S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Today we talk with an author and activist out with a new book. Then we preview the film festivals and plays you can catch this weekend. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. An author writes about the connection between chronic pain and generational trauma.
S2: I spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to channel my pain into words , and essentially going on a journey of trying to discover why I might be in so much pain.
S1: Plus , how the Italian Film Festival highlights immigration. Then your weekend preview. That's ahead on Midday Edition. First the news and. Pain and trauma can span generations , and author and activist Jen Soriano unravels that and much more in her memoir , nervous. Through a series of essays , she dives into science and family history and how to build towards a future of healing. This Monday , October 7th , Jen will speak about it at the Kellogg Library at Cal State San Marcos. The talk will be moderated by San Diego Poet Laureate Jason Perez. She joins me now to talk more about the book and her upcoming event. Jen , it's great to have you on the show.
S2: I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Indeed.
S1: Indeed. Well , let's dive into the background behind nervous.
S2: That's one of the things. So being up most nights of the week because of pain left me a lot of time to think about. What could the purpose of this pain be ? Why ? Why must I be in so much pain ? And it also left me a lot of time to write. And so I spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to channel my pain into words and essentially going on a journey of trying to discover why I might be in so much pain. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , I want to definitely get into that.
S2: There were definitely parts that were hard , I'm not going to lie. Writing about family can be treacherous , but overall , it was really cathartic because diving into my family history provided me something that Western medicine failed to provide me , which is some context and some answers to the chronic pain that had had plagued me since I was a teenager. and that was part of what was so satisfying about writing the book , is that I was able to make connections between not only what my family has lived through and my own health , but also what my family has lived through , and larger trends in terms of chronic illness and trauma related chronic disease.
S1: Well , tell me about that. I mean , you've mentioned that you were dealing with chronic pain.
S2: And so this journey that I went on is really this , this journey of , of of piecing together a number of different Fragmented explanations and finding out that what was really contributing to my chronic pain was accumulated trauma. And that's both physical trauma from what was likely a very physically traumatic birth that I had when I was born together with emotional trauma from my own lived experience , including emotional neglect and , uh , experiences of racism , sexism , etc.. But then also , and this is where the family history really comes in. Uh , learning about the framework of historical trauma , which is something that indigenous scholars have , have , have developed to be able to explain a lot of the persistent disparities in Native American health. And , uh , so , Maria , Yellow Horse , Braveheart , a Choctaw scholar , and , I'm sorry , a Lakota scholar , and Corrina Walter is , a Choctaw scholar , came up with this framework , and I was able to really apply that to my own chronic pain. And understanding that my own family has gone through quite a bit of of historical and collective trauma at the hands of colonialism and imperial war in the Philippines. And so , you know , being able to connect my body and my own personal health to all of these larger forces has been extremely helpful. And it's one of the things I'm going to talk about on Monday when it comes to the very specific type of collective trauma that can come from climate disruption. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , if you don't mind , can you talk a bit about how historical trauma affects both our physical and mental well-being ? Absolutely.
S2: So what researchers have found is that there is actually a biological mechanism through which we learn essentially ancestral lessons. And those lessons can be positive and or they can be challenging. And in the case of trauma , sometimes it's both. It's not always , um , a potentially negative thing that we inherit over the years. And essentially what these things are that we inherit are adaptations that our ancestors have made to their environments in order to help them survive. So , for example , I write in the book about how I believe that I inherited a disrupted stress response from my mother and possibly my grandmother. Right. Because , you know , the egg that became me was already inside my mother's body when she was a fetus in my grandmother. Right. Um , so my grandmother lived through World War Two and had a very traumatic experience losing her husband during World War two , having her house occupied. And I think there is something about that living under invasion that probably altered her stress response to be hyper vigilant at the very least , and might explain why a lot of I think my chronic pain comes from basically being flood my body , being flooded with stress hormones almost at all times , because my baseline of stress response is that I will react with high alarm to something as small as a door slamming , because I think it might be the sound of a gunshot or the Blue Angels flying over , because in my body , somehow I react to it as a state of war. And so those types of adaptations that might have made sense during an actual time of war can get passed on , because scientists theorize that it probably helps descendants survive because they don't have to relearn that type of reaction. But then when our environments change , as I am lucky to to to have be true for me , I don't live in a place that's at a state of war. Uh , those types of adaptations become maladaptive and can actually then lead to , um , things like chronic pain and chronic disease. But the main message of the book really , is that it's not a death sentence , because our nervous systems can change just as they adapted , uh , through our ancestors experience , we can change our nervous systems to adapt to new conditions of peace. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Um , and the thing is , is it's interesting how Western medicine doesn't really recognize this.
