Programming
What we stage, host, and champion
From our own programming to co-productions, free Ally events, our participating artists, and fiscal sponsorship.
Explore our programs
Programming is everything The 418 Project brings to life on our stages — the events we produce ourselves, the work we co-produce with local creators, the community events we sponsor for free, the artists we spotlight, and the projects we shelter under our nonprofit. Here's how each program works and how to take part.
Upcoming Events
Co-Production
Ally Events
Participating Artists
Fiscal Sponsorship
Partnership & Rental Info
Upcoming Events
The heart of our calendar is the work we make ourselves.
The 418 Project produces its own ongoing slate of recurring nights and signature events — community gatherings, performance series, and seasonal traditions that belong to 418 itself, distinct from the rentals and partner events we also host in the building. These are often the best entry point if you're new to us: rooted in our mission to cultivate safe, creative spaces where artists and communities come together to learn, grow, and create belonging through the arts, and designed to be welcoming and accessible.
The events below are pulled live from our calendar. Tap any event for details, then grab tickets or RSVP through our box office.
Coming up
October 22, 2026 · 7:30 PM
The Living Dead: Taxidermy as a tool for Conservation Education
Thurs., October 22nd – 7:30 PM – SMALL THEATER
Illustrated Lecture by master taxidermist Allis Markham:
The Living Dead: Taxidermy as a Tool for Conservation Education
Join master taxidermist Allis Markham and learn about the art and science of taxidermy. Discover why this “dead art” is very much alive today as a tool for conservation and public education. Allis will talk in-depth about the specifics of taxidermy, show photos of her process, and bring examples of her work for you to view in-person. You will leave with a new understanding of this secretive art and hopefully a new appreciation for its use in museums across the world.
Bio:
Allis Markham is an award-winning taxidermist / Nassologist trained at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. She was named 'Third in the World' at the 2017 World Taxidermy Championships for her African Jacana. Allis is also the 2018 California Champion receiving Judges Choice Best of Show, People's Choice and the Artisan Award from the United Taxidermist Association. She was a seminar instructor on '3D technology in Taxidermy' at the 2019 World Taxidermy Competition.
More recently, Allis has focused on museum work and public education. She is proud to have been an adjunct professor during the 2019 semester at Occidental College teaching taxidermy on behalf of the Biology Department. It is the only taxidermy college course in the country in recent years. Her clients include institutions such as the Natural History Museum of Santa Barbara, Moore Lab of Zoology, The Huntington Library, The Frost Museum of Science, Colorado State University and The Getty. Additionally, she has created commissions for Gucci, The Nomad Hotel, EB Floralsand television shows such as Bates Motel. Allis has also been featured in numerous publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the cover of LA Weekly and more. You can also watch the critically acclaimed documentary STUFFED which followed her for several years or listen to her Ologies podcast. You can find Allis hunched over a bird, listening to a true crime podcast at Prey Taxidermy, located in Los Angeles, CA. Take one of her classes for yourself at Preytaxidermy.com. Follow her work on Instagram at @allis.
Ticket Price: $15 advance / $20 at the door
The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
October 23, 2026 · 7:30 PM
The Lost Boys
Film Screening + Live Music + Cast Q&A:
THE LOST BOYS: A Celebration of Santa Carla, Santa Cruz, and the People Who Were There
Presented by The 418 Project. Hosted by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike.
In the summer of 1986, Hollywood arrived in Santa Cruz and transformed the town into Santa Carla, the fictional vampire capital of the world.
What followed was The Lost Boys—a film that helped redefine the vampire genre and became one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. Nearly forty years later, its influence can still be seen everywhere from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Twilight and beyond.
Join native Santa Cruzan, bestselling author, BBC broadcaster, and cultural historian Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike and special guest Jamison Newlander, one half of the legendary Frog Brothers, on October 23rd at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project for a celebration of the film, the music, the memories, and the community that helped make movie history.
More than a screening, this special Halloween-season event brings together the people, places, and stories behind the movie that made Santa Cruz immortal.
The evening will feature:
• Special screening of The Lost Boys
• Live music performance celebrating the film's iconic soundtrack by The Dead Cassettes from Salinas!
• An onstage conversation hosted by Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike featuring actor Jamison Newlander (“Alan Frog”) and members of the Santa Cruz community
• Stories and memories from those who experienced the production firsthand
• Rare photographs and ephemera from the summer of 1986
• Special meet-and-greet and signing following the event with Jamison Newlander*.*
• A celebration of the film, the music, the memories, and the town that inspired it all
THE LOST BOYS (1987, Warner Bros./Swank, 97 min.) “I think I should warn you all, when a vampire buys it, it's never a pretty sight. No two bloodsuckers go the same way.” Director Joel Schumacher’s wildly entertaining re-imagining of *Peter Pan follows an uprooted family (Dianne Wiest, Jason Patric, Corey Haim) who move to the gorgeous northern California town of Santa Cruz, er, “Santa Carla” – and quickly discover it’s infested by a gang of motorcycle-riding, glam metal vampires led by Kiefer Sutherland. An amazing time capsule of 80s fashions, music and Santa Cruz locales – Greasy Sax Man! The Boardwalk! The Rob Lowe poster! – THE LOST BOYS has held up astonishingly well, in large part due to the pulpy, comic book tone and a superb cast including Alex Winter, Jamie Gertz, Edward Herrmann, Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander as the Frog Bros., and Barnard Hughes as Grandpa. “You're a vampire, Michael! My own brother, a damn, blood-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!”
Tickets: $35 advance / $45 at the door
Doors open at 7:00 PM, event at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
Safety protocols will be in compliance with local guidelines at the time of showing.
October 24, 2026 · 7:30 PM
SpectreVision Radio Bigfoot Event
Sat., October 24th – 7:30 PM – SMALL THEATER
A Live Podcast Recording:
SpectreVision Radio Presents: BIGFOOT LIVES! at The 418 Project
He has had many names through time and across cultures: Mawas, Skookum, Grassman, Wood Booger, Skunk Ape, Yowie, Yeti, Sasquatch… BIGFOOT.
Is he an undiscovered hominid hiding in our forests? An ethereal being from another dimension? A figment of the collective imagination? Whatever the answer, reports of encounters with the wild man of North America stretch from the 1800s to today, with “flaps” occurring in states ranging from Pennsylvania to Washington, Florida, and Ohio. But nowhere is this mysterious being more prevalent than in the redwoods of Northern California.
On October 24, SpectreVision Radio’s Daniel Noah will visit the 418 Project to stomp a long and winding forest road to examine the wide swatch of beliefs in, perspectives on, and evidence of this enigmatic creature, featuring a formidable lineup of Bigfoot researchers, documenters and experiencers, including Bryce Johnson (Expedition Bigfoot), Ron Morehead (author of Voices in the Wilderness and purveyor of the famous Sierra Sounds recording), Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner (Where The Footprints End), Professor David Mitchell, M.S., PhD (author of Sasquatch in the Psyche and Assistant Director, Integral Noetic Sciences Program at the California Institute for Human Science*),* Christopher Noël (author of Mindspeak: Tapping Into Sasquatch and Science), and documentarians Brett Eichenberger & Jill Remensndyer (A Flash of Beauty: Bigfoot Revealed).
Bring your Plaster of Paris.
SPECTREVISION
SpectreVision is an independent production group founded in 2010 by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah. Known for championing distinctive creative voices at the intersection of the arts and the uncanny, the company has produced modern genre classics including A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Mandy, and Color Out of Space. In recent years, they have expanded their reach with several new divisions, including SpectreVision Radio, a podcast network that explores all facets of the esoteric and paranormal; Mutant, an art-driven collectibles brand and record label; High Strangeness, a comic book imprint with Oni Press; and SpectreVision Artists for talent management. Their video game with Ubisoft, *Transference, was nominated for D.I.C.E. and Golden Joystick Awards.
SPECTREVISION RADIO
SpectreVision Radio is the podcast network of independent production group SpectreVision, dedicated to the paranormal, the esoteric, and the unexplained. Launched in 2024, the network is home to roughly 62 shows reaching approximately 4.8 million monthly unique users and 10.2 million monthly downloads across audio and video platforms. The network explores everything from high strangeness and ufology to occult history and fringe science, giving voice to experiencers, researchers, and storytellers pushing at the edges of consensus reality.
DANIEL NOAH
Daniel Noah is a filmmaker, programmer, and co-founder of SpectreVision. He has produced, written and/or directed nearly two dozen feature films, including the modern genre classics A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Mandy, and Color Out of Space. He is also on the Board of Directors and a minority owner of Mutant, a boutique record label specializing in art-driven special-edition vinyl and Blu-ray releases. An experiencer and outspoken advocate for the paranormal, Daniel is the founder and Director of SpectreVision Radio, a podcast network dedicated to exploring esoteric and uncanny subjects, and the author of High Strangeness, a comic-book series published by Oni Press dramatizing real-world paranormal encounters. He serves on the advisory boards of the Philosophical Research Society, New Paradigm Institute, Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, El Cine, and the Overlook Film Festival, and is an adjunct professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
BRYCE JOHNSON
Actor, Producer, and Podcaster Bryce Johnson is always looking for his next adventure, whether acting in film and television, voicing characters, pod-casting or hunting down the elusive creature known as Bigfoot, Bryce Johnson is forging new paths in the entertainment industry. His big break came in 1999 when he was cast in Ryan Murphy's freshman creation Popular as sensitive jock Josh Ford. The show endeared itself to fans and critics alike. After only two short years it amassed a cult following and won multiple awards, including 'Choice Breakout Show' at the Teen Choice Awards. Bryce went on to guest star in a number of television's top shows, including Dawson's Creek, Gilmore Girls, and seasoned dramas like Nip/Tuck, Without A Trace, The Mentalist, C.S.I., N.C.I.S., Code Black, The Good Doctor, and many, many more.
