S1: It's time for KPBS Midday Edition. On today's show , the arts and culture shaping San Diego. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. We'll tell you where you can see Alicia Keys and Swiss Beads personal art collection. Then hear about some of the artists behind the work. Plus a preview of the Wow Festival. That's ahead on Midday Edition. A new exhibition headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art , San Diego , comes from the personal collection of two names you'll recognize musical icons Alicia Keys and Swiss Beats , aka Kassem Deen. The Giants exhibit features work from nearly 40 black American and diasporic artists making waves in the art space. It first opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024. Here's Kees and Dean talking about giants back then on NBC news.
S2: This is a portion of our collection that we've been collecting for the past 20 years.
S3: We're celebrating those giants. And then also , we want people to be giant collectors of our own culture.
S1: But here in San Diego , the deans also collaborated with the museum to organize a complimentary exhibition to run alongside giants. It is called Hometown Heroes , and it's all about spotlighting local artists. There is plenty to talk about here. And joining me now to help with that is Amy Crum , associate curator with the Museum of Contemporary Arts , San Diego. Amy , welcome to Midday Edition.
S4: Thank you for having me.
S1: Glad to have you on. This is such a cool exhibition you guys have going on here. Um , so this this Giants was first organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2024. How did it find its way to San Diego ? Yeah.
S4: I mean , so when it was originally conceived at the Brooklyn Museum , they were , I know , when they were potentially looking at venues for it to tour. And Pasternack , the director at Brooklyn and the deans , given their personal connections to San Diego , um , you know , they came to the museum to look at the space. And our former director was really excited about the possibility of bringing it here. Um , a number of the artists in the show are in McD's collection already. And so given their , you know , close proximity to San Diego , it seemed like the perfect fit. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And this is the inaugural display of the collection on the West Coast.
S4: Yeah , we are the West Coast debut. And , you know , we're very thrilled that we get to be the ones to to show it. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I'm sure. So what does it mean to have such a big names ? You know , Alicia Keys and Swiss Beats behind this project at the museum ? Yeah.
S4: I mean , this is one of the biggest shows I think the museum has ever done. Um , both in terms of , you know , actual physical scale given the size of the works , but also just in terms of , you know , impact and just general name recognition , but beyond , you know , the the giant sort of names associated with Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats , the number of artists in the show , the towering figures of the art world that are featured in the show , and , you know , the opportunity to bring this many together under one roof is really an opportunity for us and for San Diego.
S1: A guiding philosophy behind the exhibition is by the artist , for the artist , with the people.
S4: I think this collecting ethos of , you know , artists , supporting artists is really evident in the show , both in , you know , the works themselves and that there are artists in the show that are looking to other artists in the exhibition giving a sort of intergenerational kind of legacy and art history in that way , but also in the personal relationships that the deans have with all of the artists. Um , you know , there's a a Giants group chat between all of the artists and the deans and a lot of the some of the works in the show were gifts from the artists. And so there's , you know , almost a near familial network between all of them. And it's really it's pretty evident in the work as well. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And the exhibition will also be incorporating local traditions through its run , some performances. What can you tell us about that. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So some of the artists in the Hometown Heroes portion of the exhibition , a lot of them are based in Barrio Logan and Logan Heights and um , uh , a lot of the , some of the images in the show are commemorating , you know , local festivals like Chicano Park Day , which is coming up. And so we're having done some coyote , uh , traditional Azteca dancer group that's one of the oldest in San Diego , come and offer a blessing and a performance to sort of open up the the preview party and the opening of the exhibition tomorrow , which we're really excited about. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Um , you know , one through line between these exhibits really is it's social justice , activism and culture. For example , the San Diego photographers have.
S5: Work that speaks to.
S1: Gentrification , Chicano activism , lowrider car culture , you know , and a lot more.
S4: So within the Giants exhibition , one of the major strengths of the show are several large collections of photography. I'm thinking about Gordon Parks in particular. You know , there are a number of images of protests in Washington , DC and elsewhere throughout United , the United States , and then to sort of emerge from those galleries and into those that are housing hometown heroes , where we're seeing , you know , protests on On the Bridge or in Barrio Logan and , you know , creating this kind of resident resonance between the two and these networks of solidarity. I think it it's a through line throughout both exhibitions.
S1: When you are reflecting on this exhibition and the work , that's that.
