the SALTY SERIES

Join us for our take-over of Bread & Salt Gallery in Barrio Logan with concerts on the THIRD FRIDAY of every month. Grab a drink, make a new friend, and feast your eyes and ears on the most savory experimental music in town. Each concert is curated by a different local artist, pulling from our community’s incredible wealth of talent on both sides of the border. This season’s savory selections will include evenings dedicated to improvisation, sound art, electroacoustic music, voice and electronics, performance art, and works that combine live music and video.

All shows are at 7:30 pm (unless otherwise stated) @ Bread & Salt, and tickets are $15 General Admission or Pay-What-You-Can.

The SALTY SERIES is supported in part by Jaimi Lomas and Tom Haney and a grant from World Design Capital.

PURCHASE TICKETS

Fates, Boots and Bob: A Hijacked Hootenanny Holiday Hullabaloo

DEC 20TH 2024

Written and performed by mika Castañeda, Maria Antonia Eguiarte, beck haberstroh, and Victor Castañeda H.

Bob Cratchit is on his way home from work when a spaceship crash lands in his path. In this extraterrestrial twist on a holiday classic, an alien, a museum educator, an enormous piece of sacred toast and YOU help Bob navigate his existential workplace woes.

purchase tickets

In this season of giving, we'd like to invite participants in this special holiday event to join us in supporting Border Angels. As we're bracing ourselves for more inhumane border policing, we hope you'll consider supporting by either making a donation here OR bringing any of the following items to the performance:

Adult undergarments (all sizes)
Kids undergarments (all sizes
New clothing & shoes (all sizes for adults & children)
Diapers & Pull-ups
Reusable Water Bottles
Toilet Paper & wipes
Shampoo, body soap & deodorant
Toothbrushes & toothpaste

Body lotion & hand sanitizer
Cold Medicine (for adults & children)
Prenatal vitamins & multivitamins (for adults & children)
Disposable plates, cups & cutlery
Non-perishable food items (ie. rice, beans, pasta, etc.)
Dish soap, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies (ie. bleach, all purpose cleaners, etc.)
Children’s books & arts & craft supplies (preferably in Spanish)

Are you INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING AT ONE OF OUR SHOWS?

Join our Project [BLANK] Steward program to learn the ins and outs of putting together interdisciplinary productions!

Learn more

Installation performance by natalia merlano gomez

JAN 17TH 2025

Installation performance by Natalia Merlano Gomez featuring works for electronics and voice

During the concert, we will delve into the various dimensions of the human voice beyond just singing, encouraging a moment of contemplation about communication and expression. The event will also provide an opportunity to appreciate visual elements and synthesizers, taking the audience on an immersive journey.

The program will include pieces from creators with diverse musical backgrounds TBA.

Installation performance by Valerie Jackson

FEB 21ST 2025

Jackson will be creating an installation comprised of several projections onto screens and furniture/set dressing with performance by LA-based musician Jason O'Connor.

The audience is welcome to come and go as they please.

NECKING PRESENTS:
SMOKE SHOW

Five Free-Punk Stunts

MAR 21ST 2025

Necking has been a free-punk improvising collective since 2004. For this event, they’ve invited like-minded collaborators, including past members, to participate in a series of stunts that break Necking into its composite parts and themes. This five chapter essay will cite influences lofty and lowly, using the language of some of our best misfits!

Artist lineup TBA.

SOLO performance by Teresa Diaz de Cossio

APR 18TH 2025

Installation performance by Teresa Diaz de Cossio, flutes, objects, and video

RITUALS FOR RELINQUISHING A BODY
by Esther Gamez Rubio

MAY 16TH 2025

Performed by Esther Gamez-Rubio, Wilfrido Terrazas, and Ivan Trujillo.

This is a ritual of separation.

The last moments of a person with the body they inhabited.

This is a funeral song you sing to yourself.

This is a ritual of gratitude and tenderness, of desperation and frustration.

This is a moment of realization that there is no true return to the earth.

This is a moment of love and horror.

PAST SALTY SERIES SHOWS

THE GOLDEN HOUR: WORKS FOR THE MINI PARK

AUG 31 2024
6:30 – 7:30 PM → NORTH PARK MINI PARK

FREE season launch event!

