Story Archives 2012

I can look back on my early years in and out of shelters and public housing complexes and admit..... I am alive today, not because my parents reared me for society, but because they Raised Me.

      The packed-dirt glass-covered  empty lots that became our football field and the alleys behind the strip clubs in downtown Washington, D.C.  was one of our many make-shift playgrounds. Yet in the middle of the necessities for peer-acceptance and survival was an ethereal line that my mother's strength magically drew between the things that me and my brothers did, and didn’t do.

      Growing up I would hear some of the grown-ups speak about the kids I ran with. How they would be “a disgrace to his/her family” or “too bad for their own good”, etc..  In most cases something inside me agreed, and I listed, because I was attuned to the expectations of my Elders. Even when it came to the old-folks comments that were made, like “that ones been here before”... I rode the lines between survival, cool, and cultured with a sore ass, and a heart not afraid to love or hurt.

       Today most of the youth in general will tell you they don’t give a crap what someone else think of them (even family members). All across America children are treated like adults in the court systems because of the crimes committed by youth in today’s society.       

       The following statement, taken from an article on obstacles for children of color (web-link below), puts it all into words  ........“It is difficult, if not impossible, for an African child to acquire a good western education with a blend of African cultural and traditional values in Diaspora. Because the system lacks the tools to teach African culture and tradition and virtues such as obedience and respect for the elders”. . . . . .

        I can attest to the dangers a child in poverty faces. I can even recall hunting cat-sized rats in the alley. But I was raised hearing my Moma(Grandmom) singing/humming hymnals. I was raise being able to tell you all the names of the faces on the Black History Month Calendar. I wasn’t reared like a horse for the track.

I was raised. And so..... “Still I Rise”

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CUESTA SALIR DEL CLOSET.

Siempre lo habian sentido, sabia que algo dentro era, “diferente”, ya habia pasado tiempo en la iglesia pensando que ello me ayudaria, pero al salir, ese “sentimiento” seguia igual. Al ver ello trate de convencerme a mi misma que lo podria manejar, que lo podria cambiar: empece a besar varios labios pensando, “con este chico, estare comoda, porque yo, no soy lesbiana”. Tendria quizas, 13 anos, todas las jovensitas de la escuela hablaban de lo mismo, chicos, noviazgo, sexo.
Yo alli no tenia espacio, inevitablemente mis ojos no miraban a los chicos, pero la negacion no me dejaba sentirme bien.

Nadie a mi alrededor parecia tener el mismo “problema”, hubiera amado tener a mi lado
alguien que me guiara. Pero a mi mente venia la imagen de mis tios viendome con asombro y
desconcierto, halar con felicidad un gato azul de juguete que tenia ruedas, (lo mas parecido a
un carro). Y la reaccion de mi madre cuando teniendo yo 9 anos, le hablaron de las cartas que intercambiaba con una amiga diciendonos cuanto nos queriamos. Nisiquiera yo misma sabia en ese momento que “era malo”, fue su reaccion, lo que me lo dejo ver.

Fueron varios anos en el colegio, sin saber que hacer y como manejarlo de manera diferente a tener novios momentaneos a los cuales nunca les permiti tocarme mas alla de la mano porque en el momento en que lo intentaban disfrasaba el temor de decencia y les decia que ello era imprudente; ahora que lo pienso, debio ser gracioso! Pensaba en la reaccion que podrian tener mis amigas si les decia lo que pasaba. Me preguntaba cuantas jovensitas pasaban por lo mismo, pues en el colegio todos decidimos conservarnos en el closet y entre mas cerrado major, pues evitabamos comentarios, vurlas y rechazo.

Salir de alli no fue facil, me costo mucho. Me costo lagrimas, crecer, tener independencia, una
familia, amigos incondicionales, tomar un avion y decir “adios”. Ahora, viviendo aca en San
Francisco, CA., me cuesta ver con asombro las estadisticas nacionales. Los estudiantes LGBT tienen una probabilidad de sentirse inseguros en la escuela tres veces mayor (un 22% frente a un 7%), y el 90% de los estudiantes LGBT (frente a un 62% en los adolescentes no LGBT) son
acosados o agredidos físicamente1.

Amigos en Colombia siguen soportando el apretado closet, mientras otros que han salido sobre llevan todo tipo de acoso. Mi corta estadia aca en el pais americano me ha llevado a escuchar acerca de todo tipo de acoso dentro de los colegios, aparte de que se puede ver y oler en los buses, entre los jovenes.

Me encantaria que se implementaran clarlas, pero no de aquellas aburridas en las que un
estudiado donctor habla, sino charlas reales, donde sean los protagonistas, los conocedores del tema no por estudiarlo sino por vivirlo, quienes hablen. Se de clases y talleres que se dictan enalgunas escuales con el fin de cocientizar a los jovenes a cerca de la diversidad, lo cual preferiria que fuera en todas porque estoy segura que alla se encuentran muchas chicas de 13 anos que estan pasando por la misma cituacion que yo un dia pase. Jovenes que lo unico que anhelan es tener una mano amiga que les guie sin que el proceso les cueste tanto.

English Follows

The price of coming out.

