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Long before thousands gathered for San Diego Pride each summer, local activists were building the movement from the ground up.

Arts Unite at Oceanside Theatre Company (217 N. Coast Highway) launches its inaugural play reading series celebrating the work of military veteran playwrights — an evening of bold, diverse storytelling shaped by lived experience. Directed by Liz Frances, the program features six short plays by local writers Peter Mitsopoulos, Victor Lang, Mark Holley, Laura Vines, Scooter, and Janiece Jordan. While the playwrights share a background of military service, the stories themselves span a wide range of themes, styles, and experiences. The evening will conclude with a conversation with the artists, offering audiences a chance to engage more deeply with the work and creating space for dialogue, reflection, and connection. Oceanside Theatre Company on Facebook / Instagram

Mama Village is an 8-week community experience designed to support mothers through the transition into (and through) early motherhood. Each session creates a safe, welcoming space for connection, honest conversation, and expert-led guidance on topics like mental health, nourishment, identity shifts, and postpartum healing. Whether you’re newly postpartum or simply seeking a supportive village, you’ll find connection, resources, and meaningful community here—for you and your little one. Weekly Session Breakdown: - Week 1: Identity Shift + Group Norms - Week 2: Birth Story Integration (LCSW) - Week 3: Feeding + Nourishment (IBCLC) - Week 4: Legal Protection + Planning (Attorney) - Week 5: Milestones + Development - Week 6: Postpartum Fitness + Healing Culture - Week 7: Mental Health + Relationships (LCSW) - Week 8: Integration + Village Celebration Yoga Jawn on Facebook / Instagram

Historical voter turnout data show that voters aged 29 and younger disproportionately sit out primary elections in California compared to the general voting population. Still, a few governor candidates have been targeting young voters in their campaigns, particularly through social media and college organizations.

Saturday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m. Reading | Community | Dance Party "Every night I pray to love, please invent yourself." - Jennifer Espinoza, from "It's Important to Be Something” Join us at Verbatim Books for Desire, Calling No. 2—a night of words, want, and wild joy. We’re bringing four writers who know how to make language do something to you. 2026 Lambda Literary Award Winners Demree McGhee, author of "Sympathy for Wild Girls," and Ilana Masad, author of "Beings" and "All My Mother’s Lovers" will read prose. Jennifer Espinoza, author of "I Don't Want to Be Understood," and emerging writer Jenna Flenner will share exquisite poetry. We’re excited to be raising money for a local queer nonprofit and crown the evening with a dance party! Stay tuned for more announcements as the evening gets closer. All ages. Free. Everyone is welcome. Let's celebrate books, desire, and community! The Writers: Demree McGhee is a writer. She earned her BA from the University of California San Diego and her MFA at San Diego State University. Her work has been published in Lunch Ticket, Wax Nine Journal, Burn All Books, and more. Her debut short story collection, "Sympathy for Wild Girls," is available from Feminist Press. Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet. Her work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the American Poetry Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from UC Riverside and is currently a professor of creative writing. Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic, and many more. She is the author of the novels "All My Mother's Lovers" and "Beings" and is co-editor of the anthology "Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor." Masad holds a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has taught a wide variety of creative writing and literature courses, and also provides editorial services to authors. Jenna Flenner is a senior writing major at Point Loma Nazarene University. She actively contributes to the Driftwood creative arts journal and participates in local theatre. Born and raised in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, she takes inspiration from early American history, combining it with her love of the Beat Generation. After graduation, Jenna hopes to study for a teaching certificate and continue traveling. Verbatim Books on Facebook / Instagram

