Neighbor Newspaper Vol 24 - June 2022

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NEIGHBOR NEWS PAN-AFRIKAN NEWS SERVICE WWWW.NEIGHBORPROGRAM.ORG @NEIGHBORPROGRAM | @NEIGHBORNEWSPPR

Neighbor Program News Service Vol. 24 June 5, 2022


Table of Contents

Free Dr. Mutulu- 3 Poetry - 4 Artist Spotlight - 5 Neighbor Update - 6 Pan-Afrikan Scholarship - 8 Neighbor Series - 9 Politic & Acknowledgments - 10

Land Acknowledgement WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE NISENAN PEOPLE ARE STILL HERE AMONG US TODAY, THOUGH NEARLY INVISIBLE. WE UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE ON NISENAN LAND THAT WAS NEVER CEDED AND THE ORIGINAL TRIBAL FAMILIES HAVE YET TO RECOVER FROM THE NEAR GENOCIDE OF THEIR PEOPLE. AS A RESIDENT OR VISITOR IN NISENAN LAND, WE SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITY RANCHERIA NISENAN TRIBE IN EFFORTS TO STABILIZE THEIR PEOPLE AS WELL AS THEIR CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE FEDERAL RECOGNITION.

Thank You

Your support allows us to continue our work for the community


FREE

U L U T U M . DR

free em all!!! On May 16, 2022, Dr. Mutulu Shakur was denied mandatory parole by the U.S. Parole Commission. This is the ninth time Dr. Shakur has been denied parole by the USPC, and the second time he has been denied mandatory parole. Dr. Shakur’s support group can be reached at the following address and website: Family and Friends of Dr. Mutulu Shakur Community Aid and Development P.O. Box 361270 https://mutulushakur.com Facebook: FreeMutuluShakur Twitter: @FreeDrMShakur Instagram: @freedrmshakur


Poetry Revolutionary Timing Ashanti Bailey It’s not the time family, To downplay the anger, Misplace the blame. It’s time to hold those accountable, And chose to stand up and fight against evil. We have not been placed here for no good reason, We ARE THE REVOLUTIONARIES, We are the product of strength which our ancestors lived for, Prayed for, A physical manifestation of endurance, They cried with no expression, They had only us in mind when they stood idle to survive, It’s up to us to rattle the cages, To wake up our brothers and sisters from the deep hypnosis, It is our responsibility to protect our babies, It is our duty to push back at our oppressors, To strategize, to organize, We are our last hope, No one got us like WE got us! It’s not gonna be the empire, It’s not gonna be the system that was built to hold us captive, It’s gonna be us. There WILL be attempts to discredit, There WILL be attempts to intimidate, But it is simply not in our DNA to give up, We are the proof of that resilience, We are the makeup of flawless persistence, And this is revolutionary timing. No weapon, no withering opposition, no greedy grip, Will be prosperous, We are the change, We are the whistle in the wind, We are the gospel in our ancestors hymns, And we are the nightmare of every colonizers descendent, For we are the end to their tyrannical reign. For this is revolutionary timing. P.S tell these white folks to keep their bloody hands off of my reproductive rights or my ancestors gone pop off

Questions Going Thru My Head Ashley Diaz (Student Submission) Why were humans created? Will I ever know what the purpose of Life is? When I die what's next? Will I get reincarnated Into something else like a butterfly or another person? Why is life so stressful? Why does time go by so fast when I want it To slow down? Will I ever get to see the perople I lost and loved dearly? Why is life so difficult? There are questions I ask myself all the time. I sometimes try to answer myself but sometimes I can't becasue there might be more than one answer or it's a question that I can't answer myself. We all have curiosity and a lot of questions but some questions you can't answer because you haven't figured out the answer yet. But it's good to ask questions or else you might never know the answer at all.


artist spotlight Jakhari Smith

Musical Influences: Stevie Wonder, Sade, Tupac, J. Cole What has the Foreign Native Open Mic done for you: Open so many doors... introduced me to different music and opened me up to new people to build and connect with. What do you want People take away from your music: I really make music to help people with their emotions... I hope what I am going through can inspire someone else. Music is healing... I hope what Tupac's music did for me, J.Cole's music did for me - I hope I can do that for someone else who isnt seeing the light at that specific moment. Im just makignmusic to inspire. What new projects do you have out? I released Reflections: Vol 1 on my birthday May 23rd so go stream that! Full interview on Neighbor Program Patreon!

neighbor playlist White Man'z World - Tupac/Makaveli Real Niggas - LaRussell Down As a Great - Nipsey Hussle & Kirko Bangz Wraith - Chance The Rapper, VIC MENSA, Smoko Ono Blacc Ice Freestyle - Nipsey Hussle & Question Burn - LaRussell & Rexx Life Raj F*cc Um - Nipsey Hussle, Freedway & Cuzzy Capone Story To Tell - Jakhari Smith & Gabethefourth & Earhquake

