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.