“Uninhibited altruism.”
“I would turn back time and choose different candidates for president.”
“I would learn how to fly with wings like a bird.”
“Just make sure everybody’s happy in the world.”
“I would attempt to acquire Johnny Depp for one night.”
Let’s face it, eating meat is bad for the planet. It’s not an easy reality for meat lovers to face, but since the animal agriculture industry is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than combined exhaust from all transportation, we’ve got to start paying attention. This January, the Westside New Leaf Community Market will show several acclaimed documentaries that cover critical issues in nutrition, diet, the impact of animal agriculture on global warming, and how the US. food system has led to epidemic levels of preventable diseases. Four thought-provoking short films will be screened on Tuesday, Jan. 10, the groundbreaking documentary Cowspiracy on Wednesday, Jan. 11, and Forks Over Knives on Wednesday, Jan. 18.
Info: 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, Wednesday, Jan. 11 and Wednesday, Jan. 18. Westside New Leaf, 1101 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz. newleaf.com/events. Free.
Based on the international bestselling novel by Patricia McCormick, Sold stars Gillian Anderson, David Arquette and Priyanka Bose. The story of Lakshmi, trafficked from her rural Nepalese village to work in a brothel called Happiness House in Kolkata, India, at age 13, reflects the horrible reality of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, and offers a small window into the plight of millions of children who disappear every year. On a global scale, the average age of someone trafficked is 13 and it’s estimated that 35.8 million people are forced into labor at any given time due to human trafficking.
Info: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 11. The Del Mar, 1124 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. january11-sold-film-delmar.weebly.com. $13.
It’s that time of year again, when the number eight reigns supreme, with eight 10-minute plays shown at 8 p.m. from Jan. 6 to Feb. 5. This year’s lineup has 16 award-winning plays from a national playwriting contest that will be shown throughout the five-week festival. “Over the years we have received plays from writers all over the world. The 8 Tens @ Eight has become known as the premiere 10-minute play festival on the West Coast. We have proudly kept in touch with many of our winning playwrights, and have seen them go on to have plays produced in larger venues, knowing it all started for them here in Santa Cruz,” says artistic director and festival founder Wilma Marcus Chandler.
Info: 8 p.m. Center Stage Theater, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz. brownpapertickets.com. $22-$25.
If you’ve ever watched Law and Order, you know that witness testimony is unreliable because six people who see the same thing will all describe it differently. So how do placebos, hypnosis, and false memories work? Journalist Erik Vance’s Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform and Heal, postulates that the answers lie within our own brains. In the narrative, Vance explores the surprising ways expectations and beliefs influence our bodily responses to pain, disease and everyday events.
Info: 7 p.m. Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. bookshopsantacruz.com. Free.
Renowned leadership coach and workshop facilitator Dave Ellis has gifted the Diversity Center with a full day of training on Wednesday, Jan. 11. To spark a bigger conversation about what’s next in 2017 for our community and the Center, Ellis will present several practical and useful success strategies. During the workshop participants will be encouraged to ask life-changing questions while being supported to fully engage and enhance creativity, identity deep truths, and work toward accomplishing goals. Registration on website.
Info: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Peace United Church of Christ, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. squadup.com/events/dellis. $25.
Think of Muriel Anderson’s show less as a concert and more as an audio-visual performance. On this tour, she’ll be showcasing her new piece, “Wonderlust,” playing an exotic guitar-harp. The idea behind the show is to take audiences on a journey around the world—the visuals are stunning snapshots of breathtaking sites from all over the globe, accompanied by gorgeous, sweeping acoustic music that will make you feel like you are soaring through the astral system, taking in the places that define the essence of humanity. AARON CARNES
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $17/adv, $20/door. 335-2800.
Six years ago, four women in their mid-20s bonded at an underground open mic in Santa Barbara. The multi-instrumentalists went on to form the Rainbow Girls, and have released two studio albums and toured extensively around the U.S. and Europe. They are currently on an “acoustic house tour,” accepting open requests for living-room performances. Now located in Sonoma County, the foursome’s sound lands somewhere between bluesy folk and country rock, featuring soulful harmonies, energetic accordion, gypsy melodica, and a dynamic percussion section. KATIE SMALL
INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994.
One of the biggest in a series of body blows to music lovers this year was the loss of David Bowie, whose art so thoroughly consumed him that even his impending death inspired brilliant, transcendent songwriting. On Friday, Katdelic, led by P-Funk All Star Ronkat Spearman, celebrates Bowie’s birthday weekend with a performance honoring the music giant’s life and music. Also on the bill: DJ Little John. CAT JOHNSON
INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $10/adv, $15/door. 479-1854.