Drawn to challenging roles and unconventional stories, Bryce starred in the Sundance hits Harry and Max, written and directed by Sundance veteran Chris Munch, and Sleeping Dogs Lie by Sundance newcomer Bobcat Goldthwait. Bryce and Bobcat have continued working together with Bryce starring in two more of Goldthwait's films, Gob Bless America and Willow Creek. Other memorable roles include Officer Billy Pierce in MTV's Death Valley, Voicing the title character of 'Doctor Strange' in Marvels fully animated Feature of the same name, and Detective Darren Wilden in ABC Family's smash hit Pretty Little Liars. Outside of acting Bryce is the co-creator of the podcast Bigfoot Collectors Club, a weekly paranormal podcast in which amazing guests discuss their personal paranormal histories, followed by a story of high strangeness. Bryce is also the star and producer of Discovery channel's hit show Expedition Bigfoot, in which he put together a team of scientists, experts and researchers in the quest for definitive proof of Bigfoot. Most recent credits include Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, as well as starring in Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3.
Tickets: $15 advance / $20 at the door.
Doors open at 7PM, podcast at 7:30PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
Safety protocols will be in compliance with local guidelines at the time of showing.
November 4, 2026 · 4:00 PM
Forager Species 4
About Forage Species IV
The objective of Forage Species IV is to give learners and our community a deeper perspective on critical ‘feeder species’ in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). Learners will help the artist model a life-sized school of Pacific Sardines (Sardinops sagax) using their hands and imagination to capture the kinetic movement and schooling dynamics of one of the most vital keystone species in the ocean.
In the background, learners will also explore visual presentations on the historical sardine fishery in Monterey Bay, climate-driven migration shifts, and the profound effects on marine life including seabirds, pinnipeds, dolphins, and whales.
STEM into STEAM: Four-Part Lobby Sculpture Build
Forage IV is a collaborative four-part build for a major hanging sculpture suspended from the ceiling halo in the main lobby of The 418 Project. Each day will focus on building the piece, shaping the fish, and discussing the ecological relationships of forage species. Learners will be asked to write up their takeaways from the build once it is completed.
- Texturing 560 Pacific Sardines made of light aluminum, using hammers and specialty tools to shape the individual fish.
- Creating the wire armature that will shape and hold the swirling school.
- Hanging the sculpture from the halo suspended from the ceiling of the main lobby.
Through a STEAM approach (combining Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), students work in focused collaborative teams:
- Texture Teams: Hammering organic contours and light-catching features onto nearly 600 aluminum sardines, crafting the distinct personality of each fish.
- Wire Teams: Working the structural wire armature and attaching the fish to the lead wire matrix that becomes the sculpture itself.
- Hang Teams: Assisting the artist in suspending and securing the armature from the lobby fixture.
Class Agenda & Build Schedule
Each of the build days will focus on the various aspects of the creation of a major public artwork:
- 11/4 – Kickoff & Introduction: A brief introduction to the Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) followed by students breaking out into teams focusing on the build:
- Texturing the 560 aluminum fish.
- Working the wire armature that will suspend the school.
- Attaching the fish to the wire armature.
- 11/11 – Build Day 1:
- Focus on hammering the texture onto the fish.
- Hanging and shaping the armature from the fixture.
- Wiring the fish to the armature.
- 11/18 – Build Day 2:
- Continue process of creating the fish, the armature, and the wire.
- 12/02 – Build Day 3:
- Teams continue to texture fish and attach them to the wire that will hold them.
- Sculpture takes shape.
- 12/09 – Build Day 4:
- Student teams continue to work on the fish, the hang, and the wire.
Finishing & Public Reveal
Continued build as needed by the artist, and any students that wish to participate. The build window is tight and any finish work remaining after the student build days will be accomplished by the artist. Student participation in this finishing stage is welcome and can be arranged with parental, 418, and artist approvals.
*Project to be revealed to the public at a date to be determined by 418 management.
About the Artist & STEAM Instructor: Edward Martinez III
Edward Martinez III is an environmental sculptor, designer, serial entrepreneur, and marketing strategist with nearly 4,000 individual pieces created since 2012 from reclaimed materials and metals. His credits include featured installations at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) and The 418 Project. He has been featured at the prestigious Palo Alto and River Art Festivals, The Tannery Arts Center, numerous Maker’s Faires, and Santa Cruz County art galleries. Edward also has major permanent works installed in commercial sites across the country, and private collections throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
November 5, 2026 · 7:30 PM
Women Behind the Camera During the Silent Era w/ Dwight Cleveland
Thurs., November 5th – 7:30 PM [SMALL THEATER]
“CONFESSIONS OF A FILM POSTER ADDICT: From Golden Age Completist to Big Paper Film Classics and Women Leaders Behind the Camera” – Illustrated Lecture with film historian & collector Dwight Cleveland
During his illustrated talk, longtime film historian and poster collector Dwight Cleveland will walk us through his 50-year collecting odyssey, sharing images from around the world hoping to energize our aesthetic and awareness of why these fragile paper posters are important documents of U.S. cultural and cinema history. He will focus on the often-overlooked and under-recognized women of Silent Era (directors, writers and producers) who played leadership roles and were essential to development of the cinema business as we know it today.
Dwight will have limited copies of his book "CINEMA ON PAPER: the Graphic Genius of Movie Posters" available for purchase and signing at the event.
Bio:
Dwight started collecting film posters as a high-school senior in 1977 and has owned more than 250,000. In 2016, he sold his archive which represented 115 years of film history and was comprised of over 45,000 items. There were posters from 58 countries and all 83 "Best Picture" Academy Award Winners. Dwight wrote the first article on film posters to appear in a major arts publication, The Antique Trader, in 1981 while a student at Columbia College in New York. Since then he has published books on various categories of his personal collection including 1920's and 1930's lobby cards, big paper representations from famous titles, and as varied as Mexican Golden-Age Diva María Félix. He has lent images to newspapers, magazines and books over the years including Light + Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933-1950 at the Chicago Holocaust Museum. His first exhibition was at the 2014 Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival. He has donated significant posters to institutions around the United States including the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, the Library of Congress, and to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. And among those internationally, the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter.
In July 2019, a portion of Dwight's collection was displayed at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. The exhibit, titled Coming Soon: Film Posters from the Dwight M. Cleveland Collection, included over 200 rare posters (and 1,250 movie 'Coming Attraction' glass slides) that span across multiple film genres from the early 20th century to the late 1980s. The exhibit ran from July 12 through October 29, 2019. Dwight's book, CINEMA ON PAPER: the Graphic Genius of Movie Posters was published by Assouline in 2019. Ben Mankiewicz, host of Turner Classic Movies and grandson of Herman J. Mankiewicz screenwriter of CITIZEN KANE (1941), wrote the foreword.
Dwight’s latest collection is comprised of over 10,000 silent film lobby cards focused on films relating to the careers of over 1,000 women whose careers have heretofore gone unnoticed and unrecognized. This collection was on exhibition under the title Behind the Camera: The Unknown Women of Hollywood at Poster House in New York City from April 7th thru October 9th, 2022. In March 2024, Cleveland organized his sample collection of lobby cards in Glamour & Grace: The Anna May Wong Legacy Unveiled, a focused exhibition at the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum highlighting the career and cultural impact of the pioneering actress. The show ran from March 1–10, 2024. These were then part of the exhibition Unmasking Anna May Wong at The Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles which ran from May 24, 2024 through April 27, 2025. In 2026, selections from Dwight’s collection of Maria Félix posters were on exhibition at the American University of Paris from March 24 thru April 17. This was the first-ever retrospective on the most recognized Spanish speaking star of the Mexican Golden Age who made 47 films in Argentina, Spain, Italy and France.
Cleveland has been the subject of two episodes on NBC's The Hunt for Amazing Treasure with a story on discovering the earliest known Mickey Mouse poster from Barn Dance (1929) and later a large find of U.S. movie window cards used as insulation in a house built during the early 1930s. He has been interviewed, quoted, in a broad range of news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Classic Images, Classic Chicago, Movie Collector's World, the Chicago Tribune, The Sun Times, BuzzFeed, The London Independent, Forbes Magazine and The ROBB Report. In 2022, Dwight collaborated with Dartmouth College's Media Ecology Project by allowing them to digitize 10,000 silent lobby cards from his collection as part of the Early Cinema Compendium. Dartmouth received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to fund the digitization. MEP is a sustainability project that develops literacies of moving image and visual culture history and functions as a collaborative incubator, fostering new research questions and methods. Those range from traditional arts and humanities close-textual analysis to distant reading, which relies on computational methods to help analyze graphics and visual culture components as data. For his contribution of scale to the project, Dwight was named to the newly created post of Associate Visual Cultural Curator. In 2023, Dwight gave a fellowship to Columbia University in honor of Frederica Sagor Maas which supports historical research on women artists from the 20th century silent film industry. The scholarship cultivates and encourages students’ abilities to preserve the work of female filmmakers, making possible the future expansion of archival resources and exhibits.
Doors open at 7:00 PM, presentation at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
$10 in advance, $15 at the door.
