Story Archives 2008

by T.J. Johnston/Special to PNN

As of two weeks ago, the staff was bracing for a June 29 closing date, but no final decision on the center's fate has yet been made, said shelter manager Trina Johnson. This comes in the wake of the March 31 closing of Buster’s Place, the city's only 24-hour resource center for homeless people.

Johnson also said that Mayor Gavin Newsom doesn't realize the effect the possible closing would have on staff and people staying there.

"Clients talk to us and feel safe. We have a community," Johnson said. Once homeless herself, she also said she wouldn't turn people away from the shelter.

Neither Human Service Agency Director Trent Rohrer nor Dariush Kayhan, the mayor's homeless policy director, have responded to requests for comment.

Ella Hill Hutch, located in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, is also a youth center that provides education, crime and violence prevention, employment, recreation and other community involvement programs for low- and moderate-income residents.

Johnson said the space might be used for nighttime activities for neighborhood youth, though she doubts anybody would come for a midnight basketball game.

Up to one hundred people line up nightly outside the center as early as 8:30 p.m. to sleep on a mat in the gymnasium from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Most of them secure a spot through the city’s CHANGES computerized reservation system, but some disabled people, recent hospital discharges and people just arriving in town are also accommodated.

Those turned away from the center are referred to shelters at 150 Otis St., Episcopal Sanctuary or Providence Baptist Church.

Shelter monitor Christopher Nolan criticized Newsom's promotion of the appearance of solving homelessness while he stands sentry as homeless people pick up their pillows and blankets.

"It's sad they don't have a backup (for a new shelter)," Nolan said.

Before his current job, Nolan worked for five years at the McMillan Drop-in Center at 39 Fell St. before it closed in 2006. He believes the mayor's appeal for funding in Washington, D.C. last year without addressing permanent housing needs was a hollow gesture.

"When everything starts falling like dominoes, and the mayor goes to D.C. and brags on how the shelter system is good … why don’t they call him on his shit?" Nolan said. Just because people are homeless doesn't make them hopeless, he added.

Homeless people like Warren McCormack also disapprove of the closing. McCormack has been homeless for two months. As a bipolar SSI recipient, he said shelters should provide supportive services, such as in-house psychological counseling.

"Everybody's materialistic out here," McCormack said, citing increases in housing costs. He also observed a racial dynamic as to who could afford living in the city. "Over by Glide (Memorial Church in the Tenderloin), not one black person owns a home there. There's a lot of tensions," he said.

Roy Hill, a thin, graying Massachusetts native who is seven years homeless, said hotels could house homeless people. "They need to get SROs for everybody, instead of closing the center," he said.

Cat, a San Francisco native who returned from Portland, Ore. on April 2, sid he hopes the center remains open. "I know a lot of people depend on this place," said.

Because he has family in the city, Cat is optimistic about his housing situation.

"I'm glad they have these places,” Cat said. "If they leave this place, one door closes and another one opens."

"It really affects me and the clients (at Ella Hill Hutch), and (Newsom) really needs to hear us speak," Johnson said.

by Joseph Bolden

The vagaries of,birth, life,illness,and death vary from human to human.

Lady or old man death swings the scythe and were gone.

We know how fragile our lives are,we dwell not as often as we use to given our so-called
improved sanitary,medical/technical skills still being discovered and rediscovered.

It’s one thing to die from fatal disease brought on by rodents,birds, tainted cow’s flesh,or plague unknown and or airborne but dying at random is all the more tragic for its out-of-no where-ness.

Recently as last early last night or early dawn, time isn’t pin pointed as yet.

Mr. Jason,a desk clerk in the San Cristina While visiting his Grandmother in Hayes Valley was shot in the head and killed!

For what and why besides unknown we tenants in our one-room dwellings.

We don’t know all we know for sure is that Jason’s sudden death is a shock!

Living in the tenderloin is hazardous like all areas where danger is common its citizen’s do what they can to blend in and not be seen as targets of opportunity from certain prowlers awaiting their victims.

Some of us act 51/50, [crazed or nutty] carry hidden or on our person weapons varying in size,shape,blunt or sharp, move about believing it more difficult to hit moving targets.

There are many modes of self-preservation.

My own varies from concealing a weapon to moving about the city,which was first learned in Los Angeles when the box or freight car killings occurred in the skid row areas of West L.A.

Though I wasn’t a complete loner there was a few buddies we’d walk with we wouldn’t acknowledge our fears but we knew it is safer to be seen as a group than alone.

