The MTS trolley system had people moving Saturday and not just from place to place. At several stops, people were being moved the way only art can move — with inspiring, uplifting connection.
This weekend at trolley stations from San Ysidro to Chula Vista to Lincoln Park, artists will be showcasing their work at pop-up installations.
The Urban Collaborative Project and the Metropolitan Transit System put on the event dubbed Destination Joy. The idea is to inspire community engagement and raise awareness regarding systemic racism and oppressive practices, according to a news release announcing the showcase.
“Our marginalized communities have been separated by urban infrastructure and systemic racism, and although we fight the same battle, we activate in silos,” Barry Pollard, executive director of the Urban Collaborative Project, said in the release.
On Saturday, while taking in an installation outside the Jacobs Center in Lincoln Park, Pollard said communities in southeastern San Diego and throughout South County may be separate, but they face the same struggles. And they are all connected by the trolley lines that run through them, he said.
The event stretched across five stations and featured a variety of immersive art installations, activities, and performances. There was waterpainting in San Ysidro, Native American drummers in National City, and dancing outside the Jacobs Center in Lincoln Park.
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At every spot, art was the focus. Attendees watched street artists spray-paint plywood canvasses, listened to spoken word artist Khalil Bluex captivate the crowd and took part in quiet meditations.
Pollard wants to see the showcase become an annual event.
He said several groups from the differing neighborhoods came together to seek state and federal grants for the event, collaborating rather than fighting each other over the same pot of money.
“This is the starting of a movement,” Pollard said Saturday. “We are going to merge our efforts and get regional funding.”
This year’s event was certainly popular. Tickets for a guided art performance for a select group in a specific trolley car moving from site to site were sold out for both days.
“A lot of people want to do good, but don’t have an outlet,” said Chris Carson, a member Vision Culture Foundation, which participated in the show.
Among the items on display was clothing Carson upcycled from items destined for landfills, including a remarkable and reversible jacket he crafted from an old Lion King bedspread and lettering from a Padres jersey.
While people sang, danced and swayed to music at other transit stops, trolley riders in Chula Vista were greeted by a far more subdued, perhaps even hushed, art installation.
Here, it was all about meditation. The idea was to promote health and wellbeing, and the first thing to do, attendees learned, was to stop and just… breathe.
“We want to show there’s a way to have peace even when there is craziness going outside,” said Maria Eckley from the Chula Vista Yoga Center, which hosted several features at the E Street station, including a tent for yoga. Other booths included one for devotional chanting and one highlighting the healing sounds of singing bowls.
The event is free. The installations will be up again from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the following locations.
- San Ysidro: Iris Avenue Transit Center
- Chula Vista: E Street Transit Center
- National City: 24th Street Transit Center
- East Village: Park and Market Transit Center
- Southeastern San Diego: Joe & Vi Jacobs Center and the Euclid Avenue Transit Center
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