Story Archives 2013

(Editor's note: Bill Sorro is an elder ancestor of POOR Magazine whose life and work encompasses and informs the indigenous and community values that make up POOR Magazine.  His life was filled with compassion and fire and the fight for housing justice and  justice for workers--a fire that didn't diminish with his passing in 2007.  His legacy is being lived through both the Bill Sorro Housing Program in the South of Market area in San Francisco and through the Manilatown Heritage Foundation.  Bill was instrumental in the rebuilding of the I-Hotel after the eviction of its elderly tenants in 1977.  The site of the I-Hotel remained a hole in the ground and in the hearts of the community until it was rebuilt 30 years later.  The anniversary of the eviction of elders from the I-Hotel is on August 4th.  The new I-Hotel, with 104 units of affordable senior housing stands proudly on Kearny Street at the site of the original I-Hotel.  The I-Hotel and the Bill Sorro Housing Program in the south of market area are testaments to the love and commitment of Bill Sorro to the community.  As a member of the Board of Directors of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation (www.manilatown.org) and co-editor of POOR Magazine, I urge--and urge others--to convey to the SOMA Stabilization fund advisory committee to continue funding the Bill Sorro Housing Program for the services it provides to a community whose needs are not going to disappear--Tony Robles, co-editor, POOR Magazine)

We have all felt the punch from corporate America, that is, if you happen to fall within the bracket of the 47% and even the 99%. If you are not a part of the 1%, you are not in a safe place in America—especially San Francisco. This is true of the Filipino community—a community of families, elders and immigrants—struggling to stay in a traditionally working class neighborhood that is under encroachment by real estate speculators and landlords intent on evicting long term tenants in order to maximize rents.  The Filipino community is also in the throes of a "2nd dot-com boom", whose tech-washed multitudes threaten the diversity of the South of Market community. 

To a tech worker from out of town--part of the influx of what is being called, "Bedroom communities", the south of Market area is hip, cool and trendy, with nightlife and lots of things to do.  What is often overlooked are the people of the neighborhood--Filipino immigrants and longtime families who have work and struggle to remain in SOMA.  This area is their home.  And the elders and youth of the community have a rich history in SOMA--their equity is shown through their love for their elders, youth and in their struggle to keep their community together.  

The Veterans Equity Center (VEC) has served the Filipino-American community for more than 13 years, helping Filipino World War II veterans, families, seniors and youth living in the South of Market Area (SOMA). VEC serves the Filipino and wider community of SOMA with assistance in locating housing, obtaining welfare or general assistance, and assisting job seekers in finding employment. They help with resume writing, linking the community to job opportunities, tenant’s rights counseling and other resources, because, at the end of the day, it is about survival in a city that is determined to make sure you don’t survive while, at the same time, claiming it is looking out for your best interests.

The city skyline is seeing housing developments crop up but much of that housing is unaffordable. The city has tried to appear cognizant of this situation by offering BMR (Below market rate) housing. To apply for below market rate housing, you must complete a 10 page application that requires you to show proof that you live or work in San Francisco. Your name then goes into a lottery system. This is no guarantee that you will get a place to live. The application process—with its array of murky paperwork and oftentimes ambiguous instructions can be both daunting and discouraging for people whose lives are a struggle—a struggle maintain shelter and to care for their elders and families. There are no organizations that are trained to assist families and those in need of BMR housing with applications.

The Bill Sorro Housing Program (BiSHoP) of the Veterans Equity Center (VEC) is one of the many programs in the city of San Francisco that are on the chopping block to save money. BiSHoP is located at 1010 Mission at 6th street. BiSHoP is named in honor of community housing advocate Bill Sorro, whose tireless work was focused on improving housing and working conditions for people whose needs were being overlooked--the working class, working poor, immigrants and families.

Bill was instrumental in standing up to the real estate developers and landlords.  He firmly believed that “Housing is a human right” and “No human being is illegal”. He was a dedicated activist who never compromised his principals when it came the concept that housing was a right. It was through his work as an organizer that the International Hotel, in San Francisco’s former Manilatown neighborhood, was rebuilt after its demolition and subsequent eviction of elderly tenants in 1977. Sorro’s work, along with that of community organizers Al Robles and Emil DeGuzman, resulted in the “I-Hotel” being rebuilt after 30 years—providing 104 units of affordable senior housing. This August 4^th is the commemoration of the historic night of the I-Hotel eviction. The heart, spirit and dedication of BiSHoP’s work comes from the spirit and life’s work of Bill Sorro.

