2008

by Tony Robles/PNN

"Save our city, save our state, vote no on 98!" The chants in tandem with, fists, signs and banners of collective resistance rose up into the California sky from over 200 tenants, immigrants, workers, elders, activists and advocates gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday. We stood there, together, in power, in opposition to the very dangerous Proposition 98 which is on the June 3rd primary election ballot. Dangerous because, if it passes, it will eliminate rent control and jeopardize the laws designed to protect renters such as fair return of rental deposits, 60 day notices and laws designed to protect elders and disabled people from rent increases.

"When I received my eviction notice, it was depressing and scary. Where would I go? Stay with my family? I'm a grown woman. My landlord said he'd help me out. I asked him how, buy me a tent? Liana Villasenor, a single mother spoke at the podium amid colorful signs and banners clashing with the gray backdrop of City Hall telling of an eviction inspired by the greed of a landlord who wanted to receive more money for her apartment, the kinds of evictions that will happen with regularity if Proposition 98 passes, "He actually bought my roommate a tent. I was determined not to go until the sheriff came", Ms. Villasenor concluded to a rousing cheer from the crowd.

Proposition 98 will do away with rent control and outlaw inclusionary zoning requirements that mandate affordable housing on developments.

"This is a scandalous piece of legislation that's going to kick out the poor. It's a huge eviction notice that we got to fight" said Reverend Norman Fong, Deputy Director of Programs for Chinatown Community Development Center.

Proposition 98 is being sold to the public as Eminent Domain reform that would amend the state's constitution. Opponents see 98 as deceitful, hiding its true intention. On the surface 98 calls for eminent domain reform but when you read the fine print, you find that it would abolish existing rent control and prevent local governments from enacting new rent control measures. More than a dozen cities in California have rent control laws in place.

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin was on hand in support. "I hate 98. It will ruin California. It is the most dangerous legislation I've seen in my lifetime".

Opponents of 98 say that the wealthy devised this scheme to be on the ballot at a time of low voter turnout. It is estimated that 30% of registered voters will vote on June 3rd. Peskin says that voter turnout is critical to cancel out the affluent pro-98 voters in Orange County and other places.

Speakers from The San Francisco Tenants Association, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, POOR Magazine, Community Housing Partnership,Young Workers United, The Sierra Club, and the Filipino Housing Collaborative voiced their support for tenants, working class people and immigrants.

Angelica Cabande from the city's Filipino Housing Collaborative stressed the importance of the immigrant community in the struggle stating, "Just because we can't vote doesn't meet we can't educate people. We have to fight for our community".

The rally ended @ 1:00 pm. The crowd was invigorated with the knowledge that there are 12 days until election time to do more outreach and advocacy work about this destructive proposition that will create more poverty and homelessness. Advocates walked tenants to the polling place at the basement of city hall.

In the words of Reverend Norman Fong, "What good is it to pray for the poor if we don't fight for the poor?"

Tony Robles is a race and poverty scholar in residence at POOR Magazine as well as a writer and co-editor of PoorNewsnetwork/PNN. To learn to be a journalist for change on issues of poverty, race and disability join POOR's upcoming Summer program which begins June 3rd. To register for classes call them at (415)863-6306 or go on-line to www.racepovertymediajustice.org . Space is limited so act now!

by Tony Robles

Our poetry is the

Best part of our

Struggle

And the best

Part of our struggle

Is our poetry

---Al Robles

There has been no bigger influence on my life as a writer and activist than the poet Al Robles, my uncle. Uncle Al carries a sack of water buffalo tales as he walks the streets of the city. His eyes have seen the manongs--Pilipino old timers who first came to America in the 20's. His ears have heard their songs, their cries and their laughter. His hands have eaten fish and rice with the manongs in small rooms of the International Hotel. The poetry of Al Robles is the struggle of the Manongs and the Issei and the Chicanos and the black folks of the Fillmore. The poetry of Al Robles is in the struggle of our people.

Uncle Al has been a huge influence to an entire generation of Pilipino-American writers and activists. He is what we at POOR Magazine call an "Organic Intellectual"-- not indoctrinated with the impersonal underpinnings of the academic institutions but firmly rooted in the community. My own children's books, "Lakas and the Manilatown Fish" and "Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel" would not have been possible without his presence and influence in my life.

Uncle Al was born in the Fillmore District of San Francisco to a Pilipino family of 10. His ears tasted the thick melodies of jazz swirling through the air of clubs Such as Jack's and Jimbo's bop City. In the jazz of his youth he felt the sadness and love and beauty in singers such as Billie Holiday. He saw Pilipino jazz musicians such as Flip Nunez whose fingers passed over the keys, "black over white". He and other Filipinos like Bill Sorro ran the streets of the Fillmore seeing the Isseis, the elderly, smelling the smells of gumbo and barbeque and tomato beef chow mein. He saw all the beauty moving all around him--the music, the people, the sorrow. He asked himself, "What is moving?"

When I was a kid I used to see him on Clement Street. I would be riding my bike or coming out of King Norman's Toy Store. I'd see him carrying a heavy backpack. He'd take out a brown paper bag and open it. "What is it?" I'd ask. I'd look inside. It was a tape recorder. He'd hit the play button and I'd hear the voices of elderly Pilipinos. They spoke in a thick accent that sounded like my grandmother's. I'd have a hard time understanding what they said. Uncle Al understood. 30 years later I'm starting to understand.

Uncle Al is a collector of stories. He has collected the stories of the manongs--our grandfathers and grandmothers who came to America. They endured the racism and classism and police brutality of Amerikkka and in the process gave birth to a generation born in this country. Uncle Al is part of that generation. His poetry and stories tell of the manong generation working as laborers under big agribusiness--workers who organized and fought and formed what eventually became the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

But there was love and beauty in the struggle. His poems talk about the taxi hall dances, where Filipinos paid their meager earnings to dance with a blondie, a dance that would end as quickly as it began. In his poetry the dance lasts a lifetime. At the end of a manong's lifetime, Uncle Al asks:

If it takes
All season for
The grapes to
Ripen

Why shouldn't the
Manong take
All season

To make love?

To a generation of activists and Pilipino-Americans seeking their identity, their roots, he asks:

Who's to say
The roots are
Not the weeds

And the weeds
Are not the
Roots?

The influence of my Uncle Al on Pilipino-American poetry is akin to Chuck Berry's influence on Rock & Roll, it is far reaching and ever growing, from established writers to the hip hop generation; his words have touched their hearts and inspired them to get involved in serving our community.

But it's not all work. Uncle Al loves to play the piano. Sometimes he'll slip into a cafe with an available piano, playing by ear. In the music you'll hear the voices of the manongs, the elderly Japanese, the Chicanos and the black elders. It'll move you and you'll get up and dance that dance that's a part of all of us; the dance that leads us back to ourselves. That's the real poetry.

August 4th Marks the 31st anniversary of the eviction of tenants of the International Hotel. Come and honor the struggle in a candlelight vigil at the Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny Street, August 4th at 7pm. And celebrate the poetry and laughter of Al Robles at the Manilatown Center August 9th, 7pm at the world premier of the Film, 'Manilatown is in the Heart". Filmmaker Curtis Choy (www.chonkmoonhunter.com), director of "Fall of the I-Hotel", takes us on a trip through the past and present in the world of Al Robles, a world filled with farm laborers, factory workers, Zen monks, pool hustlers, cooks, children, lovers, gamblers,
preachers, warriors, pimps, prostitutes, young bloods, musicians, tricksters, barbers, stray Buddhas, and goddesses. For more information, go to www.manilatown.org

by Brother Y?/PNN

“Killing me softly with his song...killing me softly”
--Roberta Flack

People of color should be able to walk down the street confident that their civil rights will be protected under a black District Attorney. Instead we walk down the street confident of one thing only: Kamala Harris is there for them not for us. It is shameful to say the least that this black woman in skin color only has been responsible for the prosecution of hundreds of black and Latino people while twice or more as many white people have gone free simply by virtue of the color of their skin.

It is and was extremely hypocritical of the Board of Supervisor's to re-endorse Harris for District Attorney because she does not respect or follow the written laws of this City. The chief law in this case being marijuana as the "lowest priority" law that they wrote last year. Kamala Harris still wishes to prosecute me, a disabled diabetic American veteran who out of desperation sought to sell a small portion of my medicine so that I might have adequate food and medicine. As a diabetic I cannot afford to be without food or medicine it would literally be a matter of days before I would die without it.

Ironic as it may seem I do not recall making a transaction with the narc who is the state's key witness against me. I do however distinctly remember that the money looked funny, like it was counterfeit. I am afflicted with diabetes as well posttraumatic stress disorder, both of which have a profound negative effect on the memory. As far as my court appointed attorney goes the best I can say about her to her credit is she did successfully get me or’d which has helped tremendously in my getting my prescribed treatment by my personal physician.

I must state at this time however, that this entire fiasco is a grand conspiracy. The judge residing over my trial is a former lawyer, the prosecutor is a lawyer and my court appointed attorney is a lawyer paid by the same government that is prosecuting me.

The quote at the beginning of this article is from the Roberta Flack song Killing Me Softly. I am diabetic. My doctor has warned me that stress can raise blood sugar levels; the higher blood sugar levels are the greater risk for a heart attack, stroke, loss of limbs and blindness and many other medical complications, and nowhere in the U.S. is any amount of marijuana a capital offense.

Yet the judge is killing me softly by not dismissing the case. The prosecution is killing me softly by not dropping charges against me. The police are killing me softly by constantly harassing, and as far as I'm concerned, stalking me. Kamala Harris the district attorney is killing me softly by pushing my case for prosecution not based on justice or any degree of right and wrong or even remotely considering that racism could be involved. (San Francisco has the highest arrest rate of black people than any other major city in the entire state of California. If the handful of blacks who reside in San Francisco were responsible for the majority of crime here we should all be living in mansions or castles!) Last but certainly not least, my lawyer, a deputy public defender, is killing me softly by not acknowledging and defending my rights as a medical cannabis patient and constantly prioritizing my case last or not at all based on the murder trial she has been working on since she took me on her case load. The deck has been stacked against me since I was arrested.

by Steve Kirby/Special to PNN

When I was a child I don’t remember

Planning or saying to myself when i

Grow up I’m going to be an alcoholic

Or a crack head, drop out of school

And become homeless. Like a child

When conceived, the mother goes

Through a process, when a seed is

Planted it must go through a process

Even for the rain to fall, yes a process.

So why look at one and say that’s

Who you are? Miles short of

Wondering where he or she comes from

So when ever I see anyone who

Society considers crazy or wild

When I see them I see them as a child

© 2008 Steve Kirby

by Anderson Franco/RPMJ intern at POOR Magazine

They clutched their piece of brown cardboards that read "Bajen los Precios!" Lower the Prices! Accompanied by a flock of fellow high school and college students, they marched towards El Salvador's National University. Their weary eyes and nervous bodies paced through the fading San Salvador streets and apprehensively approached the university. Upon entering the campus they witnessed a scene that compared to that of a military barrack preparing for warfare. Stern black-suited men patrolled the exterior with threatening glances, another arsenal of policeman brandished their military weapons as they paced throughout the university, and snipers lay on rooftops, vigilantly watching the protestors like vultures anxious to ravage its victims.