At the recent Santa Cruz Guitar Company Christmas party, a handful of people gathered in one of the back rooms while a circle of musicians led by local teacher and bluegrass standout Steve Palazzo picked out tunes. It was a joy-inducing jam I didn’t think could get any better. Then Kellen and Jamie Coffis showed up and played a slowed-down, stunningly sad and beautiful version of the Everly Brothers song “Dream.” I had tears rolling down my cheeks—and I wasn’t alone. If you haven’t had a chance to see these brothers do their thing, remedy that immediately. Also on the bill: Kingsborough (Friday) and McCoy Tyler (Saturday). CJ
INFO: 8 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $10. 335-2800.
Soul Majestic’s eight-member lineup includes keys, saxophone and robust male and female harmonies; the band traces their humble beginnings to UC Santa Cruz circa 2001, crediting KZSC for ample radio exposure. These days, the reggae collective aims to “channel their sunny beach days and bonfire nights into a unique brand of reggae music.” In 2013, the group crowd-sourced enough money to build their own private recording studio and have since produced multiple albums. Special guests Collective Movement featuring Aidan Shiwa, DJ Splice and Kava Jah support. KS
INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $9/adv, $12/door. 479-1854.
Five-piece metalcore band Kingdom of Giants plays with the ferocity that the genre demands, and the members live their lives with the same level of intensity. In other words, they are road warriors. Whether they are bringing their show to fans in cities across the country, or ripping through their tunes with beastly rage, it’s with utmost passion, and from the gut. Getting some studio polish after signing with InVogue in 2014 has only made the band’s tunes better. When it’s quiet, it’s really quiet. When it’s loud, it’s at eardrum-bleeding levels. AC
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10/adv, $12/door. 429-4135.
One of Santa Cruz’s favorite new party bands, Isaac and the Haze performs high-energy cover songs spanning from ’80s rock to contemporary soul to reggae rock and hip-hop. The band’s song list reads like a collection of cross-genre chart-topping jams, including “Kiss” by Prince; “Can’t Feel My Face” by the Weeknd; “Girlfriend is Better” by Talking Heads; “Hey Ya” by Outkast; “Need You Tonight” by INXS; and “California Love” by Dr. Dre and 2Pac. For those in the mood to dance into the night to radio hits of the last several decades, this band has you covered. CJ
INFO: 9:30 p.m. The Crow’s Nest, 2218 E Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. $7. 476-4560.
Fact: Linda Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams is one of the best albums of the ’70s. It showed that she could make a great pop record, while tinkering with genre liberally, a trend that would continue with her music. Guess what? That runs in the family. Her younger brother Michael J. Ronstadt (and his sons) have their own band, in which they play folk, jazz, blues, and whatever else they feel like. The lyrics are in English and Spanish, with both originals and covers. AC
INFO: 7 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15. 335-2800.
Kuumbwa kicks off the new year with a timeless singer and supremely soulful band. In a career stretching back to the early 1950s, Barbara Dane has moved effortlessly from her folk music roots to singing jazz and blues with commanding authority (while never abandoning her resolute leftist politics). She celebrates the release of her first new album in a decade, Throw It Away…, a collaboration with the invaluable Oakland pianist Tammy Hall. The accompanist of choice for many of the best jazz singers in the region (such as Kim Nalley and Denise Perrier), Hall wrote the arrangements for Dane’s magpie repertoire. Whether she’s interpreting Paul Simon’s “American Song,” Memphis Minnie’s “I’m Sellin’ My Porkchops,” Leonard Cohen’s “Slow,” or Andy Razaf and Fats Waller’s “How Can You Face Me?,” Dane still sounds marvelous at 89, her phrasing sure and her sense of humor pleasingly tart. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 427-2227.
Acoustic Grateful Dead covers with Kat and Mik Bondy and the Scott Cooper Duo. Thursday at Moe’s Alley
Dance rock jams from the ’70s. Thursday at Crow’s Nest
Post-punk out of L.A., by-way-of the Bay Area. Friday at Crepe Place
Americana-meets-cosmic jam band. Saturday at Crepe Place
American roots and country punk. Monday at Don Quixote’s
On Nov. 3, Kelly van den Berghe thought she was getting a behind-the-scenes tour of AT&T Park. That’s what her husband Lex had told her, after all. He works for Adobe, and said the company was letting some of the employees take a tour of the stadium in the San Francisco Giants’ off-season, with Kelly his plus-one.
She was ecstatic. Kelly—who many in Santa Cruz know as Roxy Scarmichael, a founder of and former player on the Santa Cruz Roller Derby team—is a Giants superfan. Lex van den Berghe is also well-known locally. He was a contestant on TV’s Survivor in its third season (Survivor: Africa) and eighth (Survivor: All-Stars). He’s also known as the drummer for Bay Area bands Frontier Wives and Maids of Honor.
Kelly needed an amazing day. Lex had to push her through the stadium in the wheelchair she was in while healing from ankle surgery, due to repeat roller derby injuries that forced her to quit the team three and a half years ago.
