S1: It's time for KPBS Midday Edition for today's arts and culture show. We are talking about Nowruz , the San Diego Latino Film Festival , and your weekend preview. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. The author and illustrator of Celebrate Nowruz joins us to talk about their new book and how the holiday honoring spring and a new day is observed , even during war. Then Beth Accomando gives us a preview of the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Plus , Julia Dixon Evans gives us a preview of the weekend arts events. That's ahead on Midday Edition. So tomorrow marks the beginning of Nowruz , also known as Persian New Year. A new children's book honors the holiday and its significance to millions of Iranian families across the world. It's called Celebrate Nowruz , a Persian New Year holiday to honor spring. Local mother daughter duo Zoe and Susie Garman are behind the book , and you might also know them for their most recent collaboration , Memory Garden. Will Susie and Zoe join me now in studio to talk about the meaning behind Nowruz ? Welcome back to the show.
S2: Thank you. Thank you for inviting us. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So glad to have you all here in studio. Zoe , Nowruz translates to new day in Farsi.
S2: And when they traced it , they realized that it begins with spring. And on a certain day , the sun and the moon are in a position. That day and night are equal lengths. We know that as vernal equinox by now. But they decided that's when a year begins. A new year begins. So because it's on that particular day , they called it New day , not New Year. But then they did mark their calendars and started from there. So I think that's where the new day comes from. It is the very first day when Mother Nature begins a new life. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. No , that makes so much sense. So much renewal happening , uh , around this time of year. Yes. Yeah. Well , Susie , that brings us to celebrate Nowruz.
S3: But just the excitement of the experience itself comes through and smells and sights , and it really just it was an opportunity to pull all those details into the artwork.
S1: Well , in the book , we follow Ariana and her family as they try to put together the best Nowruz possible. Tell us a bit more about Ariana and her experience with Nowruz. Zoe.
S2: Ariana is like my third generation children now , the grandchildren who are Americans. And yet there's this one special day that nobody else at school knows about. But it seems to be such a big day and they are celebrating it year after year. So I thought it's time they knew what it is that they celebrate. And also , I do believe that Nowruz is universal , that the whole world should honor vernal equinox. And so in a way , they are trying to explain it to Ariana is introducing it to the world and to her peers. And I think , I think it worked because now even my own grandchildren have new interest in something that they've unknowingly separated and and celebrated year after year. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Ariana says in the book that she's the only person in her class who celebrates Nowruz. In her words , it's her secret holiday. So talk about why it was.
S2: And I remember that Suzy's teachers didn't like it when I would not let her go to school that day , because they did not know anything about Nowruz. She was on sick , nobody had died , and she had to stay home. And so I think in that sense , all teachers will understand. People will understand the importance of this day for those who celebrated.
S3: As a child , I was the only person in my class who celebrated it. Definitely , and I honestly couldn't even explain it to my friends or classmates. I call it Persian New Year , and I wouldn't really explain it beyond that , because how do you explain something that doesn't represent at all our Western New Year and just as an entirely different type of celebration , one more rooted in community. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I do want to talk about , you know , some of the cultural practices and traditions of Nowruz.
S3: So I think that momentum building up to it is really where the energy of the book is.
S1:
S2: I love the fact that on that day we forgive those who've done wrong. We forgive those who have hurt us. We , um , reestablish relationship with people that we have not seen for a long time. I think that that is the meaning of peace. It begins at home and it spreads through the world. Um , I was actually at a classroom when a little boy asked me in the middle of the book. Talk. Aren't we at war with you ? And I said , are you ? Are you having a war with me ? I didn't think so. And he said , no , not you and me. I said , exactly , not you and me. What happens with politics and what has happened throughout history is out of our control. When you get to the base of it. We love each other. We want the best for each other and we're not fighting. And I think that that is the best part of it , that at Nowruz we want to not only physically be clean and have new clothes and have a clean house and have good taste in our mouths and good smelled through the house. But we also want to have a clear soul and to be at peace with the world.
S1: Yeah , you mentioned war , and I want to acknowledge how many Iranian families across the world are coming together to celebrate Nowruz , against the backdrop of this ongoing war.
