2013

Youth Skolas’ Slam Bios from Everette Middle School

AJ

God of Writing

In my neighborhood there

Are mostly black people and

Other color people

I like to taste Chinese

Food in my neighborhood

I mostly smell garbage because

There is a big garbage

Can across from my apartment

I mostly touch forks because

I eat.

I hear talking because my

Parents and neighbors talk

My name is AJ

I live on a small street

In San Francisco

I struggle with taking care of my sister

Tyler R. Moore

Red strawberry smells like poop

Feels like a cat hears like rustled

Leaves, I’m from San Francisco also from Trinidad and

Tobago, from L.A., Compton, Inglewood

I’m from Arkansas; I’m black, and white, Spanish. I am from James-

Town and Inhalls also from HP.

I struggled with violence.

Ezequiel Mendoza

Black and orange.

Juice.

Pizza.

iPhone 5.

Dogs barking.

EzequielMendoza.

I am from Mexico.

San Francisco.

Mexican.

I struggle with math.

D-boy

Green

Good food

Nature

Soft \noises

Name: comes from a family with D’s and juniors (but I’m the second one to be both a junior and a D).

Places where

You are born

Mexico

Struggle: getting money

Xzavion Jimmons

 Green, blue, gold, and black

Pizza

Donuts

Spikes

People yelling

Xzavio Jimmons

San Francisco

Taking care of my little brother

I am black

Armando

Anaranjado

Pizzza

Rosas

iPhone5

Pajaros

                                                                                               Armando

Yo soy de Guatemala

Guatemala/San Francisco

Chapin

Me esta costando aprender Ingles

Moe Money

Red and gold

Pizza

Roses

iPhone5/Moe Money

Banking

Moe Money

I am from Mexico/San Francisco

I was raised in Mexico and San Francisco

I struggle with language arts

Royel Edwards

Gold

Fries Chicken

Chicken

Food

Water

Yorel

I am from San Francisco

I was born in San Francisco

I am black and white

I struggle with reading

Gabby

Yellow

Tamales

Flower

Dogs

Guitar

Mexico

Remahn Davis AKA Ray

Slam Bio

Ravishing red like the

Blood in my veins

Tasting the peppers I’m

I’m so much pain.

Smelling the poo like

My life is in. Touching

My chest trying to fill

In the happiness. My

Life is sometime life a

Monkey because what I

See is what I do.

I’m black and I’m

Proud of And I been

Through so much and

I don’t want to go

Back. I’m from the street

Where things happen

And people pretend they

Don’t see. I struggle

With my life but

All I can do is fight fight. Fight.

Life

Guess what people life

Been hell for me cause

I have no mommy

I have been through

So much pain I’m

Surprised I haven’t

Cracked. Sports is what

I got. No parents

No blood. Losing my

Family was like losing

A leg because I can’t

Walk alone or walk

On my own. I see

So much I barely can

Speak but when I do

Hell breaks loose. I

Can’t stand here and

Be your friend because

What I’m going through I don’t

Think you can go to

The end.

 The mood of the neighborhood was quiet, but the anger was loud enough to

 shatter glass. I sat looking at the television, awaiting the confirmation from the verdict

 that young black lives are not worth spit. George Zimmerman has indeed

 gotten away with murder while young Travon lies in a grave that was marked

 way too early, just like a lot of young men of color who die tragically and dishonored.

 The George Zimmerman case was just as biased as any other lynching trial and Zimmerman was never held accountable for accosting a child that was simply returning home from a store run. Zimmerman disobeyed the 911 operator's request to let the child be, and he refused, hell bent on causing trouble with Travon because of the color of his skin and his hoodie. Had this had been a white man with a white hoodie on, the scenario would have been different. He deliberately followed Travon and harassed him because he didn't "belong" there.

To be followed and harassed would frighten and agitate anyone who has common sense and any defensive actions are just the natural reaction to one's safety being in danger. So if Travon did kick George Zimmerman's ass, it was because Travon himself was the one who was threatened. The "Stand your ground" law should not have the main focus of the case, because George Zimmerman was the one who initiated the altercation by following Travon in the first place. The focus should have been on how our children can't even go to the store by themselves without being killed by cowboys who patrol these gated communities with biased judgement. the focus should have been on why did this grown-ass man go out of his way to bother someone's child in the first place with premeditated intentions of causing trouble? Whether Travon was right or wrong one thing is clear is that young black men don't have any rights and can be hunted down and murdered on any given notice. The kkkourts have made it crystal clear that the "nigger hunting" license is still valid and that no one of color is safe.

Many folks from all over the nation took to the streets to protest the

unjust verdict of Zimmerman's clearance of murder and the slap in the

face to Travon Martin's parents. This case is the millionth slap in

the face to us all as it is an constant reminder that there will never

be racial equality under white rule. It is a reminder how vital it is

to protect our children from child murderers like George Zimmerman by

any means, to educate them and guide them from the ways of this wicked

world. To leave them with a legacy of life and knowledge of self

regardless of evil opposition. That is our God-given right and we the

people are beyond sick and tired of enduring the trauma of the

lynchings of our people that has been going on for centuries, with

impunity.

 The case of Marissa Alexander is another example of how racially biased our so-called justice system is. Marissa Alexander, mother of 3 was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the ceiling to fend off her abusive husband. When she should have been protected by Florida’s “stand your ground” law, she wasn’t, even with the testimony from her husband saying that she was defending herself and in fear for her life. The attorney who refused to prosecute George Zimmerman for murdering a black child blatantly prosecuted this black woman for standing her ground. For those who constantly cry about how these murders and convictions of black people and other people of color are not based on race is sadly mistaken and need to check this country’s track record when it comes down to the (mis) treatment, convictions and the unjust bloody lynchings of people of color in amerikkka. To deny the “race” factor fuels the tolerance for these kind of tragedies without really addressing the root of the problem thus sugarcoating it, leaving a nation of angry, restless folks repeatedly going in circles.

The “not guilty” verdict was just another reminder that there is no justice

 for people of color in amerikkka. As long as white supremacy continues it racist rule

 there will be nothing for us other than sin, suffering, slavery and death.

 Amerikkka's colonizers never had the intention of co-existing with the red man, from

 whom white invaders slaughtered and stole land from, nor the black man, who was

 stolen from his OWN land and forced to come to the amerikkkan hells to

 build an amerikkkan paradise for whites, while mother africa is in ruins due to white and "sellout" reign. That is why we are still catching

 hell dealing wit poverty, mis-education and a unjust system created by

 racists who pardons people like George Zimmerman and unfortunately, to slaughter people of color is no crime the in the white eyes of the white law.

For more information on the Travon Martin case and/or how you can support Marissa Alexander go to www.poormagazine.org, www.justiceformarissa.blogspot.com or to sign the online petition supporting Marissa Alexander, go to www.change.org and look for the petition for Marissa Alexander

May 20, 2013

The following stories were written as part of a  POOR Magazine Survivor Skolaz Workshop at the L-Tern project at Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, presented by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE and sponsored by The Sex Workers’ Film Fest. Thanks to Laure McElroy, Cyn, and all poverty skolaz who keep it UP no matta WUT!

Laurie Zamora of Colorado

My current struggle and resistance is that sixteen years ago I began a physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally abusive relationship for fifteen years. By the grace of God I finally was able to leave him. It was one hell of a struggle letting this man have control of my life, every which way. I lost my Section 8 housing and started using heroin when I left him, so now I have a habit and no place to live. I am homeless with no income and a habit. That’s when I started being a sex worker. It’s not all peaches and cream. I’ve been through it all.

My crisis experience is being abused for fifteen years. During the first two weeks of our relationship, on Mothers’ Day, he beat me and dragged me out of my girlfriend’s house in front of everyone. Yet I stayed with him all them years, until it got so bad I found myself not wanting to go home to my own place. Then I started fighting back, so I started sleeping with a knife under my pillow: either I was going to kill him or he was going to kill me. So I had to leave him to save my life. I even almost committed suicide.

This crisis feels ugly, rotten, like an empty hole in my stomach.

— — — — —

Tracy Girón of San Mateo county, SF Richmond, and Fremont

My current struggle is family drama, child visitation rights, being houseless, and new boyfriend drama.

My latest crisis experience started when I told my boyfriend off. I told him that he can’t have double-standards. He wanted me to rent a room in a house with him, and I said no. He had put this idea in his head that I didn’t want to live with him, that I wanted to just get my own place so I could mess around with other guys or do him dirty somehow in my soon-to-be SRO or studio. He didn’t like the fact that I wanted to be independent and have my own spot where I could have my kids sleep over. He acted as if the reason I really wanted my own place was to cheat on him and/or prostitute myself all behind his back. I told him that my past is my past and that I learned my lessons.

