Story Archives 2007

by Anna Kirsch/PNN

I can almost picture myself there; cutting across the well-manicured drill field surrounded by the hazy purple-blue southwest Virginia Mountains. Walking to class and cursing the sharp, icy knife-like wind as it cut into my well-worn brown scarf and tan jacket.

A walk I begrudgingly made time and time again to attend my classes at Virginia Tech over three years ago. I spent my university life on the tree-lined streets of the town of Blacksburg. It was the place where I had the privilege, the time and the space to think, to read and to write. The place where I found solace, support and friends. And now the place that will forever by synonymous with April 16th, 2007 and the deadliest shooting rampage in modern history.

Today these memories of Virginia I carry with me are haunting, not comforting as they continue to painfully seethe from the corners of my mind to the surface. The gray, almost cobble-stoned buildings, the massive lecture halls, the bright yellow walls of my first apartment off-campus. And now, the breaking news headlines, pictures of candlelight vigils, old photographs of the victims’ faces and video footage of an isolated, desperate, young man.

There is no separation between then and now for me and I am acutely aware of my connectedness and familiarity with this place and this tragedy. My memories feel desecrated, bloodstained and tender to touch. I knew those hallways, sidewalks and classrooms in a way most didn’t.

I tortured myself by watching the news over and over again. As painful as it was, I couldn’t stop blankly staring as pictures of my old town, school and home were splattered all over the papers, T.V. and radio. I watched because I felt I had to. I watched because I was desperately trying to understand. I watched because I wanted an answer.

Watching the tragic events unfold from over 3,000 miles away through the corporate media lens, I began to feel isolated and truly alone. I looked on as different “experts” casually debated the “issues,” gun control, immigration, and campus security less than 24 hours after the killings. Seeing the place and community I had considered home for so long invaded by news cameras and hounding journalists felt like a knife in a fresh wound. The media was once again determined to ignite a debate and bombarded us with forced rhetoric and framed questions. But for me this time it was different, it felt personal.

“The media did what they always do,” said Mari, a YouthinMedia journalist for POOR Magazine who is now an organizer in Washington D.C. “They didn’t look at the roots of the real issues and they didn’t listen to the people.”

Mari saw this first hand as she watched the Korean community of D.C. become the target for attempted hate crimes, racist remarks and threats. Many Korean people remain scared that they will all be typecast as violent. One Korean woman, a colleague of Mari’s, said soon after the killings “I hope that people won’t think that every Korean person is a killer.”

As I flipped the channels and heard over and over again “A Korean man…” I began to wonder why the media was focusing so intensely on the fact that the parents were immigrants, not born in America, as if that made them not part of this country. Was this the media’s way of convincing us that this unspeakable act of violence came from the outside?

I watched as fingers were pointed at the campus police and university administrators, and gun sellers and lawmakers, but never once did I hear a serious critique of the mental health crisis in this country or a deep analysis of the race and class struggles that plague so many.

I, myself, see these struggles everyday on the streets of San Francisco, watching as so many struggle with racism, classism and disability. This pain, this struggle exists everywhere- even in the hazy mountains surrounding Blacksburg, Virginia.

As Rev. Sang Jin Choi, of the Action for Peace through Prayer and Aid (APPA), recently stated, “It is a person’s immoral crime in an immoral society…there are no offenders in an immoral society only victims.”

Our pain, our crisis is universal but we are led to believe that it is not, that we are different, a race and class war rages on, false borders separate and we are taught to sympathize, not empathize, disconnect, not to relate to. Selectively grieving, never universally mourning.

Anna Kirsch is a graduate of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR Magazine and is currently working as an assistant teacher and community journalist for POOR/PNN

by Staff Writer

by tiny

Para espanol, mire hacia bajo

Blue chards of San Francisco sky blinded our eyes as we emerged from POOR
Magazine’s tenderloin office and headed underground to the BART station.
Our cru consisted of my son tiburcio, a seasoned marcher at the ripe age
of almost four, driving the infamous Si Se Puede Chariot ( read: hooptie
stroller), myself covered from head to toe in pobre gente resistance
signage- and Angel Garcia, one of POOR’s newest inmigrante reporteros and
soon to be published POOR Press author. Our powerful grupo was small but
we were on our way to meet up with more folk from POOR, POWER, La
Collectiva de Mujer, and thousands of others in honor of inmigrante
workers at Delores Park on May day

“I think the “J” train would work better than BART”, said Angel gazing
into the rivers of tunnel in front of us. After several minutes of
confused wrangling with schedules and underground possibilities Angel and
I decided that taking the J train on MUNI would be better than the BART
and cause Angel is living with a physical disability, he needs to take the
elevator – so down we went.

Upon reaching the muni platform, Angel, tiburcio and I continued on with
moments of spacial confusion. Although I travel almost every day on the
multiple trains that run through the arteries of this City, we
collectively lost site of our direction. Which must be the reason that I
forgot my own rule that you NEVER ask the po-lice for ANYTHING!

“Is this the right way to Delores Park” I casually said to a BART/MUNI
po’lice officer stationed oddly right at the mouth of the escalator

“Do you have proof of payment?” she said, her triangle- shot gun legs
stiffening in tandem with a bullit proofed vested chest.

“Excuse me,” I stumbled, “I just asked you for directions”
“Do you have proof of payment”, she continued without blinking
“WHAT!?, activist tiny yelped, “I asked you for help, why are you
harassing me?”

“Are you resisting my inquiry, Do we need to have you arrested?” She began
talking lovingly to her shoulder radio, “Officer 3256 requesting
back-up….”

“Here,” Formerly incarcerated, system trained, tiny began desperately
searching through my stuff for a ticket.

“Cancel Back-up,” the words were terse, and loaded with disdain. She
pulled out her citation book and began to write.
“Are you giving me a citation?”
She didn’t answer.

Several more minutes of targeted harassment followed until she finally
“allowed” us to leave. No-longer-remotely-activist-tiny felt as though a
giant knife had been twisted and turned through my insides. The grueling
moments of –losing-my-son-going-to-jail-terror clung to me like dried
vomit.

“Mama, where would I go if they took you away,” As we all numbly rolled
over to the J train, my son completed the sorrow of the moment with his
plaintive request. Feelings of empowerment and resistance, consciousness
and pride that should belong to this important day fell away from my mind
and soul like petals off of a sunflower.

The day was filled with multiple voices of inmigrante scholarship, which I
was blessed to see and hear, but later that day when I heard about the
brutal attacks on all the gente pobre, and poor families at LA’s May Day
Marcha, my still adrenalin wrecked mind shuddered for all the brutal ICE
raids on immigrants, po’lice harassment of all poor people of color
locally and globally and border fascism which remains stronger and more
frightening than ever.

Resistiendo (Arresto!)

Las miembras académicos de POOR Magazine fueron abusadas por la policía el primero de mayo.

Cardos azules de San Francisco nublaron nuestros ojos al salir de nuestra oficina de POOR Magazine ubicada en el barrio del Tenderloin y nos dirigimos hacia la estación subterránea de BART. Nuestro equipo consistía de mi hijo Tiburcio, un marchante ya con mucha experiencia a sus cuatro años de edad, manejando la infame Carriola de Si Se Puede (lean: hooptie stroller) yo cubierta de pies a cabeza con resistencia de gente pobre- y Angel Garcia, uno de los nuevos reporteros y muy pronto publicador y autor de Prensa POBRE. Nuestro grupo poderoso era pequeño pero estábamos apunto de reunirnos con mas gente de POOR, POWER, La Colectiva de Mujeres, y miles de otras personas en honor a las trabajadores/as inmigrantes en el Parque Dolores este primero de mayo.

“Yo pienso que el tren “J” será mejor que el BART” dijo Angel mirando a los ríos de túneles enfrente de nosotros. Después de varios minutos de confundirnos con horarios y posibilidades subterráneas Angel y yo decidimos tomar el tren J en MUNI por que seria mejor que BART y por que Angel esta viviendo con una deshabilitad física, y el necesita tomar el elevador – entonces empezamos a bajar.

