 Welcome friends we're going to get started in just a moment. Welcome friends we're going to get started in just a moment. I'm going to put a couple links into the chat box right now. And these are links for our upcoming events and links to our panelists and to their websites or socials and to our partners at nps. And to be able to watch this event again on YouTube. And I'm going to go ahead and jump in with today's library announcements of course we are here. This is part of our more than a month campaign. We're celebrating black history month which runs in library land or at least in San Francisco library land from MLK day all the way through February. And we are celebrating nationwide black health and black wellness. And we're so happy to continue our partnership here with the National Park Service. And we do want to acknowledge that we are here on the unceded ancestral homeland of the raw Mutushaloni peoples. As I mentioned, more than a month is our celebration of black history, really celebrating and getting knowledge about black health and black wellness and we've had a lot of great programs. And I'm just going to breeze through a couple we have coming up are on the same page was the San Francisco public libraries by monthly read, going strong at 17 years now. We're going to go to San Francisco to read the same book, and we're celebrating Jessam and Stanley and her book, Yoke about her yoga journey. She's an amazing human. You can join me on Valentine's Day and we'll be talking about the book. And then she will be in conversation with Tamika cast and Miller on the 22nd. So come check that out. She's an amazing Dennis Phillips who is a activist, and can be seen in Netflix Crip Camp is leading meditation in our African American Center every Wednesday throughout February, and we will be having a recording about pop up on YouTube soon. And he's just quite a soul. So check it out. Later on today, we have author effort I you, who July, July day, who has an essay and making black lives matter, but she's going to be talking about African spirits, in particular, the Orisha and healing so come check that out today. Next Sunday, live in person we're gathering at the African American Center, third floor main library, and we'll be doing some art and some craft and some meditation and healing while doing craft zone and out on the craft. So we have a San Francisco artist Ramicon Oristers, and he's going to be teaching us crochet jam. And of course, none of this is possible without our friends of the San Francisco Public Library, who help us support and pay for everything we do. So give them all the love, join them, get a membership if you like, help us help support all that we do in our library. All right, I'm so excited to have this panel together. And I worked with a few of these people before and I know how amazing they are so we are in for such a treat. The panel explores the relationship between Native American activists and other community other organizing groups, activists groups such as the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, who are also fighting for civil rights in their own communities, particularly during the era of the late 60s. On our panel today is urban res life Eloy Martinez and Tariqa Lewis and we're going to be going to be moderated by Ranger Fatima, who is from NPS and we love our partnership with NPS we like to say there are soul mates of the natural world. Urban res life is an artist storyteller and writer. She is an enrolled member of the Kato nation, and is also Cheyenne Arapaho born and raised in San Francisco, she was an Alcatraz as a child with her mother sisters and aunt. She shares some storyboards about her memories of being a child on Alcatraz. She created these storyboards through the eyes of an eight and nine year old self. The storyboard highlights a childhood memory and to this day, urban res life continues to share stories of the occupation of Alcatraz, and continues to do art that is of an activist nature. Eloy Martinez is a Chicano and southern nation from the four corners area of Colorado. He's an activist and leader. He did not like what was happening on the reservations in Colorado, such as poor conditions discrimination police brutality, and more. So he broke this cycle by coming to California, where he enrolled in a leadership training program and started getting involved with Native communities. And this is how he met Richard Oaks, who recruited him to join the Alcatraz occupation. And to Rika Lewis, who's often been described as a Renaissance woman, visual artist jazz violinist teacher and genealogist Lewis graduated from Cal State East Bay with an academy and the Academy in art in San Francisco. Her artwork focuses on African culture, musicians, black families, and her experience in the Black Panther Party for self defense. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Fatima and our amazing panelists and Eli hopefully will be joining us soon. All right, thank you so much. We're so excited to be here with you all. My name is Fatima Colindrez, and I'm a park ranger with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Before we get started a little bit about myself, I have been with the National Park Service for the last 23 years. I started out as an intern, and I did that for two years, and then I became a park ranger in 2000 and I've been a park ranger with the Chrisie field area ever since. But I'm not just a Chrisie field my job is with the community outreach team. And so I get to work with all the sites of Golden Gate National Recreation Area including Alcatraz and that's why I'm here with you all today. And my job is to bring the people to the parks and the parks to the people. So I'm super excited to be here with Eloy, Tarika, and Urban Res Life, so that they can share their stories about the occupation of Alcatraz and how the Black Panthers inspired the occupiers of Alcatraz. I'm so happy that Eloy has joined us now. So we are all here. So let's get started with our PowerPoint. I would like to start off with a land acknowledgement, because you know we are on Ramatush Olone land. The Presidio, Chrisie field and other sites of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area within the city of San Francisco lie in the ancestral homeland of the Ramatush Olone. The original caretakers of this land. The Ramatush lived in harmony with the special place for thousands of years, managing its natural bounty of food for food medicine and others resources. We are respect to indigenous elders past, present and future, and we aspire to uphold our responsibility to store this land as the Ramatush have done for centuries. And in that spirit, we are here with you all today because you know, this is a story of the indigenous people and the communities in this Bay Area that we all share and live in. And so, in the spirit of continuing to move forward in unity, in community unity. I'm so happy to get us started today with this story. So, next slide please. So to get us started in the story of how community came together back in the late 60s. I would love to have to Rika Lewis, start telling us who are the Black Panthers, what did they stand for, who was, who was this this party. Well, thank you so much for inviting me Fatima. And I want to thank the whole staff and our panelists, and especially our ancestors, our ancestors who are already on this land, and who came to this land, and who continued to build relationships and families and present custodians of this beautiful landscape that we live in here in the Bay Area. I am a descendant of two California pioneering families and who came out to California very, very early and like in the 1840s, when they came to the Bay Area. I witnessed the growth of a black downtown in West Oakland that there were probably over 2,500 African American businesses and landowners, actually more landowners in the Bay in that particular location. My father, John Henry Lewis was the light heavyweight champion of the world, he had a boxing gym in West Oakland. And I'm bringing this up because we know a little bit of the Black Panther Party and a 10 point program, but the question is, why wasn't it even necessary. Which, where I grew up, that whole economic base, that whole downtown, the loss of property, the loss of homes was dismantled in the early 1950s, late 40s with the building of the 880 freeway, the 440 freeway 24, the post office and Bart, which went underground and came back up in West Oakland and went back underground, made no sense. And so that whole downtown was destroyed. So, along with this land grab in West Oakland was the hiring of police from Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, who did not share in the same community, communities in West Oakland. And so we began to witness police brutality. And this, and these occurrences, the heightened police brutality and abuse that was going on with the loss, a couple with the loss of land and property and businesses led to people organizing and which led to the formation of the Black Panther Party for self defense. And so we have this 10 point program. We want freedom. We want a full and complete freedom. We want full employment for people. We want an end to the robbery robbery by the capitalists of our black community. We want decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings. We want an education for people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches our true history and role in a present day society. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. We want freedom for all black men held in federal state and county and city prisons and jail. And we want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in accord by jury of their peer group. Number 10 we want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And I want you to ask yourself, were these programs and these demands radical so radical to want peace so radical to want employment so radical to want housing to to have food. And ask yourself, why wasn't it even necessary for the Black Panther Party to exist. And what, what, what caused everybody to start organizing the Black Panther Party was not contained within the black black community. We inspired other programs to exist. For instance, like piece of freedom party black, the brown Berets, of course the yellow peril. There are, everybody was was organizing at a time. And in as time went on in 6068 1969, then came the survival programs. And so that was addressing health issues. And that was the sickle cell anemia of lead paint testing of, of just getting checkups and having health. And I wanted to say that that prior to this. I have relatives who actually I had a who build a doctor's office, which still exists on Alcatraz and online is down called Kiwi pediatrics. And I, I had relatives who who built grocery store out in East Oakland called Supreme poor poultry. So, black people and come here to, to be on welfare, or they have