Alum Mira Martin-Parker Calls for Rent Relief amid COVID-19 Crisis

48 HILLS (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Mira Martin-Parker earned a Bachelor of Arts at The New School for Social Research and a Master of Arts in Philosophy and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at San Francisco State. Her work has appeared in various publications, including the Istanbul Literary Review, North Dakota Quarterly, great weather for MEDIA and Zyzzyva. Martin-Parker wrote this letter to the editor of 48 Hills. “I guess I’ll have to sell something in order to pay rent to our corporate landlords this month. I’ve been holding out, trying bide time while my husband applies for small business loans for our café,” Martin-Parker writes. “But we haven’t received a cent yet, even though we applied immediately after the aid was announced. We haven’t even received the measly $1200 checks. Last night my husband had one of his recurring nightmares in which he sees our rent-controlled apartment being emptied out and repainted for new tenants. I was lying awake, staring at the ceiling and worrying, when he started moaning and I had to rescue him from his dream.”