August 12, 2014

Just as negotiations broke down Friday and the second ceasefire allegedly ended because Hamas fired rockets into Israel, 18 year old Michael Brown was gunned down by Ferguson Missouri police while visiting his grandmother.

Residents in the apartment complex where Brown's grandmother resides began to protest. Police responded by tear gassing the crowd and spraying them with rubber bullets. The Ferguson residents responded by “rioting and looting.” I stand in solidarity with those struggling in both Palestine and Ferguson and applaud their efforts.

If there is any request I could make to those in the struggle in Ferguson, it is to please show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Palestine, and to raid and loot with purpose. Loot and/or destroy the products made by corporations that aid Israel in its genocide against our brothers and sisters in Palestine. And if not, at least continue to boycott the following products/ corporations: Coca-cola, Nissan, Dannon, Nestle, HP, Estee-Lauder and now it would appear Sony has been supplying guidance systems to Israel's rockets. Looted Sony camera’s would be the perfect device to take pictures of cops and post on social networks!

The death toll in Gaza increases as the protests in Ferguson and elsewhere continue. We must make clear it's not “them in Gaza and us here.” Neither is it us in San Francisco fighting eviction and those in Ferguson. We must maintain our support and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the struggle all over the world, including in Iraq.

Shortly after US troops left Iraq, allegedly for the last time, Isis attacked the puppet government set up by the US. Isis made off with billions of dollars in military equipment bestowed upon Iraq by the US. Genocide of Kurds by Saddam's government was one of the excuses the US used to attack Iraq, but they were supplied with very little assistance when the actual war began. Once again Kurds are pawns in the American Fourth Reich’s game/ attempt at completely colonizing the alleged “Middle East” which is in fact North Africa!

Now, in order to draw attention away from our involvement in the genocide of Palestinians, America is faking compassion for the Kurds, when after all America helped put Saddam in power and ignored their cries for help over the last decades. This is all supposedly to protect Christians. Meanwhile, US Media is conveniently ignoring the fact that 40% of Palestinians are Christian.

Rise up against the oppressors. Support the revolution worldwide. Boycott and loot, but most of all take the cop's pics and post them on social media sites!

In the rear view I am looking. I see my grandmother cooking. I see the moist parchment of her hands and fingers holding the ginger, slicing; its fragrance on her hands, dipping into the river of my mind, warming the belly. In the rear view the city skyline sits on the skin of a postcard set aflame. I look in the rear view. Buildings stand side by side like a police barricade surrounded by the troubled reflections off the bay. In the rear view I see my grandfather, his shadow filled face covering features that were once so clear and recognizable. In the rear view the postcard is a razor lashing the face, slashing the roots, leaving invisible marks. I look in the rear view at the postcard city inhabited by skeletons and painted ladies doused in vinegar. I see my grandmother again. Her hands are moving across the skin of an onion. She slices with one stroke. I look into the rear view. The edges of the postcard are dull and can no longer cut into me. The fragrance of grandma’s story is on my skin. Tears form in the creases of my eyes. I look in the rear view, the city getting smaller as I go forward. My eyes glide across the face of the rear view and finally slide off and take in what’s in front of me.

Last week while running errands in the Market Street area I noticed at 77 Van Ness, international symbols for restrooms and a sign that stated it was an ”Open Space” and open to the public, so I went in and used the restroom, having to use the elevator to the second floor to do so.

The next day again while running errands I again went in to use the restroom and was halted by the greeter who told me “The restroom is not working today. I had to call the plumber.”

Of course this is the usual “open to the public unless they look like you” excuse.

Having been through this hundreds of times, I didn't want any trouble so I left and relieved myself elsewhere.

But I immediately went back and asked the greeter's name. He told me but I will not disclose it.

I asked him if he had a last name and he immediately told me, “I'm the only one here with that name.”

Its amazing how co-operative people get when they realize you have some sense and aren't afraid of using it!

He has been friendly and co-operative ever since !

Speaking of facilities open to the public, a new service open to people who want showers but aren't able to take them where they dwell, Lava Mae mobile showers are free and open to the public. Their times and locations are as follows:

Tuesdays 12-6pm Mother Brown's in the Bayview.

Friday 9:30 am to 12 pm Ywam [across from Glide] in the Tenderloin

Saturday 7am-12pm Mission Neighborhood Resource Center in the Mission

Editors Note: Kamau-Aka-Brandon George is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents. He is a poet writing from behind the razor wires at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. 

Phoenix

Like a beautiful star viewed from a distance, obscured by the light years that separate the world from her brilliance and her from their ignorance Beautifully encrypted with a celestial image all eyes at attention yet no one gets it, it's a lonesome existence so she bottles her light inside. White zinfandel bottles that provide a place for her  pain to hide. More than once in a while opening her "wine" eagle spread on any bed she finds rest from the rocky hills she climbs. Climatiz  cries that tear tears from her "I" not mere tears but spirit drops that metamorph into bright embers warm enough to spark life but too hot to sustain the enigma of her aspirations not mere tears but latent promise that evaporated on hotel pillow cases leaving traces of her yearning soul remnants of her internal erosion seeping through as the bottle she hid in bursts open leaving exposed what she fought so hard to keep closed she implodes and from the ashes of implosion she's born brand new. Like A Phoenix.

