The Power of Art and Youth

This past Saturday, August 16, Luis Villanueva, a high school student, and the Los Angeles Mural Experiment, an art group he started, had a mural inauguration at Dyer Street Elementary School in the community of Sylmar in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. This mural project is sponsored by the Young Warriors, the arts-based youth empowerment wing of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, founded by Mayra Zaragoza and Brian Dessaint. I was also able to speak to the various young artists involved--around 20--as well as their parents, school officials, and others who gathered that beautiful August day to honor the artistic resource we have in our young people.

Tia Chucha's and Young Warriors continue to involve youth, including graffiti artists, in creating artistic works that the community can appreciate, value, and support. The mural encompassed various animals from the deserts and jungles of northern Africa, such as giraffes, tigers and elephants. It was beautifully done for the elementary school students and the surrounding community. Food was then provided for the guests that numbered around 100 people. Luis proved to be an amazing organizer by planning, mobilizing, and inaugurating this project in less than a month's time.

Unfortunately, this community is under a gang injunction zone approved by the courts against the so-called San Fer gang. This has caused many young people to be arbitrarily stopped and searched. Those served under the injunction cannot associate with other alleged gang members, and they are under a strict curfew. If they are seen with two or more people, they can be arrested and the people who they are with can also be served, even if they aren't in a gang.

This is not even done in some of the most repressive countries in the world.

The target of California's gang injunctions, started in LA in the late 1980s, are black and brown alleged gang members (no white or asian gangs have ever been placed under a gang injunction to date). In LA alone there are more than 20 gang injunctions, including the most recent in the Sylmar/San Fernando area (this is also where I live). It's now the largest gang injunction area in the city.

Still Tia Chucha's/Young Warriors, in collaboration with organizations like the LA Mural Experiment, will keep providing meaningful, healthy, imaginative, and community-based options to the most troubled and neglected young people. Gang injunctions are not the answer and never have been.

Two weeks before, I had more than 30 young people, most of them hard-core gang members trying to change their lives, come to San Fernando's Sweat Lodge, located behind a sober-living home. I'm one of the founders and one of the facilitators/water pourers (my wife Trini is another one). They came from Homeboy Industries in downtown LA as well as from Watts (thanks to the efforts of Fidel Rodriguez and Adrian Veliz). Many of the young men and women were heavily tattooed. At one point some of the guys shared the various bullet wounds and scars on their bodies.

They were most Mexican males, but also included a few African Americans and women.

The ceremony was taken seriously, but it was a battle for these young people, most of whom had never been in a sweat ceremony. There was lots of moans, loud prayers, tears, and more as we connected the intensity of the lodge to the intensity and pains of their lives. At one point about nine young people left the lodge in-between rounds. But just before the last round, Hector, a member of our sweat lodge circle who also pours water, sings and plays drums, kept a strong solid beat that helped calm all the participants. I said words of knowledge and prayer over the drum beat to keep the group from fracturing and losing focus. The nine people outside, gathered around to hear and listen and learn. In the last round, they all came back to take part.

It was an amazing ceremony, although it was extremely hard. It was a battle, but the ceremony is meant to symbolize the battle of our life. With much respect, courage, and struggle, these young people fought to be present and to come back. Those that stayed all the way through were the stronger for it.

Getting shot, having friends and family killed (one young girl's mother was recently found murdered in an alley with no idea so far about who did this), being on drugs (in particular crystal meth), just out of jail (a few of the participants had just been released from prison), now found an intense healing and purification space, run by community for community.

Tomorrow, August 18, I go to the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation's Men's Conference called "Holding the Thread of Life," a mentoring retreat with Michael Meade, Jack Cornfield, Orland Bishop and myself as teachers. We'll be in the Redwood Forest surrounding Mendocino, CA. I've been doing these with Mosaic now for more than 15 years. This coming week -- it lasts about six days -- we'll have mentors, mentees, therapists, teachers, organizers, as well as gang youth and other young people. Homeboy Industries, Youth Mentoring Connection, Street Poets, Tia Chucha's are some of the organizations bringing youth.

There are way to help gangs, those on drugs, and the most abused and neglected young people. Prisons, juvenile halls and jails only deliver these youth to the mouth of the lion. We can do lasting and vital inner-core work with these young people, but we are often lacking as a society the political will, funds, other resources, and the community awareness to do so. We'll do it anyway, but many more youth are being pushed into the web of the prison/criminal world (at taxpayers' expense).

I will do my part to help change the culture in this country about how best to deal with trouble, young people, and our fractured communities. The mural project, the sweat lodge, the men's conferences, Tia Chucha's arts programming, and organizations like Homeboy Industries and the Mosaic Foundation are all part of the change that brings lasting and long-range healing, peace, and health to all our communities.

We will maintain ourselves as the example while we continue to fight against the laws, injunctions and upcoming propositions like Proposition 6--the Runner Initiative--that will do more to harm our youth in the poorest communities than any such proposition to date (and California has had some doozies).

More on this and other initiatives in future blog posts.

c/s

Tia Chucha's 2nd Annual Benefit Event -- an Amazing Evening of Music, Poetry, Aztec Dance, Hip Hop, Comedy & More

All I can say is a great big thank you to Angelinos from all over the LA area -- Chicanos, Mexicanos, Centro Americanos, but also African Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and European Americans -- who came out on a hot August evening on Sunday to help Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, the nonprofit cultural space and bookstore that I helped create in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Talk about celebrating community and culture!

Like last year, we packed the house at the venerable John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood--despite the fact that UB-40 was playing at the Hollywood Bowl nearby (we could hear the applause and yells from the Bowl from where we were sitting). All the talent showed up on time and came through like the professionals they are.

And we had quite a line up--Tia Chucha's own Aztec Danza group, Temachtia Quetzacoatl, opened the event with their strong energy and spirit. Ernie G, one of LA's leading comedians and a barrio homeboy (a strong supporter of Tia Chucha's) again MCed (and also presented some hilarious lines). He introduced my wife Trini and I as co-founders of the original Tia Chucha's in Sylmar. Trini articulated some important thoughts including that we can't just depend on what we inherit, but that we must consider what we can create. It's the essence of Tia Chucha's philosophy, symbolized by our tag line (which also came from Trini): Where Art and Minds Meet -- for a Change.

I read a couple of poems, including a new one to my youngest sons, Ruben and Luis (who were also in the audience), called "Moonlight to Water."

This was followed by amazing sacred songs by long-time LA performer and community activist Nobuko Miyamoto. Then we had the sketch political comedy of Opening People's Minds and the conscious Mexika Hip Hop style of Olmeca. The next act had everyone on their feet (or swooning): Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. He's the Godfather of LA Funk, the creator of songs like "Express Yourself" and "Love Land" ("Express Yourself" has been in more than 30 commercials, more than 30 movie soundtracks, and has been heavily sampled by Rap artists over the years). Mr. Wright has some 50 years in the music business, and he still can rock and sing with the best of them.

East LA's best young band, Upground, came up next (they were here last year and came back by popular demand). They did bilingual Chicano ska, funk and cumbias. People danced in the aisles.

We didn't just end there. Cheech Marin, of the world renowned Cheech & Chong comedy duo, came up with a guitar and some funny stories. Both young and old laughed and remembered as he eventually led to his famous rendition of "Born in East LA" (borrowed with respect from Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA").

At the end, even Trini and I got up on the mike and sang the chorus over and over again, Although I've lived in East LA for 15 years, including where I first married, where my oldest kids first went to school, and where I first got into writing as a career, I was born in El Paso, Texas. And Trini was born in the Mexican migrant stream town of Martinez, CA (and later settled into the Northeast San Fernando Valley barrio of Pacoima). But we sang our little hearts out. "Born in East LA," is a metaphor about why East LA is so central to Chicano culture and history.

At some point, we were all born in East LA.

Tia Chucha's has had quite a summer so far of benefit events, music/art/writing/dance/theater workshops, Open Mic nights, literacy festivals, youth programming, and more.

Today many independent bookstores, cultural spaces, and art galleries are being forced to close with high rents, high-end developments, and the vagaries of the marketplace. Early last year, Tia Chucha's was forced to move out of our Sylmar space when our landlords practically tripled our rent. We moved into a smaller space in Lake View Terrace to keep the momentum going.

In the LA area alone we may be losing Self Help Graphics, Avenue 50 Studio, Acres of Books, and lately Antigua Cafe was forced to move. In the past few years we've seen the closing of the Midnight Special Bookstore, Luna Sol Cafe, Bohemias Books, 33 & a 1/3 Books, Carlota's Passion Art Gallery, Dutton's Bookstore, Under the Bridge Bookstore, and others.

Tia Chucha's benefit is a big step toward keeping our space alive -- with the goal of finding a bigger and better permanent or semi-permanent space in a year or two. But it's also about safeguarding and expanding neighborhood arts, cultural spaces, workshops spaces, art galleries, and the ever vital independent bookstores.

Again, thanks to the LA County Arts Commission, the Ford Theatres, the LA City Department of Cultural Affairs, all our donors and other funders, our amazing staff, board members, and volunteers, and all of Los Angeles--these are some great audiences. As a poet I agree with Walt Whitman--great poets need great audiences. This is true for other artists and truly community-based cultural institutions as well.

c/s

The Wonder of Stevie

Again this year I was fortunate to be on Stevie Wonder's radio show on KJLH-FM 102.3, the station Stevie owns and operates in the City of Inglewood. I've always admired Stevie's music, creativity, and community commitment. He's a man who gives to the betterment of all our lives.

I was invited to sit in on his show after my mornings this week as guest host of the "Front Page" talk show with Dominigue Di Prima (I've been guest host about three times over a couple of years, thanks to Dominique's gracious invitations).

I'll be back tomorrow morning from 4:30 AM until 6 AM.

Today, however, I got to sing solo over the air (with some technical improvements to my voice) one of my favorite songs of all time: Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." Stevie played on keyboards and I belted out as best I could (trust me, it's nothing nice).

Everyone at the station were encouraging and kind (I'm sure they knew I sounded like a horse with a bad cold--but nobody said nothing about it, so thank you).

Of course, I'm deeply honored to have this moment. It may never be heard again anywhere but for a few minutes I sang while Stevie Wonder played on Keyboards (and Marvin's Gaye's music played in the background).

What a dream come true. I mentioned this to my daughter Andrea and she knew how much I've loved Stevie's songs and his long-time participation in social compassion and true justice (way before she was born, and she's 31 years old).

Thank you, Stevie, and all of KJLH's staff and listening community.

This week on the Front Page we dealt with a number of important issues, including the recent killings of young black men in Inglewood by police and the growing campaign of Mr. Barack Obama for President.

I've been a supporter of Barack Obama for some time. It's clear to me there has never been a more visionary and connected presidential candidate (and I've been around for some time). Is Obama the perfect candidate? Will he resolve all the major economic and social ills of this land? Can he truly present a real alternative to the system of politics & economics we are being strangled by?

No one man can do this. We have to be active in this campaign, not just to make sure he's elected but so we can maintain active ties to the vision of transformation, peace & equality that's inherent in his position.

Capitalism is a massive and intricate system that will require massive social participation by most people, especially those who are conscious and hungry for deep change, if it is to be transformed into a just and equitable society for all. Any and all of these events, these campaigns, these actions can be steps toward this if we all work together -- beyond race, nationality, sexual orientation, or skin color -- and push forward our class and human interests.

We are on the brink of a major economic breakdown, but also as the earth intensifies in earthquakes, hurricanes, global warming. We have to awaken and be active, to cohere and strategize toward a world that ensures the healthy and full development of everyone as the best way to have this for oneself.

Today we also talked about Michelle Obama and the hard time she's had to be adequately seen, understood and appreciated as an independent, intelligent and dignified African American woman. The attacks by the right-wing media against her and her husband are pandering to the worse of the American people (claiming she's too "ghetto," linked to urban terrorism, and on the other side, too "privileged" and "out of touch" -- Obama's "bitter half"). We can't let such racist and shallow ideas permeate the dialogue and campaign.

We also heard from Dr. Gail Wyatt, a renowned clinical psychologist with a number of important books on sexuality, woman, and the Black experience. She requested this morning's segment on Michelle Obama that was highlighted by an interview Dominique conducted with the potential First Lady last December -- one of the best interviews I had ever heard with Michelle Obama.

This has to be one of the richest resources for truly intense and inteligent community conversation in all of LA radio. I'm truly grateful to be given this space to air my ideas, poems, and interests.

I also want to remind everyone that on August 3, this Sunday, from 7 to 9 PM, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, Inc, will be holding its 2nd Annual Benefit Event at the Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood. Like last year we expect a packed house and a great time for everyone -- with Cheech Marin and friends; Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band; our own Azteca Danza group, Temachtia Quetzacoatl; conscious Hip Hop performer Olmeca; songs and performance by Nobuko Miyamoto; the political comedy of Opening People's Minds; the amazing Chicano Ska/sounds of Upground; poetry by Luis Rodriguez; and again hosted by Chicano comedian, Ernie G. You don't want to miss this!

Tickets are $30, and $12 for students and children.

Go to www.FordTheatres.org or www.tiachucha.com for tickets. You can also call the Ford Theater at 323-461-3673 or Tia Chucha's at 818-896-1479. Let's celebrate together.

c/s

Tia Chucha's Tardeada & Silent Auction: A good time had by all

Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural held its first major Tardeada & Silent Auction at the home of our long-time friend, John Densmore of the Doors, on Sunday, July 20. It was amazingly bright and warm with a nice ocean breeze all day. Tia Chucha's development director (and organizer of our fundraisers) Ruben Guevara worked hard on this event for several weeks—including spending most of Saturday and Sunday morning getting things set up and ready. Ruben, for those who don't know, was part of Ruben & the Jets with Frank Zappa in the early 1970s and founder of the band "Con Safos" in the 1980s.

Ruben is also an amazing producer of benefits and shows. For the tardeada, he had help from Tia Chucha's staff: my wife (and our operations manager), Trini; our program coordinator, Frank Escamilla; our publicity/outreach person, Arlene Mejorado; and our new music workshops coordinator, Karina Ceja. I also want to acknowledge a number of volunteers (such as Walter Little, Maria Moncada, and others I apologize for not remembering), including Tia Chucha board members Dolores Villanueva, Julie Chavez Harmon, Carla Bykowski, Michael De La Rocha, Ron M. Daniels, Mary Archibald, Angelica Loa, and Victor Mendoza.

My daughter Andrea was also a great help (thanks m'ija).

About 80 people showed up to bid on amazing Chicano art and photography by artists like Chaz Bojorquez, Man One, Carlos Almaraz, Wayne Alaniz Healy, Raoul De La Sota, Brandy Maya Healy, Richard Durado, Elsa Flores Almaraz, John Valadez, Andres Montoya, Margaret Garcia, Leo Limon, Yreina Cervantez, George Rodriguez, Harry Gamboa, Joel “Rage” Garcia, William Loya, Linda Arreola, Reyes Rodriguez, Sonia Romero, Oscar Magallanes, Shizu Saldamando, Herbert Siguenza, and Raul Caracoza.

We also had a brand new acoustic guitar signed by Los Lobos; a hand-made art book of “Making Medicine” by Luis Rodriguez from C&C Press; a personalized hat, shoes and other items from Chaz Bojorguez; the "Lion King" character with Cheech's signature; and other rare and creative items.

Our hosts were John Densmore and Cheech Marin, both of whom greeted the guests and spoke about the power of arts in our lives. Ruben did his famous poem, "Con Safos" with John's drumming to the side of him (the performance kicked ass). I got a chance to speak about how the arts is the best way for a person to enter into their own depths, their own lives, while also being the best way to enter into the world. I know that the arts can save lives—it saved mine many years ago when I was a gang member and drug addict. And I've witnessed the arts change lives for more than 30 years as an activist and writer for social justice, equity, and a cooperative world (as well as a gang intervention specialist in Chicago, LA, other parts of the US, Mexico, and Central America).

We also had a moving presentation by the founders of Young Warriors, now a youth empowerment project of Tia Chucha's: Mayra Zaragoza, 17, and Brian Dessaint, 19.

Many of the guests included producers from Sony Pictures and the TV show “Law & Order.” A CEO of one of LA's leading health services organization was there (and bidded on many items--gracias) as well as musicians like Jackson Browne. We had a good cross-section of progressive Westside people and people from East LA and the Northeast Valley (LA's largest communities of Mexican/Central American descent).

My friends Cookie Carosella of Tuff Cookie Productions and John Padilla of the Variety Boys & Girls Club in Boyle Heights were also present (Cookie made a good presentation about the documentary film we are working on called “The Long Run: Finding the Life You Were Meant to Live,” which discusses LA gangs and solutions to stopping gang violence in our city, not just the problems).

Also present were a mother and son from Denmark (very enthused about the art) and my friend Horst Tonn, a professor of American Studies at the University of Tuebingen in southern Germany (I stayed there a few years ago, doing talks and readings--Horst has also amassed a strong collection of Chicano books and films at the university).

In the end we raised more than $25,000. Even with cuts to artists and expenses that we still need to make we did quite well. We want to continue being a presence and destination for progressive donors and lovers of Chicano art wherever they may be.

In these days as we lose buildings housing venerable institutions like Self-Help Graphics in East LA, Tia Chucha's wants to be an example that the arts can thrive as a well-oiled nonprofit organization, community empowerment gathering place, major bookstore, and center of healing social change. We wouldn't exist if not for Self Help Graphics and other community-based arts organizations. We have the duty to make it, even in these hard economic times (it's always been hard for artists, que no?).

I want to thank the staff, the board, the volunteers, the artists, our amazing hosts John and Cheech, and the many guests who came and also bidded for being part of this dynamic and growing community arts phenomena named for my favorite aunt (and renown “crazy relative”), Tia Chucha.

We now move forward to Tia Chucha's annual benefit event at the Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood on August 3. Cheech and John will perform (with friends) as well as Hip Hop sensation Olmeca; political comedy performance group, Opening People's Minds; singer/performer Nobuko Miyamoto; Chicano ska-funk band, Upground; our own Danza Azteca group, Temachtia Quetzacoatl; and the fantastic “old” and “new” school funk of Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. This event is hosted by Chicano comedian and friend of Tia Chucha's, Ernie G.

I will also be there to read poems with my wonderful companion, Trini Rodriguez.

Please get tickets by going to www.tiachucha.com or to www.FordTheatres.org.

Ay nos vemos!

c/s

East LA's Venerable Self Help Graphics Arts Center to Close in Six Months

Self Help Graphics has been an East LA institution for more than 30 years. A few days ago, word got out that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which holds the deed to SHG's building, sold the structure to a private developer. SHG has six months to move out.

Self Help Graphics is situated in a large 1920s-era building with arts workspaces, a performance space, art gallery, and print shop on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Gage avenues. Its outside facade is covered in colorful mosaic; a mural is located across the street. For years it was the home of the city's largest Day of the Dead celebration, among other art shows, performances, readings, musical events, theater, and more.

I've performed my poetry there many times, including having a packed community event with my then 17-year-old son after "Always Running" first got published and with a "Voices of Youth" event featuring poetry by neighborhood children and teenagers from Homeboy Industries, sponsored by the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation.

My roots to SHG, however, go back to the late 1970s. I found a local Chicano writers' organization in Highland Park called LA Latino Writers Association (LALWA), headed up then by Victor M. Valle. I was in my mid-20s, hungry for life, art, a new beginning, and connection to other writers. I worked in various industrial and construction jobs, garnering skills like mechanics, carpentry, welding, pipefitting, and such. But my passion was poetry, odd as this may seem.

At the time, I lived in the City Terrace hills just above where Self Help Graphics is located. We soon moved LALWA's operations there. In the early 1980s, the LA Latino Writers Association published ChismeArte magazine (then produced by Guillermo Bejarano and others), organized the Latino Reading Series, and the Barrio Writers Workshops. By 1982, I became director of LA Latino Writers Association, editor of ChismeArte, and a facilitator of the Barrio Writers Workshops. Some of the writers and artists who came through our organization included Roberto Rodriguez (now a nation-wide columnist and author), Helena Viramontes (the acclaimed novelist and short story writer), Marisela Norte (the Poet Laureate of East LA), Naomi Quinonez (a poet and anthology editor), Sybil Venegas (now head of Chicano Studies at East LA College), Barbara Carrasco (an acclaimed Chicana artist), and many more.

Manual "Manazar" Gamboa was involved then (also heading this work and the Concilio de Arte Popular), becoming my friend and mentor--he was the first to take me to Chino Prison to facilitate writing workshops there and other interesting places, something I've been doing now in prisons, juvenile lockups, homeless shelters, migrant camps, schools, and Native American reservations for 30 years.

During this time, I met Sister Karen Boccalero, who founded Self Help Graphics in the early 1970s out of a garage. Sister Karen was an artist as well as an arts administrator who embraced the local artists, bands, poets, photographers, sculptors, and more--including a shy, often drunk, and inexperienced young poet named Luis Rodriguez. She created a thriving center of print art, visual art, avant garde, innovative and impeccably unique Chicano creativity. Los Illegals and other early 80s bands played there. Gronk, Willie Herron, Harry Gamboa, Frank Romero, Eloy Torres, Miquel Amescua, Yreina Cervantez, Leo Limon, Chaz Bojorquez, Peter Tovar, Patssi Valdez, and many others made art, did workshops, and established East LA as a world-class center of the arts (known more outside the US--in the US. East LA has mostly been depicted as a poor working class and immigrant Mexican community without much to offer except violence and noise. SHG proved there was more to this community, particularly when it came to creative capacity).

For about six months, Sister Karen gave me a small office facing Chavez Avenue (it was known as Brooklyn Avenue then) from which I managed the funds and operations of LALWA and its magazine. Who else would do this? Who else would invest in unknown, but committed individuals, to take a chance on art and literature that nobody else would bother with?

I honor Sister Karen for her bravery, dedication, and ongoing support. In the long run it paid off--like I said, several of our writers are now renown. Chicano artists and musicians that began at SHG are now showing in major galleries, public spaces, and even the entertainment industry. The majority of the artists displayed in the LA County Museum of the Art's exhibit of the private collection of actor/comedian Cheech Marin, presently being shown, began at Self Helf Graphics.

As I said, my own success had seeds there. Now I have 13 books, most of which are acclaimed, including the best-selling "Always Running." I also now helped create a bookstore and cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley called Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, Inc. that would not exist today if it weren't for Sister Karen and Self Help Graphics.

