The Elkhorn Slough Foundation launched a new “Elkhorn Forever” campaign with a kickoff celebration April 8, with the goal of raising $12 million.
Held at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve Visitor Center, the event promoted the aims of Elkhorn Forever, which will ensure the long-term health of Elkhorn Slough’s ecosystem, which is home to more than 700 species of plants and animals, including migratory shorebirds, 16 threatened and endangered species, and the southern sea otter.
Elkhorn Slough Foundation Executive Director Mark Silberstein said the natural area is facing mounting challenges, from habitat loss to climate change.
“It is imperative that we act boldly now to safeguard its future,” he said. “The Elkhorn Forever campaign is about building financial support and uniting the community in a shared vision of conservation and resilience.”
Community members can support the initiative by donating funds, volunteering for habitat restoration efforts, and advocating for policies that protect wetlands and coastal ecosystems. To donate, visit elkhornslough.org/give.
On April 7, California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration that pushes back against a March 14 executive order by President Donald Trump to cut federal funding for libraries and museums.
The order will leave no community untouched. But the impact will vary throughout the state.
Both the Santa Cruz County Public Library and the Watsonville Public Library systems receive millions of dollars from Measure R, a 2008 quarter-cent sales tax earmarked exclusively for libraries. That will largely cushion local institutions from the order.
“We’re OK,” said Watsonville Public Library Director Alicia Martinez. “We’re not going to suffer.”
Still, the executive order lists seven agencies deemed to be “unnecessary” and demands that they “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
This includes the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which is the only federal funding source solely for libraries. In 2024, the IMLS awarded $266.7 million to museums, libraries and related organizations throughout the U.S.
The order also includes the Minority Business Development Agency and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
While Trump does not have the authority to eliminate federal departments outright, he can defund them so that they become largely ineffective.
The order means that the California State Library—the agency that delivers state and federal funding to local libraries—will lose its funding under the Library Services and Technology Act, which this year amounts to more than $15 million.
For local libraries, the order will affect the system’s ability to deliver several services, including online access to The New York Times, which allows cardholders to read an average of 560 articles per month, and professional development courses and leadership programs for library staff, said Santa Cruz Public Libraries director Christopher Platt.
It will also impact free access to the Braille and Talking Book Library, which currently has nearly 200 active users.
“That’s really expensive to offer, and a local library like us or like Watsonville wouldn’t be able to step up and fill that void,” Platt said.
It will also hurt the ebook collection, which makes up for 46% of the library’s usage, meaning fewer choices and longer wait times for people who download and listen to books through the Libby app, he said.
The loss of funding will fall heaviest on museums, tribal libraries and small rural libraries, Platt said.
“Rural libraries, small libraries and tribal libraries especially,” he said. “They really rely on IMLS funding to do just about anything. These are on shoestring budgets. If that money goes away, the few innovative programs they offer might go away. So it has a ripple effect across the whole state.”
Libraries, he said, provide a vital role in their communities, with families accessing books to teach their children how to read and patrons finding a quiet work area or a place to connect with others.
“You just have to walk through any library in the state, any public library, and you see how necessary they are,” he said.
“I’ve seen public libraries do amazing things in my lifetime. Our collections are far more diverse than they’ve ever been. This kind of feels like we’re being attacked for no good reason. There is no rhyme or reason.”
Motorists along Highway 1 have grown accustomed to the sight of a crumbling building in a 14-acre parcel on the outskirts of Watsonville. The structure, known as the Redman-Hirahara house, was designed by famed architect William Weeks in 1897 for farmer James Redman.
The Queen Anne Victorian is a reminder of Watsonville’s history as an agricultural epicenter. But the story runs even deeper than that.
The house, located at 1635 West Beach Street, also exemplifies both the resilience of the people who live in the Pajaro Valley, and their willingness to help their neighbors in adverse times.
Now, after a failed attempt by a local group to restore the structure, the storied house may be entering its final chapter.
The Santa Cruz County Historic Resources Commission has taken the first steps toward removing it from the National Register of Historic Places, which would clear the way for its demolition, says county senior planner Matthew Sundt, who oversees the commission.
That agency will make a recommendation to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors in May to delist the house from the National Register of Historic Places.
If approved, it will go for consideration to that organization, which is run by the National Park Service.
In a report to the supervisors, the commission said that the building’s deteriorated condition, coupled with “there being no interest in the community or current or previous property owners to restore the building,” is evidence weighing in favor of its demolition.
The structure is uninhabitable and has lost its historic integrity due to deterioration, the report states.
Inspectors said that most of the building’s doors and windows are missing, and there are holes in many walls and the roof.
In addition, the structure neither rests on a foundation nor is connected to water, sewer or electricity.
“Loss of integrity, if sufficiently great, will overwhelm the historic significance a resource may possess and render it ineligible for historic listing,” the report says.
The Victorian house has been a source of both adoration and scorn, with some hoping to preserve it and restore it to its former glory, and others calling it an eyesore and hoping it will be torn down.
FORMER OWNERS The Hirahara family, pictured on June 8, 1945. PHOTO: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
The Redman family lived in the house for three decades, growing sugar beets that were processed in the local mill run by Claus Spreckels, says historian Sandy Lydon. Those industries carried the Watsonville area through the troubled economic times of the late 1800s, he said.
“The depression of the 1890s never came to the Pajaro Valley, because Spreckels had put his sugar mill in town, and the sugar rained money all over the Pajaro Valley when everybody else in the country was having a terrible time,” he said.
Eventually, the house was sold to the Hirahara family, who farmed on the land until they were forced into a Japanese internment camp during WWII.
But local attorney John McCarthy protected the property so that it stayed with the Hirahara family. McCarthy also testified in front of a congressional committee against the displacement, Lydon said.
The family returned after the war and went back to farming, this time housing displaced Japanese families in a separate building on their property.
They lived there until the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, when the property was red-tagged.
The Redman-Hirahara Foundation purchased the house in 2005 for $1.9 million, and led efforts to place it on the National Register of Historic Places. The group also launched efforts to restore the house and use it as a centerpiece for a visitor’s welcome center.
