Updated June 13, 2026 at 2:39 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — Workers began removing President Donald Trump's name from the facade of the Kennedy Center early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove references to Trump from the building and other aspects of the iconic performing arts venue's operations.

Scaffolding was erected Friday around a section of the building that includes Trump's name, but shortly after midnight, the Kennedy Center asked a judge to extend the deadline until noon Eastern Time on Saturday because of thunderstorms that had swept through the Washington area, causing a delay.

In the filing, the Kennedy Center offered assurance that the "removal work is presently ongoing" and would "conclude in the early hours of the morning."

A few hours later, workers began covering the scaffolding with tarps before they eventually started taking down Trump's name. They packed up and left the site around 3:30 a.m., though the tarps remained, leaving it impossible to determine if all the letters had been removed.

Dozens of people spent hours Friday on the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center taking pictures and cheering occasionally as they broke into chants of "take it down." Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio board member who sued to have Trump's name removed from the building, was spotted at one point on the plaza.

Earlier Friday afternoon, a judge rejected a request to pause the court-ordered deadline. The institution appealed that ruling, an effort that was also rebuffed Friday evening.

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center's previous leadership and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. Trump's name was quickly added to the building.

In his ruling that only Congress could make changes to the Kennedy Center's name, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The Kennedy Center's leadership argued in its appeal Friday that the renovation was badly needed and accused the lower court, in terms that seemed similar to Trump's speech patterns, of interfering in the effort.

"The District Court is not allowing us to close in order to properly fix up and repair the Building, including potentially life threatening structural damage like beams and parking garage ceilings that are rusted, and in serious danger of falling onto people below," according to the appeal. "Indeed, total collapse!"

Even as the Kennedy Center has fought efforts to remove Trump's name from the building, it has taken steps to comply with Cooper's initial ruling.

A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center's Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" or "Kennedy Center."

The Kennedy Center's website has dropped Trump's name. And an earlier email sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump's name.

Copyright 2026 NPR

The game against the Cincinnati Reds was a "Remote Work Wednesday" themed game that invited fans to take their workday to the ballpark.

"I would say that work-from-home people typically — it seems like they're pretty lonely, like it's just you in the house, alone, and so I just think it's really special if we could all come together," said Scotty Muirhead, a San Diego viral content creator who also works a remote job.

Muirhead, known online as "the remote worker guy," says he wants to build community and challenge traditional ideas about where work happens.

"We're in the best city in America. I think as long as you're doing your job and you're getting the work done, then it shouldn't matter where you're doing it from. I mean that's my philosophy," he said.

As the Padres players labored on the field to a 5-4 win, fans in the stands sent emails, closed deals — and even worked on cancer research.

One fan, Travis Gerke, was actively — hopefully — contributing to a future cure for cancer.

"So today, we are designing a couple of new phase two trials. So these are early drug development trials in cancer, so for prostate cancer in particular," Gerke said.

Muirhead has hosted similar events at the beach and at bars — with his desk in tow. He wants to "make remote work remote again."

By the seventh inning, a handful of fans' laptops had become makeshift nacho stands. But for most, the afternoon was surprisingly productive. Attempting to work from the ballpark was a fresh approach to efficiency and inspiration.

"I strongly support working remote. I think it gives you a peace of mind, and you're not in the office feeling pressure," said remote worker Giovanny Quintanilla, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and tie — with shorts and sandals.

Nicole, a remote worker who was closing payroll for her company at the start of the eighth inning, said she heard about the event from Instagram. She was happy to be surrounded by other people working.

"I'm surprised. I'm looking at some other people. They're pretty heads down and focused, headphones on," she said.

The Padres are considering bringing back more "Remote Work Wednesdays" in the future, but if you think your boss won't mind, bring your laptop to a game anytime.

For a moment as historic as the 250th birthday of the United States, you would expect a place focused on history to do something special.

For the San Diego History Center in the heart of Balboa Park, that means a unique look at how the last 250 years have unfolded here.

“So this is quite an ambitious project for us, and actually for any museum, because the concept is San Diego history, 1776 to 2026, in 100 objects,” said Dr. Tina Zarpour, the History Center’s vice president of community engagement, collections and education.

So, how do you choose 100 objects to tell a 250-year-old story? Zarpour said that’s where community engagement and education came together — engaging with students from UC San Diego and San Diego State University to choose those 100 objects.

“We brought them in and took them through a whole training regimen, basically a course on how to understand objects, how to work with the public, how to write labels for objects, how to do object-based learning and interpretation,” Zarpour said.

The displays run the gamut; everything from the deadly serious old cannon that used to be at the Serra Museum to a colorful plastic Jack in the Box head! You might remember those from decades ago. When you used the drive through, you’d give your order by speaking to the clown head.

You may know Jack in the Box was founded in San Diego, and it’s still headquartered here.

Just steps away from Jack’s head, you'll find a voluminous book — a priceless artifact from a pivotal moment in San Diego history.

Zarpour explained, “This is the guest register from the 1915 Expo, and every single person that came signed their name in the book.”

Moments in San Diego’s architectural history are here, including an intricate models of the late San Diego stadium (also known over the years as Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). There's also a detailed model of Horton Plaza.

Zarpour then showed us a display from just a few years ago: a flag hanging on a nearby wall.

“This flag is one of our newer objects,” she said. “It dates from 2019 and this flag has the distinction of being the first flag of the Kumeyaay Nation that was flown over the Presidio in Balboa Park.”

Zarpour said it was important to the History Center to present as fulsome a picture as possible of our history. That includes dark moments. One display shows a couple of small pieces that tell of the Ku Klux Klan's presence in San Diego; an honorary ribbon and a taillight cover with those infamous three letters. It was donated by the son of a Klan member.

“He felt it was important to preserve this history in San Diego and we feel it’s important to interpret this history and, you know, show the good and the bad,” Zarpour said.

There are uniforms worn by members of the United States Navy — a nod to our military history. And there’s an unassuming little Smith Corona typewriter that was used to draft the founding documents of the Women’s Studies Department at SDSU, the first of its kind in the nation.

I asked Zarpour, “What do you hope visitors take away when it's all done? They come, they see it, they walk out those doors. What do you hope they think or talk about?”

She said, “First, that there is always a San Diego connection, right? Second, multiple narratives, multiple stories, not the single narrative ... Sometimes it's memory, sometimes it's nostalgia, sometimes it's something completely new that they've never encountered before. And that's what we wanted to embrace, is really people's relationship with the past through objects and artifacts. We're used to telling histories through timelines, through events, through people, through the written word, but this is telling history through objects.”

Objects that — with apologies to Ken Kramer — tell you a lot about San Diego.

San Diego and Tijuana connect two of those countries. Naturally there are many fans of both teams in the region.

On Thursday, green, white and red soccer kits with the iconic eagle and snake filled the patio at downtown’s Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego ahead of the inaugural match.

The game took place in Mexico City, but soccer fans from across the region packed the consulate to cheer on Mexico’s men's national soccer team against South Africa.

“We're here because this is the closest we can get to Mexico,” Jaime Guerrero said.

He drove down to the watch party with his wife Yolanda from San Marcos. They're both originally from Mexico.

“To me it's an honor — it's a privilege to be a host city, a host nation — USA, Mexico and Canada. We're just proud of our culture from Mexico and from the United States,” Jaime said.

Watch party celebrations kicked off two hours before game time with music and dancing in the form of baile folklórico.

Magali Castaneda was one of the dancers. She said the World Cup provides a moment of relief from the ramped up immigration enforcement tactics in the U.S.

“It means a lot to me, especially in tough times for the Mexicans, for the race and everyone,” the 21-year-old said. “It is very nice and heartwarming to be able to celebrate, express myself and culture here and start the World Cup.”

Consul General of Mexico in San Diego, Alicia Kerber, hopes the World Cup shows her home country is a welcoming place to people of all backgrounds.

“We hope they can know our culture, traditions, and the way we are hosting this World Cup is in a very (friendly) way,” she said of fans from around the world.

Across North America, the Guerreros said this rendition of the World Cup is bringing people together.

“Today we're all the same, there's no borders. We share something in common, that's soccer — fútbol,” the couple said together.

Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in their inaugural match. Their next game is June 18 against South Korea.

The U.S. team plays their first game Friday night against Paraguay. World Cup matches will last for over a month with the finals taking place in New Jersey on July 19.

David Hockney believed painting could change the world; in the midst of all our miseries, he said, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. Hockney, one of the best-known contemporary artists, has died at home, age 88, his publicist said Friday.

The artist, who died on Thursday, was one month short of his 89th birthday, publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement. He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.

"David Hockney's enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humor, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase," she said. "Love life."

British, he spent decades working in Los Angeles, making images that captured the wealth and sunshine of Southern California. Hockney created art on canvas, paper, photographic film, videos, iPhones and iPads. His bright, cheerful paintings sold for millions.

"I enjoy looking ..." he explained to me when he was 79. "I can look at a little puddle on a road in Yorkshire and just of the rain falling on it and think it's marvelous. I see the world as very beautiful."

With electric colors — blues, greens, yellows, fuchsia — he made merry beauties all his life. Pictures of tree-lined roads, flowers, snow-covered trees, the Grand Canyon. The world became new in his hands. Hockney also made portraits of friends and helpers.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Barron remembers posing for him. She figured she'd go to work after a sitting. "What I found instead is that I was so exhausted from the intensity of the scrutiny, I went home and took a nap," she said. (You can hear from many more of Hockney's models in this story from 2018.)

Happily and luckily, I interviewed Hockney over the years. Our first encounter was in Paris in 2010 — an exhibit of little pictures he was making on his recently-discovered iPhone. He was charming, lively, open and engaged — and crazy for technology. An app called Brushes gave him a virtual paint box. Dipping his fingers into various colors, he touched the small iPhone screen and drew with his thumb. Then he got an iPad.

"The moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger," he said.

He was engrossed, his friend Charlie Scheips, said. "He said he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he's going at it, he rubs his finger on his clothes to like, clean the finger as if he was using real paint." (You can see artworks Hockney created on the iPhone and iPad here.)

Raised by supportive parents in a simple English town, Hockney struggled with his sexuality. In the early '60s he came out. Films show him then with dyed blond hair and flamboyant outfits — a pink plaid suit, wide black and white striped tie, a red sock on one foot, green on the other. His lovers were young and beautiful. In the LA paintings they loll around at swimming pools, displaying divine derrieres. Pools were an obsession.

"Water offers an interesting graphic problem, it seems to me," he explained. "Say, a swimming pool, the water is transparent. How do you paint transparency? It has reflections and things."

A Bigger Splash, his best-known painting from 1967, shows a California swimming pool, tan diving board angling in from the bottom right, and rising from the aquamarine water, a lively, white splash. Someone just dove in.

"I spent longer on the splash than on any other thing in the painting," Hockney says. "I spent about a week painting it because it's painted with small brushes. I mean, I didn't want to just take a brush and splash it like that. I wanted to paint it slowly. And I thought then it contradicts the splash really."

An actual splash lasts a few seconds. Painting it took a week.

As his 80th birthday approached in 2017 museums were flooded with Hockneys. He was getting ready to go to London for one opening. I saw him then, for the last time, at his LA studio, surrounded by some comfy chairs, five easels, and clouds of cigarette smoke. The floor had dark brown smears from the smokes he chain-puffed, then stubbed out with his foot. Knowing he'd be fussed over in London, he said he didn't like parties anymore. "Too deaf for them," he said. They made him sad.

"I just have to leave and go home, have a sit in a quiet bedroom," he said. "And that's what I do. And then I read. ... That's my life now. I mean, that's what it's going to be."

But his eyes twinkled when he said that. And friends sitting near smiled indulgently.

He went on painting after I left, and made art the next day, the day after that, the day after that.

David Hockney: Always looking, and giving us the world as he wanted us to see it. Through joyous, vibrant pictures. That 80th birthday year, in Paris, there was a huge retrospective. The last piece in the show was graffitied on a white museum wall. In blue, on the white, Hockney had painted: Love Life D.H.

Copyright 2026 NPR

On a recent Saturday in downtown Chula Vista, a teenage court of honor stood lined up in pairs on the stage of Diamonds Event Hall. As Pierce The Veil's Kissing Cars played through the speakers, the teenagers swayed to the music before parting down the middle — girls to the left, boys to the right. They cleared the path for the person of the hour: Asiya Nero. Dressed in a beautiful red ball gown, she glided to the front of the stage to waltz with her chambelán de honor. Two hundred family members and friends cheered her on.

Nero celebrated her 15th birthday, commonly referred to as a "quinceañera" in Latino families. Carmen Montoya-Reyes said she began saving for her daughter’s quinceañera when Nero turned 12. It was important to celebrate her only daughter with a tradition that holds deep cultural significance for her family. It was also important for Nero.

“I want to celebrate, it's the chance to show that I'm becoming an adult," she said two days before her quinceañera. " I'm transitioning from a teenager to adult, and I want this day to be really special.”

In the South Bay, quinceañera businesses are plentiful. On Third Avenue in Chula Vista there are nine quinceañera businesses in two blocks and even more quinceañera halls and dress shops within a two mile radius. These coming-of-age parties are as popular as ever in the South Bay, but they are also expensive.

The Big Picture

"Quinces" almost always include traditional elements such as a Mass, the iconic dress and a reception venue. Most feature a DJ and sometimes a mariachi band. Today, extras like a Tostilocos bar, a dancing robot or a photo booth are common sights. But when tallying it all up, the final price tag can quickly skyrocket.

Families not only have to find a way to cover those costs, but they are also on the hook for their everyday bills under the skyline of San Diego County's ever-increasing cost of living.

San Diegans pay some of the highest costs in the country for basic necessities such as housing, food and gas. Still for many parents, spending the money is worth it.

“I think today it just lets them know how important they are in our lives and how important they are in society,” Montoya-Reyes said about her daughter's celebration.

For many families, this important milestone marks a transition from childhood to adulthood. It’s also an opportunity to connect with culture, friends, family and faith.

Sticker shock

"Darling, don’t be afraid."

The haunting voice of Christina Perri in the chorus of "A Thousand Years" played as Leticia Sareñana held her daughter, Anahi Sareñana, who sparkled in her traditional white quinceañera gown. Together, they swayed for their first waltz.

Leticia, a single mother, initially hoped the event would cost $10,000. But after tallying her receipts, she believes she spent about $22,000. She also received generous gifts and donations from family and friends, including the purchase of Anahi’s $1,600 gown. In total, she estimates the quinceañera cost between $25,000 and $30,000.

“That's actually cheap to be honest with you. I mean, I know of others that spend, you know, a good $50 to $80,000 or so,” Leticia said.

The celebration took two years to plan and was something she had been looking forward to since the day her daughter was born.

A 2019 study by Mi Padrino, an event-planning platform, surveyed 525,000 quinceañeras nationwide and found the average celebration cost $21,781. Adjusted for inflation, that would equal about $28,372 today.

Cutting back

When she began planning, Montoya-Reyes landed on a $5,000 budget. Asiya Nero's mother saved money by paying off her car and trading it in for an older electric vehicle. She also made cuts to discretionary spending like eating out and hasn’t bought any new clothes for herself in three years.

To get more aggressive with her savings she shifted from working as a hairdresser in a salon to cutting hair at home.

“Cutting out all of those things, really gave us the opportunity to, like, be very easy on the budget, you know, it's like it wasn't that sacrificial,” Montoya-Reyes said.

Despite all intentions of sticking to that $5,000 budget, her community wouldn’t have it. Clients started giving her larger tips to help fund the quinceañera. Family and friends stepped into the role of padrinos, which are traditionally both spiritual guides and sponsors.

Asiya was able to show four choreographed dances at her celebration and worked with a flamenco teacher and ballet folklórico instructor for many months on her routines.

Lydia and Ruben Gonzalez are planning a quinceañera for their second daughter, Alexa Gonzalez. Their first daughter Selena’s party cost $28,000 five years ago. For Alexa, they planned a $30,000 budget, but they are already on track to surpass it.

“I know at the end it's going to be what it is, and we're gonna have to be flexible if it goes over.” Lydia shared over the phone from her Paradise Hills home.

The couple began saving two years ago, picking up extra shifts at work and cutting out discretionary spending like eating out and other activities.

Ruben stressed the cultural significance of quinceañeras for their family.

“It has a lot to do with tradition and the changing of a child to becoming a young woman and also confirming their faith and her religion,” he said.

Ways to save

David Calzada is a venue manager with Factory of Dreams, an event space that has been in Chula Vista for 14 years. Calzada said that 90% of their events are quinceañeras.

He often advises parents to stick to the basics and not overspend. But he said some parents don’t take his advice and end up going into debt. That financial strain reflects a broader trend. According to a recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California, Latino households are more likely than white and Asian households to carry unsecured debt (59% compared with roughly 45%).

For families determined to celebrate without breaking the bank, there are several ways to cut costs.

Layaway

For big ticket items like venue rentals and gowns, layaway programs are common in the industry and could be a good option to stagger costs.

"We offer layaway plans ... We can start the layaway plans with $200 and make a monthly plan,” said Osmar Naranjo, a dress designer and owner of Cynderella, a quinceañera gown shop.

Consignment and secondhand

The secondhand market for quinceañera dresses ranges from local Facebook groups to local dress shops. Naranjo said Cynderella will add consignment this year as demand has grown.

Swap meets 

Swap meets can offer deep discounts on secondhand decor and clothing. Montoya-Reyes called the swap meet her first stop before shopping anywhere else.

“A lot of our decoration stuff, we found at the swap meet ... I was amazed how inexpensive it is,” she said.

DIY 

You can often save money by doing projects yourself, but that takes time and skill.

Montoya-Reyes credits DIY as a leading reason she was able to stick to her modest budget. She and her sister handcrafted 150 delicate trees for centerpieces; each tree took about three hours to construct, and it took them a year to complete them all.

Some families opt to host backyard quinceañeras on their property for smaller, more intimate gatherings. These events can save money substantially, but require a lot of planning.

“I had mine in my backyard. Cost was definitely a factor. My dad did his best to get the area set up and my mom did all the cooking.” National City resident Luz Molina wrote in to share.

'Alternative' quince

Not all families who want to celebrate their daughter's 15th birthday choose to do a traditional quinceañera. Some families are choosing instead to do alternative celebrations like family vacations or big gifts instead, which can oftentimes be cheaper.

Making it Work

For many families, though the price is high, this important tradition is worth the stress, the time and the cost.

"Honestly, the excuse of saying, ‘oh we're not going to do one because it's so expensive,’ I don't think it's a valid reason, I really don't,” Montoya-Reyes said. She feels if a daughter wants a quinceañera, a family should find ways to budget and make it happen.

Lydia is eagerly awaiting her daughter’s quince in September.

“We're very excited. Our families are very excited," she said. "We're having family come from far away, like from Mexico …”

Speaking to Leticia two days after Anahi’s quince, she recalled the waltz with her daughter.

“I was whispering to her in her ear. I said, 'this is a moment that I've been dreaming about since I had you. This is a huge milestone for you. This is like the blossoming, you're becoming a young lady, a woman,'” Leticia said.

After two years of preparation, Anahi held her mother tightly as they slowly swayed. Circled by the event photographer and videographer, both mother and daughter smiled through tears. Two hundred beaming loved ones looked on, with almost as many smartphone screens raised to capture the moment.

It had taken a great deal to reach this point, but as Leticia held her daughter — now a young woman — it was clear to everyone in the room that the money spent had been worth it for them. More importantly, the time they spent planning the celebration had brought them closer together.

“This was a magical moment for me," Leticia said. "This was everything that I've ever dreamed of.”

Visual art

San Diego Potters’ Guild: Spring Patio Show

In Balboa Park's Spanish Village Arts Center, the San Diego Potters’ Guild will host its spring pottery show and sale. Part of the Craft in America "Handwork 2026" celebration for America 250, artists will be on-site to discuss their new pieces and the process behind them. Featured artists are Lynn Zimmer and Nancy Barbour, but art by more than 40 potters will be displayed at booths and tables around Spanish Village's colorful stone patio.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14 | 1770 Village Place, Balboa Park | Free | MORE INFO

Luis Alonso Sánchez: Sweet Dreams

Tijuana- and Mexico City-based artist Luis Alonso Sánchez's new solo exhibit is inspired by a nightmarish memory from his childhood: seeing the Easter Bunny slowly remove its head. Sánchez's installations, sculptures and paintings focus on the space between comfort and terror in childhood memories and dreams — looking to the past in a way that feels more complicated and loaded than simple nostalgia. One work involves chain-link fencing ominously installed behind a nightmarish sculpture depicting unsettling black-and-white-painted versions of cartoon characters. The Bread & Salt exhibit opens with a reception coinciding with the monthly Barrio Art Crawl.

