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Join us for the official launch party of the Afrodiaspora Festival, a Juneteenth-adjacent celebration of Black arts, culture, food and music. This is your chance to get a taste of the excitement to come at the main festival in June! What to Expect: - Live Music: Groove to the sounds of Afrobeats, Afrohouse, Dancehall, Amapiano and more! - Delicious Food: Savor mouthwatering dishes from local vendors showcasing the diverse flavors of the African diaspora. - Games & Activities: Enjoy interactive games and activities for all ages. - Community Vibes: Connect with fellow festival-goers and be part of a vibrant celebration of culture and unity. Get your tickets now before prices go up. Tickets will be available at the door but will be higher so don’t wait. This event is curated by Afropanda Entertainment, Yeahhhmayne, Quartyard, Global Therapy and Plural Music. 21+ | No Refunds Quartyard on Facebook / Instagram

The British composer was a generational success story before his death at 37 — yet keeping that legacy in view has always been a challenge, even during his lifetime.

Nocturnal scenes of San Diego’s ubiquitous taco stands and a massive shipyard are the subjects of “Night Light,” an exhibit at The Photographer’s Eye Gallery that will feature fine art images by Philipp Scholz Rittermann and Marshall Williams. This free show will open May 10 and run through June 7. Rittermann and Williams are both accomplished San Diego artists, commercial photographers and teachers whose works have been shown at prominent venues locally, nationally and internationally. When Philipp Scholz Rittermann stepped into the metal shell that was to become the hull of the Exxon Valdez, he could not envision that he was documenting the first chapter of a future catastrophe. The year was 1985, and four years later the oil tanker would run aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, bleeding its cargo of crude oil into the sea and etching the ship’s name into the log of notorious environmental disasters. Rittermann was a young man, recently arrived in the United States, when he landed an internship at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, which led to his securing a pass to do night photography at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) shipyard on San Diego Bay. The result is his collection, “Shipyard Nocturnes,” which will be shown at the nonprofit Photographer’s Eye Gallery. One of the featured images in the exhibit is Rittermann’s large black and white print shot inside the Exxon Valdez as it was being built. The work is remarkable for both its artistic appeal and what it came to signify. “I was standing inside one of the enormous holds and looking into this cavernous space that was the size of a cathedral on the inside, and an engineer walked by and I said, ‘So where are you putting the oil tanks?’ And he said, ‘You're looking at it.’ And I said, ‘Do you mean they go here?’ And he goes, ‘No, you're looking at it.’ “And I said, ‘Oh … this is the tank?’ And he goes, ‘Uh-huh,’ and walks away,” Rittermann said. “I thought, geez, what happens when you put a zipper in this?” Rittermann recalled, “and then four years later, that's exactly what happened.” Rittermann’s images stand as tributes both to industrial might and technology, and to the human fallibility that enabled such a disaster. “While the images haven’t changed since I made them,” Rittermann said, “the way I feel about them has.” Marshall Williams was inspired to create images of San Diego’s taco stands when he found himself waiting for a traffic light to turn green, and a neighborhood fixture caught his eye. “I was staring at the taco stand across the street when it illuminated and in that moment I was a bit startled by the transformation,” Williams said. “I saw this structure in a way I hadn't seen it before." “I came back to photograph it at the same time of the evening and from that point on I began to notice the different taco stands around town all shared many of the same elements, but no two seem to be the same,” he said. The result is “Taco Stand Vernacular,” a collection of images that captures the folk nature of one of San Diego’s most common fixtures — one so common that it is easily overlooked. Williams photographs them as day yields to night, and he produces his images in black and white. “As a photographer, we love that transitional moment between day and night when there is a balance and ‘best of both worlds’ from a lighting perspective,” he said. In daylight, these small structures are swallowed by their surroundings, he noted, “but in the early evening they are cloaked in a subdued ambiance and emitting their own light, exuding a sort of theatrical like presence.” “This has been an exercise in taking the commonplace and attempting to elevate it to an object of appreciation,” Williams said. “If taking the time to observe the details of a taco stand can change our view of it, what other details have we missed or left unappreciated in the hustle of our busy lives?” “Night Light” opens on May 10 and closes June 7. The gallery is open Fridays and Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment. There will be an artists’ walk-through on opening day at 4 p.m., followed by a reception at 5 p.m. Artists Rittermann and Williams will conduct a night photography walkabout on May 15. Consult The Photographer’s Eye website for details. Visit: https://www.thephotographerseyecollective.com/ and https://www.marshallwilliamsphotographs.com/taco-stand-vernacular The Photographer's Eye: A Creative Collective on Instagram

On April 18 and 19, the California Center for the Arts, Escondido (CCAE) invites the community to witness the mesmerizing art of live glassblowing in the Cal Club Courtyard. This two-day demonstration, led by renowned glass artist James Stone of Stone & Glass, will showcase the precision, artistry, and transformative beauty of molten glass in motion. As part of Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month, this event is more than just a demonstration—it’s a celebration of community, accessibility, and artistic exploration. Guests will have the opportunity to engage with six talented glass artists, including 55Acre Project, each displaying and selling their handcrafted works. This interactive experience provides a rare glimpse into an ancient art form while fostering a deeper appreciation for creativity in all its forms. Hot Glass, Cold Beer: A Fundraiser for the Arts In the spirit of community support and cultural engagement, we are excited to host “Hot Glass, Cold Beer,” a special fundraising initiative benefiting the CCAE Foundation. James Stone and participating artists will generously donate hand-blown glass cups, which will be given away with a complimentary drink ticket in exchange for a $25 donation. This initiative not only raises vital funds for arts programming but also offers guests a one-of-a-kind keepsake—an artistic reminder of the power of creativity. Visit: https://artcenter.org/event/live-glassblowing-at-the-ccae-a-dazzling-celebration-of-art-community-creativity-2/ California Center for the Arts on Instagram and Facebook

The 2025 San Diego Book Crawl highlights the region’s thriving independent bookseller community, including its newest addition, Hey Books! in East Village.

