S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Today's arts and culture show gives us the history of lowrider culture , then takes us to an afrofuturist exhibit. And then your weekend preview. I'm Jade Hindman. Here's to conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. An archive project at the University of San Diego , preserves and celebrates the history of lowrider.
S2: What happened with low riding ? They just simply said , you know what ? You don't have a right to drive your car. You don't have a right to express your culture.
S1: Then we'll move the conversation to a new exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum exploring the work of John Jennings. Plus , we'll have your weekend preview. That's all ahead on Midday Edition. Low riding is an important cultural and artistic expression in San Diego's Chicano community. It's also a movement of independence , resistance , and activism once suppressed by anti cruising bans across California. For years , activists in National City worked to get those bands lifted. And finally , last fall , it happened with the passage of Assembly Bill 436. There's a lot to learn about the history of low riding , and you can find it all at the University of San Diego through the San Diego Lowrider Archival Project. Last month , Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken spoke with Alberto Pulido. He's chair of Usds ethnic studies department and helped create the project.
S3:
S2: His name is Rigoberto Reyes , and he really wanted us to document the lowrider community. Nobody had ever thought about it. Nobody really knew how to do it. The majority of my work and my scholarship and curriculum is in the community. So that's why I was known and that's why people reached out. So to make a long story short , we put together a film by the name of Everything Comes From the Streets , which I'm really happy to say that KPBS also showed it a while back , and the film won several awards that went to Europe , and just really excited for the work that we were doing. And it mainly focused on the lowrider culture , what we call in the borderland , not only San Diego , but also Tijuana. Uh , from the film. Uh , we were asked to do a book from the book. We were able to literally , uh , bring in hundreds of low riders who had stories and photographs. And once we had compiled that , then we were approached by Amanda McCullough , who is the digital librarian at the University of San Diego , and said , hey , what about if we made this into a digital archive ? So from that step is what you currently have. And so it's open sourced , uh , it's free. People can download photographs and learn more about the low rider expression here in San Diego and even throughout the rest of the country.
S3: And low riding , you know , it does have a history of criminalization that came along with it.
S2: When we're looking at low writing , especially in this region of the world , we're looking at , uh , post-World War Two , and we're looking at returning vets who have additional income and resources. So the dominant culture , the Anglo culture , goes the route of hot rods , uh , muscle cars , you know , fast and mean big tires. The Chicano community goes the opposite , low and slow. Not really worried about speed , not really worried about like where you're going , but mainly doing the cruise. And so the early days of low riding is a result of very creative people , some who have resources , some who have who do not. And um , it started to do some amazing work around the 1970s , 69 , 70. We have the first the birth of organized low riding meaning car clubs , brown image , um , Latin low riders. The very first ones here in San Diego , 6970 , mainly in the Logan Heights area. And from there it just starts to take off and , uh , it becomes very important for the culture. I see it sort of as a cultural renaissance because people can tell who they are or express who they are through their vehicles. I always like to refer to them as canvases on wheels. The most important thing that everybody should know about low riding is simply car customization. And regardless of what ethnic background you're talking about , regardless of where it's at , if you're customizing your vehicle , meaning that you're changing it from how you purchase your vehicle , then that's what customizing is about. And for some low riders , it takes 20 , 30 , 40 years of their lives. But it's a true dedication and love to create a vehicle that is telling their story and telling the story of their community in the 60s and 70. Is when the Chicano movement comes forward , when you start to recognize ethnic differences and inequality and racism. Uh , Chicanos really began to be defined as deviant. And , uh , what I like to say is low writing now becomes racialized. You have differences based on race. You have differences based on what kind of vehicle you drive. You have differences based on where you live. And so probably the film that damage this or that , that really reinforced but damaged the culture deeply was an old film entitled Boulevard Knights. And when it came out , it just created and reinforced the negative illegal activities of , you know , um , lowriders being , you know , what we call about the locals or people who are just out causing problems. And that link was really grabbed on to by the media and especially by police. And I would say at the top of that list in this region would be national city police.
