**Bonus**

The flyer for the Thursday afternoon intergenerational conversation.

For Those in the Bay

Spring semester at CAL is a sensory overload of teach-ins, open mics, town halls, banquets, and conferences of all kinds. This spring, however is extra special-- its the 40th anniversary of the twLF (third world Liberation Front) student strikes, that led to the creation of Ethnic Studies, among other things. Its also the 10th anniversary of the student strikes to save Ethnic Studies, under the banner of a new twLF. To celebrate, a coalition of students, faculty, alumni, and staff have put together an amazing smorgasbord of events the week of March 7-14. That week is also the Disabled Students awareness week, and part of the Women's History month events. A list of events follows below.

The 40th Anniversary of the third world Liberation Front:
Events March 7-14th on the UC Berkeley campus

Saturday, March 7th: Pilipino American Alliance (PAA) 40th Anniversary: 5pm International House Auditorium
Dinner and a program highlighting the evolution of PAA and the Pilipino community at Cal
http://ucbpaa.wordpress.com/
Sponsored by PAA

Sunday, March 8th: Poetry After the Storm: 8pm in MCC*
Poetry, music, and speakers raising consciousness about the ongoing tragedy of Katrina and its effects on the Gulf Coast
http://magnoliaproject.berkeley.edu/
Sponsored by the Magnolia Project

Monday, March 9th: State of the Struggle: 7pm in MCC*
Students of color keep it live from ’69 through today
Contexualizing what’s going down for students of color at Cal
Sponsored by bridges Multicultural Resource Center

Tuesday, March 10th: Activism Right There: 7pm Zellerbach Auditorium
celebrating the legacy of the twLF at Cal through words, dance, and song
intergenerational panel feat. Bob Wing, Favianna Rodriguez, and Jesus Barraza, and performances from Zion I, Invincible, Bambu, and more
http://activismrightthere.com
Sponsored by the Activism Right There Coalition

Wednesday, March 11th: building OUR movement: pushing it forward, keeping it real: 6-8pm in the MCC*
a space to be critical about our organizing, building on the hXstories of resistance movements & ethnic studies to explore our movement today
http://myspace.com/xinaxtli
Sponsored by Xinaxtli

Thursday, March 12th: Personal Narratives from the Struggle for Ethnic Studies: 3:30-6:00pm in the MCC*
feat. Carlos Munoz, LaNada Warjack, Roberto Hernandez, Maria Brenes, Ethnic Studies alumni and students
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=54006547187&ref=ts
Sponsored by the Ethnic Studies Undergraduate Student Collective

Friday, March 13th: Inter-Generational Dinner: 7pm-10pm in the MCC*
Sponsored by twLF 40th Anniversary Coalition
celebrating our community, commemorating those we’ve lost
Register online: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cFA5ZWdsby1Gb2FnVkQ5b2lTYWN0Wmc6MA

Saturday, March 14th: 19th Annual API Issues Conference (APIICON): 9:00am - 4:00pm, Lipman Room, Barrows Hall
“FOCALIZE. Realize. Vocalize. Mobilize.”
http://apiicon09.blogspot.com
Sponsored by APIICON Coalition + AAPI Alumni Chapter
TWLF Anniversary dinner (3/14, 5:30pm, @ MCC/Heller)
Sponsored by The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Alumni Chapter

*MCC: the MultiCultural Center (Heller Lounge), in the MLK Student Union

ASUC Sponsored | Wheelchair Accessible

for more information, or if you or your organization is interested in helping to organize, please contact: twLF40@lists.berkeley.edu
or attend our next planning meeting: Monday, March 1st at 5pm in the MCC

On Movements. On Moments

I promised to write more about the title of this blog.

Its simple, really. While I'm living it out, activism, is a series of moments-- a planning meeting today, a teach in later, an email if I find the time. The history of activism, on the other hand, seems more like a series of movements-- the abolitionist movement, Civil Rights movement, the Asian American movement. The point of this blog, then, is to examine how these movements and moments become each other. What significance does one hold for the other?

Take for example a town hall/meeting that took place on UC Berkeley campus last week. Panda Express wants to open a store on the campus, and some people have gotten very upset. This meeting was a moment in time (and for honesty's sake, I should say that I was not there. I was told about it the following day by a friend of mine who was.). This moment will also become part of a movement. Maybe a part of the environmental movement, since one of the issues presented was the environmentally non-friendly practices of Panda Express. Maybe it will become part of the fight for immigrant rights, since the Panda Express take over is part of a larger move that is pushing small, primarily immigrant owned family businesses off campus.

My point is, the way that movements frame moments is important. What is at stake? What movements have the opportunity to converge at each moment? And on the opposite side of that question, how do we define movements within each moment? Can we do it consciously?

Day of Remembrance

This weekend, the Bay Area Day of Remembrance takes place in San Francisco in remembrance of the internment of Japanese Americans. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The US government responded, in part, with Executive Order 9066. The order rounded up all Japanese living on the West Coast, citizen and non-citizen, from infant to elderly, and quarantined them in something the US government called "concentration camps" until the end of the war.

Much more has been written about the subject, but my highlighted source is No No Boy by John Okada. For those who haven't heard, its a novel centered on the experience of a Japanese American sent to jail because he refused to serve in the US army.

And what happened after that? The US government, apologized for their actions, and paid reparations to the remaining survivors 50 years later. But (this is important) the government still hasn't overturned the legal precedence of internment. That means that incarcerating American citizens who "pose a threat to national safety" can legally be locked away until the federal government deems that threat has passed.

And so the US government continues to lock away those human beings it considers undesirable or troublesome. One notable example is Guantanamo Bay. But before the "War on Terror", Gitmo had already been declared unconstitutional in 1993 for indefinitely detaining Haitian refugees who suffered from AIDS.

A Post-Valentine's Day Post

On Friday, I heard a guy named Cesar Buitrago talk about the work he does with a group called Harbor House in East Oakland. I'd been to the facility for meetings... but that's besides the point.

One of the points of his talk was that before we transform the world, we need to transform ourselves. Its not a new sentiment, (I've been told that Biggie even says it in his recently released biopic) but it still deserves revisiting.

It may sound corny, but I really believe that if we're not committed to our people/communities/causes out of love, then we really can't make any positive change. If I advocate for justice, but I'm driven by the need for revenge and anger and bitterness, then can I really be fair? How can I make sure that the change I'm trying to bring to my people doesn't hurt someone else at the same time?

And we need to love ourselves as much as we love our work. I see a lot of folks on campus over-committed to too many orgs, falling behind on readings to keep up with meetings, and the like. Burn out is good for nobody.

Happy Valentines day.

Movements and Moments

Yes, I stole the name of my blog from "The Movement and the Moment", a very nice book about the Asian American movement from the 1960's onwards. I like it because there are lots of pictures. Maybe you like pictures, too?

For those that don't like pictures as much, check out the recent "The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism" by Michael Liu.

I promise that both are extremely interesting.

And why the title? More on that later.