Soon after announcing their presence with signs and chants of protest, the law enforcement officers decorated the university with tear gas, rubber bullets, and authoritative shouts. The protesters scattered throughout the university, seeking shelter in any tree, shrub or building. They realized that their hope for social change had been silenced by the law enforcement officers.

That was the scene on July 5, 2006.

Although this incident occurred two years ago, excessive police force, particularly against social movements, continues to be a problem in El Salvador. Alexis Stoumbalis, the Bay Area coordinator for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador's (CISPES) notes that "most of the complaints that the Office of Human Rights in El Salvador receives are complaints about the police." Many Salvadoran citizens have become victims of unnecessary policing tactics; police violence has escalated in the last two years.

CISPES collaborated with Prisoners of Conscience Committee (P.O.C.C) to hold a film screening and panel discussion to critique the recent police violence in El Salvador. The event discussed the reappearance of death squads in El Salvador, and the United States financial support of the Salvadoran police through the Merida Initiative, and International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEA).

The July 5th police brutality was not an isolated event. The protestors were terrorized and hushed by the black uniformed men one month after ILEA's inaugural class graduated. Stoumbalis believes that the officers involved in the catastrophe were recent alums from the United States funded military academy. Nevertheless, whether this is true or not remains a mystery because the academy refuses to release identifying information about its students or alum.

Stoumbalis compares El Salvador's militaristic police officers to the "LAPD that raided LA Central gangs by roaming down the streets with machine guns" and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) recent immigrant raids. These parallels not only indicate the violent police tactics, but the violation of human rights.

P.O.C.C.'s JR Minister of Information and Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. have embarked on a CISPES fact finding delegation in El Salvador. They hope to understand the reappearance of the death squad activity, and to pressure the Salvadoran government to take action because the United States citizens are aware of the political assassinations and police brutality.

"Bajen los precios!" I hope to hear these chants in the future. CISPES and P.O.C.C. hope to ensure that these voices will not be silenced, and future social movements will not be threatened by police officials. "Bajen los precios!"

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"Why do you have all of your kids? We took them all from you before,” a San Leandro Police Officer spoke roughly to Elsa Maldonado.

Confused and shocked, Elsa watched as the police officers put handcuffs on her husband and wrongly accused him of a crime he didn’t commit.

“No one has ever taken away my family before…Get those handcuffs off of my husband he didn’t do anything wrong,” she screamed while her husband tried again and again to explain that he didn’t know who “Monica” was or why the police were arresting him.

I listened intently as Elsa began sharing her family’s struggle with Child Protective Services, a struggle that began over four years ago. It is just one of the many painful C.P.S. stories I’ve been asked to write for POOR Magazine’s Courtwatch column, a media advocacy project dedicated to helping families struggling with C.P.S.

Child Protective Services (C.P.S) continues to systematically sink its claws into the lives of unsuspecting poor families and families of color. In the case of the Maldonado’s, the story consists of an uncaring police department, a temporary judge, an ineffective lawyer for a grieving family, a public defender, and a seemingly "sympathetic" city governmental official.

The family’s nightmare began when the San Leandro Police Department came to the Maldonado’s house wrongly searching for a heroin-addicted mom allegedly named "Monica.” The woman they were searching for had no relation to the Maldonado Family did NOT reside at the family’s house, yet C.P.S somehow managed to rob the family of their parental, civil and custodial rights.

Literally kidnapped by C.P.S, their children are still held captive to this day. The efforts by Maldonado Family to rescue their children continue to be thwarted by C.P.S and the San Leandro Police Department, with lies and fabricated allegations.

Rene and Elsa Maldonado joined POOR Magazine’s Community Newsroom on the evening of April 1st to summarize what has been happening to their family since October 13th, 2004 with the unethical behavior of the C.P.S. and the San Leandro Police Department.

Every time I write someone's story regarding police brutality, my mind almost immediately travels back to October 7th, 2005, to my near-tragic experience with police brutality at the hands of a dozen members of the San Francisco Police Department. Like the Maldonado’s experience, mine was also a case of "mistaken identity" and total innocence.

Later in the week, I met with the Maldonados at the San Francisco Main Public Library. During the interview, Elsa fought to drown out her tears. She showed me a picture that was sketched by one of her children in crayon art.

The picture, drawn in a child’s innocent hand, depicted penises sticking straight up. This heartbreaking picture revealed every parent’s worse nightmare and showed the reality of the Maldonado children’s grave situation. I watched the parents’ faces crumble with pain as they held the drawing with shaking hands.

Rene Maldonado is originally from Xalapa, Mexico has lived in the Bay Area since 1989, with U.S legal status citizenship. He served five years in the Mexican Army as an officer, and three years a Drug Enforcement Agent (D.E.A). " I didn't like how they were treating people, so I quit the force." Rene explained.

He first met Elsa at the San Francisco Independent Newspaper in July of 1993, where they both worked at the time. He was a driver, while she worked as a receptionist.

A native San Franciscan, Elsa Maldonado once enlisted in the United States Armed Forces, but was given a medical discharge. She felt that the military mislead and lied to her about the "benefits" it offered, but was never informed by the recruiter of the painful tasks and trainings that followed.

Both parents have lead very squeaky clean, lives with hardly any brushes with the law. They married shortly after meeting each other, and raised four children together. They have two boys and two girls, ages 11, 10, 9, and 5.

Rene and Elsa currently live in a mobile home in Manteca, California. Rene currently works as a heavy equipment operator at Waste Management Company, in Livermore, California, while Elsa stayed at home to raise their four kids before C.P.S took them.

According to Rene, he would for some unexplained reason, get frequent traffic stops, and harassments from a San Leandro Police Officer coming from work. One day Elsa witnessed her husband pulled over, just a few away from their home. Two officers flanked Rene, guns drawn.

Fearing the worst, Elsa made a very frantic call to 911, and was very hysterical. "There are two police officers that have their guns on him. They keep telling him that his Honda Civic is stolen, but its not! I demand that you send a police supervisor out there, immediately."

"Every time we even call you people regarding theft incidents at our home, you never show up, or are slow in coming." Their neighborhood was plagued with criminal activities, primarily thefts at their home by neighbors.

She yelled, "If anything, ANYTHING happens to my husband, I will sue you all!" Elsa heart was hammering inside her chest, as the 911 Operator put her on hold, while she eyed her husband's safety at gunpoint by the officers.

A short time later after inquiries were made, the operator apologized to Elsa for the mistake, stating that the California Highway Patrol didn't update the information to the San Leandro Police Department that Rene had purchased his car at a police impound. Rene was released from their custody.

On October 13th, 2004, Rene was outside washing his car, when he was approached by a San Leandro Police Officer. He asked Rene if he got his snake back, and Rene responded that they found them. (Rene owned three pet pythons and reported one stolen two months prior.)

The officer, although he addressed Rene as "Mr. Maldonado" earlier on, he demanded to see his identification. As Rene began to show it to him, another officer jumped him from behind, unprovoked. Both officers brutally whacked him in the back of his head with their batons, while Elsa and the kids pleaded with them to stop. Rene completely blacked out, as a result of the beating.

When he regained consciousness, one of the officers told him that his identification was a fraud. "When was the last time you saw the water from the border?" asked the officer, in a racist and offensive tone while he shoved Rene into the back of his squad car, without any regard to his head injury.

Two unidentified female social workers from the Hayward Department of Human Services confronted Elsa following the incident. They kept mispronouncing Elsa's real name, failed to disclose any identification badges, and falsely documented Elsa as a "heroin addict" even though she has never done drugs in her life.

A woman named Caroline called them and spoke to them, separately. She tried to convince Elsa to admit that Rene was physically abusing her, and promised to have C.P.S return her kids. Elsa refused to give false statements about her husband. Caroline even asked Elsa if she had life insurance policies on them.

The workers then lied about the "unsafe environment" the children were in and the kids were taken from them. Since then the children have been taken re-located to many other foster care homes.

A short time later, their public defender, David Poulioutt gave them a very strange deal: They had to either socialize with members of their community, or their kids would not be returned to them. The Maldonado Family soundly refused the "offer" and ended up moving from the area. They hired a lawyer named Donald Bloom, who took their money, and ineffectively represented them by not arguing in their defense.

Bloom promised to "have their kids back home with them in three weeks" but failed due to his lack of representation, the hearing was postponed for six months. Rene and Elsa fired him on the spot. From what they saw, he purposely did nothing for them.

A judge pro tem (temporary judge) commissioner at the Hayward Superior Court in the Juvenile Dependency Division unexplainably changed his name from "Paul D. Seeman to Robert Seeman,” after the hearing was concluded.

Rene and Elsa showed me a picture of their mobile home that was destroyed by the San Leandro Police Department, after it was allegedly reported that they were "trespassing" on the owner's property because of their vacant vehicle.

Without prior notification of the department's intent to demolish, or an eviction notice from the owner, their mobile home was destroyed, in July of 2005, along with the theft of their valuables.

Rene and Elsa met with Oakland Board of Supervisor, Gail Steele in February of 2005 prior to the departmental demolition of their home and explained to her what their situation was, and how no one would help them. Gail seemed to try to entice them to admit family domestic problems that they didn’t have.

After speaking with them for some time, Gail suddenly said to them that she would make certain that they both receive "re-unification" with their children. "Why should we have to re-unify with our kids when they stole our kids!" Rene and Elsa said to Gail.

Gail replied, "Don't you see that this is all a game, so play the game and you will get your kids back!"

The Maldonados don’t want to play this game. They only want their children back where they are safe and loved.

The Maldonados are seeking legal aid. To help please call 415-863-6306

by Tony Robles/PNN

As a child I would accompany my grandma to the market 3 blocks from our house. She held my hand as we walked. The trees seemed to bow before her, and the traffic, upon seeing her wide sunglasses and colorful scarves, would come to a respectful halt. I'd skip alongside her as we got closer to the market. Once inside, it was magic. Grandma knew vegetables - bok choy, squash, ginger and bitter melon. They knew her too, jumping into our cart as we made our way to the meat and fish section.

Grandma knew when fish was fresh by looking into their eyes. The fish would always look back and say, "You're that little girl from Sorsogon in the Philippines! I know you. You used to play in the river". Grandma and the fish would exchange winks and the fish would come home with us, nourishing our bellies and minds - the smell lingering like a poem. As grandma used to say, "Fish is brain food, kid."

I think of grandma and the women who carry so much of the world in bags and sacks when I walk through the "Heart of the City" Certified Farmer's Market at Civic Center. People from every walk of life congregate there to breathe in the sweet fragrance of produce grown all over California with love and care. I watch them carry bags of apples oranges, and strawberries from places such as Stockton, Sacramento and Watsonville.

