Columnist

Lisa Deaderick

Lisa Deaderick is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she writes about social justice issues as well as influential San Diegans. Each week, she speaks with community activists, academics, volunteers and other knowledgeable individuals about everything from the benefits of music in education and the creative work of notable artists, to understanding the importance of representation and inclusivity. A Chula Vista native, she graduated from Bethune-Cookman University in Florida and Columbia University in New York, and has worked at the Union-Tribune since 2008.

Cami Árboles, multidisciplinary artist and movement educator. (Photo by Carolyne Loree)

Women — their artistry, contributions — ’in focus’ at exhibition and performance in Balboa Park

June 1, 2025 at 6:01 a.m.

Cami Arboles, a visual and movement artist, and founder of the Mind Body Spirit Collective, a global educational and community platform centered around movement, presents a live performance on June...

Ted Holmes at the Ye Olde Plank Inn in Imperial Beach, where he filmed his show called “Turn and Burn.” Holmes is a long-time creative and a bartender who’s written the show. The pilot is currently available on Amazon Prime. He also wrote the music for the show. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Chula Vista bartender, musician mines restaurant career for material for the small screen

May 31, 2025 at 6:01 a.m.

Theodore “Ted” Holmes III has worked in restaurants and been making music since he was a teen. Now, he's part of San Diego's creative community as a musician, actor, producer,...

Portrait of artist Lia Strell at home with a sculpture she created in 2015 titled, “Probability.” It’s made of aluminum, copper and glass. (Charlie Neuman / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Pairing her care for the planet with her love of creating art

May 24, 2025 at 11:18 a.m.

A couple of ideas were rolling around for Lia Strell when she was a young girl—one was that she’d become a marine biologist and the other was that she’d be...

A participant for “The Hapa Project,” part of the new exhibition “hapa.me — 25 Years of The Hapa Project” at the Museum of Us, opening May 23. Artist Kip Fulbeck started the project in 2001, photographing over 1,200 individuals who identified as multiracial, including their handwritten response to the question, “What are you?” Nearly 25 years later, Fulbeck has re-photographed original participants and asked them to write new personal statements. (Photography by Kip Fulbeck)

Multiracial people answer the question of ‘What are you?’ on their own in new exhibition at Museum of Us

May 23, 2025 at 12:45 p.m.

The title of the exhibition would make you think he’s been working on this project for the past 25 years, but artist Kip Fulbeck says the seed was planted years...

At Balboa Park on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in San Diego, Kahlil Childs is a 15-year-old musician who’s been described as a jazz prodigy and budding star. He heads his band, the Kahlil Childs Quartet, made his debut at 13 as a member of Gilbert Castellanos’ quintet at the Jazz on Tap Festival, and has also studied with UC San Diego music professor Kamau Kenyatta. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Young jazz standout Kahlil Childs has been learning and listening and has a lot to play

May 19, 2025 at 4:36 p.m.

Kahlil Childs is an accomplished jazz musician at 15 years old, playing the alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, in addition to the bass clarinet and the flute; studying under jazz...

Diversity, mental health and group therapy counseling meeting, healthy conversation and wellness. Psychology counselor, psychologist help people and talk about anxiety, depression or stress. (Yuri Arcurs peopleimages.com / Adobe Stock)

Local car club and mental health nonprofit partner to bring lowriders and suicide awareness to community

May 16, 2025 at 5:37 p.m.

An annual suicide awareness event is marking its fifth year on Saturday, and the work to provide education and resources to the community have been working. The Mario C. Rivera...

Nana Malone is a best-selling author of multiple romance novels, including her latest book, Gold Coast Dilemma. Malone is shown here her La Mesa home on Monday, April 21, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A fan of a good love story, bestselling author Nana Malone pens new novel featuring a Ghanaian heiress

May 12, 2025 at 7:01 a.m.

“Gold Coast Dilemma,” features a young Black woman in publishing who successfully soldiers through battles at work, with her family, and with her feelings for the hot guy at the...

Jimm Jenkins shows his paper sculptures in Downtown San Diego on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. His artwork will be on display at this year’s San Diego Fright-Mart, a horror pop-up event, on May 10.(Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Local artist brings detailed paper sculptures to annual horror event

May 9, 2025 at 4:24 p.m.

