San Diego has many educational and cultural gems inside the UC San Diego Park & Market building located near the East Village on the corner of Park Boulevard and Market Street.
This four-floor building occupies the entire block. Inside, you will discover unique movies, music, and educational classes. It is also a place to explore movies and music of the world, find a variety of filmmaking classes, as well as classes in Spanish.
Park & Market is home to the Guggenheim Theatre where there are outstanding performances on the bottom floor. This is where both the Intersections and Camarada’s Music of the Americas concert series are performed. There will be four talented musicians curating the Intersections concerts of 2024, including Rebecca Jade, Damian DeRobbio, Kamau Kenyatta, and Yale Strom. These events are supervised by Andrew Waltz, director of arts management at Park & Market.
I attended two of the Intersections concerts curated by Strom in the fall, and I enjoyed both, but I especially liked the one that highlighted Roma/Gitano/Sephardic music and dance with world renowned flamenco dancer, Lakshmi Basile. Strom’s wife, well-known singer, Elizabeth Schwartz, sang a song in Ladino. The performances were well done, and ticket prices for this series are reasonable. There isn’t a bad seat in the house as it is an intimate venue.
Some of the scheduled Intersections performances for 2024 at the Guggenheim Theatre will include Lisa Sanders & Brown Sugar, who will present on Feb. 13. I plan on attending the March 1 concert with Quetzal and Martha Gonzalez, who will bring “Art, Culture, and Inspiration from East L.A.”
As someone who loves Bossa Nova music, I look forward to the concert on March 2 when Music of the Americas will present Estrada Do Sol with Peter Sprague and Allison Adams Tucker. They will do a tribute to Brazilian great, Antônio Carlos Jobim.
Keeping it in the community, Yale Strom will be curating a concert by San Diego based Puerto Rican musician Gene Perry. The Gene Perry Quartet, Rumba Ketumba, will present their show on July 11th. Perry and Strom met at San Diego State University many years ago when they were both working there.
Park & Market, which is managed by UC San Diego Extended Studies, is also home to the Media Arts Center and Digital Gym Cinema which were founded by Ethan Van Thillo. In addition, he founded the San Diego Latino Film Festival. The Media Arts Center fosters upcoming and established filmmakers and helps them develop and deepen their skills. They offer classes and scholarships for youth filmmaking initiatives. The Digital Gym is an art house cinema for independent and international films that may not be shown at larger complexes. For example, the offbeat romantic comedy from Finland, “Fallen Leaves,” which was shown in January, was called one of the best romantic movies of 2023.
The Digital Gym, located on the second floor, will have a lineup of both documentaries and movies in February, including British director Steve McQueen’s 2023 documentary “Occupied City,” as well as two beautiful movies by renowned Vietnamese/French director, Trần Anh Hùng. They include the lush 1993 movie “The Scent of Green Papaya, and the 2023 movie, “The Taste of Things.” Finally, the Latino Film Festival will take place in March and showcase films from across Latin America.
One way the Media Arts Center fosters future filmmakers is with the Teen Producer’s Project. Larry Da Silveira guides this project, and he says that the goals of the Teen Producer’s Project are for the teens to “learn the language of cinema, whether it’s in the form of documentaries or narrative films. They use their knowledge of cinematography and editing styles to tell stories and express ideas. Another goal is to develop media literacy skills so that they’re active consumers of media and can analyze messages that they’re inundated with daily.” Classes for the spring session will be held every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., starting Jan. 27 and will culminate with a screening of student films at the Digital Gym Cinema on April 20.
In addition to movies, music, and culture, there is “Mi Universidad,” a program of classes and workshops in Spanish that began one year ago. It was established by UC San Diego Extended Studies. More than 900 students have attended these classes and workshops, with some coming from Tijuana. “Mi Universidad” offers classes and workshops like Introduction to Business, Introduction to Computers and Technology, choral singing in Spanish, and a theater community.
Program director Nara Muniz França says that these free classes were designed to empower Latino and Latinx students. She believes that one of the most important classes they offer is Spanish for the Professional Workplace.
According to França, “This is a course designed to serve first-generation professionals who speak Spanish at home with their parents but study and work in English. These professionals usually don’t think of Spanish as a professional language, and since they have not studied Spanish, their Spanish may not be good enough for meetings or emails. In this class, the instructor helps them to develop their professional Spanish skills and their self-esteem. Being bilingual is a huge asset, and their resume should show that. Students have reported applying for better positions or for promotions after taking this course.” Classes for “Mi Universidad” are on the third floor.
UC San Diego at Park & Market just opened two years ago, so the San Diego community has much more to look forward to and enjoy.
For more information and the full schedule, visit the websites.
Mimi Pollack is a mostly retired Grossmont College teacher and freelance writer.