Get yourself on Skid Row. If you want to understand me, I'll get up. If you really want to help me, I'll get up. Run in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. If you get off me, I'll get up. If you want to understand me, I'll get up. If you really want to help me, I'll get up. Run in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. The people who are talking to me, are we going to make it right this time? And if we're ever the same, come shoot. Good for nothing, they all figure. Just the boy who's strong, the ship is jiggered. Now we gonna stand for that? Or is that really what we're saying? I'm your brother. As you stand in your glory, I hope you're mine. If I tell a whole story, part of your system, I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. As I walk the streets, the seats roll. You can see my hands ain't shaking, but my legs ain't triggering. I turn the corner and keep it the trash. Look up at the street sign, it says San Julian. Look back down and make eye contact with his brother. And now I'm feeling not in status of where I should be. He looks around, a thousand of his friends have raised their crackpots to the lips and hears him simultaneously. Tell him, yeah, I'm getting high. I'm feeling good. And sister, don't you know you need to try. Now I'm standing here with visions of crooked politicians. Admission of records, lying in their greedy pockets. Some think it's a joke that folks are living low from social injustice. And we know that's not how it's supposed to be. So if you can get up, stand up, the destination's depending on you and me. Maybe for a dark room, are we going around this town? Remember that we said go through. Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante, who will be performing in concert at the Exchange, Sunday, March the 25th, 2012, at 3 o'clock p.m. The Exchange is located at 114 West 5th Street, downtown Los Angeles. Welcome to the Qumran Report. 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 I'm in the studio with my co-host, Mr. Tyrone Robinson. This week, we will be talking about jobs in the 1992 L.A. rebellion, with Georgiana Williams and Kei Nsumi of News and Letters, and an in-studio performance from the play Nailheads by Ms. Andrea Ross. Georgiana, Kei, Andrea, welcome to the Qumran Report. Thank you. Thank you, Melvin. All right. Now, I want to jump right into our discussion of the 1992 L.A. rebellion and how it relates to jobs. But first, I would like to read something that would give us some background and focus for our discussion. April the 29th, 2012, marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion, when the barbaric beating of Rodney King, the former president of the L.A. police department, was seen by four LAPD officers, was videotaped and shown on national TV, the youths of South Central Los Angeles and other impoverished areas could no longer contain the rage of the constant daily police harassment, brutality, and racism. The same four police officers were acquitted in the trial in Semivalley, which is a suburban, white, community with many police residing there. For the black and brown youth, a lifetime of Jim Crow racism and daily humiliation by the police expressed itself in rage when the verdict of not guilty was announced on April the 29th, 20 years ago. The city erupted into three days of militant protests, fires, and looting. Over 12,000 people were killed and over 50 people were arrested, and over 50 people were killed by the National Guard and police. At the intersection of Florence and Normandy, a white truck driver named Reginald Denning was pulled from his truck and beaten by angry black youth. For weeks, the media focused on this incident as if these youths were the blame for the entire revolt. The prosecutors stacked a number of charges on defendants, including Lance Parker, Damion Williams, Keith Watson, and Anton Miller. There were three separate court trials for these defendants. Damion Williams was especially targeted by the media and remains incarcerated. Reginald Denning had no avenging motive towards these youths and would never call in as a witness for the prosecution. The conditions for these youth in blighted and underserved neighborhoods have not improved much since 1992. The effects of the high unemployment rate have resulted in many social disruptions, constant police repression, and today, massive prison-industry conflicts. On Saturday, April 28, there will be a memorial gathering at Florence and Normandy Avenue. Immediately following, there will be a block party on 71st Street. The keynote speaker will be Maxine Waters. There will be poetry, music, and a multicultural potluck. So join us from 12 to 5 to celebrate this event and to bring attention to what's happening in the community now. You are cordially invited to attend a unity rally in remembrance of this 1992 Los Angeles! The!! and after-school programs to the 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion? There are no jobs in South L.A. They took them all to China, to Mexico, and every place else. The only thing we got in South L.A. is rock cocaine. And it's going to take some brothers and sisters like you and I to get it out of our neighborhood. Since the rebellion, they made many promises. Congresswoman Maxine Waters started Community Bill and gave a lot of young men a chance at a new life by teaching them how to be young men. But now very few young men over there is involved with Ms. Waters' class. I go over about once a month and cheer them up and talk to them. But every time I go, there's somebody going to jail. