Events

UCSC Concert Choir
2026-05-15 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
UCSC Concert Choir performs in a spring quarter concert.
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ADMISSION
– General admission.
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Visualizing Abolition Screening Series: Beyond Access
2026-05-16 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-17 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-20 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-21 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-23 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-24 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-27 12:00 - 17:00 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
On view in the IAS Screening Room is a selection of short films curated by Visualizing Abolition Visiting Faculty Fellow Dr. Pooja Rangan.
Prisons deny and censor the access of those trapped inside them—to information, to intimacy, to community, to meaningful work, to nourishment of all kinds, and perhaps most cruelly, to care. This program assembles a series of films, including works by filmmakers incarcerated in California as well as others without that lived experience. Together, these works confront the debilitating impacts of these restrictions and reveal how the disabling logic of the prison is extended to other institutional spaces (the hospital, the university), turning access into a scarce commodity by enclosing what should be held in common. Questioning the carceral and state-sponsored productions of disability and accessibility, the short films together reveal the courage of people working despite limitations to produce collective access for one another, described simply and beautifully by disability justice activist Leah-Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha as “revolutionary love without charity.”
Thanh Tran
Dying in Prison, 2022
HD Video (color, sound), 3 minutes
Courtesy of the artist
Carolyn Lazard
Pre-Existing Condition, 2019
HD video (color, sound), 6 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and Trautwein Herleth3
Anthony Alejandrez
Another Rainy Day, 2023
Phone video (color, sound), 3 minutes
Courtesy of the artist
Jordan Lord
After…After… (Access), 2018
HD Video (color, sound), 16 minutes
Courtesy of the artist
Rahsaan “New York” Thomas
Friendly Signs, 2023
Video (color, sound) 21 minutes
Courtesy of Tommy Wickerd, Empowerment Ave & System Impact Media

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences
2026-05-16 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-17 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-20 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-21 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-22 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-23 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-24 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-27 12:00 - 17:00 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
Visit the IAS, UCSC’s premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10–August 16, 2026 are three diverse and interdisciplinary shows: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right, the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj, a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies, a mixed-media exhibition emerging at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art.
The IAS Galleries are open Wednesday-Sunday, 12 pm – 5 pm. Admission is free to the public.
Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right
Libia Posada’s first solo exhibition in the United States features installations, sculptures, and drawings meticulously constructed from surgical instruments, gauze bandages, crutches, used books, and domestic picture frames. The new and existing works in the exhibition powerfully stitch together the personal, social, and political disorders and afflictions that currently trouble the world, from the wars that resonate across the globe to the violences of aging in US prisons.
Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements
The internationally-lauded work of humanities professor Gina Athena Ulysse is on view as a premier Faculty Spotlight Exhibition. The site-specific installation, produced in community from things collected, found, purchased and donated, centers on the Haitian concept of rasanblaj, a form of assembly and collage that transcends the formal use of materials to draw together people, spirits, and ideas.
Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies
Collage is both a material practice and a structural interrogation in the Faculty Spotlight Exhibition artworks by literature professor Ronaldo V. Wilson. In video, painting, and installation, layers and folds conceal and reveal, delving into the experience, both bodily and emotive, of living in times of violence.

Opening Celebration for Visions from Within: Resilience
2026-05-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, 1817 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, 95062, United States
Join us at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos for the opening celebration of Visions from Within: Resilience.
Visions From Within is a continued series of art exhibitions dedicated to uplifting and platforming artists who are currently system impacted. The series is curated by Anthony Alejandrez and Sonny Trujillo, Transitions Fellows for Visualizing Abolition.

La Alegria del Mariachi with guest artist Lupita Infante
2026-05-16 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Audiences are invited to Alegria Del Mariachi, featuring international guest artist/composer Lupita Infante, granddaughter of the legendary Pedro Infante, and students from the UCSC Mariachi Ensemble and Mariachi Eterno de UCSC.
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ADMISSION
– General admission
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Privacy’s Defender: Fight Against Digital Surveillance with Cindy Cohn
2026-05-19 12:00 - 13:30 | Humanities 1 Building, 257 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Privacy’s Defender
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Executive Director Cindy Cohn’s Journey Inside the Privacy Battles That Shaped Today’s Internet
Cindy Cohn has devoted her life to the fight for digital rights. She’s tangled with federal officials to keep our online conversations secure from the government’s prying eyes, fought to ensure that you are told when your information has been turned over to the government, and argued before judges to protect our right to speak and to share science and knowledge on the internet.
In Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance (MIT Press), Cindy weaves her own personal story with her role as a leading legal voice representing the rights and interests of technology users, innovators, whistleblowers, and researchers during the Crypto Wars of the 1990s, battles over NSA’s dragnet internet spying revealed in the 2000s, and the fight against FBI gag orders.
During this national book tour, Cindy will be at UC Santa Cruz to give a book talk on May 19, 2026 from 12:00-1:30 pm.
Free and open to the public with registration.
RSVP HERE to attend in-person or on Zoom.
In-Person location: UCSC Humanities 1, Room 210 (map link)
Virtual: Zoom link will be sent separately
Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which works to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice and innovation for all the people of the world. Before becoming Executive Director a decade ago, Cindy was the organization’s Legal Director from 2000-2015, and led the organization’s impact litigation work on bringing balance to copyright law, stopping mass spying and protecting freedom of expression online. She’s won many awards for her work and even more court decisions.
UCSC co-sponsors:
Institute for Social Transformation, The Humanities Institute, Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), and the Security Research Lab.

