by Leroy Moore/PNN

Krip-Hop: Give us some of your background.

Anthony Muraya: My name is Anthony Muraya, born and brought up in the Central province of Kenya. I'm the founder and Patron of the Destiny Talented Generation (DTG) Kenya (which deals with identifying, nurturing and promoting talents among young people in remote areas of Kenya.), and owner of the FORTY TWO TRIBES ONE NATION, blog. Also work as a missionary and youth speaker. Newly Married to Lisa Muraya and currently settling in Stockholm Sweden where I plan to pursue my education.

KH: Hello Anthony, I've been tracking Mighty King Kong career by the internet for almost five years and always wanted to contact him. I was shocked to find out about his death! Tell us how did you know Mighty King Kong and the controversy around his sudden illness?

AM: Well, I first heard King Kong through his first album Ladies choice. Mighty King Kong's real name is Paul Otieno Imbaya. Just like many young people in Kenya, the hit song became my favorite. I came to like him even more when I heard about his background- that he was once a street boy and also battling with polio that disabled him. And when I watched him perform, I got even more interested with his life.

Well there are claims that King Kong's death is a result of poisoning. The death is a big loss to the country and especially the disabled and poor people whom he has aggressively fought for and campaigned for their well being.

KH: Mighty King Kong's life was incredible from poverty to musician and before his death he was looking to get into politics. Please give us a window into Mighty King Kong's life from childhood to now.

AM: A good part of his childhood was spent on the streets where he had found his home after the death of his dad (he was only 6 when his dad died) which forced him to drop out of school. Unlike many street children, King Kong knew that the streets were not his real home or destiny. When he realized his talent and how influential it was, he decided to pursue it whole heartedly. As a former street boy, it would take him a lot of courage and determination since it is always tempting for such to go back to their former life. Street "bosses" also keep threatening a "rebel" who chooses transformation to normal life.

When a woman who owned a night club and a disco offered him accommodation, King Kong grabbed the opportunity that would change his life. With time, he practiced his talent at the discotheque, first as a dance performer.

A tender and kind King Kong, he believed that many disabled people would have better lives if they were well represented politically. This faith was the motive behind his ambition and dreams. He also tried so much to uplift the lives of the disabled by encouraging and introducing them to small scale business. He could even spend his money to assist the needy.

KH: I read that he was respected as a street person among the youth. Can you give us some highlights during that time when Mighty King Kong was living on the streets?

AM: Life on the streets is not always so easy but King Kong's entertainment gift and music talent always made the way for him. He would always make people around him feel good. Another reason is that he never despised himself; he was always alert and charming and active. He also found favor with decent-living people because unlike other street children, he never involved himself with stealing or pickpocketting. That’s also one of the reasons a woman who owned a night club trusted him and offered to accommodate him.

KH: What kind of music did Mighty King Kong sang?

AM: He sang reggae.

KH: A couple of years ago many articles reported that Mighty King Kong was in contract deals with a record label that took advantage of him. How did he get out of the contract?

AM: To King Kong, that was the worst mistake that he ever made in his life and because he had already signed the contract, there was nothing much he could do but to wait the contract expiry which lasted seven years. The contract threatened to cripple his music career but he never gave up.

KH: Mighty King Kong was going to represent people with disabilities in the government. When and why did he get into politics?

AM: It is hard to tell when but the fact that his talent opened doors and many chances to meet and interact with politicians might have opened his mind to know that he was best positioned to represent the marginalized community of disabled people in the parliament.

KH: Have things change for people with disabilities in Mighty King Kong's home since his birth?

AM: Any body, even the physically fit, that followed his example would benefit from King Kong's life. He was always enthusiastic in demonstrating practical lessons of success and his positive influence will live on after him. I personally have learnt a lot through his life and I also believe that he wanted to reach a wider audience through politics.

KH: Mighty King Kong's songs are really political. If you can pick out one song that sums up his politics, what will it be? Can you share some lyrics?

Note: (Stay tune for the answer to this question in Part two of this interview)

KH: Did Mighty King Kong face discrimination in the music industry because of his disability?

AM: No. Not because of his disability. To some point, the disability was his uniqueness and was always admired since not many people in his situation pursue their destiny with such determination as his. Piracy, corrupt music managers, producers and show organizers are the only thing that hurts many musicians' work in Kenya.

KH: I read that Mighty King Kong protest about how musicians were treated by producers, radio stations and the whole entertainment industry. Please give us the story behind this protest.

AM: Well, many producers take advantage of musicians especially if the musician is not well established and rich. Nearly 90% of musicians' work fruits go to producers. King Kong was among other musicians who believed in changing the whole music industry.

KH: How will his life, politics and music live on in Africa and beyond?

AM: I think there is a great need for his work to be collected and put together in for theaters.

KH: Mighty King Kong was a supporter of Raila Odinga's ODM political movement. What is this movement about and why was he attracted to it?

AM: The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) movement was started to fight for a new constitution that the government of the day had promised to deliver within its first 100 days in office. The movement attracted many Kenyans and won the referendum against the government. Mighty King Kong must have been attracted to the movement because much of the constitutional changes that Kenyans demanded in those areas where the common man feels oppressed. Some chapters were also in favor of disabled people. Hon. Raila Odinga is the leader of ODM.

KH: What kind of work did Mighty King Kong do for or with people with disabilities and people living in poverty?

AM:Mighty King Kong has been in the front line fighting for the well being and recognition of disabled people in the nation. He has also involved himself in talent promotion programs and projects.

KH: As a Black disabled music historian, I was looking for Mighty King Kong's CDs here in the USA but had no luck. How can other people buy his CDs?

AM: There is a big need to promote such music to the international market. Many musicians are not financially well to promote themselves internationally. A possible way is being figured out on how to have the music available and reachable for King Kong's world wide fans.

KH: Is there any other disabled musician that is following in Mighty King Kong's footsteps?

AM: Reuben Kigame, a blind gospel music composer and singer was already in music industry before King Kong. Despite being blind He is impressive and sings very good playing the keyboard for himself. He is an influencer, maybe King Kong got inspired of him.

KH: The story of Mighty King Kong is made for a book and movie screne. Has anybody thought about putting this story as a book or movie?

AM: Not as far as I know. Such a move is highly commendable.

KH: How can people help to keep Mighty King Kong's life, music and politics alive?

AM:Keeping his dreams alive would make him most greatful wherever he is. He always believed in talent promotion and encouraging people with disability to believe in themselves and realize their potential.

Sponsoring disabled people to higher education and the political arena would also keep his dreams alive. There are smart disabled people who would do a great job in the parliament.

Fighting piracy was another of his main goals. Piracy has crippled many musicians.

