Kalfou: Community Centered

"We act in resistance through celebration": Irene Vasquez, Levi Romero, Natalia Toscano, & Nick Rivas on Refusing "the Vanishing" of Community Spaces

In Episode 3, professors and students from the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at the University of New Mexico share with us how they used arts-based activism to save La Casita, a vital community gathering space, from demolition. Irene Vasquez, Levi Romero, Natalia Toscano, & Nick Rivas discuss the long history of resistance art in New Mexico, the struggle to maintain human connection in the midst of gentrification and repression, and the importance of acting in solidarity with other groups on the margins. For more information and a transcript of the episode, visit kalfou.ucsb.edu/kalfou/podcast. Follow us on Bluesky, X, and Instagram at UCSBKALFOU.

"Folks are already in motion, what can I offer?" Michael Castañeda, Jonathan Gomez, Jose Lumbreras, and Colleen Murphy on Staying Grounded with Community

In Episode 2, scholar-activists Michael Castañeda, Jonathan Gomez, Jose Lumbreras, and Colleen Murphy join us to examine the complex relationship between ethnic studies departments and the communities we learn from, represent, and serve. We discuss education as a tool for both repression and liberation; steps toward building trust and cultivating a collective consciousness; and examples of work that gives us hope. For more information and a transcript of the episode, visit kalfou.ucsb.edu/kalfou/podcast. Follow us on Bluesky, X, and Instagram at UCSBKALFOU.

"The only relationship I can have to the university is a criminal one": Safety, Repression, and Coalition with Amanda Ellis, Cherríe Moraga, Sherene Seikaly, Chelsea Lancaster, and Tara Jones

For our inaugural episode, we are joined by five extraordinary scholar-activists—Amanda Ellis, Cherríe Moraga, Sherene Seikaly, Chelsea Lancaster, and Tara Jones—for a conversation on how women of color in education are responding to political repression, past and present. We discuss how our own educational experiences led us to political awareness, who is "safe" on campus and who is not, and how community, coalition, and art making help us imagine better worlds and build better futures. For more information and a transcript of the episode, visit kalfou.ucsb.edu/kalfou/podcast. Follow us on Bluesky, X, and Instagram at UCSBKALFOU.