You don’t have to be a Christian or given to holiday season kitsch to appreciate the annual Christmas Crèche Exhibit at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Palo Alto.

For a couple thousand years now, the nativity scene has inspired artists all over the world to depict the magic of the Christmas story: Baby Jesus in a Bethlehem manger, surrounded by his parents, Mary and Joseph, the three wise men, shepherds, a host of farm animals and sometimes local villagers, too. It’s an ancient tradition, as open to individual interpretation as there are humans on earth.

“It started with just a few people, with a few nativities, from a few places, in one room, and it’s grown to now, where we have it for five days and 10,000 people come every year as a tradition,” says Marguerite Gong Hancock, co-director and co-founder, here all 32 years the church has been putting on this show.

This nativity scene from Ethiopia is painted on goat skin. (Rachael Myrow/KQED)

These days, people come by the busload from senior centers and elementary schools all over the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Families and book clubs add lunch nearby and make a day of it in Palo Alto.

The exhibit now takes over the whole building, from the sanctuary to the basketball court. There are 50 countries represented, with more than 250 nativities in every media imaginable: paint, porcelain, crystal, driftwood, goat skin, tagua nut, recycled bicycle wheels, auto parts, et cetera.

“We have a whole range, things that are from artists who may be internationally known to things that are made by school children,” Gong Hancock says.

This nativity scene from Ecuador is carved out of tagua nut. (Rachael Myrow/KQED)

Straining to remember whether this pastiche reflects the stories  told in biblical texts? Better to relax and accept this genre gives wide berth to artistic imagination and cultural diversity.

Thousands of people apply to feature their nativity scenes every year, but only ten percent or so are chosen. Gong Hancock and her co-curator try to contain the deluge with an annual theme.

This year, the theme is “Star of Wonder, Star of Night,” referencing the popular Christmas carol, We Three KIngs. Of course, that’s a broad theme. To further subcategorize, the church’s seven rooms each focus on a color, media or geographic region, like Asia, or South America.

This nativity scene, constructed from bicycle parts, is called “”The hopes and fears of all the gears.” (Rachael Myrow/KQED)

Where did this holiday staple begin? Gong Hancock explains, “The story goes that St. Francis of Assisi, in 1223, created the first nativity in Italy, inspired by seeing shepherds in the distance. Over time, people started to make beautiful figurines and statues, and the churches would put them on display. People would tour from church to church to church. So it’s in that spirit that we have gathered nativity scenes and opened wide our doors, so that people can come and enjoy them.”

There’s also live art, music, and marionette shows daily, as well as craft workshops for children. Is it over the top? Absolutely, but not in the materialistic way Americans have come to love and/or hate. The exhibit is free, the labor is volunteered, and the art is surprising and delightful, regardless of whether Christianity is your jam.

The 32 annual Christmas Crèche Exhibit runs December 7-11, 2019 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Palo Alto. Details here.

This week we’re talking about a ballet beyond words, a play about the 1950s “red scare,” an unstoppable jazz pianist and more. Joining me in the studio is Suzie Racho, producer-director for The California Report Magazine, and founding producer of The Do List.

Listen to the show above, and click through the links below for more details on this week’s picks!

May 31–June 2: Oakland Ballet’s Scene & Heard at the Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College.

June 4: A tribute to David Wiegand at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

June 6: Jazz Pianist Ahmad Jamal at Davies Symphony Hall.

June 6-July 1: FINKS at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

June 7-July 7: Prince Pre Fame photography show at the Family Affair gallery in Lower Haight.

June 8-9: The Huichica Music Festival at Gundlach Bundschu winery in Sonoma.

This week, I’m joined on The Do List by Jamedra Brown-Fleischman, co-host of KQED’s pop culture podcast The Cooler. We’re talking about Nazis influencing famous painters, the challenge in satirizing American politics, and a wild plot to catch a serial killer.

Through Oct. 28: René Magritte: The Fifth Season includes the artist’s intentionally “bad” paintings at SFMOMA.

May 24-27: Please help me I’m drownding: San Francisco’s dark decade comes to life in a film series at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

May 30: The fourth annual OutOfFocus Music Video Film Fest at the New Parkway in Oakland.

May 31-June 1: Sheer Mag rocks the Ritz in San Jose and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

June 1-3: Clusterfest in San Francisco’s Civic Center brings top stars in comedy, music, podcasting, drag and more.

June 1-10: The Healdsburg Jazz Festival hosts big names at small venues.

June 9: The Read Live! with Kid Fury and Crissle at Oakland’s Fox Theater.

June 16: Flying Lotus returns to the Greek Theater in Berkeley.

This week on the Do List, I’m joined by KQED Youth Media Manager Ariana Proehl for talk about a queer circus, a Saharan film festival, a tribute to a beloved DJ and more. And also, on my first week sitting in his old chair here at the Do List, I want to say thanks to Cy Musiker — for showing us the way.

On with this week’s show; click through for details.

May 18: Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald sings with the San Francisco Symphony.

Friday and Saturday, May 18 and 19: Paradise: Belly of the Beast from circus troupe Topsy Turvy pushes the boundaries of imagination and mythology while centering people of color and queer people of color. 