I always felt it, i knew that something inside was “differnt”. When i would be in church thinking that He would help me, but coming out that “different feeling” was still the same. looking at Him i tried to covince myself that i could control this. I could change it, I started to kiss many lips, thinking to myself “ With this boy I will become fixed because I am not a lesbian.” Perhaps i was 11 years old. All the young girls from school talked about the same things; boys, boyfriends, and sex. Thats where I knew there was no space for me. My eyes did not look at the boys.

None around me looked to have the same “problem”. i lobged to have someone next to me who loved me. but in my head the image that would come up was my uncles selling me a blue toy cat that had wheels. And the relation with my mother when I was younger and was called about these letters i was sending out this friend who was a girl. In the letters we would say how much we loved each other. I didnt realize in that moment that this was “evil”. My mom’s reaction was what made me realize this.

It was many years in school not knowing what to do and hot to control it in a manner differnt than having many spontaneous boyfriends, which i never allowed to touch me more than just my hands because the moment ther tried it I would hide it under my fear of indecency and would tell them that it was imprudent;now that I think back, I must have been funny! I thought through their reaction of what my girlfriends would think if I told them what was happening.I would wonder how many other girls felt the way I did, throught college we all decided to stay in the closet and the more closed we were the better, we were avoiding comments, jokes and rejection.

Coming out was nothing easy, it cost me dearly, it cost me tears, growth, being independent, my family, unconditional friends, take a plane and say “goodbye”. Today, living here in San Francisco, CA I am amazed to see the national statistics.

The LGBT students have three times more probability (22% compared to 7%) of feeling insecure, and 90% of LGBT students(compared to 62% not LGBT youth) are harassed or violently attacked physically.

Friends in Colombia keep stuck in their tight closet, meanwhile those that have come out deal with all types of abuse. My short education here in the US has let me hear all tyes of insults inside of the colleges a side from this also you can smell and see it on the bus and around youth.

I would love it if they would impliment talks, not those borring kind of talks where a person studied it but a real discussion, where the protagonists, the ones who have experienced the topic would speak on this. Clases and workshops that dictate in some schools whith the goal of enlightening the youth about diversity, I would actually prefer that it be tought everywhere because I am sure that in my home town there are plenty of young girls around the 13^th that are experiencing the same things I did. Youth that are simply looking for a friendly hand to guide them with the process costing them so much. 

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Mi nombre es Maria Machetes , llegue a la ciudad de San Francisco en Junio del 2001 solo unos pocos meses antes de la farza del 911. En San Francisco me toco vivir en el Fillmore, después me gentrificaron hasta Litle Saigon/Tenderloin  hasta que finalmente me pude refugiar en el corazon de la Mission. He tenido que mudare de aquí a alla porque la renta nos rascaba las patas , siempre corriendo detrás de la renta, sin embargo en el anio del 2008 me tube que mudar  2 cuadras de la estacion de Policia, me encontraba casi a diario con los policias que me atacaron en el Verano del 2008, fue por eso que mi exesposa y yo nos mudarnos a Berkeley.

A mi me encanta caminar , me gusta mucho mi barrio, el olor de las calles, el café barato chino y las donas de chocolate!, el olor a taco, escuchar como la campana de la iglesia llama a la misa los domingos, la campanita de los paleteros!, las senoras hablando desde las 8am llevando ninios de la mano y recien bañiados directitos a la escuela,  el caminar me sana, yo camino y camino , jamas me canso!

Desde el 2008 que vengo observando algunos cambios en las calles de este barrio, la Misson, he notado una presencia muy repentina de la policia, se metieron de un dia pal otro asi con todo el poder,  policias a caballo, a pie y en bicicletas comenzaron a vigilar la seguridad del barrio desde la 24 y potreo hasta la 16 y Mission.
3)
Recuerdo que desde mi Ventana se vehia el mural del lado donde Yemaya habre sus manos y deja correr el agua! , todas las mananas me despertaba y miraba la ventana sorprendida de poder vivir en frente del Edificio de Mujeres y agradecia mi trabajo, respiraba ondo y me hiba a trabajar caminando de la 19 st a la 24. Mientras caminaba las calles por esos dias recuerdo notar como las calles cambiaron de un momento a otro, todo cambio al mismo tiempo que los pequenios negocios calleron, un monton de restaurantes cerraron, muchisimas familias perdieron sus edificios negocios y casas , la calle 24 de repente se vio como pueblo del viejo oeste, desolado y en manos de compradores, que venia en esas motitos de solo 2 llantas que se manejan parados, subian y bajan los escalones trepados en esas motos escalones, llegaban los hombres y mujeres del futuro en nombre de las bienes y raices a quitarnos de nuestra raiz y sembrar  otras  nuevas y agenas; llegaban en sus trajes y corbatas, hacian notas y llamdas y trahian consigo computadores portatiles, jamas se bajaban de su moto como pa no ensuciar los zapatos y el traje .

Después los negocios que cerraban eran reemplazados por otros que rapidamente nos hacian olvidar a los personajes que algun dia nos vendieron discos que solo en “Discolandia” se podian conseguir. Con el desplazo vino la policia y por consecuencia la criminalización de los jóvenes que caminaran vestidos de cholos o pertencecieran a un racial profile, las familias latinas que de ninguna manera eran parte de algun perfil asociado con grupos criminales, ni politicos, el unico asociamiento es el de ser latinos que trabajan bajo el margen de ser pobres.

