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  • OAKLAND AGAINST GENOCIDE

    WEEK OF ACTION NOW TO TUESDAY NOV 7 Email Oakland City Council Submit public comment for Nov 7 meeting Direct action at City Hall 11/7, 3 pm DEMANDS Introduce resolution against genocide of Palestine Call a special meeting to pass it immediately The City of Richmond became the first in the nation to pass a resolution affirming solidarity with Palestine against genocide on 10/24. Oakland must do the same immediately. Richmond’s City Council resolution was introduced by their Mayor and Vice Mayor. Oakland’s mayor Sheng Thao, and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan have been silent. We must contact our councilmembers, urge them to introduce a similar resolution, and pass it as quickly as possible. We are calling upon Oakland City Council to convene a special meeting to pass a resolution against the genocide of the Palestinian people. Download social media graphics and use email templates: bit.ly/oak4gaza

  • The Present Meets the Past: The 1923 Kanto Massacre, Comfort Women demand attention from Japan

    Interview with Desun Oka Momii Palapaz Poor News Network “To this day, the Japanese state continues to deny the existence of sexual slavery of comfort women during the 1930s and 1940s,” said Desun Oka of Eclipse Rising. Japan has not admitted nor acknowledged fully the kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of women from Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines and China. Women and girls were snatched up, enduring rape and assault. Little girls who hadn’t yet reached their teens were among those used for physical and sexual violence by Imperial army soldiers. Japan has refused to address this issue for decades. “This denialism is common throughout much of Japanese society as well,” said Desun, “save for a few civil society organizations and activists. So we will be visiting them on the Nikkei Decolonization tour (NDT).” On instagram, the NDT pilot tour of 2019 has posts of visits to the comfort women and activists. Desun, and other members from Eclipse Rising, traveled to Osaka and Okinawa to meet comfort women and their caretakers. “The first woman, Pae Pong-Gi, that caretakers assisted, publicly came out” to tell her story. She was “living in a shack, completely homeless and mentally ill, no one knew where she came from. She was secretive about her history, until Okinawa was reverted back to Japanese control.” During a 1970 tally of the racial population in Okinawa by Japanese officials, Pae Pong-Gi slowly told her story. This was the first documentation of comfort women and sexual enslavement. Hundreds of thousands of women like Chen Lien Hua, were subjected to unimaginable sexual assault. May 12, 2019, Japanese Consulate, SF “These organizations are educating people in Japan about the system which is linked to the resurgence of right wing politics, which is then connected to militarism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism all across Japan. We are visiting to understand the history as well as understand how the denial is connected to the violence Japanese society perpetuates on others”. As a 69 year old Japanese American woman, and a descendant of a Japanese supremacy, I feel much responsibility to share what I will learn about the inhuman practices by the Japanese government. Just as US imperialism erases their bloodthirsty past, so has the government of my ancestral land, Japan. I asked Desun about the status of being born non Japanese. He said, “Being born in Japan doesn’t guarantee citizenship. You have to have a Japanese mother or father. This locks you out of voting rights and in some places, public office.” You’re “not a citizen, but under special alien resident status, like green card holders here.” With no Japanese parent, you are “stateless” and some people “naturalize to South Korean citizenship.” Doing harm toward non Japanese citizens, I hear, is alarmingly common in Japan. Gangs of young people similar to the racist “proud boys” in the U.S. and Japanese supremacist groups regularly taunt and assault those who are of Korean, Chinese and other nationalities residing there. AND all levels of the government do little if anything about it. There are no ANTI DISCRIMINATION LAWS IN JAPAN. In 1910, Japan invaded and colonized Korea. The imperial army of Japan brutally controlled the Korean population. Over 100,000 Japanese moved to Korea and proceeded to settle in neighborhoods of Korean citizens. Korean citizens were forced to migrate, live in Japan and work in factories supplying the war machine. The U.S., Europe, Russia and Japan were locked into battling for land, slaves and natural resources. In 1923, a huge earthquake, measuring 7.9, brought chaos and contributed to organized vigilantes and army units of Imperial Japan attacking and killing Koreans in Tokyo and surrounding areas. A minimum of 10,000 Koreans as well as Chinese perished. This became known as the Kanto Massacre. “To this day”, said Desun, “the Japanese State which has played a big role in initiating this massacre, has not fully acknowledged the scope of the massacre or proper redress. Fast forward to 2023, a lot of scholars and academics with survivors (descendants) of families organized a symposium to talk about this, research it and find ways to commemorate it.” March 1st, 1948: Some of the 80,000 Korean people gathering in to commemorate Korea’s Declaration of Independence from Japan The Kanto Massacre “shows how much violence affected the community. It erased communities and erased collective memories. 1923 provided an opportunity for the emergence of a fascist State in the 1930s. When the massacre first struck, the newspaper[s] reported that socialists and Koreans would riot and kill Japanese. The army, military and proState link[ed] Koreans with socialists, giving them the opportunity to suppress the growing working class and socialist movement. The massacre gave the State the ability to tap down on and drive a wedge between Japanese and Koreans.” “One of the key aspects of a fascist movement," continued Desun, “is to make a cleavage between ordinary people. Divert attention away from the struggle they are experiencing or the Japan ruling class.” Sandra, from Japan Posts reported in July 2023 that the 100 Anniversary Kanto Massacre Ceremony Executive Committee requested Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to acknowledge the massacre with a message of condolence. Although she had sent a note of condolence in her first year as Governor, Koike has refused for the 7th year in a row to make any statement or condolences on the 100th anniversary. Ceremony executive committee member, Yasuhiko Miyagawa, told reporters, “It’s completely regrettable. The governor is turning a blind eye to the historical fact of the massacre of Koreans. [Her] attitude can be seen as denying the historical fact” (Mayuko Watanabe).