S2: And so even the Western dominant Western view of the nervous system has really prioritized the brain and sort of the top down kind of functioning of the nervous system. Um , when actually many eastern cultures and now increasingly , social neuroscience research shows that , uh , it's not quite that that simple. It's not top down. And actually , there's there's a lot of ebb and flow and sensory information that flows upwards. And the gut is almost as own its own brain. And so I think that the , the reason , the reason is because of a lot of the foundations , I the answer is that it's really sort of been built on foundations of Western values , of , um , hyper specialization of , you know , different types of disciplines as opposed to looking at the holistic integration of all of our systems , including our nervous systems and our immune systems and our endocrine And systems and our muscles , muscular systems as well. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. That's interesting. That is so very interesting. And that , you know , I mean , the body is it's something that needs to be treated holistically. Um , and even beyond that , just like , you know , in society and in culture , so many other cultures outside of this Western one , we live in , um , really value collectivism and working together and then view the body in the same way , you know , that all parts work together. Yeah. Yes.
S2: And that was that was a fundamental thing that was so healing for me , was just reclaiming that kind of worldview and also experience of my own body and health. Yeah.
S1: Well , I'd love if you could read an excerpt of the book for us.
S2: I would love to do so. Thanks for asking. All right. I'm going to read an excerpt from the last essay , which is called watershed. In our bodies , there are answers. These answers spring from a source called interdependence. The very source of the name , Pasig River , is a Sanskrit word that means river flowing from one body of water to another. The Covid 19 pandemic disabused many of the illusion that our bodies are rigid and self-contained entities , much like our oceans are connected to rivers and streams , our bodies are connected within larger networks of health and disease. As my friend Cyril has said , we are each other's immune systems. We are also each other's nervous systems. When we talk about healing trauma , what we really mean is the potential of our interdependent nervous systems to change and grow , and to bring dormant parts of ourselves back to life. The paradox of this plasticity is that negative changes can also become entrenched over time , the entrenched effects of unresolved trauma constitute a public health crisis , just as the pollution and floods of a dormant waterway can put entire populations in harm's way. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Wow. And so it sounds like , you know , solving this , uh , happens at a policy level and so much more.
S2: I think so. I mean , unfortunately , trauma impacts the majority of us. Seven out of ten of us , uh , will have experienced a traumatic event just in the past year. And millions of us are walking around with the impacts of unresolved trauma in our bodies. And so , um , that scale of a problem requires multiple types of interventions. And I think it just starts with a different way of looking , looking at trauma and not just thinking that it's this , you know , this individualized thing that people have to walk around with in silence.
S1: Right ? Well , also , October is Filipino American history Month.
S2: My story is just one of millions , literally , and I wrote it partly in the hopes that it would inspire others to write their stories as well. And , um , frankly , I think like many communities , we have a lot to heal from and we don't necessarily talk about it. You know , we grin and bear it. I think a lot of folks would identify with that , Filipino or not. And , um , you know , one of the things I wanted to do with this book is share a bit of what. Maria. Yellow horse , Braveheart , and Karina Walters talk about for indigenous communities , which is a shared historical trauma narrative. Not to say that everybody experiences it , but that there are some commonalities around the difficulties that we have faced as Filipinos historically in terms of how much has been lost , um , through colonization and migration. And the first step to being able to move on from that is to first acknowledge that. Um , and so as part of Filipino American History Month , you know , I definitely hope that this book contributes to stories of our resilience and our persistence , but also that it's affirming to anyone out there , particularly young Filipinos and young Pinoys , who have been shown to have disproportionate rates of suicidality , that if things feel hard , it makes sense that they might feel hard and that folks are not alone if they feel like they're struggling. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , like we mentioned , you've got this event coming up at Cal State San Marcos.
