Shawna Hawk is a Black Power movement builder, a Mother, a Healer and a catalyst for social change.

Image: Corey Jackson (Little C-Note) on the Ellen DeGeneres show

IT’S GOING DOWN!  NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE AUGUST 21ST THROUGH SEPTEMBER 9TH.

Salt, grease and fried meat filled the air. with just hint of burnt sugar thrown in. My mind wandered to breakfasts past sizzling in a greasy diner. The only thing was, i was on my bike, riding past an empty lot in East Oakland at 6:30am. No houses or restaurants were remotely close. And then i saw the smoke,and heard the sizzle. It was coming from one of a long line of late model Subarus, Hondas, BMW’s, Acura sedans, and even a Mercedes, no car older than 2015, parked along this hidden street.

"Don't turn left, because that area is full of "bums" and it doesn’t reflect on the real "San Francisco“, the cab driver clicked his teeth together as he rattled on about which sights to see in his beautiful San Francisco (which ironically, due to a gentrification inspired eviction, he no longer lived in)

‘It’s getting really wet, now’ I thought, wincing with every footstep from a screw in my ankle. ‘Soon, it’ll be coming down too hard to move this library.’ My shoulders aching from moving shelves, books, and boxes from Uncle Al’s and Mama Dee’s Living (Really) Public Library. I know however that Mama Dee sits there, watching me from the corner in her altar, occasionally giving me thoughts to keep moving forward. The spirit I feel in there is heavy.

Greetings sisters and brothers!

Homeless to Yale

And Then Back Again.

On purpose.

By Choice.

Because it Makes More Sense.

Read one woman’s story of why we all should be paying attention to Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia and POOR Magazine.

Valerie Klokow

May 12, 2017

   I used to think that the worst thing