This weekend in the arts: Chinese New Year Fair, Ira Glass and comics

S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. For this week's art show , San Diego continues to celebrate Lunar New Year. A familiar public radio voice and a look ahead to Black Comics Day. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Heinemann with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and engaged. With how San Diego's Chinese community is celebrating the Lunar New Year and the year of the Wood Snake.

S2: Being able to create that community with all of the different immigrant and AAPI communities , we can then celebrate together. It just makes us a stronger community for that.

S1: Plus , IRA Glass on the art of storytelling. Then other events in the weekend preview. That's ahead on. The Lunar New Year started last Wednesday. It's a time to bring in good luck and prosperity and celebrate a fresh start. Specifically the year of the Wood Snake. There are many places to celebrate Lunar New Year in San Diego this season. We want to talk about one event coming up and the history behind its many cultural traditions. Jade Heinemann recently sat down with Jacinta Wang , executive director of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum , to talk about the upcoming Chinese New Year Fair downtown.

S3:

S2: Definitely. It started off obviously as more family , homegrown , you know , celebrations and as the community has , you know , been acknowledged and been thriving here in San Diego , it's it's become more popular. So the Chinese New Year Fair that happens outside of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum , which is coming up February 8th and ninth , will actually be I think it's the 45th year of this fair. So , you know , we , the Chinese have been celebrating this fair for many , many years and this holiday tradition with the public for many years.

S3: Well , tell me more about the Chinese New Year Fair.

S2: It's the stage will be off of third Avenue and J Street. Um , there'll be a huge stage. There'll be , you know , performances , singing , Chinese calligraphy , lion dances. Um , there's going to be a dragon dance , right ? There will be performances all day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

S3: Yeah , well. And in the museum will actually be open and free during the weekend of the fair. Why is it important to show people and bring greater awareness to the history ? Absolutely.

S2: So that location of the fair is not arbitrary. Right. Third Avenue is kind of the entryway into what is known as the Asian Pacific Historic District here in San Diego. So the Chinatown used to be on that block. And so it's very important for us to note that , you know , the Chinese have been here in San Diego for many , many years , since the 1850s , and that many people don't recognize the fact that where the convention center now sits used to be Chinese fishing village. Right ? It used to be the water. And so at the museum , you can come in and you can see how those Chinese fishing villages used to look like. It's hard to imagine that two blocks down that you're you're just away from the water. We can show them how the Chinatown used to look like Old Town , essentially because during the Chinese Exclusion Act , Chinese were not allowed to own land. And so , you know , the Chinatown wasn't built to look Asian , right ? It was built by people who owned the land for the Chinese to live in. But nothing looked specifically Asian. And so people are very surprised that our Chinatowns don't look like Los Angeles or San Francisco. And the fact that we don't have a Chinatown anymore is odd to people. They don't. They don't realize , oh , wait , there was ever a Chinatown here. And the Chinatown did exist all the way up until about the 1970s here in San Diego. So we want people to know about this long history that exists in this area.

S3: Tell me more about that , because I was just reading about San Francisco's Chinatown , for example , and how it's dissipating. And and so the one here dissipated.

S2: Right. And so the Chinese were forced to live in the Chinatowns all across the United States , which which was , you know , discriminatory at best. But then at the same time , the Chinese were able to live together and celebrate their traditions , right , and uphold their culture together. So it also provided a sense of community. And so as Chinese were allowed to live outside of those areas , those communities kind of dissipated. Um , and because in the 1970s , when the city of San Diego started building up their downtown building , their high rises building , you know , enhancing the district , they sent an architect down there to see if there was anything that was worth saving when they were looking at the downtown area. And the architect basically said , nothing's worth saving. Nothing looks Chinese. And so , you know , majority of the structures that were down in that area were lost to , you know , the redevelopment of downtown. Um , so we do host , like an Asian Pacific Historic District walking tour the first Sunday of every month at the museum , where we show people the historical buildings that still do exist. There's still about a dozen of them that are around. And it's not just from the Chinatown. It's , uh , Japanese Filipinos , African Americans who all lived in that area , uh , early on in the early part of the 1900s. So we want to make sure that that history doesn't get lost. Yeah.

