W
street roots
5
April 13, 2012
SH O C K ED , fro m p ag e 1
the cop. My name is Michelle Shocked.
I was a relatively unknown superstar. It was
like being shot out of a cannon, going from
being a squatter to people running up to you
on the streets asking for your autograph.
But I never forgot where I came from.
S.Z.: You participated in the 2011
Occupation o f L.A. and were one o f nearly 300
people arrested during the eviction. What was
your experience there?
M.S.: It was one of the most traumatic
types of deja vu because I’d been arrested
27 years earlier in San Francisco on
basically the same principles of exercising
my rights to free speech. In 1984, the San
Francisco cops pretty much relished beating
us up. The LAPD - they were taking a lot of
pride in their professionalism, which is to
say their repression was surely a display of
force and power, but not of violence. The
group of occupiers, we were sitting around
this tent, and we started chanting to the
cops. We said, “We won’t hurt you.” And
that’s a pretty bodacious thing to say to a
bunch of guys with guns who have just
ordered all of the media cameras to disperse
from the scene and there’s nothing to
protect you.
S.Z.: What happened after the arrests?
M.S.: We just kind of licked our wounds
and then we regrouped and we’ve been
holding General Assemblies four times a
week. I became very, very actively involved
in a committee against foreclosures. When
you think about the leap you have to take
from homeless people, people without
shelter, to people being evicted from their
homes, it would seem like a huge leap in
logic. But it’s the exact same issues and
crisis. We say, “Housing is a human right.”
We all, every single one of us, needs
housing. Ergo, by logic alone, you are able
to d e d u c e th a t it’s a rig h t, n o t a privilege.
And a lot of people conceive of home
ownership as a privilege that goes to those
who can afford it. Ever since the eviction,
my focus with Occupy has been with
foreclosure because it indemnifies the
issues that we raise with the economic and
political injustice.
S.Z.: How did you come to have the name
Michelle Shocked?
M.S.: I am so glad you asked that. I got
the name to express distress at a moment
when I was completely unempowered and
had no ability to express anything. I had just
been arrested and my freedom was now
curtailed. There are victims of cold wars just
as there are hot wars. It used to be the
worst thing that could happen to you was
that you come home from the war without
arms or legs. But in a cold war, very often
what happens is, it blows your mind. You’re
paranoid and you are psychotic: You’re shell
shocked. That was also my experience of
being homeless. You just don’t get enough
peace of mind to figure out which way is up
and which way is down. So that’s what I told
O'
S.Z.: How do you incorporate your activism
into your music and art?
M.S.: I just wrote a song and debuted it
on the tour, for a woman named Blanca
Cardenas. She was illegally evicted from her
home in North Hollywood when an investor
called the LAPD — who have no jurisdiction
over evictions — and charged this woman
with trespassing in her own house. She was
under bankruptcy protection, which would
have prevented a foreclosure from
happening, but the banks didn’t care. They
auctioned her home to this investor, and
this investor got impatient waiting for the
legal process to resume, so he just called
the cops. Blanca shows the cops the papers
that show she is protected under bankruptcy
and they arrest her for trespassing in her
own house.
She posts her bail and they hand her over
to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement). Within 48 hours, this non
priority status, undocumented American
homeowner is deported to Mexico. She’s
got a 17-month-old, nursing baby who is a
U.S. citizen, a 14 year-old son and a husband
who are both American citizens. Now, she
is not only homeless, but she is alone in a
country where she has no connections, no
resources, no family. They sunk even lower
than a system of victimizing and blaming
people who cannot afford shelter. The
thievery, the fraud, it is just an abomination.
S.Z.: You are “born again. ”
M.S.: Totally souled out. S-O-U-L-E-D.
S.Z.: I ’m shocked. Help me understand how
a left-wing, anti-war, housing activist comes to
give herself over to the Lord through the
doctrines o f a socially-conservative, evangelical
church?
M.S.: T h a t’s th e e a s y p art. B e c a u s e J e s u s
was the most radical occupier that ever
walked the planet. It was because of
political principles that I went to an
African-American church, but also, I was
just going for the music because what’s not
to love about gospel music? I had read that
11 a.m. Sunday morning is the most
segregated hour in America. And I’m
thinking, “Wait a minute ... people who
profess the gospel of brotherly love can’t
even get it together? Oh boy, we got
trouble.” So I was going just for the gospel
music and not at all intending ... I tell
people I just went one Sunday too often,
you know. I looked down and my feet were
making the walk, and my heart decided to
follow. Trust me, it’s been a mighty long
walk. When I was saved, I was still drinking.
I was married to an alcoholic. It was a long,
slow process of transformation. But God
was faithful to his word. He was like, “You
turn it over to me and I’ll take care of the
rest.
