Elise Granata calls herself part fitness instructor, part cheerleader and part “your favorite band member.”
That’s a profile required to lead an upcoming hootenanny she’s calling a “Power Hour” for the Museum of Art & History’s Third Friday event on Jan. 15. The event is 60 minutes of mayhem, with a different experience for each minute—starting with a high-five minute and an arm-wrestling minute, then culminating with trust falls and a prompt she calls “talk about the last time you cried.”
“There’s a lot of power in learning how to be vulnerable with one another,” says Granata, the marketing and engagement coordinator at MAH.
Granata makes the presentation on iMovie, setting it to music, and every 60 seconds the song changes. Granata, who first tried the idea for her birthday in 2014, got the idea from a drinking game by the same name, in which people take a shot of beer every minute for an hour.
The first go-round made for the perfect birthday party, Granata says, because she had so many close friends who didn’t know each other, and wanted everyone to get to know each other quickly. Afterward, she remembers, her friends told one another, “Why do I need to be introduced to you? I’ve already told you that I love you and cried with you.”
The event starts at 6 p.m. with warm ups on Friday, Jan. 15. The main event begins at 7 p.m. Admission is $5, $3 for students, seniors and kids. Children under 4 and MAH members get in free. JACOB PIERCE
Frantz Memorial
UCSC and the rest of the Santa Cruz community lost a powerhouse last year when Marge Frantz died on Oct. 16, at the age of 93. Beginning in 1976 as a lecturer, she taught in UCSC’s American Studies and Women’s Studies departments, and had been a pioneering social justice activist since the 1930s. A memorial will be held for Frantz from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17, at the UCSC Music Recital Hall. STEVE PALOPOLI