November 7, 2026 · 7:30 PM
The Zabrecky Hour - Magic Show
Sat. November 7th – 7:30 PM – LARGE THEATER
THE ZABRECKY HOUR Magic Show
A Comedy, Magic & Variety Show Like No Other with Rob Zabrecky
"Zabrecky - the name means 'Abracadabra,' sideways" - LA Weekly
Prepare to step into a world where the boundaries of magic, comedy, and performance art blur beyond recognition. Rob Zabrecky’s The Zabrecky Hour is an astonishing, one-man tour de force that brings audiences face-to-face with a unique brand of storytelling, offbeat humor, and mind-bending illusions. It’s less a show and more an experience — one that feels like it’s been lifted straight from the strangest corners of your imagination.
If David Lynch turned his attention to the art of illusion, The Zabrecky Hour might just be the result: a fusion of the bizarre, the beautiful, and the unsettling. Onstage, Zabrecky is a figure both distant and magnetic, pulling you into his off-kilter universe with equal parts warmth and coldness. His magic isn’t just for magic lovers — it’s for those who don’t even realize they’re fans of magic.
Zabrecky’s absurd, often chilling persona plays like a character out of a lost 1950s sci-fi/horror B-movie. He's an alien from a bygone era, attempting — and often failing — to relate to the world around him. His charm lies in this dissonance, this tension between the familiar and the utterly unfamiliar. The result? A show that’s at once unnerving and irresistibly engaging.
Zabrecky’s magic breaks the mold in ways that will have you questioning your very perception of reality. Each moment unfolds with a subtle complexity that pushes the limits of your expectations. His performances are at times unpredictable, and darkly humorous. And when you least expect it, the show morphs into a strange reverie, an altered state where magic is more about emotional resonance than mere illusion. With The Zabrecky Hour, you're not just watching magic — you're being transformed by it.
A six-time award-winning act at the Magic Castle, Zabrecky’s reputation for unflinchingly original performances has earned him accolades worldwide. Critics have taken note — including the Chicago Tribune, which declared in 2022: "Zabrecky is very funny, assuming you like your humor cynical and caustic, akin to a horror show of a bygone age. His improvisational genius, mixed with a penchant for pushing boundaries, makes every moment a dangerous gamble."
The show’s eclectic mix — a dose of comedy, a sprinkle of song & dance, a touch of parapsychology, and a dash of audience interaction — all serves to create an unpredictable, one-of-a-kind atmosphere. This is magic for the adventurous soul, a performance that dances between darkness and whimsy with effortless ease.
Zabrecky’s dry wit and deadpan delivery add to the allure. Think Steven Wright’s absurdist humor meets Robert Bloch's eerie storytelling, laced with the offbeat awkwardness of Emo Phillips and the suspense of Hitchcock. His dry, quirky punchlines deliver the goods, pushing everything just far enough into the absurd to keep you hooked. After an appearance on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us, even Penn Jillette remarked, “We were trying to think if there’s ever been a mentalist doing a mentalist act that was sincerely funny and sincerely good. You may be the first ever.”
In The Zabrecky Hour, nothing is predictable — except for one thing: You’ll never forget it.
Running Time: Approximately 60/70 Minutes
Tickets: $25 advance / $30 at the door
Doors open at 7 PM, show begins at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
November 8, 2026 · 5:00 PM
THE BIG WHOOP Film Screening
Sunday, Nov. 8th – 5:00 PM – SMALL THEATER
New Indie Comedy – Santa Cruz Premiere - Cast Q&A!
THE BIG WHOOP (2025, 88 min., dir. Lisa Satriano).
“The Big Whoop is a hilarious clown caper that made me laugh my socks off. If you’ve found them, will you return them to me, please?” – Eric Idle of Monty Python
“Hilarity battles sadness and, as usual, we all win.” – Patton Oswalt
“Sam Beckett meets Sam Shepard meets Sam Kinison meets ‘What the Sam Hill is this?’” – Jay Martel, head writer of Key & Peele
“Clowns used to make the world laugh. Now they make the world scream.” A trio of desperately out-of-work birthday party clowns, including an Emmett Kelly-wannabe-but-never-will-be, Big Bugs (beloved comedian Jim Turner, MTV’s Randee of the Redwoods), the unintelligibly mumbling Corky (Mark Fite), and the equally-unintelligible Swedish butler, Gustav (Dave “Gruber” Allen), find themselves losing out on jobs to a much younger, sexier and well, better, clown named Darius (Shin Lim). After screwing up their latest gig in spectacular fashion, they go on the run with an accidentally-stolen artifact, pursued by a ruthless thief (Samantha Cole) and cross paths with a Who’s Who of comedy legends including Sandra Oh and Penn Jillette (who co-produced the film with Kristy Pitchford). In the spirit of classic slapstick farces like Peter Seller’s THE PINK PANTHER films and Arthur Hiller’s THE IN-LAWS, THE BIG WHOOP is a dark indie comedy that is both a hilarious and hilariously-tragic portrait of the trials & tribulations of three working (er, barely) comedians.
Bios:
Mark Fite is an L.A. based actor and comedian. Originally from the Midwest, Fite received a B.A. in Communications and Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. In Los Angeles he's worked in theatre, film, tv, animation, commercials, and comedy for 35 years. Film & TV credits include MOM, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., SpongeBob SquarePants (25 episodes), Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Mr. Show, NewsRadio, Friends, Seinfeld, Embattled, Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Big Whoop.
Dave (Gruber) Allen has appeared as a long-haired, bearded weirdo in all sorts of TV programs (like “Freaks & Geeks” and “Gilmore Girls”) and some movies (“Bad Teacher”). He lives in Salt Lake City.
Jim Turner spent seven years as a series regular on HBO's hit show ARLI$$, playing Kirby Carlisle, the ex-quarterback with a gambling/girls/booze and self-esteem problem.
Film credits include Bewitched, Kicking & Screaming, Meet Dave, Golf In The Kingdom, The Ref, Lost Boys, The Right Stuff, Joe's Apartment and a gob of others that will never even seen the light of straight-to-video day. He appeared regularly, and ran for President, on MTV as Randee of the Redwoods in 1988. Theater credits include Girly Magazine Party, Clowntown City Limits ,The Return of Pinocchio, The Brain That Wouldn't Go Away, and 2 Headed Dog. He's been a charter member of Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater for the past 50 years.
Steven Banks is the Emmy nominated head writer of SpongeBob Squarepants. He wrote and starred in the one-person show, Home Entertainment Center, currently on Amazon Prime. Other plays include Love Tapes, co-written with Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) and Shadowland, which he co-wrote with the dance/theater company Pilobolus and has been performed in 40 countries. His books include the series Middle School Bites and the YA novel, King of the Creeps. Steven is a drop out of Los Angeles City College and a graduate of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College.
Lisa Satriano is a filmmaker with 30 years of experience spanning directing, producing, and first assistant directing across studio features and premium television. Recently announced in Deadline, Lisa will direct "Iris," a female-led noir action film shooting in Spain and Japan. Her directorial work includes the independent feature "The Big Whoop," ABC's "The Wonder Years," and HBO's "Made For Love." As a Producer and 1st A.D., Lisa has contributed to over 50 studio productions, including "Ally Clark" (directed by Phillip Noyce), "Animals" (Ben Affleck), "Artificial" (Luca Guadagnino), Eli Roth's "Borderlands," Lee Daniels' "The Deliverance," "Black Adam," "Thor: Ragnarok," "Black Panther," "Straight Outta Compton," and many more.
Discussion following with cast members Jim Turner, Mark Fite and Dave (Gruber) Allen and writer Steve Banks.
Tickets: $10 advance / $15 at the door.
Doors open at 4:30 PM, film at 5 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate. Safety protocols will be in compliance with local guidelines at the time of showing.
November 12, 2026 · 7:30 PM
LA HAINE + Panel Discussion w/ Amber Wyld + guests
LA HAINE (1995, Janus Films, 97 min. Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with LA HAINE, a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income banlieue districts on Paris’s outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (the great Vincent Cassel, from IRREVERSIBLE and BLACK SWAN), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui)—a Jew, an African, and an Arab—give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country’s ongoing identity crisis – notes courtesy of Janus Films.
Discussion following moderated by The 418 Project board member Amber Wyld and special guests on issues raised by LA HAINE on racism and identity, financial hardship, alienation, and immigrant communities being terrorized by law enforcement.
Tickets: $10 advance / $15 at the door.
November 14, 2026 · 7:00 PM
The Night Agents
The Night Agents aren’t just a band—they are the ultimate social dance party. Founded by Jeremy Pilling, professional dancer and owner of the Palomar Ballroom, the group was built with a singular mission: to create a cover band that would keep the dance floor packed all night long. Not only can you freestyle to every song, but you can partner dance to every song, something unique to their band.
Fronted by the suave male & female lead duo, they deliver an authentic multi-decade, multi-genre experience few bands can match. This intriguing 5-piece band moves effortlessly through rock, pop, hip-hop, and disco. From the grit of ZZ Top and the groove of Michael Jackson to the flow of Young MC and the pure pop of ABBA, the momentum is dramatic and energetic.
Whether you’re looking to West Coast Swing to a modern groove, East Coast Swing to a classic rock hit, or just freestyle to the 70s–2000s, the energy never stops. If you're ready to dance through the decades, they are ready to play.
Evening Schedule
- 7:00 PM – Dance Class: Kick off the evening with a fun, accessible dance class designed to get everyone moving and comfortable on the floor (dance style and instructor TBA).
- 8:00 PM – Live Social Dance with The Night Agents: High-energy live sets taking you through decades of hits. Partner dancing and freestyle are both welcome and encouraged all night long!