Saturday, May 19: The Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival always has a great vibe and crowd, and features a jazz stage, dance stage, poetry stage, a tribute to Pam the Funkstress and more at San Antonio Park in Oakland. 

May 20–June 17: Mamma Mia! is at the Mountain Play at Mt. Tam in Marin, a gorgeous amphitheater where they’ve done summer theater for over 100 years.

May 24: The film Zerzura screens and the guitarist Mdou Moctar performs with the film’s star, Ahmoudou Madassane at the Starline Social Club in Oakland.

Through July 17: Yarrow Slaps’ More Water at State Gallery features the artists’ works along with a back room that shows off Slaps’s curatorial side, with a group show by a crew of artists he’s calling the Art Figaz. 

And some special news about the return of the Treasure Island Music Festival, including their just-announced lineup.

I’m joined by two of my favorite co-hosts for this episode of The Do List: KQED Arts’ senior editor Gabe Meline, and Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts’ co-chair A-lan Holt. And the biggest reason was so they could hold my hand as I said goodbye to KQED and our listeners.

I’m leaving KQED and The Do List for the life of a country bumpkin, in the Sierra Foothills. Emphasis on the bumpkin.

It’s been the greatest joy of my life to work here at KQED, and to serve the people, as our late news director Raul Ramirez used to say.

The Do List is almost 10 years old, and it’s in good hands with Gabe Meline as our new host, and our new producer, Ashleyanne Krigbaum. They’ll bring fresh energy and voices to the show, while staying true to our mission of helping you, the listener, find great shows and good cheer. We share a love of discovering new talent, and performances that help us understand the world better; that help us be more empathetic; that make us better human beings.

Please keep listening and reading. Now here’s our show for this week.

April 25-May 20: A Suzan-Lori Parks play at the American Conservatory Theater confronts the desperate choices of a slave during the Civil War.

May 18: The nomadic Ubuntu Theater presents Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog.

May 15-20: ODC’s Walking Distance Dance Festival offers an antidote to blandness.

May 17 and 19: Ghost Ensemble makes music for deep, deep listening.

May 10-12: José James performs a tribute to the music of the great Bill Withers.

May 15: Cartoonist Keith Knight delivers a “Toon Talk” at the Cartoon Art Museum.

May 13: On Mother’s Day, Ezra Furman at the Independent in San Francisco, a great songwriter and energetic performer.

May 17: A Conversation about thethe arts and social justice at Stanford’s Cubberley Auditorium with Linda Sarsour, Patrisse Cullors, Favianna Rodriguez and Raquel De Anda.

Stanford’s A-lan Holt and KQED’s Gabe Meline join Cy Musiker for his final episode as host of The Do List. (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

We had terrible news this week. San Francisco Chronicle Assistant Managing Editor David Wiegand, my founding co-anchor on The Do List, was found dead in his home on Tuesday. He was omnivorous in his approach to the arts, and together we crafted The Do List out of that ideal, embracing everything from classical to rap, from Shakespeare to the weirdest performance piece, from veteran to young talent. David would have wanted the show to go on, and this week’s episode is dedicated to him, and his memory.

May 16-20: The New Century Chamber Orchestra offers the West Coast debut of Philip Glass’ new piano concerto

May 10-24: The Center for Asian American Media’s film festival includes a documentary on former San Jose Mayor Norm Mineta.

May 9-20: The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Transform Festival asks “where is our public imagination?”

May 5-7: Khalid plays the Bay Area, taking a satiric jab at our attitudes toward millennials

May 4: The kids are really, really talented at The Oakland School for the Arts in a concert at the Fox in Oakland

May 4-July 20: The Betti Ono Gallery in Oakland offers a photography show with intimate, detailed portraits of working-class African Americans.

A fond goodbye to former Do List co-anchor David Wiegand 

The late David Wiegand and Cy Musiker at The Do List Live event at The Chapel in 2015 (KQED)

The Do List was taken over this week and we’re delighted. My co-host is Nick Abraham, a member of KQED’s Youth Advisory Board, guitarist in the band Unpopular Opinion, a high school junior at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, and a lover of pop-punk music. He’s also a member of the invasion force for KQED’s Youth Takeover week, in which we featured news stories and commentary by students from ten Bay Area high schools. Thanks Nick; we’d love to have you co-host again.

Here’s the show he and I picked:

April 29: The California Alliance for Traditional Arts celebrates four bands in which master musicians pass on their knowledge to a new generation

April 28-29: The Bay Area Book Festival makes the case that books will never be obsolete.

May 5: The Pride Prom returns to Berkeley’s 924 Gilman, offering a safe place for LGBTQ teens.

April 20-July 15: The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles opens an exhibition on gun violence that proves these are not your grandmother’s quilts.

May 3 and 4: Joyce Manor and awakebutstillinbed make loud intense music in shows in the North and South Bay.

April 27: Los Cenzontles Juvenil, the kids at the Los Cenzontles Cultural Academy, stage a record release show.

May 3: Nick Abraham’s punk band Backyard Brew plays a gig at Backyard Brew in Palo Alto, and they’re good.