S2: Because if folks know your San Diego poet laureate at all , he is a wonderful speaker and a wonderful poet. And so we're going to be in dialogue about cultural resilience to climate trauma. And we're going to talk about literature as a response to climate disruption and climate grief. And I'm going to share a little bit more from the book , and hopefully Jason will also share some of his poetry.
S1: All right. I've been speaking with Jin Soriano , author of Nervous Jin. It was such a pleasure having you on today. Likewise.
S2: Likewise. Thank you so much.
S1: Still ahead , Beth Accomando gives us a preview of the Italian Film Festival.
S3: It's it's gonna talk about , you know , our core values like identity , uh , but also core issues in Italy today , like , you know , immigration.
S1: Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. The San Diego Italian Film Festival actually kicks off its first weekend of films at the Museum of Photographic Arts. Tonight , KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando got a preview with its artistic director , Antonio Inada.
S4: Antonio , we are on the eve of the 18th edition of the San Diego Italian Film Festival , and one of the things you do is choose the theme.
S3: But also , it's a nice playing word because core in Southern Italian languages , slash dialects means hard. So we're really going to talk about , you know , the things that are that are so important in our heart. And as usual , these issues are also very important for our community here in San Diego.
S4: And what have you chosen for your opening night film ? For this.
S3: We chose a movie called rapido or in English , kidnapped , and it's an incredible real story based in Italy in 1858. That means 1858 , just before Italy became Italy , a united country a few years after. And this little boy , born in a Jewish Italian family in Bologna , gets kidnapped by the Pope because somebody baptize him secretly. And so the Pope kidnapped this little boy. Sylvia.
S5: Sylvia.
S3: And this is a scandal all over Europe. Because all the Jewish community , all over Italy and all over , uh , all over Europe , try to convince the Pope to give back. It's an incredible movie by an incredible director , Marco Bello. And it's a movie about identity , about religion , and about aggression and violence of this powerful organization , the Vatican. That really made a statement in saying we need to protect all people that are baptized. But for this little kid , you know , he lost his family. And then , you know , I don't want to spoil the story , but it's a real story. A beautiful , powerful movie about these themes.
S4: And one of the other films you're showing is a slightly older film , but Yoko Ono and one of the things I really love about this movie is it highlights the racial diversity of Italy , which is something that not everyone in the United States may be aware of.
S3: Yeah , absolutely. You know , Italy has been a diverse , multiethnic and multiracial country for many , many , many , many years. And still we have this fantasy of of a country totally white , totally Catholic. But it's not like that anymore. We have so many issues. There is so much racism in Italy. We have one of the strictest law about giving citizenship to to children that are born in Italy , from non-Italian parents that have been lived in Italy all their life. So something has to change in Italy in that in that regard. And this movie that is such a powerful story tells a story of migration from the perspective of the migrants. So it tells the story of these two cousins coming from Senegal , going through the whole Africa continent , and finally trying to make it to Italy , slash Europe , because they want to become , you know , pop stars and have a brighter , a brighter future. So it's a kind of counter shot of problems that usually we only want to see from our perspective.
S4: And you also have a documentary that's very interesting that goes into a very different aspect of Italy. And this is Krypton. Yes.
