TheFightBack

LISTEN TO JOE IOSBAKER AND ANH PHAM

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Joe Iosbaker and Anh Pham

The search warrants for the FBI’s coordinated raids of 14 anti-war activists on September 24th in Minneapolis and Chicago cited federal law which prohibits “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” Two of the seven homes the FBI targeted on Sept. 24th were Joe Iosbaker’s in Chicago and Anh Pham’s in Minneaopolis. After a long day of lobbying congress members on the Hill, Joe and Anh sat down for an extended conversation.

Anh said, “Literally, for hours… they searched through everything in my house. They went through my clothing, they went through… just about every sheet of paper, including pages and pages [of] my cookbooks, my knitting patterns, they looked through photographs, they took my computers, my cellphone, my husband’s computer and cellphone, which, he was not named in the subpoena, but they took that anyways and he’s a graphic designer, that happens to be his livelihood.”

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LISTEN TO JAMILA LARSON

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Jamila Larson of the Homeless Children's Playtime Project

Sitting in a room intended for babies, but filled with what smelled like sewage, Jamila Larson sat down for an extended conversation about homelessness and children. As she endured the stench coming from the library/babies’ room her organization had worked so hard create, Larson discussed the founding of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project in 2003, Councilmember Tommy Wells’ effort to require proof of District residency in order to receive shelter, and much more.

The genesis for the Playtime Project can be traced back to an experience Larson had at the CCNV shelter in downtown D.C. in 1999. It was the holiday season, Larson said, “[and we felt] the least we could do is give gifts to the children who live there for the holidays. I didn’t see any toys, so I asked this woman, ‘Doesn’t anyone ever donate any toys?’ I just saw rows of bunk beds and sheets for doors and kids kind of languishing in the hallways, and she said, ‘Yeah, we get toys from time to time, but we keep them locked in a closet so the kids don’t make a mess.’ So that’s literally how the Playtime Project started. We realized that it wasn’t enough to give toys. We had to literally provide the space for those toys to be used and the people to defend a child’s right to play [in order] to provide them that opportunity to use the room where the toys are. So we really had very, very humble beginnings.”

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LISTEN TO LYNN BERGFALK

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Rev. Lynn Bergfalk

For the last decade and without much fanfare, City Gate has been operating year-round youth programs throughout the District of Columbia, particularly east of the Anacostia River. The Washington Post recently reported that 43 percent of African-American children in D.C. are living in poverty. East of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8, where unemployment stands at more than 30 percent, child poverty is even greater.

In such an environment, there is great need for quality youth programs. City Gate’s funding for its programming at the Merrick Center this past summer came through a grant from D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to Youth Engaged for Success (YES). While City Gate ran a successful program, the organization has not received the more than $60,000 it is owed, according to Rev. Lynn Bergfalk, City Gate’s founder.

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