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Tasha “Sixfootah ThePoet” Turner is a native of Oakland, CA and a lifelong Bay Area resident. Unable to be overlooked, thanks to her 6 feet in stature, Tasha has been commanding audiences not only because of her physical presence, but also because of her distinct and attention grabbing poetic delivery. A mother of a 10 year-old son and a die-hard Dallas Cowboys football fan, Tasha’s poetry is a beautiful blend of passion, resilience and bold wordsmithing; often speaking on subjects others may find challenging or uncomfortable to address. On stage she interweaves both sincerity and vulnerability by using her everyday life experiences as the foundation for her message to allow herself the opportunity to make as many personal connections with her audience as possible. As a young girl, Tasha
had feelings of being lost in the world. She was inspired by Maya Angelou’s ability to use words so beautifully that she seemed to transform and transcend many of life’s painful experiences. In the 5th grade, Tasha wrote a heartfelt poem chronicling the relationship between herself and her mother. The poem was submitted to a local magazine, and was later published and for the first time, Tasha was compensated for her work as a poet.
 
Beyond poetry, Tasha aspires to use her talent and personal story to inspire young girls in her community and around the world. Through her personal example and her poetry, she hopes to encourage young women to embrace their uniqueness and ignore negativity; reminding them that they are not alone in the world. Tasha proudly and boldly acknowledges that her belief in Christ and herself, given her the strength to persevere through tough times. Much like Dr. Maya Angelou was for her, Tasha hopes to one day be a visible voice of motivation for another generation; reminding them to be vocal about who they are, confident about their ability to achieve their dreams, and fearless in their quest to share their gifts with the world. 

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Carol McGruder is experienced in the fields of tobacco control, transnational tobacco issues, public policy, social marketing, media advocacy, parent training, health education and community capacity building. She is a highly-respected trainer, presenter, community advocate and program designer with strong interpersonal skills. Ms. McGruder is a seasoned veteran of California’s tobacco control experience and over the years has served in many capacities, most recently as a founding member and co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC).

In 2017 Ms. McGruder was honored for her community activism by the San Francisco National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  In 2010, Ms. McGruder received the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Engagement Award for her tobacco control work in San Francisco. She is also a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Award for community activism in tobacco control, and in 2007 she was the American Legacy Foundation national honoree for “Community Activist of the Year.” She has been recognized by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Berkeley City Council, and American Lung Association for her leadership in tobacco control and community activism.

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For 15 over years, Lou Moerner was the Community Wellness Director for the Northern California Indian Development Council. As such, she oversaw various culturally relevant commercial tobacco programs, as well as working nationally as a trainer in various health and wellness related curricula tailored for American Indian audiences. Lou specializes in adaptation of evidence-based health and wellness models for use in American Indian Communities and has worked effectively with tribes in California and nationwide to assist in the creation of culturally appropriate programs and policies for their Tribal communities. She has adapted two evidence-based cessation curricula for both American Indian youth and adults, authored 18 pieces of tobacco legislation, and chaired multiple community/statewide community coalitions. Lou has presented to diverse audiences at local, state and national health conferences, as well as the Indian Health Services annual conferences.

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Bob Gordon, MPH, serves as Project Director for the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership, a project of the California Department of Public Health, focusing on legislative tobacco-free pharmacy policies. As Co-Chair of the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, Bob helped organize San Francisco’s Tobacco 21 ordinance, a policy which is now in effect. Bob has been honored with a number of awards for his work, including the 2013 Community-Based Leadership Award from the Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs Section of the American Public Health Association and the 2013 Community Activist Award from the American Legacy Foundation.

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Mark Heringer is a SMCCD alumni and a recent graduate from San Francisco State University, where he majored in Psychology with a minor in Queer Ethnic Studies. He is a first generation, queer scholar of color who aspires to attend San Diego State University, to obtain their MPH in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science. New to the tobacco world, Mark started his tobacco control experience as a program specialist in the LGBTQ+ Tobacco Control Program at the San Francisco Community Health Center, where he works on reducing tobacco-related health disparities amongst the LGBTQ+ population. Currently, he is working alongside Skyline’s staff, faculty and students to lead the initiative for a 100% uniform district wide smoking policy.

