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A Letter from Mama Dee to the Poverty, Race, and Media Justice Interns at POOR Magazine Dee Garcia We have read all of your résumés. Many of you have had access and privilege beyond anything we, and many of the people we work with, have ever known. Many of you have had exciting extracurricular and postgraduate volunteer work. Exciting is the operative word here. Some of you have had well-paying and interesting jobs as well. When I see that kind of race and class privilege experienced by people, some still in their twenties, and contrast it with some of the people with myself and many of our POOR Magazine povertyskolaz and other community of poor and houseless peoples with whom we work, in their thirties, forties, fifties, and more, who have never had the opportunities most of you have had, I am almost at a loss for words and thoughts. You owe so much and yet I do not want to see people helping others out of guilt because it often becomes nothing more than positivism, something you can forget when you go back to the next interesting job or advanced education program. We, the originators of POOR, have come from poverty, and only because of our intelligence and ability to organize our thoughts — itself a form of privilege — have we been able to take these experiences from poverty, racism, and suffering and be at one with them, to create this grassroots organization that hopefully gives opportunity to others who have experienced similar backgrounds. Do you have the ability, I wonder, to understand the nuances of your access and privilege? Your health, your optimism, your dental care, and on and on and on. We need people who have the ability to understand the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between yourselves and the people with whom we work. I wasn’t impressed by your insights on your applications. I didn’t get the feeling that you were in touch with what I’m talking about. It is possible for you to learn. However, places like Global Exchange that provide exciting volunteer work for people with privilege, to keep them stimulated and excited, is not what we are about here at POOR. There is a lot, a lot, a lot of drudgery in poverty—very little intellectual or creative stimulation. Much sadness and much, much frustration and isolation. What can you do about this? Beyond all else, you need to see those tiny differences that occur between yourself and those that exist in poverty. That is the beginning. We at POOR need people like yourselves that can do the frustrating tedious chores like grant writing and other types of fundraising, as well as other administrative work. You need to pay your dues with work that is not very exciting. Working with the political events and assisting impoverished and disenfranchised people in writing from their voice and their experience is the exciting part. Even copyediting for these folks is more interesting than some of the day-to-day frustrations of maintaining our vision. If you are interested in being here at POOR, you will be required to help with both, whether or not you are bored, annoyed, or frustrated. It is part of running a grassroots organization and it is what we do. You can benefit by using your strength and optimism and abilities that have come to you from privilege and access to help us, and I hope that, at least in part, you experience some of the boredom and frustration that we have experienced. That, in fact, you do not feel intellectually stimulated. That you are annoyed and have a pervasive sense of hopelessness from feeling overwhelmed, like us and the people with whom we work. From these feelings, you will learn about poverty. Be thankful if this happens to you. Include that in your résumé. Those feelings are more meaningful than any travels in India, Africa, or other faraway places with strange-sounding names, Ivy League college degrees, or honors from the dean’s list, Phi Beta Kappa or Magna Cum Laude, stimulating and informative college classes, books with new and edgy thinking, or any of the cumulative warm and happy holidays that you’ve experienced with family and friends. I did not see any mention of this kind of experience on your résumés. I did see a lot of near clichés about wanting to “help” people. I suppose you have gotten in the habit of writing this kind of résumé because it is what graduate schools and good jobs require, but if you work here at POOR, I would want you to rewrite your résumé including these feelings based on your experience here — and then convince future employers that this is, in fact, the way a résumé should be written. If you want to work at POOR you can let us know in writing how you understand what we expect of you. Do tell us what you think you can learn here as well.

i'm not a banger, im just a kid getting out at night. paper chasing education as my daily, infringes on my human rights. I see destruction all around me, it mirrors the way i feel inside. george was killed, blood was spilled, this time we don't let it slide. i'm walking dark, bangs and sparks, world war three is in full effect, more like a civil war, revolution of the poor, our current "leader" is an object. a car pulls by, chills in my spine, the black and blue i know all too well. they choked eric and george, they shot oscar, andy and more they look at me with the blank stare that kept george on the floor. they tell me how to move, puppet masters of the devils hand. I comply, fearing for my life please god save me from this land. where young men like sean get murdered everyday. red white and blue humans with legal executions, scary nation, state backed hatred for those with no silver spoon. why should i NOT be scared, of the men in blue, after all, im 18 years old and sean was 22 this is a poem dedicated to sean monterrosa and all of the men and women who were killed by police for existing in this systematically racist nation. with this poem I include a prayer for justice for all of the families who have lost love ones to the worst gang in the world, the United States police officers.