Christine Adams is manager of Heart of the City. Before becoming manager, she sold vegetables at the farmer's market on Alemany Blvd for 3 years. She is the market's 3rd manager with a passion for community and fresh, healthy food. "The market was started by a Quaker lady who ran it as a co-op to obtain food in bulk" said Adams, whose son assists her with the day to day (Wednesdays and Sundays) operation of the market. Afterwards, Market Street Development asked her to start a farmer's market. She declined, opting to sell fruit and vegetables from her stall for the next 5 years.

"The farmers come from all over" says Adams, holding her walkie-talkie, ready to assist vendors and field questions from reporters. They come from all over California. They bring dates from Death Valley and mushrooms from South San Francisco. "At the market, you meet the farmers personally. You get food that hasn't been refrigerated. Refrigeration alters the composition and flavor of food". Adams adds that the farmers are very much aware of environmental impacts. "You have to give back to the earth. Crop rotation saves the ground and insures quality".

The farmers rent their stalls for $25 a day--flat, no association fees. Adams sees the market as a vehicle to serve the community. "We're here to give farmers a space and give the public quality food. It was put here because it was in a low-income area. The supermarkets will gouge you".

Recently, the city's Chief Administration office (CAO) has proposed taking over the market - streamlining the operations and reorganizing the market's board of directors which is made up of 5 farmers and 2 community members. The CAO wants to take over the operation - which includes 67 stalls which grossed 187,000 last year.

In response to the proposed takeover by the city, the market has started a petition. Adams says what's at stake is the very heart of the area. "The city's proposal will kill the market. It's run by the community. The people who shop and work here run this market. Nobody owns this market. This market does have heart. All the booths are family owned".

As I walked through the market, I saw a group of children from a Tenderloin elementary school. They carried notepads and jotted down the names of fruits and vegetables, noting the smells, shapes and sizes. The farmers smiled and people of all shapes and colors walked about.

I came to a booth where I met a young man named Kevin. He sold cakes baked by his wife. Kevin made the trip to the market from Sacramento. His young son watched as his father showed me his array of cakes and goodies. "My wife and I started "A little piece of cake". She bakes everything and we sell them here. Business is good". I looked at the pineapple upside down cake, seven-up cake, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and vanilla pudding.

"We want to start a bakery in San Francisco or Sacramento" he said as he put my cupcakes in a bag. "With rents so high, we might have to opt for Sacramento" he said. He said that he enjoyed working at the farmer's market. He said that working in a diverse environment as the farmer's market has helped him grow and become a better person. It was beautiful seeing a young African-American father with something to show his son. And by that I refer to the sweetest things under the sun.

It was the highlight of my day.

To help keep the Heart of the City Farmer's market as a community oriented place, please visit the market and sign the petition. You can also contact the Board of Supervisors and Chief Administration Office.

by Bruce Allison/PNN correspondent

In recent years, I have become very familiar with the word passthrough. A Passthrough represents more than an insignificant or minor rent increase. To very low income residential tenants, such as me, passthroughs are drastic rent increases that further aggravate our bare wallets and money purses. Passthroughs are largely responsible for increasing my rent by more than fifty dollars in the previous several years; and a recently proposed passthrough will once again increase my rent in the near future. I, a native San Franciscan, poverty scholar and very-low income resident, may face another passthrough that will affect my living situation.

In July of 2002, San Francisco's Land Use Committee of the Department of Public Works, better known as the water department, promoted water conservation by increasing charges for water and sewer services. Now, Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier and Carmen Chu wish to allow landlords to charge their tenants fifty percent of the water rate increase. On average, this passthrough will increase San Francisco rent rates by eight dollars a month.

As a San Francisco resident who earns $775 a month and pays $568 for rent, this passthrough will significantly impact my financial status. Presently, I exercise many money-saving techniques to lower my financial burdens, however, if the passthrough is authorized, I will have to use new economic strategies to earn more money. I am not alone.

A member of the senior action network, who lives in the Gold Gateway apartments, publicly stated that the proposed passthrough will be "a very difficult hardship" that may compel her to vacate her apartment of 30 years.

A Public Utility Commission representative of the water department said that "this is a way to stop tenants from over using water by charging them money for using the water," The representative, however, fails to realize that most of the landlords will charge tenants fifty percent of the water rate regardless of the condition of water pipes of faucets. Tenants who live in homes with poorly maintained water pipes and equipment will have to help landlords pay for their negligence.

The proposal passed during Monday's committee meeting on July 21.

If this passthrough is implemented, several seniors and disabled residents will be unable to pay their rent, which will force them into homelessness. How many more passthroughs will San Francisco renters have to face?

by T.J. Johnston/Special to PNN

As of two weeks ago, the staff was bracing for a June 29 closing date, but no final decision on the center's fate has yet been made, said shelter manager Trina Johnson. This comes in the wake of the March 31 closing of Buster’s Place, the city's only 24-hour resource center for homeless people.

Johnson also said that Mayor Gavin Newsom doesn't realize the effect the possible closing would have on staff and people staying there.

"Clients talk to us and feel safe. We have a community," Johnson said. Once homeless herself, she also said she wouldn't turn people away from the shelter.

Neither Human Service Agency Director Trent Rohrer nor Dariush Kayhan, the mayor's homeless policy director, have responded to requests for comment.

Ella Hill Hutch, located in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, is also a youth center that provides education, crime and violence prevention, employment, recreation and other community involvement programs for low- and moderate-income residents.

Johnson said the space might be used for nighttime activities for neighborhood youth, though she doubts anybody would come for a midnight basketball game.

Up to one hundred people line up nightly outside the center as early as 8:30 p.m. to sleep on a mat in the gymnasium from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Most of them secure a spot through the city’s CHANGES computerized reservation system, but some disabled people, recent hospital discharges and people just arriving in town are also accommodated.

Those turned away from the center are referred to shelters at 150 Otis St., Episcopal Sanctuary or Providence Baptist Church.

Shelter monitor Christopher Nolan criticized Newsom's promotion of the appearance of solving homelessness while he stands sentry as homeless people pick up their pillows and blankets.

"It's sad they don't have a backup (for a new shelter)," Nolan said.

Before his current job, Nolan worked for five years at the McMillan Drop-in Center at 39 Fell St. before it closed in 2006. He believes the mayor's appeal for funding in Washington, D.C. last year without addressing permanent housing needs was a hollow gesture.

"When everything starts falling like dominoes, and the mayor goes to D.C. and brags on how the shelter system is good … why don’t they call him on his shit?" Nolan said. Just because people are homeless doesn't make them hopeless, he added.

Homeless people like Warren McCormack also disapprove of the closing. McCormack has been homeless for two months. As a bipolar SSI recipient, he said shelters should provide supportive services, such as in-house psychological counseling.

"Everybody's materialistic out here," McCormack said, citing increases in housing costs. He also observed a racial dynamic as to who could afford living in the city. "Over by Glide (Memorial Church in the Tenderloin), not one black person owns a home there. There's a lot of tensions," he said.

Roy Hill, a thin, graying Massachusetts native who is seven years homeless, said hotels could house homeless people. "They need to get SROs for everybody, instead of closing the center," he said.

Cat, a San Francisco native who returned from Portland, Ore. on April 2, sid he hopes the center remains open. "I know a lot of people depend on this place," said.

Because he has family in the city, Cat is optimistic about his housing situation.

"I'm glad they have these places,” Cat said. "If they leave this place, one door closes and another one opens."

"It really affects me and the clients (at Ella Hill Hutch), and (Newsom) really needs to hear us speak," Johnson said.

by Guillermo Gonzalez/Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia

For English scroll down

Mi familia y yo estamos en EEUU ahora, precisamente en la area de la Bahia, anos despues de nuestro arduo viaje desde El Salvador, para perseguir el supuesto Sueno Norteamericano. Tengo 25 anos. Estoy en la escuela para ser un maestro y ala vez trabajando con POOR Magazine como un escritor del personal y maestro del proyecto Voces de Inmigrantes, que le ensena periodismo y organizar a monolingnes obreros inmigrantes de bajo ingreso.

En todas partes de mi vida trabajo para devolverle algo a mi comunidad. Mis maestros en la Universidad me predican sobre como debo dar las gracias a este pais por darme el permiso de estar aqui. Me dice que este pais es tan bueno hacia mi por darme una visa estudiantil. Pero el sentido de aprecio es dificil tener ahora por el hecho de la recien crecida de correriras de trabajadores pobres, estudiantes y familias por toda la area de la bahia, que curiosamente empezaron antes de las marchas del Dia Internacional Del Obrero 1ro de mayo en honor de todos los trabajadores y en solidaridad con la lucha de los obreros inmigrantes

"Estas correrias son como un acto brutal de venganza y criminilizacion por ICE hacia los inmigrantes por marchar el 1ro de mayo" dijo Tiny, periodista y editora social de POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, y autora de Criminal de la pobreza: Criandose sin Hogar en America.

Empezando con las correrias de una cadena be bien conocidas taquerillas, con localidades desde San Jose a San Francisco, con el asusto hacia los padres en la escuela primaria Oakhurst en el Este de Oakland, culminando en una correira en la escuela secundaria Berkeley, esta semana pasada ha causado inmigrantes ha vivir en terror, aunque muchas de estas ciudades son "ciudades santuarias."

El asunto es que no estoy preocupado sobre le que me va a pasar en cuanto se venza mi visa, porque se lo que agencies como ICE me pueden o no me puedan hacer si alguna vez me enfrentan. Reconozco mis derechos civiles y libertades aun no siendo ciudadano estadounidense. El problema es que no soy el objetivo de agencies de inmigracion, porque saben que nosotros aprendemos en la escuela sobre cuales son nuestros derechos, no, ellos despiadadamente perjudican a los trabajadores migrantes que no tiene defensa cognitiva en contra los enfrentamientos agresivos y tactiles hostiles.

Desde que empezaron estas correiras mas y mas, toda mi familia vive en temor que un dia un agente los enfrentar y seguramente los deportara. Despues que haremos? Mi familia, tanto como muchas familias inmigrantes, ni pueden funcionar economicamente sino es que todos juntos estemos trabajando para sobrevivir. Si mi papa o mi mama son deportados, Quien triara las ganancias hacia casa para apoyar a mis hermanos y a mi? Quien los dara de comer, dar un hogar, protegernos? pa que servir� mi visa estudiantil? La realidad que se asentar� es que mi hermano mayor y yo no dejareamos que destruyeran a nuestra familia. Encontrarnamos una manera de hacer suficiente dinero para mantener a nuestros hermanos, y hay que ser realistas no es tan sencillo como para que un inmigrante sin una educacion pueda ponerse un traje, caminar hacia Wall St. y encontrar un trabajo. Estareamos forzados a cometer crimines para sostenernos, asi perpetuando el ciclo y los esteriotipas que perjudican nuestra comunidad.

