Listen-Ignite! A performance gala

Friday, Dec 4, 7:30 PM The opening performance of the Alliance for Human Rights’ Second Annual Human Rights Fair

Listen-Ignite! A performance gala

Noted local performers - dancers, actor, story teller, spoken word artists, and musicians - perform powerful works from deeply personal and social points of view.

Eleanor, Mother of Human Rights - a play about Eleanor Roosevelt and her role in creating and promoting the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Directed by Nicholas Constant (Whitehead). Starring Karen Schamberg, active with Actors Theater and renowned for her parts in Community Theater over the past 20 years.

DIASPORA- Food for Thought explores notions of race, identity, and the cultural landscape of the American experience. Cat Willis - dancer, choreographer, teacher, and recent Artist in Residence at The 418 Project - takes a journey into the African Diaspora through dance, spoken word, and music. This multi-media production is supported by a diverse group of dancers and poets from Santa Cruz and the wider Bay Area. Join us for the telling of the American story from the perspective of the African Diaspora. The rituals of race, mental slavery, and the American cultural experience shape all of us.

UCSC Rainbow Theater Outreach: Our shows blend spoken word, music, dance and personal testimonials. Rainbow Theater was established in 1994 with a mission to create unity, higher visibility, and understanding of the major cultures within our communities. Our mission is to foster the spirit of unity by breaking down cultural walls, providing an outlet for creative talents of various ethnic groups, and focusing on the concerns of our communities today.


Ben Jammin performs material from gay-icon Oscar Wilde and activist Harvey Feinstein. Ben “Jammin” Holck is a Spectra Artist, educator, director, choreographer, and actor in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. He has been the director of Kids on Broadway's outreach program, bringing the performing arts to at-risk and minority youth at Barrios Unidos and the Boys & Girls' Club. Ben most recently played the title-role in Cabrillo’s summer-hit sensation, The Wizard of Oz, is thrilled to be playing one of the ghosts in Scrooge, and is also looking forward to directing Annie this spring with his own non-profit, The Ben Jammin Academy of Performing Arts.


Erica Lann-Clark of Spoken Word Theater will perform “Like a Bridge over Troubled Waters,” stories of kindness and spirit. Erica started in New York's off-Broadway, trained at The HB Studio, studied playwriting under Edward Albee, and became an award-winning playwright. After her children were grown, Erica's current career as storyteller/solo performer, began. She's done her one-woman comedy, "Shopping For God" at San Francisco's Marsh Theater, at The Actors' Theatre in Santa Cruz, and in Los Angeles. Most recently featured at the 2008 National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee, she’s nationally known as a storyteller. “A dynamo with stage presence to spare, Lann-Clark had the audience in convulsions. One woman in front of me laughed so hard she fell out of her chair." - Andrea Perkins, Metro Santa Cruz

Broadway Playhouse (at the Santa Cruz Art League) 526 Broadway, Santa Cruz Admission: $5 to $20 sliding scale

Sponsored by: County of Santa Cruz, City of Santa Cruz, City of Watsonville, Santa Cruz Good Times, KUSP Radio
GOOD TIMES Santa Cruz