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As the academic year comes to a close, the MCC would like to thank everyone for all of the efforts, energies, and intentions that you have shared with us and all of our communities. Understanding the temporary nature of our current setting in HFA, we value the tremendous passion dedicated to retaining and nourishing the soul of the MCC.
For our last newsletter of the year, as well as the last newsletter to come from this location, we invited current interns to reflect on their experiences. We hope to affirm the stories and experiences of the folks who have been working with us while also lifting up some of the reasons why we participate and do this work to begin with.
Thank you so much for you continued support and subscription to the MCC Newsletter! Have a great summer!
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As always, we invite you to stop by and visit us at our temporary space in Hearst Field Annex D-37.
RRR Week Open Hours- bridges Study Jams!
Monday: 9am - 6pm
Tuesday - Friday: 9am - 12pm
Saturday: 9am-5pm
Finals Week Open Hours
Monday - Thursday: 9am - 9pm
Friday: 9am - 5pm
In solidarity,
The Multicultural Community Center
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Giao Tran
I came into the MCC wanting to find a like-minded community where I could learn and grow, since being a transfer student of color at Berkeley has not been easy. I came to Cal confused about my queerness, scrambling to find communities and support networks, and had a tough time figuring out the bureaucracy that Berkeley operates in. I’ve also never seen Lower Sproul in its heyday. For me, Lower Sproul has always been under construction and by the time I graduate, I won’t be here to see all the student groups operating in one building. If it weren’t for a small handful of people, I would have never known where the ASUC office, student development offices, Bridges, and the MCC were located.
Considering that I’m a first generation queer student of color, spaces like these are crucial to my retention and it’s clear that UC Berkeley should have done a better job of transitioning students like myself. At the same time, I’ve met amazing people throughout my time at Berkeley. I’ve met people who have challenged me in my politics, helped me grow as a person and held space for me to participate in my own liberation. I was lucky enough to stumble across the MCC and be accepted as an intern. Learning about the history of the MCC has helped humble me and ground me in my politics even further. I know that I am existing in a space that was fought for and that it continues to hold the university accountable to marginalized students today.
As the MCC transitions to the MLK building, I hope that the MCC’s legacy of student-led activism will continue. I hope conversations about oppression and liberation will continue. As I begin to transition out of Berkeley into my post-grad life, the lessons I’ve learned and challenges I’ve faced in the MCC will be some of the most valuable things I can take with me.
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Lauren Ruffin
The MCC internship, to me, has not been about building a resume or stockpiling my resume with skills and experiences to advertise to employers, at least not directly. Working in the MCC has been about sustaining myself in a place where my knowledge production is devalued, where my beliefs and values considered naïve and radical elsewhere are legitimized and appreciated, a place where my voice is heard, validated, and engaged with. The MCC is where I’ve been lucky enough to meet, grow with, and learn from some of the wisest most genuine people I’ve met in Berkeley. This internship has been a space for me to sustain myself physically, mentally, spiritually amidst all the discomfort and distress this institution brings me. The MCC has helped me realize and appreciate that my short time here is about more than a degree – that the people and places around me have so much more to offer me than any title ever could. The MCC has taught me how empowering it is to support and lift up those around me, what it feels like to put the success of the energies and communities I hold dearest at the center of my own success. It’s taught me to care about the space I take up, to be cognizant of the ways I maneuver the world and influence myself and the space around me. The MCC is a home thats cultivated my person in ways most other opportunities could not...and taught me hella marketable skills like managing a budget, facilitating a discussion, and working Photoshop.
The MCC is moving, it’s growing towards grand, beautiful things but also farther and farther away from the original seedlings from which it sprouted. But to watch our seedling grow and thrive is all that I could imagine our history wants from us. I only hope that our new leaves that will bask in the sunlight of glorified canopy tops will stay true to the roots that sustain them with life. I hope that our growing seedling flourishes in the beauty and strength that it is, extending its branches to all the people who ground it. I hope that its strength and resilience inspires others, feeds off of their energy and value, remembers and grows from their stories and not from those who stole its sunlight in youth, who didn’t believe in its success when its sprouts were termed weeds and sought to destroy all it might be. MCC, you are the people who made you, the hxstories that defined you. You are a symbol of resistance but most importantly a symbol of existence of your people, your stories, your realities, your roots, your future and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise they better expect your family, ’69 to ’99 to all time, to be right there alongside you.
