{"id":9420,"date":"2023-02-26T00:45:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T05:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=9420"},"modified":"2023-03-01T13:29:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T18:29:55","slug":"from-below-and-to-the-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/02\/from-below-and-to-the-left\/","title":{"rendered":"From below and to the left"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>n August 30, 2007, Texas, the state that executes more people than any in the country, planned to deliver a lethal injection<\/a> to Kenneth Foster, Jr. for the murder of Michael LaHood, Jr. in 1996. While this may seem like nothing out of the ordinary for a state that performs hundreds of executions annually, Kenneth\u2019s case was unique. He killed no one. Although he was not involved in the shooting, his conviction was made possible by a Texas statute called the Law of Parties, which enables prosecutors to hold those present at the scene of a crime legally responsible if they aided in its execution. <\/em><\/p>\n

Texas is the only capital punishment state with such a statute, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty. Following his arrest, Kenneth was forced to go to trial with the admitted shooter Mauriceo Brown. Not only did Brown admit to the shooting in self-defense, but clearly and freely stated that no robbery was planned and that he acted on his own.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neither Kenneth nor anyone else ever left the car. The prosecution had their own \u201ceyewitness,\u201d who testified that she heard Brown demanding money. Because two robberies had already taken place that night, the prosecutors used the Law of Parties to argue that Kenneth should have anticipated that Brown would attempt to rob LaHood and that a murder might take place. Thus, Kenneth Foster faced execution simply for driving a car.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, in 2007, a broad, militant, international, coalition-based movement<\/a> won the commutation<\/a> of Kenneth Foster\u2019s death sentence to life in prison. Texas Governor Rick Perry\u2019s decision to overturn the death sentence was historic. Not only had the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency only three times in its history, but Rick Perry oversaw more executions than any Governor of the State of Texas, including George Bush. Members of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in Austin saw this victory as a real turning point in the history of the death penalty in Texas and across the country. However, Kenneth is still serving a life sentence for a crime he did not commit under extremely harsh and dehumanizing circumstances.<\/em><\/p>\n

During his time on death row, Kenneth became a leader of the death row activist group called DRIVE\u2014or Death Row Intercommunalist Vanguard Engagement. The six members of this group engaged in courageous resistance even under conditions of 23-hour lockdown and were punished with force for refusals to take meals or move when asked, along with other acts of disobedience. Even under conditions of isolation and dehumanization, they developed a political perspective that called the criminal justice system\u2014and its racism, class-bias, and violence\u2014into question.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now serving his sentence in the Telford Unit near Texarkana, Kenneth will be eligible for parole in 2037. He continues to read and write radical literature.<\/em><\/p>\n

Learn more and get involved at kennethefosterjr.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Kenneth
Kenneth Foster Jr. shares his writings and experiences with anti-death penalty groups across the country. Photo Credit: Wire of Hope<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From below and to the left<\/h4>\n

we will return in the whirlwind
\nspinning
\nlike tank wheels,
\nregenerated limbs
\nfrom amputated bodies
\ncaught in the machinery,
\nour vines sprouting
\nthrough left turning zines shouting
\nvisions of justice & empowerment
\nfrom red-hot embered throats.
\nwe learned to be
\nmolotov-mouthed militants,
\nfire-tongued fighters
\njust unafraid to say any damn thing.
\ni’m bandana team-
\nface wrapped Zapatista style
\nin Darfur Dayrooms,
\ncoz we breathing in genocide
\nand don’t even know it.
\n2 (point) and growing!
\ni’m up early in the morning
\npraying to souls talking out my walls
\ntrying to get the blueprints for standing tall
\nand not fall to the demagogues
\nin the guise of
\nJustice For All.
\nthere was no impunity
\nwhen we protested for butter and sugar,
\nwe only got tear gas shooting.
\nwe responded w\/ a DRIVEN mutiny!
\nthe cost of privilege
\nis a number we can’t reach
\npeeking from under the fascist boot,
\nbut we still find ways to dance
\nout the concrete-
\nconvicts constructing inter-communalist infrastructures
\nbased on convictions of substance
\nfrom late night Marxist-Leninist studying
\nwhen visions of 3 lethal cocktails had us doubling over.
\ni fall back into
\nonion skin rolled daydreams
\nto take away my troubles
\nwe sowing the wind
\nw\/ seditions like
\nBob Marley “stand up for your rights;”
\nall night
\npepper gassed body trembling,
\nnaked,
\nno hope in sight,
\nstill holding on like
\nSundiata & Jalil.
\ni’m a wrench in the gears
\nclick-clacking my way
\nuntil i fall out the
\nshit-stem;
\nsaid to be waste,
\nbut the best fertilizer
\nfor grassroots.
\nagain they rise
\nin the youth-
\nthe new tornadoes on the roof
\ntap-tap-tapping
\nw\/ questions.
\nanother U.S. is necessary.
\nand if you claim to not hear my cries carried
\nfrom under the bars & steel
\nread my text messages
\nemails or faxes,
\ncoz
\nwe will return in the whirlwind
\nspinning
\nlike tank wheels,
\ncoz we came to realize
\nin revolution
\nit’s win
\nor die
\n!<\/p>\n

\"A
A Zapatista woman confronts a soldier in a mural in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Photo Credit: Adam Jones<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the spark<\/h4>\n

ashes, ashes
\nthey all fall down
\nwhen the flames of hate
\nlick up our heels
\ntwirling these
\nderanged bodies that have
\nknown empty stomachs
\none too many times.
\nfrom the sands of Tunisia
\nto the
\ntwisted steel of Texas
\nwe find that oppression has a
\nsour kiss
\nhemlock
\nvenus fly trap lips that
\ndevours our humanity in gulps.
\ni can’t say i know what
\ntunnels under Egypt are like
\nbut i’ve smuggled food and supplies
\nto those considered
\nenemies of the state
\ncombatants
\nsardine compacted in
\nAd Seg cells.
\nbut
\nwhat we don’t know
\n(yet)
\nis the fire that
\none self-induces
\nwhen despair has
\nrock a bye baby’d him
\ninto a dream state where this
\nhot
\nhorrid
\nhumiliating
\ndeath by fire-
\nthat was short
\nbut felt an eternity-
\nwas preferable to this
\nhot
\nhorrid
\nhumiliating
\nlife by oppression
\nthat was long
\nbut felt incomplete.
\nfor the ones that
\nlook down on us-
\nbe us w\/ beards & kufis
\nor
\nwhite uniforms & cuff rings-
\ntheir spit is all the same
\nthe boot drags my neck
\njust as hard
\nand the disdain
\nstains the same.
\nso when asked
\n“how do you
\nsurvive
\nand keep your sanity?”,
\ni say\u2026
\ni don’t know,
\nbut each time a
\nMOHAMED BOUAZIZI
\ncan spark a revolution
\nmaking the flames of hate
\nlick up his heels
\nbecause he just
\ncouldn’t take
\nbeing shit on again…
\ni drop to my knees
\nand plea
\nbecause i know when
\nashes, ashes
\nthey all fall down
\nthe next time
\nit could be
\nme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These two poems by former death-row prisoner Kenneth Foster, Jr.<\/strong>, selected by Tempest member Dana Cloud<\/strong>, reflect on the interconnections among the carceral state, national oppression, war, racism, resistance, and revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":9434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,258],"tags":[416,54,431,17],"class_list":["post-9420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-creative-writing","tag-abolition","tag-death-penalty","tag-prisons","tag-racism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Copy-of-Tempest-cover-design-7.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}