Dancing for Our Rights

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Doors open at 7 PM
Slim's
333 11th St. (between Folsom and Harrison)
San Francisco, CA 94103-4313

We invite you to join the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) for a celebratory evening of music, dance, and community at San Francisco’s premier night club, Slim's.

Resistance takes many forms and WRAP knows that music and dance release a creativity that sustains and inspires each of us. This artistic expression is at the heart of what we do. So come and let loose your bodies and spirits to the Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban beats of GREAT local talents, The John Santos Sextet and Fito Reinoso y Ritmo y Armonia.

We will celebrate our young organization's accomplishments and all the people who make WRAP possible, and build energy and community as we join forces to create to a social justice movement that promotes the human and civil rights of poor and homeless people in our communities by winning affordable housing, health care, education, and livable incomes for everyone. Proceeds will be used to support our civil rights campaign, Without Rights.

Tickets are $25 each and available through WRAP (Contact Michael at 415-621-2533 or development@wraphome.org), in person at Slim’s or Great American Music Hall box offices (open M – F from 10:30am – 6pm & also in the evening on nights of shows), via www.slimstickets.com & by fax order (downloadable fax form available at www.slims-sf.com)

About WRAP:
WRAP’s mission is to build a movement to expose and eliminate the root causes of civil and human rights abuses of people experiencing poverty and homelessness in our communities. WRAP members include Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (Berkeley and Oakland), Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Real Change (Seattle), Sisters Of The Road and Street Roots (Portland), and Street Spirit (Oakland). Check out our website to learn more about WRAP: www.wraphome.org.


About the artists:
Four-time Grammy-nominated, US Artists Fontanals Fellow, Bay Area native, John Santos, is a major international exponent of Afro-Latin music as an innovative percussionist, composer, teacher, writer, and producer for over thirty five years. He's worked with masters like Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Tito Puente, Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Bebo Valdés, Eddie Palmieri and Omar Sosa. He was founder and director of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated Machete Ensemble (1985-2006) and currently directs the highly acclaimed John Santos Sextet.

Fito Reinoso has made the Bay Area his home and is the premier Cuban born Sonero performing in the Bay Area. Fito is an accomplished singer-songwriter and plays classic son, cha-cha-cha, bolero and modern Cuban urban grooves. Fito was nominated for the Grammy in 1995 for his work with Changuito, Patato and Orestes Vilato. He has performed with Cuban legends Armando Peraza and Cachao, and with many of the great Latin music artists of the Bay Area, the United States and Cuba, including Los Van Van, Irakere and Bamboleo. Fito Reinoso and his band, Ritmo y Armonia, perform at a number of Bay Area renowned nightclubs and festivals.

Ivy League Homelessness

The national housing and financial crises were brought home to Cambridge at last night’s City Council meeting, during which the body passed two resolutions to investigate homelessness in the city. Full Article

Human Right to Housing

No housing program can be adequate or complete if it fails to provide for any substantial segment of our population. We can maintain neither a prosperous industry nor a prosperous nation if we do not bring better housing to more people.
- Pres. Harry S. Truman

There Is No Place Like Home:
Revisiting Our Commitment to Housing the Poor
Full Report

Stop human rights abuses on skid row

2 Years
18,000* arrests
No new housing

Stop the city's crackdown on poverty, homelessness and mental illness from entering its third year.

Join us Sept. 25th. at 10:00a.m.on the corner of 5th. And Main Streets to tell the mayor we want housing and services, not jails.


• 750 arrests each month in a community that’s home to 13,000 people. These arrests have had no affect on violent crime in the area, but they’ve had a devastating and lasting affect on poor, homeless and mentally ill people living downtown.
• 1,000 misdemeanor citations each month for “crimes” such as crossing the street against a flashing red hand. When a poor or homeless Skid Row resident can’t pay the fine, the citation turns to warrant and leads to arrest.
• Thousands shut out of federally-funded housing and food programs. When people return from jail, their criminal record forces them to live on the street, where they cost taxpayers $100,000 each year as they circulate through emergency rooms and jails.
• $6 million each year for 50 additional uniformed officers and as many undercover officers to police a 50-square block area. That’s about equal to the amount the city “invests” in homeless services for the entire year. Over two years, that money could have been used to get 750 people off the streets and into housing with support services.
• Thousands of cases in an overburdened court system. Drug cases involving no more than $5 in crack cocaine are clogging up a court system that has a difficult time finding space and resources for murder and rape trials.

