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by Isabel Estrada/ PoorNewsNetwork
I walk into the wide, white space that is The Lab Art Gallery at 2948 16th st. I feel the HipHop and Reggae beats coming from DJ SAke1 who is positioned at one side of the stage proliferate within me. Po' Poet Keith Savage carries in the heavy rows of chairs that begin to fill slowly as people step in out of the rain.
People are still busy getting bread and butter when Latifah Simon, the MC for the night tells everybody to take a seat. She has cafe-con-leche skin and a pile of braids on her head. "Welcome to the Po' Poets CD Release Party," she yells. Apparently the audience is still occupied with the food because we don't really respond. However by the third time Latifah repeats herself we get the message and lend our support in the form of claps and shouts.
As Tiny, co-editor of POOR Magazine and co-director of the Media Studies
Program which encompasses the Po' Poets Project, steps up to the stage she looks somewhat shy despite her high black boots, fishnet tights, and sleek black skirt. The light reflects off her bleached-blond streaks of
hair as her eyes fall to the ground. "We're all family here, it's all good,"
she assures herself and Leroy Moore, co-facilitator of the Po' Poets Project standing next to her.
An important part of POOR Magazine is attempting to eradicate the shame that comes with homelessness and poverty. The way we achieve this in what is
called Community Newsroom at POOR, a nonhierarchical approach to newsmaking,
is that when we introduce ourselves we also tell the group about whether or
not we have experienced poverty or any other form of systemic oppression.
Leroy, in matching brown jacket and boots goes directly to the mic and erases
any possible confusion by saying, "the Po' Poets are Poor Poets!! Our blood is
our community!" Tiny jumps in, "The people who are dealing with oppressive
systems are the scholars at POOR. The Po' Poets is another form of journalism, organic journalism, street journalism."
Tiny is speaking about the Scholarship of Poverty. A fundamental belief at
POOR, the Scholarship of Poverty suggests that those people living through
and resisting poverty are the experts where their own lives our concerned.
And, because they are the experts, they should be the one writing their own
news, not the biased, inexperienced, mainstream media. And through their
words they become human to the world instead of just statistics.
All the Poets gather onto the stage as they begin their slam bios
(biographies turned into poetry). Leroy begins by coming down off the stage
and getting face to face with the audience, "hahaha," he laughs ironically,
"what do you see, what do you see?, nigger with disability, revolutionary
Poet." Leroy can't stand still as he is bursting with energy. Jewnbug is
next, when she begins to speak her sweet face contorts with anger. "Mixed
heritage, workin' for change, sellin' my food stamps, frustrated with the
upper class, who wanna save my ass, sleep in an SRO," she yells phrase after
phrase with squinted, sad eyes.
Dharma, the woman with a serene and playful look in her eyes stands with her back to the audience. "I am a woman of the real world... my goals are to rise
up out of poverty.. as life changes constantly, taking back my space and
time," she says in a soft voice. Joe Bolden steps off the stage with his
usual humble yet sophisticaed air. He spreads his arms wide and begins, "I'm
Joe, in an SRO, it ain't good though, survivin', thrivin', I flow." A Faye
Hicks speaks next, "I'm a lady of the shelter, I have met a thousand people
and yet am all alone."
Mari Villaluna, one of the youth Po Poets, comes to the center of the room with energy, you can see some sparkles on her face reflecting in the light. "18-23 that's what you call me...I am a poet... I am a leader of today." As she speaks her arms are
outstretched. Viviana MArtinez comes up next, she is a small woman with wild, dark hair. She says, "I am the terror, the terror of the capitalist system, I am the terror that comes from across the sea. Keith Savage states with an all-encompassing,
deep voice, "I am the surprise, so open the surprise in the cardboard box."
Aldo Della Maggiora, who was on the congas throughout the night adds his words to the mix. "I'm a sandgrain in the desert of
economic struggle and internal despair, resisting and determining my inner
revolution," he says into the mic while still beating out rhythms on the
drums. Next is Tiny, her voice is hard as she speaks her words, "Doing
timefor crimes of poverty. That's being homeless, being on welfare and being
poor in this capitalist reality..On this earth to save the world and in the
process maybe me and mines."
A whole range of topics continued to be covered by the Po' Poets. Mari
speaks of how "I sleep, eat, and breath" in transitional housing, even if she
doesn't own it. She also speaks to how many middle and upperclass people are
also currently living in homes that aren't truly theirs. Homes that they
took from lower class families of color who were evicted simply because the
landlords wanted even more money.
