Tag: Krip Hop Nation

I’m used to reading about and advocating for adults with disabilities, but today our Black and Brown youth with disabilities are increasingly targeted for police brutality and incarceration. Everybody cares about kids, so when will disabled and Black community activists focus more on stopping state violence against youth with disabilities and providing programs after the tragedy?

A lot of activists in the U.S. joke during election times or when things get hot that they will move to Canada, but Canada is no utopia and can be rough living especially for people of color with disabilities, just like the U.S. There have been several cases of police brutality against people with disabilities, especially in Toronto. I spoke with Somali-Canadian singer and activist Sulekha Ali about her autistic brother’s run-in with the police on June 3, 2015, in Ottawa.

The broken windows model of policing uses code words like “disorder” and the metaphor of “broken windows,” focusing on the importance of “fixing,” aka policing, getting rid of, cleaning out broken windows as a way of “preventing” more “serious crime.” The poor, disabled and houseless scholars from POOR Magazine who have experienced the violence of this private policing launched the WeSearch Policy Group in 2013.

The community of people with disabilities has a different experience of brutality than the ablebodied community. There are of course many similarities. But disability adds another level of difficulty to it all. And being poor, homeless or Black or Brown with a disability makes many of us vulnerable from many additional angles. Disability is glazed over or not recorded in the official police reports.

I listened as the supervisor at the Housing Authority of Monterey County rattled off a long list of reasons that they thought released their agency from any responsibility for the crisis of Bessie Taylor and her disabled son Devonte, who are now living houselessly in Salinas, California, because the Housing Authority took too long to move on the family’s reasonable accommodation claim, and they subsequently lost their home of 22 years.

Ronald Galiwango and Krip-Hop Nation teamed up in 2013 to write articles, published in the SF Bay View newspaper, about a single father raising two daughters with disabilities who needed wheelchairs to get around. The campaign turned into a two-year effort with two goals 1) wheelchairs and 2) education. Here is Ronald's update on this successful campaign with pictures of Atim at school.

On Sept. 13, 2014, the most progressive of the Bay Area’s Black and pro-Black journalists came together to celebrate one another and to give awards to a well deserving few. It was also a salute to the real legacy of Black journalism in the United States that was born out of the fight for human rights and self-determination. The night was dedicated to the memory of the recently transitioned journalist and editor Kevin Weston.

I hope the Black community in the Bay Area will share their stories of that time to finally tell the full story of our key involvement in the 504 sit-in and what came out of it that helped the Black disabled community and the Black community, covering all sides of the story – racism, ableism, a sense of accomplishment, self-pride, empowerment, frustrations etc. I’ve provided below some ideas on how to help with this exhibit.

Note from Leroy Moore: Through Krip-Hop Nation’s Facebook page, I met Ronald Galiwango, who lives and reports from Kalerwe, a surbub of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Ronald Galiwango is a journalist in Kampala , and I asked him to write a story about people with disabilities in his country. Here it is.

Whack, tap, crack – the sound of the steel police flashlight on a car window is like no other, and it always had the same effect on homeless me and mama: blood-curdling fear. I thought about our constant police harassment, abuse and eventual arrest for the sole act of being houseless in Amerikkka when I heard about South Carolina’s “new” law that officially made it illegal to be homeless in downtown Columbia, S.C.

“The 16th Strike” will make its San Francisco Bay Area premier in Black August 2013 in Oakland and San Francisco, brought to you by Krip-Hop Nation and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. The feature-length documentary will be screened Saturday, Aug. 17, 1 p.m., in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin St. In the words of filmmaker Toni Alika Hickman:

The story of the late Joe Capers continues to unfold with help from Naru Kwina, Krip-Hop Nation and Joe’s family. Joe Capers, aka Blind Joe, changed Oakland’s music sound in the ‘80s and early ‘90s with his talents in engineering and playing musical instruments. He came to Oakland by the way of Texas with his family.

It is a great pleasure for us at Your True Standpoint to link with Krip Hop Nation, an organization of great stature and deep ethical values. We highly appreciate Krip Hop Nation as the voice of the voiceless. The parallels between the YTS family and Krip Hop Nation can be drawn from shared values evident from YTS’ call for power in unity.

“The 16th Strike,” a documentary in progress, is directed and produced by T Alika Hickman with videographer Danny Russo. Hickman, the young survivor of a stroke and two brain aneurysms, is a Hip Hop artist with Krip Hop Nation – artists with disabilities – as well as a mother, activist, author and poet. She is raising funds to complete the film.

My youngest of two sons was diagnosed with Down syndrome. I’ve been advocating through projects for over seven years. “Then You Stand”, a play on Down syndrome starring an all-Black cast, is a production that anyone will be able to relate to. I hope people walk away with the feeling that no matter what they face in life, they can and will rise above it.

Because of all of my supporters, I had a chance to compete in the 2012 Amateur Athletic Union Tae Kwon Do National Championships held July 2-7 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I want to say many thanks to all who helped me realize my competition goal, for without your support, I would not have made it.

Malaika H Kambon has another chance to compete in the 2012 Amateur Athletics Union Tae Kwon Do National Championships! She medaled gold at the 2012 Amateur Athletic Union’s Pacific Coast State Qualifying Championships on May 12, 2012. This qualifies her to compete at the national level this year. Can you help her to get there?

Lisa Alexander, the mother of a young man with autism, Reginald "Neli" Latson, has been fighting for justice and her son’s freedom from wrongful incarceration since May 24, 2010. Lisa was convicted on Jan. 10, 2012, of a misdemeanor and jailed by the same district attorney who prosecuted Neli.

Leroy Moore, DJ Quad and Emmitt Thrower will be producing a musical hip hop mixtape and documentary featuring hip hop artists with disabilities, many of whom have been victims of police brutality. They also seek disabled victims of police brutality nationwide for live interviews.

On Feb. 18, 7 p.m., at Modern Times Bookstore, Krip-Hop Nation will present an author panel of new books by Black disabled writers and friends, including Toni Hickman of Texas, Adarro Minton of New York, Allen Jones of San Francisco and friends of Krip-Hop Nation, DC Curtis and Bones Kendall of Los Angeles.