[applause] >> thank you mrs. joiner and all you do to support the arts and other questions. next, we're going to call on supervisor kim. >> thank you president breed. it's my honor to bring up the third lady in red. today, there is a theme for black history month and today, we are celebrating san franciscans who boldly, who are boldly living in celebration of black culture, black community and black power. so i'm proud to honor a special lady today, elaine jones or in our community as mother jones. shefrs born in colorado and moved to san francisco when she was nine years old. in 2005, mother jones moved to the hotel on 6th street and has been a fixture of our sixth street south market and community. really is there a meeting or event i attend where mother

jones isn't sitting in the front row as she is today? she recently christianed the long amen that street crossing and was a speaker for her years of work on the sixth street on a quarter that actually received the most production in the city. she also worked in the fundamental development agencies so that residents and vishts don't fall into the tree walls. >> thank you. >> she prepared home cooked meals for the residents of the ray man and hotel and shared food with neighbors when they run out of food at the end of the month. she has worked with her buildings and pantries for two and a half years. she's an active member of the church

which she personally introduced me too and brought me into that community. it is one of the most beautiful communities i've ever been participated in. a service that accepts people of all raises, all genders and sexual orientation. she's an active tenant organizer with the city collaborative and i see many of her friends and colleagues here to support her today. the right to receive mail and private mailboxes to pilot the women's only floor at the hotel fund and pushed our city to have an elevator fund in june of 2014. she also pushed to get a bathroom dedicated solely to tenants. she was an active participant

in our bed bug working group in 2011 which helped to pass increase enforcement on this important issue for our city. she saw needles in the trash around her building so she helped get a needle box installed in her neighborhood. she also helped to start a senior support group in the hotel called growing old gratefully, the renaissance. she's a regular participant in leadership organizations and sat on the south market organization committee for four years helping to make sure we had a permanent home, the only philippine theatre in the city, and a produce shop on 6th and howard which offers nutritious and affordable food in the community and where i

personally shop as well. i also mentioned mother jones is always in the front row and she never shied away from that. many of you remember the family getting evicted last year and mother jones was sitting on the front row and she said she was not getting up and she would stay there until she was arrested in support of the three family. there's a beautiful family of her standing up for all of our residents and their housing. she's an active resident in our district 6th advocating for queens, dreams and open state for our seniors and families. she volunteers regularly with the youth program across the street from her home where she volunteers as a mentor. mother jones actually spent time recovering in our psychiatric

hospital and personally overcame struggles and was awarded an award by the mental health board in 2013. she does not just talk the talk, she walks the talk and she's able to speak to so many of our residents because she has gone through the experience herself. over the last decade, mother jones has helped to push issues on low-income housing for people and the phone grab and bar legislation sponsored by supervisor eric mar. she won the women of the year award in 2013. but above all, mother jones gives herself selflessly unto her community. and throughout her life experience, she has a boundless heart. she has a lot of

siblings and two girls she's very proud of and that she talks about constantly. she's also proud of her church and they have allowed her to shine and have encouraged her leadership which we have all benefitted from in our neighborhood. she's looked to as a peace keeper and proofs positive that you only get stronger the older you get. you're my role model as well. thank you for being here and for your service. [applause] >> wow! that sounds real good. (laughter) >> first of all i'd like to thank you you jane. this means a lot to me. i'm a woman that had 73 suicide attempts. i'd really like to apologize to city hall because i did try to kill myself here. the

wonderful she sheriff saved me and city hall saved me. i had to sneak through here or get a sheriff to guide me through this place. god, it's been a long, long, long, long time coming and i'm so grateful. i'm grateful for central city collaborative. clifford, thank you for teaching me how to accept my greatness. tia, you can cuss me out any time, sweetie. karen, thank you for hanging in there with me. and to the rest of the central city collaborative, thank you for allowing me to shine. and my church, oh, my god. i can walk to oakland, that's how important they are to me. and it's wonderful when you believe in freeing people you can free people. and god has allowed me to do that. and i can only say

that if you're passionate about something, continue doing the work. just go and do the work and greater things is ahead for me. you know, i'm looking for a job. (laughter) >> but i want to thank each and every last one of you for allowing me to stand here and tell my truth. i've been suicide free for 12 years. [applause] >> and i like it!

