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- March 23rd: Homes of Our Ancestors/Casas de Nuestros Antepasados
Homes of Our Ancestors Street Art Education Mural Art Project at Homefulness #2 A ComeUnity Mural Collaboration of POOR Magazine and Kiss My Black Arts All Ages Welcome Snack, Paint, Prayer, Love Shared Thursday March 23rd at 1:30pm 7600 BlackArthur (MacArthur Blvd) at 76th Street Casas de Nuestros Antepasados Proyecto de arte mural de educación de arte callejero en Homefulness # 2 Una colaboración mural comunitaria de POOR Magazine y Kiss My Black Arts Todas las edades bienvenida Bocadillos, pintura, oración, amor compartido Jueves 23 de marzo a la 1:30pm 7600 BlackArthur (MacArthur Blvd) en 76th Street
- Mexica New Year 11 Reed/Año Mexica Carrizo 11
Miguel Muteado Silencio/P'urepecha/Migrante Skolar Cualli Tonalli Comunidad de Danza estaremos celebrando el Año Mexica 11 Carrizo en la Cuidad de Oakland,el Domingo Marzo 12,2023 de 8am a 9:45am Sera el Tlamanalli el levantamiento del Momoxtli la Chintotequiza empieza alas 10am todos están invitados y bienvenidos Good Day Danza community we will be celebrating our Mexica New year 11 Reed in the city of Oakland on March 12,2023 altars from 8am to 9:45am and Chintotequiza Danza will be at 10am Everyone is welcome and invited DÍAS NEMONTEMI Hoy 7 de marzo inicia el primero de los cinco días Nemontemi, un término que se puede traducir como "Completar lo vivido". En la cuenta del tiempo Tolteca ya pasaron las 18 ceremonias principales dedicadas a la madre tierra, cada una de ellas con una duración de 20 días, por lo tanto se completó un ciclo solar de 360 días. De esta forma para completar, llenar o cerrar el ciclo se dan cinco días que tienen como objetivo reflexionar, meditar y guardar para que por medio de la introspección hagamos un autoanálisis de aquello que hicimos durante el Xiuhpohualli o "año". Estos cinco días en los que no hay celebración son considerados días para retraerse de la cotidianidad y trabajar de manera personal con dos propósitos: el primero encaminado a agradecer por todo aquello recibido durante las 18 transiciones de la naturaleza (veintenas); y en segundo lugar elevar los rezos que posibiliten a la Madre Tierra y el Padre Sol generar la abundancia que alimenta a los seres vivos. Es importante considerar que los alimentos de los cuales nos nutrimos los seres humanos no son solo aquellos que provienen de plantas y animales sino también de aquellos alimentos que provienen de la cultura, por lo tanto decretar nuestras intenciones que han de llevarnos al trabajo en comunidad son fundamentales. En este sentido hacer oración por nuestro pueblo cobra un significado muy especial porque oramos para que nuestros abuelos nos nutran con sus conocimientos, los niños con su sonrisa, los jóvenes con su jovialidad, las madres con su amor incondicional, los guerreros con su fortaleza física y espiritual, etc. Estos días Nemontemi también nos adentran a un nuevo tiempo de responsabilidades porque iniciamos un nuevo ciclo de vida junto con la tierra al llegar la primavera. La naturaleza muestra sus flores así como nosotros tenemos que mostrar las que nacen de nuestro corazón; la naturaleza da frutos, los mismos que nosotros tenemos que compartir con nuestros semejantes, las montañas se mantienen en pie de la misma forma en que nosotros necesitamos firmeza con nuestros propósitos y el cauce del río se mantiene fluyendo de la misma forma en que debemos encausar nuestra vida. En síntesis estos días son imprescindibles para definir cómo será mi actuación en esta vuelta que acompañaremos a la Madre Tierra alrededor del Sol. Si nos reconocemos como actores de nuestra comunidad debemos cuestionarnos qué cosas aportaremos a este mundo y en específico a este año y así contribuyamos a que nuestra cultura florezca con dignidad. Deseo que en estos cinco días Nemontemi se abra el camino en tus pensamientos y en tu estado de conciencia. - Teyacanqui Xiuhtecoatl
- El Desplasamiento de Nuestra Gente/ The Displacement of Our People
En este año que apenas empieza y ya están atacando a nuestra gente indirectamente con la burocracia en las fronteras y no hay soluciones para nadie solo para sus bolsillos hay cosas mas importante que el dinero. Nuestra comunidad está uniéndose para nuevas generaciones para poder liberar la madre tierra siguiendo las ideas de nuestros antepasados que nos dejaron costumbres y hábitos que son más valiosos que el dinero. La gente que trabaja en cualquier gobierno está condenada a seguir los pasos del sistema de otra manera si no serán desplazados como lo hacen actualmente con nuestra gente indigena y pobre. Yo soy una de las miles y miles de personas que ha sido desplazada desde el lugar donde nací y en la busca de la supervivencia llegamos a las redes de USA las cuales solo nos degradan y no enseñan nada que no sea racismo y cómo ser cómo ellos sin embargo. Nuestra madre tierra nos enseñó que no nacimos en donde no hay que comer porque ella no lo provee y este gobierno solo no lo quiere vender. Así es como estando en los Estados Unidos poco a poco y cuando nos damos cuenta de sus estrategias que tienen para sus intereses o no eres seguidor de sus idealismo o tratas de salir del círculo es cuando empiezas mi pesadilla por que como no puedo pagar las cuentas que están controladas por corporación que solo emplean porque sus ideas colonizadas y racistas es como nuestras gentes indígenas fueron desplaza de sus tierras y actualmente las generaciones nuevas están siendo desplazadas de sus hogares por las mentiras del gobierno que tienes que pagar un precio para poder para que te consideren persona si no lo pagas estaras en las calles y te llarerran como basura como lo hace actualmente alrededor de todo los Estados