S4: I mean , that's hard to say. I feel like as a curator , there were lots of works that I got to see. You know , as a as a jpeg , you know , in preparation for the show. But when they come out of the crates , they really , you know , you can't really describe what the feeling is like and how you see them in person. It's kind of there's no comparison. But I think one of the main pieces that I have to mention is one of the newest additions to the show that we're debuting as part of our presentation of Giants that's unique to to our venue up until this point. And it's this 25 foot monumental painting by McLean Thomas that is sort of her Reimagining of Edward Mayonnaise. I'm going to try to pronounce the French title , but the luncheon on the grass. Um , and so we're it's I mean , so many rhinestones have been meticulously placed on it , and just getting able to see the surface of that work in person is truly breathtaking. Wow.
S1: Wow. It sounds amazing. I mean , just you have to describe that piece a bit more for for the listening audience. Sure.
S4: Sure. Uh , so , you know , the it's a six panels , um , 25ft in length , that depicts , you know , these three women that are empowered and lounging together outside. And it's a visual sort of reference to Edward Manet's Luncheon on the grass , which , amid the original painting , depicts two , you know , white nude female figures that are accompanied , you know , lunching on the grass by two clothed men. And so this reimagining of that work with three empowered black women sitting together enjoying the outdoors is a much more , you know. Yeah , an empowered reimagination of this work. Wow.
S1: Wow. You know , I mean , this is your first exhibition.
S4: And and so the fact that Giants is opening now and will be open in June , when I sort of finished out my first year here , feels kind of , you know , meaningful. And I'm so thrilled that I got to be a part of this project.
S1: Yeah , well , congratulations on it. I've been speaking with Amy Crumb , associate curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art , San Diego. Amy , thank you so very much.
S4: Thank you.
S1: Still ahead here , more about the artist behind the collection and your weekend preview. Midday edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS. I'm Jade Hindman for our weekend arts preview. We take a closer look at the Giants and Hometown Heroes exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Art , San Diego. Plus a little poetry and a preview of Record Store Day. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts reporter and host of the finest podcast , Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , welcome.
S6: Hey , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: Glad to have you here. So let's start with Giants and the adjacent exhibit Hometown Heroes. You broke the story in February about Swiss beats and Alicia Keys buying out an entire exhibit in Barrio Logan. And you talked about talked to to two of those artists , actually.
S6: It was called Neighborhood visuals. It was a collection of photography , mostly from the Barrio Logan neighborhood. And like the lore behind this , this whole acquisition is that Swiss beads kind of wandered into the cafe. Love the art so much that he bought it all , but it was actually more of this like artist supporting artist story. Chata , who's another local Chicano photographer and a DJ already connected to Swiss beats through the music scene and already in the Deane collection herself , she sort of put it on his radar , slid the exhibit on his desk. Um , and yeah , so like the sub exhibit at Giants is those two photographers from Neighborhood Visuals at Port Vida , um , MJ Pimentel and Oscar Cruz , and then two big portraits by Chata. It's all in the Dean collection now. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , and so this is all film photography.
S6: Yeah , yeah. So MJ and Oscar started working together and actually developed the majority of the film right there in Barrio Logan , in this makeshift dark room that they built in the studios downstairs from the cafe right on Logan Avenue. It's so immediate and so local. Right. And they're working. Relationship isn't just based on proximity. It's based around this , like similar understanding of what it means to be a documentarian. And yeah , so I asked MJ about why she's drawn to this kind of work , not just documentary and photography , but also film. And it's , you know , it's one of those enduring analog art forms for a reason.
S7: Um , I would say my style is really raw. All of my photos are taken on 35 millimeter film , and I don't edit them. Um , I really like , like the raw look of the film , what it naturally does. And I feel like this show is really highlighting the neighborhoods that we frequent and places and people who we interact with on a day to day basis.
S6: And yeah , that neighborhood that day to day is super important to her.
S7: If I had one word to basically describe Barrio Logan , I would say like community or heartbeat. I feel like this neighborhood is really special , and there's a lot of these neighborhoods all over the place , but they're special because of the people that are in them , the people who play a role in everyday life , not just , you know , who come and go. It's like the people who live here , who you walk by every day , your neighbors , your local shop business owners. And that's what makes Logan really special to me. I'm originally from the East Coast. I've been living in this community for like 7 or 8 years and I've , you know , in San Diego , I've never seen another neighborhood that's so tight knit and so strong.