After a career in the sign making business, artist Jimm Jenkins is honing his skills creating his elaborate paper sculptures. He creates all kinds of characters with varying features, from...

Stephanie Chen, who writes under the pen name Kristi Hong, holds her newly released romance novel, “The Teacher’s Match,” on April 16, 2025 in Pacific Beach. (Ariana Drehsler / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Picture ‘Abbott Elementary’ meets ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ but ‘a lot less crazy and rich,’ local author says of new romance novel

May 5, 2025 at 6:20 a.m.

In “The Teacher’s Match,” a new romance novel by Kristi Hong, two teachers meet, feel a spark, and attempt a platonic friendship as coworkers while working at a Mandarin-immersion school...

Bryttney-Mischele Salvant (she/they) is a surreal expressionist artist. Here, Salvant stands next to her art at the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Never ‘too much.’ Local artist celebrates reclaiming own space and voice in Bonita exhibition

May 2, 2025 at 5:45 p.m.

As a child, Bryttney-Mischele Salvant re dreaming, expressing herself, and feeling deeply, as plenty of children do. There’s another, more painful memory, that came along with that — being told...

Neil Kendricks is an artist, writer, and filmmaker whose work is currently on display in two local exhibitions: The San Diego Central Library’s Judith Harris Art Gallery’s “25 Years of The Drawing Show,” which has been extended to June 15, 2025. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A ‘talking comic book’ with music, portraits of San Diegans, and a conversation about democracy

April 20, 2025 at 6:03 a.m.

In “We the People, Sing Our Song,” an art project/“talking comic book” created by Neil Kendricks that explores the concept of democracy through voting and civic participation, the hardest part...

Kaley McCabe is an illustrator for children’s books and is one of the featured artists in this year’s San Diego Book Crawl. McCabe poses for a photo in Rancho Peñasquitos in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Grab a port to access a world of independent bookstores at annual San Diego Book Crawl

April 19, 2025 at 6:03 a.m.

Her mom was diligent about keeping a very young Kaley McCabe supplied with computer paper. The budding artist would spend hours during her childhood making up stories and fashioning them...

Portrait of artist Jean Cornwell Wheat in her home studio with a sculpture she’s working on of a former student named Pedro. She’s a longtime art teacher at San Pasqual Academy that’s a boarding school school and lives on the campus in housing for faculty . (Charlie Neuman / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Art show assembles ‘a team of creative superheroes’ in new works by San Diego-based Black artists

April 13, 2025 at 6:03 a.m.

“Lineage + Inheritance” is on display at Art Produce in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood through April 19

Artist Kevin Hosseini, whose work is featured in “The Art of Autism: A Different Lens” at the Oceanside Museum of Art, with some of his paintings in his home in San Diego on Wednesday, April 09, 2025. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

He’d asked someone to draw him a picture. Then, they taught him how.

April 12, 2025 at 6:29 a.m.

Kevin Hosseini is one of more than a dozen neurodiverse artists whose work is featured in “The Art of Autism: A Different Lens” at the Oceanside Museum of Art through...

Caroline Collins, an assistant professor at UC San Diego, poses for a portrait in her office on Thursday, April 3, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

UC San Diego professor shares broader history of Black Americans along the Pacific coast in public exhibition

April 6, 2025 at 6:11 a.m.

Caroline Collins looks at such people as mariners, explorers, whalers and shipbuilders between the 16th and 20th centuries

A group of riders walking out of a trolley along the San Ysidro Transit Center in San Ysidro on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

How to make traveling between neighborhoods more equitable? An wants to answer that question.

March 30, 2025 at 8:27 a.m.

Annual Transportation Justice Expo on April 5 furthers work on finding solutions to gaps in transportation options for all

Jennifer Anne Bennett poses for a portrait in her home studio on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in Lemon Grove, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Why this artist wants you to get lost in a ‘nurturing visual space’ of nature-based artwork

March 29, 2025 at 7:17 a.m.

“Into the Woods: Resplendent” features landscape paintings by Jennifer Anne Bennett and Jeanne Dunn at the San Diego Mesa College art gallery through April 24

San Diego, CA – March 20: Stacie Birky Greene at her home art studio on Thursday, March 20, 2025, in San Diego, CA. Birky Greene is a local artist whose current exhibition at the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library, “Silent Skies,” features endangered and extinct birds as part of her work to bring attention to the issue and the birds’ connection to the planet. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Local artist hopes you see how beautiful and beneficial birds are, too

March 23, 2025 at 12:04 p.m.

