2008

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"We are all living in an imperialistic country, an imperialistic government, in an imperialistic world."

These words came from the rumbling voice of Munyiga Lumamba, a member of the All Afrikan People’s Revolutionary Party. His words had the power on this Indigenous People’s Day to reach all of us, especially those of us subjected to the ever-oppressive elements that plague people living in poverty locally and globally; racism, classism, fascism, capitalism, war, gentrification, famine, mis-education, displacement, Jim-Crowism, etc, etc. All of these hideous divisions that's plagued every non-white culture and indigenous people, motivated lifelong movements towards ultimate annihilation of the above KKKolinizing categories.

The sweltering sun beamed down on my back and forehead, as I sat on the steps of the United Nation Plaza at the Civic Center, on 8th and Market St. It was near-noon and people were already gathering for this very important day. I began my surveillance of everyone in attendance, and spotted my POOR family, just a few feet away from me, as they stood in the center to hear the speakers.

Tony Gonzalez arrived from Argentina and expressed the importance of what International Indigenous People's Day is all about. "I'm speaking on behalf of the American Indian Community,” he said. “One of the goals for this very special day is for everyone to join together," he added. This year celebrated thirteen years from it's origin, August 9th, 1994.

A female speaker/facilitator for the event introduced a Native American named Gilbert, who dawned the traditional headdress and garbs for what was called fancy dancing. All of us watched in awe and enjoyment, as Gilbert performed for nearly a half hour.

As I watched his beautiful dancing, my mind drifted off to my early days of elementary, middle, and high school in what "I learned" through my many years of reading countless books.

As a child, I often came across toys that pitted cowboys and Indians against each other. I even watched a few western movies, here and there, most of which, portrayed Indians as the "villains" and the cowboys as the "heroes." It wasn't, until my teen years when I started to see things in a more broader light, than what corporately enfranchised into a child's mind, from TV shows, movies, coloring books, toys, cartoons, maybe even video games for that matter. What a scary, disgusting inhumane brainwash from European KKKoliners and KKKorporations, polluting young minds, even today.

One of the few classic movies I enjoyed, as a teen, was "The legend of Billy Jack"(1971) a story of a man of Indian Descent, that possessed a military background, and deadly martial art skills, who protected his sister's "Freedom School" from a racist sheriff and bigots.

My native town, Cleveland, Ohio, the” Buckeye State," is well known for the Cleveland Indians Baseball team. Its mascot is a red-skinned, buck-toothed feather-dawned image of an Indian. In 1915, Chief Wahoo was chosen to honor it's first American Indian baseball player, Louis Francis Sockalexis. In 1998, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) protested the Chief Wahoo image, because it was a racially symbolic stereotype of real Native Americans, and they denounced it. Five were arrested and have since filed suit.

No matter how much we fight, denounce, and protest, one can NEVER underestimate the evil powers of racism, and all of it's imperialistic KKKapitalism. The U.S.A has a holiday, a monumental statue, books, maybe even an anticipated currency at the U.S Mint, honoring Christopher Columbus who led the slaughter of many Indian Tribes, and theft of treasuries, throughout his voyages to please kings and queens.

This day also reminded me of how global governments have capitalized off of Columbus's holocaustic irreparable damages, of Indian tribes: THE NEW WORLD. Over five centuries later, I think NEW WORLD= ORDER would sound more sufficient.

The fancy dance as defined by the speaker/facilitator, is geared towards "healing and balance." Every single race, creed, gender, and religion was enslaved at one time, or another, so for those in struggle dancing isn’t just a means of expression, but also a release of the negative energy that plagues a person's mind, body, and soul.

"In the early 1970s, we (American Indians Movement) advocated for African Descendents, in retaining their rights. We kept at it, with the Human Rights Commission, until 1982. It's not just a struggle for Indigenous People, but for everyone all around the world. If we don't get that much needed vote, it will shut down all our rights,” the dancer said to the crowd.

Martin Sanchez, General Counsel/Representative of the Venezuelan Government read a letter, which honored the importance of the International Indigenous People's Day and various articles that were decreed in the General Assembly of the United Nations. He read through Articles 119-125, which were an equivalency to the United States Constitution, The biggest question and concern came to my mind was how strictly enforced these laws would be towards indigenous people, and would every global government honor these Articles, when people seek to retain their rights, in the face of oppression?

Milo of the Ma Pucha People, from South America, gave a historic account dating thirty years back to 1977 when they confronted and demanded their rights to be retained from the control of the colonists.

"We are celebrating thirty days from that very day, and still fighting displacement, from an insane government (U.S) that's profiting from mining corporations," Milo exclaimed.

At the end of the event, Bob Kelly recited a poem by Leonard Peltier, a revolutionary/ political prisoner and member of the American Indians Movement who was involved in a protest, at a small town called Wounded Knee, in 1973 South Dakota. Their protest on a variety of issues erupted into violence, where two AIM members were killed, and a U.S Marshal was paralyzed from gunshot wounds. Peltier was arrested and is now serving a life sentence. A youth group called Rainbow Warriors began rapping to the crowd, urging peace and solidarity towards everyone, worldwide, regardless of race.

As they began to rap their song called "United Snakes of America,” I walked over to Munyiga and thanked him for his inspiring speech and Bob Kelly, in his recital of the poem by Leonard Peltier.

He gave me a flyer that showed pics of people in the AIM struggle, Leonard, himself, in the center, with a bald eagle, a spear, a bison, and the flag of Great Britain.

The words under FREE LEONARD PELTIER, were: "It died in blood on Buffalo Plains, and starved by moons of rain, it's heart was buried in Wounded Knee, but it will come to rise again." (Bobby Sands, The Rhythm of Time, 1981.

by Sam Drew/PNN

By now, you know about the Board of Supervisor razor thin vote to allow the Lennar Corporation to continue it’s controversial work at the Hunter’s Point Shipyard. What you may not know is that the movement to force Lennar to temporarily stop work to access the communities health continues to grow in size and scope. On Thursday at the Grace Tabernacle Community Church a packed audience listened to various speakers whose tones were both motivational and informative.

Minister Christopher Muhammad notified the energetic throng, “We have decided we are going to start a recall of Supervisor Maxwell. We have to send a message…for Bay View Hunters Point, we need someone new.” This declaration was met with thunderous applause, as many remembered how Supervisor Maxwell said nothing during the lengthy Board of Supervisor meeting.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting Supervisor Chris Daly’s resolution to temporary halt Lennar’s work on Parcel A was put to a vote. Supervisor Maxwell voted NO on Supervisor Daly’s resolution. The resolution lost by one vote.

Since Lennar began serious grading on Parcel A in early 2006, the Bay View Hunters Point community has had to endure toxic plumes of asbestos and arsenic laced dust. The health of the communities’ children has been the focal point of the movement for environmental justice.

“No one has the right to poison children-there has got to be another way to make money,” exclaimed Dr. Ali Muhammad, The Nation of Islam’s Minister of Health, Dr Muhammad relayed his tragic findings during his recent testing at the University. I was testing a little girl and some things just weren’t making sense, “why does she have arsenic and antimony…I’m not use to seeing this in a 7year old girl…that’s why the Minister(Christopher Muhammad) got me out here, it’s not about him it’s about this little girl…they just want to go to school and to have a future.”

The San Francisco Health Department has turned a deaf ear to the communities’ request for testing but Dr. Muhammad is accessing the people, “We’ve been testing all day” declared Dr. Muhammad. “We want to test 100% of the staff and children at the University and as many as we can of the community,” he added.

The majority of those tested have been positive for arsenic and antimony. Tireless warrior Francisco Da Costa explained to us and to the folks downtown why the community shouldn’t have to trade health for money when he said, “I see in the children of the Bay View the potential to do great things…there is a lot of talent in this community…[these children] give me a renewed hope in the family.”

In the aftermath of the Board of Supervisors vote. The San Francisco Chronicle attempted to pit the community against each other. In the article on the vote they said there was a “holy war” going on between the Muslims and the Christians of the community.. I’ve attended four meetings at Grace Tabernacle Church. I’ve only viewed unity, love and respect between Christians and Muslims at these meetings. I haven’t sensed a holy war but only holy warriors who are fighting for the health and the wealth of the entire community. Reverend Ernest Jackson, pastor of Grace Tabernacle Church spoke to the things all the assembled shared, ”We are linked as brothers because we all have the same father” Do those words sound like the brewing of some denominational flare up?

The issue is the Lennar Corporation and it’s toxic business practices. The reason for the charge of environmental racism is Lennar’s mishandling of the missing monitors that lost three months of crucial data about asbestos levels during the most active grading period. Lennar is the one who ignored citizen’s demands for accountability. The Lennar Corporation may have got a free ride in the Chronicle article ,but they didn’t get one at this meeting.

Joe Cassidy(Residential Builders) revealed that Lennar Corp. got an exemption from being licensed to handle asbestos. A deal was cut by Lennar with the contractors state licensing board to get them exempted. Now how did the Chronicle miss that one?

A few months ago at the Progressive Convention, I asked Mayoral candidate Dr Ahimsa Porter Sumchai ,why the mainstream media had ignored the issue of environmental racism in the Bayview. She thoughtfully responded, "Because the main stream media addresses the message in a pro development manner, there was no sustained focus on Lennar’s record nationwide. Around the nation it has constructed homes on toxic grounds.”

As Dr. Porter Sumchai addressed the church to let us know her platform includes halting the construction activities at the Hunters Point Shipyard then she lowered her voice to share a very personal loss with all of us, “My dad died due to his exposure to asbestos at that Shipyard.”

This community has suffered too many losses. It’s time for the entire Bay View Hunters Point area to start enjoying some wins.

by Calvin E. Peterson & Leroy Moore

by Calvin E. Peterson

Every day millions of U.S. dollars are being spent in support of the nonsensical war on Iraq; a war that is causing the population of disabled people to increase by astronomical numbers. Soldiers are losing their limbs and their minds and are coming home totally transformed.

In addition to this tragic reality, large numbers of black men and women, both young and old are being incarcerated for multiple lifetimes, convicted over economic disparities that are rooted in the perpetuation of poverty. Reports show that housing an inmate costs up to $66,000.00 per year, while the costs of educating a college student costs less than $20,000.00.

I am baffled to think that today being an African descendent, living in poverty with a disability, in this great big world with no parents or any support system that the fact that I am forced to live on the streets as a houseless educated man is by design.

As I think back on my life, the question that Marvin Gaye asked 20 years ago “ Who really cares “ is still prevalent and significant today.

Actually I have been homeless three times in my life. The first time was when I was a student at Long Island University (LIU) in New York. I was always an activist rallying and mobilizing against injustice, and fighting for my human rights.

At LIU, their focus was on strictly enforcing their administrative policies that curtailed the free will of the students. We were expected to go to class, go to the cafeteria, and go back to the dormitory. This was our only regiment. I broke out of that confined regiment and was punished for my actions. LIU changed the lock on my door and put me out of the dormitory. For weeks into (8) months, I was forced to live at a public hospital. Consequently, I wrote a letter to Congressman Charles Rangel who helped me by pulling whatever punches he could to get me reinstated and back in LIU.

The second time homelessness occurred in my life was after successfully completing my degree and returning home again forced to apply for public housing. The Atlanta Housing Authority ( AHA) at that time was not yet handicap assessable. AHA also told me that according to their policy , someone was required to live with me. They told that people with disabilities were not allowed to live in an apartment alone. When AHA rejected my application, again I was forced to live inside of a holistic restaurant called the “Here & Now”. The Black Nationalist brothers and sisters took care of me for 3 months.

The third time was not a charm. I received a positive response from the AHA to move into an apartment, which was not handicap assessable, yet. I mention not yet because AHA kept promising to renovate, then it took maintenance or the administration up to 13 years before the job was completed. I finally found someone to live in with me to get the personal care that I needed. She however did not want to sign onto the lease. So that put me again in jeopardy of eviction. For the record, normally I paid the rent on time. To survive, I paid my attendant instead of paying rent, therefore, I was evicted.

I stood firm on my position to withhold the rent in my own ‘rent strike’. I landed on the street once again, evicted! My day in court proved me right and wrong. However, AHA took issue with my stance of non-payment and that decision prevailed. Many of my DIA supporters stood with me protesting all the way to the Atlanta’s Mayor, Maynard Jackson . When the Mayor dropped the ball on my case, I was put on the streets, which resulted in my returning to live at Grady Hospital., for several weeks.

Right now, I want to encourage the disabled to stay focused on your personal goals. My book “Nothing Is Impossible” chronicles my challenges and my victories. As African descendents, we need empowerment tools to help us to combat these societal ills that are designed to eliminate us all. “Nothing is Impossible” gives you the opportunity to overcome obstacles that have already been conquered.
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My impression of the US Social Forum was the same as that of so-called mainstream society in that the makeup was exclusive. There was a diverse cross section of people in attendance, each going their own way, not always connecting. It was still a good showing of people who reject the unjust practices of the status quo, however as a disabled activist, I still had to struggle to be included and heard.

I witnessed the lack of workshops that addressed the continuing issues of racism and poverty in the disability rights arena. Although I had been asked to participate as a speaker and a disability rights panelist in February at the annual Poor Peoples Day by the national planning committee coordinator, no one contacted me further, and a workshop was not included.. So I was hyped up in the expectation of the social forum, but I was disappointed in its delivery. I am hopeful in the establishment of the Peoples Movement Assembly as the outgrowth.

About the Author:

Calvin E. Peterson was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in the civil rights era. Born with cerebral palsy, he recognized early his calling to organize around the disparities in education and the human rights of the disabled when he founded the Advanced Association of the Physically Handicap in high school and Disabled In Action, Inc (DIA) after graduating from college. He is an educator, advocate, lecturer, program director, and resource to individuals and organizations that focus on issues of equity and inclusion for the disabled.

To contact DIA: disabledinactionatl.org / disabledinaction009@comcast.net/ 678-358-1180

by Leroy Moore

I want to thank Mr. Peterson for sharing his story about his life, his organization and his dedication to people with disabilities in poverty and how he was treated at the US Social Forum that took place in his hometown of Atlanta, GA. POOR Magazine invites Peterson and other disabled advocates living in poverty to become a regular contributor of Illin-N-Chillin.

The best thing that came from the US Social Forum was meeting people and hearing voices that were muffled at the Forum. I had a chance to meet one of Peterson’s associates, at the US Social Forum during the closing ceremony. I was excited to get to know about another Black disabled advocate but when I found out that Peterson had the same vision as POOR Magazine to advocate and talk about poverty, houselessnes and discrimination toward people especially Black disabled residents of Atlanta and elsewhere I knew this was the reason why I attended the USSF.

POOR Magazine was looking for stories like Peterson. This is the reason that POOR came up with the whole notion of the Ida B Wells Media Justice Center at the USSF where the media would be made by collaborating and co-producing with poverty, race youth and disability scholars with workshops led by these scholars and our own newsroom in an accessible, large space. Just like Peterson, POOR Magazine had been apart of a committee of the USSF but we were on the media committee of the USSF for almost four months before the Forum. POOR Magazine stuck to our guns with our mission and certain people on the calls agreed with our mission. We tried our best to push our mission by contacting local disabled advocates in ATL to make sure that the space for the Idea B Wells Media Justice Center was accessible. We were told it was accessible with a freight elevator.

My friend in Atlanta tried to find me at the Idea B Wells Media Justice Center and was told to go up, down and up stairs. She found me and took me to see the real Atlanta. After visiting one of the MAD HOUSERS Inc’ camps where houseless people live in small hunts in wooded areas, my friend took me around downtown Atlanta next to The Homeless Task Force where she pointed out lines of people sleeping in parking lots, on churches front steps and on sidewalks that led to the metro\subway stations with no benches.

She also told me the reality of fullfiling POOR Magazine’s goal of getting stories and having people in poverty pen their news along with media “experts” would be very hard because the city has arrested houseless people if they get close to the civic center where the USSF was taking place. Although POOR Magazine fought to get an accessible place for our newsroom at the USSF our workshops were still in a place that was mildewed, not accessible and very hard to get to. Because of all of this many of our reporters got deadly sick due to the smell of the Ida B Well Media Justice Center. The above could be one reason why Peterson and over forty disabled advocates that POOR Magazine outreached to during the opening March of the USS Forum could not find my workshop on Race, Disability and Poverty in the Media.

I was excited to see advocates with disabilities in front leading the March that opened up the USSF but my excitement didn’t last when I read in the Progressive newspaper that the city changed the route of the March to avoid two other local protests for affordable housing on a street that had abandon buildings and to help keep Grady Hospital open.

Mr. Peterson has experienced both, housing discrimination and working on accessibility plan of Grady Hospital plus he was born and lived there, but like he said his voice and workshop were not included in the USSF although the National committee coordinator of the USSF had contacted him. After all the struggles that Peterson and POOR Magazine went through at the USSF, we realized that we were still able to make relationships, networks and news that reached far beyond the walls and security guards of the USSF and that our new writers like Calvin E. Peterson and poverty, race, youth and disability scholars from down South, on the East and West Coast and in Canada have now joined forces with POOR Magazine in the struggle to be heard.

by Lola Bean/PNN

“Our circle is always blessed with our ancestors.”

The words danced out of Gilbert Blacksmith’s lips, swirled with the warm sweet smoke being passed from brother to sister, carrying our struggles through the air and filling the UN Plaza.

It was the International Day of the World's Indigenous People. This day is celebrated every year during the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. This first Decade was celebrated from 1994-2004 to promote international solutions to indigenous struggles and in 2004 the Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade.

On August 9, 2007, I was at the UN Plaza in San Francisco to represent for my indigenous ancestors and to sup-port and re-port with POOR Magazine.

During the ceremony, I had completely separated from my body. Not an uncommon ability of abuse survivors.

My mother would physically and psychologically beat me daily for lengths of time that seemed endless. During these periods, my spirit would often find itself up in the corner of the room trying to figure out what was going on. More often than not, my ancestors were there waiting for me. More and more, I came looking for them. And in the tribal circle, we were together.

I looked around the circle. I saw my brothers and sisters in struggle.

And I saw my family members from POOR Magazine. On one side of me was Tiny, co-founder of POOR Magazine and on the other was Anna, our Office Manager and mama duck. I looked across the circle and saw my brothers Marlon and Ruyata. And soon Rommie, Bruce and Vivian were all there together in the circle.

We at POOR Magazine are familiar and comfortable with the tribal circle.

We hold Community Newsroom in a circle, we have our classes in a circle, we hold our meetings in a circle, at the US Social Forum, we even had to fight for our right to speak to each other in our tribal circle and most recently we come together to address internal struggles in a circle.

Circles are the most natural shapes in our universe. They connect us to the roundness of the earth mother. They allow us to look in each other’s eyes when we speak. A circle represents balance and shared position. It represents endlessness.

It is the endless connection that holds us together during times of crisis and struggle.

As a family, POOR Magazine is taking a revolutionary approach to addressing internal issues by resisting the kolinizers model of accountability and punitive structure. We believe that we must look to non-colonized models of care giving, art, advocacy, housing, equity, organizing and self-accountability. Models that are inside our non-colonized selves, our own indigenismo.

I feel privileged to participate in this revolutionary form of resistance. This circle.

I have never seen accountability like this – especially in a family setting. Growing up, account ability meant that everything was my fault. There was nor discussion or reflection. There was no shared understanding or mutual respect. No will to learn and grow and strengthen bonds. There was only the violent will of my broken mother.

She was a wild child with wide Cherokee cheekbones, Peruvian skin the color of brown sugar, and thick ropes of blackest brown hair that defied her European bisabuelos. The middle child in an unstable family that was suffocating under the weight of generations of physical, sexual, psychological and economic torture, they called her “Monkey” and “Whore.” My mother was scarred from fights with her parents, her siblings, and everyone else around her. My mother was violently gasping for air when a parasite began absorbing the little nourishment her body had left to give.

I was born while my mother was still in her teens. She had me well before experience might have dulled the glint in her eye that made her look always like a beast ready to pounce. I was a living embarrassment even more humiliating when my blood forced her to reveal that she didn’t know who my father was. Half my identity lost in a 15-minute court proceeding. My mother’s shotgun marriage - an instant failure. And only me to blame.

Families in struggle will often turn that struggle in on each other.

Sometimes struggle occurs at the natural intersection of two healthy boundaries. Most often it is an intentional byproduct of a destructive, violent, greedy, and dominating people and the systems that create them.

And as most communities of struggle know, one of the greatest tools of those we struggle against is separation.

“We lived on this earth 50,000 years before the Europeans came across on their little boats,” an indigenous elder reminds the crowd. When the conquerors came, they separated the people of Turtle Island, and every other island they landed on, from our land. They separated us from our water. They separated us from our cultures. They separated us from our communities and our families. They separated us from everything we needed to sustain physical and spiritual life. But separation was not enough. The end goal was eradication.

Eradication came in many forms. It came in trails of tears. It came on paper. It came in shotguns. It came in liquor bottles. It came through diseased blankets. It came in the food. It’s been here. It’s here now. And it’s still coming. For us. For our children. It has many faces and may names, but it is all the same process of separation and eradication. It has morphed with time and place and peoples, but it is the same at its core.

Sometimes it was a sock on the floor. Sometimes it was an open cereal box. Sometimes it was how I looked or the way I talked. Sometimes it was for just being there. Sometimes it was because I “talked back.” There were endless reasons my mother would beat me.

I spent years trying to do everything just right. Maybe if I was thinner. Maybe if I cleaned my room perfectly. Maybe if I wasn’t so ugly. Maybe if I wasn’t so stupid. Maybe if I didn’t talk so much. Maybe if I didn’t space out so much. Maybe if I just stayed out of her way. Maybe if I did everything she said just right. I spent years fighting all the faces of my mother’s abuse. Those struggles never set me free. In fact, they only twisted my mind and my understanding of reality more and more.

It was not enough. It would never be enough.

I was another obstacle. Just another fight. Just another thing holding her back from whatever life she thought she could have if I wasn’t there. I was an obstacle that needed to be isolated and erased. I was an unwanted child. A bastard. A stupid, fat bitch. An ugly monster no one would love. I deserved to be beaten. I deserved to be hated. I should not have eve been born.

When the conquerors, governors and settlers first landed on Turtle Island, they decided that the land was not inhabited by people, but by subhuman entities that needed to be subdued and exterminated.

In 1830, through the Indian Removal Act these enemies told the indigenous inhabitants of Turtle Island that if they all moved West of the Mississippi, they would be left alone. This “voluntary” relocation plan killing half of the Cherokee population alone. It still wasn’t enough.

In 1864, Black Kettle was told that “as long as he flew the American flag, he and his people would be safe from U.S. soldiers.” Colonel Chivington of the U.S. forces killed an upwards of 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho peace-seekers while the flag waved over the chief’s lodge. Most of the massacred were women and children. Chivington and his men decorated their hats and weapons with the body parts of the dead. Playing by the rules wasn’t enough.

In 2007, Indigenous people’s are still being asked to fight to have their basic human rights recognized. How long will we have to wait until they are actually achieved?

It’ll never be enough. There is no treaty, no agreement, no compromise, no logic, no effort that will ever make it enough.

Their goal is to isolate and destroy. We must reconnect and fight.

I looked around the circle again. Through the smoke I saw warriors standing hand in hand. Warriors from tribes all over the world. The beating drums and chants connecting our vibrations. I found myself once again outside of myself, but deeply connected.

Here in this circle were people that were supposed to be separated. Separated by gender, class, race, identity, sexual orientation, age, mental health, disability, etc. Separated by paperwork and county lines and skin tone and job description. Separated by family history, wage, location, and access.

Separated by lies and illusions.

Just hang an American flag over your door....

We are collectively forced into believing that each problem is a separate and isolated. That our brothers and sisters are the reason for our pain. That our outrage should be directed at each other. That we are our own worst enemies. And because this message is so repetitive and violent and strong and unyielding – it is very difficult to fight.

But in the circle, in that moment, with our ancestors and with each other – those illusions were torn down.

I saw felt the heat of four different energies at play. The need to destroy, the need to connect, the need to fight, and the need to turn away. I sensed these energies moving through us and around us and over us and coming up and through us and connecting us and fighting to pull us apart.

I remember my mind desperately trying to connect its neurons together. I remember the devastation and tears and blood and vomit each time logic failed to hold them together and I was under the unbearable pressure of another loss, another trauma.

She said if I cleaned my room, than I wouldn’t deserve a beating...

I remember learning to search through her meaning below her words...

But if you don’t lose 20 lbs. by this evening, I’m going to beat you anyways...

I remember turning to people that said they were there to help...

Look, just cover up your arms and let’s pretend like it never happened, OK?

I remember longing for someone to connect to....

You have pain like me. And pressure, too. I can feel it in you. Maybe we can help each other. Please don’t be scared of me. Please don’t think I’m a freak.

I remember learning to fight...

This is not our fault. We can fight this.

“There is no distinction between our fights. Our enemy is the same.”

Our only distinction is who we become when we are presented time and time again with the universal challenge to show the courage to own who we are. We can choose to destroy or choose to liberate. We can choose to turn a blind eye or choose to fight.

At POOR Magazine, it comes down to “Show Not Tell!” As I write these words I received a text message from Mari, my indigenous mixed race revolutionary sister and mentor. It reads, “Like one struggle says, i got your back, u got my back, we got SOLIDARITY!”

In that circle at the UN Plaza, we were all showing our solidarity. When our brothers and sisters called, we had their backs.

Antonio Gonzales of the American Indian Movement said, “Aug.9 is a day all the world should be celebrating together.” In that circle at the UN Plaza, we were all showing our solidarity. When our brothers and sisters called, we had their backs.

Our struggle is the same.

by Amanda Smiles/Race, Poverty and Media Justice Intern

Driving through the bones of Hilo, a residential town on the eastern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii, I feel as if Hilo is a fish caught on the barbed hook of development, hopeless with little chance of recovery. This is my home, where I was born and raised for 17 years, returning every few years to watch my little island town drift slowly into the mists of corporate control and big business.

As a young child, I remember the businesses in my town. From the diner we ate so often they knew I was afraid of the crack in the booth, to the video store that never needed to ask my mom´ s name, most of the businesses we frequented were local. This isn ´ t to say we didn ´ t have big mainland business in our town. Long Drugs, Sears and JC Pennys are old standbys in the mall, but these corporations were few and far between, a minority in Hilo

I remember when the second McDonalds opened in Hilo and the delight our parents shared when they no longer needed to drive downtown for a Happy Meal. Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Baskin and Robbins followed, the acne of Hilo. Soon Boomers, the 1940s style ice cream shop in the mall closed. I never thought to ask my dad why. It just seemed to happen.

Costco opened when I was in middle school and threw the island into a frenzy. Everyone went to " the other side " (of the island) to shop at Costco. We made special trips to the beach and then us kids would scream with joy on the way to Costco, knowing our moms would come home with a car stuffed, like a Thanksgiving turkey, with name brand foods, closing the gap between Hawai&acutei and the mainland.

Soon after Costco opened, K-Mart followed and the island went into an even bigger frenzy. Now entire days were set aside for shopping trips to the other side. Two hours driving over, for 3 hours of shopping, and 2 hours driving back. The Big Island welcomed these businesses with open arms and open wallets.

Although the Costco- K-Mart frenzy was a source of excitement for many locals, it was well known that Hilo was safe from these corporate invaders. Hilo is not a tourist town; it is rare people stay in Hilo more than a night, usually in a desperate attempt to experience the " real " Hawaii before returning to the safety of a resort and an Astroturf- like vacation.

Kona, " the other side, " is more digestible for tourists. Unlike Hilo´ s black and green sand beaches, Kona is a platter of white sand beaches like the ones admired in postcards and travel guides. Every resort has some sort of " authentic," Hawaiian experience that can purchased for twenty dollars, from luaus offering the local flavors of kalua pig and lomi lomi salmon, to Hula and Tahitian dancers swinging their hips in front of hungry mainland eyes, it is a far cry from the two dollar loco moco Hilo offers.

Perhaps the chief reason tourist flock to Kona, and not Hilo, is that Hilo is one of the rainiest towns in Hawai´ i and, although tourists like to snap photos of the ripe, emerald, forests of the Big Island, they have little patience to experience the mother of the Big Island´ s beauty: rain. These reasons have kept big business and big tourism out of Hilo, or at least it seemed, until Wal-Mart opened its doors. Now, big business was no longer after the tourist´ s dollar, it was seeking the Hawaiian’ s dollar as well.

Wal-Mart opened in Hilo while I was still in high school, across from the mall, in a grassy field that would also become home to Borders, ROSS, and Office Max. This undeveloped plot of land, centrally located in Hilo, was not only a superior location for business, but also part of Hawaiian Homelands. Hawaiian Homelands are plots of land set aside for native Hawaiians to settle and build homes and businesses. The Hawaiian Homelands Commission is the gatekeeper of Hawaiian lands, distributing the land as they see fit, and although thousands of Hawaiians are on waiting lists for land settlements, land is usually diverted to commercial interests. In this case, Wal-Mart.

Within the first 3 months of Wal-Marts opening, the store became the heart of shopping and as cars clogged the main arteries of Hilo on their way to the jumbo sized store, inside Wal-Mart pumped dollar after dollar out of local peoples and local businesses.

A year later the mega-sized Wal-Mart-ROSS-Borders-Office Max dynasty was in full effect and it seemed the entire eastern half of the island had forgotten about the jewels outside of the family fortune. Auntie Barb, a family friend who I have known my entire life, ran a small bookstore specializing in Hawaiiana books in the mall and had been there since I could remember. Within a year of Borders opening, her business dropped drastically and she was forced to move her store to the sleepier, less trafficked, but cheaper downtown location. No longer could I spontaneously drop by to talk story when I was in the mall.

After leaving Hawaii I for college, I did not return for two years. Although I heard casually of the development phenomenon devouring Hilo, I was in no way prepared for what I encountered when I returned. Macys opened two locations in the mall, my friends now wore American Eagle Outfitters and Hot Topic. Cold Stone was the new hip ice cream place, Wal-Mart never stopped thriving, and most disturbing of all, Starbucks and Jamba Juice overtook the town like a vine of angry ivy. I couldn’t bear to ask myself what happened to Bears, the only coffee shop in town, where I played as a child while my father sipped a cup of joe.

Two years later, I have returned and the development I had witnessed on my last visit has only spread more lethally than before. Half of Hilo looks like a ghost town- whole buildings have been abandoned after corporate development slowly tortured them into closure. Other parts of Hilo look like exact replicas of shopping complexes found in strip malls throughout the mainland. Thick, illustrious glass doors and vivid neon signs are in stark contrast to the squeaky screen doors and chipping signs of my childhood. I wore myself out, searching for a hint of Hawaii that is authentic, a piece that does not mimic the country that has pocketed its culture and autonomy.

On my last visit home, a family friend, who has lived on the Big Island for over 30 years, said to me, " Hawaii used to be one of the most mysterious places on earth. We’ve used up all that mystery, now. People no longer come here to find the unknown. We have to look elsewhere for that."

The last time I drove through Hilo I felt the tides of tears wash over my ocean-glazed eyes, sheltering them from a formula all too familiar to small towns in America. I drove through town with my 3-year-old niece, who will come to visit Hilo throughout her life. The Hilo she will visit will not be the Hilo I have grown up in, however. It will not be a Hilo that enchants her, that is a source of magic apart from the mainland. It will not be another way of life, a tucked away culture mystifying to outsiders. Instead, it will be a Hilo she recognizes, a Hilo that binds her memory to California, and a place where she can always get a Grande Triple Vanilla Latte.

by Sam Drew/PNN

"Time is money! Every minute you’re late it costs us dearly", barked the irascible security supervisor as I sulked into work just a few minutes late. This painful incident raced into my head as I was reporting and sup-porting on the budget delay protest in front of the soulless California State Building in Downtown Oakland.

The California State Budget is two months late and is costing poor people and the children of the state dearly. What’s holding up this assembly approved and Governor supported state budget is the desire of a few State Senate Republicans to cut $700 million from welfare and other social service programs. The proposed cuts will also cause changes to CalWORKs California’s Welfare program, which will push nearly a quarter of a million poor children off the welfare rolls and deeper into poverty.

While the State legislature took a nice summer vacation the budget deadlock dangled over the heads of the Golden State residents. Tens of thousands of childcare providers, nursing homes and health clinics are struggling to operate without any money and this has put many low income working families at risk of losing child care and other services.

"Who is hurt most by this budget impasse is welfare mothers, working parents and child care providers," vociferated Carol Jones, District Director for Assembly Member Sandre Swanson said to a crowd filled with active and alert children.

Katie Carranza, a parent attending college in Oakland chimed in, "We represent 250,000 children, by blocking the budget [the state] sends me a message we just don’t matter."

As the afternoon sun drenched us, we marched and chanted with passion so those holding up the budget in Sacramento could hear our demands.

"What do we want… Childcare!!!"

"When do we want it… NOW!!!"

"We’re marching and we intend to vote. We’re watching and we intend to vote."

Coloring books as well as snacks and refreshments were handed out to children who marched side by side with their caregivers and parents to end this harmful and mean spirited budget deadlock.

Vivian Hain, a LIFETIME (Low-Income Families Empowerment through Education) member and POOR magazine staff writer, cried out to the stalemated state legislatures, "Don’t forget the poor children in California…All children count. ..Don’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor."

As a final measure a call was made to State Senator Dick Ackerman(R) Tustin so he could hear the collective outrage and pain over the budget being held hostage by a couple of Republican legislators. Everyone was implored to call Dick Ackerman everyday until our budget is signed and our children stop suffering.

A budget was passed with the minimum required Republican votes Tuesday ending the recent standoff. Ackerman voted to pass the budget. Although millions of dollars will now be freed for social service providers that have been struggling to operate for the past two months, it is unforeseen what other cuts will be made to eliminate the state deficit of $700 million.

by Angel Garcia/Race, poverty and immigrant scholar

Living as an immigrant in this country, I know what it is like to go to public health clinics and try and receive health care. The first thing the desk clerks want is proof of insurance. My answer has always been the same, "I don't have any insurance." As soon as the words roll off my tongue I always wish I hadn't spoken them. The demeanor of the person across the desk from me quickly changes. People look down on me. I am a nuisance to them because I have no health insurance.

Every time I hear the same laundry list of unaffordable options for people like me to obtain health care. In the end I will have to pay ridiculous fees just to see a doctor for five minutes. I have to think twice about going to the hospital or going to get any kind of health treatment because I can’t afford it.

For many immigrants in this country the story is the same, and most of us are forced to live without any kind of health insurance. Often immigrants will not seek health care unless they desperately have to.

Recently a health campaign and twelve-city health fair tour was launched by Celebra La Vida Con Salud. The campaign targets immigrant and Latino communities. The fairs offer screenings and health information with the goal of focusing on the high percentage of Latino women with preventable cervical cancer.

Although Celebra tries to treat people at these one-day fairs, which is nearly impossible to begin with, it does not seek to understand or address the reasons behind the high percentage of preventable diseases among Latino communities. Health fairs do not look at the root causes for the lack of health care among immigrant and Spanish speaking communities. Health fairs are a quick fix for a larger systemic problem in this country. The main reason immigrant families do not seek health care is because to obtain treatment is a long and expensive task. Health fairs do not address the issue of lack of affordable health insurance and health treatment, rather they use a bandaid approach to fixing this large problem.

Health fairs serve to boost the image of their sponsors. Celebra's sponsors include big pharmaceutical corporations such as Merck. Health fairs are marketing strategies. Health fairs portray their sponsors and pharmaceuticals as angles and saviors of the community. The media only reports on the "heroic" stories concerning the health and health care of immigrants. These are the sexy stories. We do not hear stories about the families that have to wait in long lines just to see a doctor and have them say they will be okay they should just take an aspirin. The people who attend health fairs are generally poor people who work two or three jobs and have no health benefits. These families come to health fairs to try and get some treatment for themselves and their families. But these health fairs do not provide long term lasting solutions.

I continue to be skeptical of health fairs when large pharmaceutical companies such as Merck are sponsors. Merck was established in 1891. As written on their website they say, "Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs." Merck has stolen indigenous plant medicines from rainforests in Latin American countries and criminalizes indigenous people by making it illegal for them to use their own traditional herbal medicines.

Merck has a long controversial past. In 1999 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Vioxx, also known as rofecoxib, made by Merck. In 2004 Merck took Vioxx from the shelves because of the serious adverse side affects it can cause, such as heart attacks. Many lawsuits were filed against Merck by patients and family members of people who took the drug. Over eighty million people were proscribed the drug.

Merck also produced the drug fosamax that was later found to cause serious health issues. The media continues to largely ignore these issues surrounding Merck's past. Merck is participating in health fairs while simultaneously distributing and continuing to distribute drugs known to be harmful. I ask myself, are these companies really concerned about the people they claim to be helping or are they just concerned about making a name for themselves? These pharmaceutical companies and all these health fairs, are like politicians, full of promises but take no concrete action.

Health fairs glorify the current health care system and the big pharmaceutical companies. We need to hear more voices from immigrant families, the people who are supposed to be helped at such events like health fairs. My own story is no different than many immigrants living in this country. I have lived in the Bay Area since I was fourteen. I have never had health insurance. I have never had any continuity of doctors or health care. I only go to the doctors when I have to because I am forced to pay in cash up front.

Immigrant communities are wrongfully blamed for their own lack of initiative concerning health care. But the real reasons behind higher percentages of preventable disease among immigrant communities is not because of a lack of understanding or self-care, but because of this country’s denial to provide access to health care for all.

by Staff Writer

In the featured films fabrication and
nonfiction collide, meld and intertwine to confront
truth, reality and expression. The following films will be shown...

1999 Headlands alumnus
Aline Mayer Aline's Solution expresses with haunting
complexity the agony and affirmation of an abortion.

Roger Deutsch's Mario Makes a Movie is the story of a
developmentally disabled man who learns how to use a
movie camera. Deutsch's film mimics the style of
personal documentary leaving the viewer to question,
who Mario really is In The Stillness in the Room,

Current Headlands SFAI Artist in Residence, Vanessa
Woods, evokes the poetry of death, mourning and decay
in the visual imagery of Queen Victoria's "weeping veil"
and by putting the celluloid itself through a process
of decay.

Todd Herman's Forbidden Acts: And Other
Poems by Leroy Moore, explores the limits that social
institutions attempt to impose on the expression of
the body, sexuality and disability.

Who is Bozo
Texino? by 1999 Headlands alumnus Bill Daniel,
explores the truths of vagabond subculture and reveals
the romantic appeal of wanderlust in American society.

CarolineSavage

by Sam Drew/PNN

“Our beef is with the city,” explained Nick Pagoulatos of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC). As he spoke, a large gathering and I watched behind chain linked fences as SFPD arrested 11 peaceful protestors. They had erected 4 tents in an empty parking lot to draw attention to the community’s need for affordable housing. Pagoulatus continued, “It (The City) should get behind the community.”

At the heart of the issue is the proposed project for 3400 Cesar Chavez (formerly Kelly Moore Paint Store) near the hyper busy intersection of Mission and Cesar Chavez. Seven Hills Properties Development has offered to build 60 condos(with only 9 being market rate) and a 24 hours Walgreens on the location. Of the 60 units being built only 9 will be market rate. The remaining 51 units will be priced between $500,000 and 700,000.

The average Mission household makes $48,733. Displacement is a dark reality in the Mission district. The displacement horror currently being experienced by co-founder of POOR Magazine and poverty scholar Lisa Gray Garcia, aka Tiny is an eye opening example. At the protest she explained to me, “As a single mama living in the Mission I am being attacked by displacement by a slumlord who wants to flip housing into a 400% increase. The only way to do it is to get me out by illegal means. We are systematically being irradiated.” As she finished her statement she turned around and began loudly chanting support to those fighting for a better community and affordable housing.

The energetic crowd yelled in approval as demonstrators were booked and photographed by police. Pagoulatos exclaimed, “We have enough high end housing but not enough affordable housing. We don’t need more big box retail.”

Unlike many problems in San Francisco, the issue of affordable housing is one with viable solutions. As Pagoulatos confidently stated, “We’re not just saying no we’re saying yes to something better.” MAC has already submitted an alternative project that does not encourage displacement and gentrification. This proposal seeks to develop between 60 and 70 units of affordable housing and would include a new home for the San Francisco Day Labor Program.

The current Day Labor Program is located in a drab white office that is much too small for the number of community members accessing its services. On each corner several men line up daily to exchange a day’s hard labor for meager wages. These men are easy targets for abuse and exploitation.

I was a witness to this reality when I visited the Day Labor\ Worker Employment and Resource Center that same day. As I asked people for directions I heard loud screams coming from across the street. People were pointing and police sirens were blasting while tires screeched in agony. When I arrived at the site of the commotion I saw a young man on the ground being restrained by police and a large group of people standing around in a state of agitation. Some were filming with phone cameras while others engaged the officers in hotly debated conversation.

According to Jill Shenker of the Day Labor Program when she came outside, “I saw a day laborer on the ground with his head bloody saying they’re torturing me!” Shenker added that, “The cops said they were arresting him for weed. There was no need to hurt him.” The San Francisco Day Labor Program provides these vulnerable laborers with much needed resources.

As we banged on the chain link fence, we witnessed several protestors being shown the inside of the paddy wagon I check out the signs that are being vigorously waved up and down while those being arrested bowed their heads and entered the van. “We Need Family Affordable Housing!” “No Walgreens Monopoly!” “No Luxury Condos!” “Low Income Housing!” Oscar Grande of PODER tells me of a grander vision for the Mission. He states, “We’re getting the neighborhood involved. We have a vision for the next 20 years. We are out here winning hearts and minds. We want everyday people to take control. This sends a message to the city.”

1,560 family members including 760 children (40%-0-5 years old) are in single room occupancy hotels. If ever there was a win-win situation, the proposed 3400 Cesar Chavez site is it. It offers 60 to 70 units of affordable housing and allows for a reduction in traffic congestion by avoiding big box gridlock. It combats the gentrification and displacement running rampant in the Mission district. It improves community services for individuals who are often exploited because they are the most vulnerable. “Otro Proyecto Es Posible! Queremos viviendas accesibles y negocios pequenos.”

Please help send a message to the Planning Department and the Mayor. These city agencies and elected officials are supposed to serve the community well being. Don’t let them pass up a win-win-win-win combination.For more information go on line to www.Myspace.com/missionantidisplacement

by Joseph Bolden

1st Paradise Vacation/Visit

My Hawaiian trip started as "Joseph,want to go to Hawaii?" I’d like that but

I don’t have money,just got off G.A. [General Assistance] learning with on-the-job training to be a Desk Clerk in various hotels.

I just got back from the first Social Forum in Atlanta,Georgia which had thing happen so bad that it will take until 2010 to get all the kinks out.

You’ve already read about them from Poor Magazine folks,myself and other equally or more pissed off folks who weren’t able to get access to the place.

Right on top of this was an invite from my family to be in Hawaii in August.

Though I feel my new job in jeopardy and rightfully so my supervisor advised "You have a few days to decide between a vacation or work here?"

He told of his experience with family didn’t go down well.

While working the grave shift which I don’t mind it gives me time read up on work related items like emergency flood,fire, blood,personal injury stuff and building checks but also writing and reading.

Emails,my mother, brother,it was mental crunch time.

Which choice my new found employment or a holiday with family not seen in years.

Then I remembered a decision made to not go because of G.A./Work-fare responsibilities and it came to me "You can find another job,but family is irreplaceable and like ATA I’ve never been to Hawaii.

After a mandatory meeting talked with my superior saying I had to do this praying he’d understand.

After packing,going to the bank,calling people, saying by to folks I’m ready to go.

What I didn’t know was my brother’s and his friends plans of going to Cashe Creek,for a buffet and gambling spree before the plane trip a day after.

Soon I was a member of the Creek Casino as long as spent money there who knows I might lose enough money to have a regular suite there.

Also unbeknownst to me was an aunt who had been brought over by my altruistic brother my sister-in-law didn’t think it was a good sign and mama said nothing which tells me volumes.

I was beginning to understand what my boss meant as time went by about relatives and family outings!

A five hour plane trip, our aunt moved slowly of her own volition sometimes it seems on purpose as if the trip was about her and not the entire family.

We were almost missed our flight but after my Aunt’s walker is replaced with a wheelchair everything goes a bit faster.

Because of time delays we’re allowed two movies instead of one "Spiderman 3,and Wild Hogs."

Meanwhile a… how can it said delicately?

A lovely,graceful, bountifully blessed attractive woman is having trouble with her seat.

Not only the arms on each side of her chair won’t ease upward to let her out but the earphones given her don’t work.

I help,the arm won't budge but she's bypassed them to enter the restroom.

Afterwards she sits down in an empty seat next to me.

The name she gave is Debby,we talked a bit.

Yes,I’m on my best behavior though couldn’t help notice she and her friend's ample bosom heaving high,up/down side toside when our plane hits some turbulence.

(I’m on a vacation with family,I know it won’t be any hanky panky so I enjoy what I can).

I don’t know where she’s at or living,so we’ll probably not meet up again but just in case she reads my column I'll say this about her.

"Ms. Debby,you were a delight thanks for sitting awhile next to me,it help soothe my nerves to have you there and your friend also was a joy.

My other seat was occupied by a lady with family in the rear of the plane so were mine who came to see about me.

There is so much to tell but lets say we were all so tired from sitting, sleeping,and the trip by van to the Sheraton just made us want to go to sleep in our rooms after we registered.

My brother handled all the accommodations I watched so if I ever did this I’d know how to plan and what to do to make in on less if I could.

At first I wanted to sleep but brother Solomon says "Your in Hawaii and on your first night; your gonna sleep!

All of us including our Aunt walked in the warm night on our first day in Hawaii.

Drank my first Mai Tai along with a shared fish and meat meal.

We said our good nights, into my pajamas,and into a soft bed I softy fell soon the warm night,soft breezes,and nearby sound of waves gently crashes onto and offshore lulls me to sleep.

END OF PART I

by Lola Bean and Jewnbug/PNN

We are under attack

The community,

The children, the elders, the parents.

The residents in the communities of the Mission, Western Addition, Oakdale.

A gang injunction is a restraining order sought by the City Attorney's Office and issued by the court against members of the community labeled by law enforcement as gang members from a particular gang. The current gang injunctions sought by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera targets 32 community members, including one young woman with child, in the Mission District and 44 of our neighbors in the Western Addition. Through a gang injunction, these pre-selected members of the community are prohibited from engaging in certain activities in certain areas. Currently 60 block area of the Mission district and a 6 block section of the Western Addition have been targeted.

Some of these activities are already illegal while other activities are legal. According to a news release issued by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the injunctions seek to prohibit such activities as loitering, trespassing, intimidation, graffiti vandalism, gang recruitment or retention tactics, displaying gang signs or symbols, or associating with other gang members. The proposed injunctions would additionally prohibit gang members from possessing drugs, graffiti implements, guns, and other dangerous weapons within the proposed zones. This gives the SFPD authority to arrest and prosecute people for such legal and harmless activities as visiting family members and carrying basic school supplies.

We are under attack

The community,

The children, the elders, the parents.

The residents in the communities of the Mission, Western Addition, Oakdale.

As a child the police

Surveillanced us in the mission

As a mom the police

Survelliance us in the Western Addition

Legal action that can lead to jail time can be taken against someone that is accused of violating these restrictions. Since gang injunction violations can be pursued via civil lawsuit, those accused are not allowed certain protections such as the right to an attorney or trial by jury. In cities where injunctions are in place, we can find evidence of such abuses of power. In San Jose, for example, community members faced 6 months in jail or a $1000 fine for engaging in such legal activities as talking to someone inside a car, carrying pens, and climbing a tree. According to Herrera's release, "Violations of such injunctions could be pursued civilly by the City Attorney, for monetary penalties and up to five days in county jail for each violation, or prosecuted criminally by the District Attorney, as a misdemeanor for up to six months in county jail.�

Me and my brother

Got harassed

Cuz we dressed a certain way

Cuz we gathered in a certain place

Tha accountability on how to behave

was to hold back tears-n-rage

eventho filled with pain

The first gang injunctions were used in Los Angeles in the 1980’s. Today, there are 33 injunctions issued against 50 groups that city alone. In San Francisco, the first injunction was issued in 2006 against about two dozen people in the Bay View District identified as the Oakdale Mob. In California, gang injunctions can also be found in San Jose, Burbank, Westminster, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, and Oxnard. Other states issuing injunctions include Texas and Illinois.

They are being sold to the public as a way to promote community safety.

In San Francisco, Dennis Herrera's claims, " We have a moral obligation...to do everything the law allows to target and disrupt the activities of criminal street gangs before they escalate into still further tragedies. And gang injunctions have proven to be an effective tool for doing exactly that. "

We (the people) r under attack

We r the experts

Forming groups is the way we hold onto our interdependence

As a unit we survive

When we r individuated

We die

Violence isnt stopped by marginalization of family

Its displaced

We are under attack

But have they really made communities safer?

According to the Mission District's La Raza Centro Legal, the gang injunctions:

1. Make it easier to criminalize youth

2. Exclude those under the injunction from their communities

3. Make it easier to prosecute alleged "gang members" by making "gang signs" a crime, wearing certain colors a crime, associating with other folks under injunctions a crime, and much more

4. Legalizes Racial Profiling against Blacks, Latinos, and other People of Color

The police threatened me on 30th and Mission

When I was 16 years old

Cuz I refused to give up my backpack

They put my hands behind my back

My face lay down on the cop car

The officer says be quiet

Or he'll take me to

Juvenile Hall

A report recently released by the Justice Policy Institute declares, " the billions of dollars spent on traditional gang suppression activities have failed to promote public safety and are often counterproductive. " Gang injunctions do not reduce crime. In many cases, gang injunctions lead to increases in violent crime in the " Safe Zones " as well as in neighboring communities.

Co-author of the report, Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies , Kevin Pranis states, " Our review of the research found no evidence that gang enforcement strategies have achieved meaningful reductions in violence, but ample proof that science-based social service interventions can curb delinquency. "

The experts say

poverty and child abuse

causes violence

The experts say

Police presence

Police harassment

Police brutality

Cause violence

La Raza Centro Legal states, "The mission district feels that gang injunctions are an extension of gentrification because it is segregating more people of color out of their communities were they could receive services or interact with community organizations that can provide help to them. We also feel that we have directly been pushed aside from any decision making in this process. Where is the jobs for youth? Where is the money for rehabilitation programs? Why haven't our children's schools been getting more funding?
Our communities should demand to be included in policies that will directly affect our families, friends, and communities.

cuz I cant afford

to own a house

or own a car or to finish college

Born into poverty

Funding is cut in recreation and in school

Education is privilege

so we find other ways to be cool

and u do the math

Invest into education

Economic Stability

Less Police Presence

Can create safety.

Community members have been intentionally left out of the gang injunction process. Organization that have succeeded in curbing violence and uplifting members in their communities are all speaking out against the gang injunctions and demanding that this attack on their communities be stopped.

I am the expert

Born into poverty

Born in the Mission in San Francisco

Incarcerating youth and giving police authority to harass people in Oakdale, the Western Addition, and the Mission will only increase community fear and violence.

The next gang injunction hearing will be on September 18 at 9AM - 400 McAllister in rooms 301 and 302. Please come out and show your support for the community.

If you are in need of information and resources, or you are one of the 76 people targeted by Denis Herrera, there are people out there that can help you. You can call Ana Maria Loya from La Raza Centro Legal at 415-575-3500 or Jennifer Leslie from the ACLU at 415-824-8717.

by Dee Allen, Joseph Bolden, Queennandi Xsheba, Jewnbug, Luis, Vivian Hain, Dharma, Ruyata

Hustling funds just to have access to a conversation where often times I am the subject and not the story teller required a lot of work.

Foundations and organizations provided limited money, and there are so many of us in economic limbo

Traveling to tell my story in hopes that I will make effective impact to stabilize equality.

The process at the airport felt like I had just entered Hitler's concentration camp

My shoes off and my bags wide open, the commotion over the lotion for hands and body almost taken away, but never will my mind and soul be taken away
riding in the third class economy on the plane I ate crackerjack snake boxes as if these crumbs would actually provide nourishment on a 5 hour flight.

In ATL, and the cost of living high, many people asking for fifty cents, I didn't feel I had left Frisco, still in the concrete jungle with bright lights, big buildings and still house-less.

We are staying 10 miles from the US Social Forum, where we are facilitating a process in which our message IS MEDIA.

We are working, and yet we are still marginalized.

Just to get here to the Social forum is a struggle and a story in its self, a story that speaks to PO' folks having accessibility to framing main stream media, to digital equipment, to policy making, to legislation and most importantly, making laws.

I feel like everyday we have to cross borders, and challenge criminalizing and dehumanizing mannerism.

We are running the Ida B. Wells Media Justice Center in a hallway. Everyone has to travel a hallway to get to a room, but when your room is the hallway, its sends a clear message , " There is no room for you "
However, I am blessed to be here to utilize this opportunity to move towards justice and freedom through various mediums. But the real question is, Are we all moving towards the same vision?�

by Dee Allen

There is no peace between classes.

Only war.

The war may have begun several centuries ago,

But the latest battle began the moment

Certain words fell from certain lips of

Sons & daughters of privilege----

The line was drawn between factions

Before any shots were fired

Created distance through actions

Cooperation had expired----

Refuse to share living space under one roof*

Disrespecting the elders

Indigenous to this land

Disrespecting the POOR----

No solidarity

Just toxic air

Seperated from the community

In the basement, unfair

Security guards, tall gates

Disturbing & vast

Restricting my movement

Unless I wear a pass

Where's the equality?

Where's the social justice?

They are non-existent

In this "progressive" artifice

Sharing skills & resources?

They refuse

Even here, the indigent lose

Due to states of abuse

Became enemies hen we should've been allies.

I was prepared to fight the good fight

Against a common adversary.

The concealed weapons of

Race & class privilege put an end to that.

In its place, a petty conflict

Without corpses & blood.

The ones who broke our trust:

Born with a silver spoon

Bred with the world's luxuries

Served to them on a silver platter

So they are free from stressing over

Starvation, thirst, destitution, want

And security.

Because they have been sheltered

Away from poverty, the

Privileged will never know the needs of the

Impoverished.

The will remain in darkness, despite their

Efforts to reach out to us, half-hearted.

Unless they toss their baggage aside.

Or kick it down.

Dedicated to saving an

Endangered woman's CHOICE in the USA

Whether or not to carry a growing seedling

Inside her 9 months long----

From the other side of the battlefield:

Pledged to making media

Untainted by corporate world influence

Through the lens of common people

Honourbound to saving this world from

Cataclysms manmade

Through their stories

Became enemies when we should've been allies.

They the privileged perpetrate

During activism on parade

Screaming: "WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!"

Another world will be impossible

To reach if oppressive systems

Stil stand erect

In us & in movements.

Lessons learned in a battlefield

Called the United $tates Social Forum.

by Marlon Crump

" I might be an angel to communities that fight against environmental issues, but I'm a devil to big corporations, developers, and governmental agencies."

These powerful words by Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice Director, Bradley Angel at a panel on global warming at Golden Gate University, immediately snapped me out of what felt like a hypnotic trance.

Angel was just one of the many prominent environmental directors present at the session, as well as one of the many speakers. There was also a scientist and manger from the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.), as well as a few note-taking journalists and concerned residents from San Francisco and Richmond.

As I stepped off the elevator on the second floor, I walked into a corporate conference world, with only over twenty in a populated attendance, rectangular shaped tables, a wine-colored carpet, and projector slid show of each speaker's proposals. My reluctance at attending the conference subsided and I relaxed a little, as I took out my notebook preparing to take notes- until I did a 360degree quick turn of everyone and saw I was the only man of African Descent present. I suddenly felt like an alien but tried to shrug it off and began to listen to the speaker.

Peter M. Strauss, President of PM Strauss & Associations produced what appeared to be a timeline from the 19th century to present day. I battled through an approaching migraine to absorb the vital information Strauss produced, as he talked about radium nuclides that were buried in the Hunter's Point Shipyard, in the Bayview. Strauss also discussed the 1980s and El Nino and the severity of it's aftermath, nationwide.

According to his background on the item agenda sheet, Strauss was involved in numerous project sites in the Bay Area: The IBM Superfund Site in San Jose, Concord Weapons Naval Station, Alameda Naval Air Station and Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard..

Sitting alongside with Strauss was United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 Manager, Harold A. Ball. They began to take questions, and a couple of them immediately caught my ear. An activist gave both a question and a comment directed towards Ball, regarding the corporate interests of land developers and the EPA's neglect or refusal to stop the hazardous wastes exposed to the public.

Ball responded to the question by the activist, stating that he totally understood his concern and agreed, but he doesn't control what the agency does, entirely.

Sherry Padgett, a resident of Richmond, California gave an all too familiar concern of the levees in that city. "Over the past ten-fifteen years, our levees have been breached and no one from any governmental agency has took the time to investigate. What can we do as a community, as a people do to prevent any further damages?"

I practically knew the answer to this, myself, before Ball answered. " That would a something that the state or federal government would have to do, and get involved," he said. I immediately thought about the aftermaths of Hurricane Rita and Katrina and all the poor communities that were displaced.

The last two forum speakers were Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, and Bradley Angel, executive director of Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice. Miss Williams gave an eloquent, often humorous, thorough presentation, as she discussed how developers try to worm their way around the chain of liability, by avoiding the costs of removing hazardous wastes, even abusing the Polanco Act.

" It's very common for public agencies to restrict, deny, or delay the process of releasing information surrounding environmental health hazard issues," she said. She also joked, &quotNowadays, it's like greek gods battling, so it's the same between developers, corporations, and the public into getting government into legislating laws around these issues."

Bradley Angel really caught my attention when he spoke about the lengths, struggles and hardships, many people face just to get state and federal government from protecting land developer's financial interests and hold them accountable for not complying with environmental regulations.

He mentioned a small town in Santa Barbara, and the horrendous lengths the community there had to go through simply to get rid of a company that produced deadly waste materials. They exposed hazards to such a degree, that after being falsely promised by the state government that it would remove the company, they literally had to take matters into their own hands and physically take over the entire plant.

According to Angel, " Even after taking that major risk, the company wasn't even shutdown for another two years." He talked about one instance of Midway Village, apartment complex in Daly City where tenants were duped into cruelly believing they had " died and gone to heaven" when they received housing there. However, what the poor residents didn't realize was they were leasing on toxic polluted soil.

I couldn't help but think back to all my really early years, at age 16, working in many industrial factory plants, in my native town of Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, I worked at my most dangerous job to date, called Ferrous Processing Transfer (F.P.T Cleveland). At the time I was twenty-four, and didn't care about the dangers of an outside production scrap yard line, as long as I made decent earnings.

It required six ten-eleven hour days of standing inside a very filthy booth and wearing a hard hat, safety glasses, boots, and a mask. This equipment didn't stop anyone from being exposed to fiberglass, debris, foul odorous fumes, and God only knows what else was in those crushed car parts that raced on the conveyor belt, from an ancient old mill. Me and another partner of mine, sorted through scrap metals, rubbers, steel bars, and coppers day after day.

I was the fastest scrap conveyor belt picker they ever saw, especially when it came to copper, going over the average of one metal bin a night, to having three filled a night. I remember our quota, or in our case, over quotas, prompted the plant president to come out in the near-dead of the night, thanking me and my partner for doing a good job, every night. Then on an August summer evening, EPA got complaints of the huge blackened dust storms that hit the neighbors, and forced us to shutdown for one day. Looking back, had I not left after nearly a year later during the winter season, there is no telling how I might have turned out, today. I decided no job is worth my exposure to their environmental health hazards.

Giving the past situation, of my employment of nearly a lifetime in Ohio-based factory plants that were a carrion of hazardous material exposures, and the current situation, regarding the current crisis in the Bayview Hunter's Point area, I couldn't help but think of all the residents’ longevity in spite of the inhumane environmental condition caused by the Miami-based housing developing firm, Lennar Corp at the command of Mayor Newsom.

There is a very common and thin line for wanting to " change " or " renew " a large populated area of decent people, regardless of a status quo they may not have, and making false promises of " rebuilding their lives " with better homes. The way I see it, if and I do mean IF, there was a true solid genuine, good-natured effort of caring for the poor people's housing situation by the Newsom Administration, with no intentions of gentrification, then why no effort to rid the toxic wastes that's plagued the community for over half a century?

To say the least, people can't afford to be an angel in the face of seemingly domineering demons. In order to successfully prevail, you got to be the devil in defending all the threats to your homes and environments.

by Rob Rooke

The nine letters of the HOLLYWOOD sign up on the hills are visible for many of Los Angeles’ rich and poor alike. While the working poor of East Hollywood can always see the sign, Hollywood Inc, it never looks back at them like it does for the rich.

Hundreds of thousands in LA live in housing with rats, roaches, broken windows, mildew, leaking roofs, insufficient hot water, faulty electricity. Many of these people make up the millions of working people that propelled themselves into the headlines on the recent May Day marches. These are the same people that scared Capitol Hill’s Congressmen into retreat in their attempts to isolate and crush America’s undocumented. These same families, with or without papers, continue to live in the slum conditions that LA landlords’ impose.

One slum-like building stands on Lockwood Avenue in East Hollywood. The eight-unit building is divided into one bedroom apartments that are smaller than 700-square feet each. The squeeze of high rents and low pay can mean up to 3 generations sometimes living in one small unit. For years, broken windows here have been duct-taped, while the landlord promises to ‘get back’ to tenants. Roaches vastly outnumber all other species in the building. The proliferation of cucarachas are so normal for the children that they have invented games revolving around killing them.

During the winter, children in these units got sicker than their school friends. Tenants were expected to buy their own space heaters, but with the electrical wiring so ancient that microwave and television-use can’t co-exist it is usually only luck that prevents deadly electrical fires in these apartments.

But on the day I visited this building, the past was getting pushed aside and the future was rolling in. Angelica, from the Campaign for Renters Rights walked me around the buliding. There was every sign of an active construction site. Brand new windows ready to go in, cans of paint, sheets of plywood and workers walking back and forth.

Angelica introduced us to Marta and her two daughters. Marta works what she describes as a very low paid childcare job. She has held onto this apartment because of Rent control. She proudly showed us her brand new wall-mounted heater. All 8 units now have these same heaters. By law, a landlord must provide one, but for the last 12 years of Marta’s tenancy her landlord evaded this minor detail. They’ve also remodeled Marta’s bathroom, slightly haphazardly, but it has been somewhat improved.

The landlord put in a new sink and counter top and painted. I looked under the sink to see where Marta showed me they had attached the new counter to mold-ridden wood: a gang of cockroaches scurried out. Marta was very impressed with the improvements and very grateful for the help in organizing. Another tenant made it clear to me that much still needs to be done and the repairs are far from over; however, he also, was both pleased and surprised that the landlord, after years of inactivity, was doing repairs.

Julia, Angelica and Arturo, over recent months, spent many, many hours talking to the tenants, eating with them, detailing all their housing problems. Arturo’s folks have lived there for years. They put flyers up around the neighborhood. They took tenants down to the City. They did their best to embarrass our public servants. And shy tenants, used to getting second best, or worse, rose up and demanded a voice. Their collective voice and their courage is currently transforming their slum conditions.

The landlord, Alfredo Alvarado, is a major shareholder in a factory in Peru and the owner of a number of apartment buildings. He has done his best to resist spending any of his money. He tried to scare tenants with evictions. He told them they could be fined for complaining. He called the police on the organizers and reminded everyone that he has “big lawyers.� But his old tricks did not work this time around.

On leaving the neighborhood, Julia walked across the street and took a yellowing flyer off the windshield of a dust covered old van. SE BUSCA – Alfredo Alvarado: WANTED – to do repairs, with the landlord’s picture on it.

This great drama between the poor and those intent on keeping them poor will continue in all of the world’s “other Hollywoods�. And as that tide gathers steam and people continue to raise their collective voice, all that has been stolen from us - will be taken back.

by tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia

P. O.O.R. .

.Scholaz til we die

The Revolution begins with I

QUEENNANDI 2007

The morning air in the Tenderloin was sharp. Small hidden daggers were embedded in the 9:00 am breeze. Micro-business people were trading products, elders and youth of color were convening and poverty survivors were consuming and acquiring different forms of substances to get through another day in Amerikkka.

The sounds of survival, thrival and subsistence brushed past the 21 determined faces of poverty, race, disability, inmigrante and youth scholars from POOR Magazine (and repping the SF Bayview Newspaper) about to embark on a revolutionary journey to the US Social Forum in Atlanta. Residue of past and present domestic violence, low wage jobs, gentrification and homelessness clung to our bodies as we piled into our rented van, greyhound buses and friends cars .. This was the first trip our organization had ever taken anywhere, and the first trip many of us personally had ever taken, which was not a result of a poverty crime, a crisis, an incarceration or deportation.

We were in pursuit of a dream. A realization of a vision of cooperative, non-competitive media justice and media production at the Ida B Wells Media Justice Center at the US Social Forum. A dream we had launched, worked on and struggled to attain for the last year.

The first conversation

" Have you heard about the US Social Forum? " almost a year ago when Gretchen Hildebran, filmmaker and alumni of POOR Magazine ´ s Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute asked me about POOR possibly doing some media for the forum, I immediately reflected on other social forums that POOR Magazine never had the financial resources to attend much less make media on.

I had heard about how media centers were structured at these forums, how they are often completely inaccessible spaces for disabled media producers, poor folks who are stuck in the crevasses of the digital divide and folks who haven´t mastered the dominant (oppressors) language due to global, local poverty, institutional racism and classism, colonization and border fascism. In other words notwithstanding the radical goals and objectives of the Forums held all over the world, the media production is led by the same folks who always make media, who always have the channels of access and privelege

" Well, why don ´ t we propose a new vision for media production, you know, based on the model of POOR Magazine ´ s indigenous media production. "

Gretchen being one of Mama Dee ´ s best students and a truly creative and radical thinker responded quickly, " that would be great. "

After that conversation Gretchen put me in contact with Josue from The Praxis Project out of Washington DC, we had another conversation in which I laid out all of the aspects of POOR &acture s revolutionary media-making model which included on-site multi-media education in radio, print, on-line and broadcast journalism and finally, a commitment from all privileged media producers to participate in Community Newsroom, a truly indigenous media production center which all members of the community participate and collaborate on media production and where privileged folks with by-lines, broadcast channels, radio slots, share, co-author and co-create media with poverty scholars on issues such as displacement, homelessness, environmental racism, police brutality, workers rights, youth justice, border fascism and indigenous resistance.

After that conversation in which Josue also &quot got it " and was all about the vision, we went to work to actually begin the written proposal and massive networking with other poverty scholars and media producers locally and globally

The conference calls.

Leroy Moore, board member of POOR Magazine, Race and Disability scholar, my brother, best friend and columnist of illin n chillin on PoorNewsNEtwork and I began to take part in a series of frustrating and difficult conference calls in which statements like " real media " will happen in one room and the other media will happen elsewhere.." or we just need a quiet place for journalists to file their stories " showing us that many of the people we were talking to had no idea what we really meant by truly inclusionary, collaborative media, notwithstanding their hard work to make this center happen.

Leroy and I continued to educate and relate thinking that in the end they would all finally " get it " after all they were all our friends, our allies, fellow social justice workers, media workers and advocates.

The Dressing Room

As we got closer to the actual date of the event, space acquisition became the focus of the calls, an email went out that proposed a series of dressing rooms which had no elevator (except an ancient freight elevator) were way out in the back of the Civic Center which would have been completely inaccessible for disabled folks and most people in general. And perhaps most importantly there was no community newsroom or accessible classroom space and in the end only a space for the digitally privileged folks to file their stories in the aforementioned " quiet space. "

Some of the on-call allies in addition to Leroy and I began to get desperate, there must be some other space, I e-screamed.

After no sound a terse email appeared. There was another space. A homeless shelter, The Task Force for The Homeless, which had really big rooms for education, access and community newsroom. Leroy and I jumped on it. Leroy dispatched disabled organizers from Atlanta. A walk-through was arranged.

A " security " risk

After the walk-through in which it was wrongly purported that the space was ok with disabled folks who were present there was a concerted e-push to take the dressing rooms, with codified racist and clasisst terms like " security risk " and " lively " said about the Homeless Task Force, capped off by the culminating sentence, " Do you really think that Pacifica will broadcast from a homeless shelter? "( not said by Pacifica) with an additional claim that it would be " too hot there "

Leroy and I were summarily overruled, leaving dreams of revolutionary media making, extreme access, and open-ness floating into the Atlanta heat

Take the (Ida B Wells Media Justice Center) mission statement, (which I had authored with Gretchen) off of the USSF website, I don ´ t want to be part of a lie,my overwhelmed voice filled Gretchen ´ s voice mail.

In the 24 hours proceeding the decision to take the dressing rooms, Gretchen, Leroy and myself huddled over calls and emails to figure out what to do.

" Keep on girl, you need to bring this," Euenika Rogers a true poverty scholar, media producer, organizer and founder of Green Lady Media, began to take part in the whole process and with her soft urging talked us off the ledge, to proceed with this ridiculous space and try to make media justice happen by any means necessary.

Hours more of meetings, work, negotiation and confusion later- we took Eunika ´ s advise and proceeded with the now highly problematic Ida b Wells (not really)Media Justice Center.

Atlanta- Day 1

By Greyhound bus, by rented Van and by plane 21 of us arrived in Atlanta welfareQUEENS; Jewnbug, Laure McElroy, Vivien Hain, Tracey Faulkner, dharma, and me, POOR Press authors and PoorNewsNetwork staff writers; Leroy Moore, QueenNandi, Ruyate, Joseph Bolden, Dee Allen, Lola Bean, Joanna Letz, Anna Kirsch, Voces de Inmigrantes reporteras; Cheli Centano, Teresa Molina and her two children; Luis and Marcos, Videographers and drivers Arnulfo Cesaraz and Yaya, and PNN Youthin Media Washington DC correspondent; Mari Villaluna . We met up with POOR Magazine media organizers Gretchen Hildebran and Jasmine Sydullah who had arrived several days earlier.

Within hours of our arrival we were on the job, trying to make media justice at the Media Injustice Center. Trying to conduct trainings for privileged media workers on what it means to share power; i.e., by-lines, broadcasts, technology, etc. Tryin to put up signage to direct people to the labyrinthian maze that was the path to the Media Injustice Center. Trying to teach poverty scholas to use the technology, to utilize the extremely un-user-friendly space, to facilitate stories, to outreach, to have some semblance of a Community Newsroom.

The (Fire-lane) Hallway as Community Newsroom.

On our second day in Atlanta we took part in a huge march organized by the USSF. Armed with our Media Justice Center flyers we did massive, street-based, direct outreach. We had the first Community Newsroom planned for that day after the march and the main point was to really get the community to come in, learn, share and make media.

When we finished the extremely long march in the 105 degree weather, we attempted to hold a community Newsroom in the fire-lane/hallway that was designated for the Newsroom. Out of the literally hundreds of flyers and conversations that our folks had with the community of Atlanta as well as other attendees at the USSF, the horror stories of inaccessibility started to float into the chemical laced air of the jail-like bathrooms/dressing rooms of what we were now openly calling the Media InJustice Center.

" People from the housing protest who came (to the civic center) were told they couldn ´ t come in without a pass. "

" No-one could find this place "

" Indigenous elders were blocked at the door cause they didn ´ t have a pass "

" Over 20 disabled folks just gave up when they found out where this was. "

" Three houseless folks were escorted off the property of the Civic Center."

" This place feels like jail. "

As the bodies of the attendees of that day ´ s Newsroom pressed up against the one of the walls careful not to step into the taped off fire-lane, all of the POOR Magazine staff became increasingly upset.

" This is the same kind of oppression we experience at home, in our gentrified neighborhoods, our criminalized schools, our welfare offices, our everyday lives, " I screamed. After the depressing Newsroom was concluded and two of our staff writers who have struggled with environmental racism in the Bayview and East Oakland for years began wheezing from the chemical smells in the Media injustice Center I started to lose it, culminating in a scream to a media pool volunteer.

" Where else can we go? " Leroy and I looked at each other completely discouraged. And then we saw it.

PRESS BRIEFIING IN THE PEIDMONT ROOM- 8:30 am TOMORROW

The final straw for the already fed-up POOR Magazine staff was the finding that the organizers had managed to " find " another space for a press briefing that was designed for corporate media ( aka real media- as it had been referred to so many conference calls ago) Upon discovering this I made a plea to the lead organizer of the Media injustice Center to find another space. There was no response.

7:00 pm The Piedmont Room

Large chandeliers tinkled softly in the warm evening air. Multi-colored carpet lined the massive floor. A couple of hours later most of the POOR Magazine staff found the luxury that was the Piedmont Room- we had collectively decided that our only option was to do what we always do as poor folks tryin to be heard, seize this usable " real " media space for our grassroots media production.

8:00 pm-Homeless Task Force

Undress the Media Justice Center. Get us out of the Dressing Room.

9:30pm- Media InJustice Center Staff Meeting

In one last attempt to negotiate a sanctioned move – the POOR staff attended a tense meeting called for by the Media Injustice Center volunteers. Nothing was accomplished except a lot of hurt feelings and widespread defensiveness.

10:30pm Media Injustice Center Parking Lot

An unplanned follow-up meeting in the parking lot of the MJC actually began an interesting dialogue between Josue, myself and all the POOR Magazine staff members. People were actually listening to our collective concerns. A promise of a 7:30 am cel phone call with another space acquisition was made. We would still have time for the action if the promises didn ´ t pan out.

7:30 am Next day

The over-worked, and extremely tired POOR staff were unable to reach our morning deadline, but we had another option. POOR staff were holding our Criminalization of Poverty and Poor Folks of color dialogue followed by the welfareQUEENS workshop; Cultural Work and the Revolution in a very accessible space called Mezzanine Right on this day. We decided the logical thing to do was seize that location for that day ´ s Newsroom. It was our only option

12:00 pm Community Newsroom

At 11:45am over 120 people were sitting in the indigenous circle that is necessary for Community Newsroom to happen, a circle possible in the Mezzanine Right location. Poverty, Race, Indigenous, Inmigrante, Youth and Disability scholars from Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Ireland and New York. Independent media like Paper Tiger Television, Alternet, Race, Poverty and The Environment, Pacifica and AMARC showed up to actually try this new form of media collaboration. Radical Reference Librarians showed up to provide reference advocacy, Making Contact and the National Radio Project, Community News Production Institute Prometheus Radio Project signed on to do on-site trainings and broadcasts, Housless folks from Atlanta that we invited in and facilitated their entrance, joined us, Third World Majority, and Global Action Project, showed up to offer media organizing support as well as countless other organizers and folks, not to mention the PNN staff themselves leading the revolutionary, collaborative media-making It was perhaps one of the most powerful Newsrooms POOR has ever had. Media relationships were forged - multi-media stories were launched. Voices were heard, documented, integrated and respected.

Revolutionary media was made on nation-wide hospital closures and resulting hellthcare, the criminalization of poor folks locally and globally, shelter abuse of gay and transgender folks from Frisco to New York, displacement of poor folks locally and nationally, from New Orleans to Miami to the Bay Area and finally, the resistance of indigenous folks like Gary Spotted Wolf who would buy back Fort McPherson in Atlanta for a bottle of Jack Daniels was planned as the last act of Community Newsroom ´ s final day. Countless PNN poverty scholar correspondents were seeded for ongoing columns and broadcasts, all of the stories launched were led by their scholarship

By the next day it was clear to us that there was no other space for this powerful work to happen at. After some wrangling and hostile cel phone exchanges the National Planning Committee agreed that we could continue to proceed with Newsroom in its new accessible location.

Even after that the Disability and youth justice workshops planned and conducted in the Media InJustice Center by Mari Villaluna, Jewnbug and Leroy Moore were virtually unattended by anyone. People stuck in the very real digital divide remained there for the most part.

" Are you ready to move on miss, " Leroy Moore broke us out of the confines of the white and gray walls of the USSF to actually get real stories of poverty in Atlanta, including their own frightening anti-homeless laws that include not standing or sitting in public because it might give the perception of loitering which is why an officer told me not to stop and use my cel phone in a small Disney-like gentrified enclave that came with their own private po ´ lice force.

Final Day Questioning A Punitive Security Model for Another World Vision.

On the final day when POOR staff were extremely tired, ill from several personal illnesses, heat stroke, Media Injustice Center induced Asthma and very ready to go home, we were encouraged by several media justice workers who were also present at the USSF to create a declaration to present to the full delegation on what happened at the Media Injustice Center with a vision for next years program and a real media justice center that Ida B Wells would be proud of.

The POOR staff wanted to go up together in solidarity, but we were adamantly told that it could only be one representative on each issue and it could only be a two minute presentation. We felt this was rather strident and typical of the event ´ s overall rigid tone, and oddly not in keeping with the notion of a less rigid Peoples ´ Assembly that POOR had heard about in other countries, but we proceeded nonetheless.

