A weekly guide to what’s happening.
ARTS AND MUSIC
GRATEFUL DEAD TUNES WITH MATT HARTLE AND FRIENDS New weekly link: Grateful Sundays live online can be found every Sunday at facebook.com/gratefulsundays. We need everyone to help us all stay safe. We are asking that everyone hang at their tables. Masks are required at all times unless you are seated at your table. Socially distanced dancing will be allowed at your tables only, not in the spaces between the tables. Artist sites and sounds. facebook.com/gratefulsundays. Purchase your tickets now: Call 831-479-9777, ext. 2. $15. Sunday, Feb. 7, 5:30pm. Michael’s on Main, 2591 S Main St., Soquel.
GARY BLACKBURN BAND HAPPY HOUR Santa Cruz local celebrated singer songwriter Gary Blackburn brings together his smooth vocals and stylized guitar picking to his original compositions in the country, rock, folk, and blues genres. Blending old school with contemporary, Gary will weave a memorable musical performance of songs that tell stories of love, forgiveness, and the paths that we choose. Gary performs his original compositions that include songs off his CD, “Streak of Gray,” featuring “Carolina”, which is currently aired on KPIG 107.5 FM, along with a few cool covers you will hear on KPIG. With a well-rounded repertoire of songs, Gary will show both his versatile soft folk blues side and his edgy rock side. Gary will be bringing a quartet to the stage, featuring Eric Bumgarner on electric guitar, Tom Levenhagen on bass, and Tom Duncan on drums. Bring your face mask. No cover. Friday, Feb. 5, 5pm. Michael’s on Main, 2591 S Main St., Soquel.
BANFF CENTRE MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL VIRTUAL FESTIVAL New lineup of films announced! This year, bring the adventure home! Fluff up your couch cushions, grab a snack of choice, and make sure you have a good internet connection, because the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour is virtual! Travel to the most remote corners of the world, dive into daring expeditions, and celebrate some of the most remarkable outdoor achievements, all from the comfort of your living room. Visit riotheatre.com for more information about the online programs and how you can support your local screening. You may also go directly to the Banff affiliate link for the Rio at filmfest.banffcentre.ca/?campaign=WT-163945. Available beginning Thursday, Feb. 4. $28.
CALL FOR COLLABORATION: MLK DAY JUSTICE JOURNAL Share your dreams and submit a page into a community journal in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. You can write and draw your responses by hand or digitally. Written responses can be of any language. Submitted pages must fit within 10 inches by 10 inches. Per submission, please include a note with your name, address, email or phone number, and selected prompt available on the event page. At the end of February, all the submissions will be compiled and pieced together. The completed journal will be displayed the week of March 1 as a close to Black History Month and continuation of a Black future. Submissions accepted through Feb. 19. Guidelines can be accessed on the event page: santacruzmah.org/events/justice-journal.
POETS’ CIRCLE POETRY READING SERIES Join featured reader, instructor of English and creative writing at Cabrillo College, Victoria Banales for this edition of Poets’ Circle, which includes an open mic for all. In addition to being an award winning writer and teacher, Banales is editor of Xinachtli Journal. Hosted by Magdalena Montagne and supported by the Friends of the Watsonville Public Library. Go to cityofwatsonville.org/348/poets-circle for information on joining this virtual event. Thursday, Feb. 4, 5pm.
SALSA SUELTA FREE ZOOM SESSION SALSA SUELTA FREE ZOOM SESSION Keep in shape! Weekly online session in Cuban-style Salsa Suelta for experienced beginners and up. May include Mambo, ChaChaCha, Afro-Cuban Rumba, Orisha, Son Montuno. No partner required, ages 14+. Contact to get the link. salsagente.com. Thursday, Feb. 4, 7pm.
WESTSIDE MARKETPLACE – NEW! Shop local at the new Westside Marketplace! First Sundays at the Wrigley Building! Featuring local art, handmade and vintage shopping and food trucks and pop-ups … all outdoors at the Old Wrigley Parking Lot on Mission Street. Free admission and friendly leashed pups are welcome! Remember to practice social distancing as you shop and wear your mask. If you’re not feeling well, please stay home. There will be hand sanitizing stations at the market and signs to remind you about all these things! Presented by your friends at Santa Cruz Makers Market and Food Trucks A Go Go. Sunday, Feb. 7, 11am-4pm.
