Another corporate takeover of the public streets of San Francisco took place this past weekend.  Out at Ocean Beach that multinational sneaker company that calls itself Nike decided to set up shop to put on an ad campaign in the name of fitness—this time women’s fitness.  Streets were blocked, parking spaces swooped up, Google style buses clogging streets and of course, the participants ran their race while the ravens looked on from the trees and wires above.  These events are like massive masquerade parties and you look and wonder what theme is it this time, what costumes are they wearing, what corporate logo will be affixed to the ass—of which there are multitudes.

So there they were, the followers and/or disciples of this worldwide sneaker company, pounding the pavement nice and early.  Some streets were blocked off and many residents were trapped because of the anointed sneaker race in progress.  I stood and watched the participants at the conclusion of the race—all very satisfied, smug and oblivious to the neighborhood trounced upon by the endless passels of sneakers.  A coyote from nearby Golden Gate Park walked over to me.

“What’s up blood?” asked the coyote.

“You know how it is” I answered.  “Another pain in the ass footrace”

“I hear you on that.  I was watchin’ the way some of ‘em was runnin’.  They was runnin’ like a coyote was chasin’ ‘em”

“Where you chasing them?”

“Hell no, today’s my day off.  But this whole Nike thing is old.  I heard some of these runners saying just do it.  What the hell does that mean?  It don’t mean nothing.  I mean, payless shoes should have done this event”

“I hear you”

“I mean, it kinda reminded me of that blue grass concert shit they did in the park a month or so ago.  Tons of people and I don’t know where the hell they came from.  Comin’ into my home with all that noise.  One of the owls came by and told me that Paul McCartney was playing and that I needed to go and check it out”

“Do you like Paul McCartney?”

“Hell no I don’t like him!  Singing all that silly love song bullshit.  He’s had more dye jobs than a Grateful Dead T-shirt.  He should have retired a long time ago along with Rod Stewart and Elton John and that punk ass KOIT s**t”

“Who do you like then?

“Tony Bennett…now there’s a singer”

“Yeah…that’s true”

“Alright, I’ll holler at you later.  I gotta get up outta here”

The coyote left and I headed to the bus stop.  A sea of people was there.  I had to get to a panel discussion that I was to facilitate at the SF Public Library.  With the crowd at the bus stop and the crowd one and two stops before mine, I knew that getting on a bus was a long shot.  Many cabs and google styled passenger busses whizzed by with people behind the tinted glass.  Where did they come from?

I stood at the stop with all those runners. In the distance I saw a bus.  I stood and hoped that the bus would stop close to me so I could be among the first to board.  The bus approached and the bus driver took mercy on me.  It was brother.  He stopped and the door was right there in front of me.  The only thing I needed was a red carpet.  For a native San Franciscan, this rarely happens—good luck on public transit.  I got on and others flooded in through the front and back doors.  It was the good ship Nike.  I moved my way towards the rear.  I made it to the middle.

I was the only man on the bus.  It was an army of nike women who—upon looking at them—I determined could likely do me some great physical harm, even with a coyote at my side.  A wide variety—some looked like they could have come from a pot club vacation while others looked like another version of the burning man.  My ears were flooded with the talk and voices of those providing recaps of the run, the strides, the human competition.  I noticed a sameness about them; perhaps they went to the same schools, listened to the same music, colonized the same neighborhoods, ate Thai and Ethiopian food regularly or wore the same running shoes.

One of them called out to another, “I’m going to have brunch, then there’s a quaint little place we can go to get a pint of Guinness”.  I looked at the folks who were, along with myself, packed in like anchovies.  A few wore cape-like things draped over their shoulders.  The material looked like aluminum foil.  It made me thing of the old jiffy pop popcorn that used to explode from the aluminum foil casing when placed on a stove.  I waited to hear a sound, a pop.  And I heard them popping off about the thousand dollar training camps that you can go to to prepare for these running events, about how foggy it is out at Ocean Beach and, of course, how things are different here in comparison to their hometowns.  One woman, sitting, who came to support a friend who was running said, “I didn’t run in the race”.  I looked at the woman and her bulky girth of foot race support and thought: YEAH, NO KIDDING

I finally got to my stop.  I felt good to be away from the corporate logos, corporate air, corporate water.  I got off the bus and walked to where I had to go.  Let the rest of them run back to where ever it is they came from.

Editors Note: - it is actually much further on in the herstoric hunger strike as of press time but it took us several days to receive this letter from our reporter locked up behind the plantation at Pelican Bay

Today is the 37th day of the prison hunger/work strike and still many continue to go without food, not just in Pelican Bay SHU, but throughout California prisons. There has been one strike related death in Corcoran SHU, where on July 22nd a prisoner named Billy Sell lost his life while struggling for Human Rights. The prison immediately attempted to cover up this death by calling it a "suicide". We prisoners do not believe the states' vile propaganda, especially when it pertains to peoples struggles. We know that they always call strike related deaths "suicides" but WE DON'T BELIEVE IT!! During the 2011 Hunger Strikes CDCR covered up four strike related deaths by calling them "suicides", it's not SUICIDE IT'S TORTURE!!

As of today Sacramento and Governor Brown in particular refuse to negotiate with our mediation team and meet our 5 core demands and for this many more may succumb to more deaths, and many more will have health problems the rest of their lives because of having to go without food for so long. What kind of a country allows it's prisoners to starve to death? What kind of a system tortures people just because they're poor?

We continue to face retaliation, we have received write-ups and two months added to our time for our participation in the peaceful protest, for refusing torture we get 60 more days added to be tortured- What kind of sick people run such a system??

La Lucha Continua!!

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">In the Best Kept Secret the filmmakers come together through interview to create a seemingly reflective film about a high school graduating class of students with autism from JFK High School in Newark, New Jersey.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">While the film provides unseen, unheard voices, it leaves a questioning audience wanting more dialogue about the intersections of race, class status and disability.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Leroy Moore, a Black disabled activist and independent scholar said, “first look I was excited to see Black people, Black disabled people being the main subject of a film dealing with inner city living, poverty and dealing with social service systems.  We don't see that in film!  It was great to get a father's voice in the film because 9 times out of 10 you don't ever see the father.”

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">However, Moore has many observations.  The transition process is a really big issue with 99% being about a job but he states in between there is a lot of alone time which leads to possible depression and suicide. He points out there was a lack of socialization, students reacting to each other, visiting one another and all that goes along with friendship.  “Transition is about getting services but should include disability culture, history and pride, even in the classroom. Life skills are one thing but being empowered about life is another thing.”

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">He is concerned that many of the parents are looking for babysitters and believes the teachers work means nothing if not followed in the home and also would have loved to have seen adults with autism as mentors.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Moore reflected from his childhood in the section that talked about what your kid can't do.  “Damn it’s the same today.  How can we feel empowered when out of the gate is "can't?"

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Cheryl Green, a white disabled anti-racism ally and documentarian commented, "I thought it was a decent film in some ways. As long as you agreed that the film was about the teacher and not about those young men, then it was good. Sadly, they advertise it as being about the young men.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">But I still got a lot out of watching it. What I could not bear was the interview with the film maker and one of her producers. I thought their comments were from their experience of being privileged and entitled, which left some of their comments self-contradictory.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">As I listened to the description on the point of the film I thought "I bet that's not what the families you filmed think this film was for.” It reminded of a lesson I learned as a white documentarian that I must be careful not to reinforce that I am the expert, and helper and doer and the black person as interesting token subject who gives me points for superficial multiculturalism.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">“I don’t think the filmmakers have the first clue that the families they documented live in different circumstances are relevant.  I have learned as an outsider coming in, I must check my privilege at the door.”

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">What stood out for me, a single Black parent of an adult daughter with significant impairment, with a long memory of my ancestry, was the disparity in values.  The young men appeared to be directed in janitorial and fast food services, while the white people with disabilities attended an arts and culture program. This practice is all too common in the Black/white disability divide. 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Like Cheryl, I wonder if the filmmakers saw what they were showing.  Like Leroy, I wonder if the teacher and families understand the students have the right to be all they can be.  And I wonder if mankind understands that it is not ok for people with disabilities to aspire to be janitors and clean-up workers for fast food companies.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">However, had it not been for the Best Kept Secret there would not be this discourse.

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> 

mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Best Kept Secret mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> http://www.pbs.org/pov/bestkeptsecret/full.php#.UkLjc7HD8qQ

Andy  Lopez was only 13.  

Walking down the same Santa Rosa street

A toy gun strapped on his belt 

The Po Po saw him & even tho he

was jus a kid-to them he was a thief

he bout' to put

the gun down but he dint' know

police yelling at him tellin' him "This

aint a show!" 

Five rounds were shot or

maybe three.  I really dont care

because Andy Lopez's spirit will

always be free.

