As soon as the Great ShakeOut alarm rang, students evacuated the buildings and headed out toward the main quad and parking lot of the PAC campus. This went against the direction of the announcement, which informed students and faculty to “duck, cover, and hold” before moving outside. One of the first students to exit their classroom, SMC freshman Frances Tollman said she was not given any specific instructions to follow along with the loudspeaker’s direction, and her and her fellow classmates all “walked straight out.”

What do 80s synth-pop, psychedelia, bowl cuts, and oversized jackets all have in common? 22-year-old Gus Dapperton is bringing them all back into mainstream popular culture.

Since December of 2017, Dapperton has released numerous singles, three four-track EPS, and – most recently – his first full-length album, Where Polly People Go to Read. The current 2019 United States leg of his tour is named after the album: “The Polly People US Tour.” Dapperton’s tour took him to The Fonda Theatre, a Hollywood-based concert venue, on Monday, Oct. 15, 2019.

In 2018, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) reported that there are an estimated 129,972 homeless people in California. Of that number, roughly 52,765 resided in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). In the past year since these findings, there has been a 12% increase of homeless people in LA, up to nearly 59,000.

Throughout the month of September, different organizations have been using their platforms to publicly address issues pertaining to diet culture and weight stigmatization. Two different companies have been at the forefront of the month’s wellness campaigns – the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the social networking company Instagram.

Much like a child shares characteristics with their mother, Liz Lachman’s films always include resemblances of herself and her life experiences. Her current newborn short film, Pin-Up, starring Angela Sarafyan & Christina Chang, acts as a window into the director’s personal trials and tribulations over the course of her life.

Inspired to create a space where artists can feel confident and empowered to channel their inner creative, a new art collective named Generation Bloom makes their way onto the local art scene.

On any given day, the Santa Monica Pier hosts a wide variety of visitors, from the local Los Angeles native to the overseas tourist. However, the Santa Monica Pier’s Twilight Summer Concert on August 28th served to acknowledge the beauty and appreciation of cultures different from one’s own.

In honor of Santa Monica College’s (SMC) 2nd Annual First Amendment Month, the Communication & Media Studies Department hosted a screening of two student-made films on the Center for Media and Design’s campus on May 7. The films, ‘Undocumented’ and ‘Muñecas’, both shine a light on the immigrant experience.

As the spirit of Earth Day—April 22—often inspires people to reflect on their treatment of the world around them, many find themselves realizing that they do not respect their planet as much as they would like to. However, this is not an irreparable relationship; environmentalists and activists all across the globe have been devising practices for decades that can help humans to coexist with nature, therefore conserving the earth and improving the overall well-being of society.

On the evening of April 24, people flocked to Santa Monica City Hall decked in denim jackets, jeans and t-shirts. This crowd’s matching attire was no coincidence; all arrived to attend the city’s third annual Denim Day gathering. Santa Monica’s event was organized by the Commission on the Status of Women and included a multitude of speakers, performances and tabling by various sexual violence activist groups.

While navigating Santa Monica’s traffic-filled streets, one may be too focused on avoiding a fender bender to notice UnUrban Coffee House on the corner of Pico Blvd and Urban Ave. However, this shop has acted as a hub for community and caffeine since its doors opened in 1995.

Wearing a trench coat covered in plastic straws, Carla Claure Santa Monica College (SMC) Plastic Free president stands on stage in one of the Center for Media and Design’s auditoriums. This coat is not meant to be a fashion statement;

After roughly eight years of drought, uncharacteristically high rains struck deserts across southern California in the fall and winter seasons of 2018. A technicolor bloom now carpets the desert region, also known as a “super bloom.”

A class of middle schoolers of all shapes and sizes forms a single-file line in front of a scale in the center of a gymnasium. Some look eager, others ambivalent. A few seem fearful. As students take their turns, a teacher announces numbers as if the children are about to begin a boxing match

After a century of acting as an educational and social hub for the Santa Monica community, the Ocean Park Library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, the Santa Monica Conservancy and the Ocean Park Association are co-sponsoring an event on the library grounds on March 23, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Although 2019 is only three months in, there have been 206 cases of measles in the United States this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those cases, 74 were attributed to the outbreak in Washington and Oregon. The Pacific Northwest region is known for being heavily anti-vaccination, as Washington, Oregon, and Idaho allow both religious exemptions and personal belief exemptions from vaccinations.

Ever since the rise of sex education in the 1960s, debates as to the most appropriate way to implement these programs have existed. On February 19, the group “Informed Parents of California” put on a protest outside of school district offices in Chino, California, in response to the implementation of sex education curriculum under the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA).