I am Troy Davis

I stumbled upon http://marshtravels.blogspot.com/ as I am beginning to become emerged in the blogworld. The author/ film maker did a piece for Creative Loafing the art and politically minded newspaper in Atlanta. There is a lot of activity going on around justice and freedom for Death row inmate Troy Davis. Mother Jones magazine sent out a special e-mail to everyone that gets e-mails from them. I have received notices from Color of Change and Amnesty has been working on getting him out for years now. Check out the video. Read More. but mostly send emails and take action.
Friends in ATL there are many protests going on!

Black Bean Soup

Sylvia and I made this... we didn't let it cook for as long and it was supposed to and it was really more of a chunky veggie soup... it was wonderful and reflected the colors of what is going on outside right now in Connecticut. It is getting cold and so far a major highlight of my fall time has been making this soup with Sly.

1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cans (or 3 cups) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. cumin
2 bay leaves (NOT TRYING TO BUY $12 BAY LEAVES FROM WESHOP)
1-2 tsp. chile powder (WE ARE OUT)
generous grating of black pepper
1-2 tsp. minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT THIS IS)
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
4-5 cups vegetable broth or water
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels (optional)
lime wedges
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In a large pot, saute the onions, garlic, and bell pepper until the onions soften, about 3 minutes. Add the beans, seasonings, and tomatoes, and stir to combine. Add 3 cups vegetable broth or water. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour, adding additional water or vegetable broth as needed to keep a soupy consistency. Just before serving, add the corn, if you like, and heat through. Serve in bowls with lime wedges. Makes 4-6 servings.

We found the recipe here

Mimi

My soul friend Mimi Naja is creating so much energy through music and its getting so exciting for those of us that have been blessed to be around her and know her. Yesterday she was in Atlanta returning to the place of upbringing for a show. In her off time her family organized a show for her to perform at their house. My mama went. Part way through my mama asked her to play something from high school. Mimi said she knew just the thing and performed Doria Roberts' "Perfect." As is the way with Mimi and me I "happened" to call my mama right then. She held the phone up so I could hear Mimi play and when she was done Mimi explained to everyone that her and my friendship was started over this song when we were 14. I love you Mimi.

Opening

The opening plenary for the conference was an all-star line up of anti-PIC folks.


Opening plenary
CR10

Line Up Included


All Nations Drum who held a FREE LENARD PELTIER sign and chanted and drummed to start of the night.

Lisa Ortega from Rights for People with Psychiatric Disabilities talked about the oppression and criminalization of people with Psychiatric Disabilities and the need for inclusion in the anti-PIC movement for these voices.

The Welfare Poets sang and spit from their album about anti-death penalty activism and had the plenary not gone on to long we might have made it to their full show in San. fran that night.




Hank Jones talked about his experience as a political prisoner and one of the SF8


Miss Major spoke as an elder about the realities that trans people are often incarcerated for being trans. She said over and over that This shit has been going on for far to long and we aren't going to put up with it any longer!


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Most of the people around me went wild when Suheir Hammad read her poetry specifically
“letter to anthony (critical resistance)”

I.
this is not a pre paid
call this is not a poem
this is not a letter written from a woman
on the inside this is a

dear nazik aka nymflow-9 aka
bronx bomber aka anthony aka
42851-054 5812
hey brother i hope
this finds you well and safe

i have carried these words for
months through ports and air
and i still have a hard time
five years later writing
you when i travel

but your letters i take
with me the graffiti you throw
at the end of a dozen
handwritten double sided single
spaced muslim oil scented legal
sheets offer me a home
in polyester hotel rooms

you have never been on an airplane

i think of tht often when i try
to help women place words together
into rhymes or lines these women
try to make sense of their lives

what makes me different i mean
people actually pay you they say to
read some poems and talk? shit i got a lot
say let someone pay me to talk. fuck that
just get me out of here and i’ll talk sing dance
shut up if they want

i don’t tell them i get
paid just enough for rent
rent means a home even
if you broke it’s home

we workshop poems and their stories
are not original or fictional
a woman will tell you
every home she has ever inhabited
has been broken into
starting with her body

i never leave a prison
without my head splitting
down my spine an iron
hand on my lungs

when you call anthony
and that woman’s voice says
this is a pre paid call press 5
to accept this call i press 5 count
to 3 take a deep breath and pray
we talk and when the voice
interrupts any intimacy
we’ve embroidered via phone wires
with this call is from a federal prison
we pick up the shards
of our conversation desperate
to finish before the next

