The Santa Cruz Film Festival welcomes independent filmmakers, musicians, and artists to Santa Cruz for a 9-day celebration of film and culture May 9-17. The Santa Cruz Film Festival is a growing international festival that fosters cross cultural exchange by screening independent films and producing multi-disciplined art events throughout the year.

This year's films stir the soul and contemplate the BIG picture, from war and oil to the meaning of life. The Festival kicks-off May 9th at the Del Mar Theatre with "One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Jack Kerouac's Big Sur." The film explores Kerouac's final and critically praised book Big Sur with the family of fellow beat-ster Neal Cassady. Other films in this year's festival include Les Paul--Chasing Sound, Programming the Nation?, Ripple Effect, Fields of Fuel and 140 other films that consider The BIG Picture. Read More

On May Day, there was a Reclaim the Streets action in San Francisco. A little over 100 people participated. The mobile party started in Civic Center and went all the way to golden gate park.

It left Civic Center around six PM. There was some confrontation early on while leaving Civic Center. The participants were pushed back onto the sidewalk for about five blocks and then claimed the streets once again. The police abandoned dealing with the party and soon left afterwards. At this point in time the party continued zig-zagging Haight street with some minor confrontations with motorists. Gaining more support along the way the part ended up at Golden Gate park in which a parked bus provided some tunes for a dance party and chalk/art session. Cops came later on and the people still danced. Eventually the action faded.

Photos: 1 | 2

On March 10th, Roxy Scarmichael, Robin YoLife, and Charlie Red Stick, three members of the Santa Cruz Roller Girls (SCRG), spoke with Phil Free in the Freak Radio studio about the art of roller derby, creating SCRG and their upcoming first season starting March 15th at the Civic in Santa Cruz.

SCRG is the first all-female, full-contact, flat-track roller derby league in Santa Cruz. Established in 2007 by women who had a dream to bring the sport and art of roller derby back to Santa Cruz, SCRG is operated by and for the skaters. Behind the scenes, skaters practice three to four times a week and do off-skates cross-training as well. Read More and Listen to Audio

EarthVision 2008, which marks ten years of inspiring environmental films, will be held March 3rd – 8th. Award winning films, and two world premiers, will be screened at the Mello Center in Watsonville and at the Rio Theatre and the Veterans Memorial Hall in Santa Cruz.

The festival will be screening films from 13 countries, including 7 produced in the Monterey Bay area. The films are powerful educational tools for Santa Cruz, as entries are shown throughout the year on Community TV.

The EarthVision International Environmental Film Festival grew out of the documentary work of partners Katherine Knight and Ed Schehl. The couple wanted to create a venue in which environmental filmmakers converge and consider each others' work.

Read More | Schedule: March 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th

The exhibition "Sunday Walk to the Zócalo of Oaxaca" is a multi-media artistic response to the popular revolt and resistance that unfolded in Oaxaca in 2006 and the first traveling solo exhibition outside of Mexico for artist Gabriela León. Some of the elements of the exhibition consist of a "barricade dress" made of barbed-wire, tire treads and mattress springs found amidst the detritus; a video projection of the artist wearing the dress walking among protestors and police; a sound installation that evokes the voices of the crowds; and tarps inspired by the temporary living structures during the lengthy protest.

The exhibit will be at Sesnon Gallery (2nd floor of Porter College) at UC Santa Cruz until March 8th. An opening reception on took place on January 29th followed by an artist talk at Oakes 105, UC Santa Cruz. Read More and View Photos

Audio and Photos from the Artist Talk

February 3rd marked the first night of Kinetic Poetics Project, a five day poetry and spoken word festival at UCSC's Porter College Theater. Each night, the Kinetic Poetics Project provides a space for local and student poets to showcase their work for the community and highlights an established poet. As a supplement to the featured poets' performances, the Kinetic Poetics Project has arranged free poetry and writing workshops facilitated by the poets themselves.

Kinetic Poetics is a volunteer organization ran by and for UC Santa Cruz students to foster and sustain growth of the spoken word community rooted on the UCSC campus. This happens through organizing regular slam poetry events at UCSC, including poetry slams and poetry workshops, an annual campus spoken word festival, and a poetry collective that engages the campus community and beyond.

