If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out “Alebrijes en San Jose” — a touring exhibition of eight towering “magical” animal statues — there’s a great opportunity this weekend. The “Ritmos y Colores” festival at Plaza de Cesar Chavez will celebrate the colorful Mexican folk art on Saturday night.
The statues made their debut last month during the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, and you couldn’t count how many people were taking selfies in front of them. That number might have actually grown after dark when the statues are illuminated from within, giving off a very unearthly glow.
Saturday’s festivities start at 5 p.m. and include several live musical performance and a “community procession” featuring Aztec dance group Calpulli Ocelocihuatl, lowrider cars, the SJZ High School All Stars Float and music from Mariachi Alma Bohemia de Angel Mendez and Grupo Folklorico Los Lupeños. It sounds like a parade to me, too, but it also sounds like fun whatever you call it.
At 8 p.m., there’ll be a drone show over the intersection of Park Avenue and Almaden Boulevard presented by the San Jose Downtown Association. This should be an almost identical show to the one that took place Saturday night at Summer Fest, though organizers were hoping to fix a few things from the first show.
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There are several other events happening in conjunction with the exhibition, including a CityDance salsa event on Sept. 18 at the Circle of Palms, three more outdoor movies and art workshops at the Bay Area Glass Institute, MACLA and the San Jose Jazz Break Room. You can get the full schedule for those events at alebrijes.sanjosejazz.org, as well as for “Sueños Fantasticos, an exhibition of the original alebrijes art that’s on display at San Jose City Hall until Dec. 19.
COMING SOON: San Jose Stage Company will open its 2025-26 season on Sept. 24 with the West Coast premiere of “McNeal,” a provocative new drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ayad Akhta about a Nobel Prize-winning novelist who experiments with AI. I’m not sure you could find a more topical subject for this region — or a better region for this play.
That show runs until Oct. 19 and will be followed by “Million Dollar Quartet,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “The Coast Starlight,” and the Queen musical, “We Will Rock You.” Artistic Director Randall King says each story in this season is really about the “high-wire act of survival” and the resilience of the human spirit. Sounds like some great reasons to go to the theater. You can get the full schedule at thestage.org; subscriptions are currently available, and single-ticket sales will start soon.
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo will provide remarks at the College of Adaptive Arts’ annual gala fundraiser at Mission College on Sept. 14. If you’re not familiar with CAA, it was founded in 2009 by by Dr. Pamela Lindsay and DeAnna Pursai, who found their loved ones with special needs were not welcomed into higher education. The CAA’s philosophy is to offer lifelong learning to any adult with disabilities.
It’s been very successful, with its enrollment doubling in the past five years. Unfortunately, CAA doesn’t have a reliable funding source, so it needs donors and events like the Sept. 14 gala to keep it going. The fundraiser will support workforce development and apprenticeship programs, student tuition, technology and class supply needs and an expansion plan.
The fundraiser, “Educate. Empower. Evolve: Writing the next chapter in inclusive higher education,” starts at 2 p.m. and will be emceed by two College of Adaptive Arts (CAA) students, Rowan Timmerman and Victoria Rivera. Get more information at www.collegeofadaptivearts.org.