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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE When: Monday, June 24, 2024 Rally: 7:00 AM Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & United States Courthouse, 1301 Clay Street Oakland, CA 94612 RALLY FOR PRISONER’S HUMAN RIGHTS TRIAL OPENING ARGUMENTS Speakers/Agenda: Mexica (Aztec) ceremony Melissa Valdez, Silicon Valley De-Bug Pamela Solorio, impacted loved one Dolores Canalas, CFASC, Mandela CA Campaign Tiny Garcia, POOR Magazine NLG Bay Area More keynote speakers TBD… SPONSORS: National Lawyers Guild, POOR Magazine, California Families Against Solitary Confinement, Silicon Valley De-Bug Court: 8:00 AM Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & United States Courthouse, 1301 Clay Street Oakland, CA 94612, Courtroom 1, 4th  Floor, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, (Please bring your ID) (In photo, Guillermo Solorio, George Franco, David Cervantes, James Perez) Rally For Prisoner’s Human Rights Trial Opening Arguments Rally to support Prisoner’s Human Rights organizers on their 1st day of trial during opening arguments, hunger strikers face federal sentencing for their leadership and participation in hunger strikes to end indefinite solitary confinement and an end of hostilities in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) 6/24 - OAKLAND, CA – In 2012, 30,000 people went on a historic hunger strike to end indefinite solitary confinement in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) based solely on gang allegations, not conduct, sentencing or due process. In 2015, hunger strikers agreed to a settlement (Ashker v. Governor of CA) that radically reformed the use of solitary confinement in the California prison system, and a historic end of hostilities of all racial groups in CDCR. CDCR designed solitary confinement units in the 1980’s in response to the 1970’s era of collective organizing in prison, stemming from author, Black liberation leader and political prisoner George Jackson. The CDCR hunger strikes were part of a statewide campaign that included a successful end of hostilities between all racial groups in CDCR, solidarity efforts to end solitary confinement in county jails i.e. Chavez v. County of Santa Clara and the greatest peace efforts in prison history. In addition, criminal justice reform legislation efforts by community organizations i.e. Prop 57, SB 81, SB 1437, AB 333 etc. has massively decreased the prison population and crime rates in communities across California. It is safe to say that California’s legislative prison reform efforts would not be possible without the sacrifices taken by the Prisoners Human RIghts Movement, their hunger strike, Ashker v. Governor of CA settlement and end of hostilities. “After years of family separation, I regained contact with my cousin George Franco, and because of the hunger strike, an opportunity to visit him became possible, until he was picked up by this federal case. George Franco has had his whole life taken from him. George has been incarcerated since the age of 22, in 1987. Raised by Spanish speaking parents who came to the United States for a better life as farmworkers. George was originally sentenced to 15 to life, and he has already served more than double his base term, 37 years in total. Most of his time, has been served in solitary confinement. George should have been paroled no later than 2002 but has been denied parole even though he has had continued family support and little to no behavioral issues. George deserves a second chance to be with family out here in the free world. My family will never give up trying to bring George home. Before passing, George’s mother never gave up hope that he would come back home. Despite challenges, George has remained strong, loving and caring.” - Melissa Valdez George Franco is one of the four PHRM representatives and we strongly believe that due their influence in ending indefinitely solitary confinement, implementing the end of hostilities, and major legislative prison reform efforts, both CDCR and the federal government is retaliating against these gentlemen in the form of a RICO indictment for the purpose of job security and inciting hostilities that may result in mass incarceration. Join us on Monday, June 24, 2024 at 7:00 AM, where we will begin with an Mexica (Aztec) ceremony, then move to families and community members ralling to support these gentlemen just before opening arguments of trial. We will have guest speakers followed by families and community members filling up courtroom 1, 4th  Floor, Ronald V. Dellums Federal Courthouse 1301 Clay Street Oakland, CA 94612 in support of their loved ones.

(photograph by Jaime Culebras) Juicy red heart beats under glass skin. Sneaky varicose veins pierce the frog’s defenses. Dripping teeth gnash and drool over a tasty morsel; the frog can’t run, so it hides. Green leaf protects fleshy insides. Does the frog hate its heart? I fool myself by throwing this jacket over my torso as a deterrent. I twist white supremacy to my advantage: I put on a disheveled costume and lumber out my door, but the predators are inside. My heart is juicy red. Black jacket protects soft curves. Does the frog hate its heart? Everyone on this bus has PTSD. They jump at the sight of circling MUNI sharks, so subtly it'd take a trained eye to clock. They sit with perfect posture in hostile chairs. I know there are 45 pairs of eyes watching the same door I am, so I relax and wait for my frogs to make a move first.

by Leajay Harper From an unhoused person to the currently housed unfortunately. Life doesn't work out as we all had dreamed and most of us have developed the skill to look at the glass half full and keep striving for the best. Regardless of social economic status sometimes we're put in situations where we just have to learn how to cope. Living healthy and dignified is a simple task that doesn't take much effort as a human. Just because we're in a bad space in our life, doesn't mean we should have to lose identity as Oakland residents, educated individuals and pushed out of the place we have been since birth . We agree there are issues that need to be addressed, we recognize what the main concerns of our neighbors have in our community and most of the time are in agreement but as neighbors, we have to work together to make our community safe in unity. Together we must try to hold those stakeholders accountable because we have also as the unhoused been lied to and made political promises when we just wanted to implement new strategies so that nobody else was harmed, hurt and even more traumatized in this situation. We are proactive in taking initiative to try to address the problems ourselves. It was apparent to us that we need our community have our back. We know that placing us in healthy healing communities is the solution for us to progress in our transition . We are made a mockery for the very issues we are trying to correct. We're not askin for handouts, we're not askin to be victimized. What we're askin is to be included in our community. The community we've lived in for years and strive to continue to be a part of regardless if we are. House or unhoused? We're still people and most of all Together we have a powerful voice.

