pHunger/p pdrove me to/p pseek sustenance/p pat Safeway.nbsp; Desperately I searched/p pfor food without fillers not born in a lab/p pfor food without pesticide tainting its skin/p pfor food without chemical colors mixed in/p pfor food not injected, infected or foul/p pfor food not obtained through abuse of the wild/p pWhen suddenly from deep inside my soul/p pa deafening tone rose and took control/p pmy body shook as i scremaed and yelled/p pthat the food in the store was not fit to sell/p pand fuck the food industries intent/p pto kill/p pan entire nation/p pto stack dollar bills/p pThen security escorted me/p pout the door/p pas i continued to shout/p pI can#39;td take it no more!/p pStill fuming as i stormed down the street/p pmy grumbling belly/p pwon#39;t accept defeat/p pi hold accountable the corporate mind/p pthat entwines with political designs/p pi won#39;t accept their rancid fare/p pemitting the stench of the death it bares/p pI won#39;t subvert the gift of life/p pevent if it means eternal strife/p pI stubbornly claim my right/p pto resist/p pto insist/p pthat they purify/p pthe food supply and/p pAnd even if I starve to death/p pmy soul will never come to rest/p puntil the life returns to food/p pand humanity once again ruleems/em/p pnbsp;/p pemAniah Hill is a poet with City College of San Francisco#39;s Poetry for the People/em/p pnbsp;/p pnbsp;/p p(c) 2018/p

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) is a movement that is based in Philadelphia and is run by formerly homeless, poor and currently homeless people like us here at Poor Magazine. They are fighting for equal rights for poor, homeless and disabled people like themselves because they know how it is to be in that situation. PPEHRC has roots dating back to Martin Luther King but was founded in 1998 when the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) lead a bus tour to bring to the forefront the issues that poor and homeless people face. In October of that year, there was a summit lead by the KRWU that included all of the people involved with the tour. In that summit, PPEHRC was born.

 

The Poor People’s March on Washington is PPEHRC’s honoring of the Poor People’s Campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr. fifty years ago in 1986. It was a ten-day march starting in Philadelphia on June 2nd and ending in Washington D.C on June 12th. The march was extremely healing and passionate. We didn't sleep in Hotels or even houses along the way, no we slept in the basements of an assortment of different churches along Philadelphia, Maryland and Washington D.C. We ate what the churches provided us, sat on the street for breaks, and talked and laughed and sung and danced.

 

Marching all that way was an honestly amazing experience and I cannot stress that enough. We walked along highways, up hills, through suburbs, and through small towns. I was pushing my Uncle Leroy Moore co-founder of Krip-Hop Nation. He is one of my favorite people to hang out with and so we had fun talking and listening to music on my speaker. We got to know everyone marching with us, because going through an experience like that with someone creates a bond with that person, whether you just met them or knew them your entire life.  

 

One of the best parts of that march was interacting with the man who was directing the march, someone who was lovingly called Sarge by the group. He would order and boss me around and get frustrated with me but it wasn't stressful or irritating because I knew how he was feeling and that made it easier in a way to march all that way.

 

When we got to D.C, we set up Resurrection City, a homeless encampment/ place for us to say in a park by the name of Dupont Circle. The first day of arriving in Dupont Circle, was unsuccessful, due to the fact that the annual Pride Parade was being hosted by the actual park, so it was the epicenter of the parade. We drove to the church we were staying a mile from the park, and the next day we started setting up the city.

 

After we set up the city, we went over to the office of the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) and requested a meeting with Dr. Ben Carson, the head man in charge of housing. We were asking that he would not completely get rid of Section 8, a program that made it possible for poor people to have access to housing. The reason we are asking him to not get rid of this is that he and HUD are already in the process of slowly kicking out everyone who lives in Section 8 in California, including most of our friends and family.

 

I don’t want to say that it went terribly because that would be an overstatement, but when we refused to leave until they gave us a meeting they arrested the leader of our group, Cheri Honkala. That experience was somewhat stressful, but she was let out within the next 2 hours. That day made a slight mark, it showed people that we were serious about what we were pledging for and not just doing this whole thing for attention. It showed that we were willing to put ourselves in actual danger for the homeless and poor community.

 

All in all, the Poor People’s March on Washington was something that I will never forget. The MArch really made me enjoy who I am and made me feel good about myself because in those moments, those days and weeks, I felt like I was apart of something bigger than myself, that I was apart of something that will change this world for the better.

Listen to the Podcast from a Poverty Skola by clicking here

Read the transcript below:

Yea this very low-income, broken, formerly unhoused single mama actually has a roof now- but not cuz of no poltricksters “saving” me- Me and my sun have a roof in a landless peoples movement built from extremely hard work by myself and fellow indigenous migrante, incarcerated, homeless, criminalized, bordered, black, brown and poor Poverty skolaz who can’t stop won’t stop - who refuse to engage with the savior industrial complex, the non-profit industrial complex, the government gangsters or corporate banksters - who know that in the end, like i always say with my fellow Po poets- Change won’t come from a savior , pimp or an institution- change will only come from a poor people-led revolution

yes we need to fight the settler colonizer laws - cuz things get worse if we don’t - but it aint everything - matter of fact its very little - in fact i think the reason people rely so heavily on a “vote” is cuz its simple, easy- it doesn’t include holding folks in trauma so you can build together beyond your difference and your internal colonization,- it doesn’t include endless teaching, un-packing, un-colonizing conversations to help other folks un-learn the lie of poLice calling, wealth hoarding - and continual land-stealing - it has a clean , simple end goal, and it has a tangible result-

And yet the Water gangsters, and the Land stealers & sellers and breakers, and the Mama Earth polluters, removers and destroyers continue to steal, destroy, pillage,pollute, break, and think they own-

So readers, i hope u got yo vote on and Im so happy for Prop C and R -but i aint holding my breath- cuz i been lied to before by propositions that we supposed to help educate, feed, house and support me and my family and guess what? the tow trucks keep coming for my home, the bulldozers  for my tent - and the poLice for my shopping cart and for me.

And yes race and culture and gender matters cause Melanin and culture and gender winning these (s) elections is a twisted form of amerikkklan equity- but sadly hegemony is too. Or we wouldn’t have, as my sister junebug says- Brown faces in high places- people like Obama and his right hand man Julian Castro a brown, neo-liberal politrickster who wrote the RAD program (Rental Assistance Demonstration) which has single-handledly caused the sale of all of our poor people housing aka “public” aka “projects” housing on the private stock exchange to housing developers like ING and Citigroup- ensuring that we, the poorest of the poor have no more guaranteed housing anywhere in the United Snakes.

Similarily, we wouldn’t have the new mayor of San Francisco, who just like her predecessor , Ed Lee, came from poverty, the so-called projects, places where us poor folks dwell, turning around and taking homeless peoples tents as her “solution” to homelessness and then to call upon the election- backing the anti-C campaign in her own city that was created to support unhoused peoples in San Francisco,

In the end, i repeat, this landless peoples movement we unhoused and indigenous people call Homefulness, wasn’t built by politricks, Lygislators or a measure or a vote- it was built with Poverty skolaz  hands, and hearts, and hard work and minds and ancestors, and prayers and spirit and love refusing to give up a dream of poor people-led self-determiNation.

--
 

“Wow, i didn’t even know that place was gone” New Orleans born and raised sisSTAR Ann, exclaimed as we rolled through the gentriFUKed and/or re-deviloped streets of the 9th ward, Algiers and Treme neighborhoods of New Orleans, to name a few.

