Story Archives 2017

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

― George L. Jackson

Unlike the so-called Black History Month, a month that celebrates commercialism and a sanitized version of the history of decedents of the Afrikan holocaust, the month of Black August acknowledges the fallen comrades that die, sacrifice and struggle for the self-determination and liberation of the kkkaptive Black colony.

Resistance: The Meaning of Black August

Black August originated in the California penal system to honor fallen Freedom

Fighters, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain

and Khatari Gaulden. Jonathan Jackson was gunned down outside the Marin County

California courthouse on August 7, 1970 as he attempted to liberate three

imprisoned Black Liberation Fighters: James McClain, William Christmas and

Ruchell Magee. Ruchell Magee is the sole survivor of that armed liberation

attempt. He is the former co-defendant of Angela Davis and has been locked down

for 47 years, most of it in solitary confinement. George Jackson was

assassinated by prison guards during a Black prison rebellion at San Quentin on

August 21, 1971. Three prison guards were also killed during that rebellion and

prison officials charged six Black and Latino prisoners with the death of those

guards. These six brothers became known as the San Quentin Six. Upon his

release from 43 years in solitary confinement, San Quentin Six member Hugo Yogi

Panell was murdered on the yard of New Folsom prison.

In the late 1970's the observance and practice of Black August left the prisons of

California and began being practiced by Black/New Afrikan revolutionaries

throughout the country. Members of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM)

began practicing and spreading Black August during this period. The Malcolm X

Grassroots Movement (MXGM) inherited knowledge and practice of Black August

from its parent organization, the New Afrikan People's Organization (NAPO).

MXGM through the Black August Collective (now defunct) began introducing the

Hip-Hop community to Black August in the late 1990's after being inspired by

New Afrikan political exile Nehanda Abiodun.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLACK AUGUST

Traditionally, Black August is a time to study history, particularly our history in the North

American Empire.

The first Afrikans were brought to Jamestown as slaves in August of 1619.Underground

Railroad was started on August 2, 1850.

The March on Washington occurred in August of 1963.

Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave rebellion occurred on August 30.

Nat Turner planned and executed a slave rebellion that commenced on August 21,

1831.

The Watts rebellions were in August of 1965.

On August 18, 1971 the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA)

was raided by Mississippi police and FBI agents.

The MOVE family was bombed by Philadelphia police on August 8, 1978.

Further, August is a time of birth. Dr. Mutulu Shakur (political prisoner & prisoner

of war).

Pan-Africanist Black Nationalist Leader Marcus Garvey, Maroon Russell Shoatz (political

prisoner) and Chicago BPP Chairman Fred Hampton were born in August. August is

also a time of rebirth, W.E.B. Dubois died in Ghana on August 27, 1963.

The tradition of fasting during Black August teaches self-discipline. A conscious fast is in effect from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm. Some other personal sacrifice can be made as well. The sundown meal is traditionally shared whenever possible among comrades. On August 31, a People's

feast is held and the fast is broken. Black August fasting should serve as a

constant reminder of the conditions our people have faced and still confront.

Fasting is uncomfortable at times, but it is helpful to remember all those who

have come and gone before us.

Black August exemplifies the need for the continuous struggle self-determination and resistance against amerikkka empire and how our fallen hero’s and sheo’s, have paved the road to achieve and fulfilled our destinies.  It is now up to us to build a vehicle to travel down that road.  We will need to build a bus so everyone has a seat toward their liberation, and this bus will not have any back seats.  Everyone will be riding upfront, even if we have to build this bus sideways!  

LONG LIVE BLACK AUGUST!

VITA WA WATU!

Other than the terrifying 21st century hetero-patriarchal kkklan-colonial violence I couldnt tell what else bothered me about Charlottesville and Berkeley and all the other sites of this recent wave of amerikkklan hate.

Obviously the dangerous-ignorant white men perpetrators are violent and erratic and we lost a sister in the struggle (Ibaye Heather Heyer) and so many more in the last year since they got their boy in the white peoples house and got even more arrogant.  These new hyphy attacks are terrifying and triggering like all the attacks on indigenous people and people of color have been  for as long as indigenous peoples, 1st peoples and poor peoples have been struggling with repression, incarceration and exploitation from the kolonizers.

