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San Diego Artist Isaias Crow Seeks Crowd Funding for a Friend

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COMPASSION Fundraiser to Raise Money for a Lost Soul on Hard Times

By Isaias Crow

You know why I have so much passion in creating workshops that promote inner-peace and positivity via the arts and why part of my artistic career is to promote other artists? Because what I want for me – I want for everybody else. I find it to be of great joy when I give to others just as I have received from others. I am paying it forward.

Now, I find myself in a position where I am asking from you.

About 2 months ago a good friend of mine called me and asked me to assist him in co-curating an art exhibition in a space he had acquired. When I met him seven years ago, he was a successful pastor at a local San Diego church, so naturally I was intrigued in what he was envisioning plus, I had not seen my friend in several years.

I invited him into my sacred space – my home and welcomed my partner Irene to join us in the conversation being that my friend (whose name we’ll keep anonymous – so we’ll call him JP) wanted to share some exciting news with us as he had put it.   [Read more…]

Photo Gallery: Predators Visit the Pacific Beach Marshland

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By Roy Little

Because the Kendall-Frost/Northern Wildlife Preserve in Pacific Beach is an isolated haven for small wildlife, various predators visit the marsh for food. Here are some photos of several breeds of hawks in the marsh and around the edges. These hawks mainly commute because the marsh and its surroundings are so close to human habitation. While their individual roosting and nest locations remains somewhat of a mystery, there is much to be said about their general size, appearance and habits.   [Read more…]

Internationally Renowned De la Torre Brothers Bring their Art to San Ysidro

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“Whysidro” to be unveiled this coming Thursday at The Front

By Leticia Gomez Franco

The Front, a 1600 square foot art space located a mile north of the U.S./Mexico border crossing in San Diego, will be converted this week into a holographic dreamland. The gallery will be home to Whysidro, a solo exhibition of new lenticular works by internationally renowned artists, Jamex & Einar De la Torre.

The exhibition celebrates the culmination of the De la Torre brothers’ one year residency at Casa Familiar’s The Front as part of the San Diego Foundations Creative Catalyst Program. During their year in San Ysidro, the brothers set out to create an entire new body of work inspired by their connection with the U.S./Mexico border.   [Read more…]

San Diego Fringe Festival Needs Housing for Artists

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By Bud Sonka

The San Diego Fringe Festival is one of the largest performance events on the West Coast. It attracts local artists and people from all over Southern California and beyond. The Fringe Festival offers the opportunity to see art without censorship in a venue that values artistic integrity. It includes puppetry, dance, circus, comedy and spoken word in what is described as a “Carnival of Theater.”

The Fringe began in 1947 when eight groups appeared uninvited to the newly formed Edinburgh International Festival and performed their shows “on the fringe” of the main festival. While the main festival still exists, The Edinburgh Fringe is now the largest theater festival in the world: more than 500 companies from around the world give thousands of performances during the 5 weeks of the festival.
  [Read more…]

One-Day Art Show Highlights Fight Against Toxic Pollution in Barrio Logan

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“Until Our Last Breath” features more than 20 barrio artists at Chicano Art Gallery

By Mia Bolton

Artists, residents and friends of Barrio Logan, with the help of Chicano Art Gallery, join forces this Saturday for a one-night-only art exhibit to tell the story of how corporate greed and pollution affect the health of Barrio Logan community members.

The exhibit, Until Our Last Breath: Barrio Artistas Contra San Diego’s Toxic Maritime Industry, features original paintings, drawings and sculpture from local artists and many Chicano Park muralists, such as Victor Ochoa, Mario Torero, Berenice Badillo, Armando Nuñez, Stephanie Cecilia Cervantes, Hector Villagas, Patricia Aguayo, Mario Chacon and Isaias Crow.   [Read more…]

My Sister’s Voice

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By Ernie McCray

Alexis Dixon, a friend of mine, recently emailed me that he was working on a new project and I’m already hyped because I remember the last project which was the first of the “Notes to Our Sons and Daughters” series.

That was a wonderful evening, with a beautiful collection of photographs so I’d say the next show, “My Sister’s Voice,” is a must go for anyone who can go.

