San Diego Weekend Arts Events: Photography, art, electroacoustic music, Palestininan poetry and two local-style Christmas plays

Speaker 1: (00:00)

This weekend in the arts, you can lose yourself and contemporary art electro-acoustic music and Palestinian poetry. Plus, we have a few San Diego style Christmas plays to get your seasonal festivities. Rolling. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Julia. Welcome.

Speaker 2: (00:19)

Hi Jane. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: (00:21)

So first, the San Diego museum of art recently reopened a collection of American photography. Tell us about this show.

Speaker 2: (00:27)

Yeah, this is masters of photography, the garner collection, and I saw it this last weekend. There are multiple rooms here. They're all arranged dramatically with dozens and dozens of work. So photography all from the 20th century through the present. And these are all on loan from local collectors cam and Wanda garner cam garner even has worked in the exhibition too. In some of the works that stood out to me are ones from Ansell Adams. There's Brett Western minor, white Berenice Abbott Walker, Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Flor Garduno. And this weekend SCMA, his hours are 10 to five today and Saturday, and then 12 to five on Sunday. It's really worth, uh, walking around this one. All right.

Speaker 1: (01:14)

Masters of photography, the gardener collection is on view at the San Diego museum of art. Now through February 21st on Monday, the musical organization project Blanc presents an evening of electro-acoustic music. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2: (01:30)

So electro-acoustic is a style of music where electronic and experimental devices and structures are, are used to kind of manipulate acoustic or other instruments to really transform the sound. It can be weird and it can also be really beautiful and disruptive. It kind of makes you question what music is or what it's meant to do. And project blank is finally back to live in person audiences after what's really been an impressive digital couple of seasons for them. So this will be Monday night at bread and salt, and it's just five bucks. There are performances from Pablo Dodaro, Nathan Hubbard, John jolly, and Francisco ma whose album treatise on violence came out earlier this year. And we're listening to a track on the album called time, which also features found noise and Monica Camacho on vocals

Speaker 1: (02:28)

That's Francisco and may who will perform at project blanks electro-acoustic and bread and salt Monday at seven 30. There's an evening of Palestinian letters at the San Diego central library on Monday evening. What do you know about this?

Speaker 2: (02:45)

Yeah, it's called Scheibach and it's actually a part of the rebellious miss breed program from the library, which also includes this big exhibition about the Japanese American incarceration focuses on how librarian Clara breed advocated for people during the war. And this particular show, this performance is curated by Rebecca Ramani and features Palestinian Americans reading texts from Palestinians in Gaza. So there's letters, personal narratives and poetry, including the work of Mahmoud Darwish. They'll also be music, notably Farhad, Bahrami of doorknob collective. This is free, but it is limited seating and you have to register in advance and be sure to get there early so that you can check out the full exhibition in the library gallery as well.

Speaker 1: (03:32)

And Shabaka and evening of Palestinian letters takes place Monday at 6:30 PM. Now let's shift gears to some seasonal offerings like a new Christmas musical at new village arts. Tell us about 1222 ocean front, a black family. Christmas.

Speaker 2: (03:50)

Yeah, this is San Diego playwright. Dear Hurston's brand new holiday musical. And this was the brainchild of Hurston along with Kevin Blacksburg rose and Milena sellers. Phillips Phillips is also the main character. And also she wrote the lyrics and the score is by John mark. McGaha it's already on stage with plenty of shows this weekend through December 26, that the story is about Dorothy Black that's Phillips, who is a widow and her family, Christmas Eve with her grown children, including the talented deja fields. There's lots of family traditions in some family drama. There's also a note in the program that this one has adult themes, the music, the mixture of re-imagined traditional Christmas carols, and then some new originals to here's a little taste,

Speaker 3: (04:41)

The [inaudible] up [inaudible]

Speaker 1: (05:05)

And you can see 1222 ocean front, a black family Christmas at new village arts in Carlsbad tonight at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM. How about the old Globes adaptation of a Christmas Carol that set right here in San Diego.

Speaker 2: (05:24)

This is Ebeneezer. Scrooge is big San Diego Christmas show it's by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. And yeah, it's literally taken the Dickens story and set it in San Diego at the turn of the 20th century. This is a comedy with music and of course the sort of absurdity of it being set right here in Balboa park and elsewhere in San Diego. But otherwise it really keeps the themes of Dickens. The costume design is by the amazing David Israel Reinoso so it promises to be a really stunning show. I don't want to say something like if you only see one, a Christmas Carol this year, but if you don't really connect to that old fashioned wintry London scene, this one's for you. And there are shows this weekend for your December 26.

Speaker 1: (06:10)

You can catch Ebeneezer. Scrooges big San Diego Christmas show at the old globe tonight at seven and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM for details on all these and more arts events and to sign up for Julia's weekly KPBS arts newsletter, go to kpbs.org/arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts, producer and editor, Julian Dixon Evans. Julia.

Speaker 2: (06:33)

Thanks. Thank you, Jade. Have a good weekend. You too.