4:05 PM: Created Commons continues through Sunday at Westcrest Park (9000 8th SW) and right now the performances are celebrating Pacific Islander culture – Hawaii, Samoa, and now Okinawa. It’s all free, outdoors, just north of the P-patch, until about 8 pm. (Here’s the schedule.) Video and photos later!

6:48 PM: We were there for two performances – first, Ala Talo from the Asia Pacific Cultural Center introduced a trio of dancers who she said had not performed onstage before today.

They were a late substitution for a Hawaiian dance group originally scheduled for this afternoon.

The dancers’ previous collaboration: Playing on the volleyball team Pakka Hittaz. Like some other performances we covered in the past week-plus at Created Commons, this one featured audience participation. Talo talked about the mood conferred by the music, particularly a song she attributed to a 12-year-old Marshallese boy, with the lyrics: “Smile and be happy/don’t let nobody take the smile away/Live life to the fullest/As if you’re dying every day.”

Following the dancers, the duo of Mako and Noriko performed Okinawan music, with vocals, the stringed instrument sanshin, and a traditional drum.

Some of the music was hypnotic and lulling; other songs, festive and upbeat. Mako explained her instrument between songs – covered in python skin, with a pick made from a water-buffalo horn.

The afternoon was hosted by R2ISE‘s Alexia Jones and curated by the Jack Straw Cultural Center, which also presented poets and writers; Jack Straw writers are also on the schedule for tomorrow, the final day of Created Commons, a grant-funded festival of art and science that began Friday, August 27th, spotlighting BIPOC artists and speakers, produced by Lelavision. Our coverage of night 1 is here; the second day, here; third day, here; fourth night, here.

P.S. Sunday begins, as did today, with a free 10 am wellness class – this time, K-Pop Zumba!