I had an opportunity to talk to Elijah Brunson, a concerned member of the community. Elijah, who has lived in Crescent City for about 5 years now, with much of his work has revolved around working with youth, recently posted a photo on social media depicting a piece of racist graffiti depicting the words hastily spray-painted, quote, “White Lives Matter More.” The post garnered quite a bit of attention.
Elijah reached out to Redwood Voice with the photo, hoping to inform us of the graffiti. I asked to interview him in order to get both the situation documented and get his thoughts on the matter. While he discusses both the vandalism of the billboard and the graffiti, and how these acts of racism are despicable, he also talks about how they are taking away from the many genuine problems our community is facing due to the division.
Elijah was a wonderful interviewee and walked me through a lot of his thinking in this! It seemed he really wanted to cover his bases, and while he spends time talking about the bigotry of the recent acts of vandalism regarding the Cal Endow Billboard and the graffiti in question, he talks through why these acts of racism are literally taking away time and energy that could be used on genuine problems in our community, especially among our youth! You can watch the interview below.
Welcome to the first episode of The Accountability Corner: a show where we take public officials who promote and engage in harmful ideologies or actions, and we break it all down to hold them accountable.
This episode discusses First District Supervisor Roger Gitlin, with the sparking point of his sharing and incitement of hate speech—and the absolute turbulence since then. I break down why the ideas spread are wrong (in more ways than one), highlight the community backlash, bring it back around to how his actions have inspired further harm, and wrap it up with a showcase of the rally that took place in front of the Flynn Center.
This is the first video I’ve made of this nature. I hope you enjoy and that it’s the first of many!
The July 15th, 2020 airing of News Now features the following stories:
• 01:48 – The COVID-19 Update, including the numbers after the sudden surge from Pelican Bay State Prison.
• 04:48 – A wildfire near milepost marker 21 on Highway 96 is 90 percent contained according to Hoopa Valley Tribal officials.
• 06:40 – If you or someone you know has been affected by Opioid Use Disorder, RX Safe Del Norte is and has been providing the Wellness & Recovery Series.
• 09:00 – Information on the Yurok Tribe Election.
• 09:51 – The Accountability Corner, regarding District Supervisor Roger Gitlin, in an original segment by Redwood Voice. Persephone explains the current situation regarding Roger Gitlin and speaks to Julia Dorman on her experience speaking up and the unexpected trouble that had arrived since then.
• 22:19 – The Flynn Center Protest & Rally. Technically a continuation of the previous Roger Gitlin piece, but deserving of its own spotlight, highlighting the rally and important things that were said.
• 35:55 – Avi Critz follows up on his previous #DefundThePolice segment by talking about it with Sheriff Erik Apperson in this Redwood Voice segment.
• 59:49 – The Redwood Voicecast #3 is out. Persephone breaks down what happened. Maybe it’ll intrigue you into taking a listen?
We’re a little tired in this one, but it picks up pretty quickly! Persephone gives themself and Avi a challenge, to give Redwood Voicecast a new radio promo while also balancing their busy work schedules. The crew talks about the previous News Now newscast and the one coming up, so you get all the juicy behind-the-scenes on the stories (from the lens of last week.) Conversations lead a bit into things we miss, but also things we like—the Food Forest, for instance. We hope they’re doing well, and Persephone recounts a wonderful one-on-one class they recorded for a project for some folks at the station. We also talk about why it’s important to support the Saturday Farmer’s Market, our experience with it, and some of the things going on. All of this and more in the third ever production of the Redwood Voicecast, a podcast where we talk about the latest and greatest happenings behind the scenes of Redwood Voice. Join us!
Black Lives Matter. Black Lives have always Mattered. Black Lives will continue to Matter. Black Lives STILL Matter. The fact that these words would cause some people’s blood to boil in outrage is a testament to the fight that Black people are facing, a fight that some may believe has been over due to the lack of news on the matter—
Or, at least, that’s the stance I was writing from when I recorded this segment for KFUG Community Radio’s News Now (the original newscast, by the way, can be heard here.) With the arrival of Federal Officers in Portland, some news outlets have been discussing the movement. However, that should be held under a critical eye. Black Lives Matter protests, rallies, and the movement itself never stopped, as some may have believed from the absence of a media presence. With these new violent developments, the same violent developments that attracted such large news presences in the first place, we must think about why we are reporting these things, and to what end. Especially since it seems after initial acts ended, such as the early on looting, many news outlets stopped reporting despite these movements still fully continuing.