 

Block after block our fearless, decolonized guide on her own self-described “resistance tour”  would shake her head as she took us through destroyed and currently redevil-oping streets of herstoric oppressed peoples.

In so many ways this place looked to me like the worlds of POC/indigenous poverty skolaz from San Juan (Puerto Rico) to the mission district of San Francisco, and like them both was under attack from gentriFUKing forces. Not small or discreet move-ins, but wide, sweeping arrogant reductions of poor people housing, small and Black or POC owned businesses and even working class, thriving communities.

 

"This is one of the most famous graveyards in New Orleans, and now it charges $25-30.00 just to get in,” Anna murmured with disgust.  

The reduction in poor people housing and poor people communities and even our ancestors graveyards isn’t just due to a confusing mess of “market forces” or gentriFUKing new populations ready to pay more and more to live in urban settings, its also due to a focused and targeted removal of housing under the Dept of Housing Urban Devil-Opment(HUD)’s RAD program which POOR Magazine has re-ported and sup-ported multiple times. It is also due to a targeted move by global real estate snakkkes and speculators moving into urban cities with the goal of “development” always important to keep the global empire of Capitalism strong and profiting.

 

In two different situations i have overheard wealth-hoarders be pitched by real estate snakkkes about the “new market” of Puerto Rico. This in addition to the fact that a lot of these urban settings are tourist attractions, makes for an evil cocktail of removal and displacement, post disasters like Hurricane Maria and Katrina for any poor or working class person who is still holding on to their homes. By any means necessary.

“I’m B-Mike and I’m trying to create, produce and lift up art in our neighborhoods as a form of survival and thrival,” graffiti artist and revolutionary from New Orleans BMike stated to PoorNewsNetwork reporters Leroy Moore and me.

 

We had the unbelievable blessing of meeting B-Mike and viewing his new community gallery which was in the impacted neighborhoods and even if it meant that real east snakes and devil-opers would try to capitlalize on his default “improvement” he was so on point and down for the people that I’m not sure if the people would prevail or the snakkkes - kinda how we moving at Homefulness in Deep east Oakland.

“Alf of homeless people be staying under that bridge,” Ana whispered. Sadly the other rarely spoken about result of intense 21st century removal /displacement projects, with or without disastrous hurricanes, is the impact of folks who just can’t keep fighting to hold on to their hamster wheels - who, like my mama and me,end up on the streets, “living in the cardboard motels” once we are evicted cause like mama always used to say , just cause we evicted doesn’t mean we leave our neighborhoods..” and then her voice would trail off while we tried to get warm on that nights designated park bench.

From Frisco to the French quarter unhoused folks by the hundreds, post -gentriFUKation are ending up living in the cardboard motels and then are harassed and criminalized for living without access to a roof cause once we are outside we are equated with trash. In new Orleans as you can see in one of the embedded images literally hundreds of people were living under a bridge that straddled the outskirts of downtown. This was just the unhoused people we saw. Meanwhile, thousands of other families were just pushed out to outskirts like the place our ghetto - Motel 6 was located in, with no sidewalks, or transportation systems or stores with fresh food, or much of anything. This is the same in so many places - with Sacramento, which used to be just another destination of the newly pushed out/gentriFUKed Bay area residents, now being one of the highest populations of unhoused children in the state of California.

 

“They just cut off food stamps in the state of New Orleans,” Ana told us the first day we arrived. Ana went on to tell us that people would fight it tooth and nail but it just left me weak, especially after we had already heard that New Orleans already was planning to close and evict literally thousands of elders from elder homes (elder ghettos, i call them but the reality is these are poor elders with nowhere else to go, many of whom have been ripped from their families in the cult of separation nation i often teach about at POOR Magazine’s PeopleSkool).

“All these gentrifiers built all these “homes” but then left folks here with mortgages they can’t afford to keep up with, so now you have hella folks losing their homes after all rebuilding flurry that hit this town after Katrina,”Ana explained as we drove through the 9th ward. It was so sad and surreal, miles and miles of manufactured homes with the different devil-opers signatures on every one. Several blocks looking just like some weird mini version of a designer home the kind they have all over post-gentriFUKed Venice beach in LA, apparently built/supported by Brad Pitt and still not paid in full so people weren’t even “safe” there. Hundreds more just sat there, boarded up and destroyed, mold infested and unusable.

 

,

“Boom boom, boom,” As we were making our way through the beautiful crazy thick air that is New Orleans, we were also met with the deep sounds and sights of a marching band that represented a family lineage marching down the middle of a main street, no PoLice escort, no permits, no Bullshit, just music and rhythm and dance and love. This was the depth of strong Black and Indigenous culture that informed everything in that town. Even the post-gentriFUKEd, Post Katrina New Orleans is rich with deep and beautiful and strong African cultural deep structural norms.

 

The town is full with Black owned businesses and the knowledge that we need black owned businesses. The air is heavy with ancestors and the trees and clouds and land sings with the power of who used to be there and who is still there.

“I was one of the only people who was here in the disaster of Katrina, who was truly there for the people, for this i never got any credit or love, just lies,” Me and Leroy had the amazing blessing of meeting with Malik Raheim, the founder of Common Ground, a very grassroots, poor people-led movement in New Orleans based in his family home in Algiers.

 

“I helped over 1.5 million people stay here and stay alive, “ Malik concluded. He went on to explain the rich herstory of his Algiers neighborhood including the powerFULL resistance of the “runaway” enslaved and indigenous Maroon peoples and the fact that his family were an extremely important part of that community. As well as his involvement, support and story-telling of the powerFUL revolutionaries known as the Angola 3 - who were/are political prisoners of deeply racist amerikkklan.

 

Malik, an amazing teacher, revolutionary and Black Panther should have no issues with his home but like most of New Orleans is unstable in his housing, currently owing $40,000 in unpaid taxes and facing eviction, because he doesn’t have any money and is now an elder revolutionary with no support. I left Malik determined to include him in the Bank of Community Reparations, a completely pimp-free “fund” that supports poor/indigenous peoples to stay in their homes and communities and build/reclaim sacred land and sites. The exact same thing Homefulness and Sogorea Te Land Trust are dealing with and trying to resist with different models of land use and redistribution here in Huchuin (Oakland).

 

Malik’s friend took us to his house and on the way he talked about the tight Black community and how they work with Black politicians to restore Black businesses an Black arts.  Malik’s friend had roots in California so he was sad as we told him how gentrification has destroyed the Black community in the Bay Area. We had a chance to meet his wife and beautiful children.  He also informed us that landlords can increase your rent with no notice!

 

Me and Leroy (who don’t know how to take a break- LOL) were ostensibly there to “take a break”  and ended up doing a beautiful reading of our revolutionary children’s books (The Hard Worker and Black Disabled Art History 101) at the New Orleans Main Branch library, and also did an interview at the amazing Community Bookstore, which is truly the model of an actual “Community Bookstore”.   The Black owned, Community Book Center blew us away especially their huge children section. The owner was a media person, she pulled out her cell phone and plugged in a microphone then proceeded to interview us right there in her bookstore. She was warm and spanky. There were three other people in the store playing cards.

 

Although Leroy fell in love with New Orleans, he also knew that New Orleans ranks very low on disability services and we experience that with the inaccessible sidewalks and a Black elder came to us while we were sitting in a cafe and asked if we knew any adult services for her adult autistic sun.

 

Our final blessing was to our taste buds honored with the succulent food of Caribbean restaurant Coco Hut  As we sat in the 100 degree New Orleans heat and humidity ( which both me and Leroy loved) eating our gourmet Caribbean meal, the thick air full of so many ancestors, so much resistance and deep indigenous herstory surrounded us like a silk blanket. New Orleans is and was like nothing else in the world and its spirit and ancestors need our revolutionary love.