Llegando a la plataforma de MUNI, Angel, Tiburcio y yo continuamos con nuestros momentos de confusión. Y aunque yo viajo casi todos los días en múltiples trenes que corren por las arterias de la ciudad, nosotras perdimos nuestra dirección. Y es por esa la razón que se me olvido mi regla de NUNCA pedirles NADA a la policía!

“¿Es esta la manera correcta de llegar al Parque Dolores?” le pregunte casualmente al policía de BART/MUNI estacionada extrañamente en la boca de la escalera. “tienes alguna prueba de que pagaron?” dijo ella, sus piernas triangulares se atiesaron fuertemente con su chaleco anti balas en su pecho. “discúlpeme” empecé a decir “yo solo le pregunte por direcciones.”

“Tiene alguna prueba de que pagaron,” ella continuo sin moverse “¿QUE!?” dijo con vos alta la activista Tiny “Yo te pregunte por ayuda, ¿por que me estas abusando?”

“Estas resistiendo mi pregunta, ¿necesitamos arrestarte?” ella empezó a platicar muy despacio con su radio en su hombro, “oficial 3256 requiriendo ayuda…” “Aquí tiene” anteriormente encarcelada y entrenada por el sistema, dijo Tiny desesperadamente buscando en sus cosas por un boleto. “cancelen la ayuda,” las palabras fueron mencionadas, y pronunciadas con desden. Ella saco su libro de citaciones y empezó a escribir. “¿me estas dando una citación?” ella no contesto.

Varios minutos abuso escogido continuaron después hasta que finalmente nos dio “permiso” de irnos. No-mas-remotamente-activista-Tiny sintió como si una navaja gigante avía sido metida y volteada en mis adentros. Los momentos horrorosos de perder a mi hijo por ir a la cárcel se quedaron dentro de mi como vomito seco.

“Mama, ¿que hubiera pasado conmigo si te hubieran llevado?” mi hijo completo el dolor de este momento con su pregunta, cuando empezamos a caminar hacia el tren J. Sentimientos de poder y resistencia, conciencia y orgullo que deberían de haber permanecido en ese día tan importante se fueron de mi mente y alma como pétalos de un girasol.

Ese día estuvo lleno de muchas voces inmigrantes, que yo me sentí bendecía en escuchar y ver, pero después ese mismo día escuche de los ataques brutales hacia la gente pobre y familias en la marcha del primero de mayo en Los Angeles, mi mente todavía llena de adrelina se estremeció por todas estas redadas brutales en contra las inmigrantes, el abuso policial en contra toda la gente pobre de color localmente y globalmente y por el fascismo de la frontera que continua mas fuertemente y espantoso que nunca.

by Mari Villaluna/PNN Youth in Media Washington D.C. Correspondent

Taxation without Representation. This principal is taught to every young person formerly educated in the US, in other words, political voting representation is granted to those who pay taxes. But what about the thousands of so-called “undocumented citizen’s” who pay taxes, yet they can’t vote, and the thousands of poor people of color who are incarcerated, and can’t vote?

As a young voter of color who has been oppressed by our unjust system I headed to the Washington DC Voting rights march, which is the same day as DC’s emancipation day. I saw thousands of people rallied around the right to vote in their Congress. As I moved closer to the stage, I saw Mayor Adrian Fenty speaking about the right to vote. I also saw several other things that were important to voters, promises made to constituents that were casually being reneged on by the recipients of our votes. On the side was a contingent of people holding signs saying “Save Affordable Housing”, “Save Temple Court” and chanting, “Practice what you preach.” I quickly scurried over to find out what was happening.

I found out that the contingent was from Temple Court Apartments in Northwest 1. Temple Court apartments were on the eviction block, and to subsidize the tenants the district planned to give them section 8 vouchers. I spoke with April Hall, a tenant at Temple Court about their demands and what they wanted for their community, “We will not be moved. We voted for him (Mayor Fenty). He said he would stick to the original plan… We want Mayor Fenty to stick to the original plan, no displacement, no relocation, and no vouchers. We want housing to be built for Northwest 1.” I was reminded about the same city planning that happened in San Francisco during the dot com boom, out with the poor, in with the rich.

Soon after, I saw youth marching and holding up signs that read, “Save Youth Court.” I asked Ariana Benjamin about her sign and what Youth Court is, she stated quite simply, “It gives youth a second chance. If we didn’t have youth court we would be in jail.” She stated further, “Youth court is so additive… It saves lives.” I was then directed over to the founder of Youth Court, Professor Chan who teaches at the District of Columbia Law School. I found out that the Youth Court in D.C. was the largest teen court in the nation, and has been in place for 10 years. Youth Court gives many of D.C.’s youth a chance to have the same right every adult gets, a chance to be judged by a jury of their peers. 100% of youth offenders that are tried in a youth court volunteer in Youth Court. After 50 hours of volunteering they receive a recycled computer, and after those hours they will receive Safeway gift cards to provide for their nutritional needs.

This reminded me of my own experience with Teen Court while I was in high school. I had previously been tried as an adult for a low-level shoplifting crime, and spent a night in adult jail. Not one person in the adult criminal system asked me why I stole those clothes. If they had asked me why, I might have been able to tell them that I was severely tortured, abused, and neglected. Stealing was the only way I could provide food and clothes for my sister and me. Instead I was treated as a criminal, a criminal of poverty (as I have since learned from www.POORmagazine.org). After being reunified with my mother, I started to get involved so that other youth would have a chance. My hope in joining Teen Court was that other youth would get that second chance that I never received from the adult criminal system.

Professor Chan stated what motivates him to do this work, “I don’t get paid to do this, I do this because I believe in justice.” He explained further that they take 60% of the youth justice non-violent cases, and that many in the district government believe that this is a great program that should continue. He then explained to me, that they had just run out of funding today, and were promised funding by the Deputy Mayor but is not currently being carried out by Mayor Fenty. They are being told by the Mayor’s office, “We are actively looking for the money for this program.” This was after three months of calling the Mayor’s office and reaching nobody. Professor Chan left me with an important question commenting on the closure of this program, “How will this advance justice in this city?”

I noticed Mario Cristaldo speaking to Telemundo talking about the vote and how it relates to building equity for Latinos in the District. Mario was demanding representation from Congress but not just through a vote. I spoke with him further to comment upon what he was talking about with representation, “We demand representation… We clean the buildings, cut the grass, cook the food… We demand to live and stay here.” He then further went on to talk about all marginalized people living in the district, “There is a class war going on, all must work together, Black, Latino, Asian to end the gentrification, the incarceration and displacement of our communities.”

It has been 206 years without a vote in Congress for D.C. residents, even though Congress requires its residents to pay taxes. Within the protest, D.C. residents wanted full representation that does not stop with a vote. Representation includes immigration reform, youth justice, and housing for all.

Taxation without representation is a value that is said to be upheld in this democratic state. Yet thousands are left voiceless within this voting system. Youth who are under 18, immigrants, incarcerated folks, and District of Columbia residents pay taxes but yet are denied participation in the U.S. electoral system. When marginalized folks are even allowed the right to vote, they very rarely have an opportunity with participatory representation in this government. Recently, the D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton stated, “As one southern Senator put it, "The Negroes . . . flocked in . . . and there was only one way out . . . and that was to deny ... suffrage entirely to every human being in the District." To deny the vote, to deny representation, is to deny people of color in this country.