“Silent Skies” — an exhibition of paintings and drawings of critically endangered and extinct birds — is on display at the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library through Friday

Artist and teacher Margaret Noble stands at her installation live camera feed art installation piece on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla on Wednesday. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Artist explores the good, and not so great, sides of technology

March 22, 2025 at 10:02 p.m.

Margaret Noble is a visual artist and educator whose work is featured alongside more than 20 other artists in “Land and Sea: Selections from the Collection” at the Museum of...

“Flooded Kumeyaay Villages: El Capitan Reservoir” by artist Louise Russell, is among the pieces on display in the “One River, Many Stories” exhibition at the Grossmont College Hyde Art Gallery March 24 to April 24. (Photo by Louise Russell)

From the early days of the Kumeyaay to people living in San Diego today, the river has ‘many stories’ to tell

March 16, 2025 at 6:49 a.m.

The San Diego River Artists’ Alliance and the San Diego River Park Foundation partner for a new exhibition featuring various styles of art to tell the stories of the San...

Elzbeth Islas is the director of the Women’s Resource Center. Holding the “Los Cuatro Acuerdos” book, Islas Islas pose for photo at San Diego State University on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Centering and lifting up women, gender equity in her work at SDSU Women’s Resource Center

March 15, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

Elzbeth Islas was applying to master’s programs in student affairs in 2016 and wanted the kind of hands-on experience she could get through a graduate assistantship. After she interviewed at...

Aug. 20: Aug.’s supermoonset against Imperial Beach Pier and a flock of pelicans flying north on Tuesday, Aug. 20th at sunrise. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

¿Tienes un lugar público favorito para visitar en San Diego o Tijuana? ¿Buscas uno nuevo? Probablemente esté en este libro

March 9, 2025 at 9:46 a.m.

La arquitecta, urbanista y autora Megan Groth habla sobre su libro, “Places We Love: San Diego Tijuana”

Laura Murray (left) and Isabella Quevedo in a scene from the 2021 documentary “Rebound,” which follows their stories of leaving prison and jail, and finding the kind of and resources needed to help them build a better life. The film is being screened March 13 as part of Women’s History Month programming at UC San Diego. (Photo courtesy of Tamara Perkins)

Two San Diego women talk about their path to success after leaving the criminal justice system

March 10, 2025 at 11:11 a.m.

One woman was tutoring other former inmates in a post-prison program, helping them get better grades when a staff member urged her into another program that would help her with...

Got a favorite public spot to visit in San Diego or Tijuana? Looking for a new one? It’s probably in this ‘book for locals, by locals’

March 4, 2025 at 6:28 a.m.

As a kid growing up in Rancho Santa Fe, Megan Groth’s parents routinely took the family hiking in the desert, or to Ramona, Santa Ysabel, or to the beach in...

Hamza Walker is director of The Brick, an alternative, nonprofit visual art space in Los Angeles. He will be at UC San Diego on March 3 as a visiting speaker to talk about his exhibition, “Monuments,” which uses decommissioned monuments alongside contemporary art to look at American life and history after the Civil War, and the current state of civil rights in the United States. (Photo by Todd Gray)

A statue, a street sign, the name of a park. What do they say about who we are and what’s worth ing?

March 2, 2025 at 6:01 a.m.

In 2017, the planned removal of a Confederate statue from a park in Charlottesville, Va., led to a right-wing rally protesting that plan, and a counter-protest (resulting in one fatality...

Olivia Chilcote, an associate professor of American Indian studies at San Diego State University and author of the book called “Unrecognized in California: Federal Acknowledgement and the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians”, poses for a portrait on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

From her family’s dining room table to documenting a Luiseño band’s path toward recognition in her book

March 2, 2025 at 9:51 p.m.

In her 2024 book, “Unrecognized in California: Federal Acknowledgement and the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians,” tribal member and professor Olivia Chilcote traces the history of her tribal...