It was moved slightly in 2007 and lifted onto cribbing to allow for repair of the battered foundation. There, it has languished untouched for nearly two decades.
The organization filed bankruptcy in 2009 and lost the house to foreclosure.
“We just couldn’t get critical mass,” said Lydon.
Karell Reader, who was part of the Redman-Hirahara Foundation, says the house is a cornerstone of Watsonville’s history, and one that parallels today’s political climate.
“It’s a comeback story of a family that lost everything but their dignity,” she says.
“Watsonville really showed its true heart; they were very supportive. Watsonville stood up and said, ‘they are good people, they never deserved this treatment.’ That house represents that time, and it just kills that that history will be lost.”
The property on which the house sits is now owned by the Tut family, Reader says.
That family owns Elite Development Inc., which has built several hotels in Watsonville, including the Hampton Inn & Suites, on Lee Road. The company did not respond to a request for comment about plans for the property.
Thousands of people took a message to the streets of downtown Watsonville Saturday, demonstrating that they are not happy with President Trump and Elon Musk as part of the nationwide “Hands Off!” protests.
On just the 76th day of Trump’s presidency, more 1,000 such protests took place around the U.S, including Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., New York City and in a number of European cities, including Frankfurt, Berlin and London.
Organizers accused President Donald Trump and tech giant Elon Musk of believing “this country belongs to them.”
The administration has, among other things, conducted mass firings of hundreds of federal employees, defunded public libraries, conducted immigration raids nationwide, targeted Social Security and made cuts that will affect Medi-Cal and Medicaid.
The two-hour event in Watsonville drew a wide range of ages from students to seniors, waving signs demanding that the Trump administration keep its ‘Hands Off’ Panama, Canada, Greenland, U.S. democracy, diversity and human rights.
Protesters also carried signs saying, among other things, “Arrest Musk,” “Hand Off Social Security,” “If You Want Fascism, do nothing” and “Books not Crooks.”
“Through a collective, we are going to defeat these billionaires that are taking our gains that we are making with our hands,” said Francisco Rodriguez. “They are taking the product that we create with our flesh and blood, and they want to keep it all, but we are here to say no.”
Rodriguez was one of one of several people to address the crowd.
Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbahlaid out a blunt toll of the damage done so far by the administration.
“We’re seeing the end of access to health care and mental health services, the outing of queer students, the accomplishments and contributions of people of color, destroying our environment, showing of distrust of our institutions, our schools and our sciences, eliminating of protections for our students with disabilities, replacing the hope of our youth with cynicism and cutting benefits for the elderly.”
Kristin Klein of Watsonville showed up with her 94-year-old mother, who was in a wheelchair, and carried a handmade sign reading, “I survived the Hitler Regime! Deja Vu, Wake Up America! Dethrone Trump.”
“Showing up is our duty,” Klein said. “We’re seeing Social Security endangered and Medicare. My mother called this out in 2015. She said, ‘I’ve seen this before; we’re in trouble.’”
Amy Newell of Watsonville said she came to protest the damage done by Trump and Musk.
“It’s going to take us decades to undo this and rebuild again, what Trump and Musk are happily wrecking,” she said. “I’m 77 years old and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Aptos singer-songwriter Jo Coleman is on a roll. With a little help from friends, a familial tie and a happenstance meeting at a Santa Cruz coffee shop, she’s formed a band, released an album and is competing in an NPR competition, and that’s just in the last three months. All this with a band that made its first showing before a live audience in March.
With a guitar-driven sound and haunting, emotive vocals, Coleman, 27, delivers a tone that’s slightly indie, slightly folkie at the same time. Coleman contributes acoustic guitar and vocals while guitarist Zach Bailey, violinist Mia Reynolds and bassist Colton Cori round out the band. Drummer/brother-in-law Jackson Coleman is a welcome addition, although his commitment is momentary. “We’re hoping he can cruise out for some of the shows,” Jo Coleman says.
Up until now, the places Coleman (full name is Sacha Jo Henry Coleman) played were mostly in her hometown of Park City, Utah—coffee shops and community spaces where she had formed connections that she left behind to move to Santa Cruz.
“I feel like I’m just barely getting started,” she says. “I’ve been working on the Past Life album for the past two years,” Coleman says. “That project came together pretty naturally. It feels like it’s springboarding with a lot of other opportunities.”
In March, Coleman did an acoustic show at Parish Publick House Westside. The band also played to crowds at Shanty Shack and Steel Bonnet Brewery last month and at the Catalyst on April 5. Next up, Coleman plays the Crepe Place on April 18 (Good Friday).
Fronting a band after a relatively short time in Santa Cruz all started with an open mic performance at Santa Cruz Clay. It was the end of 2024, Coleman says: “Zach was at that open mic, and he was super stoked to meet someone who was putting out music.”
Bailey pulled in Cori (from Prunedale) and Reynolds, and Coleman’s brother-in-law completed the lineup.
In a Past Life
Coleman recorded Past Life in her home studio and released the songs through Bite the Mango Publishing, named after her dad’s website publishing company.
Past Life gives listeners an inward perspective to Coleman’s eventual acceptance of some pivotal events in her life. “One of my passions about music and creating art is creating experiences,” Coleman says. “I write songs that make me feel something. My hope is the songs I write and the spaces I play … that people can walk away feeling a little bit more connected to themselves or to each other.”
She draws lyrics from life experiences, including her move to Santa Cruz from Park City and her father’s death in 2017. “That’s a collection of songs that I wrote over the course of a few years during a pretty big transition in a lot of people’s lives,” Coleman says. “Milestones culminating with the move to Santa Cruz. It’s actually my processing of that past season.”
Her father, Jon Henry Coleman, was and still is a big motivation for her pursuit of music. “One of the big milestones that I mentioned was my dad passing away really suddenly,” Coleman said. “That was in 2017, eight years ago now. He was always my biggest music advocate and fan. I do feel like a big part of why I’m pursuing it still is to pay tribute to him. He always wanted me to put myself out there and keep creating.”