A solution lead by the unhoused is working in Oakland—but we can't get any traction in San Francisco. By tiny gray-garcia aka @povertyskola, daughter of Dee, Mama of Tiburcio Shared in 48hills >> Interested in people-led solutions? Register for next decolonization/degetrniFUKation seminar at PeopleSkool (on zoom in BlackAugust) by going to www.poormagazine.org/education “This mayor is blocking all affordable housing proposals at this point,” an aide to a San Francisco supervisor said to our small group of houseless/formerly houseless POOR Magazine poverty skolaz on a zoom call we organized last month. A big group of us poor people from San Francisco have been meeting, thinking, activating, praying and visioning since November of 2020 to bring the urgent medicine of Homefulness to Occupied Yelamu, now called San Francisco. The aide continued, “You should come to the upcoming Prop. I hearing next week, but I really can’t guarantee anything will come from those funds collected with this mayoral administration.” I was reminded of the brutal days of begging  San Francisco politicians and non-profiteers to listen, honor, respect or even consider poor people’s voices and solutions from me and my mama Dee, Leroy Moore, JuneBug, Queennandi, A.Faye Hicks, Vivi T, Muteado, Laure McElroy, Bruce Allison, Kathy Galves, Ingrid DeLeon,Teresa Molina, Joseph Bolden, Rommie, Charles, and so many more houseless/no-income reporters and members of POOR Magazine. We had proposed the landless, homeless people’s solution known as Homefulness to San Francisco in 1998, when my mama and I were still struggling to stay housed at all, when we were barely getting by on what we made from a micro-business on the street and when we were still getting citations for sleeping outside. “Sorry we don’t have any technical support for these HUD grants, but good luck,” a disinterested clerk in the San Francisco office of the US Housing and Urban Development, said to me without looking away from her computer as she pointed me to a frighteningly tall stack of grant applications that were for a HUD grant specifically for “innovative” housing for homeless people. I dove head-first into a 91-page grant application to HUD for the Homefulness project—rent-free, forever housing, on-site healing and recovery support, child care/education, arts and media training, a ComeUnity garden that truly belonged to the people, an all access radio station and a school project for houseless, no-income families and disabled elders in San Francisco. It was an extremely crazy, hard application. I had no help and I suffer from dyslexia and discalcula so Excel sheets are especially terrifying for me. But I was determined. I had once taught myself how to write one of the fated “Welfare to Work” grants in the evil welfare-deform years of 1998 under the neo-liberal President Bill Clinton. We proposed the first and only journalism program across Turtle Island for poor parents to the City and County of San Francisco while still receiving food stamps myself. So I figured if I could do that one I could do anything. “Prop. I has generated more than $300 million since taking effect, and although those funds were intended for affordable housing, the mayor has hijacked those funds for other purposes, most notably increases to police budgets.” In politics solutions are usually because of someone you know—or the rare situation of a person in power who actually listens to poor people about their own solutions. In that case it was only because of one such person, Joyce Crum who was one of the humans in charge of Department of Human Services (aka hellfare) who truly listened to us and believed in a vision, a solution, created by a poor, disabled houseless single mother and daughter, and gave us a chance. This little bit of support launched the movement known as POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE (which DHS later brutally unfunded because we refused to report on fellow poor single mamas for being late or absent for work, but it got us started nonetheless). Sadly, there was no such person at HUD, and we didn’t get the HUD grant. It was almost as if a joke was openly played on us. They “approved” our application for Homefulness—but because HUD provided no technical support or any support for their grants, I filled out the budget wrong and we were approved for a one year “grant”  of $12.00 a month. After this debacle, I knocked on endless doors,  just to hear different people say “no.” Until we poor folks just stopped asking. “You see there are two separate but related taxes,” another board aide told me. “The first, Prop. I from 2020, is a tax on the transfers of properties valued at $10 million or more.” “Prop. I has generated more than $300 million since taking effect, and although those funds were intended for affordable housing, the mayor has hijacked those funds for other purposes, most notably increases to police budgets.” He continued: “The second is Prop. M, the Empty Homes Tax, from 2022. For any residential home in a building with 3 or more units that is vacant for more than six months in a given year, the city is imposing a tax that increases by unit size and length of vacancy. This law took effect Jan 1, 2024 and will start to collect funds in the coming fiscal year. The proceeds will by law go half and half, one portion to rent subsidies for seniors, the other to acquiring vacant properties to convert to affordable housing.” He said: “I reached out to the Department of Real Estate about surplus public lands but got a very frustrating response that they basically have such a restrictive definition of what is ‘surplus’ that there is nothing available according to their count. But we know that’s bullshit. There is plenty of city-owned land.” “Navigation Centers aren’t a solution to homelessness, shelters aren’t a solution to homelessness, a sandwich isn’t a solution to homelessness, Homefulness is a solution to homelessness.” My sister truth warrior, formerly houseless, Longtime POOR Magazine member, Community Health Worker, povertyskola and the other daughter of Mama Dee, spoke at a powerful action POOR Magazine held in honor of houseless mothers on Mothers Day in collaboration with fellow warriors for truth Coalition on Homelessness and Western Regional Advocacy Project. “You see us houseless mamas and daughters sleeping in a tent… that’s cause we don’t have money for the rent,” I shouted out to our beautiful village of children, mamas, uncles and elders, houseless and formerly houseless, advocates and survivors, as we shared food and cold drinks and fruit outside a locked and closed Motel at Polk and Ellis. The Civic Center Inn, in the Tenderloin, is one of many empty, unused, hoarded, and locked up buildings across San Francisco. It was in beautiful condition, with doors and windows, locks, and amenities, just standing there, forlorn and unused, while the block that surrounded the motel was filled with tents with houseless people residing in them. San Francisco residents, not seen as “residents” because we are without access to a roof. San Francisco residents dying from heat exposure, cold exposure, and medically fragile bodies living outside. The Civic Center Inn is just one in a collection of literally hundreds of vacant buildings that could be transformed into housing all across the Bay. “As a houseless mother and grandmother, Homefulness allowed me to heals,” aid Angel Heart, resident of the rent-free, forever housing model of Homefulness we have built in Deep East Huchiun (Oakland) that now houses 21 houseless, now homeful, youth, adults and elders. “We are advocating that the city open this beautiful building to homeless people. We can support the project, there is no reason to keep this locked up,” said Pastor Paul of City Hope Church at the homeless mamas action May 7th. In November of 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, while houseless people in San Francisco were still being swept like we were trash by Breed, even in violation of federal requirements to let us shelter in our tents, POOR Magazine conducted one of our Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources UnTours of the Tenderloin and Hastings Law School, which made it clear through a law suit to the city that they demanded more violent sweeps of houseless residents in the middle of the pandemic. We offered to meet with Breed to propose Homefulness. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, after a trajectory of private police, endless citations and police harassment of houseless SF residents and her recent bloodletting of crucial non-profits and advocates and the blocking of Prop I funds, and more funding for the police, I concluded, yea, she probably does hate poor people. After a series of failed attempts, she said no to a meeting with us. Interested in people-led solutions? Register for next decolonization /degetrniFUKation seminar at PeopleSkool by going to www.poormagazine.org/education

By Daveion Lyons PoorNewsNetwork / Dads in Trauma - Stories for Fathers Day It was a hot Indian summer day in 1996 17th, of sept when my father dropped me off at school. He said, “Son have a good day,” and i gave him a kiss on the cheek. it was a good day, and then the bell rang for school to let out and as i sat on the steps watching kids get picked up by their parents I was still there just waiting. My father never came. He died that day of a massive heart attack and stroke. I was only 10 years old. Beautiful Memories CHOICES The first time i got to hold my daughter there was an instant connection. I love my children Note-these writings come from poverty journalism trauma writing workshops at #POORmagazine /Peopleskool

A PROUD HAITIAN PEOPLE CONTINUING THE REVOLUTION By Momii Palapaz Celebrating Haiti Flag Day all over the UnUnited States-photos from Haiti Action Committee “Don’t believe the nonsense that you are hearing today in the media, that Haiti is poor. It’s a lie. Our people, your brothers and sisters in Haiti have been one of the most robbed people in the Western hemisphere.” Haiti Action Committee Pierre LaBoisssiere told a rapt crowd of celebrants at the Eastside Arts Alliance 24th Annual Malcom X Day in Ohlone land aka Oakland. Trekking the square block-long park, POOR MAGAZINE POOR NEWS NETWORK rep along with supporters and sponsors, passed out leaflets to almost 2000 people before Pierre took the stage. We informed everyone about the grave dangers the Haitian people are facing. Over 200 years ago African slaves, kidnapped and shipped to Haiti said “hell no” and fought for their liberation and independence of the country. Since 1804, the French imperialists and now the unUS has done everything it can to sabotage and disrupt the centuries old movement for freedom. Over 360,000 Haitian people, mostly children, have been displaced by US imperialist violence. Pierre LaBoissiere, Jabari from the Haitian Action Committee with Rara Tou Limen dancers “The country is rich…in mineral resources, in cultural landscape, rich in bauxite, in oil, gold, uranium and… This is what they want. Those greedy imperialists, those greedy colonialists.  They are lying to you.”  Mr. Laboissier continued, “You hear a lot about the gangs in Haiti.  Those gangs are not gangs. They are death squads in the faith of colonialism. Death squads of occupation of Haiti. Since the coup d'etat against President Aristide in 2004, the death squads are there to prevent the people from resisting.” Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now living back in Haiti was violently forced out by the gangs of US, France, Canada and other imperialist powers in 1991. He returned to Haiti in 2011 and lives there. ONE STRUGGLE MANY FRONTS Those born and raised in the unUS, while much closer to Haiti in distance than Palestine, know less and less about the countries like Haiti that surround Turtle island. The US educational system has been lying and distorting information about the US government's true history in Haiti. The corporate media continues to praise US aid as a deterrent to “gangs” that have political and military support. Kenya has approved and sent thousands of military personnel and weapons to choke the Haitian people and displace millions in the process.   But Pierre of the Haiti Action Committee responded to and explained the disinformation and lies on this momentous occasion. Besides Oakland, Haiti Flag Day was also celebrated in cities across the unUS like Santa Rosa, Indiana, Los Angeles, Denver, Waterloo, Plano, Charlotte and Columbus. The Haitian people are never giving up. As Pierre pointed out to the resilience, (Haitians) “have been demanding to complete their revolution, to complete the dream of their foremothers and of their forefathers. Their dream was for the children of Haiti to stand and be and live in dignity to have schools to be able to eat, to want freedom to be able to go where they want to go and (turn) people in a nation into a powerful country. … We look at each other as Malcom says, as African people, as one people who those barbaric folks have taken, kidnapped and put into slavery. So that is what Haiti represents for our brothers and sisters all over……In that spirit I stand here, surrounded by our ancestors. We stand in their memory.  We are calling on you for solidarity.” Hundreds of Haiti Flag Day events across the unUS took place in honor of May 18th.  Recognizing and honoring the people of Haiti confirms all our conscious efforts to defeat US imperialism and all its gang members, whether here or outside false borders. All Power To The People of Haiti And Their Revolution HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE DEMANDS * Stop using U.S. tax dollars to fund the brutal Haitian police and affiliated death squads. • Stop the flow of weapons from U.S. to death squads in Haiti • No more foreign intervention - End the occupation. • Stop attacking and deporting Haitian refugees. • Sovereignty and self-determination for Haiti. For more information, contact the Haiti Action Committee:  POB 2040, Berkeley, CA  94702, action.haiti@gmail.com

