Events By Quarter
Vote YES and Reaffirm the MCC!
Reaffirm the MCC during AS Elections on April 22nd-25th!
By reaffirming the MultiCultural Center’s lock-in fees, you contribute to over 35 years of service in creating an inclusive community space that fosters critical dialogue, cultural understanding, and serves as a central hub for the entire campus.
We offer a wide range of educational programming and community-building events that encourage meaningful connections and support students in navigating the unique challenges they encounter. The MCC plays a key role in strengthening relationships across campus, while nurturing a sense of belonging for all. Our initiatives elevate the campus community by promoting shared values and empowering individuals and the collective to advocate for positive change.
Voting YES to reaffirm the MCC’s lock-in fees ensures continued support for a wide variety of services and events, such as:
• Student employment and scholarships
• Free educational programming and community-building events
• Student event spaces (theater, lounge, and kitchen) with tech support
• Free food and refreshments during study jams
By reaffirming the MCC, the annual allocation of $5.31 per quarter (with $1.14 in administrative fees and $3.92 for the summer) will allow the MCC to continue serving the campus community.
Put your student fees into action by voting YES to reaffirm the MCC! For more information about the MCC’s reaffirmation, please follow us on Instagram @ucsbmcc
Community Earth Day Celebration
Honorable Speakers Micah B. A. Global Studies and Sebastian B.A. Chicanx Studies and Political Science
St. George Youth Center in Isla Vista
Please join us in celebrating Earth Day in collaboration with Isla Vista Parks and Recreation and the St. George Youth Center. Bring your family and friends to enjoy delicious food and be in community with one another while celebrating our beautiful earth. We will have activities for children, including making edible mud pie desserts, potting plants, and a brief presentation about the history and importance of Earth Day. Each child will be sent home with their own plant and DIY gardening kit to start their very own garden at home.
Co-Sponsors: Isla Vista Parks and Recreation and St. George Youth Center
Cup of Culture
Wadjda
Haifaa Al Mansour
MCC Theater
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.