  • Save Redstone Labor Temple: History is Today's Story

    Momii Palapaz Poor News Network “This is the place that saved lives and developed leadership and helped the community,” Guillermina Castellanos said. “I was going through domestic violence and I came here. This is the place where I developed my leadership to want to help immigrants and respect immigrant rights. This is the place of refuge. This place belongs to the immigrant community.” Guillermina Castellanos, Mike Casey, Roberto Hernandez, Luis from the AFL-CIO and many labor community members grew up in San Francisco and the Mission. A book could be written and easily filled with the many stories of the building, originally named the SF Labor Temple. Since 1914, 2926 16th Street, between Capp and South Van Ness, has been the center of resources for workers, labor unions, immigrants, artists, theater, housing, women, and children’s services. The Redstone building is now in the hands of a wealth hoarding developer. Gone are the murals that tell the history of labor and women’s rights. Erased with a mediocre egg color of paint, the 2nd and 3rd floor’s walls are now completely blank. An artist’s rendition of the Chinese Ladies Garment Workers Union Local 341, 1938, is now a blank wall. Another poor and landless people’s base is gone and so is a rooted community center. The ancestors of San Francisco’s working poor, labor unions, immigrants activists and artists, filled these hallways–three floors and two theaters. The walls were stories of discrimination, striking for equality and the right to protest. One wall covers the Emporium Capwell Black employees’ boycott in 1968. It ended up in the US Court of Appeals in 1972. Two men handed out leaflets urging customers to boycott the department store. “BOYCOTT IS ON” said the piece of paper. With a powerful report, the notice said, “For years at the Emporium, Black, Brown, Yellow and Red people have worked at the lowest jobs, at the lowest levels. The Emporium is a 20th century slave plantation. We welcome the support of our brothers and sisters from the churches, unions, sororities, fraternities, social clubs, Afro American Institute, WACO, the Black Panther Party and the Poor People’s Institute.” The building housed labor unions that were part of the 1917 United Railroads Streetcar Strike and the maritime strike. This strike led to the memorable 1934 SF General Strike. When the Bindery Women Workers, Local 125 (mural on the entryway) merged with the men’s union of bookbinders, they significantly lost the power of equal voting rights, pay and worker rights. Unfortunately I had never entered the doors of the Redstone Building during its heydays of the 1970’s-1990’s. Last year, when POOR MAGAZINE held theater workshops and produced a play called “Crushing Wheelchairs,” I walked into a treasure of art everywhere I looked. Posters and murals throughout the three floors of activity. Never a thought that it would vanish. Here are a few I managed to save on camera.

  • Occupied, Homeless, Landless Peoples From Huchuin to Haiti to Palestine

    We houseless/landless,criminalized, swept, incarcerated/No-income/Black/Brown/Indigenous & Disabled, landless youth, adults and elders at Homefulness / POOR Magazine and Deecolonize Academy are together with ALL victims of Wars ON the POOR. From Occupied Palestine to Puerto Rico from Kashmir to West Papua from South Africa to Haiti to Hawai’i.. From Tongva to Huchuin… We are together with indigenous Palestinian people who have been incarcerated on their own homelands since the Occupation of Israel. We also stand with ALL victims of wars all over Mama Earth caused by colonial terror, greed, extraction and settler colonial occupation, even the settlers themselves, as many of us, on this part of stolen and Occupied Turtle Island are from those CONfusing and terrifying gray areas. We are against all wars and hope and pray for peace but know, sadly, that peace is rarely had if there is more of Mama Earth or her resources to steal. We pray as well for the four-leggeds, winged ones, plant and tree relatives who also are destroyed, killed, and traumatized by these colonial wars. Leaving us all with less shade, less clean air, water, and life to breathe, drink, eat and survive another day. And finally we pray for Mama Earth and Mama Ocean who us houseless and poor people live closest too and are impacted first and worst by, who without whom there would be no us…. Ometeotl, Ase, Semign Cacona Guari, A’hooooooo POOR Magazine/Homefulness/Deecolonize Academy Family شعوب محتلة، بلا مأوى، بلا أرض من هوتشوين إلى هايتي إلى فلسطين نحن بلا مأوى / بلا أرض، مجرمين، مكتسحين، مسجونين / بلا دخل / أسود / بني / السكان الأصليين والمعاقين، شباب لا يملكون أرضًا، بالغين وشيوخ في Homeness / POOR Magazine وDeecolonize Academy مع جميع ضحايا الحروب على الفقراء. من فلسطين المحتلة إلى بورتوريكو، ومن كشمير إلى بابوا الغربية، ومن جنوب أفريقيا إلى هايتي إلى هاواي.. ومن تونغفا إلى هوتشوين... نحن نقف مع السكان الفلسطينيين الأصليين الذين تم سجنهم في أوطانهم منذ احتلال إسرائيل. كما أننا نقف مع جميع ضحايا الحروب في جميع أنحاء ماما إيرث الناجمة عن الإرهاب الاستعماري والجشع والاستخراج والاحتلال الاستعماري الاستيطاني، حتى المستوطنين أنفسهم، كما أن الكثير منا، في هذا الجزء من جزيرة السلحفاة المسروقة والمحتلة، من أولئك المربكين والمرعبين المناطق الرمادية. نحن ضد كل الحروب ونأمل ونصلي من أجل السلام ولكننا نعلم، للأسف، أن السلام نادرًا ما يتحقق إذا كان هناك المزيد من ماما إيرث أو مواردها التي يمكن سرقتها. ونصلي أيضًا من أجل ذوي الأرجل الأربعة، والأجنحة، وأقارب النباتات والأشجار الذين دمرتهم هذه الحروب الكولوهية وقُتلوا وصدموا أيضًا. مما يتركنا جميعًا بظل أقل وهواء نظيف وماء وحياة أقل للتنفس ونشرب وتناول الطعام والبقاء على قيد الحياة ليوم آخر. وأخيرًا نصلي من أجل ماما الأرض وماما أوشن الذين نعيش نحن المشردين والفقراء في أقرب مكان أيضًا ونتأثر أولاً والأسوأ، الذين بدونهم لن نكون موجودين…. أوميتيوتل، آسي، سيميجن كاكونا جواري، أهووو مجلة POOR/Homeness/عائلة أكاديمية إنهاء الاستعمار Nosotros sin hogar/sin tierra, criminalizados, barridos, encarcelados/sin ingresos/negros/marrones/indígenas y discapacitados, jóvenes, adultos y ancianos sin tierra en Homefulness/POOR Magazine y Deecolonize Academy estamos junto con TODAS LAS víctimas de guerras CONTRA los POBRES. De la Palestina ocupada a Puerto Rico, de Cachemira a Papúa Occidental, de Sudáfrica a Haití y Hawái. De Tongva a Huchuin... Estamos junto con los pueblos indígenas palestinos que han sido encarcelados en sus propios países desde la ocupación de Israel. También apoyamos a TODAS las víctimas de guerras en toda la Tierra Mama causadas por el terror colonial, la codicia, la extracción y la ocupación colonial de los colonos, incluso los propios colonos, como muchos de nosotros, en esta parte de la Isla Tortuga robada y ocupada somos de esas confusas y aterradoras áreas grises. Estamos en contra de todas las guerras y esperamos y oramos por la paz, pero sabemos, tristemente, que la paz rara vez se tiene si hay más de Mama Tierra o sus recursos que robar. Oramos también por los parientes de cuatro patas, alados, plantas y árboles que también son destruidos, asesinados y traumatizados por estas guerras coloniales. Dejándonos a todos con menos sombra, menos aire limpio, agua y vida para respirar, beber, comer y sobrevivir otro día. Y por último oramos por Mama Tierra y Mama Océano quienes nosotros sin hogar y los pobres también vivimos más cerca y son impactados primero y peor por, quienes sin quienes no habría nosotros…. Ometeotl, Ase, Semign Cacona Guari, A’hooooooo POOR Magazine/Homefulness/Academia Deecoloniza Familia

