Fall 2024 Events

Masters of Dance

You are invited to attend and participate in our exciting free series of lectures and master classes. See the Dance Department website or call 310-434-3467 for more information. Seating is strictly on a first-arrival basis.

Stephanie Liapis

Activating Space
Movement artist Stephanie Liapis will lead a class rooted in the study of self-awareness as a tool for connection. Influenced by her work with renowned choreographer and director Doug Varone, her class opens with a guided improvisation using imagery to create connection to the body and its relationship to space — and to build a sense of joy in movement — then explores repertory phrases from Varone’s work, finding nuance and individuality amid highly athletic dancing. Liapis has taught at Long Island University-Brooklyn and Swarthmore College, and performed with Doug Varone and Dancers, Nicholas Leichter Dance, and Nancy Bannon, among others. She is currently dancing with Keith Johnson/Dancers.

Thursday, September 26 | 12:30 p.m. | Free | Core Performance Center, CPC 304

Jennie Morton

Dance Injuries Demystified
Jennie Morton, an osteopath specializing in performing arts medicine, will lead a workshop that explores some common causes of dance injuries, plus share tools and strategies for how to prevent and manage injuries if they occur. The interactive session will mix both theory and practical strategies, and include time for questions and answers. Morton, with a background as a professional dancer and singer, is a current Board Director of the Dance Resource Center, a former Board Director for the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and the author of three books: Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger; The Embodied Dancer: A Guide to Optimal Performance; and The Authentic Performer: Wearing a Mask and the Effect on Health.

Monday, October 7 | 10:15 a.m. | Free | Core Performance Center, CPC 304

Miss Prissy

Krump Fusion: Exploring the Intersection of Krump and Contemporary Dance
Miss Prissy, the Queen of Krump, will lead a dynamic class that delves into the fusion of two powerful dance styles — Krump, known for its raw, expressive movements; and Contemporary, celebrated for its fluidity and emotionality — to create a unique, exhilarating dance experience. One of the pioneers of Krump, Miss Prissy (aka Marquisa Gardner) emerged from the streets of South Los Angeles to play a pivotal role in Krump’s development and global spread. She is a mentor, teacher, and ambassador for Krump worldwide, revered for her groundbreaking contributions to the dance style. 

Wednesday, October 30 | 12:30 p.m. | Free | Core Performance Center, CPC 310

Sponsored by the SMC Associates and SMC Dance Department.

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Literary Talks & Readings

Ongoing and very popular free series of talks and readings by established and emerging writers. Call 310-434-4003 for details and more information.

Kristy Andersen

Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun; Fifteen years later...
Join us for a screening and talk by filmmaker Kristy Andersen looking back on Jump at the Sun, a film about novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. A maverick and a contrarian whose opinions cut against the grain, Hurston died penniless in 1960, just as the Black is Beautiful movement emerged and Afrocentric pride began to take hold. Today, she is revered, her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is required reading in high schools and colleges, and her work has taken on new dimensions as it is being looked at in a whole new light. Andersen, who wrote and directed the film and has worked extensively as a cinematographer, editor, writer, and producer, will lead an audience Q&A following the screening. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC English Department., SMC Art Department, and SMC Communication and Media Department.

Thursday, October 10 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Art 214

Yosimar Reyes

“Venimos A Triunfar” (“We Came to Be Triumphant”)
Join us for an insightful presentation by Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Yosimar Reyes on how his poetry is inspired by his community. His goal, as the first undocumented poet to reach this position, is to help people find poetry in their everyday lives. Reyes was chosen to be a 2024 Creative Ambassador by the City of San Jose, The Advocate named him one of “13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World,” and Remezcla included him in “10 Up And Coming Latinx Poets You Need To Know.” Reyes has been awarded a NALAC Catalyst for Change Grant, a Gerbode Foundation Grant, and most recently, a Walter & Elise Haas Creative Work Fund Grant. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry; Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings; and the forthcoming UndocuPoetics. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, Dream Resource Center, IDEAS at SMC, Student Equity Center, Ethnic Studies Program, Dream Program, The Latino Center/Adelante, Black Collegians/UMOJA, and EOPS/CARE.

Thu, October 17 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall (SSC 183)

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Communication, Media & Design

An ongoing, informative series of free online talks and panel discussions exploring developments in communication, media, and design today. Call 310-434-4003 for more information.

