Street SpiritJ U S T I C E N E W S & H O M E L E S S B L U E S I N T H E B A Y A R E A

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by Ariel Messman-Rucker

Only a few months ago, the long-held dream of finding a spaciousart studio in Berkeley to help

increasing numbers of low-income andhomeless youth explore their artistic cre-ativity was only that — a dream.

This particular dream seemed to fly inthe face of the real world, and was in dan-ger of being grounded by the cost of realestate. Yet Youth Spirit Artworks held ontotheir hopes of expanding to provide artsprograms and job training for the growingnumber of homeless youth living on thestreets, trapped in at-risk neighborhoods,and attending local area high schools.

This month, in a sudden turn-around,this unlikely vision began to unexpectedlymaterialize in Berkeley.

The young artists and staff organizersof Youth Spirit Artworks began laying thefoundations for their vision by movinginto a new and bigger space on October 1that will allow the organization to help alarger number of impoverished youthlearn new skills and create beautiful art-work for the Berkeley community.

Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) is a non-profit job-training program that uses art tobetter the lives of low-income and home-less youth, ages 16-25. Youth are grantedstipends to help support themselves whilethey move through the program, creatingart and developing leadership and entre-preneurial skills.

“Our mission is to use art jobs and job

training as a vehicle for empowering andtransforming the lives of homeless andlow-income young people,” said YSAExecutive Director Sally Hindman.

Now that the young artists are “graduat-ing” into a larger and better workspace, it ishard to believe that just months ago the ideaof moving into a more spacious studio wasa dream that Hindman thought would haveto be put on hold for the foreseeable futurebecause of budget constraints.

It wasn’t until she found a site with areasonable rent, and then an artisticallybased web company stepped in andoffered to sublease a portion of the space,that this dream became a reality.

Maheesh Jain, the founding presidentof YSA, approached Hindman with theidea of his company, 3rd Revolution, aninnovative web company that showcasesthe work of artists, subleasing a portion ofthe space to offset their costs.

“The process has been truly grace-filled,” Hindman said. “Everything hasfallen into place super easily and simplyfor Youth Spirit. We are grateful to every-one involved.”

The new building is located at 1740Alcatraz Avenue, across the street fromYouth Spirit Artwork’s old studio, and hastwice as much space and a large parking

by Terry Messman

When Rodney Bell, 57, cameto St. Mary’s Center inOakland seeking shelterfrom the winter storms in

November 2011, social worker SusanWerner remembered him as “withdrawn,depressed, hunkered down, fearful, hurt-ing and deflated.”

He seemed forlorn and drifting, and heoften sat alone in a corner, without speakingto others or even making eye contact. “Isaw him enshrouded in a cloak that oftenpeople wear who have felt shunned for theirbasic human existence,” Werner said.

Many homeless people in our societyhave been so ground down by constantrejection and mistreatment that they canno longer believe that anyone will everagain understand or accept them. WhenRodney Bell finally came to St. Mary’sCenter, he was distrustful about receivingany help at all because he had been emo-tionally scarred by past experiences ofbeing dismissed and cast out.

“He had felt rejected when the priorshelter at which he stayed told him to leavefor not having sufficient money,” Wernersaid. “He remained dubious and guarded,and did not initiate contact with others andwould recoil when asked about himself.”

During his first five months at St.Mary’s, he remained aloof from nearly

everyone, with one exception. Werner isthe facilitator of St. Mary’s art programs,and she found that Bell would throw him-self into the art-making projects and, inthose moments, he would become enthusi-astic and talkative.

Flash forward to the present day, andthe transformation is immediately appar-ent. During a recent visit to St. Mary’sCenter for an interview with him, RodneyBell is smiling broadly and talking ani-matedly with other seniors while he hur-riedly puts the finishing touches on apainting entitled, “St. Mary’s Rocks.” Hisartworks are spread out all over the tableand several more are displayed promi-nently on the walls of the center.

In the past year, Bell has created strikingimages of his experiences while homeless— artistic expressions of what it feels liketo be exiled to walk the streets all day. Hisart has struck a common chord in many ofthe low-income and homeless members ofSt. Mary’s Center.

Just as his visual art graces the walls ofthe center, his music fills the air. Bellstudied music and art at Laney College,and he began playing the piano andsinging requests every Thursday at lunchat St. Mary’s. His music now brightensthe day for many homeless seniors whohave lived unimaginably difficult lives.

A young girl excitedly points out the colorful wild animals in the beautiful new mural created by Youth Spirit Artworks.

See Young Artists Create a Vision page 6

Young Artists Create a Vision of Beauty and Justice

Artist Rodney Bell Inspires Homeless Seniors

See Inspiring Art of Rodney Bell page 4 Rodney Bell plays the piano for the community at St. Mary’s. Susan Werner photo

October 2013ST R E E T SP I R I T2

by Carol Denney

John Caner, the director of theDowntown Berkeley Association(DBA) and Measure S campaignmanager, acknowledged in a letter

dated Sept. 19, 2013, to Berkeley’s FairCampaign Practices Commission thatshortly before last year’s election, hehanded out more than $5,530 in $100 and$50 cash payments to more than 50 “pollworkers,” many of them homeless andformerly homeless clients of OptionsRecovery Services, to distribute mislead-ing slate fliers near polling places.

Caner also acknowledged neglecting toreport some campaign expenditures asrequired under Berkeley election law,which says campaign expenditures bemade by check or credit card so that theycan be traced.

Patricia Wall, executive director of theHomeless Action Center in Berkeley,explained that the Fair Campaign PracticesCommission decided to conduct an investi-gation into the Yes On S campaign“because John Caner admitted to paying 52homeless people in cash on election day tocampaign against themselves.”

The Fair Campaign PracticesCommission unanimously voted to inves-tigate the Measure S campaign at theirmeeting at the North Berkeley SeniorCenter on Sept. 19, 2013.

According to witnesses, many of theworkers Caner hired had no idea that theywere assisting the Measure S Campaign,an anti-homeless ballot initiative to makesitting down a crime. Measure S wasdefeated at the polls.

The slate fliers distributed by thehomeless “poll workers” did not identifythe literature as coming from the MeasureS campaign.

“Hiring the homeless clients of a recov-ery program to campaign for their owncriminalization is the opposite of harmreduction,” said Wall in a statement criticiz-ing the Yes On S campaign for misusinghomeless poll workers. “Berkeley’s vulner-able populations deserve better.”

“They thought they were working forthe Obama campaign,” stated ZoningBoard Commissioner Igor Tregub at thecommission meeting, referring to the

workers who sat by a large “Obama” signhanding out the inaccurate fliers. “I wasquite disappointed,” Tregub said, pointingout that he was a member of the BerkeleyDemocratic Club. Evidence suggests theBerkeley Democratic Club contributed tothe Measure S campaign without comply-ing with reporting requirements.

The Berkeley Democratic Club regis-tered in 2010 as a “State General PurposeCommittee” which commission staffinterpreted as allowing it to file with thestate rather than with local cities, but theFair Campaign Practices Commissiondecided to investigate the issue.

Caner did not attend the packed com-mission meeting on September 19. RolandPeterson, the executive director of theTelegraph Avenue Business ImprovementDistrict, spoke for the Measure S cam-paign and dismissed the violations as“groundless.” Caner’s letter, distributed atthe Commission meeting, claimed the$5,530 in cash payments was donebecause he assumed the people he washiring would not have bank accounts.

