Freebie of the week: Public art installations are hit-or-miss affairs. Some fit so well in their surroundings, they seem to have been there forever. But for every San Francisco Hearts installation or beloved work like Ruth Asawa’s detailed San Francisco Fountain on Stockton Street, there are some that raise controversy, such as the red Pax Jerusalem sculpture near San Francisco’s Legion of Honor. And even though they ‘ve been gone almost a quarter century, Concord’s Spirit Poles still prompt some to gnash their teeth. This week, San Francisco launches “R-Evolution,” a 45-foot statue of an unclothed female figure created by Venice-born, Berkeley-raised artist Marco Cochrane from 55,000 welds of steel rod and tubing, says the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department. On Thursday, it’s being unveiled in its new home at Market and Steuart streets near the Embarcadero. The free event, from 5 to 8 p.m., features live music and DJs, a night market, photos ops with Ms. R-Evolution herself, and plenty to eat and drink. The new statue is part of the city’s drive to add spice to downtown and an attempt to even the score when it comes to the gender mix of public art. According to Recreation & Parks officials, women are the subjects in only 8 percent of the public statues in the U.S. “R-Evolution,” created in 2015 for the Burning Man festival and displayed previously in Miami, is the final work in Cochrane’s “Bliss Project” series. More information on the event and the statue are at sfrecpark.org and building180.com/r-evolution.
All that jazz in WC: The Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek hasn’t quite resurrected its impressive jazz concert series from years past, but this week the venue is hosting two popular and acclaimed musicians in back-to-back shows. On Thursday, it welcomes versatile composer-trumpeter Terence Blanchard. The New Orleans native has won five Grammy Awards; composed two operas and some 80 film and television scores (including for Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman”); recorded or collaborated more than 30 albums; and is executive artistic director for the SFJAZZ Center as well as Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. Blanchard, touring on the 20th anniversary of his acclaimed album “FLOW,” performs with his E-Collective band at the Lesher Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday; tickets are $68-$115. Meanwhile, Miguel Zenon, a Puerto Rican-born saxophonist and composer who’s won a Grammy and a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, brings his Quartet to the Lesher Center at 7:30 p.m. Friday ($40-$65). Zenon and his band also perform at 7 p.m. Thursday at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz; ($21-$42; www.kuumbwajazz.org) and 7 & 9 p.m. Saturday at Keys Jazz Bistro, San Francisco ($50; keysjazzbistro.com). Tickets and more information on the Lesher shows are at www.lesherartscenter.org.
A stand-up star: Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka is certainly not lacking for good material for her act. She was born in Taiwan but was spirited away – OK, technically, kidnapped – at a young age by her grandmother, who told the family they were going on a short trip. They wound up relocating to the U.S., where they spent seven years as undocumented immigrants. Blessed with a fun-loving and silly demeanor, Okatsuka began to dream of a life in comedy after catching Margaret Cho on TV. The standup career got off to a bumpy start— literally. During a performance in Pasadena, an earthquake struck, but reportedly Okatsuka earned praise for keeping the crowd from freaking out and the jokes coming. In 2022, Variety named her one of its “10 Comics to Watch,” and she later became just the second Asian American female comedian to land a special on HBO. She also developed a move called “The Drop” (it looks painful as heck) that became a viral hit on TikTok. Okatsuka, on her “Full Grown” tour, stops this weekend at the San Improv for five shows. Performances are 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $37.17 to $107.72 at improv.com/sanjose.
A double dose of Mozart: There will be a heady influx of a certain youthful vitality as Pocket Opera, San Francisco’s plucky little theater company, brings its spring production to the Legion of Honor Sunday. The two-pronged program encompasses an animated film and the performance of a live opera. That’s because the film, “A Pocket Magic Flute,” was designed, staged and filmed by Pocket Opera last year in concert with collaborators including the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre to introduce schoolchildren to the delights of the Mozart classic. It went on to win multiple honors, most notably the Award for Digital Excellence from Opera America. Both singers and actors were engaged for the production, with the vocal roles taken by Orson Van Gay as Prince Tamino, Rabihah Dunn as Pamina and Shawnette Sulker as the Queen of the Night. The second half of the program is a performance of a little opera that Mozart composed at 12 (one, amazingly, of three he produced by that tender age). “Bastien and Bastienne,” starring Camryn Finn and Sidney Ragland, tells the tale of a young shepherdess, distraught over the fidelity of her shepherd swain, who consults a magician to help bring him back into her embraces. The performance time is 2 p.m., and tickets, $35-$89, are available through pocketopera.org.
See, hear and feel: The reverberations are bound to be impressive and all-encompassing at this weekend’s edition of SoundBox, the innovative and groundbreaking performance space at 300 Franklin St. developed by the San Francisco Symphony in the cavernous rehearsal space equipped with an amazing state-of-the-art sound system. Percussionist and composer Andy Akiho, nominated for Grammy awards consecutively for best contemporary classical composition from 2022-24, is bringing his “Sculptures” program, a sound world he has created in collaboration with the larger-than-life works of sculptor Jun Kaneko, to the nightclub-like environs, with the participation some SF Symphony musicians. The doors, and the cocktail bar, open at 8 p.m., and the show starts a half-hour later Friday and Saturday nights. General admission is $80, and tickets are going fast at sfsymphony.org.
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