Liberate Parker Elementary School in East Oakland! Parker Elementary students & East Oakland youth share with POOR Magazine what motivates them to fight for Parker Elementary. By East Oakland Youth Skolaz, Jassiona & Samira Youth Skola Story #1: “My name is Jassiona and I’ve been at Parker, the liberation, for 23 days. Some people ask me how I got involved in it. Well I used to hear their marches every day and how they were taking over my community school. The first day I got here, I didn't actually believe that people were sleeping in the school. My little sister was the first person to be across the street every day. “My sister transferred to Parker Elementary, because earlier this year, at Elmhurst Middle School, another student and her mom had an altercation. This mom jumped out her car and started fighting my sister. My mom called OUSD, she called the principal, but nobody ever called her back. And this was why she moved her to Parker. She started coming home every day with a smile on her face. And I went over here and it felt like home. "Here at the liberation, in our class, I got to learn how to roller skate and I got to see different people and interact with them. There have been some events, like barbecues, a skate day, the Warriors party, and many more. Occupying the school is a good idea for kids because they need it. Where are you going to go if we don't occupy this school? I know a lot of kids around here who aren’t gonna go to school next year, because they don't have anyone to take them. We got to do the liberation, because a lot of other schools in Oakland, not just Parker, are getting closed and we have to fight back. There won't be any public schools in Oakland left, and if they close this one, what will we do? There will only be charter schools. I've been going to a charter school for three years. I do love it, but there's some things I don't like. Even as a black student, I feel like I don't get heard at all. All students should have the right to feel comfortable at school, and that's why I'm here doing this today. "At some point, I started to give up because I thought they were just going to get our school taken away. But on June 9th, I went to my first board meeting, and I got to see the ugliest person ever inside. They didn't have no sense of humor. They were rude and just didn't care about children. All they care about is taking money away from kids. And the most racist of them all is Josh Daniels. He comes to Parker every week. He takes pictures of little kids, and he locks up our kitchen so we can't eat. He takes all of our funding. He sends 14 people to put chains on our gates. And when I went to the board meeting, it made me not want to give up anymore. I gotta be heard. And all the youth said everything they had to say and everyone got to hear and I liked it.” Youth Skola Interview #1: What is your name? Jassiona Where are you from? East Oakland. Why are you here? Because this is my community school. And I want to keep it open. What made you want to do this when you don't go to this school? Because my sister goes here and I want her to have a good opportunity being here. Youth Skola Interview #2: What is your name? Samira And where are you from? Oakland Why are you here today? I'm here to help support Parker and try to keep it open. What made you want to be here for days? Because Parker's a community school that everyone should have.

White as can be Settler blood Living on Lummi, Nooksack, Coast Salish Seas territory I’ve been in such small, no-so-private spaces I had to learn how to silent cry so my feelings would have less of an impact on my 2 babies Rage through the whisper sound the back of my throat makes when I silent cry It’s 3am and I’m crunched in the corner space of a trundle bed in the doorless laundry room of a trailer Not so sure how long we’ll get to stay Flashbacks to sleepless nights on the cold ground shivering But at least the babies are warm Still houseless, still jobless A throwaway, and a failure My pain is too tall to measure

The role of Academia in increased and violent homelessness, gentrification and land theft From Berkeley to NYC Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources UnTour thru Columbia University - photo by Israel Munoz/PNN “Columbia University built the Manhattenville campus and caused the eviction and displacement of hundreds of low-income tenants and will be bringing in more students which will cause more housing shortages and more displacement,” said Rosie to PoorNewsNetwork a Columbia University student and member of Columbia Housing Equity Club. Her and this formerly houseless povertyskola stood together as we began our Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources UnTour in occupied Lenape Territory outside the Greco-Roman pillars that marked the front of the infamous Columbia University campus. “UC Berkeley is building an 11 story student housing building- which is taller than all the student housing they currently have. None of the current houseless residents of Peoples Park have been offered homes in the so-called affordable housing part of the project and probably never will. The little bit of affordable housing they are including won't even be accessible to the current houseless residents of Peoples Park because of the income requirement, said June Nelson, a land liberator with Defend Peoples Park to PNN-KEXU Po Peoples Radio Podcast of June 14th “The maintenance crew dispatched to Peoples Park just today was taking peoples belongings and throwing them away, including a grandmother who i had just bought adult diapers for,” added Aidan Hill, another powerFULL land liberator and formerly houseless UC Berkeley student who has stood up for and stayed in Peoples Park for years and also spoke with us on Po Peoples Radio Podcast focused on akkkademik colonization From Berkeley to NYC and beyond the settler violence of private property and the *krapitalist” system ( as i call it) un-houses youth, families, grandmothers, aunty’s, uncles and countless disabled Black, Brown, poor wite and indigenous people. Eviction, gentriFUKation (rent increases, housing shortages) job