Young African Descendent Filmmaker and visionary launches a tour to listen and support young people of color across the Bay
“Hunters Point is home- its what’s made me and what nourished me, its where I have been poor, policed harassed, ignorant, and struggled with gang violence, its where I’ve learned everything I know and everything I need to un-learn.” Said Jamal Modica, founder of Tough House Project on Malcolm X’s Birthday at the launch of the Standing Up for Ours Tours at POOR Magazine’s indigenous news-making circle.
The Standing UP for Ours Tours is a vision of neighborhood dialogues created by James to listen, speak and engage with young folks in communities struggling with gang violence, police harassment and poverty across the Bay Area. His vision includes collaborating with multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-generational communities and community organizations in struggle who desperately need to be heard.
"I am the rose that grew from the concrete jungle of the Bayview Hunters Point, I have witnessed over a dozen funerals of children under 12 years old, I have also filmed and witnessed over a dozen graduations of middle and high school students who weren’t supposed to make it,” said Jamal who is himself a young African-Descendent filmmaker and a symbol of community-led resistance and revolution
“Standing Up for Ours Tours is so important because right now our communities are on life support and we must re-boot our minds,” said, Queenandi, African Descendent poverty scholar, teacher and reporter with POOR Magazine. Queenandi’s comment was referring to the lies our young people are always taught in Amerikkka skkkools and like we say at POOR Magazine, we need to re-educate our young folks of color on their inherent cultural power and beauty.
“The system is set up so these turf wars remain in place so our young folks think, “Im from Fillmo so I cant go to Sunnydale or im from HP so I cant go to the mission,” said Ruyata Akio McGlothlin, poverty scholar, poet, artist and reporter for PoorNewsNetwork/POOR Magazine and a resident of Hunters Point. Ruyata was referring to turf war lies that falsely breed hate for our fellow brothers and sisters of color in Frisko, Oakland, LA and beyond
POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork is a poor people-led/indigenous people-led media, art and education organization rooted in many poor communities of color across the Bay Area. We facilitated the Standing Up for Ours Tours press conference and as well will be joining Jamal on his first tour because we believe first and foremost that we don’t need a poverty pimp, a savior or an insitution, we must de-colonize ourselves from this plantation grid of Prisons, Poverty Pimps and Saviors and truly lead ourselves out from under this oppression to liberation.
“Too many of our children are dying, and we wont have a future if our children keep dying,” Jewnbug, mama and poverty scholar, poet and teacher spoke on the necessity of a leader like Jamal to help other young folks of color re-insert a revolutionary code of conduct.
“What the so-called officials want to do in our poor communities of color neighborhoods to “fix” the problem is bring in the gang injunction,” Muteado Silencio, poverty scholar, teacher, poet and reporter for POOR Magazine, spoke on the lie of criminalization which is how Amerikkka plantation grid always decides to “fix” anything having to do with us poor peoples and peoples of color.
“The purpose of this tour is to give a space for young folks to speak, to engage, to have fun and be heard, to lead, that’s very important when so often young people are never heard at all,” said Jose Cuellar, teacher and La Raza scholar and artist.
“Society only wants to use us, the poor, the communities of color, to mythologize us so they can profit off our exploitation, said, Jeremy Miller, organizer with Education not Incarceration and the Idriss Stelly Foundation
Speaking for my ancestors, elders, family and children who have barely survived 500 years of kkkolinzation caught up in criminalized lies and racialized hate, with resources stolen, I concluded the press conference with these words for the Jamal’s vision “POOR Magazine family is proud to join The Standing Up for OURS Tours, as it is an example of revolutionary people-led solutions grown in the communities it is speaking with and for, solutions like POOR Magazine and all of our efforts to ensure that our young folks and families are truly heard,”
The first Standing Up for Ours Tours is planned for Sunday, June 26th from 1-5pm in Hunters Point and will feature Hip Hop,spoken word, food, games, information and fun for young folks of all ages. Jamal is hoping that community organizations come out with outreach and provide their liberation solutions. After the Hunters Point tour Jamal hopes to come to three poor neighborhoods of color in the Bay Area over the next six months
Stay Tuned to PNN- HP Location to be announced