K-LITE 101.7’s morning show team of Gary and Catherine quickly came to confront the COVID-19 crisis with a new feature called “Music That Matters Now!” The segment, which airs every weekday morning at 8:45 am on the popular Santa Barbara station, also combines talking with a local musician about their ideas about the role music […]
Center Stage Theater (CST), the black-box venue that makes itself available to the community through largely low-cost rentals, is also stepping up its game in perhaps an even bigger way by offering a new streaming service every night through the end of the month. The segments will run each night at 7 pm, also starting […]
The stated purpose of the Lois & Walter Capps Project is “Connecting our community through authentic and essential dialogue,” but its mission comes down to an even simpler three-word mantra, said president and executive director Todd Capps: “Bringing Us Together.” That encompasses all of the project’s enterprises from Common Table – which began a few […]
The concerts everywhere are all canceled, at least for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, and on into the summer, but the classical music organizations are doing their level best to keep in touch and keep you entertained. Camerata Pacifica might be leading the charge, as the chamber music ensemble is not only upgrading its […]
UCSB’s Launch Pad program began in 2005 as a grand experiment to offer a high-tech lab for playwrights-in-residence, UCSB theater students, faculty, and guest artists to collaborate in developing a new play each year. The residency culminates in a fully realized Preview Production, when the play completes its journey from incubation to professional world premiere […]
Unity Shoppe has come a long way back since a huge gap in its funding forced the nonprofit agency – the largest, single direct distributor of food, clothing, and necessities in the county – into briefly closing its distribution doors for two months in the fall of 2019. The nonprofit shut its doors for the […]
Episode nine of The Lucidity Festival, which was slated to take place April 10-12 at Live Oak Campground, has solidified new dates for its Regeneration Earth-themed weekend: November 6-8. The aim is to keep things as close as possible to the spring selections, from music to workshops and more, although shifting schedules always create some […]
With COVID-19 concessions confining almost everyone to their homes, Santa Barbara meditation teacher Radhule Weininger, Ph.D., just keeps expanding her ongoing offerings to the community to gather, connect, and share silence and guided meditations together. The weekly schedule produced by the clinical psychologist and teacher of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology now includes events on […]
Carpinteria QiGong teacher Jessica Kolbe, another SBCC SEL we have profiled in these pages in the past, held out as long as possible in keeping her in-person classes going at the Linden Avenue beach, where people were easily able to stay more than six feet from each other, all the way through March 22. But […]
Speaking of Nonviolent Communication, this week offers a chance for a free session with Sarah Peyton, a Washington-state based CNVC Certified Trainer who is also an international speaker and facilitator known for an ability to weave together neuroscience knowledge and experiences of healing that unify people with their brains and bodies. Peyton’s revolutionary Resonant Self […]
What with all the online learning taking place in colleges, universities, and other educational institutions, it may not seem all that revolutionary that Santa Barbara City College’s School of Extended Learning is embracing the internet. Indeed, with the COVID-19 crisis, there was no choice but to go virtual. What is rather exciting is the breadth […]
Santa Barbara’s Center for Successful Aging wants to help combat the loneliness and isolation caused by COVID-19. So the center is extending its CareLine Telephone Reassurance Program as a free service to anyone 50 years and older, ensuring that one of its volunteers will call you every day (or on any schedule that you prefer) […]
Speaking of Somatic Sanctuary, the somatic-based healing and movement arts center in Ojai has migrated much of its offerings to live streaming, including several classes per with Meredith Sands Keator and Sultana Parvanta in Somatic Stretch for Self-Healing and Awareness Through Movement sessions with Mary Jo Healy and guest teacher Shivani Jane. A special Monthly […]
Holistic Health and Lifestyle Coach, yoga teacher and “Eat Here Now” author Britta Gudmunson, aka Britta GreenViolet, has long been using song to cultivate healing, confidence, and connection. She’s a song leader and co-founder of the inCourage Chorus, the low-stress, joy-filled non-audition community choir that has iterations at Yoga Soup and the Somatic Sanctuary in […]
Dharma Body’s Tuesday and Thursday in-person Somatic Meditations at its yurt temple atop Mission Canyon – which some call the “space ship” – and downtown at Yoga Soup have been put on hold in favor of virtual online meditations beginning this week. Now the space ship will come to you, leaders Timothy Tillman and Laura […]
Alan Wallace – the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy – returned stateside due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is spending time in a remote cabin in Colorado for the now-in-progress Contemplative Path Through […]
Santa Barbara healer-dancer-actress Teagan Rose’s mission is to support people in connecting more deeply to their sense of home in their body, to their truth, and to their primal creativity. Her Embodiment and Voice Activation sessions and workshops specialize in emotional liberation and integration, self-love and self-understanding, energetic balancing and clearing, embodied trauma release, and […]
Carpinteria resident Damian Gallagher has been hosting Authentic Relating Games in person at Yoga Soup for more than a year, eager to share his practice and expertise in the relational field with the local community. By his own accord, AR games have allowed him to push his edges and find deeper and more meaningful ways […]
Santa Barbara Spiritual Growth Meetup Group founder Kelsey Cordle doesn’t want to let the novel coronavirus curtail connection any more than necessary. So, she writes, “In light of what’s going on in the world, I’d love for us all to still ‘get together’ virtually.” Among the possibilities on the menu for the gathering over Zoom […]
Rebekah Powell grew up outside of Nashville, aka Music City, USA, where her family’s business, not surprisingly, was songwriting. Her father, Monte Powell, was a longtime collaborator with Keith Urban, and other artists who recorded his songs include Tracy Byrd, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tim McGraw, Collin Raye, and Restless Heart. Rebekah’s older sister, Suzannah Powell, […]
