The 31-year-old Fern Street Circus marries circus arts with social justice goals in San Diego’s City Heights.

The City Heights neighborhood of San Diego is known for its incredibly diverse community, including Latino, Vietnamese, Somali, Cambodian and Loatian residents. In addition to many murals and public art displays that reflect that diversity, there’s another, unexpected artist group that calls City Heights home: the Fern Street Circus, a project of the nonprofit Fern Street Community Arts.

The Fern Street Circus has two main outreach points. They run a thriving after-school circus program and they perform circus, variety and musical acts virtually, at their headquarters and in public parks throughout the region. Beyond entertainment, the circus connects attendees to critical resources such as housing, transportation and social services.

Musician and circus artist John Highkin co-founded Fern Street Circus in 1990 with public artist and art teacher Cindy Zimmerman, who is now his wife. They held their first single-ring circus show in September 1991 in San Diego’s Grape Street Park…. Link to Full Article at Next City. 

Main image: Fern Street Circus performers (Photo by Gary Payne)