San Diego, CA
San Diego weekend arts events: Incarcerated artists, 'Stir' and ballet
Top picks
‘Voices on the Inside’
Poetry, Visual art, Photography | “Voices on the Inside” is a new exhibit of self-portrait photography and poetry by incarcerated women from California, Oklahoma and Tijuana at the Central Library. Led by the nonprofit Poetic Justice, the project explores the way writing, photography and creative self-expression can be restorative and healing. Participants worked with photographer Lisa Loftus to learn the art of portraiture. The resulting exhibit features these photographs along with the incarcerated artists’ poetry and audio recordings of interviews.
Lisa Loftus
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Poetic Justice
One of the curators and advisors on the exhibit is Dr. Reka Barton, who said that the design of the multimodal exhibit is intended to inspire audiences to action.
“The issue of mass incarceration is everybody’s problem. It’s a systemic issue. So this isn’t something that you’re passively taking in and just walking through. We want you to understand, educate yourself and feel the call to action to actually produce change,” Barton said.
Details: [Event information] Opening reception is 1-4 p.m. Sunday, May 5. On view through July 31. San Diego Central Library – Popular Library Fairway, 330 Park Blvd., downtown. Free.
The Big Exchange
For more arts events or to submit your own, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar. If you want more time to plan, get the KPBS/Arts Newsletter in your inbox every Thursday to see event picks for the weeks ahead.
Visual art, Family, Museums | The Big Exchange is a reciprocal admission program from the San Diego Museum Council, and it runs May 1-18. If you’re a member of any of these 50 museums, you can use that membership to visit any (or all!) of the other museums on the list. Some already offer free admission, but here are a few of the actual bargains: Birch Aquarium, California Wolf Center, Comic-Con Museum, Fleet Science Center, Japanese Friendship Garden, Living Coast Discovery Center, Maritime Museum, Mingei International Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Making Music, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Botanic Garden, The Nat, The New Children’s Museum and more. Check the list for restrictions, as some museums require advance reservations.
Details: [Event information] May 1-18. Various locations. Free.
Adam DeTour
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The Old Globe
‘Stir’
Theater | I was lucky enough to see a staged reading of this play, then called “The Black Beans Project,” during the Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival early last year. Playwrights Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez were commissioned by the Globe, and this is the official world premiere, directed by Marcela Lorca.
The play follows two siblings who reconnect — virtually — to try to make their mother’s favorite recipe. I could practically smell the meal being prepared, even though no actual onions sizzled in any pans on stage. It’s a beautiful story that holds food as the backdrop for the siblings to explore loss, trauma and their own relationship.
Details: [Event information] Low-cost previews begin May 4. On stage through May 26. The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. $33+.
‘Notes On Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members’
Theater | Playwright Mara Vélez Meléndez’s 2022 play, “Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members” follows a Puerto Rican trans woman, Lolita, who ends up storming the Wall Street office of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board. This is a co-production with Moxie Theatre and Diversionary Theatre, and performances are held at Moxie.
Check out our KPBS Spring Arts Guide interview with director Andréa Agosto about her family’s roots in Puerto Rico, which are part of what drew her to this story. “To even do any theater with, for, by, or about Puerto Ricans, I honestly wasn’t sure that that would happen for me,” Agosto said.
Details: [Event information] On stage May 5-26. Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Rolando. $20-$46.
‘Celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Fashion and Stories’
Visual art, Fashion | The Bonita Museum and Cultural Center will open an exhibit that showcases fashion and traditional attire from countries and communities of Asia and the Pacific Islands, connected with family stories. In the May 4 opening reception, modern fashion designer (and Project Runway contestant) Kenneth Barlis will tell his story, and Asian Pacific chefs will offer tastings.
Details: [Event information] Reception is 3-6 p.m. May 4. On view through May 26. Bonita Museum and Cultural Center, 4355 Bonita Road, Bonita. Free.
‘Carmina Burana’
Dance, Ballet, Music | City Ballet of San Diego’s production of a ballet of Carl Orff’s 1936 masterpiece “Carmina Burana” is set during the 1929 stock market crash. The work is choreographed by City Ballet’s Geoff Gonzalez. The company will also perform Mozart’s “Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra” in what they refer to as a “tutu ballet.” Read more about the program, and the husband-wife duo of choreographer Geoff Gonzalez and dancer Ariana Gonzalez in our KPBS Spring Arts Guide feature here.
Details: [Event information] 8 p.m. May 4 and 2 p.m. May 5. California Center for the Arts Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $39+.
Junction Trio
Music, Classical | La Jolla Music Society hosts violinist Stefan Jackiw, pianist Conrad Tao and cellist Jay Campbell to perform three unique and diverse works for piano trio by Ives, Beethoven and John Zorn. Each performer is highly regarded on their own, and together as an ensemble, the grouping is electrifying.
Details: [Event information] 3 p.m. Sunday, May 5. The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. $46-$83.
Feminist Image Group: ‘Women Work Together’
Visual art | Working in “duets,” 22 women artists will present works that merge their individual styles and celebrate the collaborative process. Artists include Alessandra Moctezuma, Doris Bittar, Kathi McCord, Kathleen Mitchell, Minnie Valero, Linda Litteral and many more.
Details: [Event information] Opens with a reception from 6-8 p.m. Friday, May 3. On view through Sept. 6. Mandell Weiss Gallery, 2650 Truxtun Road, Liberty Station. Free.