Unidos. This year is just beginning and our people are already being attacked indirectly with bureaucracy at the borders and there are no solutions for anyone, only for their pockets- there are things more important than money. Our community is coming together for new generations to free Mother Earth following the ideas of our ancestors who left us customs and habits that are more valuable than money. People who work in any government are doomed to follow in the footsteps of the system differently if they are not displaced as they currently do with our indigenous and poor people. I am one of the thousands and thousands of people who have been displaced from the place where I was born and in search of survival we reach the USA networks which only degrade us and do not teach anything but racism and how to be like them. Our mother earth taught us that we were not born where we do not have to eat because she does not provide it and this government alone does not want to sell it. And so being in the United States, little by little, and when we realize their strategies and their interests or you are not a follower of their idealism or you try to get out of the circle is when you start my nightmare because how I can not pay the bills that are controlled by corporation they only employ because their colonized and racist ideas is how our indigenous people were displaced from their lands and currently the new generations are being displaced from their homes by the lies of the government that you have to pay a price to be able to be considered a person if not, you pay for it, you will be on the streets and you will get washed up like garbage as they currently do around all of the United States.
- Remembering Uncle Al Robles
By Tony Robles Poet, servant of the people. How you served plates of rice and fish and poetry that stuck to the mind and nourished the heart in a place called Manilatown. Your love for the elders of our community was always true. You served the food of love and compassion amidst those who would come and pluck away at the bones, never compromising your love. Uncle Al--Filipino poet, Filipino-American poet who took a stand by sitting with our elders and talking with them, honoring their stories. Filipino ako, you wrote--I am Filipino. You never forgot the faces of your community, the sounds, the laughter, the pain, the suffering--the poetry of life. You said that as a poet, you'd much rather have the pain, the suffering--that you would not trade all the bad experiences for all the good ones. Uncle Al, y ou knew how to love, your poetry was love, your hands were love, your eyes were love as you walked the streets of our community, never forgetting the poor, the elders, those who suffer. We live in a society that doesn't know how to love. You were an example of this, an example of community. We need you, we need your love. You lived in poetry, poetry was your life. You captured the community in your poetry: I have lived so far so much knowing their lives living in the same rooms as small as tea pots in J-Town in Chinatown in Manilatown The old flats converted broken up into individual rooms tiny kitchens... concentrations camps after the war they come back home in the saddness of a thousand winter snows they can fill a hundred thousand snowcrane diaries Happy birthday Uncle Al. We love you. We need you, we need your love and your poetry. As you always said: Our poetry is the best part of our struggle, our struggle is the best part of our poetry.
- Neuralink Brain Chip: The Unseen Problem
Black Mirror: Season 1 Ep. 3 "The Entire History Of You" In 20 years, cloning may be possible. In 20 years, telepathy may be possible. We could watch movies in our head, we could be able to have photographic memory. But at what cost? This isn’t magic, and superpowers aren’t going to be suddenly developed. This is due to a new technology that has been worked on that puts computer chips in our brain. These chips can allow you to surpass every natural limit as a human being, but the corporations that create them are using them for a different purpose. In a world where iPhones are dominating our lives and we have a smart everything, smart watch, smart phone, smart speaker, and smart TV, the only thing that we have left are smart people. Regular people who are enhanced to be a part of an ecosystem that thrives on everything being connected. I am one of the people who has all of these smart devices, and wonder that when everyone has these brain chips and becomes smarter people, will I be the one left behind because I don’t want one? “There’s a little number fudging here because these are just rough calculations, but let’s say the total cost of the implant without insurance is $3,000.” said Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink in an interview about the new chip. We see that this product is extremely high tech and immediately assume that there will be no way for us to afford it. That’s what we have been told in sci-fi movies and TV shows. What those shows leave out however, is the most money these companies will make will be from working class and poor people, because we are the 99%. If, like the iPhone, companies can find a way to get us on a payment plan for this chip, they can keep us in a cycle of debt like they are doing right now. However, this time the cycle will be different. Who is to say they won’t turn off your legs if you don’t make your monthly brain chip bill? What’s stopping them from taking away your ability to see if you miss 3 months? How will you prevent them from shutting you down completely if you aren’t able to pay at all? These questions and many more swirl through my head as I wonder how far this technology will take us, and how close to the present it really is.
