Story Archives 2016

A cherry lipstick red 1974 Chevrolet glided down 24st street in “la mision” as it’s called by La Raza and so many other working class communities throughout the centuries who built this beautiful barrio after the missionaries stole it from the Ohlone Nation. As the Chevy rolled past each block, Its shining gold rimmed tires seemed to fly above the newest invaders, the hipsters and tech workers, tipping over their 4 dollar coffees and vegan donuts as they walked along the street like they had always been here, displacing rooted communities with every step, profiling young brown and black residents like Alex Nieto with every gaze. When the Chevy stopped in front of the Brava theatre where the new movie Lowrider Lawyers - putting a city on trial, about the community taking back the courts for justice for Alex Nieto, a  young Xicano man emerged. he was wearing a red 49ers jacket and a snap-back cap. He moved slowly toward the front door of the theatre and then disappeared into the atmosphere.

The Brava theatre was filled with amor for Alex on Sunday, Jan 3rd. Alex Nieto, a life-long Mission resident and scholarship student’s humble spirit danced on the backs of the theatre chairs and throughout the audience. His quiet revolutionary love surrounded the sold-out crowd of attendees. His sweet soul who had never done anything but be a good sun to his parents, a good friend to his homies a good worker at his job and in his community and a good student to his studies was there in the theatre with us. And he was full of love.

“Alex Nieto, you made the world better...When you visited there was always laughter...,”  Margarita Bac Sierra, Ben Bac Sierra’s 12 year old daughter opened the beautiful event with a poem of love to the “Tio” (uncle)  who she had known all her life before he was killed by police for being brown as he peacefully ate his burrito on Bernal Hill before he had to report to his job as a security guard. Her poem was part of a power-FUL opening program that included hip Hop skolaz Equipto and Dregs 1 and the beautiful, undying love and scholarship of Ben Bac Sierra, poet, organizer, teacher, writer and director of this new film.

“How did you know he was a gang member?,”  Questioned the lowrider lawyers in the peoples trial that unfolded on screen to a man called Mr. Wolf  hilariously played by community organizer Al Osorio who told the man who eventually called the po’LICE on that fateful Friday night of March 21, 2014, that Alex had a gun instead of a taser

“Because he was wearing a red jacket,” Mr Wolf confusedly answered

“How do you know that a red jacket and cap means he is a gang member?” the lowrider lawyer continued to probe.

“Because i have seen them on TV’ Mr Wolf concluded looking blankly

This brutal testimony by the three new mission "residents" including a man who wasn't in agreement that the police should have been called were from the depositions by the new residents of the mission who were taking their dogs up to the Bernal Hill with no concept of who lived in this barrio for years before they ever arrived. Holding racist, classist stereotypes of young men of color which sadly so many middle class white people do hold, proving that like we at POOR Magazine and so many other conscious people said when we first found out about Alex’s murder, Alex was not only killed by police who shot over 49 bullets at this innocent man but he was killed by the benevolent violence ofgentrification.

But thats why this movie is such a powerful and urgent example of what we at POOR Magazine call poverty scholarship, La gente/ The people taking back the kkkorts, the institutions of so-called justice, power and oppression that constantly support the testing, arresting and incarcerating of every poor and person of color they get was seized by the people . Taken back by the impacted peoples, those of us who like Edwin Lindo said, a conscious life-long San Franciscan who is running for District 9 in San Francisco, are counted on to fail by the systems in place.

Written and directed by Benjamin Bac Sierra and filmed and edited by Peter Menchini with music by Dr Loco (Jose Cueller) and Favi Estrella, and lowrider lawyers played by community leaders, Frisco residents, mission homegirls and homeboys and the amazing Ben Bac Sierra.

“Community media, social media, these film showings and the rallies are all so important to keep the truth coming out, said Adante Pointer, conscious lawyer who is representing Alex Nieto’s family in the upcoming trial beginning March 1st at the post-film community panel which also included Roberto Hernandez, Edwin Lindo and Thea Mathews, “because the mainstream media will come out with their usual narrative which will be an attack on Alex’s character and we need to counter that with the truth.” Pointer concluded.

Ben saved the best for last, closing this magical day of spirit and art with Alex Nieto singing La mananitas ( Happy Birthday) carrying us out of the theatre with his amor.

The movie is a must see, deep and real and dense with life and musica and truth, too short like my fellow POOR magazine staff writer Leroy Moore who went with me said. And like the rhythm from the Aztec danzantes huetlhuetl (drum) from the opening scene in the courtroom which penetrated the settler colonial laws that protect the modern day settler class, with spirit, truth and consciousness, Lowrider lawyers is not only an act of artistic liberation but of our collective liberation as peoples, as youth, as community in unity,

Ben is asking all conscious community to join the family at the upcoming court trial which will begin on March 1, 2016. For more information go on-line to facebook- justice for Alex Nieto killed by SFPD

Gripping the steering wheel so tightly my hands hurt, I saw my mama so many years before, looking straight ahead to the road, trying to not let the mountain of tears crush her soft face. Now it was me and my sun alone on the highway, 30 years later, trying  to drive away from my torn and  crumbled  heart.. No matter how fast i went it wasn’t fast enough to leave the pain  It was in this ride that the story of houseless mama Lakeisha Holloway floated through the corporate media dial. This in-struggle mama drove her car into Jesse Valenzuela, killing him and injuring several more people while her three year old was in the backseat.

Media reports claimed that Holloway, who lived in her car with her baby, was reportedly 'stressed out' after being chased by security guards from parking lots where she had been trying to sleep before the crash. The corporate media went to great pains to put the words stressed and out in quotations, implying a veneer of disgust for this mama in struggle, a consistent theme I have witnessed with reports of poor mothers who commit crimes of desperation like these.

Having a child in poverty anywhere in the world is unspeakably hard. Of course variables exist. In the global south the conditions might be much worse than in LA, Texas or Las Vegas. But like my mama always said, the experience of not having access to food or a safe place to take care of your child is universal. From Salinas to Sao Paolo more and more mothers and fathers are unable to secure safe lives for our families and this experience causes a dangerous level of stress. As a parent we are already naturally stressed. Add on the insane stress of poverty and houselessness, as well as many other forms of trauma that many of us poor folks still carry in our hearts and souls after our lives of generational poverty, white supremacy and colonization, and you have a completely unbearable situation. Many of us parents hold on by a thread and raise our children in trauma. Many of us just crack.