Statement from Monique Duenez on joining the National BrownBerets:

When my Tio Ernest Duenez Jr.was murdered by John Moody of the Manteca Police Department on June 8 2011, a big chunk of happiness and heart was taken from my family as well as myself.  We have been fighting every Sunday since then at the Manteca Police Department. As a Part of my Tio's fight for justice I have met a lot of families along the way who I have gained so much love and respect for, I see what these families are going through and I know why they fight so hard and never give up. I do it because of the love and respect and pain in my heart I have to go through to see my family in pain and relive that event over and over each time we go to protest or a march, so I stand on that street in front of MPD with my sign raised high reading JAIL FOR MOODY to support my family in this FIGHT, this is my passion,where my heart is at and I want to do the same for each and every other families going through the same, because I see my grandmother and grandfather in pain, with anger and a fire within them and having to remember why they are out there fighting each Sunday.  That is the same pain, anger fire and love driven emotion I see these families going through, I am driven with the same emotions to help and fight along-side each family including my own, to show them all "I am Here.. I feel your pain,and I am with you all the way!" when my family has events and marches and we have supporters coming from far and wide, the feeling in our hearts of support and solidarity is also what helps us keep pushing and fighting, support is everything in the fight for justice to all families because we all need each other and we are all feeling the same way. My Tio Jr ALWAYS had my back, he NEVER left me hanging , he was one of my best friends and he always gave me his best advice, I don’t speak much about my pain I usually just put it into the fight but the reason I go so hard for my uncle, the reason I am the warrior I’ve become is because I know for a fact, if roles were reversed he would have me ina minute, he would have never given up on me so I am never giving up on him! When I’m out fighting for justice even if it's at another family march or protest, I feel him with me more than any other day, giving me the motivation to fight with my fist up in the air yelling no justice no peace and my heart feels at ease for the moment.  His son Dominic is my godson, and I made a promise to my tio jr that I will always have his baby boys back, just like he had mine.  I see my godson and know he will never get the chance to know who his father is and that puts drive into me even more and makes me want to fight for John Moody to be behind bars like he is supposed to be, so I also fight for the children of these victims of police brutality.  My Tio Jr is putting this drive in me, I feel him every day and each time I’m fighting I can feel him standing with us all, so proud to know his family isn’t giving upon him. That’s what makes me fight.

When I first saw the Brown Berets was in June 9 2013 at our march for my Tio's2 year anniversary, they made an impact on me and everyone else, so powerful,united, and marching along-side us all making us feel at ease, the Brown Beretscame from Santa Paula. Having an inspirational group supporting us was an awesome feeling, I Saw the Brown Berets again on July 21, 2013 at the Year after Anaheim Statewide March.  I was standing with Theresa Smith, all the families where gathered and I heard marching and a voice over a microphone yelling "no justice no peace"turning the corner , it was the Brown Berets I said to myself "that’s awesome",  I can hear families saying how powerful there entrance was and how happy they were for the Brown Berets to be there, it made me happy to know that such a strong powerful group of chican@s has these families backs and was there to protect them.

I spoke with some of the Brown Berets that day including Chimalli and Capone, and asked them if they have a chapter near where I lived they said they were working on it, Chimalli was telling me the expectations and who they are,Me not yet knowing I was soon to become a Brown Beret, was so excited about meeting them, I shook hands with them and went on. After that day I found myself looking up who they were, educating myself more on the Brown Berets, andI would tell my mom they are awesome! I want to join! The way they help our people, our communities and how they march side by side, and support each family and when you speak to them they have so much love for what they do, it’s an inspiration. I Met Jesse Ornelas I call him Mr. Miyagi , he came down to protest with us and I asked him If they were starting a chapter out here because we need it, he said yes they were planning and all it takes is one person, and I told him “well I am that one person”, he said okay and we went about protesting, he messaged me to let me know the commander of NBB wanted him to train me to be in the NBB and we started that process, one thing that made me so happy and so excited was Jesse told me he wanted me to be the voice of my family and these other families, and I knew this is what I’m supposed  to do…this is what my Tio Jr wants me to do and this is where my heart is, I cannot explain how much this means to me and to be involved with the La Causa , my heart is in this, for the people , for my family , for all the other families as well and to know I get to march along-side some awesome Berets is exciting!And what other way to Observe, Serve, and Protect then with my new Familia LaCausa, National Brown Berets.

In an official statement from National Brown Berets:

The National Brown Berets are very pleased to have Monique Duenez join the NBB family. The reason why is because she has felt the grip the dirty hateful oppressors have on her community. She and her family have paid the ultimate sacrifice when that hateful murderous poor excuse for a cop killed Ernest Duenez Jr in cold blood some time ago. Monique and her family have made it their life mission that the dirty dogs that hide behind badges be brought to justice. The National Brown Berets are dedicated to protecting and serving the families that have taken up the fight for justice and we will do what it takes by any means necessary. CHICANO POWER!!!!! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!PRISON FOR MURDEROUS COPS!!!!!!! JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE !!!!!!

Respect & Power

Minster of Defense for the National Brown Berets - Jesse Ornelas

You can learn more about the National Brown Berets at www.nationalbrownberets.com

****************

You can watch the video of the murder of Ernest Duenez Jr.on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhnY17F_eiQ

You can join our fight for accountability from law enforcement on October 22^nd in Sacramento at the California StateCapital on International Day Against Police Brutality – this will be a statewide call to action.

Our last Statewide Call to Action July 21^st 2013- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v358Nj_-Qxw

See other action we are taking in California – if you would like to join a forum like this please contact us directly – the murder of Ernest Duenez Jr. and countless others are highlighted in the documentary C.O.P. Crimes of Police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZi7nogu84

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWdb4N3U8q0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

As off-plantation poor peoples in resistance, we are activating with desperation, immediate and long-term need and never pimped liberation. We are already there every week sharing food from the garden and making street based media for our Street Newsroom.

Homefulness isnt based on a grant guideline or a lengthy capital campaign that becomes a Non-profiteer business of its own. We are just folks, in struggle and resistance, making it happen.With humility and love. Always.

Ase-O, Ometeotl, Semign Cacona Guari, Ahooo...

For all of you who helped to make this happen though your donations of time, work or dollars, so much Love, gratitude and prayers to you. If you weren't able to be here this time, but want to help us see this happen, consider making a donation at this link

(Editor's note.  The graphic of Al Robles by Ted Visaya)

We live in a time of amnesia, deletion—of communities.  With gadgets we garner “friends” and—just as quickly—delete them whimsically out of existence.  Poet Al Robles refused to buy into the culture of amnesia.  Robles’ poetic and community work documented the lives of Filipino elders who lived in the International Hotel in San Francisco’s Manilatown.  He knew the heart of the community--who was having a problem with the landlord, who needed help with their doctor, who needed help with the bureaucratic systems that mock people with institutionalized disdain.  He knew the community without a cell phone, computer or application.  He was part of the fight for the I-Hotel, in which the community organized against the eviction of elders who lived there.  The owner wanted to convert the hotel into a parking lot to accommodate the insatiable hunger for land by the expanding financial district.  The hotel became the epicenter for the fight for housing rights in the city in 1977, a battle that still rages with the rampant landlordism and an eviction epidemic that is an all-out assault on elders (as well as families and artists) that is nothing short of elder abuse.

The epidemic of Ellis Act evictions compels us to remember the I-Hotel.  This past Thursday, in a show of passion, compassion and strength, elders from Chinatown converged on city hall to protest the evictions that are preying upon elders such as the Lee family, a senior couple in their late 70’s who care for their disabled daughter.  The Lee’s lived in their rent controlled unit on Jackson and Larkin Streets for over 30 years.  After a delay in the eviction and community outcry, the Lee’s were forced to leave and are now living in a hotel until they can find stable housing.  The protest by Chinese elders had a message for the mayor (whose name is also Lee): Things are out of balance.  Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have increased 80% from last year.  Seniors live in fear because that they will be evicted at any time. 

In this tech-driven culture where friends are made by the click of a button and deleted just as quickly,  we find that our communities are being deleted—the Mission, Bayview, Fillmore.  Have we not remembered the lessons of our elders, the lessons of the I-Hotel?  The eviction epidemic, fueled largely by tech money, has meant death and sickness for elders looking to keep a roof over their heads.  And how has the tech industry reacted?  Not a tweet to be read (or heard).

