Story Archives 2021

By tiny Gray-Garcia - daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio

Homefulness #2 @7600 BlackArthur - Deep East Huchuin 

“Here are the keys”,  On a beautiful day in May - right as the pandemic and the poltricksters who wouldn’t listen to the CDC and continued to conduct “sweeps” on houseless bodies all across the Bay Area, was making it impossible for so many houseless peoples to survive, muchless shelter in place (like I always say, how you gonna shelter in place , when you have no place) a wite-man in a brand-new BMW pulled up in front of the Sliding Scale cafe at Homefulness #1 where we share healthy food, groceries, masks, diapers, produce and organic pastry to over 800 folks a week, and handed us the “keys” to Homefulness #2 at 7600 BlackArthur. 

That was a moment in herstory for so many reasons. Us poor people who have struggled with rent, eviction, homelessness, displacement, removal, false borders, hunger, mold, cold, scamlords, illegal evictions, gentriFUKation as i call it, had taught people who had Never had to struggle with any of those things, about the concepts of Poverty Scholarship and ComeUnity Reparations. We were able to It meant SO much and yet it oddly quiet moment , it meant so much but was barely a blip in the terror of poor peoples pandemic survival. In addition we poor, disabled, indigenous peoples have been “given” the keys to apartments, rental houses, garages, storage bins and cars before, and as soon as we can’t pay the rent, we are given more things, like 3 day notices to pay rent

“This lot is zoned for 14 luxury condos…” said the real ESNake agent....

Before that day with the “keys” which were to an empty lot in the intentionally blighted poor people of color neighborhood known as Deep East Oakland, which was currently ground zero of a huge push to gentriFUK that had been the home of a gas station and a body shop for decades and then just left and decimated as so many other locations in poor peoples of color, we had had a series of frightening conversations with the devil-opers of Oakland and realEsnakes who were “selling” a lot on BlackArthur intentionally planned to remove the people who already lived on BlackArthur.

Lots of people talk, protest and even organize against gentrification and removal, but how do you actually stop it in its tracks?

After our youth poverty skolaz from the liberation school called Deecolonize Academy and us Mama and Uncle poverty Skola teachers - all of us coming from homelessness and eviction trauma, living and schooling on Homefulness, released the Hoarded Mama Earth WeSearch Report last year…

"Vacant lots and empty buildings are being “hoarded”   i.e. not housing people who are in desperate need of housing , sometimes for years, and us homeless and formerly homeless youth and families  at Homefulness by doing extensive research can help take them back for the good of the people"… excerpt from the Hoarded Mama Earth Report by POOR Magazine Youth and Mama Poverty SKolaz- 

What we “learned” from this WeSearch ( what i call Poor people-led research) is what we already knew, what all of us poor peoples and long-time residents of these gentriFUKed neighborhoods all know, the gentriFUKers are coming, they have always been there. They are waiting like cultures at the intersections of every working class and poor people neighborhood across Turtle Island (United Snakes). And they always move violently and swiftly, whether its against 100 year old Black elders, like Iris Canada, or families with nowhere else to go, Sabrina Carter and Moms4Housing and so many more. But people need numbers and proof of things we already know so POOR Magazine researched and “proved” eviction is elder abuse and its why we launched the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations to get folks with race and class privilege to radically redistribute to poor and houseless/indigenous peoples like us so we could “UnSellMamaEarth” one small piece at a time. Its why we wrote Poverty Scholarship Textbook, its why we do Theatre of the POOR, its why we do PeopleSkool - a poor people-led school to help privileged, housed, hoarding and unhoused folks degentriFUK and decolonize their lives and minds.

Thanks to all of this work and sweat and prayer and education and cultural work, 7600 BlackArthur was successfully the 2nd small piece of Mama Earth that us poor folks have UnSold, and removed out of the hands of the gentriFUKers so they couldn’t “build” devil-op, destroy, more of Mama Earth about us without the residents in the very place they think they have rights to.  

“You need to re-name yourself Rich Magazine now, how you poor people got two places?,” Have heard this more than once, since the launching of Homefulness #2 - and the hard part is explaining POOR Magazine is still in fact Po - we don’t “own” nothing, this wasn’t about us controlling or owning , or running or colonizing, or perpetrating more of the same ole same ole krapitalist lies of Ownership. This wasn’t a “Capital Campaign, or other non-profiteer, philanthro-pimp lie.

