PoCSC Past Events
The People of Color Sustainability Collective hosts events that build community and create spaces for students, staff, and faculty to engage in critical dialogues about the intersections between race, ethnicity, class, gender, culture, and the environment.
If you have any ideas for events you'd like to see happen, let us know, we would love to hear from you!
(Fall 2020)
The PoCSC Meet and Gr(eats) was a space that allowed folx interested in our work to meet our interns, hear about our mission, and create discussions about our relationships to Earth and Nature.
(Fall 2019)
The PoCSC Open House was a casual space that allowed folx interested in our work to meet our interns, hear about our mission, our past programming, and interact with various activities such as our Meaningful Foods Board and Food Labor Jenga that we have created throughout the years. In addition, attendees shared ideas of future programming that they would like to see from us.
(Spring 2019)
Leah Pennniman, author of 'Farming While Black' and Co-Director of Soul Fire Farm spoke about her book and her work in reclaiming Black and Indigenous foodways and farming practices.
(Spring 2019)
PoCSC and the Lionel Cantú Queer Center hosted Loba Loca, a queer educator, herbalist and activist.
PART I: HERBAL MEDICINE & COMMUNITY HEALING
Loba spoke about plant medicine and water extraction in a hands on workshop.
PART II: RADICAL MXNSTRUATION
Loba spoke about radical mxnstruation from a queer feminist gender neutral perspective.
(Spring 2019)
The UCSC undergraduate Survey on Environmental Sustainability provided a space for students to share their perceptions about the environmental sustainability movement on campus.
By completing the survey, participants had a chance to win a $500 prepaid Visa gift card or one of 10 $50 gift cards to the Bay Tree Bookstore.Results of the survey will be used to inform future sustainability programming on campus, and center student experiences to better address student needs.
The survey closed on Wednesday, May 8 at 11:59pm.
(Winter 2019)
Maya Harjo, alum of the Center for Agricultural and Sustainable Food Systems Apprenticeship Program, will speak about seed memory and the revitalization of Native foodways. Harjo is Muscogee Creek, Quapaw, Seminole and Shawnee. She is dedicated to restoring Native food systems and increasing access to healthy, culturally appropriate food in Indigenous communities.
(Winter 2019)
Demystifying Modelo Time is a PoCSC pop-up workshop that discussed the unjust construction of a Constellation brands beer brewery that will deplete a public water source, taking it away from Mexican and Indigenous peoples in Mexicali, Mexico.
(Spring 2018)
A collaboration with the Women's Center for their Wellness Wednesday series, this event included a presentation on disparities within the U.S. food system, food security and food sovereignty. It also featured a gardening demonstration from Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) Instructor Kellee Matsushita-Tseng.
(Spring 207)
An oppurtunity to learn about solidarity as well as Asian American contributions to sustainability and environmental justice issues! Attendees created art emblematic of their roots- family, culture, food and environment.
The Student of Color Caucus (SoCC) is a closed, safe-space for identified students of color to have a discussion about their experiences in, and perceptions of, the campus environmental movement.
The 3 overall goals of the SoCC this year are to 1) to foster interconnections between our communities, 2) to raise awareness about the contributions that people of color have made to the environmental sustainability movement in general and at UCSC in particular, and 3) to re-examinine the definition and values of the sustainability movement to identify how it can be more inclusive of all underrepresented populations.
People of Color Sustainability Collective student interns presented on the roots of the Environmental Justice movement and highlighted events that were definnig moments of the movement. Through each event highlighted, participants reflected on the way that communities of color used art as a tool to advocate for change.
Julie Oberts, Porter CRE, facilitated the second portion of this workshop and led participants through the process of brainstorming and creating stencils with a message for change. As a group, participants walked over to the Porter Apartments walkway area and added their stencils onto the ground using non-toxic temporary spray chalk. Some of the amazing messages students stenciled were: "The Earth Needs Healing And We Do Too," "Our Future Is W/In Our Roots," "¡Juntxs Hoy!" "We're In This Together," "Drop Seeds Not Bombs".
At Mapping Our Journey, participants used art to create visual stories of how their multiple identities were shaped. In small groups we shared about our families, cultures, and chlidhood experiences. Participants reflected on how both foods and landscapes have also shaped their identities. Using a gellery walk, participants shared their stories and heard other people's stories.