Muchas familias fuimos golpeadas y como mi ex-pareja jamas se le sanara su brazo por ser victima de la practima de este programa, jamas se me podra olvidar como  8 policias hombres en 2 patrullas la atacaron solo por ir camiando a la 1 am en la calle 18 y Lexinton donde viviamos, la golpearon pero ella lucho contra su vida y no se dejo subir al carro de la policia:

- mientras yo vehia desde la esquina de la 18 y exinton ellos la golpeaban contra un garage en la 18 st y casi San Carlos , yo como obra del universo habia tomando un entrenamiento de “Que hacer si la Policia te Para en la calle” segui todo el procediemiento que se me ensenio, llame al 911 y en el poco ingles que hablaba comence a decirle a la operadora que es un policia que 8 policias estaban atacando a una mujer latina, sabiendo que esto quedaria grabado en la opredora!, los acuse por telefono de crimen de odio, y fui de uno por uno pidiendo su numero de placa y apellido, eran 8 muy grandes y todos de distintas personalidades rasgos fisicos de distintas culturas, pero muy enojados  con una energia irrompible, demaciado frios y dispuestos a matar sin ninguna conteplacion, olian a azufre, al diablo sin duda.

Ahora nos dicen que el stop & frisk esta en la mesa de las posibles leyes, yo les digo que lo tenemos que parar y no dejar que lo pasen en secreto.
Todos tenemos que aprender lo que se debe hacer en caso de que la policia nos pare caminando por la calle,  la energia positiva no sacara a la policia de las calles, la gentrificacion esta aquí y es real, los que estamos vivos desde aquí en la mission, los que quedamos, porfavor aprendamos que se debe de hacer, MIEDO NUNCA MAS, aprender a no tener nervios ni miedo y saber que contestar en caso de ser detenidos para evitar el “Stop & Frisk” hay que aprender a respirar y estar relajados porque la policia viola los derechos humanos cualquiera que tenga nervios sera victima de el sobre uso del poder de la policia hay que evitarlo.

Yo me encomiendo a mis Santos , a mis abuelos y a mi Pachamama todas las mananas, salgo alerta y bien sonriente , pero atenta a la presencia constante de la Policia en el Barrio, desde el 2008 llegaron y ya no se fueron su presencia es constante y todo cambio para mal de nosotr@s la gente bajo el racial profile, aquellos policias que dejaron herido el brazo de mi expareja jamas fueron responsavilizados de su delito.
 

English Follows

The positive energy will not remove the cops from the street.

My name is Maria Machetes, I came to the city of San Francsico in June of 2001 just a couple of months beafore 911. In San Fracisco I lived in the fillmore,  later to be gentrified to Little Saigon / Tenderloin until finally I took refuge in the heart of the mission.  I have had to move from here to there because the rent kept scratching my feet, always running after rent, but in 2008 I had to move two blocks from the police station, I would find myself almost everyday face to face with a cop that one day finally attacked me in the summer of 2008, this is why me and my ex- wife moved to Berkeley.

I used to love to walk, I love my streets, the scent of them, the cheap coffee and chocolate donouts! The smell of tacos, listening to the church bells calling the mass on Sundays, the ring of the paleteros! the woman talking at 8 in the morning taking their children to school newly showered to go directly to school, walking heals me, I walk and walk and I never tire!

Since 2008 I have observed changes in the streets of the Mission, I have noticed an immidiate present of the police, they arrived from one day to the next  with all their power, police on horse, on foot and on bycicles started monitoring the security of the Mission from 24 th and Potrero to 16th and Mission.

I remember that from my window I could see the Mural of Yemaya opening her arms letting the water run through! Every morning I wook wake up look and the window surprised to be able to live next to the Womans building and I would apreciate having a job, I breathed in deeply and I would walk to my work from 19th to 24th. While walking the streets those days I remember taking note of the drastic change from one day to the other, it all changed at once. The small buisnesses fell, a bunch of restaurants closed , to many families lost their buildings, buisnesess and homes. 24th Street suddenly resembled that of a desolent run down town, alone and now in the hands of the buyers, who came on their two wheeled scooters , up and down they went on their scooters, men and woman of the future came with their non-profits to take our roots and plant their new unknown cultures; they came in their suits and ties , made notes and calls and brought portable computers, never getting of their scooter perhaps to not dirty their shoes or suits.

After the buisnesses that closed were replaced by others that quickly made us forget the personalities that one day sold us CD's that only "Discolandia" would sell. With all the displacement the cops showed up and in result to that the crminalization of youngsters that walked looking like cholos or that fit into a racial profile, the latin families that in no way were part or asociated with criminal groups, or politicians, the only assosiation was to be latinand to work under the frame of being poor.

Many of us families were abused  and like my ex- partner, whom her sholder will never heal was victim of this police abuse, I will never forget how 8 male police and two cop cars attacked  her simply for walking on the streets at one in the morning around were I lived, they attacked her but she fought for her life and did not let them drag her in their cop vehicle.

While I saw this from the corner as they beat her against the garage  on 18th street and San Carlos, I had by the universes bidding taken classes " What to do if the Police stops you on the street" I followed protacol that they tought me, call 911 and with the little english that I spoke I told the operator that 8 cops were attaking a latin woman, knowing that it would be recorded on the call! I accused them on the  phone of a hate crime, and went to each individual asking for their badge number and last name, they were 8 very big each with their own personalities and different cultures, but all of them very angry with an unbrakeable energy, to cold and willing to kill without thinking twice, the smelt of sulfur, no dought the smell of the devil.