Activists like Al Robles and Bill Sorro did not forget.  They fought the battle for the I-Hotel more than 30 years ago when the developers, who knew nothing about building community, let the site of the hotel sit as a hole in the ground.  Al Robles, Bill Sorro, Emil DeGuzman, and others who cared for community and  honored their elders, insisted that nothing less than decent, low income affordable senior housing be built on the site of the former I-Hotel.  After 30 years, it became a reality with the opening of the new I-Hotel with 105 units of senior housing.  Every Ellis Act or unlawful eviction is a desecration of the memory of the elders that stood up and fought for the I-Hotel.  The Ellis Act has dealt a poisonous hand upon our elders, preying upon them in the name of real estate speculation.  The I-Hotel calls for the end to the Ellis Act because as long as this unjust law exists, our elders, families and working community are not safe. 

(image of Poverty Skolaz from POOR Magazine and LA CAN/WRAP fighting the criminalization of poverty through our voices, our solutions, our self-determined actions)

Whack, Tap, Crack, the sound of the steel Po'Lice flashlight on a car window is like no other, and always had the same effect on homeless me and mama, blood-curdling fear. I thought about our constant po'lice harassment, abuse and eventual arrest for the sole act of being houseless in Amerikkka when i heard about South Carolina's "new" law that officially made it illegal to be homeless in downtown Columbia, SC

For over 10 years of my young life starting when i was 11, me and my mama were housed and un-housed, and that meant our lives were constantly at risk of po'lice harassment, abuse and eventual incarceration.

POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, STREET SHEET, Krip Hop Nation, poverty skolaz at Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) and many others have been writing, speaking, teaching and making people aware and one of the reasons i wrote the book Criminal of Poverty - Growing Homeless in America is that it has been illegal to be houseless in the US since the original theft of these indigenous lands of Turtle Island by the English law-based, only-good-for-rich-wite- Settler-Colonizers.

From the pauper laws to the Ugly laws, there are many other things that this colonizer created law has made illegal such as being an indigenous person from the other side of the Amerikkkan imperalist false borders, a poor person selling or working on land they don't "own" or rent like me and my mama did for years to survive, and/or a young person of color just convening, living or surviving like Kenny Harding Jr, Mario Romero, Ernesto Duenez Jr or Derrik Gaines.. And as Susan Schweik's powerful book reported, its also been illegal for centuries and still is to be living with a disability and poor thanks to the archaic "Ugly laws" of the 19th century, which stated that anyone "unsligtly" could not be seen on the street- aka "begging" being poor being houseless in Amerikkka.

"You have no choice, you either go to jail or go to jail," said Marcuz, 62, an African Descendent poverty skola from South Carolina. "I have been living in shelters trying to get housing, but there is no housing here, so now our housing will be jail or a jail that's basically another jail called a shetler way out of town", Marcuz concluded,

On Aug. 13, the Columbia City Council approved a plan that effectively makes homelessness illegal in parts of the city. The proposal forces those who sleep outdoors to be sent to a shelter on the outskirts of town. Those who don’t comply are literally banned from the city or sent to jail.

Once you are sent to the shelter, you can’t come and go. If you want to go back downtown, you have to get approval from social worker/wardens to shuttle you back to downtown.

Even the Po'Lice in Columbia aren't feeling the hater-law, “Homelessness is not a crime,” Interim Police Chief Ruben Santiago told The State. “I’ve got to have the legal right (to question or take anyone into custody). We can’t just take people to somewhere they don’t want to go. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”

This "new" law is really only a bold step into codifing the deep fascism that already exists in wite-supremacist, blud-stained dollaz above all else honoring Amerikkka. The same hate that put me, my mama and so many of us poverty skolaz in jail for sitting, lying or living while houseless. it is why WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project) poverty skolaz have been working diligently for the last year on the Homeless Persons' Bill of Rights in California which is now currently on hold in the California legislature.

It is also extremely important to always connect the dots between the rising criminalization of poverty, poor and working class folks of color and the insane rise in gentriFUKation, displacement and the devil-opment of our poor communities of color which is going on in cities across the US.

From Santa Clara to South Carolina thanks to the budget genocide known as "Sequester" one of the few programs to help poor folks pay their rent called Section 8 was cut by 10 % - which means that elders, babies, families and folks are becoming homeless and and/or at risk of eviction out of our neighborhoods, our public housing and our so-called affordable housing by the tousands. Our comrades at CHAM in Santa Clara just reported that over 17,000 disabled, elders and families joined the thousands already facing or currently in homelessness.

There is also big money in what i affectionately call Non-profiteer-pimping and case manglement aka advocates who are limited in what they can "advocate" for as it relates to their "funding streams" and grant guidelines and non-profit Housing Devil-opers like Lennar and John Stewart who have extremely limited, over-priced housing available which you have to sit on wait-lists for years to qualify for and don't even qualify for because they only accept tenants who have perfect credit and no evictions on their records, a reality most of us po' folks don't have.

Me and my mama were never cured, helped or "saved" from our houselessness and poverty by all that po'lice harassment and criminalization. What we were were traumatized. Our lives constantly unstable and our lives always lived in fear. Liberation, consciouness, and activation of revolution with fellow poor, indigenous and peoples of color who connect the dots always about our herstories and histories is what kept us alive ,

Poor and indigenous people-led, never pimped movements like Right to Survive in Oregon, the Zapatistas in Chiapas, the Landless Peoples Movement in Brazil , the Shackdwellers Union in South Africa WRAP, POOR magazine and our own Homefulness project is what comes from our own liberation. And as we see the hater-nation called Amerikkka close in on us, we must remember, change wont come from a savior, a pimp or and institution - change will only come from a poor people-led revolution

Thousands of Power-FUL young people demand justice for Andy Lopez

Crying now and I’m not going to stop crying. Today’s tears are for 13 year young Andy Lopez shot by Santa Rosa Sheriff’s for holding a toy gun he was returning to a friend. Yesterday it was for Manuel Diaz Jr from Anaheim and last week it was for Kenny Harding Jr from San Francisco and the week before it was for Trayvon Martin and Ernesto Duenez Jr and  two years ago it was for Oscar Grant and ten years ago it was for Idriss Stelley. And while Im crying for all these babies shot by the occupying armies called Po’Lice I’m crying for their mamaz who brought them life in the Indigenous stolen land called  Amerikkka built by the wite-supremacist men who stole it.

“F- tha Police, there was no reason for Andy to be shot. This was murder,” said 17 year old Gabriel who was one of thousands of young, activated people who marched out of their high school, with the blessing of their conscious teachers to the Santa Rosa City Hall and then to the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s department demanding justice. He and other angry and hurt young peoples spoke with myself and my fellow Prensa POBRE familia, Vivi T and Tiburcio who went there to march, cry and scream with all those young leaders.

“What do we want justice ? – when do we want it.? . Now!!!”, the  voices screamed, chanted, shouted. They were loud, they were focused and they weren’t giving up.

We stood together, youth, mamaz, tias y tios, refusing to leave, refusing to stay quiet any longer, in front of the closed doors of the welfare-food stamps-jail complex of Santa Rosa. The plantations doors were sealed shut like a coffin. A metaphor for the death of so many behind their plantation walls.

Andy Lopez' parents stood to the side of the huge crowd, crying, shell-shocked, lost, almost confused, tears never leaving their cheeks, eyes filled with the deepest sorrow that no-one could ever be inside unless you had experienced the loss of your baby.

Me and Vivi saw that hole in their hearts, we saw it in a way beyond words. We held our own children closer and wrapped our own souls and arms around theirs. 

“He was my brothers friend, he was just walking home, he wasn’t hurting anyone, they didn’t need to kill him,” Maria, 16 shouted above the chants to PNN family. She couldn’t say anymore, her words became more tears.

Maria’s tears joined my tears and the thousands of other tears to become a river that rolled down the streets of Santa Rosa into the streets of Oakland and into the streets of San Francisco and reached all the way into the gated, racist community of Sanford, Florida, lifting us up to our young ancestor warrior suns so we will never stop focusing on the justice we must demand.

Next Actions:Tuesday, Oct 29th, @ 12:00 noon - -Santa Rosa Junior College - 1501 Mendocino ave- Santa Rosa,
-Old Courthouse Square- 300 Mendocino Ave- Santa Rosa

@3pm- Sonoma County Sheriff's Dept 2796 Ventura Ave Santa Rosa, Ca

Lee Williams and I met in the 90's and he joined at that time Disability Advocates of Minorities Org's artistic arm, New Voices: Disabled Poets & Artists of Color. In this audio interview Lee talks about his music career, his album, Phase V, being Black disabled musician and you can listen to some of his songs. This interview was done at SF Main Library in 1998 or 1999. His birthday is September 2nd. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE WILLIAMS 2013. MUCH LOVE!

Original Artwork by Jose Villarreal for Indigenous Peoples Day

Editors Note: Jose is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents who was involved in the Hunger Strike to end all solitary confinement and the in-human treatment of all of our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

Revolutionary Greetings! I have temporarily stopped my hunger strike- for now. There are many things and efforts taking place here in the SHU. Some people are going on strike for a week or two while others are jumping back in for the long haul; some are jumping in alone, while some are doing so in groups and this will continue so long as the state continues to refuse to end this torture.

