Native American Boarding School Healing CoalitionHealing, Prayer, Action

Saturday • June 7• 9:30-11 AM
Online • Free

A few weeks ago, the US federal government withdrew all the funding that had been designated to investigate the federal Native American boarding schools.

The devastating impacts (such as ongoing grief for missing, murdered, and disappeared children, inter-generational trauma, addiction, suicide + stolen land, language, culture, and identity) are still rippling throughout Indigenous communities all over Turtle Island. The session will focus on new information and actions.

In partnership with the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), Diné sister Lyla June Johnston and Hilary Giovale, author of  Becoming a Good Relative, are organizing a webinar of Healing, Prayer, and ACTION. They hope to bring people together in unity and raise funds so the work of collecting oral histories and digitizing records can continue.  All funds will go directly to NABS.

Register for webinar HERE
 

Advocate for a People’s Budget for Santa Cruz County 2025/2026

Sign On Letter • Email Your Supervisor • Attend Board of Supervisor Meeting Tuesday, June 3/Wednesday June 4

It’s budget time again! This year’s budget fight is real; the current federal government has made cruel cuts to grants, a significant source of funding for Santa Cruz County’s Health and Human Services (HHS) department, which is forcing that department in turn to propose cuts. However, our county has options! The pain of these cuts could be shared amongst other departments!

Like last year, we are asking individuals and organizations to sign on to our community letter, Santa Cruz County: Budget Our Values, because people-centered services save lives and money by June 8th.

We are also asking people to write a personal email to the Santa Cruz County Supervisor, and to show up at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting on next week (Tuesday-Wednesday, June 3rd/4th) for the hearings to make public comment. Please see our toolkit for a complete guide to both of these actions!


Redistribute Wealth: Liberation Paddle Out

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!

Black Surj Santa Cruz’s Liberation Paddle Out is one celebration happening the weekend of Juneteenth. Hundreds of people participated last year. Funds are needed for surf equipment, wetsuits and permits.

Donate here to help add to the fun!

Black Lives Matter Mural Repaint

Equity Collab
Black Lives Matter Mural Repaint
Saturday • June 7 • 12 – 4 pm
809 Center St  • Santa Cruz  • Wheelchair accessible • Free

Join the SC Equity Collab to process the world we have and help create the world we want. So much has happened since the last gathering to repaint and reflect. We need to experience joy together as much as we need rest, presence, and aligned action. Help create the space for all these things. There will be music, art, speakers, and many rollers of yellow paint.

UC Santa Cruz POWWOW

Hosted by the American Indian Resource Center
Sunday • May 18 • 11 AM – 6 PM • wheelchair accessible
Kaiser Permanente Arena • 140 Front St •  Santa Cruz • Free

This year, the AIRC will reach a larger audience in the greater Santa Cruz and local Bay Area communities by hosting a powwow at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in downtown Santa Cruz. Vendors from throughout the local area will be present with cultural items, dancers are invited to compete, and the recipients of the E. A. Forssgren Scholarship will be recognized for their award. The UCSC Powwow 2025 will be a unique opportunity for UCSC and greater community to engage and celebrate Native American/Indigenous culture, song and dance. 

Museum of Art and History’s London Nelson Legacy Initiative

Three Dates and Locations in May
Monday, May 5  • Thursday, May 8   • Friday, May 9
Wheelchair accessible except for parts of Evergreen Cemetery  • Free

The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History has scheduled a series of events honoring and celebrating the life of London Nelson, an early resident of Santa Cruz, as part of its London Nelson Legacy Initiative. Nelson is known as a formerly enslaved person who settled in Santa Cruz, had a successful business as a shoemaker, and willed his land to the Santa Cruz school district upon his passing.

Events include:

  • Proclamation at Evergreen Cemetery, Santa Cruz, Monday, May 5
  • “Shrine Keeper” Film Premiere at Del Mar Theater Thursday, May 8
  • Opening of the new Santa Cruz Black History Gallery at MAH Friday, May 9

Click here for more details on each event.

The Humanities Institute at UCSC presents the 2025 Deep Read: James by Percival Everett

Sunday • May 4 • 4 PM • Wheelchair accessible
UCSC Quarry Amphitheater • Santa Cruz • Free  

Winner of the 2024 National Book Award, James is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Everett’s novel is a fugitive slave narrative told from the perspective of Twain’s enslaved character as he fights for freedom and dignity in an undignified world. Together, we’ll consider how Everett depicts the possibility of humanity in this novel about the brutality of slavery, the performance of race, and the value of language and literacy.
Everett will be in conversation with UCSC Professor of Literature and Deep Read Faculty Co-Lead, Vilashini Cooppan.  