S3: And on National City , you know , there is now a law that came up with San Diego State Senator David Alvarez. He authored the legislation that made cruising bans illegal in California. And National City was cited as one of the kind of the main reasons behind that. It had a ban for over 30 years , I think. Right. Here's a little of what , uh , State Senator Alvarez told us in a conversation we had with him last fall.
S4: Seeing the work being done by the community of National City , in particular , and their efforts to overturn the ban at the local city level and the lack of support that they received. And then we found out this wasn't just happening in National City. It was happening in other cities throughout the state where local officials , uh , wanted to continue to ban and and keep it on the books as a , as a potential way to stop , um , and to criminalize the activity was really the inspiration.
S3:
S2: I think that it's still too new. Uh , I applaud , um , David for his work. I think it's super important because you see how I view low riding as a quote unquote academic. It's all about who controls space , who defines space , who can use it , who can't use it , you know , public space , you know , and we have the legacy of Chicano Park. Another example where space was destroyed , where people had to come in and reclaim it. Low rating is the same thing. We were suddenly told , you can't drive that car on that road , you can't do this on that road. There's certain curfews you can and cannot do. So that's really what it is. You know , you can frame it and shape it and mold it how you like. But think about it , who makes those decisions and how do they get defined and who reinforces those ? So what happened with low riding ? They just simply said , you know what ? You don't have a right to drive your car. You don't have a right to express your culture. You don't have a right to share your humanity and your sense of what you do in the streets. It's like , if I was a professional dancer and I was told I couldn't dance , you know , because you can't have low riders without Cruisy. And what I'm getting at with regards to your question is that it's going to come down , in my opinion , to the numerous polices , the police departments in different municipalities , if they choose to abide by the law , if they choose to honor it , then I think we'll be in good shape. If they don't , then we're going to have some problems.
S3: I mean , I want to come back to the lowrider archive , you know , at the University of San Diego. I mean , I understand it's the only one of its kind in the world.
S2: That small little Catholic school. Can you believe that ? Yeah. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. That's great.
S2: I really appreciate the fact that the way this is set up by Amanda McCullough , who is our librarian , that we can then , you know , collect data , and we notice that it's not a surprise that a lot of the downloading is coming from Japan. Nagoya , very powerful space for low rate. And in fact , the Japanese lowriders were just here during Chicano Park Day. That to me is super important because then it reaffirms the importance of low ratings , something that started in the like I said , in the in the streets , it started in the garages and the alleys , you know , in the barrios has now taken on an international perspective. And one of the largest lowriders show ever in the world happened in Nagoya , Japan. So. This is really interesting. It's no longer , you know , these hood rats that are causing problems , etc. , etc. because what people don't understand is we're now three generations deep into low riding. So it's not just me cruising my car , it's me , my family , my grandkids who are now into low riding. So it's a family event. And as an ethnic studies professor , we are asking ourselves always , what's the true story here ? How do we tell our story from our perspective ? And so here is an example where you can take the voices and the images and the narratives from the people who live them , and really honor them through the archive.
S1: That was Midday Edition producer Andrew Brackin speaking with Alberto Pulido. He's chair of the ethnic studies department at the University of San Diego. He helped create the San Diego Lowrider Archival Project. You can check out the archive at digital Dot San diego.edu/lowriders. Coming up , award winning author and artist John Jennings shares how hip hop influences his visual art.
S5: Photoshop , for instance , is like a it's almost like a like a mixing board , but visual , right ? I mean , it's like the it's like the dopest , like collage , uh , making device that you can imagine. You take all the different things and put it together and that's exciting.
S1: We'll hear more about that. Plus , his comics and new exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum Midday Edition is back after the break. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. Last night , the Comic-Con Museum opened a binational exhibit called Border Blitz , and another called collaborations A journey with John Jennings. Now , for those who don't know who John Jennings is , he's an award winning comic creator and afrofuturist. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando has been following his work for years. She spoke with him last night at the opening reception for his exhibit. Take a listen.
