01 25 2017

Volume 14: Issue 6 January 25 - February 7, 2017

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jeremy Bratt, Max Gaujean, Margaret Jenny, Robyn Kerr, Jennifer Park, Reed Sandridge, Dan Schwartz, Jeremy Scott, John Senn, Kate Sheppard, Anne Willis EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brian Carome EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eric Falquero SALES & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Jeff Gray VENDOR MANAGER Jeff Gray EVENTS & ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Dani Gilmour INTERNS Ariel Gomez, Cassidy Jensen, Jeffery Murray, Jeanine Santucci WRITERS GROUP LEADERS (VOLUNTEER) Donna Daniels, Susan Orlins, Willie Schatz OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER) Rachel Brody, Arthur Delaney, Britt Peterson EDITORIAL & PAPER SALES VOLUNTEERS Jane Cave, Roberta Haber, Leonie Peterkin, Andrew Siddons, Marian Wiseman, Eugene Versluysen VENDORS Shuhratjon Ahamadjonov, Gerald Anderson, Charles Armstrong, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Aida Basnight, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Melanie Black, Phillip Black Jr., Maryann Blackmon, Viktor Blokhine, Debora Brantley, Andre Brinson, Donald Brown, Joan Bryant, Elizabeth Bryant, Brianna Butler, Melody Byrd, Conrad Cheek, Aaron Colbert, Anthony Crawford, Walter Crawley, Kwayera Dakari, James Davis, Clifton Davis, Charles Davis, David Denny, James DeVaughn, Ricardo Dickerson, Dennis Diggs, Alvin Dixon-El, Ronald Dudley, Charles Eatmon, Deana Elder, Julie Ellis, Jemel Fleming, Chon Gotti, Marcus Green, Barron Hall, Tyrone Hall, Richard Hart Lorrie Hayes, Patricia Henry, Jerry Hickerson, Ray Hicks, Sol Hicks, Rachel Higdon, Ibn Hipps, Leonard Hyater, Joseph Jackson, Carlton Johnson, Donald Johnson, Harold Johnson, Allen Jones, Mark Jones, Morgan Jones, Linda Jones, Darlesha Joyner, Juliene Kengnie, Kathlene Kilpatrick, Hope Lassiter, John Littlejohn, James Lott, Scott Lovell, Michael Lyons, Jimmy M. Ken Martin, Joseph Martin, Kina Mathis, Michael Lee Matthew, Authertimer Matthews, Charlie Mayfield, Jermale McKnight, Jeffery McNeil, Ricardo Meriedy, Cynthia Mewborn, Kenneth Middleton, Cecil More, L. Morrow, Evelyn Nnam, Moyo Onibuje, Earl Parkin, Lucifer Potter, Ash-Shaheed Rabil, Henrieese Roberts, Anthony Robinson, Doris Robinson, Raquel Rodriquez, Lawrence Rogers, Joseph Sam, Chris Shaw, Patty Smith, Smith Smith, Gwynette Smith, Ronald Smoot, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens James Stewart, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Archie Thomas, Shernell Thomas, Craig Thompson, Eric Thompson-Bey, Sarah Turley-Colin, Carl Turner, Jacqueline Turner, Leon Valentine, Grayla Vereen, Ron Verquer, Martin Walker, Michael Warner, Robert Warren, Angelyn Whitehurst, William Whitsett, Wendell Williams, Sasha Williams, Judson Williams III, Ivory Wilson, Denise Wilson, Charles Woods

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STREET SENSE January 25 - February 7, 2017

3

NEWS

City and Federal Officials Characterize New Veterans Housing as Model Development Affairs case managers work in the building to connect veterans to health and employment services.

Rowe moved into his unit two days before Christmas, after anxiously awaiting his new home throughout the fall. While he experienced homelessness, HUD Secretary Julián Castro (center), Mayor Bowser and D.C. DHS h e s l e p t Director Laura Zeilinger and VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald anywhere from celebrate the Grand Opening of the John and Jill Ker Conway friends' couches Residence. | PHOTO BY CASSIDY JENSEN to cars to park benches, where

By Cassidy Jensen he slept with a bungee cord attached to cassidy.jensen@streetsense.org his two guitars so that if someone pulled one he would wake up.

Clifford Rowe is a veteran of the 101st At 76 years old, he relishes the Airborne Division who served during the ability to relax in his recliner in his own Bay of Pigs invasion and played in Elvis apartment, enjoying the scenic view of Presley's band. Now, thanks to new housing the Capitol building and the Veterans for homeless veterans, Rowe has his own Affairs hospital. The efficiency units home for the first time in 12 years. include a bedroom, bathroom, living On Jan 12, the John and Jill Ker Conway space and small kitchenette, with a Residence officially opened, providing more extensive common kitchen area homeless veterans with permanent with ovens. The rooms are small in order supportive housing as well as affordable to encourage residents to spend time housing for Washingtonians. together and build community, according Mayor Muriel Bowser, U.S. Department to Jake McGuire, Community Solutions’ of Housing and Urban Development director of communications Secretary Julián Castro and U.S. Secretary “Living at the Conway Residence is a of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald dream to me. When I look out the window together cut the ribbon on the new on the 10th floor, it feels like I’m in 14-story building located ten blocks away heaven looking down,” Rowe said. “But from the Capitol. my favorite thing about it isn’t the view or Bowser touted the residence as a even the neighborhood, it’s that it’s mine.” blueprint for homelessness work in other Tenants were assigned to the Conway cities. “It is a model for how a prosperous Residence based on an assessment of nation and a prosperous city must and their vulnerability, using the "housing should serve the people who, in the words first" model of prioritizing permanent of one of my constituents, have served housing and then providing supportive their country more than most,” she said. services as needed.

“In a city as prosperous as ours, no one HUD Secretary Julián Castro contrasted should have to sleep on our streets or in the celebration of the building’s opening our shelters,” said Laura Zeilinger, director to the tragedy of the death of Joseph of the D.C. Department of Human Services.

Watkins, a man experiencing homelessness She said that 1100 homeless veterans have who died of treatable illnesses on a D.C. exited homelessness in the last 2 years. park bench. He was one of the first The building includes 124 units: homeless people to die in 2017. permanent supportive housing for 60 “We know that any death is tragic, but formerly homeless veterans; 17 for we know it’s more so because he had no consumers of D.C. Department of place to call home,” Castro said. “We know Behavioral Health services and 47 for that once people get into housing their individuals making no more than 60 health does improve, that there is hope.” percent of Area Median Income. Veterans A joint project of the nonprofit

Community Solutions and the property development firm McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc, the building required collaboration from over 50 groups and included funding from more than 10 sources. According to McGuire, the building’s design is meant to be inspiring and beautiful, bucking the trend of affordable housing that is purely functional. Sorg Architects designed the residences to be made of sustainable materials.

The building was named for historian and Pulitzer-prize winning memoirist Jill Ker Conway — former chair of the Community Solutions board of directors — and her late husband, a World War II veteran. Jill Ker Conway’s father, William Innes Ker, was wounded in World War I and died when she was 15. “Military service may end, but the effects, to varying degrees, last a life-time," said Chris Goldie, Conway's nephew. "And all too often civilian memories are short.”

Glenn Jones is another resident who has already moved into his home in the building. Originally from Brooklyn, he served as a Marine in the Special Forces between 1974 and 1979 in Vietnam. He looks forward to the independence of his new home, including choosing when he eats and sleeps. “I’m soaking it all in,” he said happily. “I love it, my own place.”

Billy Williams, who will move in soon, echoes Jones’ eager anticipation of having a place to himself. “First thing I’m going to do is soak in the bathtub for two hours.

I’m going to do that for a week, once a day, maybe twice a day. And get some much needed sleep,” he said.

Williams, like Rowe, is a musician. “I just know that I like it and it makes me happy,” he said, adding that sometimes the music comes to him, he hears the sounds. Sometimes he hears voices too.

He doesn’t take medicine for it, however.

He says when he did, it made him crazy. He was prescribed Seroquel, and antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia and also sometimes used as part of treatment for bipolar disorder and/or depression.

Williams especially valued that at 1005 North Capitol St, there was only a one-time $300 pet fee, due to the circumstances under which he most recently became homeless. “I was renting a room for close to a year and a half, when one day I received a letter saying there were no pets allowed. But I’m not getting rid of my dog. I’ll dance with Satan first.”