But even more devastating was the state of her kidneys. Kelly was born with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). Now at 52, her kidneys were nearing failure. She was on the transplant list, which can take years. She knew that once they failed, she would have to live on dialysis, a very limiting and exhausting existence. The only other option was getting a live donor, but finding someone willing to part with their kidney who also happened to be a match was unlikely. Josh Harrold, a friend of theirs for 15 years, offered his, but he wouldn’t know for another month if he was a match.
At least that’s what he told her. The truth was, he had already finished the testing and was a match. He had devised this grand reveal at the Giants’ stadium to deliver the good news to her, and asked Lex to tell her a lie—any lie—to get to the stadium. Lex agreed, reluctantly.
“I’m not a very good liar, especially when it comes to her,” he says now.
Fortunately, she was so excited about the prospect of getting to see the Giants stadium, she didn’t look at Lex’s story too closely. Which was a bit unusual, too.
“Normally, it’s really hard to surprise me, because I have this gut instinct when something’s off,” Kelly says.
Everything felt fine, until they got on the green. She didn’t see any of Lex’s co-workers. But before anything sunk in, Kelly noticed the Jumbotron had her name on the screen. It read: “Kelly, I know you’re a Giants fan … but you’re about to have a Royals kidney.”
She turned and saw Harrold standing across the green. Shocked, she leapt out of her wheelchair toward him.
“All common sense went out the window,” Kelly says. “I was going to go run to him, except I’m in a cast. He finally got to me and I held on to him—‘Oh my god, this is amazing.’”
Flash-forward: I’m sitting with Kelly and Lex at the kitchen table in their quaint Santa Cruz house on a lazy Saturday in early December. Their dogs and cats approach us as we snack on cheese, bread and fruit, each pet desperate for attention, food, or a little of both. Kelly is walking around on crutches. She still uses the wheelchair when she needs it—she is healing, but it’s a slow process. She hopes her ankle has a chance to heal before she gets her kidney transplant.
“I have to be in bed now because of my foot. I want some period of time where I can get out and walk and bike and do stuff. I’m ready to run, because I know the next step is going to be healing my kidneys,” Kelly says.
Her transplant, she says, could come anytime between a month and a year. Her kidney is functioning at about 18-20 percent, and doctors are trying to squeeze as much life out of it as possible before replacing it. They are waiting for it to drop to 15 percent functionality before going forward with the transplant.
Three weeks after the interview, she tells me they expect her to reach 15 percent functionality in six months.
Kelly’s condition, PKD, is genetic, and causes numerous cysts to grow on her kidneys. The cysts can increase the size of the kidneys dramatically. A normal kidney is the size of a fist. Some folks with PKD can have kidneys grow to the size of footballs. The more cysts grow, the less the kidneys are able to function properly.
“Although it isn’t well-known, it is one of the most common life-threatening genetic diseases,” says Angelike Gaunt, director of marketing for PKD Foundation, an organization that raises funds for research to find a cure. There is currently no treatment. Gaunt says that PKD affects 600,000 people in the U.S., and an estimated 12.5 million worldwide. The PKD Foundation is the only organization that exists solely to cure PKD.
The average wait for someone’s first kidney transplant, according to Gaunt, is 3.6 years, and 13 people die each day waiting for a transplant. The wait can vary depending on location; Kelly was told by the Stanford Medical facility that the wait would be between 8-10 years.
Wait times could greatly decrease if more people signed up to be a donor. Only 52 percent of Americans are signed up to be donors, according to Donate Life America.
The best option for anyone facing kidney failure is to get a live donor, as Kelly has. But that doesn’t mean her prognosis is perfect from here on out.
For the past 20 years, she’s lived with some degree of pain from her kidneys. Sometimes they hurt, other times the disease saps her energy. Once she gets Harrold’s kidney, she will still have PKD, although the symptoms will go away temporarily. The new kidney can last between five and 20 years. Then she’ll need another. Her pain and exhaustion will increase the longer she has the new kidney.
There’s also all the medication she’ll need to take to prevent her body from rejecting the organ. In essence, she’ll need to shut down her immune system, which is designed to prevent foreign objects such as a new kidney from surviving inside of her. After the transplant, as a side effect, she can expect to get sick often.
“I’m totally scared. It takes an emotional toll on you because you’re grateful, but at the same time you’re freaking out,” Kelly says. “I’m so thankful because I’ve been able to live a pretty healthy life up to this point. It didn’t stop me from doing the things I wanted to do like it does now.”
Without a live donor, she would eventually have to hook up to a dialysis machine several times a week, for several hours at a time, while the machine removed waste and extra fluids from her blood; basically, doing what a kidney should do. The pain is lessened, but it’s still exhausting. It got so bad for Kelly’s grandmother that she finally sat the family down, said her goodbyes, and went off dialysis, effectively ending her life. Fortunately for Kelly, she’ll likely avoid dialysis completely. At most, she’ll have to go on it for a short stretch.
