Story Archives

by Leroy Moore/Illin N' Chillin

Hip-hop hear this!

introduced Crip-hip-hop

Now the industry is "Thumpin" on L.y.f.e’s., debut album, "Southern Comfort"

the first Deaf Rapper & Producer

Teamed up with another Deaf emcee

Watch out for "Sho Me Who Rocs Betta: Chapter 1" by Sho Roc

Face on the turntables

Scratching with his chin

DJ Ectic has no use of his arms & legs

Getting the crowd up on their feet

His music swimming on sound waves across the ocean and sea

From the UK to the US

"Hop Up On Your Good Foot"

C.R.I.S.I.S spits on Officer in Charge from Zambia

The rap celebrates people with disabilities

With upbeat West African hip-hop lyrics

Blues to hip-hop

Digging deep down to the roots

From 1887 to today

"Strut That Thing" sang Cripple Clarence Lofton back in the day

"Wheelchair Blues" by late Celeste White

Me, The Black Cripple, rhyming about "Identity"

Dancing to our own drum

Peg Leg Joshua Howell did the Peg Leg Stomp

and the Beaver Slide Rag in 1926

Peg Leg Sam Jackson did the Peg Leg dance in 1972

Ludacris brought back wheelchair square dancing

With a hip-hop flavor in 2005"when I move, you move just like that..

House it with Paul Johnson

"In Motion"

as the record spins

Lost his legs from diabetes

But his hands made him the funkiest

house dj in the business

Fezo Da Madone uses his feet

To drop nasty beats in the studio

"Here I AM", his latest CD

Radical MC with Cerebral Palsy

Jive Records made history in the early eighties

Signing the first disabled musician

Brooklyn’s own Rob Da Noize Temple

35 years in the music industry

Now he is stepping out in front with "Peace Thang"

Hip-Hop hear this!

Cripple Connection Production

Slapping on a label

"Warning this purchase will shatter images"

messages wrapped in a plastic cd Jewell case

Hey Blackalicious, your Rhymes, are they a gift or a sin?

You say you have Rhymes for the deaf, dumb and blind

but all we hear is gab, gab, gab, gab your name fits Gift of Gab

Give us the mic welcome to crip-hip-hop rehab

Hip-hop in recovery taking speech therapy opening up a new positive vocabulary

ripping a page from KRSOne Edutainment

Changing people’s backwards attitudes

Targeting the untapped disabled market

Distributors, agents, record companies, MTV & BET

Will pimp us as new kids on the block

But Cripple Connection Production is independent

Funding coming from our SSI benefits

Hip-Hop hear this!

Jay Z, sign our Ticket to Work

Puff Daddy and Flavor Flav, its time for a new Reality show

Called BADAS, Black And Disabled Artists Sharing

reporting inaccessible concert venues to the ADA police

The verdict please! Hip-hop hear this!

You’re out of compliance!

by Leroy Moore/Illin n Chillin

I grew up in this Hip-Hop era, and I still don’t know if I should be proud of it or hold my head down and cry about what it has become. I grew up in New York and around the East Coast watching the OGs of spoken word, the Last Poets, slam their words in Harlem, Grandmaster Flash in New Jersey partying up with their lyrics and the ladies of Hip-Hop, Salt-n-Pepper, sprinkling their feminist seasoning on the crowd.

Now you hear gangsta lyrics that most of the time lead to beef with other artists that leads to senseless death like Tupac Shakur and Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace. I wonder if they, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., had lived, would they have changed their styles, lyrics and messages?

I mean, you don’t have to became a born again preacher like MC Hammer, but would they have seen the divide and conquer game the media, political arena and record companies play in our communities? I know Tupac, as a child of the Black Panther, did see America’s whole capitalist game.

I also wonder if Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. had survived as Hip-Hop artists with gunshot disabilities, what would they write and rap about? Would they be more like one of the old timers of Hip-Hop, Percey Carey, aka MF Grimm of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was shot 10 times in 1994, almost two years earlier than the Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. incidents, leaving him disabled – blind in one eye, partially deaf in one ear and a wheelchair user?

Thank God MF Grimm today is living in New York and has regained his sight and hearing. He still uses a wheelchair, is now a successful producer and is still rapping.

However, to look at and hear 50 Cent rapping about how he got shot like it is an Olympic gold medal or something makes me wonder about the Hip-Hop arena’s capacity to learn! I just don’t get it!

Well, we can’t bring Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. back, but we must learn from them and MF Grimm. However, the question is, are we learning?

Take the latest casualty of gangsta hip-hop, Darnell Lyndsey aka Blade Icewood of Detroit. The latest Hip-Hop casualty was working his way up, but his wheels got stuck in the deadly game of the hood and Hip-Hop turf wars.

