Local Cross-Cultural Events
* Upcoming Events *
Sunday, November 15
| 10:00 AM | San Diego Anime Con From Silk Road Productions, the creators and producers of Fangaea Con, Scream Diego, AniPop, and AnimeLand invite you to experience the third annual San Diego Anime Con, where you can unleash your inner anime and “Bring the Fury!” San Diego Anime Con will be taking place on Friday, November 13, Saturday, November 14, and Sunday, November 15, 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley!
DoubleTree Mission Valley |
| 11:00 AM | House of Syria Lawn Program Join us for the House of Syria’s Second Liberation Lawn Program! Spend Sunday, November 15 with Syrian food, music, dabke, choir performances, and talented local vendors at Balboa Park. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
International Cottages |
| 1:00 PM | Yokohama Festival For 70 years, San Diego and Yokohama have shared a friendship built through culture, education and people-to-people exchange. On Saturday, November 14, that friendship comes alive in Balboa Park with a day of Japanese culture, performances, food, activities and fun for all ages. Experience the energy of taiko, join in Bon Odori, explore cultural and community booths, discover Yokohama, and enjoy special activities throughout the day. Whether this is your first introduction to Japan or a friendship generations in the making, everyone is invited to celebrate with us.
Multiple Locations |
| 1:30 PM | Food: Temari Zushi Cooking Demonstration Fhe San Diego Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) presents a Temari Zushi cooking demonstration by Keiko Jinno. Temari zushi are colorful, ball-shaped sushi made to resemble traditional Japanese temari balls and are traditionally served for special occasions. Space is limited to 15 participants. RSVP to .
Buddhist Temple of SD |
| 2:00 PM | Stage: The Cottage A hilarious web of revelations unravels in this wickedly funny farce where matters of the heart are never simple. Set in the English countryside in 1923, THE COTTAGE is a side-splitting romp where passion collides with propriety and scandal erupts behind closed doors. When secrets can no longer stay hidden, love, marriage, loyalty, and desire are called into question. A screwball comedy where betrayal has never been this much fun.
North Coast Repertory Theatre |
Monday, November 16
| 6:00 PM | Talk: Pasifika in Entertainment The release of Disney’s live-action "Moana" film involved local expertise and talent from CSUSM and our surrounding area in San Diego and greater Southern California. Audiences will learn about the making of the film through the perspectives of the Oceanic Cultural Trust, a group created by the film company to serve as cultural consultants on Oceanic language and performing arts. CSUSM faculty Dr. Grant Muagututi’a served as the lead cultural consultant for the film. His work focuses on the need for Oceanic language conservation efforts through mainstream popular media, independent documentary film, community partnership programming, and in higher education institutions both locally and abroad. He, along with others involved in the film, will offer reflections on their specific roles in making the live-action film. Members of the Oceanic Cultural Trust and actors from the film will engage audiences with behind-the-scenes stories and live-action musical and dance performances exclusively for CSUSM to inspire everyone to reimagine how grassroots cultural arts education can shape more inclusive experiences of higher education and impact popular media representations.
CSU San Marcos |
Tuesday, November 17
| 4:00 PM | Film: Slash/Back During native American Heritage Month, we are showing movies featuring indigenous filmmakers. Slash/Back (2022) : In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town. Starring: Kristian Bruun, Shaun Benson, Tasiana Shirley, Nalajoss Ellsworth, Natar Ungalaaq
Pacific Beach/Taylor Library |
| 5:00 PM | Book Talk: Memory Rehearsal In 1901, Eva Palmer abandoned her life as a privileged New York socialite, moving to Paris with her lover, the writer and salonist, Natalie Barney. The two Americans became the center of a wild tangle of lesbian love affairs and backyard performances based on intentional reimaginings of Sappho’s work and life. A chance encounter led Eva to Greece, where she married Angelos Sikelianos, a visionary poet who would become a Greek national hero. Celebrated American poet Eleni Sikelianos grew up knowing little of these illustrious ancestors, her great grandparents, who, in the early 20th century staged a revival of the ancient Delphic festivals, convinced that it would open a path to world peace. It was not until the age of 20, on her first trip to Greece, that she encountered the breadth of their legacy. In her new book, Memory Rehearsal, Sikelianos unearths the story of her search for these pioneering ancestors, in a text that shifts between prose, poetry, imaginary performance texts, fiction, and nonfiction, with archival and family photographs. Eleni will read from and discuss Memory Rehearsal, which Kirkus calls a “moving family memoir and a triumph of cultural archaeology.”