The Golden Hour will feature a series of modular, collaborative works by Teresa Díaz de Cossio, Ilana Waniuk, Alvaro Diaz, and Joseph Bourdeau. Using an expansive repertoire of sounds, including toys, radios, live instruments, and electronics, as well as the public percussion installation at North Park Mini Park, the performers will present a series of vignettes as the sun goes down.

The show will last roughly an hour, and audience members are invited to move about, or come and go freely during the performance. Bring your own chairs, blankets, picnics, and join us as we melt into the sunset together! 

wave + energy,
Improvised works for video+sound curated by Joe Cantrell

SEPT 20TH 2024

Sound you can see - light you can feel!
WAVE + ENERGY is a concert of works that pair music and video to create an immersive sensorium where perceptions shift and boundaries blur. Curated by Joe Cantrell, this concert pairs some of our favorite improvising artists and musicians to create new works of sound that you can see and light that you can feel!

With performances by:
Joe Cantrell (sound) & Armando de la Torre (visuals)
Michell Lou (sound and visuals)
Michael Trigillio (sound and visuals)
Matty Terrones (sound) & Victor Castañeda (visuals)

LA POCHA NOSTRA

THE MEX FILES: A Divination Ritual

OCT 18TH 2024 at 7:30 PM
→ Bread & Salt

FILM SCREENING

OCT 20TH 2024 at 2:00 PM
→ The Front Arte Cultura

Embrace the supernatural with an unforgettable installment of THE SALTY SERIES as we bring the legendary La Pocha Nostra to San Diego! 

The Mex Files: A Divination Ritual

The weekend begins with an unforgettable live performance by La Pocha Nostra, featuring La Pocha Nostra’s Artistic Directors Balitrónica and Gómez-Peña, with special guest DJ & musician Perry Vasquez. The Mex Files: A Divination Ritual is an immersive, live-action duet where spoken word and ritual performance collide. In a piece that defies conventional storytelling, Balitrónica manipulates tarot decks and a casino roulette, allowing fate to dictate the script and performance, creating a constantly evolving experience. This intimate and raw performance confronts both personal and collective crises, speaking to Gómez-Peña’s ongoing exploration of cultural reinvention, spiritual upheaval, and survival in the age of pandemics.

Film Screening: "Son of Border Crisis," “OAXACALIFORNIA”, "SF Apocalypse" and “Alien Planet”

The weekend continues with a screening of four of Gómez-Peña’s groundbreaking films, offering a rare glimpse into the evolution of his cinematic work.
Son of Border Crisis (1990), directed by Isaac Artenstein, tackles the cultural clashes and immigrant struggles faced by Mexican-Americans.
SF Apocalypse (2022), is a post-pandemic experimental performance film set in a dystopian art space on the periphery of San Francisco. Shot by filmmaker Gustavo Vazquez, the film features a cast of 25 artists who join Gómez-Peña in creating a visionary commentary on the collapse of creative spaces in a post-pandemic world.
Oaxacalifornia (2024) showcases decades of collaborative work by La Pocha Nostra with artists in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Alien Planet (2024), an exclusive sneak peek at a brand-new film created during LPN’s ongoing artistic residency in Roswell, New Mexico. Directed by Balitrónica and Gómez-Peña. Filmed by EmaLee Arroyo, Sarah Stolar & Dr Darkturn. Hair and Nails by Feral Kitten and Costuming by Jess Fitz and Kate Turner.

NOTE: Ages 18+ The performance and films contain nudity and are not suitable for children.

A spoken-word duet & “live-action juke-box” by Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Balitrónica with special guest Perry Vasquez

Featuring seminal works of Guillermo Gómez-Peña

THE OUTSIDE IN

NOV 15TH 2024

Curated by Project [BLANK] Artistic Director Leslie Ann Leytham, THE OUTSIDE IN features composer/performers who utilize techniques that combine field recordings, electronics, and acoustic instruments from our extended Borderlands community from Enesnada to Los Angeles.

With performances by:
Mattie Barbier (Los Angeles)
Jen Boyd (Inland Empire)
Haydee Jimenez (Tijuana/Los Angeles)
Teresa Diaz de Cossio & Alvaro Diaz Rodriguez (Ensenada)