Sent to UC President Michael Drake, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, and UC Board of Regents Chair Richard Leib on May 16th To President Drake, Chancellor Block and Richard Leib May 16, 2024 We sit, stand, huddle, and crouch outside your coffee shops, corner stores, bodegas, restaurants and markets. Sometimes we ask for change. Sometimes we hide under a tarp, jacket, cardboard box or plastic bag  to shield us from the wind, rain, cold, heat or the next sweep. You brush past us to get your morning coffee, your afternoon snacks, your pizza and your groceries. To go on with your day. To wipe our momentary tragic memory out of your mind, because, hey what can you do? It is our intentionally unheard voices,  untold stories, unseen acts of community negligence un-witnessed acts of daily, hourly  violence against thousands of us houseless people across the US that i bring into elite institutions of learning like UCLA medical school, Stanford law school, Columbia Urban planning, social work, art and education to name a few, Because it is our houseless, disabled, traumatized, health compromised, medically and legally fragile  broken  bodies that students from these institutions will be treating, serving, healing, doctoring, teaching, lawyering and social working. I bring our stories with humility and love because my work is not a calling out- its a calling in - I don’t expect anyone to do anything except hopefully open their eyes and empath  the casual acts of collective brutality perpetrated on poor people bodies all over the world I make the connections to the buying, selling and commodifying of Mama Earth because our bodies wouldnt be on the street but for the multiple lies of rent, profit,extraction and systemic racism. I make the connections to Palestine because, like the US, it was another indigenous territory with thriving communities and trees and homes and schools, when settlers came “ to settle the land” which has caused thousands of people to become “poor” and now with the current genocide of their lands and homes, Homeless. To open my presentations, like the one I did at the David Geffen School of Medicine I humbly invite people  to pray for Mama Earth, from Sudan to Haiti, From Kashmir to West Papua and from Palestine to Turtle Island to name a few of the sites of removal of indigenous peoples from their lands of origin, because this is how “poverty” and homelessness, displacement and incarceration happen and if we aren’t making the connections of the houseless mother in the US to the houseless mother in Rafah, and to multiple sites of local and global poverty, we are denying reality and how can we call ourselves educators? I never force anyone to do anything, nor do i demand, harass, intimidate or berate as the letter of May 15th by Virginia Foxx to Chancellor Block and President Drake stated. I never have done this and i never will because then i would be emulating the very violent forces that have rained down on my head since experiencing homelessness for most of my childhood and young adult hood leading to my eventual arrest for the act of sleeping while houseless and later in life when myself, my disabled  mother my 5 year old sun and three other houseless families with children were made homeless by a 700 rent increase due to violent gentrification Rather, i pray and teach, alongside several other Poverty skolaz, as we call ourselves, deriving from the theory of poverty scholarship- a theory my mother and myself created that contextualizes lived experiences of struggle through homelessness, poverty, ableism,incarceration ,racism immigration and police terror to name a few, as scholarship. It is a textbook i bring with me in these talks and undergirds our teaching at PeopleSkool - a poor/houseless indigenous people led liberation education school offered at POOR Magazine - a poor and houseless people led movement launched by me and my mama and other povertyskolaz. In addition to the visionary medical students who invited me in as part of their urgent teaching on structural racism and health equity into UCLA, there were also five fellow poverty, disabliity  skolaz who were in the room with me, presenting, speaking, sharing their life with the students as part of my presentation  and it always strikes me as odd that they are never mentioned and intentionally silenced and erased in the multiple slanderous articles and letters about our presentation. Perhaps because if they were included , their observations would disprove the ridiculous and libelist accusations of force and beration and demand that continues to be said about our talk. Finally, and extremely regretfully these lies and the subsequent doxxing and death threats made against my life ( and so many more hard-working truth-teller faculty and your own student body)  resulted in nothing but more destruction and pain. For safely of students and faculty my subsequent presentations had to be cancelled so the transformative and urgent medicine of radical sharing, community reparations and Homefulness, which is a solution that houses houseless families, children and elders in rent-free forever healing communities, that through multiple models works very hard to hold and heal people suffering from the multiple traumas caused by  lives of poverty, racism, incarceration and scarcity that so many of us we have barely survived. Urgent medicine of love, not hate, community care, not community negligence and protection of Mama earth herself, who as we all know is also suffering. Who and how do people who call themselves teachers, mentors, deans, chancellors, thinkers and visionaries not see the violent harm they are perpetrating on their own student body and believe somehow that that has anything to do with education In grief and prayer for Palestine and Mama Earth, Tiny gray-garcia, aka povertyskola Activist in residence, UCLA Co-founder and Visionary, Homefulness Formerly Houseless, Co-founder, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, daughter of  Dee and mama of Tiburcio

By tiny gray-garcia aka @povertyskola, daughter of Dee, Mama of Tiburcio Anthropology, Ethnography, Psychology -just some of the studies about us without us Our spirits our cultures our traditions Deconstructing our struggles While our communities are dismantled and left in rubble ..excerpt of akkkademia by tiny from the Sidewalk Motel - Poems & Poshunary from a poverty skola For years I have critiqued formal institutions of learning for creating krapitalist* products out of knowledge, for raping, stealing, extracting poor, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled mamas and papas and ancestors cultures and peoples for the sake of “Study” for counting, examining, dissecting, caging, and experimenting on humans for surveillance, knowledge production, eugenics, art, medicine and what I affectionately call “wite science*”. And ultimately, silencing, firing, intimidating voices and actions of dissent. Mostly people of color who dare to speak up inside the institutional walls. I have called for poor and indigenous people to resist, to build our own spaces of liberation education outside the institutions, and few of us have, until now. In 2024, across occupied Turtle Island akkkademia* in its static sacred unquestioning form is being dismantled, redesigned, unSettled, re-made and re-visioned. Thousands of warrior truth-teller students and some liberation faculty allies, of so-called elite institutions of higher learning, institutions rooted in histories of genocide, enslavement, exploitation and extraction of this stolen land, with buildings and programs named after eugenicists, programs named and funded after corpRape* extractors and poisoners of Mama Earth and Mama Ocean, anthroWrongology* and arkkkeaology* departments holding indigenous ancestors hostage, are actively taking back their stolen land campuses in the name of Palestinian freedom, divestment and the end of complicity. But a funny thing happened on the way to these warrior moves for our stolen Palestinian babies and mamas and elders, the intentional and unintentional liberation of institutional education itself and over 500 Gregorian years of dusty wite* lies and silence. Tent-based reclamation in so-called California As I stood at the edge of a cluster of over 75 tents (at UCLA and UC  Berkeley) located in the centers of two of the most elite institutions of higher learning, where young peoples of all nations and communities were sitting together on the grass and the Greco-Roman palatial steps talking and activating about the oppressive institutions they were enrolled