Finally, thousands of people like myself marched on the Capitol, not for a right to vote but for a right to have our human rights met. In the same tradition of resistance carried onto us by our ancestors, we marched. Marching alongside the Temple Court tenants who were organizing to keep their housing, the youth who are fighting to keep their Youth Court program open, the immigrants who are speaking out the right to amnesty to live upon this stolen land. It has always been and always will be about the institutional marginalization that my ancestors and I have gone through. Being evicted from our lands, our own supportive systems and languages attacked and attempted to be stolen from us, and often being treated as an immigrant even though our blood runs through this land

On April 19, 2007 The U.S. House passed the D.C. Voting Rights Bill, it is now introduced the Senate. The current legislation will not only give DC one vote but also a new vote for the state of Utah.

by tiny

The morning I got out of jail, I walked through the ice-like streets of
Oakland, California touching ivy and running my fingers along the sides
of buildings, cars and the trunks of trees. It wasn't that I had
forgotten how they felt. It was just to know that they, things, trees,
buildings and cars, were still there, even when I wasn't, helped to
ease the shudder, the ache and the tension that was now permanently
lodged in my head

Due to some extremely innovative lawyering by a local civil rights
attorney I was given a chance to write as a way of working off my
several thousand dollars of fines and jail time for crimes of poverty.
In me and my poor mixed race mama's case, this was for the sole act of
being homeless in the US- a citable offense. My writing/media
production assignment was completed, albeit slowly, while living
through the devastating experience of being a youth in a homeless
family who had to drop out of school in the sixth grade to support and
care for my family

The resulting story, a first person narrative about my attempt to get
our PG&E turned back on through county aid, was published. As a
youth dealing with incarceration and grinding poverty, the sole act of
being published, being heard, about me and my families' struggle to
survive, was revolutionary and life-changing, in fact, it was so large,
that it gave me the strength, the hope, to go on for another day. I
began to consider myself a writer. My scholarship valued.

From that first radical intervention, and subsequent acts of media
resistance, along with mentors that included Angela Davis, Velia
Garcia, and Erica Huggins, me and my mama launched POOR Magazine,
an intentionally glossy , nationally distributed literary magazine
written by poor folks on issues of poverty, racism, disability, police
brutality and more, which put forth actionable solutions to every
problem we discussed.

The magazine led to the eventual founding of a grassroots, non-profit,
arts organization of the same name (POOR Magazine) and several
education, arts and culture based programs and media production
projects such as PoorNewsNetwork(PNN) (an on-line news-service on
poverty and racism), a Pacifica radio show, POOR Press, and The Race,
Poverty and Media Justice Institute for youth, adults and elders, The
Po Poets Project and the welfareQUEENs, and many more. The most
important thing about all of these amazing projects is they are led by
what we at POOR call race, poverty, youth, disability and elder
scholars who are trying through media and art, to be heard, about their
experiences, their solutions and their scholarship.

Poverty, Race, Disability and Youth Scholars become Media Scholars at the USSF

Poverty, Race, Youth and Disability scholarship will be leading all of
the media production at The Ida B. Wells Media Justice Center at the US Social Forum in Atlanta. In a revolutionary collaboration
between independent and corporate media producers, acts of media
resistance will happen throughout the forum

For example, a workshop on immigrant rights will be reported on by what
POOR/PNN would call immigrant scholars or poverty scholars, i.e.,
undocumented poor workers currently fighting racist, classist
immigration laws and deportations. Similarly, a report on the current
crisis of displacement in the aftermath of Katrina would be co-authored
by a resident or former resident of New Orleans fighting displacement
and/or a survivor of displacement in another city in Amerikkka. Both
reports would be written and/or taped in English and Spanish and
hopefully several more languages. The reports would be written, audio
or video taped in the first person, debunking the myth of objectivity
promoted by all corporate and even many independent media makers, and
the reports would be led by the people experiencing, first-hand, what
they are reporting on

The independent and corporate media producers at the conference would
work in collaboration with the poverty scholars to facilitate a media
report across several media platforms; radio, on-line, print and/or
video and in perhaps the most radical act of all for the corporate,
alternative, ethnic and independent media present, the finished piece
will be co-authored and both parties will share the precious by-line,
co-production real estate.

Whether it be radio, TV, on-line or print, it all often comes down to
the by-line, shared or singular, which is always based on who does the
actual writing, editing or scripting, rather than who is the subject of
the story, who the actual story is about, whose story is being told,
whose struggle or struggles are being reported on. It is this tension
that informs the inherently voyeuristic industry of Journalism, and
most media production. Contrary to this notion POOR/PNN believes that
if you are reporting on any issue, struggle or action felt or
experienced by poor folks, working folks, disabled folks, youth and on
and on, it should be led by the folks who have experienced these issues
personally.

Writing, reading, thinking imagining speculating. These are luxury
activities, so I am reminded, permitted to a privileged few whose idle
hours of the day can be viewed otherwise than as a bowl of rice or a
loaf bread less to share with the family, excerpt from Women, Native,
Other by Trinh T Minh-ha

Due to the many struggles inherent in a life lived in poverty, poverty
scholars are often dealing with a deficit of resources, money,
security, and time. literacy, formal education, a minute to spare away
from the pursuit of a loaf of bread, whereas, most (not all) corporate
and independent, ethnic and alternative media producers are coming from
a place of some form of privilege, not necessarily just an
over-simplified notion of race and or class privilege, but the far more
subtle privilege of an organized life, a family that supported you,
emotionally and/or financially through college, or perhaps the most
precious of all, the privilege of time to think.

Because of multiple forms of crisis and lack of privilege our voices,
the voices of poor folks, disabled folks, poor youth of color, poor
workers, single parents, elders children and homeless folks, are rarely
if ever heard within the media, we aren't leading the stories about
ourselves and our communities our families. or our solutions.

Finally, to achieve the mighty and timely goal to make another world
possible, the Media Justice Center will also be
creating new inroads of access for unheard voices, unheard struggles,
and urgently needed scholarship and community led solutions in a very
exciting, non-hierarchical form of inclusionary, non-competitive media.
We will be creating new national and international collaborations;
media access channels, reporting opportunities, syndications, and
co-authorship opportunities, which will live far beyond the one
powerful week in Atlanta.

Together we will make another world, another world of media production.

by Staff Writer

For English please scroll down

Angela Peña, Reportera Prensa POBRE

“Si se puede” gritaba la gente. Todas las personas inmigrantes respondieron al llamado de marcha del 1o de mayo.

La concentracion de mas de 5.000 personas empeso en el Parque Dolores a las 12 de la tarde. Todos estabamos en “La Gran Marcha” en honor a los derechos de los inmigrantes y trabajadores pobres, tanto locales como globales.

La gente se concentraba en el parque mientras otros se unian a la marcha desde las calles.

Era una multitud de gente que caminaba de forma ordenada por las calles con una sola idea en mente: que se escucharan nuestras demandas, que no solo son justas pero son el derecho que toda persona que vive y respira.

“Lo unico que demandamos es el respeto de todos para que podamos trabajar tranquilamente para sostener a nuestra familia”, gritaba la gente. Yo se que fueron escuchados.

Teresa Molina, Reportera de Prensa POBRE

“Estoy aqui por que mis padres son inmigrantes y los estoy apoyando”, declaro Miguel Rosas mientras se encontraba en un mar de gente y organizaciones en la “Gran Marcha” en honor de trabajadores/ras inmigrantes y para la admistia general.

La gente estaba presente. Las organizaciones que estaban presentes eran Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Collectiva de Mujeres, Programa de Jornaleros, Prensa POBRE, Vivienda San Pedro, Power, Carecen y el Centro Comunitario Filipino. Todos demonstramos nuesto descontento de varias formas. Cantamos, gritamos, teniamos pancartas que demostraban que estamos contra los ataques hacia nuestra comunidad, no oponemos a las redadas, y estamos encontra de la separacion de nuestras familias.

La mañana era clara y fresca; escuchabamos los zumbidos del aire y sentiamos lo fresco como si estubieramos enfrente de las olas del mar.

“Estamos aqui protestando y demostrando nuestro descontento por que estamos cansados de tantos ataques contra la gente pobre y trabajadora y estamos cansados de las redadas”, dijo Renee Saucedo de La Raza Centro Legal.