  • Gutting the Revolution: Krapitalism is Trying to Kill the Redstone Labor Temple

    By Tiny/PovertySkola Petition to save the temple: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/petition-to-save-the-redstone-labor-temple-as-a-community-center-peticion-para-salvar-el-templo-laboral-de-redstone-como-centro-comunitario?source=direct_link& Door after Door opened to nothing - Emptiness is the gentriFUKers idea of Best But what is left ? All of us wrecked, unable to rest While bulldozers doze off cuz they barely slept Room after room of dismantled nests Lives lived in here- eyes cried in here - prayers were laid down and wealthhoarders were disrobed and tried in here. Unfair Labor was fought and died in here- replaced with unions and civil Rights so all of us could work without fear - this is the Herstory of archives and dreams - sacred memories that belong to the trees From poor peoples theatre, Living wages, Trans visionaries and dreamers, a temple of work Migrante /indigenous warriors, green cabs and Ronnie Goddmans Art- this building is all that is resistance and its beiing crushed by the deadly hush of blood-stained dollar lust The Redstone Labor Temple must live - Don’t let the gentriFUKers Win ..tiny “I was dealing with domestic violence and i came to this building and Catholic Charities helped me,” said sister warrior for the people Guillermina Castellanos, “this building saved my life,” Guillermina told her story at a protest to Save the Redstone Labor Temple, a 107 year old building in the Mission district of San Francisco, led by tenants and community that. Guillermina went onto explain that the Redstone was a very important resource for women like her in crisis. After years of struggling with an antagonistic, wealth-hoarding scamlord who “owned the building, but was always trying to sell the building for millions of dollars, subsequent promises that were made by other organizations and even resolutions made by SF poltricksters to “save the Redstone” the sacred Redstone was sold in 2021 to a corpRape Real Esnakkke devil-oper, Aurora Lights LLC. After a pandemic-fueled slow bleed of scam-lording that included renovations, locking up of all the community theatres so the community could never use them and low-key urging to all of its tenants to relocate, in 2023 they launched a fullscale onslaught of hell on this delicate eco-system of liberation. Beginning with a visual and actual gutting of the whole building and all the rooms and all of the sacred seen and unseen uses and an “app” instead of a key to open the building which the scamlord CONtrols remotely in some SciFi office building iteration of driverless cars, they have now descended on the last two remaining tenants, WRAP and Living Wage with strong-arm tactics, telling them they have to relocate to inaccessible units that would make it impossible for them to even operate their movements. POOR Magazine still shares a small office space in the Living Wage unit for our San Francisco Theatre of the POOR workshops for houseless and very low-income San Francisco residents, and we have alot of disabled workshop participants who would not be able to attend a workshop in an inaccessible unit. The violence of this desecraiton reminds me of the desecraiton of 1st peoples shellmounds. It is violent and careless and exemplary of Kolonial Krapitalism stomping on anything and everything sacred in pursuit of the blood-stained dollar. The walls of the Redstone are covered in ancient murals of labor resistance. The halls are filled with the ancestors of every struggle that ever went down in Occupied Yelamu aka San Francisco and as Roger, the buildings manager for many years used to teach, it is literally on top of an Ohlone Shellmound. This building saved this povertyskola’s life and the life of so many poor and houseless, migrante, indigenous, Black and Brown poverty skolaz who slept here, hid out here, lived here and worked here. “Mission Agenda, The National Campaign to Stop the Vietnam War, Womens Inc, Prison Focus, a prison rights organization, Theatre Rhinoceros, Luna Sea Theatre, El/ La and more….” Karl Kramer of Living Wage Coalition along with musician and warrior for the people Francisco Hererra gave a bi-lingual herstory of the hundred years of labor resistance at the Redstone from a truck parked outside on 16th street at the protest in Septmeber to save it. Both of them mentioned scores of revolutionary and grassroots organizations. To sum up their oral history, the Redstone housed almost every movement that ever did anything to resist the violent, extractive system of Krapitalism. And now Krapitalism is trying to kill it. Mmmm San Francisco is littered with the sorrow of its endless removal of the sacred. Ever since the Dot com sickness, grasrroots movements and organizations have been scrambling just to stay safely housed so we can serve, organize and rise up. POOR Magazine is one of those movements. In 2009 POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE a poor/houseless, indigenous people-led movement of education, liberation, art, media and advocacy was being evicted and gentriFUKed out of a tiny run-down office in the Tenderloin district of SF at 7th and Market so the new building owners could turn the building into a luxury hotel. We as fellow poor people ran five programs to support poor and houseless people with cultural art, theatre, media education and direct advocacy. We were a revolutionary movement building the notion of Poverty Scholarship - Poor people-led theory and trying to activate solutions for us by us. People counted on us. We counted on us. We needed somewhere safe. Living Wage Coaliiton told us about space at the Redstone. We visited and walked around the beautiful building, we prayed and spoke to the ancestors. We saw our warrior comrades in houseless peoples liberation - Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) also in the building. We knew we were home. In the years we were safely and lovingly housed at the Redstone we authored the Declaration of Interdependence, The Poverty Heroes Mural, The MamaFesto for Change, the original plans for Po Peoples Radio PNN-KEXU 96.1fm, the blueprints and Peoples Agreement for ( a MamaFesto that guides us to this day in our creation of Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness We led hundreds of writing, theatre, media and radio workshops and published POOR Press publications for and by scores of low/ no-income and houseless youth and adults. We collaborated with our comrades from Idriss Stelley Foundation, also in the building and many more and held our weekly Street Newsroom and hosted community skolaz and warriors like Jeff Adachi and Papa Bear and more. This building is Life. Please sign and send to others this petition https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/petition-to-save-the-redstone-labor-temple-as-a-community-center-peticion-para-salvar-el-templo-laboral-de-redstone-como-centro-comunitario?source=direct_link&