loss, underemployment, poLice profiling, poverty, incarceration, mental and physical illness, substance use, domestic violence and more are also triggers. POOR Magazine has done countless WeSearch projects (poor people led research for us by us) like the #JailstoStreets Project, connecting the dots of incarceration and profiling of Black and Brown communities to houselessness, #EvictionisElderandChildAbuse, and more and the “findings” were always the same, if you make “one wrong move”, slip-up or any of these krapitalist forces ensnare you, its almost impossible to get re-housed, housing secure or as i call it homeful. Not to mention RAD and NoHopeVI - two government sponsored gentriFUkation projects that destroyed public housing as we know it and flipped almost all project housing into the benignly titled “mixed income housing” i.e, no longer available to the poorest people in the US. And most recently the terror we all are still collectively surviving known as the pandemic, the tiny respite of the eviction moratorium which didnt cover most very poor tenants and was summarily ended leaving over 50,000 people across the US in eviction proceedings. All of these terrifying realities, in addition to the over-arching violence of krapitalism, isolation, forced migration and generations of colonial terror, Indigenous Black land theft and wite supremacy, its a wonder anyone is housed, and overstandibly why so many of us are now members of the ever growing UnHoused Nation. “I barely survived the violence of the encampment sweeps in New York under the new mayor and I am now truly afraid as he has declared war on our homeless bodies,” said Rickie, one of many RoofLess Radio reporters we met with on our Stolen Land UnTour of occupied Lenape last week. Because like Rickie said, once we are in fact outside, our bodies are now equated with trash and poltricksters like Eric Adams of New York sweep our us in massive and dangerous sweeps. Akkkademik Colonization and the Dorm Industrial complex But one driver of increased removal and displacement is rarely, if ever, discussed, mentioned or named, Academia, or what i affectionately call, Akkkademia and the ever hungry Dorm Industrial Complex. "This cult of angst and subsequent separating of children from their families and communities enables the other crucial lesson of akkkademia: the lesson of individualism, individuation, selfishness, self-centered actions. This produces the perfect capitalist consumer with all the elements of a future gentrifier and Ikea shopper. It produces people who become complicit in age-separatism, ghettoizing their own elders in homes and children in age-separated schools and board and care “homes”..." excerpt of page 172 of chapter 6 Poor People Led WeSearch and Education versus Akkkademik destruction in Poverty Scholarship- Poor People-led Theory, Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth I call it the “Dorm Industrial Complex” which is rooted in the “cult of Angst” because these academic institutions from Berkeley to Philly, from Temple University to San Francisco and LA continue the land theft of the original colonizers, which, incidentally many of the buildings on their “campuses” are named after, expansion, land theft, removal and violent gentriFUKation under the guise of “student housing” which is really a cover for a giant pyramid scheme inherent in krapitalism, I outline these concepts in Chapter 6 of the Poverty Scholarship Textbook and i refer to it as akkkademik colonization, and one of the important lessons we un-pack in PeopleSkool’s DegentriFUKation/Decolonization Workshop A recent aspect of the ever increasing Akkkademic Colonization is what i am calling akkkademik apartheid. These institutions arent building student housing for All students, they are building ‘luxury student housing” which means the only students who will be housed in this 21st century model is the children of wealth-hoarders. Which means that this violent gentriFUKation is focused on housing students with resources and often times leaves poor students houseless. Luxury housing for college and university students across the US has become a multibillion-dollar industry for Universities, with apartment buildings featuring pools, clubhouses and spin studios. “I was homeless for many of my years at Berkeley, I could not afford the so-called “student housing” and there is a severe housing shortage in berkeley so there was never anywhere else i could afford to live, being homeless while in school is so stressful and I almost didnt graduate,” said Max C, a graduate of UC Berkeley, who is now a resident of Hayward. Some students get a housing stipend as part of their financial aid, but it typically covers only the cost of dorms or less expensive off-campus options. And the only way that students can live in these places is by agreeing to work in them in exchange for discounted or even free rent. There is at least one class-action lawsuit alleging that this has essentially made them the equivalent of indentured servants to their wealthier classmates Kkkolumbia Universities’ Black Removal Columbia University has an extensive history of evicting Black and poor tenants to make way for their ever expanding “campus”. The fight and resistance of tenants spanned decades and one of their warriors was a revolutionary wite woman known as Marie Runyon, who was a resident of the Morningside Heights neighborhood and was evicted by Columbia and along with other tenants refused to move and held out for years in their homes in Morningside Heights. “My mom and many of the tenants being evicted by Columbia refused to leave and the court battle with them spanned several years,” said Brian Barth, Mrs Runyon’s sun who joined us on the UnTour as we stood in front of the Columbia Universities’ Presidents Mansion, another terrifyingly blatant example of the colonial aspect of all these wealth-hoarding , land stealing institutions. “They hired a private security firm to literally “sweep” everyone out of the Tenderloin district who are houseless in front of the block UC Hastings has proposed for their luxury student housing,” said POOR Magazine family