KH: Any last words?

AM:I really would thank people who have a heart for the disabled and the poor and those who love the street children as their own younger brothers and sisters. Many efforts have been made to form a strong force that would voice their needs but lack of resources and trust is slowing down the initiative. The needy know exactly what they need and they would be the best candidates for such works should they be equipped.

Leroy's note: Please tell the family of Mighty King Kong that my heart goes out to them

by Tony Robles/Special to PNN

I recall the instruction and indoctrination I received from my father as a child. Early on he stressed to me the importance of work. He stressed that I be on time and that "nobody in this world gave you anything for free." You had to work. He'd talk about all the children starving in China and how I was lucky to be eating. 30 years later I realize that there are people starving all over, many of whom are within shouting distance from where I am typing this.

I worked at a life insurance brokerage. I gave them 5 years of my life. I worked as a process specialist, which meant that I did everything except sell policies. The work was monotonous and it took a toll on my body and spirit. I met some good people along the way, one of whom was an aspiring actor. He started at the brokerage before I did. He was a nice looking fellow with more talent in his pinky than most folks had in their entire bodies. His passion was acting and I always thought he was wasting his time at that desk. Breaking into acting is hard and perhaps he was tired of the rejection. Whatever the reason, he is still working there and he is one of my best friends. He's not that old and I hope that he never loses his passion for the stage.

I didn't develop close friendships with many of my coworkers. I would sometimes see them outside of work on public transit or elsewhere. The encounters were a nod or a half-hearted smile. I would think about the fact that I spent much of my life with these people and I knew absolutely nothing about them--besides the fact that they sat in front of a computer or ate microwavable popcorn at their desks. The relationship dynamic was tangential at best.

One of my coworkers was a general office clerk, I'll call her Emma. She did the standard filing and typing. I never exchanged words or even a glance with her. She looked troubled but I didn't stop to ask her why. One day I didn't see Eleanor. Another day went by followed by another. I didn't ask what happened to her. She soon disappeared from my memory.

A month or so afterwards I heard one of the supervisors whisper, "Did you see you know who across the street?" I was not curious about who who was. However, I kept hearing about a person who was across the street.

One day I went out to lunch. As I crossed the street I saw Emma. She was sitting among the business folks who were working on their brown bag lunches, salads, soups and other edibles. Emma had the same troubled look only this time, she was homeless. She looked as if she hadn't been on the streets that long but she looked worn.

I wondered why nobody from the insurance company had spoken to her. I overheard another co-worker say, "Well, she's a bag lady now�" It was true, she was a bag lady, but she was also a woman with hair that needed washing, a woman in need of food, shelter and the basic necessities of life. I stood and watched Emma sitting among the business folks and the pigeons and the bike messengers and the people coming and going between Bart, Muni and homes and jobs.

I later learned that Emma had come across difficult circumstances. A relative had fallen ill and it caused an emotional and financial strain on Emma. She ended up losing her studio apartment. The emotional effects had a devastating effect on Emma. She ended up in the street. I'd see her across the street from the Brokerage, a few years after I had quit.

My father told me you don't get anything for free in this world. This is true. The things you get free of cost are the coldness and unfeeling disregard that fuels capitalism. What does capitalism owe Emma? What did the insurance brokerage owe her--something? Nothing? What should those co workers have done? What could they have done? Did they owe Emma anything besides the words: She's a bag lady now?

by Joseph Bolden

Constant Change,Metaphor My Eye!

Hello good Fem.’s n’ Men it is I Shmo,Blow,or Cup-a-Me writing again.

For a few weeks there has been good mixed with equally bad times.

Besides worries on rent a month ago now there seems to be tax problems from a few years back.

Since I don’t earn enough to imagine tax returns my paperwork was kind of lost for a few years in a messy, disordered one room apartment better known as S.R.O. [Single Room Occupant].

While a good,loyal friend is walking along with hundreds maybe thousands of other folks are on The Longest Walk

From the island of Alcatraz through the many small towns, cities, and through states to Washington,D.C.

I,if not we made a pact or promise: whom ever has a place the other can visit, lay their head, rest, recuperate for while before going back to our lives.

We’ve helped each other over time, I hope that we held up each other when we needed each others strength for an extra push or away from edges we didn’t see.

A new friend is going through their particular purgatory this with estranged family reunions.

Being homeless is bad enough when abandoned by family but to be totally alone knowing that some family members don’t give a…

It’s a bitter pill to swallow after surviving on the streets,finding friends who more by action than words show your worth and their own in those small seemingly insignificant ways.
Whether its an invite to dip toes in the ocean or lunch for no reason just because.

We find the phonies from the real folks and count ourselves lucky to have these good people in our lives.

That’s the hidden pressure of losing or nearly losing housing when one has experienced house-lessness.

There are hidden communities of extended friends at times more valuable than blood families if family breaks down.

I count myself as extremely blessed to have family help me and friends help me when feeling on the end of a precipice about to fall over a few friends and family held me refusing to let me fall, pulled me back to solid land.

I’m quietly most proud to have helped a few friends and family when the mean presented themselves may this continue in ways unimaginable later.

Now it’s the threat of housing yet again stabs at me.

Those real estate and foreign exchange business opportunities are beginning to look better in my eyes, General Assistance I’ve been on and off of for years.

Since I’ve traveled a little it may be that its way past time to not only take a chance but prepare for success.

Already I’ve dealt with failure in my work life, a relationship I wanted but became a deeper emotional friendship that’s grown making me more than someone’s substitute booty call which
I very well might have become if said friend had less spiritual,moral fortitude, also dealing with growing-up-too-fast emotional traumas and physical abuses.

What will I do once this personal crisis is over?

Well while looking at old tv’s,movies about Vampyres , Werewolves,and
assorted immortals it came to me why not
learn a few languages,math,travel a bit before staying in Ameri-land for life.

Give myself time, freedom, some romance,quietude and adventure.

I sound like Frodo or Bilbo Baggins for a last adventure aboard Gandolf’s ship along with elves.

I could very well go on a quest few are one seeking, recreating the fabulous stone that is no stone of legend: THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE!

The things it does not matter whether the legend is true or false what matters is ways to occupy the time remaining to me.

Of course there is only one place to go if the stone is true…

Coast To Coast AM.

I’d talk to Art Bell first and if one can manipulate time
will revisit from time to time all the hosts of that most excellent of mind expanding show.

For now its housing, friends,family,lovers, and loved ones to see,then later places to visit.

Who knows, with another 20+ or more years allotted to me this may be one of many excellent adventures I may take, make, and bring along a few friends along the way.