This is my main reason when good friends drop by especially women buddies.

I make sure they're safe from harm when in the bathroom or walking them to a nearby bart or bus station.

Jason,a personable, regular guy,worked,earns his money and is killed in Hayes Valley away from the Tenderloin.

I'm told about this early today Monday, April. 28,2008,Jason may was killed Sunday at about 9pm.

It’s still a world where my life is a tightrope, I must balance for safety.

I still wonder at the

trust of women whom feel safe along side me or any males for that matter.

Why was Mr. Jason,from what I observed,a decent, young black man working as a desk clerk murdered whether by accident or design for what?

It tells me black folk are still not accorded equality in this killing field Amerikkka.

As Jewish,Arabs, African’s,and Cuban’s other nationalities can express their views about their land and his/her stories I can speak of this land also in equally negative tones.

Oddly funny that especially when Black American's speak on the dark side of America...
the mainstream or what was the majority population tries to drown or silence it.

The truth hurts better it hurt now than let if fester and turn to puss filled cesspool.

Maybe Presidential Candidate Obama’s Preacher says what he says in his church,on his pulpit is true because as young child,adolescent,and adulthood he
saw the evil that a society where laws were specifically set up against of race of people his people were and to some extent are still set against.

Could the problem be that race still the problem in 21st century because it hasn’t yet been resolved in the 20th ?

I’m wondering if the protest against a pastor or preacher’s words is fear of the ever widening chasm of race,class,and economically driven disparity.

Those questions are too heady for me to dwell on.

All I know–is a young black man,working a low wage job,in one
of the most dangerous areas of San Francisco inner city,he wasn't even in the Tenderloin but Hayes Valley
has died,is dead!

Not from a plague infested animals, insects, cancer,high blood pressure, diabetes,or unknown hidden medical condition of arterial heart valve problem.

He was a healthy black male shot to death in San Francisco and for what reason?

Brother men/Women rainbow folks.

THIS IS STILL A KILLING FIELD,I DON’T BELIEVE ITS ALL THAT RANDOM!

And what of those healthy young collage men last seen slightly intoxicated and last seen drowned!

Their parent(s),friends, and loved ones too want to know... WHY?

IF ANYONE HAS INFORMATION PLEASE SEND TO

Jsph_bldn@yahoo.com or local authorities, sometimes they do stop crime,get their suspects.

by Leroy Moore/PNN

I found out three years ago that history is long and deep when I came across a 1943 book entitled The Black Cripple by Richard Keverne. As most of my readers and listeners know, I wrote a poem in 1992 called The Black Kripple and now use this as my radio dj name as well.

I knew when I came up with the idea of having a radio series on Hip-Hop artists with disabilities called Krip-Hop three years ago that there were many musicians with disabilities all over the world and my idea wasn't new. But what I didn’t know when I started this project was how our music (musicians with disabilities) was about to explode and become a major force nationally and internationally on alternative radio stations, in books and now on the big screen.

As a researcher\journalist in the area of race, disability and music, I'm hyped to see new crop of documentaries about musicians with disabilities who are not the Ray Charleses or Stevie Wonders of the world. This new crop of documentaries is about disabled musicians, who are in the struggle everyday. These documentaries that I'm about to mention are from all over the world from Staff Benda Bilili in the Congo (check out the interview on www.poormagazine.org) and Liyana in Zimbabwe to Heavy Load of the UK, the upcoming Half a Soulja and 4Wheel City of New York and H.U.S.H. from my hometown in CT, just name a few. These musicians cover a whole range of music from Rumba-blues. tribal-salsa, world music to Punk to Hip-Hop.

The Krip-Hop Project will have a panel at the Hip-Hop Journalism Association conference in New York in October to discuss these upcoming Hip-Hop documentaries staring real disabled Hip-Hop artists. Because of all of these new documentaries, the Krip-Hop Project is on a mission to get as much press as possible behind this amazing work through printed interviews and radio play and on websites like www.krip-hop.com, www.poormagazine.org,
www.hhja.org and more.

So please let’s get these documentaries in the public eye. If you
have a press packet, or can offer a sample of your documentary to be played on my radio show or any other radio show that I have contact with, or pictures or CDs of the sound track, please send them to me by mail or email at

Krip-Hop Project\Leroy
1370 University Ave #316
Berkeley, CA. 94702 USA

kriphopproject@yahoo.com

by Joseph Bolden

Hidden Male Discrimination

This is just blowin’ off steam about our not so hidden discrimination.
From the cell phone-call me-gf/bf on dates to endearing one way tomboy
between time of girls and clothes.