But still something was missing. And then I found out who the perpetrators really are. Other than appearing flagrantly melanin free and moving in fascist-like formation while uttering idiotic, meaningless chants, the demographic of who these people are was the key to the missing piece of this story

These are not the "white working class" that Bernie and the liberal democans supposedly  "forgot about" in the recent (s)election, in fact most of them are currently enrolled in formal institutions of learning in highly paid degree programs, they are driving late model vehicles and tweeting, face-craking and insta-scaming on $800.00 Iphones and/or currently being well-paid workers in the tech industry. These are not “ignorant” kkklan members. This is not your grandfathers nazi’s. These perpetrators are housed, fed and cared for. These are a new brand of millennial, privileged, bored and rage-filled 21st century dangerous 20-30 something white men.

And their "fight" has no basis in Anything, except their own confused angst.. These are the logical progressions of the separation nation. Of confused, violent, video-gaming testosterone filled, isolated teenagers, embued with all the un-bridled access that this stolen nation grants white people for no reason, but for the fact that they are white, with the added cocktail of extreme violence-promoting media and gaming. This elder-abusing, violent young man attacked his disabled mother over and over again when she tried to stop him from video-gaming 24 hours a day. These are adult -sized versions of the columbine shooters. And this is what amerikkklan has birthed.

But there is also a specific class analysis here. These people have no farms to tend to, no crisis of hunger or housing or health. They are middle-class and upper middle class people with nothing to do. They have no empathy and no spirit and no sense. And this is what they are spending their money, time, gas and effort on. 

Do you know how much it costs in gas to drive from Ohio to Charlottesville like 20 year old klan wanna be, video-gamer murderer James Fields did ? Do you know how much a late-model Dodge Charger costs? This is a privileged mans struggle for Nothing?  And we are sanctifying it.

Just like Trump, there is something so comical and pathetic about these men ( and the women who enable them) that like we all know they are actually frighteningly laughable. When we see them in their weird, campy marches with their weird , strange shields and weaponry, its actually hard not to laugh. And i know we need to respond somehow, but like any privileged people who like my mama used to say, have never missed a meal, im just not sure about giving them, their "movements" and their actions all this collective credibility.

As a formerly unhoused, incarcerated, white appearing, mixed race poverty skola ( daughter of a woman of color and a white man colonizer) who has struggled with homelessness, poverty and criminalization of my mama, myself and my community for years, i teach, speak, walk, fight and manifest liberation, struggle and resistance to race and class supremacy everyday. Most of which means showing up, advocating, standing with, standing along-side and/or creatively visioning different worlds not laden by the rules and guidelines of the amerikkklan separation nation, cult of independence and the criminalization of all of us indigenous and poor people.

It seems like a privileged position to even be in this fight. To lose good-hearted sisters like Heather Hyer to the idiot whims of these fools when they could be fighting and achieving real change so that less of us are being deported across these false borders, less of us are living outside, less of us are incarcerated for poverty and racist crimes.

Yes I overstand that one important perspective is that folks need to show up, especially white people, to counter these perpetrators, but be strategic and don't lose another brother or sister in the process.

And in the mean-time, stop waiting for the pathetic video-gamers to make a move. Don't  wait for protests, marches, events countering privileged, bored, violent white men- speak to EVERY FUKING BODY!!!! every day, in stores, in the DMV, in banks, at events- wherever & whenever u have the energy- teach, preach, speak, & say: Fuk Your Fascism, White Supreamcy and revisionist his-story.

“Everyone in the hotel was saying how happy John was, that he would never have ended his own life,” power-FULL, superbabymama Stephanie Grant said through tears over the phone. Stephanie, who like John Visor, was a witness to the San Francisco poLice murder of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat over a year and a half ago, was discussing the increasingly suspicious death of her long-time boyfriend and comrade John in the Mission hotel last week.