This was about lifting stolen land off the commodities market in real time and giving it back to the comeUnity, forEVER. This was about 21st century actual manifestation of dreams of poor people -led self-determination. This was the manifestation of DeGentriFUKation. In real time what does that looks like? It looks like just what we have slowly but surely crawled though. The CONfusion, terror, poverty, mud, and struggle of Homefulness #1 into building 6 units of rent-free housing, for houseless and formerly houseless very poor, disabled families and individuals, and by BlackAugust, assuming the City of Oakland doesn’t throw us more over-priced permits or obstacles, 11 units. That families and elders and their descendants can live in forever, with no fear of gentriFUKing. No-one, no entity or agency profits off of this land, or "owns" it, but we grow food, heal and take care, of each other, educate and support the community with massive redistribution of everything we have, all the time.

We are stewards of the land- we, the landless, indigenous, poor peoples who launched Homefulness & the children & childrens children of original founders  of homefulness and generations beyond- DO NOT OWN MAMA EARTH. None of us who live here own the land,  but because this land and all of us exist within a capitalist system who will easily take a certain amount of blood-stained dollars to evict us, displace us or remove us- we understand that their needs to be  some entity on paper that "owns" the land or it will get stolen by more government gangsters or devil-opers.  For that reason we are creating a series of documents and entities to protect the land and its stewards from current or future removal, devil-opment or removal -excerpt from the living document known as the MamaFesto created by all the poverty, disability youth and elder skolaz of POOR Magazine since 2009 revolutionary Change Session at POOR Magazine

In the case of Homefulness #2 - its looks like 6 all nations prayer ceremonies, comeUnity visioning days, where the whole community has weighed in on what their Homefulness is going to look like (there have been 6- we will be having another one June 20th (For Juneteenth and Revolutionary Fathers Day weekend) , its looks like ComeUnity led clean-ups and asphalt lifting and land cleaning and loving and designing together with conscious architects and comeUnity Architects, who take back this paper-dominated space of land planning. It looks like leaders from the comeUnity stepping up to lead this liberation and create their own MamaFesto #2 . These arent just dreams and strategy and talk, these are happening.

Its a funny thing, but people have been lied to so long about “ownership” and mamaEarth, that the idea of UnSelling seems really hard for us colonized people to truly believe. 

BlackArthur Homefulness #2 was taken back from the Devil-opers and given to the people and hardly anyone noticed…

We at POOR Magazine are going through a process with some conscious lawyers from Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) who thankfully took us on as “clients” and conscious legislators like Carol Fife and Rebecca Kaplan to create a new legislation, a new designation not informed by the settler- colonial terror of land theft and the CONstitution, but prayed for and informed byPoverty Scholarship and 1st Nations warriors like one of POOR Magazine’s spiritual leaders, Corrina Gould, from Sogorea Te Land Trust and West Berkeley Shellmound and our ancestors of gentriFUKation like my Mama Dee and Uncle Al Robles and us poor and gentriFUKEd and removed/houseless/bordered/disabled poverty skolaz, who are here and fight and protest and build and struggle everyday , with very little notice, no media except what we create ourselves and no accolades or bling.Just doing the work, cause it has to be done. 

Our Poor Mama/Family/Youth and elder-led movement stands in solidarity and align ourselves with warriors from the EZLN, Landless Peoples Movement, AbaseMonjodole (Shackdwellers Union in South Africa) and MOVE Africa- Long Live John Africa, who a lot of people glamorize now , but weren’t standing with, when people were Shit-Talking about their refusal to get down with Krapitalism when the poltrickster mayor decided to bomb their powerFULL movement.

The Violent Herstory that led us houseless mamas to this day….

“Get the F&*k out you bums,” Mr. H, the motel owner, screamed at us. It was one of the few times we had moved our houseless bodies into a motel room to escape the cold of the park bench we were sleeping on. Me and mama were houseless and really at the end of our spiritual, physical rope. Our last hooptie (broke-down car) was towed for too many tickets for sleeping in it) and we had nowhere to go. When we stayed in the motel, I silk screened t-shirts all night in the tiny closet and then sold them on the street to pay for the next days motel rent, but this time sales weren’t so good and I only sold one shirt for $15.00. the days rent was $50.00. 