For us, we unflinchingly support the cause. As an all white crew, there are always things we need to learn, improve, and do to be better allies and use our privilege to amplify Black voices any way we can. This video has one simple message: Black Lives STILL Matter, even if you haven’t been thinking about it—here are things you can do right now to support the cause.
This video can be utilized as a tool. Know the comprehensive list yourself and the advice that comes with it. Show it to your friends, family, loved ones, neighbors, coworkers, however many people you’ve added to Facebook, whoever cares to give it a watch and think, “Oh, well, I can do that. Black Lives Matter.”
As mentioned in the video, we are looking to work with Black voices in order to provide any amplification we can. We are hesitant to plan the exact project—we want to work fully with Black People interested so that whatever we do is genuinely beneficial to the Black community, not just some small show of allyship or a chance for brownie points for committing basic moral decency. If you are interested, you can reach us at our Facebook Page or email us at redwoodvoicedn@gmail.com.
Some of you may have bore witness to the glorious uprising of Redwood Voice’s newest, radical (in the 90s way), totally tubular (there’s no other meaning for that one) project to come out of this newest iteration of Redwood Voice: the Redwood Voicecast.
What’s the Redwood Voicecast, you may ask? Well, what isn’t the Redwood Voicecast? In some sense, that’s not even a rhetorical question.
The serious answer: I wanted us to connect to the community. Too often our work has been straight edge, pointy corner journalism without too much personality. (Or at least certainly the past news work we’ve been doing, but in some ways that’s starting to change with the new production value of the News New newscast we’ve seen at the beginning of this month.) The Redwood Voicecast is an uncut version of your beloved Redwood Voice team – at this point, Avi Critz, and, yours truly, the one and only Persephone Corvid Rose – to simply tell you what we’re doing at a given moment. We zoom through so many projects at a time, need so much community input, and quite simply do so much that a Facebook post or a tweet just don’t cut it. We wanna connect with you, tell you what’s up, even work with you!
So the Redwood Voicecast? It’s many things. It’s cool, it’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s sometimes even trying, but it’s ours, and it’s whatever we need it to be. It’s whatever we need it to be to do what we love, to amplify the unheard voices in our community, and to connect with you in all that we do.
So, why not give ’em a listen? Below are the first two episodes, and in the future there will be individual articles written for Redwood Voicecast episodes!
On the July 1st, 2020 News Now newscast, our very own Avi Critz wrote up a report and even spoke to Mayor Blake Inscore with a simple question: what does defunding the police mean, and what does it mean for us here?
Now, there’s a lot to unpack. Avi Critz succinctly summarizes what Defunding the Police means in metropolitan areas, in the areas where police budgets are immense and where we have seen the highest demand for defunding, especially in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, and many others.
As Avi Critz brings up, however, these tend to happen in much larger metropolitan areas where the police don’t live in or understand the neighborhoods they patrol. That’s quite different from our small town where we know quite well who our police officers are—and Avi would know, having had a college math class with our very own Sheriff Apperson.
Regardless of where you stand and your depth of understanding on what defunding the police entails, we strongly recommending watching this report. What does it mean? Where does the defunded money go, and how could it help us? Where does the budget for our officers go? What are other programs that could take over problems law enforcement can’t working with? Here’s what Avi Critz and Mayor Blake Inscore have to say.
Last Wednesday’s News Now is the second to be created under the management of Redwood Voice’s Persephone Rose—yours truly, the one writing this very article. As we’ve started to create content at an alarmingly quick pace compared to what we’ve produced before with far higher quality than we’ve seen in the past, I will begin employing a new posting system that covers all of our social media domains whenever new content is created in order to achieve the widest reach. That will include, after being posted to our YouTube Channel or right here on our website, going to our Facebook Page, Instagram, & Twitter. And of course, if you would like to know when we post videos the very second we post them, we recommend subscribing to our channel!
