ON Culture | Catching Up with Coffee, Colbert, and Cinema

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This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on March 20, 2026. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

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ON the Walls

Artist Baret Boisson, whose name you may recognize as the 2026 SBIFF poster artist (see story here) or from Roger Durling’s cover story in 2024 (read here) had a huge honor recently when Jimmy Fallon commissioned her to create a special painting for him to give to Stephen Colbert to celebrate the end of his long running talk show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!

Titled “Freedom,” the three-dimensional artwork features Colbert captaining a boat with his faithful dog — a Boykin Spaniel named Benny — on board, and on the life preserver are the initials of everyone in Colbert’s family. Here’s a link to the episode, the section about Boisson starts about nine minutes in.

It’s worth watching to the end as well, as Fallon performs a slightly tweaked version of “My Way” to commemorate the event as well, trying to drum up some support for a possible Colbert presidential run in 2028. One can only dream.

The Rubenstein Chan Contemporary Art Gallery in Carpinteria has been crushing it lately with cool stuff. I keep finding more and more things to marvel at in this piece by Gerrie Shapiro, an artist that gallerists Bonnie Rubenstein and Irene Chan describe as having a “comeback 20 years in the making.” Apparently, she’s been making work without showing it for two decades — until now. You can catch the show through April 5. See rubensteinchan.com for details.

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ON the Stage

With all of the horrible things in the news right now, it’s good to know that our arts organizations are still so incredibly generous, especially during these hard times. Case in point: Ensemble Theatre Company’s new show, A Night with Janis Joplin, is holding a “Pay What You Can Community Night” performance on Wednesday, April 1, at
7:30 p.m. at the New Vic Theatre, prior to the official opening night on April 4.

This high energy show is a part theater and part rock-and-roll celebration of the life and music of a fearless icon who changed the sound of rock forever.

The show runs through April 26. Click here for more information.

Speaking of things to smile about, it’s almost time for Santa Barbara Bowl season and, boy is this one looking fab. In September alone, we’ve got Santana for two nights, Earth, Wind & Fire, Freya Skye, Brandi Carlile, and Alabama Shakes. We’ll have a full preview of the season soon, but meanwhile take a gander at the website to see what else they’ve got coming our way.

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ON the Page

Mark your calendars for something really cool coming our way, Santa Barbara’s very own Literary Festival arrives May 2-3 for an impressive citywide celebration of the written word. Featuring big names like Walter Mosley, Steven Rowley, Susan Orlean, and more, with keynotes, panels, workshops, and pop-up events in the city’s most iconic locations including the Lobero Theatre, La Arcada, the Canary Hotel, and the Santa Barbara Public Library Plaza — we’ll have loads of information to share in the upcoming weeks. But meanwhile, you can check out the website at santabarbaraliteraryfestival.org to learn more.

Author Rachel Hochhauser, who grew up in Santa Barbara, returns to her hometown bookstore for a book talk and signing of her debut novel Lady Tremaine at Chaucer’s on Monday, March 23, at 6 p.m. The book sounds great, in the vein of Wicked, it’s a reimagining of Cinderella, as told through the eyes of its iconic “evil” stepmother, revealing a propulsive love story about the lengths a mother will go to for her children. Glennon Doyle called it “Feminist, fierce, and wildly fresh. Lady Tremaine is my kind of fairy tale.”

This one is going into my “to be read” pile for sure. (Speaking of Cinderella stories, is everyone else loving the new season of Bridgerton as much as I am? I could write a whole newsletter on that show. Maybe I will at some point.)

From left: Rachel Hochhauser | Photo: Cayce Clifford; Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser | Photo: Courtesy

ON the (Big) Screen

It’s so nice to have the beautiful new SBIFF McHurley Film Center downtown. In case you missed it, Tiana Molony has a great story about the free art exhibit on view right now, a salute to the vision of La La Land, created by Santa Barbara residents David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, who collaborated on the film (read about it here).

In case you missed them, the Film Center is bringing back four Oscar winning films starting on March 20 they’ll screen:

One Battle After Another, Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing, and the first-ever Oscar for Best Casting. Fri., Sun., Tue., Thur.: 1:30 p.m., 8 p.m. Sat., Mon., Wed.: 4:30 p.m.

Sinners, Academy Award winner for Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography. Fri., Sun., Tue., Thur.: 5 p.m. Sat., Mon., Wed.: 1:30 p.m., 8 p.m.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature. Fri., Sun., Tue., Thur.: 4:50 p.m. Sat., Mon., Wed.: 1:40 p.m., 7:50 p.m.

Sentimental Value, Academy Award winner for Best International Feature Film. Fri., Sun., Tue., Thur.: 1:40 p.m., 7:10 p.m. Sat., Mon., Wed.: 4:50 p.m.

Also worth noting on the Oscar beat, the Best Film Editing winner for One Battle After Another was UC Santa Barbara Alum from 2004 Andy Jurgensen. Tom Jacobs wrote a nice profile of him here in the UCSB Alumni Magazine.

It’s not often that you get to present the Independent-sponsored SBIFF Audience Choice Award to an independent film about the battle for independent journalism. But I got to do just that, when the documentary Steal This Story, Please! won that honor, as well as the Fund for Santa Barbara’s Social Justice Award. The film — directed by Carl Deal & Tia Lessin — is about Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!), a journalist whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. The film screens April 17-23 at SBIFF’s Film Center, with showtimes TBA. View trailer here.

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ON the (Small) Screen

My favorite television moment in recent memory, and possibly ever, was this one from the Apple TV show Shrinking, where theater kids Jason Segel and Michael Urie serenade Harrison Ford with a pretty fabulous version of Les Miserables — and at the end Ford deadpans, “Did you guys make that up?” Need to smile? This scene is a pretty good prescription.

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ICYMI

You may have noticed that we’ve missed a few ON Culture newsletters recently. Indeed I was MIA since the film festival because almost immediately afterward, I came down with what I thought was the worst flu of my life, but it turned out to be terrible food poisoning where I got so sick and so dehydrated that I ended up in the hospital for several days with my kidneys compromised. Thankfully, they were able to treat me just in time, and now I’m back home and hard at work at my desk in our beautiful new office on De la Guerra Street. Here are a few of the stories you may have missed from the weeks I was gone:

The historic Lompoc Theatre is coming back to life — read here

Elizabeth Gilchrist has a terrific new book called Rich People in Santa Barbara — read here

Tiler Peck curated a two-day festival of performances spotlighting Jerome Robbins’s choreography and some of the top dance talent in the world — read here

I had a sweet little Valentine of an evening with Suzanne Vega — read here

Music Academy of the West has some fabulous shows coming our way at their summer festival — read here

Baz Luhrmann’s EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert is a new look at the king’s life and music — read here

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ON the Calendar

Our office has been literally buzzing about this for weeks, and on Saturday, March 28, it will finally be time for the Coffee Culture Fest, which is the first event of its kind on the Central Coast. Caffeine meets culture at the Marjorie Luke Theatre (and adjacent Santa Barbara Junior High Campus) with a spotlight on local roasters, businesses, artists, and performers through an immersive, family-friendly daytime festival. Sip tastings from local and regional roasters. Explore maker booths. Meet inspiring nonprofits. Discover interactive art around every corner. Catch live music on the coffeehouse-style singer-songwriter stage. Join hands-on workshops and expert panels. Watch top baristas compete in our high-energy Latte Art Throwdown. Then dance it out at our caffeine-fueled daytime dance party and live concert with local favorite Whatever4Ever.

Click here for more information, and I hope to see you there.

For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events/.