COMMUNITY
BE THE SOLUTION: A WORKSHOP ON HOW YOU CAN HELP TO END HOMELESSNESS IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY Homelessness is a huge issue that needs solving, but where do we begin? Join community activist and former Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane, and Housing Matters Community Engagement Manager Andrea Feltz, in an interactive workshop to discover how you can be a part of the solutions to homelessness. We will walk through a simple five-step process, with big and small group discussions, to uncover what you can do today to join us at Housing Matters in solving homelessness in our community. Bring your questions, a notebook and a pen and get ready to make your personal plan to help join the forces in your county and beyond. Learn more here: bethesolutionssc.eventbrite.com. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 5-6pm.
FAMILY SANGHA MONTHLY MEDITATION Come help create a family meditation cooperative community! Parents will meet in the main room for about 40 minutes of silent meditation, followed by 10-15 minutes of discussion about life and mindful parenting. Kids will be in a separate volunteer-led room, playing and exploring mindfulness through games and stories. Parents may need to help with the kids for a portion of the hour, depending on volunteer turnout. All ages of children are welcome. Please bring toys to share. Quiet babies are welcome in the parents’ room. Donations are encouraged; there is no fee for the event. Sunday, Feb. 7, 10:30am-noon.
HIV/AIDS, ACTIVISM, AND THE POLITICS OF PANDEMIC Professor of History and Legal Studies and Interim Associate Dean in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at CSUMB, David A. Reichard describes the history of grassroots HIV/AIDS activism—especially in the 1980s and 1990s—and how it illustrates the ways marginalized groups advocating for changes in healthcare access, policy, and resources can shape the course of a pandemic. Audience Q&A will follow. This event is part of Our Community Reads 2021, a program of the Friends of the Aptos Library, in which the community selects a book and then comes together for a series of related events. Our Community Reads 2021 virtual events are hosted online by the Santa Cruz Public Libraries. All events are free and open to the public. Registration is required using the blue “Begin Registration” button found in the section below. Please visit Our Community Reads website page for more information at santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/7437142. Sunday, Feb. 7, 5-6pm.
TENANTS’ RIGHTS HELP Tenant Sanctuary is open to renters living in the city of Santa Cruz with questions about their tenants’ rights. Volunteer counselors staff the telephones on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm. Tenant Sanctuary works to empower tenants by educating them on their rights and providing the tools to pursue those rights. Tenant Sanctuary and their program attorney host free legal clinics for tenants in the city of Santa Cruz. Due to Covid-19 concerns, all services are currently by telephone, email or Zoom. For more information visit tenantsanctuary.org or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/tenantsanctuary. 831-200-0740. Thursday, Feb. 4, 10am-2pm. Sunday, Feb. 7, 10am-2pm. Tuesday, Feb. 9, 10am-2pm.
GROUPS
OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS All our OA meetings have switched to being online. Please call 831-429-7906 for meeting information. Do you have a problem with food? Drop into a free, friendly Overeaters Anonymous 12-step meeting. All are welcome! Sunday, Feb. 7, 9:05-10:15am.
WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM Cancer support group for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic cancer. Meets every Monday at 12:30pm via Zoom. All services are free. Registration required. Contact WomenCARE at 831-457-2273 or online at womencaresantacruz.org. Monday, Feb. 1, 12:30pm. Monday, Feb. 8, 12:30pm.
WOMENCARE TUESDAY SUPPORT GROUP WomenCARE Tuesday Cancer support group for women newly diagnosed and through their treatment. Meets every Tuesday at 12:30pm. via Zoom. Registration required by contacting 831-457-2273. Tuesday, Feb. 9, 12:30-2pm.
WOMENCARE: LAUGHTER YOGA Laughter yoga for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets every Wednesday at 3:30 via Zoom. Registration required by contacting 831-457-2273. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 3:30-4:30pm.
