📄 Transcript [show]
you you you you you you And even every creature Has run for my soul like a bird She loves me, don't trust me He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine He was a man of mine for the community calendar.
This is the community calendar for some of the upcoming events in the month of August.
Tuesday, August 9th, 6.30 p.m., D-Link, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council will be having their monthly board meeting.
The location is the Los Angeles Theater, 615 South Broadway, and all are welcome to attend.
This Thursday, August 11th, will be the Arts Walk from 4 to 10 p.m., and this is a monthly tradition, a self-guided tour of art galleries, and it's actually the feel of a street carnival, and it's the best people watching in all of downtown Los Angeles, and this is held every second Thursday of the month.
Drama Stagecoom Run presents on Sunday, August 14th, 1 p.m.
at the Exchange, Gospel Brunch, featuring the gifted musical talent of Jamila.
Admission will be $10.
The Exchange is located at 114 West 5th Street, Los Angeles.
Parking is available at 530 South Spring Street.
For more information on this event, you can call 323-850-4436.
Drama Stagecoom Run is presented on Sunday, August 21st at 4 p.m., also at the Exchange.
Performance of Historical Voices from Prison.
This will be a dramatic reading of speeches from Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Dr. King, George Jackson, and Angela Davis.
With the panel discussion, Banu Baroudi, AON Organization, Clyde, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and Dolores Canales.
Her son is in the state's shoe at Pelican Bay.
The panel discussion will be followed with a Q&A, and this is a free event.
If you have a community event that you would like announced on this show, send the information to dramastagecoomrun1yahoo.com, care of Earlene Anthony.
And at this time, back to our host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson.
Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony with our community panel.
Now we have in the studio two guests, Mr. Isaac Clay, Mr. Lee Shaw, who will be doing some performance at the second half of the show.
How you doing, Isaac?
I'm wonderful, Mel.
Okay, Isaac, first of all, how did you, two-part question, how did you get involved with Drama Stage, and what would you be doing performing live in the studio in the second part of the show?
Okay, well, the first part of the question, how did I get involved with Drama Stage, Coom Run?
Soonji Ali, my late friend, who was a good friend of yours also, Soonji was a poet extraordinaire.
He was a writer, and he was also a teacher.
And we were just joking.
We were just joking a little while ago about him trying to do some rap.
And Soonji was one who inspired a lot of poets, people who had put their poetry on the side.
When they met Soonji, they went back to their poetry, and he kept talking about this guy, Melvin, and Drama Stage, Coom Run, and he kept saying, I'm going to introduce you to Melvin one day.
I'm going to introduce you to Melvin.
And then one day, I was at a memorial service for Dodece X, who was also a good friend of ours.
And you showed up, and I introduced myself.
And matter of fact, I came down, and I saw your place, not necessarily your place, but where you did your rehearsals at Six in San Pedro, Church of the Nazarene.
And next thing I know, oh yeah, you were assigned to direct Soonji's play, Black River Rising.
And what really impressed me was the fact that, I think two days, two or three days before we did the play, somebody that was supposed to do a role, your role, they dropped out.
And you had like, what, two days to learn the part, two or three days.
And I was impressed that you learned that part, and you also directed.
And so right after that, we did Nailheads, which was done at the Staples Center at the Clippers game.
And I was able to do the role of the singing head, which I'll do a little tribute to Marcus Garvey, which the singing head does tonight.
And so that's how we got started.
And I was very grateful to you for giving me the role without even auditioning of the role of Marcus Garvey in Catch the Tiger.
And I liked that name, Catch the Tiger, which you explained to me.
Edgar Hoover's a code name for Marcus Garvey, correct?
Correct.
Yeah, so that's how I got started, because of Sunji, the late Sunji Ali.
And I love what you guys are doing out here for the homeless, and I love the sincerity I see that you give homeless people.
One thing you do, Melvin, and I've seen you do this time and time again, I see people come up to you that are kind of shabbily dressed, and, you know, they look like, you know, they're like, oh, I'm a man, but I'm a woman, and I'm a man, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman, and I'm a woman.
I've seen people come up to you that are kind of shabbily dressed and, you know, they look like they're kind of beat up.
But I notice you always take the time to look them in the eye and talk to them.
I've noticed you do that several times.
That touches my heart.