Now they say that "Stop and frisk" is on the table of possible laws, I say that we have to stop this and not let them pass it in secret. We all have to learn what to do if the cops decide to stop us while walking, positive energy will not rid us of cops on the streets, getrification is real and is here, the ones who are still alive and living in the mission, the ones who are left, please learn what you should do, FEAR NO MORE, lear to not be afraid and know what to answer in the case of being detained to avis "Stop and Frisk" lets learn to breatheand to be calm because the police violates the rights of humans who ever is nervous will be his victim of the power that the cops seek, lets avoid it.

I am thankfull to my saints, my grandparents and my pachamama every morning, I walk out alert but smiling, but alert to the constant precense of the police in my community, since 2008 they came and they have not left everything has changed for the worst we are under constant racial profiling, and those cops that skared my ex-wifes shoulders they were never held accountable for their crimes.
 
 

My 15 month old son and i were down to our last piece of WIC cheese. I was tired and depressed from multiple poverty struggles and impending houselessness as the sole caregiver of my mama who was very sick, no job and no child care for my son . With very little hope left I pushed my son's stroller on to the campus of my local community college. Within a month I had free child care from the revolutionary Family Resource Center at City College of San Francisco, a small federal grant which covered my books and tuition and was enrolled in two General Education classes. This poor people college access is exactly why i believe that corporate interests are trying to squash the last hope for educational access across the country.

The community college system educates thousands of working-class and poor people across the state of California without saddling us with massive debt. And City College of San Francisco alone educates over 90,000 students.

Last month a "report" was released stating that CCSF was "riddled" with a "slow-moving style of governance" and "paltry financial reserves" and something else about leadership- translation, corporations could make alot of money on the 90,000 students at CCSF, so let's come up with a series of false attacks to destroy this public institution.

So who created this "report"? According to Kathleen Carroll, a lawyer and whistleblower, the corporations and the non-profit corporations (or philanthro-pimps as i affectionately call them) are in fact trying to kill the community colleges, "Free market fundamentalists, are trying to eradicate public education, " Carroll stated and goes on to explain that so-called non-profit funders like the Lumina Foundation, The James and Flora Hewitt and the James Irvine Foundations who claim to "fund" education are in fact behind many of the appointees to the very Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCCJC) who released the report that is threatening City College with revocation of their accreditation. And in the case of the Lumina, Foundation, it used to be a for profit corporation that was one of the largest loan guarantors for student loans,

Mmmm, let me see, wouldn't a loan guarantor make alot more interest on a higher loan premium that a working -class or poor student would have to take out to go to a DeVry or Heald College or even a 4 year state college or University, than the smaller loan you would need or the no loan at all you would need to go to City College?

In the state of California they have already successfully closed Compton College and Cuesta College and College of the Redwoods are also on the chopping block.

And its no accident that corporate media like the LA times and the SF Chronicle who released stories on this "shocking report" who have multi-million dollar ad campaigns from The University of Phoenix and other private corporate "schools" have made no mention of this connection. All this while 4 year universities raise their tuitions so high that most working famiies can no longer dream of a college education for their children.

There is a myth about education funding that it is  "good debt" but someone who is the child of a poor wombyn of color who fought and struggled to get a degree By ANy Means Necessary, including charging up thousands of dollars of debt that her poor body of color could never repay. Corporate thugs like Lumina were harassing my mama after she passed, threatening me and my family, stealing every bit of blood-stained Amerikan money she was ever able to attain. And for what, so she could have a piece of paper from an institution that never really materialized into a living wage job, because she didnt have the "connections" and wasn't political enough to swallow her indigenous spirit and go along with corporate non-profit protocol.

Six years later, I work with fellow poverty, migrant, disability, elder, indigenous and youth skolaz at POOR Magazine to create a poor people-led skool we call PeopleSkool/Escuela De la gente started by me and my mama as a resistance to the death-like grip held on education by endowments, philathro-pimps and corporate interests.

I personally could not afford the tuition of a 4 year college and I will NEVER buy into the idea that institutional-"learned" education is somehow better than people-attained, "lived" education, but that said, that moment at City College changed my life, letting me think, expanding my mind and opening me up to other possibilities and without it, I am sure I wouldnt have had the energy to keep on the journey of struggle, resistance and revolution

His music was his heart but as a Black disabled young man growing up dealing with peer pressure, bullying and being profiled in school and on the streets by adults and his peers, like any youth he tried to protect himself not only physically but mentally. However, his music kept on getting softer and softer and drastically was shut off by a South San Francisco police officer when Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines was shot in the back trying to seek safety when police approached him while he was walking home from McDonalds. 

Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines, like any youth also searched within himself to find his talents and to build strength that many youth especially Black youth with disabilities need to do at an early age with help from their parents just to deal with societal attitudes that are leveled towards him/them constantly.  While searching within, Derrick found a love of writing Hip-Hop & R&B song lyrics and putting his own songs together with his own beats.  Like I know all so well as a Black disabled man who always liked writing, many people will try to put you down, discourage you and place their discriminatory ways on you like handcuffs.  This happened to Derrick over and over again from adults to peers but nobody would have thought that one day in Derrick’s youth that his music would be shut off forever.