In 2005 I wrote about LaShuan Ternice Harris,  another 23yr young mama who “cracked”.  In her case she was dealing with houselessness and untreated mental health when she ended up committing the almost unthinkable act of throwing her three babies off of pier 7 in San Francisco. In 2011 I wrote about Rachelle Grimmer, mama of two children from Texas who shot herself and her children in the Laredo county social services agency, after trying, unsuccessfully to get her meager food stamp allotment. Food stamps usually run $180.00 to 340.00 per month. Try feeding your children on that.

Lekeisha, LaShuan and Rachelle aren’t “bad” mothers as many people might be quick to say.  What they were were overwhelmed, unhoused, unhelped, extremely depressed and worst of all, completely alone.  In the case of LaShuan and Lekeisha, their depression was untreated because there are no proper mental health services if you are poor, and in all three cases these mamas were isolated with their trauma, depression and impossible situations. Their stories are like my poor single mama’s story, trying to raise me first through welfare crumbs, then as a working poor mama, then becoming disabled when i was 11 and finally becoming  houseless because of what she described as “too many little murders of the soul”. We were without a roof, a network or a solution. This kind of aloneness, specific to US capitalism, which normalizes isolation as “independence”  with no regard for how hard it is for single parents to raise our children without any support  This pathological isolation which is supported by a US “bootstraps” ideology of making it on your own leaves us single parents alone with our pain, our grief and our children.

And if you still think these mothers are “bad” then I am “bad”. Twice in my life as single parent I have envisioned myself in violent, horrible scenarios because my trauma-filled mind was unable to handle my personal crises as well as the stress of raising a child. In 2005 when my Sun was just 2 years old and he and my very sick mama, who I was the sole caregiver for  and I were in extreme poverty, again houseless and forced to steal food so my sun could eat, my mind wandered into a hole of suicidal thoughts. and then just recently, after struggling with a very serious personal crisis my mind fell into a horrific scenario of running my car into a pole, only being able to stop myself when I remembered my now 12 year old Sun was in the back seat. In the most recent situation,  one of the only things that kept me ok was repeating to myself, its going to be ok when i get home. That I even had a home, albeit humble, to get warm in, cook food for my sun and myself and most important of all to hide in, kept us alive.

Welfare or Hell-fare?

I can’t explain in mere words the simultaneous beauty, blessing and struggle of being the sole caregiver for a human who has only you to turn to. It is why our multi-nationed, pre-colonized ancestors from all four corners of Mama Earth knew that the village was not only important but necessary to support the proper raising of a child. Isolated single parents who are often just barely out of childhood themselves, navigating the impossibility of the capitalist hamster wheel with no support system to turn to and the scarcity model of welfare or hell-fare’ as us poor mamas at POOR Magazine call it, is insanely hard.

Once we complete the 55 page proof of income forms and endless applications required for any kind of medical, food stamps or housing support and then if we are lucky and we qualify for the tiny scarcity model crumbs we barely recieve as poor parents for medical, food or housing support, our lives are criminalized for receiving them.  if we have $5.00 dollars to our name and don’t claim it, if we are living with anyone and don’t “claim it” we face immediate disqualification from aide and similarily if we do it claim it we are disqualified. If we are “found” out to be houseless in most states we are at risk of losing custody of our children. And then if we do receive the tiny crumbs of aid we are constantly being threatened with the loss of those crumbs because of one of the aforementioned “crimes of poverty”.  Finally, we live in a time when most major cities have serious housing shortages due to the over-building of luxury housing by mayors who pander to real estate developers and most recently, the newest threat on the last form of poor people housing = privatization across the nation of our public housing, i.e., selling it off to private corporations and on the stock market so more houses can be available to higher income people and no housing is reserved for us poor folks

Poor Mamas create our own solutions

I’m not saying US scarcity models, homelessness, isolation and lack of services kill families, but they certainly add to the violence of US poverty and the extreme stress of life as a poor parent. It is why we poor mamas created MamaHouse - a collective home for low-income single parents and children. It is why we poor mamas launched the welfareQUEENS poetry and activism project which teaches both service providers and educators how to properly advocate for mothers and fathers in desperation, as well as to provide an outlet to other poor parents to heal through poetry and story-telling  It is also why we poor folks are working so hard to build and teach on Homefulness a landless peoples land liberation movement that is built on interdependence, not furthers the lie of capitalist independence which isn’t good for anyone, much-less poor, single parents.

In the mean-time with the extreme rise in poverty and the growing number of houseless families across the nation I am  asking all people to hold a little more compassion for all families, in all of our moments, good and bad.   

Patrick Wetter, brother, son, mechanic, long-time friend to many, and loving uncle, was just 25 years old, and living with his father, when he was brutally killed by Stockton police on January 6, 2015.  Patrick's death, unlike his life, was extremely violent.  A police dog was sicked on him, he endured six gunshots to his trunk, he was struck with a tazer.  In life, Patrick stood 6 foot 5 inches tall, and his friends and family refer to him as a “gentle giant” and he had the nickname of Tiny.  When he was little his older siblings and parents called him “pokie bear,” and when Patrick was “in trouble” his mother Holly addressed him with his full name of Patrick Wayne Wetter.  Patrick Wayne Wetter went out fighting for his life and died on the floor of his neighbor's home wearing handcuffs and in a pool of his own blood.

[image description:  Patrick, a white man in his early 20s stands tall in a white football jersey with the number 32 on the front, he has a beard on the bottom of his chin, a mustache and a round belly.  He has a crew cut, a sweet smile and a tiny birthday hat on the very top of his head.  He is surrounded by green trees and grass at a birthday party for himself and his young niece Gabby in 2012]

Only Patrick Wetter knows why he (allegedly) kicked in the door of his next door neighbor’s home, people he knew, one year ago today, which prompted them to call 911 on him.  When the police arrived, they claim they could see Patrick inside “trying to force his way into a bedroom,” where his neighbors were “barricaded.”  Police say they ordered Patrick to “stop and surrender” and when he “did not comply” the first thing officers on the scene did was release a K9 police dog to attack Patrick.  