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John Jairo
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Jessica Angelica Reyes
I've laid my roots down before, set them in a place I could envision their growth. Setting my roots in the MCC was not something that came clear and easy. This is the first place that I have felt communally invested in with other people, so seeing my position in everything that is the MCC has been a process. There is this concept around competition that we learned in my bio class that plants "prefer to have their own space and preferentially proliferate roots away from neighboring plants," which basically means the underground roots of plants fight each other for the nutrients they need to survive.
I like to think that the MCC defies this phenomenon in the way we give each other the means to bloom and flourish, but more importantly, the things we need to stay rooted. Again, coming around to this understanding has not been easy, I have not always been growing from the this place of abundance (as Elisa likes to say)-- I still feel young in this legacy of the MCC. However, I will say that I've laid my roots here and I have just started in my time to blossom and sprout with my community so I am both inspired by and nervous about our transition into the new space.
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Elisha Flores
During the past two years, I've interned as a liaison between the MCC and the Native American Student Development (NASD) office. This position presented a number of challenges for me, but has ultimately been extremely rewarding. I have expanded my skill base and have become so much more aware of things happening all around me. I have gained so many tools and new perspectives. This experience has allowed me to develop on a personal level while involving myself in the beautiful MCC community. The NASD office finally attained a full-time director last academic year. With that, NASD has rapidly expanded the past couple of years.
At times I felt like most of my energy was going towards NASD's growth, and that I was not doing my job as a “liaison†per se. But, I also realize that involving myself in both spaces as a liaison has actually helped draw those connections between NASD, MCC, and other communities. This is important for the future of both spaces, as well as others. With MCC currently undergoing a huge transition to the new, permanent MCC space, and with NASD establishing more solid roots, it is important that the spaces remain connected. Community support is important. My hope is that these spaces continue to grow and thrive together, while always remembering where we came from - that is what I would like to see for our future students and community members.
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Fernanda Sanchez Pillot
Good-bye MCC
We are in the last weeks of what it’s been called Phase II of the Multicultural Community Center, which, intersects with the last weeks of my undergraduate education at Berkeley. This means that the Multicultural Community Center will return to the MLK Jr. Student Union where it was before, and transition out of the temporary space where it is now. The MCC space is the only space I have really related to in my years at Cal.
When I was a student in Chabot College, I once came to Cal for an event put out by Xinaxtli. It was a gathering named “Decriminalizing the Youth,†and it was the first time I set foot on the university. Back then, the MCC was long and tall, with a lot of open space full of paintings and papel picado. I never saw the MCC in that space again. The turmoil of transferring and catching up with academia proved too strong a distraction, and a year had to pass before I came to the MCC again, quite intimidated. It was the semester where I learned about Napolitano’s appointment and joined the Student of Color Solidarity Coalition. I came to know a lot of folks who were passionate, critical, and committed to translate their principles into action. It was through these connections in the MCC that I finally felt more grounded in the university, and even in this country where I call myself an immigrant. In that semester, I learned more than all my classes together, and when I realized that I had only one more semester left, I concluded that it was too early to leave and that I wanted to learn, contribute, and be rooted in this space. I applied and became part of the intern class, joined the media committee, and worked on an MCC-BSC (coops) collaboration through anti-oppression education.
During my internship, I have learned how to facilitate difficult discussions, how to create curriculum that promotes engaged pedagogy, how to use Photoshop, how to make buttons (!), how to be constructive and critical of myself and others, how to use and troubleshoot an AV system, etc. I have also learned about our student of color hxstory, where the MCC comes from, and the way we continue these legacies through our work and visioning of what we want the MCC to be. This transition is super exciting for me because it brings a lot of possibilities. From the work I have been doing in the co-ops, I hope that a relationship between the MCC and MSD continues to flourish and becomes stronger. I also hope that the MCC can be a space for learning and resource sharing for those who want the co-ops to be an anti-oppressive, transformational, community space of underrepresented students on campus and the Bay.
I am excited to see that the new MCC location has a lot more spaces to accommodate different needs and activities. University and community organizations will have the chance to hold events, meetings, working jams, and study, eat, or hang out simultaneously in the space!! This strengthens the ability of the MCC to support Student of Color organizing in the many ways that it comes. Coming from a rich hxstory of resistance, of envisioning, of conspiring for justice, the MCC is a space to nourish dialogue, perspectives, and action that challenge ongoing colonial and oppressive systems and to envision liberatory and emancipatory practices for people of color.