1. Why go on dates with mobile in hand unless its used for extreme job related emergencies not merely as (ditch guy thing) its used on guys more then women and you know it Grrrls.


2. Notice how its cute for girls to be tomboys but not a girly-boy.


3. As for clothes yes women pay more but in defense they by the clothes sold by mostly male designers while men are straight jacketed into basic man-suit shirt,panes,tie,shorts, under/over shirts,and socks.

If a few men do break out its deemed sort of off.

Like Mumble’s the dancing Penguin in Happy Feet until his unique abilities save his people.

All I’m saying is all things being equal which they aren’t women have more choices than men but as men begin to balk,
as men take their blinders off, ignore the female equation, realize just as some women love saying men are no longer needed its an equal quote for men.

Sure women give birth they also can take life away.

Why are men the best chefs because most women have abdicated that post.

Suddenly we find men are great nurturer’s when given a chance.

Well,women are being all they can be but let the same be of men and women begin to freak big time.

How come men cannot where women’s clothes but women can wear men’s there is a fundamental unfairness to the sexes.

The truism I want to personally change is that of married guys living longer than single men.

Women If widowed women and single ladies enjoy being single with less hassles from men then let men be themselves.

Without pressure to marry,reproduce,let us live our lives,love whom we want as you have.

Or is it like the Marriage union of man and woman married couples feel the institution is threatened or weakened by same sex life long unions?

I believe its no longer a joke that marriage same sex couples may be a stronger bond,

really show what love means beyond the traditional concept.

This delay tactic is “FEAR OF A STRONGER UNION” of same sex than traditional.

If traditional male/fem marriage is so strong put it to a test give same sex a twenty year test legitimately see how it works in reality.

I believe traditionalists are showing their fear of change that maybe the institution needs an amendment to prop up a dying system.

For bachelors as myself the only way to beat this married men live longer statistic is to actively take charge of our lives.

If that means drinking, smoking,less,or no drugs then we do it.

It may mean not following by rote but take notes from T. Lycos or listening to Love Line.

Face it guys,women do have alternate emotive built ways of seeing men; be a mean jerk they go after you.

Be quiet,sensitive,no play from ‘em.

However a third choice is to me no woman’s doormat,be your own unique self,captain your soul,
treat women equally no favorites and have as many as you want but tell 'em no strings or commitment.

If they agree – good if not move on and if they decide to flip the scipt change the game – you move on.

Women have always had the Veto the main thing all of them are not the same. What’s that movie “Wizard” where the main character says
“One dream beats a thousand realities.”

What’s really said in any place where people gather socially you may hear 1000 ‘no’s you don’t think of them the one “yes” you hear and concentrate on the yes’s.

We men must take care of our own health women have learned that so should we.

We’re really unselfish when it comes to women wanting to please them, love them,and provide for
but they lets face it guys they are more practiced in the arts of survival than we had to be.

We use our strength, power,will to subjugate bend nature,people,to our will but that no longer applies we need to be as subtle,supple,cunning,and wily as
women have mastered the art of seeing women not as objects, trophies,or scores but as an opponent if not enemy and also drop this competition.

Why? It boosts their ego,lowers ours and until two boxers,wrestlers, or mixed sex football, baseball, basketball,soccer,bowling, golf,you name it as there’s a stigma to

“Beating a girl(s) /woman(en) men will never have a fair deal.

Question: If a man normally 4x as strong as the average woman is challenged by a woman who has been bodybuilding five or more years who will win the contest the man or woman?

Answer: If you said the man. You’d be wrong
because normally men would be stronger but against a bodybuilding woman with five plus years of training experience will win the contest.

I know because years ago that challenge was up to me by a female training me to challenge a body building woman who had two years training ahead of me.

I wouldn’t be baited and explained “She has two years experience of course she’s stronger than I am.”

I had used logic in place of emotional pride.
I believe when women challenge men sometimes its fun when they challenge us but more and more its not a game.

Many times women have trained to not only to win but to beat and humiliate also and for what to prove superiority in male dominated fields.

We should wake up,take care of ourselves and live longer with or without women who love shatter our so called fragile ego’s

Men are so resilient if we weren’t women wouldn’t still be so hot to beat us,shame us,at every turn.