Cuando llegue a casa escuche sobre los ataques de balazos de goma que sufrio mi gente en Los Angeles. Me puse triste. Pienso que nos atacan para darnos miedo, para que paremos de reclamar nuestros derechos.

Gloria, Reportera Prensa POBRE

“No a la separacion de familias” decia un enorme rotulo impulsado por Patricia Morales, miembra de POWER, ama de casa, estudiante y trabajadora mientras se encontraba entre miles de personas que se habian reunido en el Parque Dolores para celebrar el Dia Internacional del Trabajador/a. Patricia estaba orgullosa de su creacion y con la conciencia muy en alto cargaba la manta que vitoreaba las cosigna junto con las demas miembras de la organizacion.

Es recomfortante observar como poco a poco la comunidad trabajadora va tomando conciencia de su fuerza al organizarse por sus derechos. Tanto esta mujer que es representativa de la fuerza que viene surgiendo en las mujeres latinas que trabajan tanto en sus hogares como fuera de ellos.

En esta marcha del mayo 1,del 2007 tuvo menos contingentes pero las personas mostraban en sus rostros y en sus voces mucha disposicion de lucha. Hubo un grupo numeroso de jovenes de todos colores y culturas que cantaban y bailaban al mismo tiempo y asi nos mostraban que no son ajenos a lo su comunidad que ha estado sufriendo, desde hace muchos años, el razismo, la deshigualdad, y la injustica en los empleos. Estos jovenes portaban una pancarta que decia “Irak no abrio sus fronteras y sin embargo fueron inbadidos por nuestro ejercito y ellos tambien nos llaman delincuentes”. Otro cartelon decia “nosotros estamos aqui pero antes ustedes nos invadieron alla”

Era importante que se sepa que todos los que estabamos alli marchando tuvimos que sacrificar una vez mas nuestro trabajo, nuestra economia, y nuestro valiosisimo tiempo para seguir con nuestra lucha.

Angela Pena/Reportera Prensa POBRE

"Si se puede", yelled the people. All the immigrant people answered to the call to march on May 1st.

The concentration of over 5,000 people began in Dolores Park at 12pm. We were all there at The great march in honor of the rights of immigrants, and poor workers locally and globally people .

The people were concentrated in the park while many others joined when the march took to the streets.

So many people walked in an orderly fashion through the streets with one unifying thought: to have our demands be heard, which not only are just but are the rights of every person who lives and breathes.

All we want is respect from everyone so that we can work in peace and earn the survival of our families, the people shouted. I know were heard.

Teresa Molina- Reportera/ Prensa POBRE

I am here because my parents are immigrants and I am supporting them, Miguel Rosas declared while standing in a sea of people and organizations present at the Marcha in honor of Inmigrante workers and for amnesty for all.

The people were present. The organizations that were present are Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Collectiva de Mujeres, Day Labor Program, POOR Magazine, Vivienda San Pedro, Power, Carecen, Filipino Community Center. We all showed our dissatisfaction in various ways. We sung, we chanted, we held signs demonstrating that we are against the attacks on our communities, we are against the raids, against the separation of our families.

The morning was clear and fresh; we could hear the humming of the air as if we were in front of ocean waves. We could feel the cold of the ocean waves

“We are here protesting and demonstrating our discontent because we are tired of so many attacks towards poor working people and we are tired of the raids.”, said Renee Saucedo from La Raza Centro Legal

When I arrived home I heard about the attacks on my people in Los Angeles with rubber bullets. I was very sad. I think they attacked us like that to give us fear so that we can stop reclaiming our rights.

Gloria Molina/Reportera Prensa POBRE

“No Separation of Families” said an enormous sign held by Patricia Morales, member of POWER, stay at home mom, student and worker as she stood among the thousands of people gathered in Delores Park to celebrate International Workers Day. Proud of her creation and with a high sense of consciousness, she carried and waved the sign along side other members of the organization.

It is comforting to note how the working-class community is taking up consciousness and strength to organize for its own rights. Just as this woman is representative of the strength that is surging in Latina Women that work just as much in their homes as they do outside of them.

In this march of May 1st, 2007, there were less contingencies but almost all the people showed through their faces and through their voices showed a feeling of resistance. There was a significant presence of youth of all colors and cultures chanting and singing demonstrating that they are not isolated from their community that has suffered racism, inequalities and labor wages injustices for years. The youth carried a sign that read “Iraq did not open its border but were still invaded by our military and they also call us criminals”. Another said, “We are here but you invaded us there”.

It was important just to know that everyone of us who was there had to sacrifice one more time, our job, our economy and our precious time, and this and more was our resistance.

by Olivia Colt/PNN Race, Poverty and Media Justice Intern

It’s about 8:30 in the morning and I am just about to begin my commute. I see the bus tumbling down the street full of people like myself heading downtown for yet another day of work. I numbly show my pass and shuffle along to find a spot in the midsection. I grab onto a pole and look up, the ad catches my eye, and I begin to read. Discover Neighborhood Treasures: BayView. Each letter pops out, calling to me, D-I-S-C-O-V-E-R the BayView. Will it be like uncovering hidden treasure? The smiling face, a man of color, stares at me, begging me to find the contradiction in his gaze. I look out the window as we lumber up a hill, then the city stands before me.

“There is little to no housing for people who aren’t rich… the idea of destroying the little housing [we have left] is crazy,” Mary Ratcliff, the co-owner and publisher of the Bay View newspaper, friends of POOR/PNN and fellow resistance journalists, relayed to me. Currently, the San Francisco neighborhood of BayView Hunter’s Point is experiencing the beast of redevelopment. It is the last threshold in the City that can allow for major construction, allocation of Federal funds, and has the largest amount of homeownership within city limits. BayView doesn’t get credit for this, however; what it does get credit for is the high rates of infant mortality, gang violence, drug use, and being a predominantly Black neighborhood. With the installation of the new T-Line and a possible stadium for the 49ers on the old Navy shipyard, the landscape of BayView Hunter’s Point is rapidly changing. “People in BayView Hunter’s Point are very cool people, we want diversification, not a re-peopling and pushing out of the current community,” says Ratcliff. I am a product of a gentrified neighborhood in the Western Addition, I agree with Mary Ratcliff, when redevelopment happens where do all the people go?

Bayview Hunter’s Point has been receiving a lot of attention since construction of the light rail began in 2000. Gavin Newsom has signed over two major housing projects for re-development: Alice Griffith (also known as Double Rock) and Hunter’s View. The City has this cowboy, caviler attitude towards the re-development. Instead of using the pool of funding that the Federal government has set aside for the reconstruction of public housing, the current administration has decided to go it alone, thereby allowing for what was once public housing for the poor to become private market-rate housing for the middle and upper classes of San Francisco.

John Stewart Company may be San Francisco based, but nothing about it screams S.F. The company itself is still fairly young, but has a reputation that far surpasses its youth. Started in 1978, John Stewart has had exclusive rights to re-build and maintain a number of housing projects in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. What they say they do is re-develop for the poor, but what they actually do is take the land, displace the people, and flip the project into mixed-income market rate housing. They create a process riddled with false promises, intimidation tactics, dehumanization, income thresholds, impossible deadlines, and discrimination. Vivian Hain, WelfareQUEEN and poverty scholar with POOR Magazine summed up her experience with John Stewart and their application process for housing at both Valencia Gardens in the Mission District and Adalaide Street Housing in Berkeley like this: “[John Stewart Company] set these standards when no one meets these standards they have to fill the spaces to do that they privatize the land and make market rate housing.”

