By Tihut Tamrat, Contributing Writer
Last weekend, on August 3rd and 4th, San Diego’s Urban Collaborative Project, a group dedicated to empowering local residents to identify neighborhood issues and address challenges together through resident-led projects partnered with organizations across San Diego and innovatively organized “Destination Joy!”, an artistic and joyful event on MTS Trolley cars all across Southeastern San Diego.
The sold out trolley show began in San Ysidro at the Iris Avenue Transit Center with the sound of joy through the art of song, instruments, and sounds of healing, stopping at the Chula Vista E Street Transit Center to depict the art of motion through yoga, art and breathwork meditation, and cultural forms of motion such as Bhakti, that changed the vibe and atmosphere of everyone in the trolley cars.
Next stop, National City at the 24th Street Transit Center to illustrate the expression of color through a fashion show and hip-hop breakdancing, before stopping at UC San Diego Park & Market to engage with those they picked up along the way over some sandwiches, beverages, and rock painting facilitated by Elie Kennedy. UC San Diego Park & Market also spoke on an array of resources such as an outdoor amphitheater, multiple gallery spaces filled with beautiful and interactive art, a Digital Gym Cinema in which you can catch screenings and events such as these that embrace the community and create a collaborative atmosphere.
Last stop, Destination Joy! at Euclid Avenue Station and Jacobs Center in Southeastern San Diego for the finale of inspirational and informative speakers surrounding the topic of joy, and performances ranging from Soul Line Dancing to Jumpsquad619 Double Dutch, including an open mic, immersing local commuters in a weekend of art, culture, and community.
Meanwhile at the Trolley station activations, artists across different organizations and businesses such as Far South Border North, the Social Education Theatre, Grioneers, Inc., South Bay Community Services, Chula Vista Yoga Gardens, BLK BOX Gallery, Southeast Art Team, Mundo Gardens, David’s Harp Foundation, Vision Culture Foundation, the Homegrown Project, UC San Diego Park & Market, MTS, and many more, demonstrated their forms of art they provide, available to the community.
Lead conductor, Artist Khalil Bleux, spoke to his Joy conductors at the trolley line transition at UC San Diego Park & Market, “So many of us walked here today and didn’t notice our community members on the floor, the folx that are doing their best to live their lives to make home wherever they are. Those people are ours too.”
“We all have the power to disrupt the idea of that notion, circles like this, people like you, are the thing that changes that message [the disconnection, isolation, loneliness of homeless people] . It’s absurd to think that a group of people would gather just to share joy. But we are doing that today,” passionately shared Bleux, as he described the reason behind it all.
Destination Joy!, a harmonious fusion of health and the arts, Southeastern’s exhilarating public transportation system.
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