Author, Land Rights Activist Tours DC Area!

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From: Take Back the Land <takebacktheland@gmail.com>

Author, Land Rights Activist to Tour DC Area
Take Back the Land seized public land and build a shantytown in Miami, Florida,
and currently moves families into foreclosed homes

Max Rameau, a leader with Take Back the Land, a project of the Center for Pan-African Development, will be in the DC area from September 8th to the 11th, advocating "land struggle" as a means of addressing problems associated with gentrification and economic underdevelopment in the Black community. During his visit, Max will participate in two public events and meet with numerous DC area organizations working on issues of land rights, such as gentrification and housing.

Take Back the Land made national headlines in October 2006 when, in response to the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing, the group seized control over vacant public land and built an urban shantytown in the Liberty City section of Miami's urban core. The Umoja Village Shantytown survived six months of government attempts to shut it down, housing over 150 people in the process, before falling to a suspicious fire in April 2007. The Umoja Village was covered by the New York Times, Time.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, NBC News and others.

Take Back the Land is back in the national news, recently featured in Mother Jones Magazine for its campaign of "liberating" vacant government owned and foreclosed homes by identifying those units and by moving otherwise homeless families into the homes- without permission from the government or banks.

On Tuesday, September 9, Take Back the Land will join Empower DC, a grassroots organizations advocating public property for public use, not private profit, for a community discussion about land rights and struggles. The event, entitled "Whose Land? OUR LAND!" begins at 6:30pm and at the Reeves Center at 2000 14thSt., NW (14th and U Streets NW).

On Wednesday, September 10, beginning at 6:00pm, Max will discuss and read from his book, Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown, at the Sankofa bookstore, located at 2714 Georgia Ave., NW, near Howard University.

Max, who was raised in the DC Metro area, will also meet with several DC area organizations, in an effort to build a coordinated land rights movement in the United States.
For videos of the Umoja Village Shantytown and the Take Back the Housing Campaign, visit:
Take Back the Land

Contact:
Take Back the Land
phone: 786-318-1112 email: takebacktheland@gmail.com

Parisa Norouzi, Empower DC
Phone: 202-234-9119 email: parisa@empowerdc.org