Sunday Reads: Made Fresh Crew’s artist platform, boomers dancing into sunset & UCSC grads’ bumpy road

With strength in numbers, Made Fresh Crew gets original art out of the studios and into the streets

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

“The hardest part about being an artist is getting seen and distribution,” says Taylor Reinhold. “You can be the best artist in the world but if you’re sitting in your studio and you never leave and you don’t talk to anybody, you’re just not gonna make it in this world.” His Made Fresh Crew aims to help with that platform. Wallace Baine has more in his Sunday column.

➤ SEA WALLS PROJECT: Are we now officially among the top mural towns in America? We just might be.

I’ve been dancing to the Grateful Dead for 50 years ... I just wish I could remember it all

(Via Claudia Sternbach)

When you can’t trust your memory, it’s time to whip out your phone and push the record button, says Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach, who is in her 70s. Sternbach is growing frustrated by her memory gaps — and that “there isn’t a single person left who might be able to confirm or deny” what she does remember. In her latest piece, she recounts a recent memory she wants to hold — a celebration of 50 years of Grateful Dead shows — and the freedom she experienced on the dance floor. Luckily, her husband caught it all on his cell. Read her column here.

➤ MORE FROM CLAUDIA ON AGING: How did I get old enough to have dead former boyfriends and a dead ex?

UCSC Class of ’23: Strikes, storms, pandemic made for turbulent four years, but some are grateful for the experience

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

This year’s UCSC graduating class has been through almost endless disruptions: multiple campus strikes, power outages and a pandemic. While they might not have received the romanticized ideal of college life, many say the turbulence of the last four years has caused them to rethink their priorities and values. Read more from Naomi Friedland.

➤ MORE: ‘A glorified photo op’: UCSC faces backlash over ‘Slug Crossing’ graduation ceremony

Rare $1,000 African tree grape plant stolen from UCSC arboretum ‘a real loss,’ says nursery manager

A Cyphostemma bainesii (African tree grape) plant similar to the one stolen from the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.

(Via Ettrig / Wikimedia Commons)

Last week, a rare and hard-to-replace plant was stolen from the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum’s collection. Nursery manager and propagator Linda McNally believes that whoever took the arboretum’s African tree grape was likely a succulent enthusiast who knew the plant’s value. While not endangered, she says, the 30-to-40-pound plant is rare. And according to her estimates based on its size, the arboretum’s tree grape was likely worth around $1,000. Read more from Beki San Martin.