- Writing & Walking a Homeless Peoples Solution to Homelessness....Homefulness- Book, Film, and UnTour
Poor, Homeless, Indigenous, Black/Brown peoples go on an "UnTour' to share curriculum, workshops, film, poetry, performance, and prayer to promote an innovative model to solving homelessness called Homefulness.. Broke, Black, Brown and Disabled Book UnTour The Po Poets Project, a grassroots poetry project of thehouseless, poor and indigenous peoples led movement knownas POOR Magazine, will be in LA from May 5-7th because the short film When Mama and Me Lived Outside, has won an award in the LA international Children's Film festival. The Film is based on the bi-lingual children’s book of the same name written by tiny gray-garcia and focuses on tiny and her mother's journey through homelessness in LA and the SF Bay Area. All of the Po Poets, formerly houseless, Black, Brown revolutionary poets, will be reading from their books and promoting their publications. They will also be sharing the medicine of UnSElling Mama Earth and building poor andhouseless peoples’ solutions to poverty and homelessness, what they call Homefulness. These land liberators, from all four corners of Mama Earth, will be offering readings and workshops from their newest books: How to Not Call the Po'Lice Ever and Poverty Scholarship: Poor People-Led Theory, Art, Words, and Tears Across Mama Earth. They will also be leading a Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tourthrough wealth-hoarding neighborhoods of LA, coloniallandmarks (KlanMarks, as tiny from POOR Magazine callsthem), threatened forests, sacred sites, museums of Anthro-Wrongology, academia as well as spaces of indigenous sovereignty to share the urgent medicine of RadicalRedistribution, LandBack, and ComeUnity Reparations. In addition to the release of this powerful How to Book- Homefulness Handbook, which details how to do the powerful work POOR Magazine poverty skolaz are doing in Oakland right now. 7 of the core youth, mama and elder leaders of this work will be leading one of their herstoric StolenLand/Hoarded Resources Tour- a prayer walk thru some of the most wealth-hoarding neighborhoods in the US with the medicine of radical redistribution and ComeUnity Reparations- the innovative models that fund Homefulness - guided and informed by the innovative theory Poverty Scholarship- The Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tours were launched on MamaEarth Day in 2016 by indigenous, Houseless, Disabled Black, Brown and Poor Youth, adults and Elders who "Toured" through gated, poLiced, Guarded and protected neighborhoods of extreme wealth from Park Avenue to SillyCon Valley. The tours are loosely based on the Bhoodan Movement of India launched by Vinoba Bhave, who walked through India asking wealthy "land-owners" to gift their land back to landless peoples. POOR Magazine is a very grassroots, poor and indigenous people led movement creating media, art, culture, education and solutions since 1996 POOR press is the poor people-led publishing arm of POOR Magazine dedicated to publishing the books and art of very low, no-income, homeless and incarcerated youth, adults and elders.
- Decolonewz Issue 17
Read the latest issue of Decolonewz here.