That really impresses me, because sometimes we go through the motions, but because it's the nice thing to do.
And we think, oh, you know, this is what people do when they're trying to obey God, to walk in Jesus' footsteps.
you take your time and go to the side with them and you look at them like they're meaningful to you.
And I just want to encourage you to keep that up because you never know what a kind word does for a person.
Errol, your girl friend, your main lady, sitting right next to you, Miss Erlene, she does the same thing.
And she knows I have a thing about that scripture book, what is that, A Daily Bread, right, Miss Erlene?
Yes.
Because I like to read the word every day and she goes out of her way sometimes when we rehearse at the Church of Nazarene.
Now, I'll look over here for you to see if you have a daily bread and that touches my heart too.
I never told you this, Errol, but I love it when you do that.
Plus, I love the way she treats people and the unity you all have.
Now, let me ask you this.
Second half of the show, what song are you going to do for us?
What song?
I'm going to do a tribute to Paul Ropes and do the song that he's known for.
For Old Man River.
Okay, we'll be back to that second half of the show.
Now, other studio guests, Mr. Lee Shaw.
And Lee, same question.
How did you get involved with Drama Stage?
And what is the open mic spoken word piece that you're going to do at the second half of the show?
Well, I got involved with Drama Stage back in January of 2007 and took on a position as assistant stage manager.
And sometime thereafter, I got offered a part in a play called Surviving the Nickel as a security guard.
In the same play, I later took the lead role of Malik Morrison.
And it's been a blessing after blessing since that particular point.
I also was involved in the Marcus Wright play, Catch the Tide.
I did a few readings.
The latest of the last two was Cages and My Mother's Daughter, I think is what it is.
But so far, it's been good.
You know, Drama Stage has been real good to me.
What is the piece you're going to do for us in the second half sounding off open mic?
The piece is called Poverty Pimp.
Mm-hmm.
Kind of lets you know what people are all about.
You know, some people have best intentions starting off, but they do just like most of them do.
They go Hollywood on you.
And then you know those who they intended to help from the beginning are still lost.
They don't have no fighters.
Okay, thank you, Lee, Mr. Lee Shaw.
Thank you, Mr. Isaac Clay.
Now we're going to go into our host corner.
Thank you, Mr. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Lee.
And this is a tape.
This is a tape that I did about five years ago dealing with Marcus Garvey and J.
Gohuba and Tyler, the Forgotten Tribe of Shabazz.
So thank you and enjoy The Forgotten Tribe of Shabazz.
Because of Nimrod's conquering of the leopard and the development of the art of fortification and freemasonry, his popularity would continue to increase.
Nimrod was able to liberate the people from the fear of wildness.
He would become a figure of immense popularity.
He would don the leopard skin, symbolic of his victory over the leopard and parade before the people.
He was on his way to becoming the first super lawyer, the first superhero, the first superstar.
Nimrod, the mighty hunter, would be worshipped as a god during his lifetime.
An entire system of worship would develop around Nimrod.
Genesis, the 10th chapter, and reading the first portion of the 7th verse and the 8th verse.
And the sons of Cuth, Cuth, Sibah, and Cuth, B'ed, Nimrod.
May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family.
My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson.
And the topic of our discussion is The Forgotten Tribe of Shabazz.
Now, in this particular tape, we're going to break down the mystery and secrets surrounding the tribe of Shabazz.
The word Shabazz is still a mystery to even a lot of people, even a huge majority of the membership of the Nation of Islam, whom the, whom Master Farad, introduced the word to them in the early 30s.
But I want to talk to you about the real meaning of the word Shabazz, especially since there's so much confusion among the descendants of the slaves of America, those who have converted to the religion of our Islam, the revelations of the Prophet Muhammad, and those who followed the Nation of Islam, as we trace it through Master Farad, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and, of course, producing Malcolm X, producing Ema Wolf, D.
Muhammad, producing Minister Farrakhan.
But right now, what I want to do, I want to talk about that.
I want to talk about that.
I want to talk about the forgotten tribe of Shabazz, and break down the meaning of it, because this is a very important word, you know, Shabazz.
But it is also a very misunderstood word.
When we understand the meaning of the word Shabazz, then the identity of the tribe of Shabazz becomes clear.
