Tiburcio Garcia

Lisa Garcia

Revolutionary Journalism

29 June 2021

Deecolonized Un-Tour: Kolorado Sweeps

“Things are a lot different on the streets since I’ve been out there,” said Benjamin, looking around at everyone in the circle. On this day, after doing our Revolutionary Journalist Workshop where we give a stipend to houseless people for writing their stories, we met with Therese and Benjamin from Denver Homeless Outloud, and interviewed them about the situation with houselessness and sweeps that were going on out here. Listening to him, I realized that our situation out in the Bay Area isn’t so different from theirs. In the Bay Area, we at Poor Magazine protest and fight against constant sweeps that happen in San Francisco and Oakland. These sweeps are unrelenting, happening so often that most of the time houseless folks being sweeps don’t even have a day's break before they are forcibly moved to another area.

Denver Homeless Outloud is currently pursuing a lawsuit that they opened six years ago in an act to prevent the constant sweeps that happen out here. It seems houseless people are treated similarly no matter what part of colonized Turtle Island we are on. The lawsuit began after Denver Homeless Outloud built Tiny Houses on private property that was abandoned for ten years, with a response from the mayor that was a bit overzealous. Seventy police officers showed up to stop the construction of the Tiny Houses, along with a SWAT team, and thus began a redoubled effort by the mayor to sweep the Denver Houseless population. 

“So we filed the lawsuit, and rather than being about people’s right to exist in space the way the lawsuit is set up is about people’s property. Apparently your property has more rights than you do,” (insert name) said, sighing and looking down. After three years, the lawsuit was settled out of court, with the settlement being signed by the Denver houseless community and the City of Denver, which the City of Denver promptly broke. The settlement included warning from the city about when and where they were going to seize property to try to give the houseless community some warning before a sweep, yet the city went ahead and continued to sweep without warning regardless.

“There was a very high level of camping ban enforcement from 2016 to around 2019, when our lawsuit settlement went in place” said Therese, member of Denver Homeless Outloud, and a formerly houseless mother. She continued by talking about the things that have happened in the last couple of years to prevent houseless people from being on the streets. Public Rideaway Strips, the line of dirt or grass that goes between the sidewalk and the street are places that houseless people set up their tents because rideaway strips are not private property. After being swept and kicked out of every other place in Denver, the only place houseless people can camp are the public rideaway strips, and the city had put up orange and green fences on the strips to prevent that from happening.

Just like in the Bay Area, it is clear Denver puts in no effort to assist getting people off of the streets, and instead puts all their effort into making life even worse for houseless people, treating them like animals that need to be herded. It sickens me because this is the norm. Houseless and poor people have always been seen as less than human, because most houseless and poor people are people of color who have been oppressed by a system that is designed to keep them down.

Tiburcio Garcia

Lisa Garcia

Revolutionary Journalism

28 July 2021

Deecolonized Un-Tour: Chief Plentiwolf

“Spirituality, ceremony is our core, our center,” said Chief Plentywolf, an indigenous elder who just finished the annual Sundance ceremony, which is a ceremony where native people gather for prayer and sacrifice of sweat and pain. We came days after to talk to Chief Plentywolf at the invitation of Cynthia, one of our solidarity family. The solidarity family are people with race and class privilege who we teach why they need to give reparations. After a hearty lunch with Chief Plentywolf, Cynthia, her husband Tom and all of us multi-generational, multi-racial poverty skolas who came on this tour, we went out to the site of the Sundance Ceremony.  

     It felt as if the land was welcoming us. One, solitary tree stood in the middle of a grassy field, covered with flags from many indigenous nations. We were told not to take pictures of that tree, and I had no objections. There was little to no wind, and the sun beat down on us, but we were surrounded with trees that wove together like a basket, the leaves from each individual tree coming together to form one continuous growth. We walked over to a small clearing next to a dirt road that slopes up and curves around a bend. In that meadow stood a Teepee, the fabric stretched taut over the supporting posts.  

“We pray every time we do something, or every time we prepare and even meetings and talks like this,” Chief Plentywolf continued, his eyes focusing on each one of us at a time, making me feel as if he was looking through me, looking at everything I could ever be. He talked about the difference between a massacre and a battle, saying that when the white settlers slaughtered women, children and elder indigenous people it went down in history as a battle, yet only when the indigenous people fought back and killed many white men was it called a massacre, and when that happened, the government was able to justify in the history books the genocide that they continued to do, with or without the native people fighting back.