Reception: 5-8 p.m Saturday, June 13. Gallery hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday | Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights | Free | MORE INFO

Music

Dear Tomorrow: Sounds of Tomorrow Jazz Jam

It feels unfair to bury this event inside the "music" subheading … because pasta. The Oceanside historic home-turned-art-space Dear Tomorrow will host a concert and dance party with a live jazz band, along with a natural wine and homemade pasta pop-up. The venue is a combination of studios and coworking spaces, along with a shop and gallery — plus a calendar of performances and workshops. Friday's jazz-tinged event will launch a communal art exhibit featuring dozens of local artists, with some art-making stations in case inspiration strikes.

7-10 p.m. Friday, June 12 | Dear Tomorrow, 216 S. Tremont Street, Oceanside | $6 in advance, $12 at the door | MORE INFO

Ásgeir and Nathaniel Stewart

Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir's 2026 album, "Julia," is a gorgeous collection of raw, heart-twisting and propulsive indie folk music. I may be biased about my name-twin title track, but the entire album is a delight — chock-full of ballads and bops alike. Local musician Nathaniel Stewart opens.

8 p.m. Saturday, June 13 | Music Box, 1337 India Street, Little Italy | $25-$30 | MORE INFO

Books

Madhushree Ghosh: 'Safar: Finding Home, History, and Culture Through Punjabi Food in the American West'

Local author Madhushree Ghosh explores the intersection of food, home and history in all of her work, and her newest book is no exception. In "Safar," she follows South Asian refugees and immigrants in the United States, particularly four Punjabi women in the American Southwest, and explores their recipes and stories. For her book launch, Ghosh will discuss the book with fellow local writer Huda Al-Marashi.

6 p.m. Thursday, June 11 | Library Shop San Diego, 925 W. Washington Street, Mission Hills | Free | MORE INFO

Theater

'The SpongeBob Musical'

Millennials rejoice: Bikini Bottom is coming to a local stage. This musical from the creative minds of Kyle Jarrow and Tina Landau is based on the Nickelodeon series-slash-cultural force, "SpongeBob SquarePants," by Stephen Hillenburg. The plot follows SpongeBob and his pals as they try to save their home, peppered with songs from David Bowie, John Legend, Cyndi Lauper and more. Cygnet's production is directed by Katie Banville, with Bailey Lee as SpongeBob and Rebecca Murillo as Sandy, among a full cast. Lower-cost previews run June 10-13.

June 10 through July 12 | Cygnet Theatre, 2880 Roosevelt Road, Liberty Station | $22-$83 | MORE INFO

'Measure for Measure' 

Summer Shakespeare is here! The Old Globe kicks off its outdoor Shakespearean programming with "Measure for Measure," known as one of Shakespeare’s "problem plays," where comedy exists unexpectedly and sometimes in stark contrast to dramatic and tragic elements. Directed for the Globe by Vivienne Benesch, the play follows Angelo as he tries to rule the land after the mysterious disappearance of the duke. This play is the home of the famous, deliciously dark and profound Claudio line, "Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot."

June 14 through July 12 | The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park | $38-$107 | MORE INFO

Dance

Pointeworks: 'Nocturnes'

Summer doesn't often mean ballet, but Pointeworks is trying to change that. The summer-focused company was founded in 2024 by Sophie Williams as a way of providing year-round work for local dancers — that is, in the gap between traditional ballet seasons. "Nocturnes" is an evening-length collection of five pieces, including two world premieres. New work by choreographer Jacquelyn Long will be performed with live piano and violin music, and the company will also unveil a work by Keerati Jinakunwiphat.

2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 13 | The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla | $35+ | MORE INFO

Film

'Trainspotting' 4K Restoration

In honor of its 30th anniversary, Digital Gym Cinema will screen the iconic 1996 Scottish film "Trainspotting," by Danny Boyle, adapted from the Irvine Welsh novel. Starring Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Kelly Macdonald and Ewen Bremmer, it tells the story of a group of heroin addicts living in poverty in the Leith neighborhood of Edinburgh. It's a dizzying brew of tragedy and grotesque comedy — and has been recently restored in 4K.

June 12-18 | Digital Gym Cinema, 1100 Market Street, downtown | $9-$13 | MORE INFO

Festivals and discussions 

'Intersections: Art and Law at the Border'

California Lawyers for the Arts will present their eighth annual community symposium, connecting artists, cultural workers and activists with scholars and legal professionals from San Diego and Tijuana in a discussion of the ways art intersects with immigration and justice, particularly at the border. One session on my radar is "Coding the Borderlands" at 1 p.m., exploring the way art can shape ideas of the border with binational artists Ingrid Hernández, Brett Stalbaum and Hugo Crosthwaite.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 13 | Woo Studios, 2212 Main Street, Barrio Logan | Sliding scale: $10+ | MORE INFO

This year’s theme is "Once Upon a Fair," where fairgoers can get lost in storybook adventures.

“It is a an ode to storytelling, the fairy tales, to adventure, to the books that we grew up with and the characters that we love,” fair spokesperson Tristan Hallman said. “KPBS is a partner in that.”

KPBS has a booth inside the 20,000-square-foot theme exhibit, featuring One Book, One San Diego and the upcoming KPBS San Diego Book Festival.

"It's custom built, so you can go through all kinds of adventures in there," Hallman said.

Later this month, those adventures will include meet-and-greets with PBS Kids favorites Arthur and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

On Wednesday, Lisa Cartegena and her family were among the first to enter this year's fair. She wanted to get the kids to spend some time outdoors.

“I'm just going to watch and walk around, get some exercise and just let them enjoy the unlimited wristbands and rides and food,” she said.

But all the kids could think of were the rides.

“I'm looking forward to going on the rides the most,” Isaac Vargas said.

“We are going on some intense rides today,” Ben Christopher said.

Cartegena said part of the reason they were going on opening day was the $5 admission special.

"It was nice to have the lower cost for the expense because everything is so expensive right now," she said.

Fair organizers say they’re trying to keep the fun affordable.

“We recognize that. You know, we live in San Diego County, too," Hallman said. "We are working very hard to offer as many value deals and discounts and opportunities to really enjoy the fair on different days, different promotions, different ideas.”

How to save on tickets

On Fridays, children ages 6 to 12 get in free. And tickets are $3 to $5 cheaper when bought online in advance.

Visitors can also save up to $8.50 per person when buying discounted tickets at Albertsons, Vons and Pavilion supermarkets

The fair is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. through July 5, except for Mondays and Tuesdays. For more information on discounted tickets, visit sdfair.com.

Some of the most forceful objections against President Trump's proposed triumphal arch are coming from — and on behalf of — veterans.

That's because the 250-foot structure would be built on a roundabout near the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for over 400,000 active-duty service members, veterans and their families.

The Trump administration says in its proposal that the purpose of the arch is to "celebrate the triumphs of the American people, inspire patriotism and love of country, and beautify our nation's capital."

But critics of the arch call it a presidential "vanity project" that will complicate traffic, disrupt the symbolic view between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial and disrespect those buried on those nearby hallowed grounds. Along with Democratic lawmakers, detractors also say it can't proceed without congressional authorization – which Trump has said he does not need and will not seek.

A group of three Vietnam War veterans, joined by an architectural historian, is suing the administration on those grounds to try to block construction of the arch.

One of those veterans, 83-year-old Shaun Byrnes of Virginia, met NPR on Monday outside the cemetery entrance on Arlington Memorial Bridge. It's just steps from the grassy traffic circle where Byrnes hopes an arch will never stand.

"There are other important monuments to our best presidents in Washington," he said. "They were all constructed not at the direction of those great men, but after they had passed away by our citizens as a way of honoring them and keeping their memories alive. This current arch does not check any of those boxes."

In the fight against the arch, Byrnes says he is thinking of his friends, and not just those who are buried in Arlington.

"Perhaps more important, at least more meaningful to me, is I have a lot of friends that I lost that are not buried here because we never recovered them," he said.

Byrnes served in the Navy for four years of the Vietnam War — many of those in South Vietnam, where he was seriously injured. He recalled one day of heavy firing, when he happened to step away from the platform just moments before one of his group's guns overheated and exploded, killing three men and leaving him with severe burns.

Byrnes went on to spend 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, primarily based in the Soviet Union. He identifies as politically moderate and said he never could have imagined suing his own government: "I'm a loyal citizen. I love my country."

Critics say the approval process is premature without Congress' green light 

Byrnes joined fellow veterans Jon Gundersen and Michael Lemmon, whom he's known for decades through the foreign service, and architectural historian Calder Loth to file the lawsuit in February. They are represented by the progressive consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen.

Nicolas Sansone, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the case hinges on two statutes — the Commemorative Works Act and part of Title 40 of the U.S. Code — that requires Congressional authorization for any new memorial or monument on federal land in D.C.

"The starting point for a monument like this is an act of Congress saying, 'Hey, we need to build a monument, and here's what it should be, and here's where it should be situated, and here's what we want it to represent and the interests we want it to serve, with that democratic mandate,'" Sansone told NPR.

The Trump administration has argued in legal filings that Congress already approved the project back in 1925, when it authorized a pair of 166-foot columns for that same section of Arlington Memorial Bridge. But they were never constructed, even though the bridge project was completed nearly a century ago, as Sansone notes.

"If the administration can use any sort of prior authorization to build a monument … [that would] essentially allow unfettered building and unlimited adjustments to existing monuments that have already become part of the national fabric," Sansone said.

As a result of an earlier hearing, the administration says it will give 14 days' notice before starting construction, to give the plaintiffs time to re-file another emergency request to stop it. But the judge in the case has not yet issued a ruling on the legality of the project itself.

Even so, the administration has proceeded to bring its proposal before the two federal agencies tasked with giving feedback, usually after Congress approves.

The Commission for Fine Arts, which is packed with Trump appointees, gave final approval to the design last month, despite public protestation and unanswered questions about its exterior engravings.

The National Capital Planning Commission — a 12-member body chaired by a Trump staffer — also gave the proposal a preliminary stamp of approval at its meeting last week. That allows it to request more information about details such as lighting plans, road and air traffic impacts and federally required third-party environmental and historic preservation reviews.

Separately, the National Park Service is now accepting public comments on the arch through June 15. Publicly available materials submitted by the administration to NPS outline a proposed construction timeline that would take two to three years — and permanently alter the historically significant landscape.

"The idea that one president can unilaterally drive a project forward to kind of reshape the monumental core of the capitol, I think poses real problems no matter who the president is," Sansone said.

Evan Cash was the sole National Capital Planning Commission member to vote against the arch at last week's meeting. During the commissioners' discussion, he said his vote was influenced by the lack of Congressional and public buy-in.

"Normally, when we're dealing … with a commemorative project, we have a framework for understanding what the project is trying to accomplish," said Cash, who has served on the commission for over a decade.

Cash said he hopes the administration comes to its July meeting with "some clarity, some authorization, some purpose."

Who is the arch for? Not us, say veterans and their loved ones  

Members of the public have voiced a wide range of concerns and criticisms of the arch. Nearly 1,700 people submitted comments online before the National Capital Planning Commission met last Thursday, where nearly two dozen spoke out against it in the room.

Two of them said it was their first time protesting anything. Many said they had loved ones buried at Arlington, while several served in the military themselves.

"The proposed Monumental Arch will be a monumental disgrace to the nation and a monstrous insult to the heroes in the cemetery," said Stephen Eubank, who said seven of his relatives are interred there. "I hope those of you foisting it on us will be haunted forever by the ghosts of those 400,000."

One major point of contention — and confusion — has been the purpose of the arch.

The administration has broadly characterized the arch as a commemoration of the country's 250th birthday. But in October, when asked whom it was meant to honor, Trump told a journalist: "Me."

And, despite its proximity to the nation's most prestigious military cemetery, lead architect Nicolas Charbonneau told the Commission for Fine Arts that the arch would be "not primarily a monument dedicated to the dead, but to the living, to this great country and its [perserverence]."

"Who is this arch for? Is it for me? The president has already answered that question — it is for him," Marine Corps combat veteran Jimi Shaughnessy said at the meeting, calling it a waste of time, land and money.

Shaughnessy said his family's history of military service dates back nearly 200 years. His great-grandparents — who "led the charge on horseback against Pancho Villa" and treated the wounded as a World War II nurse — are both buried at Arlington.

"Service members and their families navigate many transitions throughout a military career and beyond," he said. "That final transition — from service to rest — is not theirs to manage. It is ours. It falls to us, the living, to receive our wounded and our dead with the highest esteem and care. An arch is not what they need."

If Trump really wants to help service members, Shaughnessy said, he would restore the funding his administration has stripped from agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Park Service.

Major veterans' groups have not publicly weighed in on the arch; the American Legion telling NPR it does not have a position on the issue.

A spokesperson for Arlington National Cemetery said it is aware of the "ongoing process," but referred questions to the Department of the Interior and National Park Service as the proposed site is outside cemetery property.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told NPR in an email last week that the arch will "enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250-year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today."

Copyright 2026 NPR

One can simply look upward to witness the activity: a police helicopter patrolling, the underbelly of a commercial jet skimming Interstate 5, a Cessna cruising along the coastline, or military aircraft descending over Coronado Island. Beyond the San Diego International Airport, the county boasts eight airfields, not including the major military bases at Miramar and Coronado.

But who is piloting these aircraft, and how is such a complex system managed?

'Living piece of history'

Among these frequent flyers is the Stearman, officially known as the Boeing-Stearman Model 75. It's a historic biplane from the 1940s operated out of Kearny Mesa's Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.

"You don’t own this airplane; you take care of it for a period of time," explained Tom Reid, one of its owner-pilots who views flying the vintage craft as a tribute to a "living piece of history."

He said flying over this specific region is a privilege.

"We never forget how lucky we are that we happen to be born here in the USA, San Diego in particular," Reid said.

'We belong in this space'

The complexity of these skies is largely due to the county's geography and highly dense skies. Navigating this environment is Giovanna Eiler, an 18-year-old licensed pilot and member of the Ninety-Nines. This community of female aviators works to empower women in a field that historically remains dominated by a masculine culture.

"Feeling the need to prove ourselves, that we belong in this space, we're used to working with each other," Eiler said. "That's why I think our support groups are so tight-knit … we want to see each other succeed and we want to help everybody."

Eiler notes that Montgomery Field is "sandwiched" between two major Class B (Bravo) airspaces, with Miramar to the north and San Diego International to the south; these are designated for military and commercial traffic, respectively. The high-density environment makes it an ideal training ground, and as Eiler pointed out, "if you can fly here, you can fly pretty much anywhere."

'Paving the way'

San Diego's skies also serve as a theater for aerial athletes like Anthony Oshinuga. Discovering his passion in his youth, Oshinuga transformed his calling into a profession, navigating the competitive world of air racing and aerobatic displays throughout the nation.

Oshinuga has emerged as a cornerstone of the local aviation community, etching his name into history in 2015 as the first African American to compete in the Reno National Championship Air Races, where he secured a second-place finish in his rookie season.

"I get a lot of comments and emails from thousands of people, especially the youth, just thanking me for doing what I'm doing because I'm paving the way for what was thought was impossible, making it probable or possible," he said.

Whether for leisure, training or business Reid, Eiler, and Oshinuga demonstrate that for those who remain passionate and persistent, the sky truly is the limit.

Fifteen years after The Book of Mormon made its Broadway debut, original cast members Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad once again took the stage as Mormon missionaries — this time at the 2026 Tony Awards.

Created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the duo behind South Park), along with veteran Broadway composer Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon follows two young missionaries sent to try and bring Mormonism to a Ugandan village that's struggling with the AIDS epidemic, war and famine. The musical is a satirical — sometimes affectionate, sometimes offensive — look at Mormonism and youthful naïveté. It was clear from the very first number — "Hello!" — that the show would cause a stir when it debuted in 2011.

Gad, who played Elder Cunningham in the original Broadway cast, remembers "laugh[ing] my butt off" when he first heard "Hello!" Then Gad listened to "Hasa Diga Eebowai," a song in which the Ugandan villagers curse God, and he called his agent.

"I said, 'I don't think I can do this show,'" Gad recalls. "And he said, 'Why?' And I said, 'Because I don't want to get killed.'"

Meanwhile, Rannells, who played Elder Price, wasn't fazed by the material: "I heard the humor in it and I felt very confident that people were going to think it was funny," Rannells says. "I certainly didn't think it would be still running on Broadway after 15 years and would have toured to Salt Lake City. I didn't think that they would have done that, but it did."

The Book of Mormon received nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical and best score. To celebrate its Broadway anniversary, Gad and Rannells will be making cameo appearances in every show this week — along with the show's creators and several other original cast members. Gad says that behind the satire, The Book of Mormon is actually a "very pro-faith show."

"If you stick with the craziness and chaos ... the end is very uplifting," he says. "It's actually quite emotional and soaring. And so you get this sense that there is something positive to come out of this hellscape that the show depicts."

Interview highlights

On connecting with Mormon missionaries in New York City while in rehearsal for The Book of Mormon

Rannells: When we were in rehearsals for the workshop, I decided that I should be a good little actor, and I should go to the Mormon temple and I should meet with some Mormon missionaries. So I got myself ensnared in a very strange relationship with these two young men, who I met with a handful of times and they were so excited that someone wanted to talk to them and that I solicited them. We met twice, like out near Lincoln Center where there is the big Mormon church. And then they said, "Can we come to your home?" ...

So these two Mormon missionaries came over and immediately there's a picture of my boyfriend and I like on the mantel and so I had to explain to them that I was like, I'm actually in a musical about the Mormon church and they were sort of shocked. But then they really ... opened up to me about how scary and disappointing it was to be a missionary at times, and especially being a missionary in New York City. They were like, "No one will speak to us. People are very mean to us." And then I was like, "Well, where are you hanging out?" And they're like, "They send us to Times Square," and I was like, "You've got to get out of Times Square. You cannot be hanging out in Times Square, boys. You should go someplace else. Don't try to talk to people there. It's not safe for you."

On how their voices have changed in the past 15 years

Gad: I was insulted yesterday when our producer came up to me and said "You sound so much better than you did back when you first did it." I was like what did I really not sound good when I first did it?

Rannells: No you sounded great. … I think you sound the same. I mean, look, our voices are different. Fifteen years, there's a lot of wear and tear. But some of it is muscle memory, I would say, some of it comes back. I got to perform this number, "I Believe," on Stephen Colbert's show. That was the number that I sang on the Tony Awards… It was still somewhere like lodged in my voice.

Gad: When I found out I was doing this I played the album in the car, and I started to sing along, and some of those high notes, I just was like, "Oh my god I can't! How am I gonna hit these?" And I actually asked them to lower it, and they laughed and said no, and then I started to sort of do it on my feet. And just like you said, something clicks. It's like riding a bike. It's just sort of in there somewhere

Rannells: Now the physical side of it, Terry, is a little different. Physically doing some of these numbers, that's where the aging process really catches up to you. … I can't dance as much as I used to. The singing part is a little easier to control. The physical, the knees, the getting up and down off the ground, that's all a little bit different.

On losing his voice during a show 

Rannells: That happened many times.. … Over the course of my career, that's something that happens, not just in The Book of Mormon, but in other shows. You learn to sing through sickness. I think there are nights where there are certain notes missing in your voice all of a sudden, and you don't find out until you're on stage in front of 1,200 people, and you're like, "Oh boy." And you just have to figure out a way to sing around it. After previews, after opening, after the Tony Awards, I hadn't missed any performances. And I started my career as a replacement, as an understudy. I was not accustomed to the idea that I could call out of a show. I probably shouldn't have done the show that night, but I remember it was like a couple weeks after the Tony Awards and I sang this duet that that Josh and I sing called "You and Me (But Mostly Me)" and it was kind of a disaster, but I just continue with the show and I was like, I'm gonna try to make this work.

Gad: It was actually remarkable to watch.

Rannells: I got through "I Believe," somehow and sang the whole thing and I amazed myself that I could do it. And then I got to another song that's called "Orlando," I'm not sure if you remember this Josh, and it's supposed to end with a little falsetto thing … and instead I went [low] … and the curtain flew up and all the missionaries come out and everyone was laughing and it was not great. But after the bows that night, I walked off stage and I remember Karen Moore, our stage manager, was standing there and I burst into tears, and I said, "I have to miss a show." And she said, "You're allowed to miss a show." And I just cried and cried about it. It had never occurred to me.

