BBSA Newsletter | 4-1-2019

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from Spring Break... hope you were able to decompress and have some fun and relaxation as we enter the final stretch for the semester! Please see below for some amazing events and opportunities coming up.

Events:

• Haas ID is hosting an event called Designing for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion tomorrow (Tuesday, April 2nd) from 6:30-7:30 pm in N340. Please register on CampusGroups here.
  • They would like to engage the broader DEI community at Haas in this discussion around how organisational design and community design and action can build more equitable and inclusive communities and organizations. It will be an interactive panel discussion, with speakers from a variety of work backgrounds in design and inclusion.
• Black Futures Lab and the Black Census Project tomorrow (Tuesday, April 2nd) from 6:30 - 7:45 pm at The Commonwealth Club, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco. Buy tickets here.
  • Black Futures Lab, founded by Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, works to make black people powerful in politics by transforming black communities into constituencies that build power in cities and states. The Black Futures Lab recently completed the largest survey of black people since Reconstruction, with nearly 40,000 respondents from diverse communities across the nation. The survey included questions regarding many defining characteristics, including gender, sexuality, age and other categories, and it dug into several key issues rooted in inequality and to understand better what black communities desire for their futures. Join Garza and other experts for a conversation about the inaugural data results and how to use this data to create solutions with lasting impact.
• Join the final screening of The Black Aesthetic Season IV, Black Interiors: Sweat on Thursday, April 4th at 7pm at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
  2155 Center St, Berkeley. Tickets are $5 for Cal students & 10 free tickets will be given out first come first serve if you mention Night Out/Night Off at the BAMPFA box office! Tickets are available online and day of via BAMPFA.
  • In a collaboration with BAMPFA’s Out the Vault Series and Night Out/Night Off for Graduate Students of Color, they’ve found some gems in the museum’s archives that they want to share with you. They’ve titled this season Black Interiors to highlight the life worlds of black peoples often denied them in normative modes of cultural circulation. The screenings will feature rarely seen works written, directed, and featuring artists such as Sargon Tamimi, Stewart Bird, Carol Munday Lawrence, Maclovia Rodriguez, Bob Dicks, and others.
  • See attached email for more details as well.
• The 5th Annual Berkeley Haas Africa Business Forum will talk place this Saturday, April 6th. Please get tickets soon if you'd like to attend!
  • The Berkeley-Haas Africa Business Forum is the preeminent annual conference at the University of California that brings together leading academia and professionals from around the world to advance development on the African continent. In addition to raising awareness and encouraging debate around pertinent business topics, we provide an ideal networking opportunity for people interested in the overall development of countries in Africa. Our vision is to make Haas the destination for developing innovative and scalable business solutions to Africa's challenges.
  • This year the theme is "Africa On The Move: Enabling Homegrown Innovation". There are four exciting panels: Homegrown Entrepreneurs, Venture Finance Enablers, Public Policy Innovators and Homegrown Creative.
• The Students of Color in Public Policy (SCiPP) 9th Annual Race & Policy Symposium will take place the week of April 8-12 at the Goldman School. See flyer attached.
  • Many of the topics that will be discussed have a direct impact on people of color. Of note is the panel discussion on the recent "Operation Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal and the underlying implications about how affirmative action manifests and Prop 209's enduring ramifications on the number of Black and Latinx students at the UC; ASUC Senator Amir Wright will be one of the panelists and will discuss the recent ASUC resolution in support of repealing Prop 209. There will also be an event on the legacy of redlining and the feasibility of housing reparations that will feature Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law. Last but certainly not least is the Annual BiPP (Black Students in Public Policy) Debate which will argue whether working "inside" or "outside" of the system is the most effective for change and progress. Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, will deliver the keynote.
• On Saturday April 13th, K-2 grade students and their families from 50+ Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) elementary schools will have the opportunity to attend Cal Day - UC Berkeley's annual open house. They are looking for volunteers (see below and flyer attached).
  • Getting the chance to visit the UC Berkeley campus makes the idea of college real to students and reinforces the message to children that they are all capable of academic and career success. The Cal Day visit is part of the Kindergarten to College (K2C) program and the broader cradle to career initiative, the Oakland Promise, whose goal is ensuring that every child in Oakland graduates high school with the expectations, resources and skills to complete college and be successful in his or her career.
  • Christopher Jones is a long-time Oakland resident, Cal alumnus, and a product of public schools, and he is looking for volunteers. He need folks to help set up for the event and especially need Tour Guides, volunteers who will accompany a group of students and their families on a walk around the campus. Interested in helping to make this event a smashing success? Fill out the volunteer sign-up form and an Oakland Promise team member will get back to you to confirm your role.
• We would like to host a meet & greet happy hour to welcome Tyrone Wise, new Associate Director of Student Experience in the Program Office. Please be on the lookout for a calendar invite from Roland or me soon!
• Join a fireside chat titled “From Interpersonal Breakdown to Repair: Working Through Misunderstanding Involving Social Identity, Power, and Status” with our very own, Bosun Adebaki (FT MBA ‘19), and professional faculty member and coach, Erica Peng on Tuesday April 16th from 12:30-2:00 pm in Spieker Forum. A boxed lunch will be provided. Please register here.
  • Drawing on her course, Interpersonal Skills & Embodied Leadership (ISEL), Erica will share some of the neuroscience behind how our own brain and nervous system derail us into reactivity, misunderstanding, and conflict. Bos and Erica will bring this to life by sharing a common interpersonal breakdown that happened between them in class - both the reactions they had along with the leadership skills from class which enabled them to repair their connection. Additional students will share their perspective.
  • Erica will also facilitate skill-building through a “Partner Practice” so participants have an opportunity to practice some of the core leadership skills that enabled Bos and Erica to work through the conflict. The goal is to equip participants with skills and the confidence to use these tools when similar breakdowns happen for them.

• The Black Alumni Association (BAA) is partnering with Cal Alumni Association (CAA) and the African American Initiative (AAI) scholarship selection committee who are hosting the second year of AAI scholarships. They are calling on Cal alumni and student volunteers to support the scholarship selection process! Please see the attached email for more details on how to sign-up.

Please let us know if you have any questions and feel free to share anything you want highlighted in future correspondence. Hope you are able to get back into the groove after break quickly!

Nuff respect,
Damion & Roland