He had received a second housing offer two days after learning about the Conway Residence on North Capital. This offer was for a location at 21st St and Maryland

Avenue. The building was beautiful and Williams had even worked on some of the drywall there during its remodeling.

However, to Williams, “two blocks in any direction is chaos, drugs.”

This was a concern for Williams regarding most of the apartments he had been shown during his search for housing.

“Most of the apartments they showed me were across the river. Now, I’m not prejudiced or anything, but most of the White cats I’ve been out here with — drank with, slept next to — they put them up in buildings around here brand new out of the ground,” he said. “And you’re going to put me somewhere I have to fight to get the groceries in the house?” Williams explained that he wasn’t judging people struggling with addiction, just speaking from experience having overcome his own drug abuse issues.

“Not everybody wants to go into a shelter. I went. I caught crabs up in the shelter. And its hard to sleep next to someone who doesn’t want to take a bath,” he said.

Williams decided to turn down the second offer. Then the Sept. 17 opening/ move-in day he had been told was pushed back to Oct. 23, then December and now January. Like Rowe, he waited impatiently throughout the fall, and hopes that soon he will move in.

Forty-six of the veterans have moved into the Conway Residence as of Jan. 25, and there are plans to fill the remaining veteran units by the end of January.

Billy Williams with his family dog, Squirrel, near the tent where they live, waiting to move in to the John and Jill Ker Conway Residence. Williams says that years ago he hung drywall in the high-rise visible behind him. | PHOTO BY ERIC FALQUERO

Coalition Opposes Safety Net Cuts, Advocates for Investments in Housing, Healthcare

By Jeanine Santucci jeanin.santucci@streetsense.org As the nation prepared to witness the swearing in of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, the ANSWER Coalition held a day-long rally that drew thousands of protesters. Meanwhile, other protests led to altercations with police.

Demonstrators holding signs and participating in chants stood alongside the supporters of Trump in massive lines to get through security checkpoints throughout the day, some having to wait for up to four hours. One of the roughly 30 planned protests that took place within the inauguration checkpoints, the ANSWER Coalition began at 7 a.m. at the Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The coalition’s name stands for “Act now to stop war and end racism.”

According to the coalition’s event webpage, the inaugural protest was aimed at bringing about a “real political revolution” and standing against a “racist, sexist bigot.” Speakers at the protest emphasized a need to stay united in the face of the hateful rhetoric espoused by Trump in the lead-up to the election and inauguration.

Shenae Dixon, one of the many speakers at the ANSWER protest, represented the New York Workers’ Center Federation and put forth demands for the security of marginalized communities during Trump’s administration.

“So what we’re demanding is, we want safety without policing. We want to end the criminalization of workers, immigrants, gender nonconforming people, people of color,” Dixon said. “We want community control, we want to have the ability to make our own decisions in the policies and institutions that affect us the most.”

Another speaker at the protest, Janika Reyes, added to Dixon’s demands.

“We also demand investing in humanity, not investing in mass incarceration, not investing in the police. We are going to invest in our education, not privatizing public schools. In health care, making sure these cancer patients get their medicine.

We are going to invest in public housing.

No more will we live like rodents in a

cage,” Reyes said.

Participants in the ANSWER Coalition protest showed support for communities they believe may experience oppression during Trump’s administration. One attendee, Ashley Marcoff, who came to D.C. from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said she was there because she is passionate about fighting income inequality.

“I grew up in a kind of poor city and I’ve seen the way income inequality affects people who work hard and still can’t afford to feed their family,” Marcoff said. “And I just don’t feel that anybody who works 40 hours a week should be on food stamps. And I don’t think that anybody who is working so hard deserves to be that stressed over where their next meal is going to come from.”

Though the ANSWER protest at the Navy Memorial remained peaceful in nature, with organizers leading protesters in song and anti-Trump chants, other protesters who appear to be unaffiliated with ANSWER engaged in violent and destructive demonstrations.

Pr o t e s t or s f r om t h e g r ou p , c l a d in all-black, had entered the initial inauguration security gates and were chased back out by police. The pursuit continued from block to block for about an hour. Some of the demonstrators pried bricks from the street with crowbars to throw at law enforcement. Just before 2 p.m., the demonstrators’ bashing of

windows and destruction of property led to the police use of flash-bang grenades, pepper spray, smoke and water cannons.

Bystanders on the corner of K and 12th Streets NW heard a loud blast, which prompted people to run away from the source in confusion. Observers and peaceful protestors attempted to help several homeless people sleeping in the area to get up and safely out of the way of runners or large windows that might be targeted.

Extra shelter capacity and extended hours usually reserved for cold-weather conditions were utilized for the entirety of the weekend. However, plenty of people remained on the street. “ We u s u a l l y h a ve t o pu t pe ople out of the shelters when it’s a couple degrees warmer than the hypothermia alert threshold,” complained a shelter employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing of retribution from their employer. “Yet, when people are coming in from all over the country, we suddenly find the resources to get folks off the street. If you don’t keep the shelter open, [visitors] may have to see people that are not doing so well.”

Those who took advantage of the extended low-barrier and emergency shelter options were also not impacted by the various protests.

There were 222 people arrested and detained, according to the

ANSWER Coalition demonstrators kneel at the Navy Memorial.

PHOTO BY JEANINE SANTUCCI

National Lawyers Guild, which offered legal assistance to demonstrators.

A M e t r o p o l i t a n Po l i c e D e p a r t m e n t statement said that two officers sustained minor injuries.

Meanwhile, the ANSWER Coalition’s protest remained along the parade route, with participants chanting antiTrump messages during the parade. Some demonstrators at the coalition’s protest knelt with fists raised while the national anthem played. These included Alena Chavez and Raini Vargas, two students at San Francisco State University who traveled to D.C. to protest. “ We c a m e o u t h e r e t o s t a n d i n solidarity with everyone — women, people of color,” Chavez said.

“Queer and trans people, people of all religions,” Vargas added. “You can tell by the vibe right now, of everyone in the world, that we’re just kind of thinking the same thing. No matter what we’re here for, we’re all thinking the same thing.”

Vargas also said that coming from a low-income family and being a firstgeneration college student led her to protest the inauguration and the elitism that Trump represents.

“Watching my parents have to struggle — they never thought in a million years that college was going to be this expensive.

And the fact that he wants to cut social security, he wants to cut Medicare, cut retirement...” Vargas said on Trump’s proposed policies. “I see my dad, my dad’s 74 years old, he’s watching this happen, and what’s he going to do? ‘If that’s our only source of income, how are you going to take those benefits away? I’ve worked my whole life not to get retirement.’ It’s sad, and this is a huge tragedy.”

Marcoff said the spirit of the protest was a show of support for opponents of the new administration whose voices need to be heard.

“I’m out here to protest for people who can’t be out here themselves and show people that they’re not alone in their opinions and beliefs, and that it’s OK to stand up for what you believe in,” Marcoff said.

Ben Burgess contributed reporting.

Video report included on StreetSense.org

Anti-war, anti-poverty protest in Franklin Square Park

By Cassidy Jensen, cassidy.jensen@streetsense.org Over inauguration weekend, the homeless residents of Franklin Square Park looked on as protesters demonstrated a g a i n s t w a r, n u c l e a r w e a p o n s , homelessness and poverty for four days.

There were nightly concerts and speakers, including former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

One of the event’s organizers from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, veteran John Penley, views the cost of an arms race as threatening

poverty and housing programs. “It’s a massive amount of money if they set off another nuclear arms race and it’s not only going to affect the poor in America but the poor worldwide.”

According to Penley, when organizers stayed in Lincoln Square Park the night of Jan. 18, the U.S. Park Police told them they could not erect tents in the park, although they had an overnight permit. He said that Park Police told protesters that if they did not take down their tents, the

Park Police would force the 40-50 homeless people sleeping there to leave the park.

“They said, ‘if they see you putting up tents they may start putting up tents and then we’d have a problem,” said Penley. The National Park Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bruce Wright, the event’s other main organizer, said that they sought to make the protest a safe place for homeless people to be during the inauguration.

In stark contrast, a group of protestors

ran past the park breaking storefront windows on Jan. 20 and a setting a limousine ablaze.

Mick McIuan, a member of the band that performed on Jan. 19, Room Full of Strangers, sees war and homelessness as interconnected — both in terms of funding for services and the human cost.

“Homeless veterans would be a byproduct of unnecessary wars,” he said.

‘They’re deployed too long and there’s not enough care when they come home.”