UC San Diego |
| 6:00 PM | Film: Boil that Cabbage Down More Than Rhythm: A Black Music Series is an engaging public library film series exploring the sweeping history and evolution of African diasporic music. It traces the journey of rhythm and sound from the West African roots of the banjo to the electronic beats of modern house and funk music. Each film screening will be hosted by a special guest to guide us through this history, with an audience Q & A to follow. This film uncovers the hidden past of the banjo. As a novice banjoist, the filmmaker investigates the instrument's complex history, including its origins on plantations and ties to blackface minstrelsy, embarking on a transformative journey to uncover the forgotten Black roots of the banjo. Through lessons, history and struggle, she learns to embrace the instrument’s complex legacy.
Central Library |
| Film: Let the City Speak Join us for a screening of Let the City Speak, a documentary following Quetzal, the GRAMMY-winning Chicano rock band that emerged from East Los Angeles’ vibrant music and arts scene in the mid-1990s. Led by Quetzal Flores and Martha Gonzalez, the band found inspiration in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, embracing a philosophy that would shape their music, community organizing, and grassroots activism for decades. Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Akira Boch, who has documented the band for nearly 30 years, the film explores the enduring connections between music, cultural identity, social justice, and community. It celebrates the Zapatista spirit that continues to guide the band’s artistic and activist work. Following the screening, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with Quetzal Flores, GRAMMY-winning producer, composer, musician, and cultural organizer, and Akira Boch, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and former director of the Watase Media Arts Center at the Japanese American National Museum. Through music, activism, and storytelling, Let the City Speak invites audiences to consider how artists can define success on their own terms and use their creative work to inspire meaningful change.
UC San Diego |
| Talk: Capturing Complexity Join us for a staged-reading presentation of “Pride: Mortal BEINGS part 1,” a one-person play written and performed by Terrell Donnell Sledge, a San Diego actor, writer, director, advocate, empowerment coach and CSUSM theatre arts lecturer. The story is an alternative telling of the fall of Lucifer – from Lucifer’s perspective – hinging on the questions of free will, love, loyalty, suffering, suicide, forgiveness and redemption. After the performance, Sledge will be joined by Stephanie Sledge – an artist, associate clinical social worker and CSUSM alumna – for a conversation about narrative representation and creative expression for self-exploration and healing. Stephanie will interview Terrell about the process of writing the play as a form of self-preservation when he was navigating academic environments prone to stereotyping and erasure of Black male identity. Guests will depart with the building blocks for harnessing their own creativity as a therapeutic tool.
CSU San Marcos |
Wednesday, November 18
| 1:45 PM | Book Talk: When Rebels Win Why do victorious rebel groups govern so differently once they take power? Join us on Wednesday, November 18 from 1:45-3:00pm at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy for a conversation with Kai M. Thaler who will discuss the key insights found in his new book from Cornell University Press, When Rebels Win. Drawing on evidence from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Thaler shows how wartime ideology can shape statebuilding, public institutions, and postwar governance.
UC San Diego |
| 5:00 PM | Book Talk: Eleni Sikelianos and Kazim Ali Born into a family of bohemians, poets, tree workers, ne’er-do-wells, visionaries, and smalltime sort-of hustlers, Eleni Sikelianos is a poet, writer, collaborator, and “master of mixing genres” (according to TimeOut). Kirkus has called her most recent book, Memory Rehearsal (City Lights, 2026; the third book in her trilogy of ancestral encounters) “a moving family memoir and a triumph of cultural archaeology.” Deeply engaged with ecopoetics, her work takes up urgent concerns of environmental precarity and ancestral lineages. Her tenth book of poetry, Your Kingdom came out in 2023. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages, and she has in turn translated works by Jacques Roubaud, Sabine Macher, and, most recently, Mohamed Leftah. She grew up in earshot of the ocean, in small coastal towns near Goleta, and has since lived in San Francisco, New York, Paris, Athens (Greece), Boulder (Colorado), and Providence. More info at: https://www.elenisikelianos.com. Insta: @elenisikelianos
Kazim Ali is the author of over twenty books in multiple genres, including poetry, fiction, memoir, and literary studies. His research and teaching interests include Creative Writing and Literary Arts, Indigenous Studies, Global Anglophone Literature, Palestine and Palestinian Diaspora Studies, as well as Translation and Translation Studies. His book Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water won the Banff Mountain Environmental Book Award in 2021. From 2021-2024, he served as Chair of the Literature Department. He is the founder of the small press Nightboat Books.