- More than Poppin’ Pills- From Broken Warriors to Whole Medicine
By Juju Angeles As Mama Tiny says, "You cannot just put a roof on our homelessness." You can't just pop a pill, either. From dealing with fractured bones to recovering from alcoholism, Pachamama has the antidote to our continued healing. A few months ago, Israel Muñoz quit drinking cold turkey. He wanted to change his life for himself and his son. He tried to quit drinking before, but it didn't work. As a community, we decided to send him to a detox program because we didn't know how his body would react to quitting abruptly. The detox program we could afford didn't offer alternative herbal support despite the bougie ones offering homeopathy. The one reserved for Medi-Cal folks or unhoused poor folks just provided drugs. Being a revolutionary yebera, I put him on Nux Vomica 200c. I instructed him to take the homeopathy herbs whenever he desired to drink. Homeopathy is a well-researched form of healing. It has been documented on its use. You can find countless scientific articles on the efficacy of homeopathy and drug abuse recovery. Initially, he took homeopathy 4-5 times a day. He started declining his use after 2-3 weeks, some days taking none and others taking a dose. As his intake began to decline, I gave him a lower strength. He went from 200c to 30c. After 3-4 weeks of taking Nux Vomica, he has not taken it anymore. He was in detox for five days and has not taken one sip of alcohol or any pharmaceuticals for ten weeks. Allopathic medicine is just a couple hundred years old, while traditional medicine is over 60,000 years old. According to the World Health Organization, about 70% of the world's population incorporates traditional healing modalities to treat chronic issues. That is evidence that traditional healing is something that helps. This makes sense because traditional healing contains the whole person. It looks at their needs, environment, mind, body, and soul. As folks dealing with medical trauma, freeing the land is also tied to our healing and wellness, our respective medicines, and being held in our healing community. Studies show that an integrated approach to healing from all ailments and life transitions shows quicker recovery and a decrease in addiction. Mama Tiny had a bike injury and was hospitalized because she sustained a fracture, bruising, and a minor head injury. Aside from taking conventional allopathic pain relief, she has also used Arnica, Comfrey, and bodywork from our community curandera. The community and the plants rallied around her. When she returned to her doctor's appointment, her provider was shocked at how rapid her recovery was. It is important to emphasize that healing is all about integration. Studies show that traditional healers like herbalists and allopathic doctors do not get along or even like each other. I find that to be so sad. We need meaningful opportunities to not only learn and grow from one another but also serve the full spectrum of severity in our community. We need a horizontal approach from all our healthcare workers, abuelos, and herbalists. We need our community and family to provide the support that healthcare cannot offer in the home. We need the land to do all of this.
- Wite Science Almost Killed Me
by Juju Angeles/POORmagazine povertySkola Sharena Thomas, 49—trainer, organizer, and activist at the Peoples Community Medics and Moms 4 Housing—almost died from being given a fatal pill cocktail from her doctors. “It’s been a long journey,” Thomas says. “I broke both of my hips and it took a year to get help.” In March 2021, Thomas fell and when she went to the emergency room, “The hospital treated me like I was a drug addict.” They provided her a low, over the counter dose of ibuprofen and sent her home with two broken hips. Because of the lack of medical help with her hips, Thomas heavily relied on her hands to get around. She had to hold onto walls because she wasn’t given any walking devices for support. Medi-Cal didn’t kick in until June 2021 and that is when she started to receive treatment. In June 2021, “I started to experience hard pain in my hands. I felt numbing, tingling, and pain from my fingers to my elbows. My doctor sent me to a specialist, and I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. He ran a series of neurological test that made the pain worse.” She was prescribed Gabapentin. She was supposed to receive physical therapy for her hands, but never got it. The pain in her hands got increasingly worse and her doctor kept prescribing a higher dosage of the Gabapentin, but Thomas did not take it as prescribed because of the concerns she had when she took the drug. “It made me feel sleepy and weird,” she said. When I asked her if she shared the side effects with her doctor, she said yes, “But they just ignored me.” In December 2021, Thomas finally received a hip replacement and in February 2022, she started to receive physical therapy for her hips. She was told by her doctors that because of her insurance, Medi-Cal, she could not receive physical therapy for hands as well. “All of the strain I had to do from physical therapy impacted my hands more. All the exercises they had me do triggered my hands.” She took the pain medicine strategically when she had to do long car rides, when she had to do physical therapy, when she couldn’t sleep, and when the pain would go up to her chest. She told her doctor that she had sleeping problems, and they prescribed her sleeping pills. When she took the sleeping pills and the Gabapentin together, she describes, “I felt like a blanket of darkness came over me.” She was hallucinating, blurting out nonsense, social, paranoid, and insecure. “My kids were looking at me differently.” She went back to the doctors to tell them about her blackouts and “They acted like it was nothing. My character was altered. I was suicidal and blacked out.” Thomas started to do her own research and learned that she should have not been given a mixtures of Gabapentin and the sleep aid. She learned that that is a fatal cocktail. She could have died. “They are freely giving these medicines out to the community. A lot of odd stuff is happing with violence and mental health. People are being institutionalized and tracked.” Thomas is concerned by her treatment and the treatment of poor folks who do not have a voice. Who are being experimented on and abused by the lack of care and concern by their providers. On top of all of that, Thomas was misdiagnosed. She doesn’t have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The doctors do not know what her current diagnosis is. Her hope is to get support so that she can get a second opinion outside of her insurance network. She needs help writing and typing a complaint. “I need help to articulate and advocate. It took me twenty five day [off of all medications] to stop crying.” Since then, she isn’t on any medicines. She needs relief and she wants answers as to why her doctors did this to her. She asked her doctor, “Why you did that to me? Don’t you know I’m somebody!” All her doctor could do was cry. She says, “I am lucky to be alive.”