Drop-in Figure Drawing
2026-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Drop-In Draw provides a live model and room monitor. There is no formal lesson and only dry media is allowed (no paints).
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ADVISORIES
– These events contain mature content and nudity.
– Drop-In Draw is subject to the possibility of last-minute cancellation without notification, and sessions are not guaranteed.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– UCSC Art Department Room M-101
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
This series occurs weekly on Wednesday evenings during spring quarter, including the following:
Wednesday April 1, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 8, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 15, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 22, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 29, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 6, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 13, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 27, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit or ParkMobile.
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event.
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS).
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Annual BE Student Project Showcase
2026-05-21 09:00 - 14:30
Join Baskin Engineering for our annual Student Project Showcase to celebrate the innovative work and accomplishments of undergraduate engineers in capstone courses and research pathways. The broader campus community, parents, and industry partners are invited to view the culmination of student work.
The day begins with oral presentations from nominated “best-in-class” teams and those working on industry-sponsored projects. Following this, all students will participate in a comprehensive Poster Session featuring project outcomes with some teams including table-top demonstrations of functional hardware.
Event Details:

Date: May 21, 2026
Oral Presentations (Nominated/Industry Teams): 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Engineering 2, Room 180
Poster Session (All Student Teams): 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, Engineering Courtyard

Younger Lagoon Reserve Tours
2026-05-21 10:30 - 12:00 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Younger Lagoon Reserve tours are free and open to the public. Space is limited to 18 participants. Call 831-459-3800 or sign-up online. Virtual tours are available online. seymourcenter.ucsc.edu.

Note Taking and Reading Strategies
2026-05-21 12:00 - 12:45 | Academic Resources Center (ARC), 408 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
In this workshop, you will: Learn reading and note-taking methods and why they work to help you learn.
The Successful Slug Workshop series, hosted by Learning Support Services Peer Coaches, are open to all UCSC undergraduate students and focus on academic skills and tools to support your success as a student. At each workshop, you will be introduced to a topic, engage in active learning, be given resources to begin implementing the same day, and have an opportunity to learn more if you are interested.
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Black on the Block
2026-05-21 13:00 - 14:00 | Crown Provost House, 660 Crown Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join the African American Resource & Cultural Center every Thursday from 1–2 p.m., at the front of the Ethnic Resource Center for Black on the Block, a weekly tabling and engagement space.
Stop by to learn about campus resources, upcoming programs, and ways to get involved. It’s a casual, welcoming space to ask questions, make connections, and build community. All are welcome.
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

College Night: Sanrio
2026-05-21 17:00 - 20:00 | Rachel Carson/Oakes Dining Hall
Oakes and Rachel Carson Colleges, in collaboration with UCSC Dining, present a Sanrio-themed college night. Join us Thursday, May 21, from 5–8 p.m. at the Rachel Carson/Oakes Dining Hall for a night of fun, community, and a special themed menu. Standard dining hall entry pricing applies, and all students, faculty, and staff are invited.
Please note: The dining hall will be closed from 2–5 p.m. for event preparation.
Learn more about College Nights at dining.ucsc.edu/events.
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You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.How to Use the Statement Across Communication Channels

Of Nature and the Cosmos—April in Santa Cruz
2026-05-21 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Performance Studio 131, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Join acclaimed Iranian virtuosi Siamak Barghi (kamancheh, tombak), and Arya Tavallaei (santour); Stanford University’s celebrated guzheng master Hui You; and San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet (“excavations of beauty from the elemental”—New York Times) for an intrepid concert that explores nature, the cosmos, the “deep acoustics” of musical harmony, and an exchange of imagination and inspiration among Iranian, Chinese, and European improvisation practices. Featuring the music of Iranian composer Nina Barzegar (“each [Barzegar’s music] slid into … mellifluous melody … heedless-sounding glissandos, you wondered if the center would hold. But Barzegar’s compositional command kept it together.”—New York Times), icon of Central California experimentalism, Ben Johnston, and well-known Santa Cruz composers Ben Dorfan, Christopher Pierandozzi Everingham, and Jinwei Sun.
This event is presented as part of the April in Santa Cruz Festival of Creative Music.
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ADMISSION
– Free and open to the public per advance registration only
– Attend in-person at the Music Center Performance Studio 131 at UC Santa Cruz
– Advance registration required due to limited seating; link to be announced
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PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant when present
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– This year’s festival includes seven events between April 15 and May 21, 2026
– Additional April in Santa Cruz events and information at aprilsc.ucsc.edu
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OF NATURE AND THE COSMOS
SAN FRANCISCO’S DEL SOL QUARTET WITH IRANIAN AND CHINESE VIRTUOSOS

image: photo of Del Sol Quarter by photographer RJ.Muna
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Something held by poetry
2026-05-22 12:00 - 14:00 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
In this intimate workshop, UC Santa Cruz students, faculty, and staff are invited into conversation with poets Ronaldo V. Wilson and Terri Witek. Something held by poetry is programmed for Wilson’s multimedia exhibition, there are no words, but melodies, currently on view at the IAS.
RSVP is required.