            It should shock the conscience of the planet that people will die because a state would rather continue to torture humans than to save lives. The heart of our 5 demands is to end the torture in these concentration kamps, but these demands are in odds with the states’ goals. We know what their goals are, we prisoners know them well and the state is determined to carry out their deadly program at all costs. But we need the public to understand what the states’ intention is; we need people out in society to understand what these SHU’s are all about and why the state is making such a fuss over keeping “business as usual” even when word is getting out about their dirty little secrets.

            The people should take a minute to notice why is it that some of the best prison theoreticians, the most honorable prison revolutionaries, selfless acts, organized strikes and activism deriving from the SHU? California leads the U.S. in the prison boom- it is ground zero and SHU prisoners are tortured by the thousands in solitary confinement, but the SHU is the spot where it seems the most transformation is taking place, where prisoners are learning and shedding their old bourgeois, individualistic ways so why the torture?

            Someone out in society who is unfamiliar with the prison kamps or the injustice system may be a little confused as to why those who are clearly bettering themselves are being tortured more than any other prisoners. Just so you’re with me now, those who continue in the same old mentality may be left alone on the prisons general population but those who transform, become conscience and attempt to better themselves, their nation or people in general, these are the individuals who are tortured. It’s a very simple explanation and this is because these SHU’s (read concentration kamps) were built primarily for the revolutionary, the conscience, the prison activist or jailhouse lawyer. In classic co Intel pro style these kamps were designed to neutralize the enemy of the state or as the state puts it “persons of influence”. This is what it comes down to, this is the bare bones of what we are facing and what this prison struggle is all about whether some participating strikers even realize it themselves but this is what we are truly up against here.

            Our development as people within these dungeons goes against state interests, and one quick example to prove this is when SHU prisoners here in Pelican Bay released the call to “end all hostilities” between all nationalities. According to what the sate claims the Pelican Bay SHU holds the state of California’s “Gang Leaders”. The state isolates prisoners here stating their “power and influence” on other prisoners and youth out in society. That said, when these same prisoners issue a call to end hostilities, such a call should carry weight since according to the state this is where “power and influence” exists, so why wouldn’t the state publicize this call for peace? The state has huge resources in corporate media, so why wasn’t this call broadcast on every evening news program? Why didn’t we see it on the front page of every major corporate newspaper? After all coming from so-called “gang leaders” this call would save thousands of poor lives right? The reason the state is attempting to not just make this call go away, but to punish those and possibly assassinate those who initiated this call for peace and the end to hostilities is because it goes against the states’ interests, plain and simple.

            The ruling class will not stand by while poor people are transformed and mobilized to empower the people, they will target these people and neutralize the look to history and back in the 70’s when the national liberation struggles peaked, groups like the Brown Berets, the Black Panthers and the Young Lords party who were transforming and mobilizing poor brown and black were targeted and neutralized. The “persons of influence” were served prison or the morgue. When prisoners in Attica transformed and mobilized they were neutralized and gunned down. Today as California prisoners are transforming and mobilizing. Many of us will also be neutralized by the state whether we are starved to death or by other means, but the state will do all it can to teach us a lesson for disobeying the lash. But at this point we see nothing that can be worse than torture!

             One of the ways the state is retaliating at this time is once those who go a certain amount of time without eating they take away all your property and then re-house you. When this happens, the prisoner is unable to communicate with the outside world via letters. You are unable to write letters because you and everyone else in your pod have no paper, envelopes or stamps because all your property is bagged up in some storeroom. Even if you would get this material somehow you have no address book to write anyone outside of prison. This extreme isolation is used to further our torture and makes it difficult for our outside supporters to know what’s really going on. But those prisoners who are not moved and who do have their property it is important that we write to our friends and family as well as outside supporters in order to explain what is occurring in this kamp, while countering state slander against our beautiful struggle. We have the ability to be a voice when this privilege is currently out of reach for those in some in all boxer underwear and nothing else in their cell, held incommunicado.

            Recently on a local radio station it was revealed that over 20 prisoners who have been on continuous hunger strike since July 8^th to Folsom Prison which also has a SHU. The SHU at Folsom is used for medical, as it is close to U.C. Davis hospital. This tells us that these men who have been moved are suffering life-threatening symptoms and that should they die the prison would not want the publicity of 20+ prisoners dying in Pelican Bay SHU. This is another misstep because we will make sure the truth is told! What was also learned from the radio is that the four main representatives here in the SHU who signed the “agreement to end hostilities” and who were our prison negotiators have been taken out of the SHU and moved to the Ad Seg (ASU). The ASU is usually used to house people waiting for a bed to open in the SHU. What’s unique- and horrifying in this case is that the prison not just moved these four men to ASU without property, without even a pen to write with and left unable to write letters or communicate what is occurring to them. What’s more before they were moved whole pods were emptied out in order to house four men.

            To get an idea of what ASU looks like, there is a long hallway and as you walk down the hall there is four “wings” on the left side and four wings on the right side. Each wing is a unit which has around twelve cells and prisoners are held in these windowless cells with nothing in them but a mattress and a sheet. What the prison has done is place these four men in a unit or wing along and one of the men in each of the four corners of the ASU. Each wing has a door so that even if one would yell at the top of your lungs the other wing would not hear; you are essentially sealed off from ­anyone even your fellow prisoners.

The reps are being tortured in this was as they hit the 60^th day of hunger because this is history repeating itself. These are men attempting t negotiate to resolve the strikes and find solutions with the state and they get this treatment. These are the men who sent the call to end hostilities in an attempt to end decades-long wars and an attempt to save countless future lives from poor on poor crime and for this they are tortured in this way. These men are attempting to transform and mobilize poor people in these kamps who have been cast off from society and for this they are singled out to be neutralized alone in the four corners of the ASU. What is taking place in the ASU is the state heightening psychological warfare to the max where an entire unit is emptied in order to house one person! This is an attempt to instill a sense of helplessness in these reps and highlight isolation in their minds in order to inflict the most damage. But what these bourgeois officials cannot grasp is this is not a game and people are ready to die for this and because of our understanding of who and what we are up against we are that much more determined to win. State officials are paid to do this but we do this to survive! The best way to describe this is how US military were in Vietnam being paid to fight while the Vietnamese people were in it for their very survival and this was why they were successful.

            But people should understand this is a protracted struggle and will take different forms and will continue for some time but we have made a leap forward and will continue to transform and mobilize these kamps from the inside out!

Peoples power siempre!

Jose H. Villarreal

Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) - Hello I’m so glad you said yes to an interview!  First of all your work is beautiful.  Tell us you call yourself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright please explains.

Sabina England – Thank you for asking me to do this interview for Krip-Hop Nation! As you know, I support your works and I’m a big admirer of your organization. I’m grateful for your support and friendship. Anyway, just so we are clear, I didn’t originally call myself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright. A Pakistani Muslim teenager in Norway who had followed my works online and was an admirer created the name of my Facebook public page.

So I was surprised to see a page about myself on there, and I became friends with her, and she talked to me about the Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia in Norway that a lot of Muslims, both immigrants and European-born youths, faced from other people. She was drawn to my works, to my anger and political awareness in my art, to my struggle existing as a Deaf South Asian Muslim woman of color immigrant punk rocker in a hearing white man’s world.

Eventually I took over the Facebook page. I like the name of the Facebook page, because it helps shows the world that I am: Deaf, Muslim, Punk, and Playwright. I wanted deaf people out there to see my name come up in results for “deaf” and see that there’s a working deaf artist who has a career in theatre, filmmaking and playwriting, these fields which are very difficult for deaf people to break into. I also wanted Muslims to find me in search results and see that there’s a Muslim woman filmmaker / artist / performer. I wanted other Muslim women to find me and enjoy my works.

And I wanted the world-- whether hearing, deaf, non-Muslim, or Muslim, to see that I am not a stereotypical “deaf and dumb” girl, or that I was NOT a “helpless  / oppressed” Muslim girl who needed to be saved.

KHN - As a Deaf Muslim woman on stage, do you want the audience to listen and feel the communities that you are from and if so how do you get them into your art/performances?

Sabina England –Yes. In a way I want the audience to know that we EXIST, we are here, and we have many stories to tell, and we are NOT invisible! Being deaf, I incorporate American Sign Language in my stage performances, because it’s easier for me to express myself through sign language when I perform. I can speak, but I find it easier if I am allowed both forms of communication. I also find that sign language is richer and more diverse in storytelling, while making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences. I also want to force the hearing audience to have a new experience while watching me perform.