On the songs in The Book of Mormon being a tribute to musical theater, influenced by Wicked, The King and I, The Lion King and The Music Man  

Gad: The influences of each of these songs [come] from a place of absolute weird devotion to musical theater on the part of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Obviously Bobby Lopez comes from that world. But when you look at Trey and Matt, the first thing you think of is not necessarily, like, musical theater acumen. And these are two guys that people forget when they wrote South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the feature film adaptation of the Comedy Central show, they got a letter from Stephen Sondheim, who's probably the most acclaimed composer and lyricist of the 20th century. And he basically said this is one of the top 10 most brilliantly realized musicals he's ever seen.

And I really do think that part of the reason this show endures is because each one of these songs is instantaneously hummable. … Each one of these songs reminds you of something, but it's never pastiche. It's never sort of making fun of a genre. It is fully embracing it and earning its space. So you have an 11 o'clock number in "I Believe" that is as powerful, potent, and as mesmerizing and memorable as an 11 o'clock number from Guys and Dolls.

Rannells: Well, I think, and a lot of people would come to see The Book of Mormon and say, "Ah, I don't really like musicals, but I do like this one." Which is always funny to me, because every number was — I don't wanna say a ripoff — but was a tribute.

On making the decision to leave the show and later regretting it 

Rannells: We did leave at the same time. Josh and I both had this very unique experience where we opened The Book of Mormon, we were both nominated for Tony Awards, we both lost those Tony Awards. … We then went out to Los Angeles. … We had a bunch of meetings in LA. We were very popular. These two guys from the biggest Broadway hit, everyone wanted to meet with us. We both got TV shows for NBC. Josh's was called 1600 Penn. Mine was called The New Normal. They both aired the same week. We went to the up fronts together. They were both canceled.

Gad: Same week. ... I was definitely, I think, more done than Andrew was by that point. ... I had checked out at that point, and I felt like I was doing a disservice to myself and the audience.

Rannells: You didn't seem like you were checked out.

Gad: No, but I started forgetting lines on stage. I wasn't present. ... I had also been doing it for so long, from its origin. I wanted to try new things. When I sort of do the same thing again and again, I start to get bored. … I look back at that now with a lot of regret. Because I don't think I appreciated this incredible moment until I was able to reflect on it, actually, years later. Because when you're in it, when you are in the eye of the hurricane there's a lot going on that you can't stop and settle yourself and go, oh my God, this is a moment that I'll never have again. This is so unbelievably unique. ...

Rannells: I wish that I had stayed longer.

Gad: I wish we had done another year.

Susan Nyakundi and John Sheehan produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web. 

Copyright 2026 NPR

Updated June 8, 2026 at 6:46 PM PDT

The 79th Annual Tony Awards celebrated the best of Broadway performances on Sunday in New York City, but the night was stolen by a performer who's never starred in a Broadway show at all: the singer-songwriter P!nk.

P!nk, who hosted the evening, started the show dressed like Peter Pan, swinging from the ceiling, but soon donned a pink bustier to sing a raucous version of "Lady Marmalade" that celebrated women in theater. She was joined by Megan Thee Stallion, Broadway stars, and a cast of about 170 others stretching across the huge stage at Radio City Music Hall. That opening number was written by Dear Evan Hansen's Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, plus Mark Sonnenblick, who wrote songs for KPOP Demon Hunters.

There was no big winner this year. Instead, awards were spread among several shows — best new musical went to Schmigadoon!, which won four awards; best play revival and direction went to Death of a Salesman (it won six Tonys in all.)

Plenty of celebrities showed up to share the stage, including cameos from former hosts Neil Patrick Harris and Ariana DeBose, plus presenters Sting, Paul Rudd, Billy Crystal, Bernadette Peters and Adrien Brody.

Later, P!nk sang "All That Jazz" from the long-running musical Chicago, along with the current Broadway cast. Other performances that received rapturous receptions from the crowd included The Rocky Horror Show cast singing "Time Warp" and a number from CATS: The Jellicle Ball — a musical that brings Andrew Lloyd Webber's show into the world of drag ballroom. Members of the audience were given branded fans from the production, and they snapped them happily.

The ceremony also offered a few surprises, like best new play going to Bess Wohl's Pulitzer-winning Liberation, beating out Giant, about Roald Dahl. Wohl's win was the first by an American woman playwright in 37 years.

The design awards were given out in the pre-show on Pluto TV, which made room for the CBS broadcast to focus primarily on performances of new and longer-running shows. In the pre-show, Qween Jean, who won for best costume design for CATS: The Jellicle Ball, became the first openly transgender woman to win a Tony. In 2023, J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell were the first nonbinary actors to win Tonys.

The full list of winners is below.

Best New Musical

WINNER: Schmigadoon!
The Lost Boys
Titaníque
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best New Play

WINNER: Liberation
The Balusters
Giant
Little Bear Ridge Road

Best Revival of a Musical

WINNER: Ragtime
CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show

Best Revival of a Play

WINNER: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Becky Shaw
Every Brilliant Thing
Fallen Angels
Oedipus

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

WINNER: Joshua Henry, Ragtime
Nicholas Christopher, Chess
Luke Evans, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

WINNER: Caissie Levy, Ragtime
Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!
Stephanie Hsu, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Marla Mindelle, Titaníque
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

WINNER: Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw
Christopher Abbott, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Danny Burstein, Marjorie Prime
Brandon J. Dirden, Waiting for Godot
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Richard Thomas, The Balusters

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

WINNER: Lesley Manville, Oedipus
Rose Byrne, Fallen Angels
Carrie Coon, Bug
Susannah Flood, Liberation
Kelli O'Hara, Fallen Angels

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

WINNER: Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
André De Shields, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Bryce Pinkham, Chess
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Layton Williams, Titaníque

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

WINNER: Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
Hannah Cruz, Chess
Rachel Dratch, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime

Best Direction of a Play

WINNER: Joe Mantello, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Nicholas Hytner, Giant
Robert Icke, Oedipus
Kenny Leon, The Balusters
Whitney White, Liberation

Best Direction of a Musical

WINNER: Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Lear deBessonet, Ragtime
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

WINNER: Laurie Metcalf, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Betsy Aidem, Liberation
Marylouise Burke, The Balusters
Aya Cash, Giant
June Squibb, Marjorie Prime

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

WINNER: John Lithgow, Giant
Will Harrison, Punch
Nathan Lane, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing
Mark Strong, Oedipus

Best Book of a Musical

WINNER: Schmigadoon!, Cinco Paul
The Lost Boys, David Hornsby and Chris Hoch
Titaníque, Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Jim Barne and Kit Buchan

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

WINNER: Schmigadoon!, Music & Lyrics: Cinco Paul
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Music: Caroline Shaw
August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Music: Steve Bargonetti
The Lost Boys, Music & Lyrics: The Rescues
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Music & Lyrics: Jim Barne and Kit Buchan

Best Scenic Design of a Play

WINNER: Chloe Lamford, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Hildegard Bechtler, Oedipus
Takeshi Kata, Bug
David Korins, Dog Day Afternoon
David Rockwell, Fallen Angels

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

WINNER: Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys
dots, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Soutra Gilmour, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Rachel Hauck, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Scott Pask, Schmigadoon!

Best Costume Design of a Play

WINNER: Jeff Mahshie, Fallen Angels
Brenda Abbandandolo, Dog Day Afternoon
Qween Jean, Liberation
Emilio Sosa, The Balusters
Paul Tazewell, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Best Costume Design of a Musical

WINNER: Qween Jean, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Linda Cho, Ragtime
Linda Cho, Schmigadoon!
Ryan Park, The Lost Boys
David I. Reynoso, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show

Best Lighting Design of a Play

WINNER: Jack Knowles, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Isabella Byrd, Dog Day Afternoon
Natasha Chivers, Oedipus
Stacey Derosier, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Heather Gilbert, Bug
Heather Gilbert, The Fear of 13

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

WINNER: Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Kevin Adams, Chess
Jane Cox, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Donald Holder, Schmigadoon!
Adam Honoré, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Honoré and Donald Holder (Lighting Design) and 59 Studio (Projection Design), Ragtime

Best Sound Design of a Play

WINNER: Mikaal Sulaiman, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Justin Ellington, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Tom Gibbons, Oedipus
Lee Kinney, The Fear of 13
Josh Schmidt, Bug

Best Sound Design of a Musical

WINNER: Kai Harada, Ragtime
Kai Harada, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Fisher, The Lost Boys
Brian Ronan, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Walter Trarbach, Schmigadoon!

Best Choreography

WINNER: Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ani Taj, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant, The Lost Boys

Best Orchestrations

WINNER: Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, Schmigadoon!
Ethan Popp, Kyler England, Adrianne "AG" Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann, The Lost Boys
Lux Pyramid, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brian Usifer, Chess
Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder and Doug Schadt, CATS: The Jellicle Ball

Copyright 2026 NPR

On-air challenge

As you probably know, the N.B.A. finals are going on right now. Game 3 between the Knicks and the Spurs is tomorrow night. So today I've brought a puzzle based on N.B.A. team names.

1. The name of what N.B.A. team is an anagram of PARROTS?
2. The name of what N.B.A. team is an anagram of THRONES
3. The name of what N.B.A. team is an anagram of SCRAPE?
4. Name two N.B.A. franchises that are birds.
5. You can remove the consecutive letters UGG of one N.B.A. team to get another. What teams are these?
6. The name of what N.B.A. team sounds like what they try to do for home games?

Last week's challenge

Last week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, a longtime writer and showrunner for "The Simpsons." Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?

Answer: "Piano Man" by Billy Joel --> Iran, Oman

Winner

This week's winner is Jocelyn Tutak of Portland, Oregon.

This week's challenge

Rearrange the letters of "NECESSARY MISPRINT" to spell a familiar phrase.

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, June 11 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2026 NPR

At Cats: The Jellicle Ball — the Tony-nominated Broadway production which reimagines the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in the world of drag ballroom — they sell rhinestone-studded water bottles and cat ears at the merchandise stands.

But one product — which isn't bedazzled — is selling like hotcakes.

Fans.

"Our clacking fan that we have, everyone asks for the minute they get to the show," said sales associate Michelle Tidmore, who's been selling Broadway merch for 18 years. "They come downstairs to ask to get a fan. They're used throughout the show for people to cheer on the actors."

She demonstrated how to open and close the fan, to get the loudest sound.

These yellow and black fans, which cost $30 a piece and say "Come One, Come All," which is a lyric in the show, can be heard throughout the Jellicle Ball – even at the pre-show announcement. After hearing about turning their phones off and unwrapping their candies, the announcer says "I know a lot of you Broadway kitties like to sit quietly and hold your reactions in. But this is a ball, darling," and the clacking starts loudly and in unison. And it continues after every song.

"I couldn't talk about the show without talking about the fan," said Steven Downing of Platypus Merchandise, who consulted with the producers and set and costume designers of Jellicle Ball to come up with this piece of merch.

"The fan is absolutely amazing. I call it the applause meter when you're in the theater. It went beyond just a piece of merchandise. It gave us the opportunity to have an interactive piece, right? This show is a party."

Likewise, Noah Sprock of Creative Goods Merchandise — a company which does design, manufacturing and retail for shows — had fun creating a unique piece of merch for Schmigadoon, the Tony-nominated musical, which is a gentle parody of Golden Age shows, like Oklahoma!, Carousel and The Music Man.

One of the sillier numbers in the musical is a playful hoedown called "Corn Puddin'" and Sprock said the producers suggested, "'Let's make a candle in the shape of an ear of corn that comes in, like, a can. And you have to open it like you would open a can of corn.' And so, we worked with the factory and developed the shape. And they sent us a bunch of different corn scent options, you know, some lean sweeter, some lean a little more savory. It's genuinely, I think, one of the coolest products we've ever made."

Creative Goods has a robust online presence, Sprock explained, but "the majority of our sales are captive audience and in-person, we're sort of pulling at the heartstrings of people in the building, because they've committed money on buying a ticket."

And, indeed, at another of Sprock's shows, the Tony-nominated Every Brilliant Thing, the merch stand in the lobby was packed before the audience had even seen the play.

One of the more creative items for sale was a pair of socks that each turn into sock puppets, referring to a poignant scent in the play. But Nancy Masterson, from Mount Pleasant, Mich., bought a refrigerator magnet. It was the first of four shows she was seeing in two days, and she planned to buy magnets from each one. "I have a special board just for them," she explained. "And I actually have a map that shows all the theaters I've been to and how many times I've been to them."

Broadway merch isn't just about making memories or creating secondary revenue for producers it's also about free advertising. "You want people to wear those items as they're walking down the street," said Downing, "or if they're in their cubicle with their mug going, 'Oh my god you guys, I just saw this incredible show.'"

The Tony Awards, hosted by P!NK, will be broadcast from Radio City Music Hall on CBS Sunday evening, and will be available to stream live on Paramount+ Premium.

Jennifer Vanasco edited the broadcast story and edited and produced the digital story. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio for broadcast.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Since 2023, Akash Pamarthy has been documenting the lives of members of the Sikh religion around Ohio. The Sikh faith originated in the Punjab region of northwest India in the 15th century, but Sikh people have migrated and settled around the world. In Ohio, Pamarthy found a community that embraces its Sikh Indian roots and a new generation blending their faith with their American identity.

"Sikhism has always fascinated me," Pamarthy said. "The Sikh faith is deeply community-oriented, grounded in equality, resilience and service. Sikhs stand tall and support one another through every challenge."

NPR asked Pamarthy about his work to document the community. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Can you tell me a bit about the community's history in India and here?

Their history is marked by displacement and struggle. When India was partitioned, Punjab was divided into two, leaving the Sikh community in economic distress with immense loss of land and wealth. Seeking opportunities to rebuild, many migrated abroad to support their families. In 1984, following Operation Blue Star, the assassination of India's prime minister by her Sikh bodyguard triggered horrific mob violence that killed thousands of Sikhs across the country, pushing many more to flee.

In the United States, after 9/11, Sikhs were often misidentified because of their turbans and faced racial attacks and discrimination. Yet, despite centuries of persecution — from Mughal rulers to modern misunderstandings, they have never abandoned their faith or identity. It takes immense courage to remain true to who you are, and the Sikh community continues to embody that courage generation after generation.

What are the impacts of the current political climate on the community now?

The Sikhs are proud Americans who deeply respect this country and see it as a land of opportunity. Many have built their lives here and wholeheartedly call the U.S. their home. However, the current political climate has created a sense of unease — not just for Sikhs but for many communities. Even though they are law-abiding and contribute positively to society, there is still an underlying fear and uncertainty.

Anyone can be American. They're ... rooted in a different faith, but they're proud to be there in this country, proud to contribute, proud to represent or call themselves as American — while rooted in their own culture.

Can you tell me a bit about the people you met while making this work? Is there an individual who made a big impact? 

During the project, I lived with 82-year-old Jagbir Singh Dhillon. I never met my grandfathers, but my time with him felt like what it would have been to have one. He taught me everyday skills like chopping wood, cooking, shoveling snow and deeper lessons about patience, kindness and purpose. I learned a lot from him about life, people and relationships. He was one of the best roommates I've ever had. We often spent long evenings talking about anything and everything, sitting by the fire. I never needed my phone or felt bored in his company.

He reminded me a lot of my grandmother, who always looked forward to feeding me. He was the same way — always making sure I ate enough. He would often say, "Kuch khata hi nahi, kaise jeeyega?" which means, "You don't eat anything — how will you live?"

What is something you learned about yourself while making this project? 

One thing I've learned about myself is that I'm not someone who gives up easily. I keep trying, even after I fail. When I'm passionate about something, I pursue it with persistence.

Akash Pamarthy is a photojournalist based in Seattle. You can see more of his work on his website, akashphotography.com, or on Instagram, at @akashpamarthyphoto.

Copyright 2026 NPR

City Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee was joined by Budget Committee Chair Henry Foster III on Friday with County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and representatives of the Prebys Foundation to announce the proposal, which would have the foundation put up $3 million for arts and culture programs slashed in the current proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

"Arts are essential to our city," Lee said. "Music, film, artistic expression — this is what makes us human, and it's what transforms a city into a community. Our arts programs create jobs, attract visitors and help define what it means to be a San Diegan. This is not about funding some abstract luxury, it's about protecting one of San Diego's greatest strengths."

The proposal would also adopt recommendations from the city's Independent Budget Analyst's office to shift $6 million from San Diego's Transient Occupancy Tax (essentially a hotel tax) to arts programs, as well as to restore $1.3 million in grants.

"Arts and culture belong in all of San Diego and this funding supports local artists, small businesses, jobs and the community spaces that keep our neighborhoods connected," said Foster III. "In District 4, the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District shows why this work matters by honoring history, creating opportunity, and making sure culture isn't forgotten. As Budget Chair, I truly believe this proposal is a responsible way to protect funding that matters to our residents and our local economy."

This would cover around $10.35 million of the nearly $12 million cut in the proposed budget, as the city looks to tighten its belt amid a $118 million structural budget deficit.

"Our investment is intended to encourage the city to restore arts funding, honor the competitive grants process already underway, and strengthen regional support for arts and culture," said Grant Oliphant, CEO and president of the Prebys Foundation. "For decades, San Diego's artists and cultural organizations have been promised a reliable source of public funding. It is time to deliver on that promise, and today marks an important step forward."

Following up on a May decision by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to allocate millions in county funding to bolster the region's arts and culture scene, county leaders on Friday announced plans to explore a regional alliance to advance the arts.

"Arts and culture are essential to the identity, vibrancy, and economic vitality of our region," said Montgomery Steppe. "The county has been focused on building a strong and sustainable foundation for arts and culture well before the current budget discussion. I'm encouraged to see leaders from across government, philanthropy, and the arts community coming together around a shared commitment to support the creative ecosystem that enriches all of our communities."

County initiatives include funding for artists from underserved communities, creating or maintaining affordable creative spaces and strengthening cross-border ties with artists in Baja California.

A regional initiative to combine funding, effort, or both would be "more stable and sustainable," the speakers said Friday.

"Year after year, it's the same budget battle over the arts. We envision a better way, a collaboration where our whole region works together to support the arts," Lee said. "We want to secure the level of investment the arts deserve and create a system that does not force organizations to rebuild their future one budget cycle at a time."

The proponents said a regional approach could "help grow investment in arts and culture, strengthen the region's cultural economy, expand access to arts programming in every community and ensure future generations continue to benefit from a vibrant creative sector."

Friday's coalition asked the San Diego City Council to approve the proposal as part of next week's budget actions and urged Mayor Todd Gloria to sign the proposal into law.

WASHINGTON — Water is flowing back into the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, after a controversial painting job kept it closed for weeks. And to many onlookers, it doesn't look much different.

"The pool gets completed at 4 o'clock and the water will start to flow in … and it's going to be beautiful," President Trump told reporters in the Oval office on Wednesday.

The next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shared a video of water bubbling up through a grate on the freshly-darkened pool floor. Trump had the pool's surface darkened to a shade he calls "American flag blue." For the last century, he's said, the pool was "just gray … the color of concrete and stone."

By Friday morning, the 2,028 foot-long shallow pool had collected a stripe of water down the middle, just wide enough to reflect the Washington Monument across from it. The refilling continued under the bright sun, as one worker stood in the middle of the pool, with his pants rolled up above his knees, wielding a hose.

As the temperature neared 90 degrees, tourists, cyclists and joggers paused at the top of the nearby steps to snap photos and observe the process. Many welcomed the return of the water — and the ducks that play in it — but said they couldn't immediately tell a difference in the color.

"The more water it fills, the more similar it looks [to before]," said Luisa Córdoba, a D.C. resident and avid runner who says she's been coming to check on the pool every day since work started. "I'm just happy it's not that bright blue that we saw the first days, which was so alarming … if it stays like this, it's fine."

Early renderings — as well as preliminary coats of paint when the project started in late April — had critics worried the historic landmark would end up looking more like a swimming pool. But Friday's observers didn't find that to be the case.

"I'm colorblind, so it doesn't look blue — yet," said Terry Barzanti, a Maryland resident who works nearby.

"I'm not colorblind and it doesn't look blue," laughed his coworker Edgar Sadsad, who found it more grey.

Other passersby described it as closer to black, and said the difference might be more noticeable once the pool is fully refilled. Even so, Sadsad and Barzanti were among those who praised the project, saying the pool already looked cleaner and more appealing.

Trump has for months complained about the state of the pool, saying he made it a priority after an unnamed friend visiting from Germany called it "filthy" and "not representative of the country," according to the president.

The pool, which first opened in 1923, last underwent major renovations between 2010 and 2012. But it has continued to suffer from broken pipes and water leaks that merit costly refills, according to the Department of the Interior.

