2026 Program Guide | Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Borders of belonging exist on land and also inside of people. They serve the same end; dividing us against ourselves. The U.S.- Mexico border is a border of belonging. I spent 100 hours embroidering this border line into the center of this artwork during the month of June. I shifted into this hours-long daily sewing practice to contemplate the mere scale of active ecological and social fracturing happening with the U.S.-Mexico border. The line that divides the center of this artwork–a circle, round like a world– comprisesmore than 16,000 stitches. Over the course of this season’s Cabrillo Festival, July 26 to August 9, ICE will have targeted and detained more than 16,000 people in the U.S. because of their Latin American heritage, under the pretense that they don’t belong. It’s a staggering number of adults and kids equal to about a quarter of our city’s population in Santa Cruz. CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 2026 10 BORDERS OF BELONGING BY MARSA GREENSPAN This summer, as the U.S. celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, whose preamble famously declares unalienable rights for all people, how do we orient ourselves toward the current chapter of racialized violence in America? “Bordersof Belonging” isanappeal toorient toward wholeness amidst the fracture, laboring a paradigm of interdependence through the pain of our conscious presence. Whilewe contendwith social and ecological injustices of our past and present, is there wholeness in the justice we seek? Who and what do we reject, and how does that impact our shared futures? I’M INVITING FESTIVAL ATTENDEES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PIECE. WHEN YOU JOINCABRILLOFORA FESTIVAL ACTIVITY THIS SUMMER, YOU WILL ENCOUNTER THIS ARTWORK (90% COMPLETE) HANGING IN THE CIVIC LOBBY. LOOK NEARBY FOR AN INVITATION TO PLAY YOUR PART. — MARSA GREENSPAN Youth Orchestra Salinas (YOSAL) visiting the Festival 2025 Scullery Team