Past Life pays tribute to her late father through “Bridges,” a track with him playing along. “It’s a lullaby that he would play for us as kids,” Coleman says. “I dubbed over some of his own voice with some recordings that I found. That track means a lot to me for sure.”
Standout tracks “Good Intentions” and “Over the Falls” are part of a January session of videos as well. “‘Over the Falls’ is just chock full of surf references,” Coleman notes.
Improvising for NPR
In late 2024, Coleman submitted a live video of her song “Over the Falls” to NPR’s Tiny Desk contest at the urging of bassist Cori. “It ended up being a super fun process,” Coleman says. “When you have momentum with something, you just kind of ride it, I guess.”
Coleman filmed the video submission in her tiny apartment in Rio Del Mar. She had to improvise a laterally positioned surfboard for a desk. “Tiny Desk is one of the coolest things that NPR does,” Coleman says. “It’s just literally creating a platform for artists who want to submit a new song.”
Launched in 2008, Tiny Desk has become a huge draw for some of the world’s most famous musicians. According to NPR.org, the concert series has racked up billions of views on YouTube, with more than 1,000 artists who have stepped behind the Tiny Desk, including Taylor Swift and Alicia Keyes. These intimate, stripped-down performances offer major stars the chance to showcase their talents in ways their audience rarely gets to see.
Since 2014, Tiny Desk has also spotlighted up-and-coming artists with the Tiny Desk Contest, which invites unsigned musicians to perform original songs at a desk of their choosing.
“So there will eventually be a Tiny Desk contest winner announced in May, and that artist gets to play a Tiny Desk concert, and they go on tour too,” Coleman says.
A multi-instrumentalist, Campbell also is a pianist. “Guitar is actually a newer instrument for me,” she says. “I really started picking it up after my dad passed away.” And she was in a competitive percussion ensemble in high school. “That was my main group of instruments for a while,” she says.
Jo Coleman and her band play at the Crepe Place on April 18 at 8pm. Past Life is available on Spotify and all major streamers.
Editor’s note: On April 10, 2025, the name of Jo Coleman’s father was changed to correct an error.
For the first time in the band’s 15-year history, the China Cats—Santa Cruz’s Grateful Dead cover band—will play an all-acoustic show April 18 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. The show is a throwback to the early days of the Grateful Dead, who once in a while would pull out an acoustic show and thrill their appreciative fans. Continuing in true Deadhead form, China Cats never uses the same set-list twice. Every time China Cats plays a song, it’s a new experience, says lead guitarist Matt Hartle.
The Kuumbwa show will benefit the Soquel Elementary School music program, an integral part of education for Soquel students pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Says music teacher Diane Bock, “Our school community represents children from diverse populations, including multi-language learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. We know that our music program provides an equitable experience for all our students.”
Opening the show, Buffalo Blues Trio pays homage to female blues artists from the 1920s to present—i.e., Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and more. The band features aforementioned music teacher Bock on upright acoustic bass, Ramon Marc Butler on acoustic guitar/resonator/harp and Michele Murphy on vocals.
—Kristen McLaughlin
China Cats and Buffalo Blues Trio play April 18 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Doors 6:30pm; show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets: Tickets: $24–$28 at TheWheelCompany.com.
At the end of his 1959 short story “Seymour: An Introduction,” J.D. Salinger mused about the ending of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “What ever became of that stalwart Fortinbras? Who eventually fixed his wagon?”
The query was in regard to Fortinbras, prince of Norway, who found the Danish royal family dead at his feet and Hamlet’s close friend Horatio offering him the crown.
Thirty-three years after Salinger’s musing, and several hundred years after Fortinbras eulogized Hamlet on stage for the first time, playwright Lee Blessing answered that question in his 1992 comedy, Fortinbras.
Under the direction of Robin Aronson, Cabrillo College Theater Arts’ production of Fortinbras opens April 11. Blessing’s play explores what happens when Hamlet’s characters return as ghosts and haunt Fortinbras.
While full of fantastical elements, Fortinbras tells a potent story of a leader who refuses to face reality and his insignificance.
“Fortinbras, the country’s new ruler, takes power and concocts a big lie to legitimize his claim to power,” director Aronson explains. He attempts to “deny and replace the truth of what happened, manipulating and gaining the support of the populace before facing the inescapable consequences of his actions.”
Some of these consequences include the runaway butterfly effect of sending his army on conquests to solidify his rule and quickly losing said army on pointless marches for glory.
“Fortinbras’ flawed military judgment spins his army out of his control. At first, it seems like a big party as the Army conquers one country after another, but the fun inevitably ends,” Aronson says. “This makes me think of all the modern technological innovations that initially enthrall and thrill us. but later keep us up at night worrying about the potential for unintended dire consequences.”
Turning Cabrillo’s Black Box Theater into a ghostly castle is the job of Skip Epperson, department chair and resident scenic designer. The cast of veterans and newcomers includes Sebastian Hardison as Osric, courtier turned political goon, Cody Balcomb Bartok as the titular character and Elektra Schrader as Ophelia.
Aronson could not be happier with the cast and crew. “I never had any idea who was going to audition for this play and the perfect cast and crew showed up,” he says. “I’m very excited for the community to see this show. Because as a director you’re there for every single moment and you never really know if something works or not until an audience is there to see it. So please come see it; we can’t do it without you.”
Fortinbras runs April 11-27 in Cabrillo College’s Black Box Theater, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. Tickets: $19-$22. cabrillovapa.universitytickets.com
Disclosure: Mathew Chipman is a cast member in this production.
Life is asking you to be a source of generosity and strength for the people and animals in your sphere. I hope you will exude maximum amounts of your natural charisma as you bestow maximum blessings. Soak up the admiration and affection you deserve, too, as you convey admiration and affection to others. Here’s a secret: The more you share your resources, help and intelligence, the more of that good stuff will flow back your way.