As a deaf person, I struggle everyday with communication issues and missing out the beauty of music, sounds of nature and people and animals, etc. I am missing out something really important yet so simple that hearing people experience everyday for their rest of their lives, you know? So when I perform in ASL, the hearing audiences may not understand me 100% and I want it that way. I want them to really pay close attention and watch me and try to understand what I am saying, while the deaf audiences get to fully enjoy and understand me! So I want the hearing audiences to have a completely new experience while watching me.

As an Indian woman, I take stories and elements from my North Indian culture. I also incorporate visual aesthetics from my culture, such as traditional and modern Indian clothes, or using Indian music (whether classic or modern), Indian-style make-up. I am very inspired by the diversity of India; we have so many different religions, tribes, languages, and cultures in our motherland. Our history is great and rich. We have strong traditions in storytelling, dance, music, singing, and art. Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and other Indian Muslims inspire me. India inspires me; it is part of my soul and plays a very heavy role in my works.

As a Muslim woman, I take spiritual themes from my Islamic faith, such as protecting Mother Earth and honoring our home for all human beings, having respect for fellow humans and all other religions and cultures, and understanding the concept of Jihad (“Struggle”), to defend our souls, minds, and bodies against the dark, ugly things in the world (such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, audism, ableism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, hatred, bigotry, violence, cruelty, loneliness, etc.…)… strive to be happy, learn to love each other, defend our homes, and protect our Mother Earth.

KHN- Off stage you are behind a camera and pen.  As director you created “Wedding Night” which in the trailer it says that Husband & Wife meet for the first time at the wedding.  That is gripping tell us more.

Sabina England – I am from Bihar, India, and I have a very large family in India and overseas. Our family is a mixture of both modern and traditional. Arranged marriages are still very common amongst many Indians, and in our family as well. Just so that I want you and everyone else to know, arranged marriages are usually NOT forced, but usually happen when the woman asks her parents to arrange the marriage. In my family, arranged marriages only happen when the woman or man ask for it to happen. There are no forced marriages in my family. For me, personally, I could never have an arranged marriage, so I will never have one.

So anyway… I have a very active imagination and I always keep asking questions about everything. I’m thinking about something new every day. So, yeah… I’ve wondered what happened between a husband and wife for the first time on their wedding night, and what would happen if they discover they were completely wrong for each other. I thought it would be an interesting story. I wrote the script, planned the production for about 6-7 months, got an actress from Los Angeles and flew her to St. Louis, and shot the film over 3 days, and had the film professionally edited in a small town in Iowa. The film premiered at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City and I got to meet some famous filmmakers such as Mira Nair and Aparna Sen, both that inspire me greatly with their films. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget, and the experience made me even more determined and hungry to keep making films.

KHN – As an author you wrote and self-published your first novel, Urdustan (A Collection of Short Stories), a book of short stories about South Asians from all walks of life.  Why did you think this book is important and tell us why you end up self-publishing it?

Sabina England – The book has many short stories and features characters from different backgrounds. There are Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, punk rockers and deaf youths, Hasidic Jews and gay people. All the short stories were loosely inspired by true events in my life.

You know how some people out there claim that they don’t see race that they are colorblind, and race doesn’t matter? You know those people I’m talking about? That shit really bugs me. We ARE different, and race DOES matter. We all have different experiences based on our gender, race, disability, sexuality, religion, etc. And I wanted to show the readers that… look; we are NOT all the same. We are all different! We all have different experiences. We will not experience love or friendship the same way!

But in the end, we all want the same things in life… Love, friendship, happiness, family, respect, acceptance.  But we all experience those things in different ways, we have different experiences, and that’s fine. I wanted to show that in Urdustan.

I went the self-publishing route because I hate sitting around waiting for letters from agents or publishers. And it can take a long time for books to be professionally printed by a publishing house. Anyway, I like to have complete control over my works, so I felt that self-publishing was the best option for me.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Your short videos are a mixture of politics, laughter, nature and such.  Please give us a brief rundown on “Allah Save the Punk!” And "Allah Earth.”

Sabina England – I made “Allah Save the Punk!” because I wanted to do a light comedy with a storyline using both punk rockers and religious extremists from a Muslim punk rock perspective. Growing up in Northern England in the 1980s, I always liked punk rock and I was just drawn to the subculture for its sheer anger and energy, but also for its political awareness. I just wanted to have fun and make other Muslims laugh at ourselves. Humor is the best medicine! We all know that one person in our community who’s a self-righteous, holier-than-thou person, and I wanted to create a self-righteous character that is so full of themselves and so extreme in their beliefs. I created the Mullah, who was so religious and holy, but somehow ended up with a punk rock daughter. That’s pretty funny, right?!

 Also the title “Allah Save the Punk!” was inspired from “God Save the Queen” by Sex Pistols. 

I shot, wrote, and filmed “Allah Earth” in Costa Rica. I underwent some changes in my life, both mentally and spiritually. I was starting to figure out my place in the world and I had almost attained a sense of happiness. I had been working with a musician group called Lux Ascension, which incorporates music with performance art and storytelling, and I worked with Bryson Gerard (who moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles). He inspired me to go off and try something on my own. I was also a big lover of Sufi poetry. Sufi poets are all about love and connecting with Allah on a greater, intimate level. So I wanted to incorporate sign language into a poem about Mother Earth, and have it stylistically influenced by Sufi poetry. I thought Costa Rica was the perfect place for that because it’s such a beautiful country and the people there take great pride in their environment and take good care of Mother Earth.

Today “Allah Earth” has developed into a live theatre project, and will premiere in London on April 2014 and then go on to the St. Louis Fringe Festival, hopefully.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - On your website it says you are apart of S.O.S Records, an underground Los Angeles streetpunk label, and have often been linked to the Taqwacores scene.  Please explain.

Sabina England – I was a friend with Rob Chaos, the lead singer from Total Chaos, we became friends on MySpace in the mid 00s and stayed in touch. He liked some of my posts and liked my attitude so he asked me to be the face of S.O.S Records, they printed out promotional flyers with my face and put it up at punk shows everywhere! I was also asked to appear in Taqwacore (the documentary) and I said no because I had some problems at the time and I didn’t feel ready to do the project. So they used one of my photos (with my permission) and put it in the film. So ever since then a lot of people have associated me with both.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - You lived in the UK and the US as a Deaf Muslim artist/writer/filmmaker which country has been open to your work/politics and what are the politics of both countries that make it into your art?

Sabina England – This is a hard question to answer, but I will try my best. I think the UK is a better place for South Asians because South Asians are the largest minority group so we have a better representation in the media and we are very much a huge part of British society. Chicken tikka was also made in England (not India), and some of the best South Asian actors in Hollywood came from England, and so many British people can identify famous South Asians, and some Bollywood stars such as Shilpa Shetty became break-out stars in England. Major cities in England, Scotland and Wales have large heavy South Asian communities. When I lived in England, I felt very Indian and British. Yet in the USA, I’ve never felt American. I’ve always felt… foreign. (for the record, I am a dual citizen of UK and USA).

So in Great Britain, there are better opportunities for South Asians in theatre, film and television. I cannot say the same for South Asians in the USA (I say this from my own perspective, of course, and many other South Asians will disagree with me). Also, the Arts Council of England gives out money to artists, filmmakers, theatre companies, etc. and they give out grants to POC artists. That would never happen here in the USA, since so many Americans have such an anti-artist attitude and would never want the U.S government to fund the arts.  So yeah, I think for South Asians, it’s better to be in Britain than USA.

As for the Deaf, I think it’s hard anywhere on Earth for the deaf to break into, but USA and UK offer better opportunities for the deaf, so deaf artists would probably do better there than in other parts of the world.

And for Muslims… there’s a lot of Islamophobia in the UK and USA…so I don’t know how to answer this one.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Can you share with us your piece, "Being Deaf,"

Sabina England – “Being Deaf” was one of my first poems I wrote as a child, I think I was in 6^th grade. I was almost 13 at that time. My body was going through hormone changes, and I felt very alone and fucked up emotionally. I had been mainstreamed in a hearing school so I was placed in a hearing environment with hearing students for the first time in my life. Before, I had been around deaf children all my childhood. I felt more comfortable around the deaf. But being around hearing students, I felt being judged, stared at, and whispered. I was also an Indian Muslim, and people at the school were all white, WASPish, And All-American. I did not fit in at all. “Being Deaf” had lines about me struggling with speech therapy and feeling left out in the dark and feeling frustrated with my speech problems and trying to communicate with hearing people.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> –I saw you in San Francisco in 2012 at the Women’s Building and you had visuals, audio, sign language all focus about being a Deaf Muslim woman.  I think you made a video about your piece.  Can you explain that piece for us?