member and revolutionary member of KopWatch SF in the Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources UnTour of UC Hastings Law School in November of 2020. Peoples Park has always been a space of decolonization “In the 1950’s UC Berkeley acquired Peoples Park through imminent domain. Michael Delacort and other anti-war activists co-founded it to do a free speech rally. Peoples Park was a sanctuary garden for the Black Panther Party. The purpose of the park at its core is about Survival under capitalism”, continued Aidan to PoPeoplesRadio Newz Hour. Aidan continued, “ The new Chancelor decided to build on Peoples Park- and in 2019 they cut down 40 trees-many people resisted but UC continued with its plan-until Andrea Henson fought a court case blocking the further displacment of people without offering them accommodations as this is cruel and unusual punishment. This povertyskola, who grew up in homelessness with my mama and was arrested by UC Berkeley police for being houseless in that settler town, and eventually did three months in Santa Rita County jail for the act of being houseless in this stolen land, have been triggered into extreme depression by the HypoKritical ways so-called progressive Berkeley has operated. “They have my relatives in their basement,” said Corrina Gould, Ohlone /Lisjan leader, prayer warrior and co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust, in POOR Magazine’s Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources UnTour held in May of 2021. We launched the UnTour of that akkkademik site following the UnTour of UC Hastings where in both cases we proposed a “#LandBAck proposal -because UC Berkeley is not only stealing land, trees, housing and tents at Peoples Park and buildings of rent controlled housing such as Walnut street,in collaboration with Police agencies, they are also, like so many of these institutions, warehousing Indigenous ancestors, which is all connected. In the end Akkkademik colonization can and should be met, liike all forms of colonial terror, with active decolonization and degentriFUKation. Not more studies and research and talking, removing and sweeping by the very institutions profiting off of our erasure. “Peoples Park is on Ohlone land and i believe it was created for all the children in the future- the next seven generations- Peoples Park was based in notions of radical activism that included the Womens Movement, the Gay Liberation, Free speech and so many more, always anti-fascist, always pro-poor, concluded Aidan., Aidan and all of us are standing on the shoulders of so many warriors like Michael Delacourt, David Nadel and Osha Neuman and Rosebud Abigail Denovo who broke into the campus home of Chang-Lin Tien, Chancellor of the University of California for liberation of Peoples Park. The collective work of Defend Peoples Park and Columbia University Housing Equity Project is essential and all the so-called woke and conscious professors and students need to join to support and resist along with all the community members and houseless relatives who have stood up and spoken up for generations. Mama Earth and all of us poor and houseless mamas and families need to be listened to with our own solutions like Homefulness , the Poor Peoples Army resisting the academic colonization of Temple University and the DegentriFUKation Zones we launched in East Huchuin (Oakland) so we don’t all end up in the very real violence of the UnHoused Nation.

Liberate Parker Elementary School in East Oakland! Parker Elementary students & East Oakland youth share with POOR Magazine the story of Parker Elementary and why they are occupying the school & trying to keep it open. By East Oakland Youth Skolaz @ Parker Elementary Zarian, age 12, from East Oakland (originally from Fresno): “Well I’m here at Parker because nobody gave OUSD aka the school board the right to close down this school or really any schools at all.” Samira, age 11, from East Oakland: “I’m here because I want to help support Parker Elementary (my school) – because the district is trying to take it away like they did to other great schools.” AJ, age 13, from North Fresno: “I don’t know. In my opinion about school closures, I think that there’s more schools we can go to. But I guess I think they should not close the school.” Elmer, age 7, from East Oakland: Drawing by Elmer Olive, age 8, from East Oakland: Why are you here? “Because they closed our school but they don’t know we’re here.” Drawing by Olive Eder, age 15, from 7900 East Oakland: Why are you here? “Because uhhh I was bored.” Mele, age 6, from East Oakland: Drawing by Mele Erik, age 13, whose family is from Mexico: “In February, they closed down Parker and tried to make it into a charter school. It is bad because people that live around here don’t have a school.” David, age 14, from East Oakland: “I am here to keep the school open because they are taking learning away from us, the kids.” Zoraya, age 12, who was born in Fresno but now lives in East Oakland: “I’m here to save my school from closing down. I love being at this school with my friends and I love the teachers.” Javien from East Oakland: “I’m here because it’s disrespectful how these people think they can take away learning from kids that need it the most. Me and other parents and students will not let them put hands on our school. All we hear is the same ‘sorry’ but it goes deeper than that – they’re taking away history.” Nasira, age 7, from East Oakland: Drawing by Nasira

Walking down a winding path paved with eggshells. Freedom is a low hanging fruit just out of reach. The sky eats up light and the fog tries to suffocate me, blanketing the path and settling on the tree. My feet move forward at a grinding pace. My body is young and my mind Is old, saturated with experiences I have yet to process. The fog is gravity now, pulling me to the earth, whispering sweet nothings in my ear, promises of love and protection, safety that compromises freedom, comfort that throws away exploration. The only opening I see through the fog is that same path paved with eggshells, that tree with low hanging fruit getting further and further away.

