Kowit Awards with the California Poet Laureate and San Diego Poet Laureate
Books, Poetry
Newly appointed San Diego poet laureate Jason Magabo Perez will join the also-newly appointed California poet laureate Lee Herrick this Friday for a poetry reading and mini book fair at the downtown library. It's not often we get to use the obscure plural "poets laureate," so this is pretty exciting for me.
This event centers on the annual Kowit Prize, named after legendary San Diego poet and professor Steve Kowit who died in 2015. The newest recipient is Davis, California poet Julia Levine, who will read at the event. In addition to Levine, Herrick and Magabo Perez, former San Diego poet laureate Ron Salisbury, Gill Sotu, Jeff Walt and more will also read. It's quite the gathering of California poetry stars.
I recently spoke with Lee Herrick about what it means to be a California poet.
"So many of the great poets here that I admire are writing from some experience of immigration or otherness, arrival, discovery, opportunity — things like that. I think those threads run through California in general as well," Herrick said.
Herrick was born in South Korea and adopted by a white American family when he was 10 months old. Some of his poetry touches on this background.
"At least with adoption, I don't think we have to have all the answers. Maybe we discover what we're thinking through the writing. And I think that's part of the beauty of creative writing or poetry is that we can invent, and we can create. And for adoption being rooted in such loss and grief, writing was always a place of freedom, honestly. It was a place of imagination and wonder and even salvation in some ways," Herrick said.
To hear my full interview with Herrick — including the Public Enemy song he says most strongly influenced his poetry — listen to the latest Midday Edition podcast episode. You can read one of Herrick's most beloved poems, "My California," here.
Check out our January interview with San Diego Poet Laureate Jason Magabo Perez here.
Details: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 7. San Diego Central Public Library, 330 Park Blvd., downtown. Free.
'Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play'
Theater
"Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play" is a new play by playwright Keiko Green, and it was initially workshopped by The Old Globe in their Powers New Voices Festival last year. I've read some of the script and I was hooked after a few pages. The script is delightful — funny, experimental, fantastical — and it has a lot of heart. It follows Ami, an Asian American teenager in 1999 who desperately wants to blend in, but has to face her family business' role in the MSG panic of the era. Enter "Exotic Deadly," a strangely named new Japanese girl at school who doesn't seem to care what others think, shaking things up for Ami. This production is directed by Jesca Prudencio.
Details: On stage April 8 through May 7. This weekend's shows are 8 p.m. on Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. $39+.
Medium Festival of Photography
Photography
This annual festival attracts photographers and photography fans from near and far for discussions, exhibitions, portfolio reviews, workshops and more. Some highlights this weekend: The "Black Celebration: Photographic Works from Medium Photo's Black Artist Scholarship Recipients" exhibition at City College's Luxe Gallery (this weekend's hours are Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.), and the keynote conversation with Judith Joy Ross and Joshua Chuang at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla at 6:15 p.m. on Friday. The festival is almost entirely free, and you can find the full schedule here.
Details: Multiple events through April 16 in San Diego County and Tijuana. Free.
Jupiter Flight and Nite Lapse at the Casbah
Music, Indie/Rock
Jupiter Flight is a local band featuring brothers Jorge, Ricardo and Daniel Quevedo. The drummer is the vocalist, which always makes for a fun live show. They put out a new four-track EP in September called "EP 1113," which is a great, retro listen with lush and clangy beats and deep, ominous vocals.
Nite Lapse will also perform — you can read a little more about them in a "5 songs" roundup we did last year. And with rising concert ticket prices ever-present these days, who can resist an $8 show?
Details: 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 8. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., midtown/Little Italy. $8.
Mathieu Gregoire: 'Lines'
Visual art, Sculpture
The small, sun-filled ICE Gallery space inside Bread & Salt has new work up. "Lines" is a site-specific, gallery-filling installation by longtime San Diego artist Mathieu Gregoire. It's a collection of long, tether-like, sculptural black lines suspended from the floor to the ceiling.
Details: On view by appointment (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday), or during Barrio Art Crawl (see below) this Saturday from 5-8 p.m. ICE Gallery, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Free.
Barrio Art Crawl and Fern Street Circus
Visual art, Food, Circus, Music
The monthly Barrio Art Crawl runs from noon to 8 p.m. this Saturday, and is mostly anchored along Logan Ave. and the surrounding blocks, with 30-something galleries and shops, food stalls and music.
Highlights: Luna Bloom Shop on Logan Ave. will be having a Little Artists exhibition of kids' art; the Fern Street Circus will kick off their new neighborhood tour with a bilingual performance at 2 p.m. at Memorial Park in Logan Heights, which is less than a mile away from the main action; and also in Logan Heights, Bread & Salt will be open late, where you can check out work by Sophie Ramos, Armando de la Torre, Mathieu Gregoire (see above) and a fascinating Robert Barry painting at Quint ONE.
Details: Noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 8. Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. Free.
Prebys Play Day: Art Block Party
Visual art, Family, Kids, Music
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla is free all day on Sunday, and it's also a great time to bring your kids. Start with a kid-friendly museum tour at 10 a.m., then catch some of the artmaking activities, including one inspired by Amy Adler's playground painting on view in the museum, as well as a community stamp mural, a music class and a storytime.
If you haven't seen the new special exhibitions by Celia Álvarez Muñoz and Griselda Rosas yet, now you can do it for free.
Details: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 9. (family activities run 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.). MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. Free.
You can find more events, or submit your own, at the KPBS/Arts Calendar. And be sure to sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts newsletter here.