STREET SENSE January 25 - February 7, 2017

5

NEWS

In Face of Trump Administration, D.C. Legislators Propose Measures to Affirm Human Rights

By Jeanine Santucci jeanine.santucci@streetsense.org D.C. Councilmembers David Grosso and Robert White held a press conference on Jan. 24 to announce their proposed Sense of the Council Resolution, which seeks to affirm the rights of marginalized D.C. residents during President Donald Trump's administration.

The resolution, while still in its early stages, includes language that restricts D.C. from complying in a Muslim registry and affirms the District's status as a sanctuary city.

"We must embrace that we are a sanctuary city and we will protect families and communities from being torn apart by immigration policies rooted in fear and bigotry," Grosso said. "We must declare that we will not tolerate aggressions — guided in patriotism and security — against our Muslim brothers and sisters.

We must protect the rights of women and girls and our LGBT community."

Following the councilmembers’ remarks, several representatives of human rights groups were invited to

speak, including Abdur-Rahim Briggs of Project Briggs, Darakshan Raja from the D.C. Justice for Muslims Coalition, Sapna Pandya of Many Languages One Voice and Ruby Corado of Casa Ruby.

Raja commended the resolution's goals to uphold D.C. as a sanctuary city, which limits D.C.'s cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to turn over people for deportation.

He urged the councilmembers to take additional measures to ensure that the voices of directly-affected individuals are heard. Similarly, Pandya recommended that the resolution take into account the self-determination of marginalized community members through the establishment of a task force.

Along with the resolution, Grosso said he will introduce two additional bills in an effort to make the city more welcoming for all residents. The Language Access Act, which Grosso has also introduced in previous years to benefit residents who are not proficient in English, will improve standards for language access in education and government services. The

other bill will allow permanent residents of the District who are not citizens to vote in local elections, including for councilmembers, the mayor and Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

White recognized the intersection of many identities, including the marginalization faced by homeless individuals, but said that the steps he takes as a councilmember to uplift the homeless community are distinct from the resolution.

"What I've seen from President Trump so far is a dismissal of those of us at the bottom of the economic scale, of the social ladder and I don't think that we're going to see a refocus on those people, and that's why we need the D.C. Council and our locally elected officials to really step up for those people," White said in an interview with Street Sense.

During her speech at the conference, Corado described how her experience as a formerly homeless and undocumented transgender woman of color who also engaged in sex work has made her part of a targeted community. "I'm counting on all of you so that I and the people I serve will

never have to go back to the conditions I grew up in," she said.

Corado cited her own activism work with D.C. Council in the 1990s as contributing to her escape from the cycle of poverty before founding Casa Ruby, a nonprofit that provides shelter, support groups, meals and more to the local LGBT community.

"It's very important to be inclusive of everyone who is at those intersections in the margin of survival,” she added in an interview with Street Sense. “For me as someone who's survived all of these things, including survival, it's important that we center our work around those people."

Ruby Corado, Robert White, David Grosso.

PHOTO BY JEANINE SANTUCCI

On Jan. 14, teens at THEARC in Southeast D.C. engaged in a day of service to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. | COURTESY OF CASSIDY JENSEN

Teens Give Back on MLK Weekend

By Cassidy Jensen cassidy.jensen@streetsense.org

Outside on Jan. 14, a snowstorm forecasted to hit D.C. was replaced by steady rain. Inside, teenagers at The Town Hall Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) created their own storm by imitating the sounds of rain, wind and thunder with their bodies in a crescendo of sound and energy.

This pump-up session was meant to both prepare them for a day of service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and also to reaffirm their value. It was the second anniversary of the #OurLivesMatter campaign, an effort to empower Black youth to better their communities after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Everything that they say about you is a lie,” Teen Programs Director LaVar Jones told the group. “They say that you don’t give back, they say that you don’t love, they say that you don’t serve.”

The campaign started with a town hall for youth to address teens’ anxieties about interactions with police. However, the demand for new events gave birth to a campaign that Jones said has reached over 1000 youth in six cities over the past two years. Topics have expanded beyond police brutality to include violence, youth homelessness, educational advocacy, youth hunger and employment.

To Jaquan, 15, #OurLivesMatter means that the teens are part of one community.

“There are a lot of teens trying to help the people who don’t have anything,” he said.

“We are fighting for our freedom. We are trying to make our world a better place.”

Eighty-one young people participated in the service day, part of the campaign’s M L K Te e n Ta k e o v e r w e e k e n d . T h e weekend began with a charity basketball game on Friday night, coached by Trey

Burke of the Washington Wizards, and ended Sunday with a youth concert.

The basketball game raised $600 for the continuation of the #OurLivesMatter campaign and was attended by 175 people. At the Sunday concert, leaders of community partners presented youth with awards for their work in the organization.

“We thank you for being here to buck the trend, to debunk the myth, to blaze the trail, to be who you are, your beautiful Black selves,” Jones said as the teens prepared for their service projects.

“You have the blood of kings and queens in your veins, you can do anything that you say you want to do.”

On Saturday, half of the teens painted murals at THEARC and the other half created collage vision boards with younger children at the Barry Farm Recreation Center. The activities were designed to allow for creativity and goal-setting as well as to create a lasting contribution to the community.

Volunteers from Providing Artists With Inspiration in Non-Traditional Settings (PAINTS) helped the teens create a series of murals to honor Dr. King by embodying progress and growth. As they painted, the young people considered the kind of mark they hoped to leave for future generations that would use the space.

Angel, 16, served as a model for one of the murals, which also included representations of music, flowers, and sports. “We should give back. [MLK] did a lot for us, he wanted a better future for us. This is us giving our time for his birthday,” she said. Angel’s flowing dreads were meant to symbolize movement and growth in the mural.

At Barry Farm, Aiesha, 15, helped

a younger girl create a vision board about her dream of becoming a police officer. Together, they cut out words and pictures from magazines. “Do you want to “protect”?” Aiesha asked, offering the cut-out word. Her buddy nodded and added it to the board.

Monae Warren, 13, made her vision board about boxing, saying there are not many women who box. An organization that empowers D.C. girls from singleparent households, Be Polished, had recently taken Warren and other middle school girls to learn about boxing from a female boxer as part of their career development program.

The service day participants came from four community programs: Black Swan Academy, Be Polished, iCAN Technical Theater Internship, and The Boys and Girls Club of Washington D.C., all of which helped plan and fund the weekend. Teens visiting from the Boys and Girls Club of New Rochelle, N.Y. also joined the group.

Although many of the young people received community service hours for their work, they all attended voluntarily.

“They do it because they love what the organizations gives them, a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging,” Jones said. “These organizations create safe spaces for young people to be themselves.”

TaNiyah Pinkney, 12, believes it is important for Black teens to engage in service in their communities. “I believe it’s important for African-American men, young men and women to prove that they have great things going on about them, they’re respectful and they can make the world a better place and safer for others,” she said. Building off of that, Londynn Whaley, 14, said, “It’s important to give service, to see that not everybody has what you have, to realize what’s going on in your world.”

An international youth-empowerment o r g a n i z a t i o n , I n a Pe r f e c t Wo r l d Foundation, provided mural-painting supplies and breakfast for the teens. “It’s so important for young people to know that they can make an impact at this age, that they can make a change, they can make things more beautiful and make things more pleasant in their own communities,” said D.C. Program Manager Shelyee Casey.

Jones hopes to leverage In A Perfect World’s international programs to expand next year’s MLK Teen Takeover weekend.

“We set out last year to do a big weekend and we knew this year we had to go beyond it,” Jones said. “I was amazed, humbled and proud.”

At the end of the day, volunteer leaders asked the teens to explain what they had learned from the process of making murals and vision boards as they shared their reflections with the group. On their way out, each person signed their names with markers on a full-wall Martin Luther King, Jr. mural-in-progress, leaving another piece of their legacy etched there. ■

Hundreds Protest

By Carlos Rocha Volunteer More than one thousand people rallied together with the message “We Are Here To Stay” on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Then President-Elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were under fire as not only Latinos, but representatives from all races showed up to mobilize in opposition. Protesters were concerned about what the future holds, but said they committed to change it rather than be paralyzed by fear. “The power of an individual to make change is multiplied by the power of WE,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) at the podium.

So many people packed into the church that the rally extended into the basement where the speakers were watched on a projector and the audio was played on loudspeakers. The event still reached capacity and 300 attendees stood outside to chant in the streets.