    Chief Plentywolf ended it by talking about Sundance, and how the youth was actually coming back, and how he was excited for the future of Sundance and prayer as a whole. He talked about a16 year old who was the strongest young warrior he had ever seen, and thanked us for being youth and continuing to work and pray with our elders. We thanked Cynthia once more, and before leaving we visited the sweat lodge that is used in the Sundance Ceremony. I came away from the sacred place having learned so much in a short span of time. I would love to join the Sundance Ceremony sometime in the future, and I'm looking forward to being able to speak with Chief Plentiwolf again, to learn a small part of the vast amount of knowledge he has.

About Victor Ochoa

By Ziair Hughes

Victor Ochoa is a proud Raza man and revolutionary artist/muralist. As a youth, Victor migrated from Tijuana to the U.S. Victor's mom was scared of deportation so she made sure Victor spoke English and not Spanish but that wasn't enough. In an interview, Victor described how some guys with big coats and gangster hats came to his door and told his parents they had only a couple days to leave the U.S. So after that, they went to Tijuana but Victor stayed with his grandmother while away from his parents. 

Victor was constantly on the move. He had moved in with his aunt so he could be closer to his parents but he had to work. So, he got a job at a silk screen shop “This is when i started to get into civil rights,” said Victor. 

This is when his form was shaped. He was becoming the great Ochoa. Victor was always supposed to be an artist, “I started early. I was doing (drawing) hats and fingers while other kids were doing stick figures,” said Victor. 

Victor Ochoa is also the soul of Chicano Park. He has a nice amount of murals in Chicano Park. Currently, Victor is working on a Chicano museum. 

Fortunately I got the chance to interview Mr. Ochoa with my school, Deecolonize Academy. He gave us a lot of knowledge on art and community.

Victor is also the founder of Centro Cultural De La Raza in Balboa Park. He also was one of the artists who did the mural for Balboa Park in 2015.

In conclusion, one thing I learned from Mr Ochoa is that art is different. It may not be drawing, but for me it's basketball. His art was destined and I feel like my art is too. 

The Story of the Tulsa Race Massacre 

By Ziair Hughes

Underwater Black Island in the U.S. is the story of the Tulsa massacre where a white mob burnt down a Black community to the ground. Other Black towns have been dismantled off the American map but not by burning them but rather, by keeping it a secret. Lake Lanier is a lake in Forsyth County, Georgia where people do ordinary things. Prior to that, there was a place called Oscarville, Georgia.

Oscarville was a strong mostly Black community with a school, homes, and a church until 1911. Then, two bad events went down. First, two Black teenagers were convicted and sentenced to death in one day. Then, a mob of KKK members terrorized and killed all the Black people in the surrounding area.

“People are getting more familiar with the Tulsa race massacre and Black Underwater but it needs to get more known so we can get the justice we deserve and earned for a long time,” said the news reporter. 

In conclusion: Black excellence is hated against and destroyed because of pride. The ones who start the movement get robbed from the movement when they are as smart as the white man is. He is not smart enough to come together and build an empire with us Black and Brown folks so we can create more money, wealth, and all kinds of fortune. 

 “We started it all and can never get any credit,” said the news reporter. 

Deecolonized Un-Tour: Chief Plentywolf

By Tiburcio Garcia

“Spirituality, ceremony is our core, our center,” said Chief Plentywolf, an Indigenous elder who just finished the annual Sundance ceremony. This is a ceremony where Native people gather for prayer and sacrifice of sweat and pain. We came days after to talk to Chief Plentywolf at the invitation of Cynthia, one of our solidarity family members. The solidarity family are people with race and class privilege who we teach why they need to give reparations. After a hearty lunch with Chief Plentywolf, Cynthia, her husband, Tom, and all of us multi-generational, multi-racial poverty skolas who came on this tour went out to the site of the Sundance Ceremony.

     It felt as if the land was welcoming us. One solitary tree stood in the middle of a grassy field covered with flags from many Indigenous nations. We were told not to take pictures of that tree and I had no objections. There was little to no wind and the sun beat down on us. But we were surrounded with trees that wove together like a basket, the leaves from each individual tree coming together to form one continuous growth. We walked over to a small clearing next to a dirt road that slopes up and curves around a bend. In that meadow stood a Teepee, the fabric stretched taut over the supporting posts.  

“We pray every time we do something, or every time we prepare and even meetings and talks like this,” Chief Plentywolf continued, his eyes focusing on each one of us at a time making me feel as if he was looking through me, looking at everything I could ever be. He talked about the difference between a massacre and a battle, saying that when the white settlers slaughtered women, children, and elder Indigenous people it went down in history as a battle. Yet, only when the Indigenous people fought back and killed many white men was it called a massacre. And when that happened, the government was able to justify in the history books the genocide that they continue to do, with or without the native people fighting back.