And, let me read again Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the 10th chapter and the 7th verse that read, And the sons of Cush, Saba, S-A-B-A.
That's Genesis, the 10th chapter and the 7th verse.
Now, in the Quran, this Siba is referred to as Sheba or Saba.
And, Surah 27, after Ayat 22, and this is a Yusuf Ali translation, and it reads, But the Hupi tarried not far.
He came up and said, I have compassed territory, which thou hast not compassed.
And I have come to thee from Saba, with tidings true.
Surah 27, Ayat, Ayat 22.
And then, M.H.
Shakur's translation reads, And he tarried not long, then said, I comprehend that which you do not comprehend, and I have brought to you a sure information from Sheba.
Surah 27, Ayat 22, the M.H.
Shakur translation.
So, Sheba, Siba, and Saba is the same word.
Now, as I mentioned in some of our early discussion, most notably, when we talked about Iraq and the repentance of Nineveh, I mentioned to you that Siba is Nimrod the mighty hunter.
And, Siba is the same as Shabaz.
The same.
So, Nimrod is Shabaz.
If Nimrod is Shabaz, then who is the tribe of Shabaz?
The answer to that question is, who or what is the tribe of Nimrod?
As I mentioned in Genesis 10, 7, Siba is the son of Cush.
So, the tribe of Nimrod is the tribe of Cush, better known as the Cushite Empire.
And keep in mind, that the Cushite Empire is interchangeable with the Kemetic Empire.
Cush is the son of Kem.
And as I mentioned earlier, the word Kem gives us a word chemistry.
The esoteric word for scientific knowledge.
The esoteric icon for scientific knowledge, or technology.
All of these words like Kem, Cush, Shabaz, Moor, Mishram, Sudan, Ethos, and many other words are interchangeable with the word black.
Now, for a complete discussion on the meaning of these words, see the excellent book by J.A.
Rogers, that is called Nature Knows No Man.
It's called Nature Knows No Man.
It's called Nature Knows No Color Mind.
So, when Master Farad mentioned the tribe of Shabaz, he is talking about Nimrod the Mighty Hunger in the Cushite Empire.
Now, how do all of this relate to religion, or in relationship to the nation of Islam?
How do this relate to Islam?
At this point, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to go back in history.
We're going to talk about a little black history, if you want to call it.
I like to call it history.
We're going to focus in just for a minute on a few important figures that lead up to the development of that particular word, Shabaz.
First of all, let's talk about Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement.
So, the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
And at the same time, sort of like running parallel, would be Noah Drew Alley and the Moorish Science Temple.
When we talk about the basic time period, we would be talking about 1914, when Noah Drew Alley would move from the South, North Carolina, into New Jersey.
And there, he would found the Moorish Science Temple, which is a very important organization, very important part of African American history.
But the more important and centralized organization was Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
Now, what made this such a very important part of the history of the African Americans, the descendants of the slaves in America, and we deal with a lot of these concepts right now, is the individual who would have the first major case of neutralizing Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
And that person was J.
Edgar Hoofer.
J.
Edgar Hoofer, a very important person, a very important figure in terms of the development of law enforcement thought here in America.
He was the real founder and developer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, known, most famous as the FBI.
One of the first things that J.
Edgar Hoofer had to do when they sent him from Washington to New York was to develop something called the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
And that was to develop some kind of plan to deal with Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
So here's what Hoofer did.
First thing he did was he took this black, middle-class doctor who was an enemy of Marcus Garvey.
We'll talk about that a little later on.
But the most important thing he took was he took this black doctor and he gave him the code name Confidential Informant Number 800.
And he put him inside of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
And because of his education and knowledge, he was able to move up into the inner circle.
And he was able to study the movement from the inside, the weaknesses, the strengths, the various fractions, etc. And through this particular study, this particular act, and studying this particular information, Hoofer developed the concept that was called infiltration and disinformation.
And it had two major steps.
It would take an infiltrator, making sure that that infiltrator, in the majority of the case, would be the same ethnicity or just say would be the same racial makeup.
Not all of the time, but in the majority of the time, as a group that they were planning on infiltrating.
This particular infiltrator would study the weaknesses and the strengths, find out the different fractions, and through the concept of disinformation, they would split these fractions and cause all kind of internal turmoil to keep these various groups from achieving their major goals.
