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  • The End of the Eviction Moratorium Means We Become Homeless

    Houseless/Evicted/Youth and families in poverty release WeSearch Findings & offer a proposal What: WeSearch Release When: 2pm Thursday, July 13th Where: Oscar Grant Plaza Oakland City Hall Over 243 Eviction cases have been filed just since the end of the eviction moratorium in May in Alameda County- Quote from ©WeSearch findings compiled by youth and families in poverty in Oakland. WeSearch is poor people-led research. "As youth who have become homeless due to eviction we know that eviction leads to the homelessness of families and elders, " said Tiburcio Garcia, POOR Magazine youth povertyskola reporter 92% of the RoofLEss radio reporters cited eviction as one of the main causes of our homelessness. "Once we are evicted it is very hard for us to get back inside," said Lila G, 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. The eviction on our records is just one of the many struggles we face once we are houseless, the end of the eviction moratoriums in Oakland and Berkeley will cause massive rises in our homelessness, said tiny gray-garcia- formerly houseless resident of Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness. Houseless/Low-income Youth reporters at POOR Magazine have been doing this WeSearch as part of a Summer Youth Leadership program in media, art and social justice at POOR Magazine and Homefulness for youth in poverty. WeSearch Report on Evictions cause homelessness will be available at the press conference

  • Shoplifting on stolen land: debt-lying, surviving and dying from hunger

    EBT – U got me EBT u got me EBT – best believe Im yo baaadest b Sell my azz for crumbs like these Ebt – EBT U already know Im deep in poverty- Can’t you see Im yo best ho – excerpt from “The Sidewalk Motel: Poems and PoShunary from a povertyskola” Tiny and Aunti Frances Moore on an UnTour of Stolen Land and Resources, visiting door to door in ultra wealthy neighborhoods around the US, share the medicine of the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations with wealth hoarders in Beverly Hills. The ache at the bottom of my stomach had claws. The claws were covered in blood and bits of old food scraps still floating around my empty gut. I imagined this quiet horror inside my body as I stood on Sansome Street in then bustling downtown San Francisco trying to sell bootleg hand-painted T-shirts. Each person walked past me and said nothing, bought nothing and as a matter of fact didn’t even look at me. This meant the hunger would get worse and last longer and there was nothing I could do about it. You see, I had no money at all. If someone didn’t buy one of my T-shirts, I would never get enough to buy a sandwich, a cheese stick, candy or anything. Me and my panhandler and street performer comrades working next to me were having the same day. Which brings me back to the claws. When Jordan Neeley and Banko Brown’s stories splashed across my social media, the strength left my body. I was right there again, a younger me tryna hustle survival money or die. I had been a street performer, a vendor, and a survivor, povertyskola since I was a child with my mama. Both of us floated in and out of housing when we could afford it but more often than not, sleeping in cars, doorways, park benches and filthy SRO rooms. Now today, less than a month after Jordan and Banko’s murders for being hungry, the politricks started to swirl from the LieGislators about the so-called debt ceiling, or what I have re-named debt-lying. In addition to the requisite TRILLIONS for wars and war machines to kill more indigenous peoples and steal, rape their lands across Mama Earth, they were now gonna make financial aid debt violence part of our collective lives again and, in the republicrat neo-poor-people-hate reality, make poor people even more likely to starve with more scarcity requirements put on the fragile food benefit crumbs. The multitude of LieGislations created for the scarcity programs that supposedly “help” poor people, HELLfare, SNAP, medi-cal etc. are already filled with pages upon pages of ways to criminalize poor people for reaching out for help, hundreds of rules and regulations about what you have to do and not do, be and not be, to qualify for the tiny “benefits.” As a recipient of CalFresh, known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, I can tell you that first of all to get the benefit, I had to fill out at least 65 pages of a proof of income and eligibility form. I had to have a strange sci-fi meeting in the middle of Covid outside the HEllFare office, which has now thankfully moved onto phone contact in Alameda County. But I’m required to show proof of whatever income I don’t have or don’t make at least 36 different ways. I am required to show proof of work and life and household and am required to sign a multi-page document under penalty of perjury. Not to mention the fact that the reason I call it a “crumb” is the small amount of SNAP “benefit” barely covers one person’s food needs beyond one week. And especially if you are trying to eat healthily or decolonize our killer diets. For all us poor folks already poisoned by food high in sugar, sodium and fat because they are the cheapest and most accessible food to poor people, it is actually dangerous for our health to have so little money for our food. This is another factor that is killing us. Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Obesity and Heart attacks to name a few, based in large part on the crap we can barely afford. Poor Magazine Homefulness runs the Sliding Scale Cafe each week, sharing Free Groceries, Food, Produce, Diapers and anything else that is donated. The Angry-Old-Wite-Man (AOWM) anti-poor people narrative of “Those lazy poor people are getting free money” is now and has always been a lie. Actually, most of us, like Jordan Neeley and me and my mama when we were on the street aren’t even getting the SNAP crumb at all. The paperwork, the “work” of proving our poverty, and constantly being interrogated for our trauma-filled, stress-filled lives is way more than anyone feels like dealing with when we are hungry, tired, houseless or even marginally housed in the crappy, uninhabitable poor people housing we can barely afford. The supposed “changes” to the SNAP crumbs that were part of the debt-lying, I mean debt ceiling, now make it necessary that in addition to the 50-65 page “applications,” endless paperwork and documentation and the basic requirement to work or go to school or be in a training program, you have to somehow work even more. And especially if you are 50? The point is we are already supposed to work, we are already criminalized for applying for a meager bit of support and they have already dropped the Covid era extra off the crumb so it’s hardly any money again and barely gets us through the month. The AOWM syndrome is based on classism, racism and Christian saviorism. By putting all this hate and crumb snatching attention of student debt and food stamp debt on poor people, no one looks at the trillionares, land and resource hoarders who are still hoarding in this bill and have no requirement to share, redistribute or change their violent krapitalist ways. Not to mention the fact that poltricksters, BureAKRAZee’s and non-profiteers are still making money on the poverty they caused us to be in. Creating products, projects and anti-social work jobs to manage us, case-mangle us and criminalize us. This whole 50-year-old additional work requirement will cause not only more people to give up and not try to get support but cause more punitive workers to be hired in the already stupid, broken scarcity system. From land theft to bootstraps to starving artist to bread lines to so-called food insecurity, middle class settlers have been naming, shaming, criminalizing, taking and saving poor and indigenous Black, Brown and disabled people for centuries. Stealing land from First Nations peoples then “saving” them from poverty and the alcoholism they caused. Incarcerating disabled and poor people for being poor and disabled and then “saving” them from poverty is a classic crapitalist template and all goes back to the original pauper laws, ugly laws and settlement houses. The welfareQUEENs project at POOR Magazine made up of us poor and houseless mamas, poets and cultural workers on welfare, SNAP, medi-hell and subsidies were, like me and mama, some of the hardest working people I know, holding down three and four jobs, raising children and doing the multiple punitive forms and appointments required to qualify for the crumbs. In the welfareQUEENS poor mama led WeSearch (my word for poor people-led research) we were able to uncover the racist roots of all these United Snakes programs. Welfare’s scarcity wasn’t even made accessible to women of color and in fact was created only for “white widows of war veterans.” The welfareQUEENs made up of poverty skolas Junebug, Laure, Queennandi, myself, Vivi-T, Flaherty and Tracey Jones Faulkner, to name a few, eventually became a powerful play where we acted out our multiple struggles to survive and thrive through so much class and race hate – which sadly is really not that much different today. Bread lines, free boxes and saviors are not what poor people need or want. We need wealth-hoarders to transform into radical redistributors, Mama Earth de-occupiers, ComeUnity Reparators and change-makers. This is why we poor and houseless people have created the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations which helps wealth-hoarders un-hoard by setting up a sacred vessel of distribution that goes directly to poor mamaz, elders and youth who need it. Ceremonial launch of the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations in September 2019, where blood-stained dollars become love-stained dollars. This non-bank Bank has literally provided food, medical care, hotel rooms and car repair money to poor folks like us who need it and is helping to mama fest the next iteration of Homefulness, a homeless peoples’ solution to homelessness that we houseless and poor peoples are working to build in Deep East Oakland. I never sold that T-shirt that day or any day that week. There were weeks like that. I saw no option but to liberate some food from the market. I am not proud of what i did, but in that moment of struggle and hunger truly saw no other option. I ended up getting arrested by the security guard and later the police, but most of all i felt deep shame for my poverty and for my hunger. “I’m hungry,” Jordan Neeley shouted. Not because he was violent. Not because he was “crazy.” Not because he was “dangerous” – but because he was hungry. Period.