these so called survival programs. They came here to be able to build community. They bought, they purchased land. They shared in what what they were doing to other communities. And, and that's why there was a long term relationship between communities and I mean all all communities that that were affected so I'll stop now. Because I know we have a whole lot to cover. Thanks, Erica. Next slide please. All right, so for this slide I would like to invite the lawyer to share his story of how he remembers the black Panthers connection to the occupation of Alcatraz. And what was the occupation, all about, why did it come to be who was Indians of all tribes. You know, you need to unmute yourself. It always happens the unmuted. Yes. All right. I'm kind of like totally or how to say way backwards on computers and stuff barely can do the phone. So, the occupation happened because I thought at that period there was a lot of relocation. People came from relocation in the 50s. And the occupation was in response to all of the killings and the massacres genocide and all the other things that have been happening up until the, even in the 60s they were still killing a lot of people just like the black Panthers and the rest of the people Teresa, Tariqa talking about. And in 1964, there was five or six people after Alcatraz was closed in 1963 and a lay vehicle for a whole year and the city of San Francisco. And then we eventually get deep to it, but prior to that time in 1964, it was a group of probably six people that went out there and occupied the island and claim it under the 1968 Laramie Treaty. And so for most of the day, did some ceremonies and stuff, and then they left. And so from 64 until 1969, nothing was really done with the island that government service administrations came in and did a lot of stuff not buildings now. That was one of the things. But in 1969. There was a third world strike in Berkeley, San Francisco, and I had met Richard Oaks at a peace rally, a war against Vietnam rally in San Francisco. And our kids got together and kind of talk. And anyway, we met over baloney sandwich. And it was a picnic for us back in the day. And all his kids were playing with my son, and he came over and introduced himself and asked me to talk for a little bit. And he asked me basically, when are all the connoisseurs realize that they're Indians. You know, and I said probably about the same time you do. We laughed a little bit. And then you started talking. And at that time, this was the Black Panther Party was all this is kind of like all hooked together because I got here in 66 and the whole community everywhere was organizing, you know, and I came from the North American dollars crew in Colorado, and they were a little more like the brown razor more in the militant side. And I was, I was, I was getting crazy. And your management and all those things are kind of crossing my mind all the time. So I came out here. And I have always a farm workers. Basically, because it's a non violence. And so when Alcatraz, when they asked me about going to Alcatraz, you know, I had a, I was already on the night. I went because they were talking about non violence. I had enough violence will last me all those years from way early on. So, when Alcatraz happened, Richard asked me to join. I went there with his, him and his family. You know, and there was a lot of a lot of things that were happening. You know, there was so many tribes and the Indians themselves. All the students that occupy, which is the biggest part of the occupy all students that were attending school. I was attending a leadership training program. The Institute of industrial relations in Berkeley were building trade unions. So I got involved. That's where I met some of the panthers actually that we're involved in the same leadership training program that was had 100, 100 plus people from different unions. And I met a guy named George Strossen wrote a grant for 100 minority students to attend this program. Anyway, I was one of the, one of the people selected from for the program. And I met a lot of people, you know, and that was the most diverse group that there was there because it was like, you know, every kind of every kind of nationality was in that in that class. So I'm, that's how I got involved with panthers from the, from the occupation to talk to this other, I got involved with them because you know they asked me what I was doing and I told them that I was going back and forth out taking donations. So, one of the guys will do Barry. He worked with Coca-Cola company. And he says, Hey man, I can get you a bunch of sodas. I said, Oh, wow. You know, and then they started, excuse me, they started bringing donations to the school that I was attending. And I had the folks writing van. It was right for its time because the hippie van all kinds of colored paint, flowers, all kinds of creepy van. So, that became the donation truck. I would hope stuff back and forth to Indian Joe Morris who was on pure 40, an architect. He was they would collect the donations and, you know, we got close. They directed Black Panther people directing me to the churches. It was a church on 8th and Hearst in Berkeley. And then there was another one. I think I think it might have been the one on Grove Street. I would go to those places and you have, you know, especially in the wintertime, because I'm not to try that it is cold. You know, they had a lot like coats and jackets. You know, and then they started a kin can panting. I don't think they called it kin can pan. I don't know what it meant. But all I know is that they had these little coffee cans, and they started putting them in places. They came donations for Alcatraz. And so all that money was brought over to Joe Morris and Shirley Guevara who was usually helping him out over on pure 40. And that was, you know, they were not only the Black Panther, but all African American people in California and elsewhere were really supportive. And I think to this day, we still are, you know, and that's what, you know, back to the 1960s, do I have to get off? No, your time's not up, but I wanted to put this next slide up in case you wanted to talk about how Alcatraz was a perfect place to have this occupation. It was, you know, the standing joke was, it was probably no worse than a reservation. You know, it's isolated. There's no water facilities. There was, you know, no means of transportation, no fresh running water. You know, there's oil, there's no oil rights. There's nothing there. I mean, it's not sustainable for growing anything. It fit right in. There's no industry, no unemployment was really high. There's no healthcare facilities. The soil is rocky, nonproductive and the land does not support the game. There are no educational facilities. The population has always exceeded the land base. And the population has always been held as prisoners and kept dependent on others. The early history of Indians incarcerated and Alcatraz goes way back to the Spanish forks and all that, but even the Hopi's were jailed. There are 19 Hopi's were jailed there for over a year for refusing to turn the kids over to the federal government. And they were brought here, you know, and they were there for a little over a year. And just recently we finally found out all their names and now that we have names for them. But, you know, it would just, you know, it would just be, you know, the history of Alcatraz is such. It's always been, you know, a prison, a place of a really, really bad place to be. But for us, it was a symbol. That symbol, like Richard Oak said, it was an idea. It's not just an island, it's an idea. The idea today is still alive, you know, because of that, because of that occupation, because of the bravery, all the original people that went out there, and all the people that followed. You know, there was, there was probably, I don't know, I can't imagine how many, there was at least 30,000 people that went out there during the occupation. And the first Thanksgiving we had out there, there was over a thousand people, you know, and they shared the dances, their stories. And just to be there on that day was, to me, really important because you saw everybody, and you say, wow, I didn't realize there was that many Indians around. And to see him and talking and laughing and not being censored was such a great thing. And that's one of the reasons that, you know, I kind of stick it out. I'm not going to ask for so long. Because I still think we need a museum and we need other things done there. You know, so I just, I'm really, I'm grateful for the Black Panther because, you know, they said a lot of programs, they said food program. A lot of, you know, a lot of things in motion. We had started the Chicano Indian School in 1968 based on their principles of, you know, of educating, not incarceration but educating people. You know, and that school was, you know, pretty popular. And it was on a Martin Luther King campus in Berkeley. So some of those things that happened just came about by being in the right place at the right time. But I'm sure grateful for Tarika, all the Black Panthers, you know, and all the two leaders, you know, Cesar Chavez, everybody that was all involved. You know, there's so many, so many leaders, you know, Chris's family was all involved in their, you know, they provided financial support, security, food. You know, inspiration to come together to protect, provide and educate, you know, and it's still ongoing. It hasn't quit, you know, I got Chris Langoria, one of the, I call her the youngster, because, you know, she was one of the young people and she's carrying on. There's so many others that are still carrying on, you know, and the torch for social justice to me was lit. We're Native Americans in red power. When Richard Oaks jumped into the water, that's when the torch red power was lit, you know. Thank you so much, Eloy, for sharing your story. I would like to give Urban Res Life an opportunity to share her story and her connection to the Black Panthers and how they have Black Panthers inspired her as a young person and how she experienced the occupation of Alcatraz. Next slide, please. Hi, my name is Urban Res Life. First, I'd like to acknowledge the Aloni people whose territory that are occupied. I want to thank you all for being here to Rika, Uncle Eloy, Fatima, Anisa. Thank you so much for bringing this program to the community so the community can learn about these stories that we all have. I myself was a child of Alcatraz. When I say I was a child, my mother and my Tia took us kids there when we were younger and we would go on and off the island, stay for quite a while, then, you know, we could still leave back and forth during the entire occupation. This picture that we show right here and what we are talking about is community and how our communities have come together and what I have learned. First, I have to start off with what I learned from the