The Night Agents Band
- Jeremy Pilling – Vocals, Guitar, Keys
- Maddie Partida – Vocals, Keys
- Jory Rice – Lead Guitar
- Paul Francisco Gonzalez – Bass
- Zephyr Christenson – Drums
November 14, 2026 · 7:30 PM
HUMAN FUTURES: PRESERVING HUMAN POTENTIAL IN THE AGE OF AI
Esalen Institute Presents:
HUMAN FUTURES: PRESERVING HUMAN POTENTIAL IN THE AGE OF AI– Illustrated lecture by Esalen’s Sam Stern
Artificial intelligence can be extraordinarily useful, creative, and powerful. As it becomes more deeply embedded in our lives, however, it also raises questions about what we may be outsourcing, weakening, or losing along the way.
Drawing from his work at the Esalen Institute and the history of the human potential movement, Sam Stern considers the history of the Human Potential Movement: the enduring importance of embodiment, authentic relationship, community, somatics, agency, creativity, and direct experience — qualities that may become more valuable, not less, as intelligent machines become more capable.
Bio: Sam Stern is a Senior Content Creator at Esalen Institute and host of the million-download podcast Voices of Esalen, where he’s interviewed voices shaping psychology, spirituality, and culture, including Sonya Renee Taylor, Richard Schwartz, Michael Pollan, Bayo Akomolafe, and Stanislav Grof. Sam is a cum laude graduate of Brown University, where he received the William J. Weston Award for excellence in Film and Video. At Esalen, he frequently teaches on human-centered AI, guiding others to approach emergent technologies with curiosity, critical thinking, and play.
Tickets: $15 advance / $20 at the door.
November 15, 2026 · 6:00 PM
Hometown Homeless
Sun., November 15th – 6:00 PM – SMALL THEATER
Documentary Screening + Panel Discussion
HOMETOWN HOMELESS (2025, 20 min., dir. Maleah Welsh).
Co-Presented with the Association of Faith Communities of Santa Cruz and The Coalition to End Homelessness
HomeTown HomeLess is a collaborative documentary film which takes place in the Potrero district of Santa Cruz California. A space that is the industrial zone of the city, the site of cement plants, garbage processing facilities, graveyards, discarded train tracks and homeless shelters. As the industrial zone ends, the redwood forest begins. Deep in the trees is where we find unhoused poet Momma Shannan and her community of resilient women, who have found a place for themselves out of the public eye.
Facing uncertain and precarious circumstances driven by rising laws that criminalize homelessness, the women come together to have conversations about life, love, loss. Anchored by moments of poetry and propelled by both the women's conversations and events within the community, HomeTown HomeLess offers an intimate portrait of both people and place.
Discussion following with director Maleah Welsh and participants in the documentary.
Bio:
Maleah Welsh is a Santa Cruz-based documentary filmmaker, photographer, and social justice activist. Working in both analog and digital media, she first discovered her love for image-making in the darkroom—a tactile and meditative process that continues to shape her visual approach. Her background in photography informs a filmmaking practice rooted in careful composition, texture, and visual intimacy.
Maleah’s current work centers on the stories of unhoused women, exploring the layered experiences of displacement, resilience, and belonging. She weaves poetry, sound, and other artistic modalities into her films to evoke emotion and reflect the complexity of her subjects’ inner worlds. Guided by a deep belief in the power of storytelling, she seeks not only to challenge prevailing narratives but to offer space for reflection, connection, and dignity. Through her practice, she explores themes of collective memory, the meaning of home and land, and the intimate objects that tether us to our histories, identities, and sense of belonging.
Maleah holds a master’s degree in Documentary Film from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she completed the MFA in Social Documentation.
$10 Suggested Donation.
November 20, 2026 · 6:30 PM
Aleister Crowley on Peyote
Friday, November 20th – 6:30 PM – SMALL THEATER
ALEISTER CROWLEY ON PEYOTE – Illustrated Lecture by artist & scholar Michael Pearce
Join us for an immersive exploration of the hidden history of the 20th century’s most infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley. Art historian Dr. Michael J. Pearce peels back the curtain on Crowley’s dual life as a scandalous bohemian and a pioneering psychological experimenter who utilized altered states of consciousness to unlock the human mind.
We will follow Crowley’s journey through the avant-garde bistros of Paris and the secret rituals of London. Discover how he used early pharmaceutical extractions of hashish and peyote to achieve astral projection and mystical samadhi, decades before the 1960s counterculture movement.
The presentation will highlight:
- The "Oliver Haddo" Persona: How a Gothic horror parody by W. Somerset Maugham was hijacked by Crowley as his own literary pen name.
- Psychedelic Ritualism: A look inside the Rite of Luna, where Crowley dosed audiences with a potent, visionary libation.
- The Artist and the Occult: His late-career pivot into painting and his volatile relationships with contemporary writers, models, and visionaries.
- The Thoth Tarot Legacy: The stormy, five-year collaboration with artist Frieda Harris that produced a masterpiece of esoteric art, hidden for decades before capturing a new generation.
Whether you are interested in art history, the evolution of tarot, or the origins of Western psychedelic culture, this lecture promises a mesmerizing look at a man who lived with an inescapable drive to put his soul on canvas.
Bio:
Michael J. Pearce, Ph.D., MFA, is a British-born figurative painter, art critic, and renegade scholar whose electrifying work has blown open the gates surrounding psychedelic, visionary, and transgressive art. Dr. Pearce isn't interested in safe, predictable institutional art trends; instead, he champions the raw, honest, and explosive visual movements exploding from the counterculture to smash cold, academic modernism. A true champion of the underground, Pearce serves on the board of the vanguard Psychedelic Arts and Culture Trust (PACT). He is presently writing a definitive history of psychedelic art, mapping a law-defying lineage of artists who utilized altered states to bare the deep, unadulterated mechanics of the human consciousness.
His research isn’t confined to archives. Pearce lives on the front lines of art preservation. He played a real-world, detective’s role in tracking down and recovering artist Dion Wright's long-lost 12-foot-tall epic masterpiece, the Taxonomic Mandala from a barn in Washington State - a legendary painting that once stood at the center of the vortex of California's 1960s psychedelic counterculture. Whether he is deconstructing the political machinery of the art establishment in his brilliant columns for MutualArt or exploring neuroaesthetics and the psychedelic sublime in his foundational book Art in the Age of Emergence (2015), Pearce is on an uncompromising mission. He is dragooning visionary art out of the fringes and cementing it where it belongs: at the absolute center of serious global art discourse.
Tickets: $15 advance / $20 at the door.
Doors open at 6:00 PM, event at 6:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
Safety protocols will be in compliance with local guidelines at the time of showing.
November 21, 2026 · 2:00 PM
Beat Artists on Acid - Illustrated Lecture by Michael Pearce
Sat., November 21st – 2:00 PM – SMALL THEATER
BEAT ARTISTS ON ACID – Illustrated Lecture by artist & scholar Michael Pearce
Step into the smoke-filled, mattress-strewn dark rooms of 669 Oak Street—the Lower Haight Victorian flat that served as the headquarters for a coven of artistic rebels. Years before the 1960s hippy revolution exploded into the mainstream, an underground network of brilliant poets, heretic upstarts, and avant-garde painters were already using pure peyote cactus to shatter the boundaries of American conformity in San Francisco.
Forget the sanitized, media-packaged myth of the "beatnik." These creators despised the term. They considered themselves serious aesthetic gladiators, waging a spiritual war against a sanitized society.
Prepare to Uncover:
The Oak Street Beats: Enter the wild, law-defying nexus where legendary assemblage artists of the Batman Gallery rubbed night-draped shoulders with Dave Haselwood’s radical Auerhahn Press poets.
Alan Russo’s Forbidden Smoothies: The mind-bending story of the thickly muscled peyote gatherer who tossed raw cactus buttons into a kitchen blender, serving up a divine, psychic sacrament to the underground elite.
The Battle for ‘Real Reality’: Dive into the fierce philosophy of a young Dion Wright, who argued that peyote wasn't some cheap, hallucinated trick—it was a nuclear blast of raw revelation that made "reality getting all the more real."
Brace yourself for a wild trip through police raids, institutional censorship, and the pure, unadulterated birth of the West Coast psychedelic underground.
Michael J. Pearce, Ph.D., MFA, is a British-born figurative painter, art critic, and renegade scholar whose electrifying work has blown open the gates surrounding psychedelic, visionary, and transgressive art. Dr. Pearce isn't interested in safe, predictable institutional art trends; instead, he champions the raw, honest, and explosive visual movements exploding from the counterculture to smash cold, academic modernism. A true champion of the underground, Pearce serves on the board of the vanguard Psychedelic Arts and Culture Trust (PACT). He is presently writing a definitive history of psychedelic art, mapping a law-defying lineage of artists who utilized altered states to bare the deep, unadulterated mechanics of the human consciousness.
His research isn’t confined to archives. Pearce lives on the front lines of art preservation. He played a real-world, detective’s role in tracking down and recovering artist Dion Wright's long-lost 12-foot-tall epic masterpiece, the Taxonomic Mandala from a barn in Washington State - a legendary painting that once stood at the center of the vortex of California's 1960s psychedelic counterculture. Whether he is deconstructing the political machinery of the art establishment in his brilliant columns for MutualArt or exploring neuroaesthetics and the psychedelic sublime in his foundational book Art in the Age of Emergence (2015), Pearce is on an uncompromising mission. He is dragooning visionary art out of the fringes and cementing it where it belongs: at the absolute center of serious global art discourse.