[applause] >> congratulations again, mother jones. and if you're looking for a job, we have the western neighborhood access point will be happy to provide you with the information to get support. next up, we have supervisor mar. >> thank you. congratulations mother jones and other honorries today. today, my choice in honoring black history month not to acknowledge an individual but to acknowledge and honor a movement, a movement that has been created by so many great activist. i'm talking about the black lives matter or hashtag black lives matter today. with us in the chamber,

we're honored to have one of the cofounders, elise ya garz ya. she's one of the cocreators of the hashtag black lives matter and the director of power in san francisco. power has now emerged with cause of hoo sta. they're cocreators of black lives matter with dignity and power now and also black owned leadership dignity or told. i think the acknowledgement of the three creators and cofounders is important. i'm

personally inspired by the work of black lives matter and elise ya garz ya. they are creating a new movement, not of our grandparents but a movement of today. they're playing a critical national and global role. i'm especially excited of this today. they're fighting for the soul of the city and the placement of the black community which is probably at about three percent of the population right now. i think elise ya is a mixture of malcolm x with the embrace of the [inaudible]

>> black lives. to challenge the racism and other types of oppression within our communities. tim who is alternatives with us is a long time chinatown and richmond district activist. she's a long time movement leader for the bay area. this year, she will be inducted into the hall of selma's 50th anniversary of the bridge crossing. [applause] >> pam will be speaking on behalf of the asians in solidarity of black lives matter. the black live movement impact asians and other people of color and other movements as well. i also wanted to say that black lives matter with elise ya garz ya

here. her leadership envision i think is critical. one quote i would like to read about her is what's represented by this new movement. elise ya has said we are rejecting a lot of the things that don't work, things that we've done in the past. it's important not to keep doing the same things over and over and expect to get different results. there's an activist in saint lewis called f o and he always says this is not your grandparent's civil rights movement. without being disrespectful to the real sacrifices others have made, this is about our generation of time. what's real? this is our generation's time. we're going to do it the way we know how. i think what elise ya garner and the black lives matter, they really provide

leadership state and provide struggles that expand our community. let me acknowledge black lives matter and elise ya garza. [applause] >> all right. thank you supervisor mar for recognizing our work. it's an honor to have been recognized now for the second time. first time by supervisor david campos for the work that we did and are continuing to do in baby hunter's point with power as he mentioned and then, of course, now, what we're doing with black lives matter. we appreciate your acknowledgement and recognition. as i mentioned before, i worked in bay view for nearly ten years with families who are still struggling to survive in

one of the wealthiest cities in the world. as we celebrate the accomplishments of black folks during the shortest month of the year -- (laughter) >> -- i would like to challenge san francisco, a place that i love very much and a place where my parents grew up to declare 2015 the year of black futures. black futures is still in the balance. we have displacement at an all time high. as senator mark said, we are less than four percent of the population. unemployment is higher than it should be. way too many black people are living on the streets. in another decade, will there still be black folks

in san francisco? that's the question we're all battling with. so today, we dedicate this award to the black lives matter movement and the people whose shoulders we stand on and to those who are still bought and unbought. to the city we not only helped to make build but we helped to make famous. thank you. >> congratulations. and colleagues, before we move on. i would like to remind colleagues that we have a long

list of other honor ris so if we can, move it right along and keep it at five months. at this time, i will recognize supervisor tang. >> thank you very much. again, it's always a positive to take a minute from our work and acknowledge some really great community members. i would like to recognize lieutenant erika from the san francisco fire department. although erika is not wearing red today, her department is often associated with red so i think we can still continue the theme. she is a native of san francisco. she grew up in the fillmore district and joined the san francisco fire department in 1957. she has been apart of the new york for

short team and trained thousands of how they can better be prepared in the event of an emergency. i want to also take time to acknowledge the chief who is here. thank you for taking time out of your business day to be here. she has not only trained thousands of people who i mentioned, but also in addition to that, people who are inert graduates, she has provided opportunity for them to improve their skills. because of her, our office was inspired to take the new york training course. on thursday, we're graduating with about 80 other residents in this course. the class is full. mary c who is the center of john c who is the board of

our supervisor staff and all of the teachers there have made it such an entertaining but engaging class for us to learn more about emergency preparedness. i know often times in san francisco or even anywhere, but even in our earth quake time in san francisco, we often take for granted what can happen to us until it's too late. in fact, many of our supervisors here have been responding to lots of fires in our districts and it highlights how important it is if we can take care of ourselves in an emergency, it allows our fire departments to take care of bigger emergencies that are happening. so i'm incredibly grateful for all the work she has done in our community. i do have to acknowledge that someone in the front row is a huge cheerleader of yours, paul mason of the mayor's office was actually erika's prom date in high school. so i know she has huge roots back here in san francisco. we're so lucky to have you in our community.