UC San Diego |
| 7:00 PM | Book Talk: Leyla K. King Leyla K. King is a Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer. She is a founding member of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies and The Small Churches Big Impact Collective. Currently, she serves as the Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Leyla K. King has been a keeper of family stories since long before she sat down across from her grandmother with a tiny cassette tape recorder. And in this beautifully crafted memoir, she braids matriarchal memory into a vivid saga of love and survival as her ancestors flee war and poverty. From Haifa to Ramallah, Damascus, Beirut, and finally Texas, Leyla makes global politics deeply personal as family squabbles, ambition, mental illness, romance, and religion shape their immigrant journey. Narrated in immersive, lyrical vignettes, "Daughters of Palestine" is both an urgent testimony from Palestinian Christians and a timeless story of resilience.
Point Loma Nazarene University |
| 8:00 PM | Music: Quitapenas Southern California ensemble Quitapenas draws inspiration from Afro-Latin rhythms and the rich musical traditions of Latin America. Formed by first-generation sons of Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants, the group blends influences from Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Angola, and beyond into a sound shaped by movement, celebration, and joy.
“QUITAPENAS, one word – all caps, four syllables – all claps,” gives you a taste of the band’s rhythmic contagion. Named for the Spanish phrase meaning “to remove worries,” QUITAPENAS invites audiences to dance, connect, and leave their worries behind.
The Loft |
Thursday, November 19
| 4:00 PM | Talk: Small Banks, Big Politics Conventional wisdom holds that banking markets flourish where property rights are secure, the rule of law is strong, and the state keeps its hands off. China has none of these. Yet over the past three decades, the number of Chinese banks grew exponentially, and competition became fierce. Why? Adam Y. Liu argues that China’s banking sector is a market of the state, by the state, and for the state, and that its banking market grew not despite authoritarian rule but because of it.
Liu is the author of “In Authoritarian Markets: The Politics of China’s Banking Explosion” (2026). Drawing on a decade of fieldwork and extensive original data, he uncovers the political logic behind the development of banking markets in China and other authoritarian states —and explores what it means for the future of China’s economy.
UC San Diego |
| Talk: Haunted by History In this talk, Dr. Brooks will explore the concept of critical memory—the collective process of preserving and connecting meaningful moments from the past to the realities of the present. He applies this framework to the history of Black sociopolitical leadership, examining how the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. has shaped understandings of Black leadership while also highlighting the important grassroots work of figures such as Prathia Hall. Dr. Brooks will challenge simplified narratives of the Civil Rights Movement and subsequent Black freedom struggles by examining the broader networks, communities, and collective efforts that contributed to social change. The talk invites us to reconsider how we remember the past and recognize the complex histories that continue to shape sociopolitical life today.
Univeristy of San Diego |
| 5:00 PM | Talk: Holocaust Memory and its Discontents In this lecture, Rothberg will trace the rise of what became known as the “German model” of addressing a nation’s own crimes. While a few years ago it seemed obvious that countries like the United States could “learn from the Germans” to confront their troubled pasts (in Susan Neiman’s terms), today the situation seems more complicated. Focusing especially on the Federal Republic of Germany, Rothberg will survey state-level engagements with National Socialism and the Holocaust as well as grassroots efforts at commemoration that began in the 1980s. He will show how the model of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with” or “mastering” the past) was consolidated after German unification and then started to fray in the twenty-first century. He will conclude by emphasizing how migration, colonialism, and the October 7/Gaza moment intersect with — and have come to unsettle — German Holocaust memory.
UC San Diego |
| 7:00 PM | Film: Elena’s War In the heart of Rome’s Jewish ghetto during WWII, one woman’s defiance became an act of heroism that history nearly forgot. This powerful historical drama tells the true story of Elena Di Porto—a fiercely independent Roman Jewish woman who defied fascism and risked everything to save lives. Branded “Elena the Crazy” for her scandalous rejection of social norms, Elena became a relentless thorn in the side of the fascist regime that threatened her community’s very existence.
La Paloma Theatre |
| Comedy: Fumi Abe Fumi Abe is a Japanese-American stand-up comedian/writer based in Los Angeles who was named Vulture’s Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2023 and was part of the 2023 Just For Laughs New Faces. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dropout’s Smarty Pants, and has written for The Late Late Show with James Corden, NPR’s “Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!”, the ESPYs, and was most recently a Story Editor on Seth MacFarlane’s animated TV series “Ted”. Fumi has opened for national headliners such as Ronny Chieng, Ilana Glazer, Iliza Shlesinger, Tom Papa, and Hannah Berner.
Mic Drop Comedy |
Friday, November 20
| 1:00 PM | Film: Smoke Signals Smoke Signals (1998) : Award-winning drama of the spiritual journey of two Native Americans who learn some important life lessons as they travel to recover the remains of a man who was the neglectful father of one and enigmatic rescuer of the other. Starring: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal
Pacific Beach/Taylor Library |
| Talk: Kumeyaay Cosmology Curious about the Kumeyaay Cosmos? Join us for a free brief lecture introducing how one of San Diego’s original peoples looked to the skies for navigation, guidance, and to understand the origins of the universe. This cosmological knowledge remains central to Kumeyaay traditions and beliefs, which were almost lost to time through colonization. These talks are held in honor of Native American Heritage Month to help preserve this cultural knowledge for future generations. Space is limited. Please register in advance to secure your spot.