Using my creative/slight scientific bent may help me still live an extraordinary life where I could not before in this weary mundane dreary one.

All you adventurer’s/adventuretts pray and wish me luck.

I don’t know about anyone else but I feel blessed to have a quest,a thing to do or contribute before passing and still there’s always
Cryonics just in case it all goes wrong,as back up still need to join A.A.R.P. and Common Wealth Club.

After all one must share discoveries in case all this goes right.

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.

by Valerie Harvey/PNN

I no longer believe in romantic love. Of course it all sounds nice in the beginning when you first begin dating someone and you're both putting your best foot forward. After three marriages and a few relationships, I have a "bah humbug" attitude toward love at best.

I remember once when a man that I was seeing asked me to make reservations at a very nice restaurant for Sunday brunch. I made the reservations right away. We talked about it a lot and I looked forward to the delicious food and the unbelievable ambiance. My date stood me up! He didn't bother to call me and cancel. I was so angry and upset. I called him two days later and he gave me a very lame excuse. "I had an emergency," was all that he would say.

Needless to say, he was too cheap to pay for the nice restaurant. At least that was my conclusion. But why on earth did he tell me to make the reservations in the first place? He probably wanted to impress me. I guess that he didn't think that I would really make the reservations. Maybe I was wrong about his reasons for not showing up. I felt very discouraged and insulted. He didn't think enough of me to call and cancel, I had to call him. I never heard from him again. Just another example of a man who is trying to show off and has no intention of following through with whatever he has promised.

I also remember a man who wanted to begin a relationship with me. Unfortunately he didn't want to go out in public. I figured that he had to be married or living with someone. He denied it over and over. In fact, he never did admit that he was married or cohabitating. Why else would he be against going out? He wanted to have a date on which he would pick up some takeout food and just come over to my house. I imagine that he didn't want anyone who knew his wife or girlfriend to see us out together, in public.

I believe that both men behaved the way they did due to low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence. African American writer James Baldwin writes, "One can only face in others what one can face in oneself." They couldn't see my beauty as a black woman goddess, because they were unable to see the beauty and the divinity in themselves.

Since Valentine's Day is this month and I am an African-American woman, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the dating scene for African-American women. It is very bleak from where I sit. Can I even refer to it as a dating scene? I refer to it very loosely, in fact.

Most single black women are not dating. They are either lamenting the fact that they are not dating or they are on the lookout for a suitable dating partner. The pickings are quite slim. Due to the very real shortage of African-American men, there are not enough black men to go around for all black women.

Falling in love is a very lofty goal for women in general and black women in particular. There is a tendency to want to be in love, maybe to be in love with love itself, rather than to be in love with a man. Many black women dream about a "Prince Charming" type of man who will come along and solve their problems. This man does not exist, but that doesn't keep quite a few men from pretending that they are Prince Charming, in order to make themselves seem more attractive.

The difficulty that black women have finding love ties in well with Black History Month. . The lack of self-love within the black community is possibly responsible for the mangled relationships between African-American men and women. Negro History Week was started in order to help African-Americans to recognize our achievements and to love ourselves. Black History Month started as an expansion of Negro History Week, which Carter G. Woodson began in 1926. He was the director of the then-known Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson chose this week because it included the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and the fraternity Omega Psi Phi ‘s celebration of Frederick Douglass' birthday on February 14. This coincided with "Negro Achievement Week" in 1924. In 1976, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, changed the weeklong Black History celebration to Black History Month, because of the American bicentennial.

In 2008, Black History Month has evolved. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, there are countless celebrations occurring all month. There is a cooking class at the Elmhurst Library in Oakland on February 25, 2008. It celebrates the food of our culture and keeping ourselves healthy and well fed in a soulful way. There is also an African film festival on February 28, 2008 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. It showcases our African heritage.

Iawanza Kunjufu, an equal rights advocate, "Remember, our number one problem is not drugs or crime, but self hatred. Study your history and learn to love yourself." If we in the black community would embrace our blackness and love ourselves, it could lead to successful relationships between black men and women.

Be sure to check out Valerie's first book, Love Lights the Way, a compilation of poems on the subject of love at www.poormagazine.org. To order a copy call 415.863.6306

by Joseph Bolden

SAmple Test Column of Tell Joe.

I said its only a sample.

ON WEDNESDAY,
I'LL GET INTO What is

H O T ! to me and the new Gayell
word - by now.

(I'll do a W.T.M.I.) column on this day.

Write to jsph_bldn@yahoo.com

Because I still cannot find my columns yet on Poor Magazine.org to respond.

Finally I get to respond to what little fan base I have:)

by Joseph Bolden/jsph_bldn@yahoo.com

Me,the answer Man?No Way.

This is sort of a column in that I’m giving an explanation.

From time immemorial at least recently there has been both Answer
Men and Women writing from pulpit,platforms,radio, television,on video and digital video disks on every question under the sun,over the rainbow about the human condition.

Through out our short his/her-story persons have stepped up,volunteered or because of the sheer intellect and or sensitivity became
or designated ANSWER MEN OR WOMEN.

Even in varying degrees was an answer man for a time.

A complete accident it happened because of the
ASK JOE, HE DON’T KNOW COLUMNS.

Many people see the Ask Joe leaving out He Don’t Know part.

Though for long time I didn’t know where, when, or how to answer my readers many readers did write in.

First I did stuff on investing funds, healthy eating,and lots on romance, sex [mostly sex] and the changing morals of post 1980’s,90’s and early 21 st centuries interpersonal exchanges.

Then it hit me square in my head,I didn’t much about money,relationships were nearly as bad though I had dated somewhat.

The whole cell phone while dating really ticked me off on how
women especially used them then as now for easing out of a date instead off simply saying to the guy "Excuse me, powder/ladies room, back in a sec."

Of course the guy waits and waits until he gets it."

This way the guy isn’t embarrassed in public which women will do

(1) for their own protection.

(2)so the guy won’t Even think of Ever dating her again.

There are many more examples but those who've experienced them know of what I speak.

It works sometimes too well when arbitrarily a woman finds she’s made an error wanting a do over date.

It takes a brave, confident, male with a secure ego to except a date from any women who done a dine n’ dash on them.

The point is when I though about it I knew in my head not to me anyone’s answer man so my next column is Tell Joe because
Logic told me that my readers have more expertise than
I on various topics so they can tell me and the least I can do in comment on what’s written doing the best I can.

Now theirs Ask/Tell Joe column which will be utterly confusing to me since I’m no answer man.

To think I basically wanted to make this a private date site
that’s before going on lots of date sites and meeting a few people on line and in real life.

The answer man thing isn’t for me I just write what’s in my head and let it go at that and people write back or want a date (women only)I’m a happy camper.