Despite everything Kelly has gone through—and has yet to face—she is upbeat.
“There are people that have a disease, or diabetes, and just drown in it. I’m like, ‘This is going to happen, and I know it’s going to happen. I’m not going to let it stop me from enjoying my life. I’ll deal with it when it happens,’” Kelly says. “I was never really, ‘poor me. I have kidney disease.’”
As a kid, she always knew she could have it—her mother and grandmother both did—but it wasn’t until after high school that she knew with certainty that she had inherited it. She met Lex when they were in their early 20s and explained her condition to him, but he shrugged it off.
“I didn’t care,” he says. “I was in love with her. You don’t select a mate the way you do a car. If you’re in love with that person, you’re in love with everything.”
Lex and Kelly met at a memorial fundraiser for San Jose musician Scotty Vollmer in 1988; Frontier Wives was on the bill. Lex was engaged to someone else at the time, but shortly after the show, Kelly told a friend she knew that she and Lex were going to get married one day. Sure enough, they were soon dating, and five years later they were married. They had their first son, Corbin, in 1992.
The intense love between the two of them is obvious to anyone who gets near them for any amount of time. When Lex was on Survivor: Africa, there was an episode where loved ones were videoed in to engage in personal trivia with the contestants, and Lex and Kelly won. No one was surprised.
Other than monitoring her condition, Kelly’s PKD rarely came up, except regarding children. They were told there was a 50/50 chance of passing it on. Unfortunately, both of their kids inherited the disease.
Kelly has lived a relatively normal life, except for the occasional kidney pain and bouts of exhaustion, which sometimes last for days. It started to become noticeable in her late 30s. About 10 years ago, in her early 40s, she began inching toward kidney failure. Her kids had entered their teenage years, and she badly needed something to shake up her life. That’s when she discovered Roller Derby.
Kelly was in Starbucks at 41st Avenue and Soquel when she saw a flyer for the newly forming Santa Cruz Roller Skate Girls. She soon became one of the first to join the team of roughly 20 women. The organization became a nonprofit in 2009, and was renamed Santa Cruz Derby Girls. Kelly was one of the oldest players, but she was also one of the best, and most intense members of the team. Her multiple injuries attest to her visceral approach to the game.
“She’s had six derby-related surgeries, one for every year she was in derby, pretty much,” Lex says, with a mixture of admiration and frustration in his voice.
She even got hit in the kidney once, which she says was extraordinarily painful. But that didn’t keep her out of the ring. She loved everything about derby—the community, the excitement, and most of all seeing what she—a mom of two—was capable of.
In a strange twist, it turned out that, kidney punches aside, derby was actually improving her kidney function. Kelly was exercising rigorously, and in the best shape of her life. Both Lex and Kelly think that had she not played derby, her kidneys would have already failed by now. The only reason she stopped was her ankle injuries. In 2010, she got surgery for a torn ACL. She coached for a year, then returned to the ring. In 2012, she broke her foot, and that was it.
“I really needed derby when it came. It was like I found myself again. I wasn’t needed as much as a mom,” Kelly says. “You know when you get that first hit, that you’re either going to love it or hate it, and I loved it. It was a great thing. There’s no days off. It was a full-time job.”
After her first surgery, something changed in her body chemistry. She was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and chronic pain, but her kidneys were still functioning pretty well.
Last June, her doctor told her that it was time to get on a transplant list. She always knew that day would come, but still felt a sense of shock. She’s still grappling with that feeling, as she prepares for the six-month wait.
“I’m not gonna lie,” she says. “I feel like shit’s about to get real.”
In August, Kelly posted on Facebook about the state of her kidneys, telling friends and family that she was in need of a transplant. Other people in the past had assured her they would give her a kidney, but Harrold was the one who stepped up.
“Josh, he’s this wonderful human being. He’s kind, generous and selfless. I knew we were going to be a match. I don’t know why,” Kelly says.
The story of how Harrold met the van den Berghes 15 years ago is possibly the strangest part of this story. While Lex was competing on Survivor: Africa in 2001, CBS asked all the contestants to fill out a long personal questionnaire, which he likens to the personal info you’d fill out for a dating site. One of the questions was “favorite beverage.” Lex wrote down: “Yoo-hoo.”
At that time fresh out of college, Harrold was the national spokesperson for Yoo-hoo. He would tour with Blink-182 and Green Day one month, getting punk kids to drink Yoo-hoo, and then deliver bottles to the Late Show with David Letterman in hopes that he would mention the product on air. (He did.)