The best thing to do when women go ape shit is

leave 'em alone to act out what ever is eating them and not using it as an excuse to bash men.

One more thing,women are allowed to act crazy in public.

I’ve seen it on St. Anthony’s or Glide Memorial food lines.

There talking to themselves or screaming at a mate or some stranger and they know they can get away with it.

Let any male go bonkers and he’s in a police van on his way to jail.

Why is it that we tolerate women’s psychosis, anger,loud,lewd,behavior but not men’s?

The sugar spice thing is gone women have revealed themselves to be just as vindictive,mean,nasty, sexually driven as men even it they do have more subtle ways of going about it.

That’s what I was thinking about today before leaving the city for while.

Send Comments to Ask/Tell Joe at poormagazine.org

by Leroy Moore/PNN

Staff Benda Bilili is a band of six disabled musicians from the Congo. In 2004, French filmmakers Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye began filming the band to create a documentary about their music and struggle. Leroy Moore interviewed the filmmakers and two of the band’s creators about music, the upcoming film and life in the Congo for disabled musicians and artists.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Where are you from and where do you do most of your work?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: We live in Paris and used to work as photographers and graphic designers. We discovered Kinshasa in 2003 and decided to work there, shooting movies and producing bands

Leroy\Krip-Hop: I found the story about Staff Benda Bilili on the internet. They are disabled musicians who live on the streets of Kinshasa. Please tell us more about this group and their message.

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: Staff Benda Bilili is an orchestra of six disabled (all have polio) musicians and two street kids, who they fostered years ago and taught music. SBB is a true musical oddity, whose musical style lays somewhere between James Brown and Buena Vista Social club. The lyrics of their songs are like advice they give to all the people who live in the streets like them. They are like the godfathers of all the street kids and very respected personalities of the ghetto. The thousands of [disabled] of Kinshasa have created an underground syndicate called Platform: Man like you and the SBB are like their spokesmen…Yet their message hasn't got anything to do with their [disabilities] as they don't consider themselves as [disabled]. They're married, have kids and apart from music they're gifted electricians, sewers and hairdressers… Their message to the people is all about survival… How can one survive in such a city, if I can do it [living with a disability] so can you.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How did the band’s members meet each other?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullay: The two leaders Ricky and Coco met in a care center for handicapped 30 years ago and started to jam together. They met the other members in the streets and little by little they created the orchestra. They also played in Papa Wemba's Raka-Raka in the late 80's. When the country exploded in, the late 90's they managed to stay united and always playing music. They met the street kid Roger (who is now their soloist) at The Kinshasa central market in 2004 and decided to adopt him although at that time they were themselves living in the street.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How is life for people with disabilities in the Congo?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: Hellish life for an occidental person (disabled or not)… There is no transportation, no proper roads, no health care system, no schooling system, no electricity, no state policy, nothing. The [disabled], like the valid people, are completely abandoned. Quite logically, they are not considered handicapped because like everybody else they must struggle [to figure] things out.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How did you meet the group?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: We met them in 2004 while shooting our first movie in Congo Jupiter's dance

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How long has the group been together?

Staff Benda Bilili: As Staff Benda Bilili about 10 years

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Can each member say something about his or her mission and life?

Staff Benda Bilili: Coco: We the SBB are like journalist; in our songs we are the true press. We talk about street life, the street kids and their dreams of happiness, we talk about corruption. The press here is a slave to the power. I consider myself as a journalist…[it’s] my duty as a member of the SBB, to say things as they are. Ricky: The SBB has a vocation to give shelter to any gifted people from the street, handicapped or not. If the album is a success, we would build an art center of our own, to teach music and other things to the street kids. If we don't do anything for them, it's like a time bomb. That's a major goal in my life. I have to share my experience, because I'm great, and God made me a rock star.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Tell us about the UN of Africa and their relationship with the group?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: The UN hired the group to sing a song to incite people to register for the 2006 election. (the first democratic election in thirty years) The SBB did the song Let's vote and were paid $300 for the whole process. In the end the song was on each radio station [and] each TV channel at least ten times a day and the group got nothing. In the meantime the local ndombolo star who sang praises for candidates got $50,000… That's about it.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: I read that you got only a little bit of money from the UN is there any more news on this?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: The situation hasn't changed so far. The SBB was infuriated and sued the UN for $100,000… Imagine that.
It's like David against Goliath. But hey who knows?