  • The Bottle

    By Momii Palapaz He held the bottle, jerking the slushy ketchup as it splashed out. The red, thick liquid flew out and landed on mom. Dad was mad. Dad was drunk. As my sister and I watched, in shock and fear, mom looked defeated, saying nothing. She wiped the spray of red off her clothes. Dinner came to a halt. This wasn’t a crisis, this was just another day. Another dinner with dad ranting and raving. 14 million, or one in eight persons are alcoholics in the U.S. California’s citizens, with the most purchasing, consumed 85.7 million gallons in 2020. The mention of boring facts and statistics aren’t enough to explain the discomfort of experiencing an abusive alcoholic user. The numbers hang there without a reason. New water holes and inventions of sweet tasting, liquor infused beverages are flooding the market. Marketing from the liquor industry teases the prospects of vulnerable customers. Down a shot, or guzzle another bottle to smother the dark. Take a sip for courage, confidence, happiness, only to wake up sour and useless. I was born into alcoholism. My mother’s father was a mean drunk, consuming a case of beer daily. Her grandfather, who she said was “so nice,” manufactured sake, a Japanese wine concoction made of rice. It’s “too sensitive to ask about,” I “lack emotional well being,” our families are “still struggling at 70-90 years old. Will we still be traumatized in 60 years?” Over and over, the clobber hit my heart. I was not alone. I was part of a core of generations in the same club of trauma. “I feel so much anger.” “All the yonsei (fourth generation) in my family suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD and other trauma related issues.” "Assembly center" for Japanese-Americans in Los Angeles County. April 1942 Everyone at the healing circle were descendants of over 120,000 Japanese American families incarcerated in concentrations throughout the west and midwest states of the USA in 1943. Five generations untangling the secrecy, shame, embarrassment and racism. My father, a hard working mailman, was expert in maximum speed and efficiency. Usually hungover but able, he was known as a functioning alcoholic. Clocking out at the end of his workday, he immediately hit the bars of the SF financial district. He came home hours later, making the full round of bus stops, sleeping past his destination. We laughed and were glad he made it home safely. Through the years, I have come to understand his weakness toward alcohol. Despite his addiction, dad was a reader, writer, a union man much more. He introduced me to books by Richard Wright. Dad shared a novel called “Manchild In A Promised Land, about childhood in a poverty stricken Black neighborhood, written by Claude Brown. His affection for jazz filled our SF apartment with music from Charlie Parker, and favorite drummers Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Elvin Jones. I will always love my father.

  • Youth Povertyskola Apprenticeship: Amir Cornish

    When "Hefty" Bags are Home (Article) Amir praying in an Aztec Dance Ceremony. "I always had what we needed just in case we ever got kicked out onto the streets. I started to think to myself, and realized that the big black Hefty bag was a part of me."----------Amir Cornish to read the full story, click here. Anti-Police (Article) Amir speaking at a Stolen Land Tour "I believe we should abolish the police because we don’t need any more Black and Brown people dying. People believe that they wouldn’t feel safe if we abolish the police and would say the crime rate would go up."--------------------------Amir Cornish to read the full story, click here. SPIRIT WORK Amir Aztec Dancing at a ceremony in the Mission District. Amir at another Aztec Dance ceremony at Fremont High School. ACTIVISM Amir supporting the biggest homeless encampment in Oakland, Wood St. Commons You Can't End A Revolution - Wood St's Last Day is The Beginning "Wood Street is a wonderful place that John and some other members created for themselves and others to feel safe, also be to a loving community. The City of Oakland never supported them, and they should have. As houseless people, just like us houseless peoples at Homefulness, they know what they need and they created it."----------------------------Amir Cornish to read the full story, click here. BUILDING Amir participating in a Cob Building Workshop Amir assisting the planning of Homefulness 2 TEACHING Amir at the UC Berkeley campus, helping teach the students of Deecolonize Academy Amir dancing with the students of Deecolonize Academy at Homefulness 2 Homefulness Is Like Heaven (Article) Amir with Poor Magazine in front of Homefulness. "Homefulness is not just a place, it’s much more than a place- it’s like heaven. We save lives during this pandemic, we always help our community and never stop, always help the poor. Homefulness is a place where you can feel safe."----Amir Cornish to read the full story, click here. Amir at the Stolen Land Hoarded Resources Tour at SillyCon (Silicon) Valley. Radio Shows Videos Publications Amir wrote a story in this book called "Tamir Rice" pg. 187 Amir wrote a story in this book called "Youth Visions of Homefulness" pg. 142 Amir wrote a story in this book called "Coronavirus, Depression, and Loneliness" pg. 179 Amir wrote a story in this book called "Investigating Bus Rapid Transit" pg. 186 Apprenticed In the Following: Construction Janitorial Radio Broadcasting Graphic Design Publication Nursing In-Home Care Journalism Activism Video Editing Acting Life Skills: Financial Literacy Navigating Bureaucracy and Systems Personal Organization

