All Events
Art Exhibition
Welcome to Santa Maria: All Indigenous Migrant City
Helen Yanez
MCC Lounge
Through bold imagery and storytelling, artist Helen Yanez reflects the beauty, complexity, and strength of her people. Her work is created with intention and deep purpose: to illustrate the lived realities of her brown, Indigenous, migrant community. Her art functions as both a mirror and a bridge, offering her community the opportunity to feel seen, represented, and celebrated, while also educating those outside of their lived reality. Grounded in her Purépecha roots, Helen carries immense pride in keeping her community’s traditions, struggles, and spirit alive through every piece she creates. For Helen, art is not only a form of personal expression but also a powerful tool for cultural preservation, resistance, and collective healing. Join the reception for a panel with artist Helen Yanez and Professor Ralph Armbruster to learn about the inspirations behind her works. Helen Yanez is an artist and illustrator from Santa Maria, rooted in the rich cultural heritage of her Purépecha ancestry. Co-sponsored by the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department.
Conscious Conversations Series
Navigating STEM as BIPOC
Dr. Melanie Adams and Professor Timnit Kefela
MCC Lounge
Join the MCC as we continue to build connections in our STEM fields with a conversation about the importance of building a community that uplifts your identity and experiences. Alums Dr. Melanie Adams and Professor Timnit Kefela will lead a roundtable conversation on the challenges and navigational strategies of being a BIPOC in STEM. We’ll also discuss the strengths and unique contributions that STEM scholars of color can bring to their fields. Following the roundtable, we will have a community dinner where attendees can learn more about Dr. Adams and Professor Timnit Kefela and ask questions. Dr. Melanie Adams is the Academic Program Coordinator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She earned her Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, where she focused on using optical and acoustic techniques to characterize and understand the behavior of soft materials nondestructively. Melanie joined Scripps as a postdoctoral scholar, where she integrated her diverse background into the study of granular media while deepening her interests in science communication and policy. Professor Timnit Kefela is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Resource Management with a special focus on Environmental Justice at CSU Channel Islands. Her research focuses on understanding the sources, pathways, and fates of microplastics in urban soils and proximal marine environments and community-informed infrastructural interventions that mitigate their impact. She is passionate about making healthy physical environments for communities of color, regardless of their proximity to the “natural” environment.
Race Matters Series
Fighting for the Planet We Choose: Science, Advocacy, and Liberatory Futures
Professor Timnit Kefela
MCC Theater
In this lecture, Professor Timnit Kefela (Department of Environmental Science and Resource Management at CSU Channel Islands) will share her experience at the UN Environment Programme headquarters in Geneva. She will present her insights into how scientific evidence is translated into global environmental policies. She will discuss how different UN delegations have clashed over environmental policymaking and how these conflicts have affected marginalized communities. Learn how Dr. Kefela’s research and advocacy aim to design liberatory and community-driven solutions for waste management and pollution. A Q&A will follow Dr. Kefela’s lecture.
Resilient Love
Building Accountable Communities with Creativity IRL
Richie Reseda and JJ’88
MCC Theater and Lounge
Private Film Screening + Discussion Circles + Performance
The MultiCultural Center presents an exclusive private screening for the campus community. Watch SONGS FROM THE HOLE, the Netflix Original award-winning visual album-documentary composed in prison. Enjoy live music by the film’s writer, music artist, and main character, JJ’88. Then join discussion circles hosted by Richie Reseda and JJ ‘88, where they will discuss practicing real-life tools to build self-accountability and accountable communities, without relying on shame or punishment. Richie Reseda practices transformative justice in his relationships and daily life. He is a formerly-incarcerated music and film producer, content creator, organizer, and creative director. He produced the feature film, SONGS FROM THE HOLE, following just having co-created and co-hosted the Spotify original podcast Abolition X. While in prison, he started the worker-owned media collective Question Culture, and co-founded Success Stories, the feminist-accountability program chronicled in the CNN documentary, “The Feminist on Cell Block Y.” By way of North Long Beach, JJ ‘88 purposed his original music and life story as the focal point of the multi-award-winning visual album-documentary SONGS FROM THE HOLE, which he wrote and co-produced from prison.