Mr H called us bums because he had decided that because we had no money, no credit card and no cash we were “Bums”. He failed to notice how hard we worked to try to pay him but really that doesn’t matter anyway, as the old adage goes, “Money talks, bullshit walks”  

This is just one slice of herstory that makes up the deep change work of my life-work to upturn what I call the Lie of Rent, Heal and UnSell Mama Earth and help fellow houseless, disabled /indigenous peoples launch as many Homefulness projects as possible across stolen and colonized Turtle Island and beyond.  We will be doing one of our StolenLand/Hoarded Resources Tours though Akkkademia to manifest land liberation for the Stolen ancestors and land of Ohlone /Lisjan relatives and poor and houseless peoples of Peoples Park and 1921 Walnut st - a building about to be gentriFUKEd for the Dorm Industrial Complex. We welcome all folks to walk, march, stand and speak with us in this- pls connect if you interested. In addition, this Summer and Fall this povertyskola and others from POOR Magazine will be doing a road trip in the months of June and July and October-February to share this medicine as we always have from Day 1, with as many povertyskolaz and wealth-hoarders trying to un-hoard as want to learn, change and transform - please hit us up to visit your town and launch a stolen land tour, a workshop and/or a reading of the powerFULL medicine that informs this work Poverty Scholarship- Poor People-led Theory, Art , Words and Tears Across Mama Earth. Please hit this povertyskola up if you are interested to know more.  

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

I have been blessed since 1998 when Tiny and her mother Dee saw me at the Berkeley Rep Theater during the hey day of spoken word and the the Bay Area’s spoken word scene to not only start one of the first online columns on race and disability called Illin-N-Chillin after the police shooting of a Black woman with mental health disability, Marget L Mitchell of LA.  Since that time it seems I continue to walk beside Poor Magazine learning from them and putting their education to work when it comes to people with disabilities.  Tiny and I realized at an early stage that Disability and Poverty went hand in hand but the shame kept it hush hush.  

The second thing I learned from Poor Magazine was to have control over your own destiny. That’s when Gary N Gray and I started Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO  and like Poor Magazine had Po’ Poets DAMO had New Voices: Disabled Poets & Artists of Color.  We also found out that the non-profit avenue was not our ticket to self determination!  We also created our own ways of making decisions with the creation of family elders council which is one of the many elements of the medicine to Never call the poLice which a lot of people talk about but we manifest and have manifested together since 1996 after DAMO and Poor Magazine organized the first ever Senseless Crimes Open Forum after the police shootings of Black Disabled young men in San Francisco.

Even Krip-Hop Nation started at Poor Magazine and that's when I once again learn from Tiny and started to create words, terminology and theory following in the footsteps of words like Poverty Scholarship came Krip-Hop, Black Ableism and Afro-Krip, etc.

Poor Magazine published my first book entitled, Black Disabled Man with a Big Mouth & High I.Q. in 1998 and then went on to publish two Moore books and once again Krip-Hop’s founders learned from Poor Magazine and Keith Joes created his own press, Soulful  Media Works.

Almost like Homefulness of Poor Magazine, Krip-Hop Nation wants to build on a lot smaller scale in what we call the Krip-Hop Institute. It will be a place of learning in the community and will house two of its founders and be a venue for cultural expression.  In a strange way Leroy is going to the roots of the founders of Poor Magazine in the Fall of 2021 as I enter in  academia at UCLA where Dee tried to get in and where Tiny was raised, on the streets of LA.

Poor Magazine will always be one of my Foundations to keep me grounded even in the academy in LA.

Thank you Poor Magazine!

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

4/21/21

By Tiburcio Garcia with Kimo Umu, Ziair Hughes, Amir Cornish, Akil Carrillo and all the Poor and houseless mamaz and grandmommas who brought them into this journey

(Editor's Note: All the authors are students, themselves victims of gentrification and eviction and displacement and homelessness,  at the liberation school known as Deecolonize Academy. They “learn” through books, and study, action and liberation the tru Her-Story of this stolen land- they all collaborated with their teachers, also poverty, indigenous skolaz to create the attached “FactSheet.”)

“RAD has been around for decades, and now it’s being enforced”, Leroy Moore, founder of Krip Hop  co-founder of Homefulness and writer for POORMAGAZINE said with frustration written on his face, squinting in the morning sun. It was a clear day, on the morning on April 20th, the day that POOR Magazine and all of us youth and family “poverty skolaz” at Deecolonize Academy & Homefulness demonstrated in front of City Hall to protest RAD and Hope VI, two bills that have been used by devil-opers (like my mamá Tiny calls them)  such as Mercy Housing, John Stewart Company and many more in the Bay Area recently to evict large amounts of families to make room for higher paying tenants. “Repeal it Biden.” 