Tickets: $15 advance / $20 at the door.
Doors open at 1:30 PM, event at 2 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
Safety protocols will be in compliance with local guidelines at the time of showing.
December 19, 2026 · 6:00 PM
KRAMPUS CELEBRATION AT THE 418
Sat., December 19th – 6:00 PM – LARGE THEATER
KRAMPUS CELEBRATION AT THE 418 -- An Evening of Folkloric Holiday Traditions with author AL Ridenour, featuring pre-show Cocktail Hour, live German holiday songs, costumed Krampuses and screening of Krampus video highlight reel!!
Join us for an evening celebrating everyone’s favorite Alpine monster, with author and Krampus expert Al Ridenour and friends. Ridenour is the author of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas (Feral House, 2016), the only in-depth English-language study of the folkloric creature. Now in its second printing, it has been praised by critics including the LA Times’ Elizabeth Hand, who found the book “gleefully erudite,” remarking that it “deserves to become a classic.” He’ll give an illustrated presentation revealing how the often-misunderstood figure of the Krampus is connected to centuries-old witchcraft beliefs and an older, darker understanding of the Christmas season as a time offering access to the spirit world.
COSTUMED KRAMPUSES
A contingent of horned and switch-wielding devils will also be on hand to sniff out exactly who has been naughty this year! Photo ops galore! Mind the switches!
VIDEO SHORTS
Ridenour will also present a quirky collection of short European Krampus videos, featuring DIY horror shorts crafted by Krampus troupes, Krampus disco shows, Krampus music videos for metal bands, workshops for those traumatized by the creature, and other oddities. Alongside the Krampus clips, a short excerpt will be included from the rare 1955 German film Der Struwwelpeter. Based on the 1845 children’s book by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, Der Struwwelpeter presents charming tableaux precisely mirroring Hoffman’s original illustrations of naughty children meeting terrible ends.
LIVE MUSIC
The evening will also feature an appearance by renowned singer Christina Linhardt performing traditional St. Nicholas songs associated with the Krampus.
CRAFTS AND VENDORS
In addition to the auditorium presentation, attendees will enjoy a pre-show cocktail hour during which they can peruse the wares of local artisans crafting Krampus candles, chocolates, and related items.
BOOK SIGNING
Signed copies of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas will be available before and after the event. Author Ridenour will be available for personal inscriptions immediately after his presentation.
COME IN COSTUME
We encourage attendees to don their finest creepy apparel and folkloric costumes, with crowd favorites receiving prizes.
Bios:
Al Ridenour has lectured on Krampus traditions (and related) topics at the international Goethe-Institut, The San Diego Art Institute, New Americans Museum, Tucson Museum of Modern Art, The Bowers Museum, and in the UK at London's Last Tuesday Society and Whitby's Winter Ghosts conference. Ridnour also created Krampus masks and suits, which have been exhibited at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Museum and provides Krampus suit rental for film and television and events. He discusses dark folklore topics similar to the Krampus in his podcast Bone and Sickle and has recently published A Season of Madness: Fools, Monsters & Marvels of the Old-World Carnival (Feral House, 2025) on folk customs of Carnival, a topic intimately intertwined with the Krampus tradition. Since 2022 he’s presented an annual sold-out Krampus Night event at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles.
Christina Linhardt has enjoyed an eclectic and versatile career as a concert singer, writer, and actress. She is most known for her "Classics to Cabaret" act (which was the headliner for the opening of the Grand Concert Hall in Saxony, Germany). As well as being a regular entertainer at the Hollywood Magic Castle. Ms. Linhardt is a recommended chanteuse for the coveted Southern California Chamber Music Consortium. She has performed for the 2010 Los Angeles Opera Ring Festival, the House of Blues Gospel Brunch, The Grove, The Brand Plaza Concert Series and even down in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Christina was the lead singer of the acclaimed Angels of Venice (Windham Hill Records) and The Honey Lulus Tiki Trio.
KRAMPUS LOS ANGELES
In 2013, as co-founder of Krampus Los Angeles, Ridenour helped gather a troupe of Krampus performers, crafted suits and went on to organize an ongoing series of parades and themed shows known as LA Krampusfest. Over the years, Krampus Los Angeles has appeared alongside the first Europeans visitors to appear stateside in traditional Krampus costumes (2014), hosted an entire 15-person troupe from the state of Salzburg (2015), and presented a 19th-century Austrian Krampus-Nicholas play (2015-17). Many of the current troupe members now wear suits obtained from European artisans and appear at the annual Krampus Nights at PRS in Los Angeles.
Ticket Price: $25 advance / $30 at the door.
The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
January 9, 2027 · 7:30 PM
My Cousin Vinny
The 418 Project presents Jonathan Lynn's courtroom comedy classic MY COUSIN VINNY (1992, 120 min), starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei.
About the Film
When two Brooklyn college kids are falsely accused of murder in rural Alabama, they call on Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci), an inexperienced personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn who took six attempts to pass the bar. Marisa Tomei's legendary automotive testimony won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Co-Production
You bring the programming. We bring the space, the systems, and the audience.
Co-production is an active partnership model built to lower the financial and logistical barriers that keep local creators from staging ambitious work. You focus on the art; we handle the venue and operations — and we share both the risk and the reward. Our aim is to build sustainable, recurring relationships with artistic partners, not one-off transactions.
What The 418 Project provides
- Venue & facilities — full access to the designated event space and standard utilities.
- Technical infrastructure — house sound, house lighting, and standard equipment.
- Operational support — event-operations staff to run the venue during your production.
- Ticketing services — setup and management of all digital and gate ticketing.
- Concessions — staffing and operation of the venue's concession bar.
- Institutional leverage — access to relevant grant opportunities where applicable.
What you provide
- Programming — your content, classes, schedule, and timeline.
- Talent & vibe — the artists or instructors, and the creative energy of the event.
- Copyright & licensing — any required performance licensing (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) for your content.
How we split ticket revenue
Splits are calculated from gross ticket sales and are starting points for a conversation — every agreement is a little different:
- 50 / 50 — an even split between The 418 Project and the partner, for standard classes or short-form events under 1.5 hours that use a single space.
- 60 / 40 — 60% to The 418 Project (venue) and 40% to the partner, for productions over 1.5 hours, or events that occupy multiple spaces or stages.
Because the split is on gross sales, 418 absorbs all ticketing-platform and card-processing fees. Partners keep 100% of their merchandise sales; 418 retains concessions revenue. Complimentary tickets are capped at 10% of projected sales, and your share is paid out within seven days of the event.
Good to know
Final promotional materials are due six weeks before the event for full marketing support; load-in is up to two hours before doors and load-out within one hour after. High-risk acts (aerial, fire, acrobatics) carry their own liability insurance. We evaluate every partnership for artistic alignment and a collaborative, reliable working relationship.
Recent co-productions
60% to The 418 Project (venue) / 40% to the partner
Tannery Dance Collective
50% to The 418 Project (venue) / 50% to the partner
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
60% to The 418 Project (venue) / 40% to the partner
Westside Jazz Nights
Ally Events
Eight fully sponsored events a year, awarded to eight community organizations.
The Ally Events Program uplifts community voices, fosters cultural expression, and supports local initiatives by providing fully subsidized event space and operational resources. Each year The 418 Project awards eight (8) sponsored event slots to eight (8) different organizations — a limit of one event per organization per calendar year.
What's covered
Selected Ally Events receive a 100% rental-fee waiver, which includes:
- Space access — use of one designated theater and the main lobby.
- Technical support — basic technical staff for setup, the event itself, and strike.
- Marketing support — inclusion in our digital newsletter, social channels, and in-venue flyer placement.
Ticketing & payout
To keep things seamless for attendees, 418 manages all ticketing through our official box-office platform. The partner organization receives 100% of the net payout — gross ticket sales minus standard credit-card processing and ticketing-platform fees.
Application timeline
- Application window: July 1 – August 31
- Review period: September 1 – September 30
- Notifications: applicants are notified by October 15
Eligibility & selection
Applications are evaluated in two phases:
- Phase 1 — qualification screening. The event must align with 418's commitment to community engagement, inclusivity, wellness, or the arts, and priority is given to events serving a significant, underserved, or distinct demographic in our community.
- Phase 2 — selection. Among qualified applicants, slots are awarded strictly first-come, first-served by application submission timestamp. Once the eight slots are filled, remaining qualified applicants join a waitlist in order of receipt.
Applications are closed — they reopen July 1, 2027.
Recent Ally Events
2026
Youth Voices Showcase
2026
Disability Arts Night
2026
New Works Lab
Participating Artists
Fifteen artists. A year in the spotlight. One showcase each.
Each year our board selects fifteen artists working across disciplines — dance, music, theater, visual art, film, and beyond — to join our Participating Artists cohort. It's our way of celebrating and investing in the people who make our creative community extraordinary.
Being selected means a year-long spotlight: a featured profile, promotion across our channels, and one dedicated event built around the artist's work and produced with 418's full support — space, technical resources, and our audience.
The cohort is curated by the board rather than through an open application, but we always want to learn about artists doing remarkable work. If that's you, or someone you admire, tell us — your suggestion helps shape future cohorts.
This year's cohort
Media Producer & Public Historian
Andrew J. O’Keefe II
Andrew J. O'Keefe II is a place-based media producer and public historian in Santa Cruz, California. Through film, photography, livestreaming, and archival preservation, he works from the premise that each of us is a culture bearer, and the roles we hold in our families and communities carry real power to shape what comes next in our collective experiences. His current work sits at the intersection of past and future, personal and civic memory, collective storytelling, and cultural erasure. Working alongside institutions, historians, artists, and neighbors, he connects stories across generations and traces how the past remains active in the present.
