2016

pI am proud to be Filipino, Filipino-American.spannbsp; /spanI am proud of our legacy in America.spannbsp; /spanI love the laughter and resilience of my people.spannbsp; /spanI love the sound of their laughter, their thick voices of different tongues.spannbsp; /spanI love my people 365 days a year.spannbsp; /spanI love the Filipino youth who stand up for their community.spannbsp; /spanI love our generosity.spannbsp; /spanI love how gracious we are while at the same time possess the fiercest fire when defending our community.spannbsp; /spanThe sun rises and sets in SOMA.spannbsp; /spanHipsters, techies and speculators move in and look at us as if to ask: What are you doing here?spannbsp; /spanThey look at us like the furniture that came with the place while they covet our closets, our living rooms, our kitchensmdash;built with decades of fragrance and spices and flavors and lives.spannbsp; /spanOur homes contract and expand, resisting constriction, giving birth to our children who walk the streets of SOMA, their voices accented with our histories, our stories, our struggles, that are still being fought in the city./p pnbsp;/p pWhat are we doing here?spannbsp; /spanWell, we didnrsquo;t just get here with the arrival of the tech industry and requisite mini-cupcake shops.spannbsp; /spanOur people have been in this country since the 1500rsquo;s when Filipinos landed in Morro Bay as part of the Manila Galleon Trade.spannbsp; /spanWe arrived in October 18supth/sup, 1587.spannbsp; /spanThe trade started in 1565 and ended in 1815.spannbsp; /spanThatrsquo;s 250 yearsmdash;with hundreds of Filipinos coming each time.spannbsp; /spanThe Mayflower, in contrast, came oncemdash;with 101 people.spannbsp; /spanTo put this in a somewhat scholarly perspective, Filipinos likely arrived in this country before the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, greatmdash;not so greatmdash;grandparents of your garden-variety techie or hipster did.spannbsp; /spanIf therersquo;s any conjecture, said techie or hipster (or otherwise) can check that digital ethnic studies sanctum called ancestry.com/p pnbsp;/p pOur people have been a part of labor struggles, the fight for civil rights, the fight for ethnic studies and the fight for housingmdash;as evidenced by the fight for the International Hotel in what was then Manilatown in the 1960rsquo;s and 70rsquo;smdash;a fight and forcible eviction of Filipino and Chinese elders whose repercussions persist to this day.spannbsp; /spanOur legacy lives and carries on despite attempts to erase our community by real estate speculators whose sense of community are things they have branded ldquo;Community benefitsrdquo; packages that seem more PR then anything else.spannbsp; /spanDevelopments such 5m by Forest City threatens the Filipino community.spannbsp; /spanThe developer offered a laundry list of ldquo;community benefits but their ultimate goal is to make as much money as they possibly can, more money than they can possibly spend.spannbsp; /span/p pnbsp;/p pMarket rate housing developers have zero concern for our community.spannbsp; /spanOur peoplersquo;s kindness is taken for granted, taken for weakness.spannbsp; /spanOur working class people are humble.spannbsp; /spanMuch of what is missing in our city can be found in the Filipino communitymdash;a sense of sharing, a sense of respect, a sense of honoring what came before.spannbsp; /spanRecently, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling or the establishment of a Filipino cultural district in SOMA called Soma Pilipinas.spannbsp; /spanThe Filipino community has come togethermdash;seniors, youth, cultural workers, artistsmdash;community members who honor our community and who are creating Filipino American history daily, working tirelessly to insure our youth, families and elders spaces where we can thrive and live in dignity.spannbsp; The community has convened meetings create the vision of SOMA Pilipinas--what will it look like?nbsp; What will it offer the community?nbsp; Community organizations such as SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network), Veterans Equity Center, Kearny Street Workshop, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, among others have been involved in the process that seeks to engage and truly reflect the voice of the community that they serve. /spanThe seeds of this communitymdash;in the words of Manilatown poet Al Roblesmdash;were planted long ago./p pnbsp;/p pThe Filipino community truly practices a sharing community.spannbsp; /spanThe city can learn, needs to learn from its example.spannbsp; /spanPerhaps this learning, this recognizing of example is the only thing that can save it from its fatal errors.spannbsp; /spanIt can learn from the struggle of Steve Arevalo, elder Filipino-American who has served SOMA for decades working with youth and families.spannbsp; /spanHe is fighting to keep the historic Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel in South Park in SOMA from being sold.spannbsp; /spanSteve Arevalo, whose grandfather lived at the Gran Oriente, the first building owned by a Filipino organization in North America.spannbsp; /spanSteve Arevalo, who remembers the struggles of the early Filipino immigrants, who laid the foundation of our community, living with the yoke of white supremacy.spannbsp; /spanGran Oriente Filipino, a place where our community looked out for one another and provided support through the Gran Oriente lodge.spannbsp; /spanThat history is being forgotten by the descendants of the old timers who started Gran Oriente Filipno, who want to sell the legacy of our community, our skin, our identity to finally achieve acceptance in the shroud of the white supremacy notion of profit over everything.spannbsp; /spanThatrsquo;s what the fight for the International Hotel was aboutmdash;not forgetting our elders, our history, our people.spannbsp; /spanI love my people.spannbsp; /spanI love our strength.spannbsp; /spanI love that we wonrsquo;t forget our history, even though a few of us, from time to time, need to be reminded.spannbsp; /spanI am proud of my community for fighting to keep its legacy alive.spannbsp; /spanIn the words of Steve Arevalo,spannbsp; /spanldquo;Our legacy is not for salerdquo;./p pnbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pcopy; 2016 Tony Robles/p

pspan(Leroy Moorersquo;s Note:nbsp; As you know Krip-Hop Nation have been connecting with musicians/activists with disabilities around the world for years especially in Africa and Krip-Hop Nation will be touring South Africa in November-December 10th.nbsp; Leroy has been following the protests on college campuses in South Africa especially at University of Cape Town with disabled activist, Kanyisa Ntombini who have been organizing Black disabled poor students around disability justice issue on that campus.nbsp; Kanyisa recorded an update for Krip-Hop Nation Poor Magazine.nbsp; Below is the transription of that audio update)/span/p pnbsp;/p pspanHello, my name is Kanyisa Ntombini. I am 22 years old. I currently live in Cape Town. Here, I#39;m studying at the University of Cape Town, and I#39;m doing Electrical Engineering. I#39;m originally from the Eastern Cape, in an area called Transkei. So Transkei is a former apartheid homeland. Apartheid was the white, colonial rule that we had in South Africa before we got our liberation in 1994. So the area that I live in was designated for Black people. It#39;s a very small area, and it was chosen specifically by the white South Africans because it didn#39;t have, it was very, very dry, not much vegetation, very much useless piece of land. And this homeland, this apartheid homeland didn#39;t have any access to health care, education, transport, just very much poverty-stricken. So when the new government came in, which was a Black majority government, nothing really changed. During the transition between the white government and the Black government, the Black government, which was led by the African National Congress at the time, agreed to a lot of political and economic deals that put Black South Africans at a disadvantage. So even though we have a majority Black rule, the majority of the land still is owned by the white people, which form a very small minority of the population. And about 70% of the economy is owned by white people. So right now, I grew up in this little homeland with barely any access to health care and education, and it was very difficult for me growing up in that environment and trying to get an education. When I moved to Cape Town, it was hard in the university because none of the lecturers, tutors, and heads of departments in my field wanted to help me. Instead, I got an email at the beginning of the year saying that I had been excluded from the academic program in the University of Cape Town because I had failed too many courses. Meanwhile, the previous year, I had emailed my tutors, my heads of departments, basically everyone and sent maybe more than 50 emails asking for help, asking for things like note takers because I can#39;t see well on the board, for the lectures to be recorded, just access to mental health care as well, since I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. No one had been willing to help me. Instead, I was just sent an email saying I need to go, leave campus./span/p pspanI had also noticed that other Black, disabled students had also experienced the same thing. They were also failing, and they had been asking for help, and no one was giving them help. So I decided to bring those disabled students together at the beginning of the year and to have a sit-in outside the main administration building at the University of Cape Town where we speak about experiences on campus and to tell university management what kind of access we want on campus. We also had a memorandum of demands asking for certain accessibility changes on campus./span/p pspanUCT management was there. They received the memorandum. They took pictures of us because there was a lot of news agencies there, and they put them up on their website. They never talked to us afterwards, and they never did any of the things that we had asked. A few months later, we had another sit-in at the disability unit with the same document. UCT management came in, sat with us, listened to us, but did not engage with us. At the same time as this activism had been happening, there was a national right protest in the country by students in their universities saying that they want free, decolonized education in South Africa. So basically, wanted first not to pay any fees, and also for the curriculum to change so that it#39;s not racist, transphobic, ableist, queerphobic. And for also the curriculum to focus more on African issues rather than international issues that are not really relevant to our daily lives here in South Africa./span/p pspanThe response from the South African government has been of heavy brutality. There#39;s just been a lot of police on our campuses, basically acting violent towards protestors. There#39;s also been a lot of private security as well on campus. And it#39;s just made the environment at the university extremely unstable. At the moment, we#39;re not having classes because of all this violence. The police on one university campus called the University of KwaZulu-Natal also raped a student. They were actually going into their residences and looking for protestors and just causing havoc and a lot of trauma to people. In the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, there has been a report of a worker that died because of clashes with the police. In some campuses, the police have also been using live ammunition on students that are not armed./span/p pspanSo as Black and Black disabled activists, we have found that we are extremely scared because that#39;s why we haven#39;t been able to do more activism because we#39;re scared that if we protest against the ableism on campus, then the police will come in and attack us. We#39;re also scared that certain of our leaders will be picked off and become excluded, which has been what has been happening in the other campuses. In each of the university campuses, they#39;ve just been choosing the main leaders and expelling them from campus just to make people scared. So that has really affected us a lot, and we haven#39;t been able to do any activism. The climate right now is just tense. Black people, Black students are very scared at the moment. At the same time, we also want our campuses to change, but the violence that we#39;re facing is just inhumane. We#39;ve been treated as animals and not as people who are trying to get an education so that they can make their country better. They#39;re calling us hooligans and just as if we are just a bunch of students trying to destabilize the country when we#39;re actually trying to improve the country by calling upon for a free education./span/p pspanSo yeah, the mood in South Africa#39;s really depressing. I won#39;t lie. The lives of disabled people in South Africa--well, disabled Black people--is really, really hard. As I mentioned before, because of the way that apartheid--which was the former white government--used to work is that most of the economy is controlled by the white people. So the majority of Black South Africans live in villages that are very much under-resourced and poverty-stricken, with high rates of HIV and unemployment, and also townships. So townships are sort of like an apartheid structure where, in the main town, all the white people live. And then outside the town, the majority of Black people will be put into these small housing projects where there#39;s a huge amount of overcrowding, issues with water and sanitation, high levels of crime, poverty, just horrible things. So the majority of disabled people live in those conditions where they don#39;t have access to health care. The education system in South Africa is very bad, especially in high school. It#39;s bad for able-bodied students, but it#39;s a disaster for disabled students. And also, South Africa is a huge mining country, and most of the mines in South Africa, because of the economy, they are still owned by companies outside South Africa, in the West. So you#39;ll find that there are terrible working conditions where miners are exposed to a lot of dangerous health situations where they end up getting sick. As soon as a miner is sick, they get sent home. So there a lot of miners with Silicosis and also tough health issues who are sent home to die with no compensation, no health care, sent into these poverty-stricken areas for Black people. So there#39;s also that element as well with disability issues in South Africa./span/p pspanSo yeah, the only thing I can say is the situation in South Africa is terrible. The government puts out this image as if something is going forward, when the lives of Black, disabled people are very horrible in this country. So we would like international organizations to just put pressure on our government to change their policies. I think the most important thing at the moment is for fees to fall. Fees Must Fall has to happen. Free education to all South Africans. The education needs to be anti-racist, anti-ableism, anti-transphobia, anti-queerphobia. That#39;s the kind of education where I want it to be centered on African problems and providing African solutions and for them to stop militarizing our campuses. We want to be able to walk around freely on our campuses and not to have police and private security on our campus. So that#39;s the main thing that we would like:nbsp; International organizations to support us. Yeah./span/p pspanBut yeah, I#39;m genuinely excited that Krip-Hop is coming to South Africa because the only Black disability activism that ever happens in South Africa is usually very much focusing on, centered on poverty porn, and it#39;s never showing disabled Black people in a position of strength and in a position of power. So a lot of Black--myself included--Black disabled people are very excited for Krip-Hop Nation to come to South Africa and also just to start having the conversations around the lives of Black disabled people in South Africa and to just highlight the conditions that Black disabled people live under. So I#39;m very excited to meet Leroy Moore and just the rest of the team and to just engage with disability activists around the world./span/p pnbsp;/p pPic:nbsp;PIC Kanyi Disability Justice with a mic and paper in their hands outside of the UCT Bremner Building at University of Cape Town, South Africa/p