S3: Yes. It's I'm very proud that we have this movie because I don't think you can watch it if you don't come to our festival. And Krypton is a documentary by a great director , Francesco Monsey , that we also was featured in our festival last year or two years ago for another documentary , Futura , about the younger generation. But this time is about still about the youth. But , uh , guys that have psychiatric problems and mental health problems and E , uh , the director creates such an incredible relationship with them that they trust him so much , they open their heart , they talk freely on how they feel , how they think. And then we also get to see their families involved with the psychiatric community , and we get to see what these young kids have to face on a daily basis about their problems. He refers to Krypton , the word from which Superman comes because one of the guy really thinks he also comes from Krypton.
S4: And another thing the festival does and has been very committed to is the Ristretto shorts. And I've been fortunate enough to head the jury on this , and I can tell you firsthand that there are a number of amazing films. But what is the reason for the festival being so dedicated to keeping this going ? Absolutely.
S3: This is , uh , as we were mentioning before the 18th edition of our festival and the sixth edition of The Restrictive World. So now , you know , we can also , um , look back and see that every year we have grown and this restrictive world is short. Competition Festival has become something that , you know , directors all over Italy , but also from other parts of the world , from the United States , also are waiting for. And we had more than 120 submissions. We got to 14 finalists that we can see online , but especially in person at the digital gym cinema. And out of these 14 shorts , the jury has chosen the winners. This is very important because we know that is so difficult to to do a movie. And so many , many directors start from shorts , start from shorts , because in a narrative of 15 20 minutes they can really tell a story with also production value that are very high. And this is becoming really important. In fact , the director that won the Golden Ristretto that is the best in the show , dedicated to our founder , Victor LaRussa. They , he or she is coming from Italy to be part of our festa. That is our closing party , where we're going to announce the winners.
S4: A couple other things that you will find on that night are food and discussion , which are a very vital part of your festival.
S3: Yes , our our founder , Victor LaRussa. Always talk about our festival as a piazza , like a plaza , a moment of discussion , encounter where we can talk. And of course , you know , when you talk , you need to have a glass of wine in your hands and also , you know , have amazing food this year , provided by Cucina Migrante. So it's , uh , we're going to have a party. In other words , Saturday the 12th of October. And after the party , the discussions , the live music , we're going to go in the theater of the Museum of Photographic Arts , that beautiful theater with the stars in the ceiling. And we're going to discuss and announce our shorts winners , and also engaging in conversations with directors and producers.
S4: And another one of your films that's screening , which I really loved , was like , camera. Yes.
S3: Yes. La Camera by , uh , Alice Rohrwacher is a is a is a is a complete different movie. Signore.
S6: Signore. Nando.
S3: Is a is a movie where , you know , magic realism and utopians and but also , you know , uh , very stories of human beings that we can really relate to.
S4: And another big event will be the closing night film.
S3: And this is an amazing intergenerational stories between this guy Orlando , who lives in a very isolated small town in the mountains , is a farmer. He's a farmer , he plays the accordion , and for a number of years he has not spoken with his son , who decided to leave Him and to leave the the hometown and go to , uh , Brussels to go to Europe. To start a new a new life in Europe. But Orlando , the father has to go help the son in in Brussels to find that , you know , the son passes away and he meets his granddaughter.
S7: Bambina in Italian , you.
S8: Know , rather than a party.
S3: A young , a young , very young teenager. She's , uh , I think 12 in the , in the movie. And she doesn't want to leave. She wants to stay. And so the poor guy has to learn how to communicate in a country where he doesn't speak English , he doesn't speak French , he barely speaks Italian. And he needs to develop this relationship with the new granddaughter. So it's a beautiful , tender movie. And I really wanted to end the festival on this note again , of humanity and relationship.
S4:
S3: You know , there is an older part of the community that , of course , you know , it's a second , third generation Italians. And then there is this new community always changing of people my age , but also much younger than me that come here to San Diego. You know , San Diego is a very big biotech city. And so , you know , you have these young scientists , these young Italians that come from Italy after they travel Europe and the world to settle here and be very happy. So we we're welcoming them to our festival and our activities , because also for them , this is an opportunity to to see what's going on today in the film art in Italy because this is our mission also to fight against , you know , this fantasy idea of Italy and Italian culture that simply , you know , doesn't exist.