S6: And , you know , talk about those people , that neighborhood. I asked her what it means to have their work in the Deen collection and now on the walls of a museum. And this was back when I spoke to the artist a couple of months ago , and it wasn't officially confirmed that their stuff would be part of this project at the Museum of Contemporary Art , San Diego , but it was certainly like an exciting possibility at the time.
S7: What it means to me is just like the visibility and representation that is so important , and I feel like a lot of these people like in these photos , they're my friends , they're my neighbors. There are people who are special to me , so I feel honored to be able to bring them to a platform like the Dean collection and have a on a scale to that size , and kind of highlight them for other people to see , like the beauty and these moments that , you know , might have gone unseen had we not been walking around the neighborhood that day. This community is what even got me to start saying I'm an artist or to like , believe that my photographs are art. I think it is really important and it really starts in your own backyard or your own community , whatever that looks like. Um , because those bigger places , those bigger museums , are bigger platforms. They look to places like this for inspiration. Wow.
S1: Wow. I mean , that sounds incredible.
S6: When you're talking about documentary neighborhood photography , you have to talk about Gordon Parks , right ? And , you know , the exhibit's divided into sections , and one of them is called On the Shoulders of Giants. And it's a nod to , like , those iconic legendary black artists who've paved the way for artists making work right now. And there is an entire wall of Gordon Parks photographs. Um , you know , one of the curators yesterday told me that the deans have the largest collection of Gordon Parks works , which is really cool. And he's an American photographer filmmaker who was working roughly from , like , the 1940s through the 70s. Um , they're incredible snapshots into American life and history , particularly across class and race divides. And , you know , to walk over a couple rooms in the museum and see hometown heroes. It's just a great context. It's like this really nice lens to think about our own spaces and our own artists who are documenting the slice of American history and more specifically , MJ. Oscar and Chatham's photography is paired with other art three pieces from the museum's collection , including one of my absolute favorite pieces of art. It's this giant blue cyanotype by local artist Andrea Chung. It's called filthy water cannot be washed. It's about colonialism and the invasive lionfish. So it's really kind of profound to see all these together. Wow.
S1: Wow. I mean , that's great. And what an opportunity to go look at something awesome like that. Another quick thing before we go Saturday is Record Store Day. What can we expect.
S6: So it's a national celebration of indie record stores by my count. We have about 20 independent record stores in San Diego , 21 if you include Imperial County. You can find a map on the Record Store Day website. There's special releases , record date , Record Store Day swag that you can pick up. But shopping aside , there's also a lot going on in the stores. It runs all day on Saturday. A couple highlights M-theory records and Mission Hills. It's giving away concert tickets every half hour. Vinyl junkies has amazing DJ's all day , starting as early as 8 a.m. with DJ shoeshine. And if you're a Tom petty and the Heartbreakers fan Lose Records and Encinitas will spotlight a special Record Store Day release of live at the Paradise Rock club from 1978. And Ron Blair , who's the original bassist of the Heartbreakers , will do a signing at 3 p.m. and Folk Arts in City Heights has live music all day , starting with a set by Jackie Mendoza at 230. And this is her latest track , just released last fall. Dara. Tita.
S1: All right. You can find details on these and more arts events on our website , KPBS. I've been speaking with KPBS arts reporter and host of the finest podcast , Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , thank you so much.
S8: Thank you. Jade.
S1: All right. Carrying us out with some great music. KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break.
S9: And the sun. There's only one that.
S1: Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. La Jolla Playhouse's annual Wow or Without Walls festival returns to the UC San Diego campus for the third year. It's a four day celebration of immersive , interactive , innovative and site specific art experiences. KPBS Arts reporter Beth Accomando speaks with artists from San Diego , across the nation and around the globe to give you a taste of the Wow experience.
S10: Wow is a unicorn.
S11: Oh , I think Wow is a very beautiful festival.
S12: I call it the Sundance of Immersive Theater.
S13: Wow has been an amazing playground for me as an artist. Wow. Is it an integral part in my journey as an artist and creator ? We get to create our own rules of what theater can be.
S14: In the Without Walls festival in particular , we see a really beautiful and somewhat unusual investment by a traditional arts venue in a more emerging field of immersive theater experimental theater.
S15: It's called without walls , without walls and no walls , no ceilings.
