Special Announcement: Our wonderful partners at the San Diego Diplomacy Council are organizing a trip to Morocco from October 12th to the 20th, 2023. As with their other trips, you would be traveling with a small group of around 20-25 people. Click HERE for more information on the trip and to register today!

Special Announcement #2: The Center for World Musics concert series is drawing to a close on Friday, May 19th with the Strings and Bamboo: The Essence of Chinese Music program featuring virtuoso erhu performer Chi Li. Participant Observer readers will get a $5 discount with the code: "WVP". Check it out!

Getting underway yesterday, the WOW (Without Walls) Festival continues throughout with performances at several different venues. Also all weekend long, the International Mobile Film Festival will take place at Marina Village Conference Center. Today, Saturday and Sunday there will be performances Opera Neo's rendition of The Barber of Seville taking place at Balboa Park's Spanish Village.

Friday, at the Ocean Beach Library, there will be an El Día de los Libros Storytime for kids. Mexican folk ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán will perform at the El Cajon Magnolia Performing Arts Center.

Saturday, the delightful Annual Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair & Parade will take place. At the Oceanside Civic Center, there will be an Asian Pacific Islander Festival with lots of food and lots of performances. The SoCal Taco Fest will take place at Waterfront Park. In North Park, there will be a Salsa Fest featuring music, salsa tasting, food trucks, and a beer garden. In the afternoon there will be an Arab American Heritage Month Celebration at the Poway Library. At the Point Loma Library, the Opus Generis poetry reading will focus on "five classical poems that illustrate the gender-identity formation process." The Border X Lucha Libre event at the Spring Valley Gymnasium will "showcase Luchadors from all over the globe". At D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla, author Lawrence Goldstone will discuss and sign copies of his book, Not White Enough. Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band will perform at The Loft at UCSD. Capping off next Saturday evening is another Beatles vs. Stones battle of the tribute bands at the Belly Up.

Sunday at Liberty Station, the Nowroz & Eid Festival will feature shopping, music, dance, food, and games. At the International Cottages, the House of Finland will hold their annual Lawn Program featuring cultural food, performances, and demonstrations. At the cozy Digital Gym, there will be a screening of Othello which was filmed live at the National Theatre. At All Saints' Episcopal Church, the Greater San Diego Music Coterie will perform works inspired by the city of Rome. Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles and Villa-Lobos Brothers will perform at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla. The Worldbeat Center will be starting a new Afro-Latin Jam Session which will take place every Sunday. A Hindustani instrumental program, Tejendra Majumdar’s Sarod, will be performed at the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas. The exquisitely talented multi-lingual vocalist Allison Adams Tucker and her Women in Jazz Quartet celebrate International Jazz Day at Tio Leo’s. At the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, the Comedy for Peace show aims to unite Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities through humor and mutual understanding. At the First Unitarian Universalist Church, historian Natalia Molina will discuss her book A Place at the Nayarit which tells the story of an immigrant community uniting restaurant in LA.

Monday, Steven A. Yagyagan will speak about his books, Asian Pacific Heritage Month and hold a Q&A at Miramar College. Crazy Rich Asians will be shown at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. At the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library there will be a talk on Cezanne & Van Gogh. Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Rauw Alejandro will perform at the Pechanga Arena.

Wednesday, at the Digital Gym Cinema, there will be a filmed live broadcast of Othello by the National Theatre. Ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro will play for two shows at the Belly Up.

Next Thursday, there will be a Holocaust Remembrance program at Southwestern College. At USCD Professor Christina H. Lee will give a talk on "Devotions in the Philippines of Early Spanish Rule". At the Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego Italian Film Festival will screen the film Lasciarsi un Giorno a Roma (Breaking Up in Rome). Alternative experimental band Y La Bamba will perform at the Casbah.

Next Friday, is Cinco de Mayo and the festivities will kick off with the 3-day Old Town Fiesta Cinco de Mayo.

On Friday itself, the Gaslamp Cinco De Mayo will take place. Nerd Comedy Cinco De Mayo at the Sunshine Brooks Theatre in Oceanside will feature comic Rene Garcia. The charming film Coco will screen at the Hyatt and later in the day so will the biographical film Selena. Mariachi El Bronx will perform at the Belly Up. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month will be honored at the Thumbprint Gallery with a month-long Group Exhibition featuring the works of more than 25 AAPI artists. There will be a Carnatic Vocal Concert at the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas. The Tiburtina Ensemble will perform at St. James by the Sea.

Next Saturday, Tlingit glass sculptor Preston Singletary will talk about the evolution of Native glass making, his own artwork, and the techniques he employs. At the New Americans Museum, Una Storia Segreta (A Secret History) will be screened. The documentary is about the injustices suffered by Italian Americans during World War II. Following the film there will be a panel discussion. Convoy Nights will celebrate API Heritage. The Little Italy Film series returns with a screening of Pane, Amore e Fantasia. The film will be shown at the Firehouse Theater, but it appears that after the weather warms up they will be showing films outdoors in Amici Park. Latin band Ozomatli will perform at UCSD. City Ballet will perform Romeo & Juliet at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. There will be a second performance the day after (Sunday).

Next Sunday, the Balboa Park International Cottages will host their annual Ethnic Food Fair. Save us some paella! The Wailers will perform at the Magnolia in El Cajon. The group Kokoko! from the Democratic Republic of Congo will perform at The Loft in UCSD.

As far as we know, Exotic Deadly, or the MSG Play at the Old Globe White Theatre is the only cross-cultural theater production currently happening in San Diego.

Please note that after two weeks in the main calendar section, ongoing events (such as exhibitions and plays) can be found in Ongoing and Extended Events.

And if you are an avid and adventuresome reader, visit our www.multiculturalbooks.org site to browse our compendious collection.