S6: So , John , this is actually your first time here at the Comic-Con Museum.
S5: I've. Yeah , I'm very excited. So , you know , I was already honored to to be selected to be in the show with all these other wonderful artists. But now I wasn't prepared for this , actually. Okay.
S6: So your exhibit is called collaboration. So explain what that means.
S5: Well , I mean , so one of the things is that comics can be really collaborative. One , one of the things that I think about a lot too , is like how stories function like , I think we're made out of stories to a certain degree. And so we collaborate on these stories together all the time , you know , especially if you're making comics , then you're almost depending upon the audience to be a collaborator as well. But due to how comics in the mainstream industry are produced , you have like people who have different designations , like you have a writer , you have a inker , you have a , you know , colorist , and they're easy to collaborate with. Right ? And so when you want to get stories out , you know , you share the stories. You know , you have to be you have to mind your ego. And you think about the story first. And I've been able to do that for like about 20 or so years. And I've been very fortunate to find some wonderful human beings to , to collaborate with. Right. And so it's really about like the beauty of comics as a medium , but also just the joy of of sharing ideas and collaborating with people that you care about.
S6: This particular exhibit also encourages some collaboration from people visiting the museum.
S5: That's right. And we thought , like , you know , it'd be great to actually have people interact with the art in different ways. So we actually have these , like black and white images that I've created that people can actually color and make their own stories. And it's really cool , kind of cool because you're collaborating with me , but you also collaborate with the with the images and you know , where they came from and stuff like that. So that's pretty cool. That's the beauty of comics that they kind of like this really kind of , uh , I don't know how you explain it. They kind of push against the grain a lot , you know , as far as , like how comics go , anybody with an idea can make a comic , you know , you can actually take an image or a series of photographs , you know , add some text , take it down to the to the local copy shop , and you become a comic book producer , right ? You publish the comic. That's a very , very cool and powerful thing , you know , and and then you're collaborating directly with your audience. It's exciting. So anyway , that's what I at least that's how I feel about it.
S6:
S5: My mother is , uh , she's the culprit , right ? We still talk a lot about comics and , like , action movies and horror movies and stuff. So everything that's on the walls is because of of because of her. You can blame Janie M Lenoir. That's who did it. So I was always an avid reader. Uh , I was really into just knowledge and stuff. I came up , you know , in a fairly agrarian space and , you know , not a lot of access to , um , you know , a city space , you know , urban space. So I had plenty of time to dream and think about stories , and I would collect bugs and like , you know , look at the stars and read a lot. And I would draw a lot. And so I had like three library cards and me and my mom would like , hit all. We would have library day where we hit all the libraries. And I would come up with a stack of books , mostly mythology books about superstitions. I used to be really into like , like crazy , like knock knock jokes , you know , the stuff like that. What she did is like , she saw , like , I was really into mythology , different types of mythology. So she one day found , like , the Mighty Thor , you know , um , from Marvel Comics. She brought that home along with a few other things , gave them to me. And then she basically created a comic monster. And because after that , anything that looked like a comic , I was trying to read it. I'm talking like hot stuff. Casper the Friendly Ghost , Archie , Batman , Wonder Woman , whatever. I was going to read it. So that's how it started.
S6: Well , another thing about collaborations is a number of the graphic novels you've worked on have been adapted from well-known novelists. You have Octavia Butler. Uh , so talk about adapting a novel to a graphic novel format.
