Set against a concha-pink wall at San Jose’s Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), photographer Diamela Cutiño’s series of black and white paintings pop.

The effect is characteristic of the gallery’s kaleidoscopic new exhibit, Beyond the Diaspora, which explores concepts of belonging, exploitation and gentrification through a riot of color and emotion.

The new exhibit showcases Afro-Latinx artists from a mix of cultural backgrounds, gender and sexual identities and artistic experiences.

“We wanted to be intentional about who was in our space, especially our gallery, and who we are offering our platform to,” says curator Maryela Perez. “To me personally, that meant making sure as many identities as we can cover are being showcased.”

As a non-Black person, Perez wanted to highlight Afro-Latinx artists while being careful not to influence the narrative of the exhibit, wanting the art—and the artists—to speak for themselves.

“I personally didn’t feel comfortable curating this by myself,” Perez says. “So I brought on a small curatorial advisor team made up of Afro-Latinx folks.”

The team reached out to artists through social media and created the prismatic exhibit featuring artists, painters, illustrators, musicians, photographers and documentarians.

Ventura-based artist Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales says she was excited to have a place in the exhibit. Her works—which layer painted sheets of paper, resin, seashells and the delicate bodies of moths and butterflies—explore our layered identities and their connections to the divine and historical.

“Getting invited into the show, I was very excited,” Wallace-Gonzales says. “I’m glad spaces like this are focusing on marginalized communities that have multiple intersections.”

Wallace-Gonzales’s more two-dimensional works reveal themselves slowly, a quiet cacophony of faces turning towards one another. Her resin pieces erupt and take flight as moths and butterflies appear to leap and fly off the work.

“Vanessa means butterfly in Latin,” Wallace-Gonzales says. “They have a very visually obvious transformation process that I really relate to. That’s something that has helped me embrace my identity: knowing that we are not stagnant entities and we can redefine and be fluid as we wish.”

Beyond the Diaspora flows from Wallace-Gonzales’s ethereal works to Dominican photo artist Patricia Encarnacion’s meditative and dreamlike photo collages. Against a black wall, the verdant green leaves of jungles surround scenes of exploitation and appropriation, a commentary on tourism in places like Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

The series is called I am from where you vacation.

In an enclave, the works of DJ Leydis and Los Rakas—part music video and part documentary—explore Cuba and the political and cultural roots of Reggaeton.

Chilean-American artist Thomas Jones is known as a muralist and street artist. His smaller acrylic paintings featured in the exhibit are a departure from his usual medium, but still include the vibrant color and Indigenous African and South American influences of his murals.

Heavily influenced by psychedelics, nature and Afrofuturism, Jones’ paints appear to flow upwards in lava-lamp-like antigravity, envisioning metropolises that are clean, bright and harmonized with nature.

“It’s very utopian,” Jones says. “I’m thinking about how we are going to evolve in the future, working in a place without capitalism, money and all those systems. That peace.”

Oakland illustrator Robert Liu-Trujillo’s Sesame Street-like works depict a child’s ownership of her neighborhood as she fights against eviction. These pieces make issues like gentrification and tenant eviction accessible to children—who are rarely included in the conversation.

San Francisco-based artist Anna Lisa Escobedo was part of the curatorial advisory team. Her painting, La Unica, is placed before an altar of Black and Indigenous self-love. Inspired by Drag Race star and Black trans activist Honey Mahogany, La Unica is meant to encapsulate the essence of Black womanhood. A photo of Escobedo’s great aunt sits beside a vase of plastic flowers.

The altar, Escobedo says, allows audience members to reflect upon their own beauty and self-care.

“I want everyone to think of themselves as strong queens,” Escobedo says. “Let’s put our earrings and lipstick on and pull people away for a few minutes. We’ll get out the door and show the rest of the world how awesome we are.”