A variety of signs and shirts featured slogans such as “Resist Trumps Hate,” “Stop Trumps Fascist regime,” “Legalize Me” and “Don’t Deport My Dad/Mom.” Recurring chants of “Si Se Puede” (Yes, We Can) and “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos” (We are here and we are not leaving) erupted between speeches.

Many people in the United States had been scared of being separated from their families or upended from their communities as the days rolled closer to inauguration.

Along with the rally in D.C., more than 70 events were held nationwide according to a CASA de Maryland spokesperson. Along with CASA, the other groups who helped coordinate these peaceful protests were United We Dream, Service Employees International Union, Make The Road New York, and

Shirt worn by a young demonstrator at the Jan. 14 rally.

PHOTOS BY CARLOS ROCHA

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Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric on MLK Day United Here. CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres served as the master of ceremonies in between speakers in the District, which included Van Hollen, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill) and SEIU International President Mary K. Henry.

The panic birthed from Trump’s campaign rhetoric was abundant in the room. “We just want to make sure we are standing up against hate and discrimination and bigotry in this nation” said Claudia Quinohez in an interview.

Fatima Coreas said of the event, “This is a call to our senators and representatives around the country to create sanctuary cities that will protect the dignity and the lives of undocumented immigrants.” During his campaign, Trump said many things that rubbed the immigrant communities the wrong way, such as referring to them as potential rapists and drug smugglers in a June 16, 2015. Numerous times on the campaign trail, he also said he would deport all illegal immigrants in his first 100 days and plans to build a wall along the border of Mexico.

What Trump didn’t say was what he was going to do about DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program that helps many children of immigrants obtain employment, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.

Protecting DACA was another rallying cry on Saturday. Many DACA recipients came up to the podium to share their stories, including Michelle Williams, an African American who spoke about the “diverse faces of immigrant America.”

Martin Batalla-Videl came to America at 7 years old and settled in Queens, New York. He eventually went to the High School of Academic Excellence in

Brooklyn and DACA helped him procure a higher paid job which allows him to be independent. Batalla-Videl is currently in secondary education studying to be a registered nurse. “Without DACA, this wouldn’t be possible.

Immigration wasn’t the only thing touched on by the multicultural orators.

Healthcare, Planned Parenthood and LGBT rights were all discussed throughout the event. Imam Johari Abdul Malik insisted that “[we] fight over the right to citizenship for every citizen in this nation.”

He ended with a message of equality stating that, “we all came over on different ships, but now we’re in the same boat.”

Chants of “No Muslim Registry” broke out amongst the unified crowd.

“Our strength is our resilience,” said Max Kim, a 19-year-old speaker from South Korea who learned he was undocumented in high school after living here since age 5. The energized crowd dispersed into the rain, with many ready to march. Rumors swirled that the precession was going to protest in front of Jeff Sessions’ home.

However, the busses took several hundred people back to Pennsylvania and New Jersey Avenues to march on the White House’s north side.

“The media coverage was more than they imagined” said Erika Hernandez, a CASA communication specialist. The rally at Metropolitan AME coincided with the “We Shall Not Be Moved” march to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, which drew thousands of protestors and a Twitter response from Donald Trump. Both marches shared criticisms of the then president-elect as well as themes of community solidarity spanning many social justice initiatives. ■

Over one thousand people rallied at the Metropolitian African Methodist Episcopal Church on MLK Day in response to President Trumpo’s anti-immigrant platform.

PHOTOS BY CARLOS ROCHA

MEMOIR: Marching for MLK

By Wendell Williams Artist/Vendor

President Ronald Reagan signing Martin Luther King Holiday into Legislation.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

T

hirty-six years ago I was a young whiz kid working in broadcasting. I had just moved back to D.C. after spending 5 years in Dayton, Ohio at my first job in radio. I had been asked to relocate to be a part of the nation’s first Black-owned talk radio station. I hadn’t been in town a month when I heard from a recent college graduate I was dating about a march on Washington to make Dr. King’s birthday a federal holiday. We decided to attend together.

Being in Dayton so long, I was out of touch with what was happening on this issue. I have forgotten most of the details of that day, but I do remember it was a cold, cold, grey January day. I remember getting to the march assembly point and seeing so many young people for as far as the eye could see. The crowd was estimated at 100,000 — but it seemed like more. We know now that the park service had a history of underestimating the crowd sizes of certain marches.

I remember the young people, mainly Black students from historically Black colleges, being so focused, dedicated and enthusiastic about their mission to have the country honor Dr. King’s work, on behalf of all Americans, as a national holiday. Everyone was bundled up in big coats, hats and scarves trying to fight the bitter cold. It was cold as hell when we started moving towards the Washington Monument and the scheduled outdoor concert.

I can’t remember the names of the other performers that day, but we all huddled together trying to keep warm while waiting for Stevie Wonder to take the stage. I think he performed first and I know he didn’t disappoint the crowd with his set. He broke into a rousing rendition and sing along of his song “Happy Birthday,” written to bring attention to the effort to honor one of this country’s greatest figures with a national holiday.

Despite the cold, people moved around swaying from side to side as Stevie sung several verses. Being kind of a wimp, I

left as soon as he finished that song not even sticking around for the rest of his set or the other performers. But most of the crowd stayed put. Because almost all in attendance that day were Black, I feel most Americans believed this was just a “Black thing” and didn’t see its significance to the whole country. But that day kicked off what was to be a long battle to get a bill introduced in Congress — finally getting on Reagan’s desk in 1983 for his signature.

As it turned out, that was just the beginning of the madness associated with bringing this idea to fruition. Once the president signed the bill, each state legislature had to approve its implementation. The state of Virginia wanted to get around honoring a Black man by proposing — get this — Lee, King, Jackson Day: combining a celebration of a civil rights leader with the state’s existing holiday honoring two confederate generals who fought to keep people in bondage. That wasn’t the only attempt at slapping supporters of this effort in the face. In Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi, MLK Day is still combined with Robert E. Lee Day to honor the Confederate general himself. Seriously?!

As the process of getting states approval gained steam, year after year and session after session in the state legislature, the holiday bill failed to get approval in Arizona. The NFL stepped in and supported the effort by issuing an ultimatum. When the state still refused, the NFL moved the Super Bowl Arizona was scheduled to host the next year and the state lost over $600 million before reluctantly caving in.

This trip down memory lane was prompted by a confrontation with a millennial who insisted that MLK Day was not a national holiday. I wondered if this is why most Americans know so little about African Americans’ contributions to the history of this country. Belated Happy Birthday Dr. King. ■

“Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” Ant

PHOTO BY JOHNATHAN COMER

ABOVE: A quilt at the Women’s March, made by the woman above in the pink hat. BOTTOM RIGHT: Tara Avery, 26, with her baby and homemade sign on the sidelines of the march. | PHOTOS BY CASSIDY JENSEN

By Cassidy Jensen cassidy.jensen@streetsense.org

O

n Jan. 21, Sophia Marjanovic weaved through the masses of women in pink knit hats, singing and beating a drum her father made, one that belonged to her son. “I want to bring an indigenous voice,” she said. She is part of the Fort Peck Lakota tribe, the same Native American group fighting against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“I’m a survivor of domestic violence,” Marjanovic said. According to a 2016 Justice Department study, 4 in 5 Native American and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence: 56.1 percent experiencing sexual violence and 55.5 percent experiencing physical violence by an intimate partner. Due to a 1978 Supreme Court ruling, Tribal courts cannot try non-Native citizens for crimes committed against Native Americans. “There’s no justice for it,” she said.

Her story gets even more devastating. Marjanovic lost custody of her son over a year ago, because, despite her Ph.D. and job as a robotics instructor, she was told her abuser was better fit to parent him. “Because my Lakota heritage would alienate the child,” she said. She has been trying to regain custody, but to no avail. Although she had not planned to attend the women’s march initially, Marjanovic was nearby and decided to bring her voice and her story to the enormous gathering on the National Mall.

Mara Haver-Priebe came to the march because she supports women’s reproductive rights and she wanted to gain an audience for her fight against pharmaceutical companies that obstruct the regulation of opiates. Repeal of the ACA could restrict treatment for addiction, leading to more grief like hers, according to Haver-Priebe. “I’m getting a lot of attention,” she said. Several women approached to hug her and give their condolences. | PHOTO BY CASSIDY JENSEN

The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington secured a permit for 200,000 marchers; instead, more than half a million attended, filling the route and delaying the start of the march by over an hour. Attendees’ reasons for marching varied widely, from healthcare to immigration to LGBT rights. Almost all felt that they were not represented by the incoming administration, and the election had spurred them to take action both on Saturday and in their daily lives.