  • Leave No Trace of the Truth- a movie review

    The Violence of Stealing our Sacred Stories Akkkademiks and Artists Steal, rewrite and co-opt poor/indigenous peoples stories for profit & acclaim no matter what the impact on us. By povertyskola aka tiny gray-garcia Watching the beautiful movie Leave No Trace for the 3rd time was just as hard as the first, because each time I relive my own life of homelessness, PTSD, depression and terror - truly a beautiful and heart-destroying movie for any povertyskola to see. And dangerous. Instead, the following PSA (PovertyScholarshipAnnouncement) aka review is brought to you by a disappointed and indignant povertyskola. The movie Leave No Trace and My Abandonment, the book bu Peter Rock upon which it was based, is a frightening example of casual literary extraction, exploitation and what I call literary colonization. . For the purposes of this critique, I am illustrating how this type of HERstory and history exploitation even happens, and the dangers to povertyskolaz and everyone when it does, and why that violence needs to end in cultural art, theatre, literature and cinema. And conversely, as a society, we need to turn to poverty scholarship informed narratives about poverty and homelessness for many reasons. Check out my story on the cultural performance of poverty- from Nomadland to White Tiger here. Leave No Trace opens with the softest brush stroke, the camera following a day of off-grid survival by a father and young teenage daughter in “nature,” employing many amazing survival tactics of fire-starting, sewage, and foraging to name a few. We have no idea where they are. This could be a “camping trip” with middle class, wite people who believe in off-grid technology and speaks to one of the many things I teach on and speak on: the classed and raced criminalization of our houseless and poor bodies of all colors and cultures. The direction and acting in the film brings us in close to these characters’ lives. Note for clarification: the first part of the story/book/film is based on the real lives—albeit used without their permission, consent or inquiry—of a houseless father and daughter in Washington State who were living houselessly in a state park. After we are introduced to the main characters, they are the victims of a violent arrest and sweep, something common to houseless residents of every settler town across the United Snakes. CPS and social workers seize the father and daughter and barrage them both with psych evaluations and robot/AI invasive testing processes to determine their mental “fitness,” asking idiotic questions directed to the daughter such as “Where are you living, and do you feel safe,” to which she consistently answers, “In the park and yes, why wouldn't I be safe?” Eventually, the family is begrudgingly “released” from State incarceration, sort of, to a home of a well-meaning wite savior Christian Krapitalistmas Tree Farmer. Dad was ordered to work in the tree farm with triggering “Desert Storm” style helicopters. In addition to isolation, purposelessness and ongoing CPS surveillance, the duo were now enmeshed in the external forces and fruits of colonial “civilization.” This is when the POV of the wite middle class author colonizes their HErstory/History, writing in the cult of angst and colonial temptations into the daughter’s heart and life, with no clue of this—I might add—because houseless people’s actual lives are never important enough to ensure narrative accuracy. As a matter of fact, our lives are open for interpretation, co-optation and re-writing. We have no agency over our own stories, because, as I often teach on in PeopleSkool, we suffer from the violence of exposure. Our lives, our bodies, our images, our struggles and even our solutions are exposed to the world to “see” to allegedly “know,” fodder for media, art and akademik theft, fetishization and erasure. One of the many reasons we poor people launched POOR Magazine. “I heard they were sighted on the streets of Portland last year…. My reaction was, no, that isn't true, I know what happened to them, and that's not what happened to them.” In the end of a video by Peter Rock about My Abandonment, he illustrates the kind of elitist literary arrogance it would take to steal someone’s story, rewrite its ending, its beginning, and erase the characters’ real life agency. People who—might I remind readers—are already silenced, predated on, and harassed people trying to survive in a colonial reality of occupied Mama Earth and the lie of rent. Rock begins his class washing and re-writing of their story after the father and daughter “disappear,” aka escape the missionary home and no-one hears from them. In his book, Rock not only writes a fake ending but a prequel that has the father kidnapping the daughter, thereby not only stealing their stories but criminalizing and incriminating their lives for his literary gain. Rock’s devastating ending is a frightening example of what we teach in Poverty Scholarship - Poor People Led Theory, Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth on the transubstantive error in media, akkkademia and art. The idea of transubstantiation is that in looking at the surface behaviors of a people, you can draw conclusions about the meaning and values of behaviors, but the meaning and the value comes from the deep structure of a people’s culture and values. And so you have African people behaving in a certain way, based upon the African deep structure, but you have a person like Daniel Moynihan looking at that behavior and trying to interpret it from his own European culture deep structure. He draws the wrong conclusions. Dr Wade Nobles - excerpt from Poverty Scholarship TextBook In wite middle class Peter Rock’s worldview, referred to as Deep Structure” in Black Psychology, he is unable to “see” the agency, the resistance or even an alternative notion of success for the houseless father and good daughter. This is also a classic example of what my Mama Dee would refer to as the danger of someone who “hasn’t missed a meal judging us poor people at all.” This body of work is something we teach on at PeopleSkool to help colonized, mis-educated artists, teachers, researchers, and akademiks to stop hurting, co-opting, lying and profiting off us with disconnected, deluded saviorism, non-profiteering, fetishizing and cultural theft. The father and daughter are wite themselves. But as my fellow light-skinned/mixed race sister- teacher-povertyskola Junebug often says: Poverty is a culture. Our survival, our choices, our resistance moves aren’t seen or overstood by people born and bred into krapitalist middle or upper class lives. People who haven’t struggled just to stay alive and cancel out the day and night terrors in our minds and eyes. People like the stolen protagonists in My Abandonment. In me and my mama’s work in Poverty Scholarship, we lift up the harmful act of transubstatiation as an applicable concept to class privileged peoples in positions of power and access making decisions about our lives, criminalizing our bodies and our children, stealing our stories and incessantly making subsequent harmful actions about us without us. Rock has the protagonists making choices, feeling things, making moves, informed by the only POV/deep structure he has to draw from, choices like what I call the “away notion,” the cult of angst and on and on. What is rarely, if ever, seen with class privileged eyes is the resistance, thriving, and heroism of families and individuals to make our own sovereign decisions, rooted in what I call radical interdependence, care and love. Another example of this harmful theft for art and acclaim is the heavily acclaimed documentary Daughter from Danang, leaving the “subject” aka protagonist with depression and sorrow and the filmmakers and “docent” with an Oscar and more kudos on their portfolios. Spoiler Alert: For Yale educated, NEA and Guggenheim recipient Rock, happiness would never look like father and daughter remaining together. In Peter Rock’s world, there would only be one kind of “happy” or positive ending, and them taking care of each other, in collaboration wouldn’t be it. I referred to this movie and book as dangerous because it erases our agency, our sovereign choices, our ability to take care of each other even in the most dire of circumstances—a survival trait of poverty skolaz. Some people might call this resilience. I reject that facile label. It is us, living interdependently, it is us with so little sharing so much, and surviving. At this point, the only solution to this literary colonization is to enact what I call literary reparations or cultural reparations. This can look like many things -like Peter Rock giving any proceeds from the book and movie (if he got any) to the family. To make a public apology in the media to them and to make an offer to ghost co-write their truthful biography just to get started. One of the other things we poor and houseless cultural workers teach and live by, is that poor people should be compensated for their/our stories. We enact this in many ways at POOR Magazine by teaching class privileged people like Rock about Radical Redistribution of their hoarded wealth and occupied land. This is the model that enabled us poor people to launch and build Homefulness, which now houses 18 formerly houseless families, youth and elders. Including this povertyskola and my sun. The story of the father and daughter was very similar to years of homelessness, sweeps, CPS predation and saviorism me and my mama barely survived through, But we did, and stayed together and worked together and built POOR Magazine and Homefulness—a homeless people’s solution to homelessness—and thanks to the teaching of Poverty Scholarship, we are working together with our comeUnity of houseless skolaz, supported by radical redistributed dollars by our Solidarity family, to write our own books, articles, radio pieces and now—if we can raise enough resources—a movie based on a play I wrote in 2022 entitled Crushing Wheelchairs about our lives, lived, died and criminalized on the streets of this occupied land. Written, acted, and directed by us for us and everyone else. Stay tuned for the truth.