Someone at Yoo-hoo was a fan of Survivor, and noticed Lex had written in the drink on his CBS personality profile. She sent Harrold—who was in L.A.—to drop off 100 cases of Yoo-hoo to Lex, as well as personalized embroidered Yoo-hoo shirts, skateboards, a cooler, a boombox and other Yoo-hoo swag. It took Lex a couple years to work his way through all that Yoo-hoo, and he still has a lot of the swag. “I’d drink it daily, and I never got tired of it. Who gets sick of Yoo-hoo? It’s fucking delicious!” he says.
When Harrold showed up, he and Lex chatted for hours over beers and dinner. They became fast friends, and kept in touch through the years.
“Our connection was spawned by Survivor, but baptized in Yoo-hoo,” Lex says. “There’s times I feel like, ‘why did I sign up to be a part of that reality show?’ I feel like I got the answer. It was predetermined I was going to do this, because it would ultimately save my wife’s life. Kelly and I are so close. We’ve had 25 of the best years anyone could ever have. Because of Josh, we may get another 25.”
Harrold, meanwhile, says he is overjoyed to be giving Kelly his kidney. There is no question that he understands what Lex and Kelly are going through—three years ago, his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The first four surgeons they went to said it was inoperable, that she had months to live. The fifth and sixth surgeons felt differently. They went with the sixth, who successfully operated, and then gave her chemo. She has been doing better; just recently, it’s grown, but Harrold and his wife are optimistic they will beat it again. She is currently a couple of weeks into radiation treatment.
During this time, Lex called Harrold regularly to check up on him and give him his unconditional support.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” Harrold says. “You can be mad and mope about it, or do what my wife and I have done and realize that this is the hand that you’ve been played. I had a very sick wife. I needed something to give us both hope. I know Lex’s been in the same shoes. If I’m able to make sure he’s able to go into old age with his wife like I’m trying to do, I’d be honored to do that.”
Harrold orchestrated the entire AT&T park event for Kelly with a few calls to friends in high places. “If it’s epic news, it should be told in an epic way,” he says. This isn’t out of character for Harrold, who did something similar for his wedding proposal, which is on YouTube with over 250,000 views.
“It’s not enough that this guy is already gifting a kidney, he’s now completely orchestrated this grand reveal,” Lex marvels. “This is how good a dude this guy is.”
As for the Jumbotron message about the “Royals” kidney, it’s because Harrold’s favorite team is the Kansas City Royals. He was able to talk to someone at the Royals and have custom jerseys made for Lex, Kelly, Harrold and Harrold’s wife, Erica. Erica’s said “Love Life.” Lex’s said “Donate Life.” Harrold’s said “Royal Kidney 1,” and Kelly’s “Royal Kidney 2.”
Harrold, of course, had everyone put on their custom Royals jersey for a photo. He and Kelly always had a friendly baseball rivalry, and under any other circumstances, she would never even think about putting on a Kansas City Royals jersey. But this was no ordinary day.
“The Royals created these custom jerseys so we could force Kelly into enemy colors for the day,” Harrold says, laughing. “I told her it’s all worth it if I can get photos of her in a Royals jersey.”
For more information on PKD, visit www.pkdcure.org. To become a registered organ donor visit www.donatelife.net/register.
Cynthia Chase, the new Santa Cruz mayor whose term began last month, says the most important issue for the city to tackle right now is affordable housing. For the start of the new year, GT caught up with Chase to talk about the opportunities for women, the county’s glass ceiling, her work in local prisons and her solutions for Santa Cruz’s housing crisis.
In some ways, this year’s election was horrible for women. One bright light is that five out of the seven seats on Santa Cruz City Council are now held by women. What do you make of that?
CYNTHIA CHASE: When I ran [in 2014], one of the reasons I ran was I had gone to the Breaking the Glass Ballot initiative, which was a project that had started here locally, but it exists in other places. And the intention was really to encourage women to run. And when you talk to women, there are really smart, really skilled, creative, innovative, just incredible women out there who don’t run for a variety of reasons, that are somewhat overlapping with [men’s reasons], but a lot different. And what I see over and over is—and there’s a lot of research to prove this, too—women doubt themselves. Women second-guess themselves. Women don’t feel like they are qualified to be in leadership roles, and they view leadership and what it takes to be a leader quite differently. And that’s a message that I think we really need to work on, particularly for young women, and helping them understand that it doesn’t take someone who is loud, boisterous, bombastic, despite what the national election showed.
Since 2012, all of our county supervisors have been men. The county has also never had a woman elected to state legislature or Congress. What can we do to break our glass ceiling at higher levels of government?
Often, childcare falls to women. Although that’s changing, certainly, there are expectations that are both self-imposed and in the community that women really need to show up in these ways in regard to their families. The decision about being in an elected position and being in a family is still a conflict for women. Right now, I’m pretty much in that position. Do I continue to serve, knowing that this council role is a part-time job, and I have a whole other full-time job? And if I were to add in family to that, my husband and I, what would that look like? So that is a crossroads for people, particularly women. I will have to choose at some point, and that some point is getting smaller and smaller.