Hain’s experience is one of many. She never did get into those housing projects and for that matter neither the Presidio nor Treasure Island. Laure McElroy, POOR Press author of SystemBitch, has a similar experience, “I was put on the waiting list for three years for Treasure Island before my number came up. They told me my credit wasn’t good enough. I have since been put back on the waiting list and nothing…not one piece of communication.” Both Laure and Vivien have interfaced with representatives of the John Stewart Company. They feel that they were denied housing because they were homeless or had very little money. The day Vivian went to apply for Valencia Gardens, her partner was told by the John Stewart Rep. that a family of five had to make at least thirty thousand a year to meet the income threshold (they made $700.00 a month) to be eligible to receive housing that was, ironically, already designated for low-income folk. Laure didn’t even have an opportunity to apply; the John Stewart Rep. said her federal subsidy could not be used to pay for rent at the new Valencia Gardens. She later found out she was lied to when the developer held a lottery for units specifically set aside for cases such as hers. Jewnbug, co-founder of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project, a multigenerational school for children zero to one hundred, summed up her application processes with John Stewart with this statement, “…it felt like a corporation who was not there to serve the people on fixed income, not to provide housing for fixed income folk or people in dire need of housing. They partnered with H.U.D. to get the space but not to give it to the people who need access to housing the most.” John Stewart is exploiting their contractual agreements to make low-income housing for the sole purpose of garnering more profits at the expense, displacement, and lives of poor people.

“I tried to get housing for me, mama dee and my son in several properties owned by John Stewart, but we never passed their strident application process and ridiculous income and credit requirements that are all about whitening San Francisco and displacing poor folks of color,” said Tiny ( aka Lisa Gray-Garcia) poverty scholar, welfareQUEEN and editor at POOR Magazine.

The tentacles of John Stewart reach farther than the application process. Marie Harrison, a former resident of Geneva Towers—a property formerly managed by John Stewart Company—a community activist, environmentalist, and writer for the Bay View had a long conversation with me regarding living at Geneva Towers and her experiences with John Stewart Company. “I lived in the Towers for eight years; on the 17th floor in Tower B… it was during this time that I learned what the word astounding means.” The violations in human rights and decrepit maintenance of these projects are enough to make one’s heart break. The buildings, which were twenty stories high, have since been torn down and the population displaced. The elevators rarely worked and when they did were extremely dangerous: at one point a small child’s finger was chopped off when it got stuck in the door. The water mostly ran a dark brown and muddy color from the faucets; additionally the hot came from the cold and the cold from the hot. The Health Department told John Stewart to supply bottled water; they did so, and locked it up in the basement making it accessible to no one. Residents could not open windows; they experienced extremely low lighting inside and no lighting on the surrounding premises. After a major fire in one of the towers, where a black fireman was killed, authorities discovered the emergency exits were padlocked, which prevented residents from exiting the building safely and out of harms way.

John Stewart announced that they were appalled by the ramifications of their poor maintenance of the facility and vowed to make repairs and clean things up. They never did, and when the Federal government came to do an audit, “all of a sudden all these trucks came from Montgomery Ward with brand new refrigerators and stoves… boxes and boxes… we got so excited until we saw they were going into the empty units,” Marie described to me. The buildings failed the inspection and the company was removed from managing the site. They were, in fact, barred from ever managing a housing project again. “How can you be fired by the Feds, then get to manage low income housing, and then sit on the Board as the Director…” Marie demanded an explanation of the gross negligence that encompassed her stay at Geneva Towers.

Marie makes a great point. How does one get fired and barred from maintaining public housing yet sit as the Director for the Low Income Housing Board both in San Francisco and Washington D.C., then receive exclusive rights to redevelop Hunter’s View? Not to mention all the other housing projects in the Wharf, North Beach, and the Mission that John Stewart Company still manages, especially after committing such careless and flagrant human rights violations. Mary Ratcliff mentioned that at some point during the era of Geneva Towers John Stewart himself said, “ [he] had thirty-five thousand black people under his control in San Francisco.” Thirty-five thousand black people… seems like he was building an empire on the backs of the poor.

This all can not be put solely on John Stewart Company. Everyone has their finger in the pot and is snatching any little piece that they can. Marie Harrison said it best: “stop looking at the people and follow the money.” During the construction of the Third Street Light Rail the City spent upwards to 648 million dollars. Not one penny of that was used in employing people inside of the community, i.e. no local merchants, contractors, or businesses were utilized during the construction in their own community; in other words all the work was outsourced. To add injury to insult, the Federal Government provides subsidies to cities and counties to compensate vendors along major transportation construction, San Francisco did not apply for this money and as a result many businesses along Third had to close or suffered extreme hardship. Many in the community believe that this was part of the City’s plan to push them out because the majority of the businesses and properties are owned by Blacks.

This is not the first time the whole re-development team has gotten together and has tried to pull sneaky moves to reach their objectives. James Tracy, a former Organizer with the Eviction Defense Network, recalls what occurred in the North Beach redevelopment: “the development team (not just John Stewart) tried to negotiate a provision where any extremely low-income unit could be converted to higher income “affordable” units if vacated for any reason. This would have resulted in the supply of available ELI units shrinking over time.” Luckily this didn’t happen. Why? The community organized, got motivated, and beat the developers.

This is not a completely hopeless situation. BayView Hunter’s Point has been built on the foundation of community activism, organizing, and empowerment. This is not the first time the BayView has been threatened. In the 1940s—with racial tensions running high—the community forced the City to not take their housing. “The key to a thriving, but non-gentrified neighborhood is the same no matter where it is: organized communities able to exert power on both public and private entities.” James Tracy is right. Communities united are a much stronger force—stronger than government or big developers because they are the voice and the will of the people. I pick up a cup of coffee from the corner store and watch another MUNI, full of working folk, pass me by; this time the ad is splashed across the side of the transporter. Discover Neighborhood Treasures: BayView!

Come and join us at POOR Magazine’s teach-ins with the residents of the threatened housing projects in Alice Griffith and Hunter’s View in May and be part of the City’s hidden treasure: the thriving, striving, and surviving community that is Hunter’s Point/BayView.

by Staff Writer

OBJECTIVE: The creation of a collaborative media training, resource, support and PR center for the first-ever US Social Forum this summer in Atlanta. This grassroots center will create media coverage, documentation and first-person storytelling of the Forum through a journalistic model that up-ends traditional relationships between reporter/subject, rich/poor, white/non-white, citizen/undocumented, able-bodied/disabled (among others). By privileging the unheard voices of the movements with media access and support, the Grassroots Media Center will resist corporate control of media production and create a model of community/people-led news-making in the tradition of POOR/PNN’s Community Newsrooms for use in Atlanta and beyond long after the USSF

The media center’s work can be separated into several components:

1) Preparation: PR and Outreach.
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Before the Forum, it will be crucial that respectful and appropriate outreach is done for key groups, organizations or individuals who could most benefit from the Media Center but may not be aware of its resources. The focus in the outreach work will be in making personal connections and addressing the barriers such groups experience when creating their own media. This work will result in the recruitment, before and during the Forum, of the grassroots activists and organizers who will do core-issue reporting in collaboration with the media center.
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This outreach effort will be mirrored by the work of a PR team who will establish relationships with major media outlets through press releases, PSAs, web and other media. This work will bring forth the media interest needed to obtain mainstream coverage of the Forum.

2) On-site Training and Support of Community Journalists, Media Activists and Voices of Resistance.

Poor Magazine’s Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute will lead media workshops at the USSF. These will train and offer resources to attendees as reporters and storytellers in various forms of digital media (radio, web/print, and video).
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Poor Magazine Poverty Scholars will provide daily on-site media training in the production of non-colonizing, community integrated media coverage on the issues of the forum.
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A daily (afternoon) media production strategy meetings, (led by Poor Magazine Poverty Scholars and attended by the USSF PR personnel, independent media producers, and all media volunteers) stories and press liaisons to outside media will be discussed and assigned to community journalists.
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Poor Magazine Interns and other independent media producers and volunteers will facilitate equipment access and support story completion/delivery at Forum Media Center. (Intern duties will include equipment management, technical support, transcription, translation, and helping with phone and web communications).
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Ongoing tech workshops will help train and support attendees to use equipment as needed.