S3: I mean , for all of us and a lot of people hold. I know people are celebrating it differently this year. Some people are not celebrating it much at all because they're in mourning or they're they just want to be respectful of the tragedies that our communities are facing. Um , for us , I think it's still I mean , my mom says it really beautifully , but this is a tradition within our family that's always been there , but for thousands of years through many wars , through many conflicts. And it's important that we. Keep those traditions going.
S2: And we we do call it celebration. But I would like you to know that it's more an honor and honoring our history and honoring the history of Nowruz. And it isn't just Persians. The seven different nations celebrated , 300 million people celebrated. And if we give in to to wars and all the ugly things that have been happening in my country for decades , I mean , now we are aware because America is involved , but people have been assassinated throughout 40 years. They have been killed , they have been attacked , they have been imprisoned. But people continue to celebrate because on this day , It's as if we are telling the present government of Iran that they don't matter , that we are Persians above all , and we are united and we are loving , and we are good people , and we don't let them stop us from honoring this day. So it's not like we party and drink and dance , but we even sad as we are , we sit around , have seen and think of our our blessings and pray for those who will not see another have seen. So if anything , I would try and have a better , bigger , um , arrangement than I usually do in the privacy of my home.
S3: It is also like my mom is kind of inferring that it's more of a ritual than a celebration , and it still feels important to acknowledge the changes that we've personally experienced as well , or that we've experienced as a family or , you know , the community at large is experiencing quite a bit of change right now , and it's a time for us to to infuse some hope into the year ahead.
S1: Yeah , well it's intentional. Right.
S2: And those are the best memories that I have , especially of my father , who , um , absolutely loved this day. And he was so popular. The word lines and lines of people coming to our house to visit him on this day. But altogether , I think my children , Susie , can tell you how she feels about it , but they've always felt very close to Nora's , and they have their own fond memories. And that's why the book , even amid all this sadness , it brings cheer to children. It brings hope to them for better days.
S3: As a secular holiday also. It is very inclusive. It doesn't matter what your belief system is because it invites everyone to reflect in that way. For me as a child , I don't think my mom even knows this , but I have this really fond memory of us making these like toffee like cookies that my mom would fry in a pan , and then we'd transfer over to wax paper in layers. And just that whole act of preparation around this one particular cookie was really. I don't even know if you would call it a cookie , but , um , I can smell it even just talking about it. It's like this really ? Um , like a A brown sugar pistachio combo smell , so it sounds delectable.
S1: It really does.
S2: Sometimes my husband says , why don't you just buy this sweets ? I said. Because then the house won't smell the same.
S1: This is true.
S3: There are so many smells involved too. The hyacinths have a really , really fragrant smell and everybody has them on there. Have seen. So as soon as you walk into the house , you can smell the smells of yours. Wow.
S1: Wow. I mean , you know , speaking of food , when you open the book , you immediately see all these different foods on the inside cover. What are some of the foods and culinary traditions you really wanted to highlight ? Suzy. Definitely.
S3: Definitely. The sweets is a really pivotal , you know , really important part of the Huff scene because you're supposed to have a sweet taste in your mouth for the year , a sweet year ahead. So everybody goes to each other's houses and has some kind of small cookie. I mean , you're having so many sweets through the day they have to be small. But , um , really , that that feels like a I think , you know , I'm vegetarian. The traditional meal for Nowruz is fish , so I don't really partake in the meal aspect. I look forward to the cookies. Mm. Perfect.
S1: Perfect. Perfect. Zoe.
S2: Well , to me , it's every bit of it is is very special , so I can't I can't say that about the food that we eat , but I also think it's important to have the seven S's half seen means seven S's. And these are foods that are plant based. And they begin with letter S or seen in Persian. And there's only seven of them. So um , to prepare that and to decorate that. So every time I learned to do something different the next year.
S3: Had seen means seven seconds. That's like the exact translation. And the foods that are on the inside cover here , and the foods my mom is talking about are for display there , not for consumption.
S1: Oh , wow. Okay.