Over 700 households utilize BiSHoP’s services: application assistance, housing case management, bilingual support services, housing education, and legal information and referrals. They are facing closure because they don’t have enough money to keep it running, though there is potential to receive half of its operating grant in order for it to run—which is impossible to do. It is another sad situation.

You might ask, what about everybody else who needs help but aren’t Filipino? BiSHoP has helped people of all backgrounds and ethnicities, who are of low income and in need of services. But if BiSHoP doesn’t have enough money to continue running, what does that mean for the elderly and others who depend on their services? It means they break the law because there is nowhere else for them to go but the streets. It is a shame that you go to war, put your life in a difficult position, fighting for a so-called freedom that ain’t so free.

Currently BiSHoP is open but for how long, we don’t know. They want the city to know and lend a hand to keep this resource alive for the good of the community.   The BiSHoP program has stayed true to the values of Bill Sorro--working to ensure that the Filipino community in SOMA has a voice in housing and an opportunity to partake in the services that are available to the community.  Just as important, the staff at BiSHop practices true care giving and case management in which the community is not a spreadsheet filled with numbers and statistics, but made up of people who are rich with history and stories and contributions.  The BiSHop program respects the neighborhood and its people, and this is something that is hard to come by within the non-profit industrial complex. 

In order to qualify for a market rate apartment in the South of Market area, a person working a minimum wage job would have to work 7.1 jobs to be able to afford the rent. This is impossible. What’s worse is that if you cannot afford an apartment, you are forced to live in an SRO (Single room occupancy) hotel room with shared toilets and showers, and also bed bugs, roaches and mice. These rooms are too expense to be living in with such conditions. These places have been rigged to look the part but if you pull furniture out, you’ll see what they were trying to hide. It’s about the “dead presidents” on the greenback we need in order to do what needs to be done. 

Keep the Bill Sorro Housing Program open!  Long live Bill Sorro and long live the spirit of the I-Hotel!

If you want to help in any way, please contact:

bishop@vetsequitycenter.org

http://vetsequitycenter.org

http://bishop.vetsequitycenter.org

I wanna talk bout skin

Mela-nin

and the race-

ism

that takes so much space

in this Sick-Ass place

called amerikkka…

I start this story by stating the obvious and not so obvious. I am the very light-skinned daughter of a strong, beautiful, disabled Black/Indian mama who dealt with racist (and classist) hate her ENTIRE very HARD life- in foster homes, orphanages and on the streets as the unwanted, “illegitimate” daughter of Black/Indian/Roma, Irish immigrants. Because of my mamas teaching-her love, art, anger, consciousness, and our endless poverty, I can tell you in the deepest sense RACISM IS VERY alive in Amerikkka..

I am the success story of the pure race scientists, and the tears of my many KKKolinized ancestors.

I don’t make sense to most people because I appear wite but my culture, soul, spirit and heart are Black, Brown and Red. But in reality in this wite-supremacist nation I walk thru the world invisiblized- cloaked in this twisted shade seen as privileged, most of the time un-profiled and no longer criminalized and therefore must speak on that space between wite-ness, blackness and me.

To be clear, it wasn't always like that-I have spent most of my childhood houseless in Amerikkka with my po mama of color and therefore was incessantly profiled, po’liced, harassed and eventually incarcerated for sleeping in our car, selling/vending unlicensed products on the street and other survival “crimes” in the US. And then after my son was born and my mama became ill, the struggle started again.

When I was 11 my mama got laid off her “welfare to work” job for questioning wite-supremacist psychiatric theories of individuation and the myth of the “bootstraps”, we ended up literally on the street, houseless. We started working really hard in several underground economies to raise enough money for the exhorbitant amount of 1^st last and security deposits required to get  another apartment , but now that we were houseless and we had no “credit”, my mama had no more job references to make her look “responsible” and my po’ mixed race looking mama could not get approved for an apartment to save our life. Every time she showed up, they would have an excuse about why we couldn’t qualify.

That’s when my ghetto fabulous survival by any means necessary mama decided to flip the wite-supremacist hateration on its own ugly head and use its weak profiling against itself.My Survival-Queen-Superbabymama hatched a plan. 