S3: Yeah.

S2: I think that as the Chinese population moved from the Chinatown and was able to spread out throughout San Diego , a lot of the traditions and a lot of the things that made Chinatown special here have been lost to the ages. You know , we had a very prolific store that existed called Wuji Chang , and there was 3 or 4 different branches of it as it moved forward. The first store was obviously on Third Avenue , you know , but in the 1970s , they are the very first Asian market to move to convoy. They were the kind of the beginning of the whole convoy district. Right. Um , and so they they were there and as they brought their groceries , then it started being restaurants and it started bringing more people to the convoy district , which is how it became what it is today. And I think that's a really important segment to understand that , you know , you left downtown , you want to convoy. That's why we don't have a Chinatown , but we have the convoy district. But we want to make sure that the history of it all doesn't get lost.

S3: Right , right. Well , it's great that you that there's another sort of hub for the culture and the history. Can you talk more about some of the cultural traditions that are celebrated during Lunar New Year , and where those traditions come from ? Yeah.

S2: So some of the things that , you know , we always talk about first , you always think about the don'ts , right ? For Chinese New Year , you're not supposed to wash your hair. You're going to wash away your good luck. You're supposed to wear red , um , celebration. Right ? You're supposed to , um , you know , come together with your family community to , you know , to make sure that you can celebrate together. You supposed to eat long noodles. They're not supposed to be cut because it it talks about long life , right ? You talk about eating dumplings that look like purses , basically. So it's like wealth. You have , you know , entire fishes from head to tail because you want the continuity there. You don't want something that's dead. So your chicken , your duck , your your fish , it's the full , um , it's the full animal. The family decorates the house with flowers and with couplets. So it's always two sayings that go side by side that would hang on either side of the door. They hang their little signs that has the fu characters , which means luck. And then you know you want it upside down so that it talks about like wealth and luck will come to you. So those are the kinds of things that , you know , we're always really excited to celebrate , whether it's my kids coming saying , going , hey , Fat Choy saying Happy New Year because they know that they get red envelopes full of money , you know ? So those those are the kind of fun traditions that we have. And and , you know , whether you have your fruits out , you have round fruit symbolizing the entirety of things. Right ? So you have your oranges or your pomelo. Those are some of the things that we do to celebrate. Yeah.

S3: Yeah. It's so interesting how it's like you kind of do the same thing , but differently. You know , for African Americans it is collard greens for money and black eyed peas. Yeah. You know it. I mean , you mentioned the lucky red envelopes.

S2: It's always , um , you know , saying the Chinese sayings , whether it's Gong hey , Fat Choi , you know , son eating horn , giving them all of the blessings that you can think of. And then they give the blessings back in the form of a red envelope to the unmarried people. I remember as my kids were younger that they would always enjoy going to church that year , especially that that that time period. Right. Because that's they knew they were going to get something , some kind of blessings back. So those are the kinds of things. And then just again , it's just primarily about family and celebrating the new year , making sure your house is clean , making sure that you don't owe any debt. Those are the kinds of things you want to go into the new year. And then just being able to celebrate , you know , with the lion , dances with the dragon. Dances with the , you know , the the parades. I'm from Chicago , so we have a huge parade every year. Um , and so we're , you know , bringing just welcoming in the new year.

S3: So you're from Chicago was.

S2: Chicago has a it's the only Chinatown that's still thriving in the entire Midwest. Um , it is the biggest Chinatown celebration , I think , in the Midwest , actually. So , you know , the parade goes from one end of Chinatown through the other , and it's just walked through. I mean , it can be freezing now. It's Chicago , right ? So it's 20 some degrees , but you've got floats and you've got parades , which we don't really have here. It's a smaller community and a smaller event , but , you know , it's still equally joyful and equally ceremonial. Yeah.

S3: Yeah.

