As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence, the 2026 Santa Cruz Night of Ideas invites us not to celebrate the Enlightenment, but to interrogate it. Long associated with democracy, progress, and universal reason, the Enlightenment’s legacy remains deeply ambivalent – coexisting with enduring forms of exclusion, colonial violence, and economic exploitation. These unresolved tensions, strikingly visible today, demand renewed scrutiny.
Rather than treating the Enlightenment as a closed chapter or shared inheritance, this edition centers young local voices and civil society to ask urgent questions: whose reason matters, whose freedoms are secured, and whose futures are denied?
Through conversations, workshops, performances, and visionary talks, Enlightenment, Now! becomes a space for lived experience and collective experimentation. Featuring local contributions from Thomas Sage Pedersen, Crista Berryessa and the Beati Quorum, Alex Olwal’s audiovisual collaborations with AL-EK, and Juan Ospina, flautist and composer with Olemano, the aim is not consensus, but momentum: rethinking progress and imagining new political, ethical, and cultural possibilities under radically changed conditions.
Join us on Friday, April 17 at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences to explore what remains of the Enlightenment, and what it might become!