Caner is described on the DBA’s web-site as having “over twenty years busi-ness, non-profit, and community develop-ment experience.” He serves on the boardof the Aurora Theatre and Berkeley

Alliance as well as the fundraising com-mittees for the South Branch Library andBerkeley City College. Such experiencewould seem to make it unusual that hisdistribution of $5,530 in cash payments asa campaign manager could be character-ized as accidental or due to inexperience.

“It’s outrageous,” stated JesseArreguin, Berkeley City Council repre-sentative for District Four, which includesthe downtown area. “You’re paying peo-ple to take their rights away. It’s unac-ceptable.”

Caner’s letter stated that any violationwas “inadvertent”, and that he promisedto work closely with the commission toremedy any violations.

Bob Offer-Westort, who filed the com-plaint along with Patricia Wall of theHomeless Action Center, stated, “What’score is the political culture that we want tohave as a community. It’s naïve to thinkthat elections won’t be contentious, won’tbe competitive. However, there is such athing as fair debate, in which opposing par-ties can listen to one another and treat eachother with honesty and respect.”

Merchant associations across thenation typically lobby for anti-poor laws.They tend to want storefronts and publicspaces to resemble what Paul Boden of

the Western Regional Advocacy Projectin San Francisco calls the “theme park”look: buckets of flowers, nobody lookingpoor or hungry so that shoppers are neverforced to prioritize their spending betweenpersonal indulgence and community need.

John Caner, as the CEO of theDowntown Berkeley Association, has onlyits board of directors to answer to regardingthe electoral violations he committed asMeasure S campaign manager, which werenot specifically part of his role at the DBAbut which cast a shadow on his judgmentand leadership capabilities.

Berkeley’s business community isforced, through the downtown BusinessImprovement District’s mandatory fees, topay his salary, but has little input into theDBA’s leadership, priorities, or organiza-tion, according to a former board member.

But the Fair Campaign PracticesCommission does have jurisdiction overthe complaint filed by Patricia Wall andBob Offer-Westort, and can levy finesagainst the Measure S campaign managerand others if their investigation supportsthe complaint.

“It’s just about fairness,” said one street-sitter who preferred to be anonymous whenI told him the news. “We’re trying to playfair out here. They ought to play fair, too.”

DBA’s John Caner Investigated for Campaign ViolationsMany of the homeless pollworkers Caner hired had noidea they were assisting theMeasure S Campaign, ananti-homeless measure tomake sitting down a crime.

A street-sitter named Roy enjoys the sun on Shattuck Avenue. Measure S tried to outlaw the act of sitting. Carol Denney photo

by Carol Denney

Berkeley’s last election featured acontest between anti-sitting-lawproponents and those opposed to

making the simple act of sitting down acrime. Measure S, the anti-sitting law,was defeated at the ballot in November2012. It was considered a civil rights vic-tory. But who really won?

It was the most expensive campaign inBerkeley history. The effort to outlaw sit-ting was funded by well-heeled real estateinterests and supported by merchant asso-ciations, most of the Berkeley CityCouncil, and the Chamber of Commerce.

Criminalizing the simple act of sittingdown was described by otherwise intelli-gent people as a humane response tohuman need. Since living on the streetswas so hard, better to make it illegal.

So, in the aftermath of our victory overthe forces that attempted to outlaw sitting,can you sit on the street and watch a cloudgo by? The results are still not in.

I worked on the campaign opposing theanti-sitting law. A large part of our workwas simply educational. Misleading anti-sitting law materials in expensive, shinycolors were everywhere. But once peoplefound out the extremity of the anti-sittinglaw, they generally opposed it.

Most people realized that the law wouldmost probably be used against some peoplebut not others. It’s hard to ignore theCheeseboard pizza eaters sitting undis-turbed by the “Don’t Sit on the Median”signs on Shattuck in North Berkeley.

Two days before the election, onSunday, Nov. 4, 2012, I put poetryopposed to the anti-sitting law from poetsall over the Bay Area up on the fence nearthe corner of Haste and Telegraph and satdown with some musicians to play.

We were trying to illustrate that simplysitting on a chair playing music — per-fectly legal behavior under the law —would become a crime in two days ifMeasure S were to pass.

I got a ticket.Artists were inside the fence perimeter

touching up the mural facing Haste Street.People trickled by, enjoying a sunny day.We sat close to the fence, so there wasseven feet of unobstructed nine-feet-widesidewalk in front of each of us, more thanenough space for two wheelchairs to passwithout issue. Our instrument cases werebeside or under us, out of the way.

A few people stopped and asked about

the “This Is Legal” sign and its signifi-cance, but our demonstration was prettyunobtrusive until Berkeley Police OfficerHeather Cole rode up on her bicycle. Sheaccused us of obstructing an empty side-walk, and since I had carefully researchedboth the ordinance and the best place onTelegraph to make sure to cause no hard-ship for merchants or passers-by, I foundit pretty funny.

This wasn’t civil disobedience. This wascarefully planned obedience to illustrate theabsurd overreach of the anti-sitting propos-al. I had checked the law, checked withattorneys, planned every aspect of thedemonstration so that no one and no one’sinstruments would be jeopardized.

Officer Cole continued to threaten us,arguing that we were in the way, despitethere being no complaining party. The

Is It Illegal to Sit on the Street and Watch the Clouds Go ByNews that someone was gettinga ticket for sitting on a chairplaying the fiddle traveled fastup and down Telegraph.

See Is Sitting Still Illegal page 7

October 2013 ST R E E T SP I R I T 3

Story and photos by Lydia Gans

The City of Albany’s deadline forthe threatened eviction of thehomeless people camped at theAlbany Bulb is drawing closer

with no sign of relief in sight. The plan isto transfer the Bulb to the East BayRegional Park District (EBRPD) whichdoes not permit overnight camping.

The eviction is scheduled to take effectin the middle of October. It would meanthat about 60 people who have been livingat the Bulb will be made homeless. Cityofficials remain determined to expel allthe homeless camp-dwellers, even thoughAlbany has no homeless shelters, and noreal plans to provide replacement housingfor the displaced homeless people.

The Albany Bulb is located at the westend of the Albany peninsula, a formerlandfill for concrete and constructiondebris. The EBRPD is already exercisingits control over the area leading up to theAlbany Bulb. For the first time, there is alarge East Bay Regional Park District signat the beginning of the parking lot.

Heavy equipment has demolished thelush vegetation on the Neck and thePlateau. A notice posted there explainsthat the EBRPD will be working therethrough October to clear the area and“establish coastal grassland.”

The City of Albany has failed orrefused to create a single shelter bed orunit of affordable housing for homelesspeople in the past 20 years of dealing witha large homeless encampment at theAlbany Bulb. City officials now haveturned the problem over to Berkeley Foodand Housing Project (BFHP), allotting$30,000 for a “Homeless Outreach andEngagement Program within the City.”(While the focus of this plan is on thecampers on the Bulb, homeless peoplethroughout the city are included.)

The agreement calls for the BFHP toconnect with the individual campers,assess their immediate and long-termneeds, and inform them of the variousresources available in the community.

As for housing, the program calls forhelping people “develop plans” for findingpermanent or temporary housing. Nothingis said about actually placing people inhousing or finding any kind of shelter forhomeless people when they are evicted.