Schedule: Feb. 3rd: 1st Night || Feb. 4th: Slam Semi-Finals || Feb. 5th: Rainbow Theatre Showcase! || Feb. 6th: Slam Team Finals Featuring Saul Williams || Feb. 7th: Open Mic featuring You!

Peter Maiden, Photo Coordinator for Indybay, is currently showing his pictures of Latin Music, shot for Latin Beat Magazine, Timba.com, and many other publications. The show includes 16 digital prints in black and white and color, and covers the years 1998-2007. The photos are on display at 1705 Mission Street in Santa Cruz and will remain up throughout the month of February. Read More

On Friday, February 1st, UC Berkeley's "Activism Right There" festival will culminate with an event that aims to catalyze a student community dedicated to cross-cultural organizing, political engagement and service. The board at Youth Speaks, SPOKES, will hold a reception from 5:30-6:30pm at the Heller Lounge at UC Berkeley featuring Youth Speaks poets, Cal reps, and bay area youth activists and organizations; along with a live DJ and free food.The festival will involve over thirty different student organizations and communities, as well as youth and community organizations from throughout the Bay Area.

The reception will serve as the gateway for a concert in the Zellerbach Auditorium that is taking place at 7pm. The evening will feature socially-conscious spoken word and hip-hop artists from around the nation, as well as student artists and a panel on the history of activism at Cal. Panelists will include Bettina Aptheker of the Free Speech Movement and Jeff Chang, the author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, and activist in the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s. The concert will feature artists including: Zion I, Ammo (champions of the 2007 Youth and Collegiate National Poetry Slams), Siren's Echo, and others. Marc Bamuthi Joseph will host. Youth Speaks asks that youth who plan to attend this free event send an email RSVP'ing to hold a spot for them and their friends.

Youth Speaks's annual series of youth poetry slams will begin in February.

Activism Right There | Youth Speaks ||Performers: Zion I | Kate Wirsing | Andrea Gibson | Gabriel Teodros | iLL-Literacy | Host: Marc Bamuthi Joseph

The community of Santa Cruz won a victory on January 23rd in Parking Lot #4, the lot at Cathcart and Cedar. There under the two tall trees, the weekly drum circle bounced back from last week's police intimidation. Last week cops with ticketbooks dispersed the drummers, Food Not Bombs, and anyone loafing, loitering, or lingering with warnings of $100+ fines.

On January 23rd the crowd nervously returned, lured by food. It grew as the Trash Orchestra began to play. Drummers afraid perhaps of losing their instruments slowly joined in. The trumpeteer returned. Even spectateurs began violating the law by standing on the parking lot without visibly "retrieving or parking" a car or bike--to watch a violent police incident arresting a homeless woman. Even after sunset, the triumphant drumming continued and the crowd danced, children cavorted, and Santa Cruz took a deep breath of air from an earlier sweeter era. Police, except for the one incident involving Officer Cline, stayed away, presumably daunted by the potential prospect of giving out dozens of tickets and having to confront some who were willing to "risk arrest". Read More and Watch Videos

Photos: Beat It! This is Our Parking Lot!

Rico writes, "This year, the third year of the Last Night DIY celebration, did you notice the trend of the city starting to claim the party as it's own? It's awesome to feel accepted of course, but it's a double-edged sword. After the first couple years of getting nothing but grief from the cautious city administrators, conservative local media, and uniformed fascists, this year the Senile and the Good Times claimed that the celebration was "quickly becoming a Santa Cruz tradition," and "was a uniquely Santa Cruz event." Hahaha. That cracks me up.

This year, Ed Porter himself "acknowledged the positive contribution Last Night DIY has made on the community." Two years ago, he characterized us in City Council and in the press as common lawbreakers. Oh well. So goes politicians. You watch, within a few years, you'll hear Ryan Coonerty and Mike Rotkin telling the media how they support the celebration and always have. If you don't budge, the system eventually redraws it's circle of acceptability around you. So if you live under empire and you have dreams of living free, you have to keep stepping outside of that circle." Read More | Photos: Parade | Street Party

Previous Years: 2006 Announcement | SCPD Violated Civil Rights Of Parade Organizers | Police Infiltrate Peaceful Parade Organizers | 2005 Celebration