At "Re-imaining the Environmentalist" over 50 students and staff came together to get to know eachother and engage in small group discussions about bridging the gap between environmental and social justice issues. Each participant shared an memory/thought about what either water, culture, nature, community, or animals meant to them.
In small groups, participants reflected on questions like: Who do you imagine when you think about environmentalists/ social justice activist? How do social justice and environmental justice connect? How do issues of inequality influence both movements? How does racial inequality influence the goals and participation in these movements? Do you consider yourself an environmentalist/ social justice activist?
Participants shared about percieved stereotypes of environmentalists and social justice activists and reflected on their own participation in those movements.
This was PoCSC's first event and was a launching point for following events/programs. Students, staff, and faculty came together to engage in a critical dialogue about the campus climate within the UCSC environmental movement. In small groups participants shared about their experiences in the classroom and about their thoughts on representation within the environmental sustainability movement. Student feedback and ideas from this event helped shape the goals of PoCSC.
This workshop brought students together to learn more about the history of California farm workers' activism and their struggles to make a living wage even though their lives go to feeding others. We discussed the roles of the state and the Driscoll's corporation in perpetuating these unjust working conditions.
Wahleah Johns is a Navajo (Diné) activist from the Black Mesa Water Coalition and spoke about the process of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables on tribal lands. This was a great opportunity to learn more about community organizing, tribal economies, renewable energy, and youth empowerment.
Sacred sites are places within the landscape that have a special meaning or significance under varying cultures. In many Native cultures their creation stories tied them to the land and holds deep significance. Unfortunately, many Native communties have been forced to relocate regardless of the special ties that hold them to one region. As a response many of our sacred sites have been destroyed in order to build malls and other commercial uses. At this years Bienvenida (Welcome), hosted by El Centro the Chicano Latino Resource Center, the American Indian Resource Center and PoCSC were able to add their sacred sites altar in remembrance for any site that holds significance to the Native community and the AIRC/PoCSC's interns.
Gather in the Garden is a new series hosted by Colleges Nine and Ten where the UCSC community comes together in the College Nine and Ten garden to talk about food justice-related topics. PoCSC Coordinator, Adriana Renteria, facilitated the "Decolonizing the Food System" discussion about ways that colonial forces have transformed the food system. Participants reflected on their own cultural food traditions and shared about ways that their families use food as medicine and ways that our cultural food traditions have been broken or altered because of colonialism.
PoCSC worked with the Sustainability Office to plan the 2016 Inter-Org Re-imagining Sustainability Retreat. Through our collaboration, a strong emphasis on intersectional sustainability approaches was maintained throughout the entire retreat. The retreat included an alumni panel and a keynote address by Pandora Thomas, Co-Founder of the Black Permaculture Network and Earthseed Consulting. PoCSC Coordinator co-facilitated a workshop with the Global Food Initiative titled "Food Justice and Systemic Oppression" and PoCSC student interns facilitated a workshop titled "La Via Campesina: Globalizing Hope, Globalizing the Struggle!" Students from over 40 different campus environmental and social justice groups and organizations attended the retreat, making 2016 the year with the highest attendance record.
PoCSC Winter Quarter 2021 Meet and Gr(eat)s
La Loba Loca: An Herbal Grounding--> PoCSC x Cantu
PoCSC Fall Quarter 2020 Meet and Gr(eat)s
PoCSC Open House
History of Black Farmers with Leah Penniman
Potion & Medicine Making for Practical Brujxs
Environmental Sustainability Survey 2019
Cultivating Seed Memory: Revitalization of Native Foodways
Demystifying Modelo Time: Water Injustice at the US-MX Border
The Seeds for Feeding Yourself
Rooted in History: Asian American/Pacific Islander Resilience and Sustainability through Art
Student of Color Environmental Caucus
Mapping Our Journey
Re-imagining the Environmentalist
#PoCSustainability Discussion
Boycott Driscolls Workshop
Fall Welcome 2016: Indigenous Knowledge Rising
Sacred Sites Altar at La Bienvenida
Past Collaborations:
2016 Inter–Organizational Sustainability Retreat