I told him that he didn’t trust himself. He had some chick that he likes show up at his job. Knowing she likes him, how the f*** is it o.k. for him to have seen and hung out with her in person, and to then get mad at me when he saw me speaking to my ex-boyfriend. My ex and I were only talking about his baby on the way and family, and how he and I didn’t work out. I even bragged about my new boyfriend to my ex-boyfriend and claimed that the new man goes to church with me and looks out for me, not like him (the ex). My boyfriend saw us talking and thought that the ex and I had been messing around, that that must be why he kept showing up to the resource center—to meet me.

My boyfriend freaked out for nothing. How am I the guilty one, when his current temptation came by his job so he could complain to her about me? I didn’t see what happened, and he had egregiously bragged about her. I told him, “You two texted ‘I love you’s’ to each other and then some. You two could’ve kissed and touched.” He had lied to me before, but often thought I was lying when he was the guilty one. Why can he hang out with a chick he bragged out about, but I can’t even speak to my ex, without him giving me drama?

To me this crisis is like the colors red, black and blue. It tastes sweet and sour, mostly sour like a lime. It feels like tension, rage, jealousy and frustration.

— — — — —

Tomika of San Francisco

My current struggle is to keep my sobriety and stay strong when the s**t gets thick. My health is a challenge, making sure that my unborn child is healthy and strong. Facing life’s struggles and dealing with them one at a time with some help—without medications.

My major crisis experience is addiction. It’s taken me lots of places through the years , and through any hardships and losses of friends, family, money, time. Addiction took my pride, self-worth, self-esteem, and my dignity. I have allowed addiction to rob me of 20+ years of my life.

If I had to describe my crisis in terms of the senses, it would be a taste. A vile, stomach-churning taste you can’t get rid of. There is no color for that feeling, the smell is like death. I’ll never forget it.

— — — — —

Cyn Bivens

My major crisis is when I left San Francisco in the late 80’s to get closer to family, to feel safe and to feel at home. I wound up losing my family as I knew it and becoming a monster, a stranger, no longer welcomed, surprised that I was never loved the way I thought I was. After I pulled the trigger, after I fought for my life, I still do all the time. I saw I was again that little girl, left alone. Abandoned.

My crisis was the color of crimson and black with a smell of blood and lead. It left a bittersweet taste of sickness that I can never forget.

— — — — —

Raymonetta Blackburn of Beaumont, Texas and the Western Addition

I never want to forget about the time I’ve been raped at gunpoint by one of my supposedly closest friends. To this day I hate that little boy. It was a disgraceful, degrading feeling. I felt so low.

The color of this experience is RED, the taste like spicy garbage. The feeling is sick, throwing up. And the touch is hard—a bomb. 

Scroll Down For English

En  Guatemala,  Efrain Ríos Montt llego a la presidencia

De la misma manera que Pinochet en chile.  

Los métodos usados por los empleados que les ayudaron a ser elegidos fueron los mismos.  Cientos de  muertos, torturados, y miles de desaparecidos, Por el  presidente Efrain Ríos Montt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Yo pienso  que  no debe  quedar impune la muerte de miles de Guatemaltecos.  Tiene que  ser juzgado y condenado el asesino.   El   No debería de estar libre, ya que causo mucho dolor y traumas a muchas familias que  se quedaron sin padres/madres y/ o sin hijos por la guerra civil.  Como dijo el Joven,Víctor Carrillo, “la guerra civil que estuvo en efecto  durante los anos 1982 y 1983, que fue cuando gobernó el ex-presidente,fue cuando mas incidentes/atrocidades se reportaron”.

Efrain Ríos Montt tiene que ser  juzgado y castigado por lo que hizo.  El acabo/daño con familias inocentes,  Como en el caso de Víctor Carrillo.  El era un niño cuando se fue al exilio a Nicaragua por la guerra.  Su familia estaba siendo perseguida  y  lo que hacían fue tan cruel que asesinaban  a hombres, mujeres, y niños.  Ese fue el caso por  mas de 36 anos en Guatemala.  Los  derechos humanos de todas las personas  fueron violados.         

Cuando Víctor  regreso a Guatemala  se integro a un   grupo de jóvenes activo de una organizacion  que lucha para que la gente no se olvide del daño/la gente  que fue dañada por la guerra.    Ellos han luchado  por décadas para que  el ex-militar y ex-presidente  sean   juzgados.

Ya se va a llevar acabo el primer juicio contra  Ríos Montt  quien  logro la presidencia por un golpe  de  Estado, dijo Víctor Carillo ,al recordar como su padre desapareció por la guerra. Muchos lugares fueron afectados, uno de los lugares mas afectados  fue el Quiché. Víctor dijo, “ yo me recuerdo que  en mi casa  teníamos que escondernos porque el ejercito llegaba a darle vuelta a todo y hacían  un tiradero para   ver si alguien estaba apollando a la guerrilla.  Era una manera muy traumática de vivir de esa manera.   Los dos se vestían del mismo color y no se distinguía quien era quien."

Victor conto que  cuando la guerilla encontraba algo que era del ejercito matavan a las familias.

Su padre fue soldado y Paracaidista.  El  tenia recuerdos y fotos de cuando estuvo en el ejercito ,pero todo el tiempo esas cosas estaban enterradas por miedo que los mataran.

En la noche se escuchaban los disparos y el  lloraba pensando que  los hiban a matar.  Se  recuerda que pusieron a patrullaran a la comunidad  por que había toque de queda.   Mucha gente murió en las manos de los soldados.  También habían casos en que los miembros de la comunidad  eran obligados a matar miembros de su  propia comunidad.  Víctor dijo, “pero yo se que no hay mal que dure sien años.  Es histórica la condena de 80 años de prisión al dictador de guatemala, José Efraín Ríos Montt, quien ahora tiene 82 años de edad.  Me parece justo que lo condenen por tantas muertes durante su gobierno."

De acuerdo a Virtor Carillo, El gobierno de facto de Ríos Montt fue uno de los más sangrientos de la guerra civil que sufrió el país durante los años 1960 a 1996.  La guerra  dejó 200 mil muertos, números basados en estadísticas de la Organización de Naciones Unidas y el cree  que  Guatemala va  hacer historia al convertirse en el primer país en condenar a un dictador por genocidio en una corte nacional.  Victor dijo, “ Aunque esto no revive a los muertos."

Ingles Sigue

In Guatemala, Efrain Rios montt got to the presidency, the same way that Pinochet got to the presidency in Chile.  The methods/ways the staff/employees used to get them elected were the same.  As a result, hundreds of people were killed,  tortured, and thousands of people  disappeared by President  Efrain Rios Montt.

I think that the deaths of millions of people from Guatemala should not go unpunished.  This murderer/assassin must be tried and condemned.  He should not be free. He caused/perpetrated a lot of pain and trauma to a lot of families. As a result of the civil war during 1982-198,  Many families  were left without  children and/or with out parents,  which is the time when Efrain Rios Montt was the president.  Rios Montt, must be tried and punished for what he did.  He is responsible for the loss of innocent families and/or separated.  Like in the case of Victor Carrillo, He was exile to   Nicaragua since he was a child.  He was on exile because his family was persecuted and the war was so cruel that many families, women, men, and children were killed.  This war in Guatemala lasted more than 36 years.  

Victor stated that During this time,  the human rights of all people were violated.  When he returned to Guatemala, he joined a youth group that  organizes so people don’t forget  the the war and the  damage it caused because it hurt a lot of people.  Many people have been organizing/fighting/ working hard  to have the military and the former president tried and convicted/punish.

The first court hearing/beginning of the trial  against Rios Montt will be happening soon.  Victor  said Rios Montt   got to the presidency via a military coup.  He remembers his Father disappeared during the war.  The war affected everyone and every  area and el Quiche is one of the areas most affected. Victor remembers that everyone  at his home hide from the military because the military was constantly patrolling the communities and will make a mess.  They will make a mess to see if anyone was supporting the guerilla and it was very traumatic to live that way.  

Both, the guerrilla and the military wore the same colors.  It was difficult to distinguish who was who.  If the guerilla noticed/found something that was from/related to the military they will kill the families. My father was a soldier. He was a parachutist and he had memories/souvenirs (recuerdos) and photos  of the time when he was in the military/army.  All of those things were hidden/burried due to the fear of getting killed.  