Co-Madres/Co-Daddys Note: The theme of the 2014 Revolutionary Youth Construction/Science, Media/Arts & Permaculture Camp at Homefulness - was Environmental Racism and Gentrification. Each Youth Skola worked in a team to investigate the soil and water of the intentionally blighted, gentrify ready, colonized and stolen Ohlone land known as Deep East Oakland. It was a multi-generational classroom where eldership was practices, older youth taking on leadership and co-teacher roles to younger youth. They also learned/participated in media creation and dialogues about racism, poverty, permaculture, Poor peoples liberation and basic building, architecture taught by elders and comrades like the Black Riders Liberation Party and the Carpenters Union. They built scale models of the poor peoples liberation project called Homefulness. Finally and most importantly, each youth skola re-learned the importance of their own ancestral knowlege, and how important their love and respect is for their own original teachers, their mamaz, daddys, aunties, uncles, abuelos/as, ancestors, spirits cultures and Mama Earth.

Patience Oppression, Liberation and Me- by Youth Elder Nikolasi Niumeitolu
Day 1: On the first day, we opened our camp with a discussion on environmental racism. Environmental racism is when a group of people, like the government, puts poor and impoverished people, like us, in places that are polluted and contaminated by industrial waste, like east Oakland. We also discussed gentrification. Gentrification is when the government or the bank evict people from their homes or stores, so they can increase the property value by building condos for more “desirable” people. After our discussion we investigated our neighborhood for signs of environmental racism ad gentrification. We walked down to Richie and Macarthur and found a barber shop on the corner that was being gentrified by real estate snakes. We then crossed the street to a dirt lot and collected a sample of the dirt and a sample from a group of abandoned buckets that were filled with murky oil-like liquid. After taking the samples we made our way back to homefulness, taking note of all the many liquor stores. Taking a final sample from homefulness we ended out day concluding that we were in a neighborhood infected by environmental racism and gentrification.

Day 2: ON the second day we met the architect of the new Homefulness Project, Bob Theis. Bob Theis told us about the new environmentally friendly Homefulness he planned to build. Instead of using the conventional wood build for the new homefulness, Theis planned to use the indigenous straw build. Theis told us how many indigenous peoples used straw build houses, a popular example being adobe houses. We also met and interviewed Black Rider E Da Ref. E Da Ref made us aware of the constant oppression people of color are under from the government.

Day 3: On the third day we went to a creek, called Arroyo Viejo to investigate the water. The creek lay polluted, littered with plastic waste. We then came back to Homefulness to examine and test our water samples. The water samples had a pH level of 9, which is way above the level water is supposed to be. Water is supposed to be the neutral pH level of 7.

Week 2

Day 1: On the fourth day we learned the importance of the honey bee. The honey bee is responsible for pollinating one third of the world’s fruit and vegetable crops. We learned pollination is important because pollination is what makes the flower blossom, which later turns into the fruit or vegetable. The honey bees are being killed off by pesticides non-organic farmers use called neonicotinoids. These pesticides, if not stopped, will kill all the honey bees in the world. Without the honey bees alive, we will lose crops like tomatoes, apples and cucumbers. After that we started a scale build of homefulness. I made a basketball court with two basketball hoops.

Day 2: On the second day of the second week we learned about fracking. Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing is when you use large amounts of water to fracture the earth in order to obtain minerals and oil. Fracturing can cause earthquakes and tremors because the fractures can go miles into the Earth. We also discussed the many oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. In our discussion, we learned oil can contaminate the water, which contaminated the fish, makes it unfit for us to swim in and also makes it unfit for us to be around. After that we interviewed three black carpenters and one Black Rider. The carpenters told us a little about carpentry while the Black Riders told us about what the Black Riders do. We ended our day with finishing up our scale model of Homefulness.

The Last Day: Today is the last day of Hopefulness. Looking back on the past two weeks, I have learned a lot. I’ve learned about the environmental racism and gentrification oppression us poor people go through every day. I’ve learned more about myself. As an older member in the camp, I am mostly in leadership positions. Most of the time, my patience wears thin with the younger children, but these past two weeks have shown me to be patient and to help my younger brothers and sisters because we are all family. As we finish and paint our scale models of Hopefulness, I would like to say this camp has taught me more about our world and also was very fun to attend.

Without the Bees We Couldn't Exist- by Youth Elder Seven

Week 2

Day 1: On the first day that I came we learned about the bees and about if they no longer exist, we would not be able to live. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating over 100 crops. They also help us plant our fruit, like apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, avocados, cucumbers, onion, grapefruit, orange and pumpkins.

Day 2:
We learned that BP oil is bad for the earth. Shell signed a contract with Lego to drill a hole in the earths crust from Canada to Mexico. Lego is a bad company for kids. The black carpenter came to inspect our small houses. 

Day 3:
We learned about how the world is filled up with traps. Electricity and fire are not a necessary element. In the past, people didn’t have a lot of electricity or water in their houses. I also learned that most of the cars are used by the devils. Then I finished making my mini poor magazine school model.

The Bees are Very Important- By Youth Elder Dante

Day 1:

The first day I came we watched a movie on bees and how they are very important part of our world and we wouldn't be able to eat all the fruits we need and love. So we got to take care of bees and quit killing them because they are very important. I also learned that in some cities they barely have any bees so they pay people to put the nectar on with a little Q-tip.

Day 2:

My second day we made groups and each group had an assignment to put in our little places that we had made. We learned about how to make a house by how we wanted it to look. So we had rooms and the outside looked like a real house. 

Day 3:

My third day we worked on the houses again and my team started again so we can make it look better. It was hard to, but we got it done because we didn't fight this time so it went fast.

Searching and WeSearching By Youth Skola Jisary

Day one: we went to Ritchie and Macarthur and took oil samples and dirt samples. We also learned about environmental racism. When we came back we looked at the dirt with microscopes and saw a whole lot of little bugs in the dirt.
 
Day two: we continued where we left off and the next group went to look at the dirt in the microscopes. My group had to go on the computers and search up what they where doing to our water and tiny called it we search. We also built plant boxes for our herbal plants.
 