San Diego Archaeological Center |
| 7:00 PM | Music: Arpan Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego presents “Arpan | Gratitude” An evening of Khyal vocal music offered in the spirit of Thanksgiving, as gratitude to the tradition, to the gurus of the parampara, and to the audience.
Seaside Center for Spiritual Living |
| 7:30 PM | Music: Nakatani Gong Orchestra Japanese percussionist and composer Tatsuya Nakatani returns to San Diego with the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO), a one-of-a-kind project that brings together local community members to create an immersive orchestra of gongs. Following an intensive workshop in Nakatani's unique performance techniques, participants—many with no formal musical training—perform an original work using Chinese wind gongs played with the artist's custom-built bows. Guided by Nakatani's live conducting, the ensemble fills the space with shimmering metallic overtones, cascading resonances, and layered waves of sound, transforming the gallery into a living sonic sculpture. Each performance is unique, shaped by the participants, the space, and the moment.
Bread & Salt Gallery |
Saturday, November 21
| 10:00 AM | Tezukuri-ichi Holiday Market Join JFGM for this annual Tezukuri-ichi Holiday market celebrating and supporting small businesses by showcasing talented local crafters and artists. It’s the perfect opportunity to find unique holiday gifts while supporting local makers and the community.
Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum |
| Talk: The International Criminal Court, Global Justice & the States' Role What does international justice look like from inside the International Criminal Court? Join the San Diego World Affairs Council for a special virtual conversation with Judge Péter Kovács, who served as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague from 2015 to 2025. Drawing on a decade at the ICC and a career spanning international law, diplomacy, human rights, and constitutional law, Judge Kovács will offer an insider’s perspective on the role of the Court and the complex realities of pursuing international criminal justice. The conversation will explore the ICC’s role in the international system, the opportunities and limitations of international criminal justice, questions of national sovereignty and international accountability, and the complicated relationship between the Court and the non state parties.
Online |
| NOON | Dance: DanzArts Anniversary Dance Recital DanzArts Non-Profit Dance Organization proudly invites you to our 20th Anniversary Showcase & Fiesta. Experience a vibrant celebration of community, passion, and tradition through the art of dance.
La Mesa Community Center |
| 1:00 PM | Stories of Hope from Around the World Come celebrate storylandia with Storytellers of San Diego in their 39th annual Tellabration! in synchronous concert with worldwide storytelling groups. Enjoy oral storytelling, the original social media--up close and in-person. Experience tales of triumph over adversity in diverse cultures, circumstances, and time frames. Be beguiled by this gathering of storytellers spinning folkloric, mythical, personal and original stories. You will journey from a tale culled from a storyteller's growing up on Pine Ridge reservation to a folktale from Orkney, India, ancient Greece to personal revelations, and more. Storytellers to enchant are Dr. Almena Mozon, Kirk Faulkner, Emily Stamets, Patti Christiansen and James Nelson-Lucas (Patchwork Players Story Theatre,) Catherine Bonin, Marilyn McPhie, Tammy Burmeister and OJ Mozon.
Bethany Lutheran Church |
| 2:00 PM | Stage: The Cottage A hilarious web of revelations unravels in this wickedly funny farce where matters of the heart are never simple. Set in the English countryside in 1923, THE COTTAGE is a side-splitting romp where passion collides with propriety and scandal erupts behind closed doors. When secrets can no longer stay hidden, love, marriage, loyalty, and desire are called into question. A screwball comedy where betrayal has never been this much fun.
North Coast Repertory Theatre |
| Taikopalooza 2026 Taikopalooza is back again! Join us for our biennial concert showcasing the Taiko Community of San Diego at Taikopalooza 2026! Taikopalooza 2026 is a full length concert featuring the amazing talent of the Taiko Community of San Diego! Join us at the WorldBeat Cultural Center for an afternoon filled with heartfelt performances, delicious food, and history of our community.
WorldBeat Center |
| 4:00 PM | Dance: DanzArts Anniversary Dance Recital DanzArts Non-Profit Dance Organization proudly invites you to our 20th Anniversary Showcase & Fiesta. Experience a vibrant celebration of community, passion, and tradition through the art of dance.
La Mesa Community Center |
| 8:00 PM | Stage: The Cottage A hilarious web of revelations unravels in this wickedly funny farce where matters of the heart are never simple. Set in the English countryside in 1923, THE COTTAGE is a side-splitting romp where passion collides with propriety and scandal erupts behind closed doors. When secrets can no longer stay hidden, love, marriage, loyalty, and desire are called into question. A screwball comedy where betrayal has never been this much fun.