Almost kicked out of my great aunt’s house for taking hormones at 18. Having to lie through my teeth with caution. In order to be housed until I graduated out of high school. All I wanted was to have autonomy for my body. I want to honor what my body wants at the moment. Now as I think of the trauma, it fades in and out like a fog on a sunny morning. Even what hurt me the most was how my father blamed me and told me that it was my fault that I got myself into that situation in the first place, that I made my great aunt mad and disappointed in me. I wanted her to see me for who I am, and I was saddened by her decisions and her reactions to my own autonomy. I still love and appreciate her now with all of my heart. Even when she did what she did. I still want her in my life. The experience that my vessel went through was terrifying and traumatizing. I had to walk around in high school with a backpack and suitcase all day, and even explain to teachers that I was on the verge of being kicked out of my great aunt’s house. I had to make a decision with my great aunt, either I stop the hormones and still live with her, or I honor the hormones and be somewhere else. I found a way, but it wasn’t an easy way. I had to lie in order to stay housed and feel alive. I had to create an illusion with my body. The illusion of the Pre-T self, lowering the dosage to slow the process of my transformation. Hiding my soon-to-be robust voice with high-pitched melodies. Create a smooth surface of my skin that no hair has inhabited. It broke my heart to lie with my tongue to my own great aunt. Who housed me when my own parents weren't able to house me. I did not want to do it but I fear the realities and possibilities. If I was in the streets, my vessel would have been taken advantage of, my vessel would have been raped, molested, and violated by strange men in the streets and in the city shelters. I would have been denied housing because of my own transfaggot existence. I’ve heard stories of trans and nonbinary people having their bodies destroyed and broken by the patriarchal offenders in the community and of the state. Hell, trans and nonbinary people like me are less likely to get housed and be in stable and safe environments. In Alameda County, if we see the data from the End Homelessness website in 2019. Trans people tend to experience unsheltered homelessness at a higher percentage than cis people. In Alameda County, 81 percent of the cis people was unsheltered while 19 percent were sheltered from 2017 to 2019. In contrast, 93 percent of the trans people were unsheltered while 7 percent were sheltered in 2019 in Alameda County. Since 2017, trans and nonbinary people have gradually became more vulnerable to housing instability and the violence of poverty and capitalism. There is hope as the trans housing liberation movement has been growing for decades from New York with the STAR mother ancestors Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, to the South with My Sistah’s House in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with other beautiful housing and sheltering medicines. In the Vogue article on the trans housing liberation movement in the South, Kayla Gore, the co-founder of My Sistah’s House, explained, “Trans-led initiatives have always been in existence in some form. It’s just that now with the global pandemic and the uprising, there’s more attention on vulnerable communities, especially within the Black community, prioritizing trans folks.” In the same article above, Mariah Moore, one of the founders of House of Tulip in New Orleans, Louisiana mentions that “as a Black trans woman, I never knew the racism that existed in zoning laws. There are all these hurdles put in place that prevent folks from being able to provide the support that marginalized folks need and deserve,” she says. “We’re still trying to build out a road to homeownership through an infrastructure that helps our community members become self-sustainable.” The Covid pandemic also has been the capitalistic factor of housing instability within the trans and nonbinary community, especially within trans communities of color across the States. In the USA Today article on the trans housing liberation movement in the South, it is said that, “For the transgender community, especially those of color, preexisting barriers and ongoing discrimination have compounded challenges in the middle of a raging pandemic and economic crisis. Approximately 19% of transgender people and 26% of transgender people of color became unemployed because of COVID-19, compared to 12% of the general U.S. population.” It all comes to the reality that transphobia is one of the many spawn that is birthed from the legacy and the cult of whyte supremacy and colonization. In the eyes of colonizers and perpetrators of violence, transness is non-existent. For us, it is our existence. The legacy of creating a home for us, by us. It brings me back to the moment where I was almost kicked out for honoring my body, even if there were risks. I was willing to take the risk to honor my vessel. This hurt my potential love and trust for my Aunt Vickie. But, once I was able to start the healing process of my family lineage. She is family in my eyes again. I still want her in my life, she now understands more gradually about how I exist. It is a process, it is a journey. I now think of a home where the liminal vessel can be housed once more.