So we need to create a place where women can be the kind of leaders that feel more familiar to them, and have support to do that. Because this isn’t just anecdotal, the research shows that when women are in leadership positions, generally speaking, in almost every way, things go better. They go better for the economy. They go better for the community. They go better for relationships. They are able to get more done, and you hit fewer barriers and government doesn’t come to standstills.
After you graduated from UCSC, you were a juvenile probation officer in Santa Cruz. Then for eight years, you ran Gemma, a program for transitioning women from incarceration. Now you’re an inmate programs manager at the county sheriff’s office. How has your career informed your political life?
Really what I’ve been doing for 16 going on 17 years is working on how do we shift systems to better prepare people who are incarcerated for successful release. What we’re doing now in our local jails, our job is to rehabilitate people. It’s no longer just housing people for a short period of time with short sentences, then they’re going to get right out. It’s about systems and how they connect, overlap and affect each other. So any decision that we make in one realm is going to have this ripple effect into others. And I think that is the example that I use constantly in talking to people at the city. … That’s where we’re talking about systems: How do we as a city partner with the county, and talk to our state and federal partners about putting some more resources in, and being a lot more systematic in our responses to things like homelessness and substance addiction and behavioral health issues, that are really not in the city’s purview?
What do you plan to do as mayor about affordable housing?
Housing is a big focus this year. One of the things I’m hoping to do is convert one of the City Hall to You [forums] to a housing forum, and really I’m still working with a lot of stakeholders on this—advocates for housing rights, tenants, landlords, developers, lenders, all the folks who are really engaged in this and trying to say, ‘Look, all of you have skin in the game. Everybody has something to do here.’ And actually, when you talk to all of those people, our solutions are not really far off. I think that’s the thing that is unfortunate, that people tend to get so divided into their camps, and really, when I sit down and talk to every one of them and I’m listening, they’re so similar in what they need. So if I can bring all of that energy together and say, what is our housing vision for this community and how can we get that groundwork laid so that we can move forward in that direction, that’s what I really would love to accomplish this year. I know it takes a really long time to actually develop housing and all of those things, but if we can, this year, land on a vision that we see as a community for housing, I think that is doable.
Many local housing officials and nonprofit leaders say the dissolution of the county’s redevelopment agency in 2012 ended the main local funding source for affordable housing. What do you see as the solution for filling that giant need?
We formed a subcommittee around exploring what are the other funding sources. Is that a TOT increase? Is that a local bond measure? What does it look like? Is it just for housing or would it be a sort of overall quality of life issue? And really explore what our sources of funding are. And luckily, as I go around the community and talk to those different stakeholders, people are saying, ‘Yep. We’re on board.’ Because they know it can’t happen without something like that.
Last year, you championed the “City Hall to You” program, a town hall forum in four neighborhoods. What’s the biggest outcome?
People are now feeling like they have a connection to city government. They have an actual person. They have a conversation. They have a relationship. [They feel they] can move forward not just on their public works issue or question, but in general that we are accessible. And that, to me, is one of my biggest goals.
A long-discussed vision for constructing the creative soul of downtown Santa Cruz at Abbott Square will finally be set in motion this spring.
“We’re talking about live music multiple nights a week, events and performances on a regular basis, yoga classes, reading programs for families with little kids—certainly all of the participatory art, history, and cultural experiences that people have come to expect from the MAH,” says Nina Simon, executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), who has spearheaded this project since its inception in 2012. She says the museum is bringing its “flavor” outside and inviting the community in.
The site off Cooper Street, which used to function as a quiet downtown pedestrian alley, will now be the museum’s “back porch, featuring open seating on an extended plaza for live performances and community events—as well a “secret garden” on the back plaza, boasting landscaping and creative activities designed with children in mind. MAH staff have been vague with details about the square, as they hope the grandeur of the project will speak for itself once it is revealed.
Developer John McEnery IV recently curated a diverse group of talented local chefs and vendors to staff the Abbott Square Market, which will have five mini-restaurants and two bars. The square will be open to the public from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday, and will stay open until midnight on weekends.
Abbott Square’s latest challenge is figuring out what to do with the Octagon building that used to be home to Lulu Carpenter’s coffee roasters. The coffee shop moved out of the historic location, which once served as the county’s hall of records, at the end of October, and the building is currently vacant, an unexpected twist for the MAH, although museum leaders have decided to include the 134-year-old building in their Abbott Square vision. Right now, the developers are extending an invitation to the public for the opportunity to use the Octagon as a pop-up creative or cultural experience. Open houses will be held at the space in early January, and proposals for the Octagon’s first pop-up are due Jan. 22. “It could be creative retail, it could be workshop space, it could be a gallery, we don’t know. We’re leaving it open to the community right now,” says Simon.