North Coast Repertory Theatre |
Sunday, November 22
| 11:00 AM | Survival Japanese Class For those yearning to visit Japan, but unsure of how to start learning Japanese, JFGM's new program – Survival Japanese, is perfect for you! Survival Japanese is a monthly course that will lead you through real-life scenarios and useful phrases to make the most of your trip. Instructor Mami Yamashita will advance your Japanese language skills to enhance your experience and travels in Japan. November: Restaurant & rules for chopsticks (and how to tell what you can't eat)
Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum |
| Dance: De Colores “De Colores Youth Dance Production,” presented by Tierra Caliente Academy of Arts showcases the history of Mexico through dance. Presented are various regions such as Hidalgo, Veracruz, Estado de Mexico, Sinaloa, a creative piece on Mayan civilization, Afro-Mexico, Son Jarocho and more. Also, under our LuMaya Music program, LuMaya “the little girl with the BIG voice,” will challange herself with one of her newer covers. Besides enjoying the performance, you can see the work Tierra Caliente Academy does in developing young dancers. The youth students will showcase what they have been working on this 2nd half of the year and demonstrate their progress. Support our youth dancers and support the cultural arts. See you at the show!!
California Center for the Arts |
| 2:00 PM | Stage: The Cottage A hilarious web of revelations unravels in this wickedly funny farce where matters of the heart are never simple. Set in the English countryside in 1923, THE COTTAGE is a side-splitting romp where passion collides with propriety and scandal erupts behind closed doors. When secrets can no longer stay hidden, love, marriage, loyalty, and desire are called into question. A screwball comedy where betrayal has never been this much fun.
North Coast Repertory Theatre |
| Kokeshi Doll Painting At first glance you may think Kokeshi dolls to be cute souvenirs resembling Japanese traditional wear, but there is more to meets the eye with these dolls! Join us in both learning about the craftsmanship of Kokeshi dolls that is nearly 200 years old, as well as testing out your art skills and getting to paint your own Kokeshi doll. No prior paint experience is needed, just bring your creativity!
Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum |
| 3:00 PM | Music: The Naghash Ensemble Arrive curious, leave amazed. The ensemble’s ethereal sound will captivate vocal, global, and early music lovers alike. Swaying rhythms and infectious beats bring a contemporary pulse to original music composed for traditional instruments rooted in ancient Middle Eastern and Persian traditions. Paired with lyrics from medieval Armenia, the result is an unforgettable musical journey that feels both ancient and strikingly modern.
The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center |
| Dance: De Colores “De Colores Youth Dance Production,” presented by Tierra Caliente Academy of Arts showcases the history of Mexico through dance. Presented are various regions such as Hidalgo, Veracruz, Estado de Mexico, Sinaloa, a creative piece on Mayan civilization, Afro-Mexico, Son Jarocho and more. Also, under our LuMaya Music program, LuMaya “the little girl with the BIG voice,” will challange herself with one of her newer covers. Besides enjoying the performance, you can see the work Tierra Caliente Academy does in developing young dancers. The youth students will showcase what they have been working on this 2nd half of the year and demonstrate their progress. Support our youth dancers and support the cultural arts. See you at the show!!
California Center for the Arts |
Tuesday, November 24
| 7:00 PM | Film: Cinema Paradiso Cinema Paradiso is the beautiful, enchanting story of a young boy’s lifelong love affair with the movies. Set in an Italian village, Salvatore finds himself enchanted by the flickering images at the Cinema Paradiso, yearning for the secret of the cinema’s magic. When the projectionist, Alfredo, agrees to reveal the mysteries of moviemaking, a deep friendship is born. The day comes for Salvatore to leave the village and pursue his dream of making movies of his own. Thirty years later he receives a message that beckons him back home to a secret and beautiful discovery that awaits him.
Digital Gym Cinema |
| 8:00 PM | Music: Kabaka Pyramid Join us for a special night of roots reggae, conscious music, and gratitude as Kabaka Pyramid returns to the WorldBeat Cultural Center. As we enter a season of giving thanks, we gather through reggae music to celebrate community, culture, and the blessings that carry us forward. Kabaka Pyramid is a Grammy Award-winning Jamaican reggae artist known for blending roots reggae, dancehall, and hip-hop with thoughtful lyrics centered on African consciousness, spirituality, social justice, and upliftment. His acclaimed album The Kalling, produced by Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, earned the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. Come give thanks, feel the vibrations, and experience Kabaka Pyramid live in San Diego.