“We’re here because we’ve been receiving Letters of Eviction, and they are offering nowhere to go, they are just taking our homes away”, Teresa Molina, a tenant and a resident of San Francisco who is currently fighting RAD and HOPE VI, said, talking about her fellow tenants in her apartments. The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), is a bill put in place by the Department of Public Housing that allows big housing companies to privatize their previously public housing, making it easier for them to remove the tenants who relied on Section 8 to pay their rent.

“I was born and raised in Filmo’”, Mama Queenandi XSheba, povertySkola, public housing tenant and writer with POORMAGAZINE said when she got up on the mic, gesturing rapidly. “...cuz even when me and my children’s lives were in danger,  the quote un-quote housing authority still didn’t look at us and that out Black Lives Mattered," she finished.

“Non-profiteers CONtinue to profit off of our poverty and problems while helping to create our problems,” my Mama Tiny, known as “PovertySkola”, a poet, teacher, visionary and co-founder of POORMAGAZINE, Homefulness and Deecolonize Academy where we are all students. She went onto explain that RAD and No Hope VI was launched under Obama and “housing advocacy” non-profits in San Francisco were some the authors of the RAD program which has effectively killed all the public housing across the “United Snakes” as she and other revolutionaries call it .”We are demanding equity and reparations for Black and Brown and indigenous Houseless residents of these no-longer public housing buildings so we can build our own solutions like we are with  Homefulness,” she said and then concluded, “E-RADification to Reparations.”

Tiny and Queennandi XsheBa at POOR Magazine wrote extensively about RAD in 2013 when they snuck it through. No-one but the BayView Newspaper and POOR MAgazine published these stories (links below) but they were powerful “Wesearch” as Mama Tiny calls it - (poor people-led Research) on these evil moves for our youth and family created “FactSHEET” on RAD that we did in Mama Tiny’s Deecolonize English Class (see attachment).

I had to agree withQueennandi and my Mama, and I felt for everyone at the mercy of RAD and HOPE VI, it’s predecessor, nearly being evicted and put on the streets, because me and my mother have been in that situation before. This was a powerful action, and I loved the words that were being spoken, that often go unheard, and the point they made.

“If we fight back we can resist this removal, like we have done in Westside,”  said Uncle Greg, a powerful organizer and member of this movement of POORMAGAZINE to help launch a tenants union amd resist the politricks( as my mama calls it ) of RAD. “you all inspire me, we have power," he concluded.

“We are poor people who resist with our voices,” said Mama Junebug, teacher, poet and povertySkola describing the powerful principles of POORMAGAZINE. “We can speak for ourselves and solve our own problems!”

By AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

Emotions don't let them get the best of you that's the Golden Rule I think it's A Catch 22 a f*****-up double-edged sword you're damned if you show emotions yet if one is emotionless you hit them with Your Best Shot firing away what is one to do what am I to do hell this is an answer that has not been answered that's the flaw in the twist of emotions and this is not a poem my thoughts just kind of flow out of me like this emotions they are feelings that can be turned into action once this energy has been tapped into or and shifted are they to be contained or are they to be released????? Character there's a fine thin line between the two emotions and character. What's the difference between those two...... The trade-off is in the truth.... or is it IN how one is viewed...... My Character is Genuine And Pure-Natured i Pride Myself On My Being Honest Which Has to do With TRUTH... CHARACTER and Truth Thin Line Between Those 2..... 

I am emotional the outward Outburst I display that appears to be negative energy is not to be put on my being's character it is my truth And YOURS TOO...this is an outrageous traumatizing situation

Traumatizing health hazardous and downright dangerous my emotions and my character and the truth of the deal is you got me f***** up it appears to be one way and it really is another it's an illusion due to the trans4mation of the transition in the tone of my voice and my body language which my spirit and soul do a little dance exuding a powerful energy out into the air changing the atmosphere Shifting the power captivating the authority to just be I don't need your permission your outlook and view of things are warped 

By AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

Today I Woke Up Soaked in Mine Own Tears...

Gagging on Thick Saliva....

Suffocating...

Unable To Breath... In This Sleep I Am Panicked... Breath On Me Father God... Un-Leash Me From This SLUMBER of Torture...

