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!
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.
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.
May 09 Friday
May 10 Saturday
Join us for a transformative Spiritual Day Retreat at the serene Drishti House in Montecito, where you'll reconnect with your soul, community, and the timeless teachings of the East. This immersive day includes mantra meditation, breathwork, sound healing, tea ceremony, conscious connection, and a soul-nourishing, plant-based dinner prepared by Chef Florida of Casa De Las Floras.
Explore the essence of true spirituality and cultivate inner virtues that empower you to live with greater peace, purpose, and connection. The evening will close with music, poetry, and a tea lounge, offering space for reflection and heartfelt community.
All are welcome—no matter your background—to experience a day of insight, elevation, and genuine connection.
1PM May 10th at Drishti House in Montecito, CA
RSVPhttps://dryshtea.eventcalendarapp.com/u/53529/369887
May 12 Monday
Please register in advance.
Join us for a virtual lecture by the 2024 Kenneth Karmiole Research Fellow, Pete Johnson, who used primary sources materials from the Library's Special Research Collections in support of his dissertation research at University of Texas, Austin.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, independent television producers pioneered financial and production models that laid the foundation for the industry’s economic structure, despite being overshadowed by major studios and networks. Johnson's lecture examines their financial struggles and innovations, using archival materials and case studies like Rudy Vallée’s short-lived Vallée-Video to reveal how these early entrepreneurs shaped television’s speculative culture. Though many failed, their efforts influenced the long-term development of television economics, leaving a lasting impact on the media industry.
This lecture is generously supported by the Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship.
About the SpeakerPeter Arne Johnson is a PhD Candidate in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research focuses on media industries, business history, and television studies. His doctoral dissertation traces television’s financial model from the early network era in the 1940s to the streaming era from the perspective of television production companies. Pete’s work has been published in Media Industries Journal, New Review of Film & Television, and Democratic Communiqué.
