OUR MISSION

We are committed to maintaining a space for artists to speak to what we see, what needs to change and what we are doing about it.

We believes art is a powerful way to confront racism and all other forms of oppression and injustices in our world. The publication of artworks, poetry, and essays can counter the protracted disavowals and lethargy that allow these oppressive attitudes, behaviors and systems to exist. 

We believe in the power of communities to dismantle the intersection of oppressive systems that harm the lives of Black, Indigenous and People of Color. We created Breathe to support those communities as well as be a community for ourselves. Being part of a community counteracts the debilitating effects of isolation and helplessness and inspires us knowing that other people are also acting individually and collectively in pursuit of a more just and kinder world.

We believe all Americans, including 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.”

Our greatest collective evil is compliance. Intentional or even inadvertent tolerance of racism and oppression serves to sustain it.

We invite artists, regardless of your medium, to submit works that shine a light on racism and other forms of oppression, as explicitly or implicitly as your artistic form of expression enables you to do.

Further References:

• “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.” This process involves examining and challenging societal structures AND individual biases/beliefs that uphold racism and its power imbalances”. – NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global  Solidarity
  

• The BIPOC Project

   

• The  Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre at the University of Calgary.  

   

• https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/plan/change-process/individual-transformation)

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

Past Editors