By Juliana Chang
BA in Linguistics, 2019
Marketing and Events Intern at Heyday
Thats it; I'm moving here after college!!
I sent this text to my friend as I stopped in front of the fourth bookstore I've seen in Berkeley that day. This was before I went home and googled the ridiculous Bay Area housing prices, but at that moment, standing in front of a window display full of poetry and political books, less than twenty minutes after I left the Berkeley Poetry Slam to walk home, I felt like I had found my kind of city.
Heyday operates on the belief that art and literature can make a difference. As a non-profit publishing house, Heyday believes in this cause deeply enough that it will continue to make books it believes are important and necessary for the world, even if those books are not necessarily the most profitable or lucrative. It's impossible to talk about Heyday's work without talking about the city it lives in, and it's been amazing over the past few weeks to see the ways that art and activism continue to intertwine in Berkeley and my workplace.
Heyday operates on the belief that art and literature can make a difference. As a non-profit publishing house, Heyday believes in this cause deeply enough that it will continue to make books it believes are important and necessary for the world, even if those books are not necessarily the most profitable or lucrative.
Since the organization is small, I've had the chance to try my hand at various aspects of publishing, from mocking up online ads to sending blurb solicitation emails to Bob Woodward (!!) to creating and sending out monthly newsletters.
One of the projects I've been working on this past week is mailing a copy of Heyday's first ever instant book, Our Dishonest President, to every member of the California State Senate, California State Assembly, Governor Jerry Brown, and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. Our Dishonest President comprises of six editorials written by the Los Angeles Times denouncing President Trump's policies and action, which Heyday has compiled into a paper and digital book for purchase.
As someone who often wonders about the place of art in a world with arguably more urgent and pressing needs, it's wonderful to be able to point at Heyday and say, “This is what art can do.”
As part of our online magazine's "Up Close" series, Felicity Barringer looks at the federal push to return American Bison herds to tribal control. The effort raises hopes that the once-abundant species can regenerate landscapes and restore native traditions.
A lawsuit blames farmers’ stream diversions for the desiccation of the Great Salt Lake; nearly all of Canada’s winter roads could be unusable by 2080; bills to ban lab-grown meat; another annual heat-associated death record in Arizona; and more environmental news from around the West.
Winter 2024 was a full quarter at the Bill Lane Center with ongoing preparations for our annual Rural West Conference and interviews for internship and research positions.