SAN JOSE, CA - MAY 1: A skateboarder and a bicyclist move along Alum Rock Avenue during the Viva CalleSJ event on Sunday, May 1, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. Miles of city streets were closed to automobiles Sunday to allow community members to walk, bike, and skate through San Jose. Food trucks, artist booths and performance stages were spread throughout city neighborhoods. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
There won’t be anything boring or sedate about San Jose City Hall on Sunday when pop rock music, samba marching and Aztec dance fill the plaza for the latest edition of Viva CalleSJ.
The route for the “open streets” event — which closes about six miles of San Jose roadways to vehicles and lets cyclists, skaters, joggers and strollers take over — runs from City Hall east along Santa Clara Street and Alum Rock Avenue to White Road, where it turns south to Lake Cunningham Park.
Pro Wrestling Revolution will have four shows between 11:30 and 1 p.m. at Alum Rock Village, at the corner of Alum Rock and White, and BMX Freestyle Shows will be held at Lake Cunningham Park from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Of course, there’ll be entertainment and food trucks at both those activity hubs.
More than a dozen businesses along the route are getting involved, too, as Pit Stop locations offering discounts and deals. They include Needle to the Groove, East Side Barber Shop, Mariscos Playa Azul, Tacos Monarca and El Rodeo Mens Wear. You can get the full Pit Stop lineup at bit.ly/PitStopProgram. More details on Viva CalleSJ — including a route map with vehicle crossing spots — can be found at www.vivacallesj.org.
LANDMARK EXHIBITION AT SJMA: As you’re making your summer plans, be sure to include a visit to the San Jose Museum of Art to see its new exhibition, “Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures,” which spans three decades of the Los Angeles photographer and artist’s career. Especially don’t miss “Untitled Farmworkers,” an incredible installation on the plight of farmworkers in California that has evolved since Fernandez first presented it as a performance piece in 1989.
The exhibition will be the focus of this week’s free First Fridays opening celebration, which starts at 6 p.m. and goes late, with live music and a cash bar at El Cafecito by Mezcal.
Juan Omar Rodriguez, assistant curator at the San Jose Museum of Art, says Fernandez’s early experiences with the Chicano movement made her more sensitive to her own Mexican American ancestry and influenced the development of her work.
“Her work attends to narratives that are often written out of history,” Rodriguez said. “Christina’s conceptual approach to storytelling invites us to acknowledge other stories — of laborers, path breakers, and people in precarious conditions — in the spaces we move through.”
Fernandez will be part of a Creative Minds conversation with author Rosanna Alvarez on Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. that’s free with museum admission. Go to www.sjmusart.org for more details.
TRIBUTE TO HEROES: Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ed Cavallini, who turned 101 last month, arrived in France this week with about 60 other World War II veterans for ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Cavallini, who was the librarian in Milpitas for two decades until his retirement in 2000, was stationed in the Pacific Theater during the war and fought at Iwo Jima but wanted to do his part to honor his fellow vets in Europe.
A RARE BARD, INDEED: Got an Elizabethan dress or a shirt with puffy sleeves in your wardrobe and can’t wait for the Renaissance Fair at Casa de Fruta in September? Bring it out June 13 for Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s dress-up night during its run of “All’s Well That Ends Well” at Willow Street Frank Bramhall Park.
This is the first time in its 25-year history that Silicon Valley Shakespeare is staging the comedy, which is rarely performed and considered one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays” because of its complex ethical questions and lack of moral clarity. Today, it would probably be considered a “dramedy.”
Directed by Marley Rose-Teter, the show opens today and runs through June 23. Performances in the park are free but remember to bring a lawn chair or blanket. Get more information at www.svshakespeare.org/endswell.
Originally published at Sal Pizarro