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Tasha Turner in "ROLLINGOUT MAGAZINE"

Tasha Turner "Sixfootah The Poet" (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Public Health)

Tasha "Sixfootah ThePoet" Turner is a Bay Area native and who commands the attention of audiences with her stature and moves spirits with her eye-opening poetry. Inspired by the iconic Maya Angelou, Turner uses her flow to address uncomfortable topics, like the dangers of menthol and .

We spoke with Turner about an open letter poem she penned to the tobacco industry to stop promoting menthol cigarettes after losing her mother.

What was the beginning of your poetry journey?

It was an outlet as a kid. Seeing how Maya Angelou did what she did with her poetry became an easy way because I wasn't a talker. I can write about it. It's easier for me to write out my feelings than it is for me to talk them out. I started writing in fifth grade.

What inspired the name "Sixfootah ThePoet"?

I'm six feet tall. Growing up, I always was taller than everybody else and I hated it. My mother used to tell me when you become an adult, you'll like your height. When I got older and started actually going to open mics, they used to introduce me as "Seven Footah," because I was always taller than everybody. So I turned my pain and my anger into owning it.

Click continue to watch Sixfootah's powerful video, "What Menthol Cigarettes Took From Me" and learn more about her journey.

I wrote it while entering a contest about tobacco, and what it has taken from me. I didn't realize how painful it was until I read the poem back to myself. I just wanted to write about all my feelings, and just started writing it out. And that's how I came up with the poem.

Why should people raise awareness for issues that are important?

I speak to a lot of kids and make sure that they know that you need to speak up about the things that bother them. It's not good to hold your feelings in. You have to voice your opinion about everything that has happened to you so that you can own it and walk in it and grow from it.

What is the most important message that you want people to take from your poem?

Realizing that smoking is an addiction. People don't realize how much being a nicotine menthol smoker is an addiction. They think it is just like something someone can just put down and move on with their life. Once you become addicted to smoking it's over, and it's just as addictive as and alcohol.

What else can we expect from you in the future?

I host an open mic and I speak at schools about different topics [like tobacco]. I'm also writing a book.

What Menthol Cigarettes Have Taken From Me

By: SixFootah The Poet

I am a mother and a daughter, and I will not be silent because my pain can be someone else's voice. The makers of menthol cigarettes have taken my heart, and ripped it out, with no remorse. They are the creators of a cancer-causing, lung-collapsing, aging-in-a-box of a disease that is a cancer in a stick that caused my mother to get hooked. It's funny how they say cancer doesn't kill, all so they can make a dollar bill. But they created her lover, and since she got in bed with it, her life has been over.

My mother was raised by loving parents in an affluent home. I need you to understand that my mother was not a smoker. But when she began working at a See's Candy store in one of Oakland's wealthiest neighborhoods, she was the first African American manager ever to work there and during their 15-minute breaks, some of the Caucasian women would smoke. One of them handed her one and it was history, she was addicted. My mother said that if she had known all about the side effects of smoking and the damage that it can cause she would have never started smoking. She wishes she would have known ahead of time.

My mother raised us in Oakland. While I was growing up, she tried to quit smoking several times, but she was never successful. Looking back, we remember she spent so much time smoking that we would have to wait to be around her or figure out another way to breathe. She would go through two packs a day and put the cigarettes before a bill. But little did we know that the menthol in cigarettes makes them easier to start, harder to quit and more damaging.

Thanks to menthol cigarettes, I have been losing my mother a little at a time for years. My mother became sick on December 26, 2013, spending her life in and out of hospitals and care facilities due to the damage menthol cigarettes had done to her. Two strokes and two heart attacks, I knew my mother and our lives would never be the same. I spent many nights beside her hospital bed where I cried, all because the tobacco industry lied.