S11: As street artist , I think we are here to break some rules.
S13: Wow has been a place where I find my inspiration , where I get to actually truly experiment and what theater can be. Wow is something else , and it's something extraordinary. And we are so excited to be a part of it.
S16: And so , wow , it's appealing to us because it does direct itself towards experimental and immersive and interactive art forms , and that's our specialty.
S12: Wow has built a platform for some of the most unique and interesting artists in the world.
S14: And so there really aren't a lot of opportunities like this.
S12: It's been a goal of ours for ever since. We've done immersive to one day make it down to Wow , and we just happened to be in it this year. Yeah.
S16: Yeah. So thank you to Them Without Walls festival for taking a chance on us and our sketchy van.
S13: Those are just a few of the artists performing.
S17: At La Jolla Playhouse's Without Walls or Wow Festival coming next weekend. The folks with the sketchy van are Sarah Beal and K.J. Nees of LA based Bee's Knees. Their show is Night Watch.
S12: I love games like Like Fire Watch and Gone Home. Her story. And so the idea came from , well , what if you had a walkie talkie ? And then what if you could use that walkie talkie to then talk to an actor who is actually a prerecorded thing on a on a TV screen ? And so basically you would talk to the walkie talkie and tell them to do something. Then the pre-recorded video would then do that , and then you would see essentially how a game would play out in front of you using TV screens. And that was kind of the inception of the idea of that mechanic , walkie talkie and TV screens. And then from there , I then pitched that to Sarah. Sarah is my wife and writing partner and producing partner and all things partners. I guess from Sarah , you can take it from there.
S16: Kira came to me with the idea. He was like , what if we did a whole show in a van ? And I was like , yeah , that sounds great , because venue costs are very high. We wanted to create a show that was very mobile , that we could just kind of pop up and take places. And so that kind of started out as our constraint of just like , what if we did a show in a van ? And then the second part was , what's actually the story that we're going to tell in this van ? You know , be really cool. What if we made this a horror experience ? And so then it became the prompt of what if we made an immersive monster movie in a van ? So that was kind of the breeding ground of what became Nightwatch.
S12: Like , how do you build a narrative that builds on itself in a five by five space , and it feels like it moves , and then also there is an actor guiding you , but they're only guiding you through their voice like they can't exactly pull you into the next room. Yeah.
S16: Yeah. I think that the challenge was , was how do we get guests to unlock certain story beats in the sequence that we want them to unlock them.
S17: Adding to the experience is the unique sound design by Stephen Spies.
S12: He was like , hey guys , what if we , you know , to make this sound real and big and and cinematic ? Yeah. What if we hired a whole symphony and we're like , that sounds fun. And then. And then he's like , yeah , yeah. And then I'm going to take all the sounds from these strings and then just warp them and morph them and make them into. And so everything that you're going to be hearing , it's going to sound big and cinematic. But that's not A.I. , that's not that's not software. That is all real sound. So we're really excited about that.
S17: This show is so up my horror alley that I had to highlight it even though it's already sold out. Sorry , but the good news is they planned a tour with it so you'll have another chance to catch the show when it hits the road. But you can still get tickets to the festival's most accessible show from San Diego artist Casey Hall Landers.
S13: So My Body's Wake is an accessibility driven show , so access is integrated into the artistic practice and design elements , as well as. Front of house and production. My Body's Wake is a tender exploration of disability through multimedia , live violin , dance and body painting. It is a love letter to our disabled community and invites you in to witness our resilience , our dark humor and our joy. We fuse dance and violin in a live sense with elements of theatre and dialogue , experimenting with generative technologies and live body painting , working with interviews so it really doesn't fit into one category. It's not a dance concert. It's not a music concert. It's not really a play. It's something else.
S17: Another local artist is Jessica Prudencio. She's also a Wow veteran as well as a professor. Her show is with honors.
S11: With honors.
S13: Is a.
S18: Ceremonial dance party experience where everybody gets to graduate. It is a cross between a nightclub dance party and a graduation. Except when you walk in , everybody's treated like a graduate and we give out made up degrees throughout the night.
S17: Noah Baron-Cohen of dramatics is also from San Diego.
S13: We're bringing rhythm. Delivered.
S7: Delivered.