- Sweeping in the rain
From SoMa to Wood Street Commons, the unhoused suffer as the brutal sweeps continue By tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola Rain flows down Can’t u see I’m already drowned Rain flows down There’s so much room to hold That empty sound Hard, Cold rain Into a body already drained I look up Will I survive this— I know I’m tough Is there time to save my warmest blanket My driest shoes Guess what—I got the Unhoused blues The eviction crews already came With the rain With the poLice to detain With the blood-stains And the wet chains The water-soaked brooms All the places I dream of that aren’t my rooms Hard to believe—hard to see But they’re sweeping, sweeping, in the rain Sweeping—sweeping in the rain Mama earth is crying again Just like this mama when I lost my last home and felt like dying again Mama earth is crying again I can’t ever dry my eyes again This hefty bag can’t hold all the unscreamed screams Inside again They said I have to go— It’s a sweep don’t you know But didn’t I tell you I can’t move I’m so tired tho Let the trucks come Take my pain and wash it away with this endless rain Mama— not sure how much longer I want to live to see another day The water is me—the rain fills me The depression stills me—this water—this cold—this wet blanket it will kill me The hole inside my heart It is me —Rain (Sweeping in the Rain- from the Trauma Survivor Song album by tiny)- “I can’t feel my toes, my shoes have been wet since last week,” said Johnny X, a RoofLessradio reporter hiding behind a pole with his shopping cart in the South of Market area of San Francisco. “DPW and police came on multiple days all last week to tell us to move in the middle of the worse rains. It was weird, “I was like, really, isn’t there something more important you gotta do?” Johnny continued to tell me that he was in one of the Shelter in Place motels, in San Francisco original SIP placements for the pandemic, but then Mayor London Breed phased that out and transitioned him into a navigation center, which he couldn’t tolerate with his autism and palsy. He was terrified there, he tried to get back into a motel, but was told that program was “over” and has now retreated to a life on the streets of San Francisco struggling with endless sweeps. Residents of Wool Street Commons are fighting back against an eviction effort. Here, Wood Street Commons and Homefulness together at the POORmagazine street writing workshop. Photo by Israel Munoz POORmagazine Thanks to the warrior work of Coalition on Homelessness and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a lawsuit was filed against the Breed Administration to stop the violent sweeps that wreak havoc on houseless, disabled, elders, and all people’s lives, but as reported by Johnny and many roofLess radio reporters, they have continued. “We are creating our own solutions right here at Wood Street Commons, what we need is for the city to cancel these sweeps,” said John Janosko in his Wood Street Wire report for POOR Magazine (POOR Magazine has launched a series of RoofLess Radio street-writing workshops with houseless community at Wood Street Commons). John explained in the second dispatch from the WSW that the City of Oakland is planning yet another sweep starting January 9-20th. Sweeps kill Saturday night at approximately 6pm, a houseless sister was killed by a falling tree in 70 mph winds. Her death is directly correlated with the ongoing and violent sweeps that happen in urban settings like Sacramento that result in us getting pushed deeper and deeper into unsafe rural areas where we are vulnerable to fires, tree falls and floods. The Ross Sweep of several years ago led to the death of Desiree Quintero in the settler tourist town known as Santa Cruz. “We are just holding onto our tarps for dear life.” Alison, hiding behind a rock in an unincorporated area of Richmond, has been praying to stay alive. “We had a little encampment in the park near here, but the park police forced us to move, we lost most of our good tents, and are now hiding wherever we can.” “We had to lose most of our stuff because the Coyote River swelled so big,” Alejandro reported to RoofLEss Radio from San Jose. As reported on Papelesparatodos, the city of San Jose received more than $3 million dollars in services but none of it really supports any houseless people, but it does support sweeping houseless people. Advocates in San Jose ended up having to fill in where the city has left off. Sadly, nothing new there. All across the bay, powerful grassroots, on-the-ground movements like CCSF collective, communitybuildingcollective, Food Not Bombs, Omni Commons, Hotels Not Hospitals, DefundSFPDnow, Anti-Police Terror Project and more along with poor and houseless people-led movements like POOR Magazine-RoofLEssRadio, Wood Street Commons, Self-Help Hunger program, Sacramento Homeless Union and Peoples Park have stepped up to take care of us. Providing blankets, tents, tarps, food, clothes, love, and support as well as hotel rooms to scores of houseless residents all across the Bay. Closing warming shelters in the cold “The warming shelters of Berkeley should be open 24/7 but they close all the time, so much so that a lot of us don’t