The Stockton Police Department have a reputation for excessive use of force, specifically when it comes to police dogs, their K9 units.  There are many instances of the Stockton K9 dogs let loose to maul and attack people, in an unnecessary abuse of force.  In November of 2014 a young Black teenager named James Smith was profiled by officer Houston Sensabaugh (an officer who has killed at least two people on the job).  James, who is Disabled and whose disabilities include Cerebral Palsy, was in a crisis and needed help.  Instead of getting help, Sensabaugh escalated the situation, and aggressively subdued and handcuffed James.  Sensabaugh then released a department K-9, which first attacked a neighbor, Patrina Walker (a bystander), before mauling James, who was down on the ground on his belly in handcuffs.  James and his neighbor Patrina survived the attack.  James has huge scars on his torso and now suffers from PTSD.

Police training is in the use and science of Force rather than de-escalation.  What about the training of the K9s?  What would cause these dogs to attack bystanders and how are these animals treated by Stockton Police?  In June 2015 a police dog named Nitro was left in a hot squad car by a Stockton police officer, and died.  The police narrative mourned the loss of the dog and took no responsibility for the dog's death, and never named the police officer responsible for leaving Nitro in a hot car to die.  This endangerment of K9 life could provide insight into the violent behavior of the dogs.

The police narrative of the brutal killing of Patrick Wetter is easy to find in the mainstream press, framed as police killings are, as an “officer involved shooting” rather than a killing.  The reporting does not investigate those that did the killing at all (the police) and it criminalizes Patrick.  According to the “official statements” by the Stockton Police Department, officers Gabriel Guerrero and Mark Afanasev are the shooters that killed Patrick, and the K9 police dog involved is named Rocky.  The report says that Guerrero and Afanasev were given three days of paid vacation after killing Patrick and are back on the force.  The report states that when Patrick was being attacked by Rocky, he produced a “Dirk or Dagger,” and that he stabbed the police K9 in the shoulder area.”  They claimed Patrick to be in “close proximity with the two officers, then raised the knife over his head in a threatening manner.”   Guerrero and Afanasev then unloaded at least 6 bullets into Patrick's trunk, and he fell to the floor.  The police claim that Patrick fell “still holding the knife in his hand.”  The narrative continues, “Another Officer then deployed a taser striking the suspect. The suspect was then handcuffed and Officers administered first aid and CPR. Medics arrived and took over CPR and then pronounced the suspect deceased at the residence,” the report states.  It seems odd that first aid or CPR could be administered to someone in handcuffs.  The report also claims Patrick to be a “gang member” and talks about his criminal past.  It described his small clip on pocket knife as a “Dirk or Dagger,” and vaguely described the size saying “the blade was curved and appeared to be 3 to 4 inches in length.”

Patrick's mom, Holly Quigley-Papke, said yes he carried a little pocket knife that he used as a tool for a lot of things and that the closest he ever came to being in a gang was that one of his favorite shirts was red.  She also said that in 2014 at the time of his arrests, Patrick was struggling and spent some time homeless.  Holly says that the arrests for “Dirk and Dagger” and resisting arrest happened when he was profiled for being Poor.  The two arrests on the SPD report happened within a month and a half of each other, and these two arrests are what the SPD are stating that establish Patrick as a life-long “criminal.”  Holly says Patrick got into a little bit of trouble and that he was no criminal.  She says Patrick spent a lot of time with his nephews and friends, and that he loved fishing.  She said he really loved being an Uncle.  Patrick's sister Suzan said that Patrick was “one English class away from having his diesel mechanics degree.”  She said Patrick “always kept in contact with his high school friends, along with making new ones along the way.

Patrick had a tight knit group of friends he kept since youth.  One of those friends is Anthony McHenry, Anthony's mom Roseanne Kimball wrote this about Patrick's wrongful death, in response to the mainstream media articles about Patrick:

“First of all, calling him a prowler was off base. He lived right next door. I was told by his sister that the person that he was looking for, was a young man who also lived in the home, who was not supposed to be living there with foster children, as he has a criminal record. Yet, in one news blurb that I read, it stated that someone thought he might be after the teenage girls, as they had grown up. The news reported that it was a group home, when in actuality it was a family home that had a couple of foster children living there.



I, nor his family, are condoning the fact that he broke into the home, but to shoot him not once, but SIX times goes beyond (what was) justified in such a small space.



My concerns as follows:

He was very tall, approximately 6 ft 5 inches. From photos that I saw of the dog wounds, (on foot, and on back) he would have to have bent pretty far down to stab. Why were 2 policemen unable to subdue him with nightsticks, flashlights, etc…while he was bent over stabbing the dog, if indeed this was the case?



Patrick had at least three bad dog bites on his leg. That almost surely would have taken him down, or at the very least stumbling and in extreme pain. If he was down, how could he have lunged at the officers to the point where they feared for their lives? Why were they shooting weapons when civilians were so close? Not one news agency reported the damage the dog did on his leg, which is when he produced his pocket knife and (allegedly) stabbed the dog.



The family states that the blood had pooled in Patrick’s face, which would have occurred had he been lying face down.  How was CPR purportedly administered if he was face down?

Are officers not trained to use less than lethal force? Especially against someone WITHOUT a violent past? Is that not why they are physically trained to be able to take someone down? Why not taze him, pepper spray him, or use another method to subdue him? He had no gun, and the dog was not gravely injured.”

Stockton Police radio transmissions show how fast Patrick's killing happened.  In a matter of a couple minutes of police arriving, Patrick was terrorized by a dog, defended himself, was shot six times, then tazed, then handcuffed, then supposedly given first aid and CPR.  Rather than talking with Patrick, or trying to de-escalate the situation, Stockton police officers used violence as the first and final plan of action.  Patrick Wayne Wetter, Loved One lost to police violence, is missed the most by his family and close friends.  

note:  The family of Patrick Wetter have asked that today, on January 6th, 2016, the one year angelversary of Patrick's death, that members of the community light a candle to remember Patrick, and to honor all of those that have been lost to police brutality.