Although BFHP has experience infinding affordable housing, there is clearlyno way they could be expected to findhousing for more than 60 displaced peo-ple in the immediate future. Many of the

people living at the Albany Bulb havebeen homeless for several years, some aredisabled, some have pets, and about halfhave no income.

BFHP workers go out to the AlbanyBulb on Tuesdays and Thursdays to talkwith the campers, connect them with ser-vices and take them to meet what mightbe a potential housing opportunity. BySeptember, no one had been housed.

At its meeting on September 3, theAlbany City Council voted to renew thecontract with BFHP for another $30,000.Now, with little time left, BFHP is in a“final push” to urge campers to work outoptions such as reuniting with their fami-ly, or moving into some sort of transition-al housing. The City of Albany, however,has utterly nothing to offer the homelesspeople it intends to evict.

Pressure on the campers is increasing.There is a move to enforce a nighttime cur-few from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., apparentlybased on an ordinance covering all parkproperty. This unfairly affects the camperssince the only access to the Bulb is throughthe area already under EBRPD control.

Camper Amber Whitson reports thatshe was stopped coming home from theTarget store after 10 p.m. one evening andwarned that curfew violators could betaken to jail. It’s not clear if others arebeing stopped or if the Park police aretemporarily backing off.

Along with publicity about the incor-poration of the Albany Bulb into theregional park system, news of the threat-ened eviction of the campers has beenspreading. People who walk the trails, orwho take their dogs for an outing, love theBulb the way it is, and they are objecting.

For the campers, the Albany Bulb istheir home, their community, their village.It is where they keep all the necessities ofdaily living, as well as their personal trea-sures — more than can fit in a shoppingcart if they were to become homeless. Formany of them, the Albany Bulb is a placewhere they can live close to nature andhave the sense of freedom that is mostimportant to them.

Louis and Sharon built themselves awonderful shelter under a tree, with thebedroom on an upper level enveloped bythe tree’s branches while giving them aglorious view of the Bay. To have to givethis up and end up homeless or move intoa cramped shelter or slum hotel would bedevastating.

Jimbow has been living at the AlbanyBulb off and on since the 1990s. Hishome is also a free lending library — one

of the popular attractions on the Bulb.Jimbow was housed at one time, but aftera year he moved back out to the Bulb. Hecouldn’t live like that, he said, when all hesaw when he looked out the window werethe walls of adjoining houses.

Amber Whitson had chronic healthproblems before she moved to the Bulbseven years ago. She says, “My health hasgotten better since I lived here and that isamazing to me.”

Five-year camper Tom has someincome but says it is “not nearly enoughto pay rent and leave anything else to liveon.” He devotes time each day to clearingaway metal and the big pieces of concreteleft around where people walk.

Other campers plant seeds and growplants. They haul out their garbage andcarry in their water — all with no helpfrom the city.

The threatened eviction and thecampers’ plight has been getting consider-able attention in the local media and isgenerating public sympathy. WhenAlbany officials extended the contractwith BFHP, campers and supporters helda protest march to the City Council meet-ing on Spetember 3. The press began toseriously pay attention.

Concerned people from the communitybegan to get together and organize sup-portive actions. A group from SolanoCommunity Church and friends went upand down Solano Avenue making chalkdrawings on the sidewalks promoting thecampers’ message: “Share the Bulb.” Thatmessage is the title of the supporters’website sharethebulb.org.

There have been community discus-sions and showings of Andy Kraemer’sfilm, “Where Do You Go When It Rains.”An Oakland community center held a filmscreening and a discussion of the issues,and a sociology class at U.C. Berkeleywill hold a panel discussion on the topic.

On Saturday, September 28, a commu-nity Gathering to Defend the Albany Bulbat the main entry to the park was orga-nized. There was a potluck supper amplysupplied by Food Not Bombs, OccupyOakland and other groups, followed by alively discussion session. On Tuesday,

October 2, a Solidarity Campout at theBulb is planned.

Still, Albany officials are not relentingin their determination to cast the campersout, even though it would be a practicaldisaster as well as a moral outrage.

Only one person has found housing. Forthe others, this mass expulsion will mean asuccession of temporary shelters or life onthe streets. Even for those with someincome, anything affordable is likely to besmall and dark and not necessarily safe.

All this doesn’t have to happen. Thereare alternatives. It is good to rememberArticle 25 of the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights: “Everyone has the right toa standard of living adequate for theirhealth and well being ... including food,clothing, housing and medical care andnecessary social services...”

Albany Plans a Mass Eviction of Homeless CampersAlbany’s decision to cast the campers out would be a practical disaster and a moral outrage

The City of Albany has failed or refused to createa single shelter bed or develop a single unit ofaffordable housing in the past 20 years of dealingwith a large homeless encampment at the Bulb.

For the campers, the Albany Bulb is their home, their community, their village. Itis where they keep all the necessities of daily living, as well as their personal trea-sures — more than can fit in a shopping cart if they were to become homeless.

Amber Whitson stands between a large painting and a towering sculpture at theAlbany Bulb. She had chronic health problems before she moved to the Bulb. Shesays, “My health has gotten better since I lived here and that is amazing to me.”

Street SpiritStreet Spirit is published by AmericanFriends Service Committee. The ven-dor program is run by J.C. Orton.

Editor, Layout: Terry MessmanWeb designer: Ariel Messman-Rucker

Contributors: Claire J. Baker, RodneyBell, Carol Denney, Lydia Gans, SallyHindman, Ariel Messman-Rucker, S.F.Print Collective, Susan Werner, GeorgeWynn, Youth Spirit Artworks

All works copyrighted by the authors.

The views expressed in Street Spirit arti-cles are those of the individual authors,not necessarily those of the AFSC.

Street Spirit welcomes submissions ofarticles, poems, photos and art.Contact: Terry MessmanStreet Spirit, 65 Ninth Street,San Francisco, CA 94103E-mail: spirit@afsc.orgWeb: http://www.thestreetspirit.org

If you have questions about theStreet Spirit vendor program, pleasecall J.C. Orton, the coordinator, onhis cell phone at (510) 684-1892 or e-mail him at noscw@sbcglobal.net.

October 2013ST R E E T SP I R I T4

Werner said, “He delights in playing songs otherseniors request to hear. He sings along, voicing an innerjoy, and the fluid piano melodies he plays offer the balmof peacefulness.”

Asked what musicians he loves most, Bell immediatelycited Nat King Cole, the renowned jazz pianist and singerwith the smooth, immediately recognizable baritone whosang such popular classics as “Stardust,” “Unforgettable,”“A Blossom Fell,” “Mona Lisa” and “Nature Boy.”

Cole was the first African American to host a televisionprogram, “The Nat King Cole Show,” on NBC in 1956. Hepaid a price for breaking racial boundaries and had to fightracism throughout his life. In 1948, the Ku Klux Klanburned a cross on the front lawn of his new home in LosAngeles. During a 1956 concert in Birmingham, Alabama,Cole was assaulted on stage by three members of the NorthAlabama Citizens Council. He later helped plan the Marchon Washington in 1963.

Bell is deeply drawn to Cole’s music, but he is alsoinspired by his personal example of creating beauty forthe world even in the face of his own hardships.

“I love Nat King Cole because in spite of adversity inhis time, he was still able to pass on to us such a richnessin music and entertainment,” he said. “I just loved himbecause his spirit survived and shone through all theadversity of the times he went though and he still wasable to give us such rich music.”