Scenario 1: Independent media producer from KPFK in LA would support/facilitate with John X race, poverty scholar and survivor of police brutality to cover a workshop on police brutality and the prison industrial complex for radio and on-line media-

Scenario 2; John x would be one of the spokespeople for that morning’s Press Conference to Corporate media and part of the corporate media headline production

2) Integration/Infiltration of Corporate Media Coverage with Grassroots Journalists and Journalism. The Grassroots Media Center will create its own diverse body of documentation of the USSF (radio, print and TV) while co-opting corporate media coverage with community reporting and press liaisons:
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Journalists at the media center will produce on-the-ground reporting on the events, people and ideas of the Social Forum. To be fed to partnering media organizations (KPFA in Berkeley, Indymedia, among others) via radio, internet and TV. The reporting created by grassroots journalists will be fed to mainstream media organizations whenever possible.
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The PR working group (part of the media center) will hold daily morning press conferences for both community journalists and mainstream media. This daily event will assign and check in on stories by Center journalists, as well as feed leads to the corporate press and pair them with journalists and press liaisons who will assist them finding and creating their coverage. All corporate media will make and maintain contact with the USSF through the PR group working at the media center.
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A PR working group will strategize community story coverage and communication with the corporate media at daily afternoon production meetings with the collaborating groups and journalists of the media center (POOR magazine/PoorNewsNetwork(PNN), other local and national partners).

3) Systematic Documentation
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Breakout sessions will train digital storytellers to create radio, print and video pieces in a narrative (rather than journalistic) format. These documentary-style pieces will be made using first-person, observational and investigative techniques (not always possible in a journalistic format). These stand-alone pieces may also be integrated into a longer documentary on the Forum as a whole.
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A documentary crew (who will also participate in POOR/PNN’s media workshops) will also be on-site at the Forum to shoot events and key interviews as determined by the Media Center Council. This footage will serve as the backbone of a comprehensive documentary about the US Social Forum, and will ensure effective video coverage of the week’s events. Some documentary pieces and journalism produced through the Media Center may integrated into this longer piece.

4) Final documentary and Compilation DVD. After the Forum, the documentary producers, in collaboration with Forum media center journalists and organizers, will edit a comprehensive video showing the week’s events, people and ideas.
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The final documentary will be packaged onto a DVD with a complete collection of all the media (video, radio, and print) produced at the Media Center. This will provide an hour-by-hour archive of the Forum’s events as well as a powerful collection of grassroots documentary pieces by attendee journalists.
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As part of this proposal, an outreach strategy for effectively using distributing, exhibiting and teaching with this DVD will be developed, using website outreach and delivery as well as local and national community networks and exhibition opportunities.

5) Nationwide Community Newsroom Network, with new locations in Atlanta and beyond… In the process of creating and implementing the Grassroots Media Center in Atlanta during the USSF, a longer-term goal of the Center will be to build the capacity, resources and connections to maintain a sustainable weekly Community Newsroom in Atlanta based on a model established by POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, also establishing freelance reporting opportunities for all poverty , race, youth and disability scholars with POOR/PNN and other media agencies relationships with Visiting activists and journalists will also leave the Forum with clear guidelines and connections to begin similar newsrooms across the country. The relationships fostered during the Forum will allow these diverse locations to establish a national network of Newsrooms, sharing stories, information and resources to build on.

Media Center Schedule

Media Center will be open 7am – 12midnight (???) to facilitate equipment access, support and story delivery.

Day One (Wed)

Media Center Events

Forum Events: March, Festival and Opening Program (including performances by the Po’ Poets and Welfare Queens)

Other: Documentary crew will be shooting arrivals and preparations for conference as well as all the events of the first day.

Days Two – Four (Thurs, Fri, Sat)

Media Center Events

Forum Events: Poor Magazine Poverty Scholars will host events and panels to address issues of criminalization of poverty, poverty voyeurism and key strategies for media resistance (see description below). The Po’ Poets and Welfare Queens will also perform when possible at events at the Forum.

Other: Documentary crew will be shooting key events and interviews through these days.

Day Five (Sun)

Media Center Events: 9AM FINAL Press Conference. 3PM FINAL Production and Strategy meeting - next steps and how we will maintain our work and connections after the Forum.

Forum Events: Final Forum Events, Concert, Youth-Led Music Event

Other: Documentary crew will be shooting key events and interviews and final wrap up events and goodbyes.

On-going Forum Events to be covered (an incomplete list at this point):
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Family Reunion and BBQ for the former inmates, their families and the families of those currently incarcerated.
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Unity Soccer Tournament
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Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign Tent City/Marches, etc
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Youth Led Space
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Queer Tent Space
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Women’s Working Group Space and Events
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Post-Forum Timeline

TBA – a schedule for delivery of final edited documentary and DVD compilation of works.
Participants at the Media Center will create a plan to maintain connections and continue their work at Community Newsrooms in their hometowns.

MEDIA CENTER COUNCIL

This group will be made up of the scholars and instructors from Poor’s Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute, documentary lead producers, and key members of the Communication Working Group (especially PR and any liaisons with the corporate media), including local media and organizing partners. This group will establish the organizing principles of the Center, fulfill development and implementation of the Center, locate resources and funding, and collaborate with community journalists about the priorities and coverage to be created by the Media Center.

Members:

Poor Magazine Scholars/Teachers (8-10 people)

POOR Magazine is a non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to providing revolutionary media access, education, as well as advocacy and resources to very low and no income adults and youths locally and globally. POOR produces several forms of media covering issues such as racism, poverty, police brutality, the criminal (in) justice system, gentrification and homelessness through the voices of the real experts, what we at POOR call poverty and race scholars, those who have experienced/lived through these positions of oppression themselves. POOR accomplishes these goals by producing a Pacifica radio show, online news service, a public access TV segment and print edition of POOR Magazine, a literary, visual arts publication. Another arm of POOR’s media resistance is its Race Poverty and Media Justice Institute, which provides extensive training in media, journalism and multimedia to people living in poverty, and struggling to survive and resist.

POOR Magazine was founded over ten years ago from nothing by a homeless mother/daughter team. Throughout its history POOR Magazine has worked tirelessly to get the real voices of poor people heard to stop the criminalization and marginalization of poor people all over the world, which we believe is furthered by messages created by corporate media. POOR is trying to create real change by fighting these messages, stereotypes and structures that allow poverty to continue all over the world. By changing the hands of the mic from those who are simply poverty voyeurists to those who have experienced poverty, welfare, racism, disability, immigration issues, homelessness and/or incarceration, POOR Magazine continues to challenge its viewers, listeners and readers to fight the lies and misconceptions the corporate media produces everyday about poor folks of color.

Poor Magazine Interns (4-6 people)
Poor Magazine interns have studied and worked with Poor as journalists and allies. These volunteers will facilitate smooth running of the Media Center. Must be proficient in web and digital audio and video programs.

Documentary Producer:
Gretchen Hildebran

Gretchen Hildebran is a filmmaker with a creative passion for social justice. Before starting Stanford’s Documentary Program in 2003, she worked as an advocate for formerly homeless adults confronting issues of poverty, mental health and substance abuse.

She also taught video production to at-risk Bay Area youth through TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools). She also interned as a community journalist with Poor Magazine, a media training and resistance program for and by homeless and no-income people. In collaboration with Poor Magazine, she produced and directed a television campaign opposing a local ballot measure that proposed to cut aid to homeless people in San Francisco.

Her documentaries include the internationally screened CARVE, WORTH SAVING, (which was presented in HBO’s 2004 Frame by Frame documentary showcase) and OUT IN THE HEARTLAND. Gretchen is currently based out of New York and is producing a series of short videos to train California law enforcement about needle exchange.