An empath I am not an empath I Have Become and So currently the pressure's OF the world are on my shoulders... "I'm hurting"...For My Peoples, I am The Melanin Crying Sleeping Beauty... Resurrected From A Fairy Tale 2018, Here i Am Alive And Direct..... Weeping, Weeping...

For The Nation in Which You Dwell, I've Birthed. My Tears Are Cleanser & Silent Prayers Offered To God As I Sleep

Deflecting,........ Fighting.... Evil...

Sleep, MelaninCryingSleepingBeauty, Sleep. Cry me an Spiritual Sweeping Ova... Black Gurl Sweet papaya and Mango Seed With A HoneyDew Twist... Golden... Time To illuminate. I am More Than A Conqueror...

The BLACK woman is a goddess with a little G pollinate,

LoveOlutionaries Activate...

Sending off High-Positive Vibrations... Deep Meditation Powerful Spiritual Healing... in My SLEEP......... I break Free... I Can Now Breath

Sylvia Thinning I'm no longer Gasping For Air no more Tears or Suffocating Only to be Reminded 

by AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

Good Morning World,

It's been a horrible 3 weeks for me. So far on the Under i have Got a Young Man’s Blood on me. Saved his Life While others let him almost die. Whole leg got cut off in a Bad Car Crash...

Then In My Neighborhood 3 Young Men I know under the age of 11. A neighbor boy Was Holding Down Another  Neighbor young man for the Cousin to Molest his OWN Cousin Emasculating Him On the Basketball ball Courts while Cop Cars were on the Scene.... 

I was the Only one Adult to Get Involved and Help the little boy who was Violated... No other Adults Wanted to Deal with it. They seen it all before... i was Appalled...

and He had to go home with Baby Cousin Predator Who Did it To him... 

Then to Add insult, As I was picking  up my Kids 2 police cars Tried to Pen Me in For a Checkpoint. I bust a u-turn. They chased me. I lost em sis then Hit the lights and parked the car up at The Black Mills College in Deep east Oakland. And Hoped OUT the car THEN RAN TOP SPEED scared Frightened like a House Nigger I Thrust My Body in to The Bushes I was thinking of climbing the TREES... 

All I COULD do Is think Of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor And Me --  AudreyCandyCorn -- Shot To Death By Police.

Why did i Run? I’m a Law Abiding Citizen.

Cause I'm Scared To Have any Police Interactions ... For myself I was Alone And Couldn't take A Chance to have 1 more Encounter Hell. 

Previously in the Week...

There was An Officer Who Recognized me For Saving a 23 year old Mental Brotha from Being Shot And Killed by the Police. As Frightened as i was, I was the Only person to Come outside And witness that young Man's Fate. They were going to Kill him if i didn't Step up and Record -- Went to get his Family So they know -- And Charged at the police with my body to Prevent Him From being Sprayed with Bullets. they Said He was playing with Him. I said if you Don't shoot and kill me, He's no Harm. I can help De-escalate. Let Me help...

You help him.  If you Let Me I got close enough to make a Difference and save his Life 

He had no Gun. They tried to George Floyd him 

Once they could Eventually get to him i Thought 

i didn't help y'all to Step on his Neck. I went crazy now there's a Crown ... the Foot Came off the Neck And I disappeared. 15 Cop cars came. By this time my Survive or Flight had kicked in ... and Last but Not Least, My baby brother who had been missing For 7 months -- the last time i saw him he came to my house after being missing for over a year January 2 ,2020.

He had Seizure in front of me for the 1st time ever. I saved his life, went to check on another Situation and Came back To an Empty house. BROTHER GONE and now 7 months later July 14th 2020, He Is Alive and Laying on my Couch. God Is Good. 

As i Share these Secret silent Killers I've endured In Private... I Don't  Know How much More i can Take, See or Bear. i need someone I could Talk to As of now I been Just Stewing in it With Anxiety. The lack of Help is What Fucks Me Up ... You almost have to Broadcast What you doing And I Refuse to...

But it does lead to Ill Mental Health issues.  And i think that's why i was in the Bushes (sidebar Sorry)

Being the Change Ain't Easy. I'm Sharing the Real WORK One Human Situation at a Time. The work i do In the hood i Could be Targeted by the police Or Called A Snitch By the Very ONES I'VE HELPED 

Cause I Do Show Up and Often be the only One .... 

