With the 2024 summer Olympics now under way in Paris, many local sports fans are tuning in to NBC’s Peacock streaming app to cheer on more than 60 San Diego County athletes who are competing this month (a one-month Peacock subscription is just $7.99, by the way).
But just as thrilling and even more inspiring are the Summer Paralympic Games, which feature international athletes with disabilities competing in adaptive Olympian events Aug. 28 through Sept. 8 in Paris. Among the local athletes who have qualified for this year’s Paralympic Games is track and field athlete Beatriz Hatz of San Diego. She was born without a fibula bone in her lower right leg and competes with a prosthetic.
Hatz is one of three competitive athletes with leg limb loss featured in “The Power of Sports for Amputees,” a new documentary by San Diego filmmaker Marci Krown of Krown Family Films. The others subjects are Seal Beach teen Carson Fox, who lost his left leg to cancer in 2021, but plans to pursue football, basketball and track at his high school, and motivational speaker James E. Dixon, who lost his leg to poor circulation at age 11.
Krown has been working on the film since October 2022 and said she looks “forward to sharing a different perspective on leg amputees to the non-disabled community while sharing resources to the amputee community that they may not have known about. And to let everyone know that sports is an incredible way to get to learn about the amputee community.”
“The Power of Sports for Amputees” will premiere at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Encore Event Center, 8235 Ronson Road in San Diego. Tickets are $60 and include a pre-screening with food, drinks and a silent auction. A Q&A will follow the film. Details at krownfamilyfilms.com.
Books
One of the most infamous chapters in local criminal justice history was the arrest, trials and ultimate exoneration of Sagon Penn.
The Southeast San Diego man shot and killed San Diego police officer Thomas Riggs with his own gun, and wounded a second police officer and civilian ride-along, in a violent confrontation in Encanto on the night of March 31,1985. Penn and his two friends were Black, the two officers were White. After two trials — where many jurors felt Penn grabbed the gun in self-defense — he was freed. But Penn was haunted by the experience and died from an apparent suicide in 2002 at age 40.
Peter Houlahan, author of the bank robbery-themed book “Norco ’80,” has just published a gripping book on the Penn case and the how it changed San Diego policing forever: “Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn.” Houlahan will discuss the book at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the San Diego Central Library’s Neil Morgan Auditorium at 330 Park Blvd., downtown. A Q&A session with the author will follow. The event is free and open to the public. Details at libraryfoundationsd.org/events/houlahan
Museums
When the USS Midway Museum opened on San Diego’s harborfront on June 7, 2004, backers of the nonprofit military maritime museum had high hopes for its success. But just how big a success it would become surprised everyone.
Last year, Tripadvisor ranked the Midway museum No. 8 on its annual list of the Top 10 U.S. Museums (based on member recommendations), and last week, the 20-year-old museum hosted its 20 millionth visitor. To celebrate the milestone, museum staff set up a red carpet ceremony to welcome ticket-buyer Ashley Walters, who visited the museum on July 25 with her three children.
Still to come on Sept. 7 is a free community and multicultural celebration with music, dancing and cake to mark the 79th birthday of the USS Midway. For details visit midway.org.
Visual art
This weekend, Bazaar del Mundo Shops in Old Town San Diego will host its annual Latin American Festival and Mata Ortiz Pottery Market.
Running from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the festival will feature Mexican folk art and textiles and clothing from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador and more.
Among the featured artists are Jacobo and María Ángeles, whose hand-carved wooden figures represent animal spirit guides known as alebrijes (as seen in the Disney anmiated film “Coco”). Visit 4133 Taylor Street, San Diego, or bazaardelmundo.com.
Theater
Hershey Felder, the playwright, actor, pianist and composer who has built a large following in San Diego over the past 18 years, is returning to Southern California next week with his latest composer-themed musical play “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,” about the life and music of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The play, which co-stars Anglo-Italian actor Jonathan Silvestri as Tsar Nicholas II, will run Wednesday through Aug. 25 at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, followed by a five-day run at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
We will publish a new interview with Felder in the U-T Sunday arts section later this month where he talks about his new show and also his appointment as the artistic director and manager of two historic (and newly renovated) theaters in Florence, Italy, where he lives with his wife (and former Canadian prime minster) Kim Campbell. For tickets to the local engagement, visit sandiegotheatres.org.
Other U-T arts stories you may have missed this week
- Review: Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan provide stellar night at San Diego concert
- After bursting onto the culinary scene in 2022, Kingfisher is still going strong
- La Jolla Playhouse stirs up a storm with ‘Derecho’ world premiere
- Updated ‘Peter Pan’ without Native American stereotypes playing in San Diego through Sunday
- Turkish folktale the inspiration for next weekend’s ‘Chasing Fear’ musical
- Post Malone heads up Wild Horses 2024 festival in San Diego
- Los Lobos at 50: Cal-Mex rock vets celebrate storied history
UCSD-TV
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism
Lerone Martin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, discusses his recent book, “The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover.” The book reveals how Hoover and the FBI collaborated with leading white evangelicals and Catholics to establish a white Christian America by any means necessary. Drawing on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents, including a civil lawsuit for FBI files on Billy Graham, Martin takes readers from small-town church pews to the Oval Office and denominational boardrooms. This talk, Martin transforms our understanding of the FBI, white evangelicalism, and the intertwined history of religion and politics in America.
Understanding Atmospheric Rivers
Over the last two winter seasons, atmospheric rivers have significantly impacted California and the West, bringing extreme precipitation and its cascading consequences. The meteorology behind atmospheric rivers is complex, but scientists at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) are diligently working to improve predictions and understand their implications for rainfall and snowfall. CW3E Deputy Director Julie Kalansky as she explains how researchers are uncovering the causes and consequences of these “rivers in the sky” and examining the role of climate change in their increasing frequency and intensity. Discover the cutting-edge science behind these remarkable weather phenomena.
Discussion of the film: György Kepes: Interthinking Art + Science
“With the scientist’s brain, the poet’s heart, and the painter’s eye” captures the essence of Hungarian-American artist György Kepes, whose pioneering work is explored in Márton Orosz’s documentary “György Kepes: Interthinking Art + Science.” This film, the first comprehensive assessment of Kepes’s life, showcases his pivotal role in the Art and Technology Movement and his efforts to bridge the gap between the humanities and sciences. As the founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, Kepes championed the integration of art and technology. Filmmaker Márton Orosz s George Legrady (UC Santa Barbara) for a compelling discussion on Kepes’s legacy, highlighting his contributions to modernism and his enduring influence on contemporary media art.
And finally, top weekend events
The best things to do this weekend in San Diego: Aug. 2-4.
Pam Kragen, Union-Tribune