  • 15th Houseless Bay Area resident becomes Homeful(Ness)

    As politricksters call a useless State of Emergency in Alameda County Homeless residents of the Bay Area Build our own self-determined solutions to homelessness and move in. New houseless residents are welcomed in at ceremony with all nations prayer from Maya to Africa- While hundreds of eviction cases are filed since the end of the eviction moratorium in Alameda County- and legislators call a State of Emergency for Homelessness, poor and houseless people create a rent-free, healing model of housing and interdependence they call Homefulness and move in. "For the first time in my life i feel like I can heal, rest and be safe," said Angel Heart one of the first 12 residents to move into Homefulness in September of 2022 when the City Of Oakland gave Homefulness its Certification of Occupancy, a long and grueling process that took over 10 years and was rife with over-priced permit fees and one obstruction after the othe blocking Homefulness' opening. "Its funny to me that Oakland calls a state of emergency while ordering sweeps of houseless communities like Wood Street Commons, a perfectly beautiful houseless peoples solution to homelessness, blocks us at Homefulness and enables the eviction moratorium to rage on," said tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless, now homeful resident and visionary of Homefulness Since 2022, houseless elders, youth and families have been slowly moving into the healing first model of rent-free housing in Deep East Oakland. "We ask permission and spiritual guidance of the 1st Nations Peoples of the regions we build Homefulness in and see this as a model for the whole of occupied Turtle Island aka the US, and the world, " tiny gray-garcia concluded. Homefulness was actively blocked and prevented from opening for over 10 years by the settler colonial government in power in the City of Oakland, until thanks to the support of Sustainable economies Law Center and comeUnity pressure they finally allowed POOR Magazine to open this beautiful solution. Homefulness was a dream of an indigenous houseless mama and daughter, Dee and Tiny when they lived in their car, on bus benches, in shelter beds, motel rooms and SRO's when they were lucky enough to afford them. Homefulness was only made possible because graduates of POOR Magazine's PeopleSkool radically redistribute to the Bank of ComeUnity Repararations or become members of the Solidarity Family which supports poor and houseless families, elders and children to build/create and vision their own self-determined futures, solutions and dreams. To get more information on how to build a Homefulness project in your area or become part of a powerful solidarity economy email poormag@gmail.com or register for the next session of PeopleSkool. This is the 15th ceremony since 2022.

