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VIDEO: https://youtu.be/QAP4u13w2js
by Lisa ‘Tiny’ Gray-Garcia
“It just shows how close all of us … are to … homeless … ness.” Mr. Owens, Sensei Owens, Master Owens, 50-year resident of BlackArthur and founder of Cascos Martial Arts in Deep East Oakland, lowered his voice as he finished the last word of this last sentence at the Street Newzroom at Homefulness on BlackArthur.
“For over 50 years, Sifu Bill Owens has owned and operated Cascos Martial Art Academy in Oakland, California. Over the years, Bill Owens, with his wife Mary Owens, has taught self defense, cultural awareness, educational values and self confidence to students of all ages. The school has been recognized as being an integral part of the colorful history of Oakland, as it is one of the longest running martial arts schools in California.” – Excerpt from his GoFundMe page
Mr. Owens is the embodiment of all that martial arts teaches to any of us who seek out that medicine. Mr. Owens is one of the most humble, careful and disciplined men I have met. He is a Black Elder, a care-giver, a pourer of knowledge and love into the Deep East Oakland (Huchuin) ComeUnity. Mr. Owens is being evicted.
“My wife and I got ensnared in a predatory loan by a less than legitimate company while we were trying to survive the pandemic’s impact on our studio,” Mr. Owens explained. “We were keeping up with the payments then they somehow jumped up by 200%. We could barely pay them already, but that made it impossible.”
Mr. Owens explained in more detail the insane situation he was dealing with just trying to stay open and stay housed under the weight of impending foreclosure.
As he spoke, carefully explaining the impossible paper theft his family was experiencing, this povertyskola’s blood boiled. This is the way they steal homes and lives from poor peoples, Black and Brown communities and specifically elders every day in this violent krapitalist system. This is nothing new and the very reason why Homefulness first visioned a homeless people’s solution to homelessness right here on BlackArthur built by us poor and houseless people in struggle with eviction, housing insecurity, mold poisoning, scamlords, criminalization and endless poLice harassmen. We also visioned our work as DEgentriFUkation.
We could not even dream of mamaFesting this vision of building without making sure everyone already here was able to stay here. What’s the use of a solution to build and house houseless people if you couldn’t also make sure elders and children were also safe to remain in the homes they were already in. When we launched Homefulness, all of us already from Deep East Oakland, San Francisco and the Bay Area were in struggle with gentriFUKation, predatory bankkksters and real esnakkkes.
To this day we are constantly being hit up by texts and emails of loan agents and real esnakkes trying to speculate, steal and sell this small part of Mama Earth. And finally the very reason we say to end homelessness, we all must DegentriFUK our hoods and towns spiritually and legally. UnSell Mama Earth, following spiritual guidance and leadership from First Nations relatives who have been taking care of Mama Earth since before the colonizers got to Turtle Island and stole it with papers and pens and treaties and blood-stained dollars.
“It went from $40,000 that we owed them to $80,000 and we don’t even know how,” Mr. Owens concluded to Po Peoples Radio podcast
To save his studio and keep this Deep East Oakland lifeline open, Mr. Owens and his wife had already moved into the studio and so now not only does he face his 50-year-old studio’s closure, he faces his and his wife’s homelessness. At 80 years old. In his own comeUnity?
This is the violence of krapitalism. This can’t happen. And like Frohms Martial Arts, why aren’t there reparations for these urgently needed Black establishments? Why are Mr. Owens and his wife even facing homelessness ?
Mr. Owens has a Go Fund Me. PLEASE make sure another Black Elder isn’t evicted, erased and houseless on this stolen land.
Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, aka “povertyskola,” is a poet, teacher and the formerly houseless, incarcerated daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio and author of “Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America” and many more and co-founder of Homefulness, a homeless people’s solution to homelessness. Reach her at www.lisatinygraygarcia.com or @povertyskola on Twitter.