“Mama Tiny do you want some stuff?- I know u be helping all of us all the time wit free shit, so let me know, I got shoes, clothes, computers…” Tyler, a 16 year old had been out all night doing what he called “some robin hood-shit” The beautiful-crazy part of this young man’s moves is he and his mama are also currently houseless, so like all of us poor folks, while he is in struggle, he is worrying about other people in struggle. “Hell yea its liberation, fuk that, its what we have been taught, “ said rob, another youth of color who messaged me on instascam before he went out on Sunday night to “get more shit” I had asked him if he thought his moves right now were an act of revolution or liberation and he was clear, “ Every day we are taught that rich people take and get whatever they want and look the other way when our folks are murdered, “ his voice trailed off as he remembered his own uncle who was shot by poLice when he was 5 years old. I have witnessed and fiercely supported every single protest move , and the wite supermacists and the paid informants and the revolutionary People of color leaders and the trying to get in the way wite protestors and the respectful, standing up for Black liberation wite people and all the others in between. I have pondered whether to even write this piece as a formerly houseless, very low-income single mama and poverty skola, because as I have often said, our “poverty crimes” need to stay in-house, but then I watched CorpRape media show the same racist stock photos and videos of young Black and Brown men liberating krapitalist stores who have “looted” our poor communities for years with their billion dollar ad campaigns about $300 shoes that cost $2.00 to make because they pay global south workers $.25 an hour, $800 phones, $3000, computers that are built by poisoning Congolese, Chinese, South-Asian children and poor people, cars assembled by computers or under-paid global south workers, requiring credit that none of us poor people ever have access to so we keep driving broke-down hoopties (cars), which gives more excuses to more murderous poLice to stop and frisk, stop and kill for fake Driving While Black and Brown and Poor violations. Not to mention extracted and stolen chocolate and easily accessible poison like vape pens and cigarettes and alcohol and on and on. And while these stock photos and videos flooded the CorpRape news channels, one after the other, they were accompanied by non-stop voice-overs calling the youth liberators “criminals”, thugs, lawless and “looters” who were single-handedly destroying the fragile krapitalist ekkkonomy which is just barely trying to come back from Covid19. And then cause thats not enough, a stream of politricksters, poLice and lie-gislators and even a lot of conscious people have been adding to the noise with sweeping statements about “destruction” and violence to stores versus “peaceful protests”. I know this is a controversial perspective and I know that some of the stores that have been “destroyed” are in communities of color or POC owned like Chinatown in Oakland and beyond. But I also know racism across communities is real too and more than people realize daily anti-black and anti-poor, anti-houseless micro and macro-violence is constant, incessant and amounts to torture and comes from many of these POC owned establishments. Slow, sick torture that grinds peoples psyches down to the end of our breaking points. Looting versus “property damage” To get extremely clear, since the beginning of the protests there has been the weird hater klan members setting fires, smashing windows and causing shit - but then there is looting and it is a different move - targets were decided based on the products, accessibility and the poLice terror perpetrated by that place. The youth are very clear that this is not a casual move and again its not something that people who have never missed a meal may ever be able to overstand, so I respectfully ask you to stop judging with the same krapitalist infused gaze. The other reality is low-income young people of color were already in struggle. The Pandemic called poverty, and the way that Covid19 stole some of the small crumns that were in place all away was complete violence. Schools, closed jobs dried up , non-profit youth centers and programs and spaces, the few that where there are gone. Whats left? What do you think young people have to do? This time has been extremely hard on very low-income young people in a way adults and elders can barely fathom. I only know because POOR Magazine has the blessing of having a large poor youth following and I work with poor youth everyday. Isolation and sheltering in place when you have no place, no healthy food, no fun, means what ? Means we have little to live for. Rules created by people who use, abuse, incarcerate and hate mean nothing either. Whats the point? And like Rob said, this is what we have been taught. Looting as anyone knows are colonial created tactics. Launched with the original looting of Turtle Island and then Black and Brown bodies looted so wite supremcists, wealth-hoarders’ buildings and bridges and world could be built and exploited. From this original looting wrapped in a carefully perpetrated PR campaign and re-named “discovery” was then followed up by brutal and murderous genocide that has continued to this day. Throughout herstory the looting, rape and murder continued, with the looting of Mama Earth, to the looting of our communities when we tried to participate in their violent economic models. From the “gold rush” to Standing Rock, From Black Wall Street to Chinese Exclusion Act, from redlining to gentriFUKation, every attempt of indigenous, poor