S3: The main thing that I felt as I was making in , and I hope children feel , is the pride and the culture itself. Um , I hope people have more of an understanding of what the holiday represents , and there's a lot of really interesting back matter about the other sort of the there's like a , a pre holiday and a post holiday as well. And really it just lays out a lot of information that maybe if you're someone like me who grew up with it and didn't know the questions to even ask , it will inform what everything means and and why everything is the way that it is around this holiday.
S4: I mean , and the way I.
S2: Describe it to the very young is I tell them , this is today is Mother Nature's birthday , and this is Mother Nature's birthday party. So they become so excited , they go home and they want to celebrate with us because everybody loves nature. And that is what the book suggests , that everyone can celebrate it in their own way. It doesn't have to be this particular way.
S3: And everyone does celebrate it in their own way. It's very individualized as people. You know , there's no one way to arrange things or to , you know , you gather with the people you love , but it doesn't , you know , it's it's it's individualized. And the biggest compliment that I feel that we've received since this book came out is seeing little children build their own half scenes. And what a beautiful thing to invite them. You know , we've invited them and then they've. They've met that invitation and taken it to somewhere imaginative that only children can take it. Wow.
S1: Wow. That will. The illustrations in the book , I should say , are just are beautiful. Thank you. Um , well , you know , earlier we talked about uplifting joy during Nowruz and against this backdrop of war.
S2: But we've always recovered. And I think that my hope is a speedy recovery because people have been suffering for 40 years and that is too long. My my nieces and nephews don't even remember the good times that I remember in Iran , for as long as they remember there has been limitations , there have been restrictions , there have been punishments. And so I am hoping for a free Iran. I don't care when it may not be in my time , but people are so good they deserve it.
S3: I have never been able to visit Iran. Um , the Islamic regime took over the country before I was born. And my hope , part of my hope that I'm feeling is that people feel more comfortable being there , um , as who they are without the restrictions that are part of the law right now there , and that people like me can visit my ancestral land , you know ? Yeah.
S1: Well , I mean , I just happy Nowruz to you , to the both of you. Thank you. Um , the book is excellent. It's beautiful. And to anyone out there , I hope they're able to check it out. Celebrate. Nowruz is the title. I've been speaking with illustrator Susie Germani and author Zoe Germani. Their latest book is called Again Celebrate Nowruz , a Persian New Year holiday to honor spring. Susie. Zoe , thank you so much.
S4: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
S1: Still to come , the San Diego Latino Film Festival is once again condensing its schedule to just five jam packed days of films. We'll have a preview of the film festival and talk about its 33 year history when KPBS Midday Edition returns. Welcome back to midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. The annual San Diego Latino Film Festival kicked off last night , and for the past 33 years , the festival has celebrated the diversity of Latino cinema and the storytellers behind them. Well , this year's schedule will showcase nearly 150 films from all over the world , and it's all packed into four days , so you might have some tough choices to make there. KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando previews the festival with founder Ethan Van Tello. Then later , one of the film programmers and a local film maker hears that conversation.
S5: Even this month , the San Diego Latino Film Festival turns 33. I am thrilled and honored to be able to say that I have attended all of your festivals.
S6: This has been an interesting year for me personally. Was recently awarded a leadership award from the Prevost Foundation and started to think about 33 years and what that means for myself , but also for my family , for my organization , for the community in general. And really , what it means is kind of a celebration of all that we've seen over the past 33 years. And we started as a small student Chicano film festival here in San Diego. And now to be celebrating 2026 with a tribute to Luis Valdez , who's known as the father of Chicano cinema and Chicano theaters. A really wonderful celebration. I'm really excited about it.
S5: And to honor him , you're not just showing a couple of his films , but there's also a new documentary about him.
S6: Yeah , super excited to premiered here in San Diego. It's called American Pachuco. It's screened at Sundance , and Everyone's talking about it. And so to be able to screen it here to San Diego audience is really important for us. Again , as the founder of Chicano cinema. Luis Valdez , as someone who has made films like La Bamba , Zoot Suit , he's just a legend in the community , a legend for Chicano cinema in general. So to be able to have him here in person , to show that movie in a movie theater with everyone around , to be able to do a Q&A with them is really an honor.