WorldBeat Center |
Friday, November 27
| 8:00 PM | Music: Cristian Castro Cristian Sáinz Castro is a Mexican pop singer. He is the son of actors Verónica Castro and Manuel "El Loco" Valdés, and nephew of actors Ramón Valdés and Germán "Tin-Tan" Valdés. Castro has sold over 12 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time.
Pechenga Arena |
Saturday, November 28
| 9:30 AM | Kintsugi Workshop Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese technique of repairing ceramics with gold. In Japanese Zen aesthetics, broken bowls and dishes should continue to attract our respect and attention. The broken pieces should be reassembled and glued back together with a lacquer that is inflected with gold powder. There should be no attempt to hide or disguise the breaks but rather to make something artful out of them. Kintsugi is a wonderful metaphor for life. We all experience difficulties and traumatic events in our lives. Applying Kintsugi to our lives means being bold, rather than hiding the so-called cracks and imperfections in ourselves. In this workshop you will learn a little about the history and philosophy of kintsugi while repairing two ceramic pieces to take home. Learn to embellish your pieces using both gold mica powders and gold leaf colors. Students will also receive complete instructions and a supply list, as well as receiving a sample of your choice of three gold mica powder colors.
San Diego Craft Collective |
| 11:00 AM | House of Somalia Lawn Program The House of Somalia is our first African house at the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages here in Balboa Park. Join us for food and entertainment!
House of Pacific Relations |
Sunday, November 29
| 10:00 AM | Hello Japan! Class: Japanese Celebrations, Shrines, Temples & Adjectives A perfect starting point for new learners who want both language skills and cultural understanding. Students will learn simple grammar, paired with cultural lessons about food, festivals, manners, and modern life in Japan. By the end of the course, students will feel confident using basic Japanese and more connected to the heart of Japanese culture.Theme: Japanese Celebrations, Shrines, Temples & Adjectives In this lesson students will learn about two important Japanese life celebrations: • Shichi-Go-San (七五三) — a traditional celebration for children’s growth at ages 3, 5, and 7 • Seijin-shiki (成人式) — Coming-of-Age Ceremony celebrating young adults becoming 20 years old Students will learn about Japanese cultural places and the differences between: • Jinja (神社) — Shinto shrine • Otera (お寺) — Buddhist temple Students will also learn how to describe people, places, and things using Japanese adjectives.
Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum |
| 11:15 AM | Hello Japan! Class: Shichi-Go-San & Seijin-shiki Building on the basics, this course takes students deeper into Japanese grammar and sentence structure while developing real conversational fluency. Through dialogue, role-play, and cultural context, learners will move beyond textbook phrases to express ideas and navigate everyday situations with confidence. By the end, students will hold conversations more naturally and connect with Japanese culture on a more meaningful level. Explore two important milestones in Japanese culture: Shichi-Go-San, the traditional celebration of children\'s growth, and Seijin-shiki, Japan\'s Coming-of-Age Ceremony. Students will also learn about the differences between Shinto shrines (神社) and Buddhist temples (お寺) while discussing Japanese customs and family traditions.
Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum |
Tuesday, December 1
| 6:30 PM | Talk: The Filipino Ethnic Enclave in the Gaslamp Quarter The Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation, in collaboration with the San Diego Central Library, is proud to present a special presentation by award-winning journalist-author, Marivi Soliven in conversation with Southwestern professor Dr. Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez about the history of the community of Filipino migrant workers who lived and struggled in downtown San Diego during the 1930s. What were the living conditions faced by the community while racial discrimination and anti-miscegenation law brought intense societal pressure and physical hostility against Filipinos in San Diego? Marivi’s exciting new novel Taxi Dancer is based on a true story set in the historic downtown Stingaree District.
Central Library |
Wednesday, December 2
| 11:00 AM | Paj Ntaub Workshop Participants will be introduced to Paj Ntaub, the traditional Hmong art of textile decoration and embroidery. Hmong textiles often feature colorful geometric patterns and intricate designs that reflect cultural artistry, creativity, and heritage. During this program, participants will learn about the significance of Paj Ntaub in Hmong culture and explore examples of traditional patterns. Participants will then create their own Hmong-inspired textile design using colorful paper and craft materials.
Mira Mesa Library |
| 4:30 PM | "Forgotten Island" Craft Program Create your own mask with Sining Skuwela as you explore Filipino American culture, traditions, and superstitions as portrayed in the movie, Forgotten Island!