and people of color to participate in their killer economies is met with some kind of covert or overt violence. Young people see this and overstand it And to make it even deeper, the protectors of the wealth-hoarding looters who steal mama earth and call it “real estate speculation” steal our money and call it “mortgages and payday loans, steal our housing and call it foreclosure and eviction and profit and taxes are the poLice, PoLice or “Lice” on the po’ is a concept I came up with in 1999 after my brother Leroy Moore and I reported on the poLice murder of a houseless, disabled elder from LA Margret Mitchell for nothing but being Black and houseless in LA and which plays itself out in brutal stories like the 2016 poLice murder of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat, killed for being Brown and houseless in gentriFUKation city aka San Francisco Krapitalism is a violent and brutal system rooted in looting, but the real looters, the real estate snakes, the scamlords and the hoarders are never charged, they are protected. By poLice who kill poor people. So I know that at the end of the day, maybe you don’t agree with me because you don’t agree that krapitalism is an inherently violent system. Maybe you do believe that if you just get your piece of the pie you will be ok. That you don’t agree that Mama Earth needs to be unSold so we can end the perpetration and the eviction and the homelessness tomorrow. That you inherently believe that somehow we all have a chance and all we all need to do is work toward equality and fight for “justice. But maybe you need to examine the reality that while you fight for poor peoples of color justice, you have a home and job to go home to after your day of “protesting”while thousands of young, no-income youth of color have nothing. I will say to all the people de-crying the “violence” the theft, the ruination of krapitalist stores, are you really defending the system you decry and create strategic plans about overthrowing, changing, and/or resisting ? Are you really working toward our collective liberation? Or does your liberation and mine end at the end of your workday. And lastly that I need to remind adults right now, that this isn’t your fight. These young people and specifically poor young people need to have their own agency, and maybe you need to move out the way and realize they are inheriting this shit called amerikkklan and tortured Mama Earth. And their tactics are their tactics and its ok if they aren’t your tactics and to recognize sometimes “controlling the moment/movement” is an oxymoron and rather, you could try to respect what this generation has to bring to this moment which isn’t the same as what you brought, but no less powerful.

By AudreyCandyCorn aka SistahSaveASoul June 9th 2022 I remember being a little girl growing up in Oakland California, the home of both of my parents. I am an Oakland child, even in my being an adult I am the product of Oakland's finest. I am that diamond in the rough, my family are diamonds covered in darkness. I remember my grandparents making comments on how the world is changing. And now I make comments on how the world has changed in the 38 years that I have been living on this Earth. I remember my grandmother Audrey speaking on how she can taste the difference in the foods she ate on a regular. My grandfather Charlie Brown, he grew his own fruits and vegetables, and he didn't live in Oakland like I thought he did. He lived in Fresno with 2 white dogs he loved. Grandpa had a country side to him and one hell of a green thumb. But everyone else was Town bound. My parents are from Oakland, my extended parents are from Oakland, my grandparents’ children are from Oakland, my cousins aunts and uncles are from Oakland and many of us don't want to leave, have never left Oakland and we'll die here in Oakland... Is there LIFE OUTSIDE OF OAKLAND? Sure there is. But Oakland is truly all some of us will ever know. . . Part of it comes from being taught to have pride in who you are and where you live, because it's where you come from that shapes who you are going to be possibly. Environmental Key Lessons That Only Can Come From Oakland Town Bizz Scholars: Living in Oakland is a whole experience. Only the strongest survive. If you take notice, Oakland California is the 10th most deadly City in the world. In fact, Donald J Trump—the president currently, what a clown of a joke by the way—has specifically claimed Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf to be dumb, he said. Irresponsible and cannot control her city. He called out the town name Oakland, called out the citizens and the uniforms and administration that runs it. All this was done on TV, all social media the news picked it up. No, f*** picking it up, Donald Trump talking specifically to the press about this dangerous Oakland California. Bad news sure does travel faster than good news. What Donald Trump didn't know, due to him not doing any research, simply talking out his ass as he does—he would have known there are core teams like drones embedded into the tapestry creating a love life culture. Because if he had done research, he would have come across Donald Lacy, the Ambassador of Oakland and its rich connection to family and healing. For over 20 years this man has dedicated his life. During Barack Obama's time to serve as president, Oakland took a lot of changes. Some were for the good, some were for the worst. However, during the switch of presidents, Oakland natives have continued to work for the healing of our city, to be restored to the people of the land. And to prove it, there is a sign that gives the number of people who populate the city, and you can usually