Severine Alford, 19, marched alone in honor of those who wanted to be there but could not. “Everyone else has work,” she said, although she was able to get the day off from her job at Barnes and Noble in Manassas.

Alford is nervous about climate change and about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, since her disabled brother depends on medications made affordable by the law. She hoped that the march might change the president’s mind, but if not, that he saw the women and heard their concerns. “We are going to be loud and speak out against what he’s doing,” she said. “I don’t want my rights taken away.”

Susan Holliday from Allie, Maryland, is also concerned

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them Brings Many Voices to Washington about healthcare cuts. She works as a therapist with patients who have serious mental illnesses, including adults and children who have experienced sexual abuse or rape. “These are people who really need it,” Holliday said. Her patients can afford to see her because of Medicaid, and many are scared that their disability benefits will be cut.

Orthopedic surgeon Clyde Henderson, a veteran of civil rights marches who came with his daughter Frances, worries about his patients too. “People have to act locally,” said Frances Henderson. “They snuck up on us, that can’t be allowed to happen again.”

Ellie McGee, 17, attended the march with her mother and grandmother after flying in from Mount Desert Island, Maine. “I want to be able to marry who I want to marry,” she said. “I do not agree with anything Donald Trump stands for.” McGee despairs about the future of climate change, but hopes that people will notice the marches and take action.

Jerri Mayer brought her 15-year-old son with her from Choctaw, Oklahoma. “I’m teaching him to be a liberal feminist,” she said. “It’ll be this generation that changes.” She was awed by the different generations and diversity represented at the march.

Mayer said that when she arrived at Dulles International Airport on Friday morning, she saw three police officers booing the inauguration, which

Sister Marches “Sister marches” occurred in 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and on all seven continents.

According to the Women’s March on Washington website (womensmarch. com), more than 4.8 million individuals participated in 673 marches.

The most-attended march was in the District. In New York City, 400,000 participated and in San Francisco, there were an estimated 150,000 – 200,000 marchers. At the other end of the spectrum, 24 people assembled in Corpus Christi, Texas; 12 gathered in Bainbridge Island, Washington; and 3 protesters got together in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Large protests internationally included a gathering of 100,000 protesters in London, 60,000 in Toronto, and more than 7,000 in Paris.

Among the smaller overseas gatherings, there were two protests in Antarctica where 95 individuals assembled at McMurdo Station and 30 met up at Paradise Harbor; 30 protestors gathered in Beirut; and 50 attended the protest in Madrid, Spain.

An annotated list of sister marches and approximate attendance is being maintained at https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/2017_Women's_March

Lynn Denton, 75, is an artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who last marched for women’s rights in 1989. “I’m just sorry we have to keep marching for this shit,” she said. She wants equal rights for women, but feels that climate change is the most urgent problem.

“We have to do something now,” Denton said, “in order to save the planet.” | PHOTO

BY CASSIDY JENSEN

was playing on one of the TVs. To her, this represents the widespread opposition to President Trump, a feeling illustrated by marchers’ chant “We are the popular vote.”

Karla Ortiz also brought her son, who is almost three years old, so that she will be able to tell him that he was present for a historical moment.

While she cares about healthcare and access to contraception, uncertainty over immigration status looms the largest. Ortiz immigrated to the U.S. with her parents from Oaxaca, Mexico and benefitted from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Now, she worries her immigration status could change at any moment. “We grew up here, we don’t know much from our country,” Ortiz said.

Her sign, which read “Dreamers present,” was meant to show that immigrants like her are civically engaged. “Many don’t count as citizens, but we’re a part of it,” she said. She hopes for an easier path to citizenship so that people like her parents will not have to risk death crossing the border.

Nicole Santos was appalled by the rhetoric referring to immigrants throughout the 2016 campaign, since she is a child of Portuguese immigrants.

“I think it’s important to get our voice heard quickly and frequently,” she said. “It’s definitely not the end, just the first [protest] of Trump’s presidency.” ■

OPINION

Build More Public Housing

By Robert Warren

I pray we will be okay with Ben Carson as the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is a Black man who supposedly knows about and experi-enced poverty growing up.

Many say he is unequipped for the job.

I don’t know about that; I do know that when he was running for president many said the same thing.

We will have to wait and see what he has to say and what he plans to do at HUD with possible policies such as President Trump’s statement that he would rebuild inner cit-ies for Black Americans. I hope

Carson promotes public housing and phases out poli-cies that favor mixed housing over public housing. Most of us in the advocacy commu-nity believe that such policy has been a tool to gentrify our inner cities and caused dis-placement of many poor Blacks forced to leave their communities and homes. That’s why I hope we will go back to more public housing units, which will lead more people out of poverty.

This new infrastructure would create jobs across the board for people living in those communities. But like everything else, it will take time. That means many more years in which more poor Blacks will die and become sick while living

on the street and in shel-ters. I hope Mr. Carson will listen to the people he is supposed to represent and provide housing to low-income Americans that is affordable, sustainable and accessible.

Un-fortunately, as with his other Cabinet members, Trump has chosen someone who has spoken badly about the people his department is supposed to help.

The Republican Party has resisted funding to help low-income people and elderly Americans for the last eight years, particularly for Black people who voted for Obama. But now that they have control of government they will no longer be able to use Presi-dent Obama

as a proxy and an excuse to do nothing to help needy Americans live the American dream, which has been dying under the Republican House and Senate.

I hope we can all imagine people working together helping each other reach their goals. America certainly will never be great as long as we have a few people who have so much and everyone else with very little or nothing at all. So, good luck, Mr. Carson, in making America great again — unless you don't help people who really need it. That would not be great. That would be sad.

Robert Warren is a Street Sense vendor.

How Failed Black Leadership Turned Me Into A Trump Voter

By Jeffery McNeil While some people were amazed when my prediction that Donald Trump would be president turned out correct, I’m not surprised. To me, watching the Trump campaign was akin to watching a bad rerun of New York City in the ’80s. As a former New Yorker, I saw the movie and knew the characters; Rudy Giuliani, Al Sharpton, the ACLU, and labor unions, with guest appearances by John Lewis and Louis Farrakhan.

It’s like going down memory lane watching Sharpton staging rallies and sit-ins. It’s sad to watch him and John Lewis. They remind me of Muhummad Ali in his last days as a fighter — too punch-drunk to defend himself. At least Angelo Dundee had the wherewithal to know this wasn't the same Ali that beat Liston and Foreman and spared him from humiliation by saying, “That’s enough.”

Today's Civil Rights establishment show no such scruples. They’re so shameless they won't try to preserve icons like Lewis from making asses of themselves. Lewis saying the Trump presidency is illegitimate is evidence that he’s old, senile and needs to retire. I can't wrap my head around how embarrassing today's self-appointed Black leaders have become. They’re staging all these marches and rallies in protest against Donald Trump, demanding they deserve a seat at the table. However, they never once held President Barack Obama's feet to the fire. Why didn't they march to the White House demanding that Obama address issues that plagued African Americans, such as failing schools, unemployment, out of wedlock births and crime? In-stead they spent their time griping about voting rights and lax sentences for convicted felons, while the people they claim to be speaking for continue to languish in misery.

Blacks put Obama first, and what did they get for their messianic loyalty?

Black people voted for hope and change

and the only change Obama gave them was the right to get a sex change. He was willing to shut down government over defunding Planned Parenthood and illegal immigra-tion, but wouldn't press the issue for the people that loved him so. How do we elect someone Black and get nothing but the right to chose what bathroom you can use?

I admit I voted for Donald Trump not because I liked him, but to send a message that I’m not on the plantation. Now that I’ve calmed down I realize I let my temper get the best of me. I may need anger management classes. I hope Obamacare covers it. I have buyer’s remorse — I vot-ed for a guy who said Ted Cruz’s father was responsible for the assassination of JFK. However, I have so much rage towards liberals and President Obama. He broke my heart, he betrayed the religious community with abortion politics and defamed the military by allowing service people to have sex changes. I have nothing against people going through changes, I’ve evolved on mar-riage equality, but the Democrats signing off on men using women's restrooms made me leave the Party. I never voted Republican before, but liberals showed no respect for other viewpoints. If I'm not imposing my beliefs on them, why do liberals believe they have the right to impose their beliefs on others?

