CAA Announcements

Juneteenth is the oldest national celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth honors June 19, 1865, the date enslaved people in Texas learned they were free—more than two years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth National Independence Day a federal US holiday. It becomes the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Berkeley alum and artist Harmony Holiday’s one-man play, God’s Suicide, takes Black male vulnerability as its central subject. Adapted from an essay by the artist and constructed around the rarely acknowledged five suicide attempts of writer and public intellectual James Baldwin, this deeply personal work examines the interplay between creative and destructive forces in societies infected with white supremacy. In this special presentation hosted by the Hammer Museum at UCLA, actor Larry Powell portrays Baldwin.

Originally from Southern California, Jamba Dunn ’97 transferred to Berkeley hoping to study sociology, which led to an interest in Egyptology and Near East studies. He’s worked in Silicon Valley and for companies like Rosetta Stone. He moved to Boulder, Colorado for a master’s degree program at Naropa University. There, his passion for gardening, herbs, and making the perfect cup of tea—plus a small challenge from his daughter to create a kombucha she would love—led to the creation of Rowdy Mermaid, the first plant-based kombucha on the market.

My name is Yuner Evelyn Lu. I’m a senior studying electrical engineering and computer science at Cal, and I am honored to share my UC Berkeley journey with you.

2020 was a challenging year. The pandemic took many lives worldwide. As students at Cal, we have been confined to our homes in front of computers instead of being on campus. What I realized while quarantining for more than a year was the privilege I hold as a student at UC Berkeley, and how this privilege inspires me to push for social change.

After a long journey filled to the brim with unexpected twists and turns, the time has finally arrived for UC Berkeley’s Class of 2021 to graduate. Years of growth and transformation, beginning with the seemingly distant days of anxiously waiting for college acceptances, campus tours, and that fateful commitment to Cal, are now coming to an end under challenging circumstances that still feel unusual after all this time.