This very beautiful and inspiring mural debuted in an Escondido alley last April, during Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month. Titled Community Unity, it was created by twelve students from Calvin Christian School.
I saw the mural for the first time today during a long-overdue walk around downtown Escondido!
This webpage describes the public art and its origin.
The mural contains colorful imagery representing Escondido and people in the local community. It was printed on large panels and placed in the alley that runs half a block south of Grand Avenue. Walk west down the alley from Broadway and you’ll come to it. The mural stands as a joyful reminder that unity is possible when all voices are welcomed and celebrated.
When you see the bright artwork, your day will be brightened, too!
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This coming Saturday, May 31, 2025, from 11 am to 3 pm, the Port of San Diego is hosting a free event at César Chávez Park (in Barrio Logan next to San Diego Bay). A Day at the Park will feature multicultural entertainment, fun kids activities and food trucks!
I see performers include Soaring Eagles Native American Indian Cultural Dance Group, Polynesian Dancers, Mariachi Victoria de San Diego, and Ballet Folklorico Ti Pa.
Sounds like a great lineup! I put it on my calendar!
In addition, the Port of San Diego will be gathering public input at the event concerning improvements to the southeastern, waterfront area of the park.
If you want to learn about this event hosted by the Port of San Diego, check out their website by clicking here!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
An exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego features art by students who attend Hoover High School in City Heights. Across the Chaparral includes the work of students in two classes: Advanced Drawing and Painting, and AP English Language.
The students, after viewing and learning about relevant pieces in the museum, were asked to interpret contemporary life in our complex, uniquely dynamic, culturally diverse border region.
Across the Chaparral can be experienced in the museum’s Axline Court, a magical architectural space that I blogged about yesterday. See those photographs here.
Here is some of the student art…
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
For the past 25 years, this very unique public art has decorated the exterior of the San Diego Police Department Central Division building in Logan Heights.
During a walk through Logan Heights today, I went around the building to check out the Tribal Shields For Common Ground. I failed to photograph all of the artwork on the building, but these photos provide a good example of what you’d see.
Tribal Shields for Common Ground – Alber de Matteis – January 2000
Commissioned for the citizens of San Diego through the City of San Diego Police Department, Engineering and Capitol Projects, and Commission for Arts and Culture.
About the artwork: Each shield is inspired by traditional cultural designs from around the world. Ancient geometric design used in basket weaving, rock painting, rug weaving and wood carving are used to celebrate the ethnic diversity of our city. The choices made here represent the four corners of the world…
If the artist name is familiar, I’ve covered other Alber de Matteis artwork around San Diego. I’ve spotted his sculptures at Shelter Island, National City and Liberty Station. Click here and here and here and here.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Have you ever listened to music from Madagascar? I can’t say that I have.
A live performance by BeMaeva, an independent band rooted in the soul-stirring rhythms of Madagascar, is coming to San Diego on March 14th, 2025. This sounds like a great event at a very cool venue that is located a little east of downtown: The Soap Factory!
(I once visited the Soap Factory during an architectural open house event. See that blog post here.)
You can get tickets for BeMaeva LIVE in San Diego and learn more about the concert at this webpage.
The description includes: Led by the dynamic duo of Dina Maeva, a powerhouse Baltimore-born vocalist with Malagasy heritage now based in San Diego, and Rade Bema, a multi-instrumental maestro from New York, BeMaeva brings an unforgettable fusion of world music, storytelling, and cultural celebration.
More than a concert—this is a cultural journey you don’t want to miss!
Awesome!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A joyful celebration of culture and history was enjoyed this afternoon in Southeast San Diego. The Friends of the Malcolm X Library: Living Art Experience honored Black History Month with dance, music, poetry, a fashion show, plus local artists and a live painting demonstration. Refreshments were included!
The community room at the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library was filled with energy as the free, family-friendly event got underway. Words from the stage expressed gratitude to our Creator, and the audience was encouraged to remember our ancestors and think of those who would follow us after we leave this world. Lift Every Voice rose from many voices.
A fun fan dance followed! It seems half the room participated!
I enjoyed looking at the art, crafts and clothing displayed at various tables. I took several photographs during this wonderful, very colorful event.
Reginald Green, an instructor for Veterans Art Project (VETART), had a table full of artwork. He works out of VETART’s ceramic and glass studio in Vista.
VETART provides a process-intensive arts encounter proven to help Veterans and Active Duty (some with post-traumatic stress, TBI, and MST) find their voice and work through the life-changing process of transitioning from military to civilian life.
Some more photos…
Christie’s Place was present. As their website states: Love Grows Here.
Christie’s Place is the only agency in San Diego whose mission is dedicated to serving women, children and families whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
When I visited the Lunar New Year celebration in City Heights last weekend, I was surprised to find hundreds of words affixed to a stretch of 44th Street behind Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park. (It’s the alley-like street between the City Heights Library and Recreation Center, and the sports fields of City Heights Park to the east.)
I hadn’t recalled seeing this public art before.
I found a detailed article concerning the unique outdoor installation. The project is titled Memoria Terra and is intended to last for five years. The art debuted last summer.
Artist Shinpei Takeda and five young writers composed poems that tickle passing feet. The poems regard the history of this very diverse community (with its substantial immigrant and refugee population), social issues and gentrification.
As residents make their personal journey, they are also encouraged to gaze down at the abundant words to create their own poem.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The 43rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade was held today in downtown San Diego. It’s one of the biggest and best MLK Day parades in the nation. Everyone comes together to celebrate unity, equality and the optimistic vision of humanity championed by civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before the parade began, there was a 5K walk and run along Harbor Drive. Meanwhile, participants assembled in front of the County Administration Building for the big parade. I spotted colorful floats with inspiring messages, school bands and drill teams, cool cars, church groups, local sports teams, politicians, law enforcement, firefighters, and diverse businesses and community organizations who believe in the message of MLK.
The annual paradeis coordinated by the Zeta Sigma Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the oldest African American fraternity in America.
In addition to the parade, the MLK Harmony Health Festival at nearby Waterfront Park attracted a big crowd. Helpful resources were available to all members of the community, and families were enjoying entertainment, games and a bite to eat.
I walked around before the parade began and took these photographs, as I have in past years.
The first photo you see above was taken from the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s historic ferry Berkeley, which is docked beside Harbor Drive.
The next photo shows 5K walkers…
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The parking structure that stands beside the County Center/Little Italy trolley station contains a fascinating exhibit. Just inside the Cedar Street door, a glass display case holds rows of antique bottles. These old bottles were discovered in 2014 during the early stages of the building’s construction.
A nearby sign explains why these bottles are on public display…
Artifact Display Project
The display to your right contains a sample of artifacts recovered during the summer of 2014 as construction began on the Cedar/Kettner Parking Structure. These bottles date from the late 1880s to early 1900s and contained various kinds of milk, carbonated and alcoholic beverages, oils, inks, perfumes and pharmaceuticals.
The area where this building now stands was a densely populated multiethnic neighborhood of predominantly Italian and Portuguese immigrants working in the fishing industry. Residents’ homes were in close proximity to stables, dockyards, boarding houses and second hand shops. In the early 1900s, the area began to develop as a commercial and industrial center supporting the nearby waterfront and railroad.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
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