tiny (lisa) gray-garcia aka “PovertySkola” is a formerly unhoused, incarcerated, revolutionary journalist, lecturer, poet, visionary, teacher and single mama of Tiburcio, daughter of a houseless, disabled mama Dee, and the co-founder of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/PoorNewsNetwork.
With her Mama Dee- she co-founded Escuela de la gente/PeopleSkool- a poor and indigenous people-led skool, as well as several cultural and theatre projects such as the Po Poets Project/Poetas POBREs Proyecto (co-founded with Leroy Moore), welfareQUEENs, the Theatre of the POOR/Teatro de los pobres, and Hotel Voices.
In 2011 she co-launched The Homefulness Project, a landless peoples, self-determined land liberation movement in the Ohlone/Lisjan/Huchuin territory known as Deep East Oakland, the Bank of ComeUnity Reparations and co-founded a liberation school for children, Deecolonize Academy and is the creator of a PoemCast from a poverty skola- a podcast series and as well is the co-host of Po Peoples Radio News Hour on PNNKEXU 96.1fm and bi-weekly on KPFA.
This Poem is in honor of Mamaz/Este Poema es en honor a las madres
(The "anthem" i wrote for the welfareQUEEN's theatre production- dedicated to my fellow QUEEN's Vivian, Jewnbug, Queenandi, Tracey, Estrella, Dharma and Laure and especially my Mama dee - for without whom there would be no me)
(Espanol sigue)
This poem is honor of mothers…
Houseless mothers and poor mothers
Low-wage mothers and no-wage mothers
Welfare mothers
And three job working mothers
migrante mothers
And incarcerated mothers
in other words
this poem is honor of
INS-ed with,
CPS withed and
Most of all
system messed with
mothers
This poem is honor of all those poor women and men
And yes I said men cause don’t sing me that old song
About gender again
Who fight and struggle
And steal and beg
in every crevasse
And corner to keep their kids in a bed
Who dress and feed with tired hands
Who answer cries over and over again
This poem is in honor of those
Mothers who deserve to be coddled
And loved ,
Fed and protected
Instead of criminalized,
Marginalized
and rarely respected
Who can barely make it but always do
And still raise all the worlds' people
Like me you and you
Can I get a witness?
This poem is honor of mothers
Who can barely make it but sometimes do
And still raise all the worlds' people
Like me, and you and you
(En Espanol)
Este Poema es en honor a las madres
Este Poema es en honor a las madres...
Madres Desamparadas y madres pobres
Madres con bajos salarios y sin salarios
Madres de Bienestares
y madres que trabajan tress jales
Madres Migrantes
y madres encarceladas
en otras palabras
este poema es en honor a
MIGRA- nisadas
(CPS) molestadas
y mas que nada
madres
attakadas por el systema
Este poema es en honor a todos esos hombres y mujeres
y si, dije hombres tambien porque no me cantes esa vieja cancion
sobre genero otravez
Quien pelean y luchan
y roban y ruegan
en cada brecha
Y esquina para mantener a sus hijos en una cama
quienes visten y dan de comer con manos cansadas
Quienes responded gritos una y otra vez
Este poema es en honor para esas
madres quienes se merecen un apapacho
y amor
Alimentacion y protecsion
En vez de ser criminalizadas
Marginadas
y rara la vez respetadas
Quienes apenas pueden sobrevivir pero siempre lo hacen
y todavia crean toda la gente de el mundo
Como yo, tu y tu.
Quien puede ser testigo?
Este poema es en Honor pa’ las Madres
Quienes apenas pueden sobrevivir y aveses pueden
y crean toda la gente de este mundo
como yo y tu y tu.