even try to get there, cuz we don’t have phones and don’t know if they will be open or not,” Elisa, 64, explained to me from under her sleeping bag near the shoreline at Berkeley. As people should remember, the badass houseless warriors at Where do We Go Berkeley had created a safe haven near the shoreline, only to have it continually destroyed and removed by CalTrans weekly. In the end, the City of Berkeley and CalTrans fenced off the entire area where so many of us houseless people found covered shelter. Now the houseless of Berkeley do their best to stay alive, much less warm or dry. “I don’t know why the City of Berkeley can’t be prepared, these emergencies have happened before,” said advocate and warrior for the people, Paul Kealoha-Blake from Consider the Homeless at a protest at City of Berkeley led by Peoples Park and advocates for houseless povertyskolaz in Berkeley on Sunday, on the one day of good weather before more storms were planned to come to town. “People were waiting outside the warming shelter many nights throughout these storms, and they wouldn’t let folks in. We know that a lot of us organizers are creating our own solutions like Omni Commons, but we also need the city to do better,” said Aidan Hill, warrior for truth and liberation at Peoples Park. “Every time I was able to get into a warming shelter, they would throw me out at 5am,” said Israel Munoz, formerly houseless resident leader of Homefulness. While these terrifying storms of understandably angry Mama Earth rage on, eleven of us houseless people of Homefulness are safe under roofs in rent-free forever housing; Broken Cloud, fifteen years on the street, Juju, three years housing insecure and houseless, Angel Heart, more than ten years housing insecure and houseless, Israel, five years unhoused and swept, Dee, three years housing insecure one year evicted, me, Tiny, and my son ten years houseless, two years houseless and then two years mold poisoned and houseless, Muteado and his mama twelve years housing insecure and evicted. Amir, two years houseless with mama, Teo, ten years houseless, Akil, evicted and displaced from SF. If the land was to become ours the possibilities are endless. Our community is already thriving! So with some land ownership we would be able to thrive even more, help people more. —John Janosko, unhoused resident at Wood Street Commons in the Wood Street Wire #2 The governor could do something that wouldn’t cost any money to anyone or cause any extra work…put out an order to Stop the Sweeps… —Lydia Heather Blumberg, resident of Wood Street Commons Once again, in these brutal rains, it is not the settler governments that actually support us. In fact, they have proven time and time again—as I said in my last story Decolonizing Homelessness —to attempt to kill us, maim us, sweep us and/or incarcerate us away. This continues to be ironic to me considering homelessness, sweeps, and poverty are clearly results of the violent, unsustainable system of krapitalism (my Tiny word for Capitalism). “Solving” homelessness by sweeping, cleaning, moving, incarcerating, intimidating homeless people will never work. And as Lydia said, it’s really so simple and yet never adhered to: Stop the Sweeps. Period. I would add, listen to us. Period. In the end, the message is the same as it always is from this povertyskola, from all of us povertyskolaz—we have our own solutions. Wood Street Commons, Peoples Park for the People, Homefulness, these are solutions We are building, living, mamafesting, healing, care-giving, visioning, creating and lifting them up. Listen to us. Wood Street Commons is asking people to call the new mayor of Oakland to ask her to Stop the Sweeps of Wood Street Commons, slated for the next two weeks. Berkeley is asking for full-time open Warming shelters, San Jose is asking to use the $3 million for actual support and housing and warning systems for houseless people. POOR Magazine is asking wealth-hoarders/land inheritors, people with different forms of privilege to attend the upcoming January session of PeopleSkool and learn how to radically redistribute and heal from the multiple lies of violent krapitalism, We also invite people to an upcoming Theatre of the POOR production; Crushing Wheelchairs, about the violence of sweeps at the Redstone Building on Sunday, Feb 12th at 4pm. A second showing will be performed in Oakland at Pianofight on Sunday, Feb 26th at 2pm. More info email poormag@gmail.com
- Wood Street Wire #2 The Wood Street Vision/ Cable de Wood Street #2 la Visión de Wood Street