Both Icewood and MF Grimm are talented brothers in the Hip-Hop world. Both were deep in the underground of inner city turf wars, drugs and hanging with a rough crowd, and both were shot and become disabled but went on to record an album after becoming disabled.

Unfortunately, the comparison between the two ended, because Blade Icewood was shot dead in his wheelchair on April 19 on the Eastside of Detroit. For Blade, 2005 had to be a mixture of good and bad in his short life.

Although many accounts said that Blade was a rising star in the Hip-Hop industry, in September 2005, according to local news articles in Detroit newspapers, Blade became disabled, paralyzed from his chest down, by gunshots over some kind of beef with another rap group or artist who was pronounced dead after the confrontation.

However, Blade wasn’t so lucky on April 19, 2005. Sadly, his case sounds like the Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. case, where the police were and still are clueless on who did the shooting. The same pattern has followed Blade to his grave so far.

Blade Icewood’s new album, entitled "Blood, Sweat & Tears," has hit the stores. It was independently produced and distributed by Blade himself. There are no sides to stand on or in Blade’s case sit on! The only thing that is clear now is two rising Detroit Hip-Hop stars are shining bright – not in the Hip-Hop arena but in heaven.

You can hear about Blade on Juan’s new single, "RIP Blade," at www.themitten.net/media/JuanRIPBlade.mp3. Juan is a member of the Streetlords, Blade Icewood’s rap group.

I wonder what was going through Blade’s mind, sitting in his wheelchair recording his new debut solo album that is now his last. Was he glad to be alive and moving onward, or was he stuck in the seaweed and quicksand of the inner city cycle of violence looking for revenge?

On the internet there are many different versions of what happened that night and why Blade was shot. Bottom line is Hip-Hop is becoming "disabled" because of violence, and that is bad enough, but we must learn from MF Grimm. It is up to us to lick our wounds, pray to God that we are still here and wheel off into the sunset to continue to drive Hip-Hop beyond the dark side and into the empowering rebirth of self holistically!

How come Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. didn’t see and learn what MF Grimm went through? From MF Grimm’s website, www.mfgrimm.com, you can see and read that he has regained his hearing and sight. He is still producing, rapping and signing new talent to his own label, Day By Day Entertainment Inc.

In one interview, he says he is a new man and has a second chance in life. On his CD, "Scares & Memories," he has an interview talking about how in Hip-Hop today there is this strange glory in being shot that makes you a hard artist and gives you higher rank. As a survivor of not only being shot at 10 times but serving time behind bars, he says on this CD that he doesn’t understand the concept. He also is worried about the Hip-Hop industry today and where it’s going.

Being amongst the fathers of Hip-Hop, like Grandmaster and KRSOne etc. it must be hard for MF Grimm to watch what Hip-Hop has grown into. Also, on "Scares & Memories," MF Grimm has a song about AIDS and his view on the term, "Comrade." On the CD he says most of his comrades are not living now.

MF Grimm’s new CD, entitled "American Hunger," will be hitting the stores in September of 2005. I wonder will he talk about his life today as a disabled Hip-Hop artist and not only the violence but the starving leeches of America’s culture that helped put him there? But on the other hand, it did change his life. Do we always have to learn things the hard way? Some are lucky and can survive well; others take their lesson to the grave.

In the meantime, both artists, the late Blade Icewood and MF Grimm, have songs that speak about the struggles they’ve been through before and since they became disabled. It is interesting both have similar titles for a song that really aims deep into the violence that caused them to be disabled. Listen to "Blood, Sweat & Tears" by Blade Icewood and "Bloody Love Letter" on "Scares & Memories" by MF Grimm.

As a scholar in race and disability, I don’t want to read about another Hip-Hop artist becoming disabled and getting killed over senseless Black on Black violence. But we all know that this Amerikkkan system breeds competition that leads to crime, so if we have to live in it, please learn from the late Tupac, Notorious B.I.G. and now Darnell Lyndsey aka Blade Icewood.

Or is it time to take a page from a living Hip-Hop artist who has turned his past into a beautiful, powerful and enlightened path toward the future with his work and words: Percy Carey aka MF Grimm.

Website sources: MF Grimm, www.daybydayent.com with interviews on "Scares & Memories" CD; Blade Icewood www.sohh.com and www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story. Leroy F. Moore Jr. is a poet, writer and activist. Email him at sfdamo@yahoo.com and listen to him on Pushing Limits, broadcast Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM.

by Tiny/PNN

The room was small , way too small- the chairs were even smaller and the distance between me and my table neighbors was, quite frankly, far too little. Now I don't have anything against rich white business people, ( well, actually I do - but I try to keep an open mind) but when they are all in one room and a large majority of them resemble Dick Chenys' golf buddies I get a little nervous. So there I was, in that little tiny meeting room of the Mid-Market Project Area Committee joined by fellow POOR Magazine staff members; my hella ghetto, outspoken mother and co-director Dee and sometimes too soft-spoken, Mid Market SRO resident Joseph Bolden.

