All Events
Spoken Word
Open Mic and An Evening of Self Expression
MC: Keith Mar
MCC Lounge
The MCC hosts a quarterly open mic for all to artistically express themselves using any creative outlets including spoken word, poetry, music, and dance. All are welcome to attend and participate!
This quarter’s MC will be Keith Mar, a spoken word poet who works in images, colors and unflinchingly honest personal stories. His poetry asks questions about race, identity, self-love and social justice. Intensely personal, his work seeks moments of emotional connection through the depiction of universal experiences.
Keith believes that spoken word can build bridges between communities, help celebrate roots and inspire a sense of social connection at a time our culture is urgently in need of it. Keith has been an invited poet to ethnic festivals, literary readings, writing workshops, cultural celebrations, political events, benefits, national podcasts on race, television and radio programs, art exhibits, and numerous universities and graduate programs. For many years, he has used his poetry to deepen the cultural awareness of graduate students studying multicultural counseling at numerous universities. He has also been an MC for an Evening of Spoken Word, UCSB Multicultural Center and a poetry workshop leader for the Center for Equity and Social Justice, SBCC.
MCC in I.V
Open Mic Night
MC Vivian Storm
MCC Lounge
(2/8 - This event has been moved to the MCC Lounge)
The MCC hosts a quarterly open mic for all to artistically express themselves using any creative outlet including spoken word, poetry, music, and dance. All are welcome to attend and participate!
This quarter’s MC will be Vivian Storm! Vivian Storm is a Milwaukee native with a great passion for music. Since 5 years old, she has found ways to grace stages all around the US. She is committed to cultivating spaces for other artists. Vivian believes that the gift of music should be shared with everyone who wants to experience it. Join her as she hosts an open mic experience that will leave you speechless!
MultiCultural Center Lounge: 494 UCEN Rd Room 1504, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Co-sponsor: RCSGD
Organizing for the Long Haul: Avoiding Burnout, Organizing for Power
Jollene Levid
Online
What tools for sustainability have we inherited from our movement foremothers? How can we effectively address internal organizational collective conflict while simultaneously upholding a united front against our oppressors? Learn from a full-time organizer of 16 years about avoiding burnout and living with the organizer joy that we so deserve and fight daily to gain.
Race & Religion Series
Orientalism for (All) the Orientals! Studying Asian Religions in the Era of Neoliberal Multiculturalism
Marko Geslani
Online
For better or worse, the study of religion harbors one of the last great bastions of Orientalism: the academic study of Asia (and especially, of Asia's past). Despite numerous excavations of the imperial inheritance of religious studies, reflection on the afterlives of Orientalism in contemporary religious studies curricula has rarely been undertaken. Using the example of Hindu studies, this presentation describes religious studies pedagogy within the multicultural university as an assimilating project continuous with earlier Orientalist tendencies. I ask what it would mean to return the religious pasts of "Asia," not only to those selected by model minority discourse, but to the BIPOC erstwhile "primitives" effectively excluded by Orientalism.