Part of this entails advertising KFUG Community Radio’s News Now, a co-production between KFUG, the Wild Rivers Outpost, and Redwood Voice.
The July 15th, 2020 airing of News Now features the following stories:
02:10 – The COVID-19 Update you’ve come to expect from your favorite bi-weekly newscast, including the reclosure of California and what that applies to. Even though we’re not on the list of 29 monitored counties, we will still be affected. Here’s what you need to know.
04:00 – DNUSD Considerations regarding plans for how to make this school year work in the midst of the pandemic.
08:50 – A Redwood Voice Original Segment: Black Lives STILL Matter, even if you’re not seeing it a lot in mainstream media. Here’s what you can do to support the movement. Redwood Voice is also interested in amplifying Black voices in our community.
14:08 – The Nick & Lisa Rail Fund seeds $100 million for a new performing arts center.
16:22 – Yurok Tribe Press Release: Governor Gavin Newsom names Yurok education director Jim McQuillen to the State Board of Education.
19:55 – Yurok Tribe Press Release: Using COVID-19 federal relief dollars for an emergency operations center.
22:11 – A Redwood Voice Original Segment: Roger Gitlin recently made a Facebook post quoting and supporting a speech that incited hate, according to the Redwood Voice team and many members of the community. This RV Segment is to hold accountability to him, and further to act as a sneak preview of a longer form story in the future.
31:48 – A Redwood Voice Original Segment: Avi Critz speaks out to remember Naya Rivera, and tells his personal experience about how it has led to his realization of the effects of constant media barrage, and how we should all step back every once and while to take care of ourselves.
36:48 – The Redwood Voicecast #2 is out. Persephone breaks down what happened. Maybe it’ll intrigue you into taking a listen?
Redwood Voice stands unquestionably and unflinchingly in support with the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing protests. We also recognize our team, though small, is a fully white crew and therefore come from positions of privilege. As such, when we show our support, we will make sure to keep ourselves out of the narrative—we’ve all seen white folks, even celebrities and organizations, attending protests and taking selfies for “internet clout” or “bonus points” and the like. Not to mention those who use their privilege to assume that they have a say in the matter, and that they can berate or antagonize these people fighting for their lives. The fact that there are so many White people who rally against and talk down on the movement, believing they have control or a say in it, is itself a demonstration of their privilege.
Just needed to denounce those really quick. Pretending those are not things going on just means that they’re happening unchecked.
For these reasons, this page will be a list of resources in order to connect our community in the fights for Black lives all across our nation. This article will be updated when updates and new information are available, and will be listing organizations, bonds, and fundraisers that you can donate and support in order to support protesters, as well as other means of support if applicable. Also, you can click the images to go the websites/applicable links for the organization.
At this point in time, the Minnesota Freedom Fund is actually recommending that you do not donate to them—they have become positively over-saturated with support, and they are turning people to other means of support, meaning they are still a good hub for information. The fund, which has been used to bail out protesters who are arrested for exercising their first amendment right, is asking people to donate to the family of George Floyd and local organizations that are Black & BIPOC led.
From their Twitter account:
You can support Floyd’s family and the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund at their GoFundMe Page here.
Black Visions Collective is a Minnesota-based aimed at teaching transformative justice principles, dedicated to amplifying Black autonomy and leadership in communities. You can donate to them here, and learn more about them on their website. Their Twitter also provides important updates, including important information regarding protests.
So despite those protests a bunch of privileged, gun-toting white guys did a few weeks ago to protest COVID-19 closures since they felt it breached their rights (Remember those guys? Remember how very little was done and how peaceful and negotiable things were?) claiming their first amendment rights were being infringed on (they weren’t, by the way), it’s actually happening now with a complete turn around of how it’s being handled. That’s right, the first amendment right these people were claiming are being breached is actually happening now (and I don’t know about you, but I’ve not heard them speak up on it.)
