41st Annual Multicultural Festival to ‘Unite Cultures, Ignite Change’
After a long, COVID-induced hiatus, the Multicultural Festival (MCF) is back. The 41st Annual MCF will be held at the Merrill Cultural Center this Saturday, May 20. The event, running from noon to 6 p.m., features a setlist including headliner SambaDá — a samba-reggae-funk group…
Indian Student Association Presents India’s Hidden Gem
When Manikantanagasai H. Illuri kneels down for prayer on UC Santa Cruz’s Mainstage, he’s no longer a second-year computer science major. He’s Tenali Rama, a 16th-century Telegu poet and scholar. ‘Tenali Rama: India’s Hidden Gem,’ the Indian Student Association’s (ISA) 21st annual production, brought friends…
Feeding Hungry Ghosts: a History of Santa Cruz Chinatowns
For every Chinatown still standing, there are dozens that have been bled dry and paved over. We move on from this history, because we’ve been told it doesn’t do anyone much good to dwell on ghosts. But the ghosts of Santa Cruz’s Chinatowns follow me…
Through Our Pens: Bedtime Stories for the Hibernating Adventurer
All I’ve wanted to do lately is curl up under my blankets and be read a story. In exchange for nearly falling asleep in classes, I wish only to fall asleep to the sound of a comforting, familiar voice. In celebration of the season of…
Back in Print Two Years Later: What the Return of Campus Publications Means to Me
On Wednesdays, we’d watch the sunset from the Press Center patio, scarf down takeout from Tam’s, and gather around our desktops as newspaper pages were laid out by Ella Apuntar, our then-production manager (and to me, an absolute wizard). I joined City on a Hill…
Finding Your Place in Community Spaces
Corporations are getting harder to escape, even in Santa Cruz. Here are some of the beloved community-oriented and non-corporate collective spaces where you can always find a home. Whether that’s a political, emotional, new, or known home, it’s never too late to try and find…
Modeling New Futures: Abolitionist Authors Speak at Quarry
Fifteen minutes after the scheduled start of the “Abolition. Feminism. Now.” speaker event, the line still runs all the way through Quarry Plaza. Some have brought their own copies of the book, and others have already taken out their wallets to buy a copy. On…
Through Our Pens: Lessons from Sprouts
We talk in the mornings, my sprouts and I. As I tend to my newly sprouting Summer Zest Pak Choy — a kind of baby bok choy that enjoys the summer heat — and Chinese leek, I’m learning much about myself and the world that…
Invisible Labor, or Labor of Love? Transforming Structures of Whiteness
‘Hide your Mexican identity.’ That’s what astrophysics professor Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz was told as a student during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His experience is one of many that students and faculty of color (FOC) have to navigate given the…
Through Our Pens: A Love Letter to Longevity Noodles
As a child, each time I was called to dinner by my grandparents and greeted with a bowl of hot noodles, I would eat until my stomach felt like it had doubled in size. “难得吃一会,” my grandmother would say. It’s still one of the only…