We spent a whole hour and a half in that painfully small and stuffy room listening to the corporate interests of multi-million dollar redevelopers talk about, you guessed it, parking and other important issues to such people, such as, "cleaning-up the streets", "blight" and other hygienic metaphors all meaning the same thing; getting a large majority of poor people out of the Mid-Market area of San Francisco.

POOR staff was first alerted to the exclusive PAC process one month prior when corporate media, (The Fang family owned Examiner) wrote a front page series called: THe Mess on Market Street ( the mess - being the poor housed and un-housed residents of Mid-Market street) to which we responded with our own series on poormagazine.org called The Myth on MArket Street.

Just as the PAC members were about to open the agenda to comment - Dee, couldn't hold herself back any longer, seeing as we came to the meeting, on behalf of the poor residents of the Mid Market area, including ourselves and many of our staff writers and membership who were never genuinely included in the supposedly open PAC meetings she blurted out, "Excuse me, what are the plans for really low-income housing, i.e., not just so-called affordable housing that is really only affordable to a few people"

I don't remember exactly what the response was to her comment but suffice to say, an awkward silence of almost a minute fell on the room, followed up by some kind of empty promise meant to placate us momentarily. That was almost three years ago and we have since seen the lies unfold about the Mid Market Pac and its mother ship the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (RDA).

"There's just two words to describe the redevelopment agency, notorious Liars", long time Tenderloin resident, Prince Bush, was one of over 400 Mid- Market community members that spoke at a hearing last week of the San Francisco planning commission against the proposed plan created by that very same Mid-Market PAC and the RDA

Prince continued, "You may remember what they said they were going to do in the Fillmore - whole communities were moved out permanently - places where there are now businesses used to the homes of families"

As Prince spoke I was reminded of the impenetrable PAC/RDA. To be fair to the rhetoric of the PAC process, the PAC have been holding weekly and bi-weekly meetings for several years to create this plan. All the meetings are in fact, open. But the reality is, hardly any poor and working class people or grassroots non-profit organizations like POOR or POWER who provide services in the Mid-Market area, can afford to attend those endless meetings.

As well, 35% of the PAC (10 seats ) are limited to commercial property owners, social service and community development groups have one seat each. The "community development seat" is held by an employee of a private developer. The only community election for PAC members occurred in 1997 and of the 28 PAC members only four seats were elected by the community, and finally, Union Square merchants and ACT have a seat on the PAC but there is not representation from tenant or homeless advocacy groups, (not that we could fund a staff persons' time to attend) So, in the end our voices, the voices of the real Mid-Market are in fact, not represented in their plan.

" I am wondering where you are getting your idea of low income, i.e., that low-income is someone who earns 20,000 to 60,000 a year…", Prince continued, "The people I know in the area living and working are making minimum wage, or less, so I am wondering where you got that idea, and I am wondering why there are no low-income people on the (redevelopment) board, or even people that work with low-income communities.

Before Prince and all the other speakers that night, there was a presentation by Richard Marquez, with the coalition to save mid-market, who along with several other community groups and low-income residents have been meeting over the last several weeks and months in the places that the residents actually live like the Baldwin Hotel, an SRO in Mid-Market and have created their own- people-friendly, and small business-friendly plan that sustains the areas’ housing and includes a modest level of redevelopment.

"It’s a neighborhood, it’s a place where people live and labor" Richard spoke while presenting pictures of small businesses and residents like Sean Williams, a victim of Fillmore gentrification who now resides in the Mid-Market area, which oddly enough is the situation with many of the Mid-Market residents, including POOR’s own Po’ Poet Laureate. Richard continued by breaking down the real demographics of the area, "almost everyone in mid-market can barely pay $500 dollars of rent, now rents are under $561 and will skyrocket with the proposed plan."

