Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz graduate Airielle Silva was honored with the John R. Lewis Good Trouble Award after five years of student leadership and activism. As she addressed fellow graduates at commencement, Silva reflected on her advocacy work while urging the university to continue addressing longstanding Black student demands.
During her freshman year, Airielle Silva did something most of the hundreds of thousands of University of California students never imagine doing.
Alongside UC Santa Cruz Black Student Union president Xaul “X” Starr, Silva hand-delivered a list of Black student demands to then-UC President Michael Drake and UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive, while standing on a stage in front of thousands of people. It was May 2022, and the crowd was attending the renaming of John R. Lewis College, formerly known as College Ten, at the Quarry Amphitheater.
As they handed over the demands – which included the dissolution of the school’s police department and designating a building for the African American Resource Center – about 50 students in the crowd stood silently and held signs reading, “We can see your greed UC.”
Silva, who uses she/they pronouns, said that moment “was one of the biggest turning points in my career” as it “cemented the spirit” of standing up for herself that she developed in high school.
“I’m literally facing the chancellor of my institution and the president of the entire UC system,” recalled Silva, now 22. “And I’m directly telling you what my experience is and what is wrong with this institution, and how it’s impacting me.”
By engaging in those protests, the students were embracing Lewis’ legacy. The late civil rights activist once said, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
Silva says that moment launched her into the next four years of advocacy, leadership and hard work. She served as vice president and co-chair of the BSU, as president of the Student Union Assembly (SUA) for two years, participated in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Program and was active in the Rainbow Theater. While SUA president, she and her fellow student officers undertook rewriting their entire constitution, which students voted into adoption last spring. She majored in critical race and ethnic studies and earned a minor in Black studies.
Before moving to Santa Cruz, Silva was raised between Southern California and New Mexico by a family “village” including her mother, aunt, grandmother and uncle. The summer before her senior year in high school, as a potential UCSC student, she virtually attended a conference hosted by John R. Lewis College students. After seeing the keynote speaker was political activist and UCSC distinguished professor emerita Angela Davis, Silva decided she would go to UCSC the next year and participate in the conference, which she did.
This past Saturday, she returned to the stage as the student speaker for her commencement at the College Nine and John R. Lewis College ceremony, where she was awarded the annual John R. Lewis Good Trouble Award. College Nine/John R. Lewis Colleges Provost Kim Lau announced the award at the commencement, saying Silva has “embodied and inspired the values and commitments” of Lewis since her freshman year. She recalled Silva’s action at the John R. Lewis College renaming ceremony as a “courageous act,” and said it was “characteristic of Airielle’s leadership.”
Silva then took the podium for her speech, during which she acknowledged the “gap” between the university’s honoring of Lewis and the still-unmet Black student demands “around anti-Blackness, housing insecurity, mental health support, and institutional accountability.” The crowd cheered her on on several occasions.
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies professor Christine Hong said Silva is tenacious and was integral in carrying forward the spirit of prior Black student leaders when she presented UC administrators with the demands.
“When I say that Airielle is a keeper of the flame, it’s because they took those demands that their predecessor had made, they kept them alive,” she said. “And they brought those demands forward, not just as something from the historical past, but as part of the unfulfilled present.”
After finishing her tenure at UC Santa Cruz, Silva said she’s looking forward to some rest before she applies to an ethnic studies graduate program. She said it feels bittersweet to be leaving.
“I’ve had a very tumultuous yet a rewarding experience,” she said. “I feel so lucky that I’ve been able to build such a lush community and have irreplaceable experiences.”
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