S5: Well , I mean , that is , adapting prose into a graphic novel is a totally different collaborative process. And Damian Duffy , who , by the way , is a longtime collaborator I've been working with for now , over 20 years , actually , he's still I'm still alive. He's still tolerates me. Right now , we're working on our third Octavia Butler adaptation , and Octavia Butler is our third collaborator. So basically what you do is you go through the text. A lot of times Damian will actually , like , read the book , like , I don't know , at least like 13 to 20 times. I will a lot of times listen to the book while I'm sketching character designs. One of the biggest things you have to realize is that when you're translating a book , you know you're actually changing the narrative because comics is a different medium. And. Different media have different affordances. Right. So some things you can do in prose you can't do in comics. And that translation , you're you're thinking about the strength of what comics do is different. Right. And so we try to build that into the narrative as much as possible. A lot of times you have to like truncate things. Sometimes you have to edit and which is scary , like edit Octavia Butler's words like , what are you talking about ? Sometimes you have to show and not tell , and you have to be really meticulous about the field because really it's about effect.
S6: So talk a little bit about those and what inspired you and what you love about doing those.
S5: So I'm a huge horror fan as well , and so was my mother , but I guess you would call me a horror scholar these days. I mean , I teach a whole class on horror and race , and I've been writing a lot in that vein. I'm still I'm working on a horror novel graphic novel right now with Vault Comics. Actually , that particular series was inspired by what they call Inktober. For some reason , this thing called Inktober jumped off , and it's basically during the entire month of October. You have to like draw one image per day. So I decided to do a black horror image or icon every day , and that's how that started. So there is actually a 28 images total. And they're black and white. They're really quick. And you know , I was surprised I was actually able to pull it off because it's a lot. It's actually like to do that every day is like without fail I got to do my one image , you know , it turns out. But anyway but that's the inspiration for those. And I think they turned out really cool and people seem to really respond to them. So that's why I put them in the show.
S6: Well , and also it's a nice spectrum because you have stuff from the early 30s , like I walked with a zombie , but then up through serpent in the rainbow. So you have a really nice eclectic array of characters.
S5: Well , I was really inspired by Robin Coleman's book Horror Noir and the subsequent documentary , which was , uh , on shudder. And so they do a really wonderful job of looking at horror , like the history of race and horror , but that was part of it as well. There's been a really , really serious uptick of black horror scholarship. Yeah. I mean , so that's that was part of it too. I think I was just like it was in my head. I was like , let's , let's do these right. And people responded to them well , and I'm glad that we got a chance to put them here in the show.
S6:
S5: It's such a wild little movie.
S7: Don't look Now , but there's a great big man right behind you.
S8: Listen , Helen , that gags as old as the Hills. Why , they've even said it to music.
S7: Well , that's just fine , because then Dana likes music , don't you ? And Dana.
S5: Son of Angie is is one of my favorites. And I love just the the symmetry of of the design of the character. Another one is an image of , uh , chocobos from this little known movie called The Inheritance. It's not a great film. It's almost like black folk horror movie. Keith David is in it. It had a lot of potential , but I like the design of the character , you know what I'm saying ? So it's it's an interesting film. So I like the just the simplicity of how the Ducks and Lights plays off of that image.
S6: And because this is for radio , describe a little bit of what your style looks like.
S5: So my style is very much informed by woodcut. If you've ever seen like intaglio , woodcut or like anything dealing with like say , printmaking , you know , I was taught by printmakers. One of my , my mentors was Tom Kovacs , and he was a woodcut artist , and he was my instructor , actually , like in mentor during like graduate school at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And he was a Polish woodcut artist. And he his style was very much influenced by that kind of like beautiful expressionist space. I was really moved by the German Expressionist in particular , and then some people from the Harlem Renaissance , like Paul Marden and , uh , Louis Mailloux Jones. But I'm also really influenced by people like Franz Mario and Lynn Ward. So that particular aesthetic but digital. Yeah , because I don't have time to make printmaking. I got too many deadlines. But I really like the way that that that aesthetic work. So what I try to do is like , how do I emulate a analog printmaking aesthetic , but digitally ? Because I work totally digital now.
S6: And you mentioned that you were influenced by these woodcuts , but there's also kind of a more contemporary hip hop feel to some of this , too.
