San Diego Culturecast By Voice Of San Diego

A quick announcement about the future of Culturecast.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steph Johnson says there's a perception problem when it comes to homelessness. The local jazz musician founded Voices of Our City Choir in 2016. In the beginning, Johnson simply wanted to provide an artistic outlet for people sleeping on the streets. She found a rehearsal space and invited homeless people to sing with her once a week. The project, though, has since morphed into an advocacy group that works to humanize homelessness, build empathy for people experiencing it and advocate for change. In a new episode of Culturecast, Voice of San Diego’s podcast covering arts and culture in the region, I talk to Johnson and three choir members about how the chorus has become a powerful voice for homelessness in San Diego. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Comic-Con center is starting to take shape in Balboa Park. In a Q-and-A, Adam Smith, the organization's new director, and David Glanzer, a long-time Comic-Con staffer, talk about what we can expect from the new home of popular arts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week’s Culturecast: Border art. Though Trump’s aggressive border policies provoked an international conversation that lasted throughout 2017, for many of those involved, the border remains just a faraway political concept. For the Californians and Mexicans who live near it, though, the border is a very real place. That was driven home throughout the year as local and foreign artists used the border as a canvas on which they expressed opinions about Trump’s policies. 2017 has been a busy year for artist making work at or about the international border fence. I asked three local artists and curators to join me to talk about border art in a roundtable discussion. Alessandra Moctezuma, an artist who runs the gallery at San Diego Mesa College and who recently curated the “unDocumenta” border show currently on view at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Jill Holslin, and artist, border activist and teacher at San Diego State University who recently took part in a big border art intervention. And Perry Vasq

Melissa Walter had a job at NASA. She did graphic design, illustration and social media, mostly for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. She loved the job, but she also started obsessing over the fine art she was making at home in her spare time. At the end of 2015, she decided to take the leap: She quit her full-time job so she could become a full-time artist. "I was sort of having more confidence in what I was doing, and more excitement, and that's all I could think about," Walter said. "I realized, OK, this is it. This is what I should be spending my time on." In a new episode of Culturecast, Voice of San Diego's podcast about arts and culture, I talk to Walter about her transition to full-time artist, and the science-based art that's been fueling her success. Many artists who quit their day jobs flounder, at least in the beginning. But Walter has quickly flourished, scoring group and solo shows, plus residencies that have allowed her to explore large-scale installation work. She's also the subject of a n

Host Kinsee Morlan explains the silence, plays a trailer for Voice of San Diego's new "I Made it in San Diego" podcast and runs an episode from the Keep the Channel Open podcast in which she's interviewed by San Diego writer and photographer Mike Sakasegawa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On a recent Friday night, a few dozen people gathered at Marston Point, a parking lot and lookout perched at the southwestern end of Balboa Park. It was a particularly cold night, so some folks huddled around a portable fire pit gripping hot cider, others jumped in and out of about 15 parked cars spread across the lot. Inside each car, audio stories played on repeat. Each was a memory of Balboa Park's gay cruising culture. Things have calmed down considerably in recent years, but Marston Point and the road leading to it were once an epicenter of gay culture in San Diego. Especially in the '50s and '60s, gay people pushed underground by the reigning mores of the time used the secluded area as a meeting place. Some folks, gay men mostly, used the dark pocket of the park to meet for anonymous sex. A few still do. The area eventually earned itself a nickname: The Fruit Loop. And especially after the sun went down, the illicit activity cranked up. Things got so wild, city officials permanently closed the nearby

In this episode of Culturecast, Voice of San Diego's podcast covering arts and culture in the region, I talk to buskers who think city policies need to change so San Diego's street culture can thrive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A special Culturecast episode focused on the recent Women's March in San Diego. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chelsea Allen, the manager of community engagement at the San Diego Symphony, said she thinks San Diego's art and culture crowd is ready for new, exciting things. "It seems from what we're learning that it's very brave," she said. "And it's willing to accept some new sounds or looks, so we're happy to be doing that here." The symphony is shaking things up with its new Our American Music festival, a month-long concert series that includes shows by hip-hop legend Talib Kweli and folk singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash alongside chamber and classical music performances. The festival also includes temporary public art installations – sound booths and a community quilt – that invite audiences to interact and create some art and music of their own. For the first episode of Season 2 of Culturecast, Voice of San Diego's podcast covering arts and culture in region, I stepped inside a sound booth and talk to Allen and Brandon Steppe, the founder and director of the David’s Harp Foundation, a nonprofit that works with a

