Best things to do this weekend in Los Angeles and Southern California: May 8-11

Happy Mother’s Day, and happy opening of the D Line extension to all who celebrate!

This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting a group of artists in Venice who are creating installations that are open 24/7 right on the boardwalk, and doing free pop-up opera and other performances at night all summer long. Being a Venice local, it’s been so fun to see these projects come in along an otherwise pretty quiet stretch of Ocean Front Walk — take a stroll there this summer and you never know what or who you might see.

Licorice Pizza has your weekend music picks. On Friday, Muna begins their two-night run at Shrine Expo Hall, and Wu Lyf plays the first of two nights at the Lodge Room. Plus, Snow Tha Product is at The Novo, Fishbone plays the Teragram, and Netflix Is a Joke has two music-focused events: Beautifully Broken Comedy with Jelly Roll at the Greek, and A Visit From ‘Portlandia’ with Fred & Carrie at the Ford. The dream of the '90s is alive! Saturday, the Netflix fun continues with two nights of Flight of the Conchords at the Greek; on Sunday, Rodrigo y Gabriela are at the YouTube Theater and Norah Jones is at Pacific Electric.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about a local benchmaker who includes the L.A. logo in his work, meet the brand-new eaglets Sandy and Luna and keep track of the more than 100 free World Cup watch parties coming up.

Events

Santa Monica Jazz Festival: A Day in the Park

Saturday, May 9, 1 p.m.
Tongva Park 
1615 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica
COST: FROM $86.90; MORE INFO 

Last weekend, I strolled down to the free jazz shows on Third Street Promenade and was happy to see so many folks out for the music. This week, the fest continues with its marquee events, including Kamasi Washington (the festival’s organizer), jazz legend Stanley Washington (with Stewart Copeland of The Police) and many more greats taking the stage at Santa Monica’s Tongva Park.

Venice Art Walk

Through Sunday, May 17 
910 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Ed Templeton

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Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition

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Check out dozens of artworks from established, mid-career, and emerging artists — and maybe even snap one up — at the annual Venice Art Walk, benefiting the Venice Family Clinic. This year’s Signature Artist is L.A. artist Alison Saar; the gallery and the online auction are free to peruse and open to the public all week long.

Unique Markets

Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10 
Cooper Design Space
860 S. Los Angeles St., Downtown L.A.
COST: FROM $11.54; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy Unique Inc.

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Bring mom to pick out her own perfect gift at this spring’s Unique Markets at the Cooper Design Space penthouse. The Unique Market has a knack for finding brands that go on to become L.A. cool-kid household names, like Hedley & Bennett, P.F. Candle Co., CoolHaus, Poke'To and more. There are also free drinks, a free DIY charm-making station and a photo booth with free Polaroid prints.

JANM’s Nikkei Children’s Book Festival

Saturday, May 9, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 
Japanese American National Museum
100 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo
COST: $10 ADULTS, KIDS FREE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy JANM

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The second annual Nikkei Children’s Book Festival brings children’s book authors and illustrators to the Japanese American National Museum for a fun day celebrating the love of reading. In the morning, there’s a special reading of Ken Mochizuki’s Baseball Saved Us (9:30 a.m.), plus a session with Maggie Tokuda Hall, the author of Love in the Library and a national leader of Authors Against Book Bans. An afternoon session (1 p.m.) features Korey Watari, the author of Kimi the Ballerina, and Mike Wu, a Pixar artist and the illustrator of Kimi the Ballerina. Many more authors and illustrators will be on hand, plus there will be arts and crafts, signings, a pop-up book store and more.

Firebirth

Friday, May 8, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Herb Alpert School of Music 
Lani Hall Theater
445 Charles E. Young Drive East, Westwood 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Mural by wemok_art/Photo by Michele Yamamoto

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I don’t think there’s a better place you could spend Friday afternoon and evening than at UCLA, exploring a new collection of interactive exhibits and music created by artists impacted by last year’s Palisades and Eaton fires. From a custom Fender Stratocaster crafted for San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity from trees that were damaged around the Eaton Fire to listening and viewing stations for works from local artists, including the L.A. Field Recording Club, there are all kinds of ways to explore how the community has responded and processed grief and resilience over the past year. A panel conversation features Chris Douridas (KCRW), Jessica Schwartz (UCLA Musicology), Liz Koslov (UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability) and Kim Yu (Altadena Town Council, Caltech), followed by a closing concert with works from UCLA students and faculty, including the Herbie Hancock Institute Band and the Los Angeles premiere of Will Rand’s Firebirth with violinist Grace Alexander.

L.A. Art Book Fair 

Through Sunday, May 10 
Printed Matter
ArtCenter College of Design, South Campus
960 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
COST: $8, FREE ON SUNDAY; MORE INFO

So much more than just a collection of art books, the annual L.A. Art Book Fair is organized by Printed Matter and features a whole weekend of DJs, live music and exhibitions. This year’s projects include an archival show of newspapers by Chicano in Print; a curated selection of Ed Ruscha's expansive Sunset Strip project by The Getty Research Institute; artifacts of pre-Y2K Asian girlhood from the '90s band Emily’s Sassy Lime (E.S.L.), organized by Ooga Booga; and a site-specific billboard project by Werkplaats Typografie that evolves over the course of the fair.

PICASSO: Le Monstre Sacré

Through Sunday, May 17 
Odyssey Theatre
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A.
COST: $38, MORE INFO 

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Brigitta Scholz Mastroianni

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NUX Photography

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If you saw Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up special Nanette, perhaps you also will never be able to read Picasso’s name without whispering Pablo Pic-asshole to yourself. It’s no secret that Picasso, like many brilliant artists, had a dark side, and this new play, coming to the Odyssey straight from London, explores just that. British actor Peter Tate and Olivier Award-winning director Guy Masterson bring their production here for just two weeks.

Clockshop Kite Festival 

Saturday, May 9, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
L.A. State Historic Park 
1245 N. Spring St., Downtown L.A. 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Let’s go fly a kite! Clockshop’s free annual Kite Festival takes over the L.A. State Historic Park, giving you a chance to enter your homemade kite into a competition, check out artist-commissioned kites and an inflatable sculpture, and, of course, participate in a free kite-making workshop.