Para todo problema hay solucion. En este caso es la educacion. Como una comunidad tanto de inmigrantes y ciudadanos consientes, es urgente que trabajemos juntos para informar a la comunidad inmigrante sobre sus derechos. El hecho es que cuando enfrentado por un agente de inmigracion la �nica cosa que uno debe proveerle a ICE es su nombre, nada mas. Si el agente de ICE empieza a interrogarlo a uno sobre su direccion a domicilio, o la fuente de ingresos, o aun si preguntan por documentos de inmigracion (si un es documentado), todo lo que tiene que decir uno es que desean irse. Tenemos el derecho para declarar la quinta enmienda (the Fifth Amendment) a cualquier pregunta acerca de nuestro estatus legal en este pais. La cosa mas importante en recordarse cuando enfrentado por un agente, uno no debe ponerse panico, y pase lo que pase uno no debe coger. Ninguna agencia gubernameltan puede de fuerzas entrar a una propiedad privada sin un permiso. Si en cualquier momento un oficial de la ley, desea entrar un lugar de residencia o negocio, uno tiene derecho a demandar que se marchen y regresen solo si tienen un permiso.

Estos son nuestros derechos como residentes en esta nacion, tantos ciudadanos, y inmigrantes, el gobierno no tiene derecho ha infringir estos derechos. Asi es que, el verdadero Sueno Americano es la realizacion de nuestros derechos del constituto.

Guillermo Gonzales es reportero con la Red de PrenzaPobre y un maestro y facilidor-escritor con el proyecto de Las Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia. En la revista POBRE, que ensena periodismo, organizar de medios de comunicacion, y provee el acceso para las voces de obreros migrantes monolingnes de bajo ingreso en la area de la bahia

La campana educativa Don't Run/No Corra es patrocinada por POOR Magazine/Prensa Pobre, La Raza Centro Legal/ SF Day Labor Program,Mujeres Unidas y Activas, SF/LCLAA,Contra Costa Municipal I.D. Task Force,Concilio Latino,Contra Costa Faith Works. Si quisiera copatronzinar favor de comunicarse a deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

Oprima aqui para mantener el volante de Don't Run/No Corra folleto. (en ingles y espanol)

Oprima aqui para mantener el folleto Luchando Por Justicia (inSpanish) (in English)(en ingles y espanol)

The Article in English

My family and I are in the US now, the Bay Area to be exact, years after our arduous journey from El Salvador, to pursue the so-called American Dream. I am 25 years old. I am in college to become a teacher while also working with POOR Magazine as a staff writer and teacher of the Voces de Inmigrantes project, which teaches journalism and organizing to mono-lingual low-income immigrant workers.

In all parts of my life I work to give back to my community. My teachers in college preach to me about how I should express my gratitude to this country for allowing me to be here. They say that this country is so good to me for giving me a student's visa. But the feeling of gratitude is difficult to have right now as I hear about the recent spate of raids on poor workers, students and families all over the Bay Area that oddly enough began right before the May 1st International Workers Day marches in honor of all workers and in solidarity with the struggle of immigrant workers.

"I think it is very strategic that all of these ICE raids happened right before and after the May 1st marches," said Cesar Cruz, teacher, activist and author of Revenge of the Illegal Alien. I spoke with Cesar after I heard about the families who were afraid to pick up their children from an elementary school because they were warned by the school's principal that there were ICE trucks parked up and down the block in front of Oakhurst elementary school in East Oakland

"These raids seem like a brutal act of retaliation and criminalization by ICE to immigrants for marching on May 1st," said Tiny, journalist and co-editor of POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, and author of Criminal of Poverty: growing up homeless in America.

Beginning with a raid on a well-known Taqueria chain (El Balazo) with branches located from San Jose to San Francisco to the scare on the parents at Oakhurst Elementary school culminating in a raid on Berkeley High School, this last week has caused immigrants to live in terror, even though many of these cities are "sanctuary cities."

The fact of the matter is that I am not worried about what happens to me after my visa expires, because I know what agencies such as ICE can and cannot do if they would ever confront me. I am aware of my civil rights and liberties even though I am not a US citizen. The problem is, immigration agencies don't target students like me, for they know that we learn what our rights are at school, no, they ruthlessly target the migrant workers who have no cognitive defense against the aggressive confrontations and hostile tactics.

Ever since these immigration raids have been happening more and more, my entire family lives in fear that one day an agent will confront them and surely enough deport them. Then what will we do? My family, just like many immigrant families, cannot function financially unless we are all working together to survive. If either my father or my mother get deported, who will bring the money into the household to support my siblings and I? Who will feed us, shelter us, protect us? What good will my student visa be then? The reality that would set in is that my older brother and I would refuse to see our family be destroyed. We would find a way to make enough money to shelter and feed our siblings, and let's face it, it's not like any immigrant with no education can just put a suit on and go to wall street and get a job. We would be forced to turn to crime to make ends meet, thus perpetuating the ongoing cycle and stereotype that plagues our community. This happens all to often to families just like mine. Families that get dismantled because immigration takes one of our members away.

To every problem, there is a solution. In this case it is education. As a community of immigrants and conscious citizens alike it is urgent that we all work to inform the immigrant community about their rights. The fact is that when confronted by an Immigration agent, the only thing that one must provide to ICE is a first name, nothing else. If the ICE agent starts interrogating about an address of residency or a source of income, or even if they ask for immigration papers, all one must say is that they wish to leave. We have the right to plead the fifth amendment to any questions regarding our legal status in this country. The most important thing to remember is that when confronted by an agent, one must not panic and no matter what happens one must not run. No government agency can forcefully enter private property without a warrant. If ever any law enforcement official wishes to enter a place of residency or of business, one has the right to demand that they leave and return only if they have a warrant.

These are our rights as residents of this nation, citizens and immigrants alike, the government does not have the right to infringe on these rights. So perhaps the real American Dream lies in the realization of our constitutional rights.

Guillermo is a reporter with PoorNewsNetwork and a teacher and writer facilitator with The Voces De Inmigrantes en Resistencia Project (Voices of immigrants in resistance) at POOR Magazine, which teaches journalism, media organizing and provides media access for the voices of low-income, migrant workers in the Bay Area.

The Don't Run/No Corra public education campaign is co-sponsored by POOR Magazine/Prensa Pobre, La Raza Centro Legal / SF Day Labor Program, Mujeres Unidas y Activas,SF/LCLAA,Contra Costa Municipal I.D. Task Force,Concilio Latino,Contra Costa Faith Works, Justice Matters. If you would like to become a co-sponsor please email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

Click here to download the Don't Run/No Corra flyer. (in English and Spanish).

Click here to download Luchando Por Justicia leaflet (in Spanish) (in English)

by Tiny

The building and the street around The California Hotel in Oakland was full of shadows. Shadows that whispered stories of past lives, glamour and tragedy from its ancient brick walls. The first time I saw The California Hotel was many years ago and I was both scared and comforted by its vast-ness that seemed to envelope San Pablo avenue from all directions. Scared because of its sheer enormity and comforted because it was the first chance for inside-ness for me and my poor mama after a long stretch of being vehicularily housed, police-harassed and outside.

Since the recent struggle of California Hotel residents to stay housed and now the triumph of their self-management launch, I thought back on my first day at the California and how nice it was to have a roof, albeit roach-filled and rodent infested.

In 1991 while my mama and I were still dealing with homelessness we watched as the California Hotel was closed for a $9 million dollar renovation and then re-opened as a Single Room Occupancy Hotel - with on-site supportive services managed by Oakland Community Housing, Inc.,(OCHI) a non-profit housing developer. The windows were new and shiny and the paint was fresh.

It seemed like a dream come true for many of the very poor elders who we re re-housed there after the renovation. Safety, cleanliness, and overall management had been ongoing problems before the renovation which were now supposedly all dealt with.

That said, my mother and I felt an uneasy-ness in our gut. Renovation, renewal, redevelopment, these "re" words were never safe for poor folks and more often than not they were extremely dangerous. HUD's HOPE VI project was fond of using the "re" words when they demolished over 90% of their housing only to replace them with mixed income housing units that only housed certain people- most of whom didnt live there before it was "re'd" including our friend that had housed us for a minute, because he hadn't "complied" with his case managers many requests for documents.

Renewal, redevelopment and one for one replacement are almost always myths for poor people of color and like the ongoing redevelopment efforts of West Oakland and The Bayview - we never seem to last into the next "re".

As the recent mismanagement scandal with OCHI resulting in eviction notices being served on the all 72 of the disabled and elder residents of the Hotel and subsequent terrifying raids by the Oakland Police Department, I could only imagine my poor mama Dee (she passed in March of 2006) shaking her head in that "I told you so" way she always did.

But then I found out about the resistance of the tenants,and how they launched an effort to do what all poor people of color are completely capable of doing, but rarely given the opportunity to realize, a chance to self-manage our living spaces. A dream that POOR has been struggling to realize for over 10 years in our HOMEFULNESS Project, but still hasn't raised funding for.

As poor folks we are constantly told we need someone else to manage our housing, manage our books, manage our little bits of money and manage our lives, because it is assumed, we can't be trusted to do it for ourselves. I find this ironic, not only in light of the California Hotel mismanagement by oh so many so-called experts, and the tenants recent successful self-management but also because as poor folks, people of color, indigenous folks, we have been successful stewards of land and property and community for hundreds of years.

On July 30th the California Hotel tenants and their advocates at Just Cause Oakland won a victory when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Keller granted them another 30 days before ruling on whether or not they may continue to reside in their housing.

Perhaps if the tenants were given a portion of the financial support that corporations like John Stewart and OCHI received to manage properties like the California Hotel, the tenants could handle their own management just fine.

Drop by the California Hotel and support the residents with your donations of supplies and dollars!

by Joseph Bolden

The vagaries of,birth, life,illness,and death vary from human to human.

Lady or old man death swings the scythe and were gone.

We know how fragile our lives are,we dwell not as often as we use to given our so-called
improved sanitary,medical/technical skills still being discovered and rediscovered.

It’s one thing to die from fatal disease brought on by rodents,birds, tainted cow’s flesh,or plague unknown and or airborne but dying at random is all the more tragic for its out-of-no where-ness.

Recently as last early last night or early dawn, time isn’t pin pointed as yet.

Mr. Jason,a desk clerk in the San Cristina While visiting his Grandmother in Hayes Valley was shot in the head and killed!

For what and why besides unknown we tenants in our one-room dwellings.

We don’t know all we know for sure is that Jason’s sudden death is a shock!

Living in the tenderloin is hazardous like all areas where danger is common its citizen’s do what they can to blend in and not be seen as targets of opportunity from certain prowlers awaiting their victims.

Some of us act 51/50, [crazed or nutty] carry hidden or on our person weapons varying in size,shape,blunt or sharp, move about believing it more difficult to hit moving targets.

There are many modes of self-preservation.

My own varies from concealing a weapon to moving about the city,which was first learned in Los Angeles when the box or freight car killings occurred in the skid row areas of West L.A.

Though I wasn’t a complete loner there was a few buddies we’d walk with we wouldn’t acknowledge our fears but we knew it is safer to be seen as a group than alone.

This is my main reason when good friends drop by especially women buddies.

I make sure they're safe from harm when in the bathroom or walking them to a nearby bart or bus station.