    Chief Plentywolf ended it by talking about Sundance, and how the youth were actually coming bac, and how he was excited for the future of Sundance and prayer as a whole. He talked about a 16 year old who was the strongest young warrior he had ever seen, and thanked us for being youth and continuing to work and pray with our elders. We thanked Cynthia once more. Before leaving, we visited the sweat lodge that is used in the Sundance Ceremony. I came away from the sacred place having learned so much in a short span of time. I would love to join the Sundance Ceremony sometime in the future. I'm looking forward to being able to speak with Chief Plentiwolf again, to learn a small part of the vast amount of knowledge he has.    

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

By Matsu Momii 

A beautiful day in the neighborhood. Radical redistribution of wealth. Thursday, July 29th, POOR unTOUR CONTINUES in Ute, Cherokee, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Native lands.  Sharing prayers and dansa with ceremony to Mother Earth. New Raven, the Owl, and Eagle honor the spirits of our ancestors, our families, the children lost to boarding schools across Klanada and Amerikkka, lost in detention centers, sold across the world, permanently disconnected, and tortured by colonizers. Local brothers and sisters joined the UNtour that went through everything from wealthy residential neighborhoods visiting an Assisted Living Apartment building ($7000 a month) to a real estate salesman in a mall who called SECURRRIIIITY!!! to folks who were way cool and supportive. Hearing the drums at Cherry Creek, local resident Rebecca was feeling low, but swelled with emotion.  She joined the tour, walking and talking with us and even bought a case of water for everyone on this 95 degree day.

Youth Poverty Skolaz paid tribute at Cherry Creek in Confluence Park, so called Colorado. Tibu and Amir remembered the children of tribes from Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne who played in this river. Children were stolen from this river and forced into boarding schools where thousands were killed and have been secretly buried. Dansa and prayers throughout the years, reaped discovery of their little loved ones, unearthing the centuries of murdered children.

The drums of Poor Magazine Prensa Pobre Danza Azteca called local residents of Denver to the ceremony for Stolen Indigenous Lands UnTour. Underneath the miles of concrete and high end housing is sacred and spiritual earth and waterways once inhabited by tribes of Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne. Practicing respect and trade, the area of Cherry Creek is still a place of sacred interaction, crossing all lives.

It was so hot, dry and farmland forever. How could anyone be forced to live here? The Amache Japanese Concentration Camp made me think of mom and dad, family at Tule Lake. It makes me cry returning to places of pain.

From the Start of the Trip

By Israel Westyn

From the start of the trip, it’s the second time going with Poor Magazine. And it's a good experience because I get to learn about the liberation of the people and myself.

And I am still learning how to be decolonized myself, because I am still colonized. In some ways, this is a process. This way, with Poor Magazine, you can learn about the truth, about people killed and abused. To this they call America. In reality it's the USA and they try so hard to hide it, to colonize the way they want it. I learn a lot more about different countries, like Japan, Philippines, the First Nations, Chief Plenty Wolf, and Lynn Eagle Feather. We’re still dealing with the colonized thing, and the police don’t want to admit it. That’s the reason we are still fighting it. To show the truth from the ancestors and the schools that don’t teach the real histories.

So that is the reason we continue to do these tours, in order to let our youth poverty skolaz continue to fight and be decolonized from the system. And stop selling Mother Earth.

Interview with Izzy Muñoz

By Matsu Momii

My name is Israel, formerly houseless in one of the many cities of the USA. I am a part of Homefulnness, which is a solution to homelessnes. We are going on a tour looking for different ways we can help Mother Earth and find out how we can get solutions for houseless people in different states. Laws in some states are more racist and that creates lots of houselessness.  

Salt Lake City is weird because I don’t see a lot of people. I come from the big city, Mexico City, with a lot of people. Then to come here, where I don’t see any people that are houseless.

Denver, I lived here before. When I was here, I was a bartender. Now there are a lot of people. It used to be a small city with a very tiny downtown, but it has grown bigger, expanded. You used to be able to walk from one side to another side of town easily. Now you cannot do that.  

When people come to the USA, it is a big lie that you can make a lot of money. They never tell you how you can do it. They don’t tell you that you have to work from the rooster to the cricket.    It is a saying that you work from morning to night. They don’t tell you you have to pay for every single thing. They don’t tell you you have to live on top of each other. So as time passes, you come into agreements, you come to be separate from your family. You know, it‘s hard to live with a family because your brother and his wife need privacy. When you move out and you don’t have enough to pay rent or bills, you end up on the street. 

I was houseless in SF because I did not have enough money to pay rent and bills. When families from different countries come to the USA, a lot of people ask, “Why did you come to America?” I say, “I came to the USA.” The USA is a country not a continent. Lots of people ask me why did you come to America? I didn’t come to America. America is a continent. The President asks, “Why do people come to America? My response is that even the President, who goes to night school, does not know that.

When I was houseless in San Francisco, one of many USA cities, it was very hard to stay on the streets because the police and the DPW, city departments of public works and transportation, come and clean the streets. Then, they take your stuff. Also, you constantly have to sleep in the daytime because it is very dangerous at night time. Not only for the people, but also for the police. They constantly move you around and harass you. You have to move back and forth every single day. 

How did I get out of the situation? I found Homefulness through a referral I met on the street. Then I went to Homefulness and I took classes. They teach many classes on how the government does people wrong and you learn things that public school doesn’t teach you.  Homefulness works to help more houseless people. They teach rights because a lot of people don’t know their rights. They don’t have the time to study because they are working a lot and when they become houseless, they don’t know what to say to the police. They don’t know their rights and the police take advantage of that.

Reflections #3

Momii Palapaz

August 1, 2021

After riding hundreds of miles with 5 people in a packed car, I would do it again. It was most of all an experience of gratitude and awakening.  

I am impressed with the youth poverty skolaz, Amir and Tibu. These guys are tough and curious. They care and are fun.

As I get older, I don’t care when I get sad or mad and people are witnesses. This Amache experience, over the years, has taught me there is so much more to uncover. Many issues of Japanese Americans and our colonization are yet to be admitted.

The schedule and commitments every day kept us active and aware. Thank you Tiny, Muteado, Israel, Tibu and Amir. I am learning so much from you all, like looking at an issue from another angle, with deeper critical thinking. Thanks for accepting me into the POOR FAMILIA.

Poverty, Race, Disability, Youth, Elder Scholarship/Empathy Exercise

By Matsu Momii

Person #1: God is good all the time.

Person #2: My life on the streets has been hard.  I’ve been homeless now for almost 15 years.  The time has gone by so fast it seems.  But I’ve met a lot of awesome people that I love and call my family.

Person #3: Got caught stealing a vehicle and it changed my life.

Answer to question #2: To have brothers and (?) and everything I can do to...

Person #4: I was just released from prison.  I don’t know anyone out here in Denver.  I haven’t been able to even get my I.D. or a food card.  I got a case manager Monday but she was so bossy I couldn’t do my case management.  I have another case manager appointment this coming Wednesday.  I should be able to find housing, a food card and vouchers for my I.D. -Brent Johnson

Person #5:  Wake up and do the right thing for a (?).  

Person #6:  Being a man of God and putting people’s lives and family’s children before myself.  I thought it would be the way for all of us to become one family, all together in truth and understanding with everything this country was supposed to be.  Truth, liberty, respect, loyalty and understanding, love, and, with confidence that we all can stand equally with all no matter the differences. -Anthony Northeus, Ayers a.a.

Person #7:  In 2020 I stayed at Arkins down by the river and was there for about a year and we were stable.  Down there people were getting themselves together.  We were like a little community.  Then, they come to sweep.  Most people lost everything like their IDs, birth certificates, their homes, and priceless things that can’t be replaced.

Answer to question #2:  Well we need to come together and build tiny homes, some bigger than others.  Some for single people and some for families, including mom, dad, and child. We can make a garden to grow our own food with a school. We can have a play area. It will be like a little community.

Person #8:  I'm not quite sure what specific type of crisis I’m in or can just say general crisis.  So I left home (my husband and 3 daughters) to go to rehab for heroin.  While I was in 28 day residential treatment, I decided not to return home. I didn’t want to continue to expose my kids to all of what comes with my addiction (ex: being sick). But as a result, I eventually became homeless.  So being homeless and alone I was at a higher risk for trauma, right?  So I got into a guy’s car at Wam and he tricked me into getting into the back seat by saying we were going to pick someone up. He never did pick anyone up but he raped me repeatedly in alleys, in east Denver in alleys.  I thought I’d comply so I could escape with my life.

Answer to question #2:  I would probably --- report something somewhere or maybe ask someone to watch my kids. Or probably find a side hustle or try to participate in a survey or something?  Actually, now that I think about it, I have been in a similar situation and I sold things on ebay to suffice others.  I’m being rushed, so bye.

Person #9:  The day I received word of my mom dying and I was in prison. And -- allowed to go to the funeral.

Answer to question #2:  I would probably find the --- drug dealer and have him find me the drugs to sell only to pay for rent. -Jeromey Wood

Person #10:  I went to jail for possession of an illegal substance.  I hadn’t been in trouble for at least 10 years.  I did a 5 month stint for not completing probation before.  I went to jail.  I could skateboard and did everywhere.  I have a condition called degenerative hip dysplasia.  Well, when I got out of jail and got high as a kite I boarded back and forth from Aurora to Denver a few times.  When I came down I couldn’t skate any more.  Now I can barely walk and await total hip replacement. -Denver, CO

Person #11: My worst crisis experience was when I was a part of my first sweep.  It was when they shut down Lincoln Park on Colfax & Broadway. The night before, I was given some LSD.

Elder 

By Amir Cornish

I met this elder, Chief Plentiwolf, who told me that he and his tribe got this land for free from this man who had a sun dance ceremony.

This tree I saw was tall and had a lot of flags on it. We couldn’t take pictures of it because we were too scared. This tree was probably older than me. 

It was really spiritual looking at this tree. It was really different from the rest of the trees. This tree was in the middle of that land.

TOUR #1

Poverty, Race, Disability, Youth, Elder Scholarship/ Empathy Exercise

By Matsu Momii

Person #1:  My name is Lee Black.  I began using 3 years ago after the death of my father, my rock, the glue that held every facet of my world together, held me together.  He was the one person I could count on, the person who taught me unconditional love, and taught me how to see the good in others.  When he suddenly left this life, I was so lost.  With drugs clouding my ability to process losing him, time has passed, and I became lost.  Now here I am, in Olympia at a homeless camp, in awe at what my life has become.  Although my situation is seemingly bad to someone viewing from the outside, I recently decided to give life another chance.  I mourn what once was, and always will, but some little voice inside me is telling me to “hang on, things will get better.”  I truly believe, thanks to my father’s teachings, that we are all where we are supposed to be right now, to do what we came here to do.  So that’s what I tell myself when I doubt.  I’m right where I’m supposed to be.  My life is different than it used to be, and soon, with positive thinking and trust in a greater good, my life will be different than this.  Hang in there everyone.  Love to all! -Lee Black, Olympia, WA

Person #2:  I thought it was all bad, but 5 years later it's some of the best experiences I’ve ever had.  I’ve been homeless now for ½ a decade, wasn’t sure what to expect, and as my hope for a normal life began to fade, a new family emerged who didn’t reject me. Although I’d still like to get off the street, if I have to sell my soul I’d rather beat feet.  My family out here are realer than those behind four walls who fear -Chase Arevalo 360 763 3564, chasearevalo14@gmail.com

Person #3:  It was in the fall of 2014 my life changed forever.  Up til then I had a 5 acre ranch.  I was a caseworker for WA State.  With a $2000/month mortgage and struggling to keep 6 children… while paying.  I have a settlement coming, will donate off a $30,000 student loan… With a marriage on the rocks already all it took to finalize the separation (?) was an assault from a client.  I continued to work… due to my financial responsibilities and the need that my 32 clients needed when I was on a 16 client... due to the State… my pay stopped due to my injury and they denied my claim.  In a matter of weeks, I went to living homeless from owning a ranch from having a family to living alone.  People yell things at me, regardless of the fact I’m 60 years old.  Regardless of 4 college degrees and 2 young (?(…. SAD. -Jesse Durazo

Person #4:  Death of family, loss of direction, lack of capacity, gaining experience, losing my bank card.  I have an addiction to help others succeed.  Contact me as a solution or become a stock option. -Life Shamarah Marie Warlucci, Save a Love Help a Life, 360 413 0577

Person #5:  Lack of self care is why I'm houselessness.  I dream to build a house.

Person #6:  I had to be in the hospital for an abscess for 2 ½ weeks.  I was healing on heroin and had the worst  come down of my life. 

Maybe take all the unoccupied homes and give them to homeless people-catywolfe@gmail.com

Person #7:  Family, ex-girlfriend & baby Devon Jr.  I was out here selling crack cocaine and was making very good money too.  Hailey was one of my workers and a very hard worker at that too.  I never once looked at her as an attractive girl or anything like that because business is business. But one day we smoked too much crack together and one thing led to another and we slept together and 9 months later we had Devon Jr.  Then soon after Devon was born she took all my drugs and left me for a midget named Tommy and left Devon Jr. with me and now here we are.

I am trying to survive and keep my son safe and alive but the legal way.  I’m looking for jobs everyday and hopefully I will get a job soon. -Devon

Person #8:  Getting out of prison after doing 8 years having nothing to come to.  No home, no nothing, only the clothes on my back. You have to do anything to stay alive, I (?) had to go back to doing things that got me back to prison.  I had to sell drugs, etc.  It's hard out here but we all for the most part are survivors. We will survive. -Pauley

Person #9:  I was watching my post… (?) a person came over from another camp to start strife. I ran them off with a sword pointed down. 15 minutes later I had a 36 pointed at me.  I turned ran and tripped as I was getting up. I was knocked in the face with steel toed boots. -David N Johns

Person #10:  Stress, triple whammy… mother had triple bypass, lost my job and a 5 year relationship ended.

Creating a community to help felons.