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neighbor update

Neighbor Program has been busy as always! In May we provided 209 boxes of groceries, we co-hosted Oak Park's firs Malcolm X Day Celebration with Ms. Barbara Range & The Brickhouse Art Gallery. We were able to present Ms. Barbara with the first ever Shabazz Award for her lifetime of dedication to The People. May also saw the team working to build out Malcolm X Academy grow. We have a wonderful addition from Brazil to add to our pedagogical team as we develop out our curriculum as well as a partnership with West 2 West. We are excited about what this will mean moving forward for our students at MXA. We are so excited to be moving into summer and all that it holds for us. We have seen our first harvest at Assata and are so excited to begin distributing the produce that we have grown at the Shakur Center in the grocery boxes we provide. We are also working on building out the rest of the land at the Shakur Center and definitely need your help! Sunday June 12th we are hosting a community plant day and would love for yall to come out. Neighbor Program is committed to standing strong on our politic despite the countless attacks thrown at us by the empire like the one we faced this past month. We found out that June 13th without notice or warning our bank account was shut down. We believe this is a targeted attack on our organization due to our politic and continued work on behalf of Afrikan Liberation. But as our Minister of Culture Dre-T says "keep that shit goin!" We refuse to stop or even slow down in the face of these fascist devils. We are committed to pushing forward the politic and doing our part to aid our collective liberation.

Support the Shakur Center Scan the QR code to visit our GoFundMe page or visit neighborprogram.org/shakurcenter


neighbor update

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pan-afrikan scholarship Anniversary of Uprisings: The Lasting Impact of Police Violence May 31, 2022

by Tifanei Ressl-Moyer Esq. Incredibly effective. These are the words I use to describe the tactics of the Sacramento City Police Department during the uprisings that flooded our city streets after police took the life of George Floyd two years ago. The severe bruises that laced the bodies of protesters have faded. The broken bones of participants have mended. What remains are the lasting effects of the individual and collective trauma inflicted on our community by its own government. The police department, and other agencies, violently stripped away any collective sense of safety or right to freely express ourselves during protest in support of racial justice. In those summer days, we could not find safety in docility. The police repeatedly and indiscriminately deployed weapons of war into a crowd of people who were primarily kneeling, chanting, and holding hands. We could not find safety in good will. The police aimed their projectile weapons at the heads and groins of volunteer medics, legal observers, and others who aided protest participants, leaving some people with permanent brain injuries and disabilities. We could not find safety even in our homes. The police employed drones, license plate readers, and raids to surveil and find protesters where they lived with their families—even months after the protests had ended. Sacramento community members now experience panic attacks whenever and wherever they encounter law enforcement. I have interviewed people who experience destabilizing flashbacks of the police violence when they go into the city center for something as simple as running an errand, and others still experience suicidal ideations, unable to imagine a future where they may feel safe again. Entire organizations, families, and relationships were torn apart in the aftermath of the violence, a known consequence of collective trauma. The police’s actions incredibly effectively ripped apart the community where people once felt safe. Today, many city residents refuse to join protests because the consequences are too great. And for those who continue to protest, we remain fearful and hypervigilant. By failing to take meaningful action in response to these violent incidents, the Mayor and City Council have continued to condone the police tactics and their effects. In January 2021, the Council voted on a strategy to address the public’s concerns by directing a volunteerbased commission and the city office of public safety and accountability to review the incidents. Yet, the council ignored the commission’s recommendations, and the Office of Public Safety and Accountability has produced nothing tangible for the public to view. The Council also voted to create the Department of Community Response, to reduce unnecessary reliance on police, including for houselessness and mental health crisis calls. But the nascent department is severely under-resourced, especially as compared to the police unit it was intended to replace, which remains wellfunded and very active. The Mayor and City Council approved a record high police budget of $166 million last year—which exceeded $207 million with funds realigned from Measure U–and is set to approve an even higher budget this year with no evidence that these funds have increased public safety. The Council is also poised to approve the police’s acquisition and use of military-grade weapons, with almost no limitations nor proof of efficacy, the same weapons used during the violent police response to the 2020 uprisings. Where our government’s actions and inactions intended to create an environment of fear for protesters of police violence, it has been a lasting victory. And our friends, families, and neighbors continue to silently endure a painful aftermath. — Tifanei Ressl-Moyer Esq. is a Senior Racial Justice Attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the SF Bay Area. Tifanei works and lives in Sacramento and is one of the lead attorneys representing clients in the case White et. al v. Sacramento Police Department, a case challenging the police response to racial justice protest.


