SCB Film Series: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution – TWO SHOWINGS

Tuesday • July 15 • Capitola Library • 2005 Wharf Rd • Capitola
Wednesday, July 16 • Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz
Doors open at 5:30, film at 6 pm
Wheelchair accessible • Donation • RSVP requested

In an era of intensifying civil rights struggle and as a global movement against imperialism was on the rise, Black Power entered the scene and shook the status quo in the United States. As cities were burning, people took to the streets in response to anti-Black police brutality and youth protested en masse against the genocidal U.S. war in Southeast Asia. 

During this historic juncture, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense emerged in Oakland, California, seizing the global imagination and forever transforming the landscape of radical organizing. Please join us for a screening of Stanley Nelson’s documentary, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which sheds light on the Black Panther Party from the perspective of its members, its supporters, and those who sought to bring it down. 

Community discussion to follow the screening.  Watch trailer here

RSVP for the Capitola showing here. 
RSVP for the RCNV showing here.

Upcoming Showings:

SURJ Protest Basics & Solidarity Training

(hosted by SURJ Santa Clara County)
Wednesday • July 9 • 7 – 9 PM • ONLINE

It’s summer and things are heating up in the streets. Learn how to keep your cool while turning up the fire at protests and direct actions in our community. We’ll face our fears and uncertainties while talking through potential scenarios and practical strategies you can use right away– like coming face-to-face with an ICE agent. 

Long-time SURJers Meredith Hurley and ren renaud will present this two-hour training. Seasoned organizers and experienced protesters, ren and Meredith will share potential scenarios and practical strategies you will be able to use at your next protest. 

Sign up HERE

Redistribute Wealth: Community Action Board (CAB) of Santa Cruz County

Each month SURJ Santa Cruz County suggests a local organization that is doing excellent work strengthening racial and economic justice in our county. If you’re able, please consider making a donation– healthy for you, healthy for our community. Thank you!

CAB’s mission is to partner with the community to eliminate poverty and create social change through advocacy and essential services.  And they’ve been doing just that exceptionally well for 60 years!! 

Learn more in this 10-minute video with CAB CEO, MariaElena De La Garza

“Now more than ever we need to coordinate our response; . . .What we’re facing today is an emergency—just like COVID was, just like CZU fires, just like the floods—this is an emergency and it requires an emergency response.” — MariaElena De La Garza
 

PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY HERE

Protest for Community in Defense of Immigrants 

Saturday • July 5  •  3 – 6 PM  •  Free  •  Wheelchair accessible
Begins at Watsonville Plaza • 358 Main St, Watsonville

-flyer and text from Campesina Womb Justice’s Instagram feed

SHOWING UP for RACIAL JUSTICE is all about just that: SHOWING UP.
Join Campesina Womb Justice for this community rally and march to support the people who work so hard providing our essential needs. Let’s put our time, heart, and resources to work in a tangible way for the safe and equitable world we all want. Build true community by getting to know our neighbors. This as an important opportunity to center, listen to, and follow the lead of those most impacted. 



We hope to see you there!

SURJ Santa Cruz County – Summer to Grow Mass Meeting

Saturday • August 2 • 2-4 PM  • Mingling 4-5 PM
Santa Cruz • Wheelchair accessible  • Free

SURJ National is making the call to use this Summer to Grow and to Turn up the Heat!

Summer 2025 is heating up—and so is the fight for our communities and our democracy. As Trump and the far right double down on attacks—from slashing Medicaid to targeting immigrant families—the stakes keep rising. But so does public outrage.

Research shows that movements can succeed when just  3.5% of the population is actively engaged in sustained, collective action. We’re not there yet—but Summer 2025 is our chance to grow our slice of that 3.5% and build the people power we need. Let’s turn up the heat—and grow something powerful together. Join us to in a community meeting to get grounded together, get clear on our analysis of how we got here – and then get organized for the work ahead.