div Although Krip-Hop Nation is excited for our upcoming South Africa Tour, November 5th-December 10th it has been a struggle as we approach our take off date of November 5th. As a disabled activist/artist living on SSI, I was blessed that Poor Magazine teamed up with Krip-Hop Nation to put up a generosity fundraiser page that raised to date $2,525.00 however generosity has dragged their feet to release the funds although Poor Magazine has followed all their request form documents. Because of this it has affect other details of the tour that the funds was going to like my travel shots that cost $350.00 and more elements that have dollar signs before I board the plan on November 5th./div div nbsp;/div div Like Poor Magazine and other activists say that traveling is a priviledge that many are oppress and are systematically face with the inaccessibility of the travel industry and are economically pushed out of traveling. I recorgnize that Irsquo;m very lucky to have this opportunity and I also thankful that my community, friends and family are pushing these obstacles down to make this tour a reality./div div nbsp;/div div The vision of the Krip-Hop Nationrsquo;s South Africa tour had to reshape cut back because of a lack of sponsorships and Simon Manda of Durban, South Africa has worked over time as a major team member of the tour on what this tour will look like on the ground in South Africa from accommodations to venues to accessible ground transportation throughout the month. Although we have ran into complications, we are pushing through to make this tour happen in November through December 10th, Disability Awareness Month in South Africa. Simon has also put up a fundraiser page for people in South Africa to donate funds at South Africa Fundraiser page/div div nbsp;/div div a href="https://www.thundafund.com/project/thisability/"https://www.thundafund.com/project/thisability//a/div div nbsp;/div div nbsp;/div div As November 5th approaches, we are pulling out everything to make this tour a reality. Please support us./div div nbsp;/div div Image description: Picture of a world with a Black woman and a Black man kissing a Krip-Hop Nation video box. Above are words: USA to Africa South Africa Tour Nov-December 2016. Below is a set of crutches crossing each other with a white hand displaying a sign language sign Below words saying: Brought to You By This Ability Newspaper, Simon Manda Krip--Hop Nation/div

pnbsp;/p div p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"You smell that/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"But itrsquo;s not ready/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"The table is not set/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"So in the meantime let me tell you a story/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"I am black but/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Kalyla could be my sister/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Not because we have th same last name, MOORE/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Forget the police Inbsp; want moore/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"frrom my community/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Stop over looking Kaylarsquo;s full identity/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Yes say the correct gender, name disability/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Like me, Kayla was a poet/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"IQ off the scale Kaylarsquo;s words will live on you know it/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Not the same answer over over over/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"No more police crisis intervention training that shit is over/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Berkeley, disability meca/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Same place where Disability profiling/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Happens over over over and over/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"especially if you are a person of color/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Police I donrsquo;t want to talk to ya/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Courtroom justice is one thing/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Community justice is on going/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Poor magazine says no police calls ever/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Today I have a fever/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Flipping the same coin over and over Democracte or Republican/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Policy goes in, watered down teeth pulled out/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Here we go again/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Real support came from family Kaylarsquo;s community/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Those are the ones who should have been called/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"All the funds go to the popo the system is flawed/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"nbsp;/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Before we go into the courtroom/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"sweep sweep pull out the broom/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"no all White Jurry/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"They will look like Kayla Moore/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Kayla still in the kitchen/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"A tasty aroma like a thick curry/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"The first last supper/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"That will have younbsp; drooling/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"beyond Jurry, lawyer and judge/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"It will be a community fest/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Kayla will feed after we will finally let Kayla rest in peace/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"By Leroy F. Moore Jr. 9/16/span/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; font-size: 0.8125em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"nbsp;/p div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" Pic\drawing: nbsp;Artist Nomy Lamm/div div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" [Image description: The graphic shows a drawing of Kayla Moore, a large black trans woman. She has shoulder-length brown hair, and she is smiling and flashing a peace sign. Her shirt is purple and black with a blue heart, and the words ldquo;Justice for Kaylardquo; appear in orange on her shoulder and neckline. Above her face are the words, ldquo;We remember Kayla Moorerdquo; in a purple and teal banner. Below the banner, the text reads, ldquo;4-17-71 to 2-13-13. Poet, singer, sister, daughter, genius, friend, black trans woman with a mental health diagnosis killed by Berkeley Police in her own home. They tried to blame her death on lsquo;obesityrsquo;!!! Shame on BPD!rdquo; Drawing copyright Nomy Lamm.]/div /div

pEDITOR#39;S NOTE: An interpreter did English to Spanish translation during the press conference.nbsp; The audience questions (all of which were in Spanish), at the end, were translated to Attorney Pointer for his responses.nbsp; This is a transcript of attorney Pointer#39;s statement and answers to questions by the attendees.nbsp; The press conference included words from Luis Gongora#39;s family and presentation of a quilt to the family to show our love and solidarity towards them. Further coverage of this from Poor Magazine is forthcoming.nbsp;/p pFAMILY OF LUIS GONGORA-PAT SPEAKS AT PRESS CONFERENCE:nbsp; a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJd1x8jSTE" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJd1x8jSTE"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJd1x8jSTE/a/p pnbsp;/p pTranscript of Press Conference on the Murder of Luis Gongora Pat/p pNovember 3, 2016/p p10:00am/p pMerida, Yucatan (11:00 am local time)/p pLocation: Merida, Yucatan: Salon CID del Hotel Castellano Gamma Merida/p pnbsp;/p pstrongAttorney Adainte Pointer/strong: I am the attorney for the family of Luis Gongora Pat.nbsp; I practice law in the United States and I bring greetings from the US, but more importantly, I bring action on behalf of the Gongora-Pat family. This family has gathered every one here today and appreciates you coming out and being interested in their story. What was once a story of hopes and dreams and the pursuit of happiness was turned into a nightmare by two San Francisco police officers.nbsp; Two San Francisco police officers robbed this family of their husband, their father, their brother, their cousin and their friend. As we near the six month anniversary of this happening--this took place on April 7th of 2016--it is imporant that we not only remember what took place, but that we take action to set the record straight. And one of the ways in which my law firm has done this, along with the familyrsquo;s help and the communityrsquo;s help in San Francisco is by reaching out to witnesses.nbsp; And by talking with the witnesses and looking at the physical evidence, we know the police officers acted wrongly and they must be held accountable for unlawfully killing Luis Gongora Pat.nbsp; In talking to the witnesses and looking at the physical evidence, we know that what happened on April 7, 2016 is wrong.nbsp; My law firm filed a lawsuit, a federal lawsuit against the San Francisco city as well as the two police officers that robbed this family of their loved one.nbsp; Since this tragedy took place, we have been organizing people, hundreds of people have come out to support this family.nbsp; And I have travelled down here to show the family that there is hope in making this right.nbsp; This is not only a San Francisco tragedy, but an international tragedy.nbsp; What I will now do, is I will show you all and explain to you all what took place on this tragic day.nbsp;/p pWe have filed a lawsuit titled Luis Gongora vs. San Francisco.nbsp; On April 7supth/sup of 2016, Mr. Gongora was in San Francisco.nbsp; He wasmdash;it was during the daymdash;he was playing with a (inaudible) enjoying himself as he often had been doing when he was not working.nbsp; This is just minutes before the SF police arrived to the street.nbsp; We know what took place because there was a surveillance camera located across the street from where the police shot and killed Mr. Gongora.nbsp; And this is where the camera was located, directly across the street where Mr. Gongora was gunned down.nbsp; When the SF police department arrived there, Mr. Gongora was sitting down minding his business, not threatening anyone, not harming anyone not doing anything that would cause the police to have to use deadly force to arrest him. But within 30 seconds, just 30 seconds the police officers, arriving on the scene, they shot 6 shotsmdash;bulletsmdash;six rubber bullets and 5 bullets into Mr. Gongora.nbsp; The officers were called to the scene just to investigate the report of a man who had a knife. No one told the police that the man was doing anything with his knife.nbsp; No one called the police and said their life was in danger because of this person who supposedly had a knife.nbsp;/p pThis right here is the incident.nbsp; Two police cars come to the scene.nbsp; And then a third one pulls up. nbsp;The officer in the first car gets out.nbsp; He (inaudible) has a shotgun in his hand.nbsp; And within seconds he starts firing the shotgun, as if he was firing (at) an animal in the wild.nbsp; You saw a lady who was walking by as the officer started firing their gun. What you can tell from the video, and I have copies of printouts for youmdash;as the pressmdash;to have.nbsp; What you can tell from the video is that Mr. Gongora is never seen running at the officers, but what you see are the officers pointing their guns in a downward direction and they fire a number of shots with their guns pointed down at the ground.nbsp; Down at the ground, meaning, the target they were firing their guns at, who was Mr. Gongora, was not standing up, he was not coming at them but instead was either on the ground or going to the groundmdash;meaning that he was not a threat to anyonemdash;to the officers themselves, or anyone else who was out there.nbsp; Now (to an audience member) is there a way we can turn this light on?nbsp; This is important evidence.nbsp;/p pOnce again, itrsquo;s important to understand thismdash;that the officerrsquo;s story was that Mr. Gongora was running at them with a knife trying to hurt them.nbsp; But the officers--like itrsquo;s a gangster movie--one of the officers actually had 2 guns in his hand and was staring at the ground firing shot after shot after shot.nbsp; No man should have to die in that way.nbsp; My law firm took the original video and we slowed it down so that you can actually see, step by step, what the officers did.nbsp; We sent this out to an expert who slowed it down frame by frame so you could see, shot by shot.nbsp; I mentioned to you that it was not only the video that supported the fact that Mr. Gongora did not do what the officers said but was also the physical evidence.nbsp; So wersquo;ll go back.nbsp; This is the incident as it was recorded (Video of the incident playing).nbsp; As I said, you see the police cars.nbsp; This officer here is the first officer that starts shooting.nbsp; He has a shotgun in his hand.nbsp; (inaudible) rubber bullets.nbsp; The second officer comes over and starts yelling.nbsp; Now, theyrsquo;re yelling at Mr. Gongora in English.nbsp; Mr. Gongora didnrsquo;t understand English. The first officer starts firing the gun, which had rubber bullets.nbsp; The second officer who did not have a gun with rubber bullets but had a gun with real bullets also started shooting.nbsp; Both officers fired their gun at the same time.nbsp; As you will notice, there is a third officer.nbsp; The third officer didnrsquo;t even pull his gun out, which proves that he didnrsquo;t even see Mr. Gongora as a threat at all.nbsp; The two officers that did use their guns were overly aggressive and violated their training and oath to the public.nbsp;/p pPolice officers in the United States are trained to deescalate a situation.nbsp; What they should have done in the situation is walk out in and talk to Mr. Gongora, evaluate what was going on, try to set up a perimeter and not rush in to provoke a confrontationmdash;a confrontation they were certain to win because, in the worst case scenario, Mr. Gongora had a knife, and they had guns.nbsp; Remember, this all happened in less than 30 secondsmdash;22 seconds to be exact.nbsp; Thatrsquo;s less time than a commercial you see on television for someone to lose his life.nbsp; Now, I will show you the incident, slowed down.nbsp; Now you see the officer walk over, he has the shotgun in his hands.nbsp; He starts firing at Mr. Gongora right here at this moment.nbsp; Mr. Gongora is sitting down, Irsquo;m sure hersquo;s scared to have a gun pointed directly at him.nbsp; Mr. Gongora is sitting just off the edge of this (inaudible).nbsp; They walked over to him letting him know they were not scared of him.nbsp; In fact, you see the witness looking on.nbsp; The officer start shooting, itrsquo;s at this point he has both his guns down and starts shooting.nbsp; This is an even slower version of it, blown up so you can see what the officers are doing.nbsp; My apologies to the family for having to see this tragedy.nbsp; (Inaudible) as if hunting down a prey.nbsp; They fire seven bullets and struck Mr. Gongora 6 times.nbsp; One of the other reasons why we know that Mr. Gongora was not running at or charging the officers because of where his gunshot wounds and entry wounds were at.nbsp; Looking at this video, we see the officer at the edge, and Mr. Gongora would be to their right.nbsp; So, if the officers are off to their right, standing here, and Irsquo;m Mr. Gongora and you shoot at me and Irsquo;m not facing you, the bullets would hit me to my right side, right?nbsp; If I was charging at you, it means Irsquo;m facing you and the bullets would hit in the front.nbsp; Now, these pictures are going to be graphic, and once again, I donrsquo;t want to offend anyone, but this is what the SF police did to this familyrsquo;s love one.nbsp;/p pSo the first image wersquo;re going to showmdash;remember I told you they shot him a number of times with bean bags.nbsp; The bean bag rounds were on the right side of his body.nbsp; And this is actually on the right side of his body, in terms of his arm.nbsp; It caused bruising to his forearm as well as his wrist. Now, Irsquo;m going to show you how he was shot, not only on his right side, but also his back--which also proves he was not facing the officers when they shot him.nbsp; nbsp;Looking at this photo, you can see that he had two bruises to his back, here (pointing), as well as here.nbsp; Three brusies, in a triangle.nbsp; But he also had a gunshot wound to his right shouldermdash;in the back of his right shoulder.nbsp; The next picture shows (inaudible).nbsp; As you can see from this picture, the officer has his gun pointed down and hersquo;s still firing his gun. Mr. Gongora, as I showed you before, has a gunshot to his right shoulder.nbsp; And this shows you how it entered his body, which is going downward.nbsp; This is one that shows the gunshot wound which enters his head, and its our position that he could only get that position, that gunshot wound if he was low to the ground, because you have to be lower than the gun that fired the bullet (inaudible).nbsp; Mr. Gongora was either on the ground or going to it when the officers fired the fatal shots.nbsp; As you can see from this photo, the bullet went from the top of his forehead downward.nbsp; Mr. Gongora had to be below the gun and the officer when they fired that shot.nbsp; He was not standing up. He was either going to the ground or on the ground when that shot took place.nbsp; Remember, it only took 30 seconds, it only took less than 30 seconds to steal this familyrsquo;s husband, father, cousin, brother, and friend.nbsp; We are here to demand that San Francisco and those two police officers be held accountable, that they restore honor to this family, and that they receive the justice they deserve.nbsp; We demand justice for the family of Luis Gongora Pat.nbsp; We filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco and the police officers in federal court and wersquo;re going to hold the officers accountable.nbsp; We have sued them for violation of this familyrsquo;s rights.nbsp; I have copies of the lawsuit here with me.nbsp; I will make them available to you, members of the press and the public.nbsp; Justice for the family of Luis Gongora Pathellip;thank you./p pnbsp;/p pstrongQuestions from Audience/strong/p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; Are the officers suspended or still working?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; The officers are still working.nbsp; They are still patrolling the streets of San Francisco.nbsp; And we think that is a shame.nbsp; Thatrsquo;s why the family had to take action into their own hands by filing a lawsuit because the police department and the mayor will not hold their officers accountable.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: What are the names of the officers and in what neighborhood did this take place?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; This took place in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.nbsp; And the two officers that were involved are Michael Mellone and Nate Steger.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: Do you think this was a case of racial bias against a migrant?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: I think this is a case of officers violating their oath and violating their training.nbsp; I think that bias plays into how the police react to people in San Francisco.nbsp; Many people in San Francisco wonder of the officers were biased because there was a white man who had a gun who had been brought into custody without shooting him or harming him in any way.nbsp; And he was threatening officers with a gun.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; (Inaudible)/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; San Francisco police cars do not have cameras.nbsp; Fortunately, there was a camera at the apartment across the street.nbsp; If it was not for that camera there, we would only have the police version of what happened.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; How has the relationship been with the Mexican authorities regarding this case?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; I have been interacting with the Mexican consulate and asking them to assist us in our fight for justice.nbsp; We need them to put pressure on the US government , San Francisco in particular, to make sure this family receive the justice they deserve.nbsp; In this time of tragedy, this family is in need of all the support we can give, not only from the government of Mexico, but the people.nbsp; And thatrsquo;s why wersquo;re having this press conference here./p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; How long will it take the court to give us a final resolution?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; We just filed a lawsuit and the court is going to set a trial date which is anywhere from a year and a half to two years from now.nbsp; Itrsquo;s a long process.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: When was the lawsuit filed?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: The lawsuit was actually filed on October 7supth/sup/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: What has been the response of the authorities in the US?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: The response is not one of which an honorable government should be.nbsp; The San Francisco city government should be offering this family its support as well.nbsp; It should be holding those officers accountable.nbsp; Those officers should be in jail.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: What have they said?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: They try to justify what happened by saying that they followed all the rules, but they didnrsquo;t./p pstrongPoor Magazine/strong: They came down to the area where the witnesses were living on the street and they threatened them if they didnrsquo;t move and leave within 3 minutes, they would be arrested.nbsp; My son and I and other people from POOR Magazine witnessed that.nbsp; It is very typical for the police to try to (inaudible) the witnesses.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: what is the government like in San Francisco:/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: There is a democratic mayor in place.nbsp; Many of the board of supervisors are democrat but they still have not come out to support the people./p pstrongPoor Magazine/strong: Can I add also that the government supports the rich people in San Francisco, not the poor people.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; What is the consequence of the lawsuit filed?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: The consequence of the lawsuit filed is 3 parts.nbsp; First part, the truth will come out.nbsp; We hope to have the police department change its training and policies so this never happens again.nbsp; And the city needs to do right by this family by providing them with financial support.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: Do you seek that the officers go to jail?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: The prosecutor is in charge of that process.nbsp; The family, myself and supporters have been putting pressure to try to get the officers arrested./p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; Have there been more cases in San Francisco?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: Yes, unfortunately the United States, particularly San Francisco, has a long track record of allowing its police officers to do things like this.nbsp; And this is not the first time that police officers unlawfully killed someone.nbsp; I have been working as an attorney doing this close to 12 years.nbsp; And I have represented many, many familiesmdash;too many families.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience member/strong:nbsp; What is the feeling of the people of San Francisco regarding these cases and do they feel these cases of racial bias have increased?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong:nbsp; I think the people of San Francisco are frustrated and there are many people in San Francisco who are outraged.nbsp; But there are not enough people who are willing to stand up.nbsp; I think that because today, many people in the United States and many people here carry phones that have cameras and videos on them, we now see more of this stuff on the internet than wersquo;ve ever seen before. But that does not mean itrsquo;s happening more, itrsquo;s just being captured on video more.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong:nbsp; Is there any proof that he (Gongora) had a knife in his hand?/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: If you take the police officers at their word, they say he had a knife in his hand. If you listen to the witnesses who have nothing to gain, they say he did not have a knife when he was shot by the police officers. (Long pause) He was an undocumented worker but he had rights just like anyone else. If the city of San Francisco can take his life, they have an estrangement with basic human rights.nbsp;/p pstrongAudience Member/strong: (inaudible)/p pstrongAttorney Pointer/strong: We have considered taking cases like this to the International Human rights commission.nbsp; Itrsquo;s my understanding that the UN has put out some studies as well as reports about police brutality in the US so we hope the international community will start taking a look at these cases.nbsp; Thatrsquo;s why we came here.nbsp; This is not just a San Francisco story, itrsquo;s an international story.nbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pEnd of Attorney Pointerrsquo;s remarks/p