At night time, one could hear the shots.  I used to cry thinking they were going to kill us.  I remember they were patrolling the community because they had implemented a curfew(golpe de queda) and many people die in the hands of the soldiers. And even in the hands of the people, as they were forced to kill others. Victor said ‘ yo se que no  hay mal que dure cien anos ( I know there is no evil that lasts a hundred years/nothing last forever)”I think it is  historic to condemn the Guatemalan dictator ,Jose  Efrain Rios Montt,  to  80 years in prison.  He is now 82 years old. 
 

I think is just/fair  that he was condemned to 80 years in prison for all the deaths during his governance.  The de Facto government of Rios Montt was one of the bloodiest periods/times during the civil war that was in effect from 1960-1996.  It is estimated and reported by the United Nations that the war was responsible for 200 thousand deaths.  I think Guatemala made history in becoming the first country to condemn a dictator for genocide in a national court.  although, it does not bring all the death/people loss back. 

from May 2013:

As we crossed the bridge on the way to Homefulness in East Oakland, I sat curled in the backseat, watching the San Francisco Bay flash past us. Dancing in my chest was some combination of eagerness, longing, and nervousness about the honor of visiting this corner of reclaimed land, this place that has a big piece of my heart. I’m a member of POOR’s Solidarity Family—a crew of people with race, class, and/or educational privilege who use those privileges to support the Homefulness Project. I’d been invited to come out to Homefulness for the afternoon, to be a part of the work that POOR does there every Thursday.

In the front seat, the conversation was about hot dogs. Hot dogs had been a hot topic for more than a month now. For hot dogs, family at POOR tweaked the budget, put out new fundraising calls, did market research—all because POOR refuses to feed poison-filled food to the folks at Homefulness. Healthy hot dogs are expensive. This week Tiny, Muteado, and Leo are excited: the best quality hot dogs were on sale, and so the trunk is stocked with organic meat to grill.

In East Oakland, we maneuver into the driveway and unload armfuls of food and supplies into the cool, dim kitchen. Outside, everyone snaps into action and I try to keep up. Muteado unravels a hose and starts to water the raised-bed gardens near the front of the property, showering thirsty red kale and mustard greens. Joe, Tiny, and I wrestle with a big white tent to shelter our food and our people from the sun. Before five minutes have gone by, Queennandi is deep in conversation with neighbors. Joe uses a lemon and an onion to meticulously clean the grill. I pick greens from the garden, yanking a few weeds along the way, and put together a salad. When I stop for a minute, I see this small POOR family, tight-knit, moving with precision and purpose.

Folks from the neighborhood start to gather around the card table. We all serve ourselves hot dogs striped with grill marks, bowls bursting with green salad, slices of tomato and onion. We circle informally, someone flips out a camcorder and filming starts for this week’s Deep East TV.

**

Homefulness stayed with me into the next week, most often surfacing when POOR’s insistent, gentle ethics about dignity and care clashed with the overwhelmingly normal violence of capitalism and racism. A few days after my van ride to East Oakland, my computer screen filled with the earnest face of a young white guy behind a steering wheel. Los Angeles surface streets zipped past as his voiceover stated firmly: “It was time to do some charity.” His name was Greg Karber, and he was responsible for the media stunt trainwreck called “Fitch the Homeless.” Karber wanted to ruin Abercrombie & Fitch’s name, and he could think of no better way to do it than by giving away Abercrombie clothes to people in poverty.

Karber’s feet hit the pavement of LA and he tossed clothes to houseless folks as he tornadoed through their neighborhood. He didn’t need to explain himself when he said that his aim was to make Abercrombie & Fitch the “Number One Brand of Homeless Apparel.” What he meant is that there could be no greater shame for a fashionable company than to be associated with folks in poverty. The people themselves—dozens of faces who are shuffled through the three-minute video, hands outstretched to confusedly take the “gifts” that Karber is offering—were props, just like the v-neck sweaters and khaki pants.

Fitch the Homeless caught its own moment of frenzied internet excitement, with a lot of people eager about the dig Karber took at a disgusting clothing company, and a lot of others infuriated by his dehumanizing treatment of poor people. The attention has mostly wandered away now. Karber was impolite enough to cross an imaginary line of decency that provoked some internet anger, but there was nothing particularly new about his project. It is so normal for people with privilege to build their projects and their lives off of poor people, on top of poor people. The notion that poor people have visions and power of their own usually doesn’t even make it into the conversation.

**

Driving up Macarthur Avenue, it’s like this backdrop of hatred of poor people is set in the skyline behind the sloping roof and high-reaching trees at Homefulness. Sometimes it’s hard to explain Homefulness, I think because it’s not so complicated: because the care that is at the foundation of Homefulness is so simple and also so rare and revolutionary. I think about Greb Karber, and every other media-maker and policymaker who has never managed to muster any kind of care for poor people, in spite of making whole careers off of policing, housing, un-housing, shuffling, and exploiting them.

At Homefulness, care means that people in a resource-drained, heavily-policed Black neighborhood in deep East Oakland deserve the best food we can find. That housing and food shouldn’t come at the cost of anyone’s dignity or self-determination, like it does in so many social service organizations. That scholarship generated on street corners in East Oakland deserves a camera held steady, careful attention from an editor, and airtime. That poor people do not need charity, but the breathing room and resources to bring their own solutions to life. That the soil that has slept pressed under the asphalt for decades still holds the memory of an ecosystem, the memory that will reteach us interdependence.

How many of us are hungering for the kinds of care that are happening at Homefulness? It’s not only the poverty scholars who will live at Homefulness who need it to succeed. Every careful, humble step that Homefulness takes chips away at the lies of independence, hoarding, and supremacy that my white, owning-class world have taught me. The steps themselves are living, vibrant teachers, the lessons that all of us need to get free.

May 20, 2013

NAFTA, also known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, was formed in 1994, when the United States, the Republic of Mexico, and the Commonwealth of Canada were competing with the early days of the European Union. The European Union organized European countries into one single all-powerful economic group. Businessmen were trying to figure out ways that we could compete. The way they sold all this to the US Congress was that they got the unions behind NAFTA, saying they could organize to pay the same wages outside as inside the United States. If they were paying workers the same rates in the US and Mexico, they could stop migration to the United States. That idea went out the window as soon as NAFTA started.

NAFTA has their own court, presided over by commissioners. The court can override any of the high courts of the three countries involved. In the first big NAFTA case, Canada sued the US for $970 million dollars, because gas fuel made by a Canada-based company did not comply with California environmental laws about carbon emissions. Canada did not win the case, but this all goes to show that NAFTA is able to move money from governments directly into the hands of corporate interests, and without laws that people vote on.

If the corporations got the money in the California case, it would be taken out of the California budget. The same thing could happen to the US Federal government if the Keystone XL oil pipeline got approved to be built. The US would be forced to pay for the pipeline, even though we refused to accept it as a pipeline, if the NAFTA court decided to sue the US for blocking trade.

The US used NAFTA to stop the drug trade by paying off powerful drug traders in Mexico. NAFTA gave the drug traders maquilas (factories) in Ciudad Juarez, and this is why Ciudad Juarez is now the murder capital of the world. The NAFTA decision allows drug bosses to use the same underhanded techniques of terror and blackmail in a factory setting, by killing one woman a day to keep the other women in line, according to Las Hormigas (the sister organization to the SF Living Wage Coalition). They still have power.

Because of NAFTA, corn has been monopolized by the US, who pays farmers to use genetically modified corn and to undersell the world market and the other members of NAFTA. We are stuck in the grocery stores with genetically altered food, the food that low income people can access and afford. The US forces farmers across the false borders to become laborers in the US, because their multi-generational livelihood growing corn was killed by underhanded the techniques of NAFTA.

Mexico is also using NAFTA to access cheap migrant labor in the beekeeping industry, as I learned at a conference I went to about NAFTA called “NAFTA Conference,” sponsored by Global Exchange.

They have been talking about upgrading NAFTA to a parliamentary system, like the parliament of the European Union.

NAFTA is also against the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, because it forces people from their ancestral land to follow jobs, and because it is so disrespectful to the land that is sacred to indigenous people. It does not help the struggles of workers and indigenous people because it takes decision-making power even further away from them.

This is the bad side of NAFTA, one that the commercial media will not show, because their bosses are afraid of losing sponsorship.

Thank you very much, this is BAD NEWS BRUCE!!
 