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Tell us about the movie. What is the title? Why and what are you trying to display to the world?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye:
The story of this band we are following since 2004 had to be told somehow. Benda Bilili in Lingala means beyond appearances. It's a modern tale of courage and dignity; a universal story that touches everyone, it's about people who never give up.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: You say the group fights for the rights of disabled homeless people. How do they do this?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: With the release of the film and the album, the SBB are going to start something of their own (a center for the disabled). We are not into charity business; we are dealing with professional musicians (the SBB) that's all. But the movie is going to have a great impact and we hope it will help the [cause].

Leroy\Krip-Hop: I have read that you took in two kids. Are there a lot of street kids and what are your goals for the two kids and other street kids in Kinshasa?

Staff Benda Bilili: There are thousands and thousands of them…Some are [kicked out of] homes because they're accused of being witches by fake reverends…many come to Kinshasa because they flee war in the east of Congo. The government arrests them, deports them sometimes kills them. The power is made of utterly incompetent people who'd rather cure the effects than seek the causes of such situations. All those kids are like a time bomb. They are all the SBB’s children.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Tell us about how your government is or is not dealing with poverty.

Staff Benda Bilili: The government is a bunch of avid, cynical puppets in the hand of the western nations. You can be corrupted but how can you starve your own people ???

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How would you describe your music?

Staff Benda Bilili: Rumba-blues… tribal-salsa

Leroy\Krip-Hop: You make your own instruments, tell us about them.

Staff Benda Bilili: Home made guitars plus you have The Sdoloiste Roger who plays with a single stringed guitar of his own. It's made of a can of milk a wooden stick and a metal string, it sounds amazing check that on www.myspace.com/staffbendabilili

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Now you are planning to buy a house with your kids. How and when will this happen?

Staff Benda Bilili: If the album sells…

Leroy\Krip-Hop: As a filmmaker, why did you choose to make a film about Staff Benda Bilili?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: We didn't choose it. It was an emergency to us, for the beauty and the poetry of it and plus to help those people. But if they wouldn't have been brilliant musicians we wouldn't have done anything.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: You've been filming for seven years, what were the ups and downs in those years?

Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye: The group lost everything in a fire that ravaged their center in 2005 so they had to sleep outside with their families. Some musicians disappeared or died… Normal everyday life in Kinshasa

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Did you as a group felt comfortable being filmed?

Staff Benda Bilili: We felt we could pass our message to the world. With that film our kids will be proud and maybe wealthy

Leroy\Krip-Hop: Tells how media there treats people in poverty and people with disabilities.

Staff Benda Bilili: In Congo the media equals the government. It's treated in a highly self-satisfied tone. Like they give a poor guy a bag of peanuts [just before the election] and make a whole ceremony about it.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: You said that Staff would be going on tour. Will this be the first time that the group will be traveling?

Staff Benda Bilili\Florent de La Tullaye: Yes in 2009; it's going to be the first time.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: As a person living in America I'm used to seeing small shiny wheelchairs. On your myspace page I saw your video and I noticed your wheelchairs are big. How do you get your wheelchairs?

Staff Benda Bilili: We do it ourselves, it's all recycled materials we, the SBB know how to craft those chairs, we can teach you one day, when we come to America.

Leroy\Krip-Hop: How can we, as Americans support your work?

Staff Benda Bilili: We'd love to do a concert in America… we need to be connected to some associations [for the disabled] down there

by Joseph Bolden

Mortality Malaise

I’ve read in a book somewhere that people in the time of the Roman Empire lived to be 25, living to 40 or 50 was considered ancient.

Most of us honor the supreme sacrifice women and men have made then as now when war is waged.

Few of the men and women in these conflicts are given time to contemplate their lives were suddenly taken away.

Its it any wonder survivors of World War II took every opportunity to live the way they wished mostly quiet,unassuming, lives.

Marrying,using the G.I. Bill to buy homes and or have a better education
We weren’t called the Baby Boom Generation for nothing!

Before leaving the city for Memorial Day weekend I received test of my medical results.

Cold shower,system shock,finally the sober reality of one’s mortality from a dietician.

Though never a raucous, loud person I’ve had a share waking up in beds not my own panicking because I was not in the city.

Drinking,smoking,drugs, pills,even sex,
being a late bloomer may have saved me from tragic consequences of the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980’s witch continues its devastating affects even now.