Here is the facebook event for the January 6, 2016 call to action candlelight vigil  https://www.facebook.com/events/748377618628064/

Here is the facebook Justice for Patrick Wetter page https://www.facebook.com/Justice-for-Patrick-Wetter-335193886679418/  

#JusticeforPatrickWetter #PatrickWetter #Justice4PatrickWetter #LovedOnes #IdrissStelleyFoundation #POORmagazine

Lisa Ganser is a white Disabled genderqueer artist displaced from San Francisco and now living in Olympia, WA.  They are the daughter of a momma named Sam and this is their second story as a writer for POOR Magazine.

What is Mario Woods telling us?  Mario, you made a film, shot a film about your home, the Bayview.  It was titled, “HP From Then till Now”.  Opening shot, your home, mid-shot—the faces and voices of your home—wide shot; shots from different angles—shots all over.  Mario, tell us what it is you see, what are you telling us?  The only thing that many people know about you is the image of you, pursued by the cops, and the gunshots ringing out, piercing your body, which is the black body of the city, the black memory of the city, the memory that the city wants to erase.  I watch your film, shot upon shot, showing the faces of your community—young men of color, smiling and posturing to cover insecurity, to assert their worth by any means necessary to a city that does not value them.  Mario, you took your camera and focused on the faces of the streets, the landscape of Bayview, sometimes shot with an unsteady hand, sometimes steady, framing the Bayview of the past and present in an attempt to figure the future and your place in it; mid-shot, wide shot, close up; shot by shot—the dreams of a better community, one that is not neglected.  But what people saw was your death, your execution, the killing of community, the killing of a vision that is seen in the voices and faces you captured with your camera, your lens, your heart.

On March 6^th, community members from the justice for Mario Woods and Alex Nieto Coalitions marched in a show of black and brown solidarity, calling for the firing of SF Police Chief Greg Suhr and to express outrage at the lack of leadership and compassion on the part of the Mayor in the aftermath of the police murder of Mario Woods.  The Alex Nieto contingent gathered on the hill at Bernal Heights Park at the site where Alex was murdered by SFPD.  The area, plagued by the spread of gentrification—the economic and police state mindset intent on ridding the community of low income people, people of color and people who resist the out of control economic war waged in the city.  The parents of Alex Nieto were among those gathered at Bernal Hill, quietly holding the pain and spirit of their son Alex and the community.  In their faces are the land and the scars it bears, land that was stolen long ago from its original inhabitants.  Those who gathered at Bernal honored the 4 corners of mama earth in ceremony as the clouds hovered slowly across the gray wet sky.

We walked up the Hill of Bernal Heights Park.  We chanted “We are here in Unity against police impunity!”  Mr. and Mrs. Nieto led the march bearing a banner calling for justice for Alex.  We walked uphill, soon to be followed by the drone of police motorcycles.  Soon we were walking down a slope, heading towards Bayview where the Mario Woods contingent was marching, our hearts, our energy, our calls for justice inching closer in a meeting of black/brown unity to converge on Williams Street as one.

The call for justice for Alex Nieto and Mario Woods are interwoven, both calling for the firing of Chief Suhr, both calling for the dismantling of the racist culture of law enforcement in the city and across the country, and both connected to the economic cleansing and displacement in the community.  The justice for Alex Nieto Coalition has worked tirelessly to fight the police narrative that justifies the shooting of Alex.  The coalition recently screened a movie called, “Lowrider Lawyers” where the city is put on trial for the death of Alex Nieto (For a review, see http://www.48hills.org/2016/01/07/lowrider-lawyers-put-the-city-on-trial/).  The civil lawsuit trial in the death of Alex Nieto is set for March 1, 2016.

As we inched towards Williams Street, we were met by more cops, on motorcycles, in cars and lining the streets.  Our contingent arrived first, and we stopped and people spoke, representing the SF Labor Council, Poor Magazine, Manilatown Heritage Foundation among other organizations.  As the moments passed, we heard a slow rumble, first soft, then louder.  In the distance was the Mario Woods contingent, making its way closer, banners announcing Justice for Mario, voices in unity and finally the coming together—black and brown—Bayview and Mission, two communities in an embrace of love, of amor for Mario and Alex.  The community—black and brown—converged on Williams, in front of the police station—officers lined in front, standing emotionless in midst of the swelling outrage at their presence, their occupation, their history, that was denounced by black and brown youth in poetry and in testimony.

The coming together of black and brown communities was powerful, one of the most powerful and heartfelt things I have witnessed in the city in years.  Gwen Woods, mother of Mario, overcome with grief, confronted officers who stood, impassive.  “You shot my son, like an animal!” she cried, as community stood in support and resistance to the police in the murder of Mario.

In a beautiful show of love and solidarity, the parents of Alex Nieto and mother of Mario Woods broke bread  honoring their sons in the Latino Tradition of Dia De Reyes—a Christmas Holiday tradition—where food in shared on Jan. 6^th.  Community organizer Oscar Salinas presented Gwen Woods with a piece of cake. “Amor for Mario Woods…love for Mario Woods” he said.  It was a beautiful showing of black and brown unity.  The rain came down, soft then hard.  Elders and youth spoke, and cake was shared.  In the words of Oscar Salinas on the coming together of black and brown communities, “It’s 2 families coming to the table breaking bread. It’s an important time.  Families share stories—sorrow, pain—but also strength.  2 families mourning, holding each other up.  Now you have 2 communities as one fighting this institution called the SFPD."

Note: To see Mario Wood’s short documentary, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No_mQZzBgGY&feature=youtu.be

© 2015 Tony Robles

James Baldwin proposed that it is, ultimately, the poets--that is, the artists-- that know what it is to be human, who are most qualified to tell us about ourselves.  The poet's report is the one that only the poet can tell--clergymen can't do it, labor unions can't do it, politicians can't do it, etc.

Enter "Encore", poems by North Beach poet Diego DeLeo, whose report is the wisdom that has fermented in his mind and spirit for 80  years.  The poems in Encore beg the questions of humanity--who are we?  What is our place in the world and how beauty can overcome all that exists to destroy it.  Some poets cultivate their craft in writing programs or via academia while others cultivate it through life experience--sharing insight garnered through surviving and--in that process of continuing the journey--break through with insight into who we are as people in relation to the past, to the natural world, and to each other.

