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PURPOSE
The purpose of the Berkeley Mic is to promote social and environmental justice through the production of a bi-monthly magazine. Combining activism and creative expression, the Mic uses a variety of media to inform and organize students, drawing the connections between campus, local, and global politics.

BACKGROUND
The late poet, professor, activist, and founder of UC Berkeley’s Poetry for the People, June Jordan raises the question in her last collection of essays: “What shall we do, we who did not die?” These words have surfaced while the issues of ethnic studies, Affirmative Action, sweatshops, the Palestinian conflict, and the war on terror have manifested themselves on the UC Berkeley campus in recent years.

Many have ignored Jordan’s question or chosen to passively stand-by as history unfolds. The Berkeley Mic has chosen a different path —- to rise out of silence and against a surge of conservative voices to make visible our resistance to injustice. We are committed to watchdog our university, push marginalized voices into the public forum, and amplify them. This decision is based on the awareness that we are an active part of history and interconnected as human beings to all life, where our thoughts, words, and actions significantly shape our communities. The Mic explores the meaningful experiences, creations, and thoughts of those who dedicate their lives to this possibility.

The Berkeley Mic is founded on a commitment to promote social and environmental justice. Combining activism and creative expression, we will utilize a variety of media to provide a tool for campus organizing and educate students, especially the disenfranchised. Willing to step outside political-correctness to provide a space for debate and dialogue, we seek to make the connections between campus, local, and global politics.

The existence of this magazine would not be possible without the assistance of ASUC senators Taina Gomez and Gustavo Mata, as well as Poetry for the People and its director, Junichi P. Semitsu, who proudly continues the legacy of June Jordan.

The Berkeley Mic honors her legacy by “giving voice to the voiceless and making visible the invisible.”

The Mic is a member of the Independent Press Association Campus Alternative Journalism Project