Sister Karen, unfortunately, passed away in 1997. Many of her students and fellow artists took up SHG's mantle and continued the work, even at great odds. The LA Times today (July 10, 2008) made it appear that everything went down hill after Sister Karen's passing. As always, when a founder of an institution goes much of what that person helped establish may go awry. But the artists, administrative staff, and board have done a great job trying to keep things going. Yes, mistakes were made. Yes, funding was hard to come by, and, yes, more should have been done. But what was done is substantial.

There is a rumor that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is selling the building to pay off multi-million dollar lawsuits related to the priest-abuse scandal. This would be an awful shame. The Archdiocese is denying this, but still it begs the question--why sell the building under the SHG board's nose and not work with the community in keeping this space open?

Yes, it's true that Self Help Graphics can still exist in another incarnation--it's the spirit, not the building, that must live on (it already is in places like Tia Chucha's). But as everyone knows, obtaining other buildings, especially in this tight economy, with little funding support, would be quite a massive undertaking.

But all things are possible, something Sister Karen instilled in many of us. I say LA city and county officiasl, the artists, the poets, the musicians, and arts organizers should come together and work out a plan, funding sources, and a timeline to keep Self Help Graphics alive -- at the same space or at a comparable or even better space in East LA.

We will also need the will of policy makers, funders, developers, and others to make this happen.

To me one of the most important issues facing the arts today is the increase in closures involving cultural spaces, independent bookstores, theaters, and art galleries. In the Los Angeles area alone, over the last two to three years we've lost Dutton's Bookstore, the Midnight Special Bookstore, Bohemias Books, 33 & 1/3, Luna Sol Cafe, Antigua Cafe, Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural (now in a smaller space with no cafe), Under the Bridge Bookstore, Carla's Passion Art Gallery, and now Self-Help Graphics. We need public policy to safeguard these institutions. They are not considered "money-makers," although they can be successful. They do, however, provide for a quality of life and bring new artist/writers/musicians/performers to the world.

Self Help Graphics is a case in point.

A neighborhood arts policy should include subsidizing rents; help in buying property or in building spaces; tax write offs for developers who include such spaces in their developments; more arts funding for neighborhood arts, including cultural spaces; and more. It should include having all the arts in every school as part of every curriculum with adequate materials, supplies, spaces, and instruments (a friend of mine who teaches band in Compton for a time had classes with students, but no instruments).

Let's make this crisis a catalyst. Let's help make community arts, as exemplified by Sister Karen and Self Help Graphics, a reality all over the LA area.

A community without the arts has no heart.

c/s

Alfred Arteaga -- R.I.P.

I just got the sad news that my friend -- and amazing Chicano poet -- Alfred Arteaga passed away this week. Several weeks ago, he was in LA and we had coffee at the "House of Brews" in San Fernando. He seemed in good spirits. I know he's had health problems for some time and was working hard to stay strong and alive. I send many prayers and condolences to his family and countless friends.

I was also privileged to publish Alfred's last poetry collection, "Frozen Accident," through Tia Chucha Press in the fall of 2006. I've known of Alfred's work for years. He invited me to speak to his class at the University of California, Berkeley about ten years ago and I remember his graciousness and openness. I also was able to secure a writers' fellowship for him after reading poems he did in Spanish that I thought were outstanding. I'm glad it turned out to be Alfred's work--he's truly an innovative and accomplished poet, a poet of the continent, the land, this earth.

When I published "Frozen Accident" it was one of two manuscripts that year that I really wanted to do. Tia Chucha Press gets around 200 manuscripts a year. I pick the handful that stand out, then I read those over and over (or as many times as I need to) to decide the two that will get published. I have to turn down many amazing manuscripts in the process. But I also end up picking the two that most resonated, continued to surprise and overwhelm me even after many readings. Alfred's work kept growing in layers and meaning.

Cherrie Moraga called this book one "for poets only, that is for all of us who hunger to contemplate within and beyond the pre/scribed chronologies of our lives."

In addition, Juan Felipe Herrera said, "Arteaga tells a story the way a Mexican wrestler makes words fly from the canvas; he breaks them and then with an agile, almost ballerinia-like step, he destroys their structures."

Obviously, I don't just publish my friends. Most of Tia Chucha Press books are of poets I never knew personally. And I have many friend poets who send me manuscripts I don't deem ready for publication. But every once in a while I have a poet-friend with a most wonderful manuscript. I'll publish that--the poet, not the friend. Like Alfred, who stands in my view as a poet of this millennium.

Alfred needs more recognition and many lifetimes of readers. Please order "Frozen Accident" and any of his poetry collections from any book outlet you choose. To order "Frozen Accident" from our distributor, contact 1-800-621-2736.

Que descanses en paz, hermano.


Motion by Alfred Arteaga

Heart beat is never twice
river, the image font
a dream wood of liquid
form in the site of dead

souls, the lyrics follow blood
points, life edge words
shape to melody, to beat

of heart like flight of the small.
I am not the man who was.
I, Nezahualcoyotl, take
flight in the graphite river,

change place for life,
leave for an island and beyond.
Run cholo run, flee
the red reach and night.

Gang Injunction Approved for Sylmar/San Fernando in Southern California

As expected, and despite opposition from a number of community leaders, a gang injunction against the San Fer gang has been imposed by the courts on a nine-and-a-half square mile area of the Northeast San Fernando Valley, encompassing most of Sylmar, a northwest portion of Pacoima and all of San Fernando City (most of the rest of Pacoima has already been under a gang injunction for years against the Pacoima Flats, Projects Boys, and other Pacoima gangs).

This is reportedly the largest gang injunction area in Los Angeles

Already, young Latino men I know -- not in gangs -- have been stopped, arrested, and in one case almost photographed (to be part of a statewide gang data base). This last case was stopped when the young man's parents became involved and demanded their son not be photographed or placed on this data base. Finding that this young man had no gang ties, he was eventually released.