S5: And the festival is not just making use of your home base of the AMC Mission Valley , but American Pachuco is going to have kind of an encore screening at Southwestern College.
S6: They have a beautiful theater if you haven't been there. It's a beautiful performance space. I think it seats close to 300 400 people. Last year we were there with Dolores Huerta , so we're super excited to be back there on Sunday night , 7 p.m. March 22nd.
S5: Now for those of us who have been attending the festival for a long time , there has been a period where the festival spans two weekends , but last year I think was the first time that it was a little more condensed. This year it's the same thing. Only five days.
S6: Over the recent years the costs of everything have just gone up tremendously. And so we took it down from 11 days to five days , mainly because the renting of the theatre , you know , AMC theatres is very expensive. And anyone who runs any arts organizations here in San Diego and the other film festivals will know it's just the facility cost. The the theater rentals are the most expensive part of putting on a film festival. So we took it down to five days last year , and we actually found out that we had the same amount of people come , you know , it was it was incredible and the same , a wonderful energy. You know , that's what I love about the film festival. And that's why I want people just to come in there and just experience different things. And you feel that energy in the in the theater. So we'll screen at Chicano Film on one screen and then a Brazilian film and then a Chilean film. And all these different parts of the Latino community are coming here. They see in movies talking about it in the lobby. And there's such an energy in. So five days , 147 films every country's represented. So , yeah , I really want to encourage people just to come out and see movies in the theater as it should be. And that's really important for this year. As we celebrate 33 years. We have a beautiful poster this year that was done by a local , um , El Cajon Latino artist , and he created this beautiful poster that represents him and his family. He remembers as a young boy. Every Friday , his family would get together and watch a movie together. And really , that's what this festival represents. The 33 years is that the importance of being together as a family , as a community. Watching movies together on the big screen , laughing , crying and coming together , especially in this time of really difficulties with a community and so many challenges that we're facing. It's really important to have a safe place and come and celebrate Latino cinema and culture.
S5: Now , the one downside of this compressed schedule is you are really packing the films in , which means you're forcing us to make choices.
S6: Yeah , we're forcing people to make choices. And then also , you know , maybe see a film at 2:00 on a Friday , you know , get off work a little early and see at 2:00 film. And then also late night films too. We have 930 films , 10:00 films. But I really I just want to encourage everyone to not get overwhelmed by the festival schedule. The 147 films just come to the festival every day , every kind of 90 minutes. There's going to be a new film that starts , so you can just come on in and check out whatever films starting at that time. Something for everybody. Just encourage everyone just to come into the theatre space. There's always going to be live music. They can hang out. Look at the festival catalog and just see what's playing in the next few minutes , and there's going to be something amazing.
S5: And you also have an animated feature. This.
S6: This. Is Mexico's first stop motion animation film. It's just incredible to see the filmmakers will be here. It's produced out of Guadalajara. Guillermo del Toro helps produce it , actually , so I encourage families to come out as well. I think it's important that all generations come out and on top of families. You might not know , but we have a free student outreach screenings , so over 1000 students will be coming to the film festival this week and celebrating the wonderful films , because that's what it's really about. We need to teach future generations the joy and the power of seeing movies together. We need to teach future generations about the History of the Chicano Latino community. And that's why it's so important to screen the Luis Valdez documentary. And to celebrate Luis Valdez is that we quickly can forget these stories. We can quickly forget these filmmakers and artists if we don't constantly remind people and celebrate their work. Um , we have a federal government that's working day after day to erase history , to take it away from schools , to take away from libraries , to destroy public spaces like movie theaters. So we need to really celebrate and bring people together to document and to preserve the history of the Chicano community , Latino community , and Latino film and art.
S5: That was Ethan Valentino , founder and executive director of the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Next , I speak with one of the programmers , Luis Martinez , and with one of the filmmakers being showcased , Caterina Colon. I began by asking Luis about my favorite showcase on Mundo Extrano. This was created by Miguel Rodriguez of Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. Luis took over programming after the pandemic. The showcase highlights genre filmmaking and provides a nice complement to the other programming in the festival.