S2: Like , we have like a square area where Chinatown is. So it goes from like Chinatown Square to 24th Street , like , so it's like a kind of encapsulated area. And so there's lots and lots of very dense Chinese population there , as opposed to here , where the Chinese population has just dispersed throughout the San Diego area. Yeah.

S3: Yeah. You know , sometimes our communities can get siloed due to different factors like geography and so on.

S2: I mean , I definitely , obviously represent a Chinese American community here in San Diego with the Chinese Museum , right. Um , but , you know , there's there's so many other events that are happening , whether it's the Tet Fest or , you know , the Vietnamese , like all of the different communities , celebrate. And I think that being able to create that community with all of the different immigrant and AAPI communities , we can then celebrate together , it just makes us a stronger community for that. Yeah.

S3: Yeah. Well , the museum is also working with the San Diego Public Library for Lunar New Year events.

S2: I just think that it's very important. Yes. I really want people to come down to the museum. I really want people to know about the history of the Chinese and San Diego. However , not everybody knows to come downtown , right ? We don't have the budget to do lots of advertising. Um , and so I think it's important to meet people in their communities. So I met with the San Diego Public Library , basically with their youth programming , and agreed to provide free programming to San Diego Public libraries , as requested. And so that became something where we just have grown. So we have programming all the way from San Ysidro , all the way up to Rancho Bernardo , you know , and we go across , you know , San Diego teaching , whether it's , you know , we're making snake puppets this year for the zodiac craft , or we do calligraphy lessons or we do programs about the traditions of the Chinese New Year. Like , I think it's important to kind of meet people where they're at. Let's come out and tell you about what what we're offering , and then maybe you might consider coming down and visiting us.

S3: Well , people can learn more about those events on the San Diego Public Library's website and of course , on KPBS.

S2: Right. I think that people really benefit from learning about the history of the United States and how there have been these kinds of issues and situations for years , right from the 1800s , where the the Chinese who came for the gold rush were , you know , unfairly taxed for the foreign miners tax because they were not able to be citizens. How the Chinese Exclusion Act. Right. The only exclusion act that specifically labeled one specific ethnicity. We want them people to learn about these things. We want them to understand that this is not new. And then if you understand how things have been before , perhaps you would not be so easily mistaken to walk into those same ways of thinking again. And I think that's really important to let people know we're not so different. We have more commonalities than we have differences.

S1: That was Midday Edition host Jade Heineman , speaking with Jacinta Wong , executive director at the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum. The Chinese New Year Fair is happening on Third Avenue this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. , and the event is completely free to the public. Coming up , a conversation with public radio legend IRA Glass ahead of his upcoming San Diego show.

S4: I really had to kind of do a study of what makes a compelling story on the radio. I really had to , like , listen to stuff and try to build stuff and really had to , like , go at it like somebody who was a moron.

S1: Hear more about his approach to storytelling. When KPBS Midday Edition returns. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken , filling in for Jade Hyneman. If you're a fan of public radio , well , you might recognize our next guest. In fact , he's one of the most recognizable voices in public media.

S4: From WBEZ Chicago. This , this American life. I'm IRA Glass. Stay with us.

S1: 30 years ago , IRA Glass launched This American Life. An hour long radio show that explores big themes through personal stories. Glass is bringing his expertise to San Diego this weekend with a live show at the Balboa Theater. KPBS arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans recently sat down with glass to talk about what he's learned over the past 30 or so years of telling stories. Here's that conversation. Okay.

S5: Okay. To start.

S4: You know , like like the thing that the that I was doing when we started This American Life was doing , you know , like stories built around people. And they were in a situation and you want to see what's going to unfold. But then I just had the experience this week of listening back to one of the pilots that we made for This American Life , and this was back in 1995 , and we made three pilots. And I was really stunned at how , um , badly I do the stories like or like I'm overselling every plot point so aggressively , and there's almost no plot. Like almost nothing happens. Like it's just a person who comes on like like the first pilot that we did. The first story is about a woman who just decided to quit everything in her whole life and developed a whole theory about quitting. So the only thing that happens in the plot is that she quits her life , but she does that. And then like , then it's kind of done , and you know what I mean ? And then she's driving across the country to a new city with no job and no boyfriend , and unsure what she's going to do next. Which is I guess , dramatic , but but really , like , it's like 16 minutes of her talking about her theories about quitting. And I was like , wow , we really didn't know how to hold people's attention when like like I don't know. And so and so and so , you know , I feel like the basics are the same , but I think just somehow along the way , like I and the staff got got a little bit more rigorous in trying to do a nicer job for people.