As I predicted, many youth not in San Fer, but also alleged San Fer members not involved in crimes, will be harassed and even arrested. Our juvenile facilities, jails and prisons are teeming with youth who shouldn't be there -- a gang injunction makes illegal what is otherwise legal activity: association, using a cell phone, or having tattoos. Now alleged gang members will find themselves going to jail for things that are not criminal.

If you make more laws, you make more lawless.

My work, and the work of many gang intervention workers, is to keep these young people out of the criminal justice system. Our work now has become twice as hard as these injunctions -- and other laws down the pike like the Runner Initiative slated for vote in November -- end up placing poor and often neglected youth behind bars faster and longer.

It's easy now to end up in jail -- it's harder to find treatment, help, jobs, schooling, viable alternatives to street life.

The sad thing was that at the Sylmar Neighborhood Council's Town Hall Meeting where I was on a panel opposing the proposed gang injunction, the majority of the people in attendance seemed to be older white residents. This community is mostly Latino with many recent immigrants. Sylmar High School is 95 percent Latino. Yet this community was hardly represented although it's their kids that will be most affected. There didn't seem to be any Spanish-language meetings or even translations considered to include them. Most of the whites in the audience appeared to be for the gang injunction (not all since I talked to some who opposed the injunction, and, of course, there were a number of Latinos for the injunction).

Still the racist nature of these laws is a thick as the smog in LA.

We need to keep our kids out of the juvenile lockups, jails and prisons. The way to do this is to provide jobs, training, meaningful education, creative/artistic opportunities, spiritual connections, and real caring community. Instead gang injunctions under the guise of "safety" fill our communities, even one like where I live, the so-called Huntington Estates, a nice, quiet, tree-lined section of San Fernando that is now under the San Fer gang injunction.

Once gang injunctions were allowed, they spread and even well-off mostly non-gang communities are included.

The city has promised prevention and intervention programs for youth. These are few and minimal (and the biggest chuck, about $30 million, must be decided by voters in November) while the police get billions of dollars. We've become a closed and scared society.

I know we can turn these youth around. I know we can get most of them out of the line of fire. I know we can find more meaningful and healthy alternatives to gangs. But these ideas, programs, and strategies are discarded for the ones that should be of last resort, like a gang injunction.

Just like we go to war and spend close to $10 billion a day in Iraq and Afghanistan to "stop terror" (creating more terror and better-organized "terrorists" in the process), we are going to war with our youth--usually the poorest, most pushed out, and in this case, mostly immigrant Latino youth.

I will be working with other community groups to track the effects of this injunction, which has no end date nor any exit plan for those caught under its net. Hopefully we can find a way to defeat this injunction, but also for other cities to learn not go to this way. In other communities where gang injunctions have been approved, gangs don't die or stop. They actually get squeezed out at so that we see them in other parts of the county, state, country, and even other countries (LA-based gangs have now become a big problem throughout the US, in Mexico, Central America, and even far-flung places like Cambodia and Armenia). Also these so-called gang members get better organized -- in juvenile lockup and prisons they go through "GANG 101" training. They return back to their communities, or even other communities, better organized, armed, and deadly.

You can't stop gang warfare with gang warfare.

We keep making the same mistakes and falling for the same traps. Even a local newspaper in San Fernando declared that a judge "puts halt to violent gang activity with injunction." This is simply a lie. Gang injunctions don't stop violent gang activity--they just spread it around.

I'll keep my readers posted from time to time on the outcomes from this gang injunction. One telling sign tonight--a police helicopter shining their lights a couple of streets from my house. Oh, yes, LA pioneered the "Ghetto Bird." But this part of San Fernando has had little or no crime for decades. Now, as part of the gang injunction "safety" zone, we're being treated like any other poor ghetto or barrio community (which shouldn't happen there neither).

Like I said, once you let this monster in, it keeps growing.

Stop the New Gang Injunction in the Sylmar-San Fernando Communities

I live in a relatively quiet and safe neighborhood in an area of San Fernando City known for some time as Huntington Estates. The prices of homes around here went up to $750,000 during the height of the real estate boom -- now they are down to $350,000 and below (I've seen some homes marked down to the $150,000 range). San Fernando is a 2.5 square mile city with about 25,000 residents. For years it was mostly white - today it is almost entirely Latino. Recently this city along with a large section of LA city next to us known as Sylmar has been designated for a court-ordered gang injunction against the San Fer gang.

Gang injunctions began in the LA area in the early 1980s, with the first highly publicized one involving the Playboy Gangster Crips in 1987. Other cities have had gang injunctions throughout California, with similar injunction-type laws sprouting up in cities around the country.

LA City now has twenty gang injunctions, all of them against gangs in the Black and Brown communities. They also seem to target not the "worse" gangs, necessarily, but those communities slated for gentrification or that happen to be near well-off mostly white communities.

My neighborhood is included in the proposed gang injunction area.

This injunction prohibits San Fer gang members who have been served by the courts for arrests based on acts that most of us can do most of the time - they cannot associate with each other, have cell phones, stay out between 10 PM or 5 AM, and they can be generally stopped and searched (or arrested) by police anytime (and other similar provisions). These prohibitions are directed at acts that are not criminal in themselves, but which would become criminal for those served persons in the gang injunction zone. These persons would also be part of a statewide gang data base system. The determination of a San Fer gang member is not based on previous or even potential criminal acts. It's based on how they dress, any alleged gang tattoos they may have, if they say they are gang member, who they associate with, etc. Again, acts that are not criminal in other circumstances.

Although I'm 54 years old, I have tattoos, wear Aztec/Mayan shirts from time to time, and I associate with known gang members as a gang intervention specialist in these and other streets. I would be prohibited from doing the work I do to help youngsters get out of gangs and drugs within the gang injunction zone. The aim of these injunctions is to isolate and further marginalize so-called gang youth so that even those who seek and want help won't be able to find it.