 Day three: we did an interview with E Daref one of the black riders. We asked him a lot of questions. After that we went to go play basketball and others played tag and hide and go seek.

 Day four: the black carpenters came to teach us about building and where going to build the next day when we where done learning we went inside to eat some greens and macaronie and cheese.
 
 Day five: we started to build models of homefullness my team built a healing center because the shape of the drawing looked like one. The shape was like a octagon.
 
 Last day: a woman spoke to us about radiation and a spill in Japan called fukashima daichi and it effected all the fish in the pacific ocean. After that we had to finish our houses and after that we had freetime and I had fun.

Studying Our Neighborhood By Youth Elder Janina Scislowski

Day 1:
ON the first day we came to people’s School, we went out to Ritchie and Macarthur street, and went to study and observe the neighborhood. There were abandoned lots, empty yards, trash, building parts on the ground, and fences separating areas. There was a bad smell as we walked through the places, the unused buildings, and the gated, unfinished houses. There were many houses for lease, yet they looked old and vacant. When we were approaching a lot with broken doors and windows in it, we smelt a burning, sweet smell. We saw two orange buckets and inside that was oil. Unattended full oil. It was thick and it smeared the side of the bucket. WE took samples of the oil and dirt from the dirty lot, and when we later put the grains from the dirt under the microscopes we found that the dirt was infected with bacteria.
Gentrification is all around us.

Day 2:
On day 2, we met Bob Theis, a building contructor. We taked about building, different ways to build, and he said that the building was built in 1925. Before this building was empty for ten years. We learned that people used to build buildings feom trees, but we are wasting them, so we now build with hay/straw. Also, the wood would try to reunite with its family in nature, so it later rotted. Now, we put a concrete slab under the wood, and build our straw material in the walls. These inds of houses were built mostly in Central Valley. We were taught about different kinds of wall designs and plaster, and cool facts like that straw buildings don’t catch fire, and mud hardens naturally when you put it into the walls. Naturally made houses are some of the best, and they’re good for the environment.

Day 3:
On day three, we went to Arroyo Viejo, and learned that ten years ago, this river was fill of fish. It was healthy, but later it got contaminated. The world arouns us was fracking (a form of taking energy by drilling DEEP into the ground and taking the healthy water) and we were told that CA might start doing this. In Pennsylvania, when people turned on the tap, they got fire instead of water. Fracking in Oklahoma caused three earthquakes in the same week.

Week 2

Day 1:
On day 1, we learned that bees are dying, and that Lego and Shell are signing a contract and setting a bad example for the children who play with Legos. With bees, we’d have HALF the fruit and vegetables we have today.

On the last day, we interviewed a carpenter, and architect and a designer. They’re gonna help us build our school, café and houses. I thought they were some of the coolest and devoted people and they made me want to go on my video game where you can build your own house. We then interviewed the Black Rider comrade and he told us about how companies use stores with cheap stuff to get to make the town look so back so no one would want to live here, and they’d have a reason to tear down the homes to make more places for the rich people.
 

Contaminated Oil and Dirt by Youth Elder Iris

Week 1

Day 1:
On the first day of summer camp we took a field trip to Ritchie and Macarthur and took multiple samples of contaminated oil and dirt, and that is what we concluded with on day one of week one.

Day 2:
We did wesearch (research) abut the multiple samples and we also found out what lead does to the human body. We talked to an architect named Bob Theis and he taught how to draw out blueprints and explained about strawbale construction.

Day 3:
Continuing with the dirt samples and oil samples we tested the contaminated oil and dirt and also went to go get samples of water from a creek names arroyo Viejo river. Everyone went back to test the water and it came back an interesting and rare result.

Week 2

Day 1: When we came back from our short extended break, we learned about the bees. Also, I learned that there are 19,200 different species of bees and that half of our fruit is produced by bees, including avocado, cherries, apples, etc.

Day 2:
I learned that Shell and Lego signed a contract together to cause an oil spill to pollute the ocean which is also BP oil. I learned more about building and environmental racism.

Day 3:
Today we had a talk about more environmental racism and nuclear radiation. We learned about deregulation and the nuclear bombs that hit Japan.
 

Avocados, Cucumbers, and Oranges- by Youth Skola Joyous
Day 1:
On day one, I learned about bees. If all bees died we would have only four years to live. Here are ten crops that would disappear without bees: apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, avocados, cucumbers, onion, grapefruit, orange and pumpkins. I also learned that scientists say there are over 19,200 species of bees.

Day 2:
I also learned about Exxon and BP oil. Shell signed a contract to drill in Antarctica. I learned about Palestine and the point of killing Palestine is for oil.

Day 3:
I learned that Fukushima has killed many people and animals. I learned about the deregulation which means the city can take stuff from you like water.
 

Neonicotonoids by Solomon Campbell/Youth Skolar POOR Magazine

Day 1

We walked around the block taking dirt samples we also found an oil bucket right in front of it. Then we went back to home fullness and collected dirt samples. We noticed that the home fullness dirt had more nutrients than the other places we got dirt samples from.

Day 2

On this day half of my team we searched and found this.
Lead contaminations in Oakland
    West Oakland
Oakland army base
         Amco
 Verdese Carter park
5.        Cypress Freeway

We also met this guy named Bob he told us home fullness was built 1920.  There are also making houses out of straw. Also regular houses burn easier than straw bale houses.

Day 3

Why we need bees?
 If bees disappeared from the face of the earth humans would only have four years to live. Honey bees are also responsible for pollinating over 100 crops. These are ten crops that will disappear without honey bees.
 
apples
almonds
blue berries
cherries
avocadoes
cucumbers
onions
grapefruit
oranges
pumpkin
Neonicotinoids:

Class of neuron-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine.

