Arts & Lectures Going Virtual for Fall Semester

The Cal State San Marcos campus may be closed this fall, but the Arts & Lectures series will go on. 

The longstanding series at CSUSM will present a virtual fall lineup, with all of the events taking place via Zoom. This season boasts a diverse selection of six events as the university hosts renowned guest speakers and performances.

Attendees can reserve tickets online via the Arts & Lectures website beginning Aug. 24.

Sage Lenier: Student-led, Solutions-oriented Visioning for Environmental Challenges

Sept. 23, 6 p.m., Zoom webinar

Sage Lenier is a visionary and inspiring leader in environmental problem-solving and human-rights activism. At UC Berkeley (’20), she was a statewide UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative fellow and student environmental professor. In 2018, she designed and taught an award-winning, solutions-based undergraduate course titled “Zero Waste: Solutions for a Sustainable Future,” Berkeley’s most popular student-led course. Lenier’s mission is to curate and present scalable and practical steps to addressing the ecological crisis, from your personal life to changing the systems you live in. Her sustainability work has been featured in the New York Times, and her optimistic and compassionate approach to climate change, the circular economy, zero waste, livable cities and regenerative agriculture has launched her as a generational role model.

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation 

Raja Feather Kelly: Honest Reactions to Imaginary Situations

Oct. 1, noon, Zoom webinar

Welcome to an hour of dynamic and thought-provoking performance, lecture and screening by acclaimed New York-based choreographer/director Raja Feather Kelly, who is the artistic director of the dance-theater-media company The Feath3r Theory (TF3T). As a collaboration of dancers, actors, filmmakers, musicians, photographers and designers, TF3T explores pop-culture and current cultural phenomena, building original performances that skillfully combine, deconstruct and reimagine elements of dance, visual media, fashion, drag, standup, minstrelsy and narrative theater. Kelly has earned numerous awards, and since 2016 has choreographed extensively for Off-Broadway theater in New York City.

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation

Disinformation & Democracy: Social Media and Elections Around the Globe

Oct. 12, 5:30 p.m., Zoom webinar

The unprecedented weaponizing of social media sites has led to the rise of disinformation campaigns around the globe, distorting and shaping public opinion, and affecting public policy, elections, governments, civil society and democratic processes. At least 70 countries have been affected by social media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns have led to the genocide of Rohingya in Myanmar, false information regarding Brexit and Russian interference in U.S. elections. The panel discussion aims to provide the historical context and political analysis of propaganda in the age of social media; discuss how social media is weaponized by disinformation campaigns; examine the role of social media companies and governments in promoting and combating disinformation; and equip participants with media literacy tools. The panelists include CSUSM history professor Kimber Quinney (pictured), Ursinus College (Pennsylvania) media and communication studies professor Anthony Nadler and University of Massachusetts Amherst global digital media professor Jonathan Corpus Ong. 

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation

‘Letters from Our Elders’ -- Documentary Film Screening Focusing on Immigration

Oct. 21, 6 p.m., Zoom webinar

"Letters from Our Elders" brings to life the stories and traumas of diverse immigrants as they seek to reach or stay in the U.S. The film examines experiences shared by immigrants from different decades and places, all of whom found homes in Southern California. It presents the stories of Haitians who voyaged across land and water seeking a safer reality, and of DACA recipients from diverse countries fighting to stay in the country they call home. The story begins with filmmaker Aaron Freeder’s attempt to connect his own family’s history (beginning with his ancestor James Stern, a Holocaust survivor) to that of contemporary immigrants. A panel and Q&A will follow the screening, including the director (Freeder), executive producer Edwin Cruz and one of the documentary's subjects, Haitian-born Faniel Clement, whose journey took him from Haiti to Brazil to Tijuana and finally to San Diego.

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation

‘Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court’

Oct. 28, 6 p.m., Zoom webinar

Simon Tam is an author, musician, activist and troublemaker. When he started an Asian-American dance rock band called The Slants, he didn’t realize that he was starting an entire movement around freedom of expression and discussions on identity. The band flipped stereotypes with their bombastic live shows and community activism. Tam named his band The Slants to "reclaim" and "take ownership" of Asian stereotypes. But when he applied to register a trademark on the band’s name, the government dragged him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. He eventually won a unanimous victory in the landmark case, Matal v. Tam, and helped expand civil liberties for minorities.

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation

Surviving Genocide: The Ixhil Maya Story with Don Miguel Guzaro Raymundo

Nov. 4, 5 p.m., Zoom webinar

Don Miguel Guzaro Raymundo will speak about his experience as one of the leaders of the Communities of Population in Resistance (CPR) during the Guatemalan civil war. The CPR organized thousands of Maya refugees living in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The CPR provided self-defense, mutual aid and education for residents in mountain communities who were periodically threatened by soldiers seeking to eliminate insurgents hiding among the mountain populations. Raymundo’s mobilization of national and international organizations was instrumental in breaking the siege of the Ixhil Maya towns and bringing an end to the violence. In the years since the war, he has played a vital role in the reconciliation and recovery of the communities through repatriating the remains of war victims. His talk will touch on subjects relevant today, including grass-roots movements, democracy, genocide, indigenous rights, Latin American politics, globalization and migration. A Q&A will follow the presentation.

CSUSM students: Free

Community: Donation

Faculty/staff/alumni: Donation

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306