Other Members: (need more info on these)

Local group representation: Indymedia Atlanta, WRFG (free speech radio station), and others TBA

Community Outreach Working Group

Media Center Technical Directors – members of Communication working group

Press Relations working group (reps and liaisons)

Media Center Equipment/Technical Needs:

1)Location: secure, consistent on-site space, available for all hours of the conference. One large room which can accommodate meetings and workshops of 20-50 people, and 2-3 smaller rooms available for breakout sessions, interviews, workshops, etc.

2)Workshops/Production Meetings:
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White board/butcher paper
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Notebooks
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Pens
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Markers
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Tape
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TV monitor (with DVD/VCR attached if possible)
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Video Projector (pie in the sky – but then we could have nightly screenings of work)

3)Tech needs:
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High Speed Internet Access
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Long-distance telephone lines (3?)
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3-5 Telephones, with conference-call ability

4) Equipment needs: Computer lab:
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up to 10 computer workstations, high-speed internet ready, with functional word processing, photo processing and web applications. Several of these workstations should have digital audio and video software included.
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500 GB hard drive space for media storage
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2 black and white printers.
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Cables, power strips as needed

Equipment resources (to be checked out by journalists/storytellers):
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up to 10 still digital cameras
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up to 20 minidisc recorders
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(40) minidiscs
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up to 10 minidv videocameras

NAQs (Never Asked Questions) From the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR

1. What is non-colonizing, community-rooted media production?

Media production that is led, designed and shaped by the people traditionally "seen" and "heard" as the "subject" of the news; i.e., poor folks, disabled, youth, incarcerated, houseless, elders, families, day laborers, working poor, etc. These are the leaders at POOR Magazine. We have created a new form of scholarship - a new canon of poverty, race, youth and disability scholarz. As folks who have experienced these positions of oppression first-hand we have personally felt, struggled, understood, dealt with and solved the extremely complex problems related to living and surviving through our lives.

The other crucial and radical aspect of this news is that it is led by what it can do for the community, not the reporter, the corporation, the news service. So for instance, a corporate media series "on homelessness" is created to "talk about what we can do about homelessness" - whereas our kind of media production would be led by the homeless folks themselves and would focus specifically on getting folks housed or dealing with issues affecting the homeless folks at the place where they convene or a law, policy or form of harassment impacting us such as the rise in criminalization of houseless people.

This concept of a caring and rooted media is contrary to most media production; corporate and independent, which is inherently voyeuristic- reporters come in and do the story - perhaps they "embed" or follow the story for a period of time - they write, report or produce the media and then go on the next story. Our form of media production isn't "embedded" or on a story for a period of time - its an integral part of community problem solving and community care-giving: to re-unite CPS (Child Proctective Services) separated families, to embarrass a landlord into stepping away from an illegal eviction, to stop a gentrification effort, to open the NIMBY-istic locked bathrooms of a neighborhood park for the use of undocumented workers, to name a few of the campaigns that POOR has collaborated on.

This form of media production plays one more important role- as a direct advocate and support. For example, reporting is only one part of creating change when it comes to the pending eviction of an African Descendent elder. Other work would include helping her with all parts of her life, including the worst-case scenario of helping her to move and find a new apartment.

2. Why should these voices lead media production? Why is it important to create this kind of Press room/press community (space) and why do these voices matter?

When our voices as poverty and race scholars shape our stories, the activism and the media organizing efforts are from the "inside." We know what we need - we know what needs to be done - for our communities, for our families, for our world.

3. How do Indymedia, other community-rooted and local media and corporate media integrate into this project?

All forms of media partners are an extremely important part of this project’s concept. We define the roles of these groups/organizations as supportive partners. This is an effort to break through the hierarchal position these media entities often hold in the structures of production and the inherent education privileges of most of these professionals.

Our vision is that corporate media actually listens and has a mutual exchange with the lead poverty, race and disability scholars who are the core sources and reporters on the story.

Independent media- just like POOR’s interns- should be filling what we call the role of media facilitator. This means to facilitate the media production/stories of the poverty race, youth and disability scholars, through listening and mutual critique, media analysis, writing, technological capacity-building, and ultimately co-authorship.

PARTICIPATION SCENARIOS:

Scenario #1: A community group of undocumented laborers is attending the conference to draw attention to and support around harassment they experience in their home community. Once at the Forum, the group finds out about the media center and sends two representatives to report on the group’s work at home and at the Forum. The community journalists are connected with Poor Poverty Scholars who are also undocumented workers, paired with independent journalists who assist them in pitching, writing and producing their stories. These stories are posted online and broadcast on national radio affiliates. At the morning Media Center press conference, the PR liaison asks if they’d like to be interviewed by a local reporter who is covering issues about immigration at the Forum. They educate the reporter about the issues that brought their group to the Forum and bring her to the plenary session that afternoon on immigrant civil rights.

Scenario #2: An independent print journalist attends the conference in order to report on the anti-war movement. At the Media Center, the journalist is assigned to work with a group of youth reporting on military recruiting in their schools. The journalist facilitates the youth find and pitching stories, and gives assistance with finding sources and doing interviews, as well as feedback on their final stories. The journalist gets invaluable insight into the lack of resources available in many school districts and writes a companion piece about education funding and militarism. The pieces are all posted together online.

Scenario #3: The local paper decides to cover the Forum when they learn about the Family Reunion and BBQ for former inmates, their families and the families of those currently incarcerated. The reporter covering the story is told to attend a morning press conference to find out more information about the event. The paper is also contacted with a press release by a press liaison assigned to the Reunion. The press liaison is also a trained community journalist with a personal connection to the event. The liaison pitches a story on the event to the paper and meets with them before the BBQ to discuss it. The liaison brings the reporter to the event, and introduces them to several other community members, all of who feature prominently in the final story.

by Joseph Bolden

Have You Wash Folks Flipped?

Yes,it’s a question,I thought being a so called Republic,capitol of Democracy this stuff didn’t happen anymore as with other cities.

Washington still has bugs in its system like everyone else’s.

Let me explain,a friend of mine recently moved there learning,works, earning,getting housed,and networking.

Though we never see eye to eye and anything political she being a political savant,me using my sense history,of lifes lessons rarely came to the same conclusions though socially there is no one I would trust if my life too more than she.

Today,on Myspace (yes,old guy me on myspace.com)

She took a web photo of me as a joke when I visited her place my own pc is still not working thanks to me unable to pay the phone bill for months now years at a time.

Anyway,I read her bulletin (public myspace communiqué’) to those on its site for various ads, promotions,movie/tv premieres,tickets, bookings,to artist’s their shows or personal appearance’s,and economic opportunities,also it’s a gathering of like minded souls(excluding myself) for get-togethers social and/or personal reasons.

Used it as date site reminds me change profile excluding 18-25 years olds
30-40+ for me-mature women's energies more dynamic most younger ladied too delicate at least in my experience.

I can say I met one person through this though at the we both has prior appointments preventing us from seeing each other socially.

Let's get to the awful incidents happening to my friend in Washington,D.C. so called seat of democracy.

It’s a long bulletin so I’ll try to get to its gist by Mari.



Date: May

9,20077:40 AM.

Which is 10:40AM in San Francisco (3 hrs. behind for me forward for her.

(In her own words on a myspace bulletin)

Oh,Myspace users are 80’s-90’s folk use phonetically sounding out words,making up,or creating new ones so bare with me.

Subject "Redbone", "Redskin", "Pochantas", "Chiefin"

SO since I been here in the DC metro area, I have heard some

words str8 up overt overt overt racial slurs agianst Native f

folks that are so commonly accepted to say around the first

one of course is "Redskins", cuz of that stupid foot ball team

(which makes me hate professional football even more)

then I heard "chiefin" which was told to me is someone

smoking weed,and when I point out that the word Chief is in I

it,everyone is like oh yeah... like the light turns on or

something...

People have called me Pochantas when I walked down the

street,and even have yanked my braids to the point where my

head goes back (it was men who have done this)... I have been

called Pochantas many times before,esp in the bay area

growing up... but have never had my hair pulled back in a

sexualized way while it was said...