Day 4
We watched a video about how Lego signed a contract with shell telling the kids shell is alright or cool cause they are helping Lego.
They are also building a XL pipe line from Canada to Mexico causing earth quakes within the a

I learned how the earth is in crisis and we need to help.
Our  mama earth

Revolutionary Construction by Youth Skola Muh' Queenah

day 1: we walk to ritchie and macarthur to get dirt sample

day 2: revolutionary construction Bob Theis. The house of decolonize school 1925. Blocks of straw are 50 two kinds of plaster. Earth blaster. Straw bales don't burn. 

Commercial Gentrification and Environmental Racism by Youth Skola Tiburcio

Week 1

Day 1:
I couldn’t believe it! I was finally going to the camp that I’ve been hearing so much about! We came at 7:20 or something like that and I saw my mom felt the same way. At about 9:30 Nico came along with Connie and his mother Loa. We had fun and I got to know Nico. And then finally at 10:20 everybody cam in our car with Philip Standing Bear. We played a lot at first and then my mom came and said that we are going to sample dirt in two different places. I learned on the way to our first location, Ritchie and Macarthur. I found a barber shop being closed down and the realtor was Simon Raya and the company was KW Corporation. They did commercial professional gentrification. And I also learned that most of the trash in the gutters flows in to the bay. Then we went to Ritchie and Macarthur and saw that there was oil and trash on the streets and in the garden. When we got back after lunch we had to leave.

Day 3:
On day two we came and learned more about environmental racism and how it affects us. Then my mom said that we should go to a river called arroyo Viejo. We took samples of mosquito larvae and water and learned about fracking drilling for oil in the earth’s core and destroying the earth. When we went back to Homefulness and tested the water, the results were a little too clean. We figured out that the water was infected with high amounts of chlorine.

Day 4:
On day 4 (which was my third day), we learned about how environmental racism targets bees. If the bees die, apples, pineapples, avocados, cherries, blueberries, cucumber, onions, grapefruit, oranges and pumpkins would all have a hard time growing. WE may only have four years to survive if all the bees die and that was actually said by Albert Einstein himself.

By Youth SKola Sahara Shell is polluting our kids imaginations. BP - British petroleum

Lead poisoning our Water by Youth Skola Trew
Day 2
We went to Arroy Vienjo Creek  and learned it used to be much bigger - We also learned about hydraulic fracturing or "Fracking" . We tested the water from Arroyo Viejo and found out it was very high in chlorine and acid. We also Wesearched about lead in our soil and how so much of our soil is filled with lead and how it makes us sick. We also found out there was no lead in the creek.

Day 3 We learned about straw bale architecture from a builder. We learned that earth plaster is non-flammable and a good thing to use when you are building a house because it is strong and will also withstand an earthquake

Evictors, and the Old Creek by Youth Skola Josia

(Homefulness has brought me more knowledge, than other camps and schools. Homefulness has been a fun and great experience for me. It has been thrilling and exciting. Homefulness camp has felt like a school, but better. The adults know me, and it isn’t awkward at all. -Zosia)

Week 1
Day 1:
On the first day of Homefulness camp, we did a prayer, introduced ourselves, and walked over to Ritchie and Macarthur and saw an eviction notice; the evictors name was Simon Raya  and then we saw the weeded lot that was trashed with old furniture, molded clothes and oil cans that were definitely not healthy for humans and the environment. Next, we sampled dirt from the lot and compared it to some dirt we got from our house and some dirt from homefulness. The Ritchie and Macarthur dirt was filled with wayyy more germs homefulness.

Day 2:
On the second day of homefulness camp, at the end of the day, a construction worker, Bob Theis who talked about scales and the homefulness house and how it was built, with what it was built, when it was built, etc. He also talked about different types of houses, like wood, adobe, plaster and straw. He talked about different kinds of roofs and walls.

Day 3:
The third day of homefulness was when we went to “Arroyo Viejo” meaning old creek in Spanish. We left in two card, the poor magazine family van, and muteado’s truck. WE talked about  the lake’s origins and who made the name. After that, we took down notes and samples of the water. We saw a playground and you can guess that we started playing there. Then we left and the group split in half and some wrote down information about the creek, and the other half looked at the water samples with the telescopes.

Day 4:
Day four was the second week of homefulness camp, and I was late (because of reasons), so I walked in on the groups talking about bees dying and disappearing from neo-nicotinoids, which are pesticides close to nicotine. So basically, they’re putting nicotine on our food and crops. After that, we made models of the sliding scale café, and the homefulness that we’re going to build.

Day 5:
On the fifth day of camp, we had a deep east TV meeting, interviewed two carpenters, interviewed a construction worker, interviewed Askari, had a BBQ and fed the people on the streets, and continued on our homefulness models.

Day 6:
We finished our models, a speaker came in and gave a speech about radiation and cars, and also a war that is going on (but not literally). We finished our models by painting the house/model walls.
 

Revolutionary Peopleskoo

by Youth Elder Sean

Even though this summer camp was only two weeks long, I think it was the most informative summer camp I have ever had the pleasure of being involved with. From the first project that we did I could tell that I would enjoy it. We tested some water from arroyo park. What we found was that the water was too clean. Indicating that someone (most likely a company trying to hide something) had treated the water before it flowed down to us. I liked that experiment because it showed that it is smarter to be humble when doing experiments, and in life, so that you will be more prepared to understand unexpected results. 