S13: To the Wow Festival , and it is all about creative exploration of rhythm and how it can be found and made through our bodies. Found items in different other instruments. We're going to be pulling out things from the set , from boxes , and finding ways in which we can creatively make rhythm and music with those items. And then we combine that with tap dance , body percussion and drumming. So yes , there will be big drums and buckets , but also ladders and a rhythm rod. So I have had ideas in my head that I've been wanting to explore for a really long time , and with Wow , that actually is a great outlet for that because they allowed me to kind of think of like the wildest idea that I have and bring it to life once again. Wow.
S17: Wow. A showcasing work from its own pop tour or performance outreach program. Bridget Saviola Stone is director of learning and engagement at the Playhouse. This year's pop tour is Coleraine , Colorado.
S19: Gosh , it's such a beautiful story about a young fifth grade girl who is having some struggles in her class with reading , and she's sort of acting out a little bit at school. And in the meanwhile of this , her grandfather , her tattoo , which is like her , her ride or die experiences a bit of a health emergency. And when she's in the hospital with him , she remembers that he used to tell her these stories when she was a kid , and she wants to read the story to him that he told her , but she's struggling with it. So she enlists this sort of wild new friend she meets at school. Inez and the girls strike a deal. Inez is going to help Georgie with her reading , and she wants Georgie to be in her girl group in the upcoming Festival de Primavera , which is the talent show at school. And so the two girls form a unique friendship with each other. And we also get this beautiful story within a story of Goyo and Gato , who are twin bat cat alebrijes who to make a voyage from the south to Del Norte. And we discover a little bit later on in the story that this is probably the story of Georgie's grandfather and his twin brother coming to the United States. It's a beautiful , bilingual Spanish English play.
S17: One of the international artists at Wao is Josette Lépine , half of the Chief Keef sisters.
S11: Our show is pretty simple. The two jump side up is about two twin sisters , which we also. It's our real relationship. The game is to make a show out of nothing , out of household objects. And with this twin complicity and connivance , we can do more and we have the courage to make a show. It's about having fun and inventing stuff with everyday objects , like we have a tennis racket and we cut potato into French fries , potato.
S20: More potato , more potato , more potato.
S11: We were very inspired by the public space and we were like , oh my God , we want to do that. Maybe coming from a strict , disciplined environment , seeing all these people in the public space and say , we can put a bit of art and chaos there and create a bond between stranger and experiment between stranger. But it started from a like a challenge and a passion for the public space.
S17: Heading outdoors for the first time is freak nature puppets , but Volvo isn't worried.
S21: Big puppets love being outside.
S17: Matthew Seder is another of the puppeteers.
S15: Well , well. We are part of Freak Nature Puppets , a DIY puppetry collective from Los Angeles , and our show at Wow Fest is called Out-of-body Expo.
S21: We are two of a six person puppet collective. We make large DIY puppets out of found , reused and unloved materials like that. We're bringing to life a giant body by making puppets of the different body parts and bringing them to life.
S15: Yeah , it's a series of sort of surrealist sketches since our approach is is very scrappy. We hope sort of have a positive connotation to , oh , I could do that. I would say.
S21: Yeah , we like it when people come to our shows and think that now they can make puppets. Yes , and they can look at different scrap materials around them and put them together into art , because that's how we started the company.
S17: Enemies of time is ambitiously bringing two shows. The tagline for one of the shows is Gentle Parent of Poltergeist. It's an immersive interactive show where a ghost tour goes a little off the rails.
S22: That one is Molly went missing. Unfortunately , if you're hearing about this now for the first time , it is too late to get tickets for we are sold out , which is the good news and the bad news.
S17: Lyra Levin , who's one of the enemies in the company , says you can still attend their other show.
S22: But our other show is a self-paced walking adventure called message in a bobble , and that one cannot possibly sell out because it happens on your timeline. And so you start the adventure by finding a bubble machine that an emerging sentience has been caught in , and they need your help.
S23: It's fascinating to see how much more invested in a story people can become when they make choices that matter.
S17: Michael Feldman is another enemy. He says the show is a walking simulator where the walking isn't simulated.
S23: You get to text back and forth with these characters , and you end up in the middle of a debate between them. When you text back and forth , you it's there's no like menu. There's no like press one for agreeing , press two for it's you just text back as you would text with anyone using your native texting app. Then the system that we've built sees that here's that understands it and responds in a way that advances the narrative and plot regardless of how you you engage. And so you get to make choices in those choices matter and affect the story and affect the way that things move forward. But it does move forward.