  • FREE HAITI: Stop U.S. Military Terror on the Haitian People

    SOLIDARITY WITH THE HAITI PEOPLE IS SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF PHILIPPINES AND PALESTINE By Momii Palapaz Poor News Network “No country on earth has suffered from (U.S. military suppression) more than Haiti.” From 1791 to 1804, African slaves rising up were “The greatest threat to the U.S. slave owners who controlled Washington. The Haitian revolution had to be crushed” said speaker and anti-imperialist supporter at Haiti Flag Day May 18, 2023 in SF UN Plaza. For a country island only 831 miles from Florida's south, most US citizens are terribly unaware of the centuries old revolution fought by the Haitian people. About the same size as the state of Maryland, Haiti, over 100 years later, with more than 5 million people, is still fighting for sovereignty. HAITIAN FLAG DAY RALLY AT UN PLAZA UNDER THE SIMON BOLIVAR STATUE “Death squads, called gangs, are used as a way to fool people. Its lawless element is supported by the occupatying government of Haiti, the Tonton Macoutes. President Devalier gave guns to [TonTon Macoutes, who earned] their living by exploiting [Haitians] and taking land. Shooting and killing citizens. I grew up in that regime,” said Pierre Labossiere from the Haiti Action Committee. “The imperialist system cannot tolerate any country outside its orbit or unwilling to play their imperialist game… The creation of the first Black Republic in the world and for that they’ve had to wage a struggle ever since to consolidate that basic national liberation struggle,” said Dayton, anti-imperialist organizer. They also paid France for their independence. Literally held up at gunpoint, France stole 150 million in francs from the Haitian people. Today’s dollar value puts that amount at 20-30 billion dollars. It took 122 years for the freed Haitian people to pay them back. Timely that the U.S. military invasions on the Haitian island began in the 1900s. “It's for nothing less than the clarity of the Manifest law dismissing ‘the poor Haitian’… We have to confront our very own political system itself; both parties, Democratic and Republican, that don’t give a shit about the Haitian people or freedom or Haitian self determination. Without that clarity Haiti will never be free … I impart that with you today that the only true internationalism is the struggle for revolution in our own home country. U.S out of Haiti, Haiti will be Free,” continued speaker Dayton. Hispaniola was first invaded in 1492 by Spain and the French via C Columbus, who shipped thousands of kidnapped West Africans to the Carribean island. The French, Spanish, Dutch and other colonizing imperialists had already depleted and abused the islanders in slavery of indigenous Taino or Arawak, Guanahatabey and Carib inhabitants. The population was obliterated under the merciless feet of island invaders. Hispaniola was cut in half in a deal between Spain and France. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are separated with a false border. Today, the mutilated land—overworked, excavated and tortured—has lost acres of topsoil. Farmers, violently kicked out of their homes by the Duvalier Tontons Macoutes, were forced to leave their land, watching produce bake in the sun, unable to reap the gifts of the earth. From the Philippines to Palestine to Haiti, Narissa Lee and Brandon Lee of the SF Co. for Human Rights in the Philippines and The International League for People's Struggle spoke in solidarity with the Haitian people. “U.S. imperialism is wreaking havoc...with 800 military bases in over 80 countries,” said anti-imperialist Brandon Lee, who still has a bullet lodged in his back from fighting for land rights in the Philippines. He survived an attempted assassination by the military-run government. Brother Palestinian speaker, from the US Palestinian Community Network (USPLN) enthusiastically spread unity exclaiming, “We recognize families of political prisoners bringing genuine support from the people of Palestine. We have a lot in common with the people in Haiti [and gathered] donations in 2010. People who are in poverty understand the oppression, understand …enemies of peace [and] recognize [that] the dictatorships of Haiti received training from the Israeli government while getting support from the U.S. government. Two days ago millions of people around the world supported Palestinian for self determination and ending the occupation. They recognize the Nakba of Palestinian people. We truly believe that our faith is to gather our people of Haiti and people of Palestine. We are going to win against injustice. Every part of the world we receive solidarity and support for justice in Palestine except two places. It happens to be the enemies of Haiti and Palestine; the State of Israel and the U.S. of America. This government is supporting injustice around the world.” “When we stand in solidarity with Haiti, we stand in solidarity with the Philippines, with Palestine, with people, brothers and sisters right here in the U.S. We cannot forget the political prisoners here in Haiti, in the U.S. Political prisoners everywhere. We stand in solidarity. We want an end to police brutality, an end to police murders, whether it be here or in Haiti or everywhere else in the world,” said Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee. Haiti Action Committee, POB 2040, ACTION.HAITI@GMAIL.COM

