Story Archives 2019

“I mean her butt, it’s so BIG! Uh, Gross! Look! She’s just so BLACK!”

Although the statement above came from a popular song back in the day, the message was clear that the Amerikkkan standards of beauty do not look upon the Black woman as desirable at all. “Black, ugly, nappy-headed wenches” is how the slave runner branded us and under that brand The Black Woman was subjected to rape, torture, medical apartheid and any form of mental,  spiritual breakage and bondage. The Sista was ridiculed for her “big butt” until big butts became a trend that other women can purchase now and capitalize off the once “undesired” fat black woman.

I remember when Serena Williams was being talked about because of her natural, beautiful, athletic, amazon physique and cultural features. Beautiful Black Women such as Serena and even former first lady Michelle Obama was called “gorilla” “ugly” and “monkeys” by racist, hateful individuals who more than likely in the “dark”, envied the Queens. No matter if the image of the amerikkkan black woman is shown in the brightest light imaginable, Amerikkka will always carry a sense of de-value of her and as blatantly shown, The Black woman was not even worthy of being “The statue of liberty” image. Whoopi Goldberg did not receive an award when she played one of the best roles sharing with the world the life as an oppressed black woman in amerikkka and even though I was a youngster when the movie “The Color Purple” first came out I immediately was able to relate to all of what a black woman goes through being considered “The low-priced spread”

The profound part for me was when Mister, played by Danny Glover shouted to Celie, played by Whoopi Goldberg “Look at YOU! You’re POOR, you’re BLACK, you’re UGLY, you’re a WOMAN- You are nothing at all!” The stabbing of the words had me bleeding from confusion as to why the Black Man felt the same way about me as the slave runner, but thanks to a strong Mama I only hold onto the words Celie so humbly said: “But dear, God, I’M HERE! I’M HERE!” With that said,  despite being branded all of the above “I ain’t going nowhere, and when I do there will be no more after ME!”

Blac Chyna had recently put out a skin bleaching product that according to media sources sold very well especially within the Nigerian community and while that is the “in trend” for black women to assimilate white women, the white women are more glorified, profitable and successful with the “assimilation”. My question is what do you do with a white face and the rest of your body is dark? What about the cracks and crevices, between the toes and the “Ooooh wee!” part if applicable? Chyna’s product is pricey (around $250) for a small container so you would have to spend big bucks buying in bulk if one is to bleach the entire body.

The beautiful “universal majority” such as Nikki Menage, Blac Chyna and Lil Kim have been misled into believing that the gift God and Goddess had blessed them with is all wrong and at some point it is very safe to say that they were told that they were ugly. Black women are going to different parts of the world to get blue eye implants and in one case a woman suffered serious side effects (you think?) and had to go back to her natural self. Regardless of cultural background every woman has a gift and is unique and lovely in her own way and that is respected however it is not right to say a black woman is ugly and her butt is fat but walk away with the very body characteristics you claim to detest. What message are we sending to our daughters? That Blac Chyna wasn’t pretty until she started to assimilate Kylie Jenner because in my opinion that is who she looks like now. Lil Kim, Nikki, Tiny and Chyna were/are flawless and priceless princesses but was it was racism and the high of fame that made them alter their Goddess? Why? The lie that Black Women are ugly unless we have blonde hair and blue eyes can be traced all the way back to the Clark doll experiment of the 1940’s. We have been trained and programmed by racist wite supremacy that we are the “niggers” that are dirty, less intelligent, violent criminals but for some reason have access to multi-million dollar rap contracts, the kardashians and is psychologically duped into rejecting any shape or form of knowledge of self. Not only is this a “cultural crime” it is also a slap in the face to those whose shoulders we continue to stand on because if we do not honor and acknowledge our Ancestors they will not acknowledge us and there is not a person on this earth I am willing to be a co-conspirator with partaking in that crime!

Queennandi Xsheba, PNN KEXU

I met Solo some 27 years ago in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district when we were youngsters in the “wilderness children” phase. Even though it was love at first sight for me I hid my emotions about how I truly felt for him and tried to hook him up with my cousin. We had a common bond of being children of universal majority (color) so we had each other’s backs (protected one another) and took care of our elders and younger siblings. Unfortunately for me,  I allowed for the wrong man to buzz bull into my ears and before I knew it myself and my daughter out of this relationship were survivors of domestic abuse.

One person besides Mama I credited was Solo, who rescued myself and child from this toxic union and after proving to be a good protector,  Solo became my lover. Our relationship was good but when he went away for a little while I became reckless and my foolishness resulted in me not having Solo’s son. I had ruined my family being a wild cat and listening to folks who could care less about myself and Solo’s “True Romance” therefore I lost the man I always wanted.

Heartbroken, Solo gave up, with an empty feeling and that the life as a “wilderness child” was all he deserved.

He was eventually deported back to Cambodia and when I went to our old “stomping grounds” to find him, folks told me that he was dead. For over 18 years I mourned Solo, honoring him every year and in the month of June, I celebrated his life.

We reunited 2 years ago when to my surprise I found out that Solo was still alive and even though he says he’s ill, I still love him and life has been hell without him. Solo is my Cambodian Prince who loved my fat ass, dark skin, full lips and tightly-curled kinky hair and made me feel like the beautiful, Ethiopian Queen that I am. He did not bite into the amerikkkan standards of beauty or look upon me as “undesirable” like the rest of this country petrays me to be. He was my protector, provider for myself and his step-daughter, he was my loyal companion that never misused me or abused me. Since he has been gone from home I have been depressed, unprotected, angry and confused. Racist white men and other fools continue to terrorize me and many men of color would rather date a Jenner.