Person #11:  4 years in prison in Texas.  My father was in prison for 12 years.  My father got released from prison, and then the cartel killed him.  My father died on Christmas day.  Then I got hooked on heroin at the age of 22.  I lost my son at the age of 22.  Then I ended up homeless for the next 4 years. -Nicholas Lindo

Person #12:  I was wrongfully accused of domestic violence where I was stripped of my rights and my children and wife. I lost everything and never could get a job with a felony on my record.  After my prison sentence I came home to an empty place and it's been that way since.

Everyone having equal housing. -Elijah Yelden

Poor/houseless/indigenous folks share models of  landless peoples' self-determination, Po'Lice-free land liberation, revolutionary media, and art.

POOR Magazine is a poor and indigenous people-led art, culture, and liberation movement. Our multi-generational, multi-cultural houseless/indigneous people-led movement will be going on the road to share the urgent medicine of how to build self-determined land movements, take back land, and our own knowledge systems and cultures right here in occupied Turtle Island.

Sharing the medicine of Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness- and offering readings and workshops from our newest books "How to Not Call Po'Lice Ever"/"Poverty Scholarship: Poor People-Led Theory, Art, Words, and Tears Across Mama Earth", as well as leading a Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour through wealth-hoarding neighborhoods, museums of Anthro-Wrongology, and Academia to share the urgent medicine of Radical Redistribution and ComeUnity Reparations. And finally, we will be meeting/sharing and teaching poor and houseless people-led media production with fellow unhoused comeUnity in that territory so they can launch their own media hubs like POOR Magazine's street-based media projects.

We are inviting all organizations to co-sponsor, host us for a book reading, performance, or workshop, or walk with us in the Stolen Land Tour. Below are links of Stolen Land Tours we have done before and information about our books and work.

Tiburcio Garcia

Lisa Garcia

Revolutionary Journalism

27 July, 2021

Deecolonized Un-Tour: “O My Father” 

“O my Father, thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place: When shall I regain thy presence, And again behold thy face?” 

-Eliza R. Snow

As a young, light skinned formerly houseless poverty skola and journalist with Poor Magazine, this place was a new sight. Not this town, with it’s empty sidewalks and quiet 1950's houses that felt like they had eyes focused on your back. What was a new sight for me was the poem and plaque that made a point to honor the poem of a woman who’s class and social status was low, which led to many deeming her as useless, yet showing that she created a work of art that was immortalized as among The Most Beloved of Mormon Hymns.

 I believe the message behind this if any is that no matter what status or position you are in you have the potential to create something beautiful. Now here is my question. Does that apply to the Ute, Dine, Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone people who were forcibly removed from their land in order to allow for Salt Lake City to become the home of the Salt Lake Temple, the Headquarters of the Morman Faith?

It doesn’t. It never has, because the voices, stories, art and songs of native people all over Stolen Turtle Island have never mattered, and the only thing that remains in the stolen and hoarded spaces and places are these bronze plaques, honoring the colonizers who created works of at such as “O My Father”, on land that was never theirs. That is the purpose of this Western Turtle Island Un-Tour, where me along with my family from Poor Magazine and Deecolonize Academy are doing we-search (that’s poor people led re-search) on the colonization and genocide that has happened in Utah and Colorado.

For 12,000 years before settlers moved into Utah, there were people living there. The Native people of Utah, which were many, as Utah is a big area, stewarded the land long before colonizers claimed it as there’s. Most of that changed, however, when the Mormons “settled” into Utah in 1847, beginning in Salt Lake Valley, and then moving up and down Utah, effectively cutting off Ute trade routes and displacing them from their land. The Black Hawk and Walker War were the Ute people raiding their own land that was stolen from them by the Mormons, for the sole purpose of avoiding starvation. 

Knowing this, I think back to the Capitol Hill Neighborhood we visited that featured the oxidized copper plaque of Eliza R. Snow and many other women and prominent Mormon figures. I didn’t see a plaque showing the absolute forced removal of the indigenous people of Utah by the Mormons. When I read that plaque honoring Eliza for her poem, I wondered how much art created by native people was destroyed, how many voices were permanently silenced. I can’t help but feel sick looking at the bright flowers and freshly cut grass, blue skies and calm, well paved streets, knowing that all of it was built on lies and death.

Press Contacts: Muteado Silencio /Tiny (510-435-7500  

Landless/houseless, Indigenous Black, Brown and Disabled People Lead an "unTour" thru wealth-hoarding neighborhoods and sacred indigenous sites in Denver aka Stolen Ute, Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne Territory 

When: 12pm Thursday, July 29th

Where: Tour launched with Multi-Nationed Prayer  & Speakers at Confluence Park (1500 16th street, Denver, Colorado)

"When they take our land, our tents and our belongings, we have nowhere to go,... " said Israel M., formerly houseless, indigenous co-builder of Homefulness.