Now later on, this concept of infiltration and disinformation would become known as the counterintelligence program, better known as COINTELPRO.
This is what made Marcus Garvey and the Universal Improvement Association so important for studying the history of this period and finding out exactly what happened.
This is when most of the plans was actually put in place that's affecting us right now in the year 2005.
In the year, right here in October, it was October the 20th, 2005, the year 2005, 2005.
Now after J.
Edgar Hoover used this methodology to bring down Marcus Garvey and destroy the Universal Negro Improvement Association, as I mentioned, he would perfect this into a technique that would be used in the 60s, most notably against Malcolm X and against Dr. King.
Now what was it really about Minister Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King that made them such a threat to the American ways of life in the eyes of J.
Edgar Hoover?
The answer to that question is found in a memo by J.
Edgar Hoover in response to a discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King.
This memo in which J.
Edgar Hoover would send around to most of his trusted FBI agents would become known as the Hoover Memo.
The memo reads, to prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement, Malcolm X, Malcolm X might have been such a messiah.
He is a martyr of the movement today.
Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position.
Elijah Muhammad is less a threat because of his age.
King could become a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed obedience to white liberal doctrine.
This movement should be a movement of nonviolence and embrace black nationalism.
This was an FBI memorandum that was issued on March the 4th, 1968.
Keep in mind that it was a few weeks after that, up in April, the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis.
The goal of this memo was to prevent the rise of a black nationalist movement.
of a black Messiah who could unify the black masters.
Hoover never forgot his experience with Marcus Garvey and the fear that the Garvey movement caused.
This was the foundation for the creation of the underground program that I mentioned called COINTELPRO, whose sole purpose was to neutralize any organization deemed un-American.
Both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King had the potential to duplicate the success of the Marcus Garvey movement.
As long as Malcolm X was part of the organizational structure of the nation of Islam under the control of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was no threat to duplicate the success of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
The same in relationship to Dr. King.
As long as Dr. King was part of the organization of the American people, Dr. Martin Luther King was under the conservative non-violent movement of civil rights, he was no threat to duplicate the national and international success of the Marcus Garvey movement.
But with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize and his opposition to the Vietnam War, this took him like Malcolm X when he separated from the nation of Islam out of the arena of civil rights into the arena of human rights.
From the national scene to the international scene.
Moved by Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King from the national arena of civil rights to the international arena of human rights.
Okay, now we're gonna move into our next section, Voices from the Community section, this subject dealing with the homeless.
Make sure they say who they are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay, so our first question is, what's the number one challenge in being homeless?
David?
David Briggs.
David?
Okay.
Being away from friends and family.
Okay.
Anthony's probably elaborating on it.
Not just friends and family.
It's like being homeless, you never know who you're gonna wake up next to or...
What might go on next to you.
Yeah.
I ain't gonna.
I think it's unfair.
Number one challenge is, my name is Charles Dominic.
Number one challenge of being homeless is trying to find employment.
It's kind of hard.
You don't have a permanent house.
And that kind of reflects from your resume to the employers.
How about you?
Oh, I'm Robert Dukes.
I think the challenge is finding permanent housing.
I think it's a challenge.
I think it's a challenge.
I think it's a challenge.
I think it's a challenge.
I think it's a challenge.
I think it's a challenge.
Alex Syrah.
How do you guys handle your hygiene?
How do you get your hygiene or hygiene stuff out?
Well me, Anthony.
Me.
I'm on GR and that helps me get some of my hygiene stuff out.
Do you go to the Missions or any service centers down here for hygiene kits or anything like that?
Do they give them away?
I haven't heard.
This is the first time me hearing them giving away hygiene kits to be honest with you.
Thank you.
So you don't like the midnight or any of those facilities?
Do you know if they give away?
Do you have to be a resident there or signed up with them some kind of way?
So you just can't walk in on the street?
You just can't walk in off the street.
That's not too good.
What's your experience been like?
My experience, I'm on GRL.
So sometimes on the weekends, people drive by in trucks or cars and they give away 100 hits.
That's how I move to get my hits.
So what do you guys think about this incident that happened here, I think in the last 24, 48 hours with that homeless woman on Boyd?
I think she was great.
Okay.
Have you heard about this incident?
No.
There was a Hispanic woman that was walking with a stroller up Boyd Street through the Toy District and she had her baby strapped into the stroller.