Trump has said this project sealed crevices in the stone to prevent leaks, and removed 12 truckloads of garbage from the pool, though it's not clear that it addressed the broken pipes.

"It'll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything with it," he said.

Questions remain about the project's funding 

The resurfacing took significantly longer than Trump's initial estimate.

He said in late April that the project would be done in a week or two, though the Department of the Interior told NPR it would take closer to a month.

In mid-May, the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation sued the administration to stop work on the pool, saying it had bypassed federally required historic preservation reviews. A judge heard arguments later that month, but hadn't made a decision by the time the administration informed the court on Wednesday that work had been completed.

The project also appears to cost more than Trump said it would.

He gave the price tag as $2 million, which he said, without specifics, was significantly less than he had been quoted previously. But Interior Department records obtained by The New York Times show the administration plans to pay $13.1 million to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia firm that Trump picked for the project.

"It's kind of sad where our tax dollars are going. I mean, it was fine before, by my knowledge," said Samantha Sorokin of Arlington, Va., who was taking her parents on a tour.

It's not clear how much of the money is coming from taxpayers. A large sign affixed to the construction site fence, on National Park Service letterhead, informed visitors that "these improvements are being completed using your fee dollars."

(The Washington Post reported this week that the Trump administration is diverting at least $90 million from national park entry fees to fund its July 4th fireworks display and other D.C. beautification projects.)

When asked for comment about the cost and where the money is coming from, the Department of the Interior — the park service's parent agency — told NPR that it has "many funding sources available to spend on deferred maintenance."

"Unlike Barack Obama who spent millions upon millions in taxpayer-funded Great Recession recovery aid that should have gone to struggling families, the Trump administration is looking at different funding mechanisms which include endowment funds and revenue brought in from the sale of park passes," the unnamed spokesperson wrote over email.

The two-year renovation of the reflecting pool that ended in 2012 was funded by $34 million from an Obama-era economic stimulus package.

Trump's campaign to spruce up D.C. 

Trump is hoping to make many changes to D.C., ranging from massive undertakings like his proposed triumphal arch (which got preliminary approval from a second federal agency this week) to smaller changes like installing new statues and restoring park fountains.

"We have many monuments and fountains all over Washington, and we're just about completed with all of them," he said Wednesday.

The Interior Department referred NPR to a White House post on X listing those accomplishments, which include "500 instances of graffiti removed," "134 rat-resistant trash cans installed" and "250 truckloads of debris from ponds removed."

Much of that work is being carried out by National Guard troops deployed to D.C., whose numbers are set to double ahead of the country's 250th birthday celebrations on and around July 4th. That's also the deadline — or at least impetus — for many of Trump's renovation projects.

Maria Sorokin, who was visiting her daughter from Pennsylvania, is skeptical that the 250th anniversary warrants major changes like the reflecting pool resurfacing.

"It is a special anniversary and it should be spruced up, but I'm not sure if this was necessary," she said, looking at the pool slowly refilling. "If it's not broken, don't fix it."

But some area residents, like Barzanti, embrace the cleanup and beautification efforts.

"We walk down here for lunch breaks," he said. "People come from all over the world to see our nation's capital. So we should show it off, we should take care of it."

Some changes are going over better than others.

Several locals at the reflecting pool, including Córdoba, mentioned that they were thrilled to see the fountains at Meridian Hill Park — a popular spot about 1.5 miles north of the White House — flowing with water for the first time in seven years.

Maryellen Thornton, who lives near the park, says the fountain restoration has been "amazing for the community," describing the picnic blanket-packed grass "like nirvana." It's also one of the reasons she and her husband Brad Thornton came to see the reflecting pool.

"We're just fascinated with how fabulous it is to have all of these water features being restored in the district," she said. "It just brings so much happiness to everybody."

Brad is also excited to see the return of water to the fountain outside Union Station, Washington's major transport hub, and hopes the newly filled reflecting pool will build on that momentum.

"A little bit of spraying water goes a long way," he said. "It shouldn't be about politics. It's just about enjoying it. We're in the city. We need some green space."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Disco Riot's mission is to grow social consciousness and connection through collaborative, thought-provoking movement-based art in San Diego. Through Sunday, it presents performances and workshops as part of its Queer Mvmnt Fest 2026.

The festival features artists from San Diego and beyond who identify as part of the 2S-LGBTQIA+ dance community. Many of the participating artists also identify as BIPOC/Global Majority and disabled.

Tonight, the festival presents a variety show at the Malashock Black Box Theater in Liberty Station featuring local and visiting artists performing drag, burlesque and circus acts.

Then on Saturday, there’s an Artist Showcase featuring performances and Q&A sessions with the artists.

Saturday’s workshops kick off with DragXDance with Rowan Janusiak, combining choreography and free-form movement for all bodies and identities with accommodations for disabled movers.

Next is a workshop with a clever title I love, The Art of Kunt-Fu: Becoming the Queer Warrior, with Devante Love. Organizers describe it as “a queer only offering since the movements are designed with the queer experience in mind and the workshop aims to help bolster courageousness in one’s expression of their queerness and healing from the ways societal norms have harmed us.”

The final workshop is Primal Physics, which intertwines the physics of rope and dance encouraging participants to tap into their most grounded and feral expression. It is led by Meesh Herd and Toni Brianna Guida Wendel.

The festival closes on Sunday with music, dancing and an afterparty. All workshops are free, and performances offer tiered pricing so no one is turned away for lack of funds.

At 625 meters (2,050 feet) above the river below, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in the mountainous province of Guizhou is considered the world's highest bridge. The structure stretches 2,890 meters (9,482 feet), with a main span of 1,420 meters (4,660 feet).

Since it opened in September 2025, thousands of tourists have visited the area, where companies are also investing in high-speed 5G network infrastructure. The influx of visitors has given rise to new businesses, from stores and restaurants to homestays catering to tourists.

The Associated Press recently joined a media tour of the region.

As China expands transportation and internet infrastructure in remote areas, nearby communities have also benefited from broader internet coverage. One example is Tianlong Tunpu, an ancient town with more than 600 years of history located more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the bridge.

Originally established as a military outpost during the Ming Dynasty, the town is known for local Dixi operas characterized by military-themed storytelling, striking wooden masks and an unusual performance style that sets it apart from other styles of Chinese opera.

Residents say the community is receiving more visitors, in part because social media allows them to promote the town to a wider audience.

Copyright 2026 NPR

On Monday, a graduation ceremony will be held for students who participated in the United Lowrider Youth Leadership Bike Club.

Over the last 10 weeks, several students at High Tech High Chula Vista joined the program to learn how to build their own custom lowrider bikes and also develop their leadership skills.

It’s a program of the United Lowrider Coalition and it was brought to the school’s campus in partnership with High Tech High Chula Vista, according to the club organizers.

The students graduating on Monday are part of the second cohort, an all-girls group, and the program started over two years ago. The first group was all boys.

Along with building bikes and developing leadership skills, the 10-week program includes learning to work safely with tools, taking part in activities focused on teamwork, self-worth and personal growth, keeping journals that mark students' progress, attending classes and meeting with mentors.

'A new beginning'

During the first class, students unwrapped large rectangular boxes. Inside each box was a bike frame which students convert into custom lowrider bikes; when finished, they’ll get to keep them.

Luzciana Gonzalez, one of the students in the program, shared how she felt when she opened her box.

“I was actually super excited … It felt like really, like a new beginning to understanding the culture of this,” she said.

Fellow classmate Ariana Cerda was also excited to join the program.

“Not only is it a bike club, it's an all-girls bike club," Cerda said. "That's not something you see too often. So just being able to be a part of that overall is really exciting.”

'Not necessarily what it seems'

Mentors include educators from the school and members of the lowrider community, who played a role in ending the no-cruising ordinance in National City and beyond three years ago.

One other mentor is Mauricio Gandara, who was a student in the first cohort. He initially joined to learn more about the lowrider community.

“The more I learned about it, it made me realize like it's not necessarily what it seems. There's a lot of team building and a lot of discipline involved,” Gandara said.

Teresa Garza, one of the program’s mentors and a member of the lowrider community, shared what program organizers hope students gain from the program.

“You know, we want them to feel confident. We want them to be able to express themselves, respect each other,” she said,

Garza also compared building bikes to the traditions of lowrider culture and transforming cars into moving works of art.

“You know, we do different paint jobs, different patterns, it's to our liking, and that's what we want to see out of the students," Garza said. "You know, use their imagination, build their bikes the way they want to see them.”

'Girls don't really build stuff'

They also want students to learn safety and proper tool handling.

One other mentor is Marcos "Rabbit" Arellano. He showed how easy it is to hurt yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing.

“Or if you're working this way," he said while holding a pair of pliers and pointing the tool at himself. "You're looking at it trying to take something off and it gets loose, guess where it's going to go? Right into your eye,” Rabbit said.

No experience with tools is necessary to be in the program, but mentors say all 10 of the students in the current cohort have some level of experience with tools, including Mia Garza, the granddaughter of Teresa Garza.

“I like to say I grew up in the garage … And my grandpa would call me out, say, Mia, bring me a socket wrench or bring me a Phillips screwdriver. I would know immediately where everything was,” Teresa Garza said.

Valentina Sullivan also has experience working with tools. She said it’s opened new ways for her to connect with her dad and other family members.

“I'm not just a girl and like, because usually in our culture, girls don't really build stuff, and they're kind of just on the side, just like kind of watching," Sullivan said. "But I was able to kind of like break through that cultural norm and build with him and be able to even talk to some of my uncles about stuff that I've done too.”

After graduation, a new cohort launches in the fall at High Tech High Chula Vista.

It’s also expanding the program, with one starting at Southwestern College's National City campus. Students ages 13 to 18 from all over San Diego County are welcome to apply.

Anyone interested in learning more about the program can contact the United Lowrider Coalition.

Ten years ago today, NPR journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna were killed while on assignment with an NPR team in Afghanistan. They were traveling with the Afghan National Army when their convoy was ambushed — not random victims, but targeted by attackers who had been tipped off to the presence of Americans in Afghanistan's Helmand province. They are the only NPR journalists who have ever been killed in the line of duty.

David joined NPR in 2007. He covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and an Ebola epidemic in Liberia. He spent time with refugees of Syria's civil war in Toledo, Ohio, and captured the stories of schoolchildren in Kabul. He felt especially close to U.S. servicemen and women who he covered on battlefields overseas and followed their stories when they returned home. He took every opportunity to highlight the sacrifices they made in the face of grave danger.

David was 50, and Zabihullah, who had worked for years as a photographer before serving as NPR's interpreter in Afghanistan, was 38.

What follows is a series of remembrances published in the years since David and Zabihullah's deaths, as well as a selection of some of David's remarkable work during his time at NPR.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Christopher Polentz’s design features a quill in the foreground. In the background, the sun breaks through the clouds.

“The storm clouds are representative of many things,” he said. “The battle, the uncertainty, the discomfort.”

The sun, he said, represents hope.

Polentz is part of a nationwide pool of artists that works with the Mint to design coins and medals.

“They accepted me and I was shocked,” he said.

He was shocked, he said, because of the portfolio he submitted in his application. He described his style as surreal and dark. His Instagram page and website show portraits with exaggerated features.

He and two dozen other artists went to Philadelphia to tour the Mint and learn about the coin-making process. They learned about how to make a design mintable.

Artists typically have two weeks to come up with an initial design, Polentz said. Staff at the Mint gave feedback on things like spacing and how deeply design features can be pressed into the metal.

Polentz has made 20 designs for the Mint so far, and three have been minted.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

The two other designs are on the same 2025 coin celebrating liberty. On the front of the coin is a sunflower and a honey bee. It represents the symbiotic relationship between democracy and the American people, Polentz said.

He knew he wanted to include an eagle on the back, but he wanted it to look different from eagles he’d seen on other coins. His eagle calls out mid-flight, its wings framing its face.

“It's aggressive. It's angular. It's kind of threatening,” he said.

Collectibles like the 2025 Liberty coin sell fast, Polentz said.

“I had all my family members online in case I couldn't get one,” he said. “At exactly 10 o’clock we have to be online, ready to drop our money on this coin, because it'll be gone.”

The Mint is making 15,000 of the Declaration of Independence platinum coins. They cost $2,495 each on the Mint’s website.

Visual arts

EXPO Design Market 

Mortis Studio and Kiku Room will bring the popular EXPO Design Market back to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, featuring dozens of creators, publishers, small presses, vendors and artists, along with discussions, DJ sets and art-making activities. EXPO admission is free, and guests receive half-price museum admission throughout the weekend, so be sure to check out "Giants" and "Hometown Heroes" while you're EXPO-ing.

11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 6-7 | MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla | Free | MORE INFO

'The Color of Silence'

Curated by Francisco Eme, a new collaborative exhibit from Space 4 Art and Art Produce pairs performance with visual art to explore the dichotomy and space between noise and silence. Visual artists are Cheryl Nickel, Jennifer de Poyen, Jenna Leathers, Nick Lesley, Caity Fares and Andrew Alcasid. A series of performances pairs with the exhibit, beginning with Joe Cantrell and Amy Cimini at the opening reception, followed by Rabbitlight and Nick Lesley on June 20.

4 p.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday, June 6 through July 1 | Art Produce, 3139 University Ave., North Park | Free | MORE INFO

Music

North Park Music Festival

More than 30 live music acts will perform at restaurants, bars, cafes and gathering spaces across North Park for this year's North Park Music Festival. Bands include Gaslamp Killer, 18 Scales, Clinton Davis, Jesus Gonzalez, Lion Cut, Los Pinche Pinches, The Microblades and more. A $25 wristband gets you into all venues and performances. VIP passes also offer access to the VIP lounge at Granada House adjacent to the North Park Mini Park, where cocktails and snacks will be served alongside an art exhibit currently on display. A few venues are free and open to the public, including Playground Art + Coffee, where electropop act Saint Misty will perform at 6 p.m.

Bonus: The North Park Mini Book Fair will take place the same day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. along North Park Way near Verbatim Books.

Noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 6 | Multiple locations, North Park | $25+ | MORE INFO

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus: 'Echoes of the Divine'

The La Jolla Symphony's annual Nee Commission honors the work of a student composer and is named after longtime faculty member and director Thomas Nee. This year's Nee Commission recipient is composer Akari Komura for her piece "outgrowth." Also performed will be Arvo Pärt's "Berliner Messe" and Maurice Duruflé's "Requiem."

7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6-7 | Mandeville Auditorium, 9500 Gilman Drive, UC San Diego | $22-$48.50 | MORE INFO

Pattie Gonia: 'SAVE HER'

Drag performer and climate activist Pattie Gonia is bringing her environmental drag show to San Diego. The tour explores a range of climate issues and solutions through glam performance — from sustainable fashion to big oil.

8 p.m. Saturday, June 6 | Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy | $60.80 | MORE INFO

Dance

Queer Mvmnt Fest 2026

Disco RIOT's annual 2SLGBTQIA+-focused dance and movement arts festival spotlights local dancers, choreographers and artists through performances, film, discussions and workshops. Events are held throughout the week at various locations. Highlights include Friday's variety show and Saturday’s featured artist showcase, both at Malashock's Black Box Studio Theater.

Through June 7 | Multiple locations | Free | MORE INFO

Golden State Ballet: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

San Diego dance company Golden State Ballet will perform its production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a retelling of Shakespeare's fairy comedy featuring choreography by artistic director Raul Salamanca.

The company will also perform Houston Thomas’ "The Four Seasons," set to composer Max Richter's reimagining of Vivaldi's work.

7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. Sunday, June 5-7 | Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., downtown | $45+ | MORE INFO

Books

Peel Lit Reading

Local literary magazine and reading series Peel Lit is hosting a reading in support of Burn All Books, a local small press, Risograph printer and zine haven. Helmed by Becca Rae Rose and Olga Mikolaivna, Peel Lit was launched in 2024. I will read fiction at this week's event as part of the lineup alongside Jac Jemc, Kazim Ali, Ana Carete, Paola Capó-García and Ignacio Carvajal. While the reading is free, a raffle and an auction will be held as fundraisers for the space.

I recently spoke to Paola Capó-García and asked whether she still finds time to write.

"Yes, I'm happy to report I am! It was not necessarily the case a year ago in this position, though, because I'm asked to write poetry about San Diego, which is really outside my comfort zone. Like I don't typically write place poems. I don't typically write about a location, but it has pushed me to be in a space where I'm constantly producing work," she said.

7 p.m. Friday, June 5 | Burn All Books, 3131 Adams Ave., Normal Heights | Free | MORE INFO

Theater

'The Monsters'

Playwright, actor and UC San Diego MFA graduate Ngozi Anyanwu's new work, "The Monsters," explores MMA (mixed martial arts), the family drama between estranged siblings and what it means to fight. La Jolla Playhouse's production is directed by Tamilla Woodard and stars Anyanwu alongside Sullivan Jones (HBO's "The Gilded Age"). And yes, there'll be fighting.

7:30 p.m. Thursday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday; through June 28 | La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UC San Diego | $30-$74 | MORE INFO

Family

Woodswoman: Earthseed

Inspired by imagined futures, science fiction and nature, artist Saya Woolfalk's new installation at the New Children's Museum invites kids and families to explore a magical, whimsical world as California butterflies, climbing through enormous acorn-like structures (I mistook them for mini spaceships at first). The installation opens Friday with a free, all-ages reception and artist talk featuring Woolfalk in conversation with Ayana Jamieson, founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network.

6-9 p.m. Friday, June 5 | New Children's Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., downtown | Free during reception, $20-$25 general admission | MORE INFO

UC San Diego MFA graduate Ngozi Anyanwu describes her play "The Monsters" as “a love letter to sibling relationships,” and sets it against the backdrop of mixed martial arts, or MMA. The play had its first San Diego preview Tuesday at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum.

Anyanwu says she is a "lover, not a fighter," but she arrives for her interview bursting with energy and looking like she could take on all challengers. She took on writing "The Monsters" in part as a challenge to herself.

"I really do make family plays at the end of the day, and I was interested in a small-big play. Can you make a play that is just intimate, that is just two people, where you do feel like the world is big, but can you really hone in on them? So I was interested in the challenge of a two-hander," Anyanwu said.

Initially, she came to theater wanting to act, and while at UC San Diego, she decided, "I should probably write something until someone puts me in something. And then people happen to have liked the writing, so the writing kind of took off and allowed for me to perform. So a lot of it was a channel for me to perform, and then I found out that I had more things to say as a writer, so the writing kept coming."

She wrote the play but has also directed it, and now she takes on the role of LIL opposite Sullivan Jones (HBO’s "The Gilded Age") as BIG for the La Jolla Playhouse's production of "The Monsters."

LIL has been estranged from her brother but has been observing him from afar. BIG is an aging but respected fighter in the local mixed martial arts circuit. When little sis appears unexpectedly on his doorstep, he must face their past and decide what this sibling relationship can be moving forward.

Anyanwu was attracted to the world of MMA because her real brother is a retired fighter.

"So that was something that I was really interested in, in exposing that kinship, that lifestyle," Anyanwu said. "I was really interested in the duality between the violence of what the sport is, but also the kind of art and technique that is also mixed into it and the people that I think you have one idea about them, but actually being close to them and watching him train and watching the camaraderie and the kinship that he felt and the brotherhood that he really entered himself into, I was really interested in exposing the duality of that."

There is MMA fighting on stage, but don't expect it to be what you would see at a real MMA bout.

"I was really interested in the theatricality of the entertainment because I'm like this is actually also a form of entertainment that we watch. But let's add some dialogue and some sport into it," Anyanwu said. "So we have a fight choreographer and a fight consultant. And I was just really interested in the authenticity of it. So we brought on this amazing woman, Sijara Eubanks, who's been with me since I directed it in New York, and actually since I wrote the play. She's a former UFC fighter, an MMA fighter and a coach. So I really was interested in having someone who is integrated into that world. I think of her as my cultural consultant, essentially to keep the thing authentic. This play is so much about the body and the text, right? And so what you're going to see is a mixture of that, right? It was my interpretation of MMA, and I really wanted to show how beautiful it was. So you're going to actually see like us doing some moves, but you're also going to be seeing us like not necessarily fighting other people and fighting each other."

As a UC San Diego grad, Anyanwu is also scheduled to meet with students on campus. She came to playwriting while at UC San Diego, and her advice to students is, "To create, to take this thing into your own hands, that you are the creator of your future. Don't rely on anyone to pick you. We are in this really weird, scary time with all the technology that is given to us, but actually there's so much advantage that you can take out of that. Don't wait for anybody, because no one's waiting for you. And that might feel really scary, but actually it's very, very liberating. So know the fact that no one's really waiting — that you got to go now and jump forward and do it yourself, and that doesn't have to be scary. You have people near you that are trying to do the same thing if you look."