For those wanting to write in private and not be part of Poor Magazine/PNN just write jsph_bldn@yahoo.com
and I’ll be able to write back.

It may take time because of lots of email I must delete from old date sites to popup adds and other stuff filling up my email space.

That’s it folks, and my column is done for this week,bye.

by Theodora Mays/PNN

As my blurred eyes opened, my head feeling woozy from the anesthesia, I focused on a red-faced doctor whose eyes were filled with tears. He started talking to me, something about the baby's heart rate dropping and a machine for 3 hours. My thoughts slowly started coming back to me and I remembered being rushed into a room and a big plastic object being placed over my nose. The tragic loss of my baby on that night, so many years ago, rushed back to me as I heard about the possible loss of St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco.

For the last 130 years St. Luke's Hospital, located in SOMA, has provided medical care to poor people and people of color. The hospital's closure is part of the recent string of attacks on poor communities from rich investors, where corporations move services from poor, underserved communities, to richer white areas of the city.

The California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) plans on "replacing" St Luke's with a series of ambulatory care centers in the south of Market area. These centers would be in Stonestown, Potrero Hill and the Excelsior districts and will not eliminate the need for an impatient hospital nor will they be directly accessible to St. Luke's most needy patients. St. Luke's is the only private hospital South of Market and the only other accessible hospital is San Francisco General Hospital, which is already overburdened.

If St. Luke's closes one half of San Francisco will be left with only one hospital, San Francisco General. It is not easy to get from South of Market to North of Market. Can you imagine having a heart attack in Bayview/ Hunters’s Point or the Excelsior District and trying to get across town in rush hour traffic, especially if San Francisco General is not accepting ambulances?

Last year, St. Luke's emergency room served 28,000 people and 7,000 of these visits were critical. San Francisco General Hospital cannot handle this number of additional visits

"You cannot have an emergency room without intensive care facilities or an operating room. All that is there is a shell intended to deceive the public into believing that an Emergency Room remains," said Bonnie Castillo, RN, and Director of the California Nurses Association, Sutter Division. Sutter, whose headquarters are in Sacramento, is the umbrella corporation that runs all the big hospitals in San Francisco, as well as the rest of the state.

Bonnie Castillo further proclaimed, "We will challenge Sutter with every means we can to preserve this critically needed hospital and Emergency Care Services at St. Luke's."

Hearing about the challenge to save St. Luke's, my mind kept wandering back to that night. To the blurred faces of my doctor and husband and the sounds of their muffled voices that seemed to keep saying something about "3 hours on a machine." I struggled to mumble to my husband for him to call our Bishop, thinking we had 3 hours to reach out to him for prayer. Then I was jarred with the realization that the 3 hours had already passed and our baby was dead.

Had there not been a hospital accessible to me when I went into labor the end could have been far more tragic, both my baby and I could be dead. I kept thinking about this when I heard of the mothers and children leading a Candlelight Vigil marking the closure of the key pediatric unit at St. Luke's Hospital on February 13th. Many families and women with high-risk pregnancies will be deeply affected by this closure.

Jane Sandoval, an RN at St. Luke's agrees, “Sutter is degrading patient care by closing unit after unit at St. Luke's. Do they expect women with high-risk pregnancies to take a cross-town bus? They are abandoning the families who depend on this hospital."

During the past two years, the CPMC has already closed or is "about to close" several services including the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit, Occupational and Physical Therapy, the Workers Compensation Unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care and Pediatric Floor.

Imagining the crowds of women gathering at Valencia and Cesar Chavez with burning candles and remembering my own experience of losing a child, I know that we have to save these hospitals. We must keep St. Luke's alive.

by Patricia Morales/PNN Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia

For English scroll down

La perspectiva de una Mama Migratoria hacia la separación de familias migratorias debido a el criminalizacion de inmigrantes/migrantes en E.E.U.U.

Por Patricia

¿“Imagine si ésos eran Uds., uno de los niños separados de sus padres? Qué harían Uds. sin mí?” Les pregunto a mis niños cuando vemos y oímos en las noticias sobre muchas de las deportaciones. Toman a los padres de sus hogares y los separan de sus niños y de los niños estan sin familia. Mi hijo de 12 años me contesta y dice, “No pueden hacernos eso a nosotros.” Como una madre, inmigrante, combatiente, y ser humana, me siento rota cada vez que oigo hablar de la separacion de más familias. Tengo cinco niños que nacieron en este país. No sé como viviría si seria separada de ellos. Mis niños creen que esto nunca podría sucedernos, peor la realidad es que si pudiera. Si fuera deportada, mis niños no tendrían donde ir, y a nadie para cuidar de ellos.

Este país trata a inmigrantes indocumentados y a sus familias como criminales. En Taylor, Tejas, el Centro de Residencial de Don T. Ponga Hutto, un centro de detencion tiene aproximadamente trecientos y ochenta gente indocumentada. Entre los presos están dos cientos niños. El centro no se le llama una prisión, pero las condiciones en el interior son como si fuera uno. Julie Johnson de la Nueva Media de América (New AMerica Media, en ingles) escribió sobre el centro de la detención, “Todos, incluyendo los niños, deben usar los uniformes publicados por la prisión. Si no contenido en la misma celda, un padre no puede confortar a su niño gritando por la noche a menos que una guardia le de permiso.” Johnson cito a Michele Brané, director del Programa de Detención y Asilo para la Comisión de las Mujeres para las Mujeres y los Niños Refugiados (Detention and Asylum Program for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, en ingles) que dijo, “Esta gente que no ha cometido ningún crimen estan siendo tratados peor que como tratamos a criminales.” En Hutto los niños y sus padres viven como criminales. Algunas familias han tenido que permanecer en el centro de la detención por más de dos años.

Entrevisté a un Sacerdote de una iglesia local que dijo, “Nos preocupamos de las incursiones que están haciendo porque están separando a familias y eso no es justo.” Los que permanecen también sufren porque no tienen su familia y la ayuda que ellos necesitan. El Sacerdote dijo que él sabía que algunas Iglesias van a abrir sus puertas como santuarios para los inmigrantes indocumentados.

El hecho del no tener papeles, de ser indocumentado en los Estados Unidos no significa que no tenemos derechos. El departamento de la inmigración es cruel e inhumano. Como una madre, combatiente, inmigrante, y ser humano que no deseo ver a inmigrantes indocumentados separados de sus familias o encarcelados en prisiones. Tenemos que parar de vivir en miedo y continuar a luchar para los derechos de todos los inmigrantes. ....................................