“Myself and John's sister Maria Martinez, have spoken with three medical examiners and they all had different stories, first he was sitting on a chair, then he was on a desk, then he had marks on him, then something else, “ Stephanie concluded exasperated.

“It is critical that the death of John Visor be examined by an independent agency to uncover any foul play that might have occurred,” said lawyer for the people Adante Pointer who has been working tirelessly on this case since the murder occurred, “ Anytime someone dies like this we are suspicious about the circumstances given the implications his death may have against the Luis Gongora Pat case against the SFPD,” Pointer concluded. 

John was a poverty scholar, a street scholar who struggled with houselessness and the trauma that is lodged in our collective heads in this post-colonial gentrified streets of amerikkklan, in this case the stolen village of Yelamu (aka San Francisco ), where people like Luis were homeless because of gentrification and an extreme housing shortage.

Myself, my sun and POOR Magazine extended family, artist and organizer Pearl Ubungen had the blessing of meeting  john and Stephanie in April of 2016 within days of the murder of Mayan father, uncle Husband Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat as the tent cities surrounding his murder were being poLice harassed because the witnesses, like Luis, were unhoused,. POOR Magazine’s village of houseless and formerly unhoused revolutionary reporters and advocates were called in to assist, advocate and do whatever needed to be done to support the witnesses and the unhoused community surrounding the murder. When we arrived on Shotwell near 19th street John and Stephanie were standing in front of their tent while two police officers singled them out, threatening them with tent and belonging removal if they didn’t leave immediately, which of course was strange considering no other tents right around them were being targeted in the same way.

Poverty skolaz at POOR Magazine who have all been unhoused ourselves and therefore know the nuanced trauma /drama of what needs to happen to support folks in these moments, began a process  along with Pearl and her husband Ken Miller, advocate Laura Guzman, and advocate poverty scholar Nancy Scott to help them store their stuff, raise money, get into rehab and protect them from more police targeting.

At the same time us revolutionary advocates were advocating many of us were working alongside writer and organizers Adriana Camarena, Flora Campoy and the family of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat  and many others to form the Justice & Amor 4 Luis Demetrio Pat Coalition in support of liberation lawyer Adante Pointer from the John Burris Law Firm.

The fight for the safety and protection of the witnesses and the victims became connected and enmeshed as they should always be in cases like this. It was at this point that Pearl and Nancy and myself began to focus on getting the about to be mama Stephanie permanently off the streets so she could properly mama, while also working to support John into transitional housing. 

Months passed, a beautiful baby was born and a mama was lifted up.

So in the last few months Stephanie has been on track to get housing, raising her  baby and supporting John through his own recovery. John got housing at the Mission Hotel, working on recovery and helping out everyone in the Mission Hotel building who needed it. 

“He is sweet to everyone in the hotel , always ready to help, always there if you need him and always talking about his future, said an anonymous source to POOR Magazine about John.
 
“And the timing is all wrong, first his mama said he spoke with him on Wednesday but he was supposedly dead on Tuesday, We just want justice, we just want the truth to come out,” Stephanie and Maria stated clearly. "We refuse to be silent."

Please support the  Gofundme for John Visor by clicking https://www.gofundme.com/funeral-expences-for-john-visor

(Photo Credit: PoorNewsNetwork)

Day 1 (Yelamu) San Francisco

"This is an order to evacuate…” The mechanical PoLice voice rang out - sailing through the morning air, through the medicine of the Danzantes drum, above the heads of a thousand bodies, colors, cultures and souls in resistance to hate, white supremacy,racism,violence and white terrorist threats descending on this occupied indigenous territory.

We were in stolen Ohlone/Lisjan Land (San Francisco)  at a corner called (oddly enough) "Alamo Square", where the Alt-right/ White Terrorists who call themselves "Patriot Prayer" were supposed to meet for a rally. A rally/press conference which was canceled, which followed another rally which was planned for and then canceled at Crissy Field.

Con-fusion reigned. Fear of racist, amerikkklan violence threatened by terrified,ignorant racists. Which followed several other statements by poltricksters, PoLice, and anyone else involved.

