On August 21st, dozens of people participated in an informational social gathering and barbecue hosted by the Save the Knoll Coalition at Grant Street Park in Santa Cruz. The Knoll is part of a wild area in Santa Cruz, locally known as Market Street Field at Branciforte Creek, which is also the location of a 6,000 year old Native American burial and village site. Despite the Knoll’s cultural significance, it is threatened with imminent development by KB Home as part of a 32-unit residential subdivision being advertised as “Branciforte Creek – the Comfort of Green Living”.
Indigenous Ohlone peoples were the featured speakers at the gathering, including Ann Marie Sayers, who as been designated as the “Most Likely Descendant” (MLD) of native peoples who have been dug up during the construction which has already begun, and Charlene Sul, an artist, activist and newly-appointed Professor at CSU Monterey Bay. Read More and View Photos
On July 23rd, about twenty people rallied and marched in downtown Santa Cruz in solidarity with prisoners at Pelican Bay who have ended their hunger strike and declared it a success! Their courageous act of refusing to eat for four weeks has successfully put the issues of torturous isolation units and California’s abominable debriefing program in the international and national media, boosted a growing movement for the rights of prisoners, and is unifying prisoners of different racial groups for a struggle against their real and shared enemies: the unfair policies and practices of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). 
On June 30th, a new incarnation of Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs served up a healthy and hearty meal to dozens of hungry people in front of Santa Cruz City Hall. The collaborative effort was in response to the City of Orlando, Florida 
Racist headstones have marked the relocated resting place of Negro Hills, California pioneers since 1954. When the Folsom Dam was created in 1954, along with Folsom Lake, numerous communities, including those making up Negro Hills, were submerged under the water of the American River (previously known as el Rio de las Americas when the land was governed by Mexico). Before the communities were submerged, the cemeteries were dug up and moved to a location near the new lake called Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery. The cemetery is in present day El Dorado Hills, on Shadowfax Lane off of Green Valley Road next to Folsom Prison.
On May 15, Santa Cruz SlutWalk took the sidewalks to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights, to demand respect for all, and re-appropriate the term slut. The demonstration was one of many around the world sparked by a statement on January 24 from a representative of the Toronto Police to a group of students. The officer shared insight into the police force’s view of sexual assault by stating, “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” 