Inhabiting the poetry of Diego DeLeo is the world which his eyes behold, a world filled with the food of metaphor--sequoias that loom larger than skyscrapers, the wood on which he travels life's journey, the dawn, the night sky, the seasons--all making up the tree of love.  With wisdom of life lived, Diego gives us the tree of meaning:

Gratitude, patience

Understanding, generosity,

Compassion, friendship:

branches of the same tree.

If you grow one

The others will

spring out of you

Such wisdom is gleaned through a life lived in North Beach where those values were so graciously manifested--a fabric that Diego helped to weave as a 17 year old immigrant who worked as a bricklayer, becoming part of the foundation of the North Beach community.  Perhaps you have seen Diego on one of his daily walks through the neighborhood.  A strikingly handsome man of 80 years, he bears a striking resemblance to the late actor Cesar Romero.  He exudes warmth and a sense of humor that is engaging as he continually explores the neighborhood, his home, that continually provides inspiration for his poetry.  The music of his native Italian has not left his tongue, as well as the spirt--syllables drawn out in soulful inflections--words weaved within the contours of his native tongue within an English construct, staying true to the soul that is Diego and those that came before him. 

Diego DeLeo is an eviction fighter.  He was served an Ellis Act eviction in 2013 and has waged a fight to stay in his North Beach home where he resided with his late wife Josephine for over 30 years.  Diego's heart is the heart of North Beach, its changing landscape brought on by an economic crisis that has hit long time tenants and residents extremely hard--expecially seniors. In the poem, "On Shining Days", Diego takes us to Washington Square.

Sitting in Washington Square

like a human ornament

waiting for some of the regulars

to show, i accept both:

The natural selection I feel

And the social selection I see

The poems in "Encore" are a beautiful assemblage of what is means to be human.  It is a mandate, a warning to San Francisco that its life blood is being drained because its humanity is being diminished in the pay to play political and economic atmosphere that is choking the community, the life from the city where poets and artists struggle to stay and testify and families and seniors get evicted from their homes.  This debut book from Diego is an instruction manual in preserving the soul of San Francisco, an articulation of what a bankrupt landscape is and how we can save what's worth saving.

The poetry in "Encore" is powerful, invoking the soul and spirit of a natural poet who began writing at age 77.  The poems articulate the richness of the city that is beheld in the eyes of this sensitive, insightful poet, intent on illuminating its beauty in resistance to the siege on its very soul by those whose ears are deaf to the report that only the poet can make.  

Diego DeLeo, Bravo!

When I was a kid, my father would make me sit with him and watch old western movies on TV.  Those movies would be aired in the afternoon—cowboys on horses shooting at things—cowboys, stagecoaches, whiskey bottles—and, of course, Indians.  I looked more like an Indian than a cowboy and my dad would sit, his attention, his mind, his spirit inhabiting each scene, as if he’d been on horseback with a six shooter firing into the expanse of sky as the wild prickly cacti bore witness.  I’d see horses, badges, tumbleweed and gamblers on our little TV set but there was one thing I never saw—buffalo.  “Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam…” the song went.  Where were the buffalo?

All those classic westerns those afternoons with the old man and not a single buffalo, not even a mound of buffalo shit on the silver screen. There has to be a buffalo, one hanging around somewhere I thought.  So one day I left and went looking for one.  I get lost all the time—I have no sense of direction, especially if someone gives me directions.  If I’m told to turn left, I will turn right.  I found myself in Golden Gate Park—how I got there, I don’t know—I just put one foot in front of the other, my mind guiding me in a daydream without direction.  It was at Golden Gate Park that I came upon buffalo—4 or 5 of them, fenced in.  I stood outside the fence gazing at them. They stood chewing as the sky above seemed to move. 

I called out, “Hey buffalo” but they ignored me.  Hey buffalo, I said again.  “Get lost, kid” a voice called out.  I looked at their skin, a burnt brown with patches of wooly growth.  I stayed for an hour before going back home where my father was still watching that old western.  I am all grown up now, a reporter for Poor News Network (PNN). I still live in San Francisco but many people I grew up with are no longer here.  I recently visited Golden Gate Park to seek an interview with one or more of the buffalo in their refuge called the Golden Gate Park Buffalo Paddock.  It was my sincere hope to learn of their feelings about the city, about life; and, it was my hope that I wouldn’t be told to get lost.

PNN: Hey buffalo!

Buffalo: I thought I told you to get lost

PNN: That was you?

Buffalo: I might be a buffalo, but I got the memory of an elephant.  I never forget a face.  So, are you still watching those lousy western movies?

PNN: No, that was a long time ago

Buffalo: All lies anyway.  So many buffalo killed.

PNN: What have you been up to?

Buffalo:  I’ve been here, on the land.  The land has always been here.  People change, come and go, but the land is here.  But i'm worried, the way it's going out here, I hope I don't get evicted. I even had one goofy son of a bitch that came around the other day.  He asked if I was renting this place as a short term rental.  Short term rental?  Shit, these folks just got here yesterday and they're asking me if I'm living in a short term rental.  Then he told me that i could make some bread by listing this place on some shit called Airbnb.  I told him, I don't need no airbnb because the air I breathe is good and I can shit whereever I damn well please.  But the guy kept hanging around being a pain in the ass.  Home on the motherfuckin' range ain't what it used to be, i guess.

PNN: What’s changed in the city?

Buffalo: Well, who are all those goofy motherfuckers with beards running all over the place?  They all look like General Custard.

PNN: You mean Custer?

Buffalo: Custer, Custard—What difference does it make?  Someone should airlift some razorblades and drop ‘em.  All them beards running around like something out of burning man.  To me it’s a bunch of burning bullshit. 

PNN: They come around a lot?

Buffalo: yeah, standing by the fence, trying to get my attention, snapping pictures on their little phones.  They’re like flies landing on the ass of a warthog, swarms of them.  You just want to swat them.  I tell you brother, if this fence wasn’t here…

PNN: You ever try to escape?

Buffalo: I did, years ago.  But I ain’t no kid no more.  If I tried that now they’d call the cops and that would be my ass.

