Free Skool Santa Cruz

05/16/2026

Hard Core Compost

05/04/2026

Hooray! Our 2026 spring/summer Free Skool session is happening now! Information about classes - https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/2026-free-skool-santa-cruz-spring-summer-session/

A google calendar version of the calendar is HERE! https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/free-skool-calendar/

A radically different approach to living and learning, Free Skool Santa Cruz is a grassroots educational project beyond institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from each other and share what we know, to foster communities of mutual support and autonomy.

Our 2026 spring/summer session goes from May Day/Beltane on May 1st to July 15th. And in July we will request class submissions for the Summer/Autumn session, from Thursday July 16th to the Autumn Equinox on Tuesday September 22nd. More info about FSSC https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/home/

A radically different approach to living and learning, Free Skool Santa Cruz is a grassroots educational project beyond institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from each other and shar…

05/03/2026

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In

A BLAST FROM THE PAST (as we look towards the future!)
Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In at City Hall Protest (Photo: B. Elderberry)

https://santacruzlife.com/santa-cruz-guerilla-drive-in/ (article from years ago) - There are no formal drive-in movie theatres left in Santa Cruz County, but a few times a year you can follow a set of buried-treasure type directions to find the Guerilla Drive-In, an anarchist outdoor moving movie theater whose legality is hazy but whose awesomeness is not.

Guerilla Drive-In, which started in 2002, claims, “Beyond showing great free movies year-round and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.”

Bringing together two passions innate to Santa Cruz — DIY (Do It Yourself) culture and great cinema — Guerilla Drive-In screens free films at different locations around town. The first guerilla theater in the country, it often does not secure rights or permits to show these films. This is part of their mission to reclaim public space — they don’t believe permits should be needed to simply enjoy a movie outdoors with some friends. As a result, police officers have sometimes broken up the peaceful viewings, on the grounds of trespassing.

The movement has since spread to places like Hollywood, Berkeley, and even New York.

Though some of the art films shown at Guerilla Drive-In are family-friendly, getting to the various secret locations is not for the faint of heart — recent instructions for finding the film Brazil included phrases like “Go to the back of the building. Follow the Giant Dragons,” and “Use of bikes and Hwy 1 footbridge connector is encouraged. At the bottom of the big bike hill, make a right.”

But what makes the Guerilla Drive-In most special isn’t the hunt to find it, or the rocky legal history, or even the fact that it started in Santa Cruz and turned into a national underground movement. It’s the sense of community it creates, and the leeway allowed in DIY culture that isn’t present in for-profit movie theatres. Although it only happens a few times a year, it’s worth following the Drive-In to see when the next warehouse or parking lot will turn into the weirdest theatre you’ve ever seen. -Blair Stenvick

And did you know that GDI has an instagram page? If you use this particular social media give it a look (this post was originally there). https://www.instagram.com/sc_gdi

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SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.

04/30/2026

Free Skool Santa Cruz spring/summer session is happening May Day/Beltane (May 1st) to July 15th! Upcoming classes for the next week (or so).

- Q***r Birding - Saturday, May 2nd / 9 a.m. - 11 a.m at Neary Lagoon Park - 110 California Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (36.963420, -122.034452)

- Santa Cruz Trans Potluck - Saturday, May 2nd / 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. at SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, SC

- Santa Cruz Apple Wassail! 10th annual! - Saturday May 2nd / 5 p.m. at the Santa Cruz Community Orchard garden at Mike Fox Park (225 San Lorenzo Boulevard, Santa Cruz, CA 95060)

- Intro To Massage - Sunday, May 3rd / 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. in the SubRosa courtyard, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz

- Grass Identification - Tuesday, May 5th / 1:30p.m. - Walking along levee, meet on street corner outside SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz

- Consent Cafe - Tuesday May 5th / 6:30p.m.-8 p.m. at SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz

- Trash into Fashion DIY - Friday, May 8th & 22nd / 12pm-4pm at SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue, SC

- Q***r/Sober DnD Group Building - Saturday, May 9th / 11 a.m - Location: TBA (email for more info)

Free Skool Santa Cruz is a grassroots educational project where we can learn from each other and help foster communities of mutual support. Always free! More info at https://freeskoolsantacruz.org

*** Members of the SubRosa collective are involved in this revived and not entirely new, not all too different version of Free Skool Santa Cruz – a project in mutual aid learning and sharing. And SubRosa/the Hub Community Center is a site of a significant amount of classes (although not all!).

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SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now.

And SubRosa is part of the Hub Community Center at 703 Pacific Ave in downtown Santa Cruz - a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities - since 1994!

04/23/2026

Yup! Another summer of Free Skool Santa Cruz is coming! The Free Skool collective is now working on the Spring/Summer schedule which goes from May Day/Beltane (May 1st) to July 15th. Look for information and paper calendars a little before May!

And in July we will request class submissions for the Summer/Spring session, from Thursday July 16th to the Autumn Equinox on Tuesday September 22nd. So, if you don’t know what you’ll offer now, you’ll have another opportunity later!

More info at freeskoolsantacruz.org/

* Members of the SubRosa collective are involved in this revived and not entirely new, not all too different version of Free Skool Santa Cruz – a project in mutual aid learning and sharing. And SubRosa/the Hub Community Center is a site of a significant amount of classes (although not all!).

—@@@@@—

SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now.

And SubRosa is part of the Hub Community Center at 703 Pacific Ave in downtown Santa Cruz - a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities - since 1994!

04/23/2026

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In

04/19/2026

Hooray for Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In - Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In

An outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up in the fields and industrial wastelands. Showing great movies, bringing a broad community together, and reclaiming public space.

04/14/2026

The Fábrica

04/02/2026

We’re back! Join us for another round of Free Skool Santa Cruz by offering a class or activity. A radically different approach to living and learning, Free Skool Santa Cruz is a grassroots educational project beyond institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from each other and share what we know, to foster communities based on mutual support and autonomy (do it yourself together!). https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/

What skills would you like to share? What types of classes would help grow more vibrant, self-reliant and mutually supportive communities?

This year we are changing things up a little! We will have 2 sessions, Spring/Summer AND Summer/Autumn.

Submit your class proposals for the 2026 Spring/Summer session, from May Day/Beltane on May 1st to July 15th. https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/

Then in late-June, we put out the submission form again for classes for the Summer/Autumn session, from July 16 to the Autumn Equinox on September 22nd.

Remember! The deadline to submit your class is Wednesday, April 15th for the Spring/Summer session. So, if you don’t know what you’ll offer now, you’ll have another opportunity later for the Summer/Spring Session that begins in mid-July! https://freeskoolsantacruz.org/

*** Members of the SubRosa collective are involved in this revived and not entirely new, not all too different version of Free Skool Santa Cruz – a project in mutual aid learning and sharing. And SubRosa/the Hub is a site of a significant amount of classes (although not all!).

Thanks to FSSC collective member for the graphic!

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SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now.

And SubRosa is part of the Hub Community Center at 703 Pacific Ave in downtown Santa Cruz - a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities - since 1994!

01/14/2026

EDI Educators

First of 2026 is on January 14th! Join us after school at the Felton branch library for snacks, friendship, and craft shenanigans. Always free and always fun!