THE NIGHT OF IDEAS is a global event that takes place simultaneously in more than 100 countries. The event invites thought leaders, activists, performers, authors, and academics to engage the public in discussions around central questions on contemporary global issues.
First introduced in the United States in 2015 by the French Embassy, Night of Ideas is a nationwide phenomenon today, held in over 20 cities, drawing tens of thousands of people for nocturnal marathons of philosophical discussions, performances, readings, and much more.
The Future We Share: Activism, Creativity, and Collective Imagination
Thank you for an unforgettable Night of Ideas in Santa Cruz!
On April 4, many of you joined the Center for Public Philosophy to discuss The Future We Share: Activism, Creativity, and Collective Imagination!
Our heartfelt gratitude to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, and to each and every one of you who contributed to making this year’s Night of Ideas such a wonderful experience.
To our speakers, performers, artists, and panelists: thank you for generously sharing your voices, talents, and ideas.
To our volunteers: your energy, kindness, and reliability behind the scenes were essential. We couldn’t have done it without you.
To all attendees: thank you for showing up with such curiosity, presence, and openness. You brought the night to life!
Credit: Gerjuan Harmon
Here’s an album of photos from the evening — we hope they bring back some of the magic!
The Night of Ideas is presented by the Center for Public Philosophy, with support from the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, The Humanities Institute, Cowell College, Humanities West, the Marc Sanders Foundation, Villa Albertine, and the Institut français.
Help us keep the conversation going! Your support for the Center for Public Philosophy ensures that programs like the Night of Ideas continue to exist!
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The Marc Sanders Foundation will match your gift, dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000! Use the QR code to take you to the donation form on the MSF website, and you will be directed to Paypal where you may enter your donation amount. We are grateful for your contributions.
Night of Ideas 2025 Schedule:
MAIN HALL
5pm: Brazilian Cultural Art of Capoeira
5:30pm: Welcome – Opening Remarks (J. Proust)
6:30pm: IAS Exhibition Walkthrough with Curator R. Nelson
7:30pm: Activating the EDELO exhibition (C. Duarte and YELO)
8pm: Piano Meditation/Sound Healing (E. Shanken)
8:30pm: What if We Moved as One? (B-Moving, B. Wittmer, with E. Shanken)
CONFERENCE ROOM (Room 1)
6 – 6:25pm: The Common Ground That Creates an Uncommon Good (G. Hammond)
7 – 7:25pm: Mind, Body and Tiktok Problem (J. Candray)
8 – 8:25pm: Common Ground, No Ground: Housing, Rights, and the Refusal to Disappear (J.Schendledecker)
WEST ROOM (Room 2)
6 – 6:25pm: Post-nonmonogamy and Poly-river-amory (K. TallBear)
7 – 7:25pm: Empowering the Solar Commons through Community Energy (R. Lipschutz, K. Milun, R. Stayton)
8 – 8:25pm: Understanding Through Play (Liminal Space Collective)
ONGOING
“Ask a Philosopher” booth (M. Mattinson, R. Kusyuniati, J. Read) & TEQ project
Melodies of Hope (El Sistema – I. Tuncer)
Guest Speakers and Performers:
Kim TallBear
Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta. She is also a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology and in the Science & Justice Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. TallBear is the author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. Dr. TallBear is a regular panelist on the Media Indigena podcast and a regular media commentator on topics including Indigenous peoples, science, and technology; self-indigenization in the US and Canada; and Indigenous sexualities. You can follow her Substack newsletter, Unsettle: Indigenous affairs, cultural politics & (de)colonization at https://kimtallbear.substack.com.
Tipi Confessions co-founder.
Caleb Duarte, YELO
Caleb Duarte migrated from Northern Mexico to the farm working communities of the Central Valley in California. His sculptural performances, installations, and paintings confront issues of institutional encounter, the use of the body in distinct political and artistic movements, and art’s pedagogical possibilities. Through the EDELO project in collaboration with artist Mia Eve Rollow, they have collaborated with autonomous indigenous Zapatista communities, communities in movement, and working children and refugees. A professor of sculpture at Fresno City College, his work and performances have been widely shown in the United States and internationally. www.calebduarte.org
YELO is an artist collective formed by undocumented university students to create and perform works that express stories of the “unauthorized movements” of people and their mixed-status families. Through a series of workshops, gatherings, recorded oral histories, and public actions, YELO shares personal accounts of living through uncertainties as undocumented students. Their work responds to the ongoing threats of mass deportations, the expansion of detention centers, and the uncertain future faced by many.
Joy Schendledecker
Joy Schendledecker is an artist, writer, educator, and community organizer based in Santa Cruz, CA. Their interdisciplinary work explores housing justice, environmental toxicity, and mutual aid through research, participatory projects, and public engagement. They have been deeply involved in local housing advocacy, political organizing, and direct support efforts, particularly in challenging the criminalization of the unhoused. Their project What’s Home? examines the meaning of home and displacement through storytelling, installation, and public dialogue. Their work insists on collective responsibility over state-sanctioned rights, imagining futures rooted in shared obligation and care. More at: http://joyschendledecker.net
Kathryn Milun
Dr. Kathryn Milun is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and founder of the Solar Commons Project.