The president is using his weight in hate to toughen immigration and asylum laws and with the agenda of wite supremacy in mind, Amerikkka will no longer be home to immigrants migrating to this country. Wite supremacy is also an immigrant and this “immigrant” is guilty of cultural genocide, universal mass murder, kidnapping, enslavement and the theft of Mama Earth and her children’s native tongues but for some devil-empowered reason wite supremacy is totally pardoned and immune to any convictions or deportations. Dozens of Khmerikans are scheduled for deportation Dec 19th and although some argue that it is OK to deport “criminals” not all deportees are criminals and face deportation not because of them breaking the law but Amerikkka breaking human rights laws. If Amerikkka is to deport criminals then she has a long way to go reinstating charges that stem back all the way to when the natives were robbed of the land by europeans and Mama Africa was robbed of her children.

This is this the same Amerikkka who dropped millions of tons of bombs on Cambodia possibly contributing to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, who slaughtered masses and just because this country gave a little “kickback” in funds she feels as if she can now wash her hand of the deeds and get rid of the “human evidence”.  But just like Cambodia’s African relatives, Amerikka has no interest in making any “community reparations” nor is she prepared to make anything “Just” between herself and the Nations she destroyed, and should no one be immune to that crime.

Queennandi Xsheba, PNN KEXU

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  So, Mr. Daniels, tell us about this movie called The System, and when did it come out?

IROC DANIELS:  Well, this came out in the last, well, it actually went to select theaters September 5^th to select theaters. But now it’s on Amazon. It just came out on Amazon like a couple weeks ago.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  OK. And I’ve been reading about it, and tell us about the storyline.

IROC DANIELS:  Oh, the storyline is basically about a family with, they have a Deaf child, and he is profiled by a police officer and shot. And then after that, it just shows what process the family go through, and it just basically wraps up into like a thriller.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  So, I’ve been an activist against police brutality and people with disabilities since the ‘80s. Tell me why did you choose a Deaf character?

IROC DANIELS:  Oh, well, you know, I have a friend of the family that’s Deaf, and I definitely wanted to show there’s been incident. There was a incident there was a police-involved incidentthat the guy was shot at that was autistic, and he had his hands up, you know. And so, I wanted to shed light on that community, the community.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Yeah. Thank you for doing that. Usually, that topic doesn’t get speak about in the media, so thanks for doing that.

IROC DANIELS:  Yeah, I have a few family members that are disabled, and I definitely wanted to shed some light on that community. And also just also show that although he was Deaf, he was just like any other kid, you know? He could do things, and I wanted to show that he had capabilities, you know. And so, although he was Deaf, he was really strong and vibrant and accelerated at a lot of things.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Yeah, yeah. You know, the Deaf community is strong. Initially, did you go keeper into his character about Deaf culture and communication and sign language?

IROC DANIELS:  Yeah, I did. He was actually taking a lip-reading class with a teacher at the time, and he was trying to learn how to read, he’d started to learn how to read lips. So, I just kinda dive into that a little bit.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  OK. Was the character, was he a real Deaf person, or did he play a Deaf person?

IROC DANIELS:  He played a Deaf person.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  OK. How did you come to this topic? Did you study police brutality?

IROC DANIELS:  Well, I mean I have, just with the system in itself, with Eric Garner, you know what happened with Eric Garner on the corner, being choked out by a officer. You know, that’s about when I started writing, and it was very much an inspiration for me to write System. And even like today with Cyntoia Brown being convicted at 16 for killing a guy that was basically raping her and having to serve so much time in prison till she’s 51. And so, what I wanted to do is pretty much shed light on some of the injustices.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Great, great. What’s your future for this movie, and what’s your next movie you’re gonna do?

IROC DANIELS:  That’s what I’m kinda debating right now. Definitely, another thing that I wanna touch on showing is about mental health, you know. That’s definitely something in the future that I’ll touch on.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  That’s great. That’s great. Tell me again, how can people order this movie and people can see?

IROC DANIELS:  Well, they can watch it by going to Amazon, and they can order it at TheSystemTheMovie.com.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Good. And did you reach out to Black Deaf organizations, bringing this movie together?

IROC DANIELS:  No. No, I haven’t.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  It’d be really cool to give them a copy. There’s this national Black Deaf organization in DC.

IROC DANIELS:  Yeah, that’s a good idea.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Great. So, can you give us the website address and email?

IROC DANIELS:  It’s TheSystemTheMovie.com.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Good, good, good. Anything else you wanna share?

IROC DANIELS:  No, I just wanna say thank you, man. I appreciate you for showing up and calling me, doing the interview.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Yeah, definitely.

IROC DANIELS:  Did you get a chance to watch the movie?

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  I saw the trailer.

IROC DANIELS:  OK, cool. You gotta check it out.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  I saw you in another interview, you say that your son is a Hip Hop artist too?

IROC DANIELS:  Yeah, he’s a Hip Hop artist. His name is Marquel Deljuan

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  And is there a soundtrack of the movie?

IROC DANIELS:  He did the soundtrack cpoming out in Feb 2019.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Oh, good, good. And it’s him doing all the songs on the soundtrack?

IROC DANIELS:  Yeah.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Great. Great, great, great. And where can people get that soundtrack when it’s out?

IROC DANIELS:  It’ll be on Spotify, iTunes, all the regular places, pretty much everywhere you can buy.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Great. Well, thank you once again for doing this.

IROC DANIELS:  OK. I appreciate you.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  All right. You take care.

IROC DANIELS:  All right. You too.