Cooking Our Cultures 2013 is a a multi-generational, multi-cultural project led by youth & elders to decolonize their diets back to the food of their indigenous ancestors so they can help their families and communities move of the corporate poison and GMO's made so readily available to poor and indigenous communities across the US

Thanks to co-teachers, Youth & Elders poverty skolaz @ POOR Magazine, Sandra Estafan Marinette Tovar,  Iris, Chastity, Ajahbriella, Tiburcio, Vinia Castro, Muteado Silencio, Luta, Philip Standing Bear, Cheyenne, Alex, Humaya, Trew, Muh'Queenah, Zully,Solomon, and many more..

For immediate Release: Press Advisory

Press Contact: Leroy Moore of Krip Hop Nation
Contact info (510) 649-8438 /Kriphopnation@gmail.com

The African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library in association with Krip-Hop Nation & the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper Presents:

The 16^th Strike Documentary Bay Area showing 

When: August 17^th 2013

Where:  San Francisco Main Library Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 &

Time:  Saturday screening time:1pm with Po-Poets of Poor Magazine, Lisa “Tiny” Gray Garcia & Vivian Louise

The 16^th Strike will make its San Francisco Bay Area primer in Black August 2013 in Oakland and San Francisco brought to you by the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper and Krip-Hop Nation.  In the words of Toni:

Unfortunately what is going on here in Texas, is an example of what is happening nationwide to people of color. We are the # 1 majority of the Jail system, the # 1 people dying because we are killing ourselves, The # 1 people being killed by licensed gun carriers, The # 1 people dying from diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. The #1 people that are spending 1.1 trillion dollars, more than any other race, with it staying in our community 6-8 hours, verses the Asian community spending stays in their community 30 days. We create a reality that revolves around false beauty and deny our natural selves. We pay our tithes to the church, and think that we can continue to say amen and our problems will be wiped away.  Meanwhile, we are still enslaved by the very things that have created the illusion of freedom.  Why is this Documentary important? Because we need to wake up and see our babies are dying.  We are being exterminated like mice to a mousetrap! The cheese for us is marketing ignorance. Money, greed, illusion.

Toni Alika Hickman is a mother, musician, author, activist, speaker and now filmmaker.  She is a member of Krip-Hop Nation.  Her CD, Cripple Pretty and her book, Chemical Suicide/Death by Association deals with how corporations sell us what they consider as beautiful knowing that this standard is not achievable and causing us to crippling ourselves physically, emotionally and so on.

She teamed up with videographer, Danny Russo, and they created The 16th Strike, a documentary under Alika Films, focusing on the current state of Blacks/Africans in America. It also deals with possible solutions we must incorporate, in order to come out of the unhealthy situations we are currently in. Our food system, our jail system, our economic system, our family structure and more, needs to be addressed, as we are in a state of crisis!

Toni Alika Hickman will be screening her documentary,  The 16^th Strike, in the Bay Area in Aug., 2013 at San Francisco Main Library in the Koret Auditorium on Sat Aug 17^th  with poetry by Lisa “Tiny” Gray Garcia and Vivian Louise of Poor Magazine’s Po Poets Project

The Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1m9Qx1-1CHQ      

May 20, 2013

Some years back, I was at my cousin’s house, helping her clean out a few boxes of hers. She pulled a book from out one of the boxes and immediately I recognized the picture of a beautiful proud Queen of freedom on the cover that was identical to the poster that I had proudly displayed on my wall. “That’s Assata! I exclaimed excitedly. Aw, you’re up on Assata?” My cousin held up the book, “Oh, this? I only read a little bit of this book. You wanna-..?” Before she could finish the question, I snatched the book away from her as if it was a bar of gold, about to be tossed in the trash.

After reading “Assata” an autobiography about a Sista of Courage, Strength, Revolution and a Undying Love for her People, a surge of life & knowledge flowed through my body along with total recalls of those before me, reminding me why I chose to be a freedom fighter. Assata Shakur is not just some singled-out Black Woman, sough by amerikkka with a bounty on her head for being a so-called terrorist, This Sista of ours was on “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” with a million-dollar price on her head because she wanted freedom, equality and peace. We the People stand up for these same hueman rights, so therefore we too, are on the same list.

LET’S GO BACK TO…

May 2, 1973 when Assata and other comrades were stopped on the New Jersey turnpike by po’lice for what was supposedly been a broken tail-light. The move by tha po’lice was actually a “Stop and Terminate” mission to get rid of the “greatest threat to the internal security of the united snakkkes” and white supremacy. After this blatant, intentional terrorist attack on the Black Panther Party for self-defense, two people lay dead, Zayd Shakur, and trooper Werner Foerster. Assata was wounded while cooperating wit the New Jersey pigs when she put her hands up. Shakur was later charged with both deaths, despite evidence that she had her hands up, unarmed and complying with pigs when she was shot twice. There had also been earlier reports that the bullets removed from Foerster’s body matched bullets belonging to a trooper’s service revolver. Regardless of the facts, Assata Shakur was tried and convicted by an all-white jury (jury of our peers?!) and was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 33 years. While incarcerated, Assata was subjected to many forms of torture, including a liquid solution being poured into her eyes, burning them. Repeated threats to harm her in any way was constant until she was liberated from the beast of the Clinton Correctional institution in 1979 and “souljah’d” on to gain political asylum in Cuba.

“They wanted to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie.” Castro stated. He (Castro) also referred to Assata as a victim of “The fierce repression against the Black Movement in the united states, and a true political prisoner.”

The question ponders in my head on how can we as stolen Black Africans, Freedom Fighters, and other poor and oppressed people of color “sit safe” in the United Snakkkes of Amerikkka , while this high-priced lynching be authorized on Assata Shakur and we believe in the liberation movement as she does?

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the mortal sense of the people who were oppressing them.”

With that so eloquently said by our Sista Assata, do folks really think that we can achieve our goal by selling out our sista, or by boot-lickin’, holding hands praying, crying and snotting with our enemies singing ‘We are the World”? Believing in the false “Zebra Propaganda” that is constantly shown on television- that people of color emulate and shuck n’ jive with white folks to obtain the “promised land” of freedom, justice and peace?! Tolerate some of these rich blacks in amerikkka who are bought-off by the white hands that write their checks so therefore could give a shit about the fate of Sista Assata, in fear that their wealth could be stripped from them before being put on the same lynching list?

“If you’re deaf dumb and blind to what’s happening in the world, you’re under no obligation to do anything. But if you know what’s happening and you don’t do anything but sit on your ass, then you’re nothing but a punk. The US is becoming more hostile to Black people and other people of color. Racism is running rampant and xenophobia is on the rise.” -Assata

...You still think you are safe in tha house, Niggah? To satan and his flunkies-hands off our sista!!! And that is my reflection...
…You still think you are safe in tha house, Niggah? Hands off our sista satan!! And that is my reflection…

“I would like to see disabled artist reach my status in music and beyond!!!!”

1) Krip-Hop Nation (KHN): mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">  Krip-Hop Nation is based in California, USA but with musicians around the word. Tell us how long have you be doing you music and your thoughts on the music industry in South Africa today?

"Times New Roman"">  "Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman"">I started making music professionally in 1968 and my 1st single that took me to the top was “Sala Ema” which was a huge block buster which in 1969…What do I think about South African music? The music scene in South Africa is very diverse it has multiple ganders and the interesting part is in each indigenous group it has its own traditional music, so I think that SA Music is very rich, especially since the youth is starting to remix some of the indigenous traditional songs….

"Times New Roman""> 

"Times New Roman"">2) KHN: mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold">   You are in a 2009 book, mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">can you summarize what you talked about in this book that was published in 2009 or talk about the importance of this book.

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman"">The book was written by Max Mojapel, Mojapelo grew up in Soweto in Tladi Township with his uncle Jimmy Mojapelo who happens to be blind. We had formed an all-blind group called “All Rounder’s”. So when Max saw the group reach its success he couldn’t believe that a group of blind musicians could make it in the mainstream music scene, he saw it fit to include the activities of the group in the book…      

3) KHN: "Times New Roman"">  In your music career what were some of the struggles and what were the high points?

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman""> Being a blind musician to me was a big challenge and the talent scouts of those days wouldn’t give me a chance to showcase my talent just because of my blindness. They just didn’t believe that a blind person could make it in the music industry; with God’s grace I became the 1^st blind superstar in SA.

"Times New Roman"">4) KHN: mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> As a Blind African musician who is from South Africa and have lived through apartheid tell us what was yours and other people with disabilities living under apartheid back then?