Ronnie D. Lipschutz
Dr. Ronnie D. Lipschutz is President and Senior Analyst at the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation (SSRF) in Santa Cruz and Professor Emeritus of Politics at UC Santa Cruz. SSRF is a non-profit green incubator of locally sited sustainable projects that are scalable and reproducible.
Robert Stayton
Robert Stayton is an SSRF Research Associate. He is the author of two books on solar energy, including Solar Dividends—How Solar Energy can Generate a Basic Income for Everyone on Earth (Santa Cruz, Calif.: Sandstone, 2019).
Liminal Space Collective
Liminal Space Collective is a Santa Cruz Nonprofit Organization and local community of multimedia creators that invite everyone with a dream, regardless of what planet, dimension or eon you are from, to come try new things, get your hands dirty, and collaborate with each other to realize your dream. We seek to build connection and facilitate change through collaborative art, immersive experiences, learning, experimentation and sustainable innovation. https://www.limi.space/
Juliet Candray
Juliet Candray is a UCSC Philosophy BA graduate. She is currently undergoing research regarding incels/femcels as facets of modern gender performance and what these performances mean for practical societal concerns in the political/legal sector. Based in San Francisco, living with her cat Tito. https://idioiticidioms.substack.com/
George Hammond
George Hammond is a popular lecturer at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, with over 5 million YouTube views of his lectures and author interviews. He has written six philosophical books, four novels, and a collection of short stories. He was an international mergers & acquisitions attorney at Dewey Ballantine and at LeBoeuf Lamb, and served on the board of directors of the Pacific Stock Exchange during its merger with the NYSE. He negotiated more than 200 deals worth over $40 billion, including the 2003 Yukos-Sibneft oil company merger in Russia that led to Putin’s arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. apassionforwisdom.com
Brigitte Witmer
Brigitte Wittmer is a facilitator, performer, and visionary with over 20 years of experience using movement as a universal language to bridge cultures and connect souls. She blends technique with intuition to create a space where creativity flows freely, inviting individuals to explore their potential beyond fixed roles. A pioneer of Liquid Leading, Brigitte transforms movement into a living conversation, where every dance becomes an opportunity to deepen connection, intuition, and self-expression. Her work celebrates the richness that arises from both our shared humanity and the unique diversity that defines each heart and soul, honoring the essence of all beings. www.b-moving.com
Edhi Shanken (Edhi)
My work seeks to create and share knowledge, to integrate joy and wisdom, and to radiate love and light. Like Jack Burnham, who thought of art as a “psychic dress rehearsal for the future,” my writing explores how artists create visionary models that offer us a taste of the future in the present. My artistic practice as a musician and dancer has given me access to insights that have deeply impacted my scholarship. When I’m not chasing waterfalls and rainbows, you can find me teaching and writing in Santa Cruz, where I’m Professor of Arts at UCSC.
Personal website: http://artexetra.wordpress.com
Piano and dance collaboration: https://youtu.be/Q1iO-QZ0BK8?si=sXGxphihTXDG7EcA
El Sistema Santa Cruz/Pajaro Valley
El Sistema Santa Cruz/Pajaro Valley is dedicated to empowering local youth by providing them with the keys to unlock their musical heritage and the tools to create their own social and creative legacies through music education.
Raízes do Brasil Capoeira and Brazilian Cultural Arts Center
Raízes do Brasil Capoeira and Brazilian Cultural Arts Center was formed in Brazil in 1980 and brought to the United States by Mestre Papiba in 1991. Their mission is to create a cultural dialogue between Brazil and America through the arts. It is their goal to create a safe place for people of all ages and walks of life to gather and create community.
At the heart of this group is capoeira, a martial art that grew out of a unique blend of immigrants and indigenous people in Brazil. Capoeira was born as a form of resistance. Originally practiced by the African people enslaved by the Portuguese in Brazil, it was disguised as a dance since the African slaves were not allowed to practice any form of self defense or combat training. Even after slavery was abolished, it continued to be used as a form of resistance against the military regime in Brazil through 1985. Capoeira was illegal, but was practiced and helped maintain the traditions of dance and music throughout the cultural censorship.
Jeanne Proust
Dr. Jeanne Proust has been teaching Philosophy in the US for the past 15 years and is actively involved in the Center for Public Philosophy (UC Santa Cruz), where she served as director from 2023-2024. She currently holds the position of Vice President of the Public Philosophy Network, and advocates for a widening of philosophical education beyond academia by planning, producing, and participating in different events open to the general public. She has also recently started her own philosophical counseling practice, open to individuals seeking to examine their values and life concerns through the lens of philosophical inquiry. With the Center for Public Philosophy, she helped launch the first Tech Ethics Bowl in the Bay Area, and spearheaded the Santa Cruz edition of the Night of Ideas.
Rachel Nelson
Rachel Nelson is director and chief curator of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences. She has curated and organized exhibitions including Barring Freedom, a group exhibition engaging art, prisons, and justice; Carlos Motta: We The Enemy; jackie sumell: Solitary Garden; Newton Harrison and Helen Mayer Harrison: Future Garden, and other projects with artists including Sadie Barnette, Maria Gaspar, Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas, and Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Nelson also writes and publishes extensively on contemporary art and geopolitics, including exhibition catalogue essays, journal articles, and reviews in Journal of Curatorial Studies, Public History Weekly, Brooklyn Rail, NKA, Third Text, Savvy, and African Arts. She teaches in the Visualizing Abolition Studies program at UC Santa Cruz.