Top picks
'Working Title'
Visual art, Dance, Music
For more arts events or to submit your own, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar. If you want more time to plan, get the KPBS/Arts newsletter in your inbox every Thursday to see event picks for the weeks ahead.
Project [BLANK]'s annual interdisciplinary art and performance takeover of a sacred space is back! "Working Title" will transform St. Paul's Cathedral in Banker's Hill over the course of three nights, featuring musical performances and visual art installations and activations in nearly every available space in the church (including, I'm told, the restrooms).
Project [BLANK]'s artistic director Leslie Ann Leytham and co-curator Diana Benavidez have brought together more than 40 artists and performers this year. Visual artists include Cat Gunn, Claudia Cano, India Thompson, Yasmine Kasem, Nick Lesley, Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio and many more. Musicians include Akari Komura, Zane Shrem-Besnoy, Jesus Cervantes and Odessa Uno, Kosuke Matsuda and more.
![A pianist performs in Project [BLANK]'s "Working Title" at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego in an undated photo.](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/62afa3d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1827x1125+67+0/resize/1760x1084!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F3d%2F3c%2F6cbd697340c4954774d6f147fff7%2Fpianist-melissa-evans-tierra-performs.jpg)
On contemporary visual artists and contemporary musicians working together: "I think we're all interrogating our world around us and in similar ways. We're asking kind of similar questions about space or time, or the body," Leytham said.
Each evening has a different lineup of musical performances; scheduled here.
Details: Event link. 6-10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Jan 11-13. St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, 2728 Sixth Ave., Banker's Hill. $15-$25.
Amel Janae: 'Under My Skin' / MCASD Play Day
Visual art
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego will host a pop-up activation in the Axline Court during Free Second Sunday, featuring artist Amel Janae. Janae will install her immersive work and also perform a DJ set.
The museum is free on Sunday for all visitors, with family-friendly activities inspired by color field artists like Helen Frankenthaler, where kids can create their own painting on a canvas. There's a kid-friendly tour at 10 a.m., with stories and music through 1 p.m.
Details: Kid-friendly "Play Day" runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; "Under My Skin" pop-up is 1-4 p.m. Free museum admission from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. Free.
'Ebb and Flow'
Visual art, Science
Scientist and artist Oriana Poindexter has curated a special kelp-art exhibition at the UC San Diego Geisel Library. "Ebb and Flow" is a sister exhibition to another kelp-art exhibition involving Poindexter, "Hold Fast," which will open at the Birch Aquarium on Feb. 8.
Artists Julia C R Gray, Dwight Hwang, Marie McKenzie and Poindexter will show artworks alongside vintage seaweed pressings from Virginia and Ellen Browning Scripps plus more recent pressings from Scripps Institute of Oceanography scientists. The exhibit, housed in Geisel's main exhibition space and in The Nest area near the entrance, focuses on the diversity of the region's giant kelp forests over the last 130+ years. An opening reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Jan. 25.
Details: Event link. On view Jan. 12 through Apr. 21. Exhibition gallery is open during main Geisel Library hours, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Geisel Library, 9500 Gilman Dr., UC San Diego. Free.
'Intimate Apparel'
Theater
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage's 2004 play, "Intimate Apparel," is about Esther, a Black seamstress who moved to New York in pursuit of the American Dream. There, she sews undergarments, or "intimate apparel" to a wide-ranging clientele appreciative of her craftsmanship, trust and discretion — from the upper class to prostitutes.
The story is based on Nottage's own great-grandmother, and follows Esther as she falls in love and finds the world she has built for herself turned upside down. North Coast Repertory Theatre's production is directed by Jasmine Bracey with Nedra Snipes as Esther.
Details: Event link. On stage Jan. 10 through Feb. 4. Lower-cost previews are Jan. 10-12. This week's performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday (sold out); and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. North Coast Rep, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Dr., Solana Beach. $44-$60.