A judge ruled the firing of thousands of federal employees was illegal. But he stopped short of ordering the government to reinstate them, predicting the Supreme Court would overturn it.

Mayor Todd Gloria wants to exclude more than 25,000 acres of land — most of it in wealthier neighborhoods — from a program that incentivizes homeowners to build accessory dwelling units.

C Fodoreanu: "writings" Exhibition: April 19 - May 26, 2025 Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from Noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment. For further information and press inquiries, please contact us at info@losnotrequired.com LOS/NR is thrilled to present "writings," a solo exhibition by San Diego interdisciplinary artist and physician C Fodoreanu, on view from April 19 to May 26, 2025. This exhibition marks Fodoreanu’s first solo show in our gallery featuring a selection of paintings alongside photographs, single-channel video works, and a site-specific installation composed of water, wood, acrylics, and silks. C Fodoreanu’s paintings depict religious motifs and stories inspired by his upbringing in the village of Nicula, Transylvania, the cradle of popular religious painting on glass. His maternal grand grandfather, Gheorghe Feur, was in fact the last known painter in the tradition of “writing” icons. Fodoreanu is re-creating these subliminal images into large works, each carrying a story significant to who he is as a person today. The title for the show is 'writings,' in line with the old belief that one cannot paint the word of God, only write it again. In "writings," Fodoreanu assumes the “clumsiness” the icons of Nicula were so often reproach with, and paints almost as children would do when trying to render the world around them: not “the way one sees it” with foreshortenings and in perspective, but by an agglomeration of some characteristic features, structurally necessary to make the surrounding world recognizable. What looks like “clumsiness” to an eye familiar with academic painting is the very essentialization and simplification of forms, the abbreviation and eliminations peculiar to a rapid execution which make this kind of painting so attractive, so expressive and suggestive - it is a painting from which any insignificant detail has been eliminated. The icon painters on glass avoided drawing a straight line with the help of a ruler. They believed that using a ruler, real or fictive, generating perfect shapes and forms was straying away from beauty. The line drawn with a free hand better represents life as it contains the heartbeat of the painter with its perceived slight irregularities. The “clumsiness” stops being “clumsy” and instead is elevated to a norm. Avoiding mastery of the perfect line is an assumed artistic choice to express the living soul, the palpable life force - beauty. Fodoreanu places these paintings in communication with his works in other mediums to parallel his perspective as an adult and physician of today to the old imagery flooding his childhood naïve to understanding self and others, adding a subtle disruptive queerness questioning the familiarity of these old told stories. About the Artist C Fodoreanu lives and works in San Diego, California. He holds a BA in Philosophy from UC San Diego, an MD from Harvard Medical School, and an MFA from School of Visual Arts in New York. He is a full-time practicing Pediatrician. He started painting before inherently transitioning to different mediums and modalities to create his art, from creative writing, photography and collages, to videos, installations and sculptures. His work pursues a poetry of light, and explores the human body as a metaphor for how humans relate to the surrounding nature and each other, faith, mythology, play, love, intimacy, memory, fleetingness of time, and the fragility of life. The first recipient of the Annual Sidney L and Sally F. Saltzstein Endowment on Compassionate Care in 2023, and a selected graduating artist from the School of Visual Arts in New York showcased at the Untitled Art in Miami in 2023, Fodoreanu has exhibited his work through various platforms and at institutions including solo exhibitions at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Cornel/Henry Art and University of California School of Medicine in San Diego, and Ronald Silverman Fine Arts Gallery at Cal State LA. He is the author of three poetry books (Romanian), and a photography monograph (English) that is part of the permanent collection of Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (France,) De Pietri Artphilein Foundation (Switzerland,) and Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, to name a few. His visual work belongs to private collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The gallery is located at 7910 Ivanhoe Ave, La Jolla, CA 92037. Parking is available at El Patio Shops building on 7946 Ivanhoe Ave for a flat fee of $7, or at The Ivanhoe building on 7817 Ivanhoe Ave for a flat fee of $10. Street parking is free after 6 p.m. but likely hard to find during our event. C Fodoreanu on Instagram

Join us at Fandory for an unforgettable Spring Kids Baking Camp! We will be making Cake Pops & Cupcakes this spring break! When: April, 14-18, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Where: Fandory Factory in Rancho Bernardo For Who: Kids 4 to 10 years old Our program offers a fun and creative learning experience where children enjoy baking, fun indoor play, and arts and crafts. Enroll your child today for a memorable and enriching time! Friday is Fun Day - kids will make their own Pizza for Lunch. No need to bring lunch on Friday. Limited spots available! So register today. Please visit Fandory website for more info and to register.

"the wulfeater" is an interactive musical theater experience making its world premiere at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center San Diego. Set in the fictional world of cleveland, "the wulfeater" explores the intersections of capitalism, oppression, and patriarchy through an immersive and interactive experience that invites the voyeuristic gaze of its audience members. Welcome to the wulfeater... are you ready to have some fun?