"Times New Roman""> Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman""> Apartheid was a drawback in many instances, for instants we were not allowed to record or chant English songs, not allowed to mix different languages in one song and not allowed to share the stage with white Artist, the apartheid regime made it very difficult for black musicians to obtain international passports hence we couldn’t tour aboard. Our black music was only given an hour from 9:00am to 10:00am.

5) KHN: "Times New Roman""> Can you explain your song, "Music Was Born in Africa"?

"Times New Roman"">  "Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman""> Firstly rhythm originated in Africa then Africans made indigenous instruments. Rhythm and instruments created music in AFRICA hence I wrote, “Music Was Born in Africa "Times New Roman"">.

6) KHN: "Times New Roman""> You started the first Black-owned recording company, the Black Artists Management.  Tell us about this company. Why was it needed and what is it work on today?

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman"">We started Black Artist Management the name says it all, companies were white owned, white controlled, we couldn’t record what we wanted to record and I was sick n tired about that. Black artist were exploited, they were paid R10 a session for a seven single recording and whites were paid R70 a session. A group of 5 to 6 musicians upwards were given 5% royalties for a LP recording for a contract that runs for 3 or 5 years.

7) KHN: "Times New Roman"">  Why do you think social consciousness and promoting social justice as well as education through your music is important for your country, for other people with disabilities and youth?

"Times New Roman"">  "Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman""> There was very little knowledge about the capabilities of disable people in general that is why I embarked in composing awareness songs like “Motho Keo” “Mina Ngiyaphila” for the general public. When I’m interview by electronic and print media about up and coming musicians I always talk about education first. Because when you’re educated you’ll be able to understand and run your career efficiently.

8) KHN: "Times New Roman"">  What are you working on now and are you working with or on behalf of other people/musicians with disabilities?

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman"">Presently I own a company called Jozi Entertainment we coordinate government events/concerts and conferences with our own stage, lighting and sound. We also record and promote disabled musicians in our own studio facilities. I am of the idea of trying to put together an integrated choir perhaps with your help I’ll see the light of dawn of this vision…

9)  KHN: mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">  We are on a mission  myself, Zululand Gospel choir and  to  work together with Krip-Hop Nation to not only do a song that celebrates people with disabilities worldwide but to also try to set up an international conference/concert there in South Africa for and by musicians with disabilities.  What do you think about that?

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

"Times New Roman""> I would be honored to be part and parcel of that initiative and with my company Jozi Entertainment we can make that vision a reality.

"Times New Roman"">10) KHN: "Times New Roman""> How can people follow your work and any last words?

"Times New Roman"">Babsy Mlangeni:

People can follow me on social network Babsy Mlangeni and I will upload all his work on iTunes

"Times New Roman"">I would like to see disabled artist reach my status in music and beyond!!!!

Editors Note: Amari X is a Plantation Prison Correspondent for POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE. As currently and formerly incarcerated poor and indigenous peoples in struggle and resistance with all plantation systems in Amerikkka, POOR Magazine stands in solidarity with all hunger strikers demanding justice

I am Amari X. I am hungry for justice. I am in Pelican Bay and have been in the SHU multiple times. Each time it was because I was suspected to be a “gang member”.

These gangs are constructs of the US Military Industrial Complex and the Prison Industrial Complex. They mean nothing except to create dissension among all us inmates so we won’t rise up and take over the guards.

I am in this plantation due to poverty and racist, unjust courts. My crime was non-violent survival crimes.

I refuse to be railroaded into state-sponsored mind control. I hope you will support me and my fellow brothers who are on this hunger strike. We are all HUNGRY for justice. Please support us.

On Wednesday July 31st, people around the world will fast and take other action in solidarity with the California Prisoner Hunger Strikers. Join family members of hunger strikers along with James Cromwell, Angela Davis, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Elliott Gould, Chris Hedges, Alice Walker, and Cornel West. We fast knowing that the criminalization that killed Trayvon Martin, and the criminalization that justifies the torture of prisoners in solitary confinement are one and the same.

We fast in solidarity with the demands of the hunger strikers.  And we fast to get justice for Trayvon and for people of every gender, race and religion who have been killed by state and vigilante violence. Support efforts everywhere for Justice for Trayvon Martin.

 “We have taken up this hunger strike and work stoppage... not only to improve our own conditions but also an act of solidarity with all prisoners and oppressed people around the world.”   Hunger Strikers in the Short Corridor Collective at Pelican Bay State Prison SHU

Join us to help win the 5 demands of the California Prisoner Hunger Strikers:

On July 30th the families and loved ones of prisoners on hunger strike are visiting Sacramento to demand that Governor Brown pressure the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to enter into negotiations with the hunger strikers.

Call California Governor Jerry Brown and ask him to meet the strikers’ demands: (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, (510) 628-0202.

On Wednesday, July 31^st There will be a lunch time rally in Oakland- Gather at 11am (Lunch time rally) Oscar Grant Plaza - 14^th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland – 12^th St. City Center BART

Sign onto the Hunger for Justice Fast & Day of Action

(pictured from left: POOR Magazine family marching in Sacramento against Monsanto Queenandi Xsheba, Dee Allen and Tony Robles)

The Poor peoples plate is rooted in capitalist hate for the three job working mamaz caught in the welfare state.. xcerpt from tha’ Poor Peoples Plate by Tiny/Po’ Poets Project

“Here is your WIC voucher, these are the “approved” dairy products, cereal and dry goods you can buy,” When my son was born and my mama got diagnosed with a fatal heart condition, I was thrown into another bout of severe poverty and houselessness, which meant I qualified for a program used by all poor and working poor parents known as WIC. I was hungry and my son and very ill mama was hungry too, so when they showed me the array of what I now know were non-organic, hormone and antibiotic-filled-milk and GMO-infused pasta and other dried food options, I felt blessed and eagerly signed up.

It wasn’t until two years later due to my ghetto fabulous po’ mamaz revolutionary fight for her own life that I began to understand that the very foods we were “getting” for such a “deal” were actually killing all of us.

As the corporate domination of our food, land, air and water continues and the resistance heats up to the monster known as Monsanto gets stronger it must be said that in the US its us Po’ Folks of all cultures and ages that are getting the worst of it. Some obvious, most not. And no-one is really speaking for us.

Genetically Modified Organisms-Organisms, how U gonna’ tell me it’s a mechanism for better livin’? When ignorance in silence….is how they keep us….but in reality, its violence….that’s how they feed us. Excerpt from ‘Ck Y Food’ by Vivi-T/Po Poets Project

The Po’ Poets Project of POOR Magazine were invited to attend the Sacramento rally to Shut Down Monsanto organized by Stevan Payan and Occupy Sacramento. It was a challenge for us Po’ Folks to go 100 miles out of town to attend a rally, as over-worked and never paid poor folks in resistance attending rallies in and of itself is a challenge, because it means we are spending gas money we don’t have, losing work hours we need to pay rent, caring for children along the way, leaving sick elders or holding our own sick bodies into revolution, but this is the ongoing struggle of a poor people-led revolution like we do at POOR Magazine. When we arrived at the huge and power-FUL rally, we felt blessed to be there but sad to see that we didn’t see a lot of folks who looked like us.  It seemed pretty clear to all of us, that, with the exception of our indigenous brothers like Stevan Payan, Greg Iron and a few others, this fight was being led and fought by mostly middle-class white folks. Sadly, this didn’t surprise us – it only confirmed what we already knew. We are the ones who are consuming most of the GMO-filled food and yet we aren’t the ones on the front-line of this fight.

From the morning to the evening, our poor bodies of color are being destroyed by killer foods and none of us have the time, the resources, the energy or the money to deal with this reality because we are too busy working multiple low-wage jobs to survive, fighting illegal evictions, fighting and working for government crumbs like food stamp and tiny welfare stipends that require us to work for below minimum wage, evading endless po’lice brutality, profiling and incarceration,  or just struggling with the multiple wounds of racism, classism and criminalization impacting our bodies and minds since chattel slavery, Jim Crow, colonization, and the endless lie of these false borders and our forced migration across them just to survive.

As most GMO-organizers know our breakfast is owned by Monsanto, from fruit loops to Total, from Quaker Oatmeal to Shredded Wheat, all of the things many of us wake up and feed our children, thinking we are doing right by them, because we are giving them a “healthy breakfast” those of us in struggle parents who can even manage to do that, are poisoning our children with GMO-filled wheat, soy, or corn.