TAURUS April 20-May 20
Ceramicist Jun Hamada says that trying to force harmony into her art leads to sterile work. “The most beautiful pieces come from the moments I stop trying to make them beautiful,” she notes. “They emerge from embracing the clay’s natural tendencies, even when they seem to fight against my intentions.” I recommend her approach to you in the coming weeks. Your best results may emerge as you allow supposed flaws and glitches to play an unexpected part in the process. Alliances might benefit, even deepen, through honest friction rather than imposed peace. What will happen when you loosen your attachment to enforced harmony and let life’s natural tensions gyrate?
GEMINI May 21-June 20
Gemini-born Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) was a prolific architect who orchestrated many daring designs. Among his most audacious experiments was a project to build a house over a waterfall in Pennsylvania. “It can’t be done!” experts said. But he did it. Before he was ready to accomplish the impossible, though, he had to spend months studying the site’s natural patterns. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because I believe you are ready to consider your own equivalent of constructing a house over a waterfall. Prepare well! Do your homework!
CANCER June 21-July 22
In the early phase of his illustrious career as a photographer, Edward Weston (1886–1958) cultivated a soft-focus, romantic style. But he ultimately converted to stark, uncompromising realism. “The camera,” he said, “should be used for recording life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself.” If there is anything about you that prefers warm, fuzzy illusions over objective, detailed truth, I suggest you switch emphasis for a while. If you like, you can return to the soft-focus approach in June. But for now, a gritty, unsentimental attitude will be essential to your well-being.
LEO July 23-Aug. 22
Here’s my mini-manifesto about change, just in time for a phase when change is most necessary and possible for you. 1. Real change is often a slow and subtle process. There may be rare dramatic shifts, but mostly the process is gradual and incremental. 2. Instead of pushing hard for a short time, you’re more likely to change things by persistently pushing with modest strength for a sustained time. 3. Rather than trying to confront and wrestle with a big problem exactly as it is, it’s often more effective to break the seemingly insurmountable challenge into small, manageable pieces that can be solved one at a time through simple efforts.
VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22
Textile artist Mei Zhang wondered if the synthetic dyes she used on her fabrics were limited. Might there be a wider variety of colors she could use in her creations? She discovered that her grandmother, using age-old techniques, had produced hues that modern dyes couldn’t replicate. “The most sustainable path forward,” Zhang concluded, “often involves rediscovering what we’ve forgotten rather than inventing something entirely new.” I recommend that counsel to you, Virgo. The solution to a current challenge might come from looking back instead of pushing forward. Consider what old approaches or traditional wisdom you might call on to generate novelty. Weave together fresh applications with timeless principles.
LIBRA Sept. 23-Oct. 22
The moon rises about 50 minutes later every day, and always at a slightly different place on the horizon. The amount of light it shows us is also constantly in flux. And yet where and how it will appear tomorrow or ten years from today is completely predictable. Its ever-changing nature follows a rhythmic pattern. I believe the same is true about our emotions and feelings, which in astrology are ruled by the moon. They are forever shifting, and yet if we survey the big picture of how they arise, we will see their overall flow has distinct patterns. Now would be a good time for you to get to know your flow better. See if you can detect recurring motifs. Try to develop more objectivity about how your precious emotions and feelings really work. If you do this correctly, you will deepen and enhance the guiding power of your precious emotions and feelings.
SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov. 21
Research reveals that interludes of productive uncertainty may strengthen our brain’s neural pathways—even more so than if we consistently leap to immediate comprehension. The key modifier to this fortifying uncertainty is “productive.” We must be willing to dwell with poise in our puzzlement, even welcome and enjoy the fertile mystery it invokes in us. Neurobiologist Aiden Chen says, “Confusion, when properly supported, isn’t an obstacle to learning but a catalyst for understanding.” These ideas will be good medicine in the coming weeks, dear Scorpio.
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Persian American author Haleh Liza Gafori translates the poetry of 13th-century Sufi mystic Rumi. One of their joint books is titled Gold. She writes, “Rumi’s gold is not the precious metal, but a feeling-state arrived at through the alchemical process of burning through layers of self, greed, pettiness, calculation, doctrine—all of it. The prayer of Sufism is ‘teach me to love more deeply.’ Gold is the deepest love.” That’s the gold I hope you aspire to embody in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. You are in a resplendently golden phase when you have more power than usual to create, find and commune with Rumi’s type of gold.
CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19
The coming weeks will be an excellent time to reframe the meaning of “emptiness” in your life. To launch your quest, I will remind you that quiet interludes and gaps in your schedule can be rejuvenating. Sitting still and doing nothing in particular may be a good way to recharge your spiritual batteries. Relieving yourself of the pressure to be endlessly active could be just what you need to open up space for fresh possibilities.
AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 18
There was a time, many years ago, when I consulted a divinatory oracle every day of my life. Sometimes it was the Tarot or the I Ching. I threw the Norse runes, did automatic writing, used a pendulum or tried bibliomancy. Astrology was always in the mix, too, of course. Looking back on those days, I am amused at my obsession with scrying the future and uncovering subconscious currents. But employing these aids had a wonderful result: It helped me develop and fine-tune my intuition and psychic powers—which, after all, are the ultimate divination strategy. I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I believe you now have an enhanced power to cultivate and strengthen your intuition and psychic powers.
PISCES Feb. 19-March 20
The fovea is the part of the eye that enables sharp vision. Humans have just one kind of fovea, which gives them the ability to see clearly straight ahead. Eagles have both a central and peripheral fovea. The latter gives them an amazing visual acuity for things at a distance. This extra asset also attunes them to accurately detect very slow movements. I suspect you will have a metaphorical semblance of the eagle’s perceptual capacity in the coming weeks, Pisces. You will be able to see things you wouldn’t normally see and things that other people can’t see. Take full advantage of this superpower! Find what you didn’t even know you were looking for.
My palms stretch toward the sky. I whisper, “Love, Love, Love…” for 15 seconds.
“Pink elephants,” I continue. “This means anything can happen. Infinity can happen.”