Live music picks
Thursday: Daring Greatly and Anthony Cullins at Belly Up (rock/blues); Neil Hamburger and Major Entertainer at Casbah (comedy/music); Badlands, Hardcastle and Jettee at Soda Bar (rock/indie).
Friday: Slaughter Beach, Dog and Sun June at The Observatory (rock/indie pop); Golden Rule Hip-Hop Night with Ric Scales at Winston's (hip-hop).
Saturday: Pity Party (Girls Club) at SOMA (indie); Poncho Sanchez and Gaby & La Buena Onda at Music Box (Latin); Lagrimas, Se Vende, Agonista and Corrupt Vision at Che Cafe (punk); Tommy Castro & The Painkillers and Kid Ramos at Belly Up (blues/rock); R&B Block Party MLK Weekend at Quartyard (R&B); Hot Club of Bird Park at Black Cat Bar (swing); King Thieves, Matthew Hall & The Mail Room and more at Pour House (indie).
Sunday: Fundraiser for Jamie Shadowlight at Music Box (singer/songwriter); Max Look & The Tomorrow Band, Emma Noren and Daddy at Soda Bar (indie); MLK Jazz Festival with Will Donato, Rebecca Jade and more at Humphreys Backstage Live (jazz); New Aesthetic, Winterhaven, Prefect and Flailing Idiot at Pour House (all ages, pop-punk/indie).
Monday: Memorial for Otto Valentine featuring The Schizophonics, The Creepy Creeps, Owl Be Damned, Scary Pierre and Basket at Casbah (rock).
More arts and culture events
'The Wiz' | Theater
This touring production of "The Wiz" is a pre-Broadway tour of the Broadway revival. It's been 40 years since "The Wiz" was officially on Broadway and it is slated to reopen there later this spring. The musical, by William F. Brown with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, retells the classic story of "The Wizard of Oz" with soul, gospel, funk and rock music, through the lens of contemporary Black culture. On stage through Sunday, Jan. 14. San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown. $44+. Event details.
Chitra Gopalakrishnan: 'Mirror' | Visual art
San Diego artist and designer Chitra Gopalakrishnan will open a solo exhibit, "Mirror." Gopalakrishnan's work is powerful, vivid and at the intersection of intensely personal and approachable. The Rose Art Gallery, on the Francis Parker School campus, is open to the public for the Jan. 11 opening reception, and then for appointments during gallery hours by emailing the curator here. 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11. The Rose Art Gallery, 6501 Linda Vista Dr., Linda Vista. Free. Event details.
Sean Mason Quartet | Music, Jazz
Pianist and composer Sean Mason just released his debut album, "The Southern Suite" last fall. He'll perform this weekend with his quartet in the JAI cabaret-style performance space at the La Jolla Music Society, their first performance in San Diego. 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14. The Conrad, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. $68-$83. Event details.
Natalja Kent: 'Light Waves' and Nick McPhail: 'Place' closing weekend | Visual art
Two side-by-side exhibitions will close this weekend at the Oolong Gallery Annex, a temporary warehouse-style space. Los Angeles-based visual artist Natalja Kent's aluminum-mounted chromograms — colorful light imprints — and sculptures are in one space, while striking paintings of architecture, streets and other unassuming scenes by Nick McPhail are on view in an adjacent room. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday or by appointment. Oolong Gallery Annex I, 687 Second St., Encinitas. Free. Event details.
Tiffany Bociek: 'Enduring Exuberance' and SD Art Advisory X Sparks | Visual art
UC San Diego alum Tiffany Bociek's encaustic, or wax, paintings play with light, color, scale, nature and memory. The exhibition includes three series of her work, inspired by the artist's ancestors and past, present and future. Also on view at Sparks is a collaboration with SD Art Advisory and artist Alexander Rojas Salazar, which opens the same day. 5-8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13. Sparks Gallery, 530 Sixth Ave., downtown. Free. Event details.