 

 

 

Today is the day I deal with my own fate. I’m all talked out .. I’ve been helped out enough. I’m so fuckin tired and I keep it to myself … we all got our problems. I’ve got mine and you have got yours … So who really cares … other than me … and sometimes I don’t.

 

Life is fucked up and I kind of cant see it coming so I somehow manage to divert my pain...pushing through I can feel the heart of the aftermath overcasting my shadow.  I anticipate on living like but lately I have been having anxiety around death and my transition….I already outlived my son Torian, our hope who will be 20 next month on October 20th 2018. My birthday is September, 20th 2018 and my last baby boy’s birthday is September 13th, 2018. He will be 10 years of age and my middle child is now 15 years old.

 

This year is the year we all have been waiting on I had plans and dreams. Oh so many plans for my family of three … I love my sons so much my three heart beats, they take my breath away … often I am amazed … three mini replicas of me.. (X) times three … who will be next one down or one up? Tomorrow is not promised to us … and death has no respect of beauty bronze nor brains … it’s inevitable….

Dear Babies,

 

I am sorry that I am not here to kiss you goodbye when you wake up. There is a “Caminata del Migrante”  going to the US that is getting underway so I have to leave very, very early to meet with the people at the bus station in San Pedro Sula to board the caravan. Although San Pedro Sula is dubbed one of the most violent cities in the world, it is still worth the risk to get to the “American Dream.”

 

The dream that one day I will come back for you, your three brothers and your grandfather. And we will be able to live in peace and reap the bounty of our fruits. The dream that you can be whatever you want to be in life, may it be a doctor, lawyer or teacher. You will have endless opportunities in America.

 

My babies, I will not lie to you. This is a long, long journey and it may take months to reach my destination. But do not worry, for I hear America’s citizens are friendly and will welcome all of us eventually with open arms. I feel so terrible that I had to leave you all behind in the midst of all the violence and poverty but after the deaths of your father, uncle and grandmother, I have to leave to seek out a better life for us. Please do your best to look after your grandfather and younger brothers and help with the cooking and cleaning.

 

I promise that we will be together again soon. So as I began the migration with very little food, water or other necessities and the burning sun as my unintended nemesis I will have you all in my spirit and that is enough to keep me strong in this search for home.

                                                                                                                

 -A Poor Migrant Mama

 

President Trump has reportedly sent thousands of U.S troops to line up on the US border with the promise of making sure that no one enters the country “illegally” and that any resistance will result in arrest. In the month of September alone there were around 16,000 arrests or more of poor people trying to cross the US border. So will more incarceration show different results?  Instead of this nation addressing the global issue of poverty, the “Cheeto Prez” would rather spew racist lies and rhetoric suggesting that Middle Easterners, terrorists, and other criminals are all that consists of the occupants of the caravans.

 

Trump was said to even had stooped to the level of threatening to cut aid altogether to stricken countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for allowing the struggling people to pass through their borders, further adding to the insult and injury of the suffering.

 

There have also been reports that many of those traveling on the grueling journey have opted to seek asylum and/or refugee status in Mexico while some poor, exhausted folks have walked the last mile and returned home with the sense of feeling of at least trying. The president in all his arrogance says that they are “wasting their time” when speaking upon people that are so poor and traumatized from violence and hatred that “wealthy, wicked man controlled” that folks are risking their lives for that “Amerikkkan Dream” with the lie of the “Promised Land”

 

“Bad elements” abroad is no valid excuse for why HUMAN BEINGS are being denied basic human rights. There are “bad elements” here already in the form of  “illegal” colonizers who wiped out the Natives for the whites’ “right to be here” and the same whites slaughtered black people in resistance to the Black man and woman’s “right to be here” and the most intelligent thing “cheeto prez” could come up with is that “very bad people” are being backed by a few rebellious rich folks and that they (migrants) are wasting time heading to the border only to be met by troops that promises not to shoot.

 

Well, tell that to the poor migrant Mama….

                                                                    Queennandi Xsheba PNN KEXU

 

 

Ziar Hughes

 

Eviction killed 100-year-old Iris Canada for a house she called home for 60 years. She was a black elder who raised children in the home, Peter Owens, the landlord was trying to flip it into a condo Ms. Canada tried to fight her hardest to keep that

House.

 

The planning commission rejected Peter Owens (the owner who kicked out Iris

Canada) when he attempted to turn her house into a Condo this is wrong that they're kicking out elder if this was my granny I would have a problem too if my granny got treated that way.

Kimo Umu

I feel like its so close- but i don’t know
Hypokkkrazy ( as i call it ) is real….

Unhoused, poverty skolaz living in vehicles and on the streets in the stolen Ohlone/Lisjan land colonizers call Berkeley face constant harassment (like they do pretty much everywhere) -but in Berkeley,its not so much from one entity, poltrickster or community, but from all of them and mostly from "Nimbyism" (Not in my backyard), fueled by the omnipresent, anti-poor people hate that exists everywhere in colonized Turtle Island.

This deep anti-poor people hate has been in this stolen land since the colonizers stole it and called the theft a “discovery”. With their greed, thieving, genocidal, racist, wite-supremacy, they also brought criminalization of poor, houseless and disabled peoples and a whole litany of laws and language meant to incarcerate every poor person they got.

Sadly, this is nothing new and it is the fight we poverty /disability skolaz are versed in fighting everyday, but the deeply hurtful part is this hate is really no different in a town that claims progressive overstanding of struggles from here to Palestine? And in fact, oddly enough, Berkeley is no different than many of the towns supporting, enabling or legislating anti-poor people laws, and in some ways, Berkeley is more rigid, more closed to change and meaner than even the not so “politicized” or “woke” regions of Turtle Island

The reality is unhoused folks are everyone, we are all colors, cultures, spirits and so much more. We don’t live with Any privilege, but what we lack most of all is the privilege of privacy. Imagine if someone took the roof off of your home or apartment or dorm room. Your life and belongings and momentoes exposed and now no longer seen as belongings- but as a varying pile of trash to be “swept” and “cleaned up” more hygienic metaphors about us Po folks.

So i’m writing this story with love and respect- trying to lead with abundance, hope and open-ness. I am certain, so certain, i can feel it in my bones, that someone, somewhere in Berkeley , Richmond, Oakland, the greater Bay Area (or anywhere in Turtle Island for that matter), who has access to inherited land or resources, Blood-stained or love-stained dollars is open to liberating this land to unhoused, vehicularily housed poverty skolaz so they can manifest their own Homefulness. (Homefulness is a homeless peoples solution to homelessness, created, launched and currently being built completely by homeless and formerly homeless youth, adults and elders in deep East Oakland)

“I lost my home, when i lost my job,” said Kim, one of the power-FULL poverty skolaz who has been taking part in POOR Magazine’s street-writing/poverty journalism workshops which we have been doing for the last two months on a street corner in West Berkeley near their parked RV’s and cars.

The RV dwellers, were humbly, carefully, cleanly dwelling at Berkeley Marina for many weeks, until the City of Berkeley decided they were an eyesore and interfered with Berkeley’s tourist economy. Installing weird, unnecessary barriers and no parking signs to criminalize a small and beautiful community of unhoused folks that had come together at the Marina parking lot.

Unleashing a series of tickets, tow trucks, tickets, poLice cars and threats, the City of Berkeley refused to budge no matter how many times the all ages, all nations and cultures RV dwelling poverty skolaz like the amazing Kim, Amber, Phil and Yesica to name a few in tandem with revolutionary lawyers like Osha Neuman, met with the city.

