BCC will be closed over the Presidents’ Day Holiday weekend from Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 20. Classes resume on Tues., Feb., 21, 2017.

Sean Brooke, Director of International Education for Peralta District, will be on hand to answer questions about immigration and visa issues related to the executive order on immigration. The information session will be held at BCC on Thursday, February 2, from 12:15 – 1:15 pm, in Room 33.

Sean is a former attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration & Naturalization Service, where he interpreted, applied, and enforced an intricate field of Immigration & Nationality Law. He later went into private practice where he represented clients on a variety of immigration matters.

Please RSVP for this event at:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immigration-and-visa-issues-tickets-31618096578

For questions, please contact Thomas Torres-Gil, DSO, International Program Manager, at ttoresgil@peralta.edu

Vice Chancellor Little and BCC Director Shirley Slaughter will present the Mid-Year Budget Forum in the BCC Auditorium on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, from 12:15 – 1:20 PM. Please join us!

If you experienced any loss in the events of the Oakland Fire we welcome you to join our BCC family to help each other together. Attend for a listening ear, support or a space to grieve.

Wednesday, December 14th @ College Hour (12:15 – 1:15 pm), in the Auditorium

“Even the darkest night will end and sun will rise” ~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Contact: Janine Greer, BCC Wellness Center, at jgreer@peralta.edu

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Ara Jo, a former library Artist-in-Residence at Berkeley City College. Ms. Jo perished in the Oakland warehouse fire on Friday, Dec. 2. She was part of an artistic community who breathed an abundance of creative life into our East Bay cities. Our sincerest condolences go out to Ms. Jo’s family, to those who knew and worked with her, and to the many others who lost loved ones in the fire.

A native of the Los Angeles area, Ms. Jo was a member of The Rock Paper Scissors Collective, a volunteer-run East Bay organization that fosters creativity and collaboration in order to strengthen local communities and encourage sustainable practices. She also was a founder of Oakland’s Sgraffito Gallery and worked at Berkeley’s Ink Stone Reprographics.

During her time at BCC, Ms. Jo created the foundation for a Zine library at the college.  The vivacious, creative and talented artist and writer worked with many BCC classes and instructed students on how to self-publish Zines to express their artistic, literary and creative gifts. Faculty members Jenny Braman (Art), Heather Dodge (Librarian), Tom Moniz (English), and many others collaborated with her as she worked with classes, in the library, and on the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Festival, held annually at BCC.

Ms. Jo’s contributions to the creative fabric of BCC’s learning community and to the East Bay will enrich us for many years to come. In these difficult times, we can all take a moment to reflect on the Oakland warehouse fire and how Berkeley City College and our sister colleges can engage with our cities to find ways to provide safe and affordable dwellings for all.

In community spirit,

Rowena M. Tomaneng, President

Celebration of the Life and Work of Ara Jo

The life and work of Ara Jo will be celebrated at the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest on Saturday December 10 from 10am to 3pm at David Brower Center, at 2150 Allston Way in Berkeley.  

There will be a table dedicated to those who perished in the Ghost Ship fire where you can also donate to their families.

Berkeley City College’s art and literary journal Milvia Street will have a table that we have open for all BCC students with zines and chapbooks.

Ara was so fundamental in making sure the EBABZ continued in face of many challenges.

Need help managing your tuition, budget, or bills? Check out GradReady!

Go to https://berkeleycitycollege.gradready.com

or click on the image below:

For more information, visit the BCC Financial Aid website

BCC music instructor Aaron Mobley has penned a book on the history of jazz and is co-author of a 2nd edition text on Human Achievement and Innovation in the Arts. The latter evolved from a course he co-created at the University of Arizona, where he still is an adjunct faculty member and part of the American Culture Ideas Initiative in the Fred Fox School of Music. The text and course examine significant evolutions in music, art, and dance from antiquity to the present.

In October, Mobley is an invited guest scholar and presenter at the“2016 Music + Festival” at the University of Arizona. He will speak on Arnold Schoenberg,Kurt Weill, and Hans Winterberg under the rubric of “Forbidden Composers” (their music was banned by the Nazis). This year’s festival explores the composers’ lives in their native lands and in America, the relationship between serious and popular music, and brings a new voice into the musical conversation of the 21st century.

Dr. Fabian Banga, BCC’s Modern Languages Department chair, recently published Brujos, Espiritistas y Vanguardistas (Witches, Spiritualists and the Avant-Garde). Published by Leviathan, the prestigious Argentinean publishing house, the work explores the representation of esoteric traditions in the aesthetic projects of the avant-garde literary movements in Latin-American and Spain during the early decades of the 20th century. The book is based on Dr. Banga’s UC Berkeley doctoral dissertation with a forward written by his mentor and friend Dr. Francine Masiello, professor of Spanish and comparative literature and Sidney and Margaret Ancker Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Cal. In August, Dr Banga presented his work at UC Berkeley’s Institute of European Studies and in Buenos Aires in June.