  • "You are killing us"- Lives Lost to Involuntary Displacement aka Sweeps

    By Robbie Powelson Joel died on or around April 20th, 2022 in a gutter in San Rafael. I received the news, like most everyone from our encampment in Sausalito, around noon while about a quarter of our camp attended a court ordered settlement with the City of Sausalito. Joel was 24 years old with a big goofy grin. The last time I saw him, he was catching a pigeon in the center of the city-operated camp in Sausalito. Joel had a child who lived up north. About two months prior he had left his campsite to visit them. While he was away, the City of Sausalito stole his tent and belongings. When he returned, they refused to allow him back in the camp under orders of the City. Executives were not allowing anyone to return as they sought to eradicate the camp by attrition. Joel had been in and out of drug treatment, going between addiction and recovery. He had numerous overdoses at the camp, from which people at the camp would revive him. People looked out for him. When he left, he had no one to look at for him. So on 4/20, when he took too much in celebration of that notorious holiday, there was no one around to catch him as he slipped into the gutter – no one to call the ambulance or administer Narcan. He stopped breathing there, dead at 24, in San Rafael where had moved involuntarily. Joel’s story happens all across the world. Involuntary displacement of people who don’t have housing is a leading contributor to overdose deaths. A recent study at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus showed long-term health effects of involuntary displacement of people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs, using data from 23 U.S. cities. The model suggests encampment sweeps, bans and move-along orders could contribute to 15-25% of deaths among the unsheltered population over 10 years. Other dangers shown in other studies show that former encampment residents experienced a 28% rise in arrests and a 35% increase in the risk of physical assault after an encampment sweep. Everyone wept in the middle of the settlement meeting. “You are fucking killing us,” someone accused the City leaders in attendance. The meeting adjourned early. We were in the settlement meeting for a series of restraining orders our folks at the camp won against the City of Sausalito that had been issued shortly after Joel had been evicted. Those restraining orders stopped the eviction of people from our camp - and poor Joel was just unlucky that we hadn’t figured out how to do these mini-restraining orders sooner. We didn’t have the knowledge back then – but if we had, we would have likely been able to get a restraining order to allow Joel to get back into the camp. Then he wouldn’t have OD’d - someone would have been able to call the ambulance and administer the Narcan. The eviction caused him to be in a more dangerous situation. When he died, no one was around to catch him. Because of that, he died. While the drugs caused his body to shut down, the reason no one was around to revive him was because of a state-created danger.

  • CalTrans WeSearch

    On December 6 2022, Youths, Adults and elders from Poor Magazine, Wood Street Commons, Street Spirit, Street Sheet, and WRAP delivered Freedom of Information Act Request to CalTrans. They tried in EVERY way they could to try to avoid us, make thing difficult and confusing... but...... They responded. Stay tuned for our Release of Information at Oakland City Hall in June Press Contacts: Miguel Muteado Silencio & Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia (510) 435-7500 For Immediate Release: The Cost of Sweeping Us vs Housing Us - Houseless, formerly houseless Bay Area residents launch an investigation at CalTrans Unhoused and formerly unhoused residents of Oakland and San Francisco laucnh an investigation into the cost of sweeps and the cost of housing What: WeSearch investigation of Caltrans and other city and state agencies launched by houselessformerly houseless Bay Area youth, adults and elders When: TODAY 10:30am Tuesday, December 6, 2022 Where:CalTrans office 111 Grand Av, Oakland, CA "We lose so much in sweeps, not just our belongings, but our trust, confidence and hope in the people who are supposed to be there to provide us with services," said John Bowman Janosko, resident leader Wood Street Commons, which sufferred with ongoing sweeps and harassment from Caltrans and the City of Oakland. "I had everything taken from me, things i will never be able to replace and CalTrans no matter how many hoops i went through i could never get then back from CalTrans, said Brokin Cloud, Houseless in Oakland for over 15 years who just moved into Homefulness - a rent free housing project created by houseless people at POOR Magazine. "Thousands of dollars are spent on sweeps, from police to DPW, the City and State could save so much if they just provided us with housing, " said La Monte, resident leader of Wood Street Collective I was "swept" multiple times and twice even power-washed with dangerous chemicals, for years when me and my mama were on the street houseless, it never made us stop being houseless, it just made us sick and at risk of death said Tiny (Lisa) Gray-Garcia, formerly homeless, incarcerated, single mother, poet, visionary of Homefulness and co-author of many publications including Criminal of Poverty - Growing Up Homeless in America and more. POOR Magazine, Wood Street Collective and Cob on Wood communities are collaborating with Stolen Belonging, Coalition on Homelessness, WRAP and other poor people-led movements and organizations across the Bay Area in this WeSearch investigation to find out the physical, spiritual and fiscal cost of these violent sweeps on houseless peoples bodies versus the costs of poor, houseless and indigenous people-led solutions like Homefulness and Wood Street Collective. On this day they will be submitting FOIAS to CalTrans created by houseless, formerly houseless youth and elders from POOR Magazine as well as hearing from many more houseless voices on their struggles and resistance to Sweeps WeSearch is a concept and word created by tiny gray-garcia to describe the process of poor and houseless people creating their own forms of research and investigaiton that is not extractive or separate from their experience and the for the sole purpose of making sure our voices are also included in not onky the investigation but the solutions that are derived from the findings. More information on WeSearch can be found in the textbook Poverty Scholarship - Poor People-led Theory , Art , Words and Tears Across Mama Earth - OTHER LINKS- - The Violence of Evicting already evicted residents at Wood Street - - From Wood Street to Where Do We Go? - Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness - Story in MOTHER JONES about Homefulness