Richard continued with a series of demographic charts, " the current plan calls for 12% of affordable housing, our plan, the community plan, calls for 25% percent affordable housing. In terms of medium income, our plan would put the area medium income at 40% allowing people who make less than 20,000 to stay there, The current plan would make it so that people would have to make $40,000 or more medium income …"

Next up was tireless housing advocate and economic justice activist with the SRO Collaborative, Sam Dodge, "Justin Herman was quoted as saying - the land in San Francisco is to valuable for the poor to park on it- he was referring to SOMA and what followed was the demolition of thousands and thousands of units of affordable housing"

Sam continued,"The backbone of this RDA plan was created by a group called spur - and in their own words - spur has stated they have had the aspiration of redevelopment in Mid Market for over 50 years- so the kinds of harmful gentrification that happened in SOMA continues with SPUR's efforts in Mid-Market"

Kathy Looper, a native San Franciscan spoke next, "in the 50's when I was a young child my father took me on a farewell trip to grand central station, a beautiful market that sold everything under the sun and was demolished soon after by redevelopment then -- he also took me to theatres and clubs to visit his Greek expatriate friends - so many places including the Beautiful Fox theatre which is no longer there - so after the history of destructive redevelopment - it has taken years for communities like Fillmore and SOMA to recover from the horror of redevelopment, why are we proposing to do the same thing all over again in Mid-Market? "

"Over half of the residents of Mid-Market are African-American and Asian and the majority of these residents live on less than federal poverty guidelines" One of the other speakers in opposition to the RDA plan was civil rights attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, whose offices are in the Project Area, "The Asian Law caucus is opposing the plan because most of the residents who live there now will not be able to live there once the plan is implemented"

Susan Overa, a slight, soft-spoken woman, with deep brown hair, eyes and skin, who identified as an Eskimo from Alaska spoke next, "I live in the rose hotel - if this mid-market plan goes through I will be forced out of my house and I will have nowhere to go"

She was followed by Marie Gomez who implored the now bored looking planning commission, " I am an IHHS worker, please do not approve this plan as it will be affordable to other people - not poor people like me and my neighbors -

I spoke in favor of truth and the real voices being heard in this debate as well as low and/or no cost office space for grassroots non-profit arts organizations, which is always bandied about by PAC’s and developers and never actually comes to fruition.

Darryl Cornelius, another long-time resident spoke the truth to the commission, " I am a San Francisco resident - I have been here since the 50's - I can remember when mayor cristopher was the pioneer bringing - redevelopment here- he conceded when redevelopment demolished the fillmore - the whole western addition - right out from under me - it was a cultural mecca - Asian and African American landowners were all forced out - I can also remember when redevelopment stepped in and promised people in Potrero Hill, a six block area - from Wisconsin to Rhode Island where they would put affordable housing - instead now there is six square gated community - with astronomical rent with low-income housing surrounding it -that is now called southern heights court - Redevelopment has never been in the best interests of improving the community - only dismantling it - I can always remember the Fox theatres - the paramount theatres- when redevelopment stepped in they all disappeared" Mr Cornelius paused for a breath, "I work as a service provider in the mid market area- - I provide services for people in this area- these people are displaced already and now you want to take the little that they have and return them to homelessness- they all live on fixed income, with mental health issues, - there is no way that redevelopment is going to consider these people - history has shown that.."

There were many PAC members who spoke in favor of, you guessed it again, parking, as well as many anti-parking folks from the Bicycle Coalition, and other organizations concerned about the environment and pedestrian safety, As well as developers and sold out corporate non-profits who spoke in favor of the meager offering of so-called affordable housing, which should be re-named, only affordable to a few housing,

And a eloquent presentation from the brilliant houseless poet and activist, Keith Savage who warned the commission to not approve the RDA plan as it would send a lot of poor folks into the streets who are not "trained in outdoor survival" like he is

For me though the night of truth before the commission was closed out by Stafford Parker, a young African Descendent man with a huge smile, proudly sporting a shiny 49ers shirt, " I have lived in San Francisco all my life - they (redevelopment agency)
Don't know what we, the people want- we want low-income housing, we want schools, small businesses, we want parks, we don't want no towers, we don't want no condo's, I can't afford one, my friends can't , or my co-workers or associates, - listen to us - not with your brain - with your heart and your soul- this is our town - our city - our home.!!"

Notwithstanding all of the voices in opposition, the plan was approved by the commission with one dissenting voice. There is still a chance to get involved and fight this plan as it will hit the board of Supervisors in the Fall., To get involved call Sam Dodge at SRO collaborative at 415-775-7110. To read more journalism and poetry from poverty skolarz from Mid-Market and beyond go-on-line to www.poormagazine.org

by Marc Norton

*** ORGANIZING NEWS ***

We now have a bilingual Spanish/English Muni Fare Strike team tabling and leafleting in the Mission five days a week. The team is out Monday through Friday, starting at 7:30 AM, and continuing through the late afternoon. They are currently rotating between 16th Street & Mission, 24th Street & Mission, and Geneva & Mission. If you see them, say hola, or join them for a while if you can.

We continue to have teams out leafleting throughout the city, during both the morning and afternoon commuter rushes. Contact us is you want to join one of our teams, or want leaflets for your own efforts.