Finally, for survival they were scattered to a series of street-corners , where they have encountered a recent litany of parking ticket threats.

Which brings me back to this articles goal of leading with abundance and love. To a feeling in my gut that i am three degrees of separation away from someone, anyone who wants to talk/walk/ practice the true principles and values of Berkeley by offering some liberated land ( or resources to “buy/liberate” land) in Berkeley, Richmond or Oakland for these humble poverty skolaz ( and several other Oakland based poverty skolaz we are working with also) to either park their RVs and cars or build/create homes in the vision of what we are calling Homefulness2. 

Homefulness #1 which is far from finished and struggling to be built with no government or “charity industrial dollars” but with permission and spiritual giudance from 1st Nations Ohlone/Lisjan leaders, is funded entirely by redistribution of hoarded, inherited resources taught/shared to folks with resources in a project we call PeopleSkool, by poverty/indigenous skolaz at POOR Magazine- on a different way to live in our tortured Mama Earth, and has nothing to do with the continued buying, selling and profiting off of Mama Earth..

To share this model with fellow poverty skolaz & wealth hoarders/land-stealers  across Mama Earth we launched the Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tours and have shared this template with fellow poverty skolaz from CalifAztlan to Connecticut and are releasing a book that has this medicine in it called Poverty Scholarship - which we are releasing, teaching on, sharing and touring in 2019

So all of that said, the offer of abundance and belief that these abundant resources exist in someone’s heart who is reading this and if you are tentatively reading this wondering in your heart if you are ready to truly walk, live and liberate Mama Earth..please call or email this poverty skola…so we can actually work on an actionable solution created by us, the impacted poor and unhoused folks, that is  rooted in love, Mama Earth’s thrival, decolonization and self-determination. 

 

To contact Tiny or any of the poverty skola leaders at POOR Magazine to redistribute land or resources, book a teaching of PeopleSkool at your organization, school or community, join the next Peopleskool Decolonization/DegentriFUKation seminar or Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour email: poormag@gmail.com To get a copy of the upcoming book Poverty Scholarship- go to www.poorpress.net

On October 23, 2018, MOVE 9 member Mike Africa was released from prison after 40 years of incarceration. Mike was released on parole from SCI Phoenix in Skippak Township. Mike was imprisoned since August 8, 1978, in relation to an altercation between the Philadelphia police and the MOVE Organization. Mike is one of 9 MOVE members, collectively known as the “MOVE 9,” who were convicted and sentenced to 30-100 years in prison following the altercation.

 

The MOVE 9 are innocent men and women who have been in prison since August 8, 1978, following a massive police attack on us at their home in the Powelton Village neighborhood of Philadelphia. This was seven years before the government dropped a bomb on MOVE, killing 11 people, including 5 babies. It has been 40 years since the August 8, 1978, police attack on MOVE, 25 years of unjust of imprisonmen. But despite the hardship of being separated from family members, despite the grief over the murder of family members (including babies), the MOVE 9 remain strong and loyal to their Belief in the teaching of MOVE founder, John Africa. Members of MOVE have an uncompromising commitment to their belief, which is what makes them a strong unified family, despite all that the government has done to break them up and ultimately try to exterminate them.

 

Mike’s wife Debbie Africa was also one of the MOVE 9. Debbie was eight months pregnant at the time of the incident and gave birth in jail to their son, Mike Africa Jr. Mike Sr. has been incarcerated for his son’s entire life and today was the first opportunity for the father and son to spend time together outside of prison. Mike Sr. and his wife Debbie maintained their relationship despite both being ncarcerated and separated from one another for 40 years. In June of this year, Debbie became the first member of the MOVE 9 to be released from prison. Today marks the first time that Mike Sr., Debbie and their son Mike Jr. have ever spent time all together.

 

But this struggle isn’t over. There are still MOVE members who remain behind the razor wires who deserve to be reunited with their families and loved ones. Mike Sr. has been eligible for parole since 2008 and went before the Pennsylvania Board or Probation and Parole (PBPP) for the tenth time in September of this year. Mike’s legal team submitted a packet in support of his parole petition, detailing Mike’s exemplary prison record, his educational accomplishments in prison and over 75 letters in support of parole. These included letters from religious leaders, retired DOC staff who knew him personally and former prisoners who described the positive influence Mike had on them. Mike also received recommendations for parole from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC), corrections expert and former DOC Secretary Martin Horn, and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

 

Bret Grote, of Abolitionist Law Center, another lawyer for the MOVE 9, stated, “This historic release of Mike Africa renders the Parole Board’s decision to deny the rest of the MOVE 9 all the more incomprehensible. For example, Janet and Janine Africa have both maintained DOC records that are as exemplary as Mike’s and essentially identical to that of Debbie, yet they were inexplicably denied parole this past May.  Their attorneys have recently filed petitions for habeas corpus on behalf of Janet and Janine in federal court, challenging their parole denials.

 

In addition to Janet and Janine, three other members of the MOVE 9 remain incarcerated, and two, Merle Africa and Phil Africa, died in custody. All five surviving members of the MOVE 9 (Janet, Janine, Chuck, Eddie and Delbert Africa) have been eligible for parole since 2008 and have been repeatedly denied parole when appearing before the PBPP.

 

During the August 8, 1978 altercation, a Philadelphia police officer was killed. Following a highly politicized and controversial trial, the MOVE 9 was convicted of third-degree homicide. All nine were sentenced to 30-100 years in prison. Mike and Debbie have been in prison for a combined 80 years!  All for a crime they didn’t commit. Mike & Debbie Africa have been political prisoners since Aug 8, 1978. On June 16 after 39 years and 10 months, Debbie was released, and on October 22, after more than 40 years in prison, Mike was released. They have two kids together, including the child who was born in prison, as Debbie was 8 months pregnant at the time of her arrest. They had their life stolen from them for a crime they did not commit. Anything helps as they work to rebuild the life they had taken from them so very long ago.

 

This victory would not have been possible without the decades of organizing and advocacy spearheaded by the MOVE organization and their supporters. The decades-lonf struggle to free the MOVE 9, gives credence to the saying Ain’t No Power Like the Power of the People…Cause the Power of the People Don’t Stop!  POOR Magazine is proud to have been part of the struggle to free the MOVE 9 and we are also are honored to have utilized aspects of the MOVE organizations model for our Homefulness Project, a Poor and Indigenous Led Landless Peoples Movement. Poor remains committed to freeing our political prisoners.

 

WHAT’S THE CALL?  FREE ‘EM ALL!!!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

Zion

the growth of America's homeless encampments and how communities are responding:

 

In the past decade, homeless encampments have been across the country. The reason why people put tents under bridges and stuff, then on the streets is to avoid police harassment. Police will constantly hear complaints even though the homeless person didn't do anything, but they would ask them to leave in a certain time or just kill them.

 

When the city evicts an encampment by clearing all their belongings and its often called a “sweep”.

 

These are ways how police and politicians  are harassing homeless people:

• 33 percent of cities prohibit camping-wide and 50 percent prohibit camping particular public places, increases of 69 percent and 48 percent from 2006-16, respectively.

• 50 percent have either a formal or informal procedure for clearing or allowing encampments. (Much more use trespass or disorderly conduct statutes in order to evict residents of encampments).

• Only five cities (2.7 percent) have some requirement that alternative housing or shelter be offered when a sweep of an encampment is conducted.