  • Cuando Yo Quería Ser Blanco/When I Wanted to Be White

    Bienvenidos VOCES EN RESISTENSIA UNA VES MAS A VOCES EN RECISTENSIA 96,1 FM MI NOMBRE Cuando llegue a estado desunidos me impactó tanto- tanto que yo quería ser blanco. Cuando me decidí a salir a un lugar para saber más sobre las gringas- que les guste el tipo de música que me gusta a mi. Me vestí coqueton con unas botas negras que compré con mi primer pago de mi trabajo y camisa negra de manga larga pantalón de mezclilla medio apretado y una chamarra de piel con cierres. Y empecé a caminar en las calle de poco a poco en la calle donde viví y así comencé a conocer la ciudad. Desde el segundo día que empecé a trabajar con las mujeres rubias y gueras. Cuando por primera vez que entre a un lugar para tratar de socializar con las ilusiones que tenía en ideas de poder encontrar la perfecta gringa para mi pero como a cada guerra que observaba sem caía la baba y me sentí mal por la razón de no hablar la lengua del país. En los lugares que trabaje un poco más cerca empecé a descubrir y reconocer el significado de las diferencias o mejor dicho la discriminación y la convivencia social. Y así empecé a aprender a prender las diferentes posiciones que trabaje en los restaurantes. Y así empecé a incrementar cada año y asi incrementa la rentas y nunca pude tener la gringa ni el dinero para poder tener un lugar para mi solo. Esa es la razón que tuve que vivir en compañía de mis hermanos y con el tiempo todos sabemos que necesitabamos un poco de privacidad. Tuve que encontrar un trabajo más pero eso no fue suficiente como el paso del tiempo, tuve que rentar un lugar más chiquito por el mismo costo- el cual solo lo ocupaba para dormir y guardar lo poca ropa que tenía- lo cual no pude pagar por mucho tiempo después de perder un trabajo. Tuve que ir a dormir en un sillón con unos amigos lo cual era un poco difícil porque era un lugar donde todos los días son sociale y felices. Con el tiempo conosi ala mama de mi hijo lo cual no fue muy diferente por lo que si no pagas nuestras gentes están tan colonizados que solo piensan en el dinero. Así con el tiempo pase hacer un residente de las calles de san francisco por que cuado el tiempo de una persona se acabo y las personas que son duenos de las casas o apartamentos no les importa si alguien vive o muere. Así poco a poco cuando nos tratan de convertir en esclavos. Welcome VOICES IN RESISTANCE ONCE AGAIN TO VOICES IN RESISTANCE 96.1 FM MY NAME When I got to the (dis)United States it struck me so much that I wanted to be white- when I decided to leave to a place to know more about the gringas that like the kind of music that I like. I dressed flirty with black boots that I bought with my first paycheck from my job and black long sleeve shirt, half tight denim trousers, and a leather jacket with zippers. I started walking in the streets bit by bit- in the street where I lived and this is how I began to know the city. From the second day I started working with the blonde women. When for the first time I walked into a place to try to socialize with the illusions I had in ideas of being able to find the perfect gringa for me but like every war I watched, I drooled and I felt bad for her because I could not speak the language of the country. In the places I worked I began to discover and recognize the meaning of differences or rather discrimination and social coexistence. And so I began to learn to do the different positions I worked in restaurants. And so I started to increase my funds every year and like that the rent increases and I could never have the gringa or the money to be able to have a place just for me. That is why I had to live with my brothers and over time we all know we needed some privacy. I had to find another job but that was not enough and as time passed I had to rent a smaller place for the same price- which I only spent time in to sleep and keep the little clothes that I had- which I could not pay for long after losing a job. I had to go to sleep in an armchair with some friends which was a bit difficult because it was a place where every day they are social and happy. Over time I met the mom of my son which was not very different so if you do not pay our people they are so colonized that they only think about money. So as the time passed I became a resident of the streets of San Francisco because when the time for a person is up and people who own the houses or apartments it does not matter to them if someone lives or dies. And so little by little they try to turn us into slaves .