LEROY F MOORE JR.:  Peace.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: First, tell us about growing up in Jamaica.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, I am the last of four children. I have two elder brothers and one sister. I lost my sight at age 16, detached retinas. Too many dives to the deep. I was doing a lot of high diving. Too many dives to the deep. I developed that eye condition by age 16, actually, and I was operated on here in Jamaica. Then approximately eight months after that operation, I visited New York, State Medical Center. Nothing further could be done with my vision loss and all of that. I was told by the doctors there that nothing could be done. Actually, the doctor’s comment was that a butcher’s job was done on me. It was terrible, the work that was performed, and it was irreparable. With further discussion with my family members, we decided I would stay in New York and go do rehabilitation and all of that kind of stuff. I did so at Industrial Home for the Blind for nearly a year. I went through the rehabilitation. I went through a number of things. I did volunteer work there also. I did my GED there. I also did my SATs there. And after scoring decently on the SATs, I went into a pre-college program with the State Commission for the Blind, which I did a semester at Syracuse University, upstate New York. I later transferred to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York where I pursued a Bachelor’s in Communications Art. I completed that exercise in 2005. And since then, well, that exercise, it was ‘85, 1985, 1985. I beg your pardon. Since then, I’ve pursued a career in Communications Arts, in New York with a focus on production and writing for radio and television. That’s what I’ve been about for the most part of my life in terms of my career. Broadcasting is still my mainstay, my main source.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah. How did you get into broadcasting?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, I started initially in college, doing the college radio circuit, radio station, and all of that. But in my junior year, to do my internship, I visited Jamaica just before, actually. Just before my junior year started, I visited Jamaica for summer ’83. And while in Jamaica and listening to radio stations, I said, hey, they could use me, man! You know? I know how to do this better than these folks. And I sent out my application. One radio station got back to me, and I went in for an interview. And I told them about my internship with the college in New York and if they’d be willing to give me an internship program, you know, monitoring the whole time, and they said they would. When I went back to school, I approached a mentor at the time, and they basically approved of it. The school did. So, I started my internship in Jamaica in 1984 for a semester, and that was pretty successful, actually. So much in fact that the station that I interned with, they went through a whole change in terms of rebranding of the station, renaming it, the whole nine yards. And that was to accommodate my being there as a fresh voice with fresh presentation and kicking butt. ‘Cause I was kicking butt. And the good thing about it for me was they accommodated me as a blind person.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, good.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And the audience didn’t really know that I had a visual impairment until the station started putting out little snippets of things. And when it became known that I did have a visual problem, that was a major excitement because it was an oddity, a rare thing for a totally blind person to be doing a show on commercial radio.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Based on that also, I broke a few records. I was working five days a week, four hours a day for the station. And every hour of every day that I worked was sponsored by a different sponsor, known as the as every hour I had a different sponsor in that part of radio in Jamaica, that was called, where you have every hour, every day that you work sponsored by a different sponsor. So, that was an achievement.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I’ve since been working with various other stations because of my production work and the production that have been [unclear] satellite radio, the BBC, and a few other college stations. And because of my association with radio and the music industry, particularly the music that’s indigenous to Jamaica—reggae music—and the Caribbean, because of my input into that industry, I have met a number of people that have graced me with their story also, through interviews. And what I’ve started to do is produce these stories, these interviews into features, and they have been aired again, as I say, by XM satellite. The BBC has aired a number of them. The Jamaican government has taken a coupple of them, and they aired them during President Obama’s inauguration at the Jamaican consulate embassy in Washington, 2008.

In 1989, I was introduced to Job Access with Speech. It was version 1.7 at that time, very early. Now they’re on version 18, as you may know. And that changed my life, to be honest with you, getting access to computers, hence the world, yeah?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And starting off with JAWS, I fell in love with bulletin boards, electronic bulletin boards.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: What was that?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: You know about electronic bulletin boards, right?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: BBS, those, before the days of Internet.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And I developed my own BBS system, working with many other BBSers out there. And later on, I was introduced to mobile access. That first was Mobile Speak, the Mobile Speak software. That was over a Nokia phone with a Symbian system. It was my first introduction to voiceover on a mobile phone. I must tell you, by the way, in 1989 when I was first introduced to JAWS screen reader, after I got the knowledge, I visit Jamaica, and I started teaching at the Society for the Blind in Jamaica for free to educate the blind community in Jamaica about screen reading technology.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, OK.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Because they had no idea about this, yeah? So, in a way, I’ve been responsible for educating most of the major computer users in Jamaica at this time.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And later on, in 2004, I brought the Mobile Speak technology also to Jamaica. In 2013, when I had my first iPhone—wow, it’s only five years now? Yeah, 2013 when I had my first iPhone—I migrated from a Symbian system. You can imagine the first thing that that did for me, that was like, wow! Pulled me out to a large step there.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Oh, yeah. You could do so many more stuff with an iPhone than you could with the Mobile Speak.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And again, I went back to Jamaica to educate and give the technology to the blind community there. So, it’s been a step on the stage for me that whenever I do acquire knowledge in certain areas of accessibility, it’s always a pleasure to pass it on, period. Because as you know, as a member of a challenged community, oftentimes, things are denied us, yeah?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And I believe that each one, teach one. And if we can come together and combine our resources, our knowledge and share it, it helps to empower others like ourselves. And the more we can make the “normal community” know and understand our own capabilities and things that we can accomplish, the better it is for us in the long run because of acceptance in the marketplace, in the business realm, and in just regular day-to-day life in our relationship with other folks.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah. So, are also a musician. As a Black disabled man, I love Israel Vibration and their story.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: YES!!!

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, I love them. So, are your favorite musicians and why? And describe your music to us.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, you just mentioned Israel Vibration, man. I’m impressed. I’m really impressed! I’m a lover of all kind of music. Because it’s a great equalization  that it transcends all boundaries, yeah? There’s no language barrier. I mean I see a popular English song, let’s say Bob Marley’s One Love being sung by people that don’t speak a word of English. They can sing it. And that says a lot for music and the power of music. For me, wow. I’m a lover, not a fighter. So, I love that kind of love presentation, that productive sound: artists like Sade that borders on R&B, jazz, and pop. I love Sade’s music. I love Anita Baker’s music. I love the music of Sting, The Police. I love Foreigner. I love Journey. I love Jimmy Cliff. I love Bob Marley. I love James Brown. I love Coltrane, you know? Music doesn’t stop for me. It’s that form of expression, and it’s a beautiful form of expression. And being totally blind, I must tell you, music for me is more than just the sound. It’s also a color. It’s also a smell. It’s also a taste. So, each chord has its own color, its own flavor, its own smell. And when you combine all of these to make music, it’s a very exciting, stimulating thing for me, basically.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Mm, yeah. Wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And they say music soothes the savage beast. So, you know.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Wow. Tell us about the obstacles for disabled people in Jamaica.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: A lot of it, access. Access to services and most especially for children where you have early intervention, that’s needed. Because you know, with early intervention, when you can identify certain things that’s wrong with the child, for want of a better world, but early intervention, at least you can take steps to help to correct or help the individual, yeah? And I think a lot of that access, the early acceptance, the access therapists like speech therapy, mobility. I’ve involved myself with several of the organizations that deal with all the parents with disabilities other than blindness. There’s the Nathan Ebanks Foundation that deals with children with cerebral palsy here. I’m associated with that organization as well as others. I’ve been [unclear] to a number of Boards, so I’m a Board member for a number of organizations in the island also. They’ve used me as their unofficial ambassador to basically help with the outreach programs and stuff like that. But because I have a big voice, I talk a lot, so I sometimes represent with voice the various NGOs and such. As for services though, it’s a little bit rough for the disabled community in Jamaica and the Caribbean, not necessarily here, but the whole, it’s a regional thing.