S4: And one of the things you say about the festival is it's about an Italian perspective.
S3: Absolutely. But especially for the people that live here in San Diego today. So we are very , very focused on what's going on today.
S4: Well , I want to thank you very much for talking about the San Diego Italian film Festival.
S3: Thank you , Beth , and come to our movies.
S1: That was KPBS film critic Beth Accomando , speaking with Antonio Inada , artistic director of the San Diego Italian Film Festival. The festival runs this weekend and next at the Museum of Photographic Arts and Digital Gems Cinema. Coming up , Julia Dixon Evans joins us with the weekend preview and to sit down with Eric Kean Louie from the La Jolla Playhouse.
S9: We change and we grow as we age. Those changes and growths aren't always giant , monumental on the paper , on surface , and yet they're monumental changes for us. And I think this play illuminates that.
S1: KPBS Midday Edition returns after the break. This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Primary trust recently opened at La Jolla Playhouse. It follows Kenneth , who is withdrawn from society and shows us how he finds his way back. The play , written by Ebony Boothe , won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year , and this is its West Coast premiere. Eric King Louis is the artistic producing director at La Jolla Playhouse. He sat down with KPBS Julia Dixon Evans this week to discuss the play and why it resonates so deeply with audiences. Here's that conversation , Eric.
S10: This play has so much humanity. It's mixed with both sadness and humor. And the main character , Kenneth , is one of the best embodiments of that. Can you tell us a little bit about Kenneth and who he is ? Sure.
S9: When we first meet Kenneth , when the play opens , he is hanging out , as he has for the last about 15 years at his favorite tiki bar in Cranbury , New York , which is a small town in upstate New York. He is hanging out with his best friend , sipping Mai tais and about 60s into the conversation with his friend , he turns to the audience and says , I should probably let you know something. Bert , who I'm having drinks with right now , is imaginary , and that sets the course of the play for us as an audience , where I think we when we first meet Kenneth , we think , oh , here's a wonderfully fun guy hanging out with his friend. And we start to realize there's actually something deeper underneath the surface. And we also see , as he loses his longtime job , where he's been exceedingly comfortable just living a life of solitude gets turned upside down when he has to actually re-enter society , interview for a job , and actually reach out to people in the town for help. And the fear and the joy and the sorrow and the immense life change that happens when he actually turns to the people who are around him and says , you know , I need help in his own way. And I think it's this incredible piece. And Kenneth is an incredible character who reminds us that we have the power to actually change our lives , no matter how old we are , and that the community around us actually has the capability to impact change if we are open to the idea of it.
S10: I love that. And this is , you know , a remarkable script.
S9: This is the play that she wrote that sort of put her name on the map. And the thing that I think is most surprising about it is that it's actually a very quiet , thoughtful play. I was talking to a friend who likened it to Our Town. Actually , that idea of small things can lead to monumental change. I think there have been pieces , certainly in the past , that the Pulitzer has awarded that are very sort of big idea , really bold statements. And I think Ebony's play is much more quiet , much more delicate , and in its own way , much more human. Because we change and we grow as we age. Those changes and growths aren't always giant , monumental on the paper , on surface , and yet they're monumental changes for us. And I think this play illuminates that. And I think what she brings to it is not just a real humanity , but I think something that we're all so much in need of right now. But genuine kindness. She cares about this character at the heart of the play immensely , and she asks us not to judge him , but to go on the ride with him. And I think , again , as I said earlier , like he is a character who you would judge because he is a person who you see talking to himself , and yet he's talking to himself because that's the way that he gets through life. What Ebony's writing does , and the other plays I've read of hers , is that she just offers real kindness and change into an audience's mind in a way that I think is so deeply impactful in a way that we didn't know is going to happen the minute the play started.
S10: That's incredible. Okay , so one of the most fun parts in this is the other cast members. It's a very small cast , but some of the other actors on stage , they each play a variety of characters , and I always love that. But in this play it is just so masterful.