• Only 20 (11 percent) had ordinances or formal policies requiring notice prior to clearing encampments. Of those, five can require as little as 24 hours’ notice before encampments are evicted, though five require at least a week, and three provide for two weeks or more. An additional 26 cities providing more than a month.

• Only 20 cities (11 percent) require storage to be provided

 

The most current reason why there's homelessness because of eviction because of rich privileged people who come to the neighborhood because they like the neighborhood, etc. The rich people is willing to give more money than the tenant that's been living there,  the house owner would usually take the higher amount. So sometimes the tenant that has been kicked out doesn’t have enough money live anywhere else so now there choice is to be houseless. So they will end up sleeping on the streets, but then that's when police start harassing them and keep telling them to leave, or they will make an excuse to kill them (for being home

In America, there is a subtle culture that has been going on since our “great nation’ has been founded. As soon as the original immigrants formed this government there have been laws against poor people, homeless people, and disabled people. Many of those laws have been meant to degrade us, silence us and humiliate us.

Tibu

Our corporate entertainment system is designed to make us hate ourselves for being poor. It sells us extremely expensive products very casually, which in turn makes us feel like it is only natural that we should have the amount of money that they are expecting us to. Yet we do not. Because most of our time as low-income citizens are spent holding up the richest of our society. And our government approves of this since it was built by the richest.

 

As our nation has progressed, there have been many laws to keep us down. In the early 1880’s to as recently as the 1970’s one of those laws were called the Ugly Laws. These laws deemed it illegal for “any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself to public view” This basically made it legal for the cops to arrest or ticket anyone who looked ugly, dirty, who were disabled, or maybe just didn't have nice clothes.

 

The thing about the Ugly Laws is, as any poor person or homeless person we know that we are the people who have the less-than-nice clothes or are sometimes dirty because our water was shut off, or disabled because we can’t afford good health care. The government back then knew that and that was the main reason that they created those laws.

 

Something that I have come to realize is that the Ugly Laws of the United States didn’t end in the 1970’s, they just got quieter, more subtle. Instead of using the Ugly Laws to justify arresting and brutalizing homeless and poor people, they now call us a “risk to society” and say that because of our poverty, we are more likely to steal and cause harm to the wealthier class.

 

The reason why I brought up the Ugly Laws because it shows the United States true nature. No matter how many Presidents, Mayors, Senators and government officials say how much they want to stop homelessness and how much they want to prevent it and “get people off the streets” they represent a country that is based on a foundation of causing homelessness and criminalizing homeless people instead or preventing it.

 

In the midst of my world pool results the makings of a hurricane. I needed a coca cola to put in my engine to start my car up the res. Black pepper in my tube pipes to block the whole so that my fluids may continue to flow through. I feel like a broken down car rigged up I’m running hot, I need coolant, water will do. I am operating at the best capacity on less than what is best...

In my heart of hearts, I am puzzled and have come to a fork in the road. I remember growing up, I often thought to myself I can’t wait to become an adult … I prepared long hours for this right of passage….

Listen to the Podcast by clicking here

Breathing in
Breathing Out
No More breath to shout
just a gasp
Amerikkklan scarcity models
forged this fiery path

$1.00 a day inmate fire workers earn while mama earth burns
 to gentriFUKation out of our towns, spaces, and centers
we living in forests, tents & highways when we used to live in the bay

Breasting in and Breathing out
No more energy to get thru the day
No More breath left to shout
unhoused fire victims don’t even make the count
now we got more marginally housed poor folks/ fire victims living in tents
the wealth hoarders have made it impossible to afford any place to rent

we are done-
in walmart parking lots
still thinking trump is the one
migrante indigenous familias afriad to even come in
Already unhoused peoples exposed to air filled with smoke filled poison
this time is now
radical redistribution
enacted interdependence  is how
we gonna breathe -
not just one of us
but all of us
and live
and see
a new day

No more time to hoard resources
buy or sell Mama Earth
- open up your unused rooms
garages
your farms
your vacation homes
Stop all this war over ownership and turf
give away your 3rd and fourth cars
support the Po Mamas reparations Fund
help us po folks manifest Homefulness projects Everywhere

this is it- fam
we in this state of emergency
and its called our 21st Century Life
and the only antedote to all this strife is radical redistribution of of your love
of your time

Todays Podcast from a poverty skola is dedicated to all my fellow poverty skolaz who were barely housed before the fires in Califaztlan and are now struggling to even stay in a tent -to  unhoused folks across the bay now facing the dangerous exposure of particulates - and who don’t have what i call the privilege of privacy or coverage- specifically, the people who lost homes and lives were gentrification refugees - already pushed out of urban areas- already marginally hosted, already holding on by a thread- it is why we at POOR magazine work so hard on deGentriFUkaiton efforts - helping people to stay where they are- in their towns and cities of origin- cuz onece we evicted we don’t disappear we move into poor people suburbs or ex-urbs as they have been called further and further away from services -

So we in this time- its very simple - the time for radical redistribution of resources- there are direct things people can do - as reported by friend and co,made 

Examples of racial redistribution range from- buying masks, water, making healing tea and distributing to unhoused folks on the street - and unhoused folks in the towns and cities impacted by these fires-or supporting projects like Mask Oakland- which are giving masks out-  all the way up to buying land for folks so they can launch their own hopefulness projects - giving your excess cars, boats, RV’s that actually work away so folks can live in them- and/or your trust funds or extra resources away to folks who need it  — its is why we have created the Bnk of Community Reparations- with Po Mamaz reparations fund- to give directly to poor families - cars, money - land - housing- and the Tech reparations fund to folks who are victims of displacement and gentrification

Different forms of redistribution for different folks- elders in Chico and Woolsey and Paradise - might need rides to the hospital - help getting medicine and teas and support of whatever they need -opening your homes - extra homes or rooms to families- your backyards to stable places to house folks- sharing your time  thats your time and your bodies if you can-

We are in this time- Mama Earth is struggling- Fires are burning and there is no more time for hoarding- radical unhoarding is necessary- ungentriFUKing - un-evicting- un-buying - to move in every way you haven’t been taught in this kkkrapitalist culture- this is whats necessary now -

To learn more about the Bank of Community Reparations Fund which includes the Po mamas reparations Fund-The tech reparations fund-Homefulness Fund and so much more-  email poormag@gmail.com - to help u learn and enact radical redisibution come to the next session of Peopleskool which will be held Jan 25th & 26th-

And to Conscious Redisibutors, Reparators reading this who are already doing this- so much gratitude, love and respect !!

Amir

Ziair

On July the 9th 2018 we went to SF (San Francisco) where we participated in a demonstration in front of Salesforce.

We interviewed several protesters who also worked there, “What was this demonstration about and who is the organizer “, asked Tibu. 

Sasha

Tibu

Solomon

Kimo

Emilio

Mordechai

I sat there breathing her air, the stench of her nose quivered my soul and I smell rancid onions. Funky ass armpits or is that my upper lip … I have been eating garlic and cutting up onions all night long maybe it’s in my pores, but I can’t help but think this stench is coming from her and all her evilness, leaking out of her pores. Silly simpleton bitch. I could just slay you ova and ova and ova again. The audacity to show up, oh you stunting, oh I aught to give you a hella-phied word thrashing you womb is cursed a life for a life ashes to ashes dust to dust… you tainted you let the enemy in … your dad told you that you and yo sista were not permitted, forbidden to be involved with (the boys) one particular family. If only my gramotha Audrey was still alive .. there is no way the sink going out with the baby in it … karma is a bitch and unpredictable. And yet you sit next to me she’s sitting next to me and I have the power I’m releasing venom I am her kryptonite never before have I used my powers for evil I dare not now yet so close she had garlic and onions too.