div div div div div Due to the multitude of lies and stereotypes that permeate our capitalist society about poor people and people of color we all have collectively bought into the idea that we need to call 911 to be safe, said Jeremy Miller, organizer and revolutionary family member of POOR Magazine, and Idriss Stelley Foundation and co-organizer of the first strongHow to Not Call the PoLice EVER workshop /strongin September 2016.br / nbsp;/div p The first of this series of revolutionary healing and liberation workshops led by us post-kolonized gentrified, displaced, disabled, incarcerated, indigenous and unhoused peoples at a href="http://www.poormagazine.org"POOR Magazine/a/a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness"Homefulness/a and Krip Hop Nation was a powerFULL mix of scholarship, prayer, art and poor and indigenous peoples theory like we live and walk at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE. One of the many liberation ahhh haaaa#39;s that emerged from this day was Jeremy#39;s comments which then made us unpack even deeper the impact of colonization and its subsequent invention of stolen land and stolen people protectors known as police on something as essential as our thinking, our spirits and ultimately, even our courage.br / nbsp;/p/div p How, thanks to this false post-colonial, wite-supremacist notion of safety the corporate notion of cleanliness (which equates into the complete absence of humans in our racist, classist clean cities landscape) and the cult of independence which separates us from our elders, our communities, our cultures and languages, we are all alone, living with strangers, outside of elder circles, outside of our own bodies and even our cultural ways of protecting ourselves and our communities. This is yet another unnatural, bizarre and dangerous aspect of colonization. What happened to our collective ability to hold each other, to be there for each other to stand up for ourselves and our fellow community members when they or we face danger. how is it that we have given away our own instinctual knowledge.br / nbsp;/p/div div And this is not just a white people problem or the tendencies of white people. As a matter of fact this is a multi-cultural epidemic with white supremacist, capitalist domination as the root cause and all of us as the victims.br / nbsp;/div div The immediate response to call 911 is exacerbated by racism and classism. White peoples and light-skinned POC#39;s will more likely be afraid based on their racist biases against peoples of color and therefore call 911 or the kkkops over kkkrimes that are completely racist and classist, aka the scary homeless peoples being in their neighborhoods (even though we are doing nothing but being in our cars, sidewalks, parks etc) or other kkkrimes like shopping, sitting in our cars, walking, sleeping, like so many, if not all, of the recent and historical victims of poLice murder.nbsp;br / nbsp;/div div But then its also us. Disemboweled by colonization. Stripped of our courage, our ability to stop and stand up , speak up, stand by or even handle an issue. So quick to call the paid killers in to handle it. This is a mistake not just made of lack of courage but of the lack of us giving up our love and care-giving tendencies to industries.nbsp; We have built elder ghettos to take care of our parents, elders and disabled peoples. Age-grade institutional schools to take care of our children. Therapy industries to take care of our problems and on and on. In the end we are not only unable to take care of things we have come to believe are scary but also we can#39;t take care of things that take too much work hassle. In essence not only has the lie of civilization swallowed our creativity, ethics and spirit, it has made us collectively too lazy to even be human.nbsp;/div div nbsp;/div div Ina href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5600" 10, 11 or 15 things you can do to NOT call the PoLice ever/a list we talk about building up a community circle. This takes a while. You can#39;t trust people overnight that you just met. But it is an essential part of decolonizing our lives, our bodies and our communities and our families.br / nbsp;/div pI work in a local middle school and I am considered a mandated reporter so if i don#39;t report when i suspect child abuse I could get in trouble, said a participant in the workshop. In addition to critiquing the white supremacist lies of poLice calls as the option for help, the relationship between poverty, racism and poLice calls, care-giving, poLice and the non-profit industrial complex we tackled the the extremely difficult issue of protecting and caring for children above all else.nbsp;/p pWe spoke together on how the protection of children is not solved with a hashtag, a website, a poverty pimped grant or a face-crak post. It takes loong wraparound, indigenous care-giving, it takes love and a different way of operating in the world. Words and moves by sister Samsarah Morgan and other decolonized, peoples of color birthing movements. It takes revolutionary street social workers and community care-givers and co-mamaz like Mama Jewnbug,Mama Laure McElroy andnbsp; Vivi-T from POOR Magazine mama teachers like Mama Blue, Mama Tracey Bell-Borden and Mama Sue Ferrer and me and the school circle of mamaz we create at Deecolonize Academy who refuse to EVER call CPS or APS but do constantly call each other and our fellow grandmothers and aunties to help and council and love and support children and their prarents in struggle/p /div pWe also spoke on other decolonized solutions rooted in poor and indigenous people-led theorynbsp; and self-determination, movements like the Auto-Defensas in Mexico and Barrio 23 de Jenero in Caracas Venezuela both of whom they kicked the poLice out of their town- and because in both cases like this stolen land, violent crime went down./p pOrganizer Sylvia Ronen pointed out that we can call the fire department directly instead of the kkkops when waht we are really asking for is medical emergency help./p pThe day was packed with more prayer, spirit, lessons and ideas than could ever be translated to a mere written document, but suffice it to say the conversation to move our colonized and confused minds away from the 911 call was deep and healing and in one afternoon brought us closer to a collective understanding and overstanding of our own communities power, strength and ultimately non-poLice engaged autonomy./p /div

pnbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pWell it#39;s that time again, ringing in a New Year, 2017. nbsp;This year, 2016, Krip-Hop Nation gears up for our tenth anniversary, in 2017, and we go back to the benning of this column make up our top twenty best interviews on Krip-Hop Nation column at POOR Magazine. nbsp;It was very hard but here it is with links./p pnbsp;/p pspan1) Elder Jazz Great Tells It Like It Is: Jimmy Scottnbsp; - http://poormagazine.org/node/2645/span/p pspan2) Bullets and wheelchairs in Hip-Hop MF Grimm ndash; spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/1682"http://poormagazine.org/node/1682/a/span/span/p pspan3) Rob DA Noize and the SugarHill Gang a href="http://poormagazine.org/node/2054"spanhttp://poormagazine.org/node/2054/span/a/span/p pspan4) Disabled Hip-Hop Artist Runs for Senate Seat in Massachusetts Keith Jones nbsp;a href="http://poormagazine.org/node/1974"spanhttp://poormagazine.org/node/1974/span/a/span/p pspan5) Krip-Hop Nation Interview with Deejay Kabila of South Africa http://poormagazine.org/node/3196/span/p pspan6) Real Talk About Underground Hip-Hop Mental Health N Germanynbsp; Christian Bruckner Germany http://poormagazine.org/node/4553/span/p pspan7) Michael Buckholtz ndash; Autism, Music A Lot Moore http://poormagazine.org/node/4197/span/p pspan8) PETEY PETE Will Unleash The Cripple Threat (Listen to his brand new Krip-Hop Anthem here) http://poormagazine.org/node/4595/span/p pspan9) Painting The Dance Floor: Interview with DJ Short-e McGuirenbsp; http://poormagazine.org/node/4544/span/p pspan10) Kounterclockwise Birthed KRIPPLED BOY http://poormagazine.org/node/4526/span/p pspan11) R.E. Spect (Song)nbsp; Painting Voicesnbsp; Africa, Zimbabwe http://poormagazine.org/node/4455/span/p pspan12)nbsp; Krip-Hop Nationrsquo;s Fatherrsquo;s Day Special: 5 Black Disabled Fathers\Musicians (Featuring Keith Jones on audio, Rob Darsquo; Noize Temple, Lee Williams, King Kaution and CoolV) spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/4447"http://poormagazine.org/node/4447/a/span/span/p pspan13) King Snyder/Bradford Baker Kicking Metal Into Krip-Hop Nationnbsp; spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/4441"http://poormagazine.org/node/4441/a/span/span/p pspan14) Krip-Hop Nation Expands with Juako of Bogota, Colombianbsp; spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/4117"http://poormagazine.org/node/4117/a/span/span/p pspan15) JAKE Krip-Hopping From Madrid Spain spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/4108"http://poormagazine.org/node/4108/a/span/span/p pspan16) Krip Hop Nation Listens to Deaf DJ#39;s Deaf Jamsnbsp; spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/3639"http://poormagazine.org/node/3639/a/span/span/p pspan17) The Struggle to Become a Superstar Ronnie Ronnie a href="http://poormagazine.org/node/3465" title="http://poormagazine.org/node/3465"http://poormagazine.org/node/3465/a, spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/2114"http://poormagazine.org/node/2114/a/span/span/p pspan18)nbsp; Quadriplegic Latino Hip-Hop Artist Racially Profiled by Roswell policenbsp; spana href="http://poormagazine.org/node/2252"http://poormagazine.org/node/2252/a/span/span/p pspan19)nbsp; Godfathers of Street Kids Staff Benda Bilili (3)nbsp; Africa, Congo a href="http://poormagazine.org/node/2103"spanhttp://poormagazine.org/node/2103/span/a,/span/p pspan20) The Blues Guide Boy Story From His Son, Josh White Jr. http://poormagazine.org/node/5471/span/p