Jason,a personable, regular guy,worked,earns his money and is killed in Hayes Valley away from the Tenderloin.

I'm told about this early today Monday, April. 28,2008,Jason may was killed Sunday at about 9pm.

It’s still a world where my life is a tightrope, I must balance for safety.

I still wonder at the

trust of women whom feel safe along side me or any males for that matter.

Why was Mr. Jason,from what I observed,a decent, young black man working as a desk clerk murdered whether by accident or design for what?

It tells me black folk are still not accorded equality in this killing field Amerikkka.

As Jewish,Arabs, African’s,and Cuban’s other nationalities can express their views about their land and his/her stories I can speak of this land also in equally negative tones.

Oddly funny that especially when Black American's speak on the dark side of America...
the mainstream or what was the majority population tries to drown or silence it.

The truth hurts better it hurt now than let if fester and turn to puss filled cesspool.

Maybe Presidential Candidate Obama’s Preacher says what he says in his church,on his pulpit is true because as young child,adolescent,and adulthood he
saw the evil that a society where laws were specifically set up against of race of people his people were and to some extent are still set against.

Could the problem be that race still the problem in 21st century because it hasn’t yet been resolved in the 20th ?

I’m wondering if the protest against a pastor or preacher’s words is fear of the ever widening chasm of race,class,and economically driven disparity.

Those questions are too heady for me to dwell on.

All I know–is a young black man,working a low wage job,in one
of the most dangerous areas of San Francisco inner city,he wasn't even in the Tenderloin but Hayes Valley
has died,is dead!

Not from a plague infested animals, insects, cancer,high blood pressure, diabetes,or unknown hidden medical condition of arterial heart valve problem.

He was a healthy black male shot to death in San Francisco and for what reason?

Brother men/Women rainbow folks.

THIS IS STILL A KILLING FIELD,I DON’T BELIEVE ITS ALL THAT RANDOM!

And what of those healthy young collage men last seen slightly intoxicated and last seen drowned!

Their parent(s),friends, and loved ones too want to know... WHY?

IF ANYONE HAS INFORMATION PLEASE SEND TO

Jsph_bldn@yahoo.com or local authorities, sometimes they do stop crime,get their suspects.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

“At his funeral, Idriss was eulogized as "Our Shaman" by the Dean of Students of SF Healds College, Mr. Patrick Hutchinson…Idriss counseled many fellow students, among them a single dad [who was] suicidal and said at the funeral mass, that Idriss saved his life. These were just some of Idriss Stelley' success stories," his mother told me, a proud smile on her lips, as we continued our interview on the life and death of her son.

We sat at her home in the Bayview Hunters Point in early December. In between sips of freshly brewed coffee, meshá showed me Idriss' diplomas and awards and shared stories from his life.

I marveled at Idriss' awards, trophies and accomplishments, including his Second Degree Black Belt Karate diploma and his Post Mortem "Resistance Award" received from POOR Magazine. mesha continued showing me his seemingly endless memorabilia, including his craftsmanship of an unfinished stone sculpture, an Egyptian Sphinx that meshá gave me to keep. Idriss was in the Marble Union and was working on this sphinx on the very day he was killed by the SFPD.

"He did not get a chance to finish it….” she explained, her voice sadly trailing off. She then began to tell me about Idriss’ birth.

Idriss Scott Stelley was born on August 20th, 1977 at the Alternative Birth Center at the San Francisco General Hospital in a room full of incense, Indian music of Ravi Shankar and cheering friends.

Idriss graduated first out of 90 students from Optnet in Advanced Web Design, and was a Spanish tutor at Wallenberg High School, as well as a French and Advanced Math tutor at San Francisco City College and John Adams Community College.

With an IQ of 145, Idriss tutored in colleges even before his own graduation from High School through Independent Studies. He also taught ESL to undocumented migrants at the San Francisco Day Labor Program, volunteered on the AIDS Ward 5A, the very place of his birth , and aided in the soup kitchen at Glide Memorial Church.

In addition, Idriss also volunteered at Arriba Juntos, a center in the Mission District that provides job readiness workshops, computer labs, and job search skills.

He also taught graffiti-airbrush design at a Fillmore center for at-risk Youth, and at 7 years old, was the youngest performing artist of the SF Mime Troupe, in the "Madame Video" play. He also performed in several SF International Franco-American School's Shakespearean productions.

Of eclectic taste, Idriss was an avid reader of the mainstream "classics", but favored the works of Malcolm X and his beloved Koran (Idriss converted to Islam at 17).

In his apartment the air was often filled with music. From Bach, Bela Bartok, Debussy, Eric Sati, Aranjuez and Misa Criola to Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, and Thelonius Monk to U2, Tupac, Paris, Sade and Michel Franti, Idriss appreciated many different styles of music.

In formal attire and bow tie, he routinely assisted his Godfather, Mr. Henry Watson, who passed away, heartbroken, a year after Idriss' death. Mr. Watson, head usher of the SF Opera House, was a wonderful Black man who introduced Idriss to rich AfriKan American culture as well as his musical and "classical" education.

Although I've never met or laid eyes on Idriss, mesha has often told me of how much I remind her of her only child, because we both share a very rare kind of wisdom, and exceptional background. It is always a wonderful feeling to hear mesha say this to me, because I have adopted her as my "Godmother" and feel truly blessed with everything she offers me, especially post-trauma counseling

Given everything that I have gone through in the past few years, in my dealing with homelessness, poverty, criminalization, racism, police brutality, and injustice, I feel that meeting Idriss would have restored hope in me about the fate of those struggling in this corrupt society.

I believe that our relationship would have shown that unity in non-white communities plagued with poverty, violence, racism and incarceration, is not impossible. And that despite the venomous lies of corporate media and its portrayal of non-white communities and people struggling with poverty, we can unite to make change.

"I taught Idriss that it is never too early to commit to social justice," said mesha. As we traded warm smiles, dusk began to blanket the earth outside. I sat my cup of coffee down and we both took a break, before mesha began to share the most difficult part of the interview, and the deepest, darkest moment that forever changed her life and the lives of many others: The Death of Idriss Stelley.

To Be Continued in "The Idriss Stelley Foundation Story" Part III.

by Marlon Crump/PoorNewsNetwork

"I've been working on the Eastern Neighborhood's plans for 7 1/2 years. I'm also a resident of SOMA. (South of Market Area), they've really butchered the community input and translated it into the developer's language" , testified Jazzie Collins, staff member and resident advocate for South of Market Community Action Network, (SOMCAN) during the People's Rally on July 10th, 2008 at San Francisco City Hall.

Brief testimony by Residents, community organizers, activists, and POOR Magazine rallied against the zoning proposals, and plans for numerous neighborhoods by outside developers, the San Francisco Planning Department, and the San Francisco Planning Commission.

These words from Jazzie also presented a haunting picture of what this "plan" may really mean for those who are of low-income working class and poor families living in affordable housing, (including yours truly) within certain neighborhoods of San Francisco, CA targeted for zoning/owning!

I attended the June 12th hearing of the zoning proposals presented by the Eastern Neighborhoods Program, to the San Francisco Planning Commission. Many San Franciscans from the Mission District, South of Market, Potrero Hill, and Chinatown were rallying on July 10th with verbal resistance against these "plans" by land developers to the San Francisco Planning Commission.

I took my place alongside my mentor and POOR Magazine co-founder Lisa Gray-Garcia (AKA Tiny), and fellow POOR comrades Bruce Allison, and Jennifer Fogg. Carrying my black leather satchel briefcase on one arm, and the POOR banner on the other, we resisted the growing wind and the grey clouds that met us, as we approached S.F City Hall to represent our resistance of gentrification for the People's Rally.

We were all here in our total opposition against the City of San Francisco's zoning plans for the Mission District, South of Market, Potrero Hill, and Chinatown Districts from outside developers hell-bent into systematically condominium- colonizing affordable housing.

"The Mission has a lot going on. What's been happening over the past 10-20 years is that people and offices are moving in. We proposed two kinds of zoning: P.D.R (Production Distribution Repair) and U.M.U (Urban Mixed Use)."

Eastern Neighborhoods Program Senior Planner, of the San Francisco Planning Department, Ken Rich briefly stated this to me, during a brief interview on a June 12th zoning proposal hearing, before the San Francisco Planning Commission, at San Francisco City Hall.

The department had submitted a highly anticipated area plan of zoning proposals to the Planning Commission for approvals of this project.

History was somewhat repeating its course. About eight years ago on Thursday July 13, 2000, in the Dot.Com Boom era, an estimated 500 people, many who were Mission District residents, activists, and POOR Magazine staff, stormed the steps of S.F City Hall to lash out at the entire Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission. At the time, the City of San Francisco was held strictly accountable by the residents, for their role in giving approvals to develop in the Mission District, knowing the devastating displacement effect it would have on an entire community of small businesses, artists and residents. Old habits still die hard.

Among those present for the protest, were numerous residents, and community organizations from various San Francisco neighborhoods, the Council of Community Housing Organizations, St. Peter's Housing Committee, Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) Healthcare Action Team, Youth Making a Change (YMAC) and POOR Magazine.

"First off, I think that its dis-empowering that they are not including the community's ideas. I feel that the city really needs to listen and include the community's ideas to make sure that they won't get displaced!" exclaimed Angelica Cabande of South of Market Community Action Network.

Eric Quezada, a longtime community and housing activist in the Mission and Bernal Heights, District 9 Supervisor Candidate for the upcoming election, and Co-Founder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition; was also on hand to support those that objected the city's plans for the targeted neighborhoods in its zoning proposals influenced by outside developers.

"We won't let them make our neighborhoods into a Corporate America!" yelled a speaker on S.F City Hall Steps, as I continued to re-port for my comrades of POOR, and su-pport those fighting for the cause by the residents, community members, and activists of San Francisco, at the July 10th People's Rally.

"I'm just a concerned citizen that here will be more displacement." said Peter Neils Sherburnzimmer, a resident of San Francisco. "I went down there to Hunter's Point and talked with the people. They were concerned that they would get more promises, and not housing!"

South of Market has been a San Francisco neighborhood, for the low-income, and immigrant families, since the 1840's. In an effort to compromise and combat possible gentrification techniques of the city, a "People's Plan" has been drafted from the people, themselves. One of these proposals that stood out to me, (after viewing the map myself of the People's Plan) was a people's proposal to raise the inclusionary housing bar to provide 30% moderate-income units, in every market-rate development, throughout all re-zoned areas of the Mission District. In addition, S.R.O (Single Room Occupancy) Units would be allowed only for 100% affordable developments.

The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) disagrees with the Planning Department's affordable housing incentives in UMU zones. (Urban Mixed Use) MAC also viewed the Planning Department's own map of "affordable housing tiers" has very few plans of including affordable housing in the Mission District.

" This should benefit the people that are already living in our neighborhood." said Nick Pagoulatos, Director of Community Planning and Development, coordinator of Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition. "What we see instead is that the plan is geared toward creating new housing that serves people with money!"