Mira Mesa Library |
| 5:00 PM | Book Talk: Creative-Critical Poet Reading Ana Villalpando is a transfronteriza researcher and artist born in Tijuana, Mexico. She holds a BA in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Baja California, an MA in Education from California State University, Long Beach and is currently pursuing a PhD in Literatures in Spanish at University of California, San Diego. Her art has been exhibited at The Front, The Woo and Centro Cultural La Raza in San Diego, California; her poetry has been published by UCLA’s Párrafo magazine, Chilean magazine La Raza cómica, NYU's Esferas Journal and UTEP's Rio Grande Review. Phuong T. Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet and writer raised in Oakland, CA. She is a PhD candidate in the Literature Department at UCSD, where she researches Asian American feminist and queer texts’ approaches to history, refusal, and relations to land and water. Phuong is the author of two poetry collections, A Plucked Zither (Red Hen Press, 2023), which won the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award 2021, and The House I Inherit (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her poetry and essays have also been published in a range of literary journals. Nilufar Karimi is a poet, scholar, translator and educator. Her work thinks through the intersections of translation, environmental justice, disability, and the practices of medicine. She is the author of Nuclear Deal (Noemi Press, 2021) and Notes on Digging (Belladonna*Collaborative, 2022) Tramaine Suubi is a multilingual writer who was born in Kampala. Tramaine is a graduate of the Iowa Wirters' Workshop and the author of two full-length poetry collections. Vyxz Vasquez is a writer and educator from the Philippines. She released two books this year: One Time Big Time & other poems (University of the Philippines Press), which is her first full-length collection, and Pensionados from Tijuana-based small press ediciones caradura.
UC San Diego |
| 7:00 PM | Talk: Julian Brave NoiseCat Julian Brave NoiseCat will share excerpts from his debut book, We Survived the Night. Of the work Louise Erdrich raves, “Julian Brave NoiseCat seamlessly connects true tales of identity and betrayal, love and abandonment, clarity and confusion. We Survived the Night is a whirling, radiant gift to the reader.” Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history. His first book, We Survived the Night, a national bestseller, won the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize for an imaginative work in English. His first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie was nominated for an Academy Award, making NoiseCat the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Oscar. A member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie, NoiseCat resides on Kitsilano Indian Reserve No. 6 with his partner and their son.
SDSU |
Thursday, December 3
| 4:30 PM | Shalom Storytime Join us for a special storytime that celebrates the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Kids of all ages and their families are invited to attend Shalom Storytime. Throughout the year, we will learn about Jewish holidays and the Jewish culture through books and stories.
La Jolla/Riford Library |
| Book Talk: Buffalo Hunter Hunter A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
Point Loma Nazarene University |
| 5:00 PM | Talk: My China Ker Gibbs will discuss his new book, “The Fragile Dragon: China’s Strengths and the Limits to its Power,” which offers a unique exploration of China’s transformation and its evolving commercial relationship with the West, drawing on the author’s experience as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. Drawing on firsthand access to leaders in Beijing and Washington, the author examines business and political developments from both Chinese and Western perspectives, interweaving them with the remarkable history of his extended family that included an opium addict, an American codebreaker, and a Chinese revolutionary.
Online |
| 7:30 PM | Music: The Klezmatics Grammy-winning ensemble The Klezmatics returns with A Happy Joyous Hanukkah, a festive program inspired by the music and traditions of Hanukkah. For more than three decades, the pioneering group has expanded the boundaries of klezmer, the celebratory folk music of Eastern European Jewish communities, blending it with influences from jazz, Latin, Balkan, and other global styles. Featuring newly discovered lyrics by Woody Guthrie paired with original compositions by the band, the performance brings a fresh perspective to themes of family, heritage, and celebration. Kicking off the Festival of Lights, this joyful evening celebrates Jewish culture, community, and song.
UC San Diego |
| Book Talk: The Man in 119 and Pyrrhic Symphony The Man in 119, the latest collection from accomplished poet Kazim Ali, explores loss and absence alongside the human body and the natural world. Here, the tongue becomes a collaboration between human and glacial current—the self, a "tectonic topography of god." Grappling with questions of mortality in the wake of his mother's passing, Ali asks where we go when we leave this world: "earth or sky or memory only." With musicality, these poems build a space for contemplation, offering vignettes of various individuals, memories, and geographies. We learn that in migration, the body moves, reproduces itself through the experience of losing and living still. In Pyrrhic Symphony, the speaker asks, "Should a poem be the pill or the pharmacy?" And the book replies: Why not both? It ails and wails, blooms and wilts, but always breathes, just as anyone reading this does. Part siren songs, part torch songs, Pyrrhic Symphony sings wry lullabies for apocalypses public, personal, and politic, moving from cruise ships to Krakatoa, from a dentist's office to a marriage as it explores how love, family, community, and art can function in the face of an increasingly hostile climate. And in lamenting how "all I ever wanted from love / was that it never change," the feverish speaker goes toe-to-toe with the nurse who watches over him as they encounter and recount a world of late capitalist excess. By turns ecstatic and demonic, tender and terrifying, Pyrrhic Symphony stands as an act of musical witness and cautious hope in this age of corrupted wonder.