In lieu of this, numerous bail funds have been created in most cities where a major protest has taken place. You can find them below:
BAY AREA Anti-Repression Committee Bail Fund: Donate and learn more here.
CHICAGO Community Bond Fund: Donate here, learn more here.
COLORADO Freedom Fund: Donate and learn more here.
FLORIDA Justice Center: Donate here, learn more here.
FORT WAYNE Legal & Medical Fees For Protesters: GoFundMe Page here.
JACKSONVILLE, Florida Community Support Fund: GoFundMe Page here.
LOS ANGELES – Peoples City Council Freedom Fund: This GoFundMe is going towards several resources such as bail funds, but additionally medical bills and transportation costs for protesters, and direct support to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.
LOUISVILLE Community Bail Fund: Donate and learn more here.
MADISON Uprising #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd: GoFundMe Page here.
MASSACHUSETTS Bail Fund: (Different from Massachusetts Freedom Fund) Donate here, learn more here.
MONTGOMERY Bail Out: Donate here, learn more here.
NASHVILLE Community Bail Fund: Donate here, learn more here.
NORTH CAROLINA Community Bail Fund of Durham: Donate here, learn more here.
PENNSYLVANIA (Dauphin County) Bail Fund: Donate here, learn more here.
PHILADELPHIA Bail Fund: Donate and learn more here.
26 Ways to Support Black Liberation Without Protesting
Below is an article from Beyond The Streets that we thought would be helpful. If you want to lend your support even further than donations and spreading resources, you can follow these to become more active.
Our Daily Bread Ministries announced their need for a new GENERAC Generator in order to keep the the shelter warm and operational during bad storms. More specifically, they announced their need for the generator back on December 18th, 2019, and at the time of writing this have only received $675 of their $9,000 goal.
The GoFundMe fundraiser has only received a total of 3 donations. The most recent was 21 days ago, the second most recent 4 months ago, and the third from 5 months ago (the last 2 donations being the same person). The fundraiser has clearly not gained the traction it needs. The GoFundMe page was organized by Rachel Justice, who made the following post to describe the fundraiser:
Want to join me in making a difference? I’m raising money to benefit Our Daily Bread Ministries, and any donation will help make an impact. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.
We are raising funds for a GENERAC generator to power our building when the power is out. As you know, we have serious storms here in Crescent City, CA. When the power is out, it is difficult to continue to feed and house people, and impossible to keep them warm. Our building gets cold, fast. We have many people depending on us for truly life saving services especially in our horrific storms. Feeding and sheltering the masses by candlelight is inefficient and dangerous.
We are working with Randy at High Voltage Electric who will do the installation on this machine that can power our entire 7,000 square foot building. The cost for the generator and installation will be around 8,500-9,000.
More information about Our Daily Bread Ministries: Feed the body, soul and spirit with free 1.) hot meals and emergency food for the hungry[,] 2.) clothing and bedding and life recovery drug, alcohol and spiritual counseling 3 ) clothing, bedding (blankets, sleeping bags and tents) and hygiene products
Rachel Justice; text has been lightly edited to correct typos and can be compared to the original post on the fundraiser.
The image provided in the GoFundMe post of the GENERAC Generator.
Additionally, if you are unaware of the services of Our Daily Bread Ministries provides and how it operates, there exists an Ancient video depicting an inside look of the shelter. (I say ancient, despite it being a little over a year old, likely because it is one of my very early works and it’s interesting to see it compared to my newer works.)
“KFUG takes an inside look at Our Daily Bread Ministries, a homeless shelter with much to offer for people facing homelessness that often goes overlooked.” An incredibly early work by Persephone Rose (yours truly.)
This article, before being posted, was first premiered as information written by Persephone Rose for the KFUG Community Radio production News Now. You can listen to this story and many others on the latest airing of News Now. You can listen to News Now every other Wednesday at 5:00pm on 101.1 FM and streaming online at kfugradio.org!
Telling the untold stories of Del Norte and Tribal Lands through amplified youth voices.