Black Panthers that will stay with me forever as going to a meeting, to Black Panthers meeting. We lived in Sunnydale projects and my mom and my aunt and my uncle, which my uncle, Tariqa, you may know him, his name is Roberto Vargas. We were very involved in every aspect. So when Alcatraz started, I was really happy because I was taught at a Black Panthers meeting. I would always say, say it loud. I'm Black and I'm proud. And I'd be a little Indian girl and a young brother came up to me and said, no, sister, you're red. And then I found, oh man, I'm red. And I was like, say it loud. I'm red and I'm proud. So whenever I go up to Alcatraz, when I went to Alcatraz, that was the first time that I've seen so many Indians like myself. So coming together as a community has been amazing, but not only from that was the start of my remembrance. And to this day, I am still involved with these people. That is just amazing that something that was planted so little in my little brain is still here with me. But when I look at this picture right here, because we're talking about community and community involvement. This picture right here is how the community, one way that the community comes together. This is on Alcatraz. We have two sunrise ceremonies, a year one on Thanksgiving Day and then one on Indigenous People's Day. And this picture right here represents all the different people from all over the world that will come and that are part of this celebration. You have every ethnic group comes and they come as supporters. You have the dancers who are dancing this ceremony, which I kind of get a little frustrated because people leave and they don't realize that the part of the ceremony to the sun and to our world is these these dancers there. So everybody is still coming together throughout our community and supporting each other. When I was younger and living on Alcatraz and going back and forth and then after Alcatraz, we were always around the Black Panthers, especially with my Teal Roberto. So I was very familiar, more familiar with them than any other organization when we got to Alcatraz as a child. But it was so beautiful how me thinking about it now, how all these people that were so young. You know, you're talking about my mom had me when she was 15, so she was like about 21 or so, but you have people that were 19, 20, 22, they're just doing all these great things. But they gave us so much support as far as helping us get supply, showing solidarity all the way around because this wasn't the only thing going on in 1969. Alcatraz, you had the protest going on at San Francisco State, which that's what my uncle was involved in at the time. You also had the students at Stanford, who were fighting the mascot. At that time, it was, it was an Indian chief and they were fighting it and they end up being successful back in 1969 and making it the tree that it is now. And then afterwards, it's after Alcatraz was completed, all these people were still part of a movement that they still supported each other to different things that were going on. You know, my grandmother, Stella Leach, my grandmother Irene Cruz, Stella Leach, Cleo Waterman, those are just like three women, my aunt Margie, that they would go to different churches and talk to the people to get support. And that started with Alcatraz, but they end up having like a group of people at all these different churches all over San Francisco, that if anybody needed anything they would go and they would tell you know talk to their friends at the church or different organizations, and then get what it was ever needed at that time and then take it to the community. So that was something that I was taught at a very early age by these people was to stand in solidarity and help each other because that was the only way that we were going to move forward. So I really love this picture right here and I invite you all to come out and experience it. Next I'd like to talk about, I do this for my elders, I myself am now an elder but I have the elders that, you know, Uncle Eloy Tariqa, Dr. Warjack, that I have been around a lot of my life. I've been around Dr. Warjack a lot because she lived in a in another state but there's other different organizations around here where I've learned from my elders. And these two elders in the picture are people that I've learned from and that make me want to continue to share the story of Alcatraz and to always be there to be in solidarity with other organizations that are needed. It's something that hopefully other young people will learn from me and I know that my daughter has learned from me that we need to keep this solidarity going for it not to end in order for us to continue our fights to move forward as community people. And that's me on my favorite part of Alcatraz. I was lucky to be able to help restore that red power sign but that whole area down there just reminds me of my childhood of just sitting there and watch all the people come off the boats and wondering what they were thinking they were getting into and what was I doing there and just trying to figure it out. And to this day it's one of my favorite places to sit and to find peace within myself because I do consider Alcatraz my urban res my res because my family were removed by their removed from their land and placed into boarding schools and that was taken care taken from us. So I continue to tell my stories because I refuse to let the government take anything else from my from my