II

i have always loved criminals
i tell people who try to shame
me into silence

with words like television conjugal
college libraries they say
can you imagine a library in a nigerian a chinese a
colombian prison do you know what happens in the world americans are spoiled no idea
how lucky we are here

even you often write how
your time has offered reflection
meditation deepened your faith
but you 27 and have 10
years to go nowhere how much deeper
you going to get until a system based
on money deems you rehabilitated

i have always loved criminals
and the way you bomb my tag
butterphoenix all across your letters
reminds me our affirmation is
considered vandalism

i have always loved
criminals and not only the thugged
out bravado of rap videos and champagne
popping hustlers but my father
born an arab baby boy
on the forced way out
of his homeland his mother exiled
and pregnant gave birth in a camp

the world pointed and said
palestinians do not exist palestinians
are roaches palestinians are two legged dogs
and israel built jails and weapons and
a history based on the absence of a people
israel made itself holy and chosen
and my existence a crime

so i have always loved criminals
it is a love of self
and i will not cut off any part of
me and place it behind fences and bars
and the fake ass belief
that there is a difference between
the inside and the outside

there is no outside anywhere
anymore just where we are and
what we do while we are here

and there
are people anthony who make a connection
between you puerto rican rhyme slayer beautiful man and
young girls twisted into sex work and these
people nazim they are working to stop prisons
from being economically beneficial to depressed
communities and these people
bronx bomber they imagine a world
where money can’t be made off the hurt
of the young the poor the colored the
sexualized the different and these people
nymflow they never heard you
spit lyrics and they won’t
see the brillians from these mere words
but these people
42851-054 5812
they believe human
beings can never be reduced
to numbers not in concentration
camps or reservations not in
refugee camps not in schools
and not in jails

these people
brother they resist

i will share these words
with them and i will
in your name and in the names
of all who imagine

stay well
and safe
resist
and love
suheir







Andy Smith blew everyone away with her humor, candor and passion for what it means to be part of a movement. I have a number of pictures of all of these people but tears and intent and laughing made a lot of them blurry.

CR10

Returned from "Struggle and Strategy to Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex"the CR10 conference in Oakland, CA this past weekend.
I learned so much this weekend its hard to know where and how to start. I attended a workshop on alternatives to the police which talked about building community and safety in a way that you know how you would actually call if you felt unsafe, in stead of calling the police. It was about knowing the people around you, it was about trust and it was about accountability to and for and with each other.

It was a very powerful weekend. The first workshop I attended was lead by the Rose city Cop Watch from Portland, OR and was called "Getting Real about Alternatives to the police." We talked about how to deal with unsafe situations with out involving the police and thus trying to prevent people from entering the prison and "justice" systems in the first place. We talked about creating community based initiatives, formal or otherwise that would help you actually answer the question of who you would call when you feel unsafe, other than the police. It was a discussion format and people talked about what they ALREADY do in their communities other than call the police and people talked about what they want to do. We talked about how to implement ideas that did not recreate hierarchical systems and use tactics similar to police and prisons. This is not an easy idea. People talked about communities in which people knew who was committing crime and that in those communities elders and "tough people" need to seek out those committing harm and give them a talking to. I was uncomfortable with this. Obviously violence and intimidation made me uncomfortable but I think it runs deeper than that. I said that I think while it is helping and important to "protect" those who have been robbed or hurt it is also important to think about why people are committing hurt in the first place. Why is someone stealing from my house? What do they need that they aren't getting? Is there something I could be doing to help with that? Is that responsibility? Who's is it? If we are against the use of "the state" for aid, who is responsible? Since the schools starting serving free breakfast we don't have the Panther's free breakfast anymore. Is that good? Is it important for resources to be institutionalized? What happens when those institutions fail?