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And every time I go, I see the police circling the block and all this ass. If the police doing the same thing, they say, yeah, I left. I thought if I would leave that street, that the police would stop harassing the young men. Because I had many talks with them. I said, you accused my son, and he's in prison. Why are you harassing these young men? Had they had a part in the rebellion, I said they would be in prison with my son. So I decided to leave. Tell us who your son is. My son is Damian Williams. They called him football. Mm-hmm. But the same thing is still going on. I was there a few days ago. Who did I see? The police. When I was over there telling them that we was coming on April 28th and have a unit rally, and we was going to try to heal the hurt that has been going on from generation to generation. Our young men that don't get a good education, even the ones who go to school, a lot of the kids over there I know graduated from high school and can't. They cannot read. Mm-hmm. When Damian and Keith and Antoine and all was going to court, I said, let's do a letter-writing campaign to the judge. I had one young man who could write a letter, and he didn't even make a capital I. That's how bad the school is over there. Yeah. We don't have no business over there. They got business, but they're not black-owned. Mm-hmm. But it's going to take more than me to make a fuss. Mm-hmm. The whole community has to cooperate, and say, well, if you bring a job in this community, you have to hire some of our young men and women. That's right. Before I left, I was going to the places and asking them to hire someone, a Mexican or an African-American. I know that Molly Bell in Compton was telling people to give African-Americans a job, like the ones who have their $1 Chinese food and one hour four-toe, you know. Mm-hmm. We're asking them to give somebody in the community a job. But if you go back to Florence and Normandy, you will see that the liquor store's still there. They got Chinese fast food. You will see a subway. The 76th Station is still there. And they have the Chevron Station. But go in there and see if you see any African-American people working. Now, who represents that area? When I was there, it was Mark Ridley Thomas. Mm-hmm. But he's the supervisor now. And then I was told that Bernard Parker, who was the principal of the park, was the councilman. I don't know who was the councilman over there. Okay. Is there any job training programs in that immediate area? No. The only job training we had was community-built, was Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Mm-hmm. Okay. There was no after-school activities like it was, say, an example, 30 or 40 years ago. No, I moved over. I lived over there 35 years. In 1971. Okay. In 1971, when I moved over there, there were after-school programs for the young people. I went with some girls to Fremont to be nurses' aides. Mm-hmm. They had some after-school programs years ago, and especially for the young ladies that got kids before they got out of high school, they had a program where you could go and you could be a registered nurse, or you could be a beautician. Mm-hmm. But they don't have any programs now, and I, there's a saying down south, Melvin, I'm sure you're familiar with it, you got a rude hog, a die-poor pig. Yeah. Yeah, for me. Yeah, they used to have the SYEP programs, they used to have a program called CETA. All those were after-school programs that I believe Ronald Reagan cut those programs. In the 80s. In the 80s. Because they needed to get ready for this industrial complex that we call the prison system today. Right. Let's talk a little about that. Before we get into that, let me ask you, what is the atmosphere or the gang situation in that area now? Well, I don't, it's not active anymore, because I, like I said, I go over there, and I talk to the ones that used to be the gang leader, and now he's just as sweet, as nice as he can be. They have a group called C-Spy. Yeah, C-Spy. And all the brothers that used to be in the gang has educated all the brothers and sisters that it's a waste of time to kill someone that look like you. Yeah. So I know that the A-Trades are not, they not, they not violent anymore. Well, let me ask, Tyrone, you want to say something? In the wake of the riots and the rebellion, the Crips and the Bloods announced a truce to end inter-gang violence. The call for a truce reflected the growing intolerance among all segments of Los Angeles community towards drive-by shootings, gang crimes, and gang violence. But that didn't last. They broke the truce. Yeah. Let me ask this. What is the, I'm going with your person, I'm going to open it up. I'm going to open it up to, feel free to jump in too. Please. I'll answer or have something to say. What is