S5: I mean , so much though of a story is like the setup , though , and and so much of your show is this , like revelatory glimpse into other worlds ? Maybe it's this person who is on this road trip or thinking about quitting , but maybe it's something bigger. Also , I'm wondering if you think about that like like a fiction writer might like , you have to world build a little bit to make the story work before you even get to the plot.

S4: We do think about that , but usually we actually we just launch them with the plot , like like we really do launch them with action right at the beginning , knowing that along the way we're going to have to , like , explain the world that we're in. And for some , and partially that's like for so many of the stories , the world is just like you're in somebody's family and they're kind of like their family , you know , like like you can kind of give the basic details , but like , but , you know , there's there's not that much to say to build a world like that. And then obviously other stories , you know , you know , if we're reporting on like President Trump's remain in Mexico story and we're down , you know , right across the border and we're talking to a little kid , you know , who's like living in a tent because they can't cross into the United States yet. Like then then like even there we'll start with the person and and like , make them kind of pop and make them interesting. And then we'll give you the world of it after that. Like , if you think about it like , like like the or the way that I think about it anyways , if you think about like kind of the beginning of a TV show. You just want the action to begin. You know what I mean ? And then you can , like , kind of back up and explain. Here's what's what. And I think that'll just kind of pull you in as a listener more effectively.

S5: You recently said , I think it was in The New Yorker , that you don't consider yourself a natural storyteller. Which made me gasp , honestly.

S4: Like , I work with people like , you know , people. Right. Who anything happens to them and they can make it into a really interesting story. You know , people like that , right ? Right.

S5:

S4: That is not me. Like , like at the end of the workday , when I see the person I love and I want to tell her , like , here's what happened today. I feel very aware that a more entertaining , a more entertaining person would know how to sell this story. And in fact , like , I'm a good enough editor that I can tell I'm I'm not doing the greatest job of conveying the thing I want to convey. And I'm somebody who really needs to , like , think about how to make a story if it's going to be good and and think like in a way , it was an advantage not being a good , natural storyteller. When I started doing stories like I do for the radio , because I knew I didn't know what I was doing , and I really had to kind of do a study of what makes a compelling story on the radio. I really had to , like , listen to stuff and try to build stuff and really had to , like , go at it like somebody who was a moron.

S5: So it's like a recipe , like you had to figure out this , like , scientific process and follow it every time.

S4: I mean , it makes me sound like there's something wrong with me , but yes , that is exactly correct. Yes , I say yes to your question. Thank you for asking.

S5: I mean , that's compelling and it gives me hope.

S4: I mean , it is it is more hopeful. It is more hopeful if like if like , you can learn to do something. You know what I mean ? Like it's it's better than like , oh , you're born with it or you're not. Like , I , I'm , I'm , I'm glad like things can be learned and thank God for that.

S5: I want to talk a little about the format of This American Life. And did you ever feel like you've been actively training listeners to be kind of agile over the years with , like , experimental formats ? Because I think for listeners , getting something unexpected can be almost exhausting or something that builds this little bit of dread. But listeners tune in week after week , year after year.

S4: Like , like , you know , that the story will start and that something will happen that hopefully you did not foresee if the story is working. Uh , there has to be something surprising in it. And I think that's true for anything that's good. Like any , any TV show or movie or , you know , anything , anything that we all like has to have that. Okay.

S5: Okay. Now that the second Trump term is a reality. How are you approaching this idea of telling stories that we might feel we're oversaturated with , possibly about Trump , definitely about the America that we live in.

