“NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE”

11.25.14

anti-tuition student activists in
Olson hall wondering,
where are all the POC –
they’re in the SCC awaiting the
verdict for Ferguson; meanwhile
Mexico is burning just like
the bodies of the Ayotzinapa 43,
AB540 UC students are
screaming for Napolitano to leave,
and 1 out of 3 university students like me
are just struggling to drag ourselves out of
depression with our teeth.

Chancellor Linda PB Katehi
writes us a letter telling us to
blame the government, but in
the time it takes her to write the letter,
she benefits from her recent
salary increase — Linda, please,
we are not a bargaining chip
in this sick poker game.

our parents, the media, this society
say we are lazy, paint us as
lackluster, stuck in
dorm rooms and computer screens,
but our computers scream
JUSTICE FOR MIKE BROWN and
BRING OUR TUITION DOWN —
crowned in protest slogans,
we have woven woe into wall hangings
and in exchange, change
is what we’re asking for.

listen:
we know struggle like our last
test score. fight clenched in our fists like
a fresh scantron sheet. read what we’ve written
all over these streets.

the students will not be silenced.
no justice, no peace.

By Tanya Azari

Biography:

Tanya Azari is a 21 year old genderqueer poet in California’s Bay Area working towards becoming a high school English teacher. They have self-published three chapbooks and are currently working on a fourth. More work can be found at http://heretherebesomething.tumblr.com/