As we prepare lunches with the “healthy lunch meat” like turkey or ham, the fix is in, willingly putting substances in our bodies deemed “unsafe for human consumption” by leading doctors in a recent study that never made its way to corporate media.

From Betty Crocker to Frito Lay- from Nature Valley to Nabisco, Power Bars and Prego Pasta Sauce, all Monsanto-owned companies- its mind-numbing to figure out what foods, fruits and vegetables aren’t made with genetically modified organisms which have proven to cause bizarre pubic hair loss in a controlled study silently released a few weeks ago and in rats for them to grow their livers outside their bodies

And even when we feed our bodies our indigenous’ cuisines, we find insanely high rates of sodium, saturated fat, sugars and chemicals have snuck their way into our pre-colonial diets in the canned coconut milk filled with high fructose corn syrup, tortillas, rice, plantains, bananas, bread made with GMO’ed corn, wheat, soy and rice, refried beans pumped up with hydrogenated something or other, and large agri-business chicken, pork and beef injected with sodium, anti-biotics and preservatives. You only have to look at our post-colonial, in poverty, in struggle bodies to see the way these chemicals have destroyed our warriors, silenced our elders and placed our parents on endless Big Pharma prescriptions many of us can barely afford.

My Afrikan-Taino Indian mama who was an orphan so she didn’t even have access to her indigenous cultures recipes filled with healthy arroz con frijoles ate what I affectionately call poor peoples food her whole life, a steady diet of high sodium, fat-filled colonized and processed culture derivative food, refried beans from a can, chili from a can, and top ramen spiced with chilis, peppers and salt, and as much other starch and cheap meat as we could stretch the food stamps to buy with a lot of pan dulce, donuts and coffee thrown in to deal with her ongoing deep depression from her always in struggle life, leaving her over-weight and unable to fight the multiple diseases her poor body of color was constantly attacked by. When she finally made it off welfare into a full-time job, I was the classic latch-key kid, coming home to frozen food or a warm and hormone and fat-filled fast food meal from Burger King, Mickey D’ or KFC.

When we became houseless (due to my mama’s being laid off and then becoming disabled) when I was 11 our food went further down hill, chef Boyardee in a can from 7-11, Spam and Campbells soup and cheap White or Wheat Bread from the corner sto’, bascially whatever we could get and make with the killer, cancer causing micro-wave was that nights meal.

It was all about survival and poverty. There was No Way we could prepare fresh vegetables, fruits, salads or even beans and rice. If someone had told us to “change our diet” or only buy fresh foods we couldn’t have, it was all we could do just to get through the night without freezing to death.

We graduated from the car to a shelter where we were happy to receive whatever they served us, most of the time, GMO-cereal in the morning,  killer lunch-meat on white bread for lunch and a fat-filled, warm gravy over an undiscernable meat for dinner.

When I turned 18 I graduated to jail food, ( being incarcerated for the crime of sleeping in our car in Amerikkka) which included food that didn’t even look like food. Bread so white it almost wasn’t there, filled with meat so green it looked like lettuce. Again, I ate it until I was sick cause it was all I had access to and suffice it to say, nutrition wasn’t the first thing on my mind.

My families story is but one of billions of poor peoples around the world, unseen stories of survival, struggle and in the US eventual death from diabetes, heart disease or high blood pressure to name a few all in large part due to what we are eating. As indigenous, landless peoples living in shelters, plantation prisons, public housing units, over-crowded, substandard housing units with no land surrounding them, and so many years of colonial theft of our land and resources,  corporate defined, under-paid labor taking us away from the organic work of caring and teaching our own children and our gardens, and racist laws constantly incarcerating our young peoples, corporate media selling us and our young peoples on the lie of advancement and convenience, healthy eating seems almost impossible.

And yet the whole process of coming at our poor peoples communities with demands to “eat better” or an endless stream of critiques and accusations about “our bad food choices” isn’t helping, instead its just more racist, classist hate against the poor, while the hypocracy of Michele Obama touting healthy food choices when her husband pushes the Monsanto Protection Act and most of his administration and a supreme court judge (Clarence Thomas) are former (and current) employees of Monsanto.

Rather my challenge to conscious food justice peoples is the same one I have to housing justice folks stemming from a frame of what I call Community Reparations. Work with the stolen resources you might have access to to make community gardens accessible to us, donate healthy un-GMO-ed food to food banks and shelters, schools and community centers, even if it means purchasing them out of your own pocket. Look at the model of Planting Justice who creates living wage jobs in permaculture for plantation incarcerated folks and then the model of Phat Beatz in Oakland and Urban Tilt in Richmond who truly work inside communities of color to build, support and maintain community gardens and make fresh, garden grown vegetables accessible to poor folks. Buy free shopping gift cards for poor communities of color from markets who sell healthy, non-GMO-ed food like Rainbow and Berkeley Bowl (instead of Foods Co and Slave-Way) and if you work at collectives like Rainbow- offer free groceries to shelters, group homes, and grassroots, non-profit organizations on a monthly basis, not just when we sponsor an event, so we can feed our communities, members and families fresh food all the time.

At POOR Magazine we have been teaching folks wit race and class privilege to become revolutionary donors and support us, stand in solidarity with us as poor and indigenous peoples to launch our own landless peoples movement to reclaim Mama Earth from the capitalist lie of real estate snakkking and speculation with a project we call Homefulness

From this cross-class solidarity work and support, not savior dictation, we have been able to launch the Pachamama Garden community garden and take our poor bodies of color off of this killer capitalist grid. Each week we share healthy, non-GMOed , non-nitrite having meat purchased thanks to the support of the revolutionary donors, with the East Oakland community, this is an act of revolution in a community where so many of our poor mamaz and daddys, elders and young peoples dwell and have ready access to a lot of GMO-ed fast food, chips, sodas and liquor in corner sto’s.

“I have been able to create relationships with many of the corner store owners and Hilal meat vendors who don’t buy GMO’ed veggies or meat so I can create an affordable meal for myself and my daughter and community,” said  Mama Needa Bee, chef and healer-mama from Oakland who taught at the 2012 Healing the Hood event at POOR Magazine’s Homefulness 

We also launched Healing tha (Neighbor) Hood series last year where we teach our young folks, mamaz and daddys how to decolonize their diets back to their own indigenous roots and strategize their bodies out of this food genocide available at every street corner, Walmart and Supermarket in Amerikkka and we are currently working on a poor peoples healthy cook-book co-written by our youth and mama skolaz at POOR. Because for us Po’ folks its all about decolonizing, strategy and inter-dependence.

“In the end of the day its another way to kill us,” Gerry, 67, said. After the Monsanto rally my family and I went to a trailer park way out in West Sacramento where the only store for miles was a Food 4 Less- we drove into the park to take some food and cash to one of our multi-generational, indigenous families in deep  poverty gentriFUKed out of San Francisco due to real estate speculation, whose tenuous hold on stability was destroyed by the move and was now living in a broke-down trailer with hardly any of the family working and most of the people in some state of crisis. I told elder grandmamma Gerry and her adult granddaughter Felicia about the rally and Monsanto’s theft of our food system. Gerry’s tired eyes registered shock and fear and yet resignation, “ its genocide cause they know we just don’t have the energy to deal with yet another thing against us.”

Healing the (Neighbor) Hood 2013 will go down this Summer at Homefulness in Deep East Oakland on Inter-Dependence Day Weekend July 6&7- for more information go on-line to www.poormagazine.org/calendar

People Skool @ POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE Presents

“Who is an Immigrant/ Quien es Immigrante?” by Everette Middle School Youth Skolas

1: Who is an Immigrant/Migrant? (write what you think an immigrant is.)

2: Write a story or draw a picture of the place your ancestors immigrated /migrated from.

3: Can a human being be “illegal” or “legal”?

                Yaria

1: People who come from different places or different states.

2: I think India and Africa

3: No, because sometimes some people just say that people are illegal to make them feel bad. I think all human beings are legal.

                Danelia Mendieta

1: an immigrant is a person who crosses the border to get better jobs and money to raise their families.

2: My ancestor immigrated from Nicaragua to America so they can have a better life and be treated better and not be slaves and they can get money so they can raise their little ones and their family.

3: I think a human being should not be illegal because it doesn’t make sense because they’re not stealing anything, they’re just trying to make their life better and have freedom.

                Jhoaris Menjivar

1: An immigrant is a person from another country that crossed the border to work for this country.  A person to find a better life in America.