“Imagine if that was you, if you were one of the children separated from their parents? What would you do without me?” I ask my children when we see and hear about the many deportations in the news. Parents are taken from their homes and separated from their children and children are left without family. My 12 year-old son answers me and says, “They can’t do this to us.” As a mother, immigrant, fighter, and human being, I feel torn apart every time I hear of more families being separated.

I have five children who were born in this country. I don’t know how I would live if I were to be separated from them. My children believe this could never happen to us, the reality is it could. If I were deported, my children would have nowhere to go, and no one to care for them.

This country treats undocumented immigrants and their families as criminals. In Taylor, Texas, The T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a private detention center holds approximately three hundred and eighty undocumented people. Among the prisoners are two hundred children. The center is not called a prison, but the conditions inside are as if it were one.

Julie Johnson from the New America Media wrote about the detention center, “Everybody, including children, must wear prison-issued uniforms. If not housed in the same cell, a parent can't comfort their crying child at night unless a guard gives permission.” Johnson went on to cite Michele Brané, director of the Detention and Asylum Program for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children who said, "These people who have committed no crime are being treated worse than we treat criminals." In Hutto, children and their parents live like criminals. Some families have had to stay in the detention center for over two years.

I read an interview with a Priest of a local church who said, “We are worried about the raids they are doing because they are separating families and that is not just.” Those who remain also suffer greatly because they do not have their family and the support they need. The Priest said he knew some churches that are going to open their doors as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.

The fact of not having papers, of being undocumented in the United States does not mean that we do not have rights. The department of immigration is cruel and inhumane and they do not have any right to steal the dreams of families who wish to live together and share their lives. As a mother, fighter, immigrant, and human being I do not want to see undocumented immigrants separated from their families or locked in prisons. We have to stop living in fear and continue to fight for rights for all immigrants.

by Tony Robles/PNNReviewforTheReVolution

I don't drive beautiful cars

And I don't own an elegant home

Don't have thousands to spend

All chits I got is for the weekend

I'm just an ordinary, ordinary guy

Afro-Filipino, ordinary guy

That's what I am

The ordinary man

You left behind

Sometimes an artist touches you in a personal way with their work--be it a painting, a song or a piece of writing. It is magic when an artist's work says: I created this with you, and only you, in mind. Such is the genius and artistry of Joe Bataan, the King of Latin Soul. He truly defines what POOR magazine calls a music and poverty scholar.

I first heard Joe Bataan's music when I was a teenager. My uncle Anthony had owned about 10 thousand record albums, 33's and 45's. His room was filled with thick green plants and the walls were covered with African masks, Filipino bolo knives and a map of the Philippines. On a shelf sat his record player and one album would always be out, Joe Bataan's Afro Filipino. My uncle would tease me and say I looked like Joe Bataan. I was part Filipino and part black, a mestizo too like Joe Bataan and my uncle would walk up to me and sing the song, complete with the gesturing hands and fancy footwork.

Afro Filipino, ordinary guy, that's what I am, an ordinary guy.

This would embarrass me but what sweet embarrassment. I would look at the album cover. Truth be told, I did see a slight resemblance between myself and Joe Bataan. Then the record would play.

He is known as Mr. New York, the king of Latin Soul, the man who combined the music styles of Boogaloo, rhythm and blues, salsa and disco. Some credit him for recording the very first rap record. The question everbody asks is, "What didn't Joe Bataan sing?� Joe Bataan is truly a living legend but who is this Afro Filipino and how did he become the king of Latin Soul?

Young Gifted and Brown

Joe Bataan was born Bataan Nitollano on a Rainy Sunday morning in 1942 to a Filipino father and African-American mother in East Harlem, New York. Like many in El Barrio, he sang doo wop on the street corner and, like many, was involved in street gangs. At age 15 he spent time in prison for driving a stolen vehicle. It was during his incarceration that he discovered music. 6 months later he began recording. He had a vision of creating something different, combining Latin music with Rhythm and Blues. A self-taught musician, Joe Bataan formed his first band in 1965. His first single was a successful cover of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions hit, "Gypsy Woman" in 1967 on the legendary and groundbreaking Fania Records. He followed up with the smash hit and among my favorites-- 'Ordinary Guy"--a haunting Latin Soul ballad about a lover left behind. His merging of Latin music with R & B tunes in the 60�s made for the birth of Latin Soul, and its creator was Joe Bataan.

The thing that's so seductive about Joe Bataan's music for me is the honesty of the lyric. His experience on the streets of Harlem informs so much of his music, songs such as "What Good is a castle," "Subway Joe," "Poor Boy" and "Under the Street lamp" take us to the working class world of Joe Bataan. The song, "Unwed Mother" brings to mind the struggle so eloquently voiced by Tupac's "Keep ya head up."

Young, fresh and wild

Unwed with a child

She grew up in the slums of the city

At 16 she was young and pretty

A sad little mother with holes in her shoes

Alone, lost and feeling very blue

What can she do?

She's got to make it through

When Joe talks about many of his compadres of the past, a hint of sadness enters his voice. Many fell victim to the streets. He grew up in El Barrio on 104th Street in Spanish Harlem. He recalls the neighborhood as mixed, Latinos, blacks and some whites. He was the only mestizo in the neighborhood. In the pre-civil rights era he contends that he identified more with his gang then his race. Disagreements were settled with "our hands" in fair fights. When not engaging in disputes over turf, Bataan and his friends would sing Doo Wop harmonies in a place called Love Hall. Bataan recalls the echo chamber that existed in Love Hall. He and his friends would practice their music often, making percussion instruments out of tin cans, garbage cans and beer bottles. Growing up in the neighborhood, I guess there were two avenues one could take to escape our environment in El Barrio, sports or music.

As the 60s transitioned into the 70s, Joe Bataan wore many hats, singer, producer, promoter and record label owner. He produced songs for Ghetto Records and in 1975 he released "Afro Filipino" on the Salsoul label. David Sanborn and one of the Brecker brothers worked on the album that included a version of Gil Scott Heron's "The Bottle."

By the mid 70s Latin soul began to fade. In 1979 Joe had a hit with "Rap-O-Clap-O."The song did not chart in the US but it was a top 10 hit in Europe and is credited as the first rap song in Europe. He even battled Kurtis Blow to a rap duel over the air on a European radio station. Unbeknownst to Blow, Joe had a newspaper and was reading it for inspiration. He laughs when he recalls the incident.

Joe Bataan dropped from public view in the mid 80s. What happened to the pivotal force in so many genres of music? He became a counselor for juveniles, visiting correctional facilities, sharing his experiences with crime, including his conviction at age 15.

