Elders

On October 23, 2018, MOVE 9 member Mike Africa was released from prison after 40 years of incarceration. Mike was released on parole from SCI Phoenix in Skippak Township. Mike was imprisoned since August 8, 1978, in relation to an altercation between the Philadelphia police and the MOVE Organization.

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

“Wow, i didn’t even know that place was gone” New Orleans born and raised sisSTAR Ann, exclaimed as we rolled through the gentriFUKed and/or re-deviloped streets of the 9th ward, Algiers and Treme neighborhoods of New Orleans, to name a few.

Grieving mother ... today faced with my own cross to bear. I'm realizing more and more that the hell that God speaks of may be the very personal experience that one relives here on Earth. I had the opportunity to Bear Witness a 18 year old young man transition out of here by train. His life was taken. I didn't see it personally but the tragedy has hit the news in the hoods neighbors family and friends of Miss Christa Holloway. Her son Victor is a great ancestor now ...

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

On September 29, 2017 the Appellant Division of San Francisco Superior Court heard the housing case filed by Appellant Gavin against Parkmerced Investors Properties, LLC.

Appellant Gavin alleged in Appellant's brief that Judge Donald Sullivan did not have jurisdiction of the subject matter to hear her case and his decision is void under the law.

I have been thinking of you.  There’s an emptiness since you left us.  I do not speak merely of your physical presence--the presence of an elder whose mere gestures and silence spoke of the community that was built by hands such as yours—a community that is being taken away from us;  but a presence that was as real as any tourist landmark—more real, in fact, because you spoke to us, to our core of what it means to be an elder, a black woman in San Francisco. You refused to be silenced.&nb

The rubber sides of the boat were like arms- thick - round - hard. “These are the boats refugees have to travel through, men sit on the side, the women, children and elders in the middle, sometimes getting splashed and sick with the leaking gasoline from the engine because they are covering miles of ocean to go from one country to another,”