Another major factor in the disparity of disabled life is employment because you will have disabled people who are quite capable of performing the function that would be required for the job, but you first have to get over the stereotype that is associated with the disability. People will require you to prove yourself more than the average Joe, and you’ll have to do so all the time. It’s not just a one-time affair. You’ll always have to be proving yourself as capable of doing what you need to do. So, these are some of the barriers: employment and of course, relationship. Because oftentimes, it’s how we see ourselves, yeah? And if we see ourselves in a certain light, and we feel [unclear] our own condition, and we decide to live with the stereotype that people place on us, then of course we’re gonna get the sort of reaction from people that we get. But if we then choose to change our circumstances and go and meet the challenges, equip ourselves with the technology if we can and the knowledge and then excel in our realm of whatever we have to do and then actually seek to find employment, all we need to do sometimes is just get the opportunity to prove what we can do. And if we get that platform, we should make the best use of it as possible.

This is not the time and place in this world now for us to feel sorry for ourselves as people with challenges. What we need to do is to look at the changing world and see how we too can change, retool ourselves, re-educate ourselves, and apply ourselves. The traditional way of employing blind people have been things like telephone operators, physiotherapists, basket weavers, etc., etc. You know the routine.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: In a digital world, there’s room for content providers, bloggers, website builders, website maintaining people. There’s so much we can do without having to leave our homes, our place of comfort and security. So, it is for us then to do the research because we can’t rely on people to do it for us. They won’t know our exact reach. They won’t know how far we can go with what we can do unless we tell them or show them. So, it’s left to us basically to meet these challenges individually and prove ourselves.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah. Totally agree. Totally agree. Tell us more about your radio show.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Ah! I told you I started radio in 1984, working for a commercial radio station. In fact, I started with them in 1984. In 1989, I started with another radio station, and in 2001, I started with another. I’ve been a starter for people. Whenever they wanna start their radio station with a bang, they’ll call for me. After losing my brother, my second brother, three boys one girl, well, the second boy, he died in 2013. He was a computer genius. He was a music collector. And in order of his name, I decided to put together an Internet station. His name was Chris, and Christopher would make CDs and tapes for his friends. And so, if he made it with R&B, that would be an R&B CD. He would call it a Chris Mix Soul or Chris Mix R&B. So hence, when I put the station together, this Internet station, I called it Chris Mix Radio. And a great part of the reason why I put this radio station together: his friend, very close friends—you know they say you don’t pick your family, but you pick your friends—his close friends who are his brothers, they were devastated by his loss. So, in order to keep them out of depression and all of that, I put the station together, and I invited them to come and be a part of it where they would play their music as collectors themselves, of music. And the four of them, they were happy to do so. Now, keep in mind, I too am a broadcaster as well as a producer. So, when I applied my own skills to the production and the development of the Internet radio station, it started taking on a personality.

I associated myself with other similar entities: a dear friend of mine, a vertan broadcaster from New York. Her name was Francine Chin, and she’s worked from WLIV, WBLS. She was off radio for a while, and I encouraged her to do an Internet station also. She did. And in doing so, she introduced me to other Internet station broadcasters, and we then formed a network together. We called ourselves the Worldwide Radio Network, and what we would do, we would carry each other’s signal. Let’s say you were broadcasting from 1:00 – 3:00 on your station. I would carry your signal. So would the other guys. We’d broadcast you over our station, and you in turn would carry me at 6:00. So, we carry each other as content. Now, the last station I worked with in Jamaica that started in 2001, they approached me based on my content and said, “How about you like to provide content in Jamaica?” I said, “Really?” So, for the past year and a half, two years, that’s what my station has been doing. Every Friday night, Jamaica plugs into my station for eight hours, from 9:00 pm to 9:00 am.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: So, I don’t hog it. I do the first hour—I’m still the anchor station—I do the first hour, and then the second hour, I pull in my girlfriend’s station in New York. The third hour, I pull in another friend’s station, Foundation Radio from Florida. The fourth hour, I pull a station in from London, and I give London two hours. So, what I’ve been doing is feeding Jamaica with diaspora information. I plug in where they carry me and my community [unclear], like New York, Florida, England. And I’m looking now at Toronto and a few other places where they carry and communicate. It’s dense. It’s a dense population. I’ve also associated myself with some Caribbean stations, high energy in Trinidad, Gems in the Bahamas, Treal in the Virgin Islands. We also go as far as Brazil. There’s a Brazil station involved in the mix. And at our peak, our audience is up to 518,000, at our peak.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And this is on just about four years of operation.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: That is great. That’s awesome. On that same topic, I’ve been doing radio off and on for 10 years, and now what I do is called Krip-Hop Nation. And Krip-Hop Nation is an international music network of disabled musicians. And now we have a radio station at POOR Magazine called KEXU 94.1. That’s in East Oakland. So, we would love to play your stuff on our radio station and play your music on our radio station.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I like that. I like that.