Gil Miller-Muro

Careers in Broadcast Engineering with Gil Miller-Muro
CBS News senior broadcast engineer Gil Miller-Muro will talk about a great career opportunity in broadcast engineering and some of his experiences working in television news, sports, and special event news covering sitting presidents. He has worked for ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC, and as president of Dawnbreaker Communications, LLC.
Wednesday, September 18 | 11:30 a.m. | Free on Zoom

Julio Salgado

Good Immigrant, Bad Immigrant: The Art of Julio Salgado
Julio Salgado is an undocumented and queer artist who uses his art to combat racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic, and transphobic narratives. He is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift and the Migrant Storytelling Manager for The Center for Cultural Power, where he co-created The Disruptors Fellowship. His work has been displayed at the Oakland Museum, SFMOMA, and the Smithsonian. Additional sponsor: SMC Student Equity Center
Wednesday, September 25 | 12 p.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall

Ronald Rael

Working with Muddy Robots
Award-winning designer, activist, architect, and author Ronald Rael will talk about his experience and design perspective, which integrates a cultural and political dimension unusual in the built design professions. Rael is the UC Berkeley Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art Practice. He is the author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (UC Press, 2017) and Earth Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008). Additional sponsor: SMC NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architects) Student Club.
Wednesday, October 2 | 6:30 p.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall

Rodrigo Ranero

Reviving Voices: Community Linguistic Endeavors in Guatemala
Guatemalan linguist Dr. Rodrigo Ranero will talk about community-based linguistic work in Guatemala, including a collaboration with the Xinka to reclaim their unique language. An Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Dr. Ranero has published papers on selected Mayan languages, Bantu languages, and Spanish. Additional sponsor: SMC Modern Languages and Cultures Department.
Tuesday, November 5 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Humanities and Social Science (HSS 104)

Cole James, Michael Massenburg, and Cass Everage

Converge+Vertex Artist Roundtable Discussion
Artist and activist Cole James — curator of the “Converge+Vertex: Traversing the minor gesture of timelines” exhibit in the Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery — will join artists Michael Massenburg and Cass Everage for a discussion about personal and cultural influences on their art. Additional sponsor: SMC Art Department.
Tuesday, November 12 | 11:15 am. | Free | Art 214

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Latinx/e Heritage

Julio Salgado

Good Immigrant, Bad Immigrant: The Art of Julio Salgado
Julio Salgado is an undocumented and queer artist who uses his art to combat racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic, and transphobic narratives. He is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift and the Migrant Storytelling Manager for The Center for Cultural Power, where he co-created The Disruptors Fellowship. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum, SFMOMA, and the Smithsonian. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, Dream Resource Center, IDEAS at SMC, Pride Center, Student Equity Center, Ethnic Studies Program, Art Department, Dream Program, The Latino Center/Adelante, Black Collegians/UMOJA, EOPS/CARE.
Wednesday, September 25 | 12 p.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall

Ronald Rael

Working with Muddy Robots
Award-winning designer, activist, architect, and author Ronald Rael will talk about his experience and design perspective, which integrates a cultural and political dimension unusual in the built design professions. Rael is the UC Berkeley Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art Practice. He is the author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (UC Press, 2017) and Earth Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008). Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC Communication and Media Studies Department, SMC Design Technology Department, and SMC NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architects) Student Club.
Wednesday, October 2 | 6:30 p.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall (SSC 183)

Marcos Nieves, Director, and Karyna Jaramillo

My Queerceañera
Join us for a documentary screening and talk with director Marcos Nieves and his film subject, Karyna Jaramillo, a Mexican transgender woman living in Arizona. My Queerceañera explores Jaramillo’s life and determination to fulfill her dream of celebrating her Quinceañera with a twist: when she turns 50. The film reveals her personal battles and family challenges, and her resilience to thrive in her fight for equity, diversity, and inclusion. Nieves, whose projects include the 2022 short documentary Zoila and 2018 short documentary series “The Right to Thrive,” is a member of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective and co-founder of La Producción, a production company run by undocumented immigrants. An audience Q&A follows the screening. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, Dream Resource Center, IDEAS at SMC, Student Equity Center, Ethnic Studies Program, Dream Program, The Latino Center/Adelante, Black Collegians/UMOJA, EOPS/CARE.
Thursday, October 3 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Stromberg Hall (HSS 165)

Yosimar Reyes

“Venimos A Triunfar” (“We Came to Be Triumphant”)
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Yosimar Reyes, the first undocumented poet to reach this position, will talk about his goal to help people find poetry in their everyday life. The Advocate named Reyes one of “13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World,” and Remezcla included him in “10 Up And Coming Latinx Poets You Need To Know.” His writing has appeared in Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry; Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings; and the forthcoming UndocuPoetics. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, Dream Resource Center, IDEAS at SMC, Student Equity Center, Ethnic Studies Program, Dream Program, The Latino Center/Adelante, Black Collegians/UMOJA, and EOPS/CARE.
Thursday, October 17 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall (SSC 183) 