It's funny that they say tobacco doesn't kill and it is our freewill, but in my neighborhood I seem to find more marketing toward my kind where it seems like there are 10 times more signs. The Tobacco Industry has been advertising menthol cigarettes to our community for decades stacking the deck against us, making sure the menthol playing field isn't level or fair.

I wish my story was unique, but I know it's not. In California, more than half of African American smokers use menthol cigarettes, but less than one in five Caucasian smokers use them. That's not an accident. The Tobacco Industry has altered people's way of thinking, that they need menthol cigarettes as a coping mechanism for life. And it's why our community bears the greatest mortality due to tobacco.

But I won't let her story, my story, our story, stay quiet.

On November 2, 2019, my family and I lost our beloved mother. She passed away after suffering serious and debilitating health issues from smoking menthol cigarettes for most of her life. I've lost time with my mother, space with my mother, and memories with my mother.

But my mother was a fighter, and because of her, so am I. With my mother's blessing, over the past few years I began to educate and speak up for my people. Through my poetry, that I perform throughout my community, including at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley, I want people to know what menthol cigarettes have taken from me - my biggest supporter, holidays, birthdays, too many things for me to even count. All gone.

But the one thing they can't take is my voice, and I will continue to use it until no more of our families bear this loss. To hear more about our story, please visit http://www.wearenotprofit.org

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Tasha Turner in "ROLLINGOUT MAGAZINE" Tasha Turner "Sixfootah The Poet" (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Public Health) Tasha "Sixfootah ThePoet" Turner is a Bay Area native and who commands the attention of audiences with her stature and moves spirits with her eye-opening poetry.

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Project Manager
California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership

Primary Areas of Expertise:Advocacy
Cessation Training
Community Organization
Educational Material
Development
Social Marketing
Secondary Areas of Expertise:Multi-cultural Issues
Writing/Editing
Population Speciality:Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender
Secondary Speciality:General Population
Since 2004, Bob Gordon has been Project Director for the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership, a project of the California Department of Public Health. From 2004 to 2007, the LGBT Partnership has provided 88 hours of training and technical assistance to the California Smokers' Helpline. They have also provided 761 hours to over a dozen Proposition 99 agencies.
Mr. Gordon has participated in a variety of LGBT tobacco advocacy projects. These projects range from asking elected officials and LGBT organizations to sign statements indicating they will not take tobacco industry donations to advocating for outdoor smoke-free Pride events and tobacco free pharmacies.
In addition to being a trained facilitator, Mr. Gordon is also involved in coordinating marketing and outreach for The Last Drag, a San Francisco-based smoking cessation class for LGBT and HIV positive smokers.
Contact Information:Bob Gordon
Project Director
California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership
1800 Market Street #4,
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-436-9182
bob@lgbtpartnership.org, www.lgbtpartnership.org

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Project Manager California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership Primary Areas of Expertise:Advocacy Cessation Training Community Organization Educational Material Development Social Marketing Secondary Areas of Expertise:Multi-cultural Issues Writing/Editing Population Speciality:Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Secondary Speciality:General Population Since 2004, Bob Gordon has been Project Director for the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership, a project of the California Department of Public Health.

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This webinar demonstrates how tobacco control supporters can search industry documents at the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (formerly known as Legacy Tobacco Documents Library), and use them in their work. The online collection of tobacco industry documents at the University of California, and several similar databases around the world, provide hard evidence for anyone interested in building a case for tobacco control laws and policies or facing legal challenges to tobacco control measures. Searching these online documents may seem daunting, but as our 1.5 hour webinar will demonstrate, conducting this research is actually quite easy. Tobacco control advocates, policymakers, attorneys, and the public at large can take advantage of the wealth of information contained in tobacco industry documents to identify common tobacco industry strategies and practices, and advance tobacco control.