S7: You can't get away from the fact that the San Diego Latino Film Festival is an important film festival that talks about important issues to the Latino community. Alongside those issues , we also want to showcase that Latinos have a great love of genre films , and UN Mundo Extrano is a counterbalance to the more serious fare by showcasing how Latinos deal with their trauma , with their past , with their history through horror , through sci fi , through telling interesting stories. So being able to find what the themes are , what people are dealing with , what types of things they're trying to sort of process in their own mind with their art is what gives me , you know , breath every year about finding these short films , these features , and putting them in front of an audience that loves to consume horror and sci fi.
S5: And one thing that comes up in a couple of these is the sense of a dystopian future , or a future where we haven't been able to control everything to our fullest. And Kat. You have a film that's in this showcase and it's called New Human. So explain what this is.
S8: Yeah , so New Human is more of a sci fi film. What is a sci fi ? A speculative sci fi about a woman and a clone. In 2055 , she's teaching her clone how to be human , and she's basically grappling with this idea that her clone might be more human than she is. So it's about sacrifice.
S9: Do you know how it got like this ? Yes. Then why ? Why would I go ? We're responsible for this.
S8: So as we were co-writing this together in world building , we realized it would be interesting to talk about these topics of how we have destroyed the Earth , and something like climate change , and tackling this idea in a fun , entertaining way. But that was still real.
S7: There's a lot of like , who deserves a new chance. What I really like about your film was I who really deserves to be saved , or to be given a second chance to to mess things up again , so to speak.
S8: Yeah , really , it's a cautionary tale. Like , at the end of the day , while it's fun and has different themes of underlying romance , really , I'm like , I don't want this world to come true.
S5:
S8: I went to San Diego State and graduated there in 2020. So I've been very local and I'm super passionate about it. I feel like over the years , I've been finding my community of local San Diegans to to work with on films , and I'm super proud that this film was made by a majority of San Diego filmmakers. We filmed in LA for the shooting , but a lot of the crew is people from here.
S5: And Luis , remind people that you came into programming through making a film that was shown here.
S7: Yeah , yeah. Like I said , we went full circle because you interviewed me nine years ago at the San Diego Latino Film Festival , when my film Slap Worthy was part of the Frontera Filmmaker Showcase. And come nine years later , my co-star from that film , Sofia Carrillo , they have a film playing on Sunday called monochromatic , where she is the actress and producer. So , you know , nine years later , we're still here and I'm a programmer now. So it all started with me talking to Ethan , Moises and Juan about the reputation of the festival and about how there's a lot of perceptions out there back then , that the festival only focused on trauma and immigrant stories and things like that , which is it's a San Diego festival. We're a we're a border region. It's going to happen. And I wanted to focus on , like I said , the genre films , the comedy showcases , and the horror showcase is to give a counterbalance to the most serious fare. And basically , I talked myself into a job because when I brought that up to them , they're like , yeah , you should do that. And seven years later , here I am , you know , very proud and humble that I'm able to program comedies and horrors and I'm able to give filmmakers like myself their first chance at being accepted by a major film festival. I know once I was accepted by the San Diego Latino Film Festival , they changed my career path as a filmmaker , and it was really the first time a major , a major festival accepted my art.
S5:
S8: I had a film that I did , but getting selected , it's super cool. I mean , I'm just so proud that this film specifically , that's not necessarily the most outwardly Latino film , right ? Because it's very sci fi , but it's made by a Latino person , a Mexican Guatemalan. The lead in it is Mexican. I'm just really proud that this film can be in this festival and represent myself and other like , actors , directors and Latino people. But in a way , that's just a film that anyone can watch. Not that anyone can't watch a very like border film or things like that , but there is so much of that , and I'm happy to just be an expansion of what we can create. And just a representative of genre films , too , because there's not a lot of females either in genres like sci fi films too.