PNN: the cops are out of control

Buffalo: Damn right they are.  What they did to that kid Mario Woods was a damn shame.  It was an execution.  They need to fire the police Chief, what's his name, Slur?

PNN: I think it's Suhr

Buffalo: Well, i sure as hell ain't calling him sir.  And what's the Mayor doing?  He's pullin' a wizard of oz.  We'd do better with all-you-can-eat Shrimp Boy, he'd at least set us up with a little cheese bread, which is a helluva lot more than we get out of this mayor.  And I heard about something called text messages that the cops were sending on their cell phones with a lot of racist stuff on it.  Oh yeah, Slurs.  But I ain't in to cell phones...they're out of my range.  But yes, the chief, aesthetically he ain't lookin' too good.  Resembles head cheese under a heat lamp.  But yeah, the cops are off the hook.

PNN: How did you hear about it?

Buffalo: I get the paper.  Some of these old guys drop it off during their morning walks.  But I was reading about it.  5 cops shot that brother. That was wrong, just like they did Alex Nieto.  But you know, they been shooting at us forever.  So many buffalo slaughtered.  So many brothers shot.  Soon there will be no more brothers or sisters left in the city. 

PNN: The black population is 3% in the city now

Buffalo: Damn shame.  I’ve seen it.  A lot of brothers used to come out here and we’d talk.  Them guys were cool.  One of ‘em used to say, “Everything is everything”.

PNN: I’ve heard that one too

Buffalo: It’s true, everything is everything. We are connected to each other, to air and sky and water.  Problem is that you got folks that think everything is theirs.

PNN: Everything’s everything?

Buffalo: Everything is everything

PNN: Any last words?

Buffalo: Yeah…custer can kiss my ass

© 2016 Tony Robles

Welcome to a new series on Krip-Hop, Krip-Hop Break Down Lyrics, where will take a song from a disabled Hip-Hop/musician artist that put out a strong Krip-Hop politics/life storyline (Using Hip-Hop to display true stories about disability/Deaf situations but no overcoming inspirational bullshit) and we will apply our Krip-Hop political lens to explain what it means to our communities, Hip-Hop arena and how we can use these songs for a better tomorrow. These songs will be audio and written lyrics and a few words from the artists about the song. If artists have videos, then we'll add the video in place of the mp3.

First up is Toni Hickman of Houston, TX and her song, People Pleaser that is on her latest CD, Unbreakable, 2015. In this series we will always start out with the artist’s own feelings about their song then Krip-Hop Nation two cents, the original lyrics with the mp3 song or video.

Toni Hickman’s explain her song, People Pleaser of her latest CD, Unbreakable, 2015

When I wrote this song, I was thinking about how our world has all of these standards of what beauty is. We have all of these boxes that we should fit in in order to be what is considered perfect. Everyone is perfect in their own way, so the idea of a categorized perfection is an illusion. This song is simply saying you don’t have to be a part of the illusion. ~Toni Hickman

Krip-Hop Nation (KHN): Like Hip-Hop, Krip-Hop Nation is lacking woman Hip-Hop artists with disabilities when we began nine years ago. As we, Krip-Hop Nation approach our tenth anniversary next year, 2017, we are making little steps of finding and supporting disabled woman Hip-Hop artists. Krirp-Hop Nation ran across the CD, Cripple Pretty in 2012 by Toni Hickman. Her title of her album, Cripple Pretty blew Krip-Hop Nation away and there can be books upon books write about her title. So when Toni came out with Unbreakable once again my keyboard was on fire. Her 2015 CD can be a college course with a lot of homework. The song and video, People Pleaser has deep meaning and a teaching tool for our society and of course the Hip-Hop industry just on the note it’s by a woman Hip—Hop artist with a disability that put together a music video starring all people with disabilities telling us that we just need too be ourselvesThe first verse says it all.

You don’t have to change your ways/ for them to accept you child/ if you do let it be for you/make them respect you child/ you’re beautiful/ amazing/like a fire in disguise you are blazing/I hope you don’t let this world.. Put your fire your put your fire out.

KHN: In the music video of the song People Pleaser the first situation you see is a black beautiful woman sitting at a huge desk and a Black man comes in and sees her beauty and starts to flirt heavily everything is going well until she moves her wheelchair to get some papers then his expression change from flirting to shocking. This is some real shit unfortunately but to see sand hear it on a screen with a real disabled character hits home. Toni is giving her support and telling her it’s not her but society that needs to change. That is the first time I saw and hear a Hip-Hop song talking empowerment to other real disabled persons in a music video. This song is more than empowerment it’s reality there are many woman Hip-Hop artists however some are still hiding because what Toni sang:

From the way we dress to the way we process the images in our brain/ has an effect on the way we see ourselves/ even people make it hard for us to be ourselves/

KHN: With sexism and ableism running wield in Hip-Hop industry today and in our communities, Toni Hickman’s song and music video People Pleaser is a mirror on what can be and should be especially for youth with disabilities. Enough about me here is the lyrics & video of People Pleaser. Go to her website at http://www.tonihickman.com

LYRICS

You don’t have to change your ways/ for them to accept you child/ if you do let it be for you/make them respect you child/ you’re beautiful/ amazing/like a fire in disguise you are blazing/I hope you don’t let this world.. Put your fire your put your fire out.

Chorus: Go head and be great/ go head and do you/but no matter what you do, please don’t be a people pleaser.

People pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/please don’t be a people pleaser.

You don’t have to follow them/ just make them follow you/you don’t have to be a bad person/and trust your instincts too/ You’re beautiful/ amazing/ like a fire in disguise you are blazing/ I hope you don’t let this world.. Your fire put your fire out.

Chorus: Go head and be great/ go head and do you/but no matter what you do, please don’t be a people pleaser.

People pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/please don’t be a people pleaser.

See you’re beautiful/ amazing/like a fire in the disguise you are blazing..

Rap: From the way we dress to the way we process the images in our brain/ has an effect on the way we see ourselves/ even people make it hard for us to be ourselves/ But I’mma tell you be you/ be the best you don’t worry about fools/ let them choose their own path/ just believe in the light that you have and be Great!

And I hope you don’t let this world/put your fire put your fire out..