  • Sex slavery in the 25th century

    Poverty Scholar Brokin Cloud Malcom X Tortuguita This is the first moral human reasoning that slavery and sex are not in accordance with human society. The control of sex is an assault on humanity itself. It is to be regulated and controlled =assassinationed. The entire world is dealing with sex as a commodity and humans are dying, which = assassination. Too many Humans are involved. The system of hypocrisy in a capitalist autocratic system has proven to be unsafe and lead to negative consequences. The assassination of Malcolm X is still an unsolved real event that deserves closure. Malcolm X’s family has launched lawsuits against the United States; on the New York police department, on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI). Malcolm X’s family needs to find the United State government entities guilty so the family can find closure. The exoneration of the first (person) accused has created a complete unresolve of the assassination. Furthermore, it seems that the US government is trying to play a game with time. It has been 58 years since the assassination. It's not like it was yesterday or a week ago. I’m talking about time and the United States in this year of 2023, the superior court judge Clarence Thomas has offended the people of the United States for his participation in the abortion issue, the January 6 riot, unreported trips, luxury outings, then selling property in the state of Florida 3 years ago and today is using it as a tax write off. The hypocrisy of the United States is self-evident; sex slavery = assassination. In the state of Georgia, like Malcom X, a young peacemaker, Tortuguita, was assassinated early this year and today, April 23rd, is his birthday. The state of New York had the awareness of justice for Tortuguita, who was murdered by the Atlanta swat team of that police department. In perspective of human kind in the year of 2023, Little rats follow The big rats. Assassination is every year of life in this capitalist autocratic world. On this Revolutionary Day, May 1, 2023, the hunt in Texas is for a single gunman. Who is not the question, but where and when. In this 25th century technology, why do I say this? Well, it's because Malcolm X was killed 58 years Ago, Kennedy, 49 years and 7 months ago, Lumumba, 62 years ago, and King, 42 years ago.

  • Un-Tour Through Tongva Territory

    Tiburcio Garcia in front of the Beverly Hills Sign (circa. 2023) “What are you guys doing here?” She held her phone slightly away from her face, staring at us through her wrought iron fence, holding back Mochi, her giant white dog. She stared at us uncomprehendingly, seeing my mothers tattered jail suit and Uncle Leroy in his scooter with a drum tied to the back, turning him into a character from Mario Kart. It must have been a sight, and as she took in more and more, her eyes widened, and I chuckled. Her eyes slid over us and on Muteado, wearing his full danza traje, clad in leather and a massive copili bursting with feathers reminiscent of palm fronds. “We’re asking that you consider giving your second or third vacation home to help house people on the street” my mother Tiny Gray-Garcia responded simply, handing her our list of demands: We are demanding the extreme wealth hoarders and land occupiers in this town that led to the displacement and removal of so many poor and houseless people support the building of Homefulness in occupied Tongva with Tongva Nation and Houseless peoples guidance. We invite all residents of this occupied territory to come to the next session of PeopleSkool. We humbly ask that any resident of this wealth hoarding neighborhood who have more than one home redistribute their second or third home to people who have no homes. We are demanding that this colonized city give at least one of the hundreds of abandoned surplus buildings to houseless people. We demand that this city not only Defund the poLice but disband (and like us poor and houseless folks at Homefulness) NEVER Call the poLice. Six years ago, Poor Magazine came to Beverly Hills for a Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tour. A year before that, we started these tours, with the intention of bringing the richest people in this country into the conversation of radical redistribution. We realized that the only way to reach these people in any way they would listen is by bringing the message to their doorsteps. Since then, we have been to Marin County, Park Ave., Google Headquarters, Piedmont, Downtown Denver, Leschi Territory (Washington State), and many other places. I looked at this lady, so dumbfounded by the sight of poor people of color in her neighborhood, and wondered how we got this far. I saw her behind her cage that she built to protect herself from the real world, just the same as every house on the block. She silently accepted the flier, and we walked away to the sound of her dog barking furiously. A passerby would see us and wonder why a small group of poor black and brown folks in Beverly Hills were being followed by two police cars, a private security vehicle, and a drone, but that was just another day for us. That very process of scared rich white people calling reinforcements to surround us is how Luis Gongora Pat, Treyvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others were murdered, so while it is a bone-chilling thing to experience, it is no surprise. Every person who’s 30 foot doors we knocked on and manicured lawns we walked through turned us down, a mixture of disgust and fear coloring their features. What we demanded was well within the abilities of every single person we talked to. The main reason for the tours is to show these people who constantly try to ignore us and commit what my mother calls “the violent act of looking away” that we exist, and that we are not afraid to meet them at their level. We are the poor and homeless people that you try to silence by othering us, with our tattered jail suits and danza gear, with our loud drums and even louder voices. We will continue to go right to the heart of wealth hoarding in this country, and present them our demands.