 

I can smell your sin … you pupils hide in the shadows of the dilation what good did dwell there is now gone over taken. I bare gifts .. and I’m orchestrating restraint … restraint from releasing native vibes only intentionally who would have known. The same brew would be reintroduced through the Seed Tainted Soil Rotten Fruit. I can’t give in I won’t give in or forfeit my power. Nope not never god’s come, and light will shine. So for now I’m sitting here breathing up the same air in silence ass cheeks burning I am reminded not like how ass cheeks burn in hell fight off the bone. Until next time, I refrain.

Below are the "I" stories created by Unhoused residents of Berkeley who live in RV's and Vans on the occupied streets of Berkeley ( aka Huchuin Lisjan/Ohlone Land) in POOR Magazine's Street-Writing Workshop held weekly on the corners of 8th & Harrison streets. This powerful community who calls themselves Berkeley Friends On Wheels of unhoused residents have dealt with harassment, politricksters and ongoing criminalization for doing nothing but living humbly and cleanly in their RV's. They are not giving up and are currently working with POOR Magazine to write their Homefulness Creation Story. If you are someone with land or resources to redistribute to these powerful poverty skolaz so they can build their own Homefulness project please email poormag@gmail.com

(Stay tuned for Unhoused Oakland RV dwellers Poverty Scholarship coming soon!)

 

Amber

The police stole us from our home.

Years later, little to nothing has changed.

Nobody who is landless has a right to exist anywhere these days. There might as well be signs all over Berkeley saying: "Poor People: Go Elsewhere!"

Whatever I do, wherever I go, (eventually) some officer or some official comes along and does whatever it takes to uproot my existence.

 

I am a mother. It may not be obvious to the outside observer. But, it is true.

When the police stole my son, it sent me into an emotional tailspin.

In my broken-down state, I began to see the bigger picture and the deeper meaning of life.

I gave of myself without awareness of my own needs or of the nature of those to whom I gave.

Then, I found peace and healing on the Albany Bulb. There, I grew healthier and wiser and stronger. But, just as the Art around us was ephemeral, so was our Home on the Bulb.

The police stole us from our home.

But, they could not steal our sense of Home.

Now, life on wheels, wrenching, thriving, caring, driving: Home. Helping those whom I know are worthy. I won't help you if your get-down involves harming others. I don't need that shitty Karma.

I mother others: canine and human, young and old, some have money, most do not.

Water seeks its own level.

I will not drown.

I help others float.

We help each other to rise up.

It is VITAL that we stay positive!

I know no other way, I got it from my Momma.

Like mother, like daughter.

It can be hard to keep your head up when it seems as though the majority of those in charge are actively working to keep you down.

So, we band together and stand together.

One thing that they can never steal is our bond and our sense of community.

Kim

It was like I was never there.

This is just one story of many, that started my path to landlessness, no place to be. The company I had worked for-- the company I gave 10 years of my life to, the company I totally loved, the company I thought I would retire from-- let me go, just like that. At first I was in disbelief. I told the HR manager wtf, you’re not funny, and to stop messing with me. When I looked up and saw all of the serious faces of the people who just moments before I called friends, turned on me without blinking an eye. Once it finally set in and I realized what was happening, I started sobbing like a baby, asking why, what did I do? What have I done to be without a job, insecure about myself and without a safe home, and vulnerable?

Becoming a part of Berkeley Friends on Wheels has made me sleep a lot better, knowing someone’s watching.

They kept saying it just didn’t work out. Bullshit. I know for a fact someone was behind this travesty. Five months earlier we closed a smaller office and got rid of everyone except the office manager. The word was she wasn’t happy about the change, and it showed. I won’t go through all the petty things I was getting written up for. I even got put on probation. After almost 10 years of over the top excellent reviews, raises, and promotions, I was put on probation. Got through that with flying colors. 90 days of this person giving me crappy mindless jobs or giving me nothing to do at all. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I just can’t seem to move on. I try not to let it get to me but something comes over me almost like a death in the family, a sick but sad feeling.

To make a long story short, I got escorted to my desk to gather my 10 years worth of stuff, feeling so, so embarrassed. Packing my desk up, all my peers and co-workers passing by, also in disbelief, wondering what happened. Finally, I couldn’t take it. I grabbed the most important stuff and cried my ass right out of there.

They had a car and driver waiting outside to drive me to my car that I park at BART, El Cerrito, and commute to SF. I guess that was considerate of them. To my knowledge, no one else has gotten a car and driver when they were let go. Another odd thing, when I talked to a few of my coworkers two or three days later, I asked what was the office buzz going around. They all said nothing, not a single word from anybody. Usually the emails are crazy with gossip or speculation of what may have happened. In my case, nothing. It was like I was never there.

To make things worse, when I received my unemployment package, I went directly to the reason for termination page and saw the words “mis-matched set of skills.” Wtf does that mean? Filing for unemployment was a nightmare, and job interviews even worse. Try to explain a mis-matched set of skills after 10 years of employment there. I would recommend they call and ask what it means, because I honestly have no idea. I did know one thing, I was screwed big time. Little did I know this was the first step to having nowhere to be and being without what I’ve had my whole life.

I am now in the city of Berkeley, the place I now call my home, with people I love the most. My husband Patrick and my two dogs. Hoping for a safe place to go for everyone.

 

Pamela

The scariest time in my life was a year and a half ago when out of the blue I became homeless, I have my three dogs and two cats and my pickup, never felt so alone and scared before in my life. I ended up going to the Berkeley Marina where I found so many others in the same situation. Unfortunately, I lost both of my cats within a year, but thankfully I was accepted by everyone at the marina and I feel I have found a purpose in life again despite the pain I carry in my heart! I would be lost without the BMF.W. Love you all.

/span/p pspan style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"/span/p pspan style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"More to come soon!/span/p

As a kid, I found difficulty finding logic in why people committed brutal acts of violence and the motivation behind the crimes. From ordinary citizens to law enforcement the “jones” for violence and death has become the frightening norm for today’s way of life in our “sodom and gomorrah” -like country. Community conflict, gentrifukation, police brutality, racism, school violence and gender oppression all contribute to humanity’s abuse to sum it all together. And a lot of the masses would rather entertain their brains in order to turn a blind eye to the declining consciousness and morality of people.

 

You can’t even help someone get on a train without having to use caution because of the lie of diagnosis that can be “wrist slapping” for an individual who just don’t want to take the ribbon of being a messed up person that’s unable to heal and focus properly as a positive contributor to society.  Everything has to be diagnosed with some ailment and of course if someone is sick in any way they are entitled to the very best of care but there are those who choose to take the cowardly way out. And those who seek to write their histories in blood for social media fame needs a mirror of reality cuz like Mama used to say: “You know what you be doing”

 

Violence against women, children and elders has been escalating with elders becoming more subjected to violence because of the coward’s “easy mark” way of thinking. The elderly victims have not been surviving some of the attacks they endured as a simple fall or head injury could be deadly. One 80 year-old elder from the bay area died after she was beaten in a home invasion. Another elder was also attacked and after striking his head on the ground, he also died.

 

Women and children are vulnerable to trafficking and sexploitation for profit, family separations and neglect. Abuse also rears its head in the form of the systematic spirit-breaking of an individual in a way so cruel that would make a person who’s hurting hurt others without any more regards to life. Young girls are not safe at all because the value of females is being portrayed in a negative light while the parents are being criminalized for liberating a child from the hands of a gorilla-pimp!