On the third day we learned how to make our own herb boxes. That was important because we have to learn how to provide our own healthy food as part of breaking the chains of economic slavery that we found out we live under. Before that though, our revolutionary architecht Bob taught us how to build with straw and mud and why thaty ancient method is easier  and more economical than traditional construction. that showed us that we are being controlled by antiquated techniques of building and energy production and that the ancient methods are still more economical. Big money has manipulated and deregulated our planet so that they can charge us more money and keep us enslaved.

On July 8^th 2014 Israel began a campaign it labeled "Protective Edge" and alleged that it started in retaliation for 3 Israeli youth being murdered, but before they dropped the first of many bombs on Gaza they admitted that Hamas was not responsible for the deaths of the youth. In a show of how much of a coward he is, Barack Obama “scolded” Israel for its actions and then sent them $200 million more dollars and more bombs. What would you expect from a president who had an Israeli war criminal as part of his cabinet [Rahm Emanuel], and who's father was a terrorist that helped blow up the King David Hotel, one of Israel's many acts of terrorism that helped it achieve statehood?  

After many ceasefires that didn't last, finally a a truce was agreed upon that, surprisingly enough, Israel agreed to lift restrictions allowing Gaza to receive necessary supplies. This no doubtedly is due to social media and people all over the world protesting Israel's war crimes, and people all over the world boycotting Israel and its supporters, and stopping its ships from docking.

Of course everyone is still encouraged to continue to divest from Israel and boycott those products and corporations that support them. For a full list refer to Google and other search engines. [Editor's Note: The campaign is called BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions].

On August 9 2014, 18 year old unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri, who never filed a police report. All over the world people protested this action which is connected to the Israeli attack on Gaza, if by no other way than the continued attack on people of color all over the world and the continuance of white supremacy.

In Ferguson black motorists are twice as likely to be arrested than their white counterparts and less likely to be carrying contraband.The sheriff deputies routinely lock the court doors 5 minutes after sessions start and immediately issue bench warrants for those who are late. In a city that is 70% black with 53 cops 3 of them are black !

Protests continue in Ferguson. The city council has stated that it intends to reduce revenue from court fines to fund city services, and increase “minority” recruiting.

The Family of Michael Brown continues to demand that Wilson be arrested and the federal Department of Justice is investigating Wilson and corruption in the Ferguson Police Department.

Editors Note: Kamau-Aka-Brandon George is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents. He is a poet writing from behind the razor wires at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. 

Impervious

God Blessed this skin of mines it wasn't made for cameos on commercials for oil of olay this skins rough the Bastard child of tempered steel and alligator hide the canvas where suffering chose to sketch its greatest Muriel its life time achievement colored with blood dabbed from lacerations.
God tests this skin of mines skin blanketed in leopard printed bruise that blossom on my epidermis like violet and blue pansies witnesses to their attempt to hex what God Blessed. So, God touched this skin of mines endowing every cell with strength, beauty, and resilience to endure each strike, every blow and when the darts pierced too deep God healed this skin of mines from black and blue speckled symbols of rejection and hate rolling off the tips of unbridled fire threatening to destroy what God gave. Beautiful, Bronze, Brilliance this skin that God made.
       Impervious!
 Cause God Loved this skin of mines.

The 2014 Revolutionary Youth Construction, Arts/Media, Science & Permaculture Camp included several forms of media and writing as well as Youth-led WeSearch on Environmental Racism and Liberation. (click here to read their WeSearch findings) The following are the youth skolaz poetry from a youth empathy exercise we call SLAM BIOS. Which asks the youth to think of senses to describe themselves and then to speak a line about their "struggle"

Sahara Curley

My favorite color is purple. I like to eat ice cream. I like to smell candles. I like rap. My name is Sahara Curley. I am from Berkeley. My struggle is freedom

Dante

My name is Dante

I touch a lot 

I taste food

and smell roses

My name is Dante

I'm from Oakland

I touch games and laptops

My struggle is I don't see my Uncle

Queena

Pink

honey bus

roses

cotton

jam

queena

ghetto

Nikolasi Niumeitolu
Color: Blue
Taste: sweet taste of mango
Smell: salty smell of ocean breeze
Touch: fur of a cat
Sound: the lapping of waves as they hit the shore
Name: Nikolasi Solomone Namoa Niumeitolu Sarafi (?)
Where are you from: I am a boy born in Tonga but raised and brought up in America and American culture.
A line about your struggle: Already dealing with my father’s death I struggle to find who I actually am. My mother and I struggle to find a home.

Janina Scislowski
Favorite color: blue/violet
Favorite scent: a rose
Favorite taste: the taste of a nice warm savory homemade sandwich
Favorite touch: the feeling of my cat’s soft fur
I am from Mexican, Native American, Polish, Irish, Scottish and Dutch people. I have been here and there, and I am from my mother who fights for the right thing and who takes care of me and my little sister, trying her hardest, and I am from my father who came from his country believing to have a better life when all he got was bloodstained shirts and broken bottles to the head because of where he was from and how he talked.
My mother was homeless with me for two years, my older sister four, and we built our lives back up after my father’s death. We’re never going to live on top of the world, but we manage.

Tiburcio
Color: Blue
Sound: Silence
Touch: my face
Taste: pizza
Smell: shampoo
Tibu is my name. That sound is my power. It’s always my enemy’s bane.
I am from the hospital in Mexico and here. My future and my past both are very austere. China, the Philippines, all over the place. When I’m eighteen, my past will plaster me in the face. Blue is my past’s color. Shampoo is my future’s smell, and my present just sorrowly fell.

Seven
Color: blue
Taste: Chicken
Smell: perfume
Touch: pillows
Sound: music
Name: seven
Where I’m from: Oakland and Africa and India

Joyous
Color: green
Taste: pizza
My favorite smell is when my mom is cooking
My favorite touch is my bed
My favorite sound is when my mom sings
My name is Joyous, I am from Oak & Pil.
We have moved so many times.

