16th and mission
today was the 6th anniverssary the 16th and mission open mic
I delivered somewhat of a mood killer
to a crowd of drunk poets
that was only half listening
It went something like this:
We’ve gathered here to celebrate the fact
the way people have been gathering here
on this very street corner
every thursday going back six years
to share words
Saturday May 21st 09
The sixth anniversary of the16th BART station OPEN MIC
Why 16th and Mission?
See, this is not just a major hub of transportation,
For start, 16th street marks the spot where the zip code changes from soma 94103 to the mission. 94110
Technically, we are on the mission side.
Soma is historically more of an industrial district, being just next door to the downtown commercial district.
The mission has some industry, but is zoned mostly residential,
Go back a couple of generations
poor irish folk started moving up the racial/class ladder
and off to better neighborhoods with colder weather
So a few wars later
a couple economic depressions
when this BART station was opened in 73
the mission has already evolved to something similar to it’s current more ‘Chicano’ version.
Now
I want you to imagine
DOWNTOWN
just north of us
like a gushing fountain of capital
that ebbs and flows in the usual supply vs demand fashion
This fountain is self proclaimed
to be always in session
non fuckin stop
it’s easy to see
they even leave the lights on
when the people in the offices go home
Still, it’s emanating aura
of capital flow
is sometimes harder to pinpoint
It’s imprint on society
being a process of negation
is vague and abstract
and therefore it lurks in the dark spaces
in between the many institutions and organizations
that make up our so called civilized nation
And it takes an extra conscious effort
to actually connect the dots
that trace a long line back
to a supposedly discontinued practice
of imperial colonialization
And the machine that pumps the fountain
is constantly being expanded and upgraded
getting well lubricated with the souls it sucks
it is bigger and better and faster than ever
by now every decade or so
comes a new iteration
and right here
on this intersection
you can read
a new chapter being written
in the glorified book
of GENTRIFICATION
My roomate used to tell me
about being a junky on this very streetcorner
back in the early 90s
what we have today
a few SROs
is pretty tame
he would say
compared to the shit that used to go down
in a three block radius in any direction
which he would describe
as the drug and crime stripmall superstore
most of which
is of course
by now
gone
If you want to trace
this recent altracation between the two sides
back to an opening shot
you would probably have to mention
94
when the police station
moved to the corner of 17th and Valencia.
and from there maps were redrawn
and things started shifting direction
in the late 90s
The fountain produced the most destructive wave in recent memory
which we all have conveniently come to call the BOOM
and the shockwaves of this BOOM
Swept up through the soma and then
all the way up through the mission
like a giant broom
coming as usual with declared intentions
to clean up the dirt and the drugs and the crime
but of course we know
it went down
the same way it always goes
it closed community spaces
it swept up social infrastructures
evicted poor immigrant families
and artists living in commercial warehouse structures
And in a relatively short span of time
it changed the face of this neighborhood
with it’s tight weaved social network
that fought it any way it could
to damn near exhaustion
Just as
seemingly by a miracle
the economic bubble finally popped
having been mortally punctured
not by the Y2K bug
but by two airplanes
flown into two skyscrapers
seemingly in slow motion
at the other side of the continent
supposedly by people
who came all the way across the atlantic ocean
and also happened to be brown
that was 01 of course
And while the people who supposedly owned that bubble
were going through the motions
of going after whoever they said made it burst
The people here in this neighborhood
were pretty annoyed
with having to clean up yet another mess
while being profiled as terrorists.
The mission was a gaping social wound
and there it was
sitting in the murky polluted capital water
left in the economic void
But having seen the resistance to the war in afghanistan
barely making a blip in the mainstream press
When it became clear
that the war in iraq
was going to go down
with or without the public’s blessing
Thousands of people in this town
mounted something of a grassroots organized civilized unrest
by literrally shoving their bodies into the mouth of the fountain
in an attempt at shutting the economic reactor
that indirectly, inevitably and intolerably
fuels the war
That, was six years back
give or take a couple of months
And I suppose
somewhere in the mix
of ecstazy and passion
which comes with the reclamation of public space
right here
at the bart station
some people got together
and shared some POETRY
and probably beers
in brown paper bags
By then
Valencia street
was already a dense strip of fancy stores, restaurants, and bars
by 05, there were fancy condos coming up pretty much a block in every direction
with fancy bulky pastel grout facades
designed to provide zero shelter from the weather
complete with security cameras
taping suspicious activity around the clock
and internal parking garages
to make sure you can avoid
suspicious things from even infiltrating your thoughts.
In 06
They remodeled the BART station
And they installed new benches with extra armrests
to prevent people from being able to lay down and sleep
And then in 07
A giant steam roller
came down the hill From the Castro
all the way to the Bayview.
block by block
tearing up and then re-paving 16th street
and wherever it touched
like little mushrooms
fancy businesses and restaurants would start to pop
to feed off of the projected flow of fresh new capital
So if it didnt hit you before
maybe now it clicked
There is
a real unified front
It’s been decided
in speculators’ offices
and private meetings in city hall
They call it the 16th street corridor redevelopment plan
and we let it happen
right here in front of our very eyes
while we were drinking beers
and reciting lines
And weather you like it or not
weather you think youre a hipster
or a literary snob
we are
all
part of it
Cause I remember a time
when one of those people
who we so easily dismiss as a crackhead
came raging into the circle with a trash can in hand
and emptied the content
right in the center
and we just stood there
and booed
and when he left
we cleaned it up and kept going
maybe nobody realized
that we were having our open mic in his backyard
and he simply wanted to voice what he had to say
which is that he’s feeling cornered
he’s feeling under attack
that he’s sick of intellectual bullshit
he’s not going to let you push him out of his own neighborhood
in fact
he’s going to do whatever he can
to take it back
and he’s going to use a trash can
because thats just all he’s got
But for some reason nobody clapped…
And we DO
We do… for offensive old white man
who are too drunk
to do anything but slur out shit like
“bravity is the soul of wit”
And we DO for sexist racist jokesters
who might as well have raped welfare moms
to get material for their skit
but I suppose angry crackhead trash performance
is just not LEGIT?
THE FUCK PEOPLE?
THE FUCK WITH IT!
if anything
THAT
is more offensive
than whatever whack shit anyone says!
having drawn a circle down on the concrete
and called it an open mic
try
to pay a little respect
to keep in mind
some very relevant social perspective
your’e six years of history
are but a fingertip
of the amazing poetic mystery
that is
this corner
of 16th and mission street