List of classes in alphabetical order (And info also in google calendar at bottom of list)
A radically different approach to living and learning, Free Skool Santa Cruz is a grassroots educational project beyond institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from each other and share what we know, to foster communities of mutual support and autonomy.
Here’s information for 25 classes for Part 1 of the 2023 Spring/Summer Session of Free Skool Santa Cruz that goes from May 1st to July 15th.
In early July, we will request classes for part 2 of the Free Skool Santa Cruz Summer session (July 16 to September 30th). Please email questions to: freeskoolsantacruz@gmail.com
More about Free Skool Santa Cruz at our website HERE!
Download and print your own copy of the hand drawn Free Skool Santa Cruz calendar! And alphabetical list of classes for the back.
-Beach Flats Garden Celebration – Saturday, May 20th / 2 – 5pm with the gardeners and community
Location: Beach Flats Garden – Raymond St, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Come celebrate almost 30 years of cultivation and a new growing season at the Beach Flats Garden. Bring a dish to share or just your curiosity and appreciation for this amazing community space.
Accessibility: outdoor, dirt path.
-Bike Church Youth Hours – Wednesdays / 2– 6pm (Repeats weekly) with Bike Church Mechanics (thebikechurch@gmail.com)
Location: The Bike Church, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Youth Wrench-N-Ride at the Bike Church: Description: Youth Wrench-N-Ride at the Bike Church: learn to fix your bike / earn a bike / free helmets and locks / bike safety training / bike rides / free snacks and drinks
-Birth Support! – Sunday, May 21st / 11am – 1pm with Angela Hartley (Beeswhaleswolves@gmail.com, 831-566-0877)
Location: Grassy field at Highlands Park – 8500 CA-9, Ben Lomond, CA
Description: A time to talk all things pregnancy and birth with a local home birth midwife and other pregnant people/families. Loosely structured time to ask questions, discuss relevant to you info. Whether you are birthing at home or in the hospital, come get some extra informational, practical, emotional support and make new friends!
Accessibility: We will be sitting on a blanket in a grassy area. Bring what you need to be comfortable. (More blankets/pillows, camping chair/back jack, etc).
-Building Radical Systems of Care – Sundays, May 21st and June 4th / 1 – 2:30pm with River Eisenbach (510-612-3931)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: We will examine what it means to be human in regards to caring for each other through various texts and then discuss and come up with action plans as to how to better care for ourselves, each other, and our direct communities.
Accessibility: If there are accessibility needs contact me and I will accommodate needs and masks are optional but encouraged if meeting inside SubRosa.
-Cyanotype 101 – Saturday, July 1st / 11am with Meliss (melissdesmond@gmail.com / https://www.instagram.com/mielphette/)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Cyanotyping is a 170 year old photo printing process that uses a prussian blue dye and the sun to print desired shapes and effects. Please bring any art supplies and any shapes (leaves, flowers, clear objects, string) anything you’d like to print (and potentially share!). We will meet on a sunny day to assemble our design, print in the sun and water bath our photos. Please join us to create and print your first cyanotype!
Materials: paper, paint brushes, any specific objects or forms you’d like to be able to print.
Accessibility: Feel free to wear a mask if you feel most comfortable with that. This activity will require using hands and some walking but can be made accessible with assistance.
-Democratic Confederalism – Thursdays, May 11th, 25th / 5:30pm with Rojava Solidarity Santa Cruz (https://www.instagram.com/rojavasc/)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Interested in grassroots democracy and how it is put into practice at a larger scale? Come learn about the political program in use in Northern Syria (Rojava) that allows over 2 million people to take part in a democratic life without the need for a nation-state. Together we will engage with the short pamphlet “Democratic Confederalism” by Abdullah Öcalan (tinyurl.com/demconfedpdf) and discuss the prospects of how these models could help reinvigorate democracy here in our town and elsewhere!
Materials: We provided a link to the PDF in the description. other languages can also be made available, español tinyurl.com/condempdf
COVID protocols: Masks preferred.
-Drag Workshop – Mondays, May 15th (this date not happening but others are!) and June 19th and July 10th / 5 – 6:30pm with Roxy Moron (https://www.instagram.com/roxxy.moron/)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Drag Workshop is back! Come join us and make an outfit, design an act or practice a performance in an open format workshop! Hosted by Roxy Moron.