This black woman came up and pulled her out of the stroller and proceeded.
She had to fling her around, fling the child around.
And then when the police caught up with them, they asked her, well, why did you do this?
And her response was, I wanted to eat the baby's arm off.
Wow.
I think that was kind of ballistic, really.
It was kind of crazy.
You know what I'm saying?
And see, that's the problem down here.
You're working with all peoples from different walks of life and you never know where they're coming from.
You might just say hi and that might just push it.
You might just say hi and that might just push it.
And then had him to turn on you or, you know, something like that.
And I think that if she wanted to eat the baby's arm, I think she should have took the mother because the mother's arm is bigger than the baby's arm.
That's a good one.
She said that you're dealing with peoples down here that have mental problems.
And so when you're around them, some of you are because they have lost jobs and some of them are sick and so on.
But some are just mentally ill.
And I think you're a moment.
And I think that if you live out out out out out out out out out out out out out out out Yeah, I'm all right.
It's scary down here.
Luckily, I had my guitar on my back, so she actually came from behind.
My guitar was on my back.
One of those El Cabong moves, right?
El Cabong moves.
Yeah, well, she made the mistake of attacking me when I also had my pool stick.
I took that out of the case.
You know, Handy, you made a lot of good spoken word pieces on LAPD and stuff.
What's your opinion or your feelings about this beating in Fullerton in the last few days?
They beat the guy to death?
Yeah.
That's crazy, too.
Yeah, I saw the picture that Swallow put out there, and I was like, whoa.
That's another Rodney King issue.
Yeah, that's another thing.
Yeah, Rodney King was lucky.
This guy wasn't lucky.
They should have learned enough from the Rodney King incident to not just beat everybody to death.
And they should have learned that with all the cameras out there and cell phone cameras and stuff, that, you know, somebody's...
Yeah, somebody's always going to have this.
Well, I'm from Detroit, and I heard that the LAPD was the most prejudiced...
Ambitious. ...lead force in the United States.
Yeah.
Closing up...
No.
That's true.
That's very true.
No cut of boundaries on that beating thing.
Okay, the last question is, what do you guys think can be done to help solving the homeless problem?
Start over.
Opening up housing projects and stuff for people and don't discriminate because one might have a record from here, which could be 19 years ago.
Okay.
Sorry.
How about you?
I think, like she said, I think they could have more...
Housing.
Yeah, more housing projects.
Yeah.
Because, and then they, like, they have shelters, but all the shelters are overgrown.
They're overcrowded.
Right.
And then they ought to just, like, label some, but people with...
Mental people should not be in with regular people.
Yeah.
They should have a place for them.
They need to get help.
And they need help.
Where somebody can watch and maintain.
Yeah, exactly.
I know a lot of federals.
They can't be by themselves.
So you have to have somebody there to kind of watch them.
Because if they don't, they may end up hurting themselves or someone else.
Close the jails down and make shelters.
For people.
Yeah.
I heard some shelters...
They build in jails.
Why can't they build shelters?
Right.
And some shelters charge.
And a lot of people can't afford it.
So...
Yeah, what's up with that?
I mean, for years, the union just let you in.
You know?
No charge.
Now, all of a sudden, because of their budgets and they just don't have the money anymore.
And then if it's a free shelter, then it's some kind of glitch to it.
Mm-hmm.
Where you might have to go to school or you might have to work or something.
Get them your money or whatever.
Right, right, right.
And that's so unfair.
Okay.
Well, that wraps it up.
And what I would like to do is close it up by getting everybody's names once more.
Your name is?
Robert Durdes.
Robert.
David Breeds.
David.
Antonice Powell.
Charles Dominick.
Okay.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
All right.
Okay.
Our last section for today.
Our last section for today is a live.
In the end.
One studio performance starting off with Mr. Isaac Clay.
He's going to do a piece for us called Old Man River.
Mr. Isaac Clay.
One of the most beautiful musicals of our time came from the prolific pens of Mr. Jerome Cairn and Mr. Oscar Hammerstein.
And one of the most beautiful songs of our time from that musical was made even more famous than the musical by the late, great Mr. Paul.
Ropeson.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a tribute to Paul Ropeson.
There's an old man called the Mississippi.
That's the old man that I long to be.