I’m melting into a pink chiffon boa as I slip into a ketamine-infused dream state. I bring my hands to my heart. “I don’t know what I’m doing right now, but I feel my power,” I say. This is according to notes taken by Amanda Edwards, owner of Innate Integrative Medicine, during our session. She is a licensed clinical social worker as well as a sex and intimacy coach.
Psychedelic therapy has been steadily re-emerging over the past decade as a way to improve the lives of those struggling with mental health. Stories of renewed perspective and life-changing results have bolstered the trend, with healthy people from all walks of life coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life.
When the founder of TOMS Shoes pledges $100 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) to conduct research, and celebrities like singer-songwriter Halsey proclaim ketamine infusion therapy helps reduce stress and anxiety and combat depression, it’s no wonder the substance has become the rising star of the psychedelic renaissance.
After an experience with ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic brewed into a tea, TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie felt “changed,” experiencing a relief he had felt with no other therapy, he said in an interview with MarketWatch. “It cracked me open, and it connected me more to my faith in God, made me feel that we were all connected and everything was fine and perfect,” he said. “It’s important that people like myself put their name out there and their money out there to show that this really is a path forward.”
Singer-songwriter Ashley Halsey said on the podcast SHE Md, “It helped to process really difficult thoughts and feelings in a way where I felt really safe.” It also helped Halsey cope with chronic pain and postpartum depression.
With the first session, “a lot of trauma can come out,” says Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, “and the first sessions can be scary.” Anderson, known as Dr. A, says that during the first session, “a lot of trauma comes out…a lot of people get scared and don’t want to do the second one, but by the third session they start feeling better and better.” This is why doing a minimum of three to six sessions is recommended by most practitioners.
Hasley said there can be fear about using psychedelic drugs, that “you’re gonna lose yourself,” but she really wanted to stress that “she still felt like herself” after the sessions.
As a fast-acting antidepressant, ketamine has long been a drug of choice and doctor’s favorite, used regularly in emergency rooms since its Food and Drug Administration approval as an anesthetic in 1970, explains emergency room Dr Darragh O’Carroll in an article for Vice titled “Why Ketamine Is The Best Drug On Earth.”
But ketamine has recently reached new heights of public awareness. One of the most famous current users is Elon Musk, of Tesla, SpaceX and DOGE fame, who told journalist Don Lemon that he has a prescription from “an actual, real doctor” and finds the drug “helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind.”
On the darker side, last summer the news was filled with reports on the overdose of actor Matthew Perry, who was receiving ketamine-infusion therapy. Carla K. Johnson of the Associated Press reported, “prosecutors said the actor turned to other sources when his doctors refused to give him more doses.” The dangers of buying the drug outside of a clinical setting is that it is difficult to know how pure or cut the ketamine is, O’Carroll writes.
With growing interest in ketamine, private practices that offer a safe clinical setting for those seeking to try this experimental medicine are popping up across the United States.
The owner of the cozy Live Oak office and therapy space where I went for my ketamine-assisted therapy session is Amanda Edwards. The clinic—Innate Integrative Medicine—opened in 2021, one of the first of its kind in the region. Amanda Edwards is a licensed clinical social worker with more than 20 years of experience in various fields, from substance abuse and recovery to domestic violence. She works in collaboration with Prentice Steffen, MD, who spent three decades working in emergency departments and now oversees the administration of ketamine doses for the sessions at Innate. Steffen and Edwards met through the alumni network of the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), where they were both trained.
Edwards takes a multidisciplinary approach to healing and coaching, integrating breathwork and a connection to one’s body and nature. “My work with clients during the medicine journeys—and in our pre and post sessions—are highly informed by somatic therapy,” says Edwards, explaining that she’s referring to the process of “dropping into the body” and “tapping into the wisdom” inside yourself. The point is to calm the chatter in your mind, she continues, “—and coming back to feelings are feelings, and desires are desires. And they don’t have to be rational.”
The “treatment arc”—as Edwards and Steffen term their methodology—entails a two-hour prep-session, typically followed by three medicine sessions with ketamine. Ideally, the sessions are carried out once a week for three consecutive weeks. Each medicine session is followed by an integration session with Edwards the following day.
You start off with a sublingual dose to allow the body to ease into the dose, swishing it around for 12 minutes. You are then given an intramuscular injection in your deltoid, allowing quick absorption. The ‘journey’ lasts up to two hours, during which you are lying down, eyes covered with a mask, and immersed in a curated soundtrack created by practitioners who are also familiar with ketamine.
Being immersed into a ketamine-infused psychedelic state creates new neural pathways that can lead to change and relief from trauma or PTSD. Ketamine is said to quiet “that part of the central nervous system that worries and frets,” according to documentation available for clients.
THE SESSION Amanda Edwards, a social worker at Innate Integrative Medicine, accompanies the author through ketamine-assisted therapy. Photo: Credit
My Personal Trippy Trial
I might’ve felt more prepared for my journey had I first read Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind, in which he documents his use of psychedelics. His observations about consciousness while on psychedelics have sparked interest in the intellectual world about their potential use to gain insight into, as he puts it, “what we don’t know we know.”
The first step for me was to undergo a prep session. As Edwards explained to me, the purpose includes “expectation management” but primarily is the time for the client to set intentions for their therapy. One’s medical and psycho-social history is reviewed during the medical intake with Edwards and Prentice, and clients are screened for any schizophrenia in their family. Seeing as how my time to prep was limited and I hadn’t initially intended to do ketamine therapy, my main intention for this experimental session was to come to a deeper understanding of the inner workings of this trendy chemical.
I was briefed on the administration of the first intramuscular dose possibly followed by a second dose after 20 to 25 minutes if the client does not seem to be at the optimum level of dissociation. At the time my headphone was lifted off of one ear to ask if I would like a second dose.
I remember somewhat acknowledging it but only recall grinning. Up until this moment, I was floating in a pink fluffy world of cotton. As I look down at my hands, I see oversized, octagonal incredible hulk fingers, also pink. I talk out loud, describing my visuals to the therapist, who had told me she would be taking notes. I improvise a very positive song. I seemed to have immersed myself into the poster of Nan Goldin’s film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed—floating in her fluffy pink feather boa.