Megan Giddings is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of “Lakewood.” She is the featured author in this year’s Black History Month author series, presented by the San Diego Public Library and the University of San Diego Copley Library, where she will discuss her book at the San Diego Central Library on Feb. 24 and at the USD Copley Library Feb. 25. (Photo of Giddings by Jon Cameron; photo of “Lakewood” courtesy of HarperCollins)

A mysterious town, secret medical experiments, and caring about each other

February 23, 2025 at 6:03 a.m.

In her debut novel from 2020, author Megan Giddings writes about a young Black woman who drops out of college after the death of her grandmother, determined to find a...

Dan Nguyen poses for a photo near one of his ceramic sculptures at his studio on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 in Escondido, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Blurring the lines between art and architecture with his fluid sculptures

February 22, 2025 at 12:48 p.m.

Dan “Nuge” Nguyen needed a creative outlet. Actually, he says he found himself “desperately searching for a creative outlet of any sort,” which led him to a local woodshop. Although...

Denise Rogers is acting dean of the School of Arts and Languages at Mesa College and a professor of art history. Rogers poses for a photo in the art gallery at Mesa College on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Today’s contemporary Black artists continue a legacy of transformation with their work

February 17, 2025 at 6:25 a.m.

There are countless examples of the ways that Black creativity in America has literally changed the world — from jazz, rock, and hip-hop, to soul food, to literature, to the...

Jasmine LeFlore is one of 25 female scientists in San Diego being honored for her work by New Village Arts in their “Illuminating Women in Science” initiative, as part of the programming for their play, “The Half-Life of Marie Curie,” about the friendship between Curie and another female scientist. LeFlore poses for photo in Downtown on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Up in the sky, watching planes led her to a career in engineering

February 15, 2025 at 6:01 a.m.

As a little girl growing up in Flint, Mich., Jasmine LeFlore used to watch the planes fly overhead the flight path near her home. She was fascinated, and later, a...

“Superradiance,” by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter. Installation view at Taikang Art Museum, Beijing, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter)

Artists create connections between the way humans dance and nature moves in ‘Superradiance’

February 9, 2025 at 6:04 a.m.

Have you noticed that when you watch someone move—like watching people dance, or watching your favorite sport—that you almost have to stop yourself from mimicking the movement? That’s because people...

Attiba Royster is a comic book artist who is participating in the annual Black Comix Day event Feb. 15 and 16, an annual Black History Month event celebrating Black comic artists. Royster poses for a photo in North Bay Terrace on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

It’s all about Black creators, artists, storytellers at Black Comix Day

February 9, 2025 at 5:26 a.m.

Attiba Royster is one of the local artists exhibiting his work at this annual Black History Month event, Feb. 15 and 16 at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park

Ymoat Luna, board member of Centro Cultural de la Raza, stands in an exhibition space in Balboa Park near downtown San Diego on Jan. 30, 2025, where the artwork is focused on Zapatista history. (Ariana Drehsler / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A message of solidarity, organizing, mobilizing from an indigenous Mexican movement from the 1990s

February 3, 2025 at 8:31 a.m.

For more than 20 years, January has been a month of political education and organizing in San Diego, inspired by the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico. In January of 1994, indigenous...

Victor De La Fuente poses for a portrait on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Diego, California. He is a visual and performing artist who recently produced a feature-length documentary. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Look in the camera and be honest. La Mesa artist explores identity, loneliness in short film ‘I’m Not Alone’

January 31, 2025 at 3:43 p.m.

Originally, Victor De La Fuente wanted to create a theatrical play that was to be performed live, on stage. Then, frustration turned into inspiration, and he decided to just turn...

The film poster for ‘Even Me 2.0,’ a film by Megan Ebor, a filmmaker and assistant professor at San Diego State University. Her film discusses the experiences of older Black women living with HIV and is included in this year’s San Diego Black Film Festival, from Jan 29 to Feb. 2 at the AMC La Jolla 12. (Poster art by Larissa Leeper)

Of course our grandparents and elders are having sex. It’s important to talk to them about getting tested, too

January 26, 2025 at 7:22 p.m.

The kind of research and outreach work that Megan Ebor does—including areas of social work, mental health, sexual health, gerontology, and community-based research—doesn’t quite fit the more traditional picture that...