  • Wealth-Hoarding Ambivalence is Violence

    Medicine for Mama Earth and All of us By Tiny @povertyskola Your ambivalence is violence Your paralysis is more homelessness Your hoarding creates our impoverished life story I have shared with descendants of wealth-hoarders , land stealers who know that something is wrong- that are uncomfortable with the feeling But have been lied to for way too long Your paralysis is our violence As you sit and consider More of mama earth is bought and sold by twitter These are quiet conversations - Don’t include bankkksters And philanthro-pimped “givers” With so much hoarded money sometimes they don’t even remember With legacies of enslavement, exploitation and Colonial terror So what to do ? Deeply overstand stealing/devil-oping, leeching mama Earth must end These silent thieves can’t get away with this unholy war They can’t trade her, steal her, fix her, sell her like she was an old car Cant keep watching as poor/unhoused folks are swept like we dirt on the floor Your paralysis is killing us Please, open your hearts and Listen “This is a request for ideas, I’m thinking about a philanthropy strategy…”Jeff Bezos, (richest man in the world”? Says before he “gives” 98.5 million “away” - which seems like so much to us poor people but come to find out is a mere fraction of his extreme hoarded blud-stained dollars. I want to help cure all the diseases in our childrens life-times,” said Mark Zuckerberg, while slapping his name an a new shiny starbux like facade onto the front of a poor people hospital that still charges poor youth of color for teeth extraction. “I am a conscious billionaire, and I give a lot of my money away,” another global billionaire There are so many wrongnesses with all of these statements. But the first one is that so many people even have all that F..ing money, in the first damn place. These people have undiagnosed hoarder/clutterer disease. These kinds of wealth-hoarders have four to 10 luxury cars when they only need one to drive them, 3 homes and four condominiums, when they only need one to live in? And please don’t tell me its because they have good luck or because they worked hard, all the poor people, families and folks I know work everyday, sometimes three and four jobs like me and my mama did when I was growing up and still can’t afford rent, bills, etc - some of us work just to survive the pain and trauma in our heads and heart from toxic wite supremacy, ableism, gentriFUKAtion and homelessness and then a lot of us do both But one of the main lies here is that no-one critiques, criminalizes, pathologizes or truly questions is the actual accumulation, hoarding, stealing, exploiting of the wealth-hoarders themselves, while us houseless and poor people are criminalized, called names, evicted and “swept” or displaced for the act of hoarding /cluttering things like socks or bags of clothes or paper. These H/C sufferers continue to hoard, fence out, and speculate more and more - rooted in the CorpRape exploitation of Mama Earth, indigenous and poor peoples backs, lives and land. Is Zuckerberg a healer, scientist, doctor or even innovator just because he launched Faccrak? Is Bezos a care-giver, therapist, teacher or any kind of “expert” because he has successfully accumulated billions of blood-stained dollars. How about the Waltons, the Gates - these are people who have had endless wealth and race privileges in this occupied land, they had access to even go to a school like “Harvard” or Stanford, even if they did “drop out” because they were housed as children and fed and not poLICE terrorized and their families and friends knew people that knew more people and had more stolen wealth and on and on the krapitalist cycle repeats itself. Why is anyone thanking them for these meager crumbs? They need Hoarder/Clutterer Buried Alive staff to come in with a series of trucks and move that stolen wealth out of their multiple offshore bank accounts and homes But Im not just talking about conspicuous consumptors like these arrogant tech bros - im talking about the silent violence of trust-funders and wealth-inheritors and even the middle class, comfortable peoples living on this occupied, stolen, lied to land. People who have been lied to for years about “hoarding” and hiding, keeping, succeeding, and the associated CONfusion of consumption, krapitalism and toxic wealth-hoarding, so that they are literally paralyzed into inaction even if they have resources to redistribute. Seeing with their own new eyes the violence, exploitation, terrorism, abuse and murder of their ancestors and yet unable to activate emergency redistribution. From the person who won’t give a dollar to an unhoused person because “they don’t know what they are going to do with the “dollar” to the wealth-hoarder who would rather “give” to huge CorpRape non-profiteers ad philanthropimped admin heavy organizations in times of crisis, cause they don’t “trust” the small on the ground care-givers and service providers, these “issues” this anxiety, this dangerous paralysis is all rooted in the lies you have been told about poor people, about resources and about the ability to accumulate wealth and land. About how much you need to feel “safe” and about safety itself. The success in this occupied indigenous territory is valued by how much of Mama Earth you have stolen, “made” and kept. About the shame you should feel if you haven’t “made” it and how people who have more are implicitly considered “smarter” better, keener, or more strategic. So many lies, so little time. These wealth-hoarding and poverty shaming concepts are also related and entwined with the separation nation I teach on a lot, the ways that we are separated as families, as communities as people to be better CONsumers, krapitalists, workers, producers, exploiters, bosses, hoarders, etc. But really whats happening is we are being used without knowing it. As we leave our communities to go to better schools, jobs, markets we are also leaving our cultures and deep structures and actual safe spaces and are then forced to purchase things, land and love. We are collectively told the only way to “make it” is to hoard and hide and to never tell the truth. We are encouraged to fly to places we aren’t from and “save” poor people there and in so doing we displace and do harm to the cultures and communities already there. Colonial lies aren’t done they are just re-packaged in a 21st century success model. Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us When a houseless/poor person asks you for a dollar or sells you a street newspaper, if you have it give them a dollar not a sandwich, And guess what, yes they might be using it for drugs, so what , do you question what Bezos, Gates, your boss, or your landlord does with the money they make. Similarily, wealth-hoarders, mama earth-owners, trust-funders, inheritors, let your first mind, your heart mind if you will, guide you in your radical redistribution of the resources you have. It is not your place to over-think, to question. The only question you need to ask yourself is what you need for you and your family to survive and thrive, which always has less to do about money and more to do about straight-up accounting and real community work. And for the stupidly “rich” please consider that just cause you have all these blood-stained dollars and stolen land that doesn’t make you any better at figuring out where it should go and what should happen to that land and actually you should be asking/checking with poverty, indigenous skolaz who have had to struggle and our entire lives for mere survival, whose lands and lives were long ago stolen and whose everyday a struggle to be ok ensues. And lastly, please carry the "giving spirit" throughout the year, we houseless and poor folks don't stop living, needing, struggling, being swept after the kolonizer holidaze are over. Politrickster protected and wealth-hoarder promoted scarcity models are a lie, that there isn’t enough for everyone, enough space, enough dollars, enough healthcare, enough service, there is plenty for all of us, we just need to stop believing in the lies we have had shoved down our throats for 527 years and more. What there is plenty of is psychotic greed, dangerous denial and extreme speculating of Mama Earth - privately “owned” and so-called “publicly” owned while people die on the street. Yet another POOR Magazine roofLESS radio reporter was being “swept” off the streets in deep east Oakland last week and another one SF reporter near 3rd st, both of them right next to huge “empty” lots, fenced in, lay bare, with no people or homes on them so greed-filled realEsnakes basing their business models on the buying and selling of mama earth could wait for the "property" values to rise - read: the gentriFUKation could set in Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us When a houseless/poor person asks you for a dollar or sells you a street newspaper, if you have it give them a dollar not a sandwich, And guess what, yes they might be using it for drugs, so what , do you question what Bezos, Gates, your boss, or your landlord does with the money they make. Similarily, wealth-hoarders, mama earth-owners, trust-funders, inheritors, let your first mind, your heart mind if you will, guide you in your radical redistribution of the resources you have. It is not your place to over-think, to question. The only question you need to ask yourself is what you need for you and your family to survive and thrive, which always has less to do about money and more to do about straight-up accounting and real community work. And for the stupidly “rich” please consider that just cause you have all these blood-stained dollars and stolen land that doesn’t make you any better at figuring out where it should go and what should happen to that land and actually you should be asking/checking with poverty, indigenous skolaz who have had to struggle and our entire lives for mere survival, whose lands and lives were long ago stolen and whose everyday a struggle to be ok ensues. And lastly, please carry the "giving spirit" throughout the year, we houseless and poor folks don't stop living, needing, struggling, being swept after the kolonizer holidaze are over. Politrickster protected and wealth-hoarder promoted scarcity models are a lie, that there isn’t enough for everyone, enough space, enough dollars, enough healthcare, enough service, there is plenty for all of us, we just need to stop believing in the lies we have had shoved down our throats for 527 years and more. What there is plenty of is psychotic greed, dangerous denial and extreme speculating of Mama Earth - privately “owned” and so-called “publicly” owned while people die on the street. Yet another POOR Magazine roofLESS radio reporter was being “swept” off the streets in deep east Oakland last week and another one SF reporter near 3rd st, both of them right next to huge “empty” lots, fenced in, lay bare, with no people or homes on them so greed-filled realEsnakes basing their business models on the buying and selling of mama earth could wait for the "property" values to rise - read: the gentriFUKation could set in

