For Immediate Release: May 22, 2012

PHILADELPHIA - The Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and the National Coalition of Artists Against Foreclosure will be holding an emergency Press Conference on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. The Press Conference will be held at the home of Rhonda Lancaster, located at 4901 Morris Street at 11am EST and will address the specific cases of Rhonda Lancaster and Glenn Davis. Lancaster is currently facing eminent eviction due to foreclosure.

Rhonda Lancaster is a musician whose fight against foreclosure in Philadelphia has inspired a National Petition (http://www.change.org/petitions/artists-against-foreclosure) calling for a Million Artists to support a Million Families slated to lose their homes to foreclosure this year. Lancaster’s publicized battle with her lender Fannie Mae has taken a turn for the worst and she has been served with a notice from the Sheriff’s Department to vacate her home. Rhonda will speak about her decision to stay in her home and refuse to vacate while calling on other Artists like her to stay in their homes and fight.

Glenn Davis is an Artist whose Philadelphia home was recently sold in a round of Sheriff’s Sales. Davis was never notified about the sale. Glenn will be speaking about his experience fighting against foreclosure and eviction and calling for the support of Artists nationwide to shed light on the problem of Sheriff’s Sales and the foreclosure crisis affecting our communities.

Who: Cheri Honkala & members of PPEHRC, Rhonda Lancaster, Glen Davis, Artists   Against  Foreclosure

What: Nationwide Press Conference (live & via Skpe)

When:  Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 11am EST

Where: The Home of Rhonda Lancaster - 4901 Morris Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144

The Press Conference will also announce the “Standing on Solid Ground” Concert to benefit Rhonda Lancaster’s fight to stay in her home featuring Breakwater, Change, The Psychadelic Pimps, Angela Despera and the Ugo Orchestra. The concert will take place on June 7, 2012 at The Adelphia Ballroom located at 1750 Clements Bridge Road in  Deptford, New Jersey. The event will be hosted by 98.1 WOGL’s Bob Pantano and Joe “Too Cool” Collari and will raise awareness about the Artists Against Foreclosure Petition while raising money to help Rhonda stay in her home. Notable artists who have signed the petition include Honkala’s son, actor Mark Webber (Snow Day, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), country music singer Matraca Berg and actress Lisa Langlois (The Perfect Marriage, The “L” Word).

If you are a member of the Press who would like to request an interview with Rhonda Lancaster, Glenn Davis or Cheri Honkala on May 29, please contact cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com.

If you are an Artist of any kind (professional, amateur or hobby level) who would like to take part in the Press Conference May 29 in person or through Skype, please contact cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com.

If you are an Artist who would like to be a part of the “Standing on Solid Ground” Benefit Concert June 5, please contact artfeedsus@gmail.com.

All Artists who support fighting against foreclosure (professional, amateur or hobby level musicians, actors, writers, models, photographers, painters, dancers, visual artists, etc.) should sign the Artists Against Foreclosure Petition hosted by Change.org (http://www.change.org/petitions/artists-against-foreclosure).

Please visit www.economichumanrights.org for more information.

  I recently spent a fun-filled week in the bowels of the LA court system. It was at the big court building downtown, where 15 to 20 courts are going every day. There are hundreds of potential jurors in the halls, the assembly rooms, the cafeterias, everywhere.

    The cliche in LA is that retired middle-class white people dominate juries. No way. LA juries are a head-spinning mix of colors, ages, and nationalities. I would estimate close to ten per cent do not speak functional English. Middle class is there but hardly dominant. I saw one huge jury panel where over 80 per cent of the people were excused for economic hardship. Part time jobs, shitty jobs, small business owners. There’s even a smattering of late teen early twenty somethings who fit the stereotype of a defendant. But not one single unemployed person. Does this mean the unemployed always ignore their jury summons?

    Do we receive a trial by a jury of our peers in LA? More than you might think. But….Someone up on gang charges (there’s a lot of that) won’t see his or her reflection in the jury box. And, while non-citizens can be tried, they can’t serve on juries. This eliminates a huge section of the LA population.

    The jury selection/vetting process is often a pretty wide-open discussion despite the intimidating atmosphere. People denounce the court system when questioned and many challenge every aspect of the court dogma: Why can’t I take the possible punishment into consideration? Circumstantial evidence is bullshit. Etc. And, above all, the police. Among others, I saw a number of white people say, based on their own experience, that the cops cannot be trusted on the stand. One middle-aged white woman talked about how she had grown up believing that the police always told the truth but that she had lived through some things that had completely changed her mind.