In 1995 Joe Bataan returned to the stage after a 20-year hiatus from the music industry. I had the privilege of seeing him perform a couple years back at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. The audience was comprised of old timers and new fans. He celebrates a new album and CD. He has teamed up the rapper Mr. Capone e in a reprise of his hit "Ordinary Guy" and is touring again. It's good to have him back, Joe Bataan, a music and poverty scholar, an extraordinary guy.

For more information about Joe Bataan, check out his website: www.joebataan.net.

Tony Robles

by Mari Villaluna/PNN, YouthinMedia East Coast Correspondent

Taxation without Representation. This principal is taught to every young person formerly educated in the US, in other words, political voting representation is granted to those who pay taxes. But what about the thousands of so-called “undocumented citizen’s” who pay taxes, yet they can’t vote, and the thousands of poor people of color who are incarcerated, and can’t vote?

As a young voter of color who has been oppressed by our unjust system I headed to the Washington DC Voting rights march, which is the same day as DC’s emancipation day. I saw thousands of people rallied around the right to vote in their Congress. As I moved closer to the stage, I saw Mayor Adrian Fenty speaking about the right to vote. I also saw several other things that were important to voters, promises made to constituents that were casually being reneged on by the recipients of our votes. On the side was a contingent of people holding signs saying “Save Affordable Housing”, “Save Temple Court” and chanting, “Practice what you preach.” I quickly scurried over to find out what was happening.

I found out that the contingent was from Temple Court Apartments in Northwest 1. Temple Court apartments were on the eviction block, and to subsidize the tenants the district planned to give them section 8 vouchers. I spoke with April Hall, a tenant at Temple Court about their demands and what they wanted for their community, “We will not be moved. We voted for him (Mayor Fenty). He said he would stick to the original plan… We want Mayor Fenty to stick to the original plan, no displacement, no relocation, and no vouchers. We want housing to be built for Northwest 1.” I was reminded about the same city planning that happened in San Francisco during the dot com boom, out with the poor, in with the rich.

Soon after, I saw youth marching and holding up signs that read, “Save Youth Court.” I asked Ariana Benjamin about her sign and what Youth Court is, she stated quite simply, “It gives youth a second chance. If we didn’t have youth court we would be in jail.” She stated further, “Youth court is so additive… It saves lives.” I was then directed over to the founder of Youth Court, Professor Chan who teaches at the District of Columbia Law School. I found out that the Youth Court in D.C. was the largest teen court in the nation, and has been in place for 10 years. Youth Court gives many of D.C.’s youth a chance to have the same right every adult gets, a chance to be judged by a jury of their peers. 100% of youth offenders that are tried in a youth court volunteer in Youth Court. After 50 hours of volunteering they receive a recycled computer, and after 50 hours they will receive Safeway gift cards to provide for their nutritional needs.

This reminded me of my own experience with Teen Court while I was in high school. I had previously been tried as an adult for a low-level shoplifting crime, and spent a night in adult jail. Not one person in the adult criminal system asked me why I stole those clothes. If they had asked me why, I might have been able to tell them that I was severely tortured, abused, and neglected. Stealing was the only way I could provide food and clothes for my sister and me. Instead I was treated as a criminal, a criminal of poverty (as I have since learned from POOR Magazine (www.POORmagazine.org). After being reunified with my mother, I started to get involved so that other youth would have a chance. My hope in joining Teen Court was that other youth would get that second chance that I never received from the adult criminal system.

Professor Chan stated what motivates him to do this work, “I don’t get paid to do this, I do this because I believe in justice.” He explained further that they take 60% of the youth justice non-violent cases, and that many in the district government believe that this is a great program that should continue. He then explained to me, that they had just run out of funding today, and were promised by the Deputy Mayor but is not currently being carried out by Mayor Fenty. They are being told by the Mayor’s office, “We are actively looking for the money for this program.” This was after three months of calling the Mayor’s office and reaching nobody. Professor Chan left me with an important question commenting on the closure of this program, “How will this advance justice in this city?”

I noticed Mario Cristaldo speaking to Telemundo talking about the vote and how it relates to building equity for Latinos in the District. Mario was demanding representation from Congress but not just through a vote. I spoke with him further to comment upon what he was talking about with representation, “We demand representation… We clean the buildings, cut the grass, cook the food… We demand to live and stay here.” He then further went on to talk about all marginalized people living in the district, “There is a class war going on, all must work together, Black, Latino, Asian to end the gentrification, the incarceration and displacement of our communities.”

It has been 206 years without a vote in Congress for D.C. residents, even though Congress requires its residents to pay taxes. Within the protest, D.C. residents wanted full representation that does not stop with a vote. Representation includes immigration reform, youth justice, and housing for all.

Taxation without representation is a value that is said to be upheld in this democratic state. Yet thousands are left voiceless within this voting system. Youth who are under 18, immigrants, incarcerated folks, and District of Columbia residents pay taxes but yet are denied participation in the U.S. electoral system. When marginalized folks are even allowed the right to vote, they very rarely have an opportunity with participatory representation in this government. Recently, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke on the House floor about why D.C. residents have been denied the right to vote, “As one southern Senator put it, "The Negroes . . . flocked in . . . and there was only one way out . . . and that was to deny ... suffrage entirely to every human being in the District."

So thousands like myself marched on the Capitol, not for a right to vote but for a right to have our human rights met. In the same tradition of resistance carried onto us by our ancestors, we marched. Marching alongside the Temple Court tenants who were organizing to keep their housing, the youth who are fighting to keep their Youth Court program open, the immigrants who are speaking out the right to amnesty to live upon this stolen land, and I knew that this was more about voting. It has always been and always will be about the institutional marginalization that my ancestors and I have gone through. Being evicted from our lands, our own supportive systems and languages attacked and attempted to be stolen from us, and often being treated as an immigrant even though our blood runs through this land.

On April 19, 2007 The U.S. House passed the D.C. Voting Rights Bill, it is now introduced the Senate. The current legislation will not only give DC one vote but also a new vote for the state of Utah.

by Leroy Moore/PNN

Tell us what is your relationship to Sugar Hill
Gang and others on the tour.

Well my brother Diamond has been a member of the Sugarhill Gang for 15 years, and Wonder Mike is my cousin. This is my first time working with Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel. I am working on their new CD.

Where are you going in Europe?

We will going to Italy, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, France, The Netherlands and The UK. The U.S. tour starts in May and goes through June [we will visit] 21 cities.

As a disabled artist what do you bring to the
tour?

Well I composed the theme song for Visit Florida.com one of the major sponsors. I also have a couple of
on their new CD The Big 3. I'll be assisting my brother Diamond who is the DJ, perhaps a bit of live keyboards
and because of my background in the martial arts a little security as well.

Your brother has a disability. Explain.