thank you for inspiring our community. we really hope other neighbors in san francisco will take on the responsibility in learning how to take care of themself so they can better help in emergencies. so thank you for all that you do. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much supervisor tang and the entire board of supervisors. your support means so much. i appreciate being highlighted among the many people that are being honored today but i really want to take a moment to highlight the nork program itself. the nork program builds empowerment. i'm in people's living rooms to large halls to talk about the preparedness. it's very engaging and powerful for me to be able to travel all over the city where i was born and raised and lead this program. i'm really just a shepherd of something that's bigger than

myself and to be able to reflect our city and i want to say here, here in advancing the diversity of our city and making sure we bring this important training to all of our community. i'm super supportive of you and your staff taking the training. it's really been fun. she highlighted but i want to second the instructors. that is other additional members that find it important to give this training. and lastly, i will just say there was a family in the castro district that was a victim of an arson fire. she took the training and i don't know how she had time but she e-mailed me. she said how the training made her feel empowered. in the middle of the night she felt like she knew what to do because she had had training and thank you so much for the honor.

[applause] >> thank you. and congratulations. and at this time, colleagues, i need to cut in line. my honorries work in kids in and after school programs and they have definitely taken a break from far too long and need to get back to the african american art and culture complex. at this time, i want to bring forward richard and danielle from project level for black history month. project level

is a music based after school program located in san francisco for youth ages 13 to 24. the program was started by well-known local rapper big rich who gained fame for his san francisco song which is still played at the 49er's game. big rich started the project level using his fame and industry connections to give hope in talent in the under served uth in the city. they were founded in 2012 and given the opportunity to record by the studio by none ore than the president and board of director. danielle and big rich came to me and as natives of the neighborhood, they wanted to do something to give back. they had really a vision and they made this vision come to life. i'm so glad of not only the work that they've done

but the consistency. they treat these young people like they're family. they have developed the skills of many young artists, singers, rappers and also producers. there's a lot of pieces to the music industry. one of their producers louie v is now signed to universal records that produces record for many rappers, many of which i can't pronounce the names of. now that i'm older, i don't really listen to rap music as much. however, the classics are my thing. >> yeah. >> since the organization in april of 2012, they have impacted the lives of over many lives throughout san francisco. one for producing which is pretty amazing, three staring

alongside curtis, the song of notorious b i g. some of their students traveled to lass angry less for a career expedition and college tour and they developed p diddy's music channel and three of their students auditioned for next top model and america's got talent. they believe in giving back. i have seen many of their pontiac on instagram where they come together and pack up bag lunches and they come together to hand out tloufrns individuals. they do believe in giving back and i know sadly, some of the young people in the program are

dealing with some of their own issues with housing in san francisco. so the fact that they are spending time to support other individuals in this way is truly amazing. they have performed at many events including one of their students who performed last night at city hall for the black history month event that supervisor cohen and i hosted. they participate in city cleaning up. they have been doing this for years with cleaning up and they collaborated for the annual silence the violence k. project level is not just a music program. it builds character, responsibility, compassion, work ethic and big rich and danielle and their two beautiful daughters are here today. in my opinion, it is the kind of program that should be duplicated all over the place. again, project level is not just a program. project level is a family. and all of the

young people who participate in project family, i know, see big rich as their mom and dad because the phone calls for some of the challenges these kids face. sometimes they don't have a family to go to. and so this music and the work that you all are doing in our community is changing lives. i'm just so proud that as you grew up in the western edition, you grew up in fillmore and you basically rolled up your sleeves and wanted to see cheng in the community and you have definitely become the change we want to see. so today on behalf of the board of supervises, we honor you and commend you. congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, very much. i definitely won't need the two minutes cause you just summed up everything. first and foremost, thank you to you and supervisor cohen for

allowing us to be a part of that great event last night. i'm looking forward to next year and the year after that. that was amazing. i'm just grateful to be able to be in the position to give back to the community i grew up in. and to be acknowledged for it is just the use on the cake. i-love it. i really believe in nobody gave me the opportunity when i was young, i wouldn't be able to do it and it's my duty to help the generations going on and on. next, they will be the new program director and director when we're done and running this show if they got time because they do a lot of other stuff, too. they'll figure it out. i'm just grateful to beage acknowledged for something we really have a passion for. is thank you. [applause]