in, I saw it -the change was electric. They were surrounded by giant posters and handmade art and placards detailing the History of Palestine genocide, institutional complicity and demands for divestment. There were canopies filled with free knowledge, free medicine, free food and free information to any and all that needed it. I thought to myself, “the people, the learners, young people with a clear-eyed vision created this.” Young people paying an institution for turning knowledge into a product and then legitimizing it with a piece of paper. Young people who themselves were leaders as much as they were learners. As I was invited onto the oddly astro-turfed quad of University of San Francisco, a Catholic university in San Francisco, enriched and alive with tents, placards, blankets, snacks and students walking with each other, exchanging ideas, sharing dreams of liberation, I was struck again about the contrast to the ancient missionary architecture looming above from all four sides. When I stood on a bustling street with a Greco-roman name in front of University of California San Francisco, while medical students played music, dreamed and visioned liberation from institutional silencing and actually spoke to each other, planned with each other and prayed with each other….  I was struck by this moment of liberation from the other source of repression, silencing, pain and fear. The institutions themselves, spaces of so-called learning, rooted in medical apartheid, the experimentation on women of color, indigenous and disabled bodies has actively repressed the voices of its students and faculty of color whose only hope was to teach structural racism, health equity and consistently are attacked and threatened for speaking their truths, by the donors and ruling medical aristoKRAZY.* Warrior teachers, writers and practitioners of medicine like Rupa Marya, who has stood with all revolutionary actions in the Bay Area consistently for years, who launched the powerful DoNoHarm coalition with her students at UCSF in response to the violent poLice murders in amerikkklan*, tried to bring in Poverty Scholarship and this poverty skola to teach at UCSF and was squarely rejected because I was not “published” which is akkkademik* code for “Legitimized by academic journals”, which actually isn’t even true as Poverty Scholarship and many of my articles have been cited and used in multiple thesis’ projects and journals including The Harbinger out of NYU and Columbia and more. But these soft gates and quiet gatekeepers rule so much of the UC system in California and many of the akkkademik* institutions across Turtle Island that my voice was easily shut out. The beautiful visionary medical students at UCLA who did manage to launch a structural racism and health equity program at their medical school brought me in and of course I prayed for Palestine and a free mama earth, spoke on poverty skolarship and wite science*. And for those truths I was doxxed, lied about, and death threatened. Every single one of these student-led resistance spaces launched their own “popular universities” inviting in speakers, talking among themselves, sharing knowledge, and not commodifying knowledge. Many of these students and the faculty who supported them have been silenced, doxxed, framed and lied about by a silent wealth-hoarding class who are friendly, funded, or outright aligned with Zionism, corpRape* industries and war mongers. All of these spaces of tent-based resistance/reclamation** have many things in common, taking back occupied indigenous land for liberation, taking back their own power to educate, taking back and living into values of radical sharing and mama earth liberation. **tent-based resistance is my naming of the movements to reclaim akkkademik spaces for the people -I don't use encampment because it is a military industrial complex term used as a slur against us Houseless peoples street communities- I also called out the irony of the use of tents by the students because if this was done by people like me we would have been “swept'' like we are trash within seconds and are everyday. I asked them to promise to redistribute their tents to Houseless communities when and if their resistance came to a close. ComeUnity Education leads to ComeUnity Reparations My mama and I, in collaboration with fellow poor and houseless people at POOR magazine, created our own theory, our own canons- or to use one of the favorite words of the akkkademiks*- pedagogy. We created Poverty Scholarship-which helped to launch other Poor /houseless/Black Brown indigenous pedagogies like Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia, Youth Scholarship, Krip Hop Nation and KripHopOlogy. We called ourselves Poverty skolaz, Border Skolaz, Elder Skolaz, Caged Skolaz, Youth skolaz and Disability skolaz. We wrote our own Textbook and journals and non-extractive models of knowledge sharing. We created our own titles like Resistance Awards, Poverty Heroes and Po Poet Laureates. We launched our own educational movements open to all for free and even with support attend them- We Will Be Heard, FAMILY project, PeopleSkool and Deecolonize Academy- that worked to unTeach the racist, classist lies of poverty shaming, success, hoarding, extracting, and experimenting and teach back what was stolen from us, all of us. Our medicine, our theory, our prayer is radical love and interdependence, Unhoarding, decolonizing, degentriFUKing* Mama Earth and elder care-giving, love-working, anti-state violence, anti-poLice*, anti-eviction, anti-institutional, humble, street and community-based truth knowledge. We created new, non-violent terms for our knowledge offerings; Revolutionary Love Work instead of *Anti-Social Work, ComeUnity Reparations instead of Philanthropy, HERstory instead of History, HEALing Care instead of Hellthcare, poor people direct reporting media instead of about us without us middle class media WeSearch instead of research. Homefulness instead of homelessness and my most recent ISWAHT? The Institute for the Study of Wealth Accumulating, Hoarding and Truth… Our teachers were us: poor and houseless, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled povertyskolaz, recyclers, panhandlers, poor mothers and fathers, abuelitas and Tíos, domestic workers, trabajadores, Street Artists, Vendors, Poets, low/no wage workers, care-givers who had survived by any means necessary, whose college was life, whose PhD's were in poverty, incarceration, false borders, racism, ableism and colonization to name a few degree focuses. In the end, it is never my goal as a humble povertyskola to destroy anything, these institutions of learning provide jobs and money and space and time to people lucky enough to get into them, and to thousands of poor/working class, communities of color support staff who need those gigs, but they are also harmful racialized, ableist and class stratified spaces of scarcity, gates, poLice, tests, extraction, gentriFUKation*, hoarded land and resources. My hope and ask has always been to deconstruct the gates and gatekeepers that intentionally make things inaccessible if you haven’t mastered the oppressors language, if you don’t have enough money or even time away from caring for your community. We need to learn from accessible school models like the medical schools in Cuba that intentionally work to keep space open for poor students from destroyed and marginalized communities. We need to broaden, not shorten, the reading and learning and change-making so more of us can learn, soak up the urgent knowledge