the general hospital -- What Is the purpose of mystery: interview with Oscar Zeta Acosta -- Interview with Juan Fish -- Interview with the Virgin Defacer -- Fly the East L.A. Dirigible Transport Lines -- ZAD manifesto