His projects have explored historic preservation, environmental conservation, cross-cultural exchange, and the communities people build for themselves, intentionally or otherwise. Local collaborators have included the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz METRO, UC Santa Cruz's Seymour Marine Discovery Center and Institute of the Arts and Sciences, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, New Leaf Community Markets, artist Christian Rex van Minnen, and the late mathematician Ralph Abraham. Andrew founded Amotion.video in 2018 and runs the studio from the historic Old Wrigley Building on Santa Cruz's Far Westside. Much of his work begins in archives, with audiovisual material whose significance has outlasted the moment in which it was recorded. His goal is twofold: preserving what matters and widening whose stories get kept.
Fiber and Upcycled Wearable Artist
Asha Tobing
Asha Tobing is a Santa Cruz-based fiber and upcycled wearable artist and the creator of liljax, one-of-a-kind clothing and adornment wearable art, rooted in transformation, resourcefulness, and connection. For the past 16 years, Asha has worked intuitively with salvaged, vintage, handwoven, and existing textiles, creating wearable pieces that honor the character, history, and possibility held within each material. Her creative process is tactile and material-led, allowing texture, movement, color, and form to guide each piece as it emerges. Influenced by textile traditions, cultural handwork, and time spent living in Southeast Asia, Asha sees clothing and adornment as more than objects to wear—they can carry memory, identity, story, and connection between maker, wearer, and material.
Her practice began with a sewing machine gifted by her mother while she was pregnant with her first son, when she transformed an old T-shirt into a pair of baby pants. What began as a personal act of making, grew into liljax and a lifelong exploration of textile transformation. Over the years, the practice has expanded my understanding of textile waste and sustainability, shaping not only what I make, but how I see materials, consumption, and the possibilities within what already exists. Asha is also a teaching artist with the Santa Cruz County Arts Council, sharing sewing, upcycling, and creative reuse with young people throughout the community. At the heart of her work is a simple invitation: to look differently at what already exists.
Writer, Researcher & Circus Artist
Camilla Hawthorne
Camilla Hawthorne (they/she) is a writer, researcher, educator, and multidisciplinary artist. They are Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, founder and co-facilitator of the UCSC Black Geographies Lab, and program director of the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Camilla is the author of Contesting Race and Citizenship: Youth Politics in the Black Mediterranean (Cornell University Press, 2022) and co-editor of The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), The Black Geographic: Praxis, Resistance, Futurity (Duke University Press, 2023), and Heartbreak and Other Geographies: Collected Works of Katherine McKittrick (University of Minnesota Press, 2026). Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Ragusa Foundation, the Hellman Foundation, the UC Humanities Research Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Leonardo Da Vinci Society, and the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North American Foundation. Camilla is also a classically trained pianist who performs on accordion and aerial hoop...and sometimes both, at the same time! As a performer, Camilla is interested in bridging their practice as a circus artist and musician with their academic work on radical Black diasporic cultural politics—for instance, by conducting extensive research on the life of actor-singer-dancer-activist Eartha Kitt and recounting her story through burlesque and aerial dance; translating James Baldwin’s writings in The Fire Next Time into an aerial piece about revolutionary love; and exploring musical genealogies of antifascism through an experimental performance blending aerial hoop, Italian accordion music, and 1990s British anarchist punk rock. She has performed at venues such as San Francisco Circus Center, The Great Star, Motion Pacific, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, the 418 Project, Santa Cruz Dancing in the Streets, Moe's Alley, and the Felton Music Hall, with companies including Circus of the Moon and Central Coast Circus. Camilla is also collaborating with Ben Leeds Carson, Perre Di Carlo, and Michael Chemers on a Star Trek opera, and with Christina Zanfagna, John Gennari, and Michael Whalen on a feature-length documentary film entitled BLACKITALIAN.
Painter
Dali Zheng
Dali Zheng 鄭大力 (aka the Chinee from Kentucky) was born and raised in the great state of Kentucky, but now blasphemes that painting and skateboarding are superior to bourbon and basketball. He is the son of a Chinese immigrant (who came over as a college student and Shaolin Grandmaster and later decided to become a movie star) and a working class Southern woman (who aspired to become a Southern Belle and ended up a financial counselor). Currently, Dali lives a beautiful, simple little life right here in Santa Cruz along with his lovely wife Heather (a Jill of all trades and academic genius) and Mishka the Meowzer (world’s greatest cat). Dali LOVES to gaze upon and create all different sorts of art. He subscribes to the old adage “Art makes life better.” Like an orangutan with a Bedazzler working on a new pair of jeans or a squirrel eating an ice cream cone up in a tree, Dali would be thrilled to learn that his art felt…Playful yet provocative. Confusing and mischievous. Wonder-filled with a hearty handful of skepticism. Or perhaps political without being know-it-all, judgy judgy McJudgerson arrogant. Dali has described his own artistic flavor as both Old Skool Heathen Chinee and High Yellow. The highest compliment Dali ever received was that his work was “not safe...took risks.”
Audio-Visual Artist
Dean Fraser
Dean Fraser is a multidisciplinary audio-visual artist exploring the intersection of sound, technology and philosophy. Using a combination of classical instruments, field recordings, granular synthesis and Touchdesigner software, Fraser employs a novel approach to each and weaves them together with existential philosophical concepts based on the ideas of some of the greatest contemporary theorists of our time.
Taking full advantage of LIDAR technology and Touchdesigner software, Fraser scans real world natural occurring ecosystems like caves and coastal erosion patterns, and uses them to set the stage for further abstractions based on algorithms found in wildlife like L-systems, wind and gravitational force. Using these as a visual analogy for the philosophical concepts put forth in Federico Faggin's book “Irreducible”, a new Quantum Information-Based Panpsychist theory (QIP) for consciousness, and you have “The Golden Void”. An epic and dynamically novel journey through Faggin's beautiful theory, that the conscious experience resides on a quantum field, and classical matter is projected from that field as symbols to communicate, so that “One can Know Itself.”
Environmental Sculptor
Edward Martinez III
Edward is a unique combination of prolific environmental artist, designer, serial entrepreneur, and marketing strategist with nearly 4,000 individual pieces created since 2012. His credits include featured installations at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and 418 Project. He has been featured at the prestigious Palo Alto and River Art Festivals, The Tannery Arts Center as well as numerous Maker’s fairs, and Santa Cruz County art galleries. He also has major permanent works installed in commercial sites across the country, and private collections throughout the United States Canada and Europe. Edward’s work is available exclusively by commission.
Pole & Movement Artist
Ellice Apostolos
Ellice Apostolos (she/her) is the founder and owner of Steel & Grace, Santa Cruz's first dance studio dedicated to pole. A longtime member of the local performing arts community, she holds a degree in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has spent nearly two decades studying, performing, choreographing, directing, and teaching movement throughout the region.
A certified S Factor instructor, Ellice is known for creating deeply transformative movement experiences that blend sensual expression, somatic awareness, and performance. Through her classes, workshops, and coaching, she guides students in developing a more connected, expressive, and confident relationship with their bodies.
As a female business owner and creative leader, Ellice has played a key role in expanding the presence of pole as both an athletic discipline and an expressive art form within the Santa Cruz community. Through Steel & Grace, she has cultivated a welcoming environment where dancers of all backgrounds can build strength, refine technique, and explore movement in a supportive, inclusive community.
Banjoist, Singer & Producer
Gay Eldest Daughter
Gay Eldest Daughter is a queer banjoist, singer, and producer from Santa Cruz. She creates in a variety of styles all built on a foundation of clawhammer banjo. Her music takes a grand, maximalist approach to bedroom recording and folk musical sounds.
Her debut album, taller than the redwoods, released in March of 2026. The album explores and celebrates plurality, lesbian love, fat liberation, anticapitalism, and the many facets of transfeminine experience.
Vocalist, Composer & Live Looping Artist
Genoa Alma Belén
Genoa Alma Belén is a Santa Cruz–based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and live looping artist whose music blends jazz, neo-soul, and experimental sound. Her immersive solo performances weave original compositions with layered voice, live instrumentation, and real-time looping.
Genoa performs and tours with AZA, an internationally recognized ensemble led by Moroccan musician Fattah Abbou. She has studied under saxophonist Leo Potts and performed and collaborated with artists including SoVoSo, Del the Funky Homosapien, SPC-CDT, WaxRoof, Andy Pancakes, and more. She also co-owns and operates Everyone’s Music School in Santa Cruz.
Painter & Installation Artist
Heejin Lee
Heejin Lee is a Korean-born artist based in Santa Cruz, California, where she has lived and worked for over two decades. She began drawing at the age of ten and has since developed a lifelong practice rooted in intuition, repetition, and deep observation. After leaving Korea, Lee immersed herself in language, culture, and art studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College. A formative experience during a trip to the Philippines shaped her understanding of art as a gift—one that extends beyond personal expression into a shared, human connection.
Lee’s work is deeply influenced by the natural landscape of Santa Cruz, whose convergence of ocean and mountains echoes her hometown of Gangneung, South Korea. This sense of familiarity within distance informs her ongoing exploration of memory, presence, and belonging. Working primarily through drawing, painting and Installation art. Lee creates abstract compositions that respond to what is often unseen: subtle emotional states, fleeting moments, and quiet inner movements. Her process is intuitive and meditative, guided by the interplay of line, color, and gesture. Lee currently lives at the Tannery Art Center and works at the Santa Cruz Art League as a exhibition & program curator also teaches abstract, conceptual mixed media class where her daily practice continues to explore the possibility of freedom, sensitivity, and connection through art.