We went to K-Mart (in LA) and got me the cheapest suit we could find, a fake ID stating I was actually 25, combed my hair into some kind of wite way and “rent-starter”, my new underground identity was born.

Lo and behold it worked. I filled out applications stating all kinds of stories about my yearly income, my jobs and my lengthy credit references and every landlord, from South-Asian to Wite happily granted me access to their precious (stolen land) apartments.

This is but one example of wite-gurl looking me needing to use my “skin privilege” to get us stuff. From money to favors, to credit to loans to apts to jobs. I have pimped and played my own wite-ness to keep our family of color alive within a deeply racist society throughout my childhood and even now. And only one example of the depth of the wite-lie of safety granted within a wite-supremacist nation which was built on the back of Black, Indigenous and migrante peoples labor, lives and genocide.

And to be VERY clear, I am not boasting about these poverty crimes. They are but one example of my multiple degrees acquired in the skool of hard knocks at way too young of an age, experienced and lived through because there was no other way for us to stay housed for the few times we were able to get inside, and acquired housing because telling the truth for poor, single parent women of color on the streets isn’t always an option.

It wasn’t until me and my mama became conscious through understanding our indigenismo, our POC consciousness, our African consciousness, our mama-daughter consciousness and our collective poverty struggle that we began to speak up on all of this rampant racism, colonization and hate which allowed us eventually to launch the poor people-led, self-determined media, art and education which is POOR Magazine.

As the national conversation gets louder around wite peoples and other peoples of color understanding or being challenged to understand that black Lives matter, I would like to add that all these assertions are powerful in terms of a collective consciousness which needs to be shifted in this racist nation but only a passive beginning.

For peoples with race, class and/or education privilege there should be a drastic change. It is time to stop passively benefiting from wite-supremacy. The lie of integration and affirmative action is played out and done.

Every day folks with these privileges casually rent apartments or rooms, don’t get harassed by po’lice, approved for jobs, access to credit, a home loan, or more covertly a credit card approved before you ask for it, the ability to walk down the street without a second glance or a police tail, the ability to not have your child profiled in the wite-supremacist skool systems we live within.  These are just a few of the seen and un-seen privileges of this wite-supremacist nation.  And if you are truly conscious, you would reverse them now. Begin the conversation about what I call Community Reparations. Begin understanding the concepts of decolonization and de-gentrification.

Recognize first that poor folks, African Peoples, Raza, Indigenous peoples need to self-determine our own futures, and that the role of wite peoples and peoples with privilege is not to save us, or create a non-profit for us, or a study to prove something to us, but rather to support us in our own poor and indigenous-led movements.

Begin the conversation on Afrikan peoples Reparations and/or  what I call Community Reparations. Debunking the myth of independence and co-dependence and all these other wite-psychiatry notions that give all colonized people directions to only be consumed with their own individual happiness, to not burden themselves with the “messiness” of family and elders and care-giving. And that if you continue to benefit in these covert ways from the depth of wite-supremacy you are actually indebted to your fellow community member, to support them, kick down to them or depending on your access to wealth or privilege, support them.

And that other light-skinned peoples who may not have access to wealth, need to stop passively accepting their embedded skin privilege and begin reversing the theft of land, resources and space. Both of these ideas are VERY complicated and I would refer you to enroll a semester in peopleskool  to help activate this process.  But in the mean-time acquaint yourselves with the work and words of POOR Magazine’s Solidarity Board who is practicing Community Reparations

Cause/start conversations in colonizer-controlled spaces like stolen land art museums, “archives” and memorials where lies about indigenous peoples herstory and history are promoted and perpetuated. Stop funneling billions of dollars into academic institutions and academic studies on peoples of color. Stop moving into cities cause you think it would be more “interesting” to live there. Stop starting projects to “help” us and instead support self-determined poor and indigenous people-led movements like Peoples Community Medics, Black Riders Liberation Movement, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, WRAP, street newspaper vendors, HANC, KRIP Hop, Kenny Harding Foundation and POOR Magazine’s HOMEFULNESS project.