p10, (11 or 12) Things you can do to Not ever call the PoLice , CPS and APS - (the beginning of a life-long list created by POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/Homefulness family./p p strong1. DegentriFUK (degentrify) Yournbsp; Individuated Life/strong-If your family of origin is safe and has space go home. Explanation- If you have bought into the Away-Nation - cult of Independence as we call it at POOR Magazine- so rigorously drummed into your head from the time you leave the womb in kkkapitalist amerikkklan- and systems telling you to move away from your language, parents, community of origin, even if it is a safe and loving place- begin the long process to resist this capitalist notion of individalism and separation- (POOR Magazine offers a href="http://www.racepovertymediajustice.org"PEopleSkool /aseminar in Decolonization and DegentriFUkation to help you with this). Ifnbsp; your home, community / town of origin is not a safe place work long and hard ( and its VERY hard to build your circle of support with your chosen family/p pstrong2. Launch, Create, Work toward a creating a Circle of Support/strong- complete with a text/phone tree of phone numbers of friends, supporters, family members who agree to be called by each other in a case of an emergency- expand on this to include community elders, spirit and prayer-bringers, advocates, lawyers, therapists and healers./p p strong3. De-Racialize/ De-kkkapitalize your world-view /strong- Shake ALL as much of the wite-supremacy notions of ldquo;cleanrdquo; spaces defined by kkkorporate world-views of cleanlinessrdquo; out of the deep recesses of yo mind - in other words if you see an unhoused person sitting on the sidewalk - on your street- please realize this isnrsquo;t something to automatically pathologize, be scared of, consider to be dangerous. Look into your heart and subconscious and think back when you got that message. Similarily, if you are a non-black person of color, or white person deconstruct your own tendencies to feel ldquo;unsaferdquo; at the site of a Black or melanin -rich person./p p strong4. Begin repeating a mantra - Calling 911 doesnrsquo;t mean help,/strong support or safety and replace it with 911 means possible death and create a phone tree/ phone text listnbsp; with your support networks ofnbsp; chosen family, friends, care-givers, peoples you trust who are willing/able to come thru/p p strong5. Research,/strong strongbecome involved /strongin groups like Critical Resistance, ATPT and resources like Concern (mental hellth crisis) and other anti-police terror work/p p strong6. kkkop-Watch ANYTIME you can/strong- - stand by and watch, report and call in as many people as possible whenever you see anyone being stopped, frisked, questioned, harassed by the paid murderers/p p strong7. Teach your families, elders, communities about the myth of 911,/strong de-racialization and decolonizationnbsp; and the ideas you learned here today/p p strong8. Un-fund Adult Protection Services/Stop calling APS/strongnbsp; except when elder abuse by Eviction is happening- Take care of your elders and your community even if it takes time - capitalism and death and criminalization takes time -/p p strong9. Un-Fund Child Protection Services /stop calling CPS - /strong- Cuz it attacks poor families of color- and educate yourself in the Transubstative error of cross-cultural differences- stop pathologizing poverty , houselessness and cultural differences - if you are a teacher, educator or counselor - work with restoration models instead of separation models-/p p strong10. Read How to Not Call the kkkops EVER a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5464"article/a, come to next training offerred by POOR Magazine on july 15th 2018 or invite us to your town, city, school or barrio (email us at a href="mailto:poormag@gmail.com"poormag@gmail.com/a for more information/strong- and stay tuned to the upcoming release of emPOVERTY scholarship - A PeoplesTextBook - poor people-led theory, art, words and tears across mama earth/em/p p strong11./strong strongSupport POOR, indigenous and POC led movements /stronglike Sogorea Te Land Trust, Community Ready Corps, Homefulness, Idirss Stelly Foundation and education and support models outside of non-profit industrial complex models of ldquo;safety./p p strong12. Support/ become involved in mediation clinics/strong like Berkeleyrsquo;s SEEDS and/or get trained in mediator skills -/p p strong13 Learn about Community Reparations, African Peoples and Indigenous Peoples Land reclamation and Reparation Movements/strong and become an active reparations,nbsp; land and hoarded resources redistribution (more about this from movements like Zapatistas in Chiapas, Shackdwellers Union in South Africa and Homefulness) nbsp;/p pstrong14. Call the Fire Department directly-/strong they have their own phone numbers in every city in the US if you are looking for parmedic or other emergency services./p p15. strongCall MHFirst- a powerFULL grassroots movement to support people PoLice free without EVER calling the kkkops-/strong reach them at 510-999- 9MH1 or MH1Oak on facebook, Instagram and Twitternbsp;br / strongResources/strong/p pa href="http://strategycampsite.org/"strongStrategic Institute for Intersectional Policy/strong/abr / Black Disability Youth Coalition in Chicagobr / Critical Resistancebr / AntiPoLice Terror Projectbr / Community Ready Corpsbr / Peoples Community Medics/p pstrongPoor Peoples Security Team at POOR Magazine/strong (ww.poormagazine.org) @Poormagazine on IG, Fb Twitternbsp;/p p nbsp;/p

pThis country was stolen by hate-filled, manipulative wealth-hoarding colonizers like Trump who raped, abused, and murdered 1st peoples of this land and bought, sold, raped and killed other humans for free labor. Trump is already here. He has been here for 525 years./p div div The amerikkklan Sci Fi movie is real, this Trump monster is the logical progression of US white supremacy and colonization p But lest you think, armaegeddon has just arrived, please realize that the pseudo-conscious, neo-liberal, land -stealer, gentrfyers of the stolen Ohlone village of Yelamunbsp; (San Francisco) created and approved a 21st century re-mix of 19th century ugly Laws aka, anti-poor anti-disabled peoples, deeply racist and classist Propositions Q R, ensuring that us, the unhoused, disabled, trauma-filled, poorest of the poor will be more criminalized, poLice harassed, attacked and incarcerated than we already were. Trump was already here. He has been here for a long time.br / nbsp;br / Colonization has taught people from all over Mama Earth that the Trumps of the world are the ultimate example of success. People cross colonizer created borders, forced to leave everything that they are, all that they love to become Trump. People risk their lives and even die to become Trump./p/div /div pOur future lies in our decolonized minds, our youth who we refuse to tell lies to. Our elders that we care for without institutions, corporations or poverty pimps. This time is about truth, its about healing, its about love and most of all its about what decolonizers, revolutionaries and truth-tellers are already doing and have been doing for a very long time./p p And as we enter a time of collective trauma due to this monster-rule, please don#39;t get lost in it, remember that interdependence and love and liberation is real too and self-determiNATION is really real- holding each other- caring for each other- not institutions, not corporations-but each other - the way we walk ALREADY./p p The most liberatory work of the Black Panthers, MOVE, Shackdwellers Union in South Africa, Aunti-Frances Self-Help Love Mission, a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=http://www.poormagazine.orgsource=gmailust=1478803712952000usg=AFQjCNHnceUa6z7rDyOnSldDzsGuT1ufmQ" href="http://www.poormagazine.org" target="_blank"POOR Magazine/a,Idriss Stelley Foundation, Krip Hop Nation, a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=http://www.racepovertymediajustice.org/academysource=gmailust=1478803712952000usg=AFQjCNFCj-BjInLgg3dm0RPhzByHdOts5g" href="http://www.racepovertymediajustice.org/academy" target="_blank"Deecolonize Academy/a andnbsp; a class="m_-208800964403811422m_1325076035275730564m_449198898221571524gmail-m_-2009610896270227749gmail-profileLink" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=https://www.facebook.com/Homefulness-120783441294193/source=gmailust=1478803712952000usg=AFQjCNHP2Nr8gySUn1pPt1WicsaUBuZlNA" href="https://www.facebook.com/Homefulness-120783441294193/" target="_blank"Homefulnessnbsp;/a were not built with help from the State. they were built with self-determined people refusing to give up in the face of so much existent hate./p p This time is a deep message from ancestors, and like POOR Magazine elephant council elder, prayer bringer and co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust Corrina Gould just blogged, We come from baaadass ancestors. So realizenbsp; the work we are all doing is that much more serious now and we all need to stay strong, continue the badass organizing work we are already doing, dont lose yourself in the circus and recognize politricks for what it is- poli-TRICKS/p