and be recognized for the knowledge we already have. We need to open the arkkkives* to include the peoples libraries, the povertyskola knowledge creators, the people intentionally left out and kept out of history and Herstory. We need to end the violent and impenetrable testing and scoring, judging and demanding that keeps these institutions elite in the first place. To break open the knowledge systems and the way our peoples' skoolwork are valued and seen. Perhaps degrees could be granted for taking care of our elders, taking care of our babies, stewarding and care-giving for community gardens, cleaning and stewarding watersheds. The concept of who is a teacher could be broadened to the abuelitas and mamas making teas and tinctures from flowers, the recyclers cleaning and sorting mama earth’s waste and people trying to survive through multiple traumas and intense poverty deemed as the experts, scholars and teachers they are. Elder prayer holders, bringers and culture keepers honored for the traditions and energy keeping they are already doing in degree programs that require no extractive skool time, but rather support time for what they are already doing. So education could come back to comeUnity where it began, from elder to youth, from village to generation. The violent and gentriFUking* force of the away nation (a concept I teach on in PeopleSkool) could be reversed. No more parks, homes, buildings and open spaces stolen for the profit of the Dorm industrial complex because community learning would be at the center of the educational processes. These akkkademik* hoarded buildings and lawns could begin to house houseless people and animals and grow food and build community equity. And so this povertyskola has a practicable launch proposal for all of these institutions. A proposal of not only complete divestment in ALL extractive industries from RealEsnakkke* to CorpRapeShuns* and all and any military, poLice* and war industries and companies, but Investment and Reparations to all and any communities profited off of, experimented on, bombed, terrorized, studied, exploited and used from Palestine to Oakland. ComeUnity* reparations supporting full scholarships for low-no-income, houseless students, free housing for houseless students and their families, free child care to students who are parents, LandBack of most (if not all) of the occupied land these schools exist on, with easements that include recognition of spiritual and physical leadership for all of the land, teaching and “board” positions for first nations relatives, guidance on curriculum design of things and knowledge they have long held in Science, land, medicine and art (to name a few), with a mandate to return all ancestors’ remains to all of the indigenous, Black, Brown and poor people they are stolen or “acquired” from who are languishing, un-cared for in their arkkkives* and basements. To invite houseless elders and residents who have been displaced by their extractive dorms - right of first return to housing in the dorms. To pay the gardening and cleaning staff of the school equivalent to the tenure teaching staff and offer them positions as teachers in the new land stewarding departments created as part of the proposal. This is only the beginning and I have a whole lot more in my proposal, but this is a start and very close to what I gave to the “liberal arts” college that gave this povertyskola “Credit for time served” i.e., accepted my 6th grade formal education and granted me an exemption from a BA for all the work I have done all my life so I could go onto receive an MFA, which I am eternally grateful to them for, because it saved my life. Their recognition and support helped this houseless/incarcerated, traumatized povertyskola artist write my first screenplay and produce a feature length movie on the violence of sweeping us houseless humans like we are trash. From day one at the beautiful campus where the residency was, I was overwhelmed by the miles of hoarded indigenous land. I proposed a ComeUnity reparations proposal to rematriate* the land back to the indigenous peoples of that territory, as well as at least 10 full scholarships to houseless/low/no/income students from the community where the skool is located and the worker staff who take care of their kitchens and cleaning and cooking to be offered, not only a full scholarship to go there, but to be seen as worker scholars who could teach on some of their own poverty scholarship in the program. Change and transformation never happens fast. It’s a prayer, it’s a journey filled with multiple pathways. This moment needs to be preceded by so many more moments and moves and refusal to accept or roll back into wealth-hoarder dominant status quo.  For right now, I send so much love to the warrior students who are still in the tent-based resistance movements*, refusing to pretend everything is ok. Demanding change and NOT giving up until they attain it. I see this moment as just the beginning, a powerful beginning to UnSell and unsettle these extractive institutions into love-centered, sharing centered community skools that brings knowledge back to where it began. With all of us, not just some of us. …In the meantime… consider coming to the next Decolonization /DeGentriFUKation seminar at PeopleSkool in Black August… *The terms Wite Science (no “H” cause it's not a color, it's a system), Akkkademia, Amerikkklan, CorpRape, DegentriFUK, WeSearch, ComeUnity, Arkkkive, AnthroWrongOlogy, etc. are from my PoShunary - a poor people's dictionary (and if necessary for publication, can all be transformed back to the linguistically dominant spelling)

Open letter to Oakland Ballers, republished for PoorMagazine By Freeway, Resident Organizer of WoodStreetCommons and Acting President of West Oakland Homeless Union To whom it may concern, My name is Freeway. I'm an unhoused advocate and a founding member of the Wood Street Commons. We're a local non-profit based out of West Oakland; we actually got our humble beginning on the very lot you will soon be using for parking. In case you're not familiar with the history of that lot, I'll briefly fill you in. For approximately the past decade, the 1707 Wood Street lot was the home of upwards of 300 unhoused Oaklanders. We were often touted as "the largest homeless encampment in Northern California", but we were so much more than that; we offered a safe space for anyone who had nowhere else to go. There was a community garden, a community kitchen- which fed anyone who came through on a daily basis; we had an organized community, hosting weekly community meetings; we had a clothing closet, and worked with Lifelong Healthcare to see that all of our residents got the care they needed. In April of 2023, after lengthy battle- both in and out of court- the remaining section of our community was violently closed, leaving over 300 people displaced, and with little hope for their future. A handful of us entered into the community cabin site down the street, only to be further traumatized and disappointed by the abusive staff, the lack of funds for programs, and the deplorable living conditions. To put it simply, we were better off on the streets. Over the past year, we've watched in horror as the city we call home had continually turned its back on its most vulnerable population. We've cried, shouted in anger, and sat in dismay, as over and over again, restrictive, dehumanizing policies have been passed, forcing us deeper and deeper into the shadowed corners of the city. These policies serve to only further criminalize