 

Television (tellin lies on our vision) and video games has always had some level of violent content to it, but today’s message especially to our youth is that anything goes, defy your village, go shoot people and make music about it and you will have your 5 minutes of instagram fame- if the police don’t shoot you! Let’s not forget the loud mouthed extra-tweeting prez that did not hesitate to make it know that Amerikkka has always been ready to get “down and dirty” with anyone who don’t want to be down with the program of destruction. There is violence for control, especially political and there are those willing to fight violently for peace but does violence beget peace? My point is, there is so much violence all around and in EVERY aspect.

 

As a survivor of atrocities I was grateful for POOR Magazine’s heal group, there I was able to be honest with myself and identify the heartbreak and what other crimes that have been committed against me, systematically or not. When hurt people have the correct outlets and support then it makes it less complicated to plug in and tap into that healing honestly and without judgement so I tapped into my writing.

 

I have met a few folks in my life who lived in a perfect bubble without having experienced death of a parent, grandparent, sibling, never went through poverty and violence, not even so much as one friend or family member falling to a gun crime and kudos to them, but I couldn’t help but think about what that kind of world would that be, here in “Amerikkka”.

 

Queennandi X PNN KEXU

Today is unlike many other days. I feel like today will be a different kind of day. I don’t know why I feel like this, the only way to truly know would be to get through the start of the day … I will come back to this.

 

One hour later I still feel the same. Something is about to happen in my Day’s Day, what I do not know. I am not anticipating anything although I feel something coming on. I have had a similar feeling before, not lately, but today is the day, why today for such a strange feeling … should I be on guard of guard….?

 

Anxiety is arising and my temperature is declining my hands are cold and numb by heart is not racing. No it’s in fact slowing down. Am I dying is this a level of the living walking dead? Dial me back in phase two, no three let’s restart the day I will be back.

 

The unknown feeling like the glass is half way full versus empty. Something wonderful is awaiting I just have to be the willing party to receive my blessings. I have restarted my day a few times all behind a feeling that I can’t shake. It’s an interesting one. I have attempted to write this as far as I am able to get and so I think it is important to document actual real time writing not caring about any particular method, idea, or traditional ways of writing through self expression on paper. Again in real time, I write at least in this moment in this eason. I now am able to focus a little bit my handwriting is a little more relaxed, neat, perhaps legible to read, The feeling is gone, yup just like that. Sometimes this is exactly what I need (just simply start writing, grab a pen and just write, to whatever flow until satisfied). I want to talk about the problems that I have encountered and are affecting me in the inside of my heart. Lately I have been having chest pains on my left side. I have been sleep deprived and betrayed on multiple levels of the game. This shit is twisted all up and I can’t shake this feeling what’s really up … well I’ve written all of my anxiety, but this feeling is still here … let’s try this again … To the 15th cheers to starting my day over again.