Beyond the Diaspora
Through March 13
Fri-Sun, 12-5pm, Free
MACLA, San Jose

This week, South First Fridays art walk and street market are back with artists showing their paintings, ceramics, photographs, music and more all along the SoFA District. Exhibitions include young musicians slangin’ tunes for San Jose Jazz on the corner of First and San Carlos, and a film/art show with live musical accompaniment at KALEID Gallery. At MACLA, a new exhibition memorializes loved ones lost to COVID, and invites the community to contribute photos of their own loved ones. There’s plenty more, plus onsite food trucks from 3 Brothers Kitchen and Road Doggs to satisfy your cravings.

SoFA First Friday
Fri, 5pm, Free
South First Street, San Jose

As a prelude to the return of South First Fridays, SoFA art museums the Institute of Contemporary Art, Movimento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles are throwing a block party to celebrate their reopening with food, musical performances and plenty of art to experience. The museums are also celebrating a new neighbor, as community gardeners Veggielution set up shop on South First, giving the whole event a garden theme. Those looking to get their hands in mother earth or their eyes on some of the community’s visual marvels, shouldn’t miss it.
South 1st Block Party
Sat, 4pm, Free
Parque de los Pobladores, San Jose

San Jose could use a Zorro. The timeless tale of rich-man-turned-masked-swashbuckler entertains because of Zorro’s passion for social justice, and his fight for the poor and downtrodden. Around here, where rich men are a dime a dozen, the have-nots are seen as little more than data points and TaskRabbits. Perhaps that’s why celebrated composer Hector Armienta picked this moment to turn Zorro’s story into a new musical. Incorporating both mariachi and corrido songwriting, Armienta breathes new life into the story of this caped crusader, and restokes the flame of justice for a new generation.

Zorro
Thu-Fri, 7pm, $10+
MACLA, San Jose

Caffe Frascati’s Tuesday open mic nights and Cafe Stritch’s Wax Wednesdays draw crowds of young artists, musicians and poets who convene to jam, freestyle and share ideas. The vibrant community of local creatives is all there. What’s lacking, however, is a larger network of performance spaces, accessible and all-ages, to sustain this burgeoning culture beyond those two venues. But a local grassroots music production collective is aiming to change that.

Since their debut in late 2017, San José Come Up, or simply The Come Up, has grown into a promising force on the local arts scene. The organization provides performance spaces for South Bay artists by throwing house shows, and by collaborating with SoFA district venues like Uproar Brewing Company and Cafe Stritch to elevate all-ages accessibility for the DIY music community.

“The main point of The Come Up is to provide a platform for upcoming artists and to build a community for young creatives looking for something to do,” says musician and writer Isaiah Wilson, who, alongside Riley McShane and Leopoldo “Jon Jon” Macaya, founded The Come Up in order to stimulate San Jose’s creative culture.

“Jon Jon’s the eyes, Isaiah’s the ears, and I’m the mouth of The Come Up,” McShane quips about the trio’s individual talents. McShane and Wilson, who curate and book talent, are both artists. Macaya, a professional photographer, is their publicity and social media guru.

“I think we all just have pretty good taste,” Macaya adds.

Indeed. The group’s success in facilitating the DIY music scene stems from their gravitas as interdisciplinary artists with insider knowledge of the scene. A perfect example is their upcoming music and film festival, South by South Bay. SXSB will showcase San Jose musicians like Swells and the Lünatics at The Ritz, and short films from local filmmakers at MACLA the following day.

“It’s a logical next step for us and what we do,” Wilson says about The Come Up’s move toward curating films and video art. “We’ve done music for a while now, and film has always been in the back of our minds.”

The collective sees SXSB as an opportunity to introduce their growing community to new spaces in the SoFA District. Hopefully, their collaboration with culturally significant community centers like MACLA will provide an established platform to bring creatives together and address the “gap of San Jose artists not knowing each other,” as Macaya puts it.