S5: Yeah , I was really moved. I came in to hip hop. It's like , how does someone from , you know , who grew up lower working class , I guess poor in Mississippi actually get excited about hip hop , right ? So it started from listening to something like walk this way , one.
UU: Two , three fast.
S5: You know what ? Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith. I was like , man , this is actually pretty cool , right ? So yeah , I fell in love with hip hop then. And then I started to study graffiti and I started looking at like , also the way that images are made and hip hop as far as , like sampling and remixing , because it's not just graffiti , it's also like a methodology. As for how images are made. So that actually affected my entire like the way that I look at making images and in general , you know , just image making , right ? The principles of like juxtaposition of different ideas , like disruption of , of images using things that are analog with the digital and also like just becoming a big sampling machine. I mean , Photoshop , for instance , is like a it's almost like a , like a mixing board , but visual. Right ? I mean , it's like the it's like the dopest , like collage , uh , making device that you can imagine. You take all the different things and put it together. Man. That's exciting. So yeah. So that that affected my work. And actually , I taught the first hip hop centered design class at the University of Illinois back in the day and actually translated that into when I taught at University of Buffalo , I was teaching a design course focused on hip hop as a production methodology.
S6: And there is also a section in the exhibit on Afrofuturism. And this is something that you are very invested in.
S5: Right ? The term was coined in 1993 by Mark Dery , cultural critic , really wonderful human. And he was thinking a lot about like , well , where the black science fiction writers right now , this is the early 90s in the nascent period of like the World Wide Web , and he's thinking about counterculture and cyber culture. And he was noticing as far as , like genre was concerned , you didn't see a lot of like , science fiction writers outside of like , Sam Delany , who we interviewed for this piece called black to the future. And he was looking at Octavia Butler's work. Of course , people like Stephen Barnes , who is actually still creating with his wife , Tananarive Due now. And he just saw like a dearth of , like , representation in that space. But what he started to do was thinking a lot about like , well , how do black people think about like , idioms of science fiction and how they apply to black bodies in the West , and also how are they articulating the future through this Afrocentric lens ? So he was thinking about , like a lot of the trappings of like cyberpunk and how it maps really easily upon like the black experience , like after the Mafia , that is the , you know , the upheaval of slavery and oppression of the , of the Middle Passage. So in some ways , we're living in a post-apocalyptic space , you know , because we survive , like the desolation , the destruction of of countless lives in that particular piece. So we're kind of like thinking about the future differently. So once you've survived that , like , what is the future would black folk look like ? Because if you look at like science fiction from like the 1950s , now I only know black people. There's hardly any people of color at all , you know , in the future. So you really don't see black people in science fiction , anything visual , until you look at something like The Outer Limits , the Outer Limits episode that predates Star Trek , actually. What does a Kenyan astronaut actually in one episode ? And and it's just like he's just there. It's not even a big deal , right ? Which is awesome. And of course , you have Uhuru , right from Starship Enterprise. And what , 66 is when when Star Trek starts. So think about that. The erasure of an entire body of people up until the 1960s. Right. And we came up with what , 1619 ? Right. So that's a problem , you know , where are we in the future ? So Afrofuturism actually like is an articulation of that. It's an epistemology. It's a way of seeing like , okay , what does the future look like when we're there and how do we get there together ? Like how do we get to Star Trek , you know. So yeah. Anyway , so that's that's kind of what it's looking like. And so there's visual aspects to that , you know. So that's what the Afrofuturism section is about.
S6: This exhibit is not going to remain in place permanently. It's going to actually like rotate through different kinds of themes or sections.