Warwick's |
| Music: A Merry-Achi Christimas Latin Grammy nominees Maestro José Hernández and his world-renowned Mariachi Sol de México® - Embajadores del Mariachi - return with their annual Christmas holiday tour. The program showcases the ensemble's musicianship, playing mariachi favorites as well as the most well-known and beloved Christmas music such as Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite, performed mariachi-style by one of the most critically acclaimed Mariachis.
Balboa Theatre |
Friday, December 4
| 4:00 PM | December Nights at Balboa Park Join us on December 4 and 5 for the City of San Diego's largest free holiday festival in beautiful Balboa Park. The family friendly event brings San Diegans together to enjoy the lights, the sounds, the attractions and of course, the amazing food. Enjoy special events with Mingei Museum and The Japanese Friendship Garden!
Balboa Park |
| 7:00 PM | Music: Peter Sprague & Friends Renowned guitarist and composer Peter Sprague leads an exceptional ensemble in Spinning in Infinity, a dynamic exploration of the music of Paul Simon. Long celebrated for songwriting that bridges folk, pop, and global traditions, Simon’s music becomes the foundation for inventive jazz reinterpretation shaped by improvisation, global rhythm, and contemporary harmonic language. Sprague, whose celebrated career includes collaborations with Chick Corea, Sergio Mendes, Dianne Reeves, and David Benoit, brings together a remarkable group of longtime collaborators and standout voices from the Southern California jazz community. Vocalist Allison Adams Tucker, an internationally acclaimed multilingual artist whose performances span Europe, Japan, and the United States, joins saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Tripp Sprague, recognized for his versatility across jazz, pop, and studio recording. Pianist Danny Green, an award-winning composer and Origin Records recording artist praised by DownBeat and NPR, contributes a richly textured harmonic voice shaped by jazz, Brazilian, and classical influences. Bassist Mack Leighton brings a fresh contemporary sensibility informed by international touring experience, while drummer Duncan Moore, heard on more than 100 recordings with leading jazz artists, anchors the ensemble with dynamic precision and fluid rhythmic interplay. Together, the group reimagines songs such as The Sound of Silence, Cecilia, Hearts and Bones, and You Can Call Me Al, transforming familiar material into layered and expressive arrangements. Brazilian rhythm, Afro-Cuban influence, and contemporary jazz improvisation reveal new dimensions within these iconic works while preserving their emotional core. The result is music that feels both grounded and exploratory, honoring the spirit of Paul Simon’s songwriting while opening the door to fresh musical discovery. A live onstage conversation led by Yale Strom adds further depth to the evening. Through reflections on cultural memory, storytelling traditions, and musical exchange, audiences gain insight into how these songs continue to resonate across generations and cultures through reinterpretation and performance.
UC San Diego Park & Market |
Saturday, December 5
| NOON | December Nights at Balboa Park Join us on December 4 and 5 for the City of San Diego's largest free holiday festival in beautiful Balboa Park. The family friendly event brings San Diegans together to enjoy the lights, the sounds, the attractions and of course, the amazing food. Enjoy special events with Mingei Museum and The Japanese Friendship Garden!
Balboa Park |
| 2:30 PM | Talk: Cabeza de Vaca and Estebanico A slave named Esteban, born Mustafa al-Zamori in Azemmour, Morocco, was one of the first people of African and Arab descent to explore North America. He and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca were among the few survivors of the failed Pánfilo de Narváez expedition of 1527. This presentation is based on Cabeza de Vaca’s account La Relacion. Here he relates their arduous journey of 8 years traversing territories from Florida to Texas and how they endured as slaves and healers among various native groups. Ultimately, in 1536 they were rescued by Spanish soldiers. This story concludes with Esteban’s journey north with Fray Marcos de Niza's expedition in 1539 to find the Seven Cities of Cibola and his final encounter with the Zuni. The presenter, Maria Butler, MA, is Lecturer Emerita in the Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies at San Diego State University.
Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox Library |
| 8:00 PM | Music: Poncho Sanchez For more than three decades, conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of Latin Jazz.
Belly Up |
| Music: Pedro Fernández Pedro Fernández brings the heart of traditional Mexican music to the stage with a powerful voice, passionate delivery, and songs filled with romance and nostalgia. His blend of ranchera, mariachi, and regional Mexican sounds creates a live experience where every melody feels deeply rooted in tradition. From emotional ballads to spirited favorites, his performances give fans plenty of moments to sing along and celebrate the music they love.
Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre |
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