Please let us know if you are part of an organization which would like to hear more about the fare strike.

*** PRESS CONFERENCE/SPEAK OUT ***

We are planning a Press Conference & Speak Out for Monday, August 29, starting at noon, at 24th Street and Mission. Save the date, details to follow...

*** LEGAL TEAM ***

We have established a Muni Fare Strike Legal Team, which will be working in conjunction with the National Lawyers Guild, to provide legal support for the fare strike. The team will provide volunteer legal representation for people who might get tickets or have other legal consequences during the course of the strike. Stay tuned for more information on legal matters.

415) 648-1904

munifarestrike@yahoo.com

by Tiny/PNN

"Excuse me Ma’am, you need to board in the front of the bus, Ma’am did you hear me? – you need to get on in the front of the bus……Ma’am….Ma’am…!!"

At the last angry command, the more than a little bent over African descendent elder who wore only one duck-taped shoe and a pair of soiled pink polyester pants, mumbled a frightened response to the ground. In one very weathered hand she clutched a ball of fabric that was her waistband, and in the other a fragment of air where a purse, cane or other acroutremount used to dwell.

After one more attempt the tiny woman, all to familiar to abuse by institutionally racist and classist power, limped away on her one shoe into the thick white-yellow afternoon glare. The "undercover" MUNI police, recognizable by their "uniform" of khaki pants and maroon golf shirt, stationed surreptitiously at several bus stops across the City, continued on, after the lady was scared away, to "insist" that an African descendent youth, Asian youth and white homeless man, trying to access affordable transportation in the richest city in the world, get on the front of the bus

Of course, the reverse racist/classist irony of the 21st century assault on the civil rights of people of color by enforcing these peoples’ location on the bus (i.e., not "letting" these Black folk sit in the back of the bus) wasn’t lost on me, or the irony that most of the enforcers of these "laws" were themselves other poor and/or working class folk of color (MUNI employees) and finally, that in 2005, the crime is poverty, and the abused folks of ALL colors and cultures, share the common trait of being very poor

"They put a lot of people out there to do that ad-hoc "policing" who are on disabled leave, you know, sick or injured" Trying to get the "scoop" on this subversive police-ing I spoke with Bari McGruder one of a group of MUNI drivers who were at a rally in solidarity with a broad coalition of working folks, elders and disabled San Franciscans opposing and resisting proposed MUNI fare hikes which, if implemented, will mean rate increases of 25-50 cents per rider. And in advance of fare hikes, MUNI launches their "secret" fare police-ing program

Bari went on to break down her position on the hikes, "I think these fare hikes are unfair to minority, seniors and students," Bari McGruder and Victor Greyson, both long-time MUNI employees received notices from MUNI executive Michael Burns as well as from the union, sanctioning them for speaking out in the media against the layoffs, fare hike, service cuts, and other attacks on workers.

In December of 2004 the Municipal Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a rate hike to 1.75 per ride to offset its 24 million dollar budget deficit. Due to an organized effort by Coalition for transit Justice members the MTA agreed to drop the fare hikes down to 1.50 fare per rider and only a .15 cent increase for senior, students and disabled riders and agreed to keep the fast pass for all passengers at the current rates. Although this was a huge victory for riders, the fare increases will still have a serious impact on low-income riders

Even at 1.50 per ride, this fare increase will make it more difficult for very low-income folks like me to ride the bus on a regular basis, and considering that poor folks make up a great majority of bus riders, who was the MTA targeting for these rate hikes. Yes its true that in San Francisco conscious privileged people with homes and high paid jobs ride the bus cause they want to, afterall, its better for the environment, but so do poor immigrants, fixed income elders, youth, poor workers, disabled and houseless folks with no homes. We all have different reasons, but we all ride

"All services are hurting because of California’s budget" was MTA’s statement about the 2003 MUNI rate hikes from 1.00 to 1.25 MUNI. At that time MUNI cited the fact that they needed to offset their then 55 million dollar deficit

Of course all public services in California are facing budget deficits but let’s take a moment to connect the dots, or rather, the corporate welfare recipients, i.e, Enron who stole all of California’s surplus with its fake energy crisis and The govenator who didn’t go after Enron for that stolen revenue cause he owns interests in energy stocks and who decided that Hummer owners and other California cars needed to pay less tax which took a major local revenue source away from desperately needy city budgets.