S4: I mean , and not just with President Trump and with politics and all that , but like , I think there's a whole range of stories that most of us feel like we've heard enough about these stories and we don't need to hear anymore , you know , like it's sort of like climate change. We all know kind of where we are in climate change , kind of whatever you believe , like you know what you believe and like and I think , like to hear another story about climate change. I think I think a lot of us feel like , yeah , yeah , yeah , I know I got it. You know , like I have the big points. Like I don't need to spend 20 minutes on that. You know , immigration is another thing. Like everybody feels like , oh my God , you hear so much about this. Everybody has an opinion. Just so it's just like. And so one of the things that we talk about a lot on our staff and we really like design into our show , is we feel like if we're going to take on something like that , like the beginning of the story , we almost have to trick the listener into into listening. And also the story has to lead to something that's surprising enough that it's worth listening to. And so when we find a story that we feel like , okay , here's something about climate change that we really want to do , or here's something about immigration or immigration policy or what's happening with refugees or something like , again , we know that's a super heavy subject that that a lot of people are like , ah , I don't know about that today. And we really will just try to start the story in a way where the person in the story is compelling enough or they're in a situation that's compelling enough that you just you just want to hear what happens. We did a series of stories during the during the Hamas Israel war where , you know , again , we kind of knew like everybody seeing that on their phones in the news , like everybody kind of knows the big picture of that story. But when we would do a story , we would really just start with somebody in a situation. There's a guy who's living in Rafah and he hears that there's going to be bombing in Khan Younis , and he wants to talk his family into moving from cannons to Rafah. And they don't want to go because his sister is pregnant and she doesn't like , want to go to a place where there's not a bathroom. But he feels like he's got to do it in the next couple of days , or she really might die and she doesn't want to go. Like , that's a situation you want to hear , like what is going to happen. You're , you know , you're rooting for this family to like , live. And you kind of see everybody's point of view to like an eight and a half month pregnant lady who doesn't want to live in a tent. And so , like , I think if you started the show being like , okay , more war coverage from a war that you pretty much know about. It's very different than starting it with , like , here's a guy and he's in a situation and it's hard. And is he going to get his family out in time ? The second thing is something that that it's possible to connect to and care about. And I think that the value of a story like that is that I think we hear a lot of stuff in the news , but we don't get that close in on what is the lived experience of being there , because there are all sorts of things that you see and understand better when you get so close in with these intimate sorts of stories. And I feel like other people on public radio and other people in the news are covering , you know , like the peace talks , you know what I mean ? But the thing that we can do is we can take you in really close , and you'll meet this guy and his family and and you'll care , hopefully. Or , you know , at least you'll see it from the inside in a way that's different.

S5: I love that. Okay. So how do you apply all of what you have learned and built about creating this this like good audio product that exists in one one incarnation. Like , how do you apply all of that to a live show.

S4: At a live show like the one I'm going to be doing there in San Diego ? What I do is I stand on stage and I have an iPad , and I can play clips in music , and I can basically create the radio set , the sound of the radio show around me with all the elements of that as I speak. And then I tell a series of stories just because I'm there in the room. I also bring some video. Um , I have these really beautiful videos that are like that. I play clips of and tell stories that way , and really like , I just try to make the evening and the theater feel as much like the radio show does. So it's just like a bunch of stories.

S5:

S4: Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah.

S5: I have one more question , and I think it's because most of the people that I talk to about This American Life , they use this word like transformative to describe , oh , like that episode transformed Formed something in me. I'm wondering if that's also happening with you and with the staff as you're making the show.