S17: Karen Castelletto is the third enemy in the company. She says the show is interactive , but the audience can just be themselves.
S14: You are yourself who went on a ghost tour , you or yourself who interacted with a bubble machine. But you're going to be taken through what becomes a remarkable experience. But you really get to practice how you would want to show up in these unlikely situations. Through the course of this experience. And that's really where we find the meaning in it , is we like to say that you get to practice who you would want to be in the real world and in difficult situations.
S17: Sandra Portal , Andrea , you will be staging her show by the Steward Collections bear and will be discussing how we define home.
S24: Terra firma essentially translates to land signatures. It's a site specific performance and also a community activation that centers on memory , land and our relationship to home. This work began as a conversation between myself and the performer Stephanie Bastos. You know , we're both first generation children of immigrants. Stephanie is Brazilian. I have Colombian and Cuban heritage , and we both were really sort of like in alignment about the idea that , you know , we have these strong ties to our ancestral homes and this sort of like sense of belonging and feeling like we belong when we go there. The question sort of that came to mind was , what does it mean to find solid ground , you know , when your identity is shaped by migration , by memory and these inherited stories ? I felt that it would be a great conversation and research and education for myself to get a deeper understanding of Miami's history , not just what we see , sort of the stereotypes that that are associated to Miami , but a deeper understanding. And that's when I reached out to Betty Osceola from the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida to sort of teach me , right , and share , like , her perspectives and the wisdom right of our indigenous neighbors , and finding that bridge right of understanding. And so some of the things that I was asking her was , what are the traditions , right ? Are the traditions , the practices of the Miccosukee people ? How do they connect with the land ? How do they find their grounding in this place ? And , um , what are the those traditions and teachings that they pass along as well ? I think that message of home , what is home , where does home lie is very resonant to all of us.
S17: And to close out this preview , let's go to the Tea Party at the end of the world , created by Jessica Crayon. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. My show is called Tea Party at the end of the world , and it is an interactive tea party where a small audience comes together and we drink loose leaf teas. We talk about tea. We also talk about death and the end of the world , and what the scale of the end of the world means to us , from polar to personal. Then number one inspiration for this piece is probably an artist residency that I did up in the Arctic Circle in 2022 , and we were up there for three weeks to see what it looked like at this particular end of the world , and it was a really complex and very beautiful experience , sometimes tragic but often euphoric. And so I think that the complexity of that experience was something that I haven't ever felt before. And when I started working on the piece , it just ended up weaving together with personal grief. And I lost my father a few years ago. And the scales of of what it feels like to lose something important to us , begin to to feel like they were being fleshed out in the piece. And then I worked with a sound designer who was also an artist in residence in the same time that I was up there in the Arctic. And so we started to pull all of these sounds that we had recorded and heard up there and weave those into the storytelling. And then definitely , I think one of the core narrative threads of the piece is that we all experience the end of the world and the ends of various worlds at different times and at different scales. And so we are simultaneously very well practiced in what it is like when a world ends , and also deeply under practiced and under-resourced in what to do when a world ends and how to do that in community , and how to infuse play into a thing that often feels so , so deeply serious all the time , or so deeply serious from the outside and so complex from the inside. And so , yeah , there's a there are a lot of ends of the worlds , I think.
S17: I hope that. What's your appetite to venture outside the traditional bounds of theatre for your chance to be wowed. La Jolla Playhouse is Without Walls offers an immersive and site specific experience from a diverse array of local , national and international artists.
S1: That was KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando , with a preview of La Jolla Playhouse. Wow or Without Walls Festival. The festival runs April 23rd through the 26th on the UC San Diego campus. The ninth annual San Diego Book Crawl is next week. It features 15 local independent bookstores from North to South County , and one of the Book Crawls author ambassadors is Min Lei. He's the mind behind many picture books , including Drawn Together , Real to Me , and Lift. A couple of years ago , I had the chance to sit down with Lee to talk about his middle grade graphic novel , Enlighten Me. We were also joined by Chan Chow , the book's illustrator , and I began by asking how Lei's own background inspired the central character , Ben.