Food from meat,cakes, deep dish apple pies topped with American cheese and all manner grease delights.

For years since turning 45 I tried to be less pig and more gym rat but circumstances of money and time hampered me.

That is until I met a few people living a different,purposeful lifestyle.

Very slowly over time saw benefits and pitfalls being a vegetarian.

Between various kinds of food,types of vegie folk.

What works,didn’t there was lots of backsliding until
my decision vegetarian only.

That didn’t me my body craved meat as it likes and enjoys mingling with female flesh,sure I can live without it and have had long years without feminine touch.

I’d fight the craving as vampires sometimes fight blood-for-live-cravings.

I couldn’t give it all up completely just go with fish,chicken,and lean meats though milk, cheese, eggs, was easier to go without.

Medically,there are bad fats,sugar,and other stuff and
I must change my health before bad dietary habits take me off the planet!

As a former house-less, jobless,transient guy its is difficult to eat healthy when nearly the only foods around are full of starch, sugar,high or bad meats full of grease.

I’d like to love, live, longer,if it takes a little time to self prepare meals at home than spend in café’s or restaurants then that’s what I’ll do.

Few people are given a heads up on their mortality and how to prevent shortening their lifespans.

I’m not in a war of bombs,bullets,mortar shells,not being strafed by supersonic stealth jets.

My private war is one all of us fight unseen everyday.

I have been warned and I take this warning seriously.

For those like me who’ve been given a red flag to take better care of themselves I hope they heed it because you may not be given another stop or yield sign.

by Tony Robles/PNN

"Save our city, save our state, vote no on 98!" The chants in tandem with, fists, signs and banners of collective resistance rose up into the California sky from over 200 tenants, immigrants, workers, elders, activists and advocates gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday. We stood there, together, in power, in opposition to the very dangerous Proposition 98 which is on the June 3rd primary election ballot. Dangerous because, if it passes, it will eliminate rent control and jeopardize the laws designed to protect renters such as fair return of rental deposits, 60 day notices and laws designed to protect elders and disabled people from rent increases.

"When I received my eviction notice, it was depressing and scary. Where would I go? Stay with my family? I'm a grown woman. My landlord said he'd help me out. I asked him how, buy me a tent? Liana Villasenor, a single mother spoke at the podium amid colorful signs and banners clashing with the gray backdrop of City Hall telling of an eviction inspired by the greed of a landlord who wanted to receive more money for her apartment, the kinds of evictions that will happen with regularity if Proposition 98 passes, "He actually bought my roommate a tent. I was determined not to go until the sheriff came", Ms. Villasenor concluded to a rousing cheer from the crowd.

Proposition 98 will do away with rent control and outlaw inclusionary zoning requirements that mandate affordable housing on developments.

"This is a scandalous piece of legislation that's going to kick out the poor. It's a huge eviction notice that we got to fight" said Reverend Norman Fong, Deputy Director of Programs for Chinatown Community Development Center.

Proposition 98 is being sold to the public as Eminent Domain reform that would amend the state's constitution. Opponents see 98 as deceitful, hiding its true intention. On the surface 98 calls for eminent domain reform but when you read the fine print, you find that it would abolish existing rent control and prevent local governments from enacting new rent control measures. More than a dozen cities in California have rent control laws in place.

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin was on hand in support. "I hate 98. It will ruin California. It is the most dangerous legislation I've seen in my lifetime".

Opponents of 98 say that the wealthy devised this scheme to be on the ballot at a time of low voter turnout. It is estimated that 30% of registered voters will vote on June 3rd. Peskin says that voter turnout is critical to cancel out the affluent pro-98 voters in Orange County and other places.

Speakers from The San Francisco Tenants Association, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, POOR Magazine, Community Housing Partnership,Young Workers United, The Sierra Club, and the Filipino Housing Collaborative voiced their support for tenants, working class people and immigrants.

Angelica Cabande from the city's Filipino Housing Collaborative stressed the importance of the immigrant community in the struggle stating, "Just because we can't vote doesn't meet we can't educate people. We have to fight for our community".

The rally ended @ 1:00 pm. The crowd was invigorated with the knowledge that there are 12 days until election time to do more outreach and advocacy work about this destructive proposition that will create more poverty and homelessness. Advocates walked tenants to the polling place at the basement of city hall.

In the words of Reverend Norman Fong, "What good is it to pray for the poor if we don't fight for the poor?"