S4: I mean , generally like , you know , for me and the staff , like our experience of the stories is a lot like the listener's , like if something's very moving , like when you put it on the radio , it's because it was moving to us when we were , you know , like interviewing the person and talking to the person and getting to know what happened. So we have that experience , which is like , I don't know if transformative is the right word for it , but it just gets to you , you know what I mean ? In the normal way that that something gets to anybody. And then like , like for me , like a thing happened in the early years of the radio show where all through my 20s , my parents disapproved of me working in radio and kind of of every choice I was making in my life. They very much were just like , this public radio thing makes no sense. You should be a doctor. Like , when are you going back to school to be a doctor ? And in my 30s , I started This American Life. And one of the things that happens in a lot of the early episodes , not a lot of the early episodes , but in some of the early episodes , is that I would interview my parents on the show , and I just did it because it was like it was fun content , like , you know , because they very much like , weren't very impressed with me and would give me their point of view very firmly. And it just made for good radio. It's really funny. There's my there's every segment my mom is in. She gets the last word and I look ridiculous. And it's it's sweet. Um , but having them on the air , um , in this project , that meant so much to me , I'm actually transformed our relationship , like , in this way that I never would have guessed could have happened. Like , like , like I got much closer to them and , like. And they really did kind of come to accept what I was doing with my life. And they really like and they liked it like partly because they , they , I think it felt like a thing to them that I would include them in this thing. And then and then when the radio show got successful enough , like sometimes their friends would hear them on the air. And that was really sweet. Like , like there was that too , but there was just like a feeling of like , um , it was like we were including each other in each other's lives. I think they saw me a little better , and I saw them a little better. I never would have guessed that that would have happened. It was really , like a really lucky thing to have happened.

S1: That was This American Life host and creator IRA Glass. Speaking with KPBS Arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans glass will bring his live show. Seven Things I've Learned to the Balboa Theater this Saturday , February 8th at 7:30 p.m.. Coming up , we get a preview of this year's Black Comics Day.

S6: I don't know of too many platforms or opportunities for black creatives to have their stuff be out there and be accessible. And so I just took it as an opportunity from above , I guess , to , to to remedy that.

S1: That and other fun recommendations in our Weekend Arts preview. KPBS Midday Edition's back after the break. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. It's time for another weekend preview. And here , once more to shake things up is KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando. And joining her today is San Diego comic creator Keith Jones. Beth Keith , welcome.

S6: Thanks for having me.

S1: So , Beth , you bring in local artists as part of the weekend preview in San Diego art scene. Tell us more about Keith and and why you wanted to include him this week.

S7: Well , I had this idea for Black History Month , and so for the next four weeks , I wanted to focus on black artists and creators. So Keith is a creator of a comic called Power Night. He's also the founder of Black Comics Day , which is an annual event focusing on black comic creators. So I thought he would be a great person to bring in and talk about some things that we can do during Black History Month. I just wanted to pick his brain a little bit about what to do during the month. Great.

S1: Great. So Keith and you not only make comics , you publish comics , right ? You know , I assume that takes a lot , a lot of your time.

S6: I'm just surprised as anyone , that I'm still doing it or doing it at all. Uh , the Malcolm X Library on Euclid did a Black History Month event. They asked me. They approached me about doing something comic book related and left it up to me to create something. And so I was about to say no. And then I thought , you know what ? I don't know of too many platforms or opportunities for black creatives to have their stuff be out there and be accessible. And so I just took it as an opportunity to remedy that. Yeah , I created what is it ? 2018 was the first show and this is now going to be our seventh year doing it. It grows every year in popularity and so far so good.

S1: So this year's Black Comics Day is at the World Beat Cultural Center. It's a free event and it features a couple of panels.

S6: On Saturday you have a panel called Empowered The Business of Indie Comics and that will feature Robert Love , Rashida Jones , Jordan Jackson , Ralph Miley , and Aaron Nabu. He's going to be the moderator of the panel , and they're basically going to discuss the process of making a comic from the concept to writing the script , to laying out the pages and how you delegate chores charged to the art team like the penciling and inking and coloring. So that's a , uh , a procedural panel and , uh , audience members who are interested in publishing their own comics or books. I think it'll be a great panel for them to attend and get some pointers. And then Sunday we have a panel which I'm actually going to be sitting on called tell them Kick Rocks how to rise above negative energy and achieve your goals. And I think that's going to be a very uplifting , interesting , introspective panel because we're going to actually give testimony to our own personal trials and tribulations of how we basically navigated through people who are either don't believe in what you're doing or you know , how life would throw you obstacles and how we basically navigate it through all of that will be the folks who actually lived through it. And you can ask us if you have questions that pertain to what you're going through. Hopefully we'll have some answers for you to help you get through that.