Iris
Colors: purple, pink, baby blue
Taste: pickles
Smell: Body scents
Touch: blankets
Sound: music
My name is Iris Ashanti Gantt
Daughter of Kimberly Swan and Brian Gantt.

Zosia
Color: Green
Taste: Buttered toast
Smell: Lavender
Touch: Leather
Sound: bell
From: Irish, Polish, Mexican
I saw my dad drink himself to death.

Solomon

color:purple

touch: soft

sound: silent

taste: sour candy

smell: fresh

Trew

taste: captain crunch

color: red

smell: candy

touch:pillow

sound: loud

The government thinks they can take everything but they can't. If being free is a crime I don't care. I'll fight for my freedom. Don't put me in the slammer I just begun. 

Mam, I have to admit, I was watching you. You probably didn’t notice me sitting across from you on the AC Transit bus leaving the Oakland Coliseum. It was a warm day and I was sweating, glad to have gotten a seat. I’d just come from SF where I’d taken part in a rally for housing rights. So many evictions across the bay in San Francisco. You’re probably aware of the situation but one can’t assume. But if you are aware of what’s going on, you know exactly how bad it is.

But there you sat, and my eyes somehow fell on you as if there was no other place for them to fall—on this day or any other day. Your face was a story—a book, a battlefield, a poem, a song, a season—all held in your two eyes that somehow warmed the bus. Your eyes slid over towards the front of the bus—a familiar face. “Clarence” you called out, your eyes warm in the familiarity of a face that held recognition of story and history. Clarence came by and sat down. How you doin’? You said, your eyes drawing me in. And Clarence said, “I’m heading to my old lady’s place”. And you continued to speak and you looked at Clarence and ran a gentle hand through his hair. “I’m older than you and look at all that gray hair you got” you said, as Clarence leaned away, laughing.

You continued to talk and I couldn’t hear much of it because of the bus engine. But I heard you say, “I don’t give no man no money. The only man I give money to is my son and he’s in college. He’s gonna be a doctor.” And the bus jerked a bit, causing a young woman to lose her balance. Clarence steadied the woman’s arm and helped her regain her balance. “Thank you” the woman said. And you were firmly in your seat, maybe carrying 20 or so extra pounds but no doubt, the weight of a life survived and endured beyond anything I can begin to imagine. And I looked at your eyes as they melted into the moment. And in that moment you became my aunt and Clarence became my uncle. And the bus became the living room, and the barbershop and the kitchen—a place that we could be who we are.

And I see the black faces all around me on the bus—a mural of faces and skin and eyes and teeth—bright and alive and glistening with lives reflected off the skin of the river of life, a mural that moves across space and into the soul through the eyes of the woman sitting across from me. And through my own eyes I see a black community; maybe lifelong Oakland folk or exiled black folk from San Francisco via eviction. It is a community that has been lost in SF. The evicted eyes, heart, spirit—the broken landscape under the skin that is the whole of San Francisco; a community decimated by San Francisco, a city that never deserved it.

Oakland, thank God you haven’t lost your soul. Thank God that the black community is there—that the black laughter, black fire, black feeling is there. And while some people would say that Oakland is violent, that people there shoot each other etc., I’m thankful that the people I see are real, they are people that say good morning to you on the street, and acknowledge your presence with a nod. I know it isn’t a perfect place, but acknowledgement is a form of respect and I can’t remember the last time I was acknowledged in San Francisco except by transit fare inspectors, and other bureaucratic bullies like them who appear to enjoy their work. But thank God for the woman on the bus. Thank God for the woman with the smiling eyes.

(c) 2014 Tony Robles

Editors Note: Kamau-Aka-Brandon George is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents. He is a poet writing from behind the razor wires at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. 

Virtue

If beauty had a first name, it would have to be Nneka for what could be more beautiful than a mother whose love is so supreme it destroys all elements that threaten the growth of her child? If purity had a face, it would be like one of a new born for what could be more pure than new life sent to awaken slumbering dreamsand aspirations while endowing us with the audacity to hope in a despondent world? If power had a pair of feet one would certainly be connected to the ankle of the strong-willed sista who juggles two jobs, school, and motherhood, all while never stopping to complain about having to fill a void that shouldn't be there while the other foot would undoubtedly be caught up in the stride of a determined brother who denying any association with the proverbial "Box" they try to limit him to, cuts through circumstance like the light of a lone star through an impenetrable dark. If patience had limbs they'd be attached to torsos that envelope hearts that reach through hands that heal but will just as soon slap the stupid out of you when need be and if love could be born anywhere at all, the flirtatious grin shared between life - long companions would be its MECCA. Sprouting life nurtured within a pair of new eyes, discovering new hands that grasp not for the wind but for Gods promise open arms that embrace, not hate but the love that molded them and an emboldened tongue that speaks, not to curse, but to impart Gods Blessing.

DEECOLONIZE Academy is one of many POWER-FUL blessings happening on the sacred land launched by self-determined landless peoples at POOR Magazine we call Homefulness- for more information about enrollment in this revolutionary academy go the DEECOLONIZE Academy website

Aug 5, 2014

Since Barack Obama, the alleged leader of the so-called free world, or any other world leader for that matter, doesn’t have the courage or integrity to do so, I have to take it upon myself to demand an immediate cease fire and direct assistance to the women and children of Palestine. I do this with the only weapon at my disposal: the truth!

I demand that Israel stop all attacks on Palestine immediately.

I humbly ask Hamas to stop (if in fact they are responsible for all rocket attacks into Israel and Israeli settlers in Gaza) to cease fire at least long enough to allow the dead to be buried and the injured to be attended to.