The Come Up was born out of a casual meeting between the three founders one night outside Cafe Stritch. The conversation soon evolved into a brainstorming session. They would host a showcase of local bands. The crew then successfully pitched their idea at Pitch Please!?, a Shark Tank-style competition organized by San Jose-based arts non-profit Local Color. The contest’s judges chose The Come Up’s pitch from a pool of about 10 contestants, and Local Color awarded the trio $1,000 to execute their vision. They used the prize to put on their first show at Uproar Brewery Company in February 2018.

“After that, it was really just a matter of people taking a chance on us,” McShane recalls. Following a series of events at SoFA Market, The Come Up hosted a pair of well-attended house shows. The turnout at these two events added to The Come Up’s clout and served as a testament to the collective’s knack for community engagement.

Now, The Come Up puts on monthly showcases at Cafe Stritch’s Wax Wednesdays and at The Ritz. They’ve also collaborated with pop-up shop facilitators SJMADE for an exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. Their creative direction speaks of long-lasting sustainability, but the founders see things from a larger perspective.

“The end goal is not to be the only ones putting on shows for years to come,” Wilson says, reflecting on the long-term prospects of The Come Up. “We want to inspire other artists to book their own shows with a do it yourself attitude and form their own collectives—to provide their own come up. The important thing for us is how we execute the torch-carrying—how do we pass on the torch to the next generation of creatives?”

South by South Bay
Sat & Sun, $5+
The Ritz & MACLA

In the binary universe of the Santería religion, Iré (blessing) is the opposite of Osogbo (curse). However, like true binaries, neither could exist without the other. Written by playwright, author, poet and professor Paul S. Flores, We Have Iré is a new theater project that uses the cosmology of Santería to explore the Cuban-American identity in all its complexity. Flores has teamed up with jazz composers, DJs and choreographers for the project, making We Have Iré an ambitious and highly multidisciplinary experience. This Saturday, the public has a brief opportunity to see the exciting play in development, witnessing its formation in real time.We Have Iré
Sat, 7pm, $5+
MACLA, San Jose

Girl, and boy, put your records on at MACLA’s Classic Tracks: Migrating Rhythms. Artist Carlos Rolón (whose pseudonym is Dzine) has installed a record player and sound system ready to play your favorite albums. If you happen to be in the neighborhood without a stack of vinyl on hand, he’s also collected dozens of records and displayed them along the wall. You’ll find artists that represent the Bay Area’s diversity—like La Lupe, Ray Barretto and Los Tigres del Norte. Rolón’s trademark floral paintings adorn one side of the gallery. He drew inspiration from the wallpaper in his parents’ bedroom. Thru Nov. 11.

Classic Tracks
Thu-Sun, noon, Free
MACLA, San Jose

Performance group Maracatu Pacifico bring their Afro-Brazilian maracatu music and dance to San Jose. Maracatu is a folkloric tradition that can be traced back to the colonial era of Brazil. The music and dancing represent Brazil in a vivid, joyful way. Founded in 2012, Maracatu Pacifico focuses on community and personal development through study and performance. They draw their inspiration from traditional sounds that offer more subtle, mellow tunes as well as modern, nontraditional sounds. With the use of Brazilian folk instruments—such as the caixa, a kind of snare drum—they spread Northeastern Brazilian culture around the Bay Area.

Maracatu Pacifico
Fri, 8pm, Free
MACLA, San Jose

One might say that Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly, is a Mexican’s Mexican. Through his satirical column, “¡Ask a Mexican!,” Arellano addresses cultural and social issues unique to the Mexican-American experience—often using humor as a wedge to work his way into more serious topics. This Friday, playwright Anthony Garcia will bring Arellano’s ideas and words to the stage with a series of brutally honest readings. Example: “Wow, you’re a special kind of pendejo.” Composer Daniel Valdez, known for his work on the films Zoot Suit and La Bamba, will provide musical accompaniment.

¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Fri, 7pm, $5+
MACLA, San Jose