Santa Cruz County Art, Culture & Media Digest

“They are growing up in such a charged time. This population of kids are so open-minded, but they live in such a closed-minded world,” says one of the teachers who’s an advisor to the Soquel High School Multicultural Club.

The Bay Area’s legendary KGO 810 AM, which found success for decades with its talk-show format, has abruptly ended that programming. “It’s a terrible loss,” said news-talk host John Rothmann, noting that the station has been “the community billboard for everything, whether it has been elections or disasters or the economy or war or peace.”

Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actress who declined Marlon Brandon’s Oscar in 1973, has died. Littlefeather, who was Apache and Yaqui and born Nov. 14, 1946 in Salinas, died “peacefully at home” in Marin County.

After surviving a divorce from UCSC and then the difficulties caused by the pandemic, Santa Cruz Shakespeare releases its 2023 schedule and plans for improvements to its Grove theater.

Photographer Gina Orlando encouraged nine people—all current or former members of the Downtown Streets Team—to explore their surroundings through point-and-shoot cameras.

Dennis Bartok and Marja Adriance want to open a nonprofit, arthouse film center that would take over for the Nickelodeon Theater in downtown Santa Cruz—or find another venue. But is the price tag too high?

On July 29, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music presents the world premiere of Santa Cruz native Scott Ordway’s multimedia piece on life amid the threats of drought and wildfire.

Lookout Local’s Wallace Baine chronicles how a group of Santa Cruz musical luminaries came together for a photo session to honor concert promoter “Sleepy John” Sandidge on the occasion of his retirement.

At home in San Juan Bautista, where he’s lived for the better part of his life, playwright Luis Valdez is working on his autobiography just after publishing the first book he’s written to describe the philosophy behind El Teatro Campesino.

From July 24 through Aug. 7, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music will celebrate six decades of music with a return to live, in-person performances and a program of new works.

Raymond Evans hosted the first Santa Cruz Juneteenth events 30 years ago. Since then, it has grown from a single event at London Nelson Community Center to this year’s two-day celebrations, planned by a committee of about 10 members.

The London Nelson Community Center provides three helpful tips for teaching kids about the holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas finally learned about their freedom.

Gus Trejo of the Jack O’Neill Restaurant & Lounge at the Dream Inn recently launched an Iron Chef-style competition. Families and groups can book slots in the contest, in which teams will vie for the Iron Chef Title.

Santa Cruz’s first Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Festival, organized by the Santa Cruz AAPI Collective, will be hosted at The 418 Project in downtown Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History also provided support for the event.

The Aptos Branch Library has been standing for more than 40 years. That’s about to change as the demolition phase of its reconsruction is set to begin. Completion of the new library is expected in the summer of 2023.

“Strange Weather,” an exhibition running through Aug. 14, marks a collaboration between the Museum of Art & History and UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts & Sciences.

Add yet another title to the “Filmed at the Boardwalk” list. STARZ film crews were in Santa Cruz filming scenes for the second season of “Blindspotting” at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

The Museum of Art and History and Indexical combine forces to present a contemplative and provocative artistic experience at Santa Cruz’s historic Evergreen Cemetery.

Newly announced concerts by indie pop singer Carla Morrison and electronica band STS9 portend the arrival of Quarry Amphitheater as a new concert venue.

Tim Eagan, creator of “Subconscious Comics” and a longtime Santa Cruzan, turns an injury from his youth into a meditation on fate and mortality.

Bob Gómez, who is serving as Watsonville’s first poet laureate for a two-year term, talks about his background and future plans for his tenure in the position.

As you walk through the UCSC campus, you hear a sudden stir in the dense forestry. You stop and think, “It’s probably just another deer.” But what if it was something stranger? Illustrator Jordan Moore lets his imagination run wild.

California playwright Josefina López talks about being honored at the Watsonville Film Festival—a commemoration of the 20-year anniversary of her play “Real Women Have Curves.”

Historic moments of local Indigenous resistance to colonization are highlighted in a new book by Martin Rizzo-Martinez, “We Are Not Animals: Indigenous Politics of Survival, Rebellion, and Reconstitution in Nineteenth-Century California.” The book includes a forward by Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman Valentin Lopez.

KSQD launched at 90.7 FM in 2019, at a seemingly inauspicious time for radio. But the community-focused station has carved out a niche in Santa Cruz, Wallace Baine reports.

Jaime Cortez has published a paperback collection of stories that is garnering positive attention from NPR, the New York Times, and other media outlets.

For nearly four decades, the Santa Cruz hip hop scene has thrived. What once started as an underground movement has now flourished into something truly notable.

Santa Cruz literary figure Stephen Kessler talks about his new poetry book, “Last Call.”
Published by Black Widow Press, it is the local writer’s 12th collection of poems.

It’s taken about $80,000 of concrete work and hours of volunteer sweat equity, but finally the Scotts Valley Community Theater Guild is nearing completion of a performing arts center at the site of the old roller rink.

Every year the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission honors a local artist for achievements in performing, visual or literary arts, as well as contributions to overall cultural enrichment. For 2021, the county has named multimedia artist Guillermo “Yermo” Aranda as Artist of the Year.

Designer Tina Brown and stylist Rose Sellery have produced a different kind of fashion show in Santa Cruz County for the past six years. After last year’s drive-in event, they’re ready to go live again.

Artists in Santa Cruz County are opening their doors for the annual Open Studios Art Tour, which runs three consecutive weekends. On view will be a wide variety of work: paintings, photographs, assemblage, prints, sculpture, textiles and jewelry.