DJ, Curator & Cultural Producer
Jase “Monk” Earl
Jase "Monk" Earl is a Santa Cruz–based DJ, curator, cultural producer, educator, and writer whose understanding of community is rooted in Hip Hop culture and shaped by his upbringing in the immigrant-rich neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As the founder of Afroscope Promotions and founder, curator, and resident DJ of Afrobeats Nite Santa Cruz, he creates public spaces where African and diasporic music become catalysts for connection, cultural exchange, and collective celebration.
With more than two decades of artistic practice, Earl's work spans live performance, community arts programming, youth education, and international cultural exchange. He has taught DJ workshops in Accra, Ghana through the Universal Family Network, produced large-scale cultural events throughout Santa Cruz County, and continues to mentor emerging artists by creating opportunities for collaboration and public performance.
Earl holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He approaches DJing as a live compositional practice rooted in cultural stewardship, improvisation, and the belief that music can transform public space into a place of belonging.
Poet
Kaily Dorfman
Kaily Dorfman completed her MFA in poetry at UC Irvine and her PhD in English and literary arts at the University of Denver. She was a Finalist for the 2026 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and the 2026 Wandering Aengus Book Award. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best New Poets anthology, and is published or forthcoming at journals including New England Review, The Iowa Review, and ONE ART.
Visual Artist
Miles Michelle
My name is Miles Michelle (they/them), a queer trans-masc artist from Nevada City, CA and local to Santa Cruz since 2013. I am a lifelong student of art, creating since I was a child and sustaining a drawing practice for more than 20 years. My work has been displayed in various exhibits and businesses throughout the county and I’ve had the privilege of participating in Santa Cruz’s Open Studios art tour.
Making art is the avenue through which I express the visions and sensations of my internal reality informed by C-PTSD and Madness. My creativity has evolved as a means of survival, catharsis, healing, and spirituality. Through my art I strive to find meaning in senselessness, to embrace humor, nature, and the macabre, and to bear witness to that which has been exiled. I seek to challenge the instinct to turn away from what is perceived to be too much, too dark, or too uncomfortable - both personally and collectively. Emotional bravery is at the forefront of my work.
Coloratura Soprano
Olivia White
Olivia White is a fourth-year UCSC student double majoring in Western Art Music and Education, Democracy, & Justice, singing coloratura soprano under the instruction of Dr. Emily Sinclair since 2024. She is also a proud laureate of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Soloist Intensive Program, and 1st place winner of the 2026 Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Youth Singing Competition. Her previous roles with UCSC Opera include the Evil Stepmother in Into the Woods, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papagena in The Magic Flute, and Diana: Goddess of the Hunt, in Orpheus and the Underworld, in addition to her youth roles in SF Opera’s productions of Pagliacci and Turandot. This summer, she has had the amazing opportunity of composing and performing music with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music‘s Youth Ensemble. She looks forward to conducting the UCSC Chamber Singers in the fall and performing in UCSC’s upcoming shows of L’enfant et les Sortilèges and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Olivia also sings as one of two backup vocalists for a startup band called Weirdy and the Strangels, directed by sound engineer Jeremy Bell, involving electro pop, live looping, and sound manipulation through an invention of his. At home, Olivia loves to draw, paint, and write songs for voice, piano, guitar, violin, and chamber ensembles. She hopes to release an album of her original songs some day and is excited to combine her love of music with her love of teaching in the future.
Visual Storyteller & Installation Artist
Wendy Frances / @wendyspresso
Wendy Frances is a Santa Cruz-based artist, visual storyteller, and independent content creator whose work explores the intersection of visual art, music, culture, and community. Working from her private studio at the Tannery Arts Center, Wendy develops immersive installations and imagined worlds that invite curiosity, exploration, and connection. Her artistic practice spans installation, illustration, environmental storytelling, and world-building, creating spaces where narrative and visual experience become one. Alongside her studio practice, Wendy documents and amplifies creative communities through video, writing, and digital storytelling. From intimate gallery exhibitions and local restaurants to major music festivals and large-scale productions, Wendy is passionate about capturing the people, places, and moments that shape creative culture.
Within Santa Cruz, Wendy has become a trusted voice in the arts community through her work with organizations including First Friday Santa Cruz, Ripple Effect Arts Festival, Santa Cruz Dance Week, and The Catalyst. As a writer for Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine and First Friday Santa Cruz, she profiles artists, exhibitions, culinary experiences, and cultural events, helping audiences connect more deeply with the creative community around them. She has also served as the host of Santa Cruz's Battle of the Bands for two consecutive years. Professionally, Wendy works in live event production and content creation, contributing to nationally recognized festivals and events including Bottle Rock, Electric Forest and Coachella. Whether documenting a world-class festival, highlighting a local artist, or creating an immersive installation of her own, Wendy approaches every project with the belief that storytelling can inspire curiosity, strengthen communities, and deepen our connection to the creative world.
Fiscal Sponsorship
A 501(c)(3) home for mission-aligned artists and organizations.
Fiscal sponsorship lets artists and organizations whose mission aligns with ours receive tax-deductible donations and apply for grants under The 418 Project's 501(c)(3) status — without having to form their own nonprofit. You focus on your mission; we handle the financial and administrative side.
How it works
Apply, interview, and once you're approved you get your own profile and donation button on our website. From there, we:
- process donations responsibly and turn funds around within 14 days of receipt;
- provide our 501(c)(3) number so you can pursue grant funding;
- send donors timely acknowledgments and year-end tax letters;
- keep your information current on our site and feature your work on social media.
We charge a 7% fee on funds raised. The program began in 2001; in the past year alone it raised over $250,000 for artists and organizations, positively impacting more than 5,000 people.
Our fiscal sponsees
She Rose Show
Brought to you by Marya Stark and Sedona Swan Soulfire ‘The She Rose Show’ emerges as a transmission of beauty, hope and liberation through the tending of community and the awakening of imagination. The show offers an immersive multi-modality experience of sacred song, dance, ritual theater, puppeteering and visuals in celebration of the emergent divine feminine and the possibilities that arise when we collectively choose love and unity as a way forward. The She Rose Show seeks to inspire a reverence for the power of our shared lineages, the sacredness of our bodies, the wisdom of women’s stories and the beauty found in diversity.
Visit www.sheroseshow.com for more info
Te Hau Nui School of Hula And Tahitian Dance
Te Hau Nui shares Hawaiian hula and Polynesian dance, culture and traditions. The art of dance is a gift to the dancer as well as to the observer; it enriches all! Te Hau Nui provides dancers of every age the opportunity for character development through dance practice, performance and to be guided by the principled values of hula traditions.
Our new larger studio space allows for us to continue sharing the sacred and festive dances of Polynesia with our beloved Santa Cruz community.
Kumu Lorraine will live on through this legacy. Mahalo nui loa from Te Hau Nui Ohana!
Dual Demons
Devon (they/them) and Cass (they/she) of Dual Demons are two Queer, trans, non-binary educators, performers, and producers of explicitly Queer events. Their core mission is to bring people together and to provide spaces that are welcoming, safe, and inclusive, while also being silly and subversive. They produce large Queer variety shows, teach shibari rope bondage, perform immersive rope suspension, and more! Dual Demons also produces K!nk at Pride - a large-scale, annual event in Santa Cruz that brings together all-Queer educators and performers to teach, play, and learn. Devon and Cass weave together art, education, and community, creating vibrant, unapologetically Queer spaces that celebrate self-expression, subversion, and liberation.
A Table of Our Own
Our goal is to create a documentary about a gathering of Black luminaries working in the psychedelic space. We’ll gather 35 key members from all around the country in a safe place and give participants the chance to share their strengths, experiences, hopes, and challenges. The goal is to highlight those doing great work and to expand the reach of these important ways of healing to more Black people. We also wish to de-stigmatize these substances so that they’re no longer seen as “White people stuff” and more as the natural balms and salves to Black people’s psyches that we’ve been using for millennia.
Rebecca Hernandez
Rebecca Hernandez, PhD, (Mescalero/Warm Springs Apache and Mexican American) is a local consultant who offers workshops and informational presentations about American Indians in the United States. Your support will assist Rebecca in her efforts to educate folks about important topics such as American Indian art, cultural sovereignty and stewardship, land acknowledgments, and how to engage with tribes respectfully.
Tobera Project
Our mission is to preserve and honor the rich Filipino immigrant experience in the Pajaro Valley through cultural arts and education to share with the broader community.
Raíces y Cariño | Roots and Love
A Community Collective for Families
Raíces y Cariño is an equitable, inclusive, and safe space for the community to gather and raise their children together. We are a hub connecting diverse families, educators, and organizations to create cross-cultural connections and wellbeing for the whole family.
Everyone's Music School
Help support Everyone's Music School provide compassionate Music Instruction to our community. Your donation will go toward our BIPOC scholarship fund, Community Choir, Free weekly music classes and general operating expenses. We truly believe quality music education should be accessible to all walks of life!
What's Home?
Creative Listening Across Differences
When those who are most marginalized are given the chance to be seen and to collaborate in the making of new works of art, all of us are uplifted.
In 2022-2023 artists brought together a housed and unhoused person to create new songs, dances, and visual art. Audiences found this work moving and inspirational.