Sabina England – It was for a South Asian women’s festival called Yoni Ki Baat. Yoni Ki Baat is a festival that celebrates the diversity and stories of South Asian women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, all over the Indian subcontinent. One of my friends, a musician and recording artist named Micropixie, a fellow South Asian woman, who lives in San Francisco, contacted me and suggested that I write a piece for Yoni Ki Baat, so that she and I would perform together. I liked the idea so I wrote a piece called Ugly/Beautiful Brown/White. The poem was about my childhood struggle about being brown, and how much I hated being brown and Indian.

I thought that I was very ugly for having dark skin, black hair, and dark eyes. The poem also detailed how I would drink milk to lighten my skin, and I’d often pray to Allah, asking to become white. I was surrounded by images of white girls and white women everywhere in the media, so it had a very negative impact on my self-esteem. The poem also detailed about how I came to accept my brown skin and began to see myself as beautiful.  A lot of South Asians in the audience loved it because they all went through something similar in their childhoods, too.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Have you worked with Deaf musicians/rappers?

Sabina England – No, not yet. But I would love to.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> – What is your advice for other Deaf women of color who want to do what you do?

Sabina England – You really have to believe in yourself. When you start out, no one else is going to help you. You have to be brave and put yourself out there and share your works. Look for any opportunities to work with other artists, musicians, filmmakers, or poets. Network your butt off, get your name out there, and go to as many arts events as possible. Volunteer if you can, and make other people remember you so that in the future maybe they’ll contact you if there’s an opportunity for you. Put yourself on many social networking platforms, and engage yourself with the public but do it in a very positive way.

Oh… and everyone should know this... if  you support other artists, they’re likely to support you back, too.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - How can people get in contact with you?

Sabina England – They can contact me through my website contact form. I am  also on Twitter and Facebook, so people can send me a message or tweet me! I also have a YouTube channel that people can subscribe and watch, and a blogspot where I publish some of my short stories and poems.

www.SabinaEngland.com

www.facebook.com/SabinaEngland

www.twitter.com/SabinaEngland (@SabinaEngland)

www.youtube.com/velmasabina

http://DeadAmericanDream.blogspot.com

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - What is one thing in your profession/world that piss you off and how do you deal with it?

Sabina England – Lack of accessibility for deaf people in film, theatre, and performing arts… being deaf is already hard enough but even harder trying to get jobs or be involved in the film / theatre industries without using an interpreter or not being able to lip-read well… and this other thing especially upsets me.. I notice there are practically NO fellowships, grants and paid opportunities for the deaf in all artistic fields, especially film and performance art.

Also there is a lot of hidden racism toward deaf people of color in the arts. I could not find any information on film grants or fellowships for the deaf, yet a black deaf filmmaker had claimed that some white deaf filmmakers were given money by relay organizations to fund their films while deaf filmmakers of color were ignored. She is probably right because I’ve seen deaf films that were sponsored and funded by organizations, yet these films feature almost all white males who were deaf. I don’t see much race diversity in these films!!! I believe she is telling the truth.

How do I deal with it? I believe in myself, I keep working hard, and I do things myself because I know nobody else will. I am not going to be angry all the time and let the anger consume my soul. I just got to be positive and keep going and ignore the hurdles that society tries to place in front of me.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> – Any last words?

Sabina England – You won’t hear the end of me, this is just the beginning!

Krip-Hop Nation finally interviewed Bill Shannon aka Crutch Master. I have known about Shannon since 1995. I've always wanted to interview him about his dancing, Hip-Hop culture, his disability as growing older, his time in NY in the 80's and his work now. He even turned down a big time mainstream contest show. He made it clear that he loves Hip-Hop but his dance/art is much more than just Hip-Hop more like interdisciplinary dance and now is more into House music but still listens to Hip-Hop. Shannon is a conceptual, interdisciplinary dance and media artist who creates both solo and group projects. He considers his work rooted in street culture and informed by the fine arts. He is widely recognized in the dance/performance world, the underground hip-hop and club dance scene, the urban arts movement, as well as the disabled artist community. Also in this interview he also talked about being White in NY in the 80's when Hip-Hop was on the streets where he danced with his crutches. This audio interview was so great and I hope you like it. Listen then go to his site at http://www.crutchdoc.com/

(Editor's note: The elder who is the subject of this article, Arturo Noriega, took part in a housing rally in the city's South of Market Area (SOMA) yesterday (10/9/13) protesting the gentrification, high rents and evictions in the neighborhood.  He is currently homeless.  He has worked tirelessly to obtain housing, doing all the necessary things in order to secure a place.  Mr. Noriega took part in the SOMA march, called, "SOMA Time and the Livin' Ain't Easy Walk of Shame", that was organized by housing rights groups and tenants from throughout San Francisco.  Mr. Noriega took time to participate in the rally, despite being run back and forth in a bureaucratic maze that is extremely frustrating, to say the least.  Below is the story of his current struggle to obtain housing in a most hostile city for tenants and potential tenants.  Arturo is pictured (in blue cap) in upper right hand corner of picture speaking to reporter)

A San Francisco man who was approved for section 8 housing at Trinity Place in the city’s South of Market area (SOMA), a hotbed of tech sector fueled evictions and gentrification, finds himself in a frustrating and demoralizing bureaucratic maze that is keeping him from securing the housing he needs to come out of his homeless situation.

Arturo Noriega is currently homeless.  He is a San Francisco resident who has been extremely proactive in trying to obtain housing.  He enlisted the help of the Bill Sorro Housing Program in July in applying for housing at Trinity Place, located on 1188 Mission Street.  Mr. Noriega completed all of the necessary paperwork with due diligence.  His application was submitted, which included his financial information, and was submitted into a lottery, to be among other applicants looking to obtain housing from a limited number of units.

The developer at Trinity refused to honor its binding section 8 agreement that is has with the city.  This prompted the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community development to get involved.  Communication ensued between the attorneys and representatives from both sides which resulted in, supposedly, a resolution of the situation.  However, the situation—in fact—did not change, as Mr. Noriega finds himself in a confusing bureaucratic maze and is still homeless.

Trinity Management has advised Mr. Noriega that he needs a co-signer on the lease as well as a credit check.

If Mr. Noriega’s financials weren’t sufficient, or if there was a question regarding it, then why was he approved for a unit in the first place? 

This has been a demoralizing nightmare for Mr. Noriega, who has honorably and exhaustively worked to secure housing in order to get himself out of homelessness.

Our message to Trinity Properties, Caritas Management and The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development: Do right by Mr. Noriega.  Stop messing around with this man’s life and give him the unit that he was promised.  Or is it that you don’t want section 8 tenants, that you are banking on him to give up out of frustration?  Give the man what you said you were going to give him.  You ought to be ashamed.

It all started last month, outside the construction site at First and Mission where the new Transbay terminal and building is being built. I saw two police officers: one grabbing the closed end of a sleeping bag while the other one grabbed a man with his baton around the man’s neck, pulling him out of the sleeping bag. This is a violation of their protocol. Being that I made a treaty with my wife since I got married not to fight with police officers, I did not get involved in an altercation. The police officer just waved at me and said, “Pops, go right by.”

This police activity is a front to a formerly neutral zone between homeless people and police officers. For years, homeless people were allowed to sleep in the old Transbay terminal until it closed at 2 in the morning. That all stopped when a redevelopment agency got the property and began construction on the site. The new building on the  earthquake prone landfill site is not just a normal skyscraper; it will be a 1,000 foot glass and steel disaster. They had to go down 300 feet to hit bedrock with the piledriving in order to anchor the building. When finished, this will not only be a huge structure inside, but a palace for the rich in the basement as well. The high speed rail train that goes 200 miles an hour will have a station there, as one of the stops from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It will also serve caltrains and other bus companies for commuters to bring them back to their million dollar homes down the peninsula. The tower will be home to new businesses that will be nothing but headaches to the low-income residents of our city. As Google does not give any support to our city, I don’t expect that these people will support us either.

Senate bill 122 would keep exclusionary housing, which means one low income housing unit would be built for every five luxury units. Low income units are defined as 30% of area income medium, which in San Francisco is $100,000 per year. The below market housing units would be affordable to seniors on social security or anybody on SSI or on minimum wage. SB122 was passed by the state senate and assembly but vetoed by our governor, with no logical explanation.

The governor also dismantled all the redevelopment agencies that protected low income housing in the state of California.

Presently we are 200% oversupplied supplied with upper income housing, and 300% undersupplied on low income housing. Some people have to wait 10 years to be placed in low income housing (excluding SROs) in San Francisco.

The recent actions of the governor will only make this problem worse. Why do we have 30,000 vacant units, and only 10,000 homeless people? That’s enough to put one person in each house and leave 2/3 of the units vacant. In some countries, after a unit is vacant for two years, they give a property to citizens that want or need it. The Netherlands used this method of housing people until two years ago, but other countries still do it.