2: My ancestors come from central America, from El Salvador. My country is a very poor country. That is why they came to America to have a better lie and to work and to give their children a better education.

3: Every human being I guess is legal. Because even though the rules in America say some people are illegal, we aren’t.

                Katie   

1: They cross the border from Sweden, they leave their home to go to the U.S.

2: I am mixed with almost everything. I am half country girl and half city girl. My family crossed the border from Sweden to the U.S. I am part gipsy (Romanies) before the Jewish people. We had won with the Germans and I am also part German

3: WE HAVE RIGHTS!

                Izzy

1: People who can’t afford stuff for their family to where they can’t survive in their own country so they move to rich countries, for example the U.S.

2: Mexico, Italy, Honduras, and Greece. I am Mexican, Italian, Honduran, and Greek.

3: No, but some people in their earlier days thought since they found a country to live in, other people who were a different color or race they shouldn’t be allowed to live with others that are different. They thought they were more important and rich and not poor.

                Eulalia

1: Someone who is making up another word to make others feel bad.

2: unanswered

3:I think a human can be legal is being human means we can be different it deserves to be legal but is being human means we’re not different it deserves to be illegal.

                Mach M

1: An immigrant is someone who travels somewhere away from their home to find a better place to live.

2:a: My dad migrated from El Salvador to the U.S. He crossed the border. Traveled a long way while he was just a teenager. He came by himself on foot with just 2 gallons of water and a few dollars in his pocket. San Salvador

b: My mother came to the U.S. at the age of 17 from the Philippines. She came here on a boat across the Pacific Ocean. Manila

3: Yes, if a person doesn’t have legal papers stating they are a citizen. They can be illegal if the person doesn’t have the right “paperwork”.

Dante

My name is Dante.  I am 13 years old.  I live in East Oakland.  My Street is full of trees not dirty gardens.  I am the son of my mom Sharena.  I learned that plants can save your life and you can make money.  From what I learned about high blood pressure, it is from too much salt in your diet.  By Growing your own food, you will know it is good for you and real.  I like football, eating food and learning new things. 

Niani Manigo

My name is Niani Manigo and I am 10 years old.   I live in Oakland CA in an apartment that is by Highland Hospital and the houses by my apartment have some interesting color, like gray, white, peach, black and yellow.  Something that I like to do is dancing, gardening, but when it comes to my mom and me, we walk the Merit Lake.  It is tiring but it is fun.  My moms’ name is Pecolia Manigo Tonia Hudson.  Some plants can heal diseases.  If you grow plants instead of eating GMO it would be better. 

Seven Renee Curley

I am 10 years old.  I live in Oakland, California.  Sometimes I like to garden.  I learned that some plants help cure heart disease.  Sometimes sage can heal sickness.

Felix

I, Felix have been on this earth for this lifetime for 20 years.  Child of x/earth, ocean, moon) Ix.  Live on occupied Ohlone land, west Oakland, my neighborhood is full with folx who have lived on the block for generations, people (like me) who are moving in.  Some, getting to know the community and some only live in their homes, from their doors to their cars. 

The next street, over there, there is a community garden.  I always stop to admire.  Beautiful mural of Maiz.  The corner store selling fried Chicken and food filled with toxins.

I dream of working together with the community to build gardens full of medicine, food, life.  Black and Brown folx depending on each other.  Healing the poisons place in our bodies by white supremacy.

Please also read Part 1 & Part 3 featuring more youth and mama skolaz- and stay tuned for their garden dedication to Trayvon

Watch the Youth SKolaz 2013 WeSearch Report on Healthy Food Access in Deep East Oakland

The poet Al Robles once posed this question: What happens when a poet dies?

Robles, who is often called the poet laureate of San Francisco's Manilatown, whose work centered around the struggle against the eviction of elderly Pilipino tenants from San Francisco's International Hotel—an event that changed the political landscape of the city in very significant ways—juxtaposed this question with the lines:

When a politician dies

he dies, that's it

When a philosopher dies

he dies, that's it

When a mathematician dies

he dies, that's it

But when a poet dies, his words live on forever

Such can be said about the poet Jeff Tagami, whose graceful, humble and powerful poems live on as we honor the 1 year anniversary of his passing. Jeff's book of poems, “October Light” is a powerful document chronicling the lives, dreams, struggles, heartbreak and redemption of Pilipino workers who were part of the first generation of immigrants from the Philippines to come to the US—filled with ideas about America that were propagated by the American school system in the Philippines. The idea that America was the land of opportunity and that all men are created equal were planted in the minds of these young immigrants who came here to seek a better life. However, they learned the other side of the American Dream when they arrived on these shores. Confronted with deep racism and anti-immigrant hysteria, these immigrants faced violence and much indignation. They were ostracized by a society they thought would welcome them—for isn't that what America promised: give us your poor, your hungry, your...

Jeff Tagami's parents were part of that early generation of Pilipino immigrants, migrating to Hawaii before settling in Watsonville. His parents worked the land, knew the seasons. They understood the blowing of the horn, the conveyor belt, the unrelenting sun, stoop labor—the machinery of agribusiness that exploited the Filipinos who gave more than their hours. Some lost fingers, limbs. From the poem “The Horn Blow”

If not for luck, then to pray

Against the spastic knee

That brings the spinning blade

Down like an axe

Sending fingers or a whole hand

Flying to heaven

To daydream is to lose a part of you

Jeff Tagami was born in Watsonville. From an early age he worked and witnessed the struggle of his parents to support and provide for their many children. He grew up among people whose lives revolved around the land and seasons. He was touched deeply by the struggles—jealousies, power dynamics, exploitation, the search for identity—that were imbedded in the lives of the workers in the Pajaro Valley, where Watsonville is located. The Watsonville Riots of 1930 are a documented part of Pilipino American history where whites attacked Filipino labor camps, armed and filled with vitriolic hatred of the Pilipinos who they saw as “Those people that are taking our jobs.” One worker whose life has been immortalized in Pilipino American history is murdered 22 year old Fermin Tobera.

Jeff Tagami's poetry bears witness to the life of Fermin Tobera. He was touched deeply by this event that happened decades before he was born. In the backdrop of the Pajaro River, whose stagnant waters reflected the bitter struggles of Pilipinos, Jeff Tagami was moved deeply, making that stagnant river move with the fire of the spirit of Fermin Tobera, whose murdered 22 year old body was sent home to the Philippines and whose funeral was a national day of shame. It was as if the sound of Jeff Tagami's heart echoed the name Tobera, Tobera, Tobera—inspiring a poem that bears his name:

My name is Fermin

I am twenty -two,

Forever

I work all day

I tip a bottle of bourbon

And swallow four times.

I'm as strong as hell.

And of the paradox and contradictions of living as a Pilipino in America:

yes, a man gets lonely

But he has to do something

To stop from going crazy.

And it's not craziness

When men get together

To buy a '29 model T

And drive from Watsonville

To Lompoc, San Pedro

To Oxnard and back again

Past the neatly clipped lawns

Of white neighborhoods

Where they are not welcome

And to do this over and over

Like a man slapping

His own face again and again

And of the bullet that claimed his life:

Here comes the buzzing

of the bullet

which bears my name.

It's a bee looking

for the hive of my neck

and I must lay still

for its sweet entrance.

Time moves on.

My brothers grow older

without me and I

become the cold breath

on their necks, the blind

Fog in the field.

I am not spiteful,

just a reminder

when things are going well.

Kearny Street Workshop published Jeff's book of poems titled, “"October Light" in 1987. A powerful book, it has seen two reprints. The work is vibrant and timeless and is worthy of being called a classic in Pilipino American literature. Jeff's wife, poet Shirley Ancheta, recalls that Jeff wrote the poems when he moved to San Francisco. “Sometimes you have to get away from a place in order to write about it”, says Ancheta, whose own work is steeped in the experience of Pilipino workers of the Central Coast. “Jeff wrote those poems while working in an office in San Francisco, a job that was procured through friend, poet Al Robles. Jeff, who was in his mid 20's, had established friendships with a community of Pilipino American writers based in San Francisco whose vision and art was coalesced by the struggle against the eviction of Pilipino elders of the International Hotel on Kearny Street. From those friendships grew a camaraderie that was a burst of consciousness in which Jeff's poems took bloom. “He spent a long time on his poems” says Shirley Ancheta, who remembers the passion of her late husband's writing. “He had a lot of anger about the way working people were treated and about his own life. He went through a lot”. Jeff and Shirley became a part of a group of writers based in the city that became known as BAPAW—Bay Area Pilipino American Writers. Included in this group were poets Oscar Penaranda, Jaime Jacinto, Al Robles, Virginia Cerenio, Jocelyn Ignacio, Orvy Jundis, Lou and Serafin Syquia and Norman Jayo. This group became the nucleus for a Bay Area Pilipino literary sensibility, based on a common cultural history as a colonized people in America, that inspired a fusion of literary work and community activism.