Sebastian Slovin, co-founder and director of programs for Nature Unplugged, in Encinitas on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A nudge toward more time in nature, less time online

January 25, 2025 at 10:51 a.m.

Before he could even swim himself, Sebastian Slovin re his father hoisting a 6-year-old Sebastian on his back and swimming in the deeper waters at La Jolla Cove. It’s how...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a gathering in the riot-torn area of Los Angeles, Aug. 18, 1965. Bayard Rustin, King’s aide, is at left. Black LGBTQ+ political representation has grown by 186% since 2019, according to a 2023 report by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute. These leaders stand on the shoulders of civil rights leaders such as Rustin. (AP Photo/Don Brinn, File)

Civil rights advisor Bayard Rustin helped inform Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘dream’

January 19, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

His name has gained wider recognition in more recent decades, but civil rights activist and organizer Bayard Rustin has long deserved a much more respected place in the history of...

Olivia Z. Joseph, who is a quilt research fellow at Mingei International Museum as well as a program coordinator for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino,, stands at the Mingei in Balboa Park on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Look closely and you can read the history in the textiles this quilt researcher has found at the Mingei

January 18, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

Olivia Joseph can spot the stories in the stitches in their work as a quilt research fellow for the Mingei International Museum at Balboa Park. The fabrics, the patterns, the...

Robert Pozos poses for a photo inside his home on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

De niño, siempre llevaba un pedazo de papel en la mano, dibujando todo lo que veía.

January 15, 2025 at 5:41 p.m.

El artista Roberto Pozos convirtió ese talento infantil y su amor por el arte en una carrera de 40 años

As a kid, he always had a piece of paper in his hand, drawing everything he saw

January 12, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Artist Roberto Pozos turned that childhood talent and love for art into a 40-year career in fine art and graphic design

Sarah Beckman, Executive Director of Outside the Lens Wonder Lab in the organization’s new space in East Village, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. For One-On-One. Howard Lipin / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Looking at the world through a camera lens is just the beginning

January 11, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

Outside the Lens is a nonprofit using media arts instruction to help youth find their ion and voice about themselves and their communities.

Juan Medina is the author of “Border Crossings”, about growing up along the U.S.-Mexico border during the 1950s and Chicano movement in San Ysidro. Medina pose for photo in Otay Mesa West on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Contrabandeaba drogas, se convirtió en un Boina Café y centró sus últimos años en la salud mental y el empleo

December 28, 2024 at 3:42 p.m.

El autor de San Ysidro, Juan Medina, comparte su historia en las memorias "Border Crossings"

Marcos Ramirez is a contemporary artist whose current exhibition, “Whites Always Move First,” is on display at ONE Quint Gallery, located at Bread & Salt, through Jan. 4. His installation is centered by a concrete chess board. Ramirez pose for photo in Logan Heights on Dec. 16. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A concrete chess board with bombs and bullets in Logan Heights art installation

December 22, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Marcos Ramirez's current exhibition, “Whites Always Move First,” is on display at Quint ONE, located at Bread & Salt in Logan Heights, through Jan. 4

He smuggled drugs, became a Brown Beret and focused his later years on mental health and jobs

December 21, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

In “Border Crossings,” Juan Medina tells the partly autobiographical story of growing up in San Ysidro in the 1950s and '60s

Nikki Giovanni on making her grandmother proud and doing her duty

December 15, 2024 at 6:02 a.m.

My dad told me that he and my mom used to read Nikki Giovanni’s poems to each other when they were in college together in Wisconsin. I being enthralled...

Mercedes Tiggs is a the founder of Eight 16 Culinary Therapy, a practice that uses cooking and mindfulness in individual and group therapy sessions. Tiggs pose for photo in Talmadge on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

With a dollop of ion for cooking and mental health, she uses culinary therapy to help others

December 15, 2024 at 5:10 a.m.

Mercedes Tiggs is a licensed clinical social worker, culinary therapist, and founder of Eight16, provides individual and group therapy programs while cooking a meal together

Salima Witt poses for a photo with her horse Honey on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 in Ramona, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

She nearly died, four times. It taught her a lot about life and she shares those lessons in her book, ‘STATIC’

December 8, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Four times, Salima Witt has come close to dying. It would be nearly impossible to come away from each medical emergency and illness unchanged, but those changes have led to...