The second dose is administered and takes effect, I am no longer light and in a fluffy pink decor, but in total darkness, the sky above me. My position in reality is a reclined position on the ground. I begin to feel that “oneness with the universe” that others have described on psychedelic trips. However, this warm feeling dissipates and I then feel very alone and anxious as I grasp to understand where I am in the universe. Having no interaction from the physical realm, my eyes covered by a mask, a curated music experience melting through the headphones, I had nothing recognizable from the real world to connect to. Nothing to ground me in the familiar. I may have experienced the famous “ego-death” described by others in their psychedelic journeys, but this oneness with the Earth was not a happy feeling. Rather, it was overwhelming.
Funnily enough, I saw no one else in my dark world where I was lying down. I heard no other voices but my own, and was attempting to figure out why I felt stuck.
I assumed I was the Earth, a feeling that I was it in its entirety, but then I felt more as if I were the pistil of a flower. I was linked to the skin of the universe, the space and sky, and I was the one breathing life into the universe. I was overwhelmed by that feeling and confused as to my connection to life or death, or even the universe. This may be what is described as the k-hole, when one is unable to move—the dissociative aspect—and in my mind, I could not get out, and I didn’t know what was going on, and had no idea who I was. Was I even human? I felt the pressure of having to breathe life into this dark universe to be an overbearing task and was feeling exhausted by this feeling. I was grasping at a way to get out. I then remembered one thing from real life. The mind is in control. The mind is powerful and can create realities. Ah, so then I could change this one. Whew! That’s how I got out.
For me, I was too far gone into a fantasy world of unknown existence to really participate in this new point of view. It was existential to the max…I thought I was dying (compared to what many experience when taking DMT). I felt very alone, as there was only the dark star-studded sky and me that I could see (in my mind, that is). No voices. No real feeling of “oneness” aside from feeling completely alone and anxious. Not fun.
Hero’s Journey
I will say—I could have avoided watching The Matrix the night before. I thought it would put me “in the mood” for my trip. Screen time had been mentioned but I hadn’t taken it seriously, or thought too much of the subject matter. Oops. My bad.
Edwards says when a patient is struggling or feeling unpleasant, she tries not to interrupt the treatment. The challenging experience can help the tripper on her own move to a better place—“the hero’s journey,” in her words. I can go with a more spiritual take and say I had an ego-death with a messianic twist. After all, if it was me that was breathing life into the universe all on my own.
From the therapist and doctor’s point of view, this is my personal journey and it was up to me to deal with my inner thoughts and visions and find a way out of wherever it is I was. It is all part of becoming “unstuck from circular repetitive thinking and releasing old patterns so that other voices can be heard,” explains Dr. Steffen.
At the introductory session, Edwards and Steffen discuss the importance of the process and work following the psychedelic journey, commonly called “integration.” It’s a way to stay connected to the lessons of the trip when you return to daily life.
Ketamine therapy may not be for everyone, but this may be a telling example of why some should undergo several ketamine sessions over several weeks—a method called “stacking”—as you begin to better understand the power it holds to allow your mind to change and process trauma or change depressive thought patterns.
In reflecting on my journey, I did not feel that I had any great revelations on my life or past trauma, but I did manage to assign some meaning to that overwhelming feeling I had during my session. (In the journey I was ‘breathing energy’ into the universe and feeling completely depleted and overwhelmed.) The takeaway from the ketamine session was that I was moving in the right direction in my life, energy-wise—in deciding to focus more on myself and my personal journey than on people who did not add to my life, give back, and help me grow.
“From the biological perspective, ketamine produces a cascade of effects that are beneficial for short and long-term repair and flourishing of the cells, neurons and synaptic connections that healthy, balanced brains need,”says Eric Brown, author of the article “Why Ketamine Is An Effective Treatment for Depression.” Brown is program creator at Mindbloom,a telehealth platform that offers ketamine therapy via home-delivery in 30 U.S. states.
Medical doctor Scott Shannon, in an article titled “The Culture of Psychedelic Medicine,” writes that medicines like ketamine “carry the capacity to catalyze an inner healing process. That unique power imbues these medicines with a sacred quality.” The inner healer accompanies the voyager in their experience. “The mindset is one which poses the individual as having the power to heal itself with the help of the medicine which can initiate this healing process,” Shannon writes.
Unlike conventional psychiatry, which “has ignored our ability to heal and has focused instead on prescribing medications that limit our distress and mute our experiences of suffering,” Shannon writes, psychedelic therapy “has been showing positive results as a more integrative approach.”
In the late 1990s, I recall an antidepressant-frenzy taking root at UCSC, where I was a student. Everyone seemed to be in a daze, with their new stress meds taking effect. This diagnosis could be made in as little as one session with an on-campus psychiatrist. However, this conventional blueprint for treating mental illness is now fading. Some critics say pharmaceuticals like Xanax and Adderall are merely treating symptoms rather than getting to the root causes of mental instability, while for others their depression is “treatment resistant”—meaning that classic pharmaceuticals do not seem to improve their mental health.
Practitioners like those at Innate have been looking for alternatives to this conventional psychiatry. Their integrative approach to health and well-being is a development in the use of psychedelics in an assisted therapeutic mind-altering experience in hopes of gaining insight into one’s life. The idea is one of “cultivating that confidence in trusting your body and listening to those sensations. What are they trying to tell you, and how can you follow them?” says Edwards.
For the long-term durability of ketamine therapy, it is recommended to do more than one session, and through a series of treatments “stacked” or placed closely together, the aim is “to build up a solid foundation of the substance in your system,” explains Leonardo Vando, MD, a Board Certified Psychiatrist and Addiction Psychiatrist at the forefront of clinical research on microdosing for mental illness. As regards the telemedicine route, there can be greater risks if ketamine “is taken chronically in high doses, which can happen when it’s taken at home in an unsupervised manner. It can cause severe bladder damage,” said Lantie Elisabeth Jorandby M.D. in her Psychology Today article, “Update on Ketamine via Telemedicine Delivery.”