pspan style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Krip-Hop Member/Journalist, nbsp;/spanRonald Muwanga of Uganda shares what Ugandans feel about the police killing of Alfred Olango innbsp;span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"El Cajon, CA. USA./span/p pnbsp;/p pspan style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Following the death of Ocen,a Ugandan male disabled person from Acholi region in Northern Uganda but was based in USA who was murdered by Police in California late last month, a lot of Ugandans wrote on social media to have their voices heard./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Below are some of the extractions./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi, the Resident District Commissioner for Lira District have to this to say on 29th September at 12:15 bull;/span/p pbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Unacceptable! Alfred Olango killed in cold blood by a cop in El Cajon California...even after begging to be spared....no...Ugandan must ask for explanation and condem this racism act from America..Ongeto iya..Bila pa awobi! Bila pa Olango okok kwaa ping lakonye pe..wod Luo....wod gang...to oneko me nyeko...Wod Acholi..wod Laliiya...Bungatira.../spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / nbsp;/p pspan style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Patrick Olobo shared Hudson Apunyo#39;s post./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Pat Larubi a Journalist wrote;/spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"I INTERACTED WITH HIM MANY TIMES.HE NEVER LIKED THOSE WHO SYMPATHISED WITH HIM AT ALL. MAY GOD BLESS HIS FAMILY./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"TEARS OF GULU PROTEST: Alfred Olango has been killed by US police, black Americans are on protest for the killing of the said Ugandan./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"For the people of Gulu and Acholi land, peaceful demonstration to the US Embassy in Kampala is underway./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"We stand against such violence and inhuman treatment. Human right activist are all silent because it does not concern them but Olango is one of us our very own blood from Gulu./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"We condemn such acts and call upon all citizens to follow suites. We want to build borders of peace not wars and why are we bieng subjected to death by guns? Is this the best we can be offered? Voice of America - VOA this is from the unheard voices in Gulu and over to you the U.S. Embassy Kampala we are on our way expect some guest anytime......./spanbr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /br / span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"An Acholi business man killed in the US/span/p pPic: Ronald in a Black shirt and red and white baseball cap on pointing a microphone to a Black woman with a white shirt and gray jacket and gray skirt outside. nbsp;In the backgroundwhit and blue tents./p

div div div div Poor , unhoused/barely housed,indigenous, disabled, Black, Brown, and Red peoples don#39;t have presidents - we have prison wardens, police, sheriffs, anti-social workers, landlords, judges, bailiffs, poverty pimps, case manglers,ICE agents, CPS workers, and debt collectors.br / nbsp;/div p Under kkklinton we lost welfare, institutionalized the criminalizaiton and incarceration of young peoples, under Reagan we got called welfareQUEENs and accused of stealing and were permanently kkkriminalized and racialized as poor single parents, lost all mental hellth care and under Bush working class and poor folks lost the right to file foreclosure suits, began fake wars against all Muslim peoples locally and globally, lost Dental care and were told we had to get married and under Obama more of our families were deported than ever, poLice terror against Black and Brown people and unhoused people has continued and increased and all of our public ( poor people housing has been stolen) .nbsp;/p p Since the beginning of this kkkolonial theft our lives have been and are consistently consumed by an endless stream of people that feed off of us, profit off us and manage us obstacles that we have to navigate just to get through a day, acquire a crumb of help, stay housed, sheltered, not beaten, not terrorized, not deported, not have our children, belongings and lives seized, searched, harassed or ended.br / nbsp;/p/div p So where does this leave us in the face of this adult Chucky monster claiming some control over us. First of all, it is important for those of us holding on barely to the margins of this stolen land to understand and innerstand that our dribble down experience of the monsterule is really just an intensified hate, oppression and terror of what we are already experiencing. To preserve our human and mental bodies we need to stay sane and realize this is NOTHING new,br / nbsp;/p/div p Next we need to take action and yes thats protest, but its also offensive. This is the time to launch those reparations cases. Reparations for stolen lives, stolen profits, stolen land, stolen rights./p/div pThree years ago when the horror of the privatization of all public housing as we know it was launched by a illegal, backroom deal between poverty pimps, non-profit and for-profiteering housing devil-opers and HUD/Housing Authority, POOR Magazine and the Bayview launched a series of actions and a call out to a revolutioanry law firm who would represent Black, Brown and Poor peoples living in public housing for generations who were now facing eviction from their neighborhoods, barrios, towns because the stolen Ohlone land that their housing was built on was considered toonbsp; valuable for mere poor Black and Brown families to live on. This program is called RAD and began under Demicans Obama, Ed Lie and was written by another demican Julian Castro./p div nbsp;/div div As reported in a href="http://sfbayview.com/2016/02/fake-housing-crisis-from-bayview-to-baltimore-public-housing-kept-empty-while-thousands-are-un-housed/"multiple stories by POOR Magazine and the Bay View Newspaper /asince 2013, the RAD program will mean the mass displacement and houselessness of literally thousands of very poor families across these United Snakkkes. p Last week,our Demican mayor Ed Lie, who has consistently navigated stolen Ohlone (San Francisco) land, resources housing and dollars to the very rich, causing the mass eviciton and displacement of elders like 100 year old Iris Canada and the PoLice death of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods and Alex Nieto, proudly announced again that he successfully transferred all the public housing to private devil-opers/p div class="gmail_signature" br / ispanldquo;Bank of America Merrill Lynch is pleased to continue its work with the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Housing Authority on the second phase of SF-RAD,rdquo; said Maria Barry, Bank of America Merrill Lynch community development executive/span/i p This announcement is yet another example of the blatant theft of resources from the people and specifically from very poor people who will have nowhere to live once we lose our housing. This is when we have the backdrop of ballot measures in cities across amerikkklan that make it more illegal than it already was to be unhoused. And all of this is under a so-called democratnbsp; Neo-liberalism is killing us. Who needs ChuckyTrump?/p/div div class="gmail_signature" nbsp;/div /div div class="gmail_signature" So once again, i hope people move offensively. If we can#39;t stop this evil from being inaugurated and even if we can, revolutionary lawyers help us launch those a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5084"reparations and equity cases/a, disengage from the lie of capitalist success, institutional skool debt, private ownership, nuclear families, age-grade separated lives, education and PoLice and the belief that if we just get the right poltrickster we will be ok.br / nbsp;/div div class="gmail_signature" This is also why POOR Magazine, Krip Hop Nation, and the Sogorea Te Land Trust launched the a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSWG7ME0m0A"Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour /athis year in Ohlone and Tongva Lands and will be touring and offerring the medicine of redistribution to land-stealers and wealth-hoarders in New York, Phlily and beyond in 2017 with the solutions of poor, indigenous and Black led self-determination projects like a href="http://sogoreate-landtrust.com/"Sogorea Te Land Trust/a, a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness"Homefulness /aand the Aunti Frances Self-Help Program/div div class="gmail_signature" nbsp;/div div class="gmail_signature" Poor People Don#39;t have presidents or Governors or Mayors. We have ourselves./div div class="gmail_signature" br / iChange Wont Come from a Savior, a Pimp or an Institution- Change Will Conly Come from a Poor People-led Revolution.... Po Poets Project/i/div pemTo contact us to get involved in the stolen land tour or help us launch this lawsuit for equity -email us at deeandtiny@gmail.com/em/p

div div div div div div div Alot of things are said about Global South Poverty- mostly by Global North akademiks, Peace-Corp types and like my Mama Dee used to say, peoples who have never missed a meal, about how that is where the real poverty is. These questions rushed into my mind when i tiptoed into the new movie Queen of Katwe-directed by director Mira Nair, and produced by the kkkorporate monolith Disney. As i sat in the dark waiting for idiotic previews to end, i wondered nervously if Mira had souled out or if Disney had been infiltrated by a little bit of truth.br / nbsp;/div p You have your mama#39;s strength, spansays Robert Katende ( played with so much love by David Oyelowo), to burgeoning chess champion/spanspan10-year-old Phiona (newcomer and powerful actress Madina Nalwanga) in one of many very lushly filmed scenes that shows Phiona beginning to drink the coolaid of success and turn her back on her fierce and in struggle mama (played with the subtle but heart-breaking sorrow of all of our collective mamas by /spanspaniLupita Nyongrsquo;o)/i, which her teacher/coach Robert advises her strongly against, one of many moments that sold me on this beautiful movie. /spanbr / nbsp;/p/div p spanThis movie is many things, but at its most Western digestible, its a story of a child and her family coming out of extreme poverty aka a slum known as Katwe, built along an open sewer, with no running water, causing Phiona to show up the first day at chess practice, smelling like the sewer, in a global south country (Uganda) and making it through mastering chess. This is a story told often and for the gain of the korporate capitalist system. Promoting what i call the away nation ( leaving your family and land of origin to attain so-called success), the cult of success itself and the concept that the acquisition of blood stained dollars, or Euros or any colonizer currency bringsnbsp; ultimate happiness to billions of poor children across Mama Earth, without ever questioning the deep and intentional ways that poverty is kept in place, who gains from it and how it continues so strongly even thought it is so violent and deadly ./span/p p spanDisney created a shiny preview package that sold the movie in those digestible chunks as though it was that simple. But what threw me was it was not. Herein lies the infiltration by Mira Nair. Not that it was anything large or any deep investigation into these issues, but the subtle questions of education for the elite class only, the self-determination of a small group of poor peoples and the embracing not awaying of indigenous family were really at the core of this movie./span/p/div /div p spanThe terror of a mama not being able to feed her child because of poverty is the same terror no matter where in the world you are, said my Mama dee many times as we discussed global versus local poverty. Throughout the movie i was reduced to convulsive tears as i watched a mama try to navigate an underground, street-based economy of vendingnbsp; to feed her 3 young children, a money based hellthcare and housing system that had her dragging her sun out of the hospital when he was barely able to walk and getting evicted from her tiny shack because she had to spend the money from the chess earnings for the ride to the hospital and ultimately end up homeless./span/p p These viscious circles are so real and any of my fellow poverty skolaz, welfareQUEEN, mamas or daddys will relate. In our case, me and mama were vendors in a street based economy, we began this business when i was 11 years old, and my mama was laid off from her job and became disabled, it was necessary i drop out of the mans skoo to work full-time to support us. We had no hellthcare, except a thin version of medical and had to lie all the time to get dental and medical treatment and was constantly being evicted for inability to pay the rent, causing us to be in and out of homelessness throughout my childhood.br / nbsp;/p/div p spanThe lure of an easier life was constantly looming for Phiona because of her prowess at chess, but because of the poverty scholarship of the Coach Robert , who himself had lost his mama and struggled to get through the cult of scholarships to achieve an education, refused to let her fall into that trap, lifting up the whole family and holding them all in a vision of self-determination and collective success./spanbr / nbsp;/p/div p spanIn the end, the vision of success wasn#39;t that Phiona made it, but that they all made it, which is always the ways of our indigenous peoples working and living interdependently - not independently, the answer of one person achieving the notion of individual sucess, is a false one that only perpetuates the pimping and destroying of one persons soul and in the end leaves them used and confused and alone. /spanbr / nbsp;/p/div div spanMy only critique of the narrative, is the idea that education, which also was shown as as elitist because poor people couldnt afford the tuition or the uniforms required to go, being seen as the only way to success. I get it that because the colonizer defines education and rules everything, it is in many ways the only way to make it, but what is so beautiful, is this movie also showed that even with education, the class and corrupt patronage system still ruled where and how you could get employment. And that in the end the real education also came from the streets, from mama and from the strategies of the game of life and the game of chess /span/div p spanI would highly recommend this movie to all people, but specifically for mothers and daughters, mothers and suns in struggle, struggling with the lie that s perpetuated so massively in a capitalist system and the deep revolution of poor and indigenous peoples love for each other in communities forced into poverty from Compton to Katwe./span/p

