1st Annual Activism Right There Festival

Thanks to over thirty different UC Berkeley student and Bay Area organizations and their amazing capacity to organize a week-long series of events within a month (and over the winter break… wow, right?), UC Berkeley is host to the first ever annual Activism Right There Festival. The festival kicks off at 7pm in Naia Gelateria Lounge (Lower Sproul, UC Berkeley campus) tonight with an Open Mic on Gender and Sexuality, hosted by CalSlam and The Vagina Monologues. And if you can’t make it tonight, fear not! You have the opportunity on Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday to check it out.

And Friday night in Zellerbach should be especially awesome, as it will feature a panel of well-known activists speaking on student activism at UC Berkeley, including: author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff Chang and Bettina Aptheker of the Free Speech Movement.  Following the panel will be a concert with such performers as world reknown spoken word group iLL-Literacy (that’s right, they came to our theme unveiling) and Bay Area hip-hop legends Zion I.

And the best part of this festival? Free Fun!!!

If you’re in the area and have some extra time on your hands this week, we command you to go!

 

In Honor of the Veterans

Today, Maganda would like to honor and remember the contributions of all veterans. Happy Veterans Day.

Yesterday, Social Documentary Photographer Rick Rocamora–who spoke at Maganda’s Artists’ Dialogue earlier this year–wrote a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle’s Open Forum. It is titled “Waiting for Equity.” The following is an excerpt:

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, has tried since 1992 to pass the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill, which would give the Filipino WWII veterans full recognition and some better benefits. “Fifty years of injustice still burn in their hearts and memories. They want justice in their last years. It is time that this country adequately recognized their contributions, recognize the injustice, and act to correct it. We must do this to establish our honor - and the honor and dignity of these veterans.”

Many have died waiting for justice. They all have hoped that justice will prevail and that they will be fully recognized as veterans for their services fighting for democracy and freedom during World War II.

The Filipino Veterans Equity Act (HR. 760 and S.57) is again pending before the Congress. The Rescission Act of 1946 gave nationals from 60 other countries veterans’ status - but not Filipinos. They were singled out for exclusion. The pending bill will restore this status and bestow full honor and recognition on the Filipino veterans.

For those who died waiting, I will wait for them. They deserve justice, even after death.

You may find more about Rick Rocamora’s–as well as view his photos of veterans–at the SF Chronicle page.

P. Flores

 

On the importance of representation

I have been to countless teach-ins, attended numerous lectures and day-long conferences, been enrolled in how many Ethnic Studies classes that all emphasize how important it is for underrepresented and marginalized groups to participate in the electoral process, to politicize themselves if they wish to see change. And though I knew how important this was, I never fully understood and felt its importance until this past Thursday morning at 3:30am, after an extremely long Associated Students of the University of California- Berkeley (ASUC-Berkeley) Senate meeting. At this meeting, after a number of motions, recesses, and debates made by the frustrated and exhausted senators of ASUC, it was decided that the student organization’s, Chicanos/Latinos in Health Education (CHE), funding for their 15th Annual Dia De Los Muertos Conference (which would expose underrepresented communities, mainly Chicanos/Latinos, to opportunities in health education) would be cut from $1500 to $1050, with the possibility of it being cut even further at Monday night’s Financial Committee of ASUC meeting.