family. They took our language. They took my grandmother and her brother's hair. They took our culture. And so right now I'm on this healing journey to reclaim that for my family because I am the first one in my family that was born in San Francisco and I consider that an honor. All right. Thank you so much urban res life to Rika and Eloy for sharing your stories up to now. Now I have a chance for the audience to join in in this program by asking some questions, and you can respond in the chat. Here's our first question. What does the word community mean to you. And who is your community what communities do you belong to. So to help you think about those questions. I have some images here. There's a photo of myself with my child walking our dogs on Chrissy field, because I'm part of the dog walking community right because I have a dog so I'm part of this community. But I'm also part of the Latinx community from the mission district here in San Francisco. And so I have two images here one of mission Dolores and one day of the data mission Dolores. I'm part of the mission district community of the Latinx community I thought that these will be the best pictures to show how, even though I am a park ranger I still am part of these communities. And I love to bring my community out to their national parks, not just my community of the Latinx people, or the dog walking people, or families, but like everyone, all the different communities of this area so who is your community, and what community do you belong to share with us in the chat so that a missa can read those chats for us. So that is the first question. Who is your community, and what communities do you belong to. Next slide please. So, while you're answering the first question of who is your community I want you also to start thinking about what privilege do you have. So, you know, I shared a little bit about myself that I'm a park ranger here at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. But that's got me thinking like what privileges do I have because a lot of the time, we don't think about privilege we don't think about what privileges we actually have as communities of color. And so a little more about my story is that I'm originally from El Salvador, and I came to the US when I was six years old, and I came to live here in San Francisco. And so one of my privileges is that I have the opportunity to live in a super diverse city. So, how do I use that privilege is going to be one of our next questions. And for me, as a park ranger, as part of the community outreach team, I use my privilege to bring people to the park and I mentioned that when I first introduced myself. You know, as a young person, I didn't know that there was so many opportunities available for us here in the Bay Area as an immigrant. I didn't know about the different organizations that offer these programs to be able to explore the different cultures. And so, for me, today's program of community unity is super important, because the programs that I did partake in as an immigrant were programs that were established or influenced or inspired by the Black Panthers. And one of those programs that existed when I was a young person here in San Francisco was legal aid, you know, free legal aid and the Raza. I went there when I wanted to become legalized because I was an illegal immigrant for many, many years. And so, once I became a US citizen, I have had the opportunity with this new privilege of being a US citizen to be able to become a park ranger. As an outreach park ranger, I was able to live here in a national park setting. And with that privilege, I was able to raise a family in a place that I didn't even know existed as a child. So I want you to think about that. So, some of you have already started sharing in the chat, what is your community so maybe Amissa can share what's in the chat so far. And let's say we have community, we have library community, tenderloin community, the hip hop community and the queer community. Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. So now I would like to invite you all to share what privilege do you have being part of that community. I'm giving you some of my own examples of how you know what privileges I have identified in my own self, and how I am, you know, starting to use that privilege. So, share the chat. And let's continue. Yeah, I'm going to share, I'm going to share what Tariqa said really quickly. Tariqa belongs to many communities, African American communities, BPP alumni, Asian Asian black unity, homies empowerment jazz musicians, visual artists muralist music education Oakland spirit orchestra genealogy community, still serving people communities of all ages. I love it. Thank you. Wow. We, we don't realize sometimes how many communities we actually are part of. So, Tariqa, I would like to invite you again to continue your story. Oh great I was just typing something in but I'll go ahead. So I wanted to thank you. I was thinking about all the people that I knew who worked in the panther offices in San Francisco. At the time we had offices that we set up in Berkeley, and a West Oakland, and then of course is spread to San Francisco. One was on the film more and the other one was on Haidt Street. And this is where we, we had our, our newspaper distribution, and people could come in. We had people going out to find community stories of what was happening in the community and share them in the, in the newspaper so the newspapers played a