Last year, April, someone contacted me on Messenger. Someone was trying to connect with me on Messenger. I don’t know if it’s a hoax or anything like that. So, she was quite persistent, and then she left a number. And when I called the number, she told me she was doing research from her school on disability and would I like to help her out, participate in her study. I said, “Sure, no problem with that.” She said, “OK. I’m gonna hook you up with my teacher. And are you all right with that?” I said, “No problem.” And I called the number that she gave me, and the lady that answered said, “OK. Before we move further, I would like for you to sign an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement.” I said, “Whoa. OK. This sounds heavy. Just for a little survey? OK. Go ahead.” When they sent it to me, do you know where the heading was from?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Where?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Apple.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Apple! Oh my god.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: That’s what I said. And what they wanted to do, they’d chosen me, and they would like to come and interview me and quite possibly film me in my environment.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah! I saw that video, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I said, “Oh, wow. OK.” And they sent for my wife and kids in Jamaica, because my wife, she works in the Caribbean. She’s a journalist, and a very good one too, I must say. And they came up, and we did the filming for five days. I had like about 25 people in my space for five days. And they produced a video that was aired in May for Global Accessibility Day.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah. I saw that, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And based on that video and my association with Apple, they’ve asked me to do a number of things during that period to present. Just recently, I was invited to the Apple Store in Manhattan, SoHo, one of the larger stores, to do a presentation onstage about me and my use of the iPhone. I also introduced them to an app, a great app, that does podcasts, not just for the blind but also sighted so all of us could work together in that kind of environment called Anchor, the Anchor app, good for broadcast. And the presentation also, I debuted a song that I have written and collaborated with several other blind people. We’re all using Apple’s tools, Logic. I did the guitar track, and I sent it over to my buddy. I sent it from New York, where I’ve been in New York. I sent it to Memphis, and my buddy, Dominick, did drums on it, and he did harmony. Then I sent it to Jamaica to my buddy, Timmy who’s blind. He did bass. I sent it to my other blind buddy in London. He did piano. Another blind buddy in Colorado, he did guitar. Another blind buddy in Sweden, he did organ and harmony. And another blind dude in Yorkshire, he did horns. And a blind girlfriend, she did harmony and horns also. I did do that in the Apple presentation, and it was a smash hit. I’m finishing it now, mixing, mastering.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, really?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yeah. I’m presenting it to Apple, and hopefully, hopefully, I’m hoping that they’ll use it as a part of their promotion or marketing or what have you. Because we’re all using the tools to create the product. It’s a heck of a product too, man. It really sounds good.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow. That sounds really neat. Wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yeah. There’s a good story behind the whole coming together of everybody, you know?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. So, how can people support your work and listen to your show?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, I do have a website: ChrisMixRadio.com. And the website basically has all the information. I’ve just had a recent release of a reggae cover by Barry White.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes. Love Ain’t Easy. It appeared at #22 on the New York/Florida Caribbean chart.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, cool. I would love to play that on my radio show.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I’ll send you a copy of that.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Thank you.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And if they search for Patrick Lafayette, either the Apple Store or Apple Music or Spotify or anyone of the platforms, it’ll come up and play.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, good, good, good. How can people support your work and listen to your show?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, I’m on Mondays and Tuesdays from 6:00 – 9:00 Eastern Standard Time and on Fridays from 10:00 pm all the way up to 5:00 am.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Wow, OK. I’m gonna start listening now.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, sir. And we would love some of your material, man. Because I was checking you out. You are somebody special, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: No, I just— Thank you, thank you.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: You’ve been a true pioneer.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Aw, thank you.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yeah, man. I was checking you out. I said, oh, this fella is a maverick. Check him out.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Thank you, man. Thank you. Yeah, I do what’s called Krip-Hop, and Krip-Hop is an international network of disabled musicians. So, we got chapters everywhere. But I just got hooked up with a couple people from Kingston.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Really?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: So, yeah. We’re trying to do something in Kingston.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I need to get you hooked up too, man. Oh, man. I’m glad you called me. There’s some folks I’m working with too, man, the blind folks who are brilliant, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, really?!

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Oh, man. These guys, you should hear them use Pro Tools and Logic and all of that.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: And these are all musicians.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Really?!

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Oh, brother. You should hear some of the Hip-Hop beats.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh! Please!! I would love to tune in, play their music on my radio show, or start a Krip-Hop chapter in Jamaica!

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: That’ll be great, man. These are the things we should be doing, Lee. We should be collaborating and networking.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yes, yes. I agree. I agree. I agree.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, yes. The powers all of us, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yep. I agree. I agree, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: If you don’t mind, I’m gonna share your contact information with a couple of my friends.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, please, please!

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: We use TeamTalk. Are you familiar with TeamTalk.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: No. No, I’m not.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: OK, TeamTalk is an app for either Android, the IOS, or even your computer, and it’s a boot server. If you use headphones, you’ll get full stereo, and we do production there. And we’re all over the world, but we’re all in this room doing the production.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Like I could have you very clean, and if you were a singer, I could record you singing on the track that I have here.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, I’m a poet. I’m a poet. People say I rap, but I’m really a poet.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, yes, yes. All right. What do you use? Do you use an Android, or do you use the iPhone?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: No, I have a desktop computer, so it’s Apple. Yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, yes. Then we can give you the information.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, good. Message me on Facebook with all the contacts.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, I’ll send you all the info, and I’ll configure it. And once you configure and connect, then you’ll be in the chat room with all of us.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, great! Awesome!

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, yes. You’re gonna love this, man. You’re gonna love this.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Thank you so much. This has been a great interview, so thank you.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: No, thank you, Lee. It’s a pleasure knowing you, brother. Trust me.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Aw, same here. I’m gonna play this on all my radio shows, so yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Just send me the link and everything, and I’ll be glad to be there, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: OK, good.