    The overwhelming vibe in the courthouse is the desire to avoid jury duty. It is spoken about in the courts and in conversation constantly. Why don’t people want to serve on juries? Inconvenience? To a degree. For “political” reasons? Sometimes. But the majority of it is just alienation from a hostile process conducted in a deliberately obtuse language. Jurors are generally treated like criminals, except without any pretense of the presumption of innocence. Let me out of here!

    We have to admit that our legal system (trial by jury, the adversarial nature of prosecution versus defense) is better than that of countries where the judge and the state do what they want unchecked. For example, I saw a jury celebrating after acquitting a Mexican man who faced seventeen years in prison. But we also have to admit that the jury system hasn’t stopped America from becoming the most incarceration-prone nation in history. Many want no part of that.

    Given how the criminal justice system is now such a huge part of American life, we need to promote a new vision of how to deal with these problems if we are going to transform our country. There are at least two key aspects:

    One way or another, the root cause of most crime is poverty. We have to eliminate poverty to eliminate crime. The other side of poverty is wealth, the 1%. The 1% need the type of court system we have to control us. We need to have as our goal a system that controls things, not people, a society where the 99% prosper, jail-free.

    As long as the focus is punishment, which does little to prevent crime, we will have the “justice” system that we have.  We need to focus on community involvement, a coming together (in a jury, in a circle, whatever) that focuses on healing. Punishment is a secondary part of healing. I say this as someone who has had two family members murdered. Most people would be glad to serve on juries, whatever form they might take, that is part of the healing and uplift of their communities. I know I would.

(from rockrap.com)

RRC Extra No. 26 

 
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DREAMS TO REMEMBER….Four days after Christmas this year I found myself in the Cal Poly Pomona theater, waiting for the play Dreamscape to begin. Dreamscape tells the story of nineteen-year-old Tyesha Miller, who was shot to death by four police officers in Riverside, California in 1998.

            Dreamscape starts with Otis Redding singing “White Christmas.” The pain and beauty in Redding’s voice and his regal, adult bearing set the tone for the seriousness of what’s to come. The stage set is just two folding chairs, back to back. In the front chair sits Rhaechyl Walker as Tyesha Miller. In the back chair sits John Merchant (aka Moufaahza), who plays one of the four cops, the 911 dispatcher, and the coroner.

            The play is more than a recreation of that violent night. “What I wanted to explore is what goes through the mind of a nineteen-year-old black girl while she’s being shot to death by the police,” writer/director Rickerby Hinds told me. To that end, each of the twelve shots which riddled Miller’s body is described by the coroner in clinical detail. After each, Rhaechyl Walker takes over the stage, using dance and poetry and her sheer vibrancy to tell stories about Tyesha Miller’s life. She talks about her hair (don’t touch it!), her breasts, her tattoos, and how bad the bread is in barbecue restaurants.

            Because the writing is so good (and often very funny) the audience gets pulled away from the death and blood of the story. But, inevitably, Walker sits back down in that chair and here comes another bullet, its path through her body mapped out with excruciating precision. The effect is emotionally shattering as we see Tyesha Miller as not simply another in a long line of victims but as a fully realized and unique person—sexy, upbeat, funny, silly, and smart. That is who we lost that night.

             Moufaahza is not just a fine actor but also the Jimi Hendrix of beatboxers. He has incredible chops and is capable of  mimicking  anything, but above all he’s able to put together colors and feelings to clear the way for his thoughts and emotions to pour out. In Dreamscape, he uses his mouth to scratch like a DJ while also creating an orchestra of instruments both well-known and never previously imagined. Moufaahza does this while also incorporating the words of several characters and describing much of the action that took place on that night in 1998. His virtuosity is matched by how well his gifts serve the needs of the play.

            In 1989, Hinds, now a professor in the theater department at the University of California Riverside, wrote Daze to Come, the first play based on hip-hop. He is one of the leading lights in the burgeoning hip-hop theater movement and when I asked him if he felt that having plays known as “hip-hop theater” marginalized them, he acknowledged that it does happen but “It also opens up the theater to new audiences. Like my 19-year-old son and his friends.”

            I don’t think there were many regular theatergoers in the house on the night I saw Dreamscape. Afterward, there was a spirited discussion of the play and the issues it raises. One woman stood up and said: “My son was killed six months ago by the police. What can we do?”

            In response, Hinds acknowledged that Dreamscape provides no answers. But in dramatizing the issue with such artistry, the play brings people together. That’s where answers can begin. 

If you are interested in possibly booking a performance of Dreamscape, contact Rickerby Hinds at rickerby.hinds@ucr.edu. The show is ready to travel anywhere in the world.—L.B.

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