COVID protocols: vaccination required.
-Ecology Nerd Sesh – Wednesday, May 10th / 5pm with frogbit (https://www.instagram.com/froggy.doll/)
Location: San Lorenzo Park (meet at the entrance on dakota avenue) – 137 Dakota Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Come meet fellow forest nerds and share information about ecology, bugs, mushrooms, fish, and the like! Feel free to come just to learn and hangout, or with a whole plan and props, or anywhere in between :^)
COVID protocols: All outdoors. Wide maintained dirt paths go around the park and there are a few benches
-Everything for everyone: an intro to cooperatives – Thursday, May 4th / 7pm with Paola Eisner (paola@cooplawgroup.com)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: For this class coops are defined as companies that are member owned and governed, and that operate for the benefit of their members–an entity structure that can provide the foundation for real economic democracy and anarchy here and now in spite of capitalism. Paola Eisner, a co-op lawyer who works with Tuttle Law Group in SF, will provide a basic intro to co-ops, and then open space for sharing and learning from each other, as well as Q&A.
Materials: a google doc of resources will be available and potentially a short documentary as well.
Accessibility: The courtyard is very open and accessible.
-Exploring Feminine Rage – Saturday, May 13th and Sunday May 21st and Sunday June 11th, 18th / 3 – 5pm with Ariella Patchen (ap73999@gmail.com)
Location: SubRosa Courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: This class will explore the idea of feminine rage through both theory and practice. We will spend the first half of class discussing the concept of feminine rage as taken up by various feminist writers such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Maria Lugones, etc. and within social movements like the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and the Zapatistas in Chiapas as we explore questions such as: how do women get to express anger? Which women can express anger? Where can this anger be expressed? What does feminine rage open up? and more. The second part of this class will be a collective engagement with our own experiences of rage through participating in improvisation techniques and mutual screaming.
This class is open to anyone who identifies as fem, non-binary, and gender non-conforming.
Materials: I will have a google forms sign up sheet for students to register a week in advance for readings. Please bring a notebook, water, and a snack if you would like!
-Exploring the Liberatory Potential of Community through Collective Improvisation – Mondays, May 1st (women/trans/gnc space), 8th, 15th, 22nd (qtpoc space), 29th – / 6 – 8pm with Kumi Maxson (https://www.instagram.com/kumunist/)
Location: Indexical space at the Tannery – 1050 River St #119, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Weekly musical improvisation spaces geared for all levels of musical experience (including none!). These spaces are engaged in connecting this musical practice to liberatory politics through discussion and brief study. These workshops are striving to create an accessible space for non-hierarchical participation and experimentation. Musicians are encouraged to bring their own instruments, however some will be provided in the space.
COVID protocols: Masks are required (wind players and vocalists may perform without masks if needed).
-Fábrica Open Hours – Saturdays / 2 – 5pm and Mondays / 1 – 4pm with Fábrica Collective (thefabrica@thefabrica.org) – note: closed May 1 (go celebrate May Day and Beltane!)
Location: The Fábrica, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: The Fábrica is a community workspace where folks can come to learn and share knowledge about textiles arts. This includes Sewing, Knitting, Quilting, Embroidery, Crochet, and Bookbinding, among others. The workshop is operated by volunteers and funded by donations from participants.
Materials: We have sewing machines as well as generous amounts of fabric, zippers, notions, and the other tools and supplies one needs for most sewing and yarn-based projects. There is no charge to use the shop, but please consider a $5-10 donation to help with our operating costs.
Accessibility: Classes will take place in the courtyard or shop space of the Fabrica. The shop and courtyard are level with the sidewalk, with no steps up or down. A flexible range of participation is available and no previous sewing experience is needed. If you want to participate in the hands-on part of the class, it involves sitting in a chair at a table for 10-15 minutes at a time, some manual dexterity, and moderate to high visual acuity. The class will use spoken English and there will not be a sign language interpreter but you can bring interpreters or support people of any kind you may need. The Fabrica is approximately 450 feet from the Metro Station downtown, with city sidewalks with regular curb cuts between the station and the Fabrica.