  • You Can't End a Revolution- Wood Street's Last Day is the Beginning

    By POOR Magazine Youth PovertSkola reporter Amir Cornish On Wednesday on May 3rd, the encampment on Wood Street was getting demolished by construction bulldozers running over the homes of the community that was built by houseless people to house themselves. I watched this big, yellow, dragon-like bulldozer with its huge mouth blade slowly lifting one of the Wood Street homes that was built out of love for that person. When all POOR Magazine family arrived at Wood Street, we saw that there were multiple cops just standing around and behind them there was a huge gate covering the front entrance of Wood Street, not letting anybody enter. "We proved that we can survive under duress, through all of these conditions and harassment. We are survivors and we are ready to move to the next level," said John Janosko, longtime resident organizer of Wood Street Commons. Wood Street is a wonderful place that John and some other members created for themselves and others to feel safe, also be to a loving community. The City of Oakland never supported them, and they should have. As houseless people, just like us houseless peoples at Homefulness, they know what they need and they created it. "We still communicate even when they scatter us around and put us in different locations, but the love ties that were built here can not be cut by cops, bulldozers. Those things will live on and we will rebuild what we started whenever we can and wherever we go, but that one thing they can’t arrest,’’ said Jazz, another longtime resident organizer. I am Amir Cornish Youth Poverty Skola. I'm from West Oakland. It's hard for a person to have a home. I remember being homeless, worried about the next meal to fill my belly. I remembered moving across different families' homes spending the night at theirs. Being homeless is not easy for youth and elders. My Mom has always found a way to keep me and brothers fed and a roof overhead. Being homeless is not a good feeling, to have to sleep outside for not paying the rent on time, or somebody taking your home without you knowing. Homelessness is a real thing and people have struggled on the street everyday trying to strive on living. Homefulness and POOR Magazine will be standing with Wood Street Commons forever and help them help themselves. Amir Cornish, Sun of Audrey Candy Corn, is a formerly houseless resident of Homefulness, graduate of the liberation school Deecolonize Academy and Youth in media reporter with POOR Magazine

  • Urgent from Wood Street Commons:

    Good morning. Ladies & gentlemen, friends, and members of the press, we have asked you here today to bear witness to the crimes on humanity that are taking place here on Wood St. We also humbly implore you to call upon City Council, Mayor Sheng Thao, and other elected officials, and urge them to stop the unlawful evictions at the Wood Street encampment. Over the past two weeks, our residents & volunteers have fallen victim to the egregious acts of state violence that have occurred under the watch of LaTonda Simmons, Harold Duffy, and Sgt. Patrick Gonzales. The most basic, core rights that we, as Americans - as humans - should be afforded, are being trampled and demolished, much like our homes and belongings have been. Even our pets are not safe. These acts of state violence result in state created danger; they are unlawful, unconstitutional, and we demand that they come to an immediate halt! Furthermore, we ask the city of Oakland to pursue legal action for the crimes that have been committed here. Our property, our freedom & our lives have been jeopardized and this must stop TODAY. *** We'd also like to take this time to thank the volunteers & supporters who've sacrificed so much of themselves fighting for a people who are all-too-often unheard. We are deeply indebted to you all, and your selfless service should be an example of how we all should treat one another. However, it is a sad state of affairs when volunteers are having to cover the nods of displaced residents because the government can't step up and do their job. At this time, I’d like to take a moment to address some misinformation and false claims which have been circulating the internet. These false accusations are the work of some very small-minded individuals who have nothing better to do than to spew venomous lies and libel about individuals whom they could only wish to be in the shadow. One particular individual who has blatantly spread untruths about some of our residents actually ran for city council at one time. To him we ask, “Is this how a one-time candidate for political office acts?” Just to set the record straight, Jaz Calibri was an art student, yes. She abandoned a successful art career and all of her friends and loved ones, she denounced most of her material possessions, and chose to live on the streets to advocate for those without a voice. Seneca Scott would do well to learn a thing or two from Ms. Calibri, as it seems the only voice he hears is his own. Additionally, Jared Defigh was not arrested for false imprisonment. He was arrested, on Apr. 12, 2023, for civil disobedience. Jared chose to put his freedom & his life on the line and lie down in front of a bulldozer. This was a selfless act, and a courageous one, & again, Seneca Scott could learn something here … On a brief sidenote, just a reminder to anyone who thinks that this childish display was amusing in any way - spreading false claims about an individual which paints them in such a negative light, is called libel. It is a crime and is punishable in civil court. Something to consider if you don't want an actual criminal record, Mr. Scott. Because of this, we have no other choice but to hold the parties in question legally responsible. If our peaceful protests, our blood, sweat and tears have not gotten their attention, perhaps lady justice will. Thank you all for your continued support, and as always - "vivá le resistance!" Thank You.

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