More than 100 Santa Barbara County students gathered at Santa Barbara City College last weekend for a day of learning, joy and community at the fourth annual Arts & Culture Day Black Youth Leadership Summit. 

Gateway Educational Services, a Santa Barbara nonprofit learning center dedicated to advancing equity in education, organized the first summit in 2023. 

The Parents of Black Students Advocacy Council (PBSAC) — an ad hoc group of parents with children enrolled at Gateway — requested a day of community and celebration amid longstanding racial discrimination in schools, according to PBSAC parent and CommUnify Community Services Director Kemba Lawrence. 

“We just needed a place of joy where we weren’t focusing on all of the heaviness and the problems,” Lawrence said.

The full-day programming for K-12 students featured workshops led by community partners to help children develop leadership skills, foster creativity and connect.  

Parents and caregivers were encouraged to stay for interactive sessions, including a workshop on college planning and a community dialogue about racism in schools. 

“We had a really large parent turnout this year,” said Audrey Gamble, Gateway founder and co-executive director. “It was great because they are the ones who we need to show and teach how to advocate for their students, how to navigate the school districts, and even attend school board meetings if something’s wrong.”

The afternoon portion was dedicated to arts and culture workshops, in which students engaged in activities including dance, puppetry, poetry and West African drumming.

Gamble led the drumming workshop, which taught students of all experience levels to express their emotions through beats.

“Culturally, we come from rhythm and beats and dance, and so one of the major ways to communicate was the drum,” Gamble said. “So I thought, ‘Well, why not just make that fun?’”

This year’s theme, “Joy in Resilience,” became especially pertinent after Gamble and co-founder and co-executive director Connie Alexander were injured in a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 1 south of Lompoc on June 30. 

The crash occurred in the middle of the summit preparation process, and they lost a month of planning time, Alexander said. 

As Gamble recovered from an arm broken in two places, and Alexander from a leg broken in three places, they continued summit preparation with the help of community partners. 

“It was amazing how the community just was ready. They were here, they supported,” Alexander said. “It seemed unthinkable to not have this (summit). And if you’re here and you see it, you know why it’s unthinkable for this to not happen.”

The afternoon workshops culminated in a showcase in which students presented their learnings in a performance for parents and other community members.

“The actual end results of all of the different workshops — the drumming, the artwork, the dance, and the song — are all displayed at the end to show what happens when we come together as a community in such a short period of time,” Lawrence said. 

Gamble and Alexander also announced Gateway’s 2026-27 “B” Ervin Williams Scholarship awardees: 2026 high school graduates Madison Turner and Kaarlo Anderson.

Each received $2,500 to help cover college expenses. 

The showcase closed with a group dance that invited audience participation, followed by a school supply giveaway. 

“We want to send them back to school hopeful, centered, and understanding that although we are going through some difficult times as a country, that there is joy even when we need to be resilient,” Alexander said. “It’s a beautiful thing that that happened, and so I hope that at some point in the school year they’ll remember this.”