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To celebrate our 30th anniversary, the Ventura Music Festival is teaming up with the City of Ventura and the Downtown Ventura Partners to throw an unforgettable, free, all-day music festival celebrating Southern California talent and culture. Join us for the Spring Music Festival, happening Saturday, May 3, 2025, from 12 PM to 9 PM in the heart of the Downtown Ventura Cultural District. This event is open to all and promises a joyful springtime experience packed with live music, art, food, and family-friendly activities. Come early for the Ventura Farmers Market from 8:30 am to noon near Mission Park where the music festival on three stages begins. Ventura Music Festival is grateful for the generous support from its partners and collaborators for this free community event:

Join Don Most & his 17-piece band for a spectacular night of swing, jazz, and big band classics! Best known as Ralph Malph from Happy Days, Donny brings the timeless music of legends like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, and Dean Martin to life with his smooth vocals and captivating stage presence. Backed by a stellar band, he delivers an evening filled with high-energy swing, romantic ballads, and toe-tapping rhythms that transport audiences to the golden age of music. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to the classics, this is a show you won’t want to miss!

Please register in advance.

Join UCSB Reads and Goleta Valley Library for an afternoon of poetry readings in celebration of National Poetry Month!

The event will kick off with a reading by local poet and UCSB Professor Emerita Shirley Geok-Lin Lim of one of her favorite poems. Afterward, other participants will read their selected poems to the audience.

How to participate? Please complete this form with your name and the title and author of the published poem you’d like to read by April 21st. All genres and styles are welcome. Participants will be confirmed and notified by April 23rd.

This event is free and open to all students, staff, faculty, and community members.

The event may be photographed or recorded.

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 Speaker
Peter 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.

It’s back! Pints for the Park, Santa Barbara’s original craft beer festival, has returned to Elings Park – and is bigger and better than ever. Enjoy Central Coast craft beer, cider, wine, and kombucha from dozens of purveyors. There's also tasty cuisine from food trucks, yummy snacks, and cool park merchandise available for purchase. Santa Barbara's favorite DJ Darla Bea will set just the right vibe while you stroll, sip, snack, shop, sit back, and support the largest privately funded park in America! Drink beer...and help Elings Park.

The Good Good Show is a stand up comedy show featuring the hottest comedians working today that you've seen or heard on Comedy Central, Conan, HBO, Netflix, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel, TruTV, SiriusXM and more.

FEATURING: Aparna Nancherla, Shane Bianchi, Julie Weidmann and Brian Jacobovitz.

Come have some laughs with us and enjoy a delicious craft beer (wine available too)!

7:30 p.m. $10


Show is 21+

“The delights Gay extols here feel purposeful and imperative as well as contagious in their joy.” The New York Times Book Review

UCSB Reads’ 2025 selection, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, is a New York Times bestselling 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. 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.

Program: 4:30 PM-6 PM
Reception: 6 PM-7:30 PM

Ticket includes digital access to the 2025 Economic Outlook Publication and post-event reception at the Michael Towbes Library Plaza

The annual Santa Barbara County Economic Summit features presentations by a panel of experts on the state of the economy and policy in Santa Barbara and California. The Santa Barbara County economic report will be delivered by Peter Rupert, director of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project. Presentations will be followed by a panel moderated by Peter Rupert.

“One easy thing we can all do right now is to shut off that fight-or-flight system through our breath… it’s built to get out of threats quickly, but we run it constantly.” – Dr. Laurie Santos

A psychologist and an expert on human cognition, its origins and the evolutionary biases that influence our all-too-imperfect life choices, Dr. Laurie Santos’ work centers around how behavioral change through positive psychology can lead to a happier and more fulfilling life. Host of the The Happiness Lab podcast and professor of Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years – Psychology and the Good Life – Santos will discuss the tools that science provides for managing stress and building a life of happiness, even when crisis looms large. Whether it’s the toll of environmental disasters and wildfires, the challenges of political instability or the anxiety that pervades modern life, Santos offers actionable insights for creating lasting positive change and provides practical habits to reduce stress, foster resilience and improve overall well-being, regardless of external pressures.

JOIN US FOR A CAPTIVATING FREE LECTURE EXPLORING THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF THE ENDANGERED CALIFORNIA CONDOR AND THE ORIGINS OF THE GROUNDBREAKING CAPTIVE BREEDING PROGRAM.
Join Friends of California Condors Wild and Free for a captivating free lecture exploring the remarkable journey of the California Condor! Discover the origins of the groundbreaking captive breeding program. Learn how cutting-edge genetic research has reshaped our understanding of condor pedigrees, and get an insider’s look at the decision-making process behind where young, captive-bred condors are released into the wild. We’ll also discuss the current status of wild condor populations and the profound impact of breeding and release efforts on their survival.
Our guest speaker, Mr. Steve Kirkland, is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Field Coordinator for the California Condor Recovery Program. He will speak to the public in the Topping Room at the Ventura Public Library located at 651 E. Main St. from 2:00 to 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 26, 2025.
During the late 1990’s, Steve worked as a wildlife biologist releasing and monitoring condors in the newly released Southern California flock. In 2001 Steve transferred to the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office where he worked for over a decade on a variety of endangered species projects. He returned to the California Condor Recovery Program in 2012 in his current role where he works closely with the condor field and captive breeding programs, USFWS leadership, researchers, non-lead outreach specialists and other agency and NGO partners all working to help recover the California Condor.
The California condor was listed as an endangered species in 1967. In 1987 California Condors were on the verge of extinction with only 27 alive, as the last free flying condor, AC9, was taken from the wild. In 1992, the Service began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild to reestablish the population. Today, there are over 560 birds with over half of them flying free in the wild in various populations including California, Arizona, and Baja Mexico. The California Condor is a resident of the local area and can be found in the mountains behind Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, and Santa Barbara.
Friends of California Condors Wild and Free is a nonprofit 501c3 all volunteer organization, that has the mission to enhance public awareness of the endangered California Condor and ensure that they are protected, healthy, and free.
Come learn about the endangered California Condor, North America’s largest bird. Learn how you can help the California Condor recovery effort. Become a volunteer! Be informed!
Thanks for your cooperation in advertising this event. Please, contact me if you have further questions.