Well, you take care.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Right now, we’re working with a young woman by the name Royka.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, wow.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Let me see if I find her. Hold on a second. [Patrick’s screen reader navigates and reads the page.] I’m gonna do two things. Even though this is phone, even though this is gonna go— Let me do this. Almost there. Almost. Ah. This is a song with all eight blind folks. It’s called [unclear].

LEROY F. MOORE JR: It’s called what?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: This is us, all eight of us.

[song plays over speakerphone]

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: This is not the best medium for you to hear it. But at least you get an idea what it is.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: But it’s a bad track, Lee.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh my god. It’s so cool.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: It’s a rough track. As for Hip-Hop—

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Really? And all of you are blind?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, sir.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh my god! I would love to play that when it’s done.

[screen reader navigating and reading]

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: As for Hip-Hop, this is about— [unclear, as screen reader is still voicing]. I’m gonna have to put it back in. But homegirl’s got a wicked track.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Really?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Oh, brother. Oh, no. It’s a wicked track! We got a blind rapper by the name of B-Mob.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: You should hear B-Mob.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, is he on Facebook?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, he is. Yes, he is. B-Mob.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: OK, OK. I’m gonna look him up.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: I’m gonna send you some tracks too, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, please. Yes! Send me some tracks, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, I’m gonna send you some tracks. Have you recorded? You have recorded?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Excuse me?

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: You have done recordings yourself, right?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, I’m gonna need some of them so I can play them on my station too, man.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I can send you some .mp3s, yeah.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let’s stay in contact, Lee.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: Yeah, yeah, let’s do that. Thank you so much.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: Well, thank you, my brother very, very, very much. God be with you. God bless you, you hear?

LEROY F. MOORE JR: OK. You too. You have a good day, man.

PATRICK LAFAYETTE: You too, brother.

LEROY F. MOORE JR: All right. Peace.

“yeah…I’m originally from the East Coast, this o’ New York girl can handle anything, even in the cold…”  This is not what an 80-year old elderly woman should ever have to say in her golden years…especially while living in California, the wealthiest State in the nation.

Having been forced out of her long-time apartment rental of over 10-years in Berkeley two years ago with nowhere to go, she now sleeps in an open doorway of a business, surviving through many damp nights in the cold wind and rain with only her personal possessions tucked away into a shopping trolley, covered in layers of warm clothing, bedding and plastic to keep herself warm with.

And just couple of weeks ago in the early morning on my way to work, I saw a lot of cop cars and an ambulance with yellow tape blocking off the next block on my street.  Little did I know at the time that an elderly man had died while sleeping in his cold van on the street…yeah, just one block from where I slept in my warm bed. Yet, there was nothing mentioned about it on the local news.

No, it’s not where our most precious communities, our elderly should ever have to live and die, especially in this wealthy, self-serving community, the SF Bay Area where it seems that building tons of unaffordable $3,000.00+ a month luxury apartments take precedence over humanity.  

In the past five years, there has been a mass increase of houseless elders living on the streets in Berkeley, a community that is supposedly known for its caring and compassion. Instead, there are several hundred disabled senior citizens over the age of 55 years living outside in the element, with many who are severely debilitated and wheelchair bound, unable to properly care for themselves.  

Many of these low-income elders, who are on MediCAL and/or on MediCARE are being rapidly discharged out of local area hospitals, shuttled into Berkeley and dropped off in the streets near pop-up winter shelters, which are not always reliable to be open every night and without any guarantee of getting a bed, especially for wheelchair bound elders who have severe mobility issues such as using the bathroom, with many dropped off still wearing their hospital gowns and/or ID wristbands.  

The numbers of houseless elders continue to rise, as more elders continue to be displaced from long term rentals that have now been ‘flipped’ and re-rented at a much higher rent, leaving them highly vulnerable in a community where it seems that overpriced housing for desensitized, overpaid techies takes priority over developing more affordable and accessible senior housing in the community.

What most people tend to not fully understand is that Alameda County now has full control of the low-income housing market in every city within its county jurisdiction.  This used to not be the case, as it used to be where each city within the County had its own affordable housing program, funded through HUD, however due to ongoing budget cuts to HUD on a Federal Level, all affordable housing has now been consolidated exclusively to the County, who now has full control. This includes all affordable housing for low-income individuals, families and most importantly, low-income seniors.  The County has implemented what is called a ‘Coordinated Entry System’, where everyone who is low-income and in need of affordable housing is jumbled into one huge database list, including elders.

This new Coordinated Entry System has now created a greater problem, making it even more difficult for low-income communities to access affordable housing, as only certain designated organizations are contracted to manage those in need of affordable housing through yet another database list which is only accessible to the County and these certain organizations, even further limiting low-income individuals, families and elders from getting access to affordable housing with most getting lost in this system, often silently falling off the list.  And in many cases, low-income houseless elders will most likely die before their number on these complicated lists ever comes up for affordable housing.

On top of this issue, the Coordinated Entry System’s list is also based on each contracted organization’s ‘criteria’ model, which is a ‘vulnerability index’ scoring system that is taken of each houseless person, including houseless elders, using a ‘point score’ criteria model, which usually results to many people, especially elders not scoring high enough to get in the top 50 on this huge list, despite of the fact that they are all vulnerable, elderly, disabled, houseless and poor…

Many of the houseless elders living on the streets mental health issues are also not being taken into serious consideration when they are being assessed for affordable housing through this system, as most of these contracted organizations are not properly trained to manage elders with such issues, especially when they are forced to live houseless on the streets.  For many of these elders, who have paid many years of taxes into this very system, being houseless is an extremely traumatic experience for them in every way imaginable, having to sleep outside in the element at a time in their lives when they are at their most vulnerable.

The whole system is broken…  It’s broken more than ever… This Coordinated Entry System is too large, fragmented and cumbersome to handle of the rising influx of houseless elders, many who have fallen victim to hyper gentrification in their communities and have been discarded. It seems as if there are too many different contracted organizations doing things in too many different ways with no real cohesiveness.  This has created a greater difficulty for low-income communities, especially elder communities to obtain affordable housing, which has become a rapidly growing epidemic of houseless elders in Berkeley…the East Bay…SF Bay Area…California. People are dying out there because of this.