Those words are revealing, because if they’re read asa description of Rodney Bell himself, they shine a lighton how his spirit has overcome adversity in order to cre-ate beautiful art and music for others.

Asked if he has tried to emulate Cole’s example, Bellsaid, “Rising above adversity is so important — still doinggood things and giving 100 percent, still loving in spite ofhate. Love is nurturing, and when you’re blessed with cre-ative gifts, you need to have love for what you do, love forthe people you perform for and love for yourself.”

Bell loves Cole’s music to such an extent that hestrives to “channel” his voice. Cole had a simultaneouslysmooth and grainy voice, and when I asked Bell howanyone could impersonate such a distinctive and unusualvocal sound, he sang, rather than spoke, his explanation.

Without a moment of rehearsal, Bell sat down at thepiano and — by memory, and with no sheet music — sangone song after another out of the Nat King Cole songbook,resurrecting the beautiful music of a man who died in 1965when Bell was still a boy. He recaptured the spirit of thesesongs in a voice that was uncannily similar to Cole’s vocalphrasing: “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Too Young,” and “Route 66.”

NATURE BOY

When I told him my favorite Cole song was “NatureBoy,” and began explaining that the song was written bya “premature hippie” who somehow wrote an anthem forthe Summer of Love way back in 1947, Bell noddedknowingly and said, “Yes, Eden Ahbez. He even hadsandals and a robe and a message from above.”

Ahbez was a long-haired songwriter who wrote about“a very wise and gentle boy” who wandered “very far,very far, over land and sea.” “Nature Boy” revealed thesecret at the very heart of human existence.

In his Cole-influenced vocal style, Bell brought thesong beautifully to life with a mesmerizing performanceof the subtle, memorable melody. The song concludes byexpressing life’s ultimate lesson:

“While we talked of many thingsFools and kings,This he said to me:The greatest thing you’ll ever learnIs just to love, and be loved in return.”Bell captured Nat King Cole’s vocal inflections and

phrasing so well, I broke out in spontaneous applause. Thenhe kept playing “Ramblin’ Rose,” “The Very Thought ofYou,” and other selections from his hero’s songbook.

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE SPIRIT

Susan Werner described how Rodney Bell’s thought-ful artworks and peace-filled music somehow were bornout of his soul-scarring experiences on the street.

“In spite of enduring life’s hardships, heartbreaks andfeeling utterly hopeless at times about the injustices,Rodney is not defined by his circumstances,” Wernersaid. “He shows in his art tremendous passion that letsthe indestructible spirit through. It’s the place that he cre-ates from — the indestructible spirit.”

In the same way, the brilliant artistry of the greatestblues musicians grew out of the worst oppression, racialdiscrimination and poverty. Blues master John Lee Hookeronce said that the greatest music grew out of Mississippi

“because it’s the worst state.” Homelessness may now bethe worst “state” in the land. Just as blues musicians founda way to rise above the hardships of the Mississippi Delta,people that end up in a shelter in Oakland after sufferingthe most traumatic blows sometimes overcome all the oddsand create art of great beauty.

There is a mystery at the heart of homelessness andpoverty that defies our expectations, and seems to fly in theface of all logic. Suddenly, inexplicably, beauty arises outof the ugliest circumstances, and kindness and humanityare found in abundance in the very people forced to endurethe worst kinds of persecution and hostility.

It is a mistake to ever romanticize the horrible socialcalamity of homelessness, of course. Too often, the meanstreets take their toll and brutalize their victims, forcinghuman beings to live in a subhuman environment wherethey must sometimes do whatever it takes to survive in aworld bereft of help and hope.

Yet, the mystery of beauty persists in emerging fromthese same dead-end streets that should destroy peopleand shut down their dreams permanently. At unpre-dictable moments, in the most unlikely places, wings areunfurled. In the very midst of overcrowded shelters andsavage streets and jail cells and slum hotels — wings.Someone finds their wings and rises above it all.

AMAZING GRAPES

I mentioned to Bell that just as his art had grown outof homeless shelters, one of the most important and last-ing art forms in the world — the blues — had arisen outof the same conditions of injustice and oppression. Hereplied (or so I thought): “It’s like grace.”

“Yes, it’s like grace!” I said, excited to hear that thisartist who had overcome homelessness to create beautyfor others, would confirm my own spiritual outlook aboutthe mysterious workings of grace.

But I had misheard him, at perhaps the most important

moment of the interview. My lousy hearing strikes again.“Not grace,” he corrected. “I said it’s like grapes.” Somewhat deflated, I involuntarily thought how the

classic spiritual would sound with this revision:“Amazing grapes, how sweet the sound.”

But, even though I’d been misled by my faulty hear-ing, Bell went on to describe the same dynamic that thesong “Amazing Grace” reveals.

“It’s like grapes,” he repeated. “You have to squeezegrapes, trample them down, to get the wine. It’s being inoppression or hard situations that sort of wrung art out ofme. It’s just this condition of homelessness that gets meto produce art, which is what I’m doing.”

MUSIC IS LIKE MEDICINE

It can be a very weighty responsibility to try to liftspirits by playing music for seniors at St. Mary’s,because many have been left destitute and stranded onthe streets for years on end, and have suffered hunger,loneliness, abandonment, illness and anguish.

Earlier on the day of our interview, Susan Wernerobserved Rodney Bell play a Sam Cooke song for JerryCurry, a senior at the center. “Usually, this person hasvery downcast eyes,” Werner said. But when Bell playedhis song request, she said, “all of a sudden he wassinging and he just said, ‘I just feel so full and so real andit feels good.’ Rodney offers sunshine and love to St.Mary’s community and lights up the room and everyoneassembled whenever he plays music.”

The Inspiring Art andMusic of Rodney Bellfrom page 1

See Inspiring Art and Music of Rodney Bell page 5

“St. Mary’s Rocks” Art by Rodney Bell

“Waiting” Art by Rodney Bell

“Father If It Be Thy Will” Art by Rodney Bell

October 2013 ST R E E T SP I R I T 5

In Werner’s view, born of years of experience in work-ing with homeless seniors, Bell’s ability to uplift peopleand “bring joy to our hearts” through his music comes froma paradoxical source — his experience of life’s worstmoments. “I actually don’t think you can serve people theway that he does unless you’ve experienced the heart-break, the unutterable helplessness,” she said.

“When you know it in your soul, when you know howincredibly painful and demeaning life has been, I feel likeyou can bring the spirit that uplifts people through themusic because you know how down people are.”

Music is like medicine, Bell believes. “It’s meaningfulfor me to play the piano here,” he said, “because it’s like amedicine. Physician heal thyself. I’ve always used music asa therapy to calm me down, comfort me, soothe me andI’ve found it works for others. It’s very therapeutic.”

Beyond the beauty of the melodies, the lyrics of thesongs he sings give voice to the community’s shared val-ues. “The seniors here love the old way of living whenpeople were more respectful of each other,” he explained.

“And the music speaks to and nurtures those themes —respect yourself and others, keep your head up and smile,even in hard times. So I would gravitate to the message inthe lyrical content, and when I play these songs at St.Mary’s, the seniors here can really relate to them.”

THE ART OF EXILE

Over the past year, Bell has created several artworksthat depict the struggles of homeless people to survive, tolast through just one more night, to endure one more win-ter on the streets. The art of exile.