neighbor series A Love Letter To Black Dads Jordan McGowan This is a love letter to Black Dads. But really this letter stands as a love letter to any young Black boy in this euro-kkkolonial wilderness; this is a love letter to Black boys that will be privileged enough to grow into Black men. Black Dads mean so much more because Black Dads have been strategically ripped away from our People. This is because in true communal fashion Black Dads serve as a demonstration of what fathers look like not just for our individual family but for the community as a whole; they bring a presence to our community that is needed. Our People learn through observation and participation - that translates as our young men learn how to be fathers and men from the older Brothas that influence them. Whether that be their dad, unkle, older cousin, coach, friends pops, grandfather - remember Afrikans are indigenously a communal people. We have lived with Ubuntu culture for thousands of years. So as Black Dads, we must remember that whatever we show our children and community will be the way we shape our next set of Black men. It is the love I have for the Black Dads who shaped me; the tradition my father passed down, that pushed me to write this. My dad was the best father I could have ever asked for, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t come with flaws, shortcomings and toxic patriarchal behavior at times. In true double Gemini fashion, my pops was a character and had many different sides of him. To love him though, was to love ALL of him; at least that’s what he taught me - to love the person even if we hate their actions. He taught me that love was bigger than a feeling, it was a commitment to another person. I met his best friend from his time in Vietnam and I heard story-after-sorry about how seriously he took those words from John 15 in the Bible, showing his love through his actions to save his comrades in battle. He taught me about the times he learned first-hand about the power of prayer and just how much a praying mother can save. I saw my father cry when he spoke about his friend Ratcliff whose slain body was picked up by the same helicopter carrying his discharge paperwork. See, my father taught me to see the good and the bad in everything and to learn from it all; that it was up to me to take away the good stuff, keep it and make it mine. My father taught me to embrace all of my humanity and the humanity in all of us, as he was so closely acquainted with death at such a young age he knew it’s true value. He also showed me exactly what I would need to survive the world I was living in. He committed himself to give me the best of what he could and it left a lasting impression of what a father should look like. My father always provided a strong image of what a Black Dad should be, but as I have gotten older I have been able to identify the ways in which the trauma and conditions imposed upon my father impacted him as a dad. I would be doing my father a disservice if I did not attempt to make peace with those issues and not pass those on to my children. I would be doing all those men who poured into me a disservice if I didn’t work to evolve as a man consistently. But truthfully - This is hard! To break habits and patterns, to get away from saying “when I was a kid” or “back in my day”. But I see so many of us working on reversing those habits, to break those cycles; it just reminds me of why it is so important for us to continue to uplift and love on Black Dads. There has been a strategic attack on Black Dads tracing all the way back to chattel slavery. This tradition of what it means to be a Black Dad is often rooted in survival; being the provider and protector, being strong, being tough. We are definitely all those things. We have to be, but we are also loving. Look closely the next time you see a Black Dad and child. We are silly. Just watch a Black Dad play with his daughter and how she can make the toughest of brothas make the silliest of faces just to see his baby girl smile. The thing is: We are all learning how to be dads. Whether we had a father around or not - we are all experiencing life, learning and growing together - we are figuring out how to be a daddy in a world that hates our presence, our image and our impact. Over the past few months my teaching style has been under the microscope. I truly believe as a Black Dad/educator there are certain responsibilities I have to ALL Black boys: making sure they outlive me and to keep them safe from euro-kkkolonial systems being my top 2 priorities. I feel that my responsibility to these boys and young men is applicable in all avenues of life and so whether we are in the classroom, ballpark or the streets I will do my best to teach young brothas to believe in themselves because of the greatness already inside them and how to move safely in any space they may come into. This is something that my father taught me. I witnessed my father pour into so many young men this notion that “I see so much more for you, I see greatness in you.” He taught me to look out for our People and build them up. He taught me that I had a responsibility to my People. This is the Black Dad tradition I come from. Growing up my father taught me I had to be “at least twice as good as them white boys” to show the world my greatness. While I hated hearing that during my youth, I’ve come to realize that what my father was telling me ultimately was that there was a greatness inside me that nobody could take away - no human, no system, nobody but God. All I had to do was let it shine - he saw the very best in me and my talents. I recently got a chance to give my son this same lesson at his basketball tournament after he displayed a poor attitude. After a verbal tongue-lashing(I told him he was acting like a punk and he did not deserve to play and if his behavior continued he wouldn’t play any more basketball), I made my son sit out the rest of the game, and run for his behavior. After the game I challenged him to show his greatness and he responded amazingly. This is the Black Dad tradition I was given. So when I became an educator I naturally brought this Black Dad tradition into my classroom. Over the last decade I have worked as an educator I have continually grown; as a man, educator and a father. I have become better and grown in so many ways but I am not naive to think I have it all figured out. Just like my father, I come with flaws and shortcomings. I fail often in my pursuit of being the best dad/coach/educator. At times, some of the learned behavior or environmental factors I grew up around influence my decisions in negative ways. But the Black Dad tradition I come from taught me that mistakes happen, it's how we fix them and improve and work to not pass them on to the next generation that reveals the truth about someone. While much has been said regarding my case, what has not been factored in was the long-term growth of this student and what type of relationship I was committed to with this student. The student who I was attempting to correct in my Black Dad tradition was expelled out of the middle school for discipline issues. This child who I was attempting to show the same type of Black Dad love my children receive, the same Black Dad love my other students have received, a Black Dad Love that says “I see more in you, you are great!” was used by a white supremacist system to drive a wedge between Black Dad love and the community. While I was made out by the school district to be a monster, this same school district who used this child to villify me then kicked this student out of school for “discipline” - disposing of him in the school-to-prison pipeline that too many of our Black boys are thrown into. When I consider the impact, violence, harm and trauma expulsions can have on a child it is hard to think of this action as loving. It is hard to see where there was an attempt to connect with this student. This is why Black Dads are necessary in our community; who else will connect with these young men that the system works tirelessly to throw away? Who will stand in the gap and show young brothas and sistas what a father should do for their babies, community and People? So this is to the daddies who, out of what you feel is love, have cussed their baby out and had to come back to apologize to them. Keep showing and telling them how much love and belief you have in them -- grow that muscle in yourself. Keep going back, being better and find joy/healing in the gift of apologizing to our babies for getting it wrong. Reckon with your humanity within the systems of patriarchy which make us all less than perfect but still, worthy of love. This letter is for you Black Dad, to remind you that if we keep growing and evolving in love that we will also show our babies the right demonstration. To remind all of us to keep going, keep growing and keep loving these babies in our way. Long Live the Black Dad Tradition!