Leroy sends a powerful message. When he first says, "Look into my eyes,"
many of the people in the audience laugh but when he repeats it they realize
that there is nothing funny about his words. "Look into my eyes, they will
make you cry, wind blows like a tornado through these desert eyes." He
continues, "seen everything, been everywhere." As he speaks he stretches his
arms out to the side makin g an eppeal to the whole audience.
Tiny announces that they are going to do a poverty hero project to "honor
ourselves and each other" for surviving throught the constant struggle of
poverty. The exercize is two poverty heroes stand face to face and do slam
bios of each other. Tiny adds, "This might sound touchy feely, but its not,
its survival." A Faye and Jewnbug look at each other knowingly and start to
speak. Faye says, "Young bug, lemon-flavored skin, pain ravaged eyes, golden
goddess, she is spring water held in a corse fist." Jewnbug begins, "Making
fashionable attire out of alleway clothes, African Queen, sunkissed
chocolate."
Next A. Faye Hicks recites her poem A Faye On The Judicial System. "I found out the
truth when I became entangled with the court systems. You had to have money
and the ability to twist the truth, lie that is, Being poverty-stricken I
realized I had no rights as a Human Being. No one to defend me, whether I
was right or wrong, guilty or innocent, Before the Civil Rights movement.
They didn't even pretend to have a court then. The Lynch mob poured out
justice in the dead of the night leaving me hanging on the limb of a tree,
swinging gently in the midnight breezes, All the way to 2001, three strikes
and your out!" Her rough voice spits out her words with the calloused
awareness that comes from living this harsh reality.
Next up is Coya, the full-time student, artist and organizer. She asks
whether we would like to hear a song or a poem. I scream out "song" and I
guess it worked because soon I could feel her rich voice inside my chest. It
maked my eyes water slightly. The words were: "Until our dreams are real,
still we rise." She asked us all to sing along with her and recall that
ideal world of our dreams, but I preffered just listening to her voice.
Tiny begins her next poem, Crazy, with a song. Her voice almost breaks as
she sings, "crazy, crazy for being so lonely." She speaks of her 23
evictions "the clanking of the locksmith." How her all her things that
involved memories and feelings so quickly became "shit" when it was thrown
out of windows onto the street. This was her father wanted his young
daughter to learn her lesson. He was "sexually attracted to my poverty."
And it ends, "crazy, crazy for loving you."
Rico Pabon from Prophets of Rage gives us a little musical relief. Though
his lyrics are harsh at least we can bump to the music. "Violence and
incarceration is at the very foundation of what this country is based on.
Our children walking around with battle scars." Dani Montgomery, another Po'
Poet speaks to a totally aspect of poverty in "What I Remember Most About the
Hard Time." She looks happy and grateful, if somewhat sad while at the mic.
"The neighbor who gave me five bucks when she had it and a hug when she
didn't,The folks who helped us because they knew what it was like to stand
there sifting through your pockets trying to think of explanations.
One poem that touched me was by George Tirado and was dedicated to his friend Lori
who O.D.'d. "My room is filled to overflowing with junk dreams of you, all
your angels now fall form heaven face first, no Lori, not tonight, and that
junk high, it ain't like jazz no more and it ain't gonna free your mind." he
was crying as he said these words.
The rap group Renaissance was next. The always bring intelligent and new
lyrics to whatever they do. "Technology provided, divided we die." "I see
the purity of life shining through my baby cousins eyes." The two men from
Renaissance refused to use any background music because they wanted to assure
that their words would be heard not just their beats and rhymes. One of the
young men stops for a moment and gives us a little lesson, "Don't get so
caught up in it, your path is already laid out, we're here to learn." "You
must use more than 10% of your brain to comprehend this shit!"
As the night came to a close I was reminded of Leroy and Tiny's words, "The Po Poets are POOR poets - and we are all family here..."
The Po Poets Project CD features over 30 local and national poets and is available by mail order from POOR Magazine-To buy one via mail order; Send a check or money order made out to POOR Magazine for $10.00 + 3.20 and mail to: 255 9th street, San Francisco, Ca 94103
allow two weeks for shipping- ( a great holiday gift- all profits go directly to the Po' Poets )
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