Planning for the $5 million Abbott Square project began in 2012, the year after Simon took over as the MAH’s director and saw an opportunity almost immediately.
The desire for a bustling creative hub downtown in a city known for its artistic talent dates back a couple decades to the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake—whose most notable architectural casualty, the Cooper House, had been home to restaurants, shops, live bands and dancing. A wrecking ball leveled what was left of the building in the weeks after, and over the years, people discussed how to recreate that feeling of community space downtown. Many wanted a plaza, focusing on a lot owned by Louis Rittenhouse on Pacific Avenue (now home to a Rip Curl store). But even if Rittenhouse had agreed to sell, activists and city planners were having a hard time agreeing on how to use the parcel anyway, and the discussion eventually quieted.
All the while, Abbott Square—named after Chuck and Esther Abbott, whose vision helped shape the previous Pacific Garden Mall—sat quietly behind the Cooper House, which got rebuilt and filled with new shops like O’Neill.
Ann Ostermann, open studios and events manager for the Santa Cruz Arts Council, says sometimes it takes a “visionary” like Simon to see the obvious—in this case, that the atmosphere the Cooper House provided had never been replaced and that Abbott Square, if invigorated, could fill that void.
Around the time of Simon’s hiring nearly six years ago, the museum was discussing ways to renew its energy and evolve into a cultural center for the community. Simon saw Abbott Square, which was nothing more than an open patio and a coffee shop, as the museum’s link to the unique downtown around it, and saw the potential for reviving the MAH’s spirit to also revive the community outside—something the arts community appreciates.
“It’s great for us to have a place where there’s people and there’s music, and there’s so much action. And of course, we’re crazy about everything the MAH’s doing,” says Ostermann, who says it was a “sad day” when the Cooper House came down 27 years ago. “The square will have a flow to it, because there are going to be different projects. It’s going to be shifting and moving, and I really like that.”
Museum leaders raised funds for Abbott Square primarily through community contributions. The MAH received $1 million dollars through grants from foundations, and the rest came from local businesses and individuals. Although the project is now fully funded, the MAH is still asking for donations to support events and performances at the square, which will be free and open to the public. Simon says the outpour of community support the project has received is encouraging her every step of the way.
To Simon, a successful Abbott Square is one that attracts everyone. The MAH, she says, not only hopes to enliven the community, but help it heal as well. Lively and energetic public spaces that allow people to feel comfortable and included are proven by urban planners to attract positive behaviors, she says, and deter things like criminal activity and harassment.
The square is providing an interesting spin on art, too.
“It’s bringing art outside. People still have such an ordinary idea of what a museum is,” says Ostermann, who adds that the Arts Council has been working on similar goals, both at the Tannery Arts Center and through the Ebb and Flow projects along the levee. “I like the idea of people experiencing art outside, as well as inside.”
For information on how to pitch a program or project for the Octagon, visit www.abbottsquare.org.
As the new year dawns, there’s an easy in for people who want to lend a helping hand to their local environment, get their feet wet and learn about volunteering.
Save Our Shores (SOS), a marine conservation nonprofit, is hosting a sanctuary steward training on the night of Thursday, Jan. 12, for people interested in joining the ocean advocacy community that makes up the backbone of many marine conservation programs.
The nonprofit’s Sanctuary Steward volunteer program, developed in 1995, has three initiatives: pollution prevention, clean boating initiatives, and ocean health awareness.
Offered every other month, the training offers a crash course on the history of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, preventing coastal pollution and how to lead ocean advocacy events. Communications manager Ryan Kallabis urges community members to bring their own cup and plate for complimentary snacks and beverages.
Meanwhile, SOS is also asking donors to help bring more kids to the beach and let them get their hands dirty in an expansive outdoor classroom experience. The nonprofit offers field trips, and $50 can fund one child while $700 can pay for an entire classroom experience to teach kids about marine debris and ecosystems.
For more information, visit saveourshores.org. The Sanctuary Steward training is 5:30-9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12 at the SOS offices at 345 Lake Ave., Suite A, Santa Cruz. To RSVP, email program manager Matt Miller at Ma**@sa***********.org.
Tribal Seeds, a reggae rock outfit out of San Diego, is on a mission to elevate consciousness through its roots reggae-inspired, electric guitar and drum-driven, dub-infused music. A favorite on the festival circuit, the band, which was formed by brothers Steven Rene Jacobo on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Tony-Ray Jacobo on keyboard and production duties, has grown into a lively six-piece known for its deep grooves, crowd-pleasing performances and one love vibe. Also on the bill Jamaican reggae group Raging Fyah and reggae singer/songwriter Nattali Rize.
INFO: 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 24 and 25. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $28/door. 423-1338. WANT TO GO? Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the Tuesday show.