The 211 service call center is ineffective, especially for elders.  It doesn’t actually help people find housing at all, let alone an elderly person houseless on the street. First of all, if a person doesn’t have a phone or has a severe hearing/visual/speech/mental disability, they most likely won’t have the ability to utilize the 211 call system as it’s all done by phone.  The 211 system also keeps people on hold for a very long time and once a person gets through doing a 20-minute ‘intake assessment questionnaire’ over the phone, which for many can be difficult, it doesn’t guarantee finding temporary shelter for those in dire need, let alone helping elders with special needs. Basically, 211 is a ‘referral’ service, therefore our low-income communities continue to fall through the cracks, especially our most vulnerable community, our houseless elders.  

It’s hyper capitalism, greed and soulless selfishness of big money developers, speculators, greedy landlords and the wealthy consumers that are taking precedence over humanity in this time and age which literally normalizes us silently walking past an elder living on the street, sleeping in a door way or slumped over in their wheelchair outside in the hot or cold weather. Having houseless elders living on the streets and in cold doorways would be unacceptable in most developed countries abroad, yet our low-income elders die alone in the cold here in one the wealthiest communities in the entire nation.

WELL WELL WELL HOW THE TABLES WILL TEARN  I HAVE THE GOLDEN KEY TODAY I CELEBRATE ………

SEP 23 2018 WAS A REAL DEMON SLAYING DAY LAST MONTH I TURNED A NEW AGE BAREING NEW GIFTS ……..

IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SENCE I  ACTUALY HAVE HAD THE OPERTUNITY  TO SIT AT THIS DESK AND WRITE ………………………

I REMEMBER THE 1ST TIME I WAS ASKED TO PARTICIPATE IN WRITTING IN THIS BLOG I REJECTED IT THANK YOU BUT NO THANK YOU I REPLIED TO LISA TINY GARCIA NO REALLY YOU SHOULD HUN YOU WOULD BE AN GREAT WRITER

WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU SAY THAT I REPLIED , YOU GOT AN KICK ASS STORY SIS ..IM JUST SAYING … YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT IT …

I GAVE IT LOTS OF THOUGHT  LATER ON I WAS ASKED TO JOIN THE POOR FAMILY AND HELP OUT WITH THIS AIR TIME TV AND RADIO ….. KEXU 96.1FM of all THE THINGS IN THE WORLD WHY TV AND RADIO LORD ...WHY AM I HEAR AGAIN ...I DIDNT SEE THIS COMMING …...

AFTER ALL I HAD JUST LOST MY SON TORIAN DAJOUR HUGHES …. IM JUST HAPPY TO HAVE A SAFE PLACE FOR MY CHILDREN TO GO TO SCHOOL ,AFTER LEAVING RUBY BRIDGES ELEMENTARY TRAUMA…..

BUT IF THIS IS A WAY TO PAY MY DUES THEN I HAVE NO PROBLEM HELPING OUT HOW EVER I AM CAPABLE  … HELL I VOLUNTEER AT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS … THIS COULD ACTUALY BE COOL

ITS NOT LIKE I DONT KNOW A LIL SOMETHING ……. I EXCEPT ...

I AM NOT A WRITTER BUT I CAN ARTICULATE  VERY WELL … AND I DO HAVE A STORY TO TELL  SAGA’S … I SEEM NOT TO BE ABLE TO GET AWAY FROM MEDIA I THINK TO MY SELF  ...AS I RECIEVE THE PLATOON

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE OR WHERE TO START BUT I AM WILLING TO OPPERATE IN MY HONOR AND PURPOSE AS A TEAM PLAYER ….. IS MY ANSWER

SIS SEYS YOUR SON WANTS THIS FOR YOU IM SOLD HOOK LINE AND SINKER NOW.

WRITTING IS HEALING IT WILL BE YOUR THEARAPHY U CAN GET PAID THREW YOUR WRITTING  AND SHARE YOUR MEDICINE THREW MEDIA hitting THE AIR WAVES … ME PAID TO WRITE IT WAS UNHEARD OF REALLY …. YES YOU ARE FREE TO BE YOU AND WRITE FREELY NO JUDGEMENT BE HEALED AND GET HEALED THREW YOUR STREET POVERTY SCHALORSHIP ….AND SO I HAVE BEEN BLOGING AND DOING MEDIA EVER SCENCE INTO THE BIG BREAKDOWN …... OF TRAUMATIZING TRIGGERS POPPED THE FUCK OFF SEPERATEING ME FROM MY NEWEST FOUND LOVE 2ND TO MY SON’S WHAT YOU NEED MIGHT MAKE YOU CRY AND WHAT YOU WANT MIGHT PASS YOU BY IF YOU LET IT ….. SAID IN THE GREAT WORDS OF THE GREAT LAUREN HILL ….

AND SO FOR NOW I HAVE WEATHERED THE STORM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Invasion of the Tent Snatchers II
2019 WeSearch Report from Poverty Skola/WeSearchers from the Occupied Ohlone/Lisjan Village of Yelamu (San Francisco) Presents: Ongoing Tent and Belonging Theft in San Francisco under Mayor London Breed
WeSearch def: Poor and indigenous peoples-led research. Launched by POOR Magazine poverty skolaz)

SF WeSearch Release Summary
In October of 2018 Poor, Unhoused San Francisco residents of San Francisco collected data on the 110 tents and belongings seized under the new mayoral administration of London Breed that were seized from 62 unhoused Sf residents. Now three months later we are releasing our second WeSearch report on the theft of over 400 tents belonging to 210 houseless residents by the new Mayoral administration of San Francisco
History of this “study”
"Since the inauguration of Mayor London Breed unhoused residents of San Francisco have struggled with a series of tent and belonging seizures and police and DPW harassment. The overall attacks on poor and unhoused people is a continuation of previous mayoral administrations’ ongoing attacks on unhoused San Francisco residents. What was evident from this WeSearch study is the attacks now include the specific seizure of peoples tents, which adds yet another inhumane and violent aspect to the attack on our lives for the sole act of not having access to housing in a city which has some of the most violent forms of displacement, removal and evictions of poor and working class families.
WeSearch Process
The 2nd WeSearch “study” was launched November 1st and ended Friday , Jan 18th  and revealed a 200% rise in the tent seizures of unhoused peoples, This was a follow-up to the October 24th report which was launched on BlackAugust 31st.

