Santa Cruz Black Film Series : Whose Streets

Each month through June
3rd Tuesday  • Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz
3rd Wednesday • Capitola Library • 2005 Wharf Rd • Capitola
6:30 PM, doors at 6:00 • FREE • wheelchair accessible

B.L.A.C.K. On Screen is a five-documentary film series focusing on the themes behind our acronym BLACK: Building Legacies of Access in Communities of Kinship.

Starting this month through June, screenings will be the 3rd Tuesday at the Resource Center for Nonviolence and the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Capitola Branch Library. Doors open at 6:00, screenings begin at 6:30. 

Whose Streets? is February’s film. Watch the trailer here.

Each screening will be followed by a discussion and/or Q&A. Some of the filmmakers will be participating. Stay tuned!

ABOUT THE FILM

When unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and left lying in the street for hours, it marked a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Uniting people from the community and across the nation, a movement—propelled by young activists and Ferguson community members—was born. Told by the local residents and activists on the frontlines fighting for justice, equality and an end to police brutality, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising and the movement that followed.

The series continues with:

February 20
Whose Streets?

March 20
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities. Explores the pivotal role historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played over the course of 150 years.

April 17
Against All Odds: The Fight for The Black Middle Class. Acclaimed journalist Bob Herbert asks, “Have Black Americans had a fair shot at the American dream?” He probes the harsh and often brutal discrimination that has made it extremely difficult for African-Americans to establish a middle-class standard of living, while also exploring the often heroic efforts of Black families to pursue the American Dream in the face of unrelenting barriers.

May 22
The Taking of Harris Neck: 80 years of Injustice for the Gullah People. The stunning marshlands of Harris Neck, Georgia have a tragic history. In 1942, the US government took 2687 acres of land inhabited by descendants of freed slaves to build an airbase. The government promised to give the land back after the war. Now 80 years later the community is still fighting to get their land back. The Taking of Harris Neck tells a story of trauma and racism – and the perseverance to overcome against all odds.

June 19
Descendant. Follows descendants of the survivors from the Clotilda, the last ship that carried enslaved Africans to the United States, as they reclaim their story.

Watsonville Film Festival: Watsonville Drag Story Time Documentary

Saturday • March 9 •  1:00 PM •  Ticketed event • wheelchair accessible
Cinelux Green Valley Cinema  •  1125 S. Green Valley Road •  Watsonville

Catch a screening of Watsonville Drag Story Time, a documentary that follows the first bilingual story time in Watsonville, CA.

After an anonymous hate letter was published by a local newspaper, local organizers worked together to curate a powerful, secure and supportive family friendly event.

Directed by Rita Carmona

Produced by Meloddy Gao

Featuring local drag queens Xinistra Gl’Amour and Rogue Roulette

Part of the Watsonville Film Festival – order tickets here!

Move Money: Reparations Santa Cruz

Deadline extended to February 29

Reparations Santa Cruz – a grassroots, all-volunteer project based on the principles of mutual aid – has extended the deadline for raising money to fund three to five leadership & advisory board positions that will be filled exclusively by Black Santa Cruz community members. Since 2020, Reparations Santa Cruz has raised over $120,000 to distribute direct payments to Black Santa Cruz community members. The 100% Black-led advisory board would allow RSC to grow, evolve, and expand their capacity to organize white folks to divest of stolen wealth and to distribute funds directly to Black people. Too often Black folk’s labor, especially Black femme labor, goes uncompensated. We aim to raise $5,000 by February 29 to cover the leadership team’s time. This is an opportunity to support the growth & sustainability of this wealth redistribution project and to fairly cover the leadership team’s time. We invite you to give generously and share this information widely with your networks! Donate on Venmo to @reparations-sc. 

Let’s help this tremendous group meet their goal in order to continue doing the right thing to help level the economic playing field.  

Move Money: NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch

Let’s show our local NAACP some love for all the wonderful things they do for our community.  Every year they host the MLK Jr March, MLK Youth Day, multiple forums with local elected officials and candidates, Juneteenth at the London Nelson Center, and monthly meetings on a variety of topics to keep us all sharp.  They are sponsoring or co-sponsoring three of the events in this very newsletter!