us, and waste millions- sometimes billions- of tax payers dollars. But, the dollars lost pales in comparison to the lives lost. Since the closure of the original Woods Street Commons, we've seen more community members die than be housed. And still, the city continues to ignore us. When I read the article about your baseball team, and the new location you'll call home, I felt it absolutely vital that I reach out to you. In the wake of our displacement, many of our residents relocated to Raymondi Park, only to experience harassment, violence, even death threats from surrounding neighbors. Ultimately, these individuals were displaced from this location as well. It would seem with so much loss and despair that we would've given up; quite the contrary. Through all of this hurt and pain, our community had found a way to grow even stronger. Determined to not go down without a fight, a small group of us have been working tirelessly to help our community heal from these traumas and grow in the face of adversity. With the support of over 800 people, including our local team of advocates and lawyers, we've accomplished our short-term goal of becoming an official 501c(3) non-profit. With this recognition, we are now able to continue the work we started at 1707, feeding, clothing, and nurturing our community, as well as other local encampments. We've partnered with other local organizations to ensure that we reach as many Oaklanders that need us as we can. We have also continued to work towards solutions to the deeper, endemic, root problems that perpetuate homelessness; issues like restrictive policies that criminalize the poor, ridiculously high rent, and the false negative narratives that deepen the divide between the housed and unhoused. We've also been working diligently with a local architect by the name of Mike Pyatok to design an all-inclusive, self-sustaining, work- live community. At its complete state, it would be able to house and shelter about 750 people. That includes, single individuals as well as families and couples, with a special section designated to teachers and artisans. It would include vocational training, educational courses, a child care facility, a dog park, a cafeteria style food court, plus on- site mental, physical, and dental clinics. There would also be a specific section dedicated to RV dwellers with the option of training in refurbishment of these vehicles. Additionally, there are several options for micro- enterprises to help sustain the costs of maintenance, keeping the rent at a low-or-no basis. The best part of this is the staffing: the programs, including the safety ambassadors and case managers, would be staffed by unhoused individuals who have gone through a training process during their time on the campus. There is one detail that is blocking us from achieving this goal: we need the funds for the land. The site that we've got the best chance of success with is a 22 acre lot on Wake Ave. It's an old army base, and as-is would need land remediation. We're in the process of interviewing companies for the job at present time. Which brings me to the reason for this letter. In the article in Oaklanside, I read that the baseball team would potentially be donating some funds towards local charities. We'd like to be one of them. The eviction that took place didn't just destroy our belongings, or destroyed our faith in the city's leaders, and in human kind. This kind of donation would be the perfect bridge lessening the divide between the housed  and unhoused. It would also be an opportunity for your team to prove to Oakland that the bottom line is not more important than helping your fellow human. We'd love am opportunity to discuss this with you in further detail, and answer any questions you might have. If there's a time we could meet, we'd very much appreciate it. Our points of contact are myself and John Janosko. My contact info is located below, and his is the following: 510.712-7639, johnjanosko844@gmail.com. Please let us know at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you and potentially partnering in the future. Thank you for taking the time to consider this. In humble service, Freeway (they/ them) Resident Organizer/Dir. of Harm Reduction >Wood Street Commons< Acting President >West Oakland Homeless Union< >>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<< "If you choose to stay silent in the face of oppression, you have chosen to side with the oppressor." ~Desmond Tutu >>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<

Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … White noise shrouding months of live-streamed slaughter: Decapitated doctors; assassinated ambulance drivers; Wounded shrieks; dying moans— haunting screams of Mothers lifting what’s left of babies’ shrapnel-shredded bodies Soundbite-grabbing; headline-stealing; Goebbels-gotcha Big lies disguised as hearings. Wretched klan Kabuki Theater of moral paupers holding tattered, hand-lettered, Signs shouting:   “WILL WORK FOR GENOCIDE!!” Spectacle of skunk-scented hot air. Of bleached white Death Panel inquisitors asking AI “Yes or No” questions— Gaslighting—giving great Capitalist Hill cover for Genocide …Great cover for grand dragon government Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Teargas tones. See-thru bomb bay bras. Revealing Open-hearted concern for blowing smoke in our Bloodshot eyes/broken hearts from seeing double Amputee children; mass graves; bombed hospitals A fascist filibuster. Evil MAGAt Mamas with Charlottesville Umbilical cords and J6 afterbirth.  A Capitalist Hill coven of Wicked, war-headed witches wielding one Weaponized word … Posturing as friends of Jews … Hot air superiority/McCarthyite complement to plastic Cuffs; rubber bullets; flash-bang grenades; baton blows; Mass arrests. A search and destroy Psy-Op, massacring Public education/educators caught in capitalist crosshairs Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Airwaves saturated with antipersonnel elephant Excrement … Reich brain farts escaping as thought Balloons in cartoons: “Wish we could go Gitmo and Waterboard these bitches—Show ‘em we mean business!” Images of kaki-clad marchers chanting:  “Jews will not Replace us!” and J-6 teeshirts emblazoned: “6 Million Was Not Enough” dance through minds of cruelty contest competitors, Auditioning for Commandant of Concentration Camps 25 and 47 Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Sheep-shearing/job-fearing/fictioneering— Chalk white, snow white, lily white, bone White noise … Shhhhhhhhh … Shhhhhhhhh … We’ve heard enough … from the World’s greatest purveyor of violence. © 2024. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Organized, self-governed houseless people led solutions to housing by Momii Palapaz “I’ve been homeless for 13 years and I’ve been swept, had everything taken away from me.  I have felt …less than a person. They (*shitty hall) have taken that away from me.  I don’t have a reason to smile no more” said a Camp Resolution resident. Dennis shows his t-shirt of Camp Resolution 3.4 miles from the California State Capitol, Camp Resolution, at 2225 Colfax, sits on vacant property owned by the City of Sacramento. This neighborhood is the home of over 20 residents that hold a lease for land and have successfully committed themselves to self-determination, representation and self-government. Even though the City of Sacramento and residents of Camp Resolution developed and signed a contract together, the City representatives, Mario Lara; Assistant Manager, District Attorney; Thien Ho and Howard Chan; City Manager are turning their backs on Camp Resolution. Written with the community of mostly women and elderly, promises by the City turned into lies. Lies of permanent housing placement, dishonesty and the lie of offering stability. One check away… When I became a family member with POOR MAGAZINE HOMEFULNESS, I knew from apartment living what housing instability feels like.  