S7: Can I expand on that for a second , just because I think that one of the things that I try to take pride in , and that I'm working towards as a Latina filmmaker , is for us to have the ability to just make normal movies. Every movie doesn't have to be a story about your family , about this very serious thing. Everything doesn't have to be 100% perfect. There's millions and millions of TV shows , movies , commercials that get filmed every year , and the industry needs to make a decision to hire Latino creatives to make those films. We want to be able to make just normal stuff. A Latina filmmaker can make a sci fi movie and not have a lot of Latino elements , or we can make something that's very specific to the Latino experience. So we just want to be able to make movies good and bad.
S8: That's so true. And sometimes I see films or even plays. I love watching theater. And while I think it's great that there are so many very touching , powerful , but also super intense , maybe even sad stories because , I mean , look what's going on. It's intense out there , and Latino people are persecuted along with other groups all the time. But sometimes I just want to see myself on the screen in a in a normal way that's uplifting or otherworldly and fantastical. And some of my favorite films are Lots of white men on the screen. And selfishly , at any time I have an idea like this one. It's I think of myself because I'm like , I want to be in this other world. I want to be in a sci fi or a fantasy or in Lord of the rings. So I just want to make films that are out of the box of what so many people I feel like put us in.
S1: That was programmer Luis Martinez Escondido , filmmaker Caterina Colon and San Diego Latino Film Festival founder Ethan Van Tello , speaking with KPBS Beth Accomando. The festival runs through Sunday at multiple venues. For more information , check out Beth's Cinema Junkie blog at KPBS. Up next , Julia Dixon Evans joins us with the arts events happening this weekend. Plus much more. Midday edition is back after the break. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. Looking for things to do this weekend ? Well , we've got you covered for our weekend preview. We have contemporary ballet , a musical about public toilets and some protest art. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts reporter and host of the finest podcast. Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , welcome.
S10: Hey , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: Glad to have you in here. So I'm going to I'm going to save the best for last here , And we'll start with with protest art.
S10: The gallery is called and Friends Gallery. And Josh MacPhee is a Brooklyn based artist. He was invited to come and show this extensive collection of posters. And these are all printed on a graph printer. Um , it's an affordable , high output stencil based printing format , uses natural inks , and artists have kind of rediscovered this over the last couple of decades to use in art. It's kind of inexact , and it prints one color at a time layering them. So it has this really distinctive look. And we recently had a whole episode of the finest about graph printing. It's something I've been following and reporting on for a while , so I get really excited about it. So you can listen to that episode if you want to know more. Um , Weezer graph printing is really popular for printing posters or anything that you want a ton of. Quickly and cheaply. So activists and community organizers also turn to the resource graph. So McPhee's exhibit , it's called Paper Politics. It's a collection of 104 posters , all of them printed on a graph and all from the last decade or so. Like protests are posters for activists or community organizations. And in that way , it's kind of like this time capsule of organizing and politics over the last ten years. It's also really fascinating to me the way visual and and like , design elements play into protest. So Paper Politics opens with a reception from 5 to 9 on Friday night. And if you get there early enough , there's going to be some limited reso and screen prints for sale. And then the exhibit will be on view through May 17th and it's free.
S1: Sounds wonderful. Another exhibit that reflects back on a long period in an artist's career is electro spectrum. Tell us about Roman DiSalvo Ray.
S10: He's a former San Diego artist , longtime public artist and installation artist. One of my favorite Roman DiSalvo pieces is the giant rock drinking fountain at Mission Trails Regional Park. And he's back in town for for an exhibition that reflects on his work since the 1990s. That's all very utilitarian , inspired. So light bulbs and steel. And in fact , there is one piece that's like a web of steel pipes and light bulbs spanning a wall and other pieces , a steel tree that he built when he was artist in residence at the Timken Museum. I think this was about six years ago , and it's great to see that one installed again. This is at Quinte Gallery at their seven six , five five Girard space. They have a couple galleries and it opens with a reception Friday from 6 to 8. And then it'll be up through May 23rd. And it's also free.
S1: All right. Well , now in contemporary dance , we have a production from local company the Rose and Box Project.