S9: Karina , who is the person who really sort of starts unlocking within. Kenneth opening up plays all of the waiters and bartenders and servers who work in the tiki bar. So throughout the course of the play , I think she plays a total of 30 characters with with honestly little to no costume change. It's all in her inflection and her voice and her body and how she carries it. What's interesting in it is that there is this world swirling around Kenneth as he's going through his life. But because he's not present , it's it feels like it's the same person because he's actually not connecting with them. And all of those changes of that character for Rebecca as actress start going away towards the end of the play , because Kenneth is actually starting to reenter society. So there's something beautiful about the fun nature of watching this tour de force that she's doing over the course of the night of the play , and yet that slowly starts shifting where she is just becoming Karina , the person in his life.
S10: So like you said , this story set in a small , rundown East Coast town.
S9: I grew up in a small East Coast town. We were one of the first families of color that moved into that town. It's interesting because my parents moved us out of Queens , New York , to that small town because they wanted something safer for us. As my mom said , I wanted to be able to not have , like , not be afraid that you were going to ride your bike for an hour and not come back home. And so there was something safety in the normalcy and the sort of sameness of the place that I grew up. And yet there was so much that experience that was unspoken about being othered in that town and feeling different in that town. And I was very aware of it , and it was always underneath the surface. I think that's very much in this play. Kenneth is a black man. The town is predominantly white. He mentions that there's a sizable Cambodian population , but certainly they are the others. And I think that adds to his alienation of not feeling like you can connect to the place that he lives in. I think there's also something about the weather on the East Coast that also can feel alienating. When those nights get really cold. That can be really difficult to break into.
S10: There is plenty of trauma in this play , but also some brilliantly funny and light moments , often in the same moment.
S9: Hand in hand. I feel like I'm seeing as I sort of age and get older , that it's a constant roller coaster where you where you feel like I'm trying to find steady ground and reminded that steady ground is not something that exists. But I need to learn to continue to live. And so you learn to savor the highs and the joy , and you learn to embrace in your own way the sorrowful moments that you have and try to find the joy in the pain. I think that's what makes this play so human. I think it's what makes this play. Hit people in the heart. It's what I love about theatre. And the theatre that we're in is three quarters thrust. So the audience wraps around the stage and hugs it. And I've seen the play multiple times over the course of the run thus far , and it's so moving to watch audiences process the play in real time. As these events are happening , and you see moments of recollection on people's faces , you see moments of real connection. And I think that's what's gorgeous about this place. It's gorgeous about theater in general , is that I think it's a it's a mirror to us about our own lives. And certainly now with everything happening in this country , in the world , we're trying to find joy in this moment of chaos. And I think that's what this play sort of reminds us , that you can find both , but both will always exist in your life.
S1: That was Eric King , Louis artistic producing director at La Jolla Playhouse , talking about primary trust. The play is on stage through October 20th. King Louis spoke with KPBS arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans , who joins me now. Julia , welcome.
S10: Hey , Jade. Thanks for having. Me.
S1: Me. It's always a pleasure. So , Julia , one of the things he mentioned there at that end is the stage setup and how it serves the story. I'm curious what you think of that. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. So I mean , the stage kind of juts out into where the audience is seating kind of wraps around it , and I think that setup is really intimate. I was sitting when I saw the play , I was sitting kind of off to the side , so it felt like I was almost on stage. I loved how the actors worked with that and kind of would turn to us sometimes their backs to you , but then the other character is is facing you. And also they did a lot of breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to us in the audience. And it's always really engaging by nature when that happens in theater and also in this particular play. You really feel wrapped up in Kenneth and what he is going through because of of that breaking the fourth wall.
S1: Wow , sounds like a fascinating play and one that really draws you in. Let's talk about what else is going on in arts and culture this week. There's big arts news for kids this month.