 This stylized black and white international photographic collection is unveiled to us by Alexis and the Center for Community Solutions (CCS) which provides prevention and intervention services for violence and abuse.   [Read more…]

Video Pick: The-Dream’s “Black” and Saturday Poem: “The Great Pax Whitie (Peace be Still)” by Nikki Giovanni

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“The Condemnation of Racism Must Make Itself Manifest Now”

By Anna Daniels

Vigilante rancher welfare queen Cliven Bundy’s recent musings on “Negro” history, the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, and NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist “etiquette” pointers for his girlfriend are the past week’s dismal trifecta of old white male willful ignorance.

Yes, Meat with Eyes Sean Hannity quickly distanced himself from Bundy’s “maybe slavery was better” ravings. There was an immediate outcry over everything that was in the Sterling tape and I’m not willing to stick my hand into that particular septic tank to fish out an example. The good news being peddled is that as a society we know an old white male racist when we see him and we won’t stand for it.

But before we get all self-congratulatory, the Supreme Court decision upholding Michigan’s affirmative action ban shows how little we are willing to deal with institutional racism, which is quite different than recognizing your garden variety racist.   [Read more…]

‘Happy Dance’ for San Diego State University Dance Company on Turning 25…

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By Alejandra Enciso Guzmán

The SDSU University Dance Company will celebrate twenty-five years of dance this spring with a concert featuring stunning young artists in a contemporary dance work by SDSU faculty and guest artist Gina Bolles Sorenson. Intrigue, the bizarre and the fascinating set the tone for this showcase of San Diego’s rising new dance talent.

Lizbeth Price, Public Affairs Specialist at the SDSU School of Music and Dance, contacted San Diego Free Press to share the great news. I had the opportunity to direct a few questions to Melissa Nunn, Choreographer and Emeritus Professor of Dance.

“The objective is to provide advanced students with performing experience under the direction of professional faculty and guest choreographers; to prepare these students for professional work once they graduate” shared Nunn who will premiere a choreography of her own in this concert titled Presence.   [Read more…]

Art in the Street: The San Diego Cultural Arts Alliance Partners with Writerz Blok to Encourage Street Art in the Community

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By Karla Flores & Brent Jensen | karla@ajaproject.org & brent@ajaproject.org

How do you feel when you see vandalism around your neighborhood? Does it make you feel unsafe? Graffiti is transformed from a rebellious act of vandalism to a legal form of expression through the Graffiti Education and Mural Arts Program, an initiative by the San Diego Cultural Arts Alliance (The Alliance).

From March 20th through the 22nd, The Alliance partnered with Writerz Blok to lead a mural installation project in the parking garage of Westfield Mission Valley Mall. The event, “Underground Art in the Underground,” was a gift to the community of San Diego and a message to youth whose individuality seeks expression.   [Read more…]

Poem of the Day: “PTSD” by Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

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As part of the ongoing SDFP column Geo-Poetic Spaces

Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

Sun’s shell exploding
swimming pools
displacing water’s reflections
with electro-convulsive
flashes of dendrites in chlorine   [Read more…]

To Be a Warrior Poet

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By Will Falk

I tried to kill myself a year ago.

In the year since, I quit my job as a public defender, spent weeks in group therapy, went on Phish tour, tried to kill myself again, searched every corner of my soul and began writing earnestly.

Sometimes, I think writing has kept me alive. Writing my poetry and essays allows me to fill my world with a meaning that is under attack.

The world is burning at an ever-faster pace. We are at war. Many of us may be imprisoned, tortured, raped and ultimately killed. Before I tried to kill myself, I let myself wander too far with clogged ears deaf to the friends – both human and non-human – that fill this world with meaning.

Armed with my experiences, I know that art can – and must be – a weapon used in defense of the world.   [Read more…]

Poem of the Day: “notes from Hillcrest/one year after suicide attempt” by Will Falk

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4/16/14

By Will Falk

I am looking for a pick-axe
a long one with a thick handle
one to chip my way
through the asphalt covering
everything

I want to hear crickets
tall grasses at my heels
the shift of sand
the suck of mud

starlight

this is what I think about
wandering San Diego at night   [Read more…]

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