"The Monsters" runs through June 28 at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum.

When he talks about his childhood, Sting is quick to say he grew up in the shadow of a shipyard in northeastern England.

"My earliest memories are of seeing a giant ship blocking the sun at the end of the street, thousands of men and women walking to work every morning in this dark, frightening, noisy, hellish place with a terrible health and safety record, a very dangerous place," he told Morning Edition host Leila Fadel. "I would think as a kid, is this my destiny?"

That question and that place are at the heart of The Last Ship, which next week becomes the first musical to be staged at New York's Metropolitan Opera, June 9-14. Following previous European and Australian stops, the show next tours in Amsterdam and London starting in late August.

When it opened on Broadway in 2014, the musical fared poorly at the box office and got sharp reviews. In the renewed version, Sting plays a lead role as foreman Jackie White, singing in his now raspy voice. He's joined on stage by his frequent collaborator and reggae star Shaggy.

"My grandfather had been a shipwright. My father was a lathe worker," Sting recalled, saying the character of White was largely inspired by his father. "I did everything in my power to escape this life."

Much of the music and lyrics are based on the 17-time Grammy winner's 1991 album The Soul Cages, weaving elements of his family's story through ballads, Celtic folk music and the kinds of classic musical recordings his mother collected.

"We had the records of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and I loved those records as a kid," Sting said. "So some of the music will have been ripped off from Richard Rodgers."

The ship that the crew launches at the end of the musical stands for something greater. "It's the ship of my childhood," Sting said. "It's the ship of my life."

The rock star said he feels ideally suited to tell this story because he is from the community and yet feels outside of it.

That place is Wallsend, so named because it sits at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, the largest Roman archeological element in Britain. When he returned there in 1990, Sting found the shipyard was closing down just as his parents were both dying.

"So it seemed like a metaphor… the death of the industry, which has sustained that community and the death of my parents seemed to be inextricably linked," Sting said. "I'm still mourning them, but hopefully telling an uplifting story from that tragedy."

The loss of manual, physically demanding jobs and the shift toward more sedentary lifestyles drives up toxic traits of masculinity today, according to the musician.

"I have workers' hands," Sting said. "They're strong hands. I play the bass, I play the piano, I play the guitar. I'm lucky to do that. I think modern men are robbed of that attribute that we have the strength of our hands. I think that robs us of agency and I think that's dangerous for us."

Toward the end of the show, the shipbuilders launch a ship. "At the same time, they could look back on something that they'd built with their hands and that the pride in the whole community for those ships that they built was palpable," Sting said. "When they were launched, it feels like the end of the world."

He got a scholarship to study Latin, history and philosophy. "They tried to make me a gentleman, but that was only half successful," he quipped. Years later, he became the frontman and bassist of The Police and, after they disbanded, launched a solo career.

"At one point in my life, I thought I owe a massive amount to the environment, to the surreal industrial environment I was brought up in," Sting said. "Because it was so rich and powerful symbolism. The giant ships, the river, the sea, the church I was born next to. All of those were powerful symbols that were a gift to any kind of writer or songwriter."

Despite the musical's struggles in its first iteration, Sting expressed confidence about this version, which features a new book, sets and director. He is singing a leading role in all performances rather than making only select appearances.

"I never conflate commercial success or failure with excellence or, you know, inefficiency," he said. "It takes a while for a play to find its audience, to find its voice, to find itself," Sting said. "It's never finished. I think it gets better every time we perform it."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Updated June 12, 2026 at 1:18 PM PDT

A century ago, as lawmakers and architects mulled where to put a new memorial to the late President Abraham Lincoln, one location stood apart: the western edge of the National Mall, on what was then the marshy mudflats of the Potomac River.

The site stands on the same axis as the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument, forming a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it. And it is directly across the river from Virginia's Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

None of that is a coincidence.

"It's not just the memorials themselves that have meaning, but the relationship spatially between different memorials carries symbolic meaning," says Neil Flanagan, an architect and public historian in D.C. "The Potomac River was the border between the North and South, nominally, during the Civil War; It's literally crossing the border and trying to heal those wounds."

Smack-dab in the middle of this stretch, inside a traffic circle on the Virginia side of the bridge, is where President Trump wants to build his triumphal arch.

The proposed structure would be 250 feet tall, more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial. That's concerning to preservationists and members of the public who have expressed opposition to the project at every turn — in large part because it would obstruct this significant line of sight.

"The connection of the Lincoln Memorial, representing Lincoln himself, to the home of the leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, was designed to help heal the wounds of the war that tore apart the nation … to disrupt this view would disrupt this reconciliation," said architectural historian Alison Hoagland, one of several concerned speakers at the Commission of Fine Arts' May meeting.

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The commission, an independent federal agency that advises on plans for monuments, memorials and federal buildings, is packed with Trump appointees. It speedily granted the design final approval at its last meeting, despite unanswered questions about its sculptural finishes, the administration's dismissal of some of the panel's recommendations, and considerable public pushback.

When asked about the arch obstructing the vista, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told NPR on Wednesday that it will be "one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world."

"It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today," Ingle wrote over email.

But the project still has more legal and procedural hurdles to clear — including a lawsuit by Vietnam War veterans who say it disrespects those buried at the cemetery and requires congressional authorization. Democrats agree, though Trump has said, "We don't need anything from Congress."

The arch took another small step forward on Thursday, when the National Capital Planning Commission voted 9-1 to advance the proposal to the next stage of consideration. The federal urban planning agency's three Trump-appointed members include Chair Will Scharf, who also serves as the president's staff secretary.

Thursday's meeting featured more than two hours of impassioned public comments from preservationists, veterans, architects and residents opposed to the arch.

They, like many of the nearly 1,700 who submitted written comments ahead of the meeting, cited a range of concerns, including public safety (for cars, pedestrians and incoming flights at Reagan Washington National Airport, just 3,000 feet away), the structure's scale, tone and proximity to the cemetery and the loss of the historic viewline.

"The National Mall, George Washington Memorial Parkway, and Arlington National Cemetery are among the most visited and most revered public landscapes in the United States," said Edward Stierli with the National Parks Conservation Association. "They are the products of generations of deliberate planning, legal process, and public stewardship. They deserve protection, not transformation."

Commission members made clear that they were voting in favor of starting a conversation, not greenlighting the plan itself. The Trump appointees all expressed their support for a commemorative arch at that location, while several other commission members seemed more skeptical.

Trump has framed the arch as a celebration of the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary, though he said in October that it was intended to honor "Me." It's one of a number of physical changes he wants to make to D.C., alongside a new White House ballroom, a resurfaced reflecting pool and a renovated Kennedy Center.

On Thursday afternoon, while the commission was hearing about the arch, Trump announced a new project in the same area: a pedestrian bridge that would connect the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.

"We're going to call the promenade — they want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that. It's going to be beautiful. It's a beautiful project," he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office.

Thursday's meeting raised even more questions about the arch

On Thursday, commissioners thanked the public for their comments and seemed to share many of their questions about details large and small, from how the arch would be lit to whether it would interfere with the average 30 funeral processions the cemetery holds each day.

"I'm really struck by the width and depth of the comments that we heard, the number of people who are interested in this for all kinds of reasons — not just design, but functionality, appropriateness, all kinds of things," Commissioner Linda Argo said at the end of the discussion period.

One major unanswered question concerns the federal Height of Buildings Act, which generally caps structures at 130 feet on commercial streets. The commission has historically applied the act to all federal projects, but Scharf opened the meeting by suggesting it might not apply to the arch.

"There's nothing about the presentation today, or the action requested of this commission today, that requires us to fully consider this weighty issue at this time, but I did want to preview that ... so by the time this project comes back to us, for [preliminary] and final approval, that we have more guidance on this issue," he said.

The commission's preliminary approval allows it to request more information — including the status of several historic preservation and environmental reviews that are required by federal law but had not yet been publicly announced. The team working on the arch said one of those, the Section 106 review required by the National Historic Preservation Act, will begin on Friday.

The commission is asking the project team to come back with more specifics — including about stormwater management, lighting plans, site materials and views from additional vantage points — and data from studies it says it is undertaking with agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation. The commission's next monthly meeting is scheduled for July 9, before it takes August off.

The vista has a purpose. Critics say the arch does not 

In the early 1900s, a Senate commission set out to improve the design and appearance of Washington, D.C.'s National Mall — which at that point was a patchwork of brick Victorian buildings and scattershot public parks, criss-crossed by train tracks from a nearby train station.

The McMillan Plan of 1902, named after the senator who spearheaded it, laid out a comprehensive vision for the monumental core and park system of the nation's capitol.

It included a return to the grand, tree-lined promenade conceptualized by architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant when he first designed the city's layout in 1791. And it identified sites for some major additions, including the long-discussed Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Memorial Bridge.

The McMillan Plan was never formally adopted — in part because its namesake died the year it came out — but bits and pieces were implemented gradually. The Lincoln Memorial officially opened in 1922, after eight years of construction and roughly half a century after Congress authorized it. The bridge opened to traffic a decade later.

"Arlington Memorial Bridge was intentionally designed with a low profile to respect the visual and symbolic vistas connecting the National Mall and Arlington National Cemetery," Elizabeth Merritt, deputy general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told the Commission for Fine Arts in May, calling it "one of the most symbolic landscape vistas in Washington, D.C."

The Virginia side of the 2,163-foot-long bridge is dotted with informational plaques about the vista and the bridge itself, describing it as a "memorial to the final triumph of the idea of a permanent and complete Union."

Those signs greet the cyclists, joggers and cemetery visitors who use the bridge's sidewalks. The fine print may not be visible to the thousands of commuters who drive over it every day (the Department of Transportation estimated that number at 68,000 in 2020), but the view — of the back of the Lincoln Memorial on the D.C. side, and the main gate of Arlington National Cemetery at the bottom of the hill beneath Lee's house — speaks for itself.

Caren Yglesias, an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland's School of Landscape Architecture, says a shorter arch might be less obstructive, but not without its own drawbacks.

"If it were smaller, that would help. But you have to go back to: What the hell is the purpose?" she said, contrasting it with how Paris' Arc de Triomphe — at 164 feet high — very clearly commemorates the military victories of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Critics don't just say the bridge is an inappropriate site for the arch — Flanagan, the D.C. architect, says "this is a really weird location to put anything." He says a nearly 19-story building with "almost nothing inside" is a strange use of the traffic circle, in addition to all the public safety questions it raises. The architects behind the project have said it will include an observation deck, informational displays and potentially a cafe and gift shop.

"If I were to do something with this space, I would really want to see it as more of a holistic replanning of the memorial axis that includes trying to figure out how to move traffic and people around a little bit more easily," Flanagan added.

When asked about criticisms of the arch, a spokesperson from the Department of the Interior told NPR that "great nations build beautiful structures and works of art that cultivate national pride and love of country."

Critics argue there are cheaper, better ways to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary than embarking on a structure that could take years to build and would permanently alter the city's landscape.

"You can do things that are people-oriented without building something," Yglesias said, pointing to commemorative coins and July 4th firework displays (Trump is planning both of those things). "You can celebrate it without turning it into, as if the whole country is a cemetery that has to be littered with physical records of something that ignores all of our problems."

Copyright 2026 NPR

For an upcoming episode of The Finest, we're looking for book club members and organizers in San Diego to share their stories.

We want to hear about your book club! Whether you started one with friends or joined one with strangers, we want to know what brings you together and what keeps your club going.

Did you start a book club for a specific reason? Have you been part of one for years, or did you join recently? What makes your book club meaningful to you? What do your meetings look like? Have the friendships or connections you’ve made extended beyond the books you read?

We’re also curious about why you think people seek out book clubs and reading communities. Have you noticed more people joining book clubs in recent years?

Tell us about your experience, and we may reach out for a future interview.

L.A.’s renowned American Cinematheque has expanded its Bleak Week to nearly 100 theaters across the United States and around the world, creating a global film festival.

"Digital Gym Cinema was approached by the American Cinematheque, and so we curated these films specifically for this cinema," said Glenn Heath, Jr., artistic director at Digital Gym Cinema. "Bleak Week is a film festival that happens every June that the American Cinematheque created in 2022, coming out of the pandemic, kind of feeling this overarching sense of of dread. They curated an entire film festival full of these challenging art films that really speak to kind of the darker themes of humanity. So they wanted to give everyone an opportunity to kind of see those films on the big screen, with also the hopes of just trying to kind of like collectively take a sigh of relief after coming out of the pandemic."

Bleak Week is not for the faint of heart and is obviously not for everyone. But if you’re like me and love films that embrace the darkness with fearless artistry and sometimes breathtaking beauty, then this is the festival for us.

For the festival’s opening night on Friday, Heath programmed Nicolas Roeg’s trippy horror masterpiece "Don’t Look Now."

"Because its imagery, its kind of approach to gothic and psychological horror really has stuck with me over the course of the last 25 years and has only been kind of more pronounced ever since I became a parent, because it's about the psychological horror of losing a child," Heath explained. The film stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as grieving parents.

Heath also wanted to showcase a documentary. "I wanted to screen Alan King's 'Dying at Grace,' which is a 2003 documentary that's set entirely in a cancer ward over the course of an entire year," Heath said. "I think it's one of the one of the great documentaries of all time, and it's very criminally under seen."

War is featured prominently in the films selected, with multiple countries addressing the theme.

"Looking at the film selections and then also kind of where we are collectively as a country and, as you know, all across the world right now, it seems like combat and war is such a prominent theme — not just literal wars, but kind of the daily struggle to make it through the day," Heath said. "A lot of these films deal with, you know, the sacrifice and the toll that stress and that combat takes on people, whether they're at home or abroad. And so I really wanted to approach that theme. So you've got the war films by Andrzej Wajda — 'A Generation,' 'Kanal' and 'Ashes of Diamonds' — which are a trilogy. Then you've got 'Fires on the Plain' by Kon Ichikawa, which is a war film, and 'The Red and the White' is actually the final film of the whole series, which really is kind of one of the most harrowing war films ever."

If you attend the festival, you’ll receive this cool passport made by Cinema Associate Laurie Piña. And remember to get it stamped so you can receive prizes for being an adventuresome filmgoer willing to travel through dark terrain.

Bleak Week runs from Friday through June 11. The themes may be bleak, but the filmmaking is exhilarating.

Eden DeLaVara and Marcela Alarcón López finished their Emerging Artist Residency at Arts District Liberty Station last year. At the end of the program, artists participate in an end-of-year exhibition.

Their exhibition is called “Fragmented Stories.”

DeLaVara said the showcase represents them both as a pair and as individual artists.

“Marcela and I’s work does pull in some different directions but I think there's also a lot of the unity in what we're trying to say,” DeLaVara said. “So I think (the words) fragments and stories kind of encapsulates those things.”

When you look at their art displayed on the gallery walls, it almost looks as if they planned it together.

“I didn't see her and she didn't see me, but we saw each other's work, and then I started catching myself unconsciously using the same colors,” López said.

Gaby Quevedo is the associate director of creative programs at Arts District Liberty Station. She said arts programs like this are a big deal for the Arts District.

“Honestly, just a huge accomplishment in terms of our program kind of uniting these artists that come from our local transborder region from San Diego and Tijuana that don't know each other prior to residency.”

While DeLaVara resides in San Diego, López had to cross the border from Tijuana every time she wanted to work on her art.

“It was like a very hard process walking the border and then getting to the trolley and then the bus,” López said. “Then come and paint and then go back, and it was like a very nerve-racking and a very harsh experience.”

Sometimes, to save time, López said she’d sleep in the studio.

López said the residency brought her more exposure, but it also made her feel more vulnerable to public comment, including negative messages on her Instagram account and a feeling of being monitored every time she crossed the border.

She said this experience helped shape the main theme that comes across in her paintings — surveillance.

“I started thinking about this virtual surveillance and all these notifications I was receiving from ICE and the border and the visa and in my bank account and my emails, just for crossing the border,” López said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm being uh identified.’”

During the process of traveling and creating her art, López said she doesn't necessarily feel connected to the “American Dream.”

“I'm not an American in a nationalist way or in a legal way, right? I am an American in the sense that I live in America, the continent.”

She said she hopes arts programs like this will repurpose

DeLaVara said she also feels frustrated by where the country stands today.

“You see that number (250 years) and for all of the effort and work that's been put in, surely there should be more to show for it.”

DeLaVara’s father is Mexican and her mother is Black. She said growing up in a country that hasn't always been kind to those communities made it difficult to fully explore her identity.

“I feel like I am the product of histories that I don't have access to. There are voids and veils in my own family history that result in a lack of access to my own personal history, knowledge of my ancestors,” DeLaVara said.

DeLaVara also has a personal connection to both America and Liberty Station.

“My grandpa came to San Diego in the Navy, and this was the first place he came right before my mom was born. He was trained here.”

Because of the sacrifices her family made when they first came to San Diego, she said she is still hopeful about the future and proud of the heritage she does know.

“One of the things that I think is beautiful about America, and specifically being Black in America, is this really rich legacy of creativity,” DeLaVara said. “And I think America is a place that is really rich with creatives of all backgrounds.”

Quevedo said the Emerging Artist Residency creates a space for artists of all backgrounds to learn from one another.

“Creating kind of a geographical reach, not only San Diego but also our south-of-the-border neighbors, to come here and to create opportunities for all of that population of artists,” Quevedo said.

Even though the country’s 250th birthday brings up complicated feelings for both artists, DeLaVara said coming together through art matters now more than ever.

“Each piece of work that we make in partnership with one another is one step closer to building a bridge and understanding that in many ways we both are American. We both live on this continent, in this land that we share.”

Their showcase, “Fragmented Stories,” will be on view at Arts District Liberty Station through July 17.

"But I didn't expect it to be quite as intense as it has been," she said. "Which is a beautiful thing, right? That a lot of places in San Diego want to do poetry events. I didn't expect that."

She also continues to work full time as an educator. The poet laureate role comes with a stipend, but she said it's just enough to cover the costs of a signature project.

Similar to her work as an educator, Capó-García brings poetry into classrooms, community centers and other spaces throughout the region. She said teaching poetry is not only about demystifying the art form, but also helping students recognize their own lives in a poem.

She recommends a few go-to poets for people who may feel skeptical about poetry.

"I will always go to Gwendolyn Brooks. I will always go to Ilya Kaminsky. I will always go to Claudia Rankine," Capó-García said. "And I will always go to Lucille Clifton. Clifton's way of writing, I think, is so historically important, but in a contemporary way so, so visceral and relevant. I think her language is so accessible. Whenever I teach Clifton, people — their eyes light up."

A new poem Capó-García has added to her teaching repertoire is "History Class," by the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha.

"That poem is so short, so steeped in metaphor, but so accessible. It's about the ways in which the past, present and future imprison us in different ways, depending on where you come from, who you are, the decisions you've made in your life. And it does this all in the context of the history classroom. And the students are the past, present and the future. There's both a literalness and an abstraction in that poem that I think hits really hard for a lot of people when they read it — and works for so many different age groups," she said.

Capó-García recently launched her poet laureate project, "Apertura." The word means an opening.

"It's an invitation to people to experience poetry in a different way, and to open themselves up more to the possibilities of poetry," she said.

“Apertura” includes a video poem exhibit that will launch in October at the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights. The idea of bringing video poetics into her laureateship was first inspired by classroom projects during her years teaching at High Tech High, based on the moving portraits of photographer Robert Wilson.

She was also inspired by an art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in her native Puerto Rico, particularly a video work called "Becoming Wind and Current" by La Vaughn Belle.

"She centers herself, her body, in floating water in an area called Loíza in Puerto Rico. And she's talking about migration, and she's also talking about the legacy of slavery in the Caribbean and sort of migrating bodies from one area to another, and the ways in which enslaved people would escape captivity through that by using water and the currents to get to different islands," Capó-García said. "I was so moved by that piece, the way she used her body, her voiceover with the poem, which is so gorgeous."

She said she instantly knew that would be the project she would pursue during her laureate term.

"This is what I want to elevate, because this is a way to also get people interested in poetry who maybe normally wouldn't be interested in poetry — through the visuals, through the storytelling, and bringing something on the page to life that way," she said.

The “Apertura” video poetics workshops took place in May, and the resulting video poems will be shown at the Athenaeum Art Center.

“Apertura” also includes a zine component. In collaboration with Burn All Books, Capó-García will publish three zines: one zine is all youth poets, another features Latino and Filipino voices and a third showcases work by people and their families impacted by the justice system.