p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold';"span style="letter-spacing: 0px; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"My names are Douglas Munyendo aka Lal Daggy, I am 25 year old. I am a performing deaf rapper and musician. Who is located in a country called Kenya at the capital city (Nairobi)./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Before I get into my background I just want to nbsp;say that I#39;m so excite to be apart of the upcoming Krip-Hop Nation#39;s South Africa Tour from December 4th-26th!!/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"I mostly refer to myself as a ldquo;Musician who happens to be Deaf not a Deaf Musician.rdquo;/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"My family background has been full of hardships, loss and gain. At a tender age of 2years my parents separated, and then what followed next was a sickness that robbed me of my hearing at age 5. That traumatized me to the extent of emotional withdrawal and low self esteem. This situation was made worse when my Dad remarried, and my stepmother was not supportive of me because I was ldquo;not hersrdquo; and that I was deaf. But my father had my back and gave me hope in life, when he enrolled me to a special needs school called. Ouderaa School for the deaf located at Bondo Kenya. During my school life I made steps towards my dream of being a musician like my Idols Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and Akon. During this time in couldnrsquo;t get musical materials and had to sneak out of school to watch music videos and attend concerts./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"However, I never knew how I would develop my musical interest because of my condition. My teachers and the people around me discouraged me about pursuing music, and begged me to follow a different career path. But I could hear none of it./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"I could not hear some of the words but I could read lips, feel the beats while was on stage and of it. But most people around me discouraged me on following music as a career. Most of my support came from our sister school when they performed music and won most competitions. This motivated me to pursue music./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"After secondary education, I decided to travel to Nairobi city, and enrolled at a local college for IT Lessons (certification).This program would take me one year, and then I would take on employment. During that same year (2012) I got a job at a water bottling company (Keringet) in Kenya.nbsp;/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"I did this job so as to save money to one day record my music. I soon left this job for a car wash business with a few friends in a slum called Dandora Nairobi, where I formed a group called rude boys filled with former drug addicts. At this time I had saved up a small amount of money, and started looking for a studio to record with my group. I got an opportunity at our slum to teach the youth to dance. Through this opportunity, I reunited with some of my former school mates who introduced me to Sarakasi dome dance in Ngara Nairobi, where I was able to learn about music, performance and dance in my Deaf capacity./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"At sarakasi dome dance, we were not only taught Yoga but got opportunity to learn many things. I met two prominent people named Kizito and Jared of project Signs media Kenya Ltd. They had a vision of nurturing Deaf musicians and create an entertainment company for the Deaf. They took me in and shared their music and starred to introduce me and a couple of my friends to various musicians and events happening in Nairobi.rdquo;/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Lal Daggy proves that music is truly a word within itself a language we all understand. Being deaf does not lock him out of this world, nor stop him from speaking the language. He easily connects with his audience with his face, hands, arms and body as he did with the performance many events county his single Story for Champion and Crime./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"It was very challenging to launch a music career. Many of the studios we went to turned us down, their questions reflecting their attitudes- how can you rap and you are Deaf? How will we sell your music and who will buy it? I realized that they had a negative attitude toward my disability and never at any moment looked at my possibilities,rdquo; he humbly says./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Nevertheless, his breakthrough came when Signs Media Kenya in collaboration with the Finish Embassy organized an event to mark the UN Day for Persons with Disabilities. They invited a Finish Deaf rapper, Signmark, who I performed with./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"INS has been an inspiration to him to relentlessly follow his dream./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"ldquo;I saw him performance, shared a stage with him and there and then I began to see how I could make it as a rap artist in Africa. He shared a lot of tips with me and I have never felt more confident that things would work out for me. I took my little savings of money and went to slum Dandora to look for a studio to record my music. I had by this time written 5 singles namely - proudly Kenya, My Life, born life, Never give up and miss mum however, the audio version were of very poor quality but I still performed them at various events around town. But this song is yet to receive massive air play because of the misconception media house seem to portray about persons with disabilities,rdquo; says Lal/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Because of his strong desire, he has seen himself through several radios and TV interviews two newspaper articles since the release of his song. I met big celeb artist his nickname Nonini did help me with voice for my music song called of Story Ya Machampion on YouTube. ldquo;I am thankful to Nonini for accepting to work with me. His gesture goes a long way in changing the perceptions of many of the producers and musician out there to give a little more attention to musician with disabilities. I look forward to working with celebs like AKA South African, AY Tanzanian, Diamond Tanzanian, Kaka King Rabbit Kenyan in my upcoming album. I also hope to work with Akon and Wiz Khalifa in future. I would like people to be aware about persons with disabilities, I am look for a sponsor and with my support we support the disabled in order to make it.nbsp;/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"I have 12 songs but I only recorded 8 songs with 5 video on YouTube ndash;nbsp;/span/p ol li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';" span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Proudly Kenya/span/li li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';" span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Hustlenbsp;/span/li li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';" span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Crime/span/li li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';" span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"Make It.nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;/span/li /ol p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"With those few words I would like to thank those people in my life that supported me and encouraged me. I would also like to encourage artists like me facing different hardships that there is always light at the end of the tunnel./span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; bHIS BLUEPRINTS/b/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"bldquo;Together with Signs Media Kenya wersquo;ll be scouting for talents in Music, Dance and Comedy in deaf schools and institutes around the country. This is in a bid to start hosting a National Deaf artist in South Africa this year tourrdquo;/b/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; min-height: 12px;"nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"bnbsp; nbsp; PARTING SHOT/b/span/p p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"bParent with Deaf children ought not hide them or deny them the opportunity to be what they want to be. With support one can change the destiny of their child. Believe in us, support us excel in our chosen fields. I urge the public to support our local talent. We are proud of who we are,rdquo; he concludes. To support the Deaf imitative, like there facebook page Lal Daggy-Deaf Musician, tweet handle @KingDeafRapper and instagram @LalDaggy/b/span/p

pYouth Skolaz from Deecolonize Academy Stand Up For Standing Rock- Watch their Messages for Water on PNN-TV:/p pspan class="watch-title watch-editable" dir="ltr" title="PNN-TV #NoDAPL from Deecolonize Academy youth #3"a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg3cmSFqzgw"PNN-TV #NoDAPL from Deecolonize Academy youth #3nbsp;/a/span/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsYeqzfsHo"spanPNN-TV #NoDAPL from Deecolonize Academy Youth#1nbsp;/span/a/p pnbsp;/p pbutton aria-label="Edit" aria-labelledby="yt-uix-tooltip2331-arialabel" class="yt-uix-button yt-uix-button-size-default yt-uix-button-default yt-uix-button-empty yt-uix-button-has-icon no-icon-markup watch-pencil-icon yt-uix-tooltip" data-tooltip-text="Edit" title="Edit" type="button"/button/p