Ronaldo V. Wilson is a poet, interdisciplinary artist, academic, and the author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the Cave Canem Prize; Poems of the Black Object, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and the Asian American Literary Award in Poetry; Farther Traveler: Poetry, Prose, Other, and Lucy 72. His latest books are Carmelina: Figures and Virgil Kills: Stories. He is the editor of three special issues of hybrid and experimental work in Interim: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics; and Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. Wilson is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he directs the Creative Writing Program, and serves on the core faculty of the Creative Critical PhD Program; principal faculty member of CRES (Critical Race and Ethnic Studies); and affiliate faculty member of DANM (Digital Arts and New Media).

Terri Witek’s most recent books include her 2026 eco-poetics collection with Amaranth Borsuk, W/ SH, which loops two rain prophets, both women, into a crisis between future worlds, and 2023’s Something’s Missing in This Museum (Anhinga Press). A translation by Dona Mayoora of 2018’s The Rape Kit into Malayalam is forthcoming. Her work has been included in many anthologies, including 2 from 2021: JUDITH: Women Making Visual Poetry (Timglaset Editions ) and the WAAVe Global Gallery (Hysterical Books). Witek’s solo and collaborative work has been featured in a wide variety of text venues, including Fence, The Colorado Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Slate, Hudson Review, Lana Turner, The New Republic, and UTSANGA .

Santa Cruz Pickwick Club presents: Bleak House
2026-05-24 13:00 - 15:00
Spontaneous human combustion! Evil lawyers! Detectives! Family intrigue! These all come together in Charles Dickens’s masterwork, Bleak House. This year, we will spend the year reading the 2026 Dickens Universe novel. Join Dickens enthusiasts and Pickwick Club members on Zoom for a series of discussions about this beloved book.
Register via Zoom
Reading Schedule:

OCT 26: Chapters 8-13
NOV 23: Chapters 14-19
DEC 28: No meeting
JAN 25: Chapters 20-25
FEB 22: Chpaters 26-32
MAR 22: Chapters 33-38
APR 26: Chapters 39-46
MAY 24: Chapters 47-53
JUN 28: Chapters 54-67 (End)

Recommended Edition: We recommend the Penguin Classics edition of the novel for its appendices and notes, but other versions are fine. First-time readers should avoid the Introduction if they don’t want spoilers. Download the novel to read at Gutenburg.org or listen to it at LibriVox.org.
The Santa Cruz Pickwick (Book) Club, a branch of the Dickens Fellowship, is a community of local bookworms, students, and teachers who meet monthly to discuss a nineteenth-century novel. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries provide support for the reading group.

CSE Colloquium - Learning to Image: Computational Microscopy for Dynamic Systems
2026-05-27 11:00 - 12:30 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Laura Waller, UC Berkeley
Abstract:
Computational imaging jointly designs hardware and algorithms to push beyond the classical limits of imaging, enabling measurement of new quantities (e.g. 3D, phase, and super-resolution) with simple, inexpensive hardware. These approaches have already transformed consumer photography; our goal is to achieve a similar transformation in scientific microscopy.
In this talk, I will show how end-to-end learning is reshaping the design of imaging systems, from programmable illumination with LED arrays to compact, lensless cameras built from Scotch tape. By combining physical models with neural networks, we can jointly learn how to capture data, reconstruct images, and self-calibrate systems that would otherwise be too complex to model. However, many computational methods rely on multiple measurements, limiting their use for live, dynamic samples. I will introduce new space-time algorithms based on implicit neural representations (INRs) that jointly recover structure and motion, correct artifacts, and enable high-resolution imaging in regimes where traditional approaches fail.
Bio:
Laura Waller is the Charles A. Desoer Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. She received B.S., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004, 2005 and 2010. After that, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer of Physics at Princeton University from 2010-2012. She is a Packard Fellow for Science & Engineering, Moore Foundation Data-driven Investigator, OSA Fellow, and Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. She has received the Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award, OSA Adolph Lomb Medal, the SPIE Early Career Award and the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal.
Hosted by: Professor Alvaro Cardenas
Location: Engineering 2, Room E2-180 (Refreshments such as fruit, pastries, coffee, and tea will be provided.)
Zoom Option: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93445911992?pwd=[REDACTED]

Engineering Teaching Community (Faculty)
2026-05-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Jack Baskin Engineering, Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
During the chaos of a quarter, is it hard to find time to reflect and improve as an instructor? Would you like to be a part of an inclusive, supportive group of engineering instructors who do this in community? ETC is for sharing teaching experiences, classroom ideas, research on learning, and methods that support instructors and students. All are welcome, and lunch is provided. Please reach out to Jenny Quynn with questions.