  • Emeryville Bay St. Situation

    The chaos started in the Bay Street Mall Emeryville,also known as Ohlone shellmound at 4:30 the afternoon on Sunday, National Cinema Day. People were fighting, shooting, slamming. There was a girl that got stabbed in the neck. There were people recording the chaos for views and clout.‘’I don’t think kids were gathering to fight. I think kids were gathering to get a lot of energy out And i think there's alot of built up rage, anger, frustration and anxiety,’’ said Selena Wilson. The police were using mace and had guns. I dont think it was ok to hurt eatch other and it was different dance groups facing eatchother. I think they were hurting eatch other for clout and views on the internet. I will pay for everyones therapy. -Kai, 11 On 4$ movie day at the bay street mall in Emeryville its shopping malls libraries vr rat stores and more plus that where all the teens go to link and watch movies. I was in Claires at Bay Street Mall getting this expensive bottle of salelean solution and when I was checking out I went outside. I heard a gunshot and screaming but I had to find my cousin who was in the barns and mobile in the bathroom. i'm running on the lower level and calling my cousin and the link and i went to the top level though the Starbucks and it was ppl fighting everywhere escalation was packed even the stairs was packed and this one person fall and it was mad funny but we were stuck up there so once we got on the first level we ran near best buy to get away from all the stuff that was happening to call our uber but it was heka cops like lined up in front of the door. My opinion is that kids should stop trying to be the best fighter or add to their fight page just to be cool on social media. -Nija, 15 A number of fights broke out, a gun got fired, people were maced and arrested. On Cinema day at 4:30pm, hundreds of teens went to Bay St. to “link up”. that's when cameras got turnt on and people felt like they had to fight for the internet and the views, AT that point a lot of people were fighting for the attention of the crowd. After one fight happen then another one happen , one fight that eventually end the mayhem, was when a couple of teens were fighting and a gun was grabbed and fired. Eventually heavy backup was called and the mayhem ended. I think that the group of teens should have waited to fight, I know that there may have been beef between curtain groups, but the group of teens should have at least waited to get off Bay st. ground, and then go fight in a garage nearby. I think guns were used because the police were there so people felt like they had to over power the police. -Ziair, 14 to listen to these stories on Soundcloud, click here

  • People Skool in August 2023

    The DegentriFUKation / Decolonization Seminar is a bi-yearly seminar geared to help people with race, class, and/or formal education privilege decolonize and degentriFuk their family, community, and self. Running August 26th and 27th with follow up sessions to be announced, this two-day seminar is geared to bring/teach the medicine of hoarded wealth/inherited blood-stained dollars redistribution, settler colonizer decolonization, the ongoing violence of the Charity Industrial Complex, The Real Esnakkke industry and the revolutionary liberation of Community Reparations to as many folks as possible- because politrickster solutions are NOT solutions and we MUST spread POOR Magazine's poverty skola-led solutions in this time of so much mass distraction, unhoused, gentriFUKEd, criminalized, mass incarcerated, racism/wite supremacized miseducated, silenced and intentionally dismantled peoples- in the triple pandemics of COVID-19, Poverty, PoLice Terror and Colonization. This seminar is powerful for ALL people-doing work in law, medicine, social justice, history, art, media, ComeUnity, or akkkademia. An application and Sliding Scale Tuition is required to register—this is the first part of each participant's decolonization. Applications for people with race, class, and/or formal education privilege OR poverty skolaz can be found on this page. Weekend seminar Day 1 ​is for poverty skolaz AND people with race, class and/or formal education privilege. It will center Poverty Scholarship & the medicine of poor, houseless and indigenous people-led movements & media. Weekend seminar Day 2 ​is for people with race, class and/or formal education privilege (optional for poverty skolaz), aimed at service providers, media creators, educators, organizers, researchers, artists, legislators, policy-makers, donors & philanthropists, students, community members, and anyone who wants to learn about following Black, Indigenous, POC, and poor leadership and aligning your work with poor people-led self determination movements.