In the end I speak as someone who practices these ideas, I took care of my mama til the day she transitioned, no matter how hard it got, while raising my sun alone as a single parent. After my mama transitioned I started two Mamahouses for me and other poor single parents who needed support and care. I live inter-dependently always, worrying and working to activate change, un-packing the lies of the poverty industry, the po’lice, wite-supremacy and the hoarding of wealth for every poor and privileged person alike.  I walk the world every day being very aware of what isn’t happening to me and I work hard to ensure less abuse and more power comes to my fellow melanin-blessed brothers and sisters in Amerikkka.

If you are a poor people-led, indigenous people-led group or organization- contact us so we can come out and help your group learn how to integrate the model of Community Reparations iinto your project. If you are a person with race, class or education privilege consider attending PEopleSkool's upcoming Fall semester-

 The mood of the neighborhood was quiet, but the anger was loud enough to

 shatter glass. I sat looking at the television, awaiting the confirmation from the verdict

 that young black lives are not worth spit. George Zimmerman has indeed

 gotten away with murder while young Travon lies in a grave that was marked

 way too early, just like a lot of young men of color who die tragically and dishonored.

 The George Zimmerman case was just as biased as any other lynching trial and Zimmerman was never held accountable for accosting a child that was simply returning home from a store run. Zimmerman disobeyed the 911 operator's request to let the child be, and he refused, hell bent on causing trouble with Travon because of the color of his skin and his hoodie. Had this had been a white man with a white hoodie on, the scenario would have been different. He deliberately followed Travon and harassed him because he didn't "belong" there.

To be followed and harassed would frighten and agitate anyone who has common sense and any defensive actions are just the natural reaction to one's safety being in danger. So if Travon did kick George Zimmerman's ass, it was because Travon himself was the one who was threatened. The "Stand your ground" law should not have the main focus of the case, because George Zimmerman was the one who initiated the altercation by following Travon in the first place. The focus should have been on how our children can't even go to the store by themselves without being killed by cowboys who patrol these gated communities with biased judgement. the focus should have been on why did this grown-ass man go out of his way to bother someone's child in the first place with premeditated intentions of causing trouble? Whether Travon was right or wrong one thing is clear is that young black men don't have any rights and can be hunted down and murdered on any given notice. The kkkourts have made it crystal clear that the "nigger hunting" license is still valid and that no one of color is safe.

Many folks from all over the nation took to the streets to protest the

unjust verdict of Zimmerman's clearance of murder and the slap in the

face to Travon Martin's parents. This case is the millionth slap in

the face to us all as it is an constant reminder that there will never

be racial equality under white rule. It is a reminder how vital it is

to protect our children from child murderers like George Zimmerman by

any means, to educate them and guide them from the ways of this wicked

world. To leave them with a legacy of life and knowledge of self

regardless of evil opposition. That is our God-given right and we the

people are beyond sick and tired of enduring the trauma of the

lynchings of our people that has been going on for centuries, with

impunity.

 The case of Marissa Alexander is another example of how racially biased our so-called justice system is. Marissa Alexander, mother of 3 was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the ceiling to fend off her abusive husband. When she should have been protected by Florida’s “stand your ground” law, she wasn’t, even with the testimony from her husband saying that she was defending herself and in fear for her life. The attorney who refused to prosecute George Zimmerman for murdering a black child blatantly prosecuted this black woman for standing her ground. For those who constantly cry about how these murders and convictions of black people and other people of color are not based on race is sadly mistaken and need to check this country’s track record when it comes down to the (mis) treatment, convictions and the unjust bloody lynchings of people of color in amerikkka. To deny the “race” factor fuels the tolerance for these kind of tragedies without really addressing the root of the problem thus sugarcoating it, leaving a nation of angry, restless folks repeatedly going in circles.

The “not guilty” verdict was just another reminder that there is no justice

 for people of color in amerikkka. As long as white supremacy continues it racist rule

 there will be nothing for us other than sin, suffering, slavery and death.

 Amerikkka's colonizers never had the intention of co-existing with the red man, from

 whom white invaders slaughtered and stole land from, nor the black man, who was

 stolen from his OWN land and forced to come to the amerikkkan hells to

 build an amerikkkan paradise for whites, while mother africa is in ruins due to white and "sellout" reign. That is why we are still catching

 hell dealing wit poverty, mis-education and a unjust system created by

 racists who pardons people like George Zimmerman and unfortunately, to slaughter people of color is no crime the in the white eyes of the white law.