-Grassroots Organizing: unions, tenants, neighborhoods – Sunday, May 7th, 21st / 6 – 7pm with Josh Brahinsky (jbrahins@gmail.com)
Location: 208 Blackburn St, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: How will you build power? Let’s explore together strategies and concerns we share around how to build bottom up organization as we participate in local projects that give us a place to try our new techniques. This class is facilitated by an experienced union, tenant and neighborhood organizer in search of brilliant new strategies but also a bit of a back to basics, focus on 1:1 relationship and base building, kind of organizer. These are just two initial gatherings and we will come up with other times to meet.
Materials: See if you have an organizing project that inspires you, if not we can help you find one.
COVID protocols/info: We will be inside talking together.
-Group Somatics – Rescheduled and updated information soon with Sylvie Stein (sylvie.stein@gmail.com)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: “Soma” is an ancient Greek word that gets at our internal experience of aliveness in our bodies, and “somatics” is an emerging framework for building alignment with that aliveness: our sensations, emotions, thoughts, spirituality, relationships, behaviors, and environment. In this series, we will engage in 1-3 somatic practices per session and organize ourselves around personal intentions or “commitments.” It will be influenced by modalities and philosophies from Generative Somatics, Somatic Experiencing, Transformative Justice, Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, Ancestral Healing, and Jewish and Buddhist spirituality.
Materials: movement-friendly clothing!
Accessibility: Please do not come if you are sick. Scent-free space.
-Knots 101 – Tuesday, May 30th / 5:30 p.m. with Phoenix (pbuddeberg@protonmail.com)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Learning the basics of knot tying, with opportunity to practice. Introduction will also include basic terminology and learning/reference resources. Will not include splicing.
Materials: If you have it, bring rope or heavy cordage to practice with. I have a limited amount that I can provide.
COVID protocols: Masking recommended.
-Laughing Circle – Saturday, May 20th / 11am – 12pm with Ariella Patchen (ap73999@gmail.com)
Location: SubRosa Courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Spread joy with fellow community members by joining in on a laughing circle. Participants will gather to laugh with one another and explore expressive practices of collective joy. We will engage with both our laughter and movements to release tension and build mutuality.
Materials: water bottle if you would like!
COVID protocols: class will be hosted outside.
-Make a Broom – Saturday, June 24th / 10am – 2pm with Ivy (https://www.instagram.com/ivy_kae/)
Location: Ocean View Park, 102 Ocean View Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Learn about the legacy of the humble broom. Whittle a stick and make a sturdy kitchen broom. Limit around 8 people.
Materials: Bring a good whittling knife.
Accessibility: Broom-makers need use of hands, feet and all four limbs. It’s possible someone with limitations could do it with a team-mate/ helper. Please inquire with questions about this. Minimum age for taking class is 11 years old.
-Neurodiversity and Community Care – Sunday, June 11th / 5pm with Amber Katzirah (willowandalder@gmail.com)
Location: The Tannery, meet in Garden Area behind 1040 Building, 1040 River St, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: This class is geared towards those needing to learn more about Neurodiversity and Accessibility/Disability Justice issues around creating more inclusion for Neurodistinct community members. Basic terms, community standards, common access needs, cliche and misconception busting, creating ND affirming spaces., and celebrating Neurodistinction. People who do NOT identify as Neurodivergent are encouraged to attend as well as the Neurodistinct (Neuroqueer, Neurospicy) and basically anyone, whether you are unsure if that describes you, diagnosed or not, etc, who has a willingness to be receptive and learn. This is NOT an ND only space or support group, nor a designated safe space (since it’s an education space for all), that is in the works, however so lmk if you are looking for that.
Materials: Not required but recommended you peruse my resource folder, email willowandalder@gmail.com to receive.
Accessibility: Location is an ADA compliant building, we may meet in an accessible outdoor location or accessible indoor one depending on the needs of participants, please lmk your access needs via email. We’ll be masked if we are indoors.
-Queer Basketball – Sundays, May 7th, 21st / 4 – 6pm with Rosa Rice-Pelepko & Monroe Salandra (rosarp02@gmail.com)
Location: Garfield Park, 634 Almar Ave, Santa Cruz
Description: Looking for a queer basketball group to join? All levels are welcome and encouraged to attend! We will cover the basic rules and techniques of the game, and then play!
Materials: Wear comfortable shoes and clothes.
COVID protocols: Outdoors, masks optional. Please don’t attend if you have any COVID symptoms.