Maybe the biggest downside of all is that there is virtually no data on the long-term health effects of taking ketamine daily or every other day, as many who get it delivered via telemedicine do. (Many people receive their monthly dose of lozenges or tablets, take more of the medication each day than is prescribed, and run out early.)
“Microdosing” ketamine can be an option for those not comfortable with a full dissociative experience and who prefer not to experience a psychedelic journey. Microdosing is when a smaller portion of the drug is taken to experience a milder effect of the “high”—in the case of ketamine, giving one a euphoric mood, without the heavy feelings, complex thoughts or visuals that one can experience with higher doses.
It can provide subtle therapeutic changes that may improve mental health and motivation, although it may take more time to work than full doses. However, some clinics like telemedicine company Mindbloom believe that microdosing does not provide the insight and depth a full ketamine dose will offer to clients.
Ketamine has a clear dose response curve, so people can dial in the type of experience they would like to have: mild, verbal, and lightly dissociated (somewhat like peyote); moderate, some verbal capacity but mostly gone (more like psilocybin); high, non-verbal and totally disconnected from this plane (similar to DMT).
But as ketamine gains popularity—and many patients claim life-altering benefits—others have questioned just how effective this new treatment option really is.
In a 2023 NBC health news report, Dr. Smita Das, associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and chairwoman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, expressed concern with these new clinics where “people are getting treatments that haven’t been well-proven, well-studied or following any guidelines.” Das said that she was concerned that “people who need treatment will spend their money and energy in these ketamine clinics that aren’t well-proven.”
Price Points
Considering the effects are short-lived, ketamine isn’t cheap. Depending on the treatment approach, costs per program or session will vary with ketamine infusions ranging from $400 to $2,000 per infusion, (and three to six recommended sessions at most clinics), and a one-month supply of the FDA-approved intranasal spray Spravato, averaging $800 for a 1-month treatment, according to a 2023 article by Rebecca Hill of Zinnia Health.
Cheaper variations exist, like the home kits ordered online at Mindbloom, or other telemedicine health clinics, and are delivered to your door. Their initial program consists of six sessions of oral ketamine tablets, averaging $418 per month, and are recommended for three months.
As is often with the emergence of health trends, ketamine therapy falls short in its universality with its high price point. Depending on the mode of administration, treatment prices can range from $50 per dose through a telehealth clinic to in-house assisted therapy at $1,200 per session, or more.
The high price point leads many to “opt to save money by buying ketamine on the street,” claims Hill. From one of my sources interviewed for this article, it runs $70/gram, so about $25/ a pop to microdose.
To that point, I spoke with a Santa Cruz local, a single father in his late 50s who has been taking ketamine for two to three years. He discovered it through a community of like-minded individuals who use the substance for its mind-opening and healing qualities and a general enhanced feeling of well-being. He preferred to remain anonymous to protect those in his community—as well as himself—considering that recreational use of ketamine is not legal.
When I ask him if he would recommend it to his college kids, he replied that he had actually microdosed with his daughter for her first experience and it had allowed them to connect on a deeper level. “We were backpacking by a river, and she started talking about her life and really opened up about topics that I’ve never discussed with her. She talked for an hour straight,” he recalls.
In his opinion, marijuana was holding him back, and ketamine was very beneficial for his life. “It has helped me in my connections with people and allowed me to be a ‘time traveler.’ It allows you to connect with the past which I feel is unique to psychedelics,” he explains. “It’s not a particularly visual high, but it’s more profound in your mind, and you can tune it like a knob. After these experiences, I have the stories (lived during my high) that have influenced my life in a significant way,” he expressed.
I interviewed another local ketamine proponent, a 40-year old mother in the throes of divorce. She also requested anonymity, concerned her ketamine-use could be used against her. As she navigates a difficult divorce, she reserves time once a month to slip into a ketamine state in the confines of her home. She invited me to observe her during her 2-hour session.
An intention is set beforehand, breathwork is practiced throughout, and each session is followed with a journal entry that will help her—the voyager—track her emotions and insight, she explained to me. Eyes covered and a personally curated playlist, she lets the lozenges—also called “sublingual troches”—melt in her mouth, retaining the spit (the hardest part) until it’s time to spit it out and let the medicine take effect. This self-administered ketamine therapy has helped her manage her stress and find inspiration and positivity moving forward.
“It allowed me to see what I already knew in my mind, but for some reason that reality was blocked. The truth was there all along, I just wasn’t facing it. The message was clear: ‘this is not going away, this is what’s here and you need to deal with it.’”
SILVER BULLET The best way to deliver ketamine is a bullet, a little metal cylinder that has a knob on it, says one user. Photo: Credit
Silver Bullet
The rapid onset of its effects and its relatively short durability—30 to 60 minutes—have made ketamine stand out from other psychedelics as a more controllable substance, and this aspect has catapulted it into becoming a popular party or clubbing drug. “The best way to deliver ketamine in my book is a bullet, a little metal cylinder that has a knob on it,” explains the local father and ketamine user who preferred to remain anonymous. “If you use a bullet you have constant dosage…and do it anytime you want. It takes about 30 seconds to do,” he explained.
Note: one use of a snuff bullet is 1/4 of a full dose, he explains. This helps with micro-dosing—as opposed to when a much larger dose is taken when administered in a clinical setting. “People talk about knowing what they are taking when they do lines, and you can judge it by how often they fall down,” he says with a chuckle. This is why it is important to be in safe surroundings, and also not to drink alcohol when taking ketamine as it further inhibits one’s awareness of the body, and obviously slows reflexes. Definitely not recommended to drive on it, or attempt to do anything involving heat or fire.
As we search to escape the malaise of the modern world and our own minds, growing interest and funding in psychedelic therapies for mental health has allowed ketamine to gain ground as a viable therapeutic drug when used in a medically assisted context.
With the evolving landscape of psychiatric care, could it become the new antidepressant?
