At a recent Associated Students Senate meeting President Vanya Quinones announced the school’s intention to reopen the Black Box Cabaret (BBC). According to university spokesman Walter Ryce, the BBC, which is a former campus hotspot located behind the student health center, is being looked at “as a performing arts venue for the university as well as a location that will expand dining options on campus for students.”
The project, still in early planning, doesn’t yet have a solid timeline or details but comes as part of an effort to appeal to student requests for more venue space. “We have consistently heard from current students that they would like a music venue on campus, so we are exploring options and support for expanded student programming,” said Ryce. If the BBC does reopen, it will be the third grand opening of its lifetime.
“I think that reopening the BBC would majorly benefit all students by getting them more involved with the on-campus community,” said Alberto Garcia, a fourth-year music and technology major and officer for the music club, “and it would lead to some great exposure for the music club. Giving hands-on experience to music students and club members.”
In 1999, only a year after the BCC’s first opening, the Otter Realm (the Lutrinae’s predecessor on campus) published “The Black Box Cabaret: Past. Present. Future?” covering its beginnings in the 1940s as a nightclub for soldiers at Fort Ord to its time as studio for the now defunct teledramatic arts and technology program. The article would ask the question, “What is the purpose of the Black Box?”
That question would be answered as the BBC found its niche as a coffeehouse and popular performance venue, becoming a vital part of the campus ecosystem. “The BBC was a space where students had the power to program so many different types of events,” said Alie Jones, a CSUMB graduate who is now a campus lecturer. “Everything from a rave to a reggae concert. Students need low or no-cost spaces where they can cultivate community.”
The BBC provided more than entertainment to the students but also opportunities to take their studies outside the classroom. Jones said, “I hosted Earth Week events as part of the Associated Students Environmental Affairs Committee and I remember my friend had her Capstone there which was a play called ‘A Race through Time.’”
When it closed unexpectedly in the spring of 2000, citing fire code violations, protests and calls for its restoration would rock the campus, as reported in the article “The Box is Back!”
These protests would lead to its second grand opening in January 2002 and prompt more historical reexamination. The Otter Realm article “BBC finally opens… then closes” taking yet another look at the history of the space, now including the recent protests and issues with termite damage that had delayed reopening. The BBC remained active until 2009 when it was forced to slow its operation due to financial difficulties. This history was covered in the February 2014 Otter Realm article “A Look Inside the Box, A Historical Profile of the Black Box Cabaret,” during which it was still intermittently active as a performance venue.
Students like Garcia are advocating loudly to “bring back the time capsule.” Much as it was for Jones the hope is that if the BBC was revived it would once again be “a safe place for all types of artistic students with opportunities to learn how to work the equipment and give them some performance experience, all in a free easily accessible space,” said Garcia.
As it always has been, the path ahead for the Black Box Cabaret is uncertain. Difficulties that plagued it in the past like funding concerns, building code violations and competition with spaces like the Otter Student Union are more relevant than they have ever been, leaving students and faculty alike to ponder when the Black Box Cabaret will make its third revival.