I'm opposed to this proposed San Fer gang injunction. I stated my case against the injunction as a panelist for the Sylmar Neighborhood Council's Town Hall meeting on the proposed gang injunction on Wednesday, June 18 at Sylmar High School. The other panelists included representatives from the LAPD, the LA City Attorney's office, a community member, a gang expert, and a lawyer with the ACLU. While we had a spirited and informative panel, pro and con, and mostly civil and respectful dialogue (a couple of people from the audience weren't as civil), this may prove to be a moot meeting -- the gang injunction is presented to a judge. All proposed gang injunctions have been approved--with or without community town hall meetings. Real community input is nonexistent and never sought. By all accounts the San Fer gang injunction will be approved.

Once in effect, there is no end date. This area can be under this gang injunction for perpetuity. While there are steps for alleged gang youth to be removed from the police list of served San Fer members, no one of the thousands of youth affected in other gang injunctions have been successfully removed from these lists.

The effectiveness of gang injunctions are often touted for using them. In the sort term there is generally a reduction in gang-related crimes in areas under gang injunctions. But the arrests of local youth and adults escalate -- even people that may not be in a gang. Our jails and prisons are being filled with honor students, ex-gang members, non-gang members, marginal gang members as well as actual heavy-duty gangsters. It's a broad net that ends up putting people behind bars or under strict surveillance although they are not involved in criminal or gang-related acts.

There are already enough laws to put active gang members behind bars -- you cannot kill, steal, extort, threaten, or commit mayhem under present statutes. We don't need to spread the laws so that others not necessarily criminals get pulled in.

Police say San Fer is organized crime. However, they are an old barrio street organization that goes back at least four to five generations. Some have family members -- dads, uncles, brothers, cousins, etc. -- in the gang (they would be prohibited to be around them in public). They include heavily tattooed young men and women as well as those without tattoos. They include criminals as well as people who have never committed a crime. They mostly are involved in "disorganized crime" -- random acts of violence, robbery, beatings, etc. Yet despite the fact that San Fer members have been known to commit murders, this does not mean there are 500 to 900 (the supposed number of San Fer members) gang members pulling triggers. In LA, for example, there were some 350 gang related murders last year. There are, however, some 40,000 to 50,000 alleged gang members. They are not all killing or shooting people.

Obviously, if you kill, beat, or rob people you should be arrested. Police are here to do their job. What I contend is that most people in San Fer, as in other gangs, would leave this life if they had viable meaningful options of 1) jobs 2) training/education 3) drug, alcohol and anger treatment 4) arts/creative outlets 5) organized & safe recreation and sports 6) real mentoring 7) a caring, cohesive and consistent community.

We have to address the roots of gangs and social crime -- not just keep hacking at the branches. Gangs arise out of poverty and also the entrenched racial and class bias in our society. We have to deal with the deepening economic crisis that is forcing people out of their jobs, their homes, their families. Arresting ourselves out of these issues can never work. We cannot keep asking the police to address what are social, economic and cultural concerns.

Any short-term drop in gangs is undermined by the squeezing of these communities so that the poor (and gangs among) end up in other counties, states, and even countries. Already LA gangs have spread to the outlying areas of Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Ventura counties. The biggest rise of gangs around the country is of LA-based gangs (such Sur Trece, 18th Street, and MS-13, including, of course, Crips and Bloods). And because of deportations of convicted undocumented people, including many in gangs, there are now LA-based gangs all over Mexico, Central America, and parts of Cambodia and Armenia.

The fact is, in the long run, gangs in LA have not gone down. Despite gang injunctions, trying juveniles as adults, gang enhancements, and three-strike-and-you're-out laws, we still have many gangs in LA (known as the "gang capital of the world"). We only end up with more of our people in prisons -- already there are 575,000 people in California that are in prisons, jails, parole, or probation. Too many of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives are being removed from their families and communities.

The only solution is to address the root causes of the poverty, the economic displacement, the lack of adequate schools and institutions. We can't keep blaming young people for doing wrong when any other decent option is cut off from them.

I will continue to address this and others similar issues throughout the city, the country, and abroad (my recent trips include to Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, and Japan). We have to find the imagination and abundance with our resources, families, and communities to save and help our youth, not write them off and discard them. It's possible. And it's imperative.

LA School Battles Leads to the Resignation of 15 teachers at Jordan High School in Watts

I lived in the Watts area when my family first moved to Los Angeles in 1956 from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (I was two years old). In fact, present-day Locke High School was built in one of the houses I stayed at, my sister Seni's, on 111th Street. I entered elementary school at 109th Street School although I spoke no English (and suffered for it with swats and other punishments). We spent a year in Reseda, but then ended up back in Watts after our family went bankrupt and lost most of our possessions. At age 9 we moved to the East LA area communities of Monterey Park and South San Gabriel, later settling into San Gabriel when my father, who had finally got a long-term job, bought a house there. Those who've read Always Running know that's where I got involved in gangs, drugs and jail.

But Watts remained important for me. The Watts Rebellion of 1965 stirred revolutionary fervor around the country, but also in me. I eventually found my way back. Fisrt, I moved to the housing projects of San Pedro then to East LA (City Terrace and Boyle Heights) soon after I left San Gabriel and the gang life at around 18. I married my first wife Camila at the Guadalupe Church on Hazard in East LA when I was 20. After first moving to the Florence neighborhood in South LA and then spending a year in Pasadena organizing Mecha students, working with striking bus drivers, and helping create an equal rights organization, Camila and I then moved to Watts with our new family. Ramiro, my oldest son who's now 33, was one year old then. We moved in-between the Jordan Downs and Imperial Courts housing projects on 109th Street and Mona.