For more information on the Travon Martin case and/or how you can support Marissa Alexander go to www.poormagazine.org, www.justiceformarissa.blogspot.com or to sign the online petition supporting Marissa Alexander, go to www.change.org and look for the petition for Marissa Alexander

from May 2013:

As we crossed the bridge on the way to Homefulness in East Oakland, I sat curled in the backseat, watching the San Francisco Bay flash past us. Dancing in my chest was some combination of eagerness, longing, and nervousness about the honor of visiting this corner of reclaimed land, this place that has a big piece of my heart. I’m a member of POOR’s Solidarity Family—a crew of people with race, class, and/or educational privilege who use those privileges to support the Homefulness Project. I’d been invited to come out to Homefulness for the afternoon, to be a part of the work that POOR does there every Thursday.

In the front seat, the conversation was about hot dogs. Hot dogs had been a hot topic for more than a month now. For hot dogs, family at POOR tweaked the budget, put out new fundraising calls, did market research—all because POOR refuses to feed poison-filled food to the folks at Homefulness. Healthy hot dogs are expensive. This week Tiny, Muteado, and Leo are excited: the best quality hot dogs were on sale, and so the trunk is stocked with organic meat to grill.

In East Oakland, we maneuver into the driveway and unload armfuls of food and supplies into the cool, dim kitchen. Outside, everyone snaps into action and I try to keep up. Muteado unravels a hose and starts to water the raised-bed gardens near the front of the property, showering thirsty red kale and mustard greens. Joe, Tiny, and I wrestle with a big white tent to shelter our food and our people from the sun. Before five minutes have gone by, Queennandi is deep in conversation with neighbors. Joe uses a lemon and an onion to meticulously clean the grill. I pick greens from the garden, yanking a few weeds along the way, and put together a salad. When I stop for a minute, I see this small POOR family, tight-knit, moving with precision and purpose.

Folks from the neighborhood start to gather around the card table. We all serve ourselves hot dogs striped with grill marks, bowls bursting with green salad, slices of tomato and onion. We circle informally, someone flips out a camcorder and filming starts for this week’s Deep East TV.

**

Homefulness stayed with me into the next week, most often surfacing when POOR’s insistent, gentle ethics about dignity and care clashed with the overwhelmingly normal violence of capitalism and racism. A few days after my van ride to East Oakland, my computer screen filled with the earnest face of a young white guy behind a steering wheel. Los Angeles surface streets zipped past as his voiceover stated firmly: “It was time to do some charity.” His name was Greg Karber, and he was responsible for the media stunt trainwreck called “Fitch the Homeless.” Karber wanted to ruin Abercrombie & Fitch’s name, and he could think of no better way to do it than by giving away Abercrombie clothes to people in poverty.

Karber’s feet hit the pavement of LA and he tossed clothes to houseless folks as he tornadoed through their neighborhood. He didn’t need to explain himself when he said that his aim was to make Abercrombie & Fitch the “Number One Brand of Homeless Apparel.” What he meant is that there could be no greater shame for a fashionable company than to be associated with folks in poverty. The people themselves—dozens of faces who are shuffled through the three-minute video, hands outstretched to confusedly take the “gifts” that Karber is offering—were props, just like the v-neck sweaters and khaki pants.

Fitch the Homeless caught its own moment of frenzied internet excitement, with a lot of people eager about the dig Karber took at a disgusting clothing company, and a lot of others infuriated by his dehumanizing treatment of poor people. The attention has mostly wandered away now. Karber was impolite enough to cross an imaginary line of decency that provoked some internet anger, but there was nothing particularly new about his project. It is so normal for people with privilege to build their projects and their lives off of poor people, on top of poor people. The notion that poor people have visions and power of their own usually doesn’t even make it into the conversation.

**

Driving up Macarthur Avenue, it’s like this backdrop of hatred of poor people is set in the skyline behind the sloping roof and high-reaching trees at Homefulness. Sometimes it’s hard to explain Homefulness, I think because it’s not so complicated: because the care that is at the foundation of Homefulness is so simple and also so rare and revolutionary. I think about Greb Karber, and every other media-maker and policymaker who has never managed to muster any kind of care for poor people, in spite of making whole careers off of policing, housing, un-housing, shuffling, and exploiting them.