"As colonial cities and towns ‘open Back Up’ we indigenous, houseless and poor folks know that means, increased sweeps of houseless bodies, increased evictions of poor families and elders, increased desecration of indigenous peoples lands and sacred sites increased poverty and poLice Terror of Black and Brown and working class people," said Tiny, formerly houseless co-founder of POOR Magazine.

POOR Magazine is a poor and indigenous people-led art, culture, and liberation movement. Our multi-generational, multi-cultural houseless/indigenous people-led movement will be going on the road to connect the dots between our shared oppressions and struggles, share the urgent medicine of how to build self-determined land movements, take back land, healing, and our own knowledge systems and cultures right here in occupied Turtle Island.

This leg of a summer long Un-Tour is in occupied Southern Ute, Mountain Ute, Arapahoe and Northern Cheyenne Territory, aka Denver - the site of high-speed gentrification, homelessness,  poLice abuse, murder and terror as well as a silenced bloody history of colonial genocide.

As we all grapple with Mama Earth burning, flooding and all of us trying to survive, these Un-Tours connect the dots between eviction, homelessness, colonization, desecration, poLice terror, Devil-oper Land grabs, mining and other extractive industries,  desecration of Mama Earth, and the removal, incarceration, police terror of Black, Brown, indigenous, disabled and poor people. 

In so-called Denver we will launch the tour with prayer from all four corners and ancestors of this land with 1st Nations warriors like Lynn Eagle Feather whose sun Paul Castaway was murdered by Denver PoLice as well as liberators from Denver Homeless Outloud, members of Western Regional Advocacy Project, who are on the front-lines of resistance efforts for unhoused Denver residents.

In each UnTour we share poor people-led solutions of Radical Redistribution, Homefulness, Land Back movements and ComeUnity Reparations informed by POOR Press books How to Not Call Po'Lice Ever and Poverty Scholarship: Poor People-Led Theory, Art, Words, and Tears Across Mama Earth, with houseless and poor communities and communities with different forms of race, class and/or education privilege with the goal of supporting local resistance movements and helping poor and indigenous people launch their own solutions like Homefulness.

Smoke from fires across the Western States to the midwest blanket the skies.  Sweeps and invaders concrete the land to cover up history of slaughter  and murder. Gentrifuckers completely program the same blueprint from King St, SF to 16th St mall in Denver. Houseless cannot be eliminated, said Momii Palapaz , family elder from POOR Magazine's Elephant Council (one of the models we teach and live into at Homefulness and share in the How TO Not Call PoLice Ever handbook.)  

We are inviting all organizations to co-sponsor, walk with us, speak and/or learn more about this important new/old way to walk on Mama Earth in this time of so much pain.

Links to some of our Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tours

Stolen Land/Hoarded Resurces Tour thru Akkkadeia- May 2021 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=489FkHJQWxs&t=91s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5NFtYpE64s&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb-N1FCWAdY&t=57s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0j6baUl1g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxHj4zzCmWk

Links to books:

How to Not Call Po'Lice Ever 

Poverty Scholarship: Poor People-Led Theory, Art, Words, and Tears Across Mama Earth

Po' People's Survival Guide thru COVID-19 and the Virus of Poverty 

Children's books:

When Mama and Me Lived Outside

The Hard Worker (Trabajador Fuerte)

Krip Hop Nation Graphic Novel 

Decolonewz - Newspaper led by youth in poverty for everyone ( available in paper form only) 

Workshops: 

See this link

Po' Peoples Radio Broadcasts:

See this link

More info on Homefulness:

See this link and www.poormagazine.org/homefulness 

Articles on this from the SF Bay View and POOR Magazine:

Stealing our Last Acre and One Remaining Mule

Selling our Homes to Private Investors

Public Housing Privatization

The Privatization

From Privatization to Reparations

Section 8 and Public Housing at Risk

By AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

by Jack Minel

2009 was the year my mom and I were no longer homeless in San Francisco, due to the tenacity of my mother, Linda Montoya, and pure luck. My mom spent her efforts to file applications when I was homeless with her in a shelter, known as the Hamilton. She filed a section 8 paper, which allowed certain low-income families — when certified by local house ambassadors — to be allowed to rent a private property.

My mom and I were certainly gifted by fate. We were able to shelter before the new ongoing wave of gentrification that flooded the city in a matter of years. Since it was 2009, there were many people moving out of their low-income housing units as well as coming in to renovate. Our only form of income at the time was the Social Security check she would get, which I assume was nearly 900$, and our rent was 200$ a month from the beginning, plus electricity, etc.