And I now Can truly Speak For those who Are Asked, “Why did you run from the police if you Are a Law Abiding Citizen?” Because i did it and the Answer is Simple.  I'm not in any counseling. I ran my Counselor off. I'm too Deeply  Real. She Quit, Not cause of me but by the time i had done broke down the corrupt System that Was breaking us both Down, She Agreed and Quit. This was A Brown Latina Sistah From a well known Organization Not Really  helping... meanwhile I must Get back to Reality and Find Resources for Food for the Boys While We trapped in the house due to Coronavirus Pandemic. we gots no meat in the house we down to Canned Vegetables and rice. I only come out For Necessities but when i do it's a Crisis.  i aint coming out for the rest of the month. I'm switching Gears and Focusing on a new way of thinking and living. West Oakland Not gone Be the Death of Me. thank you For checking up on me. We out here Dangling . 

P.s. Me and Children have collaborated on the very 1st  Coronavirus Pandemic Guide EVER TO BE DONE. the book is 20 bucks. We can get some Chicken or hamburger Meat To cook...

Otherwise Mama Don't know Other than sell ASS 

What's next ...  Devil you a lie ...

Beyond is What's Next, Beyond Wealth and Health 

And that's what that Video is About, A new Way of thinking and living. it will be my new Source of income. And I need Your Personal Support. Please do Click the link i sent you, so that i can start there with  getting paid. I know that's a lot. My tooth just broke out as I'm  writing this due to me Gritten my teeth unbeknownst to me. Wow, I got to check on Another Sister, who Me and my Friend found. She in the Hospital for Attempting Suicide Man... 

by AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

Uncle Chucky's came back 7 months after the fact he's gone again just that quick me and my mom prayed that he would return back we were hoping we got the opportunity to see him for his birthday he will be turning 33 years old it's been very difficult not knowing where he is Chuck's a loner always has been he showed up in the wee hours I heard a light knocking on my door kind of like tapping normally I don't answer weird sounds from the door but I told myself I wasn't going to be scared of answering my own door I found the door open courageously I said who is it calm and collected there was my baby brother Chucky he entered hesitantly I threw my arms around him gave him a hug he pulled back and said no Audrey I said yes Chucky he laughed I giggled we embraced and I closed the door behind him he stood in the middle of the floor looking with an odd stare and Blank Stare I observed him it was my brother indeed he say Audrey is that you I said ya fool I offered him something to eat is you hungry yeah a little Chucky replied with the real low voice okay I said make yourself at home you already know he said thank you I agree we caught up it was hard to have a conversation with him because his conversation is much like my brother Tyrone conversation you got to know one to understand the other I called my mother immediately to let her know I got your son he made his way to me I was happy that he made his way to me cuz mom lives in a whole nother City now that's why it's important to stay connected with family you should always have a safe haven to hide you should always have a phone number or two that will remain the same years to come and have an Escape Route when in danger or in fear I called for my sons Amir n Zaire to come down and greet they uncle normally I would have had them take some pictures together but I wasn't able to do so on this visit Chucks was too out of it so I remained in the moment Trying to cherish The TIME we Have ... even if it's just for a moment this family time is much needed I love my brother and want nothing but the best for him he's a nice caring nurturing kind person he's very honest and likes to be in nature because of this it's hard to catch up to him me I'm a city girl everything is fast fast pace with me I talk fast I move fast I am fast my brother he's the opposite calm cool structured patient and collected. I actually wish I was more like him. He Is Good in his Skin. I am Not... I take that Back !!!

On another Note, I Am My Brother's Keeper... Come on in Corona And Covid 

Friends of My Baby brother If you With him you with Him ... Chucks Walked For 1 day n a half to Get To Me on his Journey to Family...  so much Time Lost Where you been Chucky, I been Audrey, Is you gone Stick Around for your birthday Chucky This is Your birthday month... 

I Don't  Know...

by AK Carrillo

Brothers and sisters, after all these years, we still fight the same enemies. The monster of media and entertainment, the monster that keeps people in control with lies and manipulation.  This monster has consumed our land, our culture, and locked the remaining into its system of colonization. We the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) have partnered with independent media outlets to spread our messages and hopefully educate people. We use trusted media to, like I said, spread our messages and avoid manipulation and lies. We have been telling people that we are currently in the Fourth World War: Neoliberalism’s Globalization.

We started EZLN to fight against the oppressive systems we are attacked by. We also provide education, food and safe housing for our people because we know that we cannot rely on the governments to support us it's actually these governments that are killing us. The EZLN started in 1983, 38 years ago. This doesn't even count our work before.