POOR Magazine RoofLESS radio report- Vision and Solution Statement- the beginning of the Wood Street Commons, Landless/Homeless peoples self-determined MamaFesto(Manifesto) Informe de radio de POOR Magazine RoofLESS- declaración de visión y solución- el comienzo de Wood Street Commons, pueblos sin tierra / sin hogar autodeterminados MamaFesto (Manifiesto) The following writings were created at a street-writing workshop at WoodStreetCommons Neighborhood in West Huchuin (Oakland) 1. I am John Janosko a resident of the Wood St Commons 2. The problem at wood street: The scheduled eviction Jan 9-20! No garbage removal service! No land ownership! City fucking with us instead of helping us! 3. What is Wood St Commons? Wood St Commons is my home, it is our home! Wood St. Commons is a resource center for the unhoused residents of west Oakland and the bay area Wood St Commons is a safe place for our unhoused community It is my life my everything my existence! 4. The land to become ours and from there the possibilities are endless. Our community is already thriving! So with some land ownership we would be able to thrive even more, help people more Community gardens Bigger clothing closet Bigger food distribution Create employment for our unhoused family More events that could benefit the overall community Free housing Homeless helping homeless around the world The possibilities are endless 1. Yo soy John Janosko un residente de los Wood St. Commons 2. El problema en Wood Street: ¡El desalojo programado del 9 al 20 de enero! ¡No hay servicio de recolección de basura! ¡No a la propiedad de la tierra! ¡Ciudad follando con nosotros en lugar de ayudarnos! 3. ¿Qué es Wood St Commons? Wood st commons es mi casa, es nuestro hogar! Wood St. Commons es un centro de recursos para los residentes desalojados del oeste de Oakland y el área de la bahía Wood St commons es un lugar seguro para nuestra comunidad desalojada Es mi vida mi todo mi existencia! 4. La tierra se convertirá en nuestra y a partir de ahí las posibilidades son infinitas. ¡Nuestra comunidad ya está prosperando! Entonces, con algo de propiedad de la tierra podríamos prosperar aún más, ayudar a las personas más Jardines comunitarios armario de ropa más grande distribución de alimentos más grande Crear empleo para nuestra familia desalojada más eventos que podrían beneficiar a la comunidad en general Vivienda gratuita sin hogar Ayudando a las personas sin hogar en todo el mundo Las posibilidades son infinitas 1. I’m Jaz a resident Wood St commons, volunteering mutual aid support at encampments across Oakland 2. City is destroying a thriving community resources for unhoused folks in West Oakland and beyond Money mismanaged 3. Community hub, kitchen, meals, donation station, medical center, repair center 4. Self governed Community care for each other and the land Meet people where they’re at Put resources in community services to help people thrive whatever that means for them 1. Soy Jaz, residente de Wood St commons, voluntaria de apoyo de ayuda mutua en campamentos en todo Oakland 2. La ciudad está destruyendo los recursos de una comunidad próspera para las personas sin hogar en West Oakland y más allá Dinero mal administrado 3. Centro comunitario, cocina, comidas, estación de donación, centro médico, centro de reparación 4. Autogobernado La comunidad se cuida mutuamente y a la tierra Recibe a las personas donde están Ponga recursos en servicios comunitarios para ayudar a las personas a prosperar, lo que sea que eso signifique para ellos 1. Hello my name is LaMonté Ford and I am an unhoused homeless advocate and one of the board members for Wood Street Commons 2. This is the result of a systemic action that was enacted to reverse the rise of the entrepreneur American Black man. This area was saturated with drugs and a liquor store on almost every block, 2nd schools were practically defunded. The youth had no outlets in order to vent 3. Here at Wood Street Commons we allow the cohesion to happen organically strengthening positive behavior and calling folks out when the negative surfaces. Here at Wood Street we offer (without the aid of the city) a variety of services as well as providing basic needs essential to a continuity of life ie., Food, water, a sense of ownership, comradery, and clothing and blankets. 4. I see Wood Street Commons as an open environment that serves all the homelessness in West Oakland. Where folks can reacclimate themselves back into society or just a more productive individual that will gain the skills to if the individual wants to do that if not out resident will have the skills to train the next resident. 1. Hola, mi nombre es LaMonté Ford y soy una defensora de personas sin hogar y uno de los miembros de la junta directiva de Wood Street Commons 2. Este es el resultado de una acción sistémica que se promulgó para revertir el ascenso del empresario estadounidense negro. Esta zona estaba saturada de drogas y una tienda de licores en casi cada cuadra, escuelas secundarias fueron prácticamente desfinanciadas. La juventud no tenía salidas para desahogarse 3. Aquí en Wood Street Commons permitimos que la cohesión ocurra orgánicamente fortaleciendo el comportamiento positivo y llamando a la gente cuando lo negativo emerge. Aquí en Wood Street ofrecemos (sin la ayuda de la ciudad) una variedad de servicios, así como proporcionar necesidades básicas esenciales para una continuidad de la vida, es decir, alimentos, agua, un sentido de propiedad, camaradería, y ropa y mantas. 4. Veo a Wood Street Commons como un ambiente abierto que sirve a todos los desamparados en West Oakland. Donde la gente puede reaclimatarse a sí misma de nuevo en la sociedad o simplemente un individuo más productivo que ganará las habilidades para si el individuo quiere hacer que si no fuera residente tendrá las habilidades para entrenar al próximo residente. 