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The San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, which debuted in 2024 with nearly $400,000 in seed money from Qualcomm co-founder Irwin M. Jacobs, will return in expanded form this fall for its third year at multiple venues on both sides of the border. The event will grow from three days in 2024 and 2025 to four days this year. Free concerts will take place in downtown Tijuana and downtown San Diego, along with a paid concert at California Center for the Arts, Escondido, for which tickets go on sale May 30 at sdtjjazz.org. This year’s roster includes drum dynamo and five-time Grammy Award-winner Brian Blade with his genre-blurring group, The Fellowship Band, and Panamanian-bred piano great Danilo Pérez, who is a three-time Grammy-winner. Blade and Pérez were both longtime members of the late saxophone legend Wayne Shorter’s quartet. Pérez, who heads the Global Jazz Institute at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, will perform here with the SDSU Jazz Ensembles and the Ensenada-based La Covacha Big Band. Also set to appear is 2022 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition-winner Lucia, a native of Veracruz. Lucia performed here at the 2025 festival with her jazz band. She is returning with a four-man son jarocho group that features her father, Ramón Gutiérrez, a keen musical improviser and master of the four-stringed requinto. In addition, the festival will present San Diego and Tijuana performances by the seven-piece Mingus Dynasty, which features tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, pianist Helen Sung and Russian-born bassist Boris Kozlov. The band pays tribute to the music of modern jazz pioneer Charles Mingus and will perform some pieces from his classic 1957 album, “Tijuana Moods.” Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and UC San Diego music professor Anthony Davis is a lifelong Mingus fan. He has agreed to write a new piece for Mingus Dynasty to play at the festival, which is now seeking underwriting for what will be a world premiere if funding is found. San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival on Facebook / Instagram California Center for the Arts, Escondido on Facebook / Instagram

Premieres Friday, July 10, 2026 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV. Fifty thousand fans dancing in the sunshine of Manchester, Tennessee cheered on funk/folk superstar Ben Harper during his main-stage performance at one of the original Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Ben arrived from his european arena tour and blew the doors down with his extraordinary songs.

Winner of the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" takes us on a journey with an eclectic group of six mid-pubescents as they participate in the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the tweens spell their way through a series of (potentially made-up) words, hoping never to hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life un-affirming “ding” of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves a champion! At least the losers get a juice box. Content Disclaimer: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is not recommended for audiences under the age of 13. Content includes mature themes, adult language, sexual innuendos, and sensitive discussions about family, anxiety, puberty. Oceanside Theatre Company on Facebook / Instagram

As local families stock up on back-to-school supplies, the Library Foundation SD urged parents to pick up a free library card.

The revised proposed budget, released last week, found additional revenue sources to help preserve some library and recreation center hours, shoreline bathrooms and "December Nights," but arts could still be gutted if the revision passes.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Shea Vance of The Chronicle of Higher Education about a University of Michigan plan to forgo letter grades for some freshmen in their fall 2027 semester.

Encore Vocal Ensemble presents "Encore Hits the Road," a Broadway-style musical journey across America, on Friday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 13 at 4 p.m. at the Grossmont College Performing & Visual Arts Center, 8800 Grossmont College Drive, El Cajon, CA 92020. This high-energy production transforms a cross-country road trip into a live musical experience filled with recognizable Broadway hits, storytelling, humor, and songs inspired by cities across the country, culminating in New York City as the final stop. Audiences will experience lively performances celebrating friendship, resilience, and the joy of music. Encore Vocal Ensemble on Facebook / Instagram

A 5-lesson beginner online course in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), open to anyone with no prior knowledge of the language. The course covers basic vocabulary, official Ladino orthography, and everyday communication skills, with cultural content including traditional Sephardi songs, folk stories, and special sessions on Sephardic Jewish holidays and traditions. Taught by Esther Rute, who holds a BA in Semitic Philology (Complutense University) and two MAs in Jewish History and Spanish Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a certified language teacher, External Advisor to the National Authority for Ladino (ANL), and Deputy Editor of Aki Yerushalayim. Schedule: Tuesdays, June 2 – June 30 Time: 9:30 – 11 a.m. Platform: Zoom Cost: $270 early bird for 5 classes (by May 31) | $300 regular Yiddish Arts and Academics on Facebook / Instagram

Stream the series now with KPBS Passport on KPBS+. This docuseries profiles pioneering women who have revolutionized the arts throughout history. Through an intimate look at their creative processes and fearless defiance of societal expectations, the series celebrates the legacies these artists have created, which inspire future generations with their ingenuity, resilience and transformative impact on the cultural landscape. Hosted by award-winning journalist and documentarian Soledad O’Brien.

Watch Thursday, July 23, 2026 at 11:30 p.m. on KPBS TV / YouTube (not in KPBS+). The guest is Yeganeh Torbati, Iran Correspondent for The New York Times. Iran's regime may have survived the war and gained new leverage abroad, but life inside the country tells a darker story.