Then the other day someone was breaking down DC slang to

me,and they said I would be called a "Redbone". I have never

heard of this word ever before,but my heart cringed and I got

upset. I was like why would someone call me that? I was

pointed out that it had nothing to do with my Native ancestry

but my light skin... I knew this was probulay a messed up word

for mixed race folks like the word "mulatto". so I wikipedia

it... here is what is says... and it is messed up! I do not have an

"unknown" ancestry! I dont know how to deal with all the very

overt racism that is so commonly accepted, sometimes I feel

like I am in old school days... Its not just white folks either, its

all folks! Actually many Raza folks defend these words... esp

since many see themselves without any native roots, since

many call themselves "Spanish" or "Hispanic", which both

honor the Spanish (AKA colonizer) but stay clear of have any drop of Native ancestry.

Yeah,DC is very hard when it comes to this... I mean I have to

agrue about why saying these things are wrong... its very

draining... esp if I speak about the word "Redskins" I mean

people try to dress like stereotypes of NAtive folks on those

games days and think its ok...

ANy advice peoples? I am going crazy here...

Redbone (ethnicity)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Redbones, are a mixed blood group of people of unknown

ancestry. Often times light skinned,African Americans are

referred to as redbones, particularly,females. Many of these

people may in fact have some of the ethnicities mentioned

below, but due to it being much diluted refer to themselves as

Black or African American. The multi-ethnic Redbone group

below are not part of the African American community.

Possible Roots

The ancestry is said to consist of a combination of two or

more of the following ethnicities; Northern European,

Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Native American

and African ancestry of various degrees and mixtures. The

origin of this group is probably from Southern states,where many minorities freely mixed.

The Native American tribes in these groups may include the

Choctaw,Creek, Chickasaw,Coushatta, Cheraw,Tuscarora,

Nansemond and members of the Powhatan Confederation.

Names

Redbones often have these surnames;Ashworth,

Bass,

Bedgood,Bennett,

Butters,Buxton,Chavis,

Clark,Cloud,Cole,

Collins,Davis,Dial,

Doyle,Dyess,

Garland,

Gibbs,Gibson,

Goings,Green,Hall,

Hyatt,James,Johnson,

Keith,Maddox,

Mayo,Mullins,Moore,

Nash,Nelson,Orr,

Perkins,Pinder,Rivers,

Short,Smiling,

Strother,Sweat,

Thompson,Ware,White,

Willis,Wisby

There's no Pt.II.

I already had my say publicly on the matter replying to myspace bulletin.

for Mari who's politically,socially savy to fight this using media of radio and or tv.

My column may do little to help but...

I want her knowing how incensed I am at her treatment.

Years ago,don’t know how long we're walking up Market Street in San Francisco near my residence I hear"Bitch"by a guy just ahead of Mari and behind me.

I am a quiet person, rather run than fight out of conflict.

Though my martial arts is rusty a quick side fist to head or throat can stun anyeone for a few minutes.

I felt quick rage with- in me for this loud slight to my friend.

I heard it she may have too.

Quick,I asked the guy

"What did you say, apologize!

The brother looks at me and the Mari saying

"S-sorry,I didn’t mean her,talkin’to myself."

I’m still,pissed,hot- ready.

Mari says "Joe,saw my face,the guy,instantly gets it walks us faster past my place.
"Never seen you like that."(unless angry at something else).

Surprised me too,guess some of the New Yorker in me and mama's and Catholic training of respect for women.

My advise for her was travel with friends.

I know most of D.C. are full of dedicated,devoted, intelligent,and

emotionally balance folk.

But somewhere there are others who are making our capitol

look F'd up.

you must find these idiotic dullards

and not take this crap from 'em.

If ever a stupid guy does attempt it again.

She is within her rights to

punch,hit,use heels-on-foot or

the most

painful grab a handful of groin,pull hard,punch,knee,or

otherwise aim a kick to their scrotum.

In her defense.

Attack-The-Sack.

He gets personal.

You get personal.

Even though its awful

to do all women have the

right to

protect themselves from imminent harm.

And not because its

good for a laugh.

Mari can because she is fear of bodily harm.

[She Has Already Been Harmed!]

She’s not in Washington now.

I hope she brushes up or takes more defense courses in light of

this incidence.

If Mari moves away from Washington.

It is Washington that has loses more than a good solid worker in equal justice for all.

This is how nations
getbrain drained because of the

stupidty of some of its so called civilized citizens!

A great human being of honor,ability,strength of character and is a poorer nation because

of such insensitive, inane,stupid childishness of these so called men?

The whole of

Washington’s other men and women should find these men and have

them publicly shamed for their act of cowardice and warped stupidity

because it can lead to worse things.

I dislike thinking what my resolve would be if anything else happened to her its bad enough at what has already occured.

What have you Got to Say People of Washington?

Guys,Fathers,Son's,Brothers or relatives in/of Washington Area.

What would you do if this happened to your Mother,daughter,sister,GF, or relative(s)employer/ee you know and and respect?

Any comments go to Ask/

Tell Joe at

Poormagazine.org or send views to Myspace.com.

by Joseph Bolden

A Night Of Stars or
A Night With The Stars

Quicky Review

Ok,this has to be somewhat quick because of time.

Soon,I’ll be a working desk clerk somewhere in the City.

Last night I a free bus ride to and from The Brava Theater where the event was held.

There was great appetizers of fried balls of meat,chicken pockets, chocolate Moose,and fruit

topped with cream along with bread,wine,water,

and juice drinks.

Many people I’ve not seen years are there.

Ms.Janice Edwards,NBC11 is Mistress of Ceremonies.

Sometimes before she can introduce the talent most people knew who they are.

She tells who from for each performer

keeps the continuity of the show for those not knowing the players who were performing that night.

Rocky start but with technical problems though all the talent on stage are ready everyone is ready, seated for the show.

(1) April Zinn,"Da Movement.

Ms. Zinn seems boneless in her effortless timed movements.

(2) Charlie Sharp, "Vision" Knew I missed it so I’ll go on.

(3) Dwight "Butch" Jones rendition of "Back To One"

A rousing romantic power ballad of a love had the audience who know its

lyrics place fingers counting in time to the Mr. Jones powerful artistic

soulful singing of this popular tune.

(4) Mark Myer’s–"A poem About The Donner Party" is serious yet with tongue planted slight if not firmly in cheek.

The audience loved Mr. Myer’s way of reciting a gruesome lesson of historical significance.

(5) John "Jonikhan" King –"Let Me"

About a individuals plight and the laws of the land song made

many pause listing to lyrics,melody,and strumming Mr. King’s guitar.

A great set.

(6)Neaplensah Yarnway– "Day-Day & The Jazzy Girls"

All I can say is I was Conflicted between the younger girls,one you man, and a very enthused young women

in the background dancing up a storm.

Yeah,tried keeping eyes on all the dancers but the young woman in the back was really shaking her all and the whole audience (especially males)

had to take notice in our defense I say we

couldn’t help seeing here most of us were

completely under and ancient tribal hynotic trance.

Only afte the dance is over did most of us recover from the heady dancing.

The two glasses of water I had drunk deserted me through perspiration.

(7)Tony Thomas–"Home" Mr. Thomas’s way of singing ‘home’ pleased the crowd.

The song about a someone’s who’s job or career

keeps him on the road and all he wants is get back to his loved one is a sad yearning that by the

lyrics end his journey is where he will end up "HOME"

All the people on stage are talented and judges found it difficult choosing which one of the stars would be number one.

But Neaplensah Yarnway – "Day-Day & The Jazzy Girls"

are the winners some mumbling of the crowds to do over but the

judges word decision is final.

Day-Day’s Jazzy Girls win over very talented compition.

With that some

more eats downstairs out in the lobby,

some mingling,hand shaking,ice-water,

and its time for me and others to take a return bus safely home what a great night.

Who knows,I might try my voice next year but dancing is out (maybe if I can do both simutaneously in rythm to music its possible).