Fast Forward 12 years later, and now I live on 25 Northridge Road, located on the southern eastern end of San Francisco. The hills are steep, and they make bones brittle faster than you mush styrofoam packaging. My mom and I are familiar with the terrain which we live upon. The hills are steep and my mother is growing older in age, getting into her 50’s now. Even I have a hard time getting up the stairs during grocery runs to the store.

Even though these things are tough, to stand aside and let the threat of gentrification continue is something I can't do. I have gone through most of the phases of the RAD reconstruction of my neighborhood of Hunter’s Point, and with some quick fact checking, I also see there are many other chapters of buying low-income housing for the purpose of conversions.

The conversion of the houses around me are nice, but I can't help but get the feeling this is just the calm before the storm. San Francisco is going through a change, from the grassroots culture it’s known for, turning and transforming into a city of technology as well as a high influx of foreign residency, known as the “techies.”

Many friends and families have been drowned out with gentrification and swept from their homes. And I fear that time is coming for my mom and I. Though gaining confidence in a new found perspective, it’s time to speak up and fight against the terror of  gentrification.

But if we can come together we just might have the momentum to sway the odds in the people's favor.  

by AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

The Year Of 2020 has Come and Almost Gone and in all my 39 years of living I do Believe this year has been the Fastest Year to Be ENDING as Quickly as It Arrived....

It’s been 2 years since my baby Brother Victor McElhaney was Shot in the Head Coming From his College Party With Friends. We Still to this Day don't Know Why....

It was Sooo Random And Totally Unexpected. Victor had no Enemies in fact Vic on Drums Was what EVERYONE KNEW him by....

The Master Drummer and Smiling Kid.... 

Boy did he have A grin outta this World And His Smile took all the Humans By Surprise, Males too, children, Everyone Notice Baby Brother’s Radiance....

Baby Brother Loved to Compose Music 

He Wrote, Produced, Could Read Music 

Yeah A Truly Talented Gifted Child Of GOD....

Curious Fella From Start to Finish, Vic Lived....

Speaking Of Which By the time Victor was 20 he had Traveled Places Around the World Some White people ain't been 

Vic’s Art And personality Opened Many Doors For him…. 

China, Egypt, Africa to name a few…. When it was Mentioned on the news that My Brother had passed away.... 

THE WORLD WAS SHOCKED. The People Mourned By Putting his Name up On the Walls and it Remains to this Day, Tags And Murals. YEAH it is Clear this West Oakland Young man Definitely made his Mark on all whom he came Across.

Vic never made it to see 22....

Our Family Is Dealing With Our Loss. 

Everyday living just ain’t the same, Holidays Ain't the Same, waking up in the Mornings Ain’t the Same and Going to Bed at Night Ain’t the Same!!! 

Hell, Communicating with Each Other Ain’t the Same, 

It Just Ain’t the Same all the way Across the Board….

Not to Mention The Coronavirus Covid-19 Has Hit the Scene and Lasted the Whole Year and Mutated…. 

Sometimes I wonder What my Brother Would have Created With his Musical Genius In Regards to Corona and this Pandemic….

One Never Knows, Does One? As For Me and My Journey It has been Exciting, Trying And Emotional -- yet i made it And so has my Children….

Thank YOU FATHER GOD and Jesus The HOLY Spirit Has KEPT ME and My Childrens.

Many People Have Transitioned. The Death Rate Is at its all time high due to The Virus The Whole WORLD IS AFFECTED BY IT…. there is NO place one can GO to get Away. THOSE who have MONEY can't EVEN escape!!!

This is A time in history Some say Is Repeating Itself…. A Genocide To Depopulate the Human Race….

Some Say There's too many of us ON THE PLANET.... as Crazy As it Sounds, It is the very TRUTH…. A Manmade Disease That has Gotten Out of Control…. 

Ooo BUT I Know GOD All along Is In CONTROL and VERY much AWARE of Man's EVIL WICKED Doings, Whether It be TAKING A MAN'S LIFE  or MAKING A DISEASE PLAGUING MANKIND....

Either way One will Pay, Which Leads me back to How fast this year has Went by -- so FAST.... 

I think 2021 Will be The Opposite i think we will Be Complaining on how slow THE year 2021 will be going by versus The Quickness Of 2020....

I Remember In 2019 Me and my Aunty Did Bow Blessings Leading into 2020, that year we Bonded Differently.... we Both Were Slain in the SPIRIT....

And Then the Unthinkable Began to Happen. Victor Was To join My Son, his Nephew Torian Dajour Hughes as A Great Ancestor Cause Torian Passed away 3 years before Victor 2015.... 

Bittersweet We ain't No Newbootys When It comes to Death, Hurt and Betrayal…. Straight like dat....

2021 What has u instored For Us in my Ebonic language