As we evolve and learn so does the enemy, nowadays things might seem different but the intentions are the same. We are still being killed and massacred, this is a worldwide problem, and all most people do is just watch the videos of the killings. The media is still here brainwashing us. The killings of our brothers and sisters has become such a normal thing that we don't feel the shock that riles us up.

What we need to do is start groups like EZLN to defend your homes. Defend your home by providing food, housing and protection. Our main goal is to not be needed. We want a society that doesn't need groups like EZLN. We need to destroy the system that is run by greed and fueled with our blood. We can only achieve this if we all unite. We fight for this land,all of mother earth, our culture and our lives. Thank you Brothers and Sisters.

by AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul 

The times have become really lonely during Corona it's a new day everything that was actually isn't I've come to realize that existing is far more spiritual then we know it or take it to be living life is an experience that we so often call a Journey yet in my journey I have encountered some of the most contradictory experiences of a lifetime I know that it is for certain that someway somehow there is a loneliness that takes presence in each and every one of us now whether or not it's lasting is neither here nor there I play with words that differ let's look at the word “alienation” or what about the word “Outkast” what is the difference between these words I will tell you it is the underlying spirit in which they were birthed from and then it's the feeling that it brings on in action which the word that I'm focusing on comes into play and that word is the first word I started with which is loneliness to be lonely what exactly is it what does it mean where does it come from and how does one catch it ... I personally have always been comfortable in my own skin never in a million years would I have thought that I would be a Target for loneliness yeah yeah I know the fact that I'm a human makes me a charger right well as for me I never really felt alone ever even if I was in the room by myself with the door closed staring at 4 or five walls including the top ceiling I Still wouldn't feel alone however it wasn't until a recent encounter forced me to re-examine my loneliness loneliness doesn't always show its face as loneliness that's the tricky part you can't admit something that you're unaware of so trying to deal with it is Ludacris some individuals wouldn't acknowledge the known meanest if it stared them in the face and said hi I'm your loneliness I think it is very necessary to do self-checks as much as possible but I think having an accountability partner or partners is much more valuable or should be added as a tool with the self-checking sometimes self-checking can be the root cause of your loneliness…

For example the person that's a loner that enjoys their own company comfortable in their skin doesn't hang around in crowds doesn't need people around them for validation these people will tell you they're not lonely and the other 50% would say they are lonely so again what is the magic potion connecting us to loneliness I think it might be the same thing for everybody I don't think it's different I think the way we express loneliness clearly is different but the cause of loneliness I believe we have one common root denominator or a few routes plural with an s creating loneliness as the main common denominators with an s Plural I think the first mistake is when people think of loneliness they think of the lack of sexual encounter Or Some one Having No Support… But there Are Many Undertones of Lonely.

By: Tiburcio Garcia

There was a boy in highschool who was 18 and in his sophomore year. He was still in school, after years of being in the same grade, because after a certain point no one cared about his education, including himself. When you are in those institutions, alone, encouraged not to learn and only to pass, someone that isn’t an easy student falls through the cracks and doesn't have the good feeling story of the smart kid making it out of the hood.

I met him, already planning on what job he was going to have to work most likely for the rest of his life without a highschool diploma, and wished that somewhere in his life he had been introduced to Deecolonize Academy. Because of Deecolonize Academy, my friends and myself are able to have a clear and precise shot at a decent education, something that is very necessary in this time of economic failure. 

One of my earliest memories in life is of being evicted from the house I grew up in as a young child. The next memory that  sticks out to me is being evicted from the next house nearly 2 years later. For the majority of my childhood, my mother and I were evicted from different houses and a couple of times ended up houseless, couch surfing and doing what we could to keep a roof over our heads. Because of Homefulness and subsequently Deecolonize Academy, I now have a place to call home.  

In Deecolonize Academy I have learned construction techniques such as learning to use  a drill, sawing wood, and the steps it takes to do many useful home repairs. I have learned the true history from the point of view of the people who have been oppressed and silenced, and how to write the story of my people in ways the white scholars that have been silencing us for generations can't argue or clearly understand.

Although I have much to learn, Deecolonize Academy has taught me to be a young man who cares for his community and uses his resources and knowledge to give back to a community that has poured so much into him. Deecolonize Academy has taught me to have eldership, and fight for people I believe have been wronged by the system that has put me and my mother through so much.