Anna Stump and Daphne Hill are leaving their Barrio Logan art studio. Their rent went up, and while that wasn't the only thing driving their decision, it hastened it. Artists are often part of the first wave of a neighborhood's gentrification. Attracted to the big, open warehouses and affordable rents found in overlooked and forgotten urban neighborhoods, they move in, making the neighborhood cooler and in turn, attracting developers. Often, artists and other residents eventually find themselves priced out. So how can artists help keep the same old cycle from playing out? "I don't know how to solve the problem," Hill said. "Do you have an answer?" I don't, but I talked to a few people who offered up some suggestions. For episode five of Culturecast, VOSD’s podcast covering the intersection of arts and gentrification in Barrio Logan, I headed down to Bread & Salt, an arts space inside an old bread factory on the border of Barrio Logan and Logan Heights. I sat inside the warehouse for an entire day and tal

East Village isn't the thriving arts district it once was. When Petco Park was built 12 years ago, lots of the artists and galleries taking advantage of cheap rent and large warehouses there were priced out. East Village has been gentrifying since the ballpark went up. High-priced condos and nice restaurants are popping up, but the neighborhood's also home to the region's largest homeless population, In episode four of Culturecast, VOSD’s podcast covering the intersection of arts and gentrification in Barrio Logan, I talk to people who are worried that Barrio Logan's development will mirror East Village's if the Chargers get their new downtown stadium. They say the arts scene that's been flourishing in and around Barrio Logan will die if the stadium's built. Brent Beltran, who lives in Barrio Logan and is part of the Barrios Against Stadiums group, said he's concerned that both the very poor and the very rich will come to their neighborhood if Measure C passes in November. He said he and his neighbors hav

Most days, at least a couple of tour groups can be spotted making their way through Chicano Park, the park tucked under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan. Folks stop to snap selfies in front of the colorful, Mexican-themed murals as they learn about the park's history and significance. Each mural has a story. Each artist who helped paint the murals has a story. And of course, the park itself has a story that's packed with politics, turmoil and community pride. For now, volunteer tour guides - local educators, historians, longtime neighborhood residents and the Chicano Park muralists themselves – are the keepers of the park's history. But those guides are getting older and some have already passed away. That's part of what's behind the push to turn a currently vacant, city-owned building that borders the park into a museum where the park's narrative can be stored and accessed by the public for decades to come. In episode three of Culturecast, VOSD's new podcast covering the intersection of art

The first episode of Culturecast, our new podcast that for its first season examines the tensions created by gentrification and the artistic renaissance in Barrio Logan, ended on a cliffhanger. This week, we pick up where we left off and dig into the challenges local developer Greg Strangman faced after rehabbing a few buildings in Barrio Logan. Strangman’s firm spruced up two apartment buildings and a few commercial units on Logan Avenue, a street that’s become the center of the artistic renaissance happening in the historically under-served, Latino neighborhood. Soon after the projects were finished, the grumblings from the community began. Strangman opened the project with a bang in January by inviting two local arts nonprofits to take over the residential buildings for a night with a huge exhibition featuring almost two dozen San Diego artists. CityBeat arts reporter Seth Combs slammed the “Parallel” show. There were fliers and posters advertising the building’s available units hanging throughout the

Milo Lorenzana and Teresa Montero are just two of the dozens of people who've been driving an arts renaissance in Barrio Logan. Their most recent project is the redevelopment of an old building on Logan Avenue where they've opened a coffee shop and leased out the rest of the space in the building to a record store, an art school, a vintage shop and other small locally owned businesses. Milo and Bucky are wary of all the outside developers setting up shop in Barrio Logan right now. But they, too, have stepped into the role of developers themselves now, so they're being extra careful with how they go about things. They want to be the change they want to see happen throughout the rest of their neighborhood.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.