-The Participation of Women in Global Revolutionary Struggle – Saturday, July 8th (& into 2nd session of FSSC – Sundays, July 16th, 30th and Aug 6th) / 3 – 5pm with Ariella Patchen (ap73999@gmail.com)
Location: SubRosa Courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: In this collective course I would like for us to think about how women in liberation movements, such as the Zapatista, Kurdish, Palestinian, and Black Panther Party, have opened up space for women to form connections with one another while challenging both external and internal patriarchal gender dynamics. We will focus on reading mainly auto-biographical accounts from women in each movement as we think about what we can learn from each movement, and how it relates to us as we work towards making revolutionary alternatives and combating patriarchy in our own lives.
Materials: I will send out a google form for those interested in participating to distribute the readings one week in advance!
-Really Really Free Market – Every second Sunday, May 21st (3rd Sunday), June 11th, July 9th / 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. with the Really Really Free Market Crew (SubRosa@riseup.net)
Location: SubRosa Courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Tianguis Realmente Gratuito. Todo es gratis. Really Really Free Market – every second Sunday – 11am – 2pm. No money. No trades. Everything is free. This gathering is not about the “stuff” we give and take, but more about how we can freely give and receive from each other. This is a form of anti-capitalist mutual aid where everyone is invited to participate and share care. ¡Todo gratis! No intercambio de dinero, no negocios, no trueques. Trae lo que gustes, toma lo que necesites. Este mercado gratuito es basado en una economía de regalar. Learn more about the Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market (RRFM) and RRFMs in general – go to linktree in bio https://instagram.com/rrfm_
COVID protocols: Please wear a mask for community care.
-S.C.U.M. x Free Skool Presents: Record Shares and Listening Lounge – Tuesdays, May 9th, June 13th / 5pm with Ben Krasner & Jacín (repressionjones@gmail.com)
Location: SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Ben, Jacin, and friends will select and bring records (and perhaps other media) to share, listen, and discuss as a group in an intentional setting. For some sessions, we will select specific records/media, for others it will be more open and people may even bring records to share and play.
Materials: For one session we will encourage participants to bring their own records or media.
Accessibility: mask optional, all welcome, QTPOC friendly space, safe(r) space.
-Socialist Stitch and Bitch – Every third Sunday, May 21st, June 18th / 1 – 3 p.m. with Vicki Winters (onyourleft2@gmail.com, https://www.instagram.com/dsasantacruz/)
Location: Tabby Cat Cafe, 1101 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Join us for a session of hand stitching and the ruthless critique of all that exists! (co-sponsored by DSA Santa Cruz Auntie Fa Caucus).
Materials: Bring along your own embroidery, knitting, crochet, or other other handwork. Beginners welcome! Yarn, needles, thread and fabric will be supplied if you want to learn knitting or creative mending.
-Using State Bureaucracy to Benefit Anarchist Projects – Sunday, June 4th / 2pm with Reggie Meisler (reggie.meisler@gmail.com, 415-846-8097, www.santacruzcares.org )
Location: London Nelson (grassy area), 301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Did you know that you can use tools provided by the state to do investigation, monitor the activities of city council, delay projects, and in some cases even stall things out indefinitely? Learn how some of these tools work from a member of Santa Cruz Cares who has used them to stop the city from implementing anti-houseless ordinances.
-We all need a Plan C: A teach-in and conversation on abortion access in a post-Roe US – Wednesday, May 24th / 6 p.m. with Amy Merrill (amy@plancpills.org / https://www.instagram.com/plancpills/)
Location: SubRosa Courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Want to know how you can support abortion access in the face of harmful and draconian bans across the US?
Come learn about the modern reality of safe and effective abortion pills by mail: and how people all over the US are accessing them through both mainstream healthcare and alternate routes for self-managed abortion. Hear about the method’s long history, made more complex because of how it could radically transform access to abortion. Learn how anyone can help share this information, normalize the method, and help reclaim abortion as a human right and community care in the US.
Amy Merrill is cofounder and digital director of Plan C @plancpills, a nonprofit digital campaign started in 2015 to share information and resources for direct access to pills and safe self-managed care. Last year Plan C had over 2M website visitors, distributed 3M stickers for grassroots organizing, and saw 13B press hits worldwide: all to normalize this option and put agency back in the hands of the person seeking an abortion.
COVID protocols: Masks optional.
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