"I feel really strong about this, they have no right to kick people out from their own communities", said Salah Alnaif, a youth from Youth Making a Change (YMAC).

"They need to prioritize families, seniors, and people with disabilities. There is a long history of working class resistance in SOMA. The San Francisco Planning Commission needs to recognize that!" James Chiosini, a fellow comrade of mine during our years as volunteers for the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.

The only prioritization that seems to be zoning towards owning people's lands and livelihoods. The right to not be deprived of life and liberty, no longer exists. As far as the interest of the community is concerned, none of it seems to matter.......except in the eyes of "corporate interest" by the City of San Francisco.

by Staff Writer

March 6-7, 2008

Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice Institute for the Study of Social Change

Co-Sponsored by POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, East Bay Community Law Center, and the Center on Culture, Immigration, and Youth Violence

Sleeping outside or in a vehicle, soliciting employment, convening in a public space and/or suffering in public from a mental illness are citable offenses in the United States. This criminalization of poverty results in more and more poor families, youth, elders, and adults in this country facing police harassment, abuse, and even incarceration for living in poverty. By bringing together an innovative and powerful mix of voices from poverty and race scholars, alternative/activist policy makers, poverty and civil rights attorneys, legal advocates, media producers, activists, artists, and community leaders, the symposium will provide a forum to explore short and long-term legislative and community based solutions to the problem and launch an in-depth look at the harmful impacts of this dangerous trend on poor people and on U.S. society as a whole.

Speakers include:

2008 Robert D. and Leslie Kay Raven Lecture on Access to Justice: Dorothy Roberts, Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law Symposium:

Michelle Alexander, Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University

Rebecca Alexander, UC Berkeley Institute for the Study of Social Change

Gary Blasi, Professor of Law, Acting Director, UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations

Paul Boden, Executive Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project

Mary Louise Frampton, Director, Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice

James Garrett, Division Dean, Peralta Community College District

Lisa Gray-Garcia, Executive Director, POOR Magazine

Joe Hermer, Professor, Sociology and Criminology, University of Toronto

Juan Herrera, UC Berkeley Institute for the Study of Social Change

Gary Linker, Executive Director, New Beginnings Counseling Center (Santa Barbara)

Carlos Mares, Founder,National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network (NDLON-LA)

Leroy Moore, Columnist, POOR Magazine

Monique Morris, Director of Research, Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice

Steven Pitts, Labor Policy Specialist, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Martin Reynolds, Managing Editor, Oakland Tribune

Victoria Robinson, Coordinator of the Center for Teaching and Study of American Cultures, UC Berkeley

Jeff Selbin, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law

Olis Simmons, Executive Director, Youth UpRising (Oakland)

Nicol U, UC Berkeley Institute for the Study of Social Change

Mari Villaluna, Legal and Policy Associate, D.C. Employment Justice Center

Lucie White, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Please note:
There is no charge for this event.
The Symposium is wheelchair accessible. For disability-related accommodations please contact csj@law.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-6969.

For details and free registration, visit http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/csj/symposia

by Tony Robles/PNN

"To me, the drum has been the communicator since the beginning of time. I'm sure it was the first message ever sent. When I think of the beat centuries ago, it was the only thing that kept us together."

--Lloyd Price

Legendary Rhythm and blues pioneer and performer Lloyd Price spoke these words in the academy award winning documentary, 'When We Were Kings.' The film was set in 1974 in Zaire, Africa and the stage was the heavyweight championship of the world between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The film brought back many memories. Resonating from Price's words was the larger context of the event's significance--the connection between black Americans and their African brothers and sisters. He does this beautifully by illustrating the importance of the drum.

I was blessed to meet a music and poverty scholar using the drum as a form of resistance 3 years ago. I was walking along Market and Powell Streets in San Francisco among the tourists when a rhythmic and festive beat pulsed through the air. The trees swayed and my body was swept into the infectious rhythm that tingled its way from my toes, to my hips, up my spine and into my shoulders. I looked beyond the people and beheld the warm and disarming smile of Larry Hunt AKA Larry the Bucket Guy.

I watched as he entertained the crowd with his rapid rhythms, interjecting lyrics to familiar songs Jingo, The Girl from Impanema, Thank you falettinme be mice elf again, and Low Rider. I looked at the setup, an array of plastic buckets, some topped with cooking pots. Larry's sticks hit the buckets with precision. No bucket or pot remained silent. I was so moved by Larry's playing that when my second children's book, Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel was published, the inspiration for one of the characters, Tick-A-Boom, was Larry Himself, who proclaimed:

My name is Tick-A-Boom

I play the buckets to pay for my room

The rain was leaking in my hotel room

And the rain hit my buckets

Tick-a-boom tick-a-boom!

Larry's musical career was born in Leavenworth, Kansas where, at the age of 3 he started playing the pots and pans in his kitchen. "I owned my first drum set at the age of 4" says Larry. "As I got older I played at school dances and parties." The community soon recognized his talent and in 1964 he made the front page of the local newspaper.

If you've walked along Market and Powell Streets or Union Square in the city, you have surely have heard Larry's music. If you haven't, you're missing a true San Francisco Treasure. When you ask him, who is Larry the Bucket Guy, his face lights up the whole of Market Street. "I am a person trying to survive the jungle of San Francisco, the Tenderloin, and trying to do the right thing."

Larry survived his share of peaks and valleys on his journey to San Francisco. He was a member of the army's 82nd airborne division in North Carolina. Upon his discharge he joined some of the biggest acts in the music business Little Royal, The Drifters, The Tams, Rufus Thomas and Sonny Til and the Orioles, John Lee Hooker, Greg Allman and Lady Margaret.

Larry's musical success, however, put a strain on his marriage. "My wife wanted me to quit music," Larry says, reflecting back. The marriage ended when his step son assaulted him. "He was disrespecting his mother and I told him I wasn't having it. My wife sided with her son and I figured it was time to move on."

He recalls a chance meeting with Lou Bellson, the drummer for Pearl Bailey at the Starlite Theater in Kansas City. He said, "Kid, you got it. Don't stop. You're gonna make it." Invigorated by those encouraging words, Larry made the trek to the Bay Area in 1991. "I used to play Fisherman�s Wharf," Larry recalls, "But there was a lot of turf harassment by other street musicians. I made 175.00 for 35-45 minutes work."

Disenchanted with his experiences in Fisherman's Wharf, he relocated to Berkeley where he stayed for 6 six years. He was homeless but maintained a positive attitude and never gave up playing. "When I arrived in the Bay Area, I had 350.00 in my pocket. I slept in the Bart Station." It was in a homeless shelter minus his drums that Larry's resourceful mind was prompted by the encouraging words of a fellow shelter resident.

"You played the pots and buckets before you played the drums. Go back to your roots." Larry soon obtained an arsenal of buckets and pots and his musical scholarship manifested itself in a unique way. He incorporated fire eating as part of his act shortly after.

Larry sees his act as unique, a full entertainment experience. "I am a stone cold, pure entertainer, a die hard, a full-fledged entertainer/drummer." In 1996 he hooked up with Brian Compton and formed the New Funk Generation Band, performing on Powell and Market Streets.

Larry's gift for entertaining was featured in the movie, In The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. Larry laughs when recalling that time. "Will Smith approached me in front of Market and Powell streets. He was a nice guy. He said he liked my playing. The director of the film told me they'd been watching me play for 3 weeks."

One would think that things would get better for Larry after being featured in the movie but it hasn't. He has become a victim of gentrification. The San Francisco Police Department has issued him tickets totaling 1000 dollars for the sole act of playing his music. A downtown art gallery owner complained about Larry's presence and an officer informed him he was blocking the sidewalk. "They told me they didn't want me here�," Larry says. The holiday season, normally a fruitful season for Larry, was lacking in spirit courtesy of the SFPD. "They're trying to keep me from showing my talent but I'm not going to stop playing," says Larry.

During the holidays Larry normally earned $70 a day for one hour of playing. As a result of being told to 'move on' by SFPD, Larry earned $50 during the entire holiday season.

The little money he makes as a street musician supplements his meager income of 40 dollars per month after his rent is paid by General Assistance. "I have a bad knee and cannot work," Larry say. "I'm not going back on the streets." Larry has donated his time in the schools, inspiring children with his music. He was asked to perform at the Shoreline Amphitheater before 22,000 at the Wild 94.9 Comedy Jam. 33,000 people have seen Larry perform on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Nz1MOKzw0).

Larry finds himself in a situation where his very livelihood is threatened. Larry has worked to inform the public of his situation and has gathered a petition that is growing by the day. Most people he speaks to are supportive of him.

"I took a picture with Mayor Newsom but it was a photo op. I was told by an officer that they're leaning on me as part of the Mayor's agenda to earmark the streets for the rich by getting rid of the street performers." A fan in Australia sent the Mayor a letter in support of Larry as well as a member of the issues committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. The Mayor has not responded.

Larry's struggle is a struggle for all street performers to have the right to earn a living performing in our public spaces. Larry takes his fight to court in late March. Larry recalls the words of his late grandmother, who passed away at the age of 99 words that have deeper meaning now for Larry: Don't stop playing the drums�.

Support Larry in his fight to retain his livelihood by contacting Mayor Gavin Newsom's office by phone at 415-554-6141 or by email: Gavin.newsom@sfgov.org. Larry's court hearing is scheduled Tuesday March 25th at 1:30 at 850 Bryant Street, Dept. A. You can sign an online petition in support of Larry: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/larrythebucketman/. Hear Larry�s Music: http://www.myspace.com/thebucketman. For information about Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel, see www.tony-robles.com

by Joseph Bolden

High School Daze Reunion

Yes,way overdue, frightening,and why should I go?

Many other questions haunt me,will continue haunting until…

I return to a place of both dread and fun times – my high school reunion! For over 30 years I’ve not shown up.

My various reasons were:
1. Don’t live there.
2. Some bad experiences there.
3. Bookworm, thin body, lazy eye odd boy.
4. Did not accomplish high school,college dreams.
5. Not rich, famous, married, or living in a real home.
6.Fear of rejection, ridicule, and public humiliation.
7. I wouldn’t be remembered as being a student and last.
8.My low to zero social/cultural/economic standing compared to many former students who’ve graduated, moved on to better improved lives.

All the above minutia means nothing but excuses for not showing up.

Thirty plus years is a long time to feel inadequate because life didn’t turn out exactly as planned enough of that.

Time to face the pied pipers music,go and get this over with.

Probably,few people know of me way back when.

Just a rail thin kid, accident prone,shy,horny, bookish,lazy eye, and not athletic.

I wasn’t into chess clubs, public speaking, maybe some art and cooking but way below cool kids though.

I had finally figured out if I’m a designated outcast even though wanting to be part of the in crowd then “F” the in crowd,it isn’t worth all the crap so it

got easier to ignore even to the point where I prevented a beat down by actually telling some big bruiser “Beat Me Up, What Will It Prove?”
which said bruiser says

“It Proves I Can Beat You Up.”

At that point I think other kids stopped the fight when looking at small, frail, me and the giant guy about to pound me into mulch.