S10: Yeah , so October is San Diego museum cancels kids free San Diego month. So kids that are 12 and under get free admission to all of the participating museums and institutions and attractions. There's a lot like 50. Wow.
S1: Wow.
S10: Like you just enter your email address and it instantly takes you to the free digital ticket. And it also emails you the link. You don't actually have to download or print anything , but you can. So you basically could just do this in line when you show up at a museum. But there are a few places where you do need reservations in advance , and you would use a code to get the free child ticket , like the Birch Aquarium is one of those where you have to pick a time slot in advance. And there are some other stipulations , like Comic-Con Museum that offers not valid on Saturday and Sunday , or Legoland has blackout dates. You can you can browse the whole list and see each of the little stipulations. But for most places you get one kid in free with one paying adult. And for Birch Aquarium , actually you get two free kids in with one paying adult , and some of the institutions where entrance is always free , like the Verona Cultural Center Museum , the kids get a free welcome gift.
S1: All right. Well , American folk singer F.A. O'Donovan is performing a unique concert at UC San Diego this weekend. What do you.
S10: Know ? Yeah , so if O'Donovan is , she's a Grammy winner , a songwriter and a singer. Beautiful voice. And this year she put out a new album called All My Friends , which features an orchestra and also the San Francisco Girls Choir. We're listening to the song.
UU: Daughters of the good is what you get to pray to God. My daughters to Transactions can fill the file.
S10: And here in San Diego , she's going to perform on Friday night at the same family amphitheater at UCSD. She'll play with the La Jolla Symphony and the San Diego Children's Choir , so that should be a treat. They're going to play works by composers Florence Price and Ethel Smith , and also songs from Donovan's new album. And some of the girls from the San Diego Children's Choir recently made a video about why they're looking forward to performing some of these songs and singing with O'Donovan , and I really loved what these girls had to say.
S11: My favorite song in the suite is daughters , because I really like the way it's like , you can't just pass all of the issues of this generation on to the next generation and expect them to deal with it. A lyric that really speaks to me is the part where I think it's don't leave the fighting to your daughters , because it really is true and you can't wait for something to happen and have it happen. You have to actually be the one that advocates for it.
S1: Oh my gosh , that is so sweet. All right. And that's Friday night at UC San Diego. Let's stay with music , because the San Diego Symphony is debuting their new festival course this week with some Mahler. Right ? Right.
S10: And so this is the second weekend of concerts in the newly reopened Jacobs Music Center. They just had a huge renovation , and they're doing Mahler's Second Symphony , which is and it's one of my favorite pieces of music. It's really powerful. It's complex and just really full bodied. I feel like I'm talking about wine , but also classical music. It's just. The symphony talked about Mahler's Second Symphony when they were talking about performing in this space. Like , this is the kind of music they designed this hall for. It's incredible. And they're also performing a co-commissioned. This is from contemporary composer Thomas Larcher called time , and these concerts will mark the debut of a new festival chorus , and this choir will be seated in the new choral terrace that's on the on the new stage. So they're totally showing off what they got. And these are Friday and Saturday nights and then a matinee on Sunday afternoon.
S1: Well , cheers to that. And you've got some visual art that's a little off the beaten path. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. So this weekend is the return of the monthly Borrego Springs Art walk. They take a long summer break for obvious heat reasons. And so this is the first Saturday night of the month from 5 to 7. And the heat should have leveled off a little bit by by the evening. And you can bounce between three different art spaces. In Borrego Springs there's Desert Lovers and Co , there's the house of Borrego Springs West Gallery and then Borrego Art Institute , and at Borrego Art Institute. They're opening a couple of new exhibits , three of them including one called the Art of Flora and fauna , which is about art. That's about the natural world and all of the elements.
S1: Oh , sounds like something you definitely want to check out. You can find details on these and more events at KPBS Sawgrass Arts , and you can also sign up for Julia's weekly newsletter. I've been speaking with KPBS Arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans. Thanks for coming in , Julia.
S10: Thank you. Jade , this was fun.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