We cannot police out way out of homelessness. It’s inhumane, expensive, and completely ineffective.
On Sept. 25, we will demand an end to the discriminatory policing and call for housing and services for the poor, homeless and disabled residents of Skid Row.

Nickelsville is standing!

Photo by Scott Eklund /P-I

As the clock reached 4 AM, energized hands constructed tents, poured coffee, and directed news media. Friends car-pooled from all over King County to support Nickelsville.

Over a hundred tents now stand. We need your help! Come show your support and stand in solidarity with those who have no choice but to sleep outside.

Head over to Nickelsville anytime! Before or after work, during your break - we hope to see you there.

Nickelsville is located in the South Seattle neighborhood, at the crossing of West Marginal Way SW and Highland Park.

Address: 7115 W Marginal Way SW, Seattle Map

More Here

Homeless start settling in fuchsia 'Nickelsville'

A modern-day Hooverville opens in Seattle

For questions email Natalie.

See everyone soon,

The Real Change Organizing Project

NPACH Statement: Bailout Must Help Low Income Families, Not Just Wall Street

The U.S. economy is in turmoil. Earlier this year, Bear Stearns received a massive federal government subsidy, in order to facilitate a fire sale. In recent weeks, the government has taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and seized control of AIG. Foreclosures continue to rise, and the stock market is volatile. Now, federal officials and congressional leadership are discussing a Wall Street bailout that could cost U.S. taxpayers up to $700 billion.

In these troubled times, as Congress acts to protect the safety and soundness our of financial system, we must not forget that the cause of our current problems is the mortgage and foreclosure crisis. While the impact may be felt across many sectors of the economy, what we have is at its heart a housing problem - one which demands housing-related solutions.

HUD recently declared that homelessness was down, a statement reported breathlessly by far too many in the media. Despite this government spin, cities across the country have been reporting a huge influx in homelessness due to foreclosures and a declining economy. Last week, a HUD spokesman acknowledged that their numbers predated the foreclosure crisis, and that the agency has no idea of how rising foreclosures are actually affecting homelessness, terming it "a great question," and stating that "we're still trying to get to that."

We understand the vulnerable position so many families are in - a recent report tells us that over 2 million children will be negatively affected by the foreclosure crisis, with many of them becoming homeless. And we believe that if the government chooses to intervene financially to protect corporate America, we must also protect families who are at risk of homelessness or already homeless. These families should not have to live doubled up, in tent cities, and on the streets while failed Wall Street CEOs retreat to their multi-million dollar mansions.

The President has called on Congress to swiftly enact a bailout plan. We agree that action to assist low income and homeless families cannot wait. To ensure that any legislation helps all Americans in need, the following key affordable housing priorities must be part of any final package.

Congress must act now to:

• Permit bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences during the foreclosure process, to help keep families in their homes.
• Enact baseline renter protections, to ensure that innocent tenants who pay their rent and comply with their leases are not evicted (sometimes with as little as 3 days notice) when their landlord goes through a foreclosure and the rental unit is turned over to the bank.
• Provide an immediate infusion of at least $300 million to FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which helps prevent and end homelessness.
• Appropriate funds for 100,000 new Section 8 vouchers targeting homeless families.
• Require Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the new entity that will purchase mortgage securities to increase contributions to the new National Housing Trust Fund and Capital Market Fund, created earlier this year, so that more new units of affordable housing can be developed.

For additional information, contact Jeremy Rosen, NPACH Executive Director, at (202) 714-5378, or jrosen@npach.org

Anti Palin rally in Alaska

Very cool video!!!

Check it out!!!