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NYC: Can You Support a Mother and Her Child Tomorrow? Will You Witness Justice for Aniysah?

3:27 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Justice| New York City| Women| children · Comments Off

23 Aug 2009

dsc_03711-300x199 Packing the court room and the streets outside the court house shows that their is an entire community behind Angeline and her child.

Are you going to be in the NY city area Monday, August 24th? Come to Aniysah’s court date and show the judge and the law guardian you care! Even if you can’t make it, invite your friends who can! there’s an attachment below that you can copy and send to your folks!

The next court date is August 24th, 2009 at 11AM and the address is :

IDV Part

Courtroom E-123, Annex Building

Justice Fernando M. Camacho

Queens County IDV Court,

Queens County Supreme Court

Criminal Term 125-01 Queens Blvd

Kew Gardens, New York 1141
If using public transportation such as the train or bus:
Subway: E, F to Kew Gardens
Bus: Q60
If they are driving or carpooling:

The courthouse is located at the intersection on 82nd Ave. and Queens Blvd. which is one block south of Union Turnpike. They can mapquest the directions. www.mapquest.com.

There is also parking: A municipal parking lot is located behind the building at the intersection of 126th St. and 82nd Ave. Which is directly situated behind the courthouse.

New York’s Family Court System fails brown women and children

6:55 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| New York City| Women| children · 1 Comment

19 Aug 2009

PLEASE FOREWARD WIDELY.

On March 3rd, 2009, Aniysah was taken from her mother’s arms by New York’s Family Court System and placed in the care of Aniysah’s father who has a history of domestic violence offenses. Furthermore, there were no records verifying that she would be taken to a safe living environment or that she was enrolled in school. Questions about her health and well-being went unanswered. That was over 150 days ago. To date, Aniysah remains lost in the family court system. A system where black and brown children go missing every day. A system where black mothers like Aniysah’s are often left to fend for themselves in a brutal, dogged battle just to make sure their children are safe. On the surface, this case appears to be a simple custody dispute, however, if one digs deeper it is a story about the injustices of New York’s Family Court System and how it fails brown women and children daily and how it can be used to further terrorize and re-victimize survivors of domestic violence.

Read more…

A Tragic Story of Continual Violence against Women of Color: Anyisah’s Mother’s Story, Angeline

7:48 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Justice| New York City| Women| children · Comments Off

11 Aug 2009

Earlier this month I wrote about how one mami is being kept from her daughter by a justice system that claims to think of the best interest of the child. As the next court date approaches and a mother and her supportive family struggle to garner support and attention from the community and media, many have asked for some background on the story of Anyisah.

Many people have emailed us asking, “How did Anyisah end up in family court system?”

Answer:

* Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father because he was physically, verbally, and emotionally abusive. Angeline has documentation of his abuse and the court orders forcing him to take anti-battering classes. Judge Fernando Camacho issued an Order of Protection for the father to stay away from Angeline and Aniysah, May of 2005.

* Even though Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father, he continued to harass and terrorize Angeline and Aniysah by fabricating lies to Child Protective Services (CPS) and filing for full custody of Aniysah. June 2005 — October 2006 Judge Morgenstern issued several Orders of Protection for the father to stay from Angeline.

* Judge Morgenstern granted the father unsupervised visits on the weekend with Aniysah at the father’s mother’s house. However, just as the unsupervised weekend visits begin, Aniysah begins to display unusual behaviors. She told the social worker that someone named “grandpa” touched her inappropriately. Aniysah developed a rash between her legs and Angeline takes her daughter to the doctor and the doctor reports the rash to CPS as a possible issue of child abuse. At this point, the doctor at the emergency room reported on the possibility of Aniysah being abused while in her father’s care.

No Room at the Inn for Detained Immigrant Families

7:53 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| children · Comments Off

10 Aug 2009

Article_6326405 Seems like there are problems with the closing of T. Don Hutto as an immigrant family detention center. Under the announced restructuring of oversight of immigrant detention centers, the controversial Hutto center will no longer be used for families with children and will only be used to house women immigrants. Families were to be transferred to another immigrant detention center, Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesburg, Pennsylvania. Except no one checked with Berks, which apparently has no room for more immigrant families.

County Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt, who is chairman of the county prison board, said he was unaware of the move by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Kenneth A. Borkey Jr., executive director of the Bern Township facility, which houses families awaiting immigration hearings, said the center is at capacity.

Where’s Aniysah?

5:56 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Women| children · 11 Comments

2 Aug 2009

Women of color are not paranoid when we say that we fear our children being taken away. It happens all too often.

It happens again and again:

On March 3rd, 2009 six year old Aniysah was taken from her mother’s arms and thrown into a legal shuffle of unaccountability, instability and discrimination. There were no records verifying that she would be taken to a safe living environment or that she was enrolled in school. Questions about her health and well-being went unanswered. That was 150 days ago. To date, Aniysah remains lost in the legal system. A system where black and brown children go missing everyday. A system where black mothers like Aniysah’s are often left to fend for themselves in a brutal, dogged battle just to make sure their children are safe.

Nadya Suleman and children sign reality show contract

8:16 pm By la Macha · children| society · Comments Off

27 Jul 2009

Nadya Suleman, dubbed “Octo-Mom” by the media, inked the deal with European TV company Eyeworks, reports say.
We all knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. People were predicting it from the moment the news hit that a woman gave birth to eight children.