p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Shawna Hawk is a Black Power movement builder, a Mother, a Healer and a catalyst for social change. She is creating radical intersectional community in Olympia by transforming a space that has long been a stronghold of white cis male activism - Media Island International - into a space for Women of Color to do healing, activism, art and movement building, and to lift each other up with fierceness and love./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Olympia, which is both the state capitol and a college town, is a small city of approximately 50,000 people, with over 80% of the population identifying as white. Like any white-dominated city, no matter how ldquo;liberalrdquo; or ldquo;progressiverdquo; it thinks it is, Olympia is full of unchecked racism. Media Island International (mediaisland.org), founded in 1984, is a house and organization in downtown Olympia that hosts a meeting space, radio station, and library/archives. Their website says that Media Island is ldquo;a resource and networking center for culturally diverse people of all ages, groups and movements working for social, racial, economic, and ecological justice, sustainability and peacerdquo; (the term ldquo;racialrdquo; in that statement was only recently added by Shawna). However, despite their intention of being inclusive, their board and other long-term leadership have been almost exclusively middle-aged white straight cis-men, which has kept the energy in the building and their reputation in the community somewhat stagnant. Shawna Hawk is changing all that./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"img height="468" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nRE3x8whJUH0k1seLaZ3zrvHiA_OErenylmNAfKnQcbGHqbjBNsQubuPdIPklGCbTnV3HxL0S1TT3OOplSHbAI2aAvTVfHT0qESj0bZ_BmS8mg3ssyDYGWI-1aT8T6Mr5cK4QFEs" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" //span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"[image description: nbsp;Shawna Hawk smiling and standing in the sun outside a freshly painted house of blueish-green with brown trim. nbsp;Signs on the big house say Media Island, Black Lives Matter and KOWA 106.5 fm]/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Shawna is a Black Woman who experienced Poverty and spent time in the foster system, and who raised three kids as a single working Mother. When her twin daughters came to Olympia to look into The Evergreen State Collegersquo;s film program, Shawna followed. She had already met all of her academic goals, but she decided to get another Bachelorrsquo;s degree, post-Masters Degree, on top of two AAs and a couple other BAs, as what Shawna calls a re-fresh, a ldquo;trajectory change.rdquo; She had always been goal-driven by academics in an effort to fuel her career, but had become disillusioned./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;When I saw that my Masters Degree didnrsquo;t get me beyond any of the white women that were hoarding all the power and the jobs, with lesser degrees and experience, thatrsquo;s when my bubble got burst,rdquo; Shawna says. ldquo;You know, you jump through all the hoops and you see that the privilege is what wins. Not your paper. I had to just be happy with myself and be happy that, lsquo;Damn, I did that! I raised three kids. I did my job.rsquo; I look back now and Irsquo;m like lsquo;how the hell did I do that?!rsquo;rdquo;/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"At Evergreen, Shawna pursued the things that called to her heart and her sense of Justice. She hosted the show Vibrational Rising at KAOS, the community radio station on campus, and was bringing groundbreaking Black artists and academics to speak and perform. At one point, about five years ago, she accompanied a guest hip hop artist to the house where he was staying, which turned out to be Media Island. She went inside and looked around. She saw that Media Island had a radio station and a social justice library. She saw that the space didnrsquo;t look very cared for, but the books looked diverse. She saw a poster with young Black girls on it. She became interested./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"img height="468" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xoNd6HpXg8n1NrH5cadFj13L8BBMWKtqyjYzxwD9uGmuM1s6F0fYpu3cysQGFyhkckGRlsaBq5RwVgJHAHxS4Xc9QdQJVA_LCHqjbzPeQniixZR_Rofm_C1pN0Mrc5Ig5LpzN5bV" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" //span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"[image description: nbsp;smiling Shawna Hawk at the back of Media Island, in front of a mural in progress by Marin Kelp. The mural features the Divine Feminine, Goddesses of African descent.]/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Not long after this introduction, Shawna was voted in as the KOWA 106.5 FM Station Manager at Media Island. Later, she was voted on to the Board of Directors, where she was the only Woman, the only Person of Color, and the only Black person. Her leadership and involvement at Media Island have blossomed over the past four years, creating the Women of Color in Leadership Movement, hosting monthly POC-only healing spaces, brunches and retreats, offering Menrsquo;s Healing Space for addressing toxic masculinity and continuing her radio show Vibrational Rising as Lady Hawk. Shawnarsquo;s work and leadership, and even her impact on the physical space of the building, is obvious. She is bringing the organization alive. But this feels threatening to white men who cling to their positions of power and stronghold over the organization. Media Island is in a unique position to actually DO what its mission has been saying for all these years. There is an opportunity to literally dismantle patriarchy and white supremacy in this one microcosm, and to femmifest, rather than manifest, the hand-me-down privilege fest. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;The house that is Media Island International was donated by one white man of privilege to another white man of privilege. So that white man got a chance to bring on his team, to do his own thing. No one was dictating to him how he had to do that. He made that decision on his own,rdquo; says Shawna Hawk. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Shawna says that white people often bring an energy thatrsquo;s like ldquo;Mine!rdquo; especially as Shawna becomes more established and transforms the space at Media Island. They see what shersquo;s done, and they want it. White men tend to hide behind self-righteousness, while white Women refuse to take direction from a Black Woman, revealing hatred and jealousy with historic roots. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;Me as an African American Woman, our people were being snatched from our homes in Africa, and brought here. Too often times being evicted from places, whether it be violently or sneakily through foreclosures or paperwork. Having our homes stolen, burnt, torched. Being a part of Media Island, and having it be in a house, where a dominant white male owns a piece of propertyhellip;rdquo; Shawna explains. ldquo;Often you hear stories about all-Black towns being destroyed by neighboring white communities who were jealous of what had been built. Not because they had so much, but because they worked so hard for it! So you have Black communities with people who know how to build houses because they had to build all the houses when they were in slavery. Then you (whites) get all mad because they (Blacks) had the skills to build their own house, a better house than yrsquo;alls, cuz yrsquo;all didnrsquo;t know how to do it.rdquo; /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"img height="468" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iopUnjnx0JK-zNmmyoi0KRtxoOVUDN6r_VqsPrACQrFekSqx2WGAbDBOsQdfm5DC19kqt6oQeUrzdi8obdrW5wfRMSe6QPdoObiK6dwCjgC2g9Y3k_sSntigO0YZaDlNpgE6MsX_" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" //span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"[image description: nbsp;Shawna is out front of Media Island working in the raised food and herb garden beds, she is wearing yellow work gloves.]/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"White people of Olympia can support Shawna, and the work of Women of Color, by being consistent, by showing up when they say theyrsquo;re going to, and by following through. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;We need the constant support of the majority class,rdquo; says Shawna, ldquo;and for people to put their walk and their action where their talk is. It seems like therersquo;s some eye-opening thing happening where white folks are realizing that /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"yes, racism exists/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;" in Olympia. Cuz for many, the focus was on the environment. You canrsquo;t do Environmental Justice without doing Racial Justice! I know not to take beautiful clear skies and crisp drinking water and think that I can be unaware... Irsquo;m on my guard no matter where I am. People are gonna be people no matter where you go.rdquo;/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"The fact that white people in Olympia and the United States are finally getting the message that RACISM EXISTS is something that Shawna finds hopeful. Shawna sees and feels a sense of urgency for white people to go deep with The Work, to drop that inherent sense of entitlement, and turn over power, unhoard the resources. She loves it when volunteers make themselves available to do projects, like working on the garden, painting, being a part of the change. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"img height="1107" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/S0jyKpiIZm7X_O_D1oSOoi5aHPnnk8NCzA90dFpPcMvKhu8dDOWD_K4isbS374-aB-MogNJetd7TUzKd_wHttcOKE_rfzsfq_XTkoGY8-FQYyUs6AGgWOgoh8UKO-6GYKrKFhm_z" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" //spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"[image description: nbsp;Shawna is up on a ladder painting the exterior of the house that is Media Island.]/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;Each time a person walks in and says lsquo;I like the feel of it in here, oh my god yoursquo;ve done such a good jobrsquo; - that feeds me! Wersquo;re repainting it right now and that feeds me, I donrsquo;t even have words for it right now. I get excited about things around the house, and I talk to the current founder whorsquo;s shared that hersquo;s on his way out, and hersquo;s like lsquo;I really donrsquo;t care.rsquo; I guess I must care too much because Irsquo;m working here as many hours as I can, you know?rdquo; /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"History keeps repeating itself, and the men who are sad to lose their clubhouse are lashing out at Shawna and her leadership. However, there is an opportunity to interrupt that cycle at Media Island in Olympia, WA. This can serve as an example of Reparations, of transformative racial justice, at this one house, with this one organization and this one Black Woman. The white men at Media Island are not ldquo;letting Shawnardquo; do this work, she IS doing it. Shawna is in Leadership and Media Island is moving out of the old regime to make way for new energy, for that of Divine Feminine, as a Trans-inclusive Women and Community space where especially Women of Color and survivors feel safe, and the divine masculine is held in balance with its counterparts. This is part of a bigger transition that the world is going through, and the pushback is growing pains. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"To fuel her passion, Shawna stays grounded in the African spiritual practices of Ifa, the study of nature, meditation, dance, music, song, drumming and especially Ancestor worship and engagement with her Spirit Guides. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;African Americans who came over with the slave trade, we had to keep our practices hidden, we had everything stripped away. So we had to be really creative with our spiritual practice and rituals,rdquo; Shawna explains. ldquo;Wherever I go they go with me, wherever I go I look for my Ancestors and Spirit Guides in the trees, in the energy of the space.rdquo; nbsp;/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"________________________________________/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-4847392b-7fff-4cd5-1e23-79fcd4b424ef"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Lisa Ganser is a white, Disabled, genderqueer artist and activist living in Olympia, WA on stolen Squaxin, Chehalis and Nisqually land. nbsp;They are a sidewalk chalker, a copwatcher, a Poverty Scholar and the Daughter of a Momma named Sam./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" /pp nbsp;/p

 

“Bart needs to step it up!”- Mother of Nia Wilson

 

At a candlelight vigil at MacArthur BART held for 18 year old Nia, she was remembered as a beautiful, kind soul who had a passion for music and helping people.

 

In less than a week local news have reported 3 fatalities from attacks on BART passengers with the recent victim being 18 year old Nia Wilson who along with her sister Lahtifa was stabbed in an unprovoked incident at MacArthur station this past weekend by John Lee Cowell who managed to change clothes and flee the scene before police arrived. Whether or not it was a hate crime? In my PO opinion yes and when did racially motivated murders actually STOP for Black people here in this country? We have been purged for centuries under wite (non) supremacy rule even to this very day.

 

The security for BART passengers has come up short and the bandage of fake cameras puts people at risk, stalls investigators in an event that something happens and does nothing to deter crime in any way. Earlier in the year 10 youth boarded a train and robbed a female passenger of her phone and in April as many as 40 youth roughed up and robbed passengers on a BART train- only two suspects were arrested at the time.

 

The two other BART fatalities was that of a 47 year-old man injured at Bayfair BART station. Don Stevens was punched in the head and was declared brain dead due to the blow.

 

51 year-old Gerald Bisbee was assaulted at Pleasant Hill station and died due to an infection from a cut he sustained in the attack.

 

The last time I checked the BART police were in full effect for the incident that costed Oscar Grant his life but BART police have been dragging their feet when it comes down to the security of the passengers. If a person’s safety or life’s in danger do you really put them on hold? What  person doesn’t mind being on hold while their blood is being spilled? If BART has the money to pay employees an abundance of overtime then BART can spread that revenue to invest in the safety of its passengers because it is direly needed. How many people have to get hurt, robbed or killed at a BART station before someone gets a clue!? You raise the fares, be fair and put the people’s money to use and protect public transportation passengers!

 

I have reduced my BART usage by at least 50% because it is not 100% safe at all. I have been accosted as a BART passenger and though I am aware that we are running out of safe places everywhere we go. How do we maintain safety without police? I have seen people from the community protect the community effectively when the police couldn’t or wouldn’t and BART the folks are calling you out: More efficient protection and now!

 

Queennandi Xsheba, PNN KEXU