S10: Like this is technically contemporary ballet that they do this combination of ballet structures and then the expressive like looseness of contemporary dance. But the Rosenbach project takes this into like the next level. It's almost like theater. And this weekend's production is there empower program , and it's kicking off their new season with new choreography. They're doing works by founder Carly Tapio , whose choreography and her performance is so good. It's sharp , it's athletic , and it's really emotional. And another company member , Jeremy de Zapata , who also has work in the show , also always amazing. And then they're bringing in guest choreographer Adriana Pearce. These shows are at the Lightbox Theater and Liberty Station tonight , Saturday and Sunday evenings.
S1: All right. So we have to talk about , you know , the public bathrooms musical.
S10: This play is called Urinetown The Musical. It's by Mark Hollmann and Greg Curtis , and when it was first produced in 2002 , won three Tony Awards. And Grossmont College's Theater Arts department is doing a production right now. And I do think one of our best kept secrets here is that our community college arts departments are doing amazing things in town , and this is going to be one of those. The story is set in a city that's amid this environmental collapse. There was a 20 year drought , and because of this crisis , the government bans private toilets. So everyone has to use public bathrooms. This is satire , and it's also commentary on capitalism , because those public bathrooms , they're managed by this particularly evil private company that charges admission. So everyone has to fight for what they refer to as , quote , the privilege to pee. So performance is open tonight and run through next Saturday.
S1: It's terrible. In classical music. Art of Ellen is doing a performance inspired by a visual art exhibit. Huh. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. So this is non-profit chamber music ensemble Art of Ellen , and they're pairing up with the Minga on Boundless. And it's inspired by an exhibit , Reflections in Southern California Landscapes. They're performing music that evokes a sense of place and draws on the natural world , including music by a bunch of composers , including one of my favorites , Caroline Shaw. This is Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Minga , and if you get there early , there's a champagne reception and you'll have a chance to browse the galleries.
S1: All right , well , we just heard about Nowruz from the local duo behind the children's books , Celebrate Nowruz. There's also an art exhibit in Escondido that's centered on the Persian holiday. What can you tell us about that ? Yeah.
S10: So this is called Unrolling Paradise. It's by Mariam Bayat and it's now open at California Center for the Arts , Escondido and their museum space. It's a series of sculptures and wall hangings that are all made from repurposed Persian rugs by. It was raised in Iran and her childhood was was spent like , split between this totally bucolic region in northern Iran and then her father's rug shop in Shiraz. Like , she talks about running through the stacks of rugs when she was little. And the exhibit is is kind of this magical forest , so inspired by the nature in northern Iran. And she has these beautiful , almost cute cypress trees , animals made out of rugs that she colors them and then repaints. And it is a celebration of springtime and new life. It coincides with Nowruz. And she also told me that one of the big things that inspires her are stories , and the way that stories are like captured and passed down through rugs.
S11: They used to sit down and weave. Thinking of their life , their story. All of their rugs had a story behind it. So they would just sit. And sometimes when they're sad , their hands affects how they weave the rug.
S10: And the thing that I love about this exhibit is that her work as well , like when she takes these old rugs and adds her own art and her own spin on it , she is thinking about her own thing. She's thinking about her homeland or her life or nature. So she is adding stories to each piece too , like layering them with those old stories from the women who originally made them. And this exhibit will be on view through mid-August.
S1: Well , finally , before we go. What is on your radio or not ? Your radio. We're on your radio.
S10: Well , let's put it on the radio.
S1: Let's do it.
S10: That should be really great. This is folk pop singer songwriter Marissa Nadler. Um , I think it was her 2014 album when I first heard her music. It's called July. Her voice is really mesmerizing. It's like soft and folky , but also really haunting. And her newest album , New Radiations , came out last summer. It's just really good. It's mellow and moody but approachable , and we're listening to Weightless Above the Water from the album right now without Clementine.
S12: So the Rose is somewhat right. Fell to my. Left , you know.
S10: And tonight at Soda Bar , she'll be supported by the Brooklyn based pop duo Gracie and Rachel. Should be a great show.
S1: All right. I'm sure that sounded great on the radio. Yes. And you can find details on these and more arts events on our website at pbs.org. I've been speaking with KPBS arts reporter and host of the finest podcast , Julia Dixon Evans. Julia.
S10: Thank you. Thank you. Jade. This was fun. But.
S12: But. Left it all behind.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
