UCSC's Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center is sponsoring three public events in the month of May. They are:
• The First Annual Multicultural Dance Conference, on Friday, May 10, from 5 to 8:30PM; and Saturday, May 11, from noon to 9PM. The conference, which will take place at the Stevenson Event Center, is free to all students and members of the general public.
About The Conference: The Multicultural Dance Conference will consist of two days of workshops and a dance showcase. The Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center will be hosting free workshops featuring different professional dance troupes, as well as Student Organizations from the UCSC community. The workshops and dance showcase will feature presentations from campus groups such as UCSC Tangroupe, Sabrosura, Kasama Ballroom Dance, the UCSC Ballroom Dance Troupe, Classical Indian Dance, and Rainbow Theater’s recently formed dance troupe, known colloquially as “The Rainbotz”.
The conference and showcase will also feature workshops by several professional dancers and troupes including Fuego Latino, Mandjou and Salif Kone, Marsea Marquis, and the Siva Polynesia troupe.
Conference and Workshop Details: The Friday, May 10, workshops will occur from 5 to 8pm, starting with a UCSC Tangroupe workshop from 5-6pm, UCSC Sabrosura workshop from 6 to 7pm, and a Siva Polynesia workshop from 7 to 8pm, and closing with a tahitian performance by Siva Polynesia from 8 to 8:15pm. The Saturday, May 11, workshops will run from noon to 5pm, starting with a UCSC Ballroom Dance Team workshop from noon to 1pm, a UCSC Classical Indian Dance workshop from 1 to 2pm, a Fuego Latino workshop from 2 to 3pm, an African Dance workshop with Mandjou and Salif Kone from 3 to 4pm, and a Brazilian Samba workshop with Marsea Marquis from 4 to 5pm, closing with a Dance Showcase featuring the Rainbotz, Kasama Ballroom Dance, Fuego Latino and a myriad of other dance troupes from 7 to 9pm.
• The production of SOLID, on Friday, May 24, at the Stevenson Event Center. The performance — presented by UCSC's Rainbow Theater, the Community Studies Department, and the Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center — is comprised of two parts: a Visual Arts Showcase and a Live Performance following immediately after the showcase event. Doors open at 6:30pm and the performance will commence at 7pm (minimal late seating). This performance will be free and open to the general public.
About the show: SOLID (Souldiers Overwriting Limitation In Definitions) is a Community Studies Senior Project that strives to exemplify the importance and impacts of visual and performing arts in conjunction with an educational career. The production itself will be written, created, choreographed and performed by the SOLID Collective. The performance will utilize spoken word, poetry, music, dance, song, performance art, and monologues as a portrayal of how visual and performing arts have empowered and influenced their personal and educational lives.
About the performers: The SOLID Collective consists of nine current UCSC students and an alumni whom found a common desire to demonstrate the vital necessity of visual and performing arts in public educational systems.
About the Director: Marlene Martinez is a fourth year Community Studies Major with an emphasis on Arts and Education. Throughout her academic career she has found a great interest in the arts regardless of her educational course of study. After endeavoring her field study in New York, she realized that the intersectionality of both the arts and education provides metacognitive skills that builds confidence through multiple forms of learning and expression for students to attain current and future academic achievements. She hopes that this production will illustrate these factors from the perspective of the SOLID. Collective.
• A Multicultural Theater Conference, on Friday, May 31, from 7 to 10pm; and Saturday, June 1, from 11am to 5pm. The conference, titled "Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges," will be of special interest to student artists of color. It will take place at Stevenson Event Center.
About the Conference: The Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center will be hosting its first two-day mini Multicultural Theater Conference on Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1. The conference will focus on providing information about the world of theater to young people and students of color and to promote creativity through the transformation of culture in all disciplines, including acting, directing, stage managing, writing, publishing and producing, film, the technical world of theater and more. We strive to encourage students, community members and people of all cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities to pursue career opportunities in the arts and network with established artists in the fields of their interests. The conference will consist of a Keynote speech by Alumni Adilah Barnes, a solo performance by Joe Hernandez-Kolski and a panel discussion by various theater artists. Prior to the panel discussion, the conference will be hosting a multitude of various workshops which will include a guide to acting techniques, play writing skills, tips on pursuing a career in Hollywood, résumé building and other important elements of the theater world.
Keynote Speaker: The conference will also feature a keynote address by Adilah Barnes, a UCSC Cowell College alumni and the founder of the first black theater troupe on campus. Barnes’ speech will open the festival on May 31 at 7:00pm to speak about her experiences, struggles, and her success as an actress, writer, and playwright of color. Barnes will also host a workshop on Saturday, June 1, entitled “So You Think You Can Make it in Hollywood.” Adilah Barnes is one of few veteran actors in Hollywood that have not only mastered the art of successfully marketing herself, but also utilizing her many creative skills – all the while staying true to herself and maintaining her integrity. In addition to her 40 years of acting experience, she toured her one-woman play, I AM THAT I AM: WOMAN, BLACK, a historical journey into the lives of seven renowned women: Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis and Maya Angelou. Barnes is also the Co-Founder of the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, an annual, multi-cultural festival that showcases female artists in the disciplines of dance, music, theatrical performances, spoken word and comedy that has produced well over 400 artists and is now in its seventeenth year. Both The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival and Ms. Barnes, individually, were honored with the prestigious Women in Theatre Award in 2006. In 2010, Barnes was honored with the establishment of the 1st Annual Adilah Barnes Arts and Literary Achievement Scholarship for Minneapolis, MN inner city youth. A few of Ms. Barnes additional successes include, the publishing of her first book, On My Own Terms: One Actor’s Journey, an internet radio show entitled “Adilah” and other achievement awards such as the Black Theater Network’s Winona Fletcher Award and more. For more information please visit www.adilahbarnes.com.
About the Performer: A two-time HBO Def Poet, Joe Hernández-Kolski is an actor/poet/comedian who is constantly in demand, known for his live performances that are hard-hitting, truthful and incredibly funny. Originally from Chicago, Joe is a graduate of Princeton University where he worked closely with such respected academics as Dr. Cornel West and Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison. His first solo show “You Wanna Piece of Me?” was recently published by the University of Michigan Press as part of an anthology entitled “Say Word! Voices of Hip Hop Theater.” As a stand-up comedian/poet, he travels to colleges performing his two shows “Refried Latino Pride” and “Cultural Collisions.” For over ten years, he has run an open-mic for high school performers called “Downbeat 720”. He received an Emmy as producer/host of the televised version. For more info: www.pochojoe.com.
_____
• About the CADRC: The Cultural Arts and Diversity (CAD) Resource Center strives to enhance the cultural climate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and its surrounding communities by first, celebrating diversity. We work to foster the spirit of unity between cultures by providing outlets for the creative talents of the members of various cultural backgrounds through a series of lectures, presentations, workshops and productions. By gaining access to resources and services that support these endeavors, we strive to provide cultural awareness and diversity, build collaborative partnerships and community outreach, enhance retention and recruitment efforts, and provide opportunities for leadership and educational development. Our resource center, among many other things, houses two student-based theatrical organizations, four academic courses, professional quality student productions, a series of lectures and workshops, two outreach teams and a series of professional productions. These services are available year around, working to provide our community with art, culture and most of all, diverse education.
For more information about the shows, how to obtain tickets, and how to provide scholarship support to students involved in these productions, please go to:
www.cadrc.org/
