Books
The third annual North Park Book Fair is this Saturday, taking over three blocks of North Park Way outside Verbatim Books. Justine Enitsuj, the owner of Verbatim Books, said that she started the open-air book festival as a way to gather the literary community during the pandemic but also to rekindle something she loved from growing up in Hillcrest. She worked at Fifth Avenue Books, where a similar street fair was held for years.
Saturday's event will bring a huge variety of vendors, bookstores, comic book stores, small presses, artists, authors and more.
Book recommendations:
"I saw a really good PBS documentary about Amy Tan. I really loved her in high school. I'd actually read almost all of her things back then, so I just reread a few of her titles — the 'Joy Luck Club' and 'The Hundred Secret Senses'… It was really nice to revisit that story I remembered so well, but also sort of seeing how different I am — remembering how I felt about it back then vs. now." — Justine Enitsuj, Verbatim Books.
"We're excited to show you a little bit of what San Diego has to offer in terms of our literary community, and also just a little bit of other things too," Enitsuj said. "We have some artists. We have some musicians. So, you know, things that are just interesting, and I think that fits in with what we do at our store — just try to show you something that you might not have seen before."
With a growing number of independent bookstores, the San Diego Book Crawl in the spring and the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books in the summer, San Diego's booksellers seem to be providing something that transcends the instant gratification (and same-day shipping) of digital life — not that Enitsuj has anything against that.
"It's a wonderful time we live in, where you can wake up and think about a book and just get it in an hour or less than a day. It's amazing, and that's just such a treat, but it's a lot more fun to shop at a bookstore than it is to shop online," she said. "Nobody's like 'Oh shoot, I have to go shop at Verbatim Books today, darn it.'"
Saturday's fair features readings, an open mic session with Poets Underground, and kid-friendly storytimes throughout the day. Live music will be curated by Folk Arts Rare Records.
Details: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 24. North Park Mini Park, 3812 29th St., and along North Park Way between Ray and Granada streets. Free.
Note: You can also join Verbatim Books at 5:30 p.m. until sunset every third Thursday through the summer months at Bird Park in North Park for "Verbatim Books in the Park Till Dark." Bring a picnic blanket and a book.
Visual art
"Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection" opens Saturday at Oceanside Museum of Art, featuring works of art made during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) era. The WPA was a project created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early 1930s, which ran until World War II, designed to pull the country out of the Great Depression. Intended to provide work opportunities and income for unemployed artists, it also put plenty of art in front of Americans. The art produced during this era tends to match the mood of the country at the time — lots of industry, harsh landscapes and laborers at work, but also scenes of everyday life. Curated from their own collection, the Dijkstras will showcase 45 works, many of them from California artists.
Details: On view Saturday, June 24 through Nov. 5. Opening celebration: 5-7 p.m. Saturday. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday (open until 8 p.m. Friday). Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $10.
Music and Dance
"Music en la Calle" is a City Heights music festival and street fair presented by Bodhi Tree Concerts. It runs all afternoon on Saturday with an impressive array of diverse music and dance performances: the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir (12 p.m.); Mariachi Victoria de San Diego (12:30 p.m.); Naruwan Taiko (1 p.m.); Flamenco Bohemia (1:30 p.m.); Tracy Lee Nelson (2 p.m.); Akayaa Atule and Bolga Zohdoomah (2:30 p.m.); Opera de Tijuana (4 p.m.); and the Irving Flores Afro-Cuban Jazz Band (5 p.m.).
Details: Noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 24. Tierra Central, 41st St. and University Ave., City Heights. Free.
Music
Le Salon de Musiques' season finale concert celebrates the work of three historically overlooked women composers: Fanny Mendelssohn (older sister of Felix), Amanda Maier and Dora Pejačević. Le Salon de Musiques concerts are known for their intimate style, where audiences are seated at the same level as the performers and the show is framed with pre- and/or post-show discussions with musicologists.
Details: 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 25. The La Jolla Woman's Club, 7791 Draper Ave., La Jolla. $45-$95.
More music: A Black Music Month Celebration will be held at the Logan Heights Library, which also commemorates the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Hosted by Jimmy Lovett Jr., with special guests. 2-4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 24. Logan Heights Library, 567 S. 28th St., Logan Heights. Free.
Theater
"Destiny of Desire" closes this weekend at the Old Globe. It's a musical comedy from prolific playwright Karen Zacarías, crafted as an homage to "telenovelas" or Mexican TV soap operas. The story follows two young women who were swapped at birth. They lead very different lives, but of course, their paths cross. In true telenovela fashion, there are plot twists, romantic scandals and humor, but this story puts the tropes through a feminist lens.
Details: Closes Sunday, June 25. The remaining showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and 7 p.m. Sunday. The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. $39+.
Family
Mass Creativity Day is this Saturday, hosted by The New Children's Museum, featuring music, dance, artmaking activities and free admission. Exciting news: at 9:30 a.m., the museum will unveil a new Painted Object by artists Ingram Ober and Marisol Rendón.
The long-beloved Painted Object is effectively a giant blank canvas parked on the museum's outdoor patio for kids to paint layer after layer recklessly. Over the years, the object has been a VW Bug, a truck, a whale and more. It's still a mystery what the new object will be, but ideas submitted by a youth workshop include The Skate Cat, The Something and The Loving Dragon.
Details: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24. The New Children's Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., downtown. Free.
For more arts events or to submit your own, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar. And be sure to sign up for my weekly KPBS/Arts Newsletter here.