S5: That's very much influenced by Jack Kirby's work. Imagine , like if Jack Kirby were alive in another universe and he was an African-American man , you know , what kind of images would he be making then ? So that's what that's what Black Kirby is. So that's the second section. Then I when I created this , another , um , collaborative with my friend David Brain called Black Cats , and we actually been working on a lot of books together. If you've seen the book After the Rain , you know , that's me and David Brain working together. And so we've actually been working on a lot of stuff together. And we're actually he did the breakdowns for , um , the Parable of Talents book and did a wonderful job doing it. We work really well together. He also has an MFA from , uh , Savannah College of Art and design , in comics making and in sequential art. And Stacy has an MFA in design from University of Buffalo. So it's these three like collaborative entities working together. And so that's part of it. And in the middle of all of that , you have someone like Doctor Damien Duffy , who's tying all this stuff together as a letter and creator and character designer and. And writer. That's the show. It's all about , like , you know , and over a so to speak , of , like just creativity , you know , but through a collaborative lens.
S1: That was award winning author and artist John Jennings , speaking with KPBS , Beth Accomando. His new exhibit , collaborations , just opened at the Comic-Con Museum. The exhibit will be up for four months before rotating in new art. Still ahead , we'll tell you about a new production at the Diversionary Theatre.
S9: They said not this time. We don't want to watch T and L die in a fireball at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
S1: That and more in your weekend preview. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. For our weekend preview , we have a new musical adaptation of Thelma and Louise , visual art , poetry , and even an opera based on interviews with wounded veterans. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , welcome.
S10: Hey , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here , as always. So let's talk about this new musical having a world premiere at Diversionary Theater. It's called TLDR Thelma Louise Dike remix. Fill us in on that. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. So this is written by a pair of frequent co collaborators , playwright Ella Rose cherry and composer Brandon James Quinn , and they also co-wrote the lyrics. This is a retelling of the Thelma and Louise story , like turning it almost entirely on its end. Literally. This is at diversionary and the stars are Sarah Porco and Sofia Aurora Johnson in the lead roles. They're they're known as L and T , and they'll be joined on stage by a live band that are actually full characters in the show. Wow.
S1: Sounds like just so much more than just an adaptation of the movie. Right ? Right.
S10: And I had a chance to talk to the playwrights. And with what this play is trying to say and all of the creativity involved , they really could have easily just made up an entirely new story. But by working with this existing thing , like these icon level characters of Thelma and Louise , there's a lot being done here about representation and also reclaiming stories.
S1: All right , well , let's take a listen to your interview with playwrights Ella Rose Cherry and Brandon James Gwinn.
S10: I want to start with a question that this musical is trying to tackle. Why do strong female characters always gotta die ? Ella Rose , can you take me back to your experience with the movie Thelma and Louise and where that question first started to take root for you ? Sure.
S11: Thanks for asking that. That question takes root for me more globally even than the movie Thelma and Louise. I'm very familiar with the Bury Your Gaze trope , which is the idea that in so much of our media , movies , television , film , queer characters die and that that that's our our queer story either come out credits roll or die. And one of my strongest memories of Thelma and Louise when I had a consciousness about it when I was younger , was the idea that they died and that that was sort of spoiled the movie for some folks , or felt like a , like a bad , a bad thing that here's this movie with these strong women at the helm. But at the end of the movie is that they die. And I later learned in researching this piece , which is really interesting , is that that was chosen specifically to kind of be in line with the men outlaw stories. And so that was sort of turned for me. I had had this feeling of like , you know , as we say in the show , from Madame Bovary to Thelma and Louise , strong women characters are always dying. But the reason they did it in Thelma and Louise is because if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid don't have to get captured , then why should Thelma and Louise ? And so there was a lot of anger at that idea about that movie , and it kind of changed my lens on that specific thing , thinking , oh yeah , that makes sense why they did it that way. And at the same time , it still is different for men and women. It's different for us to have women outlaw characters who die because it is part of a canon of strong or rebellious women and queer women being amongst that rebellious set , having to die. Uh , so I think all of those things mixed together in my mind to arrive us at this point where we say in this show , not this time. This time we're going to flip all of those narratives on their head. We're not we're not going to do that same thing again , and we're not going to bury our gaze , and we're not going to bury our strong women , and we're not going to cancel our queer television shows after one season. We're going to get to see what happens next.