When Bell was homeless last year, he began living atSt. Mary’s winter shelter, and through working with artfacilitator Susan Werner, another door was opened — thedoor to his own artistic potential.

“Under Susan Werner’s tutelage, as therapy, insteadof stressing about my homeless condition, I decided todraw and express what I was feeling about how homelesspersons are rejected in the community,” Bell said.

“Everyone is one paycheck or one single footstep awayfrom being homeless. No one is exempt. I never envisionedthat I would ever end up homeless. I wasn’t prepared for it,and then one day I looked up, and I was homeless.”

When he looked with the perspective of an artist at hisown experience in living on the streets, he realized howimportant it was to use his art to make the public awareof the terrible hardships faced by people without homes.

“I decided to create art about what I’m experiencing inmy condition of being homeless,” he said. “Instead ofdrawing affluent people eating a fine meal, I’d draw some-one eating out of a garbage can in the park. Instead ofdrawing someone in a nice car, I’d draw someone with ashopping cart. My focus changed because I saw anotherworld here. It’s what happened to those who used to have,but now they don’t have. You go from have to have-not.”

“SHOPPING CART: HOMELESS MAN’S WHEELS”Asked why he chose a shopping cart as the very first

image of homelessness he created, Bell replied: “Thething that struck me about that image is the fact that thesecarts were created for you to carry food and things whenyou go shopping, and have now become a symbol ofhomeless people who don’t have any of these things. Ithink that’s powerful.”

Ironically, the very emblem of consumerism has nowbecome a stark image of poverty. Yet homeless peopleare not deemed worthy to even have a shopping cart tocarry their meager belongings.

“They have no places to stay, no places to sleep, noplace to relieve themselves, no place to sit and get out ofthe elements and the weather,” he said. “I began to expe-rience all of that for myself just last year. After goingthrough all that, I thought, ‘Now I know what homelesspeople feel like. I’m going to start drawing what I see.’So I saw a man pushing a shopping cart. I drew the cart,and that led to all my other pictures.”

“HOMELESSNESS HAS FACES” Bell’s next artwork, “Homelessness Has Faces,” was

so well-received that St. Mary’s Center used his imageon the cover of their 2011-12 annual report. His paintingis an attempt to humanize an entire invisible nation ofdestitute people who are cast out of society and ignoredas nameless and faceless.

This artwork grew out of his dehumanizing experi-ences prior to coming to Oakland, when he lived in aSalvation Army night shelter in Tennessee.

“In Tennessee, they were more concerned about yourincome than about you as a person,” Bell said. “If youdidn’t have enough money, you were not referred to cer-

tain agencies, and if you didn’t have $50 a week, thenafter a week or two or three, they got rid of you —whether it was summer or winter. But I said, even if aperson doesn’t have the money, they have a face.”

St. Mary’s Center believed in his artistic statementthat homeless people are not anonymous, but have faces,worth and human dignity, Bell said.

“ People here began to realize that service agencieswere becoming more concerned about dollars instead ofpersons. So when St. Mary’s opened their shelter theysought to change all that — to be more concerned aboutthe person, the well-being of the person. That’s whatgrabbed me about St. Mary’s.”

“MENTALLY ILL IS HOMELESSNESS”His next major image was entitled “Mentally Ill Is

Homelessness: Believe It.” He created this piece toexpose society’s shameful mistreatment of homeless peo-ple with mental health issues. In his caption, he wrote:“In most metropolitan cities, veterans and mentallystressed persons are not able to afford housing or toobtain a home due to mental challenges.”

Werner saw this work as a breakthrough for the artist.“What I remember is the breakthrough for Rodney aboutmaking visible the anguish of being homeless and what it’slike to feel like an outsider to society and life itself,” shesaid. “And the way he broke through and shared it in thegroup, accepting himself that he’d had this experience, Ifelt this incredible joy for Rodney as a human being, know-ing how art allowed him to show this experience for thefirst time that could free him.”

“WAITING”Bell drew a timeless image of the endless waiting that

consumes the lives of many homeless people — waitingin line for hours for the next meal, waiting for housing inan endless line, waiting for medical care, waiting for ajob interview, waiting for justice and deliverance.

“I was at the Greyhound bus station in Oakland,” Bellsaid, “and those particular tables are across the street fromthe bus station in a little park. The man took a nap at thepark, so I took the liberty of sketching him while he wasthere in between his appointments as he was waiting.”

Werner said, “I like ‘Waiting’ because I feel it reallyshows the feelings Rodney held about his situation ofbeing left in limbo, just suspended. I could really feel howthe body feels crumpled by life, until it’s hard to hold one-self up. It’s Rodney’s direct understanding of the condi-tions that people face when they’re at work and they feelso tired and exhausted. So many people who are homelessare incessantly thinking, ‘I have to do this, I have to dothat.’ They keep running and racing after this thing and thefutility and the hopelessness of just waiting is exhausting.”

“FATHER IF IT BE THY WILL”At the same park where he drew “Waiting,” Bell cre-

ated a self-portrait of his conversion — a turning pointwhen he was thinking about all his homeless episodes.

“I was wondering what to do next, and it felt like aconversion experience,” he said. His art depicts a home-less man waiting in the park, his shopping cart nearby,when he is bathed and transformed in spiritual light.

“It’s such a depressing time in the world we live intoday,” he explained. “With the problems that are out there,you’re going to have to tap something within, some cre-ative juices, to where you won’t be a slave to what’s creat-ed by the media, but be a creator yourself, literally in yourheavenly Father’s image. Those who believe in a Creator,we are his creations. We are made in His image and like-ness, so we have the ability to produce and create as well.”

Bell’s moving caption to this image is the prayer of ahomeless everyman:

In a predicament praying for a change . . .Knowing there’s gotta be a brighter day.Asking, when is it gonna be the light brighter than me? And suddenly, this brilliant light,exactly timed. Bam!

“ST. MARY’S ROCKS”Being at St. Mary’s has given him more than shelter and

food. It has meant being part of a community and gettingmore deeply involved in his art and music.

“St. Mary’s has been very good for me,” he said. “So Iwanted to show my gratitude for them having the veter-an’s program, helping me get housing, and talking to melike a human being. So for all those things, they rock!”

People are entering a gate called “the wellness gate” thatleads into St. Mary’s Center. Bell said, “I wanted to sym-bolically show that St. Mary’s is the place, and I depicted itas a mountain where all roads lead to St. Mary’s.”

“THE CONFERENCE CENTER”This stark drawing of stumps where homeless people

have a streetside “conference center” was done at themini-park in Oakland on 34th Street between Telegraphand Martin Luther King. Werner had suggested to Bellthat he use his art to make statements about where peoplesleep, eat and sit on the streets.

“I decided I would make that a picture of the confer-ence center, the meeting place in the park, where the onlyplace you have to sit on is stumps,” he said.

“RHYTHM, HARMONY AND MELODY”This is a self-portrait of Bell’s musical spirit. He wrote:

“The music of the ancestors speaks to me to restore musicto its purity. The color blue represents Rhythm, the colorpurple represents Harmony, and the color red representsMelody: the three-fold structure of music.”

Werner said that this image shows that, “Rodneyabsolutely knows his purpose to bring forth his gift, his tal-ent. No matter how he has been feeling rejected or unrecog-nized, he knows who he is through the music and he knowswhat his gifts are. His purpose is to just hone his talents as ahuman being for the good for all. So when God looks at hislife circumstance, it just shows us that blazing spirit ofbeing just who he is, alive and well and special.”

