San Diego weekend arts events: 'La Jolla Reading Room,' California Fibers, Roman de Salvo, Mara Kaye, All Peoples Celebration and immersive takes on old masters

Speaker 1: (00:00)

This weekend in the arts, there's a pairing of photography and contemporary dance, a couple of outdoor or virtual Martin Luther king, junior day celebrations, and some outdoor blues. Joining me with all the details as K PBS arts editor and producer, Julia Dixon, Evans, and Julia. Welcome. Hi

Speaker 2: (00:19)

Maureen. Thank for having me now.

Speaker 1: (00:21)

First is art. We can see from the sidewalk though, you do recommend making an appointment to see it indoors too. Tell us about dis. Remember,

Speaker 2: (00:31)

Right. This is an exhibition by photographer, Doug McIn, who is a professional dance photographer, and he's also a former dancer. And for this project, he took local choreographer. soans pretty recent work called purposely accidental. This choreography was commissioned by San Diego dance theater during the pandemic, and Somon wrote it about her home country of Laos, how it is the most bombed per capita in the world. The statistics are pretty staggering. Something like 80 million bombs remain UN detonated for decades. They're effectively landmines. And she said that the minds are so omnipresent in the country. They're in the landscape and also in daily tragedy and the stance, this chore, if he was striking, it debuted in a virtual performance and it was also performed outdoors last spring. It has a solo dancer. And one of the things the photographer was inspired by was these really crisp gestural movements. He says he has photographed so many dances before, but this was the first he'd ever considered turning into art like this. Uh, somehow the choreographer said it had been pretty inspiring being part of this transformation into a still photography show

Speaker 3: (01:54)

In the creative process. We have to trust what and how things come out and we can have an approach, but that's part of what we do. And cuz art is alive.

Speaker 2: (02:07)

So you can see most of this exhibition from this sidewalk at art produce in north park and they are keeping the gallery lit up at night. In fact night is the best time to see it. But if you do make an appointment to go in, you can have the place to yourself and listen to us soundtrack with the dance music and then a speech by former president Obama, to the people of Laos. And you can also experience the, the photography that's under foot on the floor. And here's why Doug McIn did that

Speaker 4: (02:38)

By placing the photos on the floor. I wanted to give us just the, of faint echoes of that anxiety as well. And uh, that you are suddenly very aware of where you're stepping.

Speaker 1: (02:51)

Doug MC minimis disremember is on view at our produce in north park. Now through January 29th. Now in LA Jolla, there is another interdisciplinary art exhibit at the Athene music and arts library. Tell us about LA Jolla reading room.

Speaker 2: (03:08)

Yeah. This one combines the idea of, of large scale sculptural installation with the idea of a reading room. And this one is by Matthew Hebert and Jareds Stanley. They've built these massive architectural sculptures that fill the gallery. They look kind of like MAED of, of reading desks and each one they will play a recording. They've gathered a bunch of sound by recording artists, writers or book lovers thumbing through or, or discussing, or even reading out loud from art books in the museum's collection. And altogether it's like this cacophony of sound it's part community hive, mind, part noise, art and part love letter to reading rooms. And this one opens tonight with a reception at six 30 and then they have regular gallery hours from 10 to five 30 on Saturday. It'll be on view through March 12th,

Speaker 1: (04:03)

That's LA Jolla reading room opening tonight at the Athenaeum. Monday is Martin Luther king Jr day. And Julia tell us about some events around San Diego to commemorate the holiday.

Speaker 2: (04:15)

So there's an outdoor event at the world beat center on Monday from one to four 30, they have recently switched this to an outdoor event and scaled it back a little bit, but there's tons of musical performers. There's food, an outdoor market. Um, there'll be performances by native American drummers and then a keynote from speaker Shane Harris. And if you're looking for something virtual Alliance, San Diego is hosting their 34th annual all people celebration. That'll be online again. Alliance San Diego is a social justice organization and they'll have two performers lined up for this one is Tomas Donker from the New York based true groove. And another is vocalist Jada holiday. This is Monday morning from 10 to 11:00 AM, but ticket sales do end on Sunday evening. And if

Speaker 1: (05:07)

You can't make the virtual event Monday morning, the keynote speaker at the all people celebration, disability rights activist, Rebecca Copeley will be joining us Monday at noon on midday edition. And Julia finally, some music outdoors ma Kay is performing at Panama 66 tonight. What's that gonna be like? Right.

Speaker 2: (05:28)

So if you don't know, Panama 66 is an outdoor restaurant and bar that's part of San museum of art, kind of integrated with their public free gallery and also the public free sculpture garden and in the gallery right now, which is the hall between the restaurant and the bathrooms and the main museum. You can catch John Raymond, morale's powerful, destroyed art exhibition called disestablishment. And that's only up until the end of this month. And Panama 66 of course is also a great place to see live music outdoors. If you're wanting to avoid indoor performances or crowds, marque is a blue singer with such a great voice and she will be accompanied by jazz piano player, ed corn Houser, and be McKenzie Layton ma Kay has been releasing some new songs lately with piano player, Carl sunny Leland, it's hopefully a sign of a forthcoming album and here's their brand new single it's a version of dystopian blues, which was originally written for Kay, as part of the Alfred Howard write songs with friends project.

Speaker 5: (06:35)

I get them every the

Speaker 1: (06:52)

Mar Kay performs at Panama 66 tonight from six to eight P am now as always be sure to check with event organizers for any last minute changes before heading out, you can find tales on these and more arts events or sign up for Julia's weekly newsletter@kpbs.org slash arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. And thank you,

Speaker 2: (07:19)

Julia. Thank you, Maureen. Have a good weekend. Bye.