Feature Archives

Rico writes: Sarah, who I met in Boston, an artist with old found stuff right up my alley, told me that if you don't document art, any newcomer in town is not going to know that Santa Cruz has a vibrant art community that exists largely outside of the gallery grind. Document, she said, and the artists in town, new and old, will have a sense of momentum -- a sense, that in spite of the lack of art galleries, art buyers, art patrons, art grants, art money, that this town has a lively habit of blurring the boundary between art and life.

The Santa Cruz Art Conspiracy (SCART) is an attempt to share and document some of the creative efforts of artists in Santa Cruz, California working to blur the lines between art and life, and between the personal and the political. The focus is on the cathartic process of creating art, collaboration and community, conceptional art and performance. Non-commercial, non-institutional, SCART believes in the importance of DIY (do-it-yourself). Read More

see also: Fight tyranny! Resist oppression! Join Trash Orchestra!

Palestine Awareness Week is taking place at UC Santa Cruz from May 7th through May 10th and began with a Check Point established in the Baytree Plaza. At that check point, five Palestinians were being detained for no apparent reason while two Israeli soldiers mentally and physically abused the detainees and prevented them from leaving the prison cell. One Palestinian women plead over and over to be released because she was pregnant and worried should would lose her baby.

The MigraWatch Network calls for supporters of immigrant rights to come to the Watsonville City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 8 at 6:00pm, to ask that the City Council pass a resolution which will direct the Watsonville police to notify a human rights group when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is present. It has been reported that when ICE comes into a community, they notify the local police department beforehand. Even in cities that have non-cooperation policies, like Watsonville and Santa Cruz, ICE is able to carry out their agenda without the aid of local law enforcement as evident in the raids in Santa Cruz County last fall.

In the latest rounds of budget woes, the Santa Cruz Homeless Services Center, in order to balance out the loss of some hoped for grant money, and a food service budget which has caused a deficit for 2 years in a row, will be cutting the Saturday and Sunday afternoon dinners along with staffing cuts, and fewer hours of service. Meanwhile the heavily used HSC's hygiene bay includes 2 washing machines, 4 dryers, 3 showers, and toilets for 2,500 homeless clients. Hours will be cut to 5 days a week instead of seven. But the biggest loss are those two, weekend meals which feed between 65 and 160 people each afternoon.

Just weeks after being released from a military stockade in Germany for refusing redeployment to Iraq, Agustin Aguayo were joined by fellow war resisters on a greater San Francisco Bay Area speaking tour from May 9-18. Agustin served almost eight months in prison after fighting for nearly three years to be recognized as a conscientious objector. Agustin explained for the first time why he chose jail instead of redeploying to Iraq.

On April 26, 2007, Danny Glover announced that he is joining with Congresswoman Barbara Lee in supporting the ongoing boycott by UC workers against UC Berkeley due to the unsolved issue of pay equity for custodians. Before the boycott began last year, custodians who clean the dorms and classrooms at UC Berkeley have been urging the Chancellor to end poverty wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute 100% of the custodians at UC Berkeley earn a wage that is below the $19.78 per hour needed to support a one parent and one child household in the East Bay.

Free Skool Santa Cruz (FSSC) held their quarterly Community Picnic and Running a Free Skool workshop on the weekend of May 5th and 6th. May 5th kicked off a special Free Skool weekend with a Free Skool Community Picnic at Ocean View Park. Sunday May 6th, FSSC hosted a workshop on Running a Free Skool at the Big Yellow House.