div All my life my mama would use/utilize my light-skinned-ness to survive. Land-stealers, harassing kkkops, evicting sheriffs, kkkort judges and poverty pimps working on scarcity models,nbsp; I was there./div pPut on a suit, tell them you are a 25 year old wite gurl and they will believe you cause racism is alive and well in amerikkka, my mama used to say. And she was always right. Apartment after apartment, i would don the suit (purchased at Kmart for 10.99) and I , a 12 year old girl, would tell a story about making $65,000 a year and being 25 years old and they would believe me without a blink of any eye. This was because i looked like my colonizer father. No other reason. My mama was always turned down for the same apartment or subjected to endless hoops she could not jump through./p div nbsp;/div div Use your strength, your skin privilege and the energy and health i have given to you and help us out or we won#39;t make it.br / nbsp;/div div From as early as i could remember my light skin was used as a survival tool in this stolen land. Many people who have not missed a meal as my mama used to say, woudl think many of the survival strategies i had to do were abuse. I thought of them then as i do now as the way to make it, as the way to help my mama and me survive in a world hell bent on the destruction of an unhoused, disabled single woman, single mother of color and child. This is how I learned infiltration tactics.br / nbsp;/div div In a Post-Trump Amerikkklan I am officially announcing my plan to go undercover- or above cover - or what my cover art/person will be. Due to my lack of melanin ( I refuse to call it privilege) I can act as a protector, front-man, watcher, infiltrator. Like i have been doing all my life, I am just publicly announcing it and putting out the open call to fellow light-skinned, wite-skinned poverty skolaz to do the same./div div nbsp;/div div If there is an apartment to be rented, a credit report to be attained,a kkkop to watch, an ICE agent to be spoken to , I#39;ll be there. Like I already do. Just going public with a challenge to do the same. If there is a kkklan member to be talked to, I#39;m here. A Devil-oper, sheriff or real estate snakkke to be navigated, I will be there, Like i already am.br / nbsp;/div div Behold strongJane the GentriFUKer and Conscious the Crakkker./strong p For folks with race and class privilege the call is different and deeper like we teach at POOR Magazine#39;s PeopleSkoolnbsp; and POOR Magazine#39;s solidarity family who graduated form Peopleskool manifest, i am asking you to understand, overstand and innerstand that this is the time to activate what I call Community Reparations- To activate emergency redistribution of your resources.nbsp;/p p This begins by realizing that just because you were born into inherited and stolen wealth it doesnt mean that you have a betternbsp; understanding than someone who was not, what to do with those resources. Once you have realized this, please begin immediately redistributing those resources to help purchase stolen indigenous territory for unhoused, migrant/immigrant, indigenous, and formerly incarcerated peoples to help build more examples of what we poor, unhoused, migrant, indigenous youth and elders are manifesting at Homefulness and our sistren at Sogorea Te Land Trust. Both of these are poor and indigenous peoples-led land liberation movements focused on freeing up stolen indigenous land from the lie of property ownership and creating self-determiNATIONs, which in the case of Homefulness will eventually become safe havens for any and all indigenous peoples in danger of removal by (Not Your)Homeland Sekkkuritybr / nbsp;/p/div div If you need help to innerstand this concept even further, i encourage you to enroll in PeopleSkool and/or am offering my consultation skills to anyone who is on the fence about redistributing their hoarded and stolen wealth or join us in the 2017 Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour through Amerikkklan,/div pFor those of you light skinned poor peoples of color and/or poor wite peoples, don#39;t keep worrying about melanin and your lack of it, just activate those inherent privileges, activate clear and present protection, navigation and conversations with the amerikkklan population of perpetrators and bring on the infiltration./p pThe next session of PeopleSkool is on Jan 28-29 - email a href="mailto:poormag@gmail.com"poormag@gmail.com/a to register./p

pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1il_rqBf2c"nbsp;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: transparent;"PNN-TV-Standing Up For Standing Rock#1nbsp;/span/a/p

pEvery year there are hundreds to thousands of suicides that happen across the United States. Some happen on Indian lands that people know as ldquo;reservations.rdquo; They often go left unreported for traditional reasons. Native Americans struggle daily just for being Native in a white America./p pemImage Caption: The writer#39;s cousin/em/p pNative people are often racially profiled, and sometimes the profile that we Native people as labeled as, ldquo;drunken Indians,rdquo; are true, especially among those that reside on Indian reservations. I personally think that the Native Americans that struggle with the thoughts of suicide and that actually commit the act often come from backgrounds or family that live in poverty like most Native people today, and come from a background and history of alcoholism and domestic violence./p pWe as Native people need to reach out to our fellow relatives and let them know that there is hope, they are loved, they are unique, and they are the real heroes. If we all come together as one people, one nation, then I truly think that we can put a stop to suicide amongst our people and become the striving people we once were. It#39;s time we Native American People take a stand and change our ways and lives for the better so we can set forth a more promising future for our children and grandchildren. Suicide is a silent killer, we need to put our foot down and say enough is enough and act on it. So we can save not just Native lives but other lives as well./p pI myself struggle with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and have struggled with my own battles contemplating suicide. I now know that I have much more to live for. Just in these past recent weeks, I lost my best cousin/friend/family member to suicide. It#39;s been one of the hardest things I#39;ve ever had to deal with and help other family members overcome. It#39;s been hard on anyone who knew him. He grew up not having much family support, grew up around alcohol, witnessed drug abuse, witnessed domestic violence. He grew up in poverty./p pFinally one day he snapped and messaged me on facebook and said ldquo;sis I love you and I#39;ll see you later.rdquo; My heart sank, because I knew already what he was going to do. But I was in denial because I didn#39;t want to believe it./p pI#39;m sharing my story hoping that it will somehow help personally, or help save someone#39;s life./p pPlease don#39;t think there is no way out. Please reach out for help if you#39;re feeling suicidal, because you may think that#39;s it, but have no idea how it may affect those around you. Also, if you know a family member or friend struggling, reach out to them. Let them know you are there and they can depend on you no matter what. Let#39;s stop the silence to break the suicide violence./p pThank you for reading, I hope my thoughts and feelings helped somehow. If any of you readers need someone to talk to I#39;m here with an open mind, heart and arms. You can contact me on facebook as Joninbsp;span class="il"Walema/spannbsp;or email me atnbsp;a href="mailto:walema_cherokee32@yahoo.com" id="m_3021830815223049939yui_3_16_0_1_1479859715881_6410" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank"span class="il"walema_cherokee32@yahoo.com/span/a. Thank you again and stay strong./p pnbsp;/p pemI am a Cherokee and Creek Native from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys ages 7, 4, 2 and 1. I have a passion for helping others through my own experiences and I love to write. I wanted to take some time to raise awareness on suicide amongst native people. Wado (thank you in Cherokee language)/em/p

pConscious Youth Skolaz from a href="http://www.racepovertymediajustice.org/academy"Deecolonize Academy/a Say Don#39;t Evict 100 Year Old Black Elder From her Home of 50 Years./p pSee their Video Pleas on PNN-TV:/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpmWmK3Q5c0"spanPNN-TV-Dont Evict 100 yr old Black elder #2nbsp;/span/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJAogcQlCkI"spanPNN-TV-Dont Evict Iris Canada from her home #5nbsp;/span/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJiPHoZviw"spanPNN-TV: Don#39;t Evict 100 yr old Black resident Iris /span/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJiPHoZviw"spanCanada from her homenbsp;/spanbutton aria-label="Edit" class="yt-uix-button yt-uix-button-size-default yt-uix-button-default yt-uix-button-empty yt-uix-button-has-icon watch-pencil-icon yt-uix-tooltip" title="Edit" type="button"/button/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJiPHoZviw"spanPNN-TV-Dont Evict Iris Canada-Youth Skolanbsp;/span/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDkT3AaSX-g"spanPNN-TV-Dont Evict 100 yr old Grandmothernbsp;/span/a/p

pEarly last month at Foods Co., I was both happy and surprised to see that they had a variety of slightly damaged produce mixed and matched in nylon net bags for 99cent; each. Most of it was slightly bruised, some had very prominent sugar spots, but all of it was usable. The really mushy spots on the fruit went into smoothies with the rest of the fruit, except for avocados, tomatoes, and cactus pears (tuna). Those all went into a very unique - and gourmet, if I may say so myself - guacamole that also included arugula from Golden Veggie, a mom and pop shop that is nestled almost equidistant from Wholefoods and Trader Joe#39;s on Polk street. Golden Veggie often has much better prices on produce than both of the other stores do./p pThis month, Foods Co. didn#39;t have the little net bags of produce. I had to get them from China town (usually all the prices on produce in Chinatown are better than chain store prices).I got an added bonus of red cactus pears. Speaking of added bonuses, those little net bags can double as scrubbing pads you#39;ll never have to buy scrubbing pads again!/p pThis all makes the case for a food-shopping club made up of a network of your friends, relatives, and neighbors - a co-op of sorts. Just make sure you invite people who are trustworthy and will hold up their end of the bargain and create a policyof dealing with those who don#39;t./p pThis is how it would work:/p p1)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; If at all possible, have weekly meetings - even if it#39;s only a telephone conference call.In your first meeting, elect or select official capacities such as a secretary to keep minutes and a treasurer to collect dues or pledges (this is where honesty is obviously important). Some people in your club may get food stamps or only a monthly check or have a vehicle but no income. Another could be an elder who can#39;t provide a monetary contribution, but has wisdom and may need somebody to pick up their groceries from the food pantry./p p2)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Next, each member makes up a weekly and monthly shopping list. Compare them to see what you all have in common so it can be bought in bulk and divided up./p p3)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Assign each member to a store to pick up a circular form and monitor sale items./p p4)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Finally, the treasurer purchases a prepaid debit card with the first monthrsquo;s dues. Choose a bulk store like Cash and Carry with the driver. However, Cash and Carry doesn#39;t take food stamps, but Smart and Final does, so perhaps the food stamp member could shop there./p p5)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; In addition, the treasurer might also purchase a gasnbsp;card and change for parking meters.Any money spent would first have to be approved by a majority of members. The treasurer would also be responsible for receipts and weekly reports./p p It could take several weeks or months to get things running smoothly with the club but it would be worth the time and effort./p

pIn November, for the second time in a decade, California voters will once again be presented with the opportunity to go to the ballots and vote on the legal recreational use of marijuana for adults. The first ballot initiative was only marginally defeated.The current one, proposition 64 - also known as AUMA -is all bad.It would potentially be harmful for poor youth under 21, particularly youth of color. For this demographic, being arrested with an ounce and/or not having money to pay a fine would immediately land them in jail./p pCurrently, throughout the state, possession of an ounce or lessnbsp;is a mere infraction that wonrsquo;t result in arrest and is unlikely to be fined.That was one of the few good things Schwarzeneggar did as governor./p pProp 64 is nothing more than a pack of wolves in an innocent little lamb#39;s clothing. The pack of wolves, as it were, is a bunch of rich white people who will essentially be allowed to bribe local and state governments with taxes to do on an industrial level what poor people, especially poor people of color, will continue to be penalized harshly for on a level that is barely enough to make ends meet./p pCurrently, in San Francisco, youth arrested and convicted of a marijuana charge can eventually have it expunged from their record. AUMA could destroy all of this./p