RoofLESS radio WeSearchers -a team of Unhoused, formerly unhoused, Working Class, Very low and no-income Black, Brown Poor and 1st Nations youth and adult poverty skolaz, all who have been working and sitting and and sleeping and living in and out of housing in San Francisco conducted interviews and conversations with their communities and families of fellow poverty skolaz and then quantified the data to the following results.

Who are the WeSearchers (demographics):
Data Creators/Collectors/WeSearchers: 210 San Francisco residents sitting, standing , convening, sleeping in San Francisco while houseless
 
65% were of African Descent or Mixed African Descent
35% were Raza /Indigenous,mixed race,white or other
30% were 65-75
70% were 30-45 
70% were men 
27% were women
25% trans & non-gender-conforming
70% were houseless after displacement from long-time homes and neighborhoods
80% are living with untreated psychological disabilities
70% are living with physical disabilities

WeSearch Findings of Poverty Skolaz SF residents:
-410 Tents were reported seized from 206 unhoused residents from Sept 7th-January 18th, 2019
-$56,310 dollars in belongings and medicine were seized and disposed of by DPW and/or SF police.
- Tent, belonging and medicine seizures resulted in severe illness and emergency room visits of unhoused residents of San Francisco and in at least four cases were related to street-based deaths

Demand/Ask based on WeSearch findings:
-Cease and desist in the taking of our enclosures and belongings
-Us Unhoused people of San Francisco are asking for liberated Ohlone/Lisjan land so we can build our own self-determined projects like Homefulness
-Asking Housed residents to send emails, calls, letters and visits to London Breed’s office demanding that they cease & desist Tent & belonging seizures from unhoused SF residents
The WeSearch Policy Group (WPG) is a project of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE- a poor and indigenous people-led, very grassroots, art-based movement. Please credit POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE WeSearch Policy Group when re-printing . for more information email poormag@gmail.com or go to www.poormagazine.org

Let it blossom

Part of a greater garden

Part of the growing green future

Beyond this lush garden

Born of economic, existential, educational

Trauma.

Let it blossom

Let it start

With a prayer

From poor

Single parents

Wanting to break

From the false

Scarcity model.

Let it blossom

So the saplings

And the seedlings

Can be nourished

From knowledge

Buried under history’s

Dense weight.

Let it blossom

Let them blossom

Into strong, healthy

Branches, bear

Myriad fruits

Children of tomorrow

Can feast on

And digest

The lessons that will break them out of poverty.

W: 1.13.19

In the past few years I have seen more of us suffer with the black mold issue in silence than with any other issue out of fear of retaliation or eviction, but why is it that landlords are able to rent out these poisoned boxes in the disguise of apartments to unsuspecting tenants while landlords are more than likely aware of the risks to the people’s health?

Mold is a fungus that is produced in the moisture of tile crevices, HVAC systems, attics, doors, crawlspaces, windows and under carpets. It is known to stick to walls and other surfaces but mold can also be airborne.

According to WeSearch, (POOR Magazine research) prolonged exposure to Mold, AKA Stachybotrys especially Black Mold can lead to more serious and permanent respiratory damage if the poison is not eradicated in a urgent timeframe. Those in contact with mold also increase the risks of medical problems such as allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue and even depression. Chronic coughing, irritation to the eyes nose and throat area are also symptoms of mold/black mold poisoning.

A longtime member of POOR Magazine along with her family has been the victim of not one incident of black mold, but 2 incidents where herself and her children’s health had declined to a point where the doctor even said that they can no longer reside at the residences that were infested by the mold. All of her clothing, furniture, books and other possessions were contaminated with the poison and the poor family had to bear the burden of being houseless without the adequate help from millionaire slumlords who does not care if the tenants live or die from this “domestic cyanide”

Was it the same “domestic cyanide” that sickened our elder Panther Richard Brown, whose Prince Hall apartment unit was riddled with black mold everywhere and to the point that walls had to be torn down in his home and poorly replaced? Mr. Brown was constantly in the ICU department at UC hospital where according to his caretaker and daughter-in-law, Ms. Kenyatta “He would be doing better with his breathing and overall health, but soon as he was sent home he would be sick all over again. I pressed for the management to do something about the mold for a very long time,  but by the time management took the issue seriously it was too late.” We lost our elder Mr. Brown in the summer of 2018.

In my own apartment in the Fill-no-mo my family has had issues with black mold, bug infestations and the year long wait periods for basic appliances like a stove and although I was number #6 on the list to get the damp, muggy carpet removed -there are vacancies in the Plaza East complex that have been attended to better than the unit I live in after being immediately moved in after a family without so much as new blinds, repairs to the previous families’ damages nor a fresh paint job. My daughter deals with headaches and nosebleeds while I’m always feeling fatigue and “down”. Our kitchen sink is leaking water and our garbage disposal is not working. I’m always trying to budget my low income to pay for the repairs but when all you can afford is cheap labor with a  band-aid patchwork don’t expect for the problem to be solved via discount- you get what you pay for.

The slap in the face is that you will have the naysayers with a whole bunch of money spew from their mouths- “If you don’t like the condition of the place, MOVE!” These wealth hoarders that outlaw homelessness and poverty speak upon this housing sin committed against humanity as if we all have thousands upon thousands of dollars to give to a careless, greedy “landlord” who, in return rents to us poor families and those a notch above poor poisonous places we are suppose to be able to call “home”...