S10:
S9: I think that I think that's part of the magic of this show is , um , I think that maybe , uh , you know , your proverbial butt is in the proverbial seat because of of a familiarity with a media , a piece of media called Thelma and Louise. But really you're introduced to two characters named T and L , and they're named that for very strong reasons. And they drive a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible off of the edge of the Grand Canyon. And I'm not spoiling anything , because that's the first thing that happens in this musical. And I think that that's all makes all the difference. So that's the first thing that happens in this musical. And then the rest of the musical is what they get to explore , to try to find out what could happen if these strong female , these strong queer female characters didn't have to die and they're there. I think they're funny. I think they're charming. I think that they , um , are universal. They're trying to figure out what they're really what the rules of their relationship are. If there are rules and how they relate to the world around them. And the band , who was the actual band for the show they play ? The instruments in the show are four characters that we kind of find out manifested this whole thing. They said , not this time. We don't want to watch T and L die in a fireball at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. What could happen if they just get to be queer together and the story can continue ? So in a way , they've really kind of fan fixed or manufactured or manifested this entire theatrical evening and this entire continuation of the story. Really , I think that you're meeting you're meeting completely new characters that you can find lots of different kinds of media touchstones in , and maybe yourself a little bit , maybe a universal version of you , you being the audience.
S10: You mentioned the band , and I want to talk more about music. I'd like to play some of the music from the musical this recording was from. It was a zoom workshop , uh , three years ago. So this is all pre-production , but it was still powerfully performed by actor Hannah Cruz , who is not in this production. But this gives us a taste of what we're going to hear. The song is called Put Up a Fight.
UU: If you pass me on this highway. If you can't slow down to meet me. I'll have to hitchhike for a while and I gotta find my own way home.
S10: Brandon , tell us about the song.
S9: It's what you would call the proverbial 11:00 number. Um , and it's it's sung so beautifully by our friend Hannah Cruise , who I really have to give a shout out to. We've been friends for so long , and she is in she's not in the San Diego production that we're talking about because she is on Broadway in the musical stuffs that just opened. Um , but put up a fight is the sort of like a rock powerhouse , um , decision making song. It does a little bit of like , just kind of rock and roll. I try not to pastiche pastiche in this musical , but really just be inspired by a whole lot of like , rock and roll and pop rock that has been made famous by women plus artists in America over the years. And so we're going for this , like very , very powerful sound where T decides inside the song what her next steps are going to be. And if I say any more about those next steps , then I will give away the ending of the play. But uh , but yes , it's a , it's a big decision that really kind of once we've , as I said earlier , once we've done all of these three bears , when we've gone through all the options of what our queer happy ending can look like , um , then there's like one more big choice to make that really does affect where the rest of the story can and will go. And it's made inside this song. So , you know , as T says , she decides to put up a fight for what she wants rather than just kind of go the direction that the narrative is telling her to go.
S10: In L.A. , Rose , so many of us know Thelma and Louise , but this musical is its own living , breathing thing.
S11: I don't see myself there at all. And then there's an experience called this identification , which is I see a piece of media and I'm not in that piece of media , but I find myself there anyway. And that , I think , is what a lot of queer women feel for the movie Thelma and Louise. We are not depicted in that film. It is not an explicitly queer film. Those women are explicitly straight. I think the author's intent is that they are straight. And yet somehow , some way we find ourselves in that media. And the truth is that for queer people , a lot of media is like that. A lot of things are not explicitly about us , but we find ourselves in them , and we try to figure out where we see ourselves in the world through decided fiction , with with things that aren't meant for us or really about us. And what is exciting to me about this musical , what's new is that this is a musical that is about us. And then also , I just think that the the songs are the songs are new and like , we really we really like these songs that we've written. I think that they're being performed beautifully by these cast members that in San Diego and I , I'm just really excited to share it with the audience.