And isn’t that, "We have no more money" plea what The Golden Gate Transit Authority said when they raised the Golden Gate bridge toll to 5:00 dollars and cut their bus service in Marin in half, resulting in the golden gate bridge becoming uncrossable for most poor Bay Area residents while poor immigrant workers of Marin are forced to risk their life walking home from work on the freeways in the middle of the night

As well, Corporate-esque MTA board members are voting against their own best interests when they make public transportation increasingly costly for poor workers because cheap transportation enables the urban/suburban apartheid they rely on to get through their daily lives, i.e., the travel by bus of poor service workers like maids and dishwashers from the poor areas of the city to the wealthy neighborhoods across town where people like them reside.

So what can we, as conscious citizens do to resist these unjust rate hikes, perhaps we should look to the examples by other big cities such as Chicago and Italy who in the face of similar hikes to their public transportation systems’ fares launched city-wide fare strikes. In the case of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the proposed hikes were the result of a corporate takeover of the CTA and had the most dire impact on the poorest citizens of Chicago.

In San Francisco, the fare hikes are planned for the end of August or early September and a coalition of San Franciscans called Social Strike are organizing a City-Wide fare strike which includes not paying the fare AND working with muni operators to keep the buses rolling

As the corporatization of our Amerikkan cities enables the criminalization of the poor, these kinds of resistance are crucial, or in the case of poor folks, perhaps the only way that we will be able to continue to access basic city services at all.

To get involved in the Social Strike call them at (415) 267-4801 or email them at info@socialstrike.net or check their website at www.social strike.net

by Tiny/PNN

"I used to live in the Bayview, then the rent got too expensive and I lost my job", the large brown eyes of Lillette Durton grew quiet for a minute as she reflected on her struggle to stay housed in San Francisco, "then I became homeless" with this last assertion, her strong voice broke up a little. She sort of swallowed the rest of her story which included almost seven years of houselessness until she found housing in the Tenderloin area in the San Cristina hotel, a Single Room Occupancy hotel managed by Community Housing Partnership(CHP) which is currently facing their own struggle against Mid-Market gentrification efforts.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lillette, who was holding a small hand-made sign that said LETS GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT, at a press conference at City Hall on Mayor Newsoms reduction of the City’s affordable housing goals. This is the Mayors latest re-invention of the wheel, i.e, the mayor has a very busy press office that seems to release press advisories on everything from housing policies already in place, to homelessness and the environment and in the process of his re-invention he reduces/changes or dismantles these urgently needed policies and budgets.

"We are not going to let the mayor reinvent housing policy in his press office," Housing activist, Calvin Welch, one of the speakers at the conference outlined how the Mayor and his minions unilaterally re-wrote a little thing called The City’ s Housing Element of the General Plan, which with one stroke of his mighty pseudo pen, or in this case his mighty mouse (attached to his press secretaries’ computer, that is) he has reduced by 68% the City’s affordable housing production goals which were approved by the Planning Commission, the board of Supervisors and the State of California in a document called the 2004 Housing Element.

"The Housing Element is a solid document and the mayor is changing them through press releases," the days emcee Rene Cazenave from The San Francisco Information Clearinghouse addressed the rather large crowd gathered on the steps

"Washington DC has specifically said it does not care about housing the poor," Sara Short, one of the Housing Justice Summit participants who called todays action spoke to the crowd, " so for Newsom to not target funds to house the City’s poorest citizens is not only wrong, it is a guaranteed recipe to bring more homelessness and poverty to San Francisco"

Sara and several other housing and land use activists called the Housing Justice Summit in July to create a grassroots, progressive, proactive agenda about the City’s Housing, in other words, to not let the City’s working class, poor and homeless residents continue to be pushed out of this increasingly homogenous, rich people only town.

To add insult to injury the mayors press release actually characterized the new goal ( his new goal, that is,) that reduced the number of affordable housing units to be built in the city by 7,200 units as being a "housing opportunity made for everyone"

And for conscious Bayview readers, I am quite sure the Mayor was including the 1600 toxic shipyard units planned for the Hunters Point Shipyard, notwithstanding the vehement protests by Bayview residents and activists.

"San Francisco is increasingly becoming a city completely unaffordable for the majority of families living in this city, " Ntanya Lee, fierce activist on youth and racial justice and executive director of Coleman Advocates, also a participating member of The Housing Justice Summit

Ntanya concluded with her usual flare for breaking it down "We must stop the conversion of family housing into luxury housing, housing justice is the key to making this a City of families"

As the press conference ended with a chant, what do we want? Housing! when do we want it? Now!! My mind reflected on the determined eyes of Ms. Durton, who is now on the CHP board since her homefulness began at CHP answered my nervous question about the possible closure of her current residence, "No," she said resolutely, "we won’t let that happen, because we will continue to fight that!" and as she spoke I realized, one of our biggest fights will be fighting the lies and mistruths of Mayor Newsom and his overly ambitious press secretary.

by Clive Whistle and PNN editors

People walking aimlessly in the streets. Food preparation on the sidewalk. People pushing shopping carts on the bridges and causeways filled with blankets, bits of clothes and a half-consumed jug of water. Homeless people? Panhandlers? Recyclers? No, survivors of Hurricane Katrina in the ravaged streets of Mississippi, New Orleans and parts of Florida.