Many would have considered Derrick a statistic as a Black disabled young man but there were other statistics that his family didn’t want Derrick to become like another Black disabled youth in nowhere special education classes or another Black young man in a gang or another Black disabled young man caught up in violence or shot by police.  After the hard work that Derrick’s family and Derrick himself have put in to keep his music on and not become a dreadful statistic of another Black disabled young man shot by police, Derrick’s music was turned off for the last time and became that statistic, a innocent victim of a shooting on June 5th 2012 by a South San Francisco police officer.

Derrick’s pen & keyboard that he used to write and type his lyrics on turned into tools for mainstream media to rewrite the last story telling song that filled newspapers and blogs. However, the only people who have the right to be the authors of this story describing Derrick are Derrick’s parents and any witnesses at the scene on June 5^th, 2012.  This is why Poor Magazine invited Derrick’s family to come by and talk about Derrick. 

As Rachel Guido, the mother of Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines, told Poor Magazine what happened to her son on June 5^th 2012, I realized that Derrick could have been a member of Krip-Hop Nation because he was a songwriter and inspiring musician with a disability and a critical thinker.  Krip-Hop Nation is a network of musician/artists with disabilities from around the world to educate the music, media industries and general public about the talents, history, rights and marketability of Hip-Hop artists and other musicians with disabilities and Krip-Hop Nation is more than music, it is cultural activism.

Krip-Hop Nation earlier this year released a mixtape CD on the issue of police brutality and profiling against people with disabilities.  Krip-Hop Nation, unfortunately realized that Derrick’s lyrics must be heard and his tragic death on June 5^th could have been ,hard to say, but another of the heartbreaking lyrical story songs on our latest CD, Police Brutality Profiling Mixttape against people with  disabilities to help educate our communities on the high rate of police shootings/killings of people with disabilities.  Krip-Hop is more than music so we will carry Derrick’s soul and spirit with us as we continue with our cultural activism.

I imagined Derrick running with his club feet as he got shot in the back by a South San Francisco police officer when his mother, Rachel Guido, finished her story and tears ran down her cheeks in the Poor Magazine newsroom on Aug 7^th/2012.  Now as I reread  articles on the shooting of Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines, things don’t add up but as a veteran activist against police involved shootings of people with disabilities I have read these stories in mainstream media over and over again painting Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines and others as gang members, dangerous and out of control youth.  These stories continue to be the opposite of what their parents, friends and many times witnesses at the scene have told but don’t have the big mic or pen that mainstream media and or police have.

Stories like Derrick was running very fast I questioned knowing many people with clubfeet and knowing how just walking is painful and slow and listening to the mother of Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines talk about his disability and the pain he experienced if he ran makes me wonder about the stories in mainstream media that I have read thus far.  As I know by now, there will be many different stories with different elements by so many different people, but mothers always know best when it comes to their children and many times it is the mother who has advocated at birth till the last days of their sons and daughters so when Rachel told Poor Magazine that she saw and cleaned up her son’s dead body with bullet holes in his back, we must stop, listen and take note.  

Days following the police shooting of Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines and even today, his mother continue to go through her son’s songs and are still amazed at how talented he was.  I never met Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines but I know he would have loved Krip-Hop Nation.  It is sad that the lyrical stories that make up Krip-Hop Nation/5^th Battalion Police Brutality Profiling Mixttape are still a reality today.  You hear that?  It is Derrick Louis-Lamar Gaines rapping, "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE, TURN UP MY SONG…"

Leroy F Moore Jr.

Founder of Krip-Hop Nation

8/13/12

 Lets all welcome the london  Pimp- lympics

The London so called ‘ Olympics ’was founded all the way  back in the Greco Roman ages.And one of their sports was man vs. beast (hey, I’m glad we don’t have that any more) today

We follow the tradition of lighting the torches, symbolizing two weeks.

The term pimp-lympics was a good idea by my mom. I’m just writing a report on it.  The pimp-lympics are  mostly pimps that is partly why my mom c alls it pimp-lympics.  Usually the u.s wins every sport but after Usain Bolt won men’s 100m pimps went down and down.

The other reason she calls it pimp-lympics is because  the pimps are Dow, BP and mcdonalds 

My conclusion is that if you want to be in the pimp-lympics please take your shoe off and raise the fist of power like John Carlos and Tommy smith in 1968 so I know you read this article.

  The end  

An Ode To Jane “in Vain” Winkelman- a revolutionary artist and Poverty Hero

A Wombyn swims through a sky of hell- passing symbols of system oppression,  poverty, capitalism, the cult of independence and its bed-mates, loneliness, isolation, depression, and sorrow. A wombyn swims through her own image up to the sky to liberation….

I met Jane “in Vain” Winkelman’s art in 1997. I was on welfare (General Assistance) as it is called in Oakland and San Francisco  I was standing in the Coalition on Homelessness office trying to get a some help with a welfare worker who had just called me lazy and not “fit” to do “anything”

POOR Magazine, an act of “media resistance” as me and my Po’ single mama called it when we fought to create an intentionally glossy, arts magazine on issues of poverty, race, disability and resistance, was also in love with Jane in Vane’s art at first sight.

When we discovered her art we had already published two issues of POOR filled with revolutionary writing and art by poor and indigenous youth, adults and elders, and us po folx in struggle were working on Volume 3 The Work Issue. It was going to be one of the most powerful issues yet that me and mama were going to release to date.