OUTDOOR
ASTRONOMY ON TAP SANTA CRUZ Astronomy on Tap is an accessible, engaging, free science presentation on topics ranging from planets to black holes to galaxies to the beginning of the Universe. This month, UCSC’s Rebecca Jensen-Clem and Philip Hinz will discuss the remarkable technologies allowing astronomers to see other worlds and study the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s center. astronomyontap.org/author/aotsantacruz. Thursday, Feb. 4, 6:30pm.
COMMUNITY PERMACULTURE CALLS WINTER 2021 Practice permaculture each week at our village campfire of ongoing interactive group calls. Hosted by experienced permaculture mentors including Santa Cruz Permaculture founder David Shaw, Lydia Neilsen of Rehydrate the Earth, and John Valenzuela of Cornucopia Food Forests. The goal of this program is to create thriving and resilient individuals and communities. We do this through supporting people to connect with nature, community, and themselves more deeply, and use permaculture as the vehicle for doing so. Each call includes a keynote talk on a relevant and seasonal topic. This is followed by a small group conversation for reflection, and a whole group conversation and Q&A. We close the calls with invitations for how you can apply what you’ve learned in your home and community. The next call begins with a check-in about how it went applying what you learned. Our curriculum is ever-evolving, changing with the seasons, and influenced by the topics people want to cover. It is dialogical and co-creative. We include and also transcend the topics covered in our permaculture design course, listed here just to get the flavor of typical topics. For example, during a 10-week cohort, we may spend two weeks on composting (home or commercial), two weeks on no-till agroecology and food forests, a week on habitat and pollinators, a week on designing disaster resilience (personal and neighborhood), a week on economics and right livelihood, and a week on policies to support ecological living. Overall, our goal is to help you and your community thrive using a community-based approach to permaculture as the means. Winter cohort topics include winter pruning, grafting, observing water, greenhouses and composting. Learn more about and register for the 10-week call series at santacruzpermaculture.com/communitypermaculture. $25 per call, $250 for the series. Tuesday, Feb. 9, 7-8:30pm.
ORGANIC SEEDLING PRODUCTION FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE GROWERS Do you already have experience growing seedlings but desire to expand your skills and improve outcomes? Producing high quality seedlings is a prerequisite to successful crop production. In this interactive, virtual, three day course, participants will deepen their knowledge of seed and seedling biology, the management of environmental conditions to optimize seedling development, and how to effectively regulate pests and diseases in the greenhouse. calendar.ucsc.edu/event/organic_seedling_production_for_small_and_medium_scale_growers#.YBYli3dKjOQ. Monday, Feb. 8, 9:30am.
SCIENTISTS SAVING THE OCEANS VIRTUAL EXPEDITION Join the Seymour Marine Discovery Center for a unique virtual expedition as we go behind the scenes with UCSC’s Marine Mammal Physiology Project at Long Marine Lab to explore how Dr. Terrie Williams is racing to protect dolphins and whales from oceanic noise. Interact with Long Marine Lab’s expert animal trainers and researchers to learn how they care for and train dolphins and seals to voluntarily participate in conservation science, observe team research in action and learn how new technologies are developed to investigate animals in the wild, understand how lab science underpins field research aimed at protecting narwhals and other marine mammal populations around the world. Facilitated live through Zoom, this expedition consists of six engaging 90-minute classes. Each class session includes live-streaming time with the staff and resident animals cared for by the Marine Mammal Physiology Project at UCSC. For more details and to register, visit seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/learn/ongoing-education/scientists-saving-the-oceans. Monday, Feb. 8, 2:30-4pm.
VIRTUAL YOUNGER LAGOON RESERVE TOURS Younger Lagoon Reserve is now offering a virtual tour in both English and Spanish. This virtual tour follows the same stops as the Seymour Marine Discovery Center’s docent-led, in-person hiking tour, and is led by a UCSC student! Virtual Younger Lagoon Reserve tours are free and open to the public. Part of the University of California Natural Reserve System, Younger Lagoon Reserve contains diverse coastal habitat and is home to birds of prey, migrating sea birds, bobcats, and other wildlife. See what scientists are doing to track local mammals, restore native habitat, and learn about the workings of one of California’s rare coastal lagoons. Access the tours at seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/visit/behind-the-scenes-tours/#youngerlagoon. Sunday, Feb. 7, 10:30am.