Register here
 

AMAH MUTSUN TRIBAL BAND

Weed ‘Em Out! Cascade Creek Work Day
Saturday •  May 3 • 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM • Free
Cascade Ranch • 3100 Cabrillo Hwy Pescadero

Join Pie Ranch and Amah Mutsun Land Trust to remove eucalyptus sprouts and other invasive species from Cascade Creek on Año Nuevo Point!

Riparian (streamside) restoration is now more important than ever. Unfortunately, the riparian zone of Cascade Creek continues to be affected by the spread of invasive plant species, causing loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. With your help, we can work towards enhancing the ecosystem and increasing populations of native plants. In fact, healthy riparian ecosystems promote ecological and climate resilience both within and beyond riparian zones, promoting the sequestration of carbon and accrual of nitrogen in soil, as well as buffering organisms against extreme temperatures.

Spend time outdoors, meet new people, learn about invasive plants and creek habitats, and help us to care for the ancestral lands of the Quiroste Tribe. This event will also be a great opportunity to learn about how Indigenous perspectives and approaches to land stewardship are being revitalized in open spaces today. Lunch will be provided.

To register for the event, please sign up through our Eventbrite!

UNDERSTANDING ZIONISM: a 6-PART STUDY for the PALESTINE MOVEMENT

Online classes + a culminating event at the RCNV on Wed, May 21 
Tuesdays and Fridays • April 29-May 15 • 6:30-8 pm • Free
Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Wheelchair accessible

Join the Palestinian Youth Movement and the People’s Forum in a rigorous study of Zionism in order to strengthen the movement for Palestine.  

From the Nakba of 1948 to the ongoing US-Israeli genocide on Gaza, the brutal reality of Zionism has exposed itself for the world to see. In the face of the global support for Palestinian liberation, Israel has declared its next front of war to be public opinion, allocating $150 million for propaganda efforts to reshape Zionism’s bloody image on the world stage.  

During the course participants will strengthen their comprehension of Zionism, its origins, tendencies, aspirations, foundations, as well as its relationship to imperialism and right-wing forces internationally.  

Culminating Event at Resource Center for Nonviolence on Wednesday, May 21, 6-8 PM

The course schedule will be uploaded to the student portal. Participants with work/life schedules or based in time zones that preclude them from participating live will have access to the recordings and can follow the course at their own pace.

REGISTER HERE

May Day Strong Events in Santa Cruz and Watsonville

Thursday • May 1 • Several Events
Watsonville City Plaza • 358 Main Street • Watsonville • 4pm • wheelchair accessible
Join UC Workers On Strike • High Street and Bay Drive  • Santa Cruz • 10am • wheelchair accessible
Santa Cruz Solidarity On The Streets • 612 Ocean Street • Santa Cruz • 5pm • wheelchair accessible
Singing  for Justice, Peace & Freedom • RCNV • 612 Ocean Street • Santa Cruz • 6pm • wheelchair accessible

Across the country—from fruit fields in California to classrooms in Chicago, from kitchens in Queens to loading docks in Atlanta—working people are rising up. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, housing over homelessness. The May Day Strong Coalition is hosting rallies across the county.

Join our local SURJ contingent at the Worker’s Day of Action in Watsonville (sign up here). We’ll meet before to show up as a group!

Can’t make it to Watsonville? There are several events in Santa Cruz!

  • Join UC Workers on the Strike Line May 1st at 10am! For the past four years, UC has failed to address its staffing crisis. UC’s recent announcement of a hiring freeze is yet another attack and insult to frontline workers. See more details and register here.
  • Santa Cruz Solidarity on the Streets: 5-6pm on Ocean Street on both sidewalks on Ocean Street in front of The Resource Center for Non Violence – 612 Ocean Street (park at County parking lot on Ocean and Water)
  • MayDay! Singing for Justice, Peace & Freedom: Follow up Solidarity on the Streets, also at The Resource Center for Non Violence at 6-8pm. Join song leaders Aileen Vance, Coleen Douglas, Key of Three, Sorella, Threshold Singers, Russell Brutsché. This is a partial benefit for Center for Farmworker Families. Register here.

What is May Day? American unions set May 1st, 1890 as a national day of action for the 8-hour day after the May 1st, 1886 strike by Chicago labor unions for an 8-hour work day with 80,000 people marching up Michigan Avenue in the first mass May Day March. They chanted: “8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for what we will.” Our friends at Indivisible San Francisco have a short history here