Tony Robles is a race and poverty scholar in residence at POOR Magazine as well as a writer and co-editor of PoorNewsnetwork/PNN. To learn to be a journalist for change on issues of poverty, race and disability join POOR's upcoming Summer program which begins June 3rd. To register for classes call them at (415)863-6306 or go on-line to www.racepovertymediajustice.org . Space is limited so act now!

by Steve Kirby/Special to PNN

When I was a child I don’t remember

Planning or saying to myself when i

Grow up I’m going to be an alcoholic

Or a crack head, drop out of school

And become homeless. Like a child

When conceived, the mother goes

Through a process, when a seed is

Planted it must go through a process

Even for the rain to fall, yes a process.

So why look at one and say that’s

Who you are? Miles short of

Wondering where he or she comes from

So when ever I see anyone who

Society considers crazy or wild

When I see them I see them as a child

© 2008 Steve Kirby

by Tony Robles/PNN

As a child I would accompany my grandma to the market 3 blocks from our house. She held my hand as we walked. The trees seemed to bow before her, and the traffic, upon seeing her wide sunglasses and colorful scarves, would come to a respectful halt. I'd skip alongside her as we got closer to the market. Once inside, it was magic. Grandma knew vegetables - bok choy, squash, ginger and bitter melon. They knew her too, jumping into our cart as we made our way to the meat and fish section.

Grandma knew when fish was fresh by looking into their eyes. The fish would always look back and say, "You're that little girl from Sorsogon in the Philippines! I know you. You used to play in the river". Grandma and the fish would exchange winks and the fish would come home with us, nourishing our bellies and minds - the smell lingering like a poem. As grandma used to say, "Fish is brain food, kid."

I think of grandma and the women who carry so much of the world in bags and sacks when I walk through the "Heart of the City" Certified Farmer's Market at Civic Center. People from every walk of life congregate there to breathe in the sweet fragrance of produce grown all over California with love and care. I watch them carry bags of apples oranges, and strawberries from places such as Stockton, Sacramento and Watsonville.

Christine Adams is manager of Heart of the City. Before becoming manager, she sold vegetables at the farmer's market on Alemany Blvd for 3 years. She is the market's 3rd manager with a passion for community and fresh, healthy food. "The market was started by a Quaker lady who ran it as a co-op to obtain food in bulk" said Adams, whose son assists her with the day to day (Wednesdays and Sundays) operation of the market. Afterwards, Market Street Development asked her to start a farmer's market. She declined, opting to sell fruit and vegetables from her stall for the next 5 years.

"The farmers come from all over" says Adams, holding her walkie-talkie, ready to assist vendors and field questions from reporters. They come from all over California. They bring dates from Death Valley and mushrooms from South San Francisco. "At the market, you meet the farmers personally. You get food that hasn't been refrigerated. Refrigeration alters the composition and flavor of food". Adams adds that the farmers are very much aware of environmental impacts. "You have to give back to the earth. Crop rotation saves the ground and insures quality".

The farmers rent their stalls for $25 a day--flat, no association fees. Adams sees the market as a vehicle to serve the community. "We're here to give farmers a space and give the public quality food. It was put here because it was in a low-income area. The supermarkets will gouge you".

Recently, the city's Chief Administration office (CAO) has proposed taking over the market - streamlining the operations and reorganizing the market's board of directors which is made up of 5 farmers and 2 community members. The CAO wants to take over the operation - which includes 67 stalls which grossed 187,000 last year.

In response to the proposed takeover by the city, the market has started a petition. Adams says what's at stake is the very heart of the area. "The city's proposal will kill the market. It's run by the community. The people who shop and work here run this market. Nobody owns this market. This market does have heart. All the booths are family owned".

As I walked through the market, I saw a group of children from a Tenderloin elementary school. They carried notepads and jotted down the names of fruits and vegetables, noting the smells, shapes and sizes. The farmers smiled and people of all shapes and colors walked about.

I came to a booth where I met a young man named Kevin. He sold cakes baked by his wife. Kevin made the trip to the market from Sacramento. His young son watched as his father showed me his array of cakes and goodies. "My wife and I started "A little piece of cake". She bakes everything and we sell them here. Business is good". I looked at the pineapple upside down cake, seven-up cake, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and vanilla pudding.

"We want to start a bakery in San Francisco or Sacramento" he said as he put my cupcakes in a bag. "With rents so high, we might have to opt for Sacramento" he said. He said that he enjoyed working at the farmer's market. He said that working in a diverse environment as the farmer's market has helped him grow and become a better person. It was beautiful seeing a young African-American father with something to show his son. And by that I refer to the sweetest things under the sun.