Dan Juan’s playful name embodies the band’s lighthearted approach—they set out to have fun, and it shows onstage. That’s why you won’t find any trace of them online; foregoing self-promotion was an intentional move.
“We’re not trying to market ourselves,” says guitarist and vocalist Dan Talamantes. “The object is not to make money, but to have as much fun as possible. We want our enjoyment of it to translate to the audience’s enjoyment of it.”
The lineup features Talamantes on guitar and lead vocals, Tyler Larson on lead guitar, Jeff Wilson on bass, and Alex Bice on drums—four friends in their mid-20s who are taking time out from more ambitious projects to “make the band we’ve always wanted.” The resulting sound is a mix of alt-country with indie-rock. Influences include Wilco, Neil Young, Dr. Dog, and Gram Parsons. They’re not attempting country revival, per se; according to Talamantes, the country aspect is “more of a texture than a template.”
The members of Dan Juan are active contributors to Santa Cruz’s creative community. When they’re not organizing Boulder Creek’s annual Do-It-Ourselves Festival, the four multi-instrumentalists are involved in various local pursuits, including Steep Ravine, Dos Osos, and the North Pacific String Band, to name a few. Dan Juan is a more of a hobby project, an intentionally stress-free creative outlet.
The band name is a cheeky reference to the literary Don Juan, inspired by a nickname for Talamantes, who moonlights as a journalist and a private investigator. “Dan’s kinda like this aging hipster type of dude,” Wilson explained. “We’re all getting older, but we’re still in the prime of our youth, so it was just a funny play on that mystique.”
9:00 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8/door. 429-6994.
Last year, Hollywood’s Motion Picture Academy took a lot of heat for failing to recognize one single person of color among its 20 acting Oscar nominations. It’s unlikely that will happen again this year, now that Fences has entered the race. This screen adaptation of August Wilson’s highly lauded, prize-winning stage drama, scripted by Wilson himself, and directed by its star, Denzel Washington (who also co-produced), has Oscar bait written all over it.
First produced onstage in 1983, Fences explores race, family dynamics, dreams, and disappointment through the experiences of the Maxson family, living in a neighborhood of brick row houses in the shadow of an industrial city in the northeast. It could be any city (although this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is now included in what’s known as Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle of plays), as the characters strive for something better—at work, in life, in love—in post-World War II America.
The story is set in the mid-’50s. Its protagonist, Troy Maxson (Washington) is a dynamic, larger-than-life character, despite his “lowly” job; he and his best friend, Bono (Stephen McKinley Anderson) are garbage collectors. Troy is lobbying to break the color barrier at work and graduate from the job of “lifting” (the garbage cans) to driving the truck, a position only open to white employees. But Troy isn’t expecting much; once a slugger in the Negro Baseball League, he never made it into the majors because of his color.
But he’s king on his own turf, jollied along, but kept in line, by his loyal wife, Rose (the always-stunning Viola Davis). He demands respect from their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), a promising high school football player, and from his adult son from a previous marriage, Lyons (Russell Hornsby), a jazz musician. Troy is always railing at his sons to get real jobs and not depend on their dreams, partly out of concern for their futures, but also out of resentment that they might succeed where he could not.
Wilson presents a panorama of urban African-American experience in this era of ingrained racism and post-war social fallout. Troy’s genial brother, Gabriel (Mykelti Williams), has been mentally disabled by a war wound. Common experiences include households of children from various fathers (or mothers), and the occasional stint in jail—almost inevitable for the young men. The play’s central metaphor is the fence Troy keeps promising to build for Rose—either to keep what he values safe inside, or to keep out Death, and the Devil, both of whom Troy says he’s wrestled with all his life.
As befits its stage origin, this is a drama rich in talk. The script is stuffed with juicy monologues and soliloquies, along with explosive confrontations, which the actors tear into with gusto. The freewheeling manifesto by which Troy announces himself to the audience begins on the back of a garbage truck, and continues as he and Bono walk home through the alleyways to Troy’s backyard, where a bottle of hooch is broken out and various family members introduced. It’s a meaty tour-de-force of comic camaraderie, defiance, disillusion, and chutzpah, that Washington delivers con brio—and it’s only the first 10 minutes of the movie.
The action in this opening scene also exemplifies how director Washington manages to open up Wilson’s one-set play. While most of the action still takes place in the backyard, where that fence is permanently under construction, Washington seizes any chance he can to get characters out to the front of the house, where giant city smokestacks can be seen out in the distance coating the sky (and the characters’ dreams) with a miasma of ashy disappointment.
This adaptation springs from a 2010 Broadway revival of the play, that also starred Washington and Davis. Both of them earned Tonys for their performances in these same roles—which puts Fences on track to break the color barrier in next year’s Oscar nominees.
FENCES
***
With Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Mykelti Williams. Directed by Denzel Washington. A Paramount release. Rated PG-13. 138 minutes.