Devon L. Lomayesva has recently been appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve as a judge in the San Diego County Superior Court. Lomayesva pose for photo outside the San Diego County Superior Court in Downtown on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Newly appointed Superior Court judge brings history of service to her Native American community to the bench

December 7, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Devon Lomayesva is from the same community she’s worked in for the past 30 years, serving as chief judge at the Intertribal Court of Southern California, as in-house counsel for...

Mona Gable, author of “Searching for Savanna: The Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many,” will discuss her book at the Point Loma/Hervey Library on Dec. 2. (Mona Gable)

Author finds deep and disturbing history of violence against Native American women in ‘Searching for Savanna’

December 1, 2024 at 6:02 a.m.

The story of what happened to Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind is both uniquely hers, and one shared by too many Indigenous women. When author and journalist Mona Gable began writing about LaFontaine-Greywind,...

Yvette Porter Moore, a genealogist, public historian, and cultural practitioner who researches Black history in San Diego County poses for a portrait on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Whatever you think you know about San Diego’s Black history, she says there’s more

November 24, 2024 at 6:10 p.m.

Genealogist and public historian Yvette Porter Moore wants to preserve local Black history for everyone

Lucy Eagleson is the new executive director of A Reason to Survive (ARTS), shown here on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A filmmaker finds her voice through the camera and shares the lens with kids in San Diego and abroad

November 23, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Lucy Eagleson, the new executive director of National City-based ARTS (A Reason To Survive), talks about her ion for helping youth through the power of the arts

Megan Misako Darrough poses for a photo outside their residence on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 in Carlsbad, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Tiny, but mighty, works of art in ‘Size Matters’ exhibit in Escondido

November 17, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Go ahead, get closer. It’s totally acceptable, probably necessary, and part of the point if guests are going to be able to fully take in the impact of the art...

Mel Vernon, tribal captain of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians, at Grape Day Park on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 in Escondido, CA. (Don Boomer / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Luiseño share traditional ‘Kíicha’ home structure at annual arts festival in Oceanside

November 15, 2024 at 11:08 a.m.

For the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians, Oceanside has been home for thousands of years. That history means a depth and wealth of art, culture, food, spirituality, innovation,...

“J (Jasmine) Jackson is a storyteller and filmmaker, whose 41-minute film, “my heart and i finally met: between my chest” is being screened Nov. 15 during UC San Diego’s Otherwise Film Festival, featuring voices and stories from marginalized communities. (J (Jasmine) Jackson)

A story about gender identity, expression, family part of lineup at UC San Diego’s Otherwise Film Festival

November 11, 2024 at 4:10 p.m.

We are invited to witness the victory, to watch the part where they’ve each arrived at a greater acceptance and understanding of one another. In their 41-minute documentary, “my heart...

Dennis-Michael Broussard, founder and executive event producer for Silk Road Productions, poses outside his home in La Jolla on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. The firm produces the San Diego Anime Con, which will be held Nov. 15-17 at the Legacy Resort Hotel & Spa in Mission Valley. (Kristian Carreon / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Anime fans get even more cosplay and conversation at second annual San Diego Anime Con

November 11, 2024 at 11:15 a.m.

Word was, anime fans kept having to travel out of town to meet up with other fans and nerd out over one of their favorite forms of entertainment. Dennis-Michael Broussard...

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe ignited a political firestorm with a joke calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garage” during Donald Trump’s Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden. (AP)

Inviting a roast comedian to a political rally is certainly a choice

November 3, 2024 at 6:02 a.m.

On one hand, of course Donald Trump’s campaign can feature anyone they’d like at their own rally. On the other hand, if that person tells jokes that target minority groups...

Richard Lederer has written his language column for the Union-Tribune for 13 years, is the author of dozens of books on language, history, and humor, and is a founding co-host of “A With Words” on KPBS. Lederer pose for photo in Scripps Ranch on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Language, literature, laughs in new book about American history by linguist Richard Lederer

November 2, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Columnist, author, and linguist Richard Lederer spent about six months writing his latest book, “American History for Everyone.” That was a lot longer than it’s typically taken him to write...