Paying the *lie of rent, I see the Cal Trans aggressively sweeping people and their belongings.  I hear the cries from my houseless neighbors. We are all targets, especially those like my elder self, one SSI check away from homelessness. I listened to the truth tellers. I learned that those experiencing firsthand, those who know and are skilled from living on the streets are the people with real solutions to permanent housing and self-determination. Homefulness Building in Tongva Poor People Led Solutions to Housing From Nicklesville in Seattle, Washington to Aetna Street in L.A., organized communities of houseless people have refused to accept temporary solutions like *tiny tombs or prison motels and are fighting back against the constant sweeping of people on sidewalks, abandoned properties and vacant lots. Moms for Housing, Wood Street, Reclaiming Our Homes and other houseless led movements are taking back and leading in their right to housing. “This is the best thing that happened to me.  said resident, Danielle Wild from Camp Resolution. “The mayor (Darrell Steinberg) of Sacramento doesn’t want us in front of businesses, and schools.  Why can’t we just stay in the lots and stay out of their way instead of sweeping us?...  We got our own garbage pickup. We got our own bathrooms. It would keep homeless people away from schools and businesses…be less people on the streets sleeping in parks.  We have our own gated community until we get housing. It would keep a lot of people away from everybody that don’t want us around. “ Big business profits from homelessness Hearing her honestly describing housed people, I am ashamed our humanity has sunk so low.  Society has taught our children to despise, ridicule, and publicly taunt the houseless community. The shame of poverty, domestic violence, and mental illness accelerate with an eviction and nowhere to go. Add to that the scorn, bullying and exceedingly, the physical violence from the people who are housed. This system has graduated to an intense level of hate. To make more money, government and media, with real estate, lodges a barrage of degradation, justifies continued displacement, and campaigns for more police and social welfare punishment.  “... you will see less violence and homelessness and garbage on the street because we would be in our own community.” Danielle continued, “at least let us get on our feet and then it is up to us. Give us a chance. Why wouldn’t they want us to be in our own lot, away from that?” A Long History of Displacement Since immigration of the 1900’s to the WWII 1940’s my ancestors and their families moved numerous times.  Displaced by the WWII suspicions of Japanese Americans' loyalty to America, the unUS concentration camps held them for at least 2 years. Once they were released, housing was not easy to find but eventually my mother rented from the Japanese owner of an apartment building in the largely Japanese 4 block area of SF. Back in the late 1950’s until the 1980’s, nationwide, The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) aka urban removal was the stage for today’s houseless crisis. My family and thousands of Black families, and people of color in the SF Fillmore district were violently evicted. Anti-eviction groups were almost non-existent in the 1970’s. Mass displacement reaped devastating upheaval and emptied thousands of homes in the Western Addition. Protest from the Committee Against Nihonmachi Eviction organized too late but with much resident support and spirit. Corporate development was delayed but the anti-eviction movement did not succeed in stopping displacement against the RDA, SF and Japanese corporations dedicated to gentrification. The RDA and government housing agencies nationwide schemed with corporate developers to “upgrade” and replace us with higher income, white and expensive condos. Black and other non-white established businesses of stores, restaurants, nightclubs, were permanently shuttered. Demolition wiped out the thriving neighborhoods and replaced it with impractical, privileged shops and pricey nightlife venues. Today, communities of color are scattered from Modesto to Sacramento to Stockton and Fresno. Today, tents, cardboard hovels, cars and uninhabitable SRO’s house longtime bay area residents. Homefulness resident Brokin Cloud with Camp Resolution member Housed Must Stand with the Unhoused “I am a volunteer and it’s a joke. Mario Lara, City Hall, has $5 million for Safe Grounds and refuses to do anything about it. There is a cheap, reasonable way to get water for people throughout the City of Sacramento. God forbid that they should give water for not paying the bill.  I am a voter. I voted for these people and am ashamed I did. They don’t care. They do not care and the City will not do anything to help them.” Since 2022, census reports over 500,000 homeless in the unUS. According to the National Alliance to end Homelessness, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are houseless at a percentage of 121.2 percent followed by 48% Blacks, 44% Native Americans, 36.1 multi-racial, Latinos at 22.4%, Whites, then Asians, the least affected by homelessness at 4%. Two years later, in 2024, there have been a multitude of climate disasters worldwide, fueled by profiteers and the local governments of unUS. Last year’s murderous Maui fire, killing over 97 people and leaving over 6,000 Hawaiians houseless, has yet to offer permanent housing to the native communities and locals. Land grabbing visions and prospects immediately started within hours of the tragedy. “The Shitty of Sacramento is “reneging on its agreement to house these people.  …Instead (Camp Resolution) is being bullied by the DA, bullied by false narratives and stigma of homelessness. It’s shameful.” said Mr. Baiocchi from the School of Social Workers at Sacramento State college. He went on imploring that Sacto Shitty Hall “should allow Camp Resolution to occupy an abandoned lot which isn’t being used for anything. These people want to be visible and want to be heard. The City should hear them. Camp Resolution is an incredible thing. I’ve never seen anything like this. The City should be studying it and seeing how they can have 10 Camp Resolutions, because this is actually working.” “They know what they need to do and think about the people less fortunate. They have housing they can go home to. They have cars that we can’t even manage to drive. They got a paycheck, we can’t even imagine to think of ‘what about us?’. We’re human too. All we want is our housing. Make it right for us. We’re Camp Resolution. We’re not going anywhere.”-Camp Resolution resident Long before colonizers killed en masse Native tribes and indigenous nations on Turtle Island, the Nisenan, Maidu, Miwok and Me-Wuk peoples inhabited and maintained the land now called Sacramento. Today, government arrogance and greed justify the stealing of land.  No one owns mother earth. *  from PoShunary by povertySkola aka tiny

Celebrate indigenous youth poverty skolaz as they graduate from Decolonize Academy! Time: Saturday, June 1st at 12pm Location: Homefulness 8032 BlackArthur (MacArthur) Blvd Huchiun (Oakland), CA 94605