The Inspiring Art andMusic of Rodney Bellfrom page 4

“Homelessness Has Faces” Art by Rodney Bell

“Rhythm, Harmony and Melody” Art by Rodney Bell

“The Conference Center” Art by Rodney Bell

“Mentally Ill Is Homelessness” Art by Rodney Bell

October 2013ST R E E T SP I R I T6

lot. Acquiring a bigger studio not onlyallows YSA to expand the type of artworkthey can create, but also means they nowhave the space necessary to take moreunderprivileged youth into their program.

“We will have a ton more space foryouth to use when they make art and wewill be able to diversify the artistic medi-ums we can pursue, like adding silkscreening,” Hindman said.

YSA was recently awarded a $50,000grant by the Berkeley City Council toenable them to increase the number ofyouth who can be a part of their programeach year. Now that they have a biggerspace to accommodate more students,everything is falling into place for anorganization that has been helping under-privileged and street youth in the BayArea since 2007.

In order to receive the grant from thecity, Youth Spirit Artworks joined forceswith Berkeley’s 2020 Vision program,which is a community-wide effort to putan end to academic achievement dispari-ties between different races, ethnicitiesand income levels in Berkeley.

As part of 2020 Vision, YSA will usethe increase in funds to take more home-less and low-income youth into their pro-gram, specifically from Berkeley HighSchool and Berkeley Technical Academy,and increase their involvement with theMcKinney-Vento support staff withinthose schools. The McKinney-VentoHomeless Assistance Act was one of thefirst federal programs to provide moneyfor programs supporting homeless peopleon a nationwide level.

“It worked out great,” Hindman said. “Itfulfilled the goal that [Berkeley Mayor TomBates] had to work on closing the achieve-ment gap and then, for us, it allowed us tobuild staffing into our budget that we reallyneed for being successful.”

YSA is planning to hire a half-timeprogram coordinator/youth advocate tohelp better serve the high school studentscoming into YSA from the 2020 Visionprogram, but the position is one Hindmanhas wanted to hire for a long time becauseit will add an extra layer of support for theyouth in her program.

Not much else within Youth SpiritArtworks will need to change to accom-modate the new students because the pro-gram is already equipped to handle theneeds of young people who are dealingwith poverty and may be struggling inschool, she said.

Once a young person starts at YSA,they go through an orientation and train-ing program, then senior artist VictorMavedzenge teaches ongoing art classesthat they participate in. Each YSA artistbegins as an aspirant and, as they reachtheir goals, they graduate to the next rungon the progression ladder until theybecome a junior artist, a position thatcomes with much more responsibility.

Each junior artist becomes a mentor toan aspirant, something the young peopleat YSA take very seriously. Not only dothe mentors help their aspirant set andreach their goals within the program, butthey become a friend and source of sup-port within the YSA community.

“I like the fact that I have people whocan trust me with their information andfeel that I am trustworthy enough for themto let me into their lives, help them withtheir issues and help them prosper and goforward with their life — I like that,” saidToryanna Finley, a junior artist who hasmentored multiple aspirants during hertime at YSA.

Esperanza Bey, a 17-year-old aspirantwho joined YSA earlier this year, has

benefited greatly from the one-on-oneguidance and support she has gotten fromher peer mentor.

“It was really good,” Bey said, “espe-cially in the beginning when I first movedout here, they were asking me all thesequestion to see where I am. They get real-ly involved, help you open up and it’sreally confidential. It’s like having anextra person watch over you. It especiallyhelps with people who don’t have like anolder brother or older sister to talk to.”

The young artists not only learn practi-cal vocational skills through the use of thecommercial arts and money managementtraining while they’re at YSA, but theyare also given the opportunity to grow asindividuals and become part of a lovingand supportive community that modelshealthy behaviors and choices.

“YSA is a safe space where youth canpractice being in a healthy environmentwhen they haven’t been in that kind ofenvironment previously and practice recon-ciling when there are conflicts and usingnonviolent communication and being in aloving community, like a healthy familywould be,” Hindman said.

The youth in YSA take great pride inthe work that they create, such as uniquepaintings on tote bags, T-shirts, candlesand mugs which are then sold to the pub-lic. Fifty percent of the profits go backinto the program and the rest goes directlyto the young artists.

“At all of those different points on theprogression ladder, they make moremoney and they have more responsibilitylevels,” Hindman said. “By the time youbecome junior artists, you’re making what

would be the equivalent of minimumwage as a stipend, and all along the pro-gression ladder, everybody gets to keep aportion of the proceeds of everything thatthey sell.”

Creating artwork is a great way foryoung people to express themselves andwork out the emotional and social issuesthey are battling, she said. Each student hasa unique perspective often not seen or rec-ognized by society. Selling beautiful worksof art is a great way to bridge that gap andopen the eyes of people who may disregardor avoid homeless youth otherwise.

“It’s such a vehicle for healing that it’sjust perfect that they be involved in mak-ing art,” Hindman said. “Also, it really isa way of making their voices heard so thatthey can say the things that they want tosay as youth. That’s really central to whatwe’re doing. The world needs to knowwhat they are experiencing and what theyare feeling and what it’s like being them.So they are communicating a messageabout who youth are and what youth aregoing through.”

The youth sell their artwork from thestorefront at their studio on AlcatrazAvenue, at farmers markets, in front ofthe Berkeley Bowl, and at other placesaround town, often using the bicycle-dri-ven “art cart” they unveiled this past sum-mer. They also sell art at communityevents and at monthly poetry slams whereyoung artists perform their poetry live.

“I’m in charge of sales,” junior artistOmar Bagent said. “So I make sure I goout to sales every day and I make surethat everybody sells. I manage the salesteam and make sure we go out to the

Berkeley Bowl or the farmer’s marketfour days a week, Monday throughThursday.”

Bagent, 18, who wasn’t very interestedin art when a friend referred him to YSAclose to a year ago, has discovered he ispassionate about graphic design and nowplans to pursue it as a career. As a doublejunior artist, Bagent works at YSA for threehours, six times a week, and the money hehas earned has allowed him to save for hisfuture and purchase a laptop computer thathe is using to learn graphic design.

“If you would never have come toYouth Spirit Artworks, you would haveprobably not found out that that’s whatyou’re good at and that’s what you like,”Bagent said. “We’re basically a steppingstone for the future.”

The organization also works on biggerart projects around the Bay Area thatteach the youth new skills and push themto reach out to their community. OnSeptember 28, YSA unveiled their newestmural, titled “Agua Es Vida” which waspainted on a building at the corner ofSacramento and Alcatraz near their studio.And they have plans to paint two muralson the outside of their new building.

The “Agua Es Vida” mural is an extra-ordinarily beautiful artwork that showsthe ecological connections of life on plan-et Earth. A mermaid embraces a dolphinunder the watchful eyes of elephants andbears. Hummingbirds, zebras, giraffes andblack panthers all display the wondrouslife-force of wild nature, and the brilliantcolors help beautify the drab gray street.