And here we are, not even a year later and it’s been done. Nadya Suleman has done the deed. She signed a contract for a reality show.

via the BBC News:

Contracts filed with a Los Angeles court say the children will earn the money over a three-year period.

Filming is scheduled to begin on 1 September, but a judge must first approve the contracts.

Film crews will not follow Suleman and her children 24 hours a day, but will document certain milestones, such as birthdays and special events, her lawyer said earlier.

The court documents say Suleman’s children, who are up to eight years old, will collectively earn $125,000 for 36 days of shooting in the first year of production, $75,000 for 21 days in the second year, and $50,000 for 14 days in the third year.

Thankfully, this seems to be off the radar of U.S. news (what with Michael Jackson’s autopsy results coming soon and Sarah Palin quitting, who can blame them?). Otherwise, I’m sure we’d be treated to a whole slew of commentary about how selfish and irresponsible the “octo-mom” truly is. As it is, I wish the woman luck, and hope her children do well–but good goddamn. How I wish she would get married to an independently wealthy person who kept her out of the news for my lifetime.

How Can Mami Movements Move Forward and be Resourced

27 Jul 2009

Crossposted from la Mamita Mala

100_0133

This is a continuation of this post, based on conversations had at the Women’s Equity Media Summit with Noemi and BFP.

In all honesty, I don’t even quite remember the questions we were answering pero I know that BFP primarily came up with this:

Multiple Media tools politicized for transformative justice

Are those our resources? Our goals? Part of our vision? Sounds like a plan of attack to me, a way to use our weapons of media, media as defined as how we communicate ourselves to others.

And how are mamis of color movements resourced?

501c3’s are not the only way we seek/need resources or want to be resourced as. We are more than charity cases, communities to be served.

BFP gave an excellent example about how in her hood the only way families, especially Latino families could get services like coats for the winter, was if they fit a certain mold, that is cleaned up and made themselves more presentable, looked deserving of services.

We should not be resourced based on our education but rather on our history of work

Education is a privilege. I personally have two years of college under my belt pero most people won’t even consider me for jobs or my opinion because I had to drop out to take care of my child. Forget the years of experience or how I have personally have helped others get their degrees. Without letters after my name on a piece of paper, I don’t fit in.

We should be resourced in terms of the role we play as part of larger struggles, as part of a continuation of historical lines of struggle.

We should not be tokenized

We should not be expected to compromise our values

We should not feel the need to compartmentalize ourselves

Resourced doesn’t just mean money, it means, especially within the context of online work, linking, citing

we should be resourced by the community, as we are part of the community

How are you resourced vs how you would like to be resourced?

What Do Mami Movements Need?

25 Jul 2009

Cross Posted from la Mamita Mala

100_0149 One of the first spaces I wa in in Detroit was at the Women’s Equity Media Summit. To say that it was an uncomfortable space would be too simple. There was a sense among many of the women of color I was with that we HAD to be there, since many of has had been given some money to help defray our travel costs. We would have been in Detroit anyway for the Allied Media Conference and truth be told we weren’t sure why we had been invited into the WEMS space? What was the mission and what was expected of us radical women of color media makers.

We all conglomerated in one corner of the room, close to the door, forming a protective circle of love and support around each other as other women spilled their female creds on the table, leaving many of us feeling marginalized. What of us who didn’t claim the word woman or the word feminist? What made one a “woman” in that space? Was it being born with a white vagina? Did bringing up these issues make us automatic enemies of the space of chairs and tables that wound around the conference room? What of us who had no interest or desire to be part of a non-profit structure? What of us who didn’t want their money?

What did come out of that space however and many other spaces in the days that followed at the AMC and after, were the gathering of mamis. That’s right, mamis not mommies. I even had to correct the spelling as it was written on butcher paper at the front of the room because for the last almost 12 years (carajo I feel vieja) it has been made clear to me that my experiences are not the ones being blogged about or written about in books. After all it was my mami’hood, with all the sex/gender/race/class/language issues you can pull from that word, that started me seeking others like me through blogging and organizing on the ground.

One of the first exercises I did in my small caucus of three, that included bfp and Noemi, was what do we need in order to do our work, which we translated as what do mami movement’s need. Here is a list of what I came up with:

mami’hood
justicia
not speaking for people
comunidad
multi-lengua’ed
access
accountibility
amor
apoyo
collective
seguridad
multiple points/ways of entry
poesia
arte
sexo
child-inclusive
childcare
sustainability
flexibility

What does your list look like?

Don’t Worry 2nd Amendment Supporters, Kids Will Probably Still Have Guns to Shoot Themselves With

2:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice| Politics| children| society| youth · Comments Off

21 Jul 2009

To all you worried guys in the video above, fear not. Gun control is, as of today, still dead in this country. Just look at this:

A five-year-old boy died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in Hamilton, Ohio, the Journal News newspaper reported online.

The death was from an “accidental, self-inflicted gunshot”, Debbie Lacey, the coroner’s investigator, was quoted as saying late Monday.

The boy, Zachariah Nesbitt, shot himself Saturday night at his home with a 9mm Glock handgun. The bullet went through his lung, Lacey said.

The boy died later Saturday night.

Police were investigating. In the call to emergency services, a man believed to be Zachariah’s father, David Nesbitt, was quoted as saying: “Oh, my God, no. He got my (expletive) gun out of the closet.”

Fear not, arms bearers! This “activist judge” has vowed to simply interpret the law as it is written (video after the jump). So relax, you still might have to put a padlock on your gun cabinet so Junior doesn’t get in there.