Organizers from ALL Across the Bay Actually spoke to each other.

A beautiful process of coordination, which sadly and rarely ever happens in the movement world where so many folks are separated by the lie of the philanthro-pimps, grant guidelines, the structure of racism and classism, akademia and even the movement itself. In this fight against this weird, old but still very real hate, that lurks everyDAY in amerikkka, folks of conscious actually spoke to each other, came to each others meetings, shared each others plans, and planned a somewhat complex, but beautiful form of unity.

Frisco Resistance in Frisco (Stolen Ohlone/Lisjan Village of Yelamu)
Spear-headed by Amor for Alex organizer, poet and teacher Benjamin Bac Sierra, Frank Lara and Gloria La Riva from Answer, a gathering was called only two weeks prior to the planned rally of hate and white terror in Crissy Field. Walking alongside ILWU union organizers and held together by love and resistance and a refusal to ever back down, several hundred people came together to gather more people, who gathered more people who gathered more people.

BlackAugust 27th came to Alamo Square

Launched with the drum (Huetlhuetl) and the prayer of the Aztec danzantes who held space in the street for over an hour after all of us were evicted from the park at Alamo Square while Ben negotiated with the literally thousands of poLice who were descending on the huge crowd with billy clubs, helmets down. Never sure where the violence, the supposed klan and the terror was supposedly going to come from, we were relieved when Ben announced that one of the streets would be opened for the massive march to come through and gather.

Within 30 minutes we had over five thousand people stream onto Hayes and Steiner streets. A beautiful rally ensued. And then we marched to 24th and Mission streets. Poet Gina Madrid, Equipto, Union Organizers, SURJ, ILWU, Answer and  so many more spoke, marched and dreamt powerful work.

People came together in Yelamu, as Ben Bac Sierra would say with, “Puro amor..” 

The Patriot Prayer folks ended up holding a "press conference" put of an "undisclosed" motel room and later than day approximately 20 Patriot Prayer zealots ended up showing up to Crissy Field where more Frisco resistance warriors were there to meet and greet them. 

Day 1 ended up without violence and only with sheer resistance.

Day 2 -Huchuin Ohlone/Lisjan Land (Berkeley)
Indigenous resistance from 1st nations folks led the powerful resistance of this day. All peoples came together - from all four corners - resisted white terror and 21st century kkkolonizers. The following two young women resistors narrate this powerful day of resistance...

Neo-Nazi's had officially left and people power on occupied Ohlone territory here in Berkeley have declared victory! We as people with not be silent when hate, racism, fascism, oppression and so forth try to come to our grounds! , 1st Nations Youth warrior
Isabella Zizi

Progressives, liberals, radicals, antifa, black bloc came out en masse with the directive of unity and solidarity. Throughout the day people who have previously condemned militant resistance were stepping forward to thank #Antifa, whose huge presence scared more than a small handful of Nazis from showing up. Speaker after speaker called to respect the diversity of tactics, acknowledging that the nonviolence of moderate folks relied on the militance of #Antifa.
The mass of families, religious folks, celebrities, community leaders who came out made the event feel safe and welcoming for people who may never have been to anything like this before, and made it possible for #Antifa to unmask safely without surveillance one the protest was ending.

This is the power that comes from leftists across the board working together. Thank you to EVERYONE who came out yesterday, and a special thank you to #Antifa who seems to be getting a bad rap, but who really kept us safe yesterday! organizer and resistor Lesley Haddock

And the energy of these two days of powerFUL resistance is all in this beautiful warrior Niccolette Portillo's poem

Post-Script-
In some strange way we have the Orange man to thank for the end of kkkolonizer days. His pure hate has forced us to lead with pure love- to overturn and destroy age-old, disgusting markers (statues) which glorify genocide, people who promote hate, His-Stories told only from the oppressors POV. And as painful and strange as this bizarre and beautiful weekend was- it is also pushed us truly into decolonization. Leading us into the seven generations where Mama Earth and her earth peoples rise up into truth, into leadership, into liberation. Ase, Ahoooo, Ometeotl...tiny