At Homefulness, care means that people in a resource-drained, heavily-policed Black neighborhood in deep East Oakland deserve the best food we can find. That housing and food shouldn’t come at the cost of anyone’s dignity or self-determination, like it does in so many social service organizations. That scholarship generated on street corners in East Oakland deserves a camera held steady, careful attention from an editor, and airtime. That poor people do not need charity, but the breathing room and resources to bring their own solutions to life. That the soil that has slept pressed under the asphalt for decades still holds the memory of an ecosystem, the memory that will reteach us interdependence.

How many of us are hungering for the kinds of care that are happening at Homefulness? It’s not only the poverty scholars who will live at Homefulness who need it to succeed. Every careful, humble step that Homefulness takes chips away at the lies of independence, hoarding, and supremacy that my white, owning-class world have taught me. The steps themselves are living, vibrant teachers, the lessons that all of us need to get free.

For immediate Release: Press Advisory

Press Contact: Leroy Moore of Krip Hop Nation
Contact info (510) 649-8438 /Kriphopnation@gmail.com

The African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library in association with Krip-Hop Nation & the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper Presents:

The 16^th Strike Documentary Bay Area showing 

When: August 17^th 2013

Where:  San Francisco Main Library Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 &

Time:  Saturday screening time:1pm with Po-Poets of Poor Magazine, Lisa “Tiny” Gray Garcia & Vivian Louise

The 16^th Strike will make its San Francisco Bay Area primer in Black August 2013 in Oakland and San Francisco brought to you by the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper and Krip-Hop Nation.  In the words of Toni:

Unfortunately what is going on here in Texas, is an example of what is happening nationwide to people of color. We are the # 1 majority of the Jail system, the # 1 people dying because we are killing ourselves, The # 1 people being killed by licensed gun carriers, The # 1 people dying from diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. The #1 people that are spending 1.1 trillion dollars, more than any other race, with it staying in our community 6-8 hours, verses the Asian community spending stays in their community 30 days. We create a reality that revolves around false beauty and deny our natural selves. We pay our tithes to the church, and think that we can continue to say amen and our problems will be wiped away.  Meanwhile, we are still enslaved by the very things that have created the illusion of freedom.  Why is this Documentary important? Because we need to wake up and see our babies are dying.  We are being exterminated like mice to a mousetrap! The cheese for us is marketing ignorance. Money, greed, illusion.

Toni Alika Hickman is a mother, musician, author, activist, speaker and now filmmaker.  She is a member of Krip-Hop Nation.  Her CD, Cripple Pretty and her book, Chemical Suicide/Death by Association deals with how corporations sell us what they consider as beautiful knowing that this standard is not achievable and causing us to crippling ourselves physically, emotionally and so on.

She teamed up with videographer, Danny Russo, and they created The 16th Strike, a documentary under Alika Films, focusing on the current state of Blacks/Africans in America. It also deals with possible solutions we must incorporate, in order to come out of the unhealthy situations we are currently in. Our food system, our jail system, our economic system, our family structure and more, needs to be addressed, as we are in a state of crisis!

Toni Alika Hickman will be screening her documentary,  The 16^th Strike, in the Bay Area in Aug., 2013 at San Francisco Main Library in the Koret Auditorium on Sat Aug 17^th  with poetry by Lisa “Tiny” Gray Garcia and Vivian Louise of Poor Magazine’s Po Poets Project

The Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1m9Qx1-1CHQ      

Editors Note: Amari X is a Plantation Prison Correspondent for POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE. As currently and formerly incarcerated poor and indigenous peoples in struggle and resistance with all plantation systems in Amerikkka, POOR Magazine stands in solidarity with all hunger strikers demanding justice

I am Amari X. I am hungry for justice. I am in Pelican Bay and have been in the SHU multiple times. Each time it was because I was suspected to be a “gang member”.

These gangs are constructs of the US Military Industrial Complex and the Prison Industrial Complex. They mean nothing except to create dissension among all us inmates so we won’t rise up and take over the guards.

I am in this plantation due to poverty and racist, unjust courts. My crime was non-violent survival crimes.

I refuse to be railroaded into state-sponsored mind control. I hope you will support me and my fellow brothers who are on this hunger strike. We are all HUNGRY for justice. Please support us.