key role in disseminating information not only what was happening locally but nationally and internationally so many of those stories were going on at Alcatraz, you know became a part of, you know, of those news feeds. I have to mention Sam Napier, and probably George Murray was instrumental in. Well he, he was a professor of English at San Francisco State, which started that strike there. And then there was Woods, Benny Stewart, Buzzy, these are just some of the young men who are working in a film or office at the time over in Oakland. Prior to the San Francisco offices. We were able to. And we asked the, the managers at Safeway Story in Berkeley for food that they were, you know that that had reached the expiration date and they were going to throw it away, and we asked them, can we have it. And we were going to, you know, start feeding the kids in the neighborhood. And this was actually before the leadership, Panther leadership got a whole of it. And they told us again, of course, to get out of there and then we came back with a list of demands. And so we threw up a picket line. We threw up a picket line and pretty soon, the people in the community supported the picket line. And they took it over and we so the managers were then begging us please take this food. And so we, by that time, the leadership of the Panther Party got involved, and the list grew of our demands. And so we asked that they hire people in the community. So we actually forced integration of the, of the staffing as Safeway stores. And of course it grew it grew to the Safeway over on 27th Street, other grocery stores. And so at the end of it, it became a win-win situation. And a partnership with Safeway, we got, we were able to get food for our programs, feed our kids. And then of course, by that time, 68, 69, the survival programs started to grow. But these were programs that the kids in the neighborhood started. You know, teenagers, we were still going to high school at the time. And because of that experience and because of our parents who had, who were involved in health care, like who were, who were involved in serving the communities anyway. So it was a natural progression when we entered the Black Panther Party. And mind you, the first recruits were all high school students at tech, not at the college level. They were, they all came from tech. And so about time, 1968 rolled around. We were in full bloom at that time. That's when we got people who, who came into the party nationally and, and every life, you know, like I said, everybody was organizing at that time. A lot of rallies at Berkeley High Schools, Community Theater, and a lot of rallies, like I said, Peace of Freedom Party. We need more, we need more programs like this to dialogue because there's so much information about that we're sharing today. And it takes more time to really give justice to the history of that time because so many people lost their lives, so many people are still locked up. And, and, and people who were participating in those programs, we're still working in the communities. And I'm in my, oh my goodness, I'm in my 70s now and still working. I, I'm a jazz violinist as well. And one of the programs that I know Elroy from is the Bobby Young project. And we have, we were blues band, we play blues and jazz and we have done fundraises, like, at least once or twice every year in San Francisco, and Ames office in Oakland. And we, I think the last one we did was at the Uruguayna Center. And, and, and, and I have been at on on the island for the un-thanksgiving last, I think last year I missed, no, I totally missed the boat. But the Alcatraz, when that happened, it was so symbolic. And, and, and, and, and, and, and more people taking a stand. And so, so many people were involved, anti-Vietnam demonstrations. And that it, what a renaissance period of change in the, in, in not only the Bay Area, the Bay Area is so unique, you're not going to find this anywhere else in the country. What happened here in the Bay Area and it was because of the solidarity because of the unity people work together on so many levels. And the, you know, the media at the time, like, like to paint a different picture, you know, of people going out and killing each other or killing white people in particular or just killing police. So, if you look at the 10 point program and what was actually put into place, it was more like the Constitution, if you go back and look at the Constitution, which by the way came from native people here anyway. So, so that's a whole other topic and discussion but what they said and what was actually done here in the community and to save those communities that had been displaced, land taken people who were unjustly put into, you know, prisons and incarcerated and then we find out later how the drugs came into the communities, how there were more, more liquor stores on every corner in the communities, how and who was managing the drug trade at the time. And all the private, the whole private industrial prison industrial complex and that California has more prisons in than anywhere else in the world and who feels that is black and brown, brown people and so we had a lot. We had a lot. We had a lot going on, you know, as as kids to to take on the world to take on to take on. Wow, the. What was being manifested as you know at the time and you know I'm just really grateful and blessed that I'm still here to talk about it, and we need when we need to hear more from from our