And of course they are homeless, because they, the very poorest of our US citizenry, barely surviving on underground economies, food stamps, and SSI, on land that was long ago declared unsafe due to its proximity to weak levees, shores, power plants, roads and freeways were always at-risk of losing the only thing they had, the only thing all poor folks have if they have anything at all; day to day subsistence/existence.

All we have is our patterns of money collection, our little to-up roof, our broke down beds, barely working cars or bicycles, our few clothes, our chipped dishes, our static-filled TV's and a little bit better boom boxes, ….

And when those things are gone, due to eviction, disaster, emergency or crisis, we have lost it all.

It reminds me of my experience with the Northern California Earthquake of 89. When people talk laughingly about where they were, a shudder travels through my body. When that earthquake hit, we had just earned enough in our underground economy street based "job" to pay that months rent in our little Oakland apartment. When that earthquake hit, it meant we had to use the money just to eat cause there was no money to be made on the streets following that disaster, which meant we couldn’t pay the rent and we ended up homeless once again.

As us poor folks, barely holding onto our meager bits of nothing, in other parts of the country watch the descimation of our fellow poor folk in the South, we can only hope that if they even survive this disgusting new blow to their already difficult Amerikkan existences they are able to recoup a little modicum of stability/normalcy/peace in the long hard days to come.

Or perhaps, like me, through losing everything just one mo time, they will become angry enough to stop trying to just survive, and instead live to resist, the racist, classist system that is locked in place to hold them down.

Insider PNN Southern Poverty Report

By Clive Whistle/PNN poverty scholar________________________________

This is me, folks, Clive Whistle, PNN roving reporter and poverty scholar, writing from the flooded streets of my beloved hometown of New Orleans. The funny thing for me is I have been homeless on and off in my life, but when I go home, I do mean HOME, to my people, I am housed in heart and soul if not in house.

This is true in particular when I go home to my grandmama, who like my editor says, might as well be homeless as she has lived in a ramshackle shack with no decent roof on the edge of town for as long as I can remember, but who lives by the old adage, poor is a state of mind, and from her perspective and the whole community, she is about as housed as one human being can be

Now that I finally got public housing in Frisco, I went back " home" this time to visit and help family even poorer than me like Gramama who is still dwelling in unbelievably substandard housing in New Orleans, with open sewers, tenuous levees and walls that shake when anyone touches them.

This kind of Southern poverty is so intense that Peace Corps volunteers train for Africa by "volunteering" in places like New Orleans, Missipippi and Oklahoma.

So, I am writing now (through telephonic transcription via PNN staff in Frisco) to let folks no that yes it is very scary here, some of the untold stories, though are the heroes, who in this case are just everyday people, but also a lot of the storefront church pastors who, through daily spiritual guidance and physical help, have been amazing in all the worst scenarios.

As well, I am feeling the vibe of people like my PNN editors who are worried that this is just the next Bush/Cheny plan for massive poor people displacement, i.e., they are not letting people stay in New Orleans and they are not promising us any time sooon that we will be able to come back, Bourban Street- ala Disney Corporation.

The other untold story which is a heads-up to Leroy and all the folks working on race and disability issues is the way that all disabled people, white and Black, were treated in all this. Unless you had family caring about you - and you were disabled in the floods, you might as well have given up. Several poor ladies in wheel chairs in the Dome were just stashed in dark corners, left to die. I tried to help as many of them as I could, but there was no help, no respect, no sanity, no nothing.

Send us your love and prayers, I am still searching for my grammama, but so far no luck.

Peace and blessings, Clive Whistle/PNN

by Diane Manning & Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Diane Manning, mother of Michael Manning, wrote in her August 16, 2005 email to friends and allies "The Final Chapter has been written!" She is talking about the seven year battle for justice on behalf of her disabled son in which Poor Magazine, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper and I stood beside the Manning family in the early beginnings to uncover and bring to the media the injustice that was handed down from the justice system to this family who at that time had very little media attention. Thank God for the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, the only Black Newspaper who has consistently gave room to the voice of African Americans with disabilities in our society facing blunt discrimination in every arena i.e. the justice system. Diane Manning constantly acknowledge that Poor Magazine and the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper were the only ones that exposed this story to the world and played a big part of Michael’s freedom today. For background on the case of Michael Manning check out Illin-N-Chillin at www.poormagazine.org. Michael Manning's mother wrote,