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Special Events

Prince Diabaté and Ric Alviso

The Ancestor of Hip-Hop and the Blues: A Performance-Lecture with Prince Diabaté, a Griot from West Africa
Prince Diabaté — a griot, or traditional storyteller, musician, and poet from Guinea, West Africa — will be joined by ethnomusicologist Ric Alviso for a performance-lecture on the griot tradition, which connects with African history and modern-day music styles such as hip-hop, the blues, and salsa. Born into a family of musicians who have been documenting history in song since the 12th century, Prince Diabaté is a virtuoso musician on the 21-stringed harp called the kora. Alviso, who is also a composer, is a Professor of Music at CSU Northridge, and has been teaching at SMC since 1994. Sponsored by the SMC Associates. 

Tuesday, September 17 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Student Services Center Orientation Hall (SSC 183)
Thursday, September 19 | 7:30 p.m. | Free | The Edye at the SMC Performing Arts Center (1310 11th Street, Santa Monica)

Ronald Rael

Working with Muddy Robots
Award-winning designer, activist, architect, and author Ronald Rael will talk about his experience and design perspective, which not only challenges conventional architecture, digital fabrication, and materiality, but also integrates a cultural and political dimension unusual in the built design professions. Rael is currently the UC Berkeley Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art Practice, and directs the printFARM Laboratory (print Facility for Architecture, Research and Materials). He is the author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (University of California Press 2017) and Earth Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008). Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC Communication and Media Studies Department, SMC Design Technology Department, and SMC NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architects) Student Club.
Wednesday, October 2 | 6:30 p.m. | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall (SSC 183)

Kristy Andersen

Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun; Fifteen years later...
Join us for a screening and talk by filmmaker Kristy Andersen looking back on Jump at the Sun, a film about novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. A maverick and a contrarian whose opinions cut against the grain, Hurston died penniless in 1960, just as the Black is Beautiful movement emerged and Afrocentric pride began to take hold. Today, she is revered, her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is required reading in high schools and colleges, and her work has taken on new dimensions as it is being looked at in a whole new light. Andersen, who wrote and produced the film and has worked extensively as a cinematographer, editor, writer, and producer, will lead an audience Q&A following the screening. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC English Department., SMC Art Department, and SMC Communication and Media Department.
Thursday, October 10 | 11:15 a.m. | Free | Art 214

Robert Ku

Globalization of Korean Food: Is That Kimchi in My Burger, Pizza, and Taco?
Join Robert Ji-Song Ku and guests for a discussion panel on Korean food. Korean-themed food products, a hot commodity seemingly everywhere these days, was a minor blip not so long ago on the radar of American “ethnic” foods. The presentation explores some of the factors that have contributed to the rise of Korean food’s popularity in the United States. Ku — an associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University, the Managing Editor of the Asian American and Pacific Islander, and co-editor of the “Food in Asia and the Pacific” series for University of Hawai’i Press — is currently completing a monograph tentatively titled “Diasporic Korean Food in the Age of K-pop.” He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA (2014) and co-editor of Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader (2013), Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea (2019), Future Yet to Come: Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Modern Korea (2021), and Eating More Asian America: A Food Studies Reader (forthcoming 2025). Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC Korean Language Program, and the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles.
Thursday, October 10 | 4 p.m | Free | Student Services Center, Orientation Hall (SSC 183)

Cole James, Michael Massenburg, and Cass Everage

Converge+Vertex Artist Roundtable Discussion
Join us for a roundtable discussion with some of the artists showing their works in the “Converge+Vertex: Traversing the minor gesture of timelines” exhibit in SMC’s Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery. Interdisciplinary artist and social activist Cole James — the exhibition’s curator — will be joined by artists Michael Massenburg and Cass Everage for a talk about the personal, social, and cultural influences on their art and reflected in their art. James teaches at Otis College of Art and Design and is a Somatic Abolition Communal Consultant, member of the the Collective Abayomi and the Development Team For Artist Infrastructure Initiative at Now Be Here, and a collaborator with numerous organizations on projects supporting restorative justice and environmental advocacy. Massenburg began his career at the Watts Towers Arts Center, was influenced by the artists out of the Watts Rebellion and the Los Angeles Uprising, and developed his social practice through art making, teaching, community organizing, and activism for various organizations and causes. Everage is a versatile artist and community builder who is often found coaching, producing designs for streetwear brands in Downtown Los Angeles, or exploring Black American aesthetics and sociological themes through shape, color, and material. Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC Art Department, SMC Communication and Media Studies Department, and SMC Design Technology Department.
Tuesday, November 12 | 11:15 am. | Free | Art 214

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