Feature Archives

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.

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 festival will involve over thirty different student organizations and communities, as well as youth and community organizations from throughout the Bay Area.

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 is at UC Santa Cruz until March 8th.

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 16th at about 4:20pm, Santa Cruz Police Sgt. Flippo, Officer Auldridge, and three other cops (two as back-up) began writing warnings to folks on the edges of the drum circle in the Cathcart parking lot. The drummers, after ignoring the police for awhile, moved to Pacific Avenue to continue drumming at Soquel and Pacific. The Trash Orchestra calls for drummers to participate in a rousing drum circle on Wednesday, January 23rd at the Cathcart parking lot.

On two successive Wednesdays, December 26th and January 2nd, police officers ordered a peaceful drum circle to leave the parking lot on Cedar Street alongside the Santa Cruz Farmers Market. The police are enforcing a new municipal ordinance, which went into effect in mid-November, that activists refer to as the 'Parking Lot Panic Law.' The merchant-backed law prohibits lingering in a parking lot or garage, unless you have a vehicle there (and then only for fifteen minutes).

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."