elders and take care of our elders. And their stories are absolutely amazing. They're surreal, they're breathtaking. I have to mention Frank Callum, who former Panther, who Panther alumni who poor libation at the unthanksgiving ceremonies, and he's still around he's a professor of, you know, of history and, and so he will represent the Black Panther Party at many many many of those sunrise ceremonies, and I have to have to mention that. Thank you so much to Rika. Oh my goodness. I wish we had more time, but we're about to end this program with the last question which is how can you use your privilege to inspire new generation. So for me, you know I have some images here of myself how I'm using my privilege. Well I'm educating myself, and this is why I, you know, got this idea of putting this panel together, and bringing these stories out to all of you, because there's a lot of misinformation or lack of information like I did not know who the Black Panthers were until recently, believe it or not, as an immigrant this was not information that was shared with me in school. So the few times that I saw anything that had to do with Black Panthers as a young person, like some of our panelists already shared it was only the militant part or, or the negative part and so I was scared because I came from a country that was war stricken in the 1980s back in El Salvador. So I was scared of anybody that looked like they were part of the military. And even today, you know as I wear this uniform as a park ranger. I know that many of the communities that I serve that I work with, when they first see me walking down the street, they probably think I'm immigration. But I know as an immigrant how a uniform can scare someone. And so I am using my privilege to bring these stories to you all, so that you are not like me, not knowing where our community is where it came from what who inspired it, how we can help each other. And that's like the best thing about, you know, being in community for me, as a person of color, as an immigrant, as part of the LGBTQ and Q community, you know, like, if we are together if we come in unity. Oh gosh, there's nothing that can stop us right, because we don't know, you know, what our power is until we share these stories. So I'm educating myself about my local communities. I am volunteering as a ranger and outside of my job, I volunteer, I tell the stories. And of course, I use my privilege as now a US citizen to vote for change. And of course, I ask you all to question yourself. What is your privilege. How can you use your privilege to inspire future generations, and start doing it today. All right, thank you so much. I want to pass it back to a missa. And, you know, here's some information for you all to like, if you have any more questions after this program is over, you can always contact us so please, please, please, we are here to continue this conversation. Yes, and I just want to share some of the love that's been happening in the chat here. Thank you at Ranger Fatima El Eloi, Tariqa and Urban Res Life. This was moving and inspirational. I learned so much. Let us all in each new generation continue this work to build community and keep the idea alive. Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and health care for all. These things we take as privilege like health care and jobs. These shouldn't be privileged, right. These should be rights for all. And Mahalo for holding this space. Julie says hire more BIPOC people in leadership roles. Yes. This has been very powerful vote vote vote. Tariqa ends I'm discovering more about my lineage to genealogy. I found eight living African DNA relatives through them. I'm restoring all of my names, African locations, ethnic groups, piecing my grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents histories together. And giving workshops and blank and Black Panther history tours. I'm going to have to contact you again. Tariqa. And I, and I, you know, I kind of feel like I use my privilege as, you know, to bring all these amazing people I'm so happy that I'm in this role that I get to just promote amazing human beings and bring them to the library community. And I'm going to Eloi, Tariqa. Urban Res Life. Do you have any last words for us. Vote vote vote. Yeah. Yes, I concur. Show up stand up. You know, keep speaking up. I share the history with students as much as possible. I have them ask the questions. And so that they will be able to pull, pull the pull forth some, some answers and some other answers that they might not necessarily get or may maybe that that instructor might not even know and needs to go back and research. I want to thank you everyone. And yes, I'd love to see you all very soon again. So we can continue this extremely important dialogue. Urban Res Life. Close this out. Well, we came here in a good way. We shared some stories. And I want to thank you all to continue to share your story. There is not just one story of anything that we do. There are many stories. We talked about the people on Alcatraz you're continuing that story when you come and you visit Alcatraz. You're continuing the story when you're in solidarity with your community. And I want you to continue to go out there and walk in a good way. Peace. Thank you library community panelists love you and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and stories. Everyone have a great day and we'll see you next time. Come back at 2 o'clock. Let's love everybody. Thank you.