This week's Culture at a Click features an archived talk by Father Gregory Boyle, recent highlights with Las Cafeteras and Jon Boogz & Lil Buck, and a Q&A with A&L Associate Director Roman Baratiak.
"The way the world changes us is always more interesting than the ways in which we try to change the world," says Pico Iyer. Read on for a look at some past A&L artists and speakers who are effecting change, and see if their actions influence you.
We're heading into the A&L archives to bring bold moves and big ideas from our stage to your inbox. In the inaugural episode of our virtual speakers series, Father Gregory Boyle presents The Power of Boundless Compassion, a lecture that is equal parts inspiring, humorous and uplifting. Video available through Thursday, April 2. Use password "Boyle2016" to watch now.
Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries. Now the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world, Homeboy was founded at a time when tactics of suppression and mass incarceration were the prevailing means to address gang violence in Los Angeles. Boyle's radical approach: Treat gang members as human beings.
Homeboy Industries has grown to include almost a dozen social enterprises, from screen printing to catering, which provide vital training and prove that people can transcend their pasts and become valuable employees and business leaders. "We're in the business of second chances," says Boyle.
Celebrating 15 years this season, ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! provides free family performances and educational outreach activities to 15,000 students, at-risk youth and families each year.
An award-winning collaboration between Arts & Lectures, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center, Isla Vista School and The Marjorie Luke Theatre, Viva brings accessible, high-quality programming that represents the unique cultural heritage of our region to schools and neighborhood venues across Santa Barbara County.
Viva recently hosted East LA's Las Cafeteras, a six-member group that fuses spoken word, Afro-Mexican music, zapateado dancing and folk music, and uses traditional instruments of son jarocho. While visiting students at Adelante Charter, Notre Dame School and Girls Inc., the socially-conscious band played its popular song "If I Was President" and asked students what they would do if elected. Here are a few of our favorite responses:
"Take care of the sick people."
"Let all the animals out of the zoo."
"No more racism."
"Make my dad clean my room."
With a passion for using their art to inspire change, street dance phenoms Lil Buck and Jon Boogz co-founded MAI (Movement Art Is), an organization that elevates the artistic, educational and social impact of dance. While in Santa Barbara to perform Love Heals All Wounds (Jan 22), they worked with UCSB Department of Theater & Dance students to demonstrate how art can be used as a tool for social change.
photo: David Bazemore
Senior theater majors, for example, were writing and directing shows that tackled issues such as identity and stigma. Boogz and Buck shared how movement could be used to communicate these ideas, encouraging students to use their art to engage with the world.
As we all face this new challenge of online learning and social distancing, how are you making space for creativity? Watch MAI's Color of Reality and AM I A MAN, which Boogz and Buck shared during their workshop, for inspiration and share your creations with us @artsandlectures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for a chance to be featured.
Get to know A&L Associate Director Roman Baratiak
You've brought many of the world's most influential authors to the Santa Barbara stage. What books are on your nightstand now? Right now I’m mostly reading The New Yorker and The New York Times. But I’m looking forward to diving into E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies; The Best American Essays of 2019, edited by Rebecca Solnit; and to finally embark on reading Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Wish me luck!
If you were hosting a dinner party, which A&L speakers would you invite? I’d love to have dinner with the regulars from Left, Right & Center. Actually, I already have dinner with them every Friday night – thanks to their podcast! I’d also invite a bunch of poets – they are incredibly interesting and the nicest people. Oh! And Trevor Noah and Conan O’Brien. What a party!
As A&L's resident film buff, what's your favorite movie that offers laughter, kindness, hope or an inspiring message? I’m a huge fan of Singin' in the Rain.
Your Turn! So, what books are currently on your nightstand? Reply with your current reading list recommendations and we'll cue up the top picks for next week.
Refunds in Progress
A&L's ticket office staff are working diligently to refund the long list of patrons with tickets for canceled spring events. Ticket holders can expect a call or email to confirm refund details (if they have not received one already). Thank you to everyone for your patience and support.
Stay Tuned
Coming to your inbox next week: a behind-the-scenes look at an exclusive musical collaboration performed only at A&L.