Trump wasn't my first choice. I didn't agree with Trump, but it became easier to support him when Hillary and her minions called working-class people deplorable and racist. Things would have been different, also, if the media had shown both candidates’ flaws instead of trying to de-stroy Trump while never examining the Clintons’ past. The media is solely responsible for Trump’s rise. The idea that he was never a politician made him immune to criticism, while the Clintons were career insiders.

But the poor and minorities still haven't recovered from the Clin-tons' policies of mass incarceration, disastrous trade deals and draconian welfare requirements they

implemented during their administration.

I think the greatest reason people turned to Donald Trump was because what civil rights and the liberation movements of the ‘60s had become.

Once upon a time we had real racism, now it’s calling anyone that objects to the left racist, as well as wanting safe spaces and trigger warnings. That version of liberalism sounds good in theory but it doesn’t work. Not everyone can be a win-ner, and sometimes you have to tell

people what they don't want to hear. I love Trump because he acts American: he’s rude, crude and don't give a bleep. I tried liberalism, but it’s not me. The Bible and the gun is all I got, and liberals don't want me to pray or say Merry Christmas.

Howev-er, the only way liberals will ever separate me from my Bible or revolver is “from my cold dead hands.”

Jeffrey McNeil is a vendor and a regular contributor to Street Sense.

Have an opinion about how homelessness is being handled in our community? Street Sense maintains an open submission policy and prides itself as a newspaper that elevates community voices and fosters healthy debate. Send your thoughts to opinion@streetsense.org.

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OPINION

New Bill Could Lead to Public Restrooms in the District

By Brianne Nadeau

James Davis and a protestor. | PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMES DAVIS

Dear President Trump and the “Billionaire Boys Club”: First of all, congratulations on being elected to this high office. It is with great pleasure that I present you with Street Sense, the D.C. area’s premiere street newspaper by and about the homeless community.

I know that for a fact, in all of your appearances at rallies/comedy shows, speeches and town hall meetings that I have never heard you mention anything about people experiencing homelessness. May I remind you that New York has some 50,000 homeless individuals who live there — none in Trump Tower, I’m sure, because there are no affordable housing for low to moderate income individuals in your golden temple.

Your new city of co-residency will have more than 8,000 people experiencing homelessness by the time you take oath. These people are in need of permanent supportive housing, so this should be an easy task to perform as the president of the United States.

Our nation’s capital has always been a drop-off point for people exiting the criminal justice system. People who come to file lawsuits seek relief from various government agencies – only to find themselves running out of resources and ending up homeless. We here at Street Sense do our part in offering those who want to escape homelessness a chance to do so.

You have an opportunity here to be a celebrated president by ending homelessness in this country by doing the right thing. It is my hope and our hope that you accomplish this.

Just like you are not a politician but a businessman, I myself am not into politics either. I just believe that housing is a human right and any person with a heart and decency for those less fortunate than themselves would want to do all in their power.

Thanks for tweeting back.

Residents experiencing homelessness in the District know too well that finding a restroom can be very difficult, if not impossible, especially in the center of the city.

That’s why in the first legislative session of the year, I introduced a bill that creates a plan for the District to provide public restroom facilities, and create incentives for businesses that make restrooms available to the public.

The idea came from advocates at the People for Fairness Coalition. The group did an analysis of publicly available restrooms downtown and found there were only three clean, safe restrooms open 24/7 in all of Washington, D.C. Lack of access to public restroom facilities is an issue that affects many residents, but its effects are particularly felt by homeless people and others with unique restroom needs, such as pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly.

Many residents experiencing homelessness don’t have regular access to a restroom. This can be a particular problem when businesses don’t provide access or a business that does provide access during the day closes for the night. Homeless residents may be fined for urinating in public, aren’t able to pay the fine and then are swept up into the criminal justice system. Others may have embarrassing accidents in public places or on public transit because they can’t find dignified facilities.

Many major world cities in Europe and Asia readily provide public restrooms, and large U.S. cities have increasingly sought to provide restroom access for all.

Portland, Oregon has a program called the

Portland Loo, which creates permanent private facilities around the city. In London, the city will provide businesses with a financial incentive if they agree to keep their restrooms open to the public.

My bill would authorize a task force to study these kinds of programs and make specific proposals for D.C., such as site location and pricing, which could serve as a roadmap for future installation of public restrooms in the District. It would also explore how we could create incentives for businesses that make restrooms available to the public.

I introduced this bill with the support of fellow Councilmembers Grosso, Silverman, R. White, Allen, and Bonds.

Lack of access to public restroom facilities is an issue that affects many residents, but its effects are particularly felt by homeless people.

Access to clean water and proper sanitation is something that everyone in the District deserves. This bill will bring us one step closer to making that a reality.

More information about the bill is available at: brianneknadeau.com/bill_ aims_to_create_public_restrooms_in_ district Brianne Nadeau is the Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember and the Chair of the Human Services Committee, which has oversight of homelessness issues in the District.

Sincerely, James Davis Vendor/Artist/Twitterbug P.S. This message is for all customers and Street Sense supporters. When you finish with this paper, please consider dropping your copy in an envelope to the White House.

I hope our readership floods Capitol Hill with thousands of copies of Street Sense over the next four years or less. Thank all of you and God Bless You. This message has not been approved by Putin.

President Donald Trump 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, D.C. 20500 James Davis is a senior vendor of Street Sense and a speaker for the National Coalition for the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau.

Extra portable toilets put out near the U.S. Capitol building to accomodate inauguration crowds. | BY GWYNETTE SMITH

The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and collaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.

How do you survive the cold? Home.

As I wait beside m y w i n d o w, I wonder whether it’s going to snow.

If it does, I can make snow cones.

Then I won’t need ice cream! My hand is freezing, but I don’t have gloves. Wait: I can use socks for mittens.

And I can stay warm wearing my sweater.

Oh, the snow is so much fun! I’m making a snow angel. After that, I’ll make pancakes with syrup from a maple tree and some eggs to go with them.

Scrambled? Poached? Sunny side up?

Maybe all of them!

Best of all, the kids are out of school and sledding down the hill. The snow is great for running like Jack and Jill!

This is really called the “we care” program.

I believe that if more homeless showed the public cares about their well-being and is willing to treat the homeless as human beings, the public would get better results from the homeless. It’s possible to get the homeless off the streets into some form of housing. But first the government must make these places available and affordable.

—Patty Smith, Artist/Vendor

—Jennifer McLaughlin, Artist/Vendor

ILLUSTRATION BY SASHA WILLIAMS

Staying warm in the winter requires thinking about where the heat needs to stay in and wearing the right clothes — when you have them.

Boots and thermal socks are always great ideas. Keeping your feet warm is essential; when your feet are cold, so is your body. If you have extra layers of fleece clothes and sweaters, wear them! When you’re working in the cold, look for places to go inside and get warm. When it is 20 degrees, you can’t stay out more than two hours.

Make sure your gloves fit snugly. If they don’t, your hands and fingers will get cold really fast. When that happens, it is really hard to sell Street Sense. Always try to wear a hat. Covering your head is super important to prevent the heat from leaving your body. Remember what I said about wearing layers? That applies to putting on sweat pants under your jeans. A lot of stores see undergarments and winter undercoat layers. Those clothes really help beat the cold.

—Jemel Fleming , Artist/Vendor

ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT WARREN

All I keep hearing is R.I.P to different homeless people. Most of these homeless people was my friends. I wish the government would do some type of affordable housing for the people that passed away and the people who are alive for the dead. As you see different people leave us. Bundle up, stay warm and respect one another.

Always hold on and don’t let go when people don’t mean you no good.

—Joe Jackson, Artist/Vendor

ILLUSTRATION BY DAMON SMITH

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VENDOR WRITING

The Monkey and the Dolphin

By Michael Craig, Artist/Vendor The Monkey would sit on the beach and admire the majesty of the ocean. But she was afraid to learn how to swim. She wondered what it would be like to live in the ocean, like the dolphin she saw swimming and jumping through the water.

The Dolphin saw the Monkey watching, swam into the shallow water and asked “why are you sitting on the beach watching me?"

“I just wonder what it feels like to be able to swim?” said the Monkey.

"That's normal!" said the Dolphin. "After all, I would love to kick back on the beach like you."

With love for the Monkey, the Dolphin invited her for a ride on its back. ‘You can trust me the dolphin said. “After all, we’re both mammals.”