Awhile after that I had my own kind of cool.

I think from that frightening turn of events I became less afraid of people [still got my ass kicked, but being perceived as The Freaky One Eyed Kid] kept most of the bullies away,a few adventurous,brave girls began to see though false perception to see the real me.

I was still shy about my looks
it mattered less than before.

I’m a late bloomer sexually which may have save me just as the AIDS crisis began. In my mid to late 20’s the wonders of girls and women had taken hold.

Playboy, Oui, Fling, Gem, and Gent are the magazines to thank.

I suffer job burnout or medically called a nervous breakdown which precipitated becoming homeless in L. A., Oakland, Berkelely.

Folks, I recommend not experiencing this aspect of social deconstruction.

I’ve hitched to Los Angeles, was an extra in a film there and in Bakersfield, and San Francisco probably on the cutting room floor.

Was a Certified Nurse Assistant/Kitchen Helper and Home Health Aide.

I’ll say it may help focus young folks on life’s road, who think the world is theirs by birthright alone.

Let them experience being house-less and jobless for 3 to 6 months they may return (if they survive it) better, wiser, and stronger.

Then it all fell apart because both high skill/low wage combination,travels to other convalescent hospitals, ever higher rents.

It doesn’t help to have lived in a house with a loving mother,a backward with dogs, younger brother looking up to you for guidance.

I’d had gone to Jr. college for a few years but didn’t have a major.

Purgatory and Hell are places on earth and the nexus is living between paycheck and losing it falling into a jobless/houseless abyss.

Truly contemplating ending ones life feeling as if you’re an cipher caught in amber frozen in frustration.

Physical and Psychological damage heaps on you unless you find ways to cope luckily my escape was writing, humor, and rarely when I offered or asked of me sex.

The last item cost me missing friend’s important speaking at an important function,besides slow loss of self worth,sex also goes unless you pay for it.

I’ve done that on rare occasions finding no joy even in physical release unless there is mutual trust, likability it leaves within me a cold,empty,feeling more worthless than not having any.

You get what you can when you can empty or not.

One doesn’t die when sex is denied but one remembers and those memories haunt,burn you and I one of my ambitions was to be writer or scientist maybe both.

As a late bloomer just getting the hang of sex then its ripped away from me with time,jobless,houseless,
my library card really helped me along with writing to cope.

I learned more about psychological/physical aspects of male and female anatomy, psychology,sexology honing my skills when the rare women gave of herself.

Maybe homelessness like prison brought out what was already there…
my pure heterosexual orientation just as prison can bring out latent homosexual tendencies to the forefront.

There’s lots of exaggerated acting out on the street especially when anyone can play the homo/hetero card for a laugh,people have died to prove a point.

I had the presence of mind to intrinsically know most of who and what I am without worry of what the image looked like.

Also found out my body type is Mesomorphic which is prone to massive muscle build up with little exercise needed or by same way by overeating muscle can turn to fat.

One lady friend has stayed with me through out my homeless ness/jobless times another has helped me keep my sane and healthy.

There are people who if they come to know you will stick by you through good and bad.

Its women that have seen me my most pathetic and at my best,
it is they without whom my life would’ve ended long before I ever wrote my first clunky column.

It good and loyal friend years to get off red meat and try vegetarian diet, I still eat meat though less than before.

I credit her friendship for at time nurturing me when sick

I live in San Francisco where being gay or gayelle is a norm.

Isolated, hetero, homeless, jobless, and finally on/off G.A.
[General Assistance]

For me it has really been a long, confused, strange, dangerous,haunting slow trip through time where friends were made and precarious as life is and
can be I have learned to live,learn,love, survive,and thrive.

Sadly,it may be too late for family life yet I still could be a decent,loving, husband, raising another’s gene spawn children.

Homelessness has changed me I don’t know how I’d turn out if it had not happened?

After all this I believe I can go to my Berkeley High School Reunion no matter my station in life because I am alive to talk about it.

Now if I can get a call by email, phone, for an invite I’ll get on bart and go the school and get this millstone off my mind for good.

And for anyone that has suffered other hardships as in war, nearly murdered, deep losses other or triumphed over adversities

I’d advise others go to your reunions,get it done and over with.

Don’t fall back into being who you were,be the person you are now.
AND IF THE OLD GANG CAN’T HANG
THAT’S ON THEM NOT YOU OR I.

Whomever wants or needs to contact me
Joseph O. Bolden, Berkeley High School/Class of 1973
My Email is jsph_bldn@yahoo.com

Time to hear the pipers tune and dance.

by Staff Writer

Po' poets and spoken word artists, heavy weights and light weights, undefeated champs and first time performers alike all entered the ring this Valentines Day at POOR Magazine's first annual Poetry Battle of (All) the Sexes. The event, which took place at the Beat Museum in North Beach, was filled with amazing flowetry, spoken word art and poetry.

Thanks to all those who made it a huge success, including ring announcer Jack Hirschman, judges Al Robles, Genny Lim, Paris Alexander and Ananda Esteva, Tony Robles, the Beat Museum, POORPresschefs Amanda Smiles and Joanna Letz, Ace Robles for the beautiful belts and many, many more! As well thanks to all those who attended and helped a very poor POOR Magazine raise some much needed funds!!!

The BIG winners of the night were!

Champion: Queenanndi

2nd place: Leroy Moore

3rd place: Monk

Each winner was awarded a cash prize, handmade champion’s belt and will have a piece published in the Bay Guardian, as well as on POOR Magazine.

Please stay tuned for more revolutionary art and poetry events from POOR Magazine. And, read on for the winner's pieces and more.

Love and hate

by Queenanndi

Love & Hate

I’m about to commentate

Hate is comin’ to tha ring, weighing in at an unknown amount of pounds

Ready to bring on destruction and pain

Puttin’ the little kids out of their homes

Creating victims out of the elderly, addicted to bein’ insane

Oooh, and hate starts frivolous wars

Our childrens’ blood is shedded

While hate’s kids become pampered and spoiled

The hate record looks undefeated, but lovez comin’ to tha ring

Look, now hate done ran and retreated

Love got hate on tha ropes- Bam! Bow! Bam! Bing!

Love IS comin’ wit body blows, and hate can’t block a thing

Now love comes wit an uppercut- Bam!

Put the families back in their homes

Boom! Enough criticizing and criminalizing the poor

Bow! Return tha souljahs and end the war

Now! It’s justice for all- Bam! Boom! Pow!

Cuz hate just got knocked out!

Dreamin’ (of a king)

I would take all the stars out the sky for you

There’s nothin’ in this world that I wouldn’t do…

Yo’ my heart, baby our bond is strong

I know you ain’t gone leave me here to rule alone

Many journeys have been traveled and conquered

But when I feel yo’ Kingman hands that’s my energys’ comfort

I’m digging you man our hearts are on the same level

Make me go to hell and come back wit the head of tha devil

Fo’ so long I’ve felt ya- sorry that I strayed from your powers

Attuned our minds soul connects last longer than flowers

The World Is Ours

Maybe not in ways but in spirit

Go to the other end of earth-now shout!

You know I’m gone hear it

My Baby, sweet as Billy Shears, wiped away my tears n’ fears

For you I’m goin’ five Phantoms down

And comin’ right back up wit yo’ crown- on a platinum dish

If I had one wish

You’d be in tha crowd, feeling and hearing my heart pounding loud

Step to me daddy

I want that kiss from tha king-

But soon as our lips touched- Damn! I woke up from tha dream

QUEENNANDI 08

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

by Leroy Moore

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

Look at me, look at me

Hear this, hear this

I’ve learned from Heyward’s Porgy

Play on your pity

Just to get that money

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

You’ll do me like you did bang, bang Margarett L. Mitchell

I’m an open swore in the BLACK community

Cup in hand

Leaning against the wall

Passersby don’t want to understand

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

Gave my body to the US Army

Got shot by the LAPD

But you can’t get red of me

Mainstream think I’m too angry

My own people don’t even notice me

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

My spoken word, you can’t handle

You think I’m too radical

Black sisters don’t know what they are missing

My BLACK CRIPPLE body is always erect

Mind masturbation but she can’t deal with the situation

Educated and motivated

Now people are intimidated

I’m the incarcerated BLACK CRIPPLE

Lock down

Lock out

Walking on death row

The State has lost my file

SSI, SSDI and GA

In my pocket is Uncle Sam’s dirty hands

I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

Rocking your cradle

Yeah, I know what I want but you’re too goddam fickle

Hell yeah, I’m the BLACK CRIPPLE

No, no, no

I’m the PROUD BLACK CRIPPLE

No, no, no

I’m the LOUD PROUD BLACK CRIPPLE

No, no, no

I’m the ANGRY LOUD PROUD BLACK CRIPPLE

No, no, no

I’m the SEXY ANGRY LOUD PROUD BLACK CRIPPLE

Yeah! Yeah! Hell Yeah!

More love poems spit at the battle

Aint got no love for the State

by tiny

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Will I ever

be free

Can I get a
D-I-V-O-R-C-E

So he’ll stop

abusing me

You see My man is the state

And It all started when we went out on a date

Naw, it actually began many years ago when I was homeless chyle

It was like incest and the abuse was steady and full of lies

But the state was pimping me and I couldn’t get free

criminalizing po folks like me with impunity

but hey I tried to relate

looking beyond all the hate

that’s why me and the state went out on a date

but it went from good to bad fast

when it came to the check

I tried to pay with food stamps , my ebt card and an ssi check

He called me a cheap whore said I was just playing him for a sucker

I said
he was a just an abusive lover

As I reflect I know he was never looking for a soul mate

In fact, i was just another poor mama he could incarcerate

He never tried to see my culture , my spirit , my soul..