I really kind of get impatient with people
who quibble over blazing contradictions of,
as you put it, a “socially conservative”
church. Who said Christianity is socially
conservative? Mercy above all else. All
these commandments that were handed
down, really it comes down to three: love
mercy, seek to do justly and walk humbly.
That doesn’t sound left-wing or right wing.
If someone is practicing that, as far as I’m
concerned, if the holy spirit is anointing
their lives, more will be revealed according
to God’s purpose. I just don’t quibble over
the glaring contradictions - Yes, they do
exist.
cousin who is apparently something of a
pothead and so my family all conspired to
get grandma stoned. And it was the best
comic relief. Everyone needed it. Of course
she didn’t smoke it - they fed her a cookie.
It was a real breakthrough moment in a
very natural process also known as dying.
She’s not cured. She’s going to die, but it
was really great that they had that light-
moment experience rather than just
remembering her through all of the
bitterness and the pain.
S.Z.: Can you talk a bit about forgiveness?
You reconciled with your mother recently after
not speaking to one another for 25 years.
M.S.: My mother is right now going
through a very painful and physical
transition. She is basically nursing my
grandmother through terminal cancer,
cancer of the pancreas.
S.Z.: I ’m sorry to hear that.
M.S.: My grandmother is 90. My mother,
as I see it, she’s always been more of her
mother’s daughter than my mother. It’s
funny to think of your parents that way, but
in my experience, my mother really never
got over being someone’s daughter. So I
kind of had to raise myself. That’s why I ran
away. When I finally got around to talking to
my mother, I had forgiven her a long time
ago, I just didn’t have the courage to let her
know. So that part, the “I love you, Mom”
was really easy. And then she was so great
that she made it easy for me. She said that
she was more worried for me that she
wouldn’t be around for me to say that.
I want to tell you a story. My grandma
has been really depressed. Apparently,
mortality is a very heavy issue. She has
gotten very crabby, which I think is very
typical for people of her demographic, let’s
say. I had this genius idea, tapping into my
former life, to get my grandma stoned. All I
had to do, was somehow persuade my
S.Z.: Tell me about your experience with the
Power dynamic between the artist and the
corporation?
I
M.S.: In my case, I was one of the few
people in the music business able to say, “I
didn’t ask for this job.” I was not looking for
a career in the corporate business world, in
fact, I was shanghaied. I took the
opportunity and I basically turned down the
advance and said, “Keep the money. I want
to own the masters.” That was the saving
grace of this. Because I had a contract that
said I had certain rights to ownership. But
when it came time to execute those rights,
they had put me on ice. They wouldn’t let
me leave the contract. They wouldn’t let me
record. So I sued them citing the violation
of my 13th Amendment rights, prohibiting
slavery. I won and I was free of them, but I
was blacklisted. Nobody who wanted a
career in the music industry would touch
me with a 10-foot pole.
The summary of all this is what I said
about Blanca Cardenas: She didn’t cross the
border, the border crossed her. I didn’t get
into the music business, the music business
got into me. They bootlegged me, without
my permission, they stole my copyrights,
they exploited them, and then they tried to
cover it up by offering me a deal. But I
didn’t fall for it. When I withheld my
consent, they tried to punitively cause me a
lot of misery. I found my power and my
s tr a ig h t-e d g e , M o r m o n m o t h e r th a t t h is w a s
v o i c e b y j u s t s t a y i n g a liv e i n s p i t e o f t h e b e s t
a good thing. And fortunately, I have a
efforts to bury me.
BY LEAH N A S H
Leah Nash Photography Exhibit
A Different Kind of Normal: Stories of Asperger’s Syndrome
V
.'A
V
A
W
A
V
.'.
You 're invited!
A t Street Roots, we have a lot to celebrate.
We are having an open-house!
Please join us fo r a celebration, comm unity building, and light
refreshments at our newly renovated offices
in Old Town Chinatown
-6 p.m., Thursday, April 19
11 NW Davis St., Portland
May 4-June 30
Opening reception 6-9p.m. Friday, May 4.
Artist talk, 2-3 p.m., Saturday, May 5
Autism is the fastest growing disability in the US with an economic impact of more
than $90 billion. And according to the Autism Society of Oregon, Oregon state has
one of the highest rates of autistic diagnosis in the country.
Photographer Leah Nash spent more than a year focusing on five individuals with
Asperger’s, exploring the diversity and complexity that exists across the spectrum.
However, in the 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, the diagnostic encyclopedia of American psychiatry, the term Asperger’s
will be discarded altogether, replaced with the broader diagnosis of Autism Spectrum
Disorder.
For more information about i witness gallery or NCP visit
www.nwcenterforphotography.com
Leah Nash is available for interviews.