OUR MISSION

BREATHE makes a difference by rallying dissent against racially discriminatory policies through the publication of artworks, poetry, and essays to counter the protracted disavowals and lethargy that allow racial coercion to persist. 

BREATHE IS A MISSION 
Our mission is to interrupt and dismantle racist and oppressive attitudes, behaviors and systems, especially its harmful impact on the lives of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States (see THE BIPOC PROJECT). We acknowledge the connections between racism and other forms of oppression, including the disproportionate impact of climate change, COVID-19 and environmental damage.  Our greatest collective evil is compliance. Intentional or even inadvertent tolerance of racism and oppression serves to sustain it.

 BREATHE IS A PLATFORM   
We invite artists, regardless of your medium, to submit works that illustrate the connections between racism and other forms of oppression, as explicitly or implicitly as your artistic form of expression enables you to do.

BREATHE IS A PORTAL
We intend to stimulate and provoke thinking that can lead to concrete actions to interrupt and dismantle racist attitudes, behaviors and systems. We believe all Americans, and especially white Americans, have a great stake in dismantling racism.  What they think they’re doing to black people, James Baldwin said in a 1984 interview, is what they’re really doing to themselves.

 *We have adopted the following definition: "Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." - NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity. For more on defining anti-racism visit The  Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre at the University of Calgary.

BLACK LIVES MATTER
INDIGENOUS LIVES MATTER
ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLAND LIVES MATTER
WHO GOVERNS MATTERS
ART MATTERS

Past Editors