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Ancestor Acknowledgement

Acknowledgements

By Mason Forbes (@mason_4bs) Neighbor Ancestor Acknowledgement We take this moment to honor and acknowledge our Ancestors, as we understand that we are one with them and their spirits live on through us. We ask that they hear and accept our praise and reverence as we seek their continued guidance and heed their direction, trusting that with the wisdom and clarity they provide no feat is insurmountable. We are washed and made anew in waters of their blessing, rising cleansed of all impurities, all blockages that might prevent us from fulfilling our purpose in this lifetime swept away.

Special thanks to all who contributed their time, labor, effort and work to this issue of Neighbor Newspaper. Thank you to JaShawn for the BEAUTIFUL cover, Ashanti, Ashley Diaz, Q, Tifanei ResslMoyer, Mason Forbes, Foreign Native, and EVERYONE working towards Afrikan Liberation! Afrika WILL Unite!

Join Our Work

We recognize their sacrifices and take refuge in the protection offered by the spiritual fortress they have built around us on a foundation of revolutionary love. We ask them to grant us strength and good fortune, blessing our swords, shields, and hearts as we struggle for the right to determine our own destinies and that of our communities, striking down any enemies that may stand in our path. We ask that they connect us with those who wish to join our cause and unify us as we channel our collective energies towards our major political objective, to build a new world where radical love for human beings is found. Neighbor Power to the Neighbors & Divine Love to All

For those interested in getting involved in Neighbor Program please feel free to reach out to us at sacneighbor916@gmail.com to learn about volunteer opportunities.

10 Point Program & Platform 1. WE WANT freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Afrikan and Indigenous Communities. 2. WE WANT full employment for the people. 3. WE WANT an end to the robbery by the kkkapitalist of our Afrikan and Indigenous Community domestically and globally. 4. WE WANT decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings. 5. WE WANT education for our People that exposes the true nature of this decadent amerikkkan society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society. 6. WE WANT the abolition of the Military-Industrial Complex 7. WE WANT an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of the People. 8. WE WANT freedom for all Afrikan People held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jails. 9. WE WANT abolition! We believe the carceral system is inherently racist and that there are better alternatives to reduce harm. 10. WE WANT land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a new world where radical love for human beings is found and the land is given back to its indigenous People. Peace, Love, Freedom, All Power to the People

AFRIKA UNITE!!!

The 10 Point Platform & Program was written by Huey P Newton & Bobby Seal in 1966 & was the guiding ideological base for the Black Panther Party. Neighbor Program has adopted the 10 Point Platform & Program & edited some language based off guidance provided by elders to affirm the people's victory.


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