The ongoing battle between Grand Canyon University and the residents of the Periwinkle Mobile Home Park are, at this point, well-documented.
As Phoenix New Times has reported, the for-profit Christian university purchased the land the mobile home park sits on in 2016. Last year, it told the residents, who own their homes and pay rent for space in the park, that they had to leave by October 30, a deadline that eventually was pushed to May 28 of this year. But most of the people who live at Periwinkle, many of whom are low-income and some of whom have been there for decades, don’t have anywhere to go.
Plenty of community members, some local lawmakers, and even a few GCU students support the cause of the Periwinkle residents, and now some extra support is coming from an unexpected source.
A quartet of local punk bands — Birth of Monsters, Ape Gone Bad, Mike and the Molotovs, and 80*D — are teaming together for a benefit concert tonight, Friday, February 24, at Yucca Tap Room. The show is free, but donations are being accepted for the people who live in the trailer park.
Mike Lee of Mike and the Molotovs, who helped organize the show, first heard about the plight of the Periwinkle residents from an October 2022 New Times article, and was inspired to help. He’s since spent a significant amount of time with the residents while making plans for the concert, but he wanted to keep their expectations realistic, he says.
He says he told the Periwinkle residents, “We’re just a bunch of local bands. I don’t want to get your hopes up that we’re going able to effect any kind of massive change. But all we can do is keep this fight that you have in people’s minds and keep people talking about it. We’ll raise some money, but I want to be realistic: This is a David and Goliath situation.”
To Alondra Ruiz Vazquez, a Periwinkle resident, just having community support is heartwarming.
“To us, anyone who approaches us and says they want to help in any kind of way, we’re very thankful. We’re devastated right now. We’re going through a lot of trauma,” she says.
“I’m thankful to [Lee] and the other bands who are going to play. They don’t even know us — they have such a beautiful heart and beautiful soul and are willing to help us.”
Fighting for the little guy is what punk rock has always been about, Lee says.
“That’s how punk started. It was a response to the lack of jobs, the lack of housing, the lack of future — that’s what the Sex Pistols talk about, right? The dystopian future that these kids had to look forward to in the 1970s. The economics at that time were horrific and very reminiscent of what’s going on today.
“Punk music is steeped in this intrinsic work within a community; we’re carrying on a tradition that has existed since the beginning of punk music.”
Ruiz Vazquez says the proceeds from the benefit show are the first funds that have been offered to the Periwinkle residents, and they haven’t yet decided how to use them.
“We haven’t discussed what we’re going to do with those funds, but I’m pretty sure we’ll hold onto them and make a wise choice as to how they should be used,” she says.
But even if the concert only raises a modest amount, the support from the community is priceless, which is why tonight’s show is free.
Lee is hoping for a good financial turnout for the Periwinkle residents, but “we want people to be able to come and support. Even if they can’t pay, we still want them to come out and show the members of the community who will be there that they’re not alone in this fight.”
Periwinkle Mobile Home Park Benefit Show. With Birth of Monsters, Ape Gone Bad, Mike and the Molotovs, and 80*D. 8 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. music, Friday, February 24. Yucca Tap Room, 29 West Southern Avenue, Tempe. Admission is free, but donations for the Periwinkle residents are appreciated. Visit the Yucca Tap Room website for more information.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)