My daughter Andrea was born during our time there--at Gardena Hospital through the Watts Health Clinic on 103rd Street. I was often unemployed in those days, once we were on welfare, and when I did work it was in construction and industry. I left Watts in 1978 when Camila and I broke up--we both ended up in different parts of East LA. I pretty much stayed in East LA (except for short stints in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Bernardino, Huntington Park, and Highland Park) until I moved to Chicago in 1985.

Still, despite my other abodes and distances, Watts is still important. I've spoken there often in schools and community events over the years. I often do tours of out-of-towners through East LA and South Central, including Watts (these include friends from New York or other states as well as film makers and writers from Italy, Japan, Brazil, and New Zealand).

Recently Jordan High School in Watts -- where I've spoken at a few times -- became a big story when a Salvadoran-American teacher named Karen Salazar was fired for using LA Unified School District (LAUSD) approved text "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." This book was one that helped me become a reader and eventually actively involved some 40 years ago. It's a shame that anyone in positions of authority would be threatened for the use of this literary classic.

Jordan's administration apparently thought Ms. Salazar's teachings were too "Afro-Centric." Very strange indeed, considering the school is mostly Mexican/Central American and African American (the media decries conflicts between Black and Brown, yet here's one of unity). Reportedly school officials have "observed" Ms. Salazar's class more than fifteen times in the past year. The principal, Steven Strachen, has been allegedly intimidating, humiliating and attempting to control teachers, students AND parents. He reportedly used unauthorized funds for metal detectors at the school entrances. He has apparently also segregated some classes by gender without parental approval. But his real notoriety is apparently due to establishing Jordan High School as the Number One school for suspensions in LAUSD -- more than 900 suspension days were handed out to students in one school year alone.

And at a recent protest with students, teachers, and parents, Mr. Strachan had six police cars in front of the school to intimate the protesters. The Watts Student Union is challenging Mr. Strachan and his heavy-handed policies directed to students of color. In addition, some 15 teachers have apparently requested transfers or plan to resign after this school year due to issues related to Mr. Strachan's policies.

Please check out the following video on the Internet: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vE8cOJ4bKGO

Letters of support for Ms. Salazar and other teachers such as well-known LA poet Mark Gonzales should be sent to Jordan High School, 2265 E. 103rd Street, LA, CA 90002. Calls can also be made to (323) 568-4100 or the LAUSD District 7 office at (323) 242-1300. In addition, send emails to LAUSD Board Member Richard Vladovic at richard.vladovic@lausd.net.

Reaching Out Across the Land

As many of you know who read my blog, I like writing about my many trips to universities, schools, prisons, juvenile lockups, churches, reading events, etc. that I’ve done around the country and elsewhere. These bring me to various communities that somehow find essential connecting points with my story, my books, and my ideas. In March I also visited Ohio State University at Columbus and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Again, the audiences were strong and very supportive. I held my ongoing “town hall” meetings, often sprinkled with poetry by myself and from other poets I love.

These talks included visits to community schools and at least one juvenile detention center. Again, audiences are receptive to hear a vital story that also has vision, insight (and hindsight), and with enough threads to tie into their own lives. At the juvenile facilities, I find some of the most open and attentive audiences—many of them are where I was when I was a teenager. Many have a chance to turn their lives around. If I can plant a seed, I hope they will hang on to something pertinent to keep them alive, healthy, and eventually whole. These kinds of things—like teaching—doesn’t always have immediate outcomes. Sometimes you think the kid who is bored, disruptive and not listening won’t get the message. I often get surprised when it’s these kinds of young people who come to me later to say how what I had to say helped me overcome some hard ordeals. So it’s always worth the chance to talk to any young person—in public or private schools, in colleges, universities, or juvenile lockups and prisons. We’re all just planting seeds.

One of my recent trips involved being a final judge for the Poetry Out Loud recitation contests that culminated in Washington DC on August 29. This national competition is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Reportedly some 20,000 high school students from all over the US participated in local contests that chose state champions. These students in turn competed with one another to the semi-finals where 12 finalists were decided. In the finals, this number whittled down to five. The top winner would get a $20,000 scholarship; the second place winner a $10,000 scholarship; the third place winner a $5,000 scholarship; and the last of the twelve would get $1,000 scholarships (the schools of the top 12 students would also get $500 to buy books).

Judging with me this year were Garrison Keillor of the Prairie Home Companion radio broadcasts; Pulitzer prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey; award-winning novelist Leslie Schwartz; Poetry Daily website co-founder Don Selby; and last year’s Poetry Out Loud winner, Amanda Fernandez.

The students were amazing in their presence, memory, and understanding of the sense and meaning of the poems—which included pieces by Tony Hoagland, Nikki Giovanni, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, among others.

In the end Shawntay A. Henry of the US Virgin Island took the top prize. Second place was Sophia Elena Soberon of Oregon.

It was an honor to take part and celebrate the memorization and recitation of some of America’s great poems.

From May 7 to 9, I also spoke in Sonoma County, CA at Rohnert Park Branch Library there and three high schools in Santa Rosa and Petaluma (Cloverdale, Rancho Cotate, and Casa Grande). In addition, I spoke to young men and women incarcerated at the Sonoma County Juvenile Center at Los Guilicos. Again, what amazing audiences—the library turned out quite engaging with a packed house of some 300 people. I held writing workshops in the high schools--the student's writing in a matter of minutes was fantastic. Again, the juvenile detainees were respectful and their questions were right on.

Thanks to all, including the organizers from the Sonoma County Library System—and especially my friends at the Steven Barclay Agency who diligently organize these lectures, readings and workshops. I had time to enjoy lunch with Steven Barclay, Kathryn Barcos and other staff while I was in Sonoma County—their offices are in the old town section of Petaluma. You would be hard-pressed to find a finer group of people.