This problem is not only in San Francisco. Presently my friend in Seattle lives in a building that was recently sold. She was told by the new owners in a letter that her unit was already rented, so she faces the threat of eviction.  

We’ll keep having problems until somebody fixes the homeless issue and we a put a moratorium on high-end housing until all low income housing can be built in the United States, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. Ed Lee made a deal with and Twitter, the new high tech corporation in the Soma district, so they do not have to pay property tax for ten years. Proposition 13 was a measure that the voters passed to save people’s housing, but the people that got the most benefit were corporations whose property taxes also didn’t go up. Prop 13 should be amended to exclude corporations, and corporate citizenship should be abolished.

Note: Through Krip-Hop Nation Facebook page I met Ronald Galiwango who lives and report from Kalerwe a suburb of Kampala the capital of Uganda. I asked Ronald Gailwango to write a story about people with disabilities in his country. Below is the story entitled ''Disabled and Riding a wheelbarrow'' Ronald Galiwango is a journalist in Kampala, Uganda

Disabled and Riding a wheelbarrow: A Father’s Love

Eunice Atim and Sarah Ationo live with their father, Alex Ekolu, in Amolatar town in Uganda(East Africa). Ekolu’s wife gave birth to a girl, Atim, but she suffered a dislocation, one year after her birth.

“It started like a joke and by the time I realized just how serious it had become, it was too late,” Ekolu says.

“I took her to Lira Hospital, where I was told the baby had weak bones. They put her limbs in a cast, which instead caused permanent problems,” he laments.

He went from hospital to hospital, but the money was never enough, so he opted to look after the girl at home.

Ekolu adds that initially, he thought it was witchcraft until he saw another child with the same condition.

Like Atim, his second daughter, Ationo, was also born with weak bones. He again went to hospitals and traditional healers, but none could do much to help the condition.

“I learned to live with them the way they are, because it is God who gave me these children and he had a reason,” he says.

However, despite his commitment to raise his daughters, he could not afford wheelchairs for both of them.

Wheelbarrow to the rescue!

Ekolu thought he could get help from the office for the disabled in Amolatar district, but nothing was done. “They sent people who took my daughters’ details and promised to bring for them wheelchairs, but they never returned.

In Uganda, One studies from nursery(kindergarten) and this takes about 2-3years. This one is followed by primary(P) level and also takes 7yrs(P1-P7). Atim stopped at this level because she stopped in P6. After primary, one goes to senior(S) and this again takes 6yrs(S1-S6). Therefore S3 follows here. When senior is done, one joins university

"For the love of seeing my daughters go to school, I decided to buy wheelbarrows to transport them. I hired people to push them, but when they stopped I decided to do it myself,” Ekolu says.

Just when he was about to give up with the girls’ education, a Good Samaritan donated a wheelchair for Ationo and she was able to proceed with her education. She is now in S3.

Unfortunately, Atim has not had the same luck. At least not yet. She does not have a wheelchair and at some point, her father stopped pushing her to school in the wheelbarrow. This meant that her education would also come to a stop. She dropped out of school in P6.

Today, Atim stays at home. She spends most of her time knitting table cloths, a skill she learned from her late mother. When she needs to move, there is always the wheelbarrow and someone must be there to push her to her destination.

Atim seems to have got tired of visitors, especially those who she believes use her condition for their own survival. It took hours to convince her that the interview was with a newspaper journalist, not an NGO.

“Let me hope that what you are going to write will help me get a wheelchair because I am tired of lying in this wheelbarrow like luggage,” she made it clear.

“When I get a wheelchair I want to go back to school and maybe, one day, become a leader for the disabled people in Amolatar, because the ones in place do not serve the purpose,” she added.

“In class, Atim was a brilliant girl. She was always among the best and I had hope that she would go far with her education. But poverty is a disease that has made me fail to help her continue with her education. She knows that I would never just abandon her education,” Ekolu says.

Though Ekolu has another wife in his life now, he still avails himself to push his daughter wherever she wants to go. He says he can never let anything bad happen to them.

He also calls on the Government to strengthen the office of the disabled because Amolatar has a big number of children and people who are disabled, but do not receive any support.

He would like those who are benefiting on behalf of those suffering, people/youth with disabilities especially people who claim to be running NGOs, to be punished. He says NGO representatives have come to him, but none has ever helped.

By Ronald Galiwango Journalist in Kampala, Uganda
9/2013

POOR Magazine focuses on poverty in all aspects; recycling is one of them, because poor people often do recycling as a very low-wage job.

We at POOR Magazine know that there is an ongoing attack on poor people and poverty revolutionaries who teach, practice environmental activism such as recycling. I relate to this story because my brother was a tree sitter for years in Humboldt California. Most of them were there to protest against cutting the trees and building various things on the property as well as make money off of it. A lot of people consider nature as a part of their life. Some indigenous people lead us to connect with trees, fresh air, and just the sounds of nature that can make you appreciate life and love mother nature.

A book was published about trees and recycling and how one woman stayed in a tree for a couple of years. She was from Berkeley and she wrote a book about all the experiences she had dealing with survival in the face of pimp organizations trying to cut the trees and stop the process of recycling. Environmental activism deals with all aspects of life. Now elite organizations are starting to do the same things in Urban areas, but instead of trees, they are eliminating recycling centers.

The Safeway on Church and Market has issued an eviction notice to San Francisco Community Recyclers. People were saying the eviction was for two reasons. First widespread availability of curbside recycling makes the facility obsolete, and second the facility has a negative impact on customers who shop at this location. This sounds like discrimination coming from a person with malicious intentions. I think that shutting the recycling center down is another form of gentrification.

Ed Dunn the general manager of SF Community Recyclers, confirms that the Church and Market location has been ordered to leave by September and he feels the recycling center was forcibly closed. Since 1987 San Francisco Recycling Center Network has been anchored by recycling centers located on Safeway parking lots. According to protesters, the eviction violates the California Bottle Bill. That bill required that all supermarkets have a recycling center within a specified area around their stores, or else they and all nearby retailers must accept recycling drop offs in stores. Still, after this law was issued, rich people went against it because of the power that they have.

Basically this is not an environmental problem, it is an attack on homeless people, and people who live in low income facilities. It is just like Jack Spade and the rich buying out family owned businesses and putting up stores that are extremely expensive to shop at. What are people going to do? I think everyone needs to think about this question because obviously the elite find ways to run around the laws that are intended to help poor people, and nobody is stopping them.

Oakland - With the long lasting effects of the on-going draconian sequestration budget cuts occurring including the recent government shutdown, people in Oakland and across the nation are being stepped on, abused, and treated like a punching bag.

Due to the on-going sequestration automatic across-the-board spending cuts ($1.2 trillion in on-going spending cuts), and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as a direct result, it has become even more difficult for residents in Oakland to find work. It is very difficult to find employment that pays a living-wage, or to receive assistance for food, housing, energy bills, transportation needs, health care, dental work, child care or day care services.

The Section 8 housing choice voucher program is also at risk in Oakland because the Oakland Housing Authority is facing over $11 million in budget cuts since the on-going sequestration budget cuts took effect on March 1, 2013 that threaten thousands of low-income renters with higher rent increases, or the possible loss of their vouchers someday. Low-income families in the Section 8 voucher program pay 30 to 40 percent of their income in rent each month, and the rest of the rent is paid to the landlord by the federal program.

Because the Democrats joined the Republicans in allowing the sequestration budgets cuts to continue in the latest political deal known as a "continuing resolution" that ended the government shutdown on October 16, it appears to be a very grim situation for Section 8 voucher holders in Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and people in cities all across the nation. Housing officials claim that 140,000 voucher holders are at risk of losing their vouchers because of the sequestration budget cuts. 

The sequestration budget cuts are also shredding the Meals on Wheels Program that feeds senior citizens, and includes massive budget cuts to education, food programs, small business, food safety, mental health programs, emergency responders, Native American programs, public housing, head start, homelessness programs, AIDS and HIV treatment services, Community Development Block Grants, and many other vital services or programs.

Affordable housing developers scheme to grab Section 8 vouchers and public housing

Local non-profit so-called affordable housing developers including Affordable Housing Associates, Resources for Community Development, and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation have teamed up with local and national organizations that are pushing for Rental Assistance Reform (RAR) legislation to be passed in the House and Senate, that is harmful to the poor.

The non-profit organizations are pushing for rental assistance reform (RAR) legislation that will result in fewer Section 8 housing choice vouchers for the poor, higher rents for public housing residents, and the acceleration of the privatization of conventional public housing projects into privatized mixed-income residential housing developments for higher income renters. Developments that are being promoted by so-called non-profit and for profit affordable housing developers who want to get their hands on public housing properties locally, and all across the nation.

