On Blast

Picture the Homeless is a grassroots organizing group led by homeless people in New York City.

From their website: "We are organizing for social justice around issues like housing, police violence, and the shelter-industrial complex. Our name is about challenging images, stigma, media (mis) representation - as well as putting forward an alternative vision of community."

We sat down with organizer Rob Robinson to speak with him about Picture the Homeless' Housing Not Warehousing campaign and their struggles with banking giant JP Morgan Chase.

This piece was recorded and produced by Dan Jones

Members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) have been striking for several weeks, in order to win a fair contract from Temple University Hospital. One of the main points of contention is that Temple abrubtly took away the tuition reimbursement for nurses' despite the fact that the benefits are part of their current contract. The tuition reimbursement benefit meant that nurses' children could go to Temple University without paying tuition. For many nurses, losing this benefit would be make it very difficult -or even impossible- for their kids to attend college. Gregory Jordan-Detamore spoke with several PASNAP members about how their families are being affected by this issue.

Update: On Wednesday, April 28th, the strike ended with a victory. PASNAP scored major contract concessions on what Temple University Health Services had billed as their "last, best and final offer" and ended their strike. In terms of tuition reimbursement, there was a partial victory. Children and dependents of PASNAP members will receive tuition reimbursements for 6 credits per semester at Temple University.

On April 8th, The Philadelphia Student Union, along with The Unified Taxi Workers Alliance and The Media Mobilizing Project, went to the front lines of the Temple nurses strike to show support and stand with PASNAP, the Temple nurses' union. Justin Carter, a member of PSU and a senior at West Philadelphia HS, spoke to the crowd about the connections between students' struggles & nurses' struggles. He called attention to the problems with the 'gag clause' that Temple is trying to put on nurses, saying, "Just like students have the right to speak out about the conditions in our schools, nurses have the right to speak out about the working conditions in their hospitals."

Recorded Greg Jordan-Detamore & produced by Justin Carter.

Have you heard Pushed Out, the 5 track album that Philadelphia Student Union members created? The album tells the story of one student who is dealing with Philadelphia's nearly 50% drop out rate. After finishing the cd, students helped design a curriculum that teachers and others can use along with the cd to talk about the drop out crisis. The curriculum engages young people, helps them identify the root causes of why so many students are dropping out, and talks about student-driven solutions.  This new curriculum is being used in some of Philly's classrooms and community centers, but PSU is still working towards our goal of copying and distributing the CD to over a thousand public high school students. Visit PSU's Movement Music page to listen to the songs or make a donation that will go towards the next album that students will be producing this summer: http://home.phillystudentunion.org/Student-Programs/Soundtrack-Donations-mp3.html

In this piece, Candace Carter and Koby Murphy talk about the process of writing and recording Pushed Out. This piece was recorded by Lawrence Jones Mahoney and produced by Othella Stanback.

 

On this show:

PSU's youth artists create an album to tackle the drop-out crisis

Kansas City, MO students see half of their city's public schools shut down

Highlights from PSU's official launch of the Campaign for Non-violent schools

West Philadelphia High students put forward their hopes & concerns for the Rennaissance 'turnaround' of their school

Plus music & other education news.

This month's show was hosted by Shaina Richards & Jaileah Gibson. Matt Johnson & Justin Carter were the engineers.

The Philadelphia School District recently announced that West Philadelphia High School is eligible to become a Renaissance school. This means that, if West is selected as a Renaissance school, West could be subject to 'turnaround' reforms and possibly outside managers.  Since West already has a plan for whole school transformation, one that students and community members have spent years working towards (and that has already had big positive effects on the school climate), many people are concerned about what the Renaissance process could mean for the school. In this piece, Shaina Richards (center in photo) interviewed West student Justin Carter (left in photo) about his reaction to the situation. Shaina Richards produced this piece.

Read more about community responses to West becoming eligible to be a Renaissance School: http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/102263/west-phildelphia-community-responds-renaissance-label

On this Show, we hear highlights from PSU's 600 person MLK Day march to end all forms of violence in schools. We'll also learn about Grow Your Own, a model for helping community members become teachers and teach in their neighborhood schools. Also, we hear stories about homeless organizing in Philly in the 1990's, when organizers built a tent city right next to the Liberty Bell. Last, we feature the speech that officially launched PSU's campaign to address violence in schools and end the school-to-prison pipeline. Plus, lots of music and other education news.

This show was hosted by Azeem Hill & Justin Carter. It was engineered by Dan Jones & Azeem Hill.

On Wednesday, February 17, Philadelphia Student Union member DeVante Wilson spoke before the School Reform Commission. He announced the launch of PSU's campaign to address the root causes of violence, and to end violence in our schools and communities. His speech was well received by the members of the School Reform Commission, and Dr. Ackerman stated that she wanted to meet with students to discuss these issues further and learn more about the campaign. This is a successful next step to what began on MLK Day, when 600+ people from all walks of life took the first step towards creating a just and peaceful school system.

Here is the testimony that DeVante presented to School Reform Commission. This piece was produced by Shania Morris.

In January of 2010, the Poverty Initiatve, a group based in New York that aims to reignite Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign, visited Philadelphia for an immersion tour. The tour highlighted the history of the struggles of poor people in this city. Willie Baptist and Liz Theoharis shared stories about the struggle of the homeless in 1995 and 1996, which included a "tent city" and the takeover of an abandoned church.

This piece was produced by Gregory Jordan-Detamore.

Markeeta Hudgens, a senior at Overbrook High School and a committed PSU member, closed the recent MLK Day action with a speech about the work that lies ahead for students and communities in creating a safe & just school system. During the speech, she asked the audience to take a pledge to reject violence, search for the root causes of violence in their communities and take a stand against injustice.

This speech was recorded by Dylan Washington & produced by Matt Johnson.