Pajaro Rising

A Benefit for the Pajaro Community Impacted by the March Flood/Climate Chaos

In March 2023, rainwater overtopped the levees on the Pajaro River, flooding several areas including the community of Pajaro, where many farmworkers and immigrants live. Two thousand people—including entire families—lost both homes and belongings; some also lost work. Because of the unprecedented rains, the flood was a climate-change event. And because the levee was neglected on the grounds that the lives and property it protected weren't deemed valuable enough, it also became an ongoing environmental justice crisis.

Join Us!

Event proceeds will benefit COMMUNITY BRIDGES, a nonprofit service organization based in Watsonville/Pajaro that has provided financial aid, direct services, and assistance referrals to flood survivors of the Pajaro community.

With a Never-Before-Assembled All-Star Cast:

- Celebrated pajaro area writer JAIME CORTEZ, author of GORDO

- The voice of the Bay Area, KQED'S ALEXIS MADRIGAL

- Rising pajaro poet CLAUDIA RAMIREZ FLORES

- Novelist and memoirist INGRID ROJAS CONTRERAS

- Essayist and climate activist REBECCA SOLNIT

SIGNED BOOKS WITH EVERY TICKET PURCHASE

ONSITE SILKSCREENS OF A POSTER PRODUCED FOR THE EVENT WITH ARTS ORGANIZER

Sponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz & the Center for Agroecology at UC Santa Cruz with additional support from Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.

Tickets: Link

Signed books with every ticket purchase

Onsite silkscreens of a poster produced for the event with arts organizer David Solnit

$50—includes signed copies of Cortez's Gordo and Solnit's climate anthology Not Too Late

$75—includes signed copies of Gordo, Not Too Late, and Rojas Contreras's The Man Who Could Move Clouds

$100—all of the above, plus Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster and a one-year subscription to ZYZZYVA

Available by donation at the event:

$5, 000—Rebecca and Jaime will do a reading at the supporter's home

$10, 000—Rebecca and Jaime will cater an event with author readings at the supporter's home