No, Diamond is not disabled.

What do you think about the Krip-Hop Project?

It is one of the most innovative moves made in the music industry. We are the unheard voices in the industry.[There is] so much vanity in the music industry. I thank God for Leroy Moore's vision, and I am behind him 123% [Its time] to get our message out there. It's out time to shine, it is Divine law.

You will be hanging out with the fathers of Hip-Hop but you have been around too. Give us your background in the music world.

I've been producing records since 1980. I was the first artist signed to Jive Records as a member of the group Conway & Temple. I have been playing in live bands since 1968. I have had a few number 1 dance hits and spent 9 weeks on the Billboard charts. I produce in multiple genres from Gospel to Hip Hop and own my own record label Solid Noize Records. I have been an ASCAP publisher for over 20 years with a publishing catalog of 7,000 songs.

What is your advice to disabled hip-hop artists?

First believe in yourself, study your craft and the biz. Create your own buzz, the music industry has changed you can put out your own music on the internet. Although it would be nice to have a major record deal, you don’t have to wait for a deal or hear record execs tell you to come back when you're better, or we can't market you, do your thing.

What do you want to see coming out of this tour?

The opportunity for a disabled artist to be involved in a major tour. The chance to work with living legends who were not afraid to give me that chance. To go on the road and produce and write tracks for them they respect me as an artist. To be able to continue spread the news about Krip Hop

What do you see in your future?

Krip Hop Volume 3. Making more records. The Temple Dynasty Tour for our new releases, we are currently # 1 on the Dance charts with Keep Rising on Deep Haven Music, He'll Give You Shelter on Rapture Trax and Lose Control or Fuzion Records. This year has been very productive with UK remixes of Beyonce, Chaka Khan, Mary J Blige, Keisha Cole, P Diddy and R Kelly, all out there in Europe at the same time. People will be surprised that all this was done by a disabled artist, [it will be] a Mystery.

Tell Krip-hop readers more about this tour.

This tour is to create a bridge for the youth today to identify and acknowledge the gifts and contributions of the originators of Hip Hop It will feature The Big 3 The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow. The tour's major sponsor is Visit Florida.com. This tour will have European and U.S. concert dates. It is both an education in Hip Hop and a historical event as well. With a live band to also be incorporated and I'll be on the keyboards, a first in Hip Hop.

http://www.hiphopanniversary.com/index.html

by Tony Robles/PNN Revolutionary Worker Scholar

To Produce each week's Sunday paper, a half million trees must be cut down.

I recently attended an award ceremony of people who have started recycling programs in their residential hotel buildings. When asked what they've learned in their efforts to recycle, many mentioned the fact that it takes a coordinated effort on the part of many people to make it work. Other folks cited the need to save the planet and still others observed that it had been a long time coming, that they should have started it sooner.

It gives me hope to hear people speak of a shared responsibility in trying to preserve the gifts that nature has provided us. In our capitalist reality, the word "share" is so rarely used that one would be hard to find it in Websters Dictionary.

I have worked in restaurants and have seen how much people waste. It is absolutely obscene what people and businesses throw away, food in particular; food that could feed a good many people.

I was watching a local newscast and learned of a bill proposed in the California State Senate that would give airport passengers the option of donating toiletries and other items surrendered at airports to homeless shelters.

Millions of pounds of toiletries are left with airport security every year. Senate bill 1577 would allow several California airports to give those items to homeless shelters. State Senator Dean Florez of Fresno is the bill's author. Florez launched a pilot program in Bakersfield and Fresno in 2007. Hundreds of pounds of toiletries were collected. Passengers would have the option to place these items in bins that would be bound for homeless shelters. Airports and airline lobbyists against the bill cite possible liability issues.

Currently, the massive amounts of toiletries collected end up in landfills.

On April 16th the bill passed the state senate transportation and housing committee. Next it goes to the Senate appropriations committee. If it passes, it goes to the full senate, then the full assembly. If it makes it past the state assembly, it goes to the Governor.

"There is an opportunity here to take something, which is being collected today and sent to a landfill, and instead send it to someone who will use it and appreciate it," Florez said.

It sounds like plain old common sense to me.

Tony Robles

by Teresa Molina/Prensa Pobre

For English scroll down

Yo recuerdo que una vez yo estaba tomando aire fresco en mi ventana cuando de repente oigo un grito de dolor y me asome para a ver que pasaba y descubrí un muchacho desesperado gritando “¡DÉJENME POR FAVOR! Sus dientes rugían como si estuviera terminando su vida y yo sentí un enorme coraje.

Sentía que mi sangre hervía como agua para chocolate caliente. También sentía impotente y frustrada al no poder hacer nada; lo único que pude hacer fue gritarles que no lo golpearan, que él estaba esposado y no tenían que pisarle su cabeza. Él no podía moverse ni defenderse. Pausaron de pisarle la cabeza y golpearlo y yo pretendí como estaba apuntando el numero de placas de su patrulla y lo soltaron y dejaron ir a su casa.

Él muchacho, todo adolorido volteó y me vio y me dio las gracias. Me sentí contenta porque yo me reflejaba o más bien me identificaba con ese muchacho como si yo fuera su Mamá. Me ha pasado lo mismo también. Hace siete años cuando mis niños eran mas chicos que unos policías llegaron a mi casa a medianoche buscando a mí hijo porque él había tenido una pelea callejera. Pusieron una pistola a me cabeza y me sacaron hasta el pasillo. Mi hija Liliana tenía apenas catorce años, Luis tenía ocho años, Marcos dos años y Jesús dieciséis. Estaban bien asustados porque ellos vieron como ellos pusieron la pistola a mi cabeza y dijeron que pusiera las manos en mi cabeza y empezaron a esculcar mi casa y se llevaron lo que quisieron. Hasta ahorita mis hijos recuerdan con miedo y ya pasaron siete anos y ellos no pueden recuperarse de ese trauma hasta la fecha. Ellos todavía tienen miedo a los policías.

A mí no me gustaría que los golpearan a mis higos como a golpearon ese muchacho. Nadie los defiende ni reclamen sus mal tratos despues.

Yo siempre estoy lista cuando veo que unos policías quieren arrestar a alguien; me fijo que no pase lo mismo porque el abuso policiaco sigue pasando y si uno no esta listo siguen abusando de nuestra gente y de nuestros hijos. Despues ellos niegan el desastre que hacen en la comunidad. Mas que nada, la gente pobre, gente de color son la mas oprimida, mas maltratada, y mas despreciada.

Desgraciadamente la gente pobre trabajadora somos los mas indeseable y somos los que mas contribuimos a la enriquezca de este país; y nosotros cada día mas pobres, mas maltratados. Es por eso que debemos estar listos y denunciar esos abusos y no dejarlos pasar.

