Hello San Diego!

Once again, there are lots of events to enjoy in the coming days and weeks. A bumper crop of music and dance concerts, captivating cinema, festivals, celebrations, art openings, theatrical performances, author talks, and more await you!

A Special Shout-out to the 2023 Asian Film Festival which launched yesterday! More than 160 films will be screened from now until the 11th! Check it out!

Today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday), encore performances of the whodunit Murder on the Moor will take place at One80 San Diego.

Friday (today) at UCSD, there will be a Spanish Language reading and discussion with Miguel Ángel Oxlaj on Indigenous Voices. At the Salk Institute, there will be a symposium on Comparative Anthropogeny and Other Approaches to Human Origins. The marvelous Mariachi Juvenil will perform at JAI at the Conrad. You can enjoy the psychedelic sound of Peruvian cumbia will Sonido Gallo Negro at Quartyard. At the Rady Shell, there will be a performance of Amal, Step into My World by the puppetry troupe Animal Cracker Conspiracy. Amal is a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child. She has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of refugees. There will be several events in San Diego where Amal will make an appearance. At MiraCosta College, they will have a screening of the documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. The Mexican bands Liberacio and BXS will perform at the Civic Theatre. At the House of Pacific Relations Hall of Nations, the Scottish group The Tannahill Weavers will perform. Filipino rock band Chicosci will be playing at the Casbah. Mexican Mega pop group OV7 will perform at the SDSU Open Air Theatre.

Saturday, the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center will present their 2nd annual Gathering of Nations to celebrate indigenous cultures. The 6th Annual East County Multicultural Festival will take place at EJE Academies in El Cajon. The Calienté Latin Music, Food, and Spirits Festival will take place at Ruocco Park. The Tears of War reading and discussion at the Central Library will include a unique performance highlighting the stories of seven refugee and asylee women. Oud master Yuval Ron will perform in La Jolla. At Chicano Park, there will be a performance of Amal & Sueños. There will be a Little Amal Flash Dance and other festivities at the Old Globe in Balboa Park. At Liberty Station, there will be an opening for the Around The Way Girl art exhibit featuring works by Puerto Rican photographer, Delana Delgado. At South Mission Beach, there will be a performance of Little Amal, Wasted Ashore. At the Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego Italian Film Festival will host a double event with a Panel Discussion (including the Italian hip-hop artist Amir Issaa) to discuss Issaa's new book This Is What I Live For: An Afro-Italian Hip Hop Memoir, and, following that, there will be a screening of the Italian comedy Scialla! (Easy!). Filipino-American stand-up comedian Ko Joy will be at the Pechanga Arena. Latin reggae, funk, and cumbia band SM Familia will play at the Holding Company.

Next Sunday at the JCC, there will be a screening of the film J'Accuse that will include a discussion with the film's two subjects, Silvia Foti and Grant Gochin, and the film's director, Michael Kretzmer. The House of Lebanon will host their annual Lawn Program at the International Cottages with music and dance performances and food. At the Oceanside Museum of Art, there will be a Persian Yalda Celebration with music and dance performances, poetry reading, storytelling, and more. At the La Jolla Riford Library, Alka Joshi will discuss her book The Perfumist of Paris. At the California Center for the Arts, there will be a Kathak Dance performance featuring Vidushi Vidha lal. Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist La Doña will perform at the Soda Bar.

Monday, the Pacific Trio will perform traditional music of China at SDSU.

Tuesday, Mariachi Garibaldi will perform at Park and Market.

Wednesday and Thursday, the Sinseers & the Altons will perform at Corazón del Barrio.

Wednesday at UCSD, there will be an exhibition on Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Student Resistance in Nazi Germany. A short run of the national tour of Mama Mia! will kick off at the Civic Theatre.

Next Thursday, Warwick's will host Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley as they discuss their new book, Three Holidays and a Wedding. The Italian Film Festival will screen Il Colibrì (The Hummingbird) at the La Paloma Theatre. At UCSD's Mandeville Theater there will be a multi-genre performance of Requiem for the Enslaved.

Next Friday, Pacific Arts Movement will host their annual Chew the Scene in celebration of this year's Asian Film Festival. There will be a Native American Art Show at the Exclusive Collections Gallery in the Gaslamp. Metalachi will be thrashing power chords at The Holding Company. Indigenous musicians Mato Wayuhi & Xiuhtezcatl will perform at the House of Blues. There will be a performance by the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens at the Balboa Theatre. At the Encinitas Seaside Center for Spiritual Living, you can take in a Carnatic Music Concert. Mexican group Son Rompe Pera will perform at UCSD's Epstein Amphitheater. The German Kino series will continue at the Digital Gym with a screening of Good Bye Lenin! There will be additional showings the next day and the following Wednesday. Hawaii's Inna Vision will perform with Gonzo of Tribal Seeds at Winstons.

Next Saturday, the Worldbeat Center will host a World Naan Championship. Warwick's will host A.K. Blakemore as she discusses her new book, The Glutton. Alliance Française San Diego will present an event featuring a discussion with Three French Authors. There will be 2 Coco Live-To-Film Concerts, the first will be in Spanish at 3:30 PM and then there will be an English language rendition at 7:30 PM. The Corazon de Vida Gala will raise funds to help orphaned and abandoned children in Baja. The Dance House will hold a Bollywood Social replete with a beginner dance class. The closing night film for the Asian Film Festival will be Moustache by Imran J. Khan.

Next Sunday, the Ukrainian Mosaic Orchestra will perform at Oceanside High School. Regional Mexican newcomer Ivan Cornejo will perform at SDSU's Open Air Theatre.

Local ongoing theatrical productions include Xanadu at the Coronado Playhouse, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Old Globe. Mama Mia! at the Civic Theatre opens next Wednesday.

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.