Chorus: Go head and be great/ go head and do you/but no matter what you do, please don’t be a people pleaser.

People pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/people pleaser people pleaser people pleaser/please don’t be a people pleaser.

___________________________________________________________________________

Video linkPeople Pleaser

This year, 5^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign march and rally at the California State Capitol in remembrance Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for equal rights and justice 49 years ago, uniting all communities as one people to rise up together in solidarity against poverty, addressing many social justice issues such as demanding a decent living wage, accessible affordable housing, the harassment of homeless communities and police brutality, women’s rights issues and immigration injustice/rights issues will be take place this Saturday, January 16, 2016 in Sacramento, California. 

The 5^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with the march commencing at Crocker Park, located at 3^rd and N Street near Downtown Sacramento where the march will cross past the U.S. Department of Immigration building to address the mass deportations under the Obama Administration and will end with a rally at the California State Capitolat 1315 10th Street, Sacramento, California 95814, featuring many speakers from various organizations and performers such as the Brown Berets de SacraAztlan, Justice Reform Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Peace and Freedom Party, PSL, CAFFE, Answer Coalition, The Right to Rest Campaign, Occupy Sacramento, POOR Magazine and many more.

Historically, Dr. King Jr. called for an Occupation of 3,000 poor people from 10 different urban areas to unite and organize in Washington DC for Jobs, living wages and demolition of Slums to create sustainable jobs to build up those communities, utilizing various organizing tactics and strategies such as direct action and civil disobedience with the intent to continue putting pressure on the U.S. Government, while remaining diligently focused on building up poor communities. Dr. King Jr., a true visionary who had an ongoing plan for years had also called to action in an effort to gradually expand this campaign’s momentum to a global scale, while holding large corporations and Government accountable worldwide.  Sadly, Dr. King Jr. was assassinated just before this action was to take place.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's vision for The Poor People's Campaign will be revisited this Saturday, January 16th in Sacramento as many communities and organizations come together on this day to focus on what the campaign would look like today, focusing on various social justice issues such as fighting for a living wage while building with other low wage workers like; fastfood workers, farm workers and those targeted by killer cops and racial profiling, native & immigrant communities, homeless communities and low income and working-class communities who are faced with daily economic challenges to continue the spirit of what this movement was to be. 

As one of the organizers for The 5^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign Steven Payan stated: “Five years ago, during the beginning of the Occupy Sacramento movement, we launched this event.  We were thinking of doing something around the MLK event, however we wanted to use this as a platform to address all struggles. It was about the working class and the poor taking charge of the platform, addressing real issues that affect our communities. We are continuing Dr. King Jr.’s legacy in California and demanding wage increase such as $1.00 an hr. living wage increase by 2021. We are addressing several poor people’s issues such as homeless communities being harassed and criminalized for sleeping outside in public places, having their personal belongings stolen daily and being woken up every 2 hours, including addressing immigration issues and in support of the recent Driscoll’s produce corporation worker’s protest against worker’s abuse. 

One of our main goals is to create a bigger network and unify everybody who are addressing poverty issues throughout the state. Right now, one out of three people who are homeless is under of the age of 18 years.  In addition, the Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign will also be marching as a contingent in Sacramento at the MLK 365 parade on Monday, January 18th to occupy a huge space in an effort to remind people that the Dr. King Jr.’s ‘I Had A Dream’ speech was the vehicle to take us there to reach our goal in building a momentum of conscience to create change for better wages, affordable housing access.  So, like any social justice movement, this begins with ‘you’ and how ‘we’ can gather our communities to work together for a better future for the next generations.”

Editor's Note: Editors Note: Askari and Castlin are two of several power-FUL PNNPlantation prison correspondents. 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 folks on the other side of the razor wire plantation. 

The Webster’s new universal unabridged dictionary defines the word “hostility” as follows:

1)      A Hostile state, condition, or attitude; enmity antagonism/ unfriendliness.

2)      A hostile act

3)      Opposition or resistance to an idea, plan, project, ec…

4)      A. acts of warfare B. war

So our initial question to the people is: “what does hostility mean to you?” During the formulization phase of constructing our position on this issue, a wise man was asked his thoughts on our agreement to end hostilities (A.E.H.) and he stated:

“the inclusion of the agreement to end race- based hostilities to our struggle against California’s solitary confinement policies, represent a qualitative leap of the insight of all prisoner nationalities, and unites us beyond the fight to free ourselves from C.D.C.R.S torture units. Its promise may foreshadow the triumph of prisoner’s quest for full human recognition…”

It has been said, that the average human being should be able to hold their breath under water for at least (2) minutes without suffering any injury to the brain. But imagine being forcibly held under water for 10 to 40 plus years straight without being able to come up for air?! It is impossible to ignore the potential psychological trauma involved in this process but none the less, we prisoners have continued our struggle to come up for air, only to be repeatedly held down and forced back under water by the corrupt and powerful hands of C.D.C.R.!!! WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

History has always proven to be a viable guide to making qualitative assessments in relation to where we have been and in what lies ahead in the course of our struggle. Therefore, it is only appropriate that we highlight the essence of our human suffering with examples from our history in C.D.C.R.’S. solitary confinement units.

In the 1960’s, we prisoners were suffocating under the inhumane and deplorable conditions in Soledad’s O-wing. (1.) Prisoners were routinely placed in these strip/quiet cells amidst the foul stench of urine and human feces. In most instances, human waste laid bare on the floor for all to see. And you could forget about the prison guards giving us anything to clean up the human waste. Especially when you factor in how the prison guard wouldn’t give us toilet paper to wipe ourselves or flush our floor-based toilets on a regular basis which could only be done by them. I mean, the prison guards wouldn’t even give us drinking water!! These contradictions brought about a rescue boat in the form of Jordan V. Fitzharris (2.). But it did not contain any life preservers because no sooner than when the federal court ruled these conditions to be unconstitutional, C.D.C.R. made no changes to improve the quality of life in O-wing for the captive prisoner class. WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

