[su_carousel source=”media: 35956,35957,35958,35959,35960,35961″ limit=”65″ link=”lightbox” target=”blank” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″]<\/p>\n
<\/b>Ilyich Yasuchi Sato, more commonly known by his alias, \u201cEquipto,\u201d is more than a local rapper, he\u2019s an activist, whose community roots run deep. These roots were clear during an Oct. 6 press conference held in front of San Francisco\u2019s Hall of Justice, when Equipto announced plans to embark on a 14-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Dubbed the \u201cMarch for Justice,\u201d the demonstration sought to heighten awareness of police brutality and hold officers involved in fatal shootings accountable. Marchers had intended to meet with state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, to ask that he prosecute those officers, but according to Equipto\u2019s Facebook page, when they made it to Becerra\u2019s office on Oct. 19 the attorney general didn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n
For Equipto, marching 95 miles to the capital through the worst air quality in the Bay Area\u2019s history is just the latest action in an ongoing fight for justice.<\/p>\n
The Frisco Five<\/b><\/p>\n
Last year as part of the so-called \u201cFrisco Five,\u201d he and his mother, Maria Cristina Gutierrez, along with Ike Pinkston, Edwin Lindo and Sellassie Blackwell, took part in a hunger strike for the removal of then San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr. The strike began April 20 and ended 17 days later, after the health of the strikers began to deteriorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were things like police neglect, police murdering, gentrification, displacement, budget cuts, and racism through the time of four years that were occurring \u2026 and it was all just swept under the rug,\u201d said Equipto.<\/p>\n
Before the hunger strike, Equipto had focused on the issue of homelessness, particularly after an altercation with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround October 2015, I saw Ed Lee in a restaurant and it kind of all just blew up,\u201d Equipto said. \u201cI saw Ed Lee as the problem, so I said to him real quick, \u2018You should be ashamed of yourself, you\u2019re Asian, and you\u2019re part of the reason why people are getting kicked out of here.\u2019 I was putting him on blast. It was a quick 30-second interaction. People who had been kicked out of San Francisco started reaching out to me and thanking me, and to me, that was more of an awakening. It was my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equipto\u2019s focus on homelessness soon expanded to include police brutality. He remembers his mother suggesting a hunger strike, but it didn\u2019t go into full effect until he saw the video of Luis Gongora Pat (a homeless man living in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District) being killed in April 2016 by SFPD officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out, I got to my mom\u2019s job and she\u2019s on the computer watching it and crying,\u201d he remembered. \u201cIt was then my mom was like, \u2018We got to do that hunger strike.\u2019 I thought, \u2018Oh, what the hell!\u2019 But she\u2019s old school and she\u2019s going to bring a different angle to it. So with that happening, we made flyers and had planned that I was going to announce it that night at a town hall meeting. I will never forget, people went crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around day nine of the hunger strike Equipto remembers feeling his senses heightened as he fell into his own world of stillness. By the end of the strike he was taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was concerned with his health, as I know he was with mine,\u201d Equipto\u2019s mother said. \u201cBut I was happy to be sharing this moment with him. I was proud to be with him, it was a bonding moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Music and activism<\/b><\/p>\n
For Equipto, who was raised in the Mission, activism was something of a birthright. His mother was a Colombian M-19 guerrilla who defines herself as a revolutionary organizer. She has many years experience protesting in the name of justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my youth, my mother was always active as far as I remember. I was a kid sitting at the meetings and playing with the other kids there,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, to me, my activism came as a genuine thing, because my background is that with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mother was a prolific public speaker and her speeches\u2014especially one for \u201cFree Mumia\u201d that she delivered at a local high school rally\u2014had a big impact on Equipto. His song, \u201cThe Woman of My Life,\u201d which is dedicated to her, uses a clip from that speech.<\/p>\n
Equipto\u2019s musical background comes largely from his father, Art Sato, who was born in a Japanese internment camp in Amache, Colorado in 1944. During Equipto\u2019s youth, Art Sato was a jazz promoter, exposing him to the backstage life of an artist. Art Sato also currently hosts the weekly jazz and Latin music show \u201cIn Your Ear\u201d on 94.1 KPFA.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far I remember being in meetings with my mother, I remember being in jazz clubs with my dad on the weekends. So, I was rapping since I was like 10 years old, and then when I got into my teens, I got my rap group together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Releasing his latest album with Michael Marshall, \u201cKIM 2.5 Forever Unfinished,\u201d on June 23, 2017 at the age of 43,\u00a0 <\/span>Equipto now has perspective wisdom of a veteran. His latest album, \u201cUpKeep\u201d the mixtape, is set to be released on Nov. 7.<\/p>\n \u201cI listen to my music back then and it\u2019s embarrassing sometimes, but it\u2019s part of growing up. I will never be ashamed of what I went through because it made me who I am. I\u2019m pretty proud of the changes I have made in my life and the direction that I\u2019m trying to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This includes his activism.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we might not win or get any recognition with this hunger strike, but my mission was to let the world know what was going on and it wasn\u2019t just us five, it was the community that spoke and rose and held direct action that lead to Ed Lee firing Surh. Now we have doubled, and we will march to be heard to put these killer cops away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ilyich Yasuchi Sato, more commonly known by his alias, \u201cEquipto,\u201d is more than a local rapper, he\u2019s an activist, whose community roots run deep. These roots were clear during an Oct. 6 press conference held in front of San Francisco\u2019s Hall of Justice, when Equipto announced plans to embark on a 14-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":35959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[9521,15110,15214,15112,9615],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-35955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-equipto","tag-frisco-five","tag-ilyich-yasuchi-sato","tag-march-for-justice","tag-maria-cristina-gutierrez","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n