What does skating and environmental advocacy have in common? As it turns out, a lot. This episode of the Mt. San Antonio College Podcast introduces award-winning skateboarder and environmentalist Peggy Oki, who visited campus to talk about her legacy skating, but also how it opened her eyes to the natural world.

Hosts Chisa Uyeki and Ivan Sanchez meet students creating their own skateboard art and art letters, shedding light on the intersections between skate culture, creativity, and environmental activism, and proving the value of creative approaches to advocacy.

Resources:

THE ART OF SKATE: Activism, Art and Design show continues through November 13, 2025 at the Diana Berger Art Gallery Instagram @mtsac_dianabergergallery

To learn more about skater, artist, and activist Peggy Oki, check out https://www.peggyoki.com/ including her activism for Whales and Dolphins through the Origami Whale Project

Peggy encouraged action to protect wildlife.

- To learn more about marine mammals currently protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act check out Cetacean.org, including actions you can take to protect these animals.

- ECOS (Environmental Conservation Online System) US endangered animals list provides information about each animal protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Mt. SAC Fine Art and Commercial Art Programs that participated in the Art of Skate Festival included: Mt. SAC Graphic Design & Illustration: Shaping the next generation of creative professionals and Mt. SAC Printmaking.

Run Time: 14:53

To Find the full transcript for this episode click HERE

So my origami whales project started like, even before I started doing the origami whales. I was visiting schools, like elementary schools and such, and giving a short lecture about how cool whales or dolphins are. And then I would say, did you know that they're still being hunted? And the kids would just be aww? And I go, but you know what? You can do something.

Welcome to the Mount San Antonio College Podcast. I'm Chisa Uweki, a Mount Sac professor and librarian, and I'm pleased to be your host for this season. Our goal is to keep you connected to our campus by bringing you the activities and events you may not have time to attend, to share the interesting things our colleagues are creating and innovative ways they are supporting and connecting with Mount Sac students. Join me as we explore Mount Sac.

Recently, the Mount Sac campus came alive with students showing off their skateboard art and to come together to work on a collective whale origami project. One student, Jennifer, was practicing her ollies on campus while she waited for the speaking event to start.

I've been wanting to learn how to.

Do tricks with my partner because they're also a skater.

So yeah, I've been.

That's why I learned how to ollie.

After a few minutes. A security guard who's been here 20 years tells us Mount Sac is actually a real hotspot for skaters over the weekend. And because of the hilly terrain and.

Cement structures, everyone showed up that day to see Peggy oke, award winning skater and member of the legendary Z Boys, where California skate culture originated. This was part of the Art of Skate Festival, a two day event at the Diana Berger Art Gallery. Skating was a big part of the event, but as you'll hear, so was environmental sustainability. As a skater, then a surfer, Peggy developed an appreciation of the natural world. So before her lecture, visitors were encouraged to create art and send letters to defend the Marine Mammal Protection act, an endangered species act.

Hi, I'm Peggy Okey here at Mount San Antonio College in the Multicultural center and excited about this art activities workshop that we're doing right now. And we are primarily creating art letters to send to representatives and legislators urging them to protect the Marine Mammal Protection act and the Endangered Species act. Because both of Those laws, over 50 years in place, are currently being threatened with drastic amendments to weaken them to the real significant. Because, you know, obviously the government, current government, wants to get these animals out of their way so they can do all sorts of exploitative activities, you know, resource extraction, etc. Without the protections that these marine mammals and endangered species need.

Someone had brought up the example of the bald eagle earlier and you had mentioned that they used to be endangered, but they're not. So that shows, right, like the impact, the possibility that's out there when we're able to protect animals.

Exactly. And the same with the grizzly bear. The grizzly bear was also listed endangered at one point, and now it's no longer endangered.

What gets species onto the list and what gets them off?

I'd say it takes many years of biologists out there studying species, specific species and saying, I'm going to study this spotted owl for 10 years and I'm going to prove that the population is suffering from this and that and the other thing. And then, and then the organization will go, yeah, let's get this listed as an endangered species. And then they file an application into the government to do that. And, and even then it's not like an instantaneous. Oh yeah, you know, it takes a while, take some years sometimes.

Yeah.

So I think one of the things when I think about what's happening is it's a lot of looking at profit instead of looking at long term survivability or even wellness long term for the planet. Right. So I think that countering that for folks who care about profit and who are invested in capitalism is hard. How do you think we can get the point across?

So I would say that it's really important that we understand that the health of our planet is keeping all parts intact. It's like, for example, if you have a car and you're gonna take out the carburetor, you cannot drive the car. And so that's how this whole planet has evolved together, this whole unit of even all the way to the atmospheric phenomena that happens because of everything happening inside, you know, in ecological sink. And so when you start taking out bits of it and polluting the atmosphere and all those things, it's ultimately to the demise of humanity.

I want to ask you a little bit about the activity people are doing. So folks are writing letters and then you called it an art letter. Can you talk about what that is and why that's effective?

Yes. So my origami whales project started like even before I started doing the origami whales. I was visiting schools, like elementary schools and such, and giving a short lecture about how cool whales or dolphins are. And then I would say, did you know that they're still being hunted? And the kids would just be aww. And I go, but you know what, you can do something. So then I would get them to write art letters and it's a very empowering thing, especially for youth who think that they don't have any power.

Can I ask you about what you just created?

Yes. So I just created a letter writing to my representative to urge him to oppose this dangerous registration and defend the Marine Mammal Protection act for the desert, specifically for the desert salamander. And so I'm creating some art because the letter and the artwork makes the most impact for this message.

