Feature Archives

On June 19th, Checkpoint 303 performed at the Pork Store in SF. With members from Palestine, Tunisia, and France, Checkpoint 303, is a non-profit activist sound art project launched in 2004 by SC Yosh and SC MoCha. It creates experimental electronic music aimed at raising international awareness about the ongoing injustice and suffering of civilian populations throughout the Middle East. Checkpoint 303's was scheduled to play in SF on Tuesday, June 23rd at the Balazo Gallery and on Wednesday, June 24th at Baobab Village.

Carrying on a long-standing tradition of civic contribution and combating corporate greed, the Raging Grannies made an unscheduled appearance at a national aging conference on June 15th in San Francisco. The Grannies took up the conference themes of "creative aging" and "civic engagement" in a performance that included parodies the Grannies wrote themselves. Their skit, "Fight the For-Profits" was an urgent appeal to participants to join the movement against powerful special interests in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and to help pass a single-payer national health care program.

Volunteers transformed a run-down warehouse space and bleak parking lot in downtown Santa Cruz into a cozy community and performance space with a large patio surrounded by a beautiful garden. Inside and outside, people gather around small tables for coffee and conversation, reading, talking, meeting, and enjoying performances and art.

Ten bus shelter billboards advertising the University of California’s “Study in Israel” campaign were remade into “Boycott Israel” ads and placed around Berkeley and San Francisco in May.

The Rock n' Roll On the Knoll Benefit Concert scheduled to occur on the UC Santa Cruz campus on Sunday, May 17th has been canceled. This was announced with very short notice on the afternoon of May 14th. Apparently, UCSC had to export some of it's police force to a graduation ceremony at UC Merced where Mrs. Obama will be speaking.

On Monday, May 11, Students for Justice in Palestine will screen the documentary Slingshot Hip Hop at UC Berkeley. The film braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

On Saturday, May 2nd, Crafts Not Carbon gathered at Embarcadero Center to provide a safe space that fosters creativity and realistic conversation about climate politics. The event was held at 2PM, near the farmer's market and lasted till 5:30PM. While the group met in San Francisco for this event, its future intentions are to reach all regions of the bay area, as well as use the forum for strategic occupation.