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga is pictured with her work from her Spring 2023 exhibition, “Swallowing Dirt,” at Volume Gallery in Chicago. (Tanya Aguiñiga and Volume Gallery)

After years of crossing the border every day to get to school, a San Diego artist uses crafting to help others talk about migration

October 27, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Worry, separation, and anxiety were regular companions for artist Tanya Aguiñiga during her childhood, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day to get to and from school. Of course, joy, play,...

“Inaudible, 2017” by Lisa Bryson, is a triptych mixed media piece on paper and is part of the “My Intimate Partner” exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art Oct. 5, 2024 to March 16, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Oceanside Museum of Art)

‘My Intimate Partner’ art exhibit in Oceanside examines violence in relationships

October 20, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Smadar Samson met a group of women who had become homeless after leaving abusive relationships, while she was doing volunteer work in homelessness outreach. Some had children in tow, others...

Michael Robinson, co-founder and principal architect of Robi4 Architecture & Planning, Inc., in San Diego on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A fascination with how art and science collide for local architect

October 19, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

A middle school-aged Michael Robinson came across an article in an issue of his aunt’s subscription to Black Enterprise magazine about Black architectural firms, and one of the firms mentioned...

Sheba Najmi is the founder of Tech for Change, a nonprofit based in San Diego focused on civic tech through initiatives such as their Code for Pakistan, creating partnerships between government and citizens where people in the community are centered in technological improvements to public services. Najmi pose for photo in Hillcrest on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

‘Civic technology’ helps people get more of what they want from public services

October 12, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Sheba Najmi re the process of things like paying the electric bill or going to the post office in her native Pakistan, and it was tedious and difficult. Her father...

An image of buffalo from the documentary film, “Bring Them Home/ Aiskótáhkapiyaaya,” which follows the work to return wild buffalo to the Blackfeet Nation on land managed by the tribe. It’s being screened Oct. 20, during the San Diego International Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 16 to 20. (Photo courtesy of the San Diego International Film Festival)

Documentary follows homecoming of wild buffalo to Blackfeet Reservation after more than a century of disconnection and colonialism

October 6, 2024 at 6:02 a.m.

This massive expanse of land was their home, where they were with family, until they weren’t. There was a time when buffalo were plentiful across North America, with estimates that...

At a home recording studio on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024 in Spring Valley, Dawud Hasan is one of five artists featured in the “Art for Planetary Health” showcase, which pairs each artist with a local neighborhood for collaboration in creating art that addresses questions about harmony with the health of the planet and promoting environmental consciousness. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Looking up at the stars and seeing ourselves, San Diego artist wants to share astronomy with his community

October 5, 2024 at 6:42 a.m.

Dawud Hasan is one of five artists whose work is featured in the “Art for Planetary Health” artists’ showcase at the Fleet Science Center on Oct. 12

Valeria Peña Palomino, with Mundo Gardens, speaks about the Green Corridor Project on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

De gris a verde, grupos comunitarios locales trabajan para reemplazar autopistas con parques

September 29, 2024 at 12:29 p.m.

Le doy crédito al trabajo de los activistas y defensores, ambientalistas (incluso aquellos que no sabían que lo eran en ese momento)

A Banned Books Week display is at the Mott Haven branch of the New York Public Library in the Bronx borough of New York City on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Get them on the shelves and keep them there. Advocates continue to fight against book bans

September 29, 2024 at 6:13 a.m.

Censorship doesn’t always have to be loud, like a towering plume of smoke from a blazing stack of controversial books. It can be quieter, like technically checking the box of...

Author Lauren Marie Fleming poses for a photo Aug. 29, 2024, in San Diego, Calif. (Photo/Denis Poroy)

San Diego author gives new, expansive main character energy with novel ‘Because Fat Girl’

September 28, 2024 at 6:15 a.m.

Lauren Marie Fleming is the author of "Because Fat Girl," a contemporary romantic fiction story about a writer and filmmaker who’s fat, queer, and femme trying to get her original...

From gray to green, local community groups working to replace highways with parks

September 23, 2024 at 2:43 p.m.

Even when they didn’t realize the work they were doing would have an environmental impact, community organizations in San Diego were so focused on improving living conditions for people decades...

Aleya Lateigne, an artist, in her home on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Artists use both sides of the border as a lab to cook up new artwork in ‘Insite Lab’ exhibition

September 21, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

Artist Aleya Lanteigne was intrigued by the concept for The Insite Lab, a program for artists in San Diego and Baja California to embark on research for their work outside...