Many SURJ members are also members of the NAACP and you can be, too!  If you support the advancement of colored people, please join at NAACP Santa Cruz or make a one-time donation HERE.  Thanks! We all benefit.

White People, We Have Work to Do – a SURJ National online webinar

Wednesday • Feb 7 •  5:00 PM 

Feeling your heart rate rise over the chaos of 2024 already? Don’t face the fear and dread alone! One of the surest ways to cut through the anxiety of these times is taking action together in community: join SURJ members in conversation about our plans for 2024 to stop authoritarianism, defend the election, and go on offense in 2025 to advance an agenda of racial and economic justice. White people have an important role to play this year. If far right authoritarianism takes the White House and Congress in 2024, it will be because of the support of a largely white base. We have a responsibility to make sure other white people reject far right calls for division and instead see their fates as tied up with other working people. Our POC partners are getting their people in formation, and we need to do our part. SURJ is the largest organization in the country explicitly organizing white people for justice– and we’ve got a plan to win this year and beyond. Join us to learn more.

Live captioning and ASL interpretation will be available during this event.


Register for this important webinar here

Tommy Orange – Wandering Stars, in conversation with Leila Mottley

Thursday • Feb 29 •  7:00 PM •  Ticketed event • wheelchair accessible
Veterans Memorial Building  •  846 Front St  •  Santa Cruz

Award-winning author Tommy Orange will be in conversation with bestselling author Leila Mottley (Nightcrawling) about his new novel, Wandering Stars. The eagerly awaited follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-finalist breakout bestseller There There—winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the John Leonard Prize, the American Book Award, and one of the New York Times‘s 10 Best Books of 2018—Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Red Feather’s shooting in There There.

This event is cosponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.

Tickets and more info here

Gospel Night

Saturday • Feb 17 • Doors 6:30, Show 7:00 PM  • wheelchair accessible
Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz

Welcome to the Santa Cruz NAACP Annual Gospel Celebration! Join us at 612 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz, CA, USA for an uplifting and soulful event. Get ready to experience the power of gospel music and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of our community. Come and enjoy inspiring performances by talented gospel artists, as their voices fill the air with joy and harmony. This in-person event promises to be an unforgettable evening of music, faith, and unity. We look forward to seeing you there!

Tickets available at Eventbrite

Soundscape Salon – Performance & Discussion

Saturday • Feb 10 • 1:00 – 2:30 PM • $25 suggested donation, no one turned away
Peace United Church of Christ • 900 High St • Santa Cruz • wheelchair accessible

Musical Soulmates Performers Collaborative presents an afternoon of musical performances and discussion highlighting the influence of Black American composers and musicians on European Classical composers.
 

Featuring:
Victoria Theodore, Piano
Guests from Musical Soulmates Suzuki Piano Studio performing St Louis Blues by WC Handy
Kate Saphir AlmPiano
Shannon D’AntonioViolin
Bhavananda Lodkey,Poetic Embodiment
Solmaaz Adeli,Mezzo-Soprano

Victoria Theodore, a Classically trained pianist, singer/songwriter, composer, music director, and educator, performed with Stevie Wonder for 7 years, with Beyoncé for 6, including her “Formation World Tour”, and with Lin-Manuel Miranda for his projects “Tick Tick Boom” and “Freestyle Love Supreme”. She is currently in the midst of composing two musicals, “MARIAN” and “CO-FOUNDERS”, and composing, releasing music, and touring with her band EnSpirits, formed with her partner Dave Tweedie

Union Divided – Black Musicians’ Fight for Labor Equality, by Leta Miller

Tuesday • Feb 6 • 7:00 PM • FREE
Bookshop Santa Cruz • Downtown • wheelchair accessible

Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Leta Miller, Professor of Music Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, for a reading and signing of her new book, Union Divided: Black Musicians’ Fight for Labor Equality, an in-depth account of the Black locals within the American Federation of Musicians. Broad in scope and rich in detail, Union Divided illuminates the complex working world of unionized Black musicians and the American Federation of Musician’s journey to racial inclusion.

For more information and to register in advance, click here

This event is cosponsored by NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch