All Events
Cup of Culture
Wadjda
Haifaa Al Mansour
Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al Mansour, is a groundbreaking film and the first feature entirely shot in Saudi Arabia. It follows the story of a spirited 10-year-old girl in Riyadh who dreams of owning a green bicycle and defying cultural norms. The film took five years to complete due to numerous challenges, including Saudi Arabia's strict gender segregation laws. Al Mansour directed much of the movie from a van, using a monitor and walkie-talkie to communicate with her crew. Despite these difficulties, Wadjda not only highlights the struggles of Saudi women but also marks a historic milestone as the debut feature of Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker.
Guest bio:
Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia. She studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo. She recently completed a Master’s degree in Film Studies from the University of Sydney under the prestigious Endeavour Scholarship Award. She began her film directing career with three shorts, Who?, Bereavement of the Fledgling, and The Only Way Out, followed by her award-winning documentary Women Without Shadows. The success of her films around the world inspired a new movement of independent filmmaking in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is famous for penetrating the wall of silence surrounding the lives of Saudi women and providing a platform for their unheard voices. Her work is dedicated to fostering change for Arab women. Her first feature film, Wadjda, was developed within the pilot screenwriters lab that inaugurated the collaboration between TorinoFilmLab and the Dubai International Film Festival in 2009.
Worlds We Make: Using Speculative Fiction for Feminist Survival Toolkits
Jigna Desai
MCC Lounge
We are living in hard times. Pandemics, climate change, neoliberal capitalism, deportations and state violence, genocide, cisheteropatriarchy, white supremacy, ableist disposability, erasure, and necropolitics. In this workshop, we are going to enhance our toolkits for our survival and sustenance while we imagine worlds in which we thrive. You and I will share our favorite speculative fiction that helps us understand our current dystopias, and helps us imagine the worlds we can build. I will share speculative fiction and writings by women/femmes of color and Indigenous women in North America around survival and care in response to the crises we face. Come enhance your toolkits with spells for insurgency, self and collective care, bowls for our rage, and/or mementos of joy.
Guest Bio:
Jigna Desai is Professor in the Department of Feminist Studies and the Department of Asian American Studies and the director of the Center for Feminist Futures. She is the author of Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film (Routledge 2004) and co-editor of several collections. She has written extensively in women of color and queer of color studies. She loves teaching feminist and queer speculative fiction and film.
Honoring Femme Indigenous Energy
Luther Richmond, McKinley McPherson, Vivian LaPena
MCC Lounge
Please join us in honoring femme Indigenous energy in collaboration with the American Indian and Indigenous Cultural Resource Center. May is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Month and May 5 is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Awareness Day. MMIWR is a crisis that disproportionately affects Indigenous Women, Girls, Trans, and Two-Spirit Relatives. During this event, we will engage in a teach-in led by Amrah Salomón, honoring those who have passed and gone missing.
Guest Bio:
Amrah Salomón J. is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is an activist, educator, and writer of mixed ancestry (O’odham, Mexican, and European). Dr. Salomón directs the Regeneración Lab and is a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice. She is a current Advisory Board member of the UCSB Environmental & Climate Justice Hub (EJ/CJ Hub) and the UCSB Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, & Public Life.
Art Exhibition
Spring Art Exhibit – This Is America: Art as Protest
Zonelysse
MCC Lounge
The MCC’s Spring Art Exhibit’s theme, This Is America: Art as Protest, is a showcase that sparks critical conversations about the current political climate—both on campus and across the nation. This exhibit seeks to highlight critical conversations on pressing issues such as gun violence, immigration, and the ongoing fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Featuring Zonelysse as the Artist-in-Residence, This Is America challenges us to reflect, question, and engage with the realities shaping our communities today. Join us in this powerful exploration of art as activism, resistance, and storytelling.
Exhibition: April 7 to June 6
Guest Bio:
Riechal “Riqui” Zonelysse Paras Martinez is a 2024 graduate from UCSB with a Bachelors of Arts in Asian American Studies and Sociology. During her time as a student at UCSB she created a San Miguel Residence Hall Mural “Our Environment” which is on display from January 2022 thru June 2026 and a permanent Little Acorn Park community mural “Isang Bagsak” endorsed by the Santa Barbara Arts Fund and the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District in June 2024. She hopes to continue her credentials in academia with a Masters in Education in Ethnic Studies.
