San Diego Culturecast

Steph Johnson says there's a perception problem when it comes to homelessness.

The local jazz musician founded Voices of Our City Choir in 2016. In the beginning, Johnson simply wanted to provide an artistic outlet for people sleeping on the streets. She found a rehearsal space and invited homeless people to sing with her once a week.

The project, though, has since morphed into an advocacy group that works to humanize homelessness,...

In this week’s Culturecast: Border art.

Though Trump’s aggressive border policies provoked an international conversation that lasted throughout 2017, for many of those involved, the border remains just a faraway political concept.

For the Californians and Mexicans who live near it, though, the border is a very real place.

That was driven home throughout the year as local and foreign artists used the border as a canvas on which they...

Melissa Walter had a job at NASA. She did graphic design, illustration and social media, mostly for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. She loved the job, but she also started obsessing over the fine art she was making at home in her spare time.

At the end of 2015, she decided to take the leap: She quit her full-time job so she could become a full-time artist.

"I was sort of having more confidence in what I was doing, and more excite...

On a recent Friday night, a few dozen people gathered at Marston Point, a parking lot and lookout perched at the southwestern end of Balboa Park.

It was a particularly cold night, so some folks huddled around a portable fire pit gripping hot cider, others jumped in and out of about 15 parked cars spread across the lot. Inside each car, audio stories played on repeat. Each was a memory of Balboa Park's gay cruising culture.

Things h...

Chelsea Allen, the manager of community engagement at the San Diego Symphony, said she thinks San Diego's art and culture crowd is ready for new, exciting things.

"It seems from what we're learning that it's very brave," she said. "And it's willing to accept some new sounds or looks, so we're happy to be doing that here."

The symphony is shaking things up with its new Our American Music festival, a month-long concert series that in...

Anna Stump and Daphne Hill are leaving their Barrio Logan art studio. Their rent went up, and while that wasn't the only thing driving their decision, it hastened it.

Artists are often part of the first wave of a neighborhood's gentrification. Attracted to the big, open warehouses and affordable rents found in overlooked and forgotten urban neighborhoods, they move in, making the neighborhood cooler and in turn, attracting develope...

East Village isn't the thriving arts district it once was.

When Petco Park was built 12 years ago, lots of the artists and galleries taking advantage of cheap rent and large warehouses there were priced out.

East Village has been gentrifying since the ballpark went up. High-priced condos and nice restaurants are popping up, but the neighborhood's also home to the region's largest homeless population,

In episode four of Culturecast,...

Most days, at least a couple of tour groups can be spotted making their way through Chicano Park, the park tucked under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan.

Folks stop to snap selfies in front of the colorful, Mexican-themed murals as they learn about the park's history and significance.

Each mural has a story. Each artist who helped paint the murals has a story. And of course, the park itself has a story that's packed wi...

The first episode of Culturecast, our new podcast that for its first season examines the tensions created by gentrification and the artistic renaissance in Barrio Logan, ended on a cliffhanger.

This week, we pick up where we left off and dig into the challenges local developer Greg Strangman faced after rehabbing a few buildings in Barrio Logan.

Strangman’s firm spruced up two apartment buildings and a few commercial units on Logan...

Milo Lorenzana and Teresa Montero are just two of the dozens of people who've been driving an arts renaissance in Barrio Logan. Their most recent project is the redevelopment of an old building on Logan Avenue where they've opened a coffee shop and leased out the rest of the space in the building to a record store, an art school, a vintage shop and other small locally owned businesses. Milo and Bucky are wary of all the outside de...