On June 30, Sound Praxis presents an evening of electronic and electroacoustic music by Mike Nigro, Matthew D. Gantt, Ess Whiteley, and Jonathan Piper. This presentation is generously hosted by Brown Building in City Heights! **Mike Nigro** is an electronic musician and label operator based in Sydney, Australia (previously Brooklyn, NY and Newark, Delaware). His solo practice and collaborations draw inspiration from the minimalists, early synthesizer pioneers, and contemporary experimental underground. His work explores the spaces between musicality and noise; movement and stasis; synthetics and organics. **Matthew D. Gantt** is an artist, composer, and educator focused on sound in virtual spaces, generative systems facilitated by idiosyncratic technology, and digital production presets as sonic readymades. He worked as a studio assistant to electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, and has been an active participant in the international creative community, presenting or performing at spaces such as Pioneer Works, Issue Project Room, Roulette, Babycastles, SVA Visible Futures Lab, Panoply Performance Laboratory, EMPAC, the Wrong Biennale, and countless DIY venues across North America. **Ess Whiteley** is a composer, performer, sound, & intermedia artist. Their work combines electronics with acoustic instruments, multimedia, repurposed technological objects, and sonic artifacts to produce audible worlds that explore temporal elasticity, living memory, haunted presents, and strange posthuman mutations. Sometimes hyperreal and maximal, other times hypnotic and meditative, their work plays with perceptual ambiguity, reference, technological agency, and absurdity, generating entangled, synthetic-organic architectures that shift between moving states of entropy, periodicity, and stasis. **Jonathan Piper** is a San Diego-based tubist and technologist. His work as a tubist centers on the exploration of sonic and gestural possibilities found at the limits of both the instrument and the performing body. Supported by extended techniques and live electronic processing, he combines elements of drone, doom, noise, free jazz, and contemporary idioms. Jonathan performs as a soloist and in collaboration with musicians including Ryan Ebaugh, Michelle Lou, Stevie Richards, Nathan Hubbard, Nathan Berlinguette, Meghann Welsh, and Nick Lesley. He has presented work at Oracle Egg's BROILER Residency Series, Drone Not Drones, High Desert Soundings, Project [BLANK]'s Working Title, Sudden Somethings From Nothing, and Vernacular New Music. June 30, 2026 Brown Building @ 4133 Poplar Street Music at 7:30 p.m. $15 suggested (NOTAFLOF) Refreshments available All proceeds to the artists

In California’s Legislature, voting against your party is exceedingly rare, but there are a few mavericks who do it anyway.

Join us for an uplifting evening of classic pop and rock favorites, performed with heart, energy, and exceptional musicianship. From timeless sing-alongs to inspired interpretations of Neil Sedaka’s songbook, the program offers a joyful experience for both longtime fans and new audiences alike. The evening also features special tribute moments honoring the music of Joni Mitchell, performed by Emily Friesen, and Carole King, performed by Celine Ramirez—adding an intimate, heartfelt dimension to the performance. Kyle, Emily, and Therese—accomplished music and theater artists within TERI’s performance arts program—bring creativity, dedication, and community spirit to the stage. Their work highlights not only the power of live music but also the meaningful impact of inclusive arts programming.

Grammy‑nominated guitar virtuosos Ardeshir Farah & Luis Villegas with their band of musicians. Live in Concert, San Diego Persian Cultural Center: Website / Facebook / Instagram

Two talented novelists talk mystery and historical fiction and the 1980s as they discuss and sign their recent books at Library Shop Mission Hills. T Greenwood presents "Everything Has Happened" and Élan Les Vies shares "The Lemon Twist." This event is free and open to the public. Proceeds from book purchases support the San Diego Public Library. ABOUT THE BOOKS "Everything Has Happened": A disappearance from the past echoes in the future in this ambitious and wrenching mystery, perfect for readers of "The God of the Woods." Four decades have passed since Edie Marshall’s little brother, Charlie, vanished on his walk home from day camp. After the case went cold, Edie never left, her dreams disappearing right along with Charlie. Now she teaches at her old high school, and has returned to her childhood home to care for an ailing mother. When the long-dormant tip line set up for Charlie rings for the first time in years, Edie assumes it’s a wrong number— but on the other end is Jericho Jenkins, the only person of interest ever identified in the investigation. "The Lemon Twist": In 1984, Iris Sailor’s brutal fall on the ice unravels everything— her memory, doping secret, and figure skating career. Dumped by her coach/boyfriend and banned from competing, Iris finds herself utterly alone, wishing there was some way she could reconnect with her estranged sister, Sam. When she returns home after her fall from grace, she finds an old postcard tucked alongside the rest of her mail. Strangely, the card advertising Nova Bay is postmarked September 14, 1981— the same day Sam disappeared. As she’s about to chuck it in the trash, Iris realizes there’s only one word scribbled on the back: HELP. ABOUT THE AUTHORS T. Greenwood is the author of sixteen novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won four San Diego Book Awards. Six of her novels have been Indie Next picks. BODIES OF WATER was a finalist for a Lambda Foundation award, and KEEPING LUCY was a 2021 Target Book Club selection. She teaches creative writing for San Diego Writers, Ink and for The Writer’s Center. She and her family split their time between San Diego, CA and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Élan Les Vies is a Californian author of mysteries and thrillers. His writing is shaped by the duality of his upbringing, split between a coastal suburb and a border reservation. He is also known by his stage name, The Coyote, and is recognized for his eclectic 1960s sound and nostalgic Southwestern brand. Élan currently lives between San Diego and Paris, France, with his wife, Clémence, and his dog, Sam. Register: https://libraryfoundationsd.org/events/greenwood_vies