1. Jared DeFigh - A wonderer, thinker, feeler, speaker/writer, warrior of love 2. Our community flies in the face of established hierarchies and their practices and inflexible practitioners 3. A dynamic living community of regenerative integrity and care Trash community Water “openness” Peace material free-flow-commons 4. The first of many free spaces where those disposed and/or disinterested in the status quo can go and build a life as deeply embedded in the greater community as they wish. For those sites to grow into a living network of effortless support and limitless joy for all. 1. Jared DeFigh - Un maravillante, pensador, sensibler, orador / escritor, guerrero del amor 2. Nuestra comunidad va en contra de las jerarquías establecidas y sus prácticas y practicantes inflexibles 3. Una comunidad viva dinámica de integridad regenerativa y cuidado Comunidad de basura Agua "apertura" Material de paz libre flujo común 4. El primero de muchos espacios libres donde aquellos dispuestos y/o desinteresados en el status quo pueden ir y construir una vida tan profundamente arraigada en la comunidad mayor como deseen. Para que esos sitios crezcan en una red viva de apoyo sin esfuerzo y alegría ilimitada para todos. 1. Jon Sullivan (they/them) - I am a Wood Street Commons Comrade seeking radical change to the land and housing system. 2. The Wood Street Commons and most poor people are struggling with the commodification and privatization of land. Through the capitalist system. The capitalist class sees the commons as a threat instead of a right that all people are born with. 3. It is a cooperative community by design. 4. -Cooperatively owned land -taken off the speculative market - Social housing model that permanently houses people - Access to cooperatively owned business for sustainability 1. Jon Sullivan (elle/elle) - Soy un camarada de Wood Street Commons que busca un cambio radical en el sistema de tierras y vivienda. 2. Los Comunes de Wood Street y la mayoría de los pobres están luchando con la mercantilización y privatización de la tierra. A través del sistema capitalista. La clase capitalista ve los bienes comunes como una amenaza en lugar de un derecho con el que todas las personas nacen. 3. Es una comunidad cooperativa por diseño. 4. -Tierras de propiedad cooperativa: retiradas del mercado especulativo -Modelo de vivienda social que alberga permanentemente a las personas -Acceso a negocios de propiedad cooperativa para la sostenibilidad
- Decluttering
By Audrey CandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul January 5th, 2023 23 things to throw away in 2022, and the new year is here. 2023—how quickly has the time gone by. Starting back in March of 2020 the big Coronavirus hit, it seems like from that starting point time has sped up triple-time. 3 years have come and gone. My children, they are now towering over me. My youngest is 14 and my middle child is 19 and my oldest child WOULD BE 24. All 5 years apart, we’re all purging and growing in spirit. I often miss him. I'm learning how to let go of physical tangible relatable things…items. Items of my past lives stuffed and big black bags and brown paper boxes. Oh, but I've had a breakthrough. It started with a big black bag and the pile of stuff brought to the surface and centered in the middle of the floor of my living room. Every loose piece that my eyes could see I gathered. Obviously, these pieces needed a stationary place to be. Not strolled all over the place openly displayed, things had begun to get a little bit out of hand. All these items needed a place, a space of their own to be placed. Easier said than done. Well, I decided to pick 23 things to get rid of. Starting with: 1# all old papers 2# anything that was not legible 3# old make up 4# my tooth brush 5# old bra and panties #6 old clothing #7 old shoes #8 not working cords #9 old food in refrigerator #10 old cups #11 old plates 12# useless pens 13# dried out markers 14# manicuring pedicuring set 15# old appliances I don't use 16# outdated canned goods 17# tarnished fake jewelry 18# throw away holey bags of all kinds 19# got rid of books 20# old outdated faded purses #21 appliances with missing parts #22 old lotions #23 old nail polish It's taken some time to complete the task. But the day is here. It has come, ground zero has been broken. I'm ready for takeoff, the blessing in it all is the simple fact that there are some patterns that come with certain behaviors which pay tribute to the cause and effect. It wasn't until I realized the struggle I kept losing to over and over again. It was because I had no structure to the madness. I had a method that wasn't very functional. I needed a system, and one that worked... My mind was used to kind of getting it done however it got done, unorthodox and scrambled, yielding 100% to me and my effort to clean, to declutter, to unorder and to free myself. Piece by piece… It's been 3 years since coronavirus first hit—a lot has shifted and changed. The world As We Know It has catapulted into a new world, sliding into a one world order slowly but surely. Reading us of how we know life to be included in the way we clean. I took an oath, and I am determined to keep on with the keeping on of the mission: Of decluttering my home.



