Midway in the peoples assembly an indigenous elder was airing his demands for indigenous reparations and a future vision. Midway in his speech he was stopped and asked to leave the stage because he had run 30 seconds over his two minute time limit. When he was asked to leave the stage, several boos rang out in the audience, some of us, who truly understand and practice eldership felt truly wronged by this act of elder disrespect. There are just some things you don ´ t do especially when you are allegedly presenting a vision for another possible world.

And is there really a place for a punitive security model and rigid western notions of time and productivity in another world I wondered at this point if we are really talking about another world or just another world for progressives who all think the same way.

After the man was removed from the stage I walked over to him and was met by Cheli Centano, an indigenous revolutionary teacher from POOR ´ s Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia who was already thinking my same thought and suggested we offer POOR ´ s two minutes to the elder who was rudely interrupted.

When we approached the contingent who was with the elder, they agreed and we all proceeded to the rear of the stage to propose the idea to the organizers in back.

By the time we got back there, several other indigenous elders had followed us and we all proposed the idea to the backstage manager. At that point another indigenous leader joined our group and demanded stage time for the elder with the threat that if the organizers didn’t give it to us – they would seize it with a drum circle. A very reasonable offer, I thought, considering the circumstances.

Within minutes the organizers conceded to give us the time and allow this man to finish his demands.

POOR Magazine staff and welfareQUEENS stood in solidarity on stage as a many indigenous elders spoke and called out the hipocracy of the event. It was a revolutionary moment of resistance and solidarity

At the end of their presentation we all walked off together. The first speaker back on stage was welfare QUEEN and Digital Resistor, Vivien Hain backed by many of the POOR staff standing behind her in solidarity, " it was an act of resistance for us poverty scholars to even get here, why did we have to suffer in a jail-like environment that was completely inaccessible," she concluded.

The two minute rigid security model quickly resumed in lock step. The microphone was lurched from Vivian ´ s hands before she was even done. There was only one problem, the already very upset POOR staff ( including myself) was on another track,, free from the default hegemony that seemed to pervade this stage. We were in another world. A world where people are really heard, where Euro-centric notions of time and productivity are de-colonized Where peoples ´ voices are really listened to and not remanded to jail-like basements, where houseless folks are not seen as a security risks, but rather as people who need housing, where hip hop youth scholars are seen as journalists and media producers not " lively " or a threat, where elders are ALWAYS deferred to and never interrupted and where collaboration and cooperation by ALL people is seen as paramount and one of the most important goals.

welfareQUEEN jewnbug seized the mike, asking why we were being silenced. Emcee Cindy Weisner grabbed it back, I tried to step up to say one thing about access and security at which point she addressed me by name shouting to the audience for agreement, " tiny, don ´ t you want to move on? "

That ´ s odd I thought. The police officer in Atlanta had asked me a similar thing, threatening me with a citation if I didn ´ t comply. I wondered if in this parallel other world a similar threat would be forthcoming.

POOR Magazine staff will report back from Atlanta with spoken word, poetry journalism, Q&A and a debut of The Revolution begins with I the Movie - at POOR ´ s offices at 1095 Market street #307 in San Francisco (at 7th street) This will be also be a benefit for Tiny- gentrification by fire victim- so she can stay homeful- $10.00 at the door ( no-one turned away for lack of funds)

by Sam Drew/PNN

According to Webster’s dictionary journalism is defined as "The collecting, writing, editing and publishing of news in periodicals." At Poor Magazine, we practice Webster’s kind of journalism, but we take it a step further. Actually we just flip corporate media right on its head. At POOR, we practice "I" journalism. The "I" is the life experience that the individual brings to each article. The words of our unique experiences with poverty, gentrification, racism, sexism, classism, and displacement breathe life and hope onto blank pages.

Recently the John Stewart Company, a developer of public housing in San Francisco, demanded a retraction of statements that appeared in the May 17, 2007 San Francisco Bay View article "Selling of the City." In the article, several current and former tenants of John Stewart properties tell their stories about the slumlord style conditions they have had to endure. They recite a litany of violations of human rights experienced first hand. Their words come directly from experience, not from spin-doctors or well-groomed and rehearsed "experts." By demanding the retraction of the statements made in the article, John Stewart is saying these people’s experiences don’t matter. John Stewart is saying the experiences of these people are false. John Stewart is calling them liars.

On July 26th at high noon, scholars from POOR Magazine arrived at John Stewart’s door. We were there to rebut what John Stewart Company had claimed in their "slap" suit against us and the Bay View Newspaper. Several of the people quoted in the article were also present. We stood there with our own ammunition - our experience of struggle against the bad practices at John Stewart.

Poverty scholar Laure McElroy defiantly reaffirmed the truth of her quotes regarding John Stewart. She said, "Yes, I was quoted and yes those were my experiences…I applied for housing 4 times at 3 different locations … and I was told conflicting stories about income verification."

Some curious San Franciscans approached us. We handed out informational leaflets recounting John Stewart's unethical practices. McEloy continued, "John Stewart you are making housing inaccessible to people like me with a family."

John Stewart Company did not ask for retractions of statements such as, "The elevators were often out of order… they were extremely dangerous. Once a small child’s finger was chopped off when it got stuck in the door." Or statements such as, "After a major fire in one of the towers where a Black firefighter was killed authorities discovered emergency exits chained shut preventing residents escape." No one questioned the statement, "Police moonlighted as security guards harassed and molested the residents." These uncontested quotes speak more loudly as to what type of housing developer John Stewart.

The types of statements being contested are statements of fact and squabbles over mailing dates. POOR Magazine editor and poverty scholar Lisa Gray-Garcia sums up the retraction demand. She said, "How can they say these statements are not true when we have actually experienced these things. We are the low income housing residents."

Marie Harrison proudly confronted John Stewart’s demands for retraction. Harrison said, "I don’t have no reason to lie." She went on to say, "Every property John Stewart works on, I’m called in with complaints."

As more and more speakers approached to tell their stories I could see the Security Guard nervously eyeing us. We were confined to a small
space on the public sidewalk.

Lisa Gray-Garcia slammed John Stewart on their false claims. She said, "They make a claim that there is a one for one replacement. Meaning when one family is displaced one family gets housing. This is just one of many ways they lie to the community. Another way is to claim they are providing affordable housing for poor people." Gray-Garcia continued on, her voice demanding attention of all, "They displaced people out of their homes. We don’t need mixed income housing. We need real housing.”

As the short but powerful demonstration came to a close we all gathered up our signs and any left over items. The ground was cleaner than when we found it. What a novel idea, coming clean and being a good citizen our corporate counterparts. I think they need to be taking notes from us.

by Joseph Bolden

What Atlanta Meant To Me.

If it was years,months, or weeks in planing for Atlanta’s first U.S. Social Forum it was a matter of a month or a few weeks for POOR Magazine gathering its pool of multi cultural-talented folk to Fem/Man-up for this first ever state crossing trip!

Though our van band of plucky people began late because of two seats that are re-installed again we set out in a cottony,white cloud-sky blue Saturday afternoon.

A stop in Hunter’s Point for two or more stacks of the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper to distribute when we get to Atlanta.

It get increasingly hotter,Paris and Public Enemy is blaring in the background and me being apolitical had to listen by proxy.

He tells truth raw and real and I need to hear it a lot more so as not to feel entitled,complacent, or safe.

Black Folk are still targets of opportunity for jail,homicide,suicide,or cop assisted suicide.

Luckily an old style am/fm walkman tape player becalms me even as parallel political,arguments on lifestyle and past personal painful episodes enter in discussions which I cautiously avoid by sleeping or listening to my old, newly,acquired $3 walkman.

Flying through states Texas,Arizona,Navajo lands, and Alabama,which like many a southern bell is full and lush with greenery there is a tragic tale of why so many trees close and high together but that’s for someone else’s story to tell.

After a hotel stay where I and a few tired riders splash,swim to avoid the ever growing southern heat.
[No wonder people here are known to as hot blooded!]

After one more stop in a comfy Days Inn or was it?

We are in Atlanta, Georgia.

All during the trip I keep hydrated by having literal ice baths [that is using ice cubes of melting ice from a donated igloo portable icebox rubbing them over my head, shoulders,arms,face,and drinking cold to warm water not icy water which may wreck the delicate interior temperature of bodies automatic thermostat.

First we met up with other contingent of Poor M who had either flown over by plane or by interstate bus lines.

Quickly we register,get our media tags,U.S. Forum I.D. for names because without one you don’t enter the forum.

Can anyone see a flaw already beginning to form? If as non profit organizations out to collaborate with other orgs, and/or people having difficult times facing and living houseless,jobless lives!

I certainly wasn’t aware still tired not having a full nine hours sleep still groggy though awake wanting to unload my two burdens of back- pack and travel bag.

What happened the next day? Lets say food and flesh had me equally conflicted.

I’ll just call this "The Lost In Hooter’s Affair."

by Christina Geovany/Xicana Moratorium Coalition

It has been 37 years between the first Chicano Moratorium and the present day. Raza is still constantly facing the same struggles and dealing with similar problems such as the war, immigration, deportation, gang violence, poverty, etc.

The first Chicano Moratorium was a march that took place on August 29, 1970 when people gathered to protest the outstanding number of casualties in the Vietnam War that were of Raza decent. On that day 20,000 to 30,000 Raza peacefully gathered and protested for the cause, which until recently was the first time that such a large amount of Raza had come together to unite their voices in protest here in the Aztlan/U.S. Territory.

It was a peaceful gathering until the East Los Angeles police used the excuse of a stolen six pack to suddenly riot against the protestors. As a result three young people died, many were injured, families were greatly affected and countless Americans were shocked by the brutal measures that the law enforcement acted upon that day.

On that day a young boy named Angel Dias, Lynn Ward, a teen Brown Beret and Rubén Salazar, a Mexican-American columnist, activist and reporter that worked for the Los Angeles Times, were killed by the police. Rubén Salazar was killed by being struck in the head by a tear gas canister shot at short range. Many people still believe that this was done purposefully because he was one of the public figures at the time that was shedding light on the struggles that Raza folks were facing and called people out to make change.

August 26th will be the 28th annual Xicana Moratorium Day where we will commemorate what happened that day and continue the fight to rid our people of injustices.

The Xicana Moratorium is a significant event for Raza because we remember those that have given themselves for the cause by commemorating them with an event that unites people to organize and fight for change.

This year the event will be held in San Francisco at Dolores Park on 20th and Dolores in the Mission District and will last from 11am to 4pm. There will be a sunrise ceremony at 5am with Danza Xitlali, vendors, food, fun activities for kids and the whole family to enjoy as well as live music and other performances from talented individuals from all around the bay area.

Our theme this year is “Con Nuestras Raices Rompemos Fronteras”or “With Our Roots We Break Borders.” As young folks we constantly see the borders in our neighborhoods by gangs and turfing, but through embracing and acknowledging our indigenous roots we can come together as Xicanas and prove that NO BORDER whether it may be physical or mental will ever stop us and our legacy of resistance. The youth organization Huaxtec, H.O.M.E.Y and the Xicana Moratorium Coalition organize this event for our community to come together with our families and friends to speak out on the injustices in our community.