The zines are open to the public within each category, and submissions are due Sept.1, 2026.

She also worked with Project PAINT (Providing Artists in Nurturing Transformations) and Poetic Justice to bring poetry workshops to men's and women's prisons in the region.

"If I think back on what I think are the most meaningful experiences I've had during my tenure, I want to keep coming back to the work I've been able to do inside prisons. That has completely changed my life," she said.

Ultimately, Capó-García said she's found this year of civic poetry to be a kind of proof for her mission.

"It has affirmed to me, or confirmed really, my suspicion that a lot of people want and need poetry in the city,” she said “And that I do think that it is for everyone."

Updated June 2, 2026 at 12:02 PM PDT

André De Shields spent half a century on Broadway before winning his first Tony Award at the age of 73.

"Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be," he said in his 2019 acceptance speech.

Years later, De Shields said many people conflate the meaning.

"Most people misunderstand that and say 'Slowly is the quickest way to get to where you want to go,'" De Shields told Morning Edition. "That is not what I said, and it's certainly not what I meant. I remember when fast meant dependable, meant secure. That's what I'm talking about."

Now, at 80, De Shields is nominated for another Tony, this time for his role as Old Deuteronomy, a character from CATS: The Jellicle Ball.

T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats describes Old Deuteronomy as a cat who has lived many lives. De Shields says he relates to the character in this ballroom-inspired adaptation of Eliot's work.

"On January 12th, 2026, I reached 80 years," De Shields said. "I embrace that in terms of the Biblical Scriptures in which it is explained that the life of man would be reduced from never death to threescore and ten. That's 70 years. Any years an individual lives beyond that is a blessing, is a gift, and must be lived in grace. I think it's perfection that on my 80th birthday I would start rehearsing for CATS: The Jellicle Ball."

De Shields described the show as "the revolution of the first quarter of the 21st century" that a person must come to experience. He said the musical illustrates the replacement of competition, bitterness and intolerance with love.

"The paradigm is begging to be received, embraced. And we are very close to passing through that threshold," De Shields said. "This is 2026 and most blatantly illustrated in CATS: the Jellicle Ball is the change that we all have been waiting for."

In this revival, no one is dressed as a cat. The performers vogue and strut down the catwalk, competing in the queer ballroom scene. Old Deuteronomy is the leader of the Jellicles, who are competing for rebirth.

De Shields got his start on Broadway in 1973. He said his journey has been crafted by karma.

"There were moments when I deeply wondered, 'Why not me?'" De Shields said. "And then I learned another immutable truth. And that is one must not pursue blessings upon which one's name has not been engraved."

His routine is discipline.

"My mission is threefold: the first fold of which is to return Black Elegance to the Black Thespians' toolbox," De Shields said. "The second part of that mission is to advocate for the senior citizen who wants to continue to be active as an artist. And the third is for those of us who have been forced but blessed to survive HIV for more than 40 years."

Diagnosed in 1991, De Shields has lived with the disease for decades. He has lost many people in his life, including his partner of 17 years, who died of AIDS.

De Shields said he believes people must not live with the idea that life is short. He wakes up every morning and says "thank you." He said he isn't thanking a god or the universe, but rather the cosmos.

"Too many of our species take for granted that we are somehow the paragon of animals," he said. "We have to restore the ancient and intended relationship that we have with the cosmos. And that is the universe is only exclusively generous and we have to be grateful in return."

The radio version of this story was edited by Adriana Gallardo. It was edited for digital by Majd Al-Waheidi.

Copyright 2026 NPR

On-air challenge

Every answer is a word, name, or a familiar phrase in which the first syllable is pronounced "fair" -- in any spelling. (Ex. Locale for an exhibition --> FAIRGROUND)

1. Long stretch on a golf course
2. Alternative to Celsius in temperatures
3. Alaska city just south of the Arctic Circle
4. Boat that transports passengers across a river or body of water
5. Monarch in ancient Egypt
6. Medical term for the throat
7. Revolving ride at an amusement park
8. "Cinderella" or "Hansel and Gretel"
9. Small, domesticated animal related to the European polecat
10. Historical Jewish sect in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
11. County of northern Virginia that's adjacent to Washington, D.C.
12. Actress Morgan
13. Louis who leads the Nation of Islam
14. Chemical secreted by the body that's a stumulant to others
15. Fond goodbye

Last week's challenge

This week's challenge comes from Jim Francis, of Kirkland, Wash. Think of a famous female singer (8,4). The first syllable of her first name, the second syllable of her first name backward, and last name forward again are all verbs associated with human desire. Who is this singer?

Challenge answer

Courtney Love

Winner

Larry Birkenmeyer of Glenview, Illinois

This week's challenge

This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, a longtime writer and showrunner for "The Simpsons." Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, June 4 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.

Copyright 2026 NPR

It also explores how food traveled with those communities, along with her own journey to the U.S.

Ghosh said she came to the U.S. 30 years ago. She said homesickness from New Delhi inspired her to write about food.

“More than the smell, it's a noise. And there's chaos there,” Ghosh said. “It's a vibe, which is why I think this represents home to me.”

Growing up, her father taught her how to knock on fruit to choose the ripest one. Her mother made masala chai and sweets every day at 4 p.m. Ghosh said many of her stories led back to those memories.

“It always had to do with my childhood. It had to do with how I was growing up or the horrendously awful food that I used to make when I came here for grad school, because I didn't know how to cook," she said. "And then going back home and asking my mother how to h operate a pressure cooker so I could make some dal.”

As she pursued her education in America, Ghosh said she learned more about different aspects of her culture and the struggles tied to immigration in her community.

“The book came about because I started asking myself, like, what do these waves mean?," she said. "And these waves have to do with the laws that this country changed whenever they wanted to. It's happening now.“

Gosh said she also wants people to think more deeply about where their food comes from and the journey it took to reach the dinner table.

“It's easy to laugh at a child when the child says a chicken breast comes from the grocery store. But you have to ask yourself, why does the child think that?” she said. “It’s because you don't know where it came from or you never taught this child that. Respect the farmer who grew it, respect the earth that sustained it.”

Through her writing and conversations with others over the years, Ghosh created a supper club called Khabaar Co. Over dinner, guests talk with changemakers, such as food activists, chefs and writers. She said sharing a meal can open people to new perspectives.

“How do you talk about food enough for somebody to be interested in a culture that they have absolutely no clue (about) and, in fact, they had no interest in before this.”

Ghosh found that food can create conversations around difficult histories, such as colonization, but it can also uplift communities.

“So it's very important for me to tell that story, but when you talk about food, you're also talking about comfort, you're talking about longing and you're talking about belonging,” she said.

There is an abundance of recipes scattered throughout the book, teaching readers how to cook things like Desi tacos, various curries and rotis, all of which connect back to the waves of South Asian immigration

Ghosh said whether readers take away history or recipes from the book, she wants them to connect with her and with the people around them.

“I hope people go back and look at ‘Safar’ and find my journey to be similar to theirs, the questions that they've had about their identity similar to mine.”

The official book release event is June 11 at 6 p.m. at Library Shop in Mission Hills.

Updated May 29, 2026 at 5:27 PM PDT

A federal judge has blocked President Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, saying that the Washington, D.C. arts complex was named for the late president John F. Kennedy. In a ruling on Friday, the judge also temporarily blocked the administration from closing the Kennedy Center for a planned two-year renovation that was slated to begin in July.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling that: "The Kennedy Center's organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board's unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

A Kennedy Center spokesperson told NPR in an email Friday afternoon that it will appeal the decision. Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations for the complex, wrote: "We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges. With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy."

In a post on Truth Social President Trump blasted Judge Cooper for blocking his plans for the Kennedy Center, and said that the institution is financially and structurally troubled. Trump said he would work with Congress to relinquish the administration's role in overseeing the Kennedy Center, "Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into "NEVER NEVER LAND.""

As part of his ruling, Judge Cooper ordered that all signage and online materials referring to the "Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," the "Trump Kennedy Center," or anything similar must be removed within 14 days.

The judge also blocked, for now, plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovations. Trump and the center's current voting board members – all of whom were selected by the president, who also became chairman of the center last year – had planned to start the renovations in early July, just after the 250th anniversary celebrations. In his 94-page ruling, Judge Cooper called the renovation plans "murky," and wrote: "None of the board members had sufficient information in advance of the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to close the center." The center has been winding down its programming and has already dismissed most of its programming staff.

Referring to a Truth Social post written by President Trump in February, the judge also wrote: "There was no 'one year review of the Trump Kennedy Center, that has taken place with Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants, deciding between' complete and partial closure, as President Trump claimed."

Cooper's ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed in March by Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board whose voting rights there were stripped last year. "Today's ruling rightly affirms that this administration's efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law," Rep. Beatty said in a statement to NPR. "The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution."

The ruling does not prevent the Kennedy Center's board from a future closure, but the judge said that it should do so only after the board has "sufficient information to make a considered, independent decision, taking account of its obligation to both maintain and operate a premiere arts venue and its solemn duty to memorialize a fallen President."

Copyright 2026 NPR

"The Uncounted" is the name of a project by the Colombian-American photographer and filmmaker Juan Arredondo.

That title refers to people who have no life cycle records. No birth certificate. No death certificate. Or in some cases, the document may exist but finding a copy is like trying to climb Mount Everest.

Arredondo traveled to six countries to explore the importance of these records and the impact of their absence. His photos are currently part of the sprawling open-air Photoville exhibition in Brooklyn, New York, open through May 30.

Every unrecorded birth means a life without a legal identity and all the rights, services and protections that come with it.

Every unrecorded death means that someone is invisible to the health system, their cause of death a missing piece of data that could prevent future losses.

And there are a lot of people who go uncounted. "Each year, nearly half of all deaths and 25% of all births go unrecorded worldwide," Arredondo notes.

The photo at the top of the story, from Bangladesh, shows mothers holding up newly issued birth certificates after a government registration drive. Having the certificate enables residents to enroll in a food assistance program.

There are other benefits to documentation. "Fundamental to public health is understanding what the data says about deaths and births," especially the causes of children's and other premature deaths, explains Jennifer Ellis, who leads the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative. The challenge is that across the globe, an estimated half of all deaths and a quarter of all births are left unrecorded. Or even if they are recorded, the paperwork may be unfiled, undigitized and effectively inaccessible.

Because the majority of deaths in remote or low-income countries occur at home rather than in a hospital, clinical or medical descriptions of the reasons for the mortalities also remain unknown. Without that missing information, Ellis says, communities and governments may lack the means to identify previously unrecognized health threats or track the emergence of communicable disease epidemics. By contrast, with cumulative data in hand, health officials can tailor their policies to respond effectively.

That is what happened in Zambia when the Bloomberg Philanthropies program analyzed a childhood mortality study and found found that 75% percent of all children born with HIV but untreated for it would die by the age 5. That led to a change in government policy making sure at risk children would be tested and treated if need be. As a result, that number rose from a low of 3% to children tested and treated, the number rose to 85% percent.

Arredondo worked with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative and the public health organizations Vital Strategies and CDC Foundation as he made photos that tell the stories of what it means to be uncounted –- and to at long last be counted.

Diane Cole writes for many publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She is the author of the memoir After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges. Her website is DianeJoyceCole.com

Copyright 2026 NPR

For a decade, UC San Diego students have been running Triton Gaming Expo, serving up a multiverse of fun that includes an artist alley, cosplay, industry and voice-actor panels, and a promise of insane tech.

"Triton Gaming Expo is our annual gaming convention," said Jewelle Tatad, the external vice president for Triton Gaming. "We're basically taking over all the open space in the Price Center. We're going to be having fundraisers downstairs as well as some partnerships with the bookstore. We're going to be having the majority of our programming on the second floor, with the East Ballroom housing our different gaming clubs as well as some of our partner organizations and programs such as esports. The West Ballroom will be having some of our artists, and up on the fourth floor we will be having our cosplay café."

Magnolia Hyon is the executive officer for ArtSpark Pre-Professional Art Club.

"ArtSpark is a pre-professional art club, the very first at UCSD, and we're focused on helping students break into the art industry," Hyson said. "So becoming professional artists, whether that be in animation or video games, we're just trying to help them get art education, kind of more structured education than you get here in the art program, and build their portfolio through many of our portfolio projects, and build community. So as a pre-professional art club, being around art in the industry is really important. So we're going to be tabling with some of our members' work. We can share what we've done as a club and what our individual members have done in the company of these really huge game industry giants like Riot, Supergiant, Behemoth. It's really valuable for our members to get networking with people like that."

And gaming company professionals welcome the chance to be on campus.

"Some of them are also UCSD alum — and some of them are even Triton Gaming alum— a lot of them are really excited to see what kind of art talent, as well as marketing talent, as well as all this other stuff that is applicable to this industry, is on display," Tatad said. "A lot of people in Triton Gaming do want to go into the games industry, whether that's on the esports side or in the video game side, where they are creating games. So I think that the talent is all super duper excited to be there just to talk to these people and kind of see like where students are at."

Hyon points to the work of yet another student organization, the Video Game Development Club.

"The whole club's base comes together to work on one game," Hyon said. "I was a huge part of that this quarter. It was an incredible experience, really helped me build my portfolio and make connections with the members. The Video Game Development Club is just constantly running projects and game jams to really be that video game presence on campus where curriculum kind of falls short."

UC San Diego students are quick to organize and take action when they see a need. Since the university is best known as a STEM school, Tatad wants to highlight its more artistic side.

"As someone who runs a student organization that is so focused around gaming, which I think is in and of itself an art form, I think it's really important to kind of uplift these student artists, especially in a school where I feel like we kind of get sidelined," she said.

But artists won’t be sidelined this weekend. In fact, attendees will be rewarded for visiting artist booths.

"A lot of artists organized this thing called Stamp Rally," Tatad said. "This one is specifically transportation theme centered. We were making a Riso-printed map specifically for it. So that'll be organized by some of our artists. If you make a purchase from each of these artists, you get that stamp as a special prize."

Tatad also wants to make attending a convention affordable for students.

"I feel especially in an era where like con culture and fandom culture is becoming more and more gatekept and more and more inaccessible, I think providing these spaces for people to be able to engage in gaming, engage in anime, engage in art is super duper important, especially for university students, which many of us are low-income," she said. "Many of us don't have this access to fandom without having to shell out a lot for it."

Hyon agreed: "I think it's really helping or supporting con culture here. People love art and media, and it helps bring people closer together through their interests and even through their specialty careers like voice acting and video game development, art, of course, and just being able to put it all towards this big event and then having so many people involved with it. Then getting the engagement, and engagement supports the community. I think it's a message to students — not necessarily from the university, but from students — you're not alone and we're all here together and we all love this stuff and we can bond over that."

Triton Gaming Expo takes place Saturday and Sunday at UC San Diego's Price Center. The event is free for UCSD students and $12 for the public for a two-day pass.

Visual art

'UNFOLD Projects Exhibition 01: We Must Imagine It'

A new collective in San Diego from Mel Meagher and Stacy Kelley, UNFOLD Projects intersects regenerative design with art and community. Founded in 2023, this exhibition will be the group's first exhibition, or "Edition," and focuses on pieces created using sustainable and regenerative materials and methods, with themes of conservation and futures. The 20 artists in the exhibit are Daniella Algarate, Debbie Bean, Brillan De La Cerda, Nik Gelormino, Aaron Glasson, Stephen Hartzog, Laura Huerta, Miki Iwasaki, Jason Lane, Christine Lee, Heather Levine, Annalise Neil, Britton Neubacher, Nicholas Pourfard, Sasha Seyb, Vince Skelly, Margaret R. Thompson, Lani Trock, Lauren Verdugo and Ren von Hasseln.

Reception: 4-7 p.m. Saturday, May 30; gallery hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; through Aug. 2 | ICA San Diego-North, 1550 S El Camino Real, Encinitas | Free/donation | MORE INFO

'Endless Summer'

A new group exhibition at Oceanside independent gallery Techne Art Center aims to challenge the assumption that San Diego is just a vacation destination, but also a thriving artistic community, and that the region's creativity is nurtured by its environmental perks like light, oceans and mountains as much as it is informed by a sense of exploration and curiosity. The show includes paintings, sculptures and photographic works by a broad range of contemporary San Diego artists: Jay Bell, Scott Bruckner, Maddie Butler, Marisa DeLuca, John Dillemuth, Steve Harlow, Ashley Kim, Yena Kim, Ahavani Mullen, Kelsey Overstreet, Lee Puffer, Phillipp Rittermann and Gail Roberts.

5 p.m. Saturday, May 30; gallery hours: 1-6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; through Aug. 1 | Techne Art Center, 1609 Ord Way, Oceanside | Free | MORE INFO

Working Title No. 5

Project [BLANK] returns with its annual multidisciplinary exhibition, presenting an immersive event in a Gothic-style cathedral. Curated by sculptor Diana Benavídez and Project [BLANK] artistic director Leslie Ann Leytham, the project brings music, performance and visual art together around the theme of sanctuaries and protected spaces. Artists include Anqi Liu, Armando de la Torres, Carolina Montejo, Claudia Cano, Dua Lingua, Julia Anne Cordani, Leila K Aghdami, Maddie Butler, Marguerite Brown, Matthew Hebert, Shar Garcia, William Kuo, Yerbamala Taller de Arte y Gráfica, Gabriel Arregui, Jonathan Piper, Mattie Barbier, Michelle Lou and many more.

May 28-30 | St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, 2728 Sixth Ave., Banker's Hill | $15-$25 | MORE INFO

Music

First Annual Jazz Lounge Marathon

Independent venue The Jazz Lounge, helmed by local musician Leonard Patton, will kick off its first-ever marathon fundraiser, with 30 hours of continuous jazz music performances. The marathon will be in person as well as livestreamed. Some of the main performances are ticketed, while others are drop-in and free. Performers include Patton, Aimee Nolte, Areas Paljug Sextet, The Antar Martin Aggregation, Kat Shoemaker, Tasha Smith Godinez, Peter Sprague and more. Don't miss the midnight jam session on the first night, and the closing, possibly sleep-deprived jam session that begins at 10:30 p.m. hosted by Derek Cannon.

6 p.m. Friday to midnight Saturday, May 29-30 | The Jazz Lounge, 818 El Cajon Blvd., Rolando | Free-$150 | MORE INFO

Música en la Plaza: Sonido De La Frontera

The California Center for the Arts Escondido's free outdoor concert series, Música en la Plaza, continues with local cumbia group Sonido De La Frontera. The band, signed to Three One G records, is a versatile and vibrant group performing cumbia inspired by the San Diego-Tijuana border region and informed by hip-hop and electronic music production.

The concert is free and bring-your-own-chair — or reserve a spot at the courtyard's bistro tables for $20.

7-9 p.m. Friday, May 29 | CCAE, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido | Free | MORE INFO

Theater

'The Hombres'

Playwright Tony Meneses' humorous, gorgeous script explores how a group of construction workers, after pestering pedestrians coming to and from the yoga studio next to their construction site, decide to try yoga themselves. As they reckon with their own understanding of strength, male friendships and how seemingly dissimilar people have more in common than they originally imagined, they realize they also have more at stake together. James Vásquez directs and David Reynoso is the scenic and costume designer. Jonny Beauchamp, Martín Solá, Jason Sanchez, Jesse J. Perez and Robert Lenzi star.

May 30 - June 21 | The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park | $95+ | MORE INFO

'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' 

Oceanside Theatre Company presents this Tony Award-winning play from creators Rebecca Feldman, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin. Six middle schoolers compete in the town's spelling bee. Part of the charm of this play is its unique improvisational elements, including audience volunteers joining the spelling competition on stage. Another improv element is an "official pronouncer," played in OTC's production by the extremely versatile actor, writer and comedian Dallas McLaughlin, who is tasked with using words in sentences off-the-cuff. Expect adult language; the show is recommended for ages 13+.

May 29 - June 14 | Oceanside Theatre Company at The Brooks, 217 North Coast Highway, Oceanside | $28-$55 | MORE INFO

Dance

The Rosin Box Project: Incubator Lab

Talented contemporary ballet choreographers and dancers from The Rosin Box Project perform new works by the company's own Bethany Green, a brilliant and theatrical choreographer, along with guest artists Natasha Rader and Alexandra Schooling. This inaugural Incubator Lab series gives audiences a glimpse into the creative process for this adventurous and immersive dance company. After a week of open rehearsals, this weekend's performances will also feature talkbacks where the artists break down the performance and creative process. A livestream will be available June 5-14.

