Join us to build “The Right to Exist” Village no experience necessary! (But if you’re a builder, give us a call.)
For the past three years, The Village in Oakland #feedthepeople has participated in Reclaiming Dr. Martin Luther King’s Radical Legacy by reclaiming unused and/or neglected public landed owned by the City of Oakland to build temporary emergency shelter for our brothers and sisters living on the streets.
The goals are simple:
1. Let people get off the ground, out of tents and into something safe until permanent deeply affordable housing is accessible to our people.
2. Show how illegitimate, ineffective, cruel and inhumane the mayor and her Encampment Management Team are in approaching the homeless crisis that her decisions helped create.
3. Connect the dots between gentrification, the housing affordability crisis and the homeless state of emergency.
4. Inspire regular people like us – both housed and unhoused – to take matters in our own hands and provide community driven solutions since city hall refuses to.
This past year, we focussed on upgrading existing curbside communities by building homes and communal kitchens, upgrading self made homes,, defending self built homes from demolition, and improving conditions at curbside communities that are neglected or brutalized by the mayor’s encampment management team.
One such community is in East Oakland behind the Burger King on East 12th and 14th Ave. We built three emergency homes, are providing regular trash service, and supported the residents in their political empowerment – in particular learning about their rights and developing self government.
This Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, instead of moving on to an empty piece of public land, we call all housed and unhoused volunteers to concentrate our energies on this East Oakland encampment and finish building “The Right To Exist” Curbside Community – that the longterm residents have designed and named.
On January 18 & 19th from 10am to 5pm, we will build 5 tiny homes, a communal kitchen, a solar shower, a bike operated washer, raised garden beds, and paint murals on the three finished homes. We will serve food all day, do a huge trash pick up along East 12th from 14th to 22nd Ave, and offer workshops and services for our unhoused brothers and sisters: Know Your Rights, Adverse Possession and Squatters Rights, Health and Wellness for Curbside Living.
If you want to help us prepare, you can join a committee by contacting Needa Bee at 510-355-7010 :
– building (for skilled builders, carpenters and handy people)
– gardening
– trash pick up
– murals
– outreach to surrounding neighborhood
– food services
– donation solicitation
– portapotty outreach – finding a neighboring business or community to sponsor portapotty services
But, most importantly, please come on MLK weekend – even if you can only be there for a couple of hours! Bring your friends and neighbors (housed and unhoused), too!
If you cannot contribute in person, please contribute resources: We need $16,000 to complete this work. We currently have $8,000 raised. To fill the gap, you can
– donate at https://www.paypal.me/thevillageinoakland
– send a gift card to TheVillage (maowunyo@gmail.com) at https://homedepot.cashstar.com/
– donate building materials, food, etc, by contacting mlkdonations2020@gmail.com
If you have other questions or media requests, please contact Needa Bee at 510-355-7010.
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Hear a great lineup of local musicians and help raise money for strong regional action on climate. This Concert for the Climate is a fundraiser for the Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force, which is working to organize cities and counties throughout the Bay Area to declare climate emergencies and join a task force to address climate change as a region.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s radical legacy, please join the Bay Area Poor People’s Campaign for a screening of a 45-minute sneak preview of We Cried Power, a documentary about the current Poor People’s Campaign. Martin Luther King Jr launched the first Poor People’s Campaign with a march on Washington in 1967.
“Public safety” has often been used to justify increasing police presence in communities of color, prosecuting quality of life offenses, and continuing the crisis of mass incarceration. After decades of policies reinforcing increased interactions with the criminal justice system, it is clear that these policies are not working. Join the San Francisco chapter of the ACLU and its guest panelists as we explore how alternatives to policing and incarceration are ultimately more effective ways to promote public safety for all of us.