The Do List got a youth takeover this week from guitarist and KQED Youth Advisory Board Member Nick Abraham (Nadia Voynovskaya)

On The Do List this week, we’re welcoming the return to the Bay Area of Tony Kushner’s mind-bogglingly brilliant play Angels in America, plus an art exhibition in San Jose on the meaning of the house, and two nights with Meshell Ndgeocello, my co-host, KQED Youth Media Manager Ariana Proehl’s favorite artist. Take a listen.

May 3-4: Meshell Ndgeocello finds healing in song with shows at the Freight and Salvage, and we all feel better

April 20-Aug. 19: The San Jose Museum of Art presents an exhibition examining the meaning of the single family home

April 20, 21 and 27: Bay Area country band Poor Man’s Whiskey celebrates  a new album with shows at Hopmonk in Sebastopol and The Great American Music Hall, and join an all star lineup for a North Bay fires fundraiser

April 17-July 22: Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America returns to the Bay Area, where it was born.

April 24: Reveling in the slow jams of young British singer Jorja Smith

April 27: Young artists, storytellers and reporters take over KQED  News and present a show at the Brava Theatre

April 25-29: The Philharmonia Baroque Ochestra wraps up its season with a double dose of Beethoven

Ariana Proehl and Cy Musiker out at a gallery (Photo: Courtesy of Chandran Gallery)

Jamedra Brown-Fleischman is back as my Do List co-host this week to talk about San Francisco Ballet’s big dance festival, Unbound, and its 12 world premieres — and about another world premiere from San Francisco queer choreographer Sean Dorsey. Plus, we ask: What would possess seasoned Broadway show producers to mash up the Go-Go’s pop-punk with an Elizabethan melodrama?! The answers await in the podcast above and the story links below.

April 13: The Ibeyi sisters make thrilling music of the African diaspora.

April 19-21: Choreographer Sean Dorsey offers a transgender and queer take on how to be a better man.

April 20-May 6: SF Ballet’s Unbound looks to partially answer the question: Where is dance headed in the 21st century?

April 13 & 20: Allan Hall’s jazz band Ratatet makes exquisite chamber jazz in shows at Berkeley’s Jazz Conservatory and at San Jose’s Art Boutiki

April 21: The Afro Urban Society and Studio Grand in Oakland present Full Color, a short story written by Itoro Udofia that has been adapted for the stage in an event honoring Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

April 10-May 6: Elizabethan melodrama meets the Go-Go’s pop-punk in the world premiere of the musical Head Over Heels.

SHOUTOUTS!

April 21: Drunk Theatre puts actors to a test that no “method” can prepare them for.

April 14: The Oakland band Wax Idols has a new album and CD release concert that shows off  their morbid sense of punk humor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0QOAiXY3M

Rachael Myrow here, pinch-hitting for Cy Musiker this week. Naturally, I picked a co-host from Palo Alto — visual artist and salon organizer Sabha Shere — and we talked about the upcoming concerts and exhibitions we’re most excited about.

Apr. 6–8: Science Parties With Pop Culture at Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018.

Apr. 6: Kronos Quartet Plays Live to Green Fog, a Found Footage Homage to Hitchcock.

Apr. 9–14: Other Minds Festival Celebrates Cerebral and Witty Sound Poetry.

Mar. 24– Aug. 12: Cult of the Machine Explores the Magnetic Pull of Industrial Design.

Mar. 30– Apr. 29: In a Time of Economic Extremes, Shakespeare’s Timon Recast as a Silicon Valley CEO.

Apr. 6: Haim Plays at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on The Road to Coachella.

Apr. 20–22: The Classic Chicano Novel ‘Bless Me, Última’ Reimagined as an Opera

Apr. 27-28: Epic Tale From the Ancient Indian Ramayan Takes Flight in San Francisco

Our favorite arts administrator Tomás Riley (formerly with CounterPulse) is back as co-host, and the show is music heavy (a good thing), with electro-pop from Emily Afton, a new song cycle about being black in America by Lawrence Brownlee, and the ugly pop of Skating Polly. Enjoy.

March 23 and 24: Emily Afton’s wary but positive songs deserve a wider audience

March 23: Ingmar Bergman’s warmest film, Fanny and Alexander, plays at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley

March 27:  The San Francisco Public Library screens Ferlinghetti – A Rebirth of Wonder, Christopher Felver’s film about the founder of City Lights Books 

March 31: Tenor Lawrence Brownlee’s updates the classical repertory with a new song cycle about Black Lives Matter.

March 31: The Living Earth Show presents Affirmative Action a concert by five composers of color

March 15-July 8: An exhibition celebrates Rube Goldberg’s slapstick inventions and serious editorial cartoons

March 24 and May 6: Diana Gameros makes traditional songs fresh again

March 27: Skating Polly makes ugly pop that is so beautiful

March 29-April 1: Richard Fouts play about how the Vietnam era draft changed the lives of a generation  

April 14: The Teen Poetry Slam returns to Youth Speaks

Tomas Riley and Cy Musiker of KQED (Photo: Chloe Veltman/KQED)