Each day that goes by I cast more and more doubt on the legitimacy of Israel’s claim of aggression they're receiving from Palestine. Israel admits that its initial claim of three Israeli youth being kidnapped and murdered by Hamas was not true, and that they knew this even before the first salvo of missiles were launched into Palestine. Israel's most recent claim was that after years of Hamas terrorist attacks and holding back on retaliation, it grew tired.

The truth is, Hamas has for the last few years curtailed any outward aggression toward Israel, and has in fact arrested violent/militant radicals who attempted attacks on Israel and Israeli settlers in Gaza. Israel promised to return land in Gaza to Palestine and to stop allowing Israeli settlers to continue erecting settlements in Gaza, and went back on both promises.

My appeal to Hamas is to give Israel some benefit of the doubt (which they prove to earn less and less of every day). If in fact Hamas is firing rockets at Israel in response to the massacre (which is like a combination of a death camp and a blitzkrieg [1]), in hopes of bringing Israel’s defenses and morale down like a modern day Goliath, it's important to remember that David didn’t hope to bring Goliath down just like that. He practiced with his sling and had faith in God.

Which is not to say that Hamas doesn’t have faith in God, but as Muhammad instructed his followers, “learn how to shoot, learn how to shoot, learn how to shoot!” Muhammad was of course referring to bows and arrows which would actually be a good tactical weapon to disrupt morale and to surprise attackers in modern warfare.

Confronting Israel with the truth is easy. Expecting a positive response is not very likely, as they have lied from the very beginning.

Israel claims that it reserves its compassion for its own citizens/children. This is a false understanding of compassion and a false claim. Practicing compassion is being kind to someone in a bad situation, whether they "deserve" it or not. Instead, Israel is catering to select citizens' desires to annex more of Gaza so that their lust for land can be filled.

When I see pictures of the broken bodies of children in Gaza, I can not help but be reminded of the emanciated and broken bodies of the youngest Jewish Holocaust victims. When I see a ten-year-old Palestinian girl pleading for her life in an online video in remarkable but highly accented English, I can't help but think of Anne Frank, whose diary was found and published after she was killed in a Nazi concentration camp. When I see the online videos of Palestinian mothers begging and pleading with Israeli soldiers as thier children are ripped from their arms to be beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered, I can’t help seeing images of Jewish mothers going through the same agony.

When confronted with images of mothers weeping at the loss of their children, dying one thousand deaths, burying their own children, each death repeated over and over again, I can't help to think of Jewish mothers during Nazi occupation.

For grandmothers who are survivors they endure twice the burden.

And finally when I think of the young people in South and Central America willing to brave adverse weather conditions across vast deserts in hope of freedom from imminent execution, forced participation in drug gangs, and human trafficking and prostitution, I can’t help think of millions of Jewish children trying to flee Europe to avoid concentration camps and the death ovens, but being refused admittance into the US because America “reserved her compassion for her own children,” and forced the children back into those same death camps.

If Israel the US and the rest of the alleged free world has any compassion they will have no choice but to see the same images I see.

Footnote:
[1] Blitzkreig: lit. "lightening war," a phrase coined during WWII to describe Germany’s massive bombings of civilian populations in Europe.

“Love trumps grief.. May mothers love be awakening and love trumps grief…” Love Balm for My SpiritChild

I sat in the darkness at the Brava theatre watching the play Love Balm for My SpiritChild holding parts of my heart in my hand. My first reaction to the poetry, art and talk-story of mamas who have lost their children to police terror like Oscar Grant and Kenneth Harding Jr was to cry and then to scream and then to run, but then finally, to just be silent.

Ray of sunshine so we don’t fear the night…Love Balm for My SpiritChild

I realized I didn’t need to scream or cry or run because the play  was a beautiful poem of prayers, screams and voices that collectively held the unheard memories and unfelt tears and un-known stories of thousands of mamaz like me and my sister comrades at POOR Magazine who have lost their babies to the wite-supremacist lie of security and state-sponsored violence we are all taught to follow in amerikkka.

“I began thinking of this production when I went to Rawanda and witnessed their way of dealing with the genocide,” The visionary creator of the production Arielle Brown spoke to the audience along with the cast and the amazing Uncle Bobby (Cephus Johnson-Oscar Grant’s Uncle) at a post-production talk-back with the audience.

When Arielle spoke about the indigenous practices implemented in Rawanda when the country realized they needed to move outside the standard colonial court system to process the brutal genocide of the mid-1990’s when an estimated million peoples were killed, it was a flash for me. All of us police terrorized, incarcerated, bordered, profiled and criminalized family members who make up POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE instituted a no Po’Lice calls mandate since our inception in 1996 and our model for this was the same ancient community justice implemented in Rawanda because we knew that the kangaroo kkkourt system of no-justice and police abuse was one of the systems us poor and landless peoples were trying to move off of.

The play which has been work-shopped under the fine directorial leadership of Edriss Cooper Anifowoshe since its original version  is tight, fast and smooth like a prose poem with dance or what they call a choreo-play, with the beautiful element of spiritchild-dance by Dawon Davis, choregraphed by the mad skills having choreagrapher Jose Navarette. Every move by Davis was a prayer, a whisper, a painting, a poem worked in tandem with the mamaz All the actors are seamless, walking through the play with the power that mama revolutionaries like Ayodele Nzinga and Cat Brooks carry into protests everyday against the murder of our children.

There is so much revolutionary, urgently needed medicine in this play. It was as much about healing through story-telling, healing through screaming, healing through voice-bringing, healing through consciousness building not only for all the mamaz, daddies, uncles, aunties, friends and communities who have lost their babies to war, violence, po’lice violence but to all the peoples who don’t think they have to care, who have long ago given up and responsibility for their collective role in this violence.