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We’re excited to celebrate and appreciate folks in the MCC in all kinds of ways every day. We’d like to especially recognize the following MCC interns for some of their amazing and heart-fought accomplishments this year:
Ozichi Emeziem: Ms. Black 2015
Carmyn Jovel: Lavender Graduate Speaker & successful completion of senior capstone project in College of Natural Resources
Sabrina Robleh: for receiving a fellowship at Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in NYC
Lauren Ruffin: for Co-chairing the Chancellor’s Council on Students of Color and Multicultural Engagement
Fernanda Sanchez Pillot: for leadership on Berkeley Student Co-op taskforce & as a recipient of the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize
Moises Santos: chosen to be a Mellon Mays Fellow
Oliver Zerrudo: awarded American Cultures Research Prize
Additional Congrats to our Graduates!
Eniola Abioye
Ley Cerezo
Shalin Craig
Jimmy Daniel
Jaime-Andrés "Már-es" Flores-Márquez
Montzerrat Garcia
Alan S. Hernandez
Carmyn Jovel
Paulina Olvera
Amber Perkins-Ellis
Spencer Pritchard
Uriel Rivera
Fernanda Sanchez Pillot
Giao Tran
Samuel White
John Jairo Valencia
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The Multicultural Community Center and the Cross Cultural Student Development Office invites you to our 4th annual graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 20th from 12-2PM. As always, graduation will be held at the MCC!
MCC Graduation is a moment to celebrate and honor all that our community members have accomplished and experienced.
To our graduating seniors, your hard work and resilience is an inspiration and admiration to your community, past, present, and future. All our love and respect goes out to you, the passing of this journey, and to all that awaits you as you continue to move forward.
We welcome all members of the MCC and CCSD community (past and present interns and any community members that would like to participate) to celebrate, laugh, and cry with us as we reflect on the growth of our students. We will have food, drinks, and cake available for everyone! Come hungry, and happy!
For graduates, please register for the ceremony at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1D97QBvSzoouAvbdyJlrgLNGEqCtg6n-4DRlhpbsO1Rw/viewform?usp=send_form
We hope to see you there!
Sincerely,
MCC and CCSD
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Thursday, April 29 -- 6-8pm
Join the Multicultural Community Center and hardboiled, {m}aganda, and Onx for a night filled with story telling, talent sharing, poetry and prose. We're very excited to share this evening with you all and to learn from each other.
**Please note that this event is dedicated to the voices and talents of people of color, so we ask that if you do not identify as such, to please make room for those whose voices are directly marginalized on the basis of race - though these experiences of racialization will of course likely intersect with other identities we hold. On a related note, this event is ADA accessible.
If you're interested in voicing your story and skills with new friends, sign up to take part in the tinyurl below or simply show up on the day of the event ready to perform. We are also asking folx to contribute some light refreshments so that we can break bread together potluck-style!
SIGN UP to perform: http://tinyurl.com/mccopenmic15performers
BRING food to share with the community!
DONATE to the MCC Library! Check out the list of books we're missing and want to add to our collection, whether new or used: http://tinyurl.com/mccwishlist
For more information on co-sponsors for this event, please visit:
hardboiled - the asian pacific american issues newsmagazine at uc berkeley: hardboiled.berkeley.edu/
{m}aganda - the longest running Filipino-American literary arts publication in the nation: https://magandamagazine.wordpress.com/
MEChXA - https://www.facebook.com/mechxadeucberkeley
MCC Library: http://mcc.berkeley.edu/content/mcc-library-0
THE ONX - UC Berkeley's Black Student Magazine
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Hello beautiful community!
Registration for the highly anticipated
2015 Queer and Asian Conference (QACON15) is now open!
Website: www.qacon.org
****** This conference is FREE and open to ALL to attend. *******
What: QACON 2015 Amplify
When: Friday May 1st, 2015 - Sunday May 3rd, 2015
Where: University of California, Berkeley
Who: Anyone Interested in Attending
Cost: Free
****** REGISTER HERE: ******
http://tinyurl.com/qacon15registration
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Join us for the Borderland Practice Working Group’s spring showcase, where we will be premiering an anthology of writing, art, poetry and community interviews that examine the intersections of race, class, gender, and citizenship within health, social service, and other practice settings. There will also be performances and a panel discussion where we invite community members and health practitioners to discuss how these issues manifest in their work and other settings.
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