“We goin' in the ocean, so you can get the view of the beach that I see,” the Dolphin said.

The Dolphin took the Monkey out and said “Your’re going to learn how to swim.

I’m going to dive down and rise below you. Just float there and paddle your arms while you lay above me. I got you, I’m going to stay right below you."

The Monkey trusted the Dolphin and decided to go for a nice long ride.

The Monkey paddles and paddles, getting excited as they go farther out into the ocean. She turns to look back and see the view of the beach the dolphin had described. It’s stunning. But hold up, there’s the dolphin halfway back to the beach! The Monkey realized that she was swimming on her own. The Dolphin protected the Monkey as they swam safely back to shore, side-by-side, smiling.

Both mammals had overcome their differences and grown to appreciate each other's similarities.

ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARA POLLARD

Street Sense in the Smithsonian

By Cynthia Mewborn Artist/Vendor Two films about homelessness debuted at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in November 2016. Producer Sterlin Harjo premiered “Mekko,” meaning "Chief,” and the Street Sense Film Co-op screened the film “Who Should I Be Grateful To?” Both directors were invited to the stage afterward for a Q&A with the audience.

Ten months out of the year, the museum showcases a dinner and feature-length film series. The program is managed by Melissa H. Bisagni, who was aided by intern Torell Taylor during our experience.

“Mekko” was about a man who was imprisoned for nineteen years. When he was released, he took refuge with a mixed group of American Indian people in experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma. Within the group was a shape shifter, or “witch”, that bullied and abused homeless people. He wasn’t even homeless, yet enjoyed intimidating, harassing and killing homeless people when confronted with views that were different from his own.

“Who Should I Be Grateful To?" depicted the controlling and abusive attitudes I've felt from government employees that say they are helping me. I believe they misuse their authority against the homeless for other purposes than that which they were hired to accomplish. This makes it extremely hard to heal, recover and move towards normality.

While each was unique, both films conveyed how non-homeless individuals

perpetrate unprovoked violence against people on the street. These people target others experiencing homelessness just for the "fun" of it and their predatory actions often lead to physical, emotional, sociological and spiritual impairments — if not death. According to a 2016 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless, since 1999 there have been 428 confirmed lethal attacks against homeless people in the United States. That’s out of a total 1,635 hate crimes against homeless people, which include being harassed, kicked, set on fire, beaten or worse. The report only accounts for crimes committed by housed individuals.

It is hard to imagine that people with homes would commit such brutal acts of violence against the most vulnerable people on the planet. But they do, daily.

During the Q&A, both filmmakers agreed that there is a spiritual battle that follows homeless people on the streets.

Whether they are confronted by evil witches or demons, ultimately it is left up to each homeless individual how they will respond to the forces of darkness.

Not only do homeless people make daily survival decisions, but they must also make decision on how they will protect their spirits.

Days before the screening, Melissa invited both Street Sense Event Manager Dani Gilmour and myself to visit the museum’s Cultural Resources Center, where most of the museum's collections are housed off display. We were given

Sterlin Harjo, Cynthia Mewborn and Melissa Bisagni. | PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN a tour by Sylvanus Paul of the Navajo Nation. Some of the highlights were Navajo basket that were older than anything else we viewed and Inuit parkas.

The generosity that Melissa showed to Street Sense was an honor. I felt privileged to be a part of the museum's Native American Heritage Month activities and will forever be grateful for the friendship that emerged. Thank you Melissa and thank you Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian for providing the opportunity to discuss and combat a very unpopular topic: violence against the homeless.

How can we as a country better address these major concerns? Through films, forums, education and dialogue. Ignoring the topic or being silent about violence against the homeless doesn’t make it go away. It just festers and spins further out of control. This very dark issue demands our attention and exposing people to these issues helps prevent incidents that injure homeless people beyond repair, or result in the loss of their lives.

Both films called the viewers to action.

I pray that we will all respond sensibly, responsibly and maturely.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a reprint of an article that ran in the previous edition of Street Sense. A number of typos made the article hard to read and inacurrate.

Street Sense regrets the error and has republished the work out of respect to the cultures written about and the author’s work. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Gray Day

By Frederic John Artist/Vendor The day is gray No smiles today The Prince comes with no entourage We must suffer under his baggage One day, hope shall break us from the cage

COMICS & GAMES

Perception or Reality: Wake Up, Stand Up, Speak Up

By Robert Williams, USMC, Artist/Vendor “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

—Car Jung There is, as is said, a method to my madness, a message in my writing, a purpose for my advocating and love in my heart for all people regardless to race, religion, economic status or any other differences that disunite us.

I would like some feedback on my articles and poems, even if your thoughts are that I should discontinue writing as it often seems as though I am writing to no avail.

I am far from being a quitter and you shouldn’t lay down either. You shouldn’t

IMAGE COURTESY OF ARNAUD 25 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

silently allow this broken system of ours to continue to do what it wants.

Unlike certain communities, you have a voice and it needs to be heard. Let it be heard: add it to mine and others that it may be effective. To be silent is to be in agreement. Let’s speak up, let’s speak out and unify our voices to hold these elected officials accountable for the promises they make coming into offices.

Let’s not feed into modern day genocide and gentrification. To remain silent is a mistake, however an acknowledged mistake can be rectified.

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

—Albert Einstein

The ASPCA has a commercial that airs frequently to request from you — the public tax-paying productive members of society — assistance to provide food, healthcare and housing for homeless, abused, neglected and ill… animals. Not a problem, but what about us humans at the top of the food chain? (Of which there are so many abused, neglected and ill.) Yes, so, so many are starving, all alone, and desperately in need of medical attention (physical psychological and emotional). Others suffer the ills of joblessness and housing instability.

Housing stability is basically generated as a result of affordable housing, which we obviously lack. The Area Median Income, which “affordable” housing prices

are based on, is a travesty of justice. It is derived in a manner in that ensures it holds a certain population down.

Perception or reality? What is the perception of your reality?

How do you view the world which we live in? as you have departed your adolescence and begun to mature and embark upon adulthood, is your current world in which you now embrace as you envisioned? What differs? Why? What role do you embrace?

Something is coming at you and you won’t event see it unless you open your eyes and ears and in some cases your mind. I, me, you, the world has had a setback. Can we comeback? I believe so. Do you?

A setback is just a setup for a comeback.”

— Willie Jolley Currently we are in the midst of a homeless epidemic, which can consume you or me. Most of us know someone that will be affected. We’re a lot more connected than you think. We must administer the vaccine to eradicate homelessness with immediate and continual dosages of affordable housing, which is more easily acquired by the remov-al of the presently prescribed area median income.

Perception. Or. Reality. Get us off this merry go round, In this political town.

Open your eyes and look around. You might discover they stole your crown. Lies, lies, lies — so many in disguise. For whose demise?

Spike Lee’s urgent message at the end of the film School Days states, as Lawrence Fishburne rings the alarm “Wake up! Wake up! Wake UUUPPPP!”

STREET SENSE January 25 - February 7, 2017

15

COMMUNITY SERVICES Housing/Shelter

Food

Clothing

Showers

Outreach

Medical/Healthcare

Transportation

Laundry

Education

Employment Assistance

Legal Assistance

Academy of Hope Public Charter School: 269-6623 | 601 Edgewood St, NE aohdc.org

Bread for the City: 265-2400 (NW) | 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org

Calvary Women’s Services: 678-2341 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org

Catholic Charities: 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp

Central Union Mission: 745-7118 65 Massachusetts Avenue, NW missiondc.org

Charlie’s Place: 232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave, NW charliesplacedc.org

Christ House: 328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd, NW christhouse.org

Church of the Pilgrims: 387-6612 2201 P St, NW churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach food (1 - 1:30 on Sundays only) Community Family Life Services: 347-0511 | 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org

God’s Work

By Ronald Dudley Artist,Vendor I been judged by so many I’ve been loved by a few so I’m so lost, I’m so lost I don’t know what to do.

I’ve been wishing I was dead since my cousins got killed.

But my son keep me livin’ every time he need milk.

See an old fool told me I’m supposed to be wise.

Then a wise man told me listen to his advice.

