12ozPROPHET

Tent City, So. Cal., USA

The housing crisis in this country is by far one of the most tragic examples of a failed system of democracy, capitalism, and of America. Everyday more and more families are losing their homes for a variety of reasons foreclosures being one but also there is loss of employment, rising rental costs, forced evictions (in New York City this is rampant) in order to make room for the rich, etc. All around me as I travel through out New York City I am in awe of all the development and new housing that has gone up during the Bloomberg adminsitration. There are cranes all over the city putting up “boutique buildings” for the wealthy across the streets from the projects, and in every inch of spare land. To what end? Where are the poor and middle class to live?

This video I found online illustrates what I am talking about but in Southern California. This is not a remote situation that is shown, it is happening around the country and must be stopped.

Responses to this entry
There are 2 total comments about this entry. The most recent comment was posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago...

Maybe it will slow down when all the people moving into these high rise condos realize they pushed out all the art and culture that attracted them to NYC in the first place.

Posted by on November 16, 2008 at 11:24 PM

I feel if done collectively, tent cities can be fucking awesome and adress so many issues from homelessness to gentrification. This was an awesome movement my brother and his community members put on in Miami a coup;e of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiY1JcCSEyI&eurl;=http://www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/ket/entry/homegrown_food/

Posted by on November 16, 2008 at 11:50 PM

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Ket grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. From a young age, he fell in love with Hip Hop culture and the graffiti art movement, During his college days at New York University, he founded STRESS, a publication dedicated to celebrating urban communities, Hip Hop culture and educating youth about their rights. This magazine went on to have international distribution and being translated into Spanish language as well. Through Stress magazine, Ket created a program with Riker’s Island prison to donate magazines to inmates and to take Hip Hop musicians to perform at the prison system in order to reduce violence and connect them with the outside world. He was also one of the founders of Black August, a collective made up of Stress magazine staff and The Malcolm X Grassroots movement, in order to raise money and support for political prisoners and exchange music and ideas with youth in countries with emerging Hip Hop scenes like Cuba. Most recently he was a founder of Complex magazine along with Marc Ecko, and started a publishing imprint, From Here to Fame, to preserve Hip Hop’s rich history and to provide an imprint for marginalized writers and artists. He also has served as a consultant to Ecko Unlimited on both their apparel and video game businesses, MTV, Lugz, Vibe magazine, PepsiCo, Timberland, Azzure Denim, and many other brands.

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