So I'm walking out behind the Multicultural center. There's a whole series of skateboards that have been designed by Mount Sac students. So right behind the Multicultural center there's a patio and it is up on the Miracle Mile. And we have probably about maybe 18 skateboard decks that have been painted by Mount Zach art students. So I am going to check this out. They're really incredible.

Hi.

Are you all volunteering here?

Yes.

So my name is Chisa Ueki and I'm the librarian here at Mount Sac and I also am co host of the Mount Sack Zach podcast. So we're doing an episode on today's event. Could you tell us a little bit about what we're looking at and who created these?

Yeah, yeah.

Hi, my name is Jacqueline Geronimo and I'm an art history major and I took this class. So all the boards that we have on display are student work. I actually have mine on display too. It's the green one with the Selena and the car.

My name is Nikki Nguyen. I am also an illustration major. I just transferred out from Mount Sac. Actually I'm going to Cal State Fullerton. But I'm here to help at the event. And this is like to promote the graphic design and illustration program. We put out all of our student works here. These are like skateboards we made in our contemporary illustration class.

And right now we're promoting to show that one. This program is really small, but we want more people to become involved. It's a really tight knit community and we want to show people you can be a creative, you can make art. It's a class to like show like you can do narratives through art. And it's just like a really fun class and we just want more people to learn about it.

So one thing that we're asking students this semester to reflect on is something that perhaps a professor has done that's been impactful for you. And so if there was anything in the process of creating this or anything like that, can you think of anything that you could share?

Yeah, definitely. I'd say Professor Kyler has been like a huge Inspiration, like a huge help in my art career at the moment. Before I joined these classes, I wasn't really sure about taking art seriously, like, as a career and such. But after taking Kyler's classes, I realized that there's so much more to the art industry and there's so many different paths that you could take with art. And art is not a dying industry. There's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. With the AI on the rise and all that, but there's still tons of pathways that you can take with art.

And this is an example as we're seeing here, like the skateboards. I don't know, it's just so cool to see it, like, in person. And I don't know, Professor Kyler's been such a huge help.

How about you?

I agree with, like, everything he said. Also for me, like, now it's in illustration. Yeah. I was in studio arts and I think one of like our biggest concerns when we're in here is like, oh, like, I don't know if this is for me. I don't know if I can do this. But Kyler Smith, like, he's our professor and he's been so supportive through our entire thing and he kind of showed us like, yes, you can do stuff here. You can like, actually put your art onto, like, products. You can sell stuff.

You could actually make a difference. You can make impactful artworks.

So you had mentioned that your board is the green board. Could you describe it a little bit and talk about why this was the subject that you chose?

Yes. So I like a lot of like lowrider candy paint esque and I wanted to do that for the board. And also my mom really loves Selena and I grew up on Selena, so it's something that I was just like, you know what? Might as well let's combine both. And then also since I love art, I'm combining all my interests all in one, like cars, music, and art.

I love that. And can you tell us about yours? Do you have a board here?

I do have a skateboard. Mine all the way to the the right. I did myself with my iPad. And I wanted to draw like a bunch of like free flowing shapes kind of blooming out of it. I did it in the colors actually appropriate, which is the drawing app that we do. And I also included like my own personal stuff. I did like quick little doodles on it. I added my dog and like, some like, small artworks, like hints at my own artworks.

And I kind of wanted it to show, like, when I'm like, Drawing, like, I get, like, this creative flow and passion for it, and I wanted to just show, like, everything flowing out of it and, like, how excited I am with just making art. That was, like, at least the inspiration behind my board.

We are here at the art and skate event, and there is a huge display of skateboards with different art on each of the skate decks. And I'm going to talk to some of the students to try to see what they're, you know, what they think about the art, what they're doing here. Hi, my name is Ivan Sanchez.

Yeah, my name is Samuel, and I'm a part of the illustration graphic design program. Right now, we're showcasing these student work from, like, the advanced illustration class. Since we have the Dannenberg Galleries having the artist gate, we thought it'd be a wonderful tie in to show the work that the students get to do.

Is your art featured here today or not? Not today, actually.

Yeah, it's the one right there. It's like the left, the third from the left. That one's mine with the purple and the flower and all that.

Could you describe your arc in your words?

Yeah. So I have kind of in the center, I have this person kind of coming out of this flower, like this rose. And then down, like lower, we have like a lavender and another rose coming out. I think it's more of like a carnation I put. And then I have it in the style where the person and the flowers are more in, like, this illustrative, like, line art. But I have other things in the background that are like web browser tabs that have different images, different applications, like media player, like Photoshop in the back, like, image of, like, a controller with these cable coming down. I played around a lot with mixing that kind of art style where there's stuff that's more line art, there's stuff that's more rendered, painted stuff that's more pixely. And all of these projects, the.

I guess, like, the objective of it was to create something that was more personal to us. Whether incorporate things that we like, aesthetics that we like, hobbies. In my personally, I like music a lot. I like drawing. I love flowers. I love video games. I love anime and manga. So I try to incorporate each of those inside that skateboard deck.

Well, everything on it definitely looks very intentional. I want to talk about how important this is for making connections back to what you're learning in class. What kind of an impact does it have when a student's work is featured like this?

I think it really empowers them in a way, and putting them on a physical application like a skateboard deck. I think it helps envision that where it's like, wow, I can make really cool stuff. I feel like just makes you think something like, I can't believe I did this before.

Thank you for listening to the Mount San Antonio College Podcast, brought to you by Mount sac's POD Office and created in partnership with Avant House Media. Original music created and edited by Nira Azira. Be sure to check out our growing library of over 230 episodes and let us know your thoughts. You can reach me Chisa Ueki at c u yekiountsack.edu. wishing you an amazing year and happy listening.