We describe how to use the publication, The Verdict Is In, which contains findings from the historic U.S. v. Philip Morris civil racketeering case, to identify cited documents in the UCSF library. A library specialist at UCSF's Industry Documents Digital Library demonstrates helpful online search techniques. Finally, the Program Director of the Northern California Indian Development Council provides practical examples of how tobacco industry documents can be used in tobacco control advocacy and education. Sponsored by the Public Health Law Center / Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.

This webinar has already occurred. Please use the resources below:
Webinar Slides [PDF] Presenters:

Maggie Mahoney, Deputy Director, Tobacco Control Legal Consortium

Rachel Taketa, Library Specialist, Industry Documents Digital Library, University of California, San Francisco

Lou Moerner, Program Director, Northern California Indian Development Council

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Digging into Tobacco Documents: Real Life Examples of How to Advance Tobacco Control

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This webinar demonstrates how tobacco control supporters can search industry documents at the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (formerly known as Legacy Tobacco Documents Library), and use them in their work.

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LaTasha Turner "Sixfootah the Poet" Contact Information 

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LaTasha Turner "Sixfootah the Poet" Contact Information 

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INSTAGRAM: @sixfootah_the poet
FACEBOOK: @sixfootahthepoets

TWITTER: @LoveLUVlife
YOUTUBE: SixFootah The Poet

CLUBHOUSE: @sixfootah

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What is Only Fog @ Skyline?

Only Fog @ Skyline is a collaboration project by Skyline College faculty, student leaders/volunteers and San Francisco Community Health Center. Our mission is to adopt a campus policy that removes all the existing nine smoking areas on campus in order to make the college completely tobacco/vape free by March 2022. We believe it is time for the Skyline College to update its campus policy for a healthier educational environment, particularly when students and employees are coming back to campus after the pandemic and we need a healthier air more than ever.

Tobacco is a social justice issue...

Why does Only Fog @ Skyline focus on tobacco? That is because we believe that tobacco is a social justice issue, not only a public health issue. The use of tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths among socially marginalized populations. Amongst the priority populations designated by the California Tobacco Control Program are racial-ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, people in rural environments, people with mental health challenges, members of the military and veterans, and people with low socioeconomic status. These groups are the majority of the student populations that Skyline College serves, too.

Did you know...

Among the LGBTQ+ population, the use of tobacco and alcohol are about 1.5 times higher than the cis-straight counterpart

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking kills 30,000+ LGBTQ+ people a year (American Cancer Society)

In the U.S., people living below the poverty level and people with lower levels of educational attainment have higher rates of cigarette smoking than the general population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Racially minoritized communities are targeted by Tobacco industries (A TOBACCOFREE CA Project)

Want to learn more? Check out this educational video created by Only Fog @ Skyline. The video has easy to grasp information on the intersection of race, sexuality and income with tobacco use in the Bay Area.

Skyline is rated D!

According to the report published by California Youth Advocacy Network in June 2020, Skyline College is rated D for allowing nine designated smoking areas on campus, and this smoking policy has not changed in the last 11 years. Currently, we are behind in the smoking policies compared to other higher education campuses. Over the past decade, both the UC system and

CSU system implemented 100% smoke and tobacco-free policies. In San Francisco Bay area, the majority of community college campuses have 100% smoke and tobacco-free policies. It is time to update our smoking policies for a more equitable campus for everyone.

Resources for quitting smoking

Contact us

We give presentations and workshops in class, student clubs. Please email to have us over! We are always looking for volunteers for our events. If you want to be part of our team, please let any of us know.

Rika Yonemura -Fabian (Sociology/Social Justice Studies faculty): fabianr@smccd.edu

Mark Heringer (San Francisco Community Health Center): mdmheringer@gmail.com

Dr. Cheryl Johnson (Dean of Student Equity and Support Programs): johnsoncheryl@smccd.edu

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Only Fog @ Skyline is a collaboration project by Skyline College faculty, student leaders/volunteers and San Francisco Community Health Center. Our mission is to adopt a campus policy that removes all the existing nine smoking areas on campus in order to make the college completely tobacco/vape free by March 2022.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is Only Fog @ Skyline?