7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, May 29-31 | Light Box Theater, 2590 Truxtun Rd. #205, Liberty Station | $49.87 | MORE INFO

Pointeworks: 'Past, Present, Future'

This summer season launch event features a little ballet alongside the other creative elements that go into the making of a performance, including a costume fashion show and discussions with artists and dancers. Pointeworks was founded as a summer-focused company in 2024 by Sophie Williams as a way of providing year-round work for local dancers — that is, in the gap between the traditional ballet seasons. Friday's launch event is held at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. But don't miss an open rehearsal from the company at Ballet Arte studio on Sunday, working on a new piece by choreographer Keerati Jinakunwiphat.

6:30 p.m. Friday, May 29 | MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla | $50+ | MORE INFO

History

'Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific'

A new exhibit at the Maritime Museum features the work of UC San Diego researcher and curator Dr. Caroline Collins on the history of Black seafarers, commercial mariners, fishers, whalers, explorers, soldiers and more in the Pacific Ocean from the 16th through the 20th century — and the connections and impacts of Black mariner labor, advancements and discoveries on the Pacific's coastal communities. The exhibit includes immersive storytelling, photography, histories and objects. Collins is also the co-founder of Black Like Water, a UCSD research initiative.

Through Dec. 26 | Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 North Harbor Dr., downtown | Free-$28 | MORE INFO

The Oakland-based Riley came to filmmaking after decades of success as a rapper, music producer and activist-organizer. He studied filmmaking back in college but got sidetracked by music and, in 1991, created the political activist hip-hop group The Coup.

His art tackles issues of race, capitalism, workers’ rights, creativity and activism. His films deal with those themes in ways that feel fresh and radical.

Riley described his first film, "Sorry to Bother You," as “an absurdist dark comedy with magical realism, and sci-fi inspired by the world of telemarketing.” His new film, "I Love Boosters," is less dark but equally absurdist and still fueled by an urban magical realism. But this time, the sci-fi-inspired elements play out in the fashion world.

The film follows the Velvet Gang, riffing off real-life Bay Area boosters known as the Rainbow Crew. Aspiring fashion designer Corvette (Keke Palmer) leads this crew of shoplifting “boosters” — people who steal clothes from upscale stores and then sell them at discounted prices to people who cannot afford retail. Corvette and her crew target obnoxious fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore, who is having a grand time), who calls humanity her canvas and the boosters "urban bitches." She also relies on sweatshop labor in China and poaches fashion ideas from others.

Riley focuses on the often-vilified boosters but insists capitalism is the real villain because it’s based on theft and on a class system in which many people can’t afford the products they are told they need to have. I have seen some online discussions fixated on how the film might be glorifying the boosters and crime, but that seems to be missing the point of the film — boosting is merely a symptom of deeper problems.

Earlier this year, a short film called "Rainbow Girls" debuted and also dealt with a crew of young Black boosters. Filmmaker Nana Duffuor posted on Instagram, "“What I’ve come to understand is that when two filmmakers independently look at the hyper-gentrification of the Bay Area, the crushing weight of late stage capitalism, and the rebellious art of boosting luxury goods, and decide to make a movie about it — that’s not a case of copycats. That is a cultural distress signal. It means a story is begging to be told.“

In "Boosters," Corvette applies to work in one of Christie's stores in order to execute a heist. When applying for the job, she's asked what would be the biggest challenge in a job like this.

Her answer: "I shop here a lot, and I feel like I should have it all. Just want to take it all home, eat it up and shoot it out my eyes. I just feel like, give it to me, it's mine anyway."

Corvette's anger and frustration are intensified by the fact that Christie has also literally stolen one of her fashion designs.

“Boosters" does not fit neatly into any category. Instead, Riley mixes up a genre cocktail of intoxicating ingredients including farce, satire, sci-fi, horror, politics and magic realism. More so than "Sorry to Bother You," "Boosters" is joyously entertaining because Riley has stated that he wants to create a box office success, “a popcorn hit with a revolutionary heart.”

So the film has frantic energy, bright visuals and a bouncy score that contrast with the serious themes in a way that makes you see the social issues from a new angle.

If there is one constant in Riley's work, it is that revolutionary spirit. Once again, he tackles serious issues — mainly revolving around the evils of capitalism — but never in a preachy, morally smug way.

I had a chance to interview Riley when he was doing press for "Sorry to Bother You." He said there’s a reason the tone of his activism is different.

“I think that’s because I have a background as an organizer, which is different than an activist,” Riley said. “Because to be an organizer and doing things like grassroots organizing, you get people in their place of work or place that they live and trying to do things around those areas. Doing that makes you approach politics less from a standpoint of 'you don’t agree with me so, therefore, you are on the other side of the line,' more to trying to figure out, 'OK, you don’t agree with me, how do I get this person to agree with me? How do I get them on my team?' I would be working against my ultimate goal to just try to show that person that they are wrong and smash them down in some way because my goal is to have the working class united.”

In "Boosters," Corvette and her crew are boosting just to make ends meet, but Violeta (Eiza González), a clerk in one of Christie Smith's stores, and Jianhu ( Poppy Liu), a sweatshop factory worker from China, get Corvette to realize that there are bigger issues at stake and that the underclasses need to come together and fight for a united cause. Our current divisive political rhetoric is designed to prevent that from happening.

I don't want to say too much about where the story goes because it takes some wild and unexpected turns that include a succubus, a crazy piece of technology and some wacky practical effects.

The film is also gorgeous to look at. Fashion is not just the backdrop for the story, it is the story. Every frame pops with bold color and creativity. The costumes are insane, the production design is inspired and the cinematography is next-level. Riley delivers sensory overload as the film is propelled by frenetic energy.

Christie's shops serve up monochromatic products that force consumers to visit a different store if they want a different color. And the employees are forced to buy new clothes to match the color scheme and the latest fashion trends, and their paychecks shrink as a result.

There’s delicious irony to "Boosters" being in theaters at the same time as "The Devil Wears Prada 2." The vacuous, feel-good "Prada" feigns rebellion while maintaining the status quo of both the fashion world and Hollywood, with the message being: Everything is just fine.

Meanwhile, "Boosters" explodes off the screen like a Molotov cocktail of vibrant pop agitprop advocating for radical change and a global uprising of workers because it asserts that everything is far from OK. "Prada" has five times the budget of "Boosters" but none of its ferocious style. "Boosters" pulses with life while "Prada" feels DOA.

In my earlier interview with Riley, he also made this observation that fits "Boosters" as well: "It’s just a movie that has a class analysis and that analysis allows you to understand how the system works and puts all the chaos that we get from the news feed into a working framework and allows you to see ways that we might be able to fight things. But the news and most media usually doesn’t supply that class analysis so all the events we hear usually seem like they are coming out of nowhere or they are crazy or make people shrug their shoulders and walk off into the distance of feeling like they can’t do anything about it.”

"I Love Boosters" delivers its message and activism with such audacious style and bold originality that it makes you sit up and take note in new ways. It’s calling for revolution both in society and in cinematic storytelling.

Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, is used to strangers expressing sympathy when they learn what she does for a living.

“It's all so funny,” she says. “When I tell them I run the trade association for independent stores, they'll say, 'It's just so sad that they're disappearing.' I don't think they're really keeping track, or they just know about a store that closed or heard about one closing.”

The decline of physical bookstores remains so embedded in popular culture that the man dating Anne Hathaway's character in “ The Devil Wears Prada 2 ” laments that bookstores are “getting downsized and consolidated.” But the decline actually ended years ago, and the latest numbers from the American Booksellers Association show independent stores expanding at a pace not seen this century.

Membership in the ABA grew by more than 500 over the past year, to a total of 3,417 (at 3,783 locations), nearly triple what it was a decade ago and the highest level since the late 1990s. The surge included stores of various kinds — general interest shops like Hey Books! in San Diego; mobile stores like the Wandering Quills Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio; pop-up stores like Banyan Books in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Many of the new members reflect the current boom in romance, fantasy and their hybrid, romantasy, whether the Spicy Librarian in Denver or the Flutter Romance Bookstore in Austin, Texas: “Where butterflies begin. And every story ends in happily-ever-after,” according to its website.

Both a business and a callingIndependent bookselling, rarely a way to get rich, is a meeting ground for idealists — for young people with a sense of mission, retirees embarking on a new life or middle-aged people no longer satisfied with their careers. “I think people want to realign their lives with their values,” Hill says.

In Wentzville, Missouri, 55-year-old Kelley Hartnett is a marketing consultant and copywriter who had always wanted to run a bookstore. Her husband's concerns included competing against Amazon, but Hartnett went ahead and opened Double Dog Bookshop in 2025 as a mobile store. She rode about the area in a converted cargo trailer, joined by two Australian Cattle Dog mutts, and has since opened a storefront downtown.

“For me, Double Dog is about maybe 50% books and 50% community,” says Hartnett, who hopes to find a larger space that would make it easier for customers to gather and “just be.”

“People are craving connection, especially in-person connection,” she said. “People are over the internet and virtual meetings and algorithms. They're not the same as having a human to human connection. It feels really healing.”

Hill can joke about the mistaken elegies for bookselling, while expressing concern that the state of independent stores is healthy but “precarious.” Costs are high, and schools and libraries face budget cuts that limit their purchases from local stores.

Is there room for indies and giants?Independent owners also find themselves worrying about a onetime competitor which itself had seemed endangered, Barnes & Noble.

The superstore chain was the dominant seller in the 1980s and 1990s, and was widely seen as the leading cause for hundreds — maybe thousands — of independent stores shutting down. But by the 2010s, Barnes & Noble had been surpassed by Amazon. It began shutting down stores instead of opening new ones and struggled for years to find a new owner before the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. bought it in 2019.

Under the leadership of CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble is expanding again, adding more than 100 stores over the past two years. In Chicago, the owner of the decade-old Volume Books has blamed a new Barnes & Noble for putting her out of business, while Hill added that “even a small decrease in sales can make or break a bookstore’s year in an industry with paper-thin margins.”

Daunt denies any intent to take business from independent sellers, saying it's not in his “DNA.”

“I'm an independent seller myself,” he says, noting that he founded Daunt Books in London. Daunt says he has customers who shop at his store and the British chain Waterstones (where he's also managing director). “I never thought of the market as finite.”

The owners of The Book Loft Oak Park, another Chicago-area store that opened last summer, acknowledge some nerves about a nearby Barnes & Noble coming soon. But Heather Nelson and Sophie Schauer Eldred hope the stores ultimately complement each other.

“We’re hoping people whose curiosity is piqued by the new Barnes and Noble will walk down the street,” Schauer Eldred said, “and pop into our bookstore.”

Find independent bookstores near you
The American Booksellers Association has a member directory on their website. To surface a list of member booksellers in your area, input your city or one nearby, and the state. You can also try using zip codes.

At the bottom of the website there's also links for several regional independent bookseller associations.

Updated May 28, 2026 at 12:22 PM PDT

Jenn Freeman has spun and leapt for as far back as she can remember. But the dancer choreographer says a late diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder "changes everything" about her understanding of why she dances.

"I always just had this feeling of like, 'Oh, it must be me.' And over time, that really starts to weigh on you. You really start to believe that something is off. But you have no idea what it is," Freeman told Morning Edition host A Martínez.

"One of the very first thoughts that I remember having when I got my diagnosis was I wish that I had known this much sooner because there was a an immediate grieving process for all of the confusion that I've experienced in my life and all of the moments that I couldn't make sense of because I didn't have the tools and I didn't have the language to do it."

Freeman's journey navigating receiving that diagnosis when she was 33 and already well into her artistic career is at the heart of Alexander Hammer's documentary Room to Move, now out on Netflix after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.

Hammer also directed the 2020 TV mini-series Expecting Amy, which follows comedian Amy Schumer as she faces pregnancy complications and creates a stand-up special. During the series, Schumer's husband Chris Fischer receives a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

"It was when I was watching him in the docuseries that my head exploded. It was the first time I had ever once thought, ever in my entire life that I might be autistic," Freeman recalled.

"I don't know where I would be right now if Chris and Amy had not been brave enough to share that part of their journey. I'm so grateful that they ended up keeping that as part of the film because it's changed my entire life."

Schumer and Fischer are among Room to Move's executive producers.

Freeman began to re-examine her childhood memories through the lens of her diagnosis, realizing what the adults around her called dance at the time was also a form of self-therapy. In 2023, she premiered Is It Thursday Yet?

The evening-length solo piece — co-created and co-choreographed with Tony winner Sonya Tayeh — reframes Freeman's creative process through the lens of her diagnosis, amplified with some of the extensive video footage her father shot during her childhood.

"A lot of traits that I had as an autistic child were seen as good things and they were rewarded," Freeman said. "My intensity, my passion, my love of repetition, of practice, of doing things over and over again, of wanting to get things right. So there's that perfectionism piece that as a young dancer is not a bad thing."

She also pointed to how she would stay quiet and avoid conversations. "I wanted to avoid conflict because if anything came up or anything got heated, I would shut down. So if I felt unsafe or it felt like an unfair fight, I would just shut up and do what I was told. And in the dance studio, that really worked for me," Freeman explained.

On her own artist website, she now identifies herself immediately as an "Autistic American" dancer, choreographer and educator.

Freeman says her ASD likely wasn't detected early because she grew up in a small Idaho town in the 1980s and 1990s where there was a lot less discussion about such disorders. Making the documentary, she says, is her way of giving back.

"The way that I found out that I was autistic from someone else sharing their personal experience. And that's really my only intention with all of this, is just to put it out into the world and hope that someone sees themselves in my story or parents see their child and there's just a little bit more understanding. Maybe it will spark, you know, some conversations for people."

The broadcast version of this story was produced by Barry Gordemer.

Copyright 2026 NPR

The San Diego City Council held a postponed public hearing on Wednesday to consider Mayor Todd Gloria's revised $6.4 billion budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

Before the hearing, members of San Diego's arts community rallied at Civic Center Plaza to demand the restoration of $11.8 million in cuts to the city's arts and culture funding. The city faces a $118 million deficit.

When Mayor Todd Gloria announced his initial budget in April, he said some cuts were needed to adequately fund public safety. At that time, the cuts included a reduction in library and recreation center hours. Earlier this month, some funding was restored in Gloria’s “May revise,” but the arts cuts remained.

San Diego Art Matters executive director Bob Lehman called the cut short-sighted and said in the long run, it would actually cost the city more money.

“It's kind of like taking, you know, quitting your job to save gas money. We bring in dollars," he said. "You can't, if you stop funding us, that amount of flow of dollars is gonna decrease again.”

Lehman also said the cuts could mean larger institutions charging visitors for programs that are currently free. "So things that were free for veterans, for seniors or kids will now cost money. For smaller to midsize organizations, some of them will actually disappear. They won't survive this. So it's gonna have some real impact in the city," Lehman said.

The city council was scheduled to take up the budget last week, but that meeting was postponed after the May 18 shootings at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

“I'm an avid cyclist, so I ride through here all the time,” said Leaf. “And as I was coming down Bonita Road, I just saw it. And that's actually what I call this pattern, is the ‘it’ pattern. I just saw it. And I knew that was the answer.”

The “it” pattern is a series of panels painted a glossy blue and purple, with little shapes cut into the panels and pulled outward. It was installed in April. Now, thanks to the vivid color, the museum is hard to miss.

Leaf said part of his goal was to have the outside of the museum reflect what’s going on inside.

“This is how we let not only the community know, but the world know, ‘Hey, there's a museum over here,'” he said.

What’s on the inside is a history of not only Bonita, but the Sweetwater Valley in general.

“People don’t know about Bonita, maybe about South Bay, so they’ll get a little history about the Sweetwater Valley, a little bit about the first people here, the Kumeyaay, as well as moving into the early days of water with the Sweetwater Dam, and then going into the agriculture, some of the citrus that was in the region,” said museum executive director Wendy Wilson.

The museum has just two rooms. In one, you’ll find the history. The other is where you find the cultural side of things. Various exhibitions come and go through the year, including works by Michael Leaf.

Opening on June 6 is "Beyond the Border, Plein Air.” It features artists from around the region who paint outdoor scenes across the county, capturing the bright light, coastal vistas and urban scenery in real-time.

In Leaf’s Chula Vista studio, a few miles away, you'll find various works of art wrought out of metal in various stages of completion. Much of it will eventually end up in the Bonita Museum.

One piece that will eventually be on public display is what you might call Leaf’s magnum opus. It is so large it has its own room in his studio.

“This is the second to-scale Last Supper on planet Earth. I just felt like making it, and when I learned the scale and size of the painting, I couldn’t believe the numbers. It was 29 feet by 15 feet,” Leaf said. “I thought I misread the paper because I’ve not seen the painting in real life.”

Leaf said at this point, he can’t reveal where the piece will end up.

Back at the museum, the metal artist is finishing up work on what will be the first piece in what Wendy Wilson said will become a “grand outdoor sculpture garden.”

Leaf calls it the piece Inner Strength. It’s a metal figure of a human holding two diverging steel bars in place. Leaf said it’s a metaphor of just how strong we as a people are, both externally and internally; a beacon of resilience.

You could also say an example of a homegrown native of the South Bay sharing his artistic gift to make his corner of our region a more beautiful, inviting place.

The president of the governing body of Iranian soccer said Saturday the nation's World Cup training base has been moved to Mexico from the United States after getting approval from FIFA.

Mehdi Taj, president of the Iran Football Federation, announced the decision Saturday in a statement issued by the federation's media relations official. FIFA has not confirmed the move.

Iran had been scheduled to train in Tucson, Arizona, but a move has been a possibility because of uncertainty surrounding the war in the Middle East and security concerns. Officials at Tucson's Kino Sports Complex had no comment.

The federation says the team will now be based in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego. This year's World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“All team base camps for the countries participating in the World Cup must be approved FIFA," Taj said in his statement. "Fortunately, following the requests we submitted and the meetings we held with FIFA and World Cup officials in Istanbul, as well as the webinar meeting we had yesterday in the Tehran with the respected FIFA secretary general, our request to change the team's base from the United States to Mexico was approved.”

Iran plays Group G games in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium six days later, then faces Egypt on June 26 in Seattle. The federation said Tijuana's relatively close proximity to Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, will benefit the team and the new location “includes all training facilities, gym, private restaurant and everything else the team needs."

Team Melli is appearing in its fourth straight World Cup and seventh overall. It has never advanced past the first round.

Iran's federation said moving the base camp will resolve potential visa issues since the team will enter the U.S. through Mexico. The president said that the team “may even be able to travel to and from Mexico using Iran Air flights.”

Teams use base camps for training ahead of and after matches.

Do these photos depict fiction or reality ... or both?

A bicyclist whose dark, flowing burka enfolds her body from head to ankles sits with hands perched on the handlebar, seemingly undaunted by the meshed veil that covers her eyes and restricts her sight. Her determination is suggested by the photo's title, "It will not stand in my way."

A similarly clad figure swirls so swiftly that the billowing fabric appears to lift her into the air like a bird in flight; scribbled in Farsi across the brick wall in front of her is the phrase, "I dreamed that my homeland was prosperous."

A third burka-draped figure places an automatic rifle on her shoulder as she would a violin, "bowing" it with a long wooden stick as if to make music. The photo's title is "The Music of Poverty and Violence."

Two Afghan cousins who created these starkly evocative black-and-white photographs. They do not want their real names revealed because they fear Taliban retribution for their work. So they use the pseudonyms Mahnaz Ebrahimi (born in 2000) and Somayeh Ebrahimi (born in 2001). They live in a remote Afghan mountain farming village. They and their families, all members of the Hazara ethnic group and Shia Muslims, had previously worked as carpet weavers in Kabul. When the Taliban regained power in 2021, they left, seeking refuge from the repression and persecution permitted under the laws of the country's ultra-conservative Sunni rulers.

Neither cousin had any training in photography when they started taking photos on their cellphones in 2022 or so, says Madrid-based curator and gallery director Edith Arance. She came across their work on Instagram and was struck by the skillful melding of their bleak surroundings with messages ranging from the poetic to the political.

"I know a little Farsi [the Persian language] so I could approach them," she says. The cousins and Arance worked together via Instagram. In November 2024, Arance presented their work in Madrid, at her Galería Sura, which specializes in emerging photographers from Southwest Asia and Africa. 

The photos, which document the sparse reality of the cousins' lives today and their hopes for a less gloomy future, are on display through May 30 at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Arance uses the literary term auto-fiction to describe their work because, as in that genre, these photos also combine autobiography and fiction. While the images are set against the autobiographical backdrop of where they live, the poses struck by those photographed and their interactions with their physical and natural surroundings suggest interior dreams and fantasies, played out before the camera.