On Wednesday July 31st, people around the world will fast and take other action in solidarity with the California Prisoner Hunger Strikers. Join family members of hunger strikers along with James Cromwell, Angela Davis, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Elliott Gould, Chris Hedges, Alice Walker, and Cornel West. We fast knowing that the criminalization that killed Trayvon Martin, and the criminalization that justifies the torture of prisoners in solitary confinement are one and the same.

We fast in solidarity with the demands of the hunger strikers.  And we fast to get justice for Trayvon and for people of every gender, race and religion who have been killed by state and vigilante violence. Support efforts everywhere for Justice for Trayvon Martin.

 “We have taken up this hunger strike and work stoppage... not only to improve our own conditions but also an act of solidarity with all prisoners and oppressed people around the world.”   Hunger Strikers in the Short Corridor Collective at Pelican Bay State Prison SHU

Join us to help win the 5 demands of the California Prisoner Hunger Strikers:

On July 30th the families and loved ones of prisoners on hunger strike are visiting Sacramento to demand that Governor Brown pressure the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to enter into negotiations with the hunger strikers.

Call California Governor Jerry Brown and ask him to meet the strikers’ demands: (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, (510) 628-0202.

On Wednesday, July 31^st There will be a lunch time rally in Oakland- Gather at 11am (Lunch time rally) Oscar Grant Plaza - 14^th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland – 12^th St. City Center BART

Sign onto the Hunger for Justice Fast & Day of Action

Dante

My name is Dante.  I am 13 years old.  I live in East Oakland.  My Street is full of trees not dirty gardens.  I am the son of my mom Sharena.  I learned that plants can save your life and you can make money.  From what I learned about high blood pressure, it is from too much salt in your diet.  By Growing your own food, you will know it is good for you and real.  I like football, eating food and learning new things. 

Niani Manigo

My name is Niani Manigo and I am 10 years old.   I live in Oakland CA in an apartment that is by Highland Hospital and the houses by my apartment have some interesting color, like gray, white, peach, black and yellow.  Something that I like to do is dancing, gardening, but when it comes to my mom and me, we walk the Merit Lake.  It is tiring but it is fun.  My moms’ name is Pecolia Manigo Tonia Hudson.  Some plants can heal diseases.  If you grow plants instead of eating GMO it would be better. 

Seven Renee Curley

I am 10 years old.  I live in Oakland, California.  Sometimes I like to garden.  I learned that some plants help cure heart disease.  Sometimes sage can heal sickness.

Felix

I, Felix have been on this earth for this lifetime for 20 years.  Child of x/earth, ocean, moon) Ix.  Live on occupied Ohlone land, west Oakland, my neighborhood is full with folx who have lived on the block for generations, people (like me) who are moving in.  Some, getting to know the community and some only live in their homes, from their doors to their cars. 

The next street, over there, there is a community garden.  I always stop to admire.  Beautiful mural of Maiz.  The corner store selling fried Chicken and food filled with toxins.

I dream of working together with the community to build gardens full of medicine, food, life.  Black and Brown folx depending on each other.  Healing the poisons place in our bodies by white supremacy.

Please also read Part 1 & Part 3 featuring more youth and mama skolaz- and stay tuned for their garden dedication to Trayvon

Watch the Youth SKolaz 2013 WeSearch Report on Healthy Food Access in Deep East Oakland

PNN Youth & Mama SKolaz 2013 We-Search Investigation: Food Access in Deep East Oakland-

Created, Filmed and Investigated at the Revolutionary Youth Arts/Media & Permaculture Camp @ Homefulness -

Writers/Investigators: Niani, Dante, Jisary, Sahara, Felyx, Tiburcio, Seven, Alexis, Mike, Jazzmond, Joyous, Kimo, and many more..

Co-Mamaz/Co-Uncles/Brothers/Sistaz, Needa Bee, Muteado Silencio, Tiny, Martrice, Queenandi, Black Riders Liberation Party, Jose Rivera, Corrina Gould, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Sharena Thomas, Marinette Tovar,

PNN Editor's Note:  On July 21, 2013, the statewide march against police brutality took place in Anaheim, CA.  The march was held on the one-year anniversary of the murder of Manuel Diaz (killed 7.21.2012) and Joel Acevedo (killed 7.22.2012) by Anaheim police.  Bus transporation was organized by Answer Coalition from different parts of the state so people could attend, One of POOR Magazine's Poverty/disability Skolaz re-ported n Sup-ported, this is her report.      