Among the spiritual centers choosing to close at least through the end of the month is Sunburst Sanctuary and Retreat Center, although the Lompoc center’s spiritual director and office staff are available by phone and email at (805) 736-6528 or contactus@sunburst.org for those seeking support. Meanwhile, Unity of Santa Barbara’s Sunday services have migrated to […]
Going to gatherings in the great outdoors appears to be safe as long as people maintain appropriate space for “social distancing.” So Ascension Academy will still be hosting Kundalini Yoga to Balance the Chakra System and Restore Inner Peace from 10 to 11 am every Saturday at the Mission Rose Garden (420 Plaza Rubio), where […]
Bodhi Path Santa Barbara has announced that it wants to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 while still providing support to the sangha and community by moving all programs to online platforms until further notice. All programs may be accessed at their regularly scheduled times via Zoom links. Tuesday night sangha-led meditations take place 6-7 […]
Radhule Weininger is cancelling in-person meetings to help stop the spread of the virus, but instead of scaling back, the veteran meditation teacher is upping the ante and actually adding meetings to its slate of online offerings. So the Zoom schedule now includes Mondays at 7 pm with Weininger, Tuesdays at 7 pm with Stacy […]
DiviniTree Yoga went one step further to make “the conscious choice” to temporarily close its physical studio and switch to offering classes online. “This was the most challenging and gut-wrenching decision I’ve ever had to make as a small business owner,” wrote owner Jill Agonias. “I know for a fact that yoga and this supportive […]
“In fourteen years Yoga Soup never closed its doors, not once,” owner Eddie Ellner wrote in an email and note late on Monday, noting that the studio has stayed open “through fires, storms, slides, illness, locusts, bad hair days, insurrection.” The impetus was to take the line by poet Robert Frost to heart: “Home is […]
Salt, which bills itself as the largest underground crystal salt cave in North America, is not ready to close its cave nor its doors, as the boutique features pink Himalayan salt in crystal cave rooms, massage and facial treatments, and unique products made in Santa Barbara for the home, body, and cooking. “We’re still open […]
“Sheng Zhen means unconditional love in Chinese, and its purpose is to produce that within ourselves,” said Bryce Lupoli. “What that means practically is that Sheng Zhen helps us live with a quiet mind, a relaxed and healthy body, and an open heart.” Lupoli is one of only a few local teachers of the practice […]
Santa Barbara Bodhi Path Center resident teacher Dawa Tarchin Phillips will be leading a two-part class over successive Thursdays this month, as “Awakening Bodhicitta – How to Open Your Heart and Develop Love and Compassion” takes place 7-9 pm on March 12 and 19. The course addresses how we may be familiar with the benefits […]
Santa Barbara-based author and healer Elizabeth Morse wrote the alternative health book that’s also part self-help and part spiritual guide called Your Best Health by Friday: How to Overcome Anxiety, Depression, Stress, Trauma, PTSD, and Chronic Illness. The book explains the commonalities of all illnesses and provides action steps for people to heal, based on […]
Montecito-raised musician Joss Jaffe, who basically created his own sub-genre of dub-mantra by combining the rhythms of reggae with chanting and world jazz, is back in town for a final show with frequent partner Johanna Beekman. Jaffe, a Top-Ten New Age Billboard chanting artist whose four albums have been critically acclaimed, teams with Beekman, whose […]
Workshops at Yoga Soup this week include a Breath & Musical Journey with Luna & Gabe from 7-9 pm on Friday, March 13. Breathwork facilitator Blake Spencer will guide participants in tuning into their breath while simultaneously listening to local artist Gabriel Kelly sing his original songs and play guitar with Luna Kelly accompanying on […]
There are a lot of opportunities for locals to compose, create, perform, and or just partake in storytelling, as evidenced by the ongoing Personal Stories series – the showcases that feature local actors and writers developing first-person true stories that fit a theme to share at Center Stage Theater in the periodic events that outlived […]
Amazing Grace, the locally-made documentary about Grace Fisher, a 17-year-old dancer, cellist, pianist, and guitarist who contracted a rare polio-like disease that left her a quadriplegic, gets an encore screening at the Marjorie Luke this weekend. Encouraged by her mentors including Justin Hurwitz (the Montecito-raised Academy Award winning composer of the La La Land soundtrack) […]
Santa Barbara physician, musician, and author James Kahn will read from Matamoros, his Civil War romance that has received strong reviews, at Chaucer’s Bookstore at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 18. The book takes place in 1862, when the Union Army had blockaded all Confederate ports. Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, Matamoros […]
Two years after the #MeToo movement called attention to sexual harassment and power dynamics – and just a month after the landmark conviction of former Hollywood powerbroker Harvey Weinstein – it would seem almost counterintuitive to produce a traditional ballet version of the classic Sleeping Beauty story. In other words, a perfect stranger kissing an […]
The current cast members of the long-running TV improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? are bringing the touring version, dubbed “Whose Live Anyway?”, back to town for a single show at the Lobero Theatre. Cast members Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis, and Joel Murray will put together a 90-minute set of comedy […]
The Beach Boys make what seems like an annual local appearance – and why not, since Bruce Johnston and Christian Love live in town? – at the Chumash Casino Resort’s Samala Showroom on Friday, March 6. One night later on March 7, scions of the classic rock band Cream – Kofi Bake (son of drummer […]
Every year, approximately 375 films vie for just 80 slots in The Banff Mountain Film Festival, the most prestigious international presentation of short films and documentaries about mountain culture, sports, and environment that takes place every October in Banff, Canada. During the festival, a jury chooses the best films in such categories as Mountain Sports, […]
With SBIFF barely six weeks gone, the time seems ripe for more film fests to find local favor, as three different offerings arrive in town this week. The fifth annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival since the event was resurrected by the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara takes place March 11-15 at the New […]