May 01 Thursday
The Southeast Ventura County YMCA is hosting its 26th Annual National Day of Prayer Breakfast. The breakfast is on Thursday, May 1 at CLU’s Gilbert Sports Center (130 Overton Court, Thousand Oaks). The breakfast brings the spiritual communities of all faiths together to celebrate fellowship and prayer. The theme this year is “Hope.” The prayer breakfast is from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and will include speakers, and spiritual and community leaders providing invocations and prayers. Former Rams All-Pro tackle Andrew Whitworth is the keynote speaker. Other speakers include Rev. Gary Dickey, CLU President Dr. John Nunes, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff, Simi Valley City Council member Elaine Litster and Thousand Oaks City Council member Bob Engler. Individual tickets are $25 per person. To purchase tickets and for more information, go to https://www.sevymca.org/national-day-prayer.
1st ThursdayThursday, May 15:00-8:00pm
Don Louis Perceval: His Vision of the West
Join the Museum for 1st Thursday, on May 1, from 5:00-8:00pm, to celebrate the opening of our latest exhibition, Don Louis Perceval: His Vision of the West.
Don Louis Perceval (1908-1979) was born in Woodford, Essex, England and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended the Pasadena Military Academy and Chouinard Art Institute.
As a young man he traveled throughout the Southwest, becoming enamored with the natural beauty of the landscape and its Hopi and Navajo peoples, and began documenting their life through his sketches. After studying at the Royal Academy and service to the Royal Navy, he was drawn back to the west and commissioned to create advertisements for the Rio Grande Oil Company. After a life dedicated to his work he spent his final years in Santa Barbara.
Experience Perceval's passion brought to life in this new exhibition, curated by Marlene Miller.
Santa Barbara Historical Museumreception@sbhistorical.org(805)-966-1601https://www.sbhistorical.org/events/
Join us on a beautifully paired wine and chocolate experience. This guided tour walks you through the chocolate making process, from bean to bar! Taste the cacao every step of the way and finish with a chocolate and beverage tasting that excitingly pairs three truffles with three sustainably-made, small production wines, selected and poured by our local wine partner, WINECULT.
May 02 Friday
Location: St. Michael’s Community Garden, 6586 Picasso Rd, Goleta, CA 93117
RSVP in advance.
Join the UCSB Library and the Edible Campus Program for a peaceful afternoon of literature, nature, and reflection in the garden. In celebration of the 2025 UCSB Reads selection, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, we invite you to immerse yourself in the beauty of St. Michael’s Community Garden while enjoying a communal reading of select passages from the book.
Inspired by Gay’s practice of noticing and appreciating small joys, participants will have the opportunity to craft their own personal “delight” entries, reflecting on moments of gratitude, connection, and wonder. Whether you come to listen, write, or simply enjoy the garden’s tranquility, we welcome you to slow down and savor the delights of the present.
Please note, this event may be photographed or recorded.
Attendees will enjoy a welcome drink while we give a brief introduction to our bean-to-bar, dark chocolate making process. Ingredients for decorating will abound and inspire, and you'll learn a few tidbits about how we invent flavor combinations for new delicious, sweet products at our chocolate factory. We will fill chocolate bar molds with luscious 75% dark chocolate, and you will get to decorate chocolate bars with local ingredients, like flowers, salt and fruit. While bars are setting up, we will lead a 20-30 minute chocolate tasting experience while you sip on perfectly paired wines to enhance the flavors. We are happy to provide a non-alcoholic tasting experience for anyone in the group who might require that. Your custom chocolate bars will go home with you in beautiful, resealable Twenty-Four Blackbirds pouches. Don't miss out on this delicious experience!
May 04 Sunday
Since 1996, The Garden Tour – created and still run by a passionate team of volunteers – is one of Camarillo’s signature events! Now celebrating its 27th year, this unforgettable afternoon promises a perfect blend of beauty, creativity, and community.
Explore five stunning gardens, shop in a delightful boutique, try your luck at a raffle with amazing prizes, enjoy live music, and savor delicious refreshments.
Best of all, every dollar raised goes directly to supporting our most vulnerable neighbors – parents, grandparents, children, and friends. Your participation helps provide essential care, comfort, counseling, and education to those facing life-limiting illnesses or grieving the loss of a loved one. Join us for a day of fun and make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who need it most!
May 07 Wednesday
Free and open to the public, Insight In Sound features professional musicians sharing stories and insights from their experiences in music.
Join host and moderator Jose Cano at Heritage Square for an exciting conversation about navigating the music industry with Aaron Frazer.
Pre-event gathering at Pipiripau @ 6pm
Aaron Frazer:Internationally acclaimed singer, songwriter, and drummer. Co-lead singer and drummer for retro-soul revivalists Durand Jones & the Indications.aaronfrazermusic.com
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | 7-8:30pmLocation: Heritage Square731 South A Street, Oxnard, CA 93030https://www.theopac.org/
May 08 Thursday
Celebrate the breezy beauty of spring with a one-of-a-kind Beaded Windchime Workshop! Using reclaimed beads generously donated by Zadd, we’ll craft colorful, musical windchimes that bring charm to any space. Learn how to repurpose beads, upcycle found materials, and design a unique piece that sings with the wind. This workshop blends sustainability with creativity, perfect for all skill levels, giving new life to discarded treasures. Join us for an evening of eco-friendly crafting, and let your creativity chime in! All materials included!
Ross Gay, the author of the UCSB Reads 2025 book The Book of Delights: Essays will present a free, public talk in UCSB’s Campbell Hall, followed by Q&A and a book signing. This event is presented by UCSB Library in partnership with UCSB Arts & Lectures.
This event is free but advance registration through the Arts & Lectures portal is required. If you don't have an Arts & Lectures account, you will be asked to create one. This event will be photographed or recorded.
The Book of Delights is a collection of essays celebrating small, ordinary wonders. Written daily over one tumultuous year, Gay’s humorous, poetic and philosophical essays cover a wide range of topics. From a high five with a stranger to cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, Gay reveals how staking out a space for joy brings us closer together.
Ross Gay won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 2015, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award in 2016 and the PEN/Jean Stein Award in 2021. He is a faculty member in the English Department at Indiana University.
UCSB Reads is an award-winning program that brings the campus and Santa Barbara communities together to read a common book that explores compelling issues of our time. The program is sponsored by UCSB Library and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and was started in 2007. Each year, a committee of faculty, staff, students, and community partners convene to select an intellectually stimulating, interdisciplinary book by a living author that appeals to a wide range of readers and can be incorporated into the UCSB curriculum.
For up-to-date details about UCSB Reads events, sponsors, and more, go to www.library.ucsb.edu/ucsbreads2025.