Your contribution will help us complete and distribute five new short documentaries!
Watsonville Yoga
Watsonville Yoga, Dance and Healing Arts is the first dedicated Yoga studio in our town, and also one of the first in the Bay Area to offer bilingual Yoga and dance classes, and holistic health services since opening in 2016. Watsonville Yoga hosts a healing arts clinic, where you can find licensed practitioners of Ayurveda, Massage, Sound Healing, Herbalism, Peruvian shamanism, and other modalities. We have an intense commitment to serving and uniting people of diverse backgrounds from all ages, and aim to transcend the perceived limitations of language barriers, as we build friendships, trust and understanding through movement arts for a stronger community.
Coming to America
In times like these. The Unknown. The Unusual. The non-conformist. We need ART to sustain us. Uche Elueze’s show, Coming To America; not the movie, is a story about his life: being born in Nigeria, and spending most of his life abroad. This is a one-man solo show centered around self, and how different institutions and countries shape one's character. The show explores various modes, including: storytelling, monologues, performance art, and Improv. Uchè Elueze has been part of Santa Cruz Shakespeare and he appreciates any and all support.
Josh Kornbluth
For over three decades, monologuist and filmmaker Josh Kornbluth has been telling stories to make the world more loving and fair (and also to get people to laugh). His most recent focus has been on uplifting the rights and dignity of the elderly, of people with brain disease, and of those who care for them. Josh was the first Artist-in-Residence at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, and a Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center. His "Citizen Brain" video series (www.citizenbrain.org), about the connection between brain health and social justice, has been viewed by over half a million people.
Liminal Space Collective
Liminal Space Collective's mission is to build connection and facilitate change through collaborative art, immersive experiences, learning, experimentation and sustainable innovation. We believe in the power of collaborative, interactive art to build community resilience. We create open and accessible experiences that unite creatives and art lovers from all walks of life. We cultivate a new kind of third place, one of grounding, healing, and adaptation, where connections spark meaningful change. By supporting Liminal Space, you enable artists to collaborate, create, and share their work. Together, we can foster a vibrant and sustainable creative scene that inspires existential optimism and turns dreams into reality. What's your dream?
A Dog's Smile
A Dog’s Smile Documentary Feature Film is a transformational “tour-du-furs” that dares ask what humans can learn from dogs about life: about challenges like grief, trauma, and conflict, about our capacity for healing and renewal, about our own mortality, and about the ability to live with joy, ease and wonder. As intermediaries between the human world and the broader community of life (“nature”), canines turn out to be messengers of surprising insights into our hidden potentials and place on the planet. The science, stories and explorations of the film are edutainment of a gentle variety.
The Rainbow Family Resource Center
We are the Rainbow FRC, a collective of neurodivergent and disabled individuals and caregivers dedicated to launching a cooperative Family Resource Center in Santa Cruz County. Our mission is to support, affirm, and validate individuals and families with diverse neurotypes, developmental needs, and disabilities by providing connection tools, support services, and resources from birth to end of life. The Rainbow FRC is currently working on starting an accessibility-focused center where individuals and families can come to play and build community.
The Alchemist's Temple
We are a collective of visionary creators founded by a local Afro-Caribbean queer movement artist Kaiya Ashanti. We are dancers, artists, entrepreneurs, healers and mystics. We believe in co-creating experiences that inspire through music, dance, art, health, spirituality, culture, and education. We would like our attendees to feel a sense of transformation, feeling deeply inspired, empowered, and connected to their own inner potential and to others. The events we hope to get sponsored for highlights diversity and world cultures and music as well as queer creative expression, in a way that celebrates and uplifts us.
Raízes do Brasil Capoeira and Cultural Arts Cente
We are “Raízes do Brasil Capoeira and Brazilian Cultural Arts Center”. We provide classes to both kids and adults at our own space and at many of the public schools throughout both the Santa Cruz and the Pajaro Valley School Districts. We are specifically hoping to fundraise to support students who may not be able to afford classes, as well as to pay travel stipends to our teachers who need to commute to teach.
Ripple Effect: Santa Cruz Arts Festival
Ripple Effect: Santa Cruz Arts Festival is a vibrant celebration that unites visual and performing arts through collaborative events, interactive workshops, and awe-inspiring surprises. This dynamic festival showcases the creative spirit of Santa Cruz County, inviting participants of all ages to engage with art in unique and unexpected ways. From hands-on activities to spectacular performances and exhibitions, Ripple Effect highlights the transformative power of art to inspire connection and creativity.
The first Ripple Effect festival will take place April 16-April 26, 2026… You don’t want to miss this!
Goddess Moon Temple by Vaidehi Amair
Goddess Moon Temple — A community dedicated to spirituality, creativity, and embodiment to uplift the human experience in a world that can feel lonely and unsafe. Created by artist and entrepreneur Vaidehi Amair, offerings include yoga wisdom, spiritual practice and self-development tools. Her self produced sanskrit music, performances, and kirtan/voice workshops empower the voice and inner healing through prayer. The moon ceremonies/coaching/tarot support emotional regulation and self actualization. The movement offerings improve mobility, strength, and provide a healthy channel for expression and sensuality. Support Goddess Moon Temple so this work continues, expands and thrives in a new location!
Abi Mustapha's This is What Art Can Do
I’m creating a land based art and design studio that serves as a vital community hub for creative renewal, and cultural repair. Blending art, land stewardship, and wellness, it offers workshops, mentorship, and gatherings that reconnect people to their hands, imagination, land and each other. The studio will also produce functional products to help sustain its mission while ensuring community access through low-cost programs. Fiscal sponsorship will support the work going into launching this space as a model for creative and ecological belonging, where making becomes medicine, and art restores the human capacity for connection, resilience, and joy.
Bands & Entertainment for Charity
Bands & Entertainment for Charity provides music and performing arts experiences throughout the United States. Our showcases feature live bands, comedians, DJs, tap dancers, art exhibits, theatrical performances, and film previews. Our mission is to celebrate cultural diversity, uplift emerging artists, and create inclusive and accessible events that inspire creativity, connection, and unity. Through our showcases and initiatives, we aim to foster a vibrant, harmonious society where music and the arts serve as catalysts for positive change and social impact. Additionally, we raise funds to support music, arts, and technology programs for youth, helping to nurture the next generation of creative leaders.
ICONS Cabaret by Tina Powell
The ICONS Cabaret is a performing arts collective dedicated to celebrating Black women’s artistry and sustaining a platform for their stories. With an all-Black woman and gender-expansive cast, we honor the lineage that shapes our work. Our first production, ICONS: Black Women Illuminated, premieres September 20, 2025, at The 418 Project. This cabaret blends live jazz, variety acts, and short films to honor the pioneering Black women artists who transformed the 20th century.
We are guided by three principles: Honoring Heritage, Empowering Artists, and Building Community. Together, these values illuminate the past, empower the present, and build the future of Black artistry.
Eastern Sierra Wild Horses
“Eastern Sierra Wild Horses” uses art to change the trajectory of policy and public perception. Our art helps people see wild horses not as expendable populations, but as family-centered, ecologically vital beings whose survival matters to our shared future and that of our planet.
These wild horses face permanent removal from their ancestral home later this year. Hence the urgent need to raise funds to complete filming before this herd is obliterated and their story with them.
Through free or low-cost community events and live streamed talks, we ensure broad access across generations, geographies and backgrounds.
The Further Shores of Knowing — A musical fantasy
The earth’s guiding star, Polaris, suddenly goes dark because of humanity’s failings. The question is, who can re-ignite the star to bring light and orientation back into the world? The urgency on the stage reflects the urgency in our world. Guided by ancient truths, The Further Shores of Knowing is a mystical journey to recover a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation of our place in the cosmos. This is a show for audiences of all ages. In these troubled times, we hope to model a higher state of being and the potential we all have to work better together to fulfill our greatest promise.
Visit TheFurtherShores.com for more details.
Ancestral Wellspring Collective
Ancestral Wellspring Collective (AWC) is a healing justice initiative providing trauma-informed peer support and community-rooted care for Black women and Women of Color (BIWOC). Our work centers dignity, cultural resonance, and accessibility for survivors, caregivers, and community members navigating grief, burnout, and systemic inequity.
AWC offers free and sliding-scale 1:1 peer support sessions for BIWOC, as well as The Grief Nest, a free weekly peer support circle dedicated to Black women. Through our herbal care arm, Renegade Apothecary, we provide free or low-cost wellness support to Black women, BIWOC birth workers, and community organizations serving survivors and caregivers.
Starting in Spring 2026, AWC will expand its offerings to include 1:1 and small group restorative retreats for BIWOC, focused on rest, grief tending, and nervous system care. We are currently seeking partnerships with retreat centers, land stewards, wellness spaces, and sponsors to support these retreats through donated space, in-kind resources, and program funding.
AWC operates through a reparative giving model, where community donations, sponsorships, and philanthropic support directly subsidize access to care. This structure ensures that Black women and BIWOC most impacted by systemic and relational harm receive culturally grounded support without financial barriers.
Our mission is to expand access to survivor-informed support and herbal mutual aid that centers the emotional, cultural, and nervous system needs of Black women and BIWOC. With sustained funding, AWC will continue building a community-based infrastructure where healing is accessible, leadership is rooted in lived experience, and care is supported as a shared responsibility.
Mad Hatters Ball
The Mad Hatters Ball is a fundraising celebration supporting Raíces y Cariño’s equitable birth and family programs. The 418 Project’s fiscal sponsorship percentage fee is waived for this fund.