Sign up at tinyurl.com/surjsccmeet

BLACK ON SCREEN – TWO SHOWINGS

Tuesday • June 17 • Capitola Library • 2005 Wharf Rd • Capitola
Thursday, June 19 • Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz
Doors open at 5:30, film at 6 pm
Wheelchair accessible • Donation • RSVP requested

Santa Cruz Black will be screening Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, directed by Johan Grimonprez. Nominated for the 2025 Best Documentary Feature, this film examines the cold war episode when sixteen decolonizing African nations were admitted into the United Nations, only to be subjected to Western neocolonial and psychological warfare tactics.

During a time of lingering Jim Crow, the United States deployed Black jazz musicians as part of an anti-communist global culture war, while supporting the overthrow of Lumumba and Congolese sovereignty, the assassination of Malcolm X, and police repression domestically. This is 150 minutes of world history. Watch the trailer here

There will be light refreshments before the film and a discussion post-screening.

RSVP for the Capitola showing here. 
RSVP for the RCNV showing here.

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION & PARADE

Theme: Mind, Body and Soul
Saturday • June 14 • 12 – 4 PM  • Wheelchair accessible • Free
Laurel Park • Maple & Washington Streets • Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Juneteenth celebrates Black Liberation and Freedom in its 34th year behind the historic London Nelson Community Center

First, Honorary Grand Marshall Don Williams will lead the Second Line Sidewalk Parade starting at the BLM Mural, 809 Center St, at 12PM. Dance your way to Laurel Park with a live brass and drum band. Bring you instruments and dancing shoes!  Then more dancing at the park, arts & poetry from the Diaspora, nourishing soul food, craft booths, and kids activities. You can also help create the Ancestors Altar.  More info here

Black Surf Santa Cruz Liberation Paddle Out

Sunday • June 15  • 12-5 PM  
Cowell Beach  • Santa Cruz • Free

The mission of Black Surf Santa Cruz is to promote physical, spiritual and communal healing through surf, education, recreation and advocacy. This is done by intentionally centering and celebrating Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.

Want to Support the LPO? Here’s what is needed: volunteers, donations, raffle items, corporate sponsors. RSVP if you’re coming to make this the biggest and most joyful Liberation Paddle Out yet! 

Redistribute Wealth: NAACP Santa Cruz County

Each month SURJ Santa Cruz County suggests a local organization that is doing excellent work strengthening racial and economic justice in our county. If you’re able, please consider making a donation– healthy for you, healthy for our community. Thank you!

NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch is raising funds for the Branch’s scholarship fund that is given each year in June. We’re focused on building an endowment that will provide college scholarships for Black-identifying high school students in Santa Cruz County. The more funds we raise, the more we donate.

Please help us meet our goal of raising $25,000 for the NAACP Santa Cruz County Scholarship Fund endowment so we can support more of our youth who want to attend college.

Please note that because NAACP engages in political advocacy, donations are not tax deductible.

Donate here

Connect with the Earth, Dance with the Clay with Alicia Rodriguez

Presented by the Resource Center for Nonviolence and the UCSC Center for Racial Justice
Monday • June 9 • 6:30-8:30 pm 
RCNV • 612 Ocean St • Wheelchair accessible • Donation
Join the director and teacher of Taller Guaguarey (Clay Arts Center) in Cayey, Puerto Rico, for an informal conversation about her work, the center, and the vital role it plays in a community impacted by U.S. colonial policies and the climate crisis. 

A former political prisoner, Alicia learned pottery in prison and knows firsthand the healing and therapeutic benefits of working with clay. Alicia and Taller Guaguarey offer free pottery classes to adults and children in a communal setting in Cayey, a mountain town in Puerto Rico with a population of 6,000 people, of which 54.2% live in poverty. 

Donations will help enable Taller Guaguarey to grow into a self-sustaining regional Clay Arts Center by covering costs of supplies, tools, equipment, and teacher’s stipends