Only Fog @ Skyline is a collaboration project by Skyline College faculty, student leaders/volunteers and San Francisco Community Health Center. Our mission is to adopt a campus policy that removes all the existing nine smoking areas on campus in order to make the college completely tobacco/vape free by March 2022. We believe it is time for the Skyline College to update its campus policy for a healthier educational environment, particularly when students and employees are coming back to campus after the pandemic and we need a healthier air more than ever.

Tobacco is a social justice issue...

Why does Only Fog @ Skyline focus on tobacco? That is because we believe that tobacco is a social justice issue, not only a public health issue. The use of tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths among socially marginalized populations. Amongst the priority populations designated by the California Tobacco Control Program are racial-ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, people in rural environments, people with mental health challenges, members of the military and veterans, and people with low socioeconomic status. These groups are the majority of the student populations that Skyline College serves, too.

Did you know...

Among the LGBTQ+ population, the use of tobacco and alcohol are about 1.5 times higher than the cis-straight counterpart

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking kills 30,000+ LGBTQ+ people a year (American Cancer Society)

In the U.S., people living below the poverty level and people with lower levels of educational attainment have higher rates of cigarette smoking than the general population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Racially minoritized communities are targeted by Tobacco industries (A TOBACCOFREE CA Project)

Want to learn more? Check out this educational video created by Only Fog @ Skyline. The video has easy to grasp information on the intersection of race, sexuality and income with tobacco use in the Bay Area.

Skyline is rated D!

According to the report published by California Youth Advocacy Network in June 2020, Skyline College is rated D for allowing nine designated smoking areas on campus, and this smoking policy has not changed in the last 11 years. Currently, we are behind in the smoking policies compared to other higher education campuses. Over the past decade, both the UC system and

CSU system implemented 100% smoke and tobacco-free policies. In San Francisco Bay area, the majority of community college campuses have 100% smoke and tobacco-free policies. It is time to update our smoking policies for a more equitable campus for everyone.

Resources for quitting smoking

Contact us

We give presentations and workshops in class, student clubs. Please email to have us over! We are always looking for volunteers for our events. If you want to be part of our team, please let any of us know.

Rika Yonemura -Fabian (Sociology/Social Justice Studies faculty): fabianr@smccd.edu

Mark Heringer (San Francisco Community Health Center): mdmheringer@gmail.com

Dr. Cheryl Johnson (Dean of Student Equity and Support Programs): johnsoncheryl@smccd.edu

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Only Fog @ Skyline is a collaboration project by Skyline College faculty, student leaders/volunteers and San Francisco Community Health Center. Our mission is to adopt a campus policy that removes all the existing nine smoking areas on campus in order to make the college completely tobacco/vape free by March 2022.

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Email: onlyfogskyline@gmail.com
Instagram: @onlyfogskyline

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Email: Lou.Moerner@ucsf.edu

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Email: bob@lgbtpartnership.org

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Email: cmcgruder@usa.net

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Email: mark@sfcommunityhealth.org

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At San Francisco Community Health Center, we believe oral health is attainable by all, regardless of race, color, sexuality, gender, or economic status. We focus on whole patient wellness, education and quality affordable dental care. We understand many of our patients have a long history of substance abuse and dental neglect or trauma and feel ...

Get Information

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At San Francisco Community Health Center, we believe oral health is attainable by all, regardless of race, color, sexuality, gender, or economic status. We focus on whole patient wellness, education and quality affordable dental care. We understand many of our patients have a long history of substance abuse and dental neglect or trauma and feel ...

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Mariah Santiago, Program Manager: mariah@sfcommunityhealth.org