What's remarkable is the fact that Jeff Tagami was able to write such a powerful book of poems with a maturity that betrayed his young age. In reading the poems, one gets the idyllic sense that he wrote them while sitting at the edge of the Pajaro River, pen in hand, notebook fluttering in the wind, pen moving gracefully under the slow moving billowing clouds lazily hovering above. But the poems were written in the city, removed from his place of birth. At the heart of his poems are personal experience. The poem “The Horn Blow” is about Jeff’s experience working in the lumber yard in 1978-79, where workers were mostly Portuguese from the Azores, poor whites, a few Chicanos, Filipino Americans like Jeff and his brother Fred-- and one Native American. Shirley was in a bad car accident in Watsonville in 1977. (She was on an oral history project from SF State and were at a labor camp when the accident occurred. Two friends were killed. Shirley was the only survivor. Sharon Lew, her roommate– died along with Michelle Hamada another SFSU student. ) As a result of Shirley's long hospital stay, additional surgeries and recuperation, Jeff moved back to Watsonville and ended up at the lumber yard.

The humble grace of the poems in “October Light” and of the life of Jeff Tagami is a testament to what was written in his memory. A respect for nature, of not only taking from it, but leaving something behind to cherish is an underlying thread that runs through the poems, connecting poet to land and poet to reader. From the poem, Stonehouse:

We begin ceremoniously

As if the trees were our grandmothers,

And solemnly undress them to bathe

In the warmth of their age,

Dark years old

Death looms in the fog above

Our heads as we descend the ladder;

Each step measured, foreboding.

Our legs quiver from the bags

Strapped and brimming on our bellies.

Like unborn babies, the shift

Threatening our balance.

All day we work

Until dusk drives us from the orchard

The poems in “October Light” should be required reading in all schools. And with the passing of AB 123 in the California State Assembly—authored by Pilipino-American Assemblyman Rob Bonta—which would require schools to insert the history of Pilipino-Americans in their curriculum, Jeff Tagami's work could be exposed to an even bigger audience. In my opinion, it is as important a work to the Pilipino American literary landscape as Carlos Bulosan's “America is in the Heart” and Al Robles' “Rappin' with Ten Thousand Carabaos in the Dark”, among others. One need only read the poems in October Light to understand why Robles had such a fondness for Jeff. The heart of Jeff Tagami is the heart of a moving river, the heart of our struggle as Pilipinos in America and our perseverance and resiliency which he so genuinely and lovingly illustrates. It is baffling why this book never won an award, although it received much positive critical acclaim. One gets the sense that had Jeff been born 20 or 30 years earlier, his poems would have rung with the same clarity, grace and truth—powerful light, never to be diminished. No awards necessary—the poems are beyond accolades, they are gifts given with an honesty that only love can bring.

On June 22^nd, a group of friends honored poets Jeff Tagami and Al Robles in a ceremony at the rooftop of the International Hotel. It was a befitting place to gather, reminisce and honor their friendship and love for community. The wind kicked up during the ceremony. Shirley Ancheta and Theresa Robles (sister of poet Al Robles) released a small amount of ashes as an offering to be carried by the I-Hotel and Manilatown wind. It was a lovely moment to remember two poets who are loved and honored because through their poetry, they refused to forget. Jeff Tagami, presente! Al Robles, presente! Long live the I-Hotel!

PNN Youth & Mama SKolaz 2013 We-Search Investigation: Food Access in Deep East Oakland-

Created, Filmed and Investigated at the Revolutionary Youth Arts/Media & Permaculture Camp @ Homefulness -

Writers/Investigators: Niani, Dante, Jisary, Sahara, Felyx, Tiburcio, Seven, Alexis, Mike, Jazzmond, Joyous, Kimo, and many more..

Co-Mamaz/Co-Uncles/Brothers/Sistaz, Needa Bee, Muteado Silencio, Tiny, Martrice, Queenandi, Black Riders Liberation Party, Jose Rivera, Corrina Gould, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Sharena Thomas, Marinette Tovar,

I have worked in environments where it was very rough with no real leaders supporting the killings in Hunters Point. I talked to people that represented the Bay View yet the money was spent on themselves and not the non- profit organizations. The thing that would make me get upset is when a white person would take over organizations when it should be black people from the community that live in the neighborhood. I sincerely believe black people need to come together and police their own communities especially because we are one and our ancestors were forced to come to this country against our own will. I think society today is affected from slavery, because when we were brought here from Africa the white man mentally enslaved us for years. For example killing black men in front of black women, making black men look weak and not strong. Eventually black woman looked to the white man for everything. Mental slavery was the worst thing for us because we suffer from it to this very day. That is the root cause of brothers killing their own, and the police don’t even have to infiltrate anymore because from slavery we were taught to hate ourselves which makes it justifiable for black men to kill and sell drugs to their own. Today in Hunters Point the killings are outrageous in numbers and they had to make an emergency town hall meeting with Kamala Harris, CBS news, and people from the community. All of this went down in 1998, but nothing ever happened after the meeting but a whole bunch of angry mothers and no solution to the loss of jobs in the community.

            I am blessed now to meet someone who is active in Hunters Point community and is starting a march. Sala came to a newsroom with Poor Magazine and told her story of hope and love. There is not a coincidence that I went to these meetings and just now in 2013 I heard Sala speak about real issues and not just problems, but solutions.

            During 1999 was the birth of her television talk show called the Real Life Mermaid. The radio show made her want to start a community peaceful walk. The walk is called One Life Walk and it is supposed to happen in a year, yet I wanted to start her story before the march as a making of the foundation this queen is going to lay. The walk will go into several directions at once it will all converge into the financial district at city hall. Separate walks will start in Vicitacion Valley, Hunters Point, Western Addition, the Avenues, Potrero, Fillmore, Tenderloin, and then the Haight. As the walk gets closer mapping will also take place. In Dallas, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, Richmond, New York, Atlanta, Memphis, and D.C. Sala is really centered and produces non fakeness yet positive directed and heart felt. She is free from artificial speaking and everyone loves her show. Eventually she wants to start a non- profit agency but that will come later on down the line. She wants to start an employment center, and a safe haven for people in the community especially our youth. Sala stresses that mothers and fathers should teach their children a knowledge of self. If they do not know their history they will not be able to define themselves as a person. I love the way she feels about women, because the woman is the creator and her whole motivation came from her child. A nation can rise no higher than its woman, because a man can’t create but a woman can give birth to a nation. Sala is the represenatative of that aspect, because through her womb came wisdom, freedom and a voice. Sala has delayed the march for a year. The exact date of the One Life Walk will be held on June.20^th 2014.

            Finally we have a rise in the community and I sincerely believe this walk will be beautiful and rewarding. If we can change childrens’ aspects on their culture and environment we can help our future. Sala will put all of these aspects I just talked about into fruition. As Sala said “It is time to remember, it is time to stop all the noise and act, it is time to redirect energy, it is the time for change NOW.”

“Sweet Tea”
(For Jazzie upon receiving the LGBT person of the year award at the State Capitol)

She was shuffled
Back and forth,
Shaking hands and
Wading through a
Passel of dignitaries
At the state capitol

She had woken early
As flowers
The bird fluttering
Wings of her eyes
Rising softly like bird’s legs
Wading in the soft wet earth
Of memory

She was dressed for
Her special day,
Soft colors like spring clouds
Spreading like a wet dress
In the sun

It was an award
In a frame that was
Given to her and several
Others in her community

An accommodation
To be cherished, to be
Hung on the wall
Where so many
Stories are written, yet
Untold, unsaid, unseen

After the award was
Given, she was
Shuttled to a room
For a luncheon

And she looked at the bounty,
Picking up bits of food
With fingers burnished with
Struggle, survival and fire

And she stopped
For a moment

And it was there,
A decanter swelled
With tea

Cool tea with
The sun hitting
At an angle

Jazzie, the woman
From Memphis, who is far
Away from that place yet
So present

Looks at the dark
Tea, that river
Flowing across her skin,
Whose steeped ripples extend
Across her heart

The song
Of sweet
tea

(Photo by Christopher Cook)