S1: That was Ella Rose Cherry and Brandon James. Gwen talking about the play TLDR Thelma Louise Dyke Remix , which is on stage May 9th through June 2nd at diversionary. And let's talk about what else is going on in arts and culture this weekend. Saturday is a big day in Barrio Logan. It's the monthly barrio Art crawl. So what's on your radar there ? Right.
S10: So this is all day Saturday and the galleries and shops and restaurants along Logan Avenue. I'll open up , um , this basically a mix of this giant block party and then a self-guided tour of all of the art and culture that the neighborhood has to offer. And it's also when the bread and salt galleries , they always have some sort of opening or reception , and that is just a few streets over from Logan Avenue.
S1: All right. So what's on at Bread and Salt this Saturday ? Right.
S10: So they're actually opening a couple of new exhibitions in a bunch of the galleries. It doesn't always align like that. Sometimes there's just one at new exhibition , but there's a lot this weekend. And the main gallery is one that I am super interested in. It's Richard Kelly's lookout. Richard Kelly is a sculptor and an installation artist. His work is kind of geometric , it's industrial , but it's also really minimalist. There's a lot of of circular shapes , whether suspended or mounted on the wall. And the one thing I have to say about Richard Kelly is how often his name has. Up over the years and interviews I've done with other artists. You know , when they talk about his influence as an educator on them , or they namedrop a class that they've taken that he's taught. So he really does play this huge role in the community here. Also at Bread and Salt , Max Daley's Oslo Sardine bar will be installed at the Not an Exit gallery. It's this tiny space tucked away in the corner. And that is a very strange and very fascinating , very curious installation. And Best Practice also has new work from Monica Arriola , who is a Tijuana based photographer. Her exhibition is called Echoes of Abandonment photographs of a Utopia. It's a it's a series of these kind of haunting photographs of abandoned housing projects in Tijuana and kind of after the 2008 crash there and also at the Athenaeum Art center , they're showing work from a handful of advanced student artists. This is the annual Sdsu Art Council scholarship exhibition. And throughout , Brennan saw all of those artists and and experts will gather and they'll be doing panel discussions in the brick room. This is all from 5 to 8 on Saturday at Bread and Salt and Barrio Art crawl as a whole runs from noon to eight.
S1: Sounds like something to pack out the weekend. All right , so we've got an opera production that's based on interviews of wounded veterans to. What do you know about that ? Right.
S10: It's called The Falling and the rising , and it's produced by Bodhi Tree Concerts. The opera itself is composed by Zach Radler and Jared Dye , and it was actually cut from San Diego Opera's mainstage season last year due to budget reasons. So it'll now have its San Diego premiere , after all , with a different company. So that's that's really cool to see. And the story follows a veteran who is stuck in a coma , and we're kind of drawn inside her dreamscape with her. This is a story that was informed by hundreds of hours of interviews with veterans at Walter Reed Medical Center , and it'll be performed at Point Loma Assembly at 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday this weekend , and tickets start at just $25.
S1: All right. And of course , we've got a round things out here with some live music happening in San Diego this weekend. I know the big attraction is Wonder Front , which runs Friday through Sunday.
S10: It's tonight , Lawrence Rothman with local Eric Schroeder opening. Lauren's Rothman is a non-binary alt country artist , and they have a new album out. It's called The Plow That Broke the Plains. This track is kerosene from that album.
UU: I'm not trying to be. You're saving. I know you would never looking for salvation. I'm not trying to change. You don't have to smile for the camera.
S10: And one more on Saturday at the Casbah. Local R&B group We the Commies will play. They're going to join with lo fi and pop artists Cheyenne Benton and Topeka Clementine , all locals. It's a great lineup and we the Comets just put out a new EP. It was in February and this is called Starman from that EP.
UU: I mean , I was feeling so. Stymied.
S12: Stymied. Stymied. Well.
S1: Well. You can find details on these and more arts events , or sign up for Julia's weekly KPBS arts newsletter at KPBS mortgage Arts. I've been speaking with KPBS Arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans. Julia. Thanks.
S10: Thank you. Jade.
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.