Maybe we’ll find ketamine-assisted therapy lounges at airports for those who have a fear of flying, or doctors will prescribe you three ketamine-assisted sessions to process your break-up. Psychedelics are not for everyone, or so we thought. Maybe it’s all about the intentions you set for your session, the dose, the playlist, and the setting. The new question may be: who will be your guide? A shaman, a therapist? Or will you go the do-it-yourself route,with a supply you order online, including a self-monitoring safety kit, 24/7 access to live chat guides, a journal, eye mask, playlist and headphones.
Lucky for us Santa Cruzans, this beachy paradise on the Pacific Ocean remains a place of healing at the forefront of experimentation in alternative healing and spiritual growth, a place to wander and explore in and outside of our minds as we make our way to enlightenment.
Songwriter Siri Undlin is the catalyst of Humbird. The project began as a folk-infused improvisational outfit, but with the group’s latest release, Right On, Humbird has moved decidedly in a rock direction. Yet in doing so, the trio (featuring bass, synthesizers and percussion from Pat Keen and Pete Quirsfeld on drums) hasn’t left its playful, unpredictable character behind; those qualities—plus flavors of Americana—are fully integrated into the more rocking approach of the new material. An honest and visceral lyricism informs the group’s music, and Right On’s live-to-tape approach captures that immediacy. BILL KOPP
When people think of California, country music isn’t the first—or fifth—thing that comes to mind. However, the state has a rich country music history rooted in its past and solidified with styles like the Bakersfield sound. Not to be outdone by Southern California, the Bay Area is home to several country, folk and bluegrass artists, with some being all three rolled into one, like San Francisco’s the Brothers Comatose. No strangers to Santa Cruz, the Brothers Comatose have had a fan base here since the beginning. Their blend of roots bluegrass with modern themes reminds all that despite what the Nashville pop scene says, real country and bluegrass are still alive and well. MAT WEIR
Benjamin Franklin mightn’ve said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes,” but Santa Cruz locals know the truth: it’s really Death & Saxes. The beloved jazz quartet is back this week, and they are ready to lay down the law the only way they know how. Featuring John Bouwsma on tenor sax, Harrison Brand on guitar, James Brudnick on double bass and Ben Sibley on drums, Death & Saxes explores the classic standards of the ’50s and ’60s while respecting the genre by giving the songs their own twist. Everyone knows the best way to enjoy jazz is with a cold beer on the Discretion patio. MW
Drama. Glamour. Seduction. The queer variety show is about to start! The all-queer contestants and performers will compete for love—well, maybe. In an unapologetic expression of queer joy and sexuality, the Sugar Rush variety show offers the most dazzling drag performers, sultry burlesque dancers and stunning aerialists. It promises a night of equally campy and tempting performances that will leave everyone thoroughly sticky-sweet and covered in glitter by the show’s end. From shibari rope bondage to circus acts, it’s a grand variety show fit for anyone with a major sweet tooth. ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE
INFO: 7pm, 418 Project, 155 River St. S, Santa Cruz. $20–$165. 466-9770.
SATURDAY 4/12
ROCK
SKELETON KREWE
Some might think traditional Hawaiian slack key guitar added to Grateful Dead-esque jam band rock music is a bit like putting pineapple on a pizza. It sounds like an odd combination at first, and some will insist it’s just wrong, but sooner or later, they’ll admit it’s just so dang tasty. Skeleton Krewe is a five-person jam band featuring psychedelic pedal steel, keyboard, bass, drums and a healthy dose of the slack key guitar. They’ll be playing original compositions and indulging in some Dead interpretations, and there will undoubtedly be some wild improvisational flights of fancy. KEITH LOWELL JENSEN
What started as a Lower East Side underground favorite has emerged as a fiery, Dirty Hit-signed powerhouse. NYC’s Pretty Sick brings their gritty alt-rock sound to Santa Cruz. The magnetic Sabrina Fuentes leads this increasingly acclaimed trio. As a plucky teen, Fuentes founded the band at age 13, and though the lineup has changed over time, the band maintains its grunge bass tone. Fusing grunge, riot grrrl and post punk elements, Pretty Sick delivers dark production and colorful, chaotic visuals that nod to their experience of big city culture. Fans will enjoy immersing themselves in the raw, melancholic vocals and energy of Pretty Sick. SHELLY NOVO
INFO: 9pm, Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, $25. 713-5492.
PUNK
LAURA JANE GRACE & THE MISSISSIPPI MEDICALS
With a catalog that blends outspoken political critique with personal liberation themes anchored in American folk rock and punk traditions, Laura Jane Grace brings her distinctive voice to Santa Cruz. Going public with her gender transition in 2012, Grace continues to detail her journey in her outspoken, earnest and charged lyrics. Fans can expect positive energy, swelling punk chaos and Grace’s lively, charismatic crowd banter. Grace is joined by the Mississippi Medicals, featuring Matt Patton on bass, Mikey Erg on drums and Paris Campbell Grace with vocals. Cathartic energy and authentic storytelling create an unforgettable live experience. SN
Frankie and the Studs combine elements of pop punk, indie rock, and glam. Their music features catchy, upbeat melodies and infectious hooks delivered with equal parts a smile and a sneer, reflecting the group’s rebellious attitude and punk sensibility. Electrifying guitar riffs, punchy drums and bold vocals covey the band’s sassy, irreverent character. Drawing from ’70s glam and punk, Frankie and the Studs channel memories of New York Dolls—their press materials even suggest that they’ll either hit the big time or flame out disastrously; it remains to be seen which path they’ll follow. BK
Santa Cruz is lucky to have such a vibrant music scene. Thanks to venues like the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, locals have access to world-renowned jazz players like the Kenny Barron Trio. Heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the top pianists in the world,” Barron has had an illustrious career. The legendary Dizzy Gillespie hired Barron for his band without hearing him play a single note, which opened the door to play with other greats like Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich and Stanley Turrentine. He even tenured at Rutgers University tutoring new generations of players like Regina Belle, Terence Blanchard and David Sánchez. MW
INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $64. 427-2227.
Humbird has moved in a decidedly rock direction, but the trio hasn’t left its playful, unpredictable character behind. Playing The Crepe Place, Thursday, 4/10