In the 1970’s, we prisoners were suffocating under the inhumane conditions of being deprived of outdoor exercise and access to natural sun-light. Our means of exercise consisted of being let out of our cells to occupy a space in front of it that was no bigger than a public sidewalk. In Spain V. Procunier, (3.) the court ruled these conditions to be unconstitutional and set forth the mandate of prisoners in solitary confinement to receive at least 10 hours of outdoor exercise a week. But 36 years later in 2015, warden B Wedertz of CCI-Tehachapi has admitted that this prison is ill- equipped to meet the mandate of 10 hours of outdoor recreation. In other words, “caged monkeys” in a zoo is receiving more outdoor exercise and natural sun-light than us!! WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

In the 1980’s, we prisoners were suffocating under the deplorable and out right inhumane conditions at old Folsom and San Quentin State Prisons. These conditions consisted of extreme cold weather during winter months due to prison guards using their guns to shoot out the windows in the housing units. Rat feces circulated throughout the plumbing system, meaning that the designated shower areas for prisoners were inclusive of this type of filth!! Once again a rescue boat appeared on the horizon in the form of Toussaint V McCarthy (4.) where the federal court attempted to take previous rescue efforts a step further by not only ruling these conditions to be unconstitutional but also issuing a “permanent injunction” that mandated these conditions to be immediately changed!! However, instead of any changes coming about, C.D.C.R surreptitiously transferred prisoners out of old Folsom and San Quentin State Prison en masse to Tehachapi, DVI-Tracy, Soledad State Prison, etc. thus, nullifying the injunction. WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

In the 1990’s, we witnessed the expansion and usage of supermax control units (i.e. “solitary confinement”) take flight wherein C.D.C.R.’s objectives became ever more apparent in the form of torture-based population control. Our suffocation was two-fold!! On the one hand, a culture of police beatings (e.g. “excessive force”) was finally exposed to the public in Madrid V Gomez (5.) Where prisoner Vaughn Dortch was forced into a tub of boiling hot water and had his skin ripped off of him in the most barbaric fashion possible!! Prisoner Greg Dicherson was shot in his chest and stomach area at point blank range in his cell with a 38 millimeter gas gun via the false assertion of being non-cooperative with prison guards. While on the other hand, prisoners were being forced to become informants for the state in order to be released from solitary confinement via “the C.D.C.R. Inquisition” (i.e. “Debriefing”) program. This practice was exposed as being an “Underground Policy” in Castillo V. Alameida (6.) because C.D.C.R. never promulgated it through the administrative procedure act (A.P.A.) to make it an actual policy. The Castillo case also brought about the (6) year inactive gang status reviews, which meant prisoners were lead to believe we could be released from solitary confinement after (6) years. These reviews were a complete sham!! We prisoners had absolutely no constitutional protections under this process, wherein hardly any prisoners were released from SHU. But more importantly, this rescue boat was doomed from the time it left the docks, as it has now been revealed that Castillo is a pig collaborator and became an informant for C.D.C.R. in the current class action lawsuit of Ashker V Brown (7.) that has been mounted against the current conditions of solitary confinement. WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

It is through this spiral of development that the A.E.H. became manifest in October of 2012. So in reflecting upon our collective struggle, in being unable to breathe for over a half century of pure torture!! it is hard to not think of Eric Garner in the minutes right before his demise, when he uttered the words: “I CAN’T BREATHE!!!”

It is this reality that we prisoners remain confronted with when we put into perspective why we ended our hostilities. It amounts to freedom or death!! It is every prisoner’s aspiration to be liberated from prison. Our A.E.H. puts us in a viable position for this to happen. Especially when we consider how C.D.C.R.  has routinely denied us parole for simply being interned to indefinite solitary confinement status as alleged gang members without a single act of violence to support their position. This speaks to the importance and the manner in which every prisoner has honored and adhered to our A.E.H.. This is commendable on all fronts!! Our exemplary conduct has made C.D.C.R. completely powerless over us as we have successfully taken away the fodder that used to fuel their political rhetoric in labeling us the “worst of the worst”. Our unity, now qualitatively threatens the political, social & economic stability of C.D.C.R.,  which is why their counter-intelligence unit (I.G.I) is issuing all of these bogus cdc.115 rules violation reports (RVR’s) for promoting gang activity.

Our fortitude and resolve of continued unity ensures that our demand in wanting to be liberated from prison will no longer fall on deaf ears!! We now have the power to change the course of history, with C.D.C.R.’s routine parole board denials, just as we have done, in building a movement around abolishing all solitary confinement units. We must begin a similar process in mobilizing our families on this very issue. But until then, “WE CAN’T BREATHE” must become our mantra going forward, as we prisoners refuse to ease up on the powers that be, until every prisoner is able to breathe, by being liberated from these prisons!!

WE CAN’T BREATHE!!!

For more information, contact us at:

Kijuana Tashiri Askari

S/N marcus Harrison #H54077

4B-*B-106

P.O. Box 1906

Tehachapi, CA 93581

Akili Catlin #J99402

4B-8C-106

P.O. Box 1906

Tehachapi, CA 93581

For the Prisoners Human Rights Movement!!

Reference Notes:

1.       For further reading on the conditions in Soledad’s O-Wing, read the melancholy history of Soledad Prison by Min S. Yee. Also see the report of the assembly select committee on prison reform and rehabilitation administrative segregation in California’s prisons from the 1960’s.

2.       The court ruled the conditions in Soledad’s )-Wing unconstitutional in Jordan V Fitzharris 257 F SUPP 674, 682-83 (N.D. CAL  1966).

3.       The mandate of 10 hours of outdoor exercise was established in Spain V. Procunier 600 f.2d. 189,199 (9^th Cir 1979).

4.       The living conditions at Old Folsom and San Quentin State Prison were found to be unconstitutional in Toussaint V McCarthy 801 f.2d. 1080. (9^th Cir. 1986).

5.       A culture of plice terror was revealed in Madrid V. Gomez 889 F. FSUPP. 1146, 1162, 1167 (N.D. Cal. 1995).

6.       Sham inactive gang status reviews were conducted every (6) years per. Castillo V. Alameida Case No: C-94-2847.

7.       Ashker V. Brown, Case No: C-09-5796-CW is a class action lawsuit that challenges the arbitrary policies that have kept prisoners interned to indefinite solitary confinement for the past 10 to 40 plus years. This case can be downloaded at: www. cand. uscourts.gov.