Our writing “process” and submission “guidelines” were written, distributed and discussed in our shelter beds, the back seat of our csr, the welfare office where we worked for government crumbs, and the street corner where we hoped for day labor. We were going to redefine WORK as the unrecognized labor of panhandling, recycling, mothering, workfare working, street vendoring, and im/migrant day laboring. We were creating a revolutionary publication like nothing that had been created before or since, written and produced by poor and indigenous peoples in struggle.

The visual art was, like the poetry, journalism and prose in POOR Magazine an integral part  of the whole project. Most of our  contributing visual artists were either houseless who like “Herbie” sold his art on the street painted on the back of cardboard boxes he got at the liquor store recycling pile, youth in poverty who were friends of mine or who painted at the Hospitality House Art studio, a powerful place of refuge for artists in poverty considered by the stolenland class controlled art industry as “Outside” art,, another mythos of wealthy white people who decided, in their special kind of arrogant way, long ago, what high art, and low art, and real art  even was.

Me and my mama, an orphan of a Carribean Black Indian father and a Roma (Gypsy)- Irish mother and me a non-formerly educated poverty skolar, made art by any means necessary to survive as street vendors, were viewed as “crazy” “outsiders” “erratic” and dangerous as wombyn, as houseless, as a mother and daughter, we were almost completely alone, in our art-making world. And then we met Jane in Vane-

“I have always admired you guys,” Jane said to me the first time I spoke to her. “I love what you and your mother do”  We finally connected because of the beautiful artist Margaret Tedesco, a dedicated friend to Jane. I was humbled because I was in awe of her work. Painting so many beautiful and serious images about the lives of poor people, poor wombyn, poor elders caught in the endless struggle to stay alive , to get a kkkrum from welfare, food stamps, general assistance.

With each painting Jane would create another message of beautiful resistance. Another lie of poverty pimpology  budget cuts and government scarcity models was shattered. Her characters were usually female, and always with an expression of almost innocence and confusion at the seemingly endless obstacles that surrounded them

In one infamous image called The Parlor Game,  a wombyn is in the middle of a monopoly-like game board being used and/or confused by her impossible “choices”. Another theme that showed up in most of her work was the female character is part of the landscapes, the trees that hang down, the buildings that surround, the bridges, the walkways, the sky, the airplanes.

Jane lived in Single Room Occupancy Hotels (SRO’s) aka poor people housing in San Francisco and Florida, dealt with serious depression and so often, like so many of us in poverty, felt overwhelmed, overwhelmed by what she couldn’t do, couldn’t accomplish, couldn’t attain. And the lies so integrated in capitalist defined productivity and success, survival and “independence”.

Jane in Vane’s art was created by a wombyn in poverty, a wombyn who dealt with houselessness and a wombyn who struggled with a “diagnosis” Jane in Vane’s art was a resistance to poverty, to “mental health” notions of normalcy, to ridiculous ideas of who is an outsider and who is an insider. Jane in Vane penetrated the exclusionary boundaries of the art industry and painted us all in.

Jane “in Vane” Winkelman transitioned on her spirit journey June of 2012. She had suffered with a serous illness for a long time and took her own life. Her poverty heroism will NEVER be forgotten.

Many people are aware of the microscopic society that we live in. 

With millions of cameras all across the united states, our every move is being recorded. The citizens were under the (false) pretense that surveillance cameras were put into place as an aid to the safety of the public, and to record any crimes being committed. However, with a rise in crime and low conviction rates, the people are starting to wonder if the true purpose of installing these cameras are to keep us safe, or to keep an eye on us. With that being said, there have been many theories coming to surface about the intentions of the powers that be, and one theory is the institution of slavery, not safety. The enslavement of a nation through the bio-chemical warfare of mind and population control.

According to studies, there are many forms of mind control, ranging from pharmaceutical, hard "street" drugs, the poisoning of our food supply as well as monarch, personality imprinting and electronic. Electronic is said to be the most effective because of its near invisibility and hard detection. We are mostly surrounded by antennas and wires broadcasting everything from radio and t.v signals to power plants, power lines and electrical grids. All of this effects our chakras, or "subtle energy systems" Could all of this be possible?

It is happening as we speak according to Elizabeth Adams, executive producer of "America needs To know" (www.americaneedstoknow,tv) and fellow comrade, sista Amy. In a POOR Magazine Q and A, these skolars share stories that puts a question mark behind the word sci-fi.

Q: What is mind control?

Amy: to clairify, it's called "Advanced Technology" that can be used to stimulate freqencies as electromagnetic energy to stimulate the human brainwaves, to manipulate the thoughts, behavior, and body parts by being able to attack the central nervous system. 

Elizabeth: In addition to that, when the "targeted" brain is manipulated, it can make a person do what they normally wouldn't do, like  commit crimes.

Q: So there's a connection between mind control and the rampant violence we see particularly in black and brown neighborhoods?

Elizabeth: Most definitely! The black on black, brown on brown crimes, the drive-bys  all of this are premeditated attacks on poor communities. I have at least 20 personal stories relating to this. Again, these are planned targeted murders, including Oscar Grant. This is why the u.s government is building more prisons, because they already know how many people they are going to put in them. These are demonic, satanic elite forces we are dealing with and they did not want blacks here in the first place. We were only brought here to be slaves, and we are still in slavery now. Before it was physical, when we had masters we took care of their homes, children, land and generated masses amounts of wealth for the slavemaster. Today, this is a new form of slavery. This is mental slavery, psychological torture, psychological bondage. Even a person of high intelligence can't  control their own thoughts once they have been targeted with this energy. For instance, you can make plans to do one thing, next you know you're rerouted and going in a different direction. It really screws you up.