S25: Yeah , so I'm Vietnamese-American , and a little while ago , someone approached me about possibly writing a memoir , um , graphic novel , and I didn't quite feel ready for that. So I wrote this thinly veiled , um , graphic novel with a character named Ben instead of min. Hopefully people won't be able to figure that out , but yeah , so I this is very much based on my own experience. Uh , my grandparents , when they came here from Vietnam , they actually started a Buddhist temple in Connecticut. And I remember going there and I was very intrigued by the chanting and a lot of the ritual , but it didn't really resonate with me because I couldn't quite wrap my mind around what was going on. But there was a library upstairs at the temple , and I'd go up there and I'd read stories about the Buddha's life , and I read these Jataka tales , which are the stories of the Buddhist past lives. And it was by reading those stories that I kind of found my own entry point into some of the concepts of Buddhism. And for me , as a kid , I was such a shy kid that stories were always kind of my my refuge. So the fact that I was able to find my way into the religion , but also into kind of connecting with my family , connecting with the community , that was very much my own experience. So I wanted to write a book that was both rooted in kind of the particulars of my experience , but hopefully something that also resonates with readers of all backgrounds.
S1: And like you mentioned , the book really incorporates the Jataka tales , which tells the stories of Buddha's past lives.
S25: So I did a lot of research to find ones that I thought would fit in with the storyline. But like I said , I grew up with these stories , but I never saw them portrayed in a way that was so visually stunning and dynamic. So writing it in a way that Chan could take and then bring their artwork and just really breathe life into these stories. I think kids are going to see these stories in a way that they've never seen before , and that makes me really excited.
S1: So Ben struggles with his identity , specifically his Vietnamese American heritage. And this question is for both of you.
S25: My language skills weren't all that great , and I always kind of felt caught and like in between Two Worlds and at home , I was two American , at school , I was two Asian. And so I always felt like I was kind of navigating that in-between space. For me , the act of writing stories like this is a way of kind of claiming that in-between space and saying that , you know , there there is no pure American experience. There's not a pure Vietnamese experience. Everyone's experience , including mine , is valid. And I think writing a book like this is trying to kind of like claim ownership over , over that experience and hopefully sharing that with young readers so that they can know that their experiences are also valid. So a lot of the cultural elements are based on my experience growing up. A lot of the Buddhist pieces , and I don't claim to be an expert in Buddhism by any , by any stretch. But I grew up with these stories , with these concepts , and it's just kind of part of the fabric of my own existence. And so I grew up with so many fictional stories where the , the baseline context was like Greek mythology or Bible stories , and I always felt like I was playing catch up on understanding the full meaning of these stories. So to write one now that has Buddhist concepts and Buddhist stories as kind of the foundation of it , is a really rewarding thing to to get to work on In Chan.
S1:
S26: So I don't have a lot of connections to my own culture , and I've always struggled with that. And my family wasn't really practicing Buddhism. They were always kind of we do rituals that folks who practice Buddhism just typically do , and we kind of just always conducted these rituals at home. And sometimes we would go to the temple. And that's how I was introduced to Buddhism , more so than through my parents , through just being around other people who are practicing Buddhism at a specific location , like the temple. And I feel like a lot of , uh , the experiences of being around different types of people , not only Vietnamese Americans , but other other folks of different nationalities and skin color coming together to learn Buddhism was where I drew a lot of my inspiration for scenes in the book that pertained to , like , multicultural people coming together for learning how to meditate.
S1: And , you know , I mean , both of your experiences really speak to the importance of community. And it's also another theme that's in your book.
S25: And if a kid grows up in a nurturing and supportive community , that gives them such a strong foundation to move out into the world as their community grows. Right. If the community isn't as supportive. Or questions their own identity , then that creates a sense of instability , which also. You carry with you moving forward. Ben is at a very kind of critical juncture , and I remember being his age and having a strong instinct to retreat into myself and kind of like veer away from family , veer away from community. But I eventually found my way back. And I think for for young people , especially knowing that they can rely on the people around them , whether that's family or their friends or the broader community , is really important because there's such a strong sense and possibility of leaning into isolation , and that has a slippery slope. And I would just love to read young readers reading this or any books to go come away with the idea and understanding and knowledge that they're not alone , right ? That there are people out there that they can rely on. That they can draw strength from. And that's going to to mean everything as they move forward.
S1: That was my conversation with illustrator Chan Chao and author Min Lei. Lei is one of the author ambassadors for next week's San Diego Book Crawl. He'll be headed to select bookstores during the crawl , and you can find those , along with all the other details , on our website , KPBS. 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.