For Arance, the use of light and shadow, and the use of trees, leaves, plants and butterflies as symbols, are also akin to the literary style known as magic realism. The captions and poems accompanying were written by the cousins and translated by Arance.

In "Life Is Today" a young girl dances on a barren ridge overlooking snow-capped mountains. Arance comments: "There's a sense of play, which should not be unusual. But this is Afghanistan, and this girl is not wearing a veil or a burka, she is just being free. Her shadow looks like an airplane flying away."

Other photos similarly question the highly constricted lives of women under Taliban rule.

"Liberation" shows a woman, her back turned to the camera showing the decorations in her hair (which are prohibited by the Taliban), as she throws her burka up and away into the sky. In its accompanying poem, Mahnaz Ebrahimi writes, "In the name of being a woman,/today I will free myself from oppression/and darkness to the breeze/to the height of the sky."

 "Girl by the Door" emphasizes contrasts in light and shadow, as a girl holding a tattered schoolbook stands with half her face hidden by a pale wooden door with multiple chains, the other half dimly lit against the dark background behind her.

The commentary by Mahnaz reads: "The image here is imbued with symbolism. For a time, after learning about the new law [prohibiting education for females after sixth grade], girls risked their lives by going to school. Attacks followed, intended to discourage families from allowing their daughters to attend classes throughout 2022. Light, knowledge, life resides outside. Darkness is the interior of the domestic space to which girls and women are relegated."

The dichotomy between constriction and freedom is dramatized in the photo of a young girl wearing sunglasses and laughing with uproarious delight titled, "When Will We Laugh From the Bottom of Our Hearts Again"? But there is still the possibility of youthful delight, as shown in "Autumn Games," in which three young girls throw leaves up into the sky.

Their photos pose questions about other restrictions imposed on girls and women. "Vestiges of the Present" captures a female figure in colorful garb, shown only from the shoulders down, holding a boombox that her still stance tells us is silent; "music, dancing and singing are prohibited for women [in public] in Afghanistan," the caption reminds us.

In an outdoor scene, a young girl cowers as an unseen gunman points a rifle at her, but she holds on to a school notebook with a message in Farsi that reads, "There is no justice," referring to the limits on girls attending school.

Taken as a whole, Arance says, the photos declare that "The Taliban may say that this is the destiny of women in Afghanistan, but I'm saying this is not my destiny." As for that hoped-for future, aspirational glints appear in photos such as "From the Depths of Darkness," which shows, against a black backdrop, a woman holding in her hand a mound of dirt and twigs from which a butterfly is emerging.

Similarly, "And the Glory of Growing Happens Within Us" captures, in profile, a burka-covered woman cradling in her hands a growing, blossoming plant, and perhaps finding inspiration in the ongoing life of its sprouts and buds.

Diane Cole writes for many publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She is the author of the memoir After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges. Her website is DianeJoyceCole.com

Copyright 2026 NPR

On-air challenge

I'm going to give you some made up two-word phrases in which each word has five letters. Rearrange the letters in one of these words to complete a familiar two-word phrase. Which word to anagram is for you to discover.

Ex. APPLE DICER --> Apple cider

1. BAKER PEDAL
2. BLANK SERVE
3. LEGAL FIBER
4. MAID'S TOUCH
5. REGAL PRINT
6. HUMAN BINGE
7. PEACH TRICK
8. DREAM GUARD
9. DUTCH TATER
10. PEARL DRIVE
11. CLEAN TALES
12. SHORE SENSE

Last week's challenge

Last week's challenge comes from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Name a famous actor of the past (7,7). Remove three consecutive letters from his last name, and the remaining letters in order will be the well-known lead character from a long-running series of films. What actor and character are these?

Answer: Charlie Chaplin --> Charlie Chan

Winner

Thomas Hirschman of Durham, North Carolina.

This week's challenge

This week's challenge comes from Jim Francis, of Kirkland, Wash. Think of a famous female singer (8,4). The first syllable of her first name, the second syllable of her first name backward, and last name forward again are all verbs associated with human desire. Who is this singer?

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, May 28 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2026 NPR

SeaWorld San Diego will welcome guests Friday to its summer programming, including a nightly drone show and the new Shark Encounter, along with a "deep sea disco" and more.

The drone show begins Friday night and will run nightly through the summer, replacing the popular yet controversial firework shows of the past. "Ocean of Dreams," features 600 synchronized drones with a soundtrack celebrating "the beauty of the ocean, inspired by marine life and ocean conservation," a news release from the park read.

The 12-minute show will allow guests to see depictions of fan-favorite animals including sea otters, sharks, dolphins and an orca, culminating in an electric neon finale.

"At SeaWorld, every story begins with the ocean — and this summer, we will be bringing that story to the sky in a way that inspires the next generation to protect it," said Tyler Carter, SeaWorld park president. "We are excited to continue to innovate what nighttime, immersive entertainment experiences can be, and proud that our park is the first and only California attraction to offer a nightly drone show for guests and the overall San Diego community to enjoy."

Ocean of Dreams will be presented nightly from May 22 through August 9 before shifting to a weekend-only schedule through Sept. 7.

Also debuting Friday is the Shark Encounter, an underwater experience allowing guests to get up close with 11 different species, including sand tiger sharks, blacktip reef sharks and the endangered Australian leopard shark.

The new exhibit replaces the original one constructed in 1992 and has been under construction for more than a year.

"The all-new Shark Encounter is an awe-inspiring experience that brings guests face-to-face with some of the ocean's most powerful and misunderstood predators," Carter said. "From above-water viewing to the immersive shark tunnel, this dynamic habitat offers a deeper appreciation for these incredible animals while reinforcing our commitment to marine education, conservation, and inspiring the next generation of ocean advocates."

Park visitors will have the ability to upgrade their ticket to feed the more than 400 sharks in the exhibit. Participants will observe feeding practices, learn about shark behavior and diet, and discover the critical role sharks play in ocean ecosystems, officials said.

According to the park, Shark Encounter "immediately immerses guests in an interactive journey from sunny shores to the deep, open ocean, beginning with a newly designed entrance framed by lush foliage that opens into a vibrant coastal beach scene."

On the surface, visitors can observe sharks from above. As visitors move deeper into the exhibit, the environment "transforms into a breathtaking underwater perspective where sharks glide overhead."

In the underwater caverns, guests can experience the shark tunnel — a moving walkway that carries people through a transparent passage surrounded by sharks in an underwater world. The journey then concludes at a floor-to- ceiling glass wall, where marine life is "paired with dynamic LED multimedia technology that brings the story of sharks to life," the SeaWorld statement said.

Several species featured in the exhibit are listed as endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"Sharks play a vital role in maintaining the health and balance of our ocean ecosystems, yet many species face growing threats in the wild," said Danielle Castillo, zoological curator of Aquariums at SeaWorld San Diego. "Through engaging encounters and up-close viewing opportunities, Shark Encounter allows guests to better understand shark biology, behavior, their importance as apex predators, and the actions we can all take to help protect them and the oceans they call home."

SeaWorld San Diego was recently granted accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for the shark animal care team's efforts.

Other features coming Friday include a new dolphin show (which also includes some pilot whales), the Wonders of North American Wildlife and the Deep Sea Disco, where guests can "dance the night away every night of summer under the glow of SkyTower lights as the Rhythm of the Reef dancers bring high- energy fun to the ocean floor."

Next month, SeaWorld will introduce nighttime animal experiences. Starting June 12, the park will offer special experiences with orcas, dolphins and sea lions.

The park will also bring back its Summer Concert Series in the Bayside Amphitheatre:

— June 6: Ying Yang Twins;

— June 13: Ginuwine;

— June 20: Bow Wow and Dem Franchize Boyz;

— June 27: Pop 2000 Tour;

— July 11: E-40;

— July 18: Ashanti;

— July 25: Soulja Boy and Paul Wall;

— Aug. 1: Jordin Sparks;

— Aug. 8: Too $hort and Warren G;

— Aug. 15: Saliva;

— Aug. 22: Uncle Kracker; and

— Aug. 29: Skillet.

That all changed on Jan. 5, when the city launched paid parking in San Diego’s crown jewel. Officials said at the time it was necessary to close the city’s budget deficit.

In a closed session Wednesday, the City Council agreed to a settlement to roll back trash fees in San Diego and end paid parking in Balboa Park. The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership called it a major victory.

“(Paid parking) was never a great idea and I think people are finally starting to realize that,” said Jim Kidrick, president and CEO of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

He said paid parking kept people away, costing his museum hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I’ve got to balance a budget, and so evidently my budget doesn't mean anything anymore, and same with all the institutions that are here. And that's what they're saying,” Kidrick said.

Mike Warburton is executive director of the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. In March, his museum reported attendance had dropped 29% since the start of paid parking.

He said he’s relieved, but also not happy with what he said is damage done.

“We knew that this was going to be a massive impact and that's why we had laid off three staff members in advance of the paid parking implementation, as well as cut our hours of operation, a couple part-time positions,” Warburton said.

He’s going to have to stick with those decreased staff levels for the foreseeable future. The city is not ending paid parking tomorrow, or anytime soon. They have only committed to ending it by the end of this year.

Still, the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership hailed the settlement as a victory.

“I think we’re just thrilled that the community has been listened to by the council,” said Peter Comiskey, the partnership's executive director.

When asked whether anyone responsible for the paid parking program should face any consequences, he said it’s time to move on.

“The focus for us right now is to make sure that the people who made this work and the people who were able to get this solution through, that we celebrate their efforts,” Comiskey said.

He called the settlement a light at the end of the tunnel, but the park’s cultural institutions aren’t out of the tunnel yet.

“It’s not going to cure things overnight,” said Bob Lehman, the executive director of San Diego Art Matters.

While he works to get the city to restore the nearly $12 million in arts funding cuts, Lehman said the damage from the parking situation will take a while to recover from.

“It’s going to take months or maybe even years to bring that audience back … So, we really have to put some effort into bringing people back to the park,” Lehman said.

Visual art

'Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea'

The San Diego Natural History Museum brings a traveling exhibit of sculptures made entirely from beach trash. The Oregon-based Washed Ashore Project uses art to call attention to the millions of tons of plastic waste in the world's oceans. At The Nat, 25 immersive marine-creature sculptures include a whale's rib cage, suspended jellyfish and more. The exhibit opens in conjunction with the launch of Nat at Night on May 22, with half-price admission after 5 p.m. and free parking after 6 p.m.

May 22, 2026 - Feb. 28, 2027 | The Nat | $14-$24 | MORE INFO

Mission Trails Regional Park 2026 Photo Contest Exhibition

The public photo contest exhibition at Mission Trails Visitor Center is one of my favorite annual art shows in town. Full disclosure: Once again, I served as a judge helping score the top prizes, and so many of this year’s submissions are excellent. From amateurs to professionals, the photos portray our local urban wilderness gem at its best — from sweeping landscapes to close-up shots of tiny creatures. Check out the exhibit, vote for your favorites in the People's Choice Award, then admire the views from the back deck or hit the trails around the Visitor Center. For an easy trek, the Oak Grove Loop trail is a mostly flat, 1-mile round trip just steps from the gallery. Or try the Visitor Center Loop, a 1.5-mile hike with a bit more climbing that passes near the Grinding Rocks.

Reception: 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 21. On view: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily | Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center, 1 Junipero Serra Trail, San Carlos | Free | MORE INFO

Music

'Also Sprach Zarathustra' & 'Bluebeard's Castle'

Rafael Payare conducts the San Diego Symphony Orchestra with mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill and baritone Mark Stone in Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," a tone poem — a single-movement composition intended to portray a scene or tell a story. In this case, it reflects on Friedrich Nietzsche's writings about the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. The orchestra will also perform Béla Bartók’s fairy tale-inspired "Bluebeard's Castle."

7:30 p.m. Friday, May 22, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 24 | Jacobs Music Center, 1245 Seventh Ave., downtown | $42-$125 | MORE INFO

Future Is Color: Jazz Night and Listening Session x MCASD Free Third Thursday

In conjunction with "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys" and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's Free Third Thursday event, Future Is Color will host a Studio Sessions jazz performance and listening session. At 3 p.m. in the Axline Court gallery, the listening session will spotlight the work of Umm Kulthum and Fela Kuti, hosted by Aladrian Goods and DAUCHE.

At 5:30 p.m., performances will take over Axline Court and the outdoor Art Park. Live jazz acts include Riva and We Are Here Now. Galleries open at 11 a.m. and will be free to the public all day. Advance RSVPs for Studio Sessions are sold out, but attendees can line up for day-of admission.

3-9 p.m. Thursday, May 21 | MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla | FREE | MORE INFO

Kevin Morby and Liam Kazar

I'll never forget when the music critic for San Diego CityBeat referred to one of my then-new discoveries, Kevin Morby, as "dad rock." Well, dad rock-lovers unite: Kevin Morby is coming to town on the heels of his new album, "Little Wide Open," released this week. And according to a recent Pitchfork profile, he's also about to become a first-time dad himself.

9 p.m. Sunday, May 24 | Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy | $38 | MORE INFO

Dance

San Diego Ballet: 'Impressionism: I Love Paris'

San Diego Ballet will perform artistic director Javier Velasco's "I Love Paris" in the San Diego Museum of Art's Copley Auditorium, honoring the Parisian nightlife art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose work is currently featured in a special exhibition at the museum. Velasco choreographed the piece as an imagined stroll through Parisian neighborhoods, capturing the vibrancy, flavor and sounds of the city. The company will also present "Debussy Dances," set to a medley of Debussy compositions, and Jean Isaacs’ "Water Lillies," both inspired by Impressionist art. Sunday's matinee is sold out.

7 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 22-23 | San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park | $45-$55 | MORE INFO

Theater

'A Walk with Yáamay' 

Part performance, part storytelling and part nature walk, "A Walk with Yáamay" is an Indigenous art and nature project from New Village Arts funded by Parks California's Arts in California Parks program. Curated by jovanny perez, Camaray Davalos and Juan A. Reynoso in collaboration with the Queer Sol Collective, the project has travelled across North County in recent months. Sunday's event, set among the marshlands and intertidal mudflats of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, includes reflection, live poetry, music and visual art. Participants will receive a journal to capture inspiration in the moment and take home a copy of "Yáamay: An Anthology of Feminine Perspectives Across Indigenous California.” Reservations are required.

10 a.m. to noon, Sunday, May 24 | Agua Hedionda Lagoon, 1580 Cannon Road, Carlsbad | Free | MORE INFO

San Diego Fringe Festival

One weekend remains in this year's festival of experimental, boundary-pushing and uncensored theater. Check out KPBS arts reporter and Fringe aficionado Beth Accomando's preview here. Some quick picks on my radar (thanks to Beth) include Friday's performance of "Just to Be Close to You," "Alisha's Light — Forever 57" on Friday and Sunday, and "The Fairy Tale Monologues" on Friday and Saturday.

Through May 24 | Multiple locations | $20 | MORE INFO

Books

'Under the Perfect Sun'

Authors Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller will celebrate and discuss the long-awaited reissue and update of "Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See," the book they wrote with the late Mike Davis two decades ago. The collection of essays, histories and muckraking journalism examines the region’s political underbelly, militarization and systemic injustices. Fun fact: The new edition's cover features one of local artist Perry Vasquez's distinctive flaming palm tree paintings.

7 p.m. Thursday, May 21 | The Book Catapult | Free | MORE INFO

Film

'Stolen Kingdom'

A new documentary takes us to the literal underbelly of Walt Disney World and the theme park devotees who risk everything to explore abandoned rides and attractions — including the mystery surrounding Buzzy, an animatronic character stolen from a closed Epcot ride. The film delves deep into the parks’ underground subculture and crimes connected to it. This line from a Paste Magazine review sums it up pretty well: "Frankly, it’s impressive just how much law-breaking the filmmakers of 'Stolen Kingdom' manage to get these various figures to confess on camera in the course of its tidy runtime."

May 22-28. Filmmaker Q&As: 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 24 | Digital Gym Cinema, 1100 Market St., downtown | $9-$13 | MORE INFO

Planning a quinceañera (also known as fiesta de quince años) can be a special time for a family. They decide which traditions to incorporate: a misa or mass, a court of honor, a waltz, among others. Other considerations include where the festivities will take place — at home, or a salón de fiestas or venue — and whether to hire a DJ, live band, or mariachi.

Each of these decisions reflects the family and daughter’s personal taste; sometimes it's modest, sometimes lavish, sometimes shaped by family and community expectations — but contained within a budget.

All of these elements come at a price and here in the San Diego region, those costs don’t come cheap.

In Chula Vista, one venue told KPBS a rental can start at almost $5,000 and be double that, depending on number of guests and date.

For parents, the celebration can represent an opportunity to honor their daughter and celebrate a meaningful rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and for many, it's worth the expense. Others are choosing to skip them altogether.

KPBS wants to know: did you have a quinceañera? What did it cost? If you didn’t have one, was cost a deciding factor? Did you do an alternative celebration like a trip to Disneyland instead?

Rose Byrne is one of the few actors to receive both an Oscar and a Tony nomination in the same year — the former for the film If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, and the latter for Fallen Angels on Broadway.

If I Had Legs was an intense indie film about a mother falling apart as she struggles to keep up with ever-increasing caregiving demands for her ill daughter. Byrne, who previously starred in blockbuster comedies like Neighbors and Bridesmaids, was praised for showing her range. Now, she's returning to comedy in the revival of Noël Coward's 1925 play about two wealthy women who find out a man they were each previously involved with is coming to town.

"I had long wanted to do a true comedic piece onstage, like it's one of my dreams," Byrne says of Fallen Angels. "We are trying to reach the back row, so physically, ... I felt like I was screaming when I first got up [there], because we're not wearing mics either."

Byrne's Fallen Angels character gets progressively drunk — and increasingly loud — throughout the play. She credits Coward's "brilliant" writing and stage directions with guiding her performance.

"The language he used, the sort of linguistic gymnastics and the extraordinary vocabulary of Noël Coward is a delight," she says. "I never tire of sitting backstage and I'm constantly rediscovering the words that he peppers throughout."

Interview highlights

On her role in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Mary Bronstein wrote this incendiary screenplay and I just did not want to mess it up. It was such a creative opportunity. ... We hit it off and had a real experience, one of those experiences in life that, creatively, has kind of changed me.

[The film] defies generalization or description, because it's sort of like a fever dream, in a way. It has gallows humor in there. There's horror tropes in the film, too. I think Mary Bronstein [who also directed the film] really broke the mold with the tone of the film, in many ways. She … tapped into the monster within and the fear of being a parent and the horror of being a parent, and some of the joy too, but obviously she's in a really extraordinarily difficult situation, this woman. I still can't believe the film got as far as it did, just because it was a small independent film.

On the constant beeping of medical equipment in the background of If I Had Legs

These noises get magnified and actually Mary Bronstein made those louder, just a bit, like the clock on the wall, the beeping of the machine, all those things were louder because they are in [the main character's] point of view. And it is as a parent, those things become overstimulating. It's relentless and, [Bronstein] wanted to capture that claustrophobia.

On why viewers don't get to see the daughter or know what her illness is

The conceit of not seeing the daughter, and Mary has spoken to this many times, but [it's] sort of a two-prong thing in that I don't think Linda, my character, can see her daughter at this point. She's so drowning and beginning this real descent into her mental health crisis. ... Also for the audience to have that choice taken away to not see the daughter, you're forced to reckon with the mother. Because as soon as you put a child on screen, your empathy, as it should, goes to the child. They're so vulnerable, and immediately your concern will go to them, and so she takes that choice away from the viewer. So you are forced to be in the perspective of the mother.

On parenting after spending the day on set 

Kids are so in-the-moment and grounding and — in the best way — they're not particularly interested if you've had a hard day. But it's so wonderful because you immediately snap into your role as mom, the greatest role, the most challenging, the most fun. And so for me, it's church and state ... leave it at work. I mean, obviously there were days when I was more exhausted or tired or [it's] harder to let things go. But children are the great equalizer, as a parent.

On the thrill of filming the 2011 film Bridesmaids

We had such a fun time. It was a great group of actresses. I couldn't believe I was there. … It's already extraordinary to have that many scenes with just women. I've had that once since then when I did Mrs. America , [a] show for FX about the second wave of feminism. ... But this was really, really special. And we had no idea that it would go on to become such a beloved movie and all of that. But the shooting of it was wonderful. It was an education in the brilliance of these comedic actresses and the performances. … It changed my life in so many ways. It really did. … The improv stuff, it's just like a skillset that is still I marvel … they make it look effortless.

Therese Madden and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

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