Camarada: ‘Soundtrax’ at the Mingei and Bread & Salt
Music, Classical, Visual Art | The magnitude of cinematic sound will be combined with the unmistakable intimacy of chamber music in local ensemble Camarada’s “Soundtrax” performances. Camarada is a notably talented ensemble led by flutist Beth Ross Buckley. In addition to works by iconic film composer John Williams, they’ll also perform Phillip Glass, Nino Rota and Koji Kondo. Composer Gilad Cohen, who has composed scores and soundtracks for theater, will join the ensemble for a discussion. Two performances will take place at two unique San Diego art spaces: Mingei International Museum (museum admission included in ticket price) and Bread & Salt’s Brick Room (gallery admission is always free).
Details: 7:30 p.m. May 2 at Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park, $35+. 7:30 p.m. May 4 at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights, $25+.
More arts and culture events
‘Giselle’
Dance, Ballet | San Diego Ballet presents “Giselle.” Artistic director Javier Velasco has adapted the story into Spanish Colonial California, with ghostly Lloronas as the ballet’s “Wilies” — spirits of women scorned by lovers and seeking revenge on all men. Event information. 8 p.m. May 4 and 2:30 p.m. May 5 at Balboa Theatre, 868 4th Ave., downtown. $35+.
Mainly Mozart and Promotora de las Bellas Artes: ‘The Sea Unites Us’
Music, Classical, Youth | Mainly Mozart’s youth ensemble will join with Tijuana’s Promotora de las Bellas Artes children’s choir, plus other ensembles. One of the pieces performed is by composer Jorge Cózatl, who was inspired by ocean research and collaborated with Tijuana-based rapper Danger on the piece. Event information. 5 p.m. Sunday, May 5. Epstein Family Amphitheatre, 9500 Gilman Drive, UC San Diego. Free.
Sound of Music Singalong: Oceanside
Music, Film | The Greater San Diego Music Coterie is hosting its third annual “Sound of Music” singalong. Singers of all abilities are welcome to join in on the classic movie’s hits. Event information. 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at King of Kings Lutheran Church, 2993 MacDonald St., Oceanside. Free.
Evgeniya Golik, ‘Esoterica’
Visual art | Sparks Gallery will open an exhibit by Russian-born artist Evgeniya Golik, showcasing her fantastical, surreal work that’s as beautiful as it is unsettling. Event information. Opens with a reception from 5-8 p.m. May 4. On view through June 30. Sparks Gallery, 530 6th Ave., downtown. Free.
Le Salon De Musiques: ‘Masterpieces By Tchaikovsky, Korsakov, Rachmaninoff & Gretchaninoff’
Music, Classical | This month’s chamber salon concert features works for soprano and piano by Tchaikovsky, Korsakov and Rachmaninoff, as well as a U.S. premiere of a piano trio by Gretchaninoff. Event information. 4 p.m. Sunday, May 5. La Jolla Woman’s Club, 7791 Draper Ave., La Jolla. $45+.
‘The Art of Experience’: Ted Berryman and Martha Moramay Cuevas
Visual art | A new Golden Hill community arts space, Union Hall, will open up their first exhibit on May 4, featuring the work of sculptor Ted Berryman and painter Martha Moramay Cuevas, Berryman’s late wife — in partnership with Santa Ysabel Art Gallery. Event information. Opens with a reception 4-8 p.m. Saturday, May 4. On view through June 16. Union Hall Gallery, 2323 Broadway Ste. 201, Golden Hill. Free.
The Jewish community in Southern California is sharing their fears and hopes following the weekend’s strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on Israel, U.S. military bases and other targets in the Middle East.
The exchange of missiles in the Middle East is having a devasting effect on Iran’s defense capability, but retaliatory strikes in the region are taking a toll.
“Weapons of enormous capacity that are targeting civilian areas,” said Elan Carr, CEO of Los Angeles-based Israeli American Council.
Carr says toppling the Iranian regime, taking out its nuclear capabilities and freeing the Iranian people from this oppressive rule should have been done decades ago.
“This is about seeing the most evil regime, the world chief state sponsored terrorism to no longer have the ability to do what it’s been doing,” Carr said.
Sara Brown, regional director of the American Jewish Committee, said the U.S. and Israel are concentrating strikes on Iran’s missile sites and military industrial complex. Iran’s retaliatory strikes are focused on many civilian targets.
“We are hearing from our partners from around the region, who are terrified,” Brown said. “Across the Middle East right now, I think there is a tremendous amount of fear, but also hope and also resolve.”
AJC is the advocacy arm for Jewish people globally. Many members and partner groups are in harm’s way. Brown says the risk is great, but the potential reward is world changing.
“That Iranian people will get to choose leadership for themselves, that we will finally see a pathway forward for peace across the Middle East,” Brown said.
If wars of the past hadn’t produced lasting peace, then why now? Carr says Iran’s nuclear capabilities are destroyed and Iran’s military and proxies are weakened after Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas ambush.
“No more terrorist network throughout the Middle East. Think of what that could mean. Think of the normalization we could see,” Carr said.
President Donald Trump expects fighting to last several weeks. Some critics are concerned about a drawn-out conflict that could spread.
Carr is not convinced.
“Who is going to enter a war against the U.S. and Israel? Russia is plenty busy. China has no interest in jeopardizing itself this way,” Carr said.
Besides the six Americans killed as of Monday night, government officials say 11 people were killed in retaliatory strikes in Israel.
San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.
The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.
“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”
Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.
In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.
“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”
Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.
“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.
“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”
But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.
“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”
That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.
Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.
There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.
One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.
With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”
And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.
A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.
The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.
The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.
The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.
A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.
“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
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