It was the highlight of my day.

To help keep the Heart of the City Farmer's market as a community oriented place, please visit the market and sign the petition. You can also contact the Board of Supervisors and Chief Administration Office.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

“At his funeral, Idriss was eulogized as "Our Shaman" by the Dean of Students of SF Healds College, Mr. Patrick Hutchinson…Idriss counseled many fellow students, among them a single dad [who was] suicidal and said at the funeral mass, that Idriss saved his life. These were just some of Idriss Stelley' success stories," his mother told me, a proud smile on her lips, as we continued our interview on the life and death of her son.

We sat at her home in the Bayview Hunters Point in early December. In between sips of freshly brewed coffee, meshá showed me Idriss' diplomas and awards and shared stories from his life.

I marveled at Idriss' awards, trophies and accomplishments, including his Second Degree Black Belt Karate diploma and his Post Mortem "Resistance Award" received from POOR Magazine. mesha continued showing me his seemingly endless memorabilia, including his craftsmanship of an unfinished stone sculpture, an Egyptian Sphinx that meshá gave me to keep. Idriss was in the Marble Union and was working on this sphinx on the very day he was killed by the SFPD.

"He did not get a chance to finish it….” she explained, her voice sadly trailing off. She then began to tell me about Idriss’ birth.

Idriss Scott Stelley was born on August 20th, 1977 at the Alternative Birth Center at the San Francisco General Hospital in a room full of incense, Indian music of Ravi Shankar and cheering friends.

Idriss graduated first out of 90 students from Optnet in Advanced Web Design, and was a Spanish tutor at Wallenberg High School, as well as a French and Advanced Math tutor at San Francisco City College and John Adams Community College.

With an IQ of 145, Idriss tutored in colleges even before his own graduation from High School through Independent Studies. He also taught ESL to undocumented migrants at the San Francisco Day Labor Program, volunteered on the AIDS Ward 5A, the very place of his birth , and aided in the soup kitchen at Glide Memorial Church.

In addition, Idriss also volunteered at Arriba Juntos, a center in the Mission District that provides job readiness workshops, computer labs, and job search skills.

He also taught graffiti-airbrush design at a Fillmore center for at-risk Youth, and at 7 years old, was the youngest performing artist of the SF Mime Troupe, in the "Madame Video" play. He also performed in several SF International Franco-American School's Shakespearean productions.

Of eclectic taste, Idriss was an avid reader of the mainstream "classics", but favored the works of Malcolm X and his beloved Koran (Idriss converted to Islam at 17).

In his apartment the air was often filled with music. From Bach, Bela Bartok, Debussy, Eric Sati, Aranjuez and Misa Criola to Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, and Thelonius Monk to U2, Tupac, Paris, Sade and Michel Franti, Idriss appreciated many different styles of music.

In formal attire and bow tie, he routinely assisted his Godfather, Mr. Henry Watson, who passed away, heartbroken, a year after Idriss' death. Mr. Watson, head usher of the SF Opera House, was a wonderful Black man who introduced Idriss to rich AfriKan American culture as well as his musical and "classical" education.

Although I've never met or laid eyes on Idriss, mesha has often told me of how much I remind her of her only child, because we both share a very rare kind of wisdom, and exceptional background. It is always a wonderful feeling to hear mesha say this to me, because I have adopted her as my "Godmother" and feel truly blessed with everything she offers me, especially post-trauma counseling

Given everything that I have gone through in the past few years, in my dealing with homelessness, poverty, criminalization, racism, police brutality, and injustice, I feel that meeting Idriss would have restored hope in me about the fate of those struggling in this corrupt society.

I believe that our relationship would have shown that unity in non-white communities plagued with poverty, violence, racism and incarceration, is not impossible. And that despite the venomous lies of corporate media and its portrayal of non-white communities and people struggling with poverty, we can unite to make change.

"I taught Idriss that it is never too early to commit to social justice," said mesha. As we traded warm smiles, dusk began to blanket the earth outside. I sat my cup of coffee down and we both took a break, before mesha began to share the most difficult part of the interview, and the deepest, darkest moment that forever changed her life and the lives of many others: The Death of Idriss Stelley.

To Be Continued in "The Idriss Stelley Foundation Story" Part III.