In California alone, during 2011 when Governor Jerry Brown put more than 400 redevelopment agencies out of business, the so-called multi-billion dollar affordable housing industry began looking for other funding sources to continue it's empire building. The industry decided on grabbing as much conventional public housing property as possible, and wants to loot the Section 8 housing choice voucher program for more project-based vouchers.

The so-called affordable housing industry is pushing for RAR legislation to be passed in the House and Senate as soon as possible and it may be tucked away inside legislation heading for Congress as soon as December 13, 2013.

If lawmakers cave in to the pressures of the so-called affordable housing industry, the impact of RAR will result in more Section 8 housing choice vouchers being taken away from low-income renters in Oakland and all across the nation, so that they can be converted into project-based vouchers to fund so-called affordable housing projects for wealthy developers.

Currently under federal law, each Public Housing Authority (3,300 PHAs nation wide) is allowed to grab as much as 20% of the funding granted to them that is meant to be used for Section 8 housing choice vouchers for low-income renters, and convert the funding for use as project-based vouchers. Project-based vouchers that wealthy non-profit and for profit so-called affordable housing developers can use to fund their projects.

The so-called affordable housing industry wants RAR legislation to be passed that would allow all 3,300 PHAs to convert a whopping 25% of their Section 8 housing choice vouchers, into project-based vouchers for the wealthy so-called affordable housing developers and their projects. This is 5% more than what is currently allowed under federal law, and would be a great hardship on low-income Section 8 housing choice voucher holders.

RAR is a trojan horse of stealth legislation that was created under the guise of helping the poor, but actually promotes higher rents for poor people in public housing and the Section 8 housing choice voucher program, and scales back itemized deductions for medical and child care used by the poor for rent reductions in those programs.

If passed into legislation RAR would also set "flat rates" for higher income public housing tenants closer to market levels. In total the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that poor people in public housing and the Section 8 voucher program would pay about $1.75 billion more in rent over a five year period because of the loss of itemized deductions for medical and child care, in addition to the major rent increases that would be imposed on public housing tenants.

Another aspect of RAR if passed into law, it would change federal law so that higher income families would be assisted by the nation's federal housing assistance programs. Presently 75 percent of vouchers and 40 percent of project-based Section 8 and public housing units must be allocated to households with incomes at or below 30 percent of the local median income when they enter the program. RAR would instead require that those vouchers and units go to households with incomes at or below 30 percent of the local median or the federal poverty line, whichever is higher. By subsidizing the rents of higher income renters instead of low-income renters, the CBO estimates that the change would raise rent revenues and cut program costs by $1.12 billion over five years, because families admitted into the programs could afford somewhat higher rents.

RAR also supports the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) that accelerates the privatization of conventional public housing, and tests the conversion of public housing and Section 8 moderate rehabilitation units to project-based vouchers or Section 8 project-based rental assistance, and allows similar conversions of units from the Rent Supplement and Rental Assistance Payment programs.

On Sept. 24, 2013 in San Francisco, Poor Magazine, the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, Causa Justa/Just Cause, POWER and WRAP united for an emergency STOP THE ILLEGAL SELLING OF OUR HOUSING EQUITY, STOP THE RAD press conference, on the steps of City Hall in protest against RAD.

Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Housing Authority want to privatize as many as 3,000 public housing units out of 6,054 public housing units, and hand over their day-to-day operations to some very eager non-profit housing developers. The so-called affordable housing developers are drooling at the thought of how many fortunes could be made by grabbing as many public housing units as possible for privatization, while displacing the poor with their major renovation projects that eventually will result in new gentrified housing projects for higher income, and middle class renters.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was in San Francisco on Sept. 24, to promote RAD while people protested against RAD at City Hall, and Donovan signed off on Mayor Ed Lee's scheme to privatize the public housing projects of San Francisco.

RAR also seeks to create more Moving-To-Work (MTW) demonstration Public Housing Authorities, and seeks to give some of the 33 existing MTWs more flexibility.

Authorized by Congress in 1996, the Moving To Work (MTW) demonstration program was created for a limited number of PHAs to try out new and different ways to save money, and find cheaper methods to deliver housing services. However, MTWs have morphed into agencies that are becoming notorious for abusing the funding from Congress. Funding that was meant to assist the poor.

During April 2012, HUD was under fire by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), that ridicules any assertions by HUD that an MTW's activities can be evaluated properly.

The GAO is an investigative arm of Congress with the power to examine matters related to the receipt and use of funding by Congress, and the GAO believes that MTWs are not regulated enough to properly evaluate how they are operating.

The latest continuing resolution that President Barack Obama signed that ended the government shutdown on October 16, only funds the federal government through January 15, 2014, and only extends the debt limit until February 7, 2014. Another government shutdown may occur again in a few months if the budget battles in Congress continue.   

The House and Senate also passed a measure that requires a conference committee of twenty-nine members to come up with a spending plan, and to return a budget agreement to both chambers by December 13, 2013. An agreement that would establish the budget for the federal government for FY 2014, including appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2015 through FY 2023.

It is up to the public at large to speak-up immediately and pressure the politicians to enact new legislation that will make the rich pay their fair share of taxes to do business in America, and to persuade the lawmakers to reverse the sequestration budget cuts that have shredded the nation's safety-net. 

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule@yahoo.com

Keith Jones and I have a lot in common. Both Black both have CP, both are activists and into Hip-Hop. We also both have been targets of racial/disabled profiling at hotels Keith in ATL & Leroy in Oakland. Now we went into studios and recorded a song, Disabled Profiled, about our experiences of being profiled as Black disabled men. Keith on the beats, raps and mixed it and Leroy spits his poetry. More to come. Another edited version of this song is on the Krip-Hop/5th Battalion Ent's cd, Broken Bodies PBP, Police Brutality Profiling Mixtape that came out 2012 Keith Jones was profiled in ATL at a hotel in which he was staying at for a Krip--Hop event. He was using the computer and the guard thought he was homeless that led to Keith who had to prove that he was staying there. And peeps know about my experiences in the Bay Area and in NY where I was approached by NYPD and a store manager that said "I was making them nervous!"

Lyrics here:

Disabled Profiled (Song Keith & Leroy)

Leroy:           

Yeah I’m a Black man

Known about racially profiled

Two Black hotel workers

Same race but in my face

Disabled profiled

Making assumptions upon appearances

Blocking the entrance

Can’t be race because we are both Black

Black Disabled Man

Must be a drunk

Slur speech drugging feet

Must be begging for money

Disabled profiled

Making assumptions upon appearances

Blocking the entrance

Can’t be race because we are both Black

Must protect others from this bum

Got to do my job

I summed him up from across the street

Poor cripple homeless beggar

Confused, disabled and black

The fear builds

As he approaches

Looking at him like he’s a roach

Firing out questions upon questions

No not racially but disabled profiled

Here in the home of ED Roberts

Disabled profiled

Making assumptions upon appearances

Blocking the entrance

Can’t be race because we are both Black

Mocking my walk

Didn’t read my tense body talk

Friends saw my anger,

“Mr. We’re together!”

Disabled Profiled

And I’m tired

Twice in one week

Its not race it happened from Black & White

Disabled Profiled

And I’m tired

Twice in one week

Its not race it happened from Black & White

Disabled Profiled

And I’m tired

Disabled Profiled

And I’m tired

I’m so tired

Keith:

The wheelchair got no diamond in da back and no sun roof top but I still run da scene wit a disability lean nah what I mean and every day dat im speakin and try to reach ‘em cause they be lookin at me tryin to profile the black man talking bout what happen to you damn see there was not no gun shot matter of fact I have my own kind of plot I have to run da block shut down because ya tryin to hold me down laughin at the way that I talk the way that I walk the way that I speak but ya girl likes da way that I freak ya betta get it right man understand cp is only part of da man I got something for the rest of yall listen something for the best of yall ya betta sit back and try to contemplate can you really demonstrate what it takes to create somehin kinda great in the face of hate ….    

Leroy:

Hey Keith just like you

I was triggered last week

Memories floating back

Makes this grown man weep

Paul Dunbar’s mask didn’t hold up

Felt like I was shot no bulletproof vest

Two days ago & I still can’t rest

Memories coming back

Woowooowoo “up against the wall

Hahaha are you drunk can’t walk?”

“No officer I’m disabled

Just coming home from work!”

“What what can’t understand?”

I was triggered last week

Memories floating back

Makes this grown man weep

Beep beep

“Mr. You is out late

Can I see your I’d?”

Why me

Don’t feel like being a teacher

Please just let me be

Black man in a uniform

Sees me as a threat

Or a charity case

Can’t look at me in my face

His mind is made up

Looking for my tin cup

I was triggered last week

Memories floating back

Makes this grown man weep

By Leroy Moore  & Keith Jones

Yes this is a true story!

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