 

Amy: To add to that, however, the elite society, the 1 percent are also targeting their own kind so it wont appear to be a psychological, bio-warfare based on race.

Elizabeth: They are already utilizing this technology in prison. A lot of inmates have complained of severe migraine headaches, not knowing that they are already guinea pigs of this illegal program.

Amy: With the prisoners, this allows them to legally perform human experiments with this advanced technology. They are able to implant chips into the inmates, using different mechanisms from dental surgery, to epidemic thermal injections. Cosmetic surgery, breast implants, our food supply and even our cosmetics all falls under this category.

Q: So these type of human experiments  are illegal?

Elizabeth: U.S senate bill 362 was  by sen. Joe Simitian,  signed into law by former gov Arnold schwarzenegger. the bill was created to stop the illegal implants of mind control programming technology in u.s citizens without their consent. The RFID chips, AKA radio freqency identification have been illegally implanted in citizens (here and in other countries) usually when people are hospitalized during a  surgical medical procedure, without their knowledge or consent.  The RFID chip is the size of a grain of rice, so small that the victim would not even feel it. The only way to detect it is by getting an X-ray done. Bill 362 also prohibits doctors and surgeons from implanting the RFID chip into patients without knowledge or consent. What that tells you is that they have been doing this all along before banning the chip a few years back, when schwarzenegger was in office.

Q: What about chemtrail planes?

Amy: Chemtrail planes are another source where bio-particles are released into the air for us to breathe in harmful chemicals.

Elizabeth: And speaking on chemtrails, Sen. Dennis Kucinich created a congressional house resolution bill-2977. Bill 2977 told the truth, and in english as one would say for the people to understand what the bill meant. Because the bill exposed too much of the truth, it was shot down. Kucinich then returned with bill 3616, the same bill but reworded. This time, the bill had passed and if you want the truth about it (the bill) don't read 3616, read bill 2977 instead. The city of berkeley has a large population of college students, some even from different countries, and there was a need to protect those students, thus creating a bill that bans chemical spraying. It is now illegal, making the city of berkeley the only city in the united states that has banned chemtrail spraying.

Q: How can other cities follow suit and proceed with the chemtrail ban?

Elizabeth: Speak with your congressional members.

Q: Now you said that you too was a victim. What goes on?

Elizabeth: hell, pure hell.

Amy: I was used as a sex slave by a San Francisco man named Jonah M. I had discovered his identity from a cell phone interception. Every since, he has targeted and tortured me with this advanced technology attempting to silence me. My former employer have been involved with the elite society as a private contractor of this technology as well. They deny that this operation exists because they don't want the people to know and understand what is going on. As a targeted person, when we get up every morning we are fighting. Our lives are no different than a soilder fighting in a war. We are steadily fighting to stay alive and survive these horrific crimes that are being committed against us that are destroying our lives.

Elizabeth: People who are sucked up into this technology are also known as human robots or human puppets.

Amy: And when Elizabeth speaks of human robots and puppets, she's only stating that for the fact that people are not aware of this technology and what it does to the human mind. We are being used as puppets, and we are constantly harassed by people who are not aware that this is even happening. They too, are manipulated with this programming, and the objective is to make the target's life a living hell.


Elizabeth: People are walking around wondering "I'm a good person, I work hard and I am dedicated to my cause, what's wrong?" They are doing everything physically right in their lives, but can't figure out why everything is still screwed up. I mean their lives are literally messed up. The person may be in the "program" and don't even know it. Me, I am a business professional. I'm supposed to be making a minimum of 100,000 to 120,000 a year. The last paying job I had was at 78,000 a year. But now I am a homeless woman, and even prior to this, my life was messed up and I couldn't understand why. I knew people were following me, and when I sent out emails to folks or resumes to employers, everything I sent out went straight to the spam box of those who i attempted to communicate with. With all these things going wrong in my life, I started to do research online. By typing in the fact that I was being followed and harassed, It was on april 16th, 2006 that I found out what was going on and discovered that I was a victim of the MK-ULTRA program. Once I found this out, all the pieces of the puzzle just fell right into place.

Amy: I would like to add that these electromagnetic shockwaves can penetrate through walls, cement or any other hard surfaces. Electromagnetic energy can attack the target on contact, and the victim will feel like they've been shocked without having any contact with any electrical outlets- it's more like a laser being beamed at your skull that sends radiation throughout your body and stimulates this kind of energy that makes your body feel like its on fire. When you try to tell someone about this, the first thing that they think is that you're dillusional or just plain crazy. This tactic is called the "No touch torture", and when the target is suffering, there is nothing no one can do to help the target whatsoever.

Elizabeth: I was doing some research online,I typed in "cia and mind control experiments" and there were 636 million websites on this topic alone. Now to the amerikkkan public: Are 636 million people dillusional? Do the research for yourself and you will be surprised at all the things that have taken place. A person will think its sci-fi, and yes it is science, but it's far from fiction...