Every year POOR Magazine re-ports and sup-ports alongside destraught families and revolutionary mamaz and daddyz like Mesha Irizarry, Denika Chatman, Anita Willis and Uncle Bobby to fight, give voice to and scream for justice for their children. This play is a collective response of power beyond anything we could ever do and should be witnessed by all families who have lost their children, but also by teachers who call security guards on our black, brown and poor children, by people who institute racist neighborhood watch programs and politricksters who create legislations like gang injunctions and stop and frisk, by judges who ajudicate against our poor, back and brown bodies, by war-mongering peoples who think bombing anywhere in the world is ok and finally, even the gangsters in blue (police) themselves who have long ago become machines for the state and lost their humanity/logic in the great vortex of amerikkkan in-justice

And like Ayodele Nzinga said in the talk-back which spoke volumes about the resistance of this play, “Don’t let the powers invested in our destruction win.” Ase! 

Love Balm for My SpiritChild plays at the Brava theatre through July 20^th – Run, don’t walk to see this medicine. To purchase tickets on-line go to this link

Incarceration, does not mean one has nothing to give for experience, nothing to teach as future knowledge, for wisdom, nothing worth to say as solid motivation and inspiration, for on the contrary, “all” is giving, taught and said as the jewels of survival. Releasing the glimpse of reality, as a “valuable asset” from those souls of the minority of the streets we have once walked, the gangways, hustlin’ the lane, hoping poverty would change, for the family to you’re grade, the status of the game, but now we sit in concrete and steel, built to house society “miscreants” or should I say that’s misunderstood. From the lack of education, getting it on our own was the only “available” motivation, or maybe preached to the wrong life meaning and not revived to the truth of knowledge and principles, that life can be beautiful. We have traveled the hallways of super max cell blocks and we are not dead. Long as we have a mind to receive the glimpse of reality, we breathe deeply and slowly despite the lack of life oxygen, exhaling our fears into self-correction, inhaling our goals and dreams. To breathe peace and humbleness of the future for pretty days. The soul can’t strive, if you don’t try and can hardly survive, the eyes cannot scan if they do not understand, the glimpse of reality, we embrace our friends, partners and family in our mind's eye, while they evade our physical grasp contents with the future and the past, in luren of the present, for change, progress and survival, we accept our flops as mistakes and heal, then begin on our next attempt to embrace, the jewel of freedom. As that better person from a glimpse of reality from concrete and steel.

July 14, 2014

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The good old days, when renting without a lease was no problem, and business decisions were settled with handshakes, was when the African Outlet set up shop in Hayes Valley. With commercial rents on Octavia Street rising from $5,000 to $7,000 and beyond, those days are long gone."

As I learned in Peopleskool and through my own research, the African Outlet are victims of gentrification and will be forced to close. Their situation coincides with Marcus Bookstore, because both business owners had problems with rent and ridiculous bills for repairs that they do not have control over. I sincerely believe there is a reason behind closing the only original African store in San Francisco. It is being closed regardless of how much money they raise, and Marcus Bookstore was taken from under our feet.

I had to investigate this situation personally because I graduated from SFSU in Africana Studies, and Marcus Bookstore was the cornerstone and foundation of the protests to establish the Ethnic Studies Department. The first BSU in the United States, along with every indigenous culture you can think of, was established under the Ethnic Studies Department, and they have emphases on each culture you’d want to major in.

At SFSU I chose my own heritage to study. People judge me as if it means nothing because of the fact it is an Africana Studies major and not a Psychology major, plus everyone keeps on telling me I’m never going to get a job because of my choice of a Bachelors Degree. It is true that a lot of people won’t hire me, but I learned a lot of important things, not only about African Americans and slavery, but also about African Heritage, especially in Egypt and the West African cultures. I even took a class called Black Journalism which Tiny and Mama Dee attended while establishing POOR Magazine, twenty years ago. Mama Dee laid the foundational principles of POOR around what people like Wade Nobles teach.

All this is to say, I, along with everyone else in the Bay Area, are upset because the only Black-owned businesses in San Francisco are being taken, no matter how hard we fight a lawyer or someone who doesn’t want us to rise and unite with everyone. They attack the establishment of the African outlet.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “There's nothing quite like the African Outlet elsewhere in San Francisco, or possibly anywhere. The corner retail space is crammed from floor to ceiling with masks, statues, clothing and art. The aroma of incense burning outside greets visitors who walk through a narrow path between the exotic treasure." I met the store owner, Big Mike, in person at a drum circle, a week later at Juneteenth, and again performing dance at the El Cerrito County Fair for July Fourth, plus I met him over at my friend’s house that I knew since middle school. That was wacked out crazy: he participates in all the events. One thing about his performances that I thought was weird, was they have a casket with doves in them so on stage all you see is a box open. I was blessed to meet all the dancers and see a lot of people promoting African culture.

Every time I see Big Mike, aka Fuck the Police Big Brother of the Hood, his women and his children, I purchase alphets (outfits) when they distribute them during festivals and other events. For example, they had numerous people modeling clothes as well as painting themselves in the indigenous ways Africans do when they are in rituals. They taught us how certain representations of a scar mark men from particular tribes, and mark turning into a man.

Everyone knows Big Mike in the neighborhood because of his famous tattoo, but also his wonderful heart and compassion, his mission to protect his community in all different ways. I personally met him when I was in sixth grade. If someone in the neighborhood disrespects me, all I have to say is Big Mike is my big brother, which a lot of females do.

I love the culture at the African Outlet, because it is not just the clothes, its the continuous flow of people gathering through the spirit of practicing indigenous practices and a safe haven for people to communicate with each other.