The young artists are also starting to

Adonis Pollard, an artist with Youth Spirit Artworks, works on a painting at the YSA art studio. Photo by YSA

Members of Youth Spirit Artworks show off the bicycle-driven “art cart” they use to display their artworks. Photo by YSA

Young Artists Createa Vision of Beautyfrom page 1

See Young Artists Create a Vision page 7

October 2013 ST R E E T SP I R I T 7

muralists were amazed. News that some-one was getting a ticket for sitting on achair playing the fiddle traveled fast upand down Telegraph. A reporter snappedpictures for the local paper. A ChannelTwo news crew began filming.

Officer Cole kept insisting that otherpeople had no right to be on the sidewalk,either. She moved a nearby plein airpainter to the curbside and hassled a guyabout 20 feet away collecting signatures.

I had heard about this police harass-ment from friends on the street and peoplewho worked at the Homeless ActionCenter and the East Bay Community LawCenter, but it never occurred to me that anobviously political demonstration wouldbe targeted, especially with Channel TwoNews cameras running.

We kept playing. Officer Heather Colekept shouting, “I’ll take you to jail if youdon’t stop playing,” while we played“Soldier’s Joy,” a moment which madethe news that night.

But it was turning into a strange scene.People were shouting at the cops. Twoattorneys showed up who tried to explainto Officer Cole that she was misapplyingthe law. Cole’s supervisor showed up andargued with them. I finally said, fine, giveme a ticket, hoping to get back to playing.

But our effort to illustrate legal behav-ior was in ruins. I still don’t know whatOfficer Cole’s problem was that day.Alameda County District Attorney NancyO’Malley dropped the case against meafter a couple of court dates.

I filed a complaint with the PoliceReview Commission which was not sus-tained. So the question remains: Can yousit on the sidewalk? The law is prettyclear about it, but no one else seems to be.

A couple of the police review commis-sioners asked questions which impliedthat someone could be accused ofobstructing the space one occupies withone’s body, a patent absurdity which, iftrue, would put us all in jail.

You can’t accidentally block a sidewalkunder Berkeley law, as written and clarifiedby former Police Chief Meisner’s memos.The law makes it clear that people can’t beaccused of blocking a sidewalk for justbeing there, or for having a backpack orother personal items beside them.

But the police either don’t realize thator realize it and don’t care what the lawactually says or what it was intended todo. The Police Review Commission, thePolice Department, and the City Councilall look the other way as people continueto get these absurd tickets which, at somepoint, if not addressed, turn into jail timeand court costs for which the public picksup the bill.

My ticket cost me at least three days ofwork, about ten cumulative hours of policeofficers’ time, both in and out of court,court time for several pre-trial dates, andbaffled a boatload of reporters, students,and Channel Two News watchers who areprobably as confused as I am about whyBerkeley would conduct the most expen-sive campaign in its history against sittingdown if it is already against the law.

Is sitting down against the law? Maybe

it depends on who you are. TheCheeseboard pizza-eaters obviously get apass. Maybe it depends on whether or notyou are demonstrating against somethinglike Measure S, a kind of content-basedprovision. Or maybe Officer Heather Colehates traditional old-time music, a kind of

fiddle-based objection.It’s an Alice in Wonderland world up

there on Telegraph Avenue. The hookah-smoking caterpillar can’t figure it out, andneither can I. The muralists painted meinto the mural after that day, for which, Isuppose, I should thank Officer Cole.

from page 2

Is Sitting Still Illegal in Berkeley?

Spirit of Telegraph Avenue mural at Telegraph and Haste now depicts Carol Denney.

lead tile-making workshops in and aroundBerkeley so that the public can getinvolved in creating their next piece oflarge-scale community artwork.

These ceramic tiles will be used to cre-ate two large, arched, mosaic-tile signswhich will be installed at two differentintersections near Malcolm X ElementarySchool to help make the crosswalks safer,a project they decided to take on after anYSA youth’s sister was injured when shewas hit by a car while leaving school.

Taking part in creating bigger, commu-nity-driven art projects teaches the youthto take pride in making their neighbor-hoods better places to live. In addition,YSA does a lot of local social justicework which shows the youth that theyhave the power to make changes by get-ting involved and becoming leaders.

“[Youth Spirit Artworks] is a reallygreat community and it’s also reallyinvolved in doing social justice work,”Hindman said. “So youth have a leader-ship role in all kinds of organizing activi-ties that they get involved with — that

they decide to get involved with — andthen decide how to participate in.”

Last year, Youth Spirit Artworks washeavily involved in fighting againstMeasure S, the anti-homeless ordinancewhich was defeated by Berkeley voters,thanks to the work of groups like YSA.

In 2012, the youth created a tile muralas a way to educate the public about thesevere health disparity between low-income and wealthy residents in Berkeley.And now the young artists have decidedthat they want to join the WesternRegional Advocacy Project, an alliance ofWest Coast homeless organizing groupsthat work together to fight against thecivil rights abuses of people experiencinghomelessness and poverty.

The young people at YSA are uniquelyequipped to work on these issues becausethey themselves have dealt with varyingdegrees of poverty and homelessness.

Hindman says most of the youth in herprogram are struggling with finding hous-ing and many of them survive by couchsurfing, constantly moving from one placeto the next. “Housing is just this huge,horrible, horrible crisis and so our youth

are generally really in a horrible crisis ofhousing,” she said. “It’s just awful andhas a really big impact.”

For many, their housing situation isvery tenuous and every winter Hindmanfinds herself having to drive her youngartists to YEAH, a seasonal homelessshelter for youth in the Bay Area.

You can hear the frustration and des-peration in Hindman’s voice as sheexplains the problems facing youth inneed of a place to live. “They are just inreally, really dire straits and we have areally hard time figuring out how to helpthem with that because there is nothing tosay, there is nothing we can do,” she said.

“It just makes me completely crazy.”But she is ever optimistic that her pro-

gram and others like it are helping theseyoung people who society has ignored getsupport and a healthy footing in life.

“A huge percentage of the populationin the East Bay, especially youth, arestruggling with unemployment and pover-ty and homelessness and so this is anopportunity for really building up yourexperience, building up your work experi-ence, learning how to work, really gettingyour act together with your resume and allof that to really go to the next level interms of what you want to do,” she said.

Young artists take workshops in tile-making at the Youth Spirit Artworks studio in preparation for large community art projects. Photos by Ariel Messman-Rucker

Young artists created these colorful candles and sell them to the public.

from page 6

Young Artists Create A Vision of Beauty

October 2013ST R E E T SP I R I T8

Short Story by George Wynn

Last night, a well-dressed lady withglasses cleaned out his studioapartment down the hall. I had only

known Miles for two months. Too badabout him overdosing on Oxycontin. Heseemed like a decent guy.

We were friends. We were both fair-skinned and of medium height, except thathe was solid muscle and a year youngerthan I. And I had a head of salt and pepperwhile he had a lot of dishwater-blond hair.

I had just retired from the post office asa mail carrier. Most people in this down-town senior building keep to themselves.A couple of mean ones formed a clique tosay negative stuff about other tenants.

Miles and I had a strange bond: I was aconscientious objector and he was a SpecialForces guy — Army Ranger, I believe. Hetook some shrapnel in Vietnam and walkedwith a limp. The pain was getting worse buthe rarely grumbled about it.

After the war, Miles became a wander-ing man for years on end, spending timein homeless shelters and veterans centersup and down the East Coast. He said hecouldn’t adjust to civilian life. Landingout west after endless years and reams ofpaperwork, he finally escaped the sheltersystem by getting into this San Franciscobuilding on a physical disability.