  • WeSearch findings on the Eviction Moratorium

    The End of the Eviction Moratorium Causes Homelessness - a 2023 Youth PovertySkola Led ©WeSearch Summary (WeSearch is poor people-led research informed by the theory of Poverty Scholarship- Poor People-led Theory, Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth Over 243 Eviction cases have been filed just since the end of the eviction moratorium in May in Alameda County- POOR Magazine WeSearchers are 36 recently evicted tenants from Alameda County. 86% of the recently evicted tenants are low, very low-income or below the poverty line. 65% are single parents with children 35% are elders with disabilites 92% of the reporters stated that eviction from their homes has caused them to be homeless or dangerously housing insecure. The following are two statements from POOR Magazine WeSearch Reporters "Once we are evicted it is very hard for us to get back inside," said Lila, a mother of 3 who is currently houseless in Oakland and is asking to remain anonymous as she is afraid she won't get re-housed if potential landlords know her rental history. “I am houseless now, after they ended the eviction moratorium in Alameda, I tried to make payments, I applied for all the federal aid, but I got long covid and I can’t work, I'm probably living in this trailer for the rest of my life, if they don’t arrest me, that is,“ said Mark D, WeSearch Conclusion: Evictions stay on our records as tenants, making it even harder to get inside when you outside. Lila and Mark D are two of over 243 new evictees who just became officially houseless after the eviction moratorium in Alameda county expired on April 29th Wesearch Youth facilitators: Ziair, King, Gabino, Gerry, Raheru, Tiburcio, Zion, Amir, Akil Their conclusions: Ziair- In my perspective, the mortarium should stay because it was established in 2020 when people were unable to work so they shouldn't be responsible for paying rent. The mortarium's termination results in people being evicted onto the streets, which leads to sweeps and power washing. Zion- I'm one of the former students of Deecolonize Academy and currently a part of the leadership program. As someone with experience with being houseless in the past I side with continuing with the eviction moratorium meaning putting a freeze on eviction. So it can allow people to stay in their homes, and at least help not escalate the numbers of people houseless in the streets. TIBURCIO-I believe that the Eviction Moratorium should continue, and that when it eventually ends there needs to be a solid plan of action to make sure the rent buildup doesn’t immediately evict everyone who couldn't pay during the Pandemic.- In addition that cities like Oakland and San Francisco should listen, honor and follow poor and houseless peoples solutions like Homefulness and Wood Street commons rather than making more of us houseless Gabino- As A poverty skolar and a part of the youth program. I believe we should continue the eviction moratorium because gentrification is wrong and we shouldn’t treat Mother Earth as a product/sales pitch. Eviction is unjustified and it kills. Amir-I feel like if they took the moratorium from the community it would be more people on the streets while we are still going to this pandemic and more and more it's too hard finding a job King- I think people should not be taken away from their homes. Raheru- I think there's multiple perspectives to eviction, the owner is running a business and needs their money and if someone isn’t paying then they might find someone who is gonna pay. The people living in the house need somewhere to live but can’t always afford to. There should be free housing for everyone. Ziair - Also once we are on the street the city sweeps us like we are trash - We know That we poor folks have our own solutions - two examples are Wood Street Commons - and Homefulness- a homeless people's solution to homelessness- so maybe these cities and towns can actually support our own solutions and keep the moratoriums in place until they do

  • How Close to Homeless-50 year old Martial Arts Studio and its 80 year old Black Elder Leader Evicted

    “It just shows how close all of us….. are to…. homeless….ness,” Mr Owens, Sensei Owens, Master Owens, 50 year resident of BlackArthur and founder of Cascos Martial Arts in Deep East Oakland, lowered his voice as he finished the last word of this last sentence at the Street Newzroom at Homefulness on BlackArthur. For over fifty years Sifu Bill Owens has owned and operated Casco's Martial Art Academy in Oakland, California. Over the years Bill Owens, with his wife Mary Owens, has taught self defense, cultural awareness, educational values and self confidence to students of all ages. The school has been recognized as being an integral part of the colorful history of Oakland , as it is one of the longest running martial arts schools in California. From their GoFundMe page Mr Owens is the embodiment of all that Martial Arts teaches to any of us that seek out that medicine. Mr Owens is one of the most humble, careful and disciplined men I have met. Mr Owens is a Black Elder, a care-giver, a pourer of knowledge and love into the Deep East Oakland (Huchuin) ComeUnity. Mr Owens is being evicted. “My wife and I got ensnared in a predatory loan by a less than legitimate company while we were trying to survive the pandemic’s impact on our studio,” Mr Owens explained. “We were keeping up with the payments then they somehow jumped up by 200%. We could barely pay them already, but that made it impossible.” Mr Owens explained in more detail the insane situation he was dealing with just trying to stay open and stay housed under the weight of impending foreclosure. As he spoke, carefully explaining the impossible paper theft his family was experiencing this povertyskola’s blood boiled. This is the way they steal homes and lives from poor peoples, Black and Brown communities and specifically elders everyday in this violent krapitalist system. This is nothing new and the very reason when Homefulness first visioned a homeless peoples solution to homelessness right here on Blackarthur built by us poor and houseless people in struggle with eviction, housing insecurity , mold poisoning, scamlords, criminalization and endless poLice harassment, we also visioned our work as DEgentriFUkation. We could not even dream of mamaFesting this vision of building without making sure everyone already here was able to stay here. Whats the use of a solution to build and house houseless people if you couldnt also make sure elders and children were also safe to remain in the homes they were already in . When we launched Homefulness - all of us already from Deep East Oakland, San Francisco and the Bay area were in struggle with gentriFUKation, predatory bankkksters and real Esnakkkes. To this day we are constantly being hit up by texts and emails of loan agents and RealESnakkes trying to speculate, steal and sell this small part of Mama Earth. And finally the very reason we say to end homelessness we all must DegentriFUK our hoods and towns and spiritually and legally UnSell Mama Earth, following spiritual guidance and leadership from 1st Nations relatives who have been taking care of Mama Earth since before the colonizers got to Turtle Island and stole it with papers and pens and treaties and blood-stained dollars. “It went from 40,000 that we owed them to 80,000 and we don’t even know how,” Mr Owens concluded to Po Peoples Radio podcast To save his studio and this Deep East Oakland life-line open Mr Owens and his wife had already moved into the studio and so now not only does he face his 50 year old studio’s closure, he faces his and his wife’s homelessness. At 80 years old. In his own comeUnity.?? This is the violence of krapitalism. This can’t happen. And like Frohms Martial Arts, why isn’t there reparations for these urgently needed Black establishments. Why is Mr Owens and his wife even facing home-lessness ? Mr Owens has a Go Fund Me - PLEASE make sure another Black Elder isn’t evicted, erased and houseless on this stolen land.

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