Events By Quarter
Art Exhibition Opening Reception
Art Exhibit Reception: Zimele’s Dream
Dr. Tara Jones
MCC Lounge
Join us for the reception of Zimele's Dream with Dr. Tara Jones, aka Zimele, showcasing paintings and drawings that bring together the Black feminist imagery. These images explore, elevate, and celebrate themes of Black womxn's sexualities, maternity, mothering, situating Black womxn as portals, containers, and embodiments of African divinities and ancestral knowledge and wisdom. The colorfully vibrant collection imagines Black womxn as intercessors between cosmic and temporal realms, thereby serving as protectors and creators of Black peoples and Black futures. Together, the featured pieces chronicle the archetypal constellations of Black womxn's spiritual journeys towards healing, empowerment, uplift, and self-making through creative praxis and unconscious revelations.
Dr. Tara Jones, aka Zimele, is a visual and spoken word artist, whose paintings and drawings explore themes of Africana womxn’s sexualities, spiritualities, healing, rest and rebirth, and the Black female body as divine temple and cosmic portal. The artist experiences artistic images as retrievals of memory and revelations of deeper and unconscious dimensions of psyche that when tended to can facilitate processes of self-making. Her visual work has been featured on covers of the National Political Science Review, a publication of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and debuted at UCSB’s Multicultural Center’s 2011 exhibit, Bridging Through the Arts: Transracial Community Building. She is the 2023 winner of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Anna Julia Cooper Award.
The artist also holds a Ph. D. in Depth Psychology, specializing in Community, Liberation, & Eco-Psychologies, a Masters in the Science of Teaching, a Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology, a Master’s of Arts in Depth Psychology, and a UCSB alum in Black Studies and Sociology. Her areas of research include: teacher well-being, cross-professional applications from counseling to teaching, Pan Africanism and educational fugitivity, revolutionary black mothering, black maternal necropolitics, healing, and legacies of transnational African diasporic research. Her scholarly works have been published in the journal, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism and the anthology, Disrupting Political Science: Black Women Reimagining the Discipline. Through her diverse career paths, she has served as a: NYC public school teacher, social-emotional learning facilitator for teens and young adults, psychotherapist, art therapist, and employment specialist. She currently coordinates UCSB’s African diasporic Cultural Resource Center.
Using AI to Enhance Learning
MCC Lounge
Insights from brain science and educational research
Combine the science of learning with the power of technology for less stress & more success!
CLAS Workshop: Code 146G, THU FEB 12TH, 12-1:30PM
Whether you’re new to AI or looking to strengthen your study strategies, this interactive workshop will help you combine the science of learning with the power of technology to make your college experience more efficient, engaging, and sustainable. You’ll explore how tools like ChatGPT and other AI platforms can enhance your learning when used thoughtfully and responsibly—and discover how your brain learns best through insights from neuroscience and
educational research.
SPECIAL OFFER: SPACE IS LIMITED!; SIGN UP NOW
Co-sponsor: Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS)
Douglass Day Community Event and Transcribe-a-thon featuring the Colored Conventions Project
MCC Lounge
You’re invited to Frederick Douglass’ birthday party! Help us celebrate Douglass Day and Black History Month by participating in a national transcribe-a-thon. You’ll learn how to bring 19th century Black history to life by transforming digitized Colored Conventions documents into legible text. There will be birthday cake, music, and more! Just bring your computers, yourselves, and a friend. (UCSB affiliates can also check out a laptop at UCSB Library.) No experience necessary. Free and open to the public.
Opening remarks will be made at the start of the event and guests are welcome to drop-in as their schedule allows. Registration is recommended, but not required: https://douglassday.org/ucsb/
Co-Sponsors: Department of English, Office of Black Student Development, African Diasporic Cultural Resource Center, UCSB Library
Spiritual Care Club
MCC Lounge
Spiritual Care Club is a recurring space where members will learn how to use and trust divine and intuitive tools for their healing and care, identity development, and dreams and goals formation. It will be an intentional space where we can experience personal and collective growth, joy, and care in a safe and
encouraging environment.
Thursdays Feb 19th & Mar 5 2:00-3:30 pm MCC Lounge