Me, I did two years of community ser-vice back east as a conscientious objector,setting up an alternative school for PuertoRican and Dominican children and teach-ing their parents English in the evening.

My old man had spent three years inprison during World War ll. It must run inthe blood. He instilled in me from an earlyage the idea of opposing any institutionthat espouses violence.

It hurt Miles when he overheard one ofthe mean tenants, a woman, say, “He comesfrom the world of filth. What’s he doinghere? He should go back to those filthystreets he escaped from. Will you look atthose unwashed jeans and the holes in hisshoes? Oh my, long hair past his shoulders.One of them druggie hippies!”

He had a cigar box decorated with seashells that really caught my eye on the glasstable in his living room. I loved that cedarwood box. It had an earthy smell, not a citysmell, rather a heady nature smell.

It was late afternoon and I was sittingdrinking tea and eating rice cakes when Iheard the knock on the door. I opened thedoor and saw a petite brunette aroundfifty. It was the lady who cleaned outMiles’ room. “I want to give you some-thing,” she said and handed me a bag.

I opened it — it was the cigar box. “I want you to have it,” she said.

“Everything in it is just as he left it. I founda note in it that said you were the onlyfriend he had in the building and you reallyliked the cigar box. I’d be pleased if youmaintained his memory with this gift.”

“I certainly will,” I said. “It’s a won-derful gift.” I pulled out a chair, and said,“Please sit down.”

“I really have to be going.”“Please,” I said, with pleading and

determined eyes.“Okay,” she said and sat down.“I’m a plain guy. Can I offer you tea

and rice cakes?”“Of course,” she smiled. “I’m a plain

woman.”“Oh no, you seem quite elegant.”“Thank you,” she said with a gentle

smile as I grabbed a cup from my tinykitchen and set a plate of rice cakes andpoured tea. “Did he ever mention me?”

“You must be Margie,” I said. “He saidhe only had one sister.”

“Yes.”“One afternoon me and him went trout

fishing out at Lake Merced and he said hetaught his sister to fish out here.”

“That’s a fine memory,” she smiled.“He said that, after a few trips, Margie

caught more trout than he did.”She laughed.“He said you were the only one who

ever stuck up for him — he being theblack sheep of the f-amily.”

“He had his moments when he couldbe sweet,” she mused, twisting somestrands of her hair. Abruptly she stood upand said, “I really have to be going. Myflight to Phoenix leaves in a few hours.The whole family lives there now.”

I opened the door and watched herwalk down the hall to the elevator. Sheturned and waved saying, “Thanks again,Vito.” There was a slight smile on herpink lips and a tear or two in her eye.

I remembered that night I got off the ele-vator and was greeted by the sight of fiveand ten dollar bills and quarters strewn onthe floor in front of my apartment door. Helay there moaning, hand extended toward abrown cane a few feet away.

“Let me help you up,” I had said. “Thanks buddy,” he slurred. “My

room’s to the right. Here’s my key.”I opened his door.“Why didn’t you take my money?” he

said, slouching down in a sofa chair bythe door.

“It’s not mine.”“I congratulate the last honest man,” he

said, tapping the armrest. “I owe you.”“You owe yourself,” I replied.“What?”“To take better care of yourself.”“What’s your name?”“Vito.”“I’ll be seeing you. Name’s Miles.”And he was true to his word. He would

wait for me in the lobby almost everymorning, Chronicle in hand, with a trou-bled look that would not let up even whenhe was joking. That first day, I walkedinto the lobby. He stretched out his cane

and declared, “Vito I’m taking you tobreakfast. Accept my invite. I ain’t takingno for an answer.”

What could I say except, “Let’s go.”We walked past Tenderloin homeless

streets and past Union Square world-classhotels, then turned up Grant Avenue to acrackerbox Chinatown eatery that serveddamn good bacon and eggs and homefries, just like my old man used to stir upwhen I was a kid.

Our Chinatown breakfast jaunt wouldbecome part of our morning ritual. We’dcontinue walking down towards the water,usually sitting for an hour or two atAquatic Park, just relaxing and taking inthe fresh San Francisco Bay air whilestaring out at the boats and freighters.

Miles never put me down for being aC.O., unlike my high school friends backin South Jersey who were in the service.They’d say things like, “You were damnlucky you were a draft resister.” Or,“Remember Petey and Johnny in PrintShop? Well, they didn’t make it.” And I’dfeel guilty for days on end.

Miles just said, “We all face situationsin life in our own way.”

Miles seemed so alone with his con-science. One afternoon he blurted out,“There’s no sunshine in my life.” Then hesighed, “I wish I had never seen Vietnam.I did some bad stuff.”

“You can’t live yesterday todayMiles,” I told him. “Life’s too short.”

“I don’t live in your world. I live in myhead.” Whatever he was feeling, I couldsee by the tense veins in his neckthat his psychological realitywasn’t bearable. “I’ve had insom-nia since I returned from ‘Nam.”He slightly shook his head. “I’vefelt more dead than alive.”

Suddenly a slight smileappeared on his face. “Rememberlast week when we took in theLegion of Honor Museum?”

“Yeah, sure do,” I said. “Lovethose Impressionistic paintings.”

“Well, I saw a Chagall paintingand for a few days, I never slept sowell in years. It was as if I wasinside that painting, floating in theclouds with the angels in perfectbliss.”

One day, we were walking downBay Street near Trader Joe’s andMiles pointed to a building. “That’swhere Cost Plus used to be,” hesaid. “My first job when I was at

Galileo High School was there as a wrap-per. I’d take out Asian statues to people.Then I lied about my age and saw the realAsia with a gun in my hand.”

Miles avoided Fisherman’s Wharf. Hepreferred to stroll around Fort Mason andCrissy Field. “Fisherman’s Wharf is onedamn tourist trap reeking of rampant con-sumerism,” he said.

In the afternoon, we’d get a burger andfries and sit in the stands at Aquatic Park,then walk out on the pier. He’d often sayhow he missed the old San Francisco, likethe old-timers — the Filipinos — whoused to love to fish out here.

While reliving these memories, Iopened the cigar box Miles had left andfound a small brown leather journal withblue lined paper. One of the middleentries caught my eye:

“Before I met Vito, I’d sit in coffeeshops by myself reading the SportingGreen over and over with absolutely nodesire to get out of my seat and do any-thing. The box score in my head alwaysread: World 1, Miles 0.”

Then I read his last entry: “I often think about the long plane trip

back to the U.S.A. Should I have stayedand died in Vietnam? Would I be betteroff? I lost everything back home. That Icould live with. Losing myself — that Icannot live with.”

I closed the cigar box and stared at itfor a long, long time.

The Box ofMemoriesMiles seemed so alone withhis conscience. Once heblurted out, “There’s nosunshine in my life.” Thenhe sighed, “I wish I hadnever seen Vietnam.”

Art by San Francisco Print Collective

On Filling A NewNational Cemeteryby Claire J. Baker

They unload the trucks of newly-numbered dead

who fight in wars that bring no end to war.They plant them side by side and foot to headthese heroes for a nation to adore.This country lad, too young, deserves a treeabove him—rare in graveyards needing spacewhere stone on stone on empty stone will begranite symbols sun and wind will trace.

We walk the hallowed ground in search of one,our own who died, and then we see them all alive and loving, singing in the sun,a rock band playing — not a bugle call.

Each month the trucks arrive(the dead have tears).

All the graves are filled in these short years.