Community of Hope: 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

Covenant House Washington: 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless: 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org

Father McKenna Center: 842-1112 19 Eye St, NW fathermckennacenter.org

Food and Friends: 269-2277 219 Riggs Rd, NE foodandfriends.org (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc)

Foundry Methodist Church: 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities ID (FRIDAY 9-12 ONLY)

Friendship Place: 364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave, NW friendshipplace.org

Georgetown Ministry Center: 338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW georgetownministrycenter.org

Jobs Have Priority: 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org

Samaritan Ministry: 1516 Hamilton Street NW | 722-2280 1345 U Street SE | 889-7702 samaritanministry.org

Loaves & Fishes: 232-0900 1525 Newton St. NW loavesandfishesdc.org

Sasha Bruce Youthwork: 675-9340 741 8th St, SE sashabruce.org

Martha’s Table: 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org

Miriam’s Kitchen: 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org

St. Luke’s Mission Center: 333-4949 3655 Calvert St. NW stlukesmissioncenter.org

My Sister’s Place: 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org

Thrive DC: 737-9311 1525 Newton St, NW thrivedc.org

N Street Village: 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org

Unity Health Care: 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org

New York Ave Shelter: 832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave, NE

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St NW | 328-5500 legalclinic.org

Patricia Handy Place for Women: 810 5th Street, NW, NW | 733-5378

The Welcome Table: 347-2635 1317 G St, NW epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable

Samaritan Inns: 667-8831 2523 14th St, NW samaritaninns.org

‘Cause you could be the problem or be the solution.

I just stay still.

While the whole world mourn I just keep a smile on my face cause my kids got food And they’re sad, and I know my daughter Brooke probably mad but I know she really really loves her Dad. I used to be a regular man, without a plan.

But now I understand footsteps that’s in the sand.

I used to be a regular boy without a clue then God came through and told me exactly what to do.

I used to have a lot on my mind I was stressed I just wanna thank the Lord I’m so blessed.

I just wanna thank the Lord I’m still here.

Cause I could’ve died with my cousins last year.

So Others Might Eat (SOME) 71 O St, NW | 797-8806 some.org

Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St, NW | 745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave, SE | 797-3567 whitman-walker.org

But I stayed home with my momma and my son.

When I woke up it was early in the morning.

I used to be a regular man without a plan.

Now I understand why God gave me His hand.

I never seen a man cry til’ I seen a baby born.

I never seen a man die til’ I seen a lady scorned.

I I I I

just just just just

seen a man lose everything he had in life. seen that man get it back on a praying night, seen the sun shine bright enough to see the moon. told my kids that I love them and I’ll see them soon.

I’ve been seeing God’s work, right before my very eyes, Now I’m doing God’s work Lord. I’ve been purified.

I believe that God the Father, got me through when times were harder, I believe that God the Father, made me wiser, made me smarter.

Now I’m doin’ God’s work. Lord I’ve been purified I’ve been seeing God’s work right before my very eyes.

VENDOR PROFILE: JUAN CALLEJÓN

By Cassidy Jensen, cassidy.jensen@streetsense.org

MEMORIAL:

STACEY

McCORMICK

By Laura Thompson Osuri Co-Founder

Illusion art by McCormick. (Flip vertically)

In some of the promotional material for Open Arms Housing there is a hand-drawn picture of an abstract face. If you look one way, the face appears happy. Then you turn it upside down and the face looks sad.

Stacey McCormick, a former resident of the organization’s permanent supportive housing, drew this fascinating picture.

In many ways it represents her own life, which ended too soon in August 2015.

McCormick was 52.

Despite having trouble moving around and relying on an oxygen tank, McCormick was always upbeat and positive, according

to Tecoy Wade, a peer support specialist at Open Arms. “I miss her enthusiasm in participating in activities,” Wade said.

“Even if she was not in a good place, she would still show up and push past it.”

It was in these moments that McCormick created some of her most memorable artwork. She especially loved painting and using glitter.

“She was most famous for her wonderful artwork. She was a gifted artist,” said Marilyn Kresky-Wolff, the executive director of Open Arms.

Kresky-Wolff added that McCormick was also well known for her love of animals, which stemmed from an earlier career working with them in the circus.

She also loved to sing and read. In fact, Wade said McCormick read all of the three dozen or so books that Open Arms has on its shelves.

McCormick was originally from the Philadelphia area but moved around quite a bit, according to Wade. She was still in contact with some family members.

In D.C., McCormick spent time at the Harriet Tubman shelter before coming to Open Arms. Wade and Kresky-Wolff said she immediately fit in and was well-liked.

“She really had a big impact on people,” Wade said. “We still miss her, as she was such a presence.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF OPEN ARMS HOUSING

PHOTO COURTESY OF OPEN ARMS HOUSING

January 25 - February 7, 2017 • Volume 14 • Issue 6

Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW

Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid Washington, DC

Washington, DC 20005

Mail To:

Permit #568

Remember, buy only from badged vendors and do not give to those panhandling with one paper.

Interested in a subscription? Visit StreetSense.org/subscribe

Juan Callejón (translation: John Alley) is the pen name of a wanderer and an artist.

Today he sells Street Sense papers in D.C., but he has roots in Spain and Puerto Rico and frequently visits Montreal. Given his penchant for travel, his dream of starting a newspaper capable of crossing continents makes perfect sense.

J u a n ’s a s p i r a t i o n i s t o c r e a t e a trilingual newspaper that will teach people languages while providing jobs selling the paper in Puerto Rico and Spain.

He envisions a newspaper that teaches people how to live a better life and create a better society through investigative reports, stories about the creative processes of artists and reprints of sacred texts from the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita. “The editorial group would focus on the lighter side of darkness and enhance harmony in society,” he said.

T h e p a p e r, w h i c h J u a n c a l l s “ a handbook of linguistic equivalence,” would feature translations of each article side-by-side in Spanish, French and English. Studying medieval literature in college taught him how such side-by-side translations can better facilitate language learning and acquisition. For individuals in Puerto Rico and Spain, learning a new language can mean access to a better job and a better life in countries with stronger economies.

Employment to sell the newspaper, not unlike vending Street Sense, is especially important to Juan: it would allow him to support himself when he visits family in Puerto Rico, Spain or the U.S; while improving the lives of his countrymen. His description of Puerto Rico, where he once taught English to 11th graders, is bleak.

“The minimum wage is $4.25 an hour and jobs are scarce,” he said. In Spain, people are returning to live with their parents and eating food out of dumpsters to survive, according to Juan. Along with the newspaper, he seeks to create a means for artists to receive proper resale profits from their work through an online gallery.

His approach to homelessness is philosophical. “We are basically all homeless,” he said, “in the sense that we are all here in this body and we call this body our house and our home and its transient and we’re going to die.”

Strictly speaking, he has a place to stay in Maryland with his hardworking s i s t e r a n d h e r c h i l d r e n . H o w e v e r, throughout his adult life when problems surrounding him become too much, he decides to go outside.

Joining Street Sense was a step along the path to starting his own newspaper.

“I was lured by the newspaper thing,” Juan said. He is a good salesperson when it comes to selling Street Sense papers,

and claims to have developed a winning strategy. He finds he has more success when he paints on the street, and when he brings along his two dogs - a Jack Russell Terrier and a “sato,” Puerto Rican slang for a mixed-breed street dog.

Selling papers is hard work, and humbling. “It’s a very good job. I love it because it takes my ego and it crushes it,” he said. Being a vendor also allows Juan to be able to contribute economically to his family, which matters deeply to him.

Juan finds peace in meditation, a practice he started ten years ago at the advice of his girlfriend at the time.

During a low point in his life, he spent ten days at a retreat in Puerto Rico that taught Vipassana Meditation. This form of meditation is non-religious and the retreat is free, paid for by past attendees who benefitted from the technique. There, he maintained a strict moral code and learned breathing techniques from 4:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Meditation saved his life, freeing him from smoking and drinking and improving his approach to relationships.

Aside from teaching English, Juan has had a long list of other occupations, including running his own business in Puerto Rico, working at Cirque du Soleil and in the movie industry and serving crepes during the Georgetown University farmer’s market. He will soon begin driving for Lyft. During his most recent trip to Montreal Juan worked in the dangerous industry of tree-trimming, despite his comparatively low body weight and back issues.

This artist thinks a hundred miles a minute, constantly imagining new ideas and making connections between the spiritual and the concrete. He insists that if his newspaper plans come to fruition, he will make it great, never falling victim to laziness or corruption.

“If I get this opportunity it’s going to be an engine that once it starts it won’t go off,” Juan said.

Lawrence Autry - 1/14 | Elizabeth Bryant - 2/02