39 Bus

Boston Day of Reparations to African People

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The Days of Reparations to African People is an annual, international speaking tour to raise white reparations to African (black) people and discuss how we as white people can be in genuine solidarity with African liberation. It is a campaign by the African Peoples Solidarity Committee and its mass organization, the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, both founded and led by the African People’s Socialist Party. WHERE: First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist (6 Eliot St, Jamaica Plain)
WHEN: Thursday, November 8th, 2018, 7-9pm
Suggested Donation $5 - No one turned away for lack of funds
REGISTER: BostonDayOfReparations2018.eventbrite.com

Keynote Speaker: Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party
Also speaking:
Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee
Jesse Nevel, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement

A Call to Build the Days of Reparations to African People

A Call to Build the Days of Reparations to African People

For more info on the Boston event: usmboston@riseup.net or call 781-214-8131

Follow the Boston branch of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement at facebook.com/usmboston

For more info on the Days of Reparations to African People campaign, visit uhurusolidarity.org

Politics
Genevieve Day, center, co-owner of JP Knit & Stitch, participates in the weekly Stitch Night at her Hyde Square business on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

‘Craft Activists’ Knit Women’s Rights Into Every Stitch

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Every Friday night is community stitch night at JP Knit & Stitch, and this month’s gatherings have been dedicated to the Pussy Hat Project to support the Women’s Marches on Saturday. Knitters make hats and donate them with a note about the issues that concern them most. Some knitters created four or five hats. Hundreds of people have come into the store to pick up hats for the March in Boston. People offered to buy the hats, but they weren’t for sale.

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Opinion

Letter: Facts About Standing Rock and Indigenous People as We Celebrate Thanksgiving

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[Editor's note: The following is a letter to the editor from JP's Ken Sazama.]

Who Lived Here First? The Massachusett people lived in the general Boston area. They were called "people of the great hills”, a reference to the Blue Hills. Going from East to West, the Wampanoag, Moheagan and Mohican tribes also lived and thrived in what we now know as Massachusetts. Facts About The First Thanksgiving
The first Thanskgiving was a peaceful event that brought 90 Wampanoag Indians and 50 Pilgrims together in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.

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Real Estate

What Redlining Looks Like: City Life/Vida Urbana Takes to the Streets to Outline Housing Discrimination

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Part performance art, part public education, the Arts Committee of City Life/Vida Urbana literally drew a line down Washington Street Saturday afternoon to show what housing discrimination looks like. Drawing on the 1934 policy of the Federal Housing Administration not to underwrite mortgages in areas they determined were poor risks, CL/VU recreated the red line that the FHA drew in residential areas marking the boundaries of where they would not grant housing mortgages. In the words of Lawrence J. Vale in his book From the Puritans to the Projects, ( 2000) the FHA "gave federal sanction to a long history of housing prejudice [in which] it enforced the homogeneity of neighborhoods exclusive of [what it described as] undeserved people." Charles Abrams in his 1955 book Forbidden Neighbors stated that as of 1952, "98% of the 3 million home mortgages issued by the FHA went only to white homeowners". This policy created the pattern of urban and suburban life for three generations.

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JP residents Andreé Zaleska, left, and Chuck Collins donned road worker gear to carry out a pavement-marking protest of the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline on Friday, May 15, 2015.
Environment

Protesters Paint ‘Freedom Trail’ Along Gas Pipeline Route

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Jamaica Plain residents carried out a creative protest against what they see as a dangerous high-pressure gas pipeline slated for next-door West Roxbury. Here's part of a press release from the opponents of the project:
In the spirit of Paul Revere, a group calling themselves the “Parkway Pipeline Prevention League,” have drawn attention to the dangers of the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline. On the morning of May 15, they painted a bright red “Freedom Trail” along the pipeline route with several signs saying “No Spectra,” a reference to the Houston-based energy corporation slated to start work digging up West Roxbury streets in June. The paint is water-soluble. JP residents Andrée Zaleska and Chuck Collins carried out the protest garbed in road-worker gear.

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From the Community

Powerful Public Art Strikes Again

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In December 2014 a political artist from Jamaica Plain created a piece of public art as a commentary on the number of children killed by guns on a daily basis. That piece was made of painted children's chairs attached to a chain-link fence, and was removed within 48 hours by the Boston Police Department, located across the street from the art site. The removal of that piece did not deter the artist who yesterday installed a new work. This new piece consists of t-shirts on wire hangers, installed once again on the chain-link fence across the street from Boston Police Headquarters on Columbus Avenue. The artist along with “3 fearless grandmothers” installed the piece and two large painted banners following the 10,000 strong Mother's Day March on Sunday.

1,420 Views
Real Estate

Protesters Block Washington, Demand 100 Percent of New Development Be Affordable

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"The force of youth" it was called by organizer Maya Gaul, a lifelong resident of School Street. It was nothing less than an amazing and spirited rally for the soul of Jamaica Plain; never before seen in Egleston Square in this observer's 40 years in the neighborhood. On a mellow Wednesday evening, more than 50 youth and adults gathered in the Peace Park at Egleston Square to demand 100 percent affordability at the development of 3200 Washington St. Specifically, the group wants housing to be affordable for families earning $26,000 a year. The current proposal calls for 12 of the 76 housing units of a five-six story development to be what the city of Boston considers affordable.

4,099 Views
The Jamaica Plain Honk Band participated in "Arts Matter" protests at the State House on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
Politics

Naturally, JP is There at State House ‘Arts Matter’ Protest

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It wouldn't be a surprise if every protest at the State House had a JP contingent, given the level of political activity in the neighborhood. Thanks to Rhea Becker, we happen to have a photo of JP in action at Wednesday's #ArtsMatter demonstrations on Beacon Hill. Jamaica Plain Honk Band was there to call for arts funding. If your JP group is in protests outside the neighborhood, consider uploading an item to our "From the Community" section. Jamaica Plain News can't be everywhere, but we love to help spread the word.

2,000 Views
Police and Fire

At Least Five JP People Among Those Arrested in I-93 Protests

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Protestors with arms chained together inside barrel on Rte 83 Milton pic.twitter.com/ORaUqQ7les— Tim Alben (@TimAlben) January 15, 2015

UPDATE: We've added new information from State Police. ~~~~~

It's no surprise that JP was there for one of the most-talked-about demonstrations in recent Boston history. At least five of the 29 activists arrested in connection with the blockage of I-93 on Thursday are from the neighborhood. Protesters chained themselves together with concrete-filled tubes or to concrete-filled barrels. Activists said in a statement that the action was to encourage white people to stand with people of color to protest systemic racism.

1,421 Views