S1: And then you'll also be unveiling some new work at this year's event. Tell us more about it.

S6: Yeah , I'm working really hard to premiere a new piece of work that was recently inspired by recent events. So I have a new short story that I planned to premiere on the 15th of Black Comics Day called American Grit. And basically , it's a character who used to work for the United States government. I'm in the vein of Captain America , and his codename was Codename Integrity , but they call him grit for short. It was inspired by how there's a lot of tension in the air in America , and if we're losing some of our fundamentals that make this country great. And so he is a former government operative that wants to ensure that old glory still flies and there's meaning behind it , and it stands for something. And to fight those forces that are trying to mutilate its meaning. That's the gist of it. But like I said , it was just something that just shot up in me one morning and I just jumped. I jumped out of bed and started typing away on the computer and drew and made the layouts , and it was just a stream of conscious that just came out of me. And so I'm like this , you know what better place to premiere it than Black Comics Day ? And so I hope you guys show up to see the new work and have fun with it. And , uh , I mean.

S1: A great example of , like , inspiration striking , right ? I mean , you said mentioned it kind of related to current events. Oh , yeah. So , Beth , you know , you've been going to covering Black Comics Day for the past couple of years. What advice do you have for people attending the event this year ? Sure.

S7: Well , I've been there since year one , so I was there at the Malcolm X library when Keith kicked this off. My advice to people is , first of all , plan to spend some time there. It's not a huge event , so you are able to actually see the creators , talk to them , interact with them. This is especially important if you do have kids who want to get into this business. They can talk to people who are doing it , see them actually achieving their dreams. So it's a great way for kids to kind of understand what this business could be for them and what a career and it could be. And key also is buy something. Buy something from these artists. Go in there. I mean , I always go every year. I have no idea what I might find. I always try to find something new and pick up something that I'm not familiar with and take that home. So I think that's a good thing. And as an extra bonus , World Beach Centre has an outstanding restaurant inside that Micarta runs. I'm not vegan , but this is some of the best food you will find anywhere. So I highly recommend making some time to buy some comics and eat some food and enjoy the whole event. And Mercado is working right now on redoing the stage outside , so you guys are going to have like a brand new stage for where the panels are going to be. So it's going to be really exciting this year , I think.

S1: So that's all happening next Saturday , Sunday , the 15th and 16th. But Beth , you also have some recommendations for this weekend.

S7: Yes , I have something for this coming weekend. Thumbprint Gallery is a place I enjoy , and they have a new exhibition opening up called allegory. And one of the things I love about thumbprint is there's a lot of diversity and they love pop culture like I do. So I don't know the particular artists that well that are being showcased. But one of the things is I trust thumbprint to bring in interesting people , and I feel like going to some of these exhibits is not about going to things that you're familiar with and already like , but it's about expanding your horizons and finding new things , discovering new talent. So I really enjoy that about their shows. So this is going to be a group show featuring the work of 19 contemporary artists. The exhibition opens this Friday and runs through March 1st , and it's a collection of paintings that explore the theme of hidden meanings. So I think right now it's an interesting time for , you know , discovering layers of meaning in things. And this is taking place in La Jolla and it's at 920 Klein Street. So from Thumbprint Gallery. Allegory.

S1: And then you don't have a specific event to recommend this weekend , but you do have a suggested comic reading list for Black History Month. Tell us about that.