As a poverty scholar I learned how to demonstrate my writing and incorporate it into my own life. I have done many stories, but the Anaheim case was the most crucial experience that I have had thus far working with my family at PNN. People talk about being in the struggle, but when it comes time to show up and show out not everyone agrees to the misled violence. My heart was pounding before I even got there, because I would be on a bus with people I didn't even know. I was scared to go, because in one article it talked about how Anaheim police killed seven innocent victims in one year.  I was thinking, 'Oh hell no,' but I went anyway and prayed the whole time.  It was midnight when we left, and everybody was kind and respectful to one another. People from all over the East Bay got on the bus, people from Sacramento to Stockton were there.

As I was riding on the bus, I met mothers who are victims of police brutality, mothers whose children have been killed by police.  As I listened to one mother, she started to cry and shared that her sixteen year old son was killed, and they wouldn't let her see him while he was dying. Police said they couldn't identify him, but the mom mentioned she was the only one who knew where his birthmark was. She gave me a hug and I felt honored. It was rough to see so many mothers on the bus and in Anaheim.

When we arrived, we had breakfast at the Answer Coalition organization. People from as close as Los Angeles and far as the East Coast were there.  People everywhere are outraged by police brutality.  When we arrived to City Hall where the demonstration started, I talked to so many mothers and I met Manuel Diaz's mother. She was so humble and sweet, and not angry one bit. She was confident, and strong for talking to the newscasters before the march. I took a picture of her and she thanked me.  I look up to all the mothers who came and spoke about the injustice and pain they have experienced. After all the mothers spoke they marched to the police station. Not only did mothers speak they all shared similar stories and it was the one-year memorial of Manuel Diaz, and Joel Mathew Acevedo's killing.  Furthermore on December. 11, 2009 Caesar Ray Cruz was fatally shot by Anaheim police in front of Wal-Mart. All this trauma from one police station.  Fifty-two percent of the population in Anaheim is of indigenous descent.  I just cant believe police would kill so many innocent victims and the family receives no justice. There are so many other people who were killed by police, and what made the march even more upsetting was Zimmerman getting off for the killing of Trayvon Martin. All the Anaheim police had all white jurors and no people of color. A lot of Hispanic people, as well as every other race, want more minorities on to know about these situations. As I watched and stood in the crowd, I was thankful that a riot didn't break out. People were friendly and loving, especially all the mothers I met. The mother of Ernesto Duenez Jr., from my last article on police brutality, was also at the march.  Evidently they have a group every week to survive from the trauma they experience from the loss of their children. The Duenez family of Manteca gave me so much love.

One more thing that afflicted me was Genevieve, the mother of Manuel Angel Diaz, has a tattoo that said, first bullet in lower back, and second bullet back of head. She even brought her only son's ashes. Genevieve wanted to just have a peaceful outcome, and she learned a lot about racism after the shooting, she said. It opened up her eyes to reality within the neighborhood, and how it is practically an epidemic that is happening in Anaheim.  At the end of all the mothers crying and talking on stage, Genevieve made a plea for peace, and recommended that people should not go crazy and start a riot like the first time. It was a painful yet beautiful experience for mothers, protestors and some cops. Every thing seemed to work out, and I noticed after the protest we got on the bus with an awesome driver, and people were humbled about all the trauma, because these organizations are built to advocate for people all over the United States. There is going to be a live radio show soon, and I sincerely believe when that information comes out everyone should listen. The protestors got back on the bus and everyone was a little emotional, but you could still feel the loving attitude from everybody. We were sad, and even though the victims are not alive, we made a statement. Another thing that was so absurd - the police in San Francisco had cop cars surrounding the bus. I was scared but everything worked out. Towards the end of the ride a mother cried on my shoulder which made me feel special. We all had a long day, and a lot of us were worried that we would get arrested, but we didn't. As a woman was saying on the way back, no matter what, these killer cops will reap what they sow.  I nodded and we both fell asleep. 

Marcus Books- the Oldest Black-Owned Bookstore in the Country Faces closure due to 21st Century Devil-opment (as we call it at POOR Magazine) & Real Estate Snakkking. London Breed proposed a legislation to keep the store and the family that launched the revolution in their proper home. The Legislation was unanimously approved to go before the board. Stay Tuned! - the Fight continues.