“On June 22, 2004, Michael had a Hearing in front of
Judge O'Brien. At that time Judge O'Brien released
Michael with time served. This decision was not to
the Probation Board's liking. They had 10 days to
appeal the decision, but failed to do so. They
decided to appeal the 2004 decision this year. A
Hearing was held in June of this year because the P.B.
felt that Michael should be reincarcerated & finish
his sentence. The judge heard the appeal and handed
his decision down 30 days later. The judge once again
denied the appeal. The PB then filed an appeal with
Supreme Court. We were informed today (8\23\05) that
the Supreme Court denied the appeal. PRAISE THE LORD,
it's finally over!!!! Recently, our lawyer told me
that if the PB insisted upon appealing the decision
they would be the losers & that's exactly what
happened.”

So after being attack by two young men one with a baseball bat and another with a knife at a gasoline station in the village of Scotrun, PA., on June 16th 1997 then being accused of murder by a disabled white judge who come to find out used racist comments in cases involving other African Americans and DA, Mark Pazuhanich, who didn't believe Michael had a disability and actually said that "Michael was lazy and not contributing to society;" Michael ended up serving almost four years on what comes down to self-defense and faced a justice system filled with racism and disablism pouring from the Judge and the D.A., Mark Pazuhanich,

In September of 2002 I traveled to Pa, to visit Michael in prison and by the Summer of 2004 Michael and family sat in a Philadelphia's bookstore watching Molotov Mouth Outspoken Word Troup perform (which I'm a member of). After being released in December of 2003, DA, Mark Pazuhanich, was still trying to convince the courts and public that Michael should be back in jail even though he himself, the D.A. was in hot water involving inappropriate behavior with his daughter and other unlawful activities.

What is important now is that the Manning family is back to "normal" and today Michael has continued with his career in the music industry. Diane Manning, the catalyst of Michael's campaign for justice has been the author of her son's life. Michael has picked up this pen from his mother's palm to continue to write his future as a devoted son, boyfriend, advocate and member of a hip-hop\gospel group, TANAJ, who has a full length CD out entitled CALLING. Michael and his gospel group will be in the Bay Area for Harambee's Disability Awareness Weekend at Downs Memorial United Methodist Church in Oakland, CA on October 15 &16 with other local disabled visual artists, poets and special guest, Pastor S'Wayne, from Buffalo, NY who is the first disabled hip-hop artist that is a Pastor etc. As we closed this chapter of Michael’s life, I hope other African American newspapers, progressive organizations and disability organization learn from the dedication of the Manning’s’ family, Poor Magazine, The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper and the now dissolved Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO

For more information about Harambee\Downs Memorial Untied Methodist Church Disability Awareness Weekend contact Sonia Jackson at
(510) 547-7322..

by Charles Houston

The black rappers rants of "bling"

Clueless of words they sing

For diamonds and gold /

If the be told

Are Africa's resourses plundered

Then sold

The land of their seed

Feeds the greed

There, in the soil, blood and toil

In a mine you can find /

Generations left behind

Bloated bellies, skin on bone

The haunting looks of those yet grown

No amelioration, not one nation

Mental-knuckle dragging

Britches sagging

Adding cadence, this near do well

For the black continents march to hell

The black rappers chants of bling

Damn the bling!

"Of the I sing"

by JusticeFor Tyrell

On Friday morning, Sept.9 2005, the San Francisco Police Department brutally terrorized and gunned down 18-year-old Tyrell Taylor. They never once said freeze or stop, stated Ebony, a neighbor and Hunters Point native, who watched from the top floor of her apartment on Northridge Road as the police shot at Tyrell numerous times as he ran for safety, his shirt and jeans dripping with his own blood, into the house of Lata Price, another neighbor and close family friend.

"Amerikkka has been at war with the African American community since the beginning of slavery. Today, instead of slave masters terrorizing them, it's the terrorist police. Instead of calling it slavery, it's jail and prison. Instead of using whips and chains, their weapons of choice are bully clubs, guns, pepper spray and tasers.

We can't allow the police to terrorize our communities and treat us like dogs. It's time for us to stand up and fight for our lives and the lives of our children. You may not have known Tyrell, but what happens when the police attacks one of your children or someone close to you?

We've swept enough brutality under the door, but it's time for us to take out the trash. This isn't the first time they've done it and it won't be the last if we don't get it together as a community and do something about the way police terrorize our community and the places we call home". (Quote from Apollonia Jordan, reporter for the SF Bayview National Black Newspaper)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Tyrell/

Please join and post a message of Love and Support to 18yr. Tyrelle Taylor and his courageous family ! Please forward to your contacts !