What does he care if the world's got troubles?
What does he care?
What does he care?
What does he care if the land ain't free?
Don't look up and don't look down.
You don't ask, make the rich boss frown.
Bend your knees and bow your head and pull that rope until you're dead.
Let me go away.
From the Mississippi.
Let me go away.
From the rich man's farm.
Show me that stream called the River Jordan.
That's the old stream that I long to cross.
Old Man River.
That old man river.
He must know something.
But don't say nothing.
He just keeps rolling.
He keeps on rolling along.
He don't plant it all.
He don't plant it all.
He don't plant it all.
He don't plant it all.
And he don't plant cotton And them that plant some Is soon forgotten But old Man River He just keeps rolling along You and me We sweat and strain Body all licking And rack with pain Tote that botch And lift that bell You get a little drunk And you land in jail I get weary And stay And sick of trying, I'm tired of living, but scared of dying.
But old man River, he just keeps rolling along.
Okay, Mr. Isaac Clay.
Next, we're going to have a sounding off open mic by Mr. Lee Shaw.
He's going to do a piece called Poverty Pimps.
Poverty Pimps are the community activists who failed to call out the vampires who sucked the lifeblood of the community.
They might be your friend, but they're still selling dope and overpriced goods, and that's still a sin.
Just like the money.
I ain't changing you suck the lifeblood of the community.
Think you so cool because you walk with a limp?
I know better.
You're just a poverty pimp.
Using the misery of the community to get what you want.
Things stay the same while you run your game.
Seeking to cause disunity so you can scream.
The system is the problem.
It's just a dream.
Now you act like you don't know what to do.
You don't care about the community.
You care about you.
You are the system because you pimp like the system.
Pimping off the misery.
Pimping off the misery of the community.
Poverty pimps walking with a limp.
One foot in Hollywood and the other one in Skid Row.
Like we don't know, still playing the master's game.
Pimping in Skid Row.
Poverty pimps.
Dropping your pants and walking with a limp.
Showing your behind like a poverty pimp.
You all for yourself.
You don't care about the rest.
You want the worst for the young, not what's best.
You all getting caused confusion like the hypocrites do.
You don't care about the community.
You care about you.
Pimping off the misery of the community.
Selling dreams that turn into nightmares.
Acting like you care.
Leading the people nowhere.
The blind leading the blind while the community stays behind.
Poverty pimps.
Sucking the lifeblood of the community without the fancy clothes and car.
You still a poverty pimp.
That's what you are.
Poverty pimps by Mr. Lee Shaw.
Next, we have Ms. Earline Anthony.
She's going to do a piece from the play.
She's going to do a minor block from the play Nailheads, which is a play about the 80 to 100,000 people who sleep on the streets of Los Angeles on any given night.
Ms. Earline Anthony.
My name is Auto Head and I'm a nail head.
My present home is my automobile, my car.
I live inside my car with my daughter.
I'm a nail head.
I'm a single mother.
She's 13 years old and I'm a single mom.
I never thought it would be like this.
I never thought I would be living in my car.
I live in my car but I'm still homeless.
I'm just one step from the street, one step from the shelter.
I got a college degree and I used to work in an office and I made pretty good money.
Enough to make a down payment on a house in a nice neighborhood.
A good environment where my little girl could grow up.
Then my house got foreclosed and I had to move into a smaller apartment.
And out of nowhere, they downsized and cut my job.
And I looked and looked for work before my unemployment check ran out.
My check ran out last month and the only work I could find was telemarketing.
And it was only part time.
I'm trying to hold on but it's getting hard.
I got to hold on for my little girl.
I got to be strong for her.
But for now, my car is my home.
I don't want to live in a shelter.
I want a place of my own, a place I can call home.
It's getting hard out here.
There's no telling what's out there waiting for me.
I'm trying to hold on but it's getting hard.
My name is Auto Head.
I got a little girl.
And I live in my car.
Hey, Miss Earline Anthony.
Auto Head from the play Nail Heads.
Our next show coming up, we'll be dealing with the subject would be the homeless.
And we'll also be talking about prison reform.
I would like to take this time to extend a special thanks to Jeremy and the Skid Row Studios.
And thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report.
And I leave you with the song that opens the show, Colonial Man by Hugh Masekely.
Thank you.
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Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
