Xmas Bag of Topics for Radio Show Tonight (12/18)

FAMED STREET POET TO SPEAK

Julia Vinograd, a prolific street poet which the Santa Cruz Public Library declines to carry in any number, will be calling in from Berkeley at 6:30 PM.

An example of her poetry:

On the Street

I'm not here, don't look at me.
Don't scream when your children look atme.
do you think bad dreams are contagious?
Do you think I'll breathe bad luck on your children?
Supose you'd spent the afternoon
shining in our lover's bed
and then brought him home to meet your parents
and they screamed
"Don't touch that, you don't know where it's been!"
You can't see me.
I'm just a crack in your contact lens.
I'm just a crack in your mirror.
My hands are dirty.
I've got your shadow under my fingernails.
I can't wash it out. I've got the shakes.
my own skin isn't speaking to me
and I'm not speaking to you.
I'm not here. I have no past.
no memories, no name, not allowed.
So I eat your memories like garbage,
all your buried broken promises
and the bad dreams you forget
till you see me. Till you don't see me.
I'm not here.

Julia book is reviewed and some of her poems are previewed in the current (December) issue of Street Spirit, available from street vendors, the stickermobile, at Wednesday 9:30-11:30 AM HUFF meetings at the Sub Rosa Cafe, and via HUFF at 423-HUFF.

The Main Branch of the library has been regularly given the current issue, but it frequently fails to appear on the shelves. Complain loudly to Deborah the librarian if you'd like to read it there in a timely manner. I left the November and December issues there yesterday (third time I've left the November issue there, but it failed to make it out to the shelves).

See also http://www.thestreetspirit.org/October2005/juliapoet.htm
http://www.echonyc.com/~poets/vol9/vinograd.html


VICTORIOUS LAWYER PHONES IN

David Beauvais, attorney for vandweller Joseph Ciampi, will be calling in either at 6 PM or at 7 PM. Ciampi, dragged out of his car, tasered, and then arrested on trumped up charges of assault and resisting arrest had all charges dropped at a pre-trial hearing. Beauvais showed there was no basis for detaining or arresting Ciampi, who originally refused to speak with the two cops. They were called to a Palo Alto neighborhood because a housed resident was uncomfortable with Ciampi in his van. In Palo Alto, it's legal to sleep in your vehicle (Santa Cruz, take note!).

The victory has significant implications for taser-happy police departments as well as homeless civil rights.

Beauvais has defended homeless people and advocates in Santa Cruz in the past.

In 1996, he was able to stop Mayor Rotkin's "no night protests at City Hall" injunction (though the city did successfully get a more limited unconstitutional attack on the sleep-in's there.

He successfully defended the Koffee Klatch 3--who organized a homeless lobbying effort in the City Council offices in the winter of 2000-2001, seeking more homeless shelter and a suspension of the Sleeping Ban. The protest displeased Mayor Tim Fitzmaurice and City Worker Anna Brooks.

He has been co-counsel in the Nazi salute case (http://www.topix.com/forum/us/federal-court-9th/TNIO9EVN3P5TLQ686 ) --another relic of the Fitzmaurice era.

More coverage of the Ciampi case:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=10448
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11260726
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11154657?nclick_check=1
http://www.dailynewsgroup.com/article/2008-6-1-taser



HOMELESS PROTEST AND ORGANIZING AGAINST SLEEPING BANS IN CENTRAL VALLEY

Mike Rhodes and Al Williams, a key workers behind the successful Kinkaid decision which granted homeless people and their attorneys $2.3 million, report from Madera City Council meeting last night in one of the first large homeless protests there against police abuse destroying homeless property and harassing homeless sleepers.

Some of Rhodes earlier exposes:

March in Fresno Supports the Homeless
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/19/18545488.php

New Recycling Laws will Impact the Homeless
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/19/18545467.php

Portable Toilets, a Dumpster, and 24 Hour Security
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/17/18417798.php

For a list of articles and documents about the struggle for civil liberties for homeless people in Fresno, see: http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/homelessness.htm


TUNE IN TO FREE RADIO

Free Radio Santa Cruz broadcasts at 101.1 FM and streams at http://www.freakradio.org . Call in to the show at 831-427-3773 or e-mail rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com Shows are archived a day or two later at http://www.huffsantacruz.org . Donations to FRSC can be provided on line at http://www.freakradio.org or by calling the voicemail at 831-427-4523.


Volunteer to help local homeless civil rights activists at Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom at 423-4833.