7:30-9pm Sunday, April 30th, 2023 presented by Front Street Productions
MacArthur Genius Natalia Molina unveils the hidden history of the Nayarit, a restaurant in Los Angeles that nourished its community of Mexican immigrants with a sense of belonging.
In the 1950s and 60s, a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles was much more than a popular eating spot: it was an urban anchor whose ethnic Mexican workers and customers formed a robust community. Molina illuminates the many facets of the immigrant experience from racism and segregation to family and community networks, the cross-currents of gender and sexuality, and the small pleasures of daily life. The Nayarit was a space where people could speak out, claim space, and belong. ​​Natalia's editor, our own Isabella Furth, will be on hand along with staff from Libélula Books & Co, an independent book store in Barrio Logan, which will be handling book sales at our reception afterwards. Join us! Registration  is free but required, sign up for your free tickets.

Nancy Toba-Laba, a long time member of the South Bay campus and an ardent volunteer at the food pantry, sends this report on distributing food for 400 households in the rain:
 
"Rainy and cold Saturday in the South Bay Food Pantry. There we were, all the volunteers, moving from one side to another, laughing and shouting to complete our goals. We looked like children playing in the rain. While our hands felt coldly frozen, I must say that never a complaint was heard.  It was a curious Saturday, quite different not only because it rained but also because of the attitude of all the people who were there, as if we were witnesses of an unparalleled event.  The volunteers were engrossed in their work with their happy faces, and meanwhile the clients waited in line chatting animatedly. They observed with great attention the tasks that the volunteers carried out and for the first time I observed empathy, gratitude and perhaps some other feeling that moved and filled my heart with satisfaction. 
 
I could not stop observing everything that happened that day, because it was truly a day like no other.  From time to time I would ask the volunteers who pack the fruits and vegetables, Hello, how are you? They answered in chorus "blessed" and my face lit up with gratitude at the strength of their response.  This Saturday is great. I told myself inside. It had been a long time since I had lived the satisfaction of feeling, listening and witnessing a completely unifying day, incomparable, where we were all able to put ourselves in each other's shoes and our clients had so many beautiful, unique and blessed words for the volunteers and our South Bay Food Pantry. Gratitude was the queen this Saturday because despite the rain and the cold we were there working with love, energy and diligence so that our dear clients could take their food home just like every Saturday.

7:30-9pm Saturday, April 1st, 2023
Theologian and ordained Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber speaks about personal failings, recovery, grace, faith, and really whatever the hell else she wants. A former stand-up comic and a recovering alcoholic, she founded the House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver, created and hosts the popular podcast The Confessional and is the author of three New York Times best-selling memoirs. Registration  is free but required, sign up for your free tickets.

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• The South Bay Food Pantry is the largest and fastest growing mission of First UU Church. Fifty-eight church members from both campuses, and 34 volunteers from the wider community, 92 people whose ages range from ten to mid-eighties keep the Pantry running and support First UU’s mission.