Yo pienso que eso pasa porque nosotros nos dejamos que nos atropellen; abusen de nuestros sentimientos solos por el echo de ser pobre. Es por eso que la gente se aprovecha de nosotros. ¡Ya basta de estar tolerando tanto daño! Pienso que esa clase de abusos siempre pasan pero ya es tiempo de pararlos, que nos vean como lo que somos-seres humanos y no animales como ellos nos quieren hacer. El pobre no es malo y no nos vamos a dejar mas. Estaremos listos para defendernos y parar ese abuso y hacer que se nos respete ahora y para siempre. Esto es el consejo que yo les
puedo dar basado en mi experiencia.

Siempre nos sentimos humillados y marginados pero somos muy equivocados; somos gente decente.

Yo entrevisté a un policía y le puso la pregunta de que él piensa de los policías que maltratan a la gente el me contesto que eso pasaba porque la gente no hace un reporte y denuncia esos abusos; que la gente puede hacer un reporte, agarrar el numero de policía y las placas de las patrullas y también que hay leyes para ellos que los castigan y se detienen un poco y el admitió que aunque el no es un policía abusivo, hay policías que abusan de la gente.

Por eso yo hago una llamada a la comunidad que no se queden callados y denuncien esos abusos para que pare el abuso policiaco y tengamos una vida mejor, sin abusos y que sean respetados nuestros derechos y nos vean como lo que somos; seres humanos.

Por lo tanto tenemos que ser respetado y no tolerar mas humillación porque lo merecemos y es la razón que yo no estoy de acuerdo que se violen los derechos humanos. Nunca me voy a quedar callada y siempre voy a estar lista cuando yo vea un abuso en la comunidad. Siempre estaré lista para protestar y defender el derecho de mi comunidad porque a mí no me gusta la injusticia ni el abuso ante nadie y es mi coraje no poder encerrar a esos policías corruptos y abusivos. Pero lo que esté a mí alcance yo lo voy hacer para ayudar a mí comunidad y a mi gente, mi sangre, mis hermanos.

Mi lucha es por ahora y siempre, por vida y con mi gente de mi comunidad.

Hasta la vista

Police Brutality

By Teresa Molina for Prensa Pobre

I remember when I was at my front window taking in some fresh air, when I suddenly heard a painful scream. I leaned out the window to see what happened and I discovered a desperate boy shouting "LEAVE ME ALONE, PLEASE! His screams roared as if he was dying and I felt enormous anger. I felt my blood boil like water for hot chocolate. I also felt helpless and frustrated at not being able to do anything; the only thing that I could do was to shout to them that they did not have to strike him, that he was handcuffed and they did not have to kick him in the head. He could not move nor defend himself. They paused their beating of him and I pretended to write down the plate numbers of the patrol car and they released him and let him go to his house. The injured boy turned around, saw me and thanked me. I felt happy because I identified with that boy as if I was his mother. The same has happened to me.

Seven years ago, when my children were younger, the police arrived at my house at midnight looking for my son because he had been in a street fight. They put a pistol to my head and they moved to me to the corridor. My daughter Liliana was hardly fourteen years old, Luis was eight, Marcos was two and Jesus was sixteen. They were scared because they saw them put the pistol to my head and told me to put my hands in my head and began to search my house and they took what they wanted. Even right now my children they remember that with fear and seven years have passed. To date they have not recovered from that trauma; they still are scared of the police.

I wouldn’t like it if my children were beaten like they beat that boy. Nobody defends them or later denounces their bad behavior. I am always ready when I see that police want to arrest somebody; I pay attention to make sure that the same thing does not happen. Police abuse continues happening and if one is not ready they continue abusing our people and our children. Later they creating a disaster in our community.

More than anything, poor people, people of color are the most oppressed, most mistreated, and most despised. Unfortunately the hard-working poor people are the most undesirable and we are the ones that contribute the most of the enrichments of this country; and us every day, poorer, more mistreated.

This is why we must be ready to denounce those abuses and not to let them happen. I think that this happens because we let ourselves be trampled over; They abuse our feelings just simply for being poor. That is why people take advantage of us. Enough with tolerating this much harm! I think that this type of abuse always happens but it is time to stop them and make them treat us as human beings, and not animals.

The poor man is not bad and we are not going to put up with it any more. We will be ready to defend ourselves and to stop that abuse and to make them respect us now and always. This is the advice that I can give them based on my experience.

We always feel humiliated and marginalized but very we are mistaken; we are decent people. I interviewed a police officer and asked him what he thinks of the police that mistreat people. He answered that it that happens because people do not make a report and denounce these abuses; that people can make a report, write down the number of police and the patrol car plates and that there are laws for them that punish the police.

He admitted that although he is not an abusive police officer, there are police that do abuse people.

It is for that reason I make a call to the community that it does not remain silent and that it denounce these abuses so they do not continue to happen. We need to make sure that our rights are respected and that we are seen as human beings. Therefore we must be respected and not tolerate more humiliation.

I am never going to be silent and I am always going to be ready when I see I abuse in the community. I will always be ready to protest and to defend the right of my community because to me I do not like the injustice or the abuse before anybody. I am angry that we are not to be able to lock up those corrupt and abusive police. But I will do whatever is within my reach to help my community and my people, my blood, my brothers. My fight is for now and always, for life and with my people of my community. Hasta La Vista!

by Leroy Moore/PNN

On February 23rd 2006 the following statement from then State Senator David Patterson who was running to be Lt. Governor in New York appeared in a local New York City newspaper

He (Patterson) has introduced a bill in the State Senate of New York that would require Police Officers to shoot suspects in the arm or leg to disable instead of shooting for center of mass.

The author of the piece called Senator Patterson now Governor Patterson a Moron. As I go to bed tonight on March 25, 2008, after attending a candle light vigil for a friend, Casper Banjo, who was also Black and disabled, (Patterson is Black and blind) an artist and an elder I read the New York article and think that Casper Banjo would still be alive if Governor Patterson’s bill was signed into law and replicated here in Oakland, CA. Although I know that Casper was not a suspect but a person looking for help on the night of March 14th, 2008, if we just replace the word “suspect” with “person in need,” Governor Patterson’s proposed state legislation still applies.

The candle lights were still flickering as we, Wanda Sabir of the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper, I and a friend drove away from the vigil on 73rd Ave and Garfield Ave in East Oakland. I felt renewed knowing I have another elder guiding my way in heaven and another mentor in political office across the country, Governor David Patterson who continues to fight with and for people like Casper Banjo in NY and else where.