But rather he was only on the take

Coming at me with labels of greed, food stamp fraud , child abuse and lies about my fate

He could never relate

He never accepted responsibility for 500 hundred years of repression, colonization, sterilization and hate

So I wrote him a letter- asking for
Some alimony, reparations
and if nothing else

A rebate

He didn’t respond

So I am asking for a

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

We’re through

–no mo

I’ll make my own estate

My own land free from hate

With love and language and culture,no incarceration and manufactured hate

D-I-V=O=R=C=E –

its over

I am finally free

CALLOUS CUSTODY CORRUPTION

(For all single moms that lose their children to court corruption)

BY MARLON CRUMP

I told you, your honor, you devil in a pitch black gown, that I had no time to prepare for this hearing, but you're not hearing me. What I say to you goes out one ear, and quickly out the other:

What kind of a monster are you to callously decide my child's fate, because you say your rule is great?! You just can't give my son to animals like you, by separating him from his sister, or my daughter from her brother!:

You just can't keep ripping my life or their lives away, because your everyday life is the cold color grey. Am I responsible for your refusal to have, and love children of your own?:

That must be your plan, isn't it? You want to rely on Child Protective Services, asshole attorneys, faulty foster care homes, or the police to fulfill your needs, from the time my seed is hatched from my body, until their old enough to be institutionalized by the system, when they're fully grown:

But I got a big plan for you, oh yes indeed, lord, yes I do, indeed. You see, I can only be a one-man Rambo-like soldier equipped with a keen mind, pen and paper, and a bleeding heart, to be valiantly fighting your own demon squad, of this fight so long:
While you keep doing what you're doing to me to other single mothers, everyday, then go home to enjoy a hearty meal, and enjoying Satan's song; I will make you sing to a different tune when we march into your court, in a massive crowd, reminding you how you did us so horribly wrong, then send you back to the bottomless black pit where you truly belong:

A LAWYER TOO HEATED FOR A DEGREE

BY MARLON CRUMP

The word "lawyer" rhymes with liar, every law has a flaw, and it's illusion is a poor person's mental confusion:

I'm not having it, though, for I know myself, my life, and love for my Gifted by God abilities. The power of my mind, my courage, my pen, and my heart equals you into a mortal contusion:

I can cross-examine you, into the abyss of your glorified lies, and represent myself in the court of flaws, by not even uttering a sound from my very own lips. I can dance with you from dusk till dawn, with the truth of argument(s) in front of the judge and jury:

You see, your clients that wear blue that ever so often slew, foolishly assumed that after their warrantless entry into my world, that this was the end of that movie, but I followed up as a motion-pictured, rated R sequel young black man, with a feature film presentation of impossible intelligence, and indestructible fury:

I educated you on how quickly I can obtain knowledge, in just a few short weary years of little resource, to clash with you, while you spent light years of tax payer's hard earned dollars to create weak lies, but not fully prepared of what I can do:

You was certain that the ball was in your court, thinking we would battle at the state level, but I jumped up in the air and stuck my tongue out at you like Jordan, then told you, "No, we're going federal." Your jaws dropped like a whore to her knees, but I made you kneel:

I hope you are lame enough believe that it is all over with, due to mere technicalities. When that mail carrier comes, I want you to open that big brown sealed envelope, and take out that thick wad of white papers, titled: COURT OF APPEAL:

by Tiny Gray-Garcia and Tony Robles

As the very poor daughter of a poor woman of color, I watched my mama struggle, juggle and go through all kinda trouble to feed me a nutritious meal that was low in sodium, low in fat and high in natural sources of vitamins, minerals, protein and good carbohydrates.

To eat well in this 21st century overpriced corporate food reality, the first thing we all need to realize is that eating healthy is a resistance to a racist and classist society where big corporations make money off feeding you cheap foods filled with no nutritional value. Big corporate pharmaceutical (drug companies) make huge profits by selling you all kinds of drugs for food, fat and weight related illnesses like high blood pressure, heart medicines, insulin and cholesterol blockers to name a few, not to mention thousands of diet pills and potions. HMO’s (Doctor groups and hospitals) make money when you get sick with related illnesses and countless other companies make money off your early death.

So the first thing to do is stop thinking that cheap food means piles of processed cheese, meats, chips and cakes just 'cause they can be bought in bulk at your local target, Wal-Mart or Food For Less--or better yet for .99 at your nearby liquor store.

It's All about strategic Shopping

Feeding you and/or your families a healthy diet without a lot of money and time is all about strategic shopping.

Whether you are on WIC, Food stamps, SSI, or are one of the many working very poor, find out where and when the farmers markets are held and when. That said, don't go to the Farmers Markets in the bourgeois (rich people) neighborhoods ‘cause they are catering to the rich folks and mostly stock overpriced "gourmet" veggies and fruits.

So how do you shop strategically? Create a shopping map. Shop for your veggies at the Farmers Markets or if you live in an area that has ethnic markets nearby like the Mission, East Oakland, Chinatown or Koreatown, you can pick up reasonably priced veggies in those markets as well as chicken ,fish and even meat for a lot less than a trip to Slaveway (Safeway).

In the Bay Area we have several options (see below) and in San Francisco alone we have a Farmers Market in the heart of the Tenderloin that meets on Wednesday and Sunday and at the Alemany Flea Market. In Oakland there is one that is held in Downtown Oakland on Fridays 11-3:00, and in Downtown Berkeley on Tuesdays and Saturdays

The place that healthy shopping truly starts to be based on wealth is when you buy your staples like milk, butter, cheese, bread and eggs. Most corporate dairy is filled with harmful hormones and antibiotics from the way the corporate farms deal with the cows and process the dairy products so the best thing to do is cut back on these things as much as possible. But for those of you with kids who should have as much calcium as possible, the best and cheapest milk and eggs are from Clover dairy. A gallon of Clover milk is only $3.99 instead of the usual "organic" milk prices of $8.00 and over.

Finally, limit your big box shopping sprees to paper goods and staples like dry pasta, beans, bulk canned, unsalted tomatoes and yogurt.

Each issue of PNN will feature a healthy and cheap menu, with a shopping map of prices. For any readers who also have recipes that are healthy, low-fat, low- sodium, cheap to create and tasty, please send em in, as well as information on any healthy food programs or markets and we’ll publish them... Cause a healthy body doesn't have to mean a wealthy body!

********You Can Eat Healthy and Cheap: Recipes that taste good and Cost Little!!!

Tiny & Tony's healthy (and cheap!) recipes

For all of these recipes you should get a couple of staples for your kitchen. A bottle of vinegar- preferably rice vinegar $2.99, chili pepper, curry pepper and garlic powder. But if you can’t buy all of them you can substitute limes or lemons and black pepper.

Green pepper chicken-Dinner for two for under six dollars!

Shopping List

one package of Rosie's drumsticks (best cause these chickens are range free- in other word they don't have all kinds of anti-biotics and steroids added to their chicken feed and they aren't cooped up in a cage for their entire life) from Safeway or cala - $3.36

one green pepper .65

Roasted root vegetables (all farmers market) one sweet potato $.65, one carrot loose .35 – one baked potatoes $.65, one turnip $.35

Cilantro $.79

Onion $.30

Instructions:

To prepare root veggies; wash the veggies, cut each vegetable up in quarters and put on a baking pan. Put a quarter cup of vinegar or lime juice on top of the veggies and a teaspoon of black pepper. These have a taste of their own. To add more spice add chili pepper. Cook at 350 in an oven for 45 minutes to one hour minutes or until a fork goes through them. If you don't have an oven, you can cook in a toaster oven.

To make chicken: heat up a frying pan. Put in one tablespoon of vinegar or half of a lime. No oil or butter, Cut up your chicken into pieces, dice up half of your cilantro bunch and toss it in the pan with the chicken. Dice up your green pepper, and add one more teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of red pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with fresh cilantro and root veggies

Tony's Low-sodium HOOOOOT Chili

This can feed up to 10 people

Total: $13.57 (with meat) $9.08 (without meat) for a really big pot of low sodium, low-fat chili that will last several days. This is the cost of two Carl’s Jr. Meals that are laden with fat and sodium.

Shopping List

1 small bag of pinto beans $1.07

1 small bag of kidney beans $1.52

1 can crushed tomatoes—preferably with 100 Milligrams of sodium. Read label for this info. $1.95

1 green bell pepper $1.64 (The peppers were purchased at Safeway. Cheaper at Farmer's market)

1 red bell pepper $1.41

1 Onion $.75 cents

1 Clove of Garlic $.39 cents

10 serrano peppers $.35 cents

Optional: 1 package of ground turkey $4.49

Instructions:

Boil beans in a medium to large pot until tender. Chop onions and garlic and sauté in pan. Add turkey meat to pan and cook until brown. When beans are tender, add the ground turkey, onions and garlic. Slice the chili peppers and green and red bell peppers and add to the pot. Add chili powder and stir. Let simmer for an hour or until desired taste is achieved.

Tony's Low-sodium pasta surprise

Total: $6.38-the cost of a burger meal at Carl’s Jr. This pasta can last a couple days.

Shopping List

1 can crushed tomatoes (preferably with 100 milligrams of sodium or less) $1.95

1 package spaghetti or vermicelli $.79 cents

1 package of ground turkey $4.49

1 onion $.75 cents

1 garlic $.39 cents

Instructions: Saute the garlic and onion in a pan. Add turkey meat until brown. Add Crushed tomatoes. Let simmer. Boil pasta until tender. Serve.

Also be sure to check out these programs...

2008 Summer Lunch Program

From June 23rd to August 15th San Francisco will be serving FREE healthy lunches to anyone 18 and younger regardless of income. Call 311 or 211 after June 1st for a list of sites and serving times.

People's Grocery

Located at 3236 Market Street in West Oakland, this organization offers community programming on nutrition and cooking, as well as bulk food ordering. For more information call 510-652-7607

by Cullette X and Tiny/PoorNewsNetwork

I have lived in Oakland my whole life. I have lived in poverty for most of my life. I have worked since as far back as I can remember.

My story isn't strange or different. I am like many poor people in the US. People you rarely hear from. Rarely consider. Hardly see. This could why the County of Alameda is quietly considering a proposal to cut off the meager General Assistance (GA) benefits given to unemployed workers which will make our already difficult lives even more difficult and eventually will kill us.

As a child, my mother, an immigrant from Haiti, struggled to raise me and my sisters as a poor single mother. She worked two jobs and I had to help take care of my sisters while she was at work. One day a neighbor called Child Protective Services while she was at work and the police came and put me and my sisters in foster homes. I never saw my mother again.

I suffered severe abuse in those homes, those homes I was placed in "for my best interests" and in many ways I have never recovered. I tell you my life story because it informs who I am today. A poor woman struggling to get, keep and hold down a job. A job that pays me enough to live in the town I was born in. A town impacted by gentrification, redevelopment and the rising cost of living.

I have been working since I was 14. I started with domestic work and then graduated to fast food jobs. I trained to be a Certified Nurses Assistant and straddled two jobs for over 14 years in this field until I got a herniated disc and was laid up for over a month.

I am now on General Assistance and am seeking work. I also do work just to get my benefits, unlike the mythology about welfare, there is NO free money. We all work for our cash aid and food stamps. As well, I look for work everyday but I am older now and face a lot of covert ageism from prospective employers. They don't think I am "fit" enough to do a job that involves caring for elders. I am not sure what I can do.

If the County of Alameda proceeds with its plan to impose six month time limits to receiving aid, many of us will starve, resort to underground economies (crime), end up homeless, and/or get very sick and the so-called "employable", yet obviously disabled, unemployed workers who are on GA with me will surely die.

I have struggled my whole life, I am tired, and I am not sure if I will make it through another crisis, but I really don't want to die, which is why I am using my voice to tell the truth about this deadly proposal.

Cullette X (not her real name) is a race and poverty scholar enrolled in the Digital Resistance Media Program at POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute. Tiny is a Poverty Scholar in residence at POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork

Please join poverty scholars, advocates, doctors and service providers from all over the Bay Area at a rally for life on the steps of 1221 Oak Street (at 12th street) in Oakland @ 10:00 am on Monday, April 28th . The rally and press conference will proceed a hearing on this proposal in front of the Social Services Committee of the Board of Supervisors on the 5th floor of the same building at 10:30. Please stay and speak out against this deadly proposal, your voices will count.