For more info on this subject, log onto www.americaneedstoknow.tv. Also there will be an "Advance Technology Summit On Human and Civil Rights" The date is Saturday, October 13th 2012 from 12 noon to 5pm. The location is the Berkeley public library, 2090 Kitteredge st. 3rd floor conference room. Berkeley Ca, 94704. Contact person: Elizabeth Adams @ www.americaneedstoknow.tv

Editors Note: Use the POOR Magazine Promo code to get $5.00 discount on Tx-click here for more info

Interview with Paul S. Flores, playwright of PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo

 

Poor News Network (Prensa POBRE/POOR Magazine), a poor people-led, indigenous peoples-led grassroots, non-profit, arts organization spoke with compañero Paul S. Flores,  about his latest play, PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo that is set to premier in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater on September 6, 2012. The play outlines the complexities of the human migration & the struggle to survive amidst systemic violence.

The plays central figure is loosely based on the life experiences of Alex Sanchez, a former gang member who now is the executive director of Homies Unidos, an organization that works towards ending gang violence, giving inner city youth alternatives to violence. Alex Sanchez, who was a consultant for PLACAS, migrated to the United States with his family from El Salvador during the US-backed oppressive & violent regime of the 1970s and remained in the Los Angeles area during the Civil War that engulfed that country until 1992 that left about 100,000 precious lives lost (~80,000 dead + ~20-30,000). The dilapidated infrastructure of the country that resulted from the war was not able to support the mental & social health needs in the lengthy road towards healing the people of El Salvador, from the traumas of migration & violence that lied ahead.

The oppressive history of colonialism & US intervention has played a role in destabilizing the lives of many in Latin America & commodifying Pachamama and her people into labor & capital. This is the reality of everyday life for many who are stuck in this go-between of surviving post-traumatic stress & making of a dollar.

Paul Flores, who has had a long trajectory as a community based artist, with experience mentoring youth, including gang members emphasized the optimism and realities of the precarious peace that exist today in El Salvador with the truce that was developed by the gang members themselves in the prisons of El Salvador.  The peace process which is in the works with global allies like Luis Rodriguez & Alex Sanchez attest to the need for economic support in the impoverished communities that gang members come from as Flores states, “Poverty breads violence.” In this bleak scenario, a glimpse of hope is being developed. Imprisoned gang members in El Salvador, have taken it upon themselves, independent of the government, to attempt to create a path of peace in order to heal from trauma that is a current reality in Central America.

The central character of the play, named Fausto is a former gang member whose family migrated to the United States from El Salvador, and has to have his tattoos removed as part of his probation agreement. The title, the word PLACAS, is barrio slang for tattoos, which is central to the play. Tattoos have different meanings particularly, as Flores states, “gangs offer support that families can’t,” because they serve as a support system for folks that can’t find it elsewhere.  

Tattoos, gangs & El Salvador have a very distinct history that has garnered extensive attention in recent years and has categorized the small Central American nation of El Salvador in negative light. At one point the government of El Salvador illegalized tattoos in order to curve gang violence, becoming a failed government policy, because it was a policy that demonized people who had tattoos but did nothing to provide economic security and alternatives to youth that were in gangs or in the path of joining one.

PLACAS sheds light to the precarious dance of survivance (survival + resistance = survivance) that not only Salvadorans have to go through but all oppressed, people of color and migration people, as well. The spirit of PLACAS can pave the way for gang members to create their own plays to express their own experiences and create their artworks that endures and represents their histories/herstories. The current peace process led by the incarcerated gang members is giving a voice to the voiceless, empowering our youth, & remembering our Ancestors struggles for dignity. By speaking even if their voice trembles, gang members are establishing a new road for social change in El Salvador that can set a new example of youth agency around the world.

Vinia Castro is an NDN/political hood pundit, first generation gringa whose DNA hails from the coffee fields of Panchimalco highlands in El Salvador (the coffee originally from Ethiopia). Currently, she is PNN’s Mayan scholar-in-residence & Bolivian analysis junkie.

Post offices were formed before the constitution was written.  They were made for the average person and were supposed to be run by the government…..not by Walmart or any private entity.

In 2011, though, Steven Greenhouse wrote a bill geared at bankrupting the post office.  This bill requires the government to secure 70 years worth of pension funding for each postal employee immediately.  In other words, in order to comply with the new law, the post office would have to come up with about 5 billion dollars.   This is as ridiculous as it sounds.

In order to do this, the post office says it has to close rural and small town post offices.  The government is planning to close offices in poor areas of major cities as well.  In San Francisco, the home base of this reporter, I heard that three post offices will be closing….2 in poor areas and one in a working class area.  There’s talks of closing other post offices also.  Visitacion Valley’s only post office will be closing if you do not write to the post master general.  Bayview’s post office will be closing, too.  This is an area with over 75% African descended people.  The post office in the Tenderloin, known as the Civic Center post office will be closed too.  This post office is used mostly by low income individuals, families and seniors. 

Don’t think you’re safe working class people!! Glen Park post office is also scheduled to be closed.  They are also selling the Berkeley post office.  Not closing it – selling it.  This is a landmark post office and Feinstein’s husband is looking to sell it.  The details are still being negotiated.  The North Beach office is also going to be sold. This will lead to the privatization of your post office.  Get ready to go to Walmart for your postal needs.

Please explain to me why Diane Feinstein cannot be charged with a conflict of interest?