find the signs at the entrance or the exit of each and every city, town, and state. The background normally is green, and there's white or yellow writing giving the accurate information of population. Well, thanks to Donald Lacy and his LoveLife Foundation and the many people who have believed in him supported him and push his vision, now when you enter or exit Oakland, San Leandro, Richmond, or Emeryville, we have several population boards that say Welcome to Oakland. Your LoveLife City changing the narrative of the former curses of our town It then has the population number of the people...with Yellow Doves on some. And that is not easy to do--we had to fight City Council Administration Frank Ogawa Plaza 250 downtown Oakland on Broadway. There were many meetings, lies, backstabbing, and straight up blockage even from those who you would never expect it from. However, Donald Lacy has been successful with his Love Life message. Creating and healing in love, providing platforms for children, teens, young adults, adolescents, everybody. I wonder who will take notice and remember the pillars of our time. Will the newcomers know and understand the layers of Oakland? Which Brings Me to Lisa tiny Garcia, who also has put in work for over 20 years liberating children, mothers, grandfathers and homeless, houseless folks right here in Oakland. Tiny is another key pillar in the tapestry of Oakland Bay Area, building links. Poverty Scholars from across the waters to the level ground. The work of being the Love Life work in ACTION, never KNOWING OR MEETING Donald Lacy... Lisa Tiny Garcia Paves the way. That’s a total of over 40 years of creating a better life for our new culture to sustain. Raising a new generation and breaking the curses plaguing Oakland citizens, Understanding and teaching that Mother Earth is not to be sold and bought... LoveOlutionary Lisa tiny Garcia believes that human beings are not to be swept like trash... The times have changed from my Parents’ & grandparents’ days. Even for my time in the sun has been shaded. Lisa tiny Garcia is THE HEART BEAT OF OAKLAND. Oakland's movement FUTURE depends on these 2 selfless human beings’ will to keep on keeping on, moving in their purpose and honor. Spiritually, these 2 work side by side in their missions. Yet have only caught whispers of each other's name, yet on one accord making waves through change, being the change you want to see. You see, it takes the sharing of stories, information, and knowledge of you and me. Together, strategically we can overcome the evils of the world's evildoing workers. Every generation has a crisis the government has implemented onto the peoples. Whether it's the war on our food (GMO), the putting guns into our communities, the pumping of the crack rock into our mothers’ and babies’ bodies, destroying families, separating them by the incarceration of the fathers, and last but not least the airborne diseases like CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 that is currently in all 50 states, that's GLOBAL... THIS means the world is impacted and this has not been the first time nor will it be the last time. This is why I write, blog, journal and document my life along with others who have dedicated themselves to leaving behind important information for those left to dwell on Earth until God comes back for us all... And so I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be at the tables, Hearing conversations of adults who have lived through their time, took notice of the shifts for the new times that they may not live to see and chose to share what they could while they could when they could before taking that last breath... THE INFORMATION: We’re going to need it. There is nothing new under the sun, this is all warmed up soup. Beware—what goes up must come down, what goes around comes back around. The Lessons, if you catch on to what our elders warned, go a lil something like this: We are impactful beings destroying ourselves and the land. Be NOT Of this WORLD, let it not consume you. The government is corrupt and we are in spiritual warfare. Trust your instincts. It is by your faith, not by your Sight You will be COVERED. And I'm reminded to remember just that. My life depends on it, and yours do too I Remember...

PowerFULL event on May 15th landless/houseless/indigenous people solutions to homelessness which included Luis Rodriguez, Ayodele Wordslanger, Cob on Wood and so many more landless houseless warriors to bring attention to the insane blocking by the city of Oakland

By Amir cornish /youth poverty skola , co-builder and resident of Homefulness and co-founder of the TAZ foundation As a little kid I never really cared about having a clean home. At least we had a Roof over our head and we was always on the move. When we used to open the big black heffy bags, it was like looking into a mirror back into the past of my family history going through the generations. . 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. Not really had a stable home but my home was them bags and as a kid me and my older brother would play on them big plastic bags and I would imagine myself on mountains climbing the great walls. For me, cleaning is not hard. What’s hard is just having a place to keep clean for a long time but I could never fully grasp it. Like reading a book, you don’t get the answers quickly you’re wrestling to fully understand it. I feel like people shouldn't be kicked out of their house just because they don't know how to keep a place clean. For me, having a black bag was home. Postscript -Join us in the prayer circle to open Homefulness for Houseless and poor Mamaz and families in June -email poormag@gmail.com for details