S6: There's so many out there , but I'm just going to give you four that that I really enjoyed and thought were , um , fun. Starting with Tuskegee Airs , which is written by Greg Burnham and drawn by Marcus Williams. It's not their kids , but it's their descendants in the future , and their planes actually transform into robots. Harriet Tubman the Demon Slayer by David Crompton. It's a play on the Harriet Tubman legacy. In this comic , she's fighting against actual vampires and demons. How she gets her powers and all of that stuff. Well , you'll just have to read it. And then there's Dark Storm by Kevin Greaves , who's actually going to be at Black Comics Day. Basically , it's a superhero tale of an ex-military type. It's Nana the wear spider by Greg Anderson. Alice. It's basically stories based on African mythology. He usually does. It does these anthology books where there's different stories based on those African gods and whatnot told through the character , is none of the word spider. So yeah , that's four books I could recommend to you. There's so many more out there , and including all the folks that are buying black comics today and saying that. Also , I want to say that yes , the show is called Black Comics Day , but that doesn't exclude any other cultures. So if you are , like I said , if you're an aspiring artist and you don't and you happen to be of another culture or another race , uh , don't feel afraid to come on down and and enjoy the show and show your stuff. It's an inclusive show , but like Beth said , try to patronize the artist there , you know ? Yeah.

S1:

S8:

S7: I do I really want to recommend this because I had so much fun. So this is the Empire strips back and I know Julia likes to highlight dance. I'm not sure this is really , like , in the same realm of what she generally will recommend , but I went a few years ago and I couldn't believe how much fun it was , how talented the dancers were , and also how fabulously geeky this was. They had a giant Jabba the Hutt kind of puppet. They had a huge tauntaun. The references to Star Wars were all spot on. This wasn't just , oh , we'll just kind of make a funny name for this show and then do whatever we want. So I was just really impressed by how much fun it was. And this isn't actually this weekend , but it starts on Wednesday and it's going to run through April 6th at the Adams Avenue Theatre. But it already has completely sold out shows. So I wanted to put this on people's calendars in case they were at all interested. And you know , I recently did the Stripper Energy Video podcast , which was about the girls strip club , and the strippers gave me a little education in the art of the striptease and how strippers in the burlesque era did striptease. And this is very much a burlesque show. So there's very much this whole sense of , you know , production and choreography. And I had a blast.

S1: With the Star Wars. Lore.

S8: Lore. Yes.

S7: And you can also buy , uh , like , Wookie porn there , too.

S1: I don't want to ask follow ups , but , um. Yeah. Let me know how that goes. Keith , you know , we're looking ahead this month.

S6: Really interested in is February 28th. They have African cuisine demonstration. So I think there's different samplings of , uh , African food. Uh , another show that I think will be great is Schoolyard Rap at Balboa Theater that takes place Wednesday , February 19th between 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and that is a musical that should be really fun and inspiring.

S1: And Beth , we've been sprinkling in food. We've been hearing a little bit about food throughout this conversation , and you've got some baking , some filmed theme baking coming up.

S7: I do , I'm even taking a day off to do this. So I love to do themed food to any films that I present. So we're doing a tribute to David Lynch this week , and on Saturday it's already sold out. We're showing six of his short films , so although we're not showing Twin Peaks , we were having a little Twin Peaks event. I'll be baking cherry pies and we'll be serving coffee and donuts as well. In fact , all the David Lynch shows have been sold out at Digital Jim , which makes me really happy because , you know , Hillcrest Cinemas recently closed , but it's nice to see that people are supporting the last indie theater that we have in San Diego. So yes , I'll be doing a lot of baking on Friday to try and make enough food to feed a sold out audience.

S1: So is it Twin Peaks specific food ? Because I was picturing.

S7: Cherry pie is very. Good.

S1: Good. No , I was just , I don't know , I was thinking like a ear shaped cookie or something.

S7: Well , we could also do a log for the Log Lady. A bush to Noel , a bush to Twin Peaks , my mind.

S1: Yeah , well , save a piece of pie for us. I hope you bring it in next week. I want to thank my guests , KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando , along with comics creator and founder of Black Comics , De Keith and Jones. To learn more about these and other events , you can visit KPBS. Beth Keith , Anne , thanks so much for being here. Thanks.

S7: Thanks.

S6: Thank you.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm Andrew Bracken. KPBS Midday Edition airs on KPBS FM weekdays at noon , again at 8 p.m. you can find past episodes at KPBS or wherever you listen. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day.