.. ..On Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024, in San Diego, CA, water flows down Chollas Creek near National Avenue. On January 22, 2024, the creek overflowed beyond the banks flooding homes and apartments in the area. Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Upcycled fashion, spoken word, multimedia art among solutions to stormwater pollution in local design competition

September 15, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

In an effort to increase education and awareness of water quality and water pollution problems, a number of county organizations partnered up enlist the community in creative ways to address...

Marshall Williams poses for a photo with one his photographs at his studio on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Your favorite 24-hour taco shop? You might find it in one of these photos during San Diego Design Week

September 15, 2024 at 11:04 a.m.

The lights literally clicked on when inspiration hit for photographer Marshall Williams’s project documenting Southern California taco stands. “Driving home one day, I was stopped at a traffic signal, it...

Hayden Crocker at home in Solana Beach on Sept. 5, 2024. (Ariana Drehsler / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A love for San Diego inspires high school student to protect it from climate change

September 7, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Hayden Crocker’s interest in environmental work started with his love for his hometown of Solana Beach, and all of coastal San Diego, which he sees as sitting “quite literally on...

“The Rupture of the White Cube: an installation by Hugo Crosthwaite” is an exhibition on display at the Mesa College Art Gallery through Sept. 12. Pictured here is “The Rupture of the White Cube, 2024,” is an acrylic paint mural, site-specific performance/installation where a panoramic window shows Crosthwaite’s “Línea a Tijuacolor, 2024,” a polyptych of 16 acrylic paint and color pencil drawings on cotton paper. (Photo courtesy of Hugo Crosthwaite and Luis de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles.)

Tijuana artist Hugo Crosthwaite literally breaks outside of the box in new exhibition at Mesa College gallery

September 2, 2024 at 8:24 p.m.

Contemporary artist Hugo Crosthwaite has spent his career disrupting conventions

Jazz musician Bill Caballero poses for a portrait outside his home on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Arts, activism and history at anniversary commemoration of local boycott

August 30, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

For seven years in the early 2000s, local artists and activists organized to address the concerns they had with the direction of Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park...

Crystal Mercado Rosure poses for a photo at her home on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Got a ‘big mouth’? It’s welcomed at Bocón arts nonprofit

August 24, 2024 at 1:17 p.m.

Literally translated, the word “bocón” means “big mouth” in Spanish, but the local community arts organization of the same name chooses to use it a little differently. “While it traditionally...

FILE – Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, testifies before the credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J., on Aug. 22, 1964, as her racially integrated group challenged the seating of the all-white Mississippi delegation. (AP Photo, File)

Documentary on civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer part of celebration for women’s equality

August 23, 2024 at 6:29 p.m.

Sixty years ago, at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer told the party and the country about themselves when she was denied a seat on...

Diane Kane poses on Thursday, Aug. 15, at her home in La Jolla, CA. Kane is being awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Save Our Heritage Organization for historic preservation. (Brittany Cruz-Fejeran / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Enjoy places like Petco Park? Thank the La Jolla preservationist being honored with a lifetime achievement award

August 17, 2024 at 10:41 a.m.

Her mother was a talented artist and her dad was a creative engineer, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that Diane Kane would go on to earn degrees in...

Southern California Indigenous Culture and Arts Festival

Kumeyaay musician uses her flute as instrument of ‘medicine for the people’

August 17, 2024 at 12:20 p.m.

Raised in a family of musicians, Melissa Little Wolf Villalobos was introduced to Native American by her elders. She first heard the sounds of Native American flautist R. Carols Nakai,...

“Yollo Huapahualiztli (Strong Spirit), part I,” a multimedia installation by artist Gina Aparicio, is part of the “Indigenous Borderlands: Weaving Nepantla, ing Sacred Relations” exhibit at Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park. The exhibition opens at 6 p.m. Aug. 16. (Photo by Susy Zepeda)

The folks behind the new ‘Indigenous Borderlands’ exhibit at Centro Cultural de la Raza hope people will walk in and see their ancestors, and themselves, reflected in the artwork

August 11, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

The curators for the new exhibition at Balboa Park’s Centro Cultural de la Raza were very intentional about each part of the installation, even down to the color of the...

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