the relationship between the increase in the prison industrial conflict and the economic conditions in the communities we find over there in Florence and Northern? I know that the prisons are packed because I go to visit my son. They building more prisons. We don't need no more prisons. We need some schools and we need some jobs. We need better education. We need some training centers. We don't need all those prisons. Hey, you want to say something? Well, there's a direct relationship if you don't have work. What are you going to do? You know, you got to make a living somehow. But you don't have to do a crime to make a living. What I understand, you know, you're going to have to make a living. I understand. You know, I was reading old news and letters and this person that wrote, this black man, working man that wrote for News and Liter on the L.A. Rebellion, he said that the Bloods and Crips Truth was in March the month before. But what I heard when the truths were breaking was that the police wanted wanted the truth to be broken. They did want it to be broken. Yeah, because they went out and they project and watched. You remember they was having that big gang truth celebration? And the police went to the projects and watched and broke it up. Okay. Now, the second part about after we come back from our community cameras, we're really going to try to reach out and talk about some creative solutions for this. I see I've got a couple more things that I want to get off into. But, Andrea, did you want to say something? I just have one comment regarding the prison structure in this nation. And I think it's a sad testament to say that the number one business in this nation is private prisons. That is the number one business generating capital in this nation. Private prisons. And that is a sad testament to our great country. Why not rehabilitation? Why not schools? Why not intermediate intervention before kids get to the point where they have to don a weapon and feel like they have to take someone's life? I'm talking 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10-year-olds. Because, as most of us know, children are very savvy nowadays. They do not have to be 12. They're 15 and 18 before they know about gangs and guns and violence. So my pitch is get them while they're young. Get them while they are young. Now, Georgetown, let me ask you this. What is the involvement of the churches and the community organizations in that area? I don't know. The only church that I know that was involved was Bishop McMurray and Greater Bethany, Pastor. And Andrews and Faith United Methodist Church. Those were the only two that I know that was involved. Now, tell me this. Is it any after-school programs in that area for young people? No. Like, none at all? No. Nothing at all. Okay. Let me ask you this. Can you, let's talk a little about what you was doing, where you were when this rebellion jumped off. I was at work. Okay, let's talk a little about that and your reaction to it. And, and... Well, I wasn't surprised because I had been to Simi Valley as a visiting nurse because I was doing home health visits. Yeah. And a patient let me know that I wasn't welcome. So, if I wasn't welcome as a nurse, you can imagine what kind of personalities they have and what they think of us. So, when they moved it to Simi Valley, I knew they were going to be found not guilty. Mm-hmm. Without a doubt. Now, now, Damien, at that time, he was, what, 18, 19? Yeah. Yeah. Tell us, talk, tell us about, let us know about Damien. What was Damien like before all of this happened? Growing up? Yes. Okay. We spent a long time down south with my mom. She was sick. Damien went to private schools, private Christian school, Arthur Christian, and then Marcus Garvey opened up. Okay. He was part of Marcus Garvey also. Yeah. He went to the Marcus Garvey school. Yeah, over on Slough. Great. And then he was very good at football, and he wanted to go to the public schools to see if he could be a professional football player. Mm-hmm. The last two years in school. Mm-hmm. And that's when he started hanging around with the neighborhood kids. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Can I say something? I heard, I think, Georgiana, you were saying that when he was growing up in the neighborhood and hanging around, he was very generous. The kids never had money, and if he had 10 bucks, the kids would get it. Yeah. Yeah. So what was it like those two years that when he did go to public school, what was his, how did he change? From very, very kind and gentle. It was like he was lost. It was a whole new thing for him. Mm-hmm. For when I went into public schools, they didn't have it in the private schools. Mm-hmm. What is it that they? had in the public schools that they didn't have? Baggy pants from one. Talking back was two. Okay. He never had homework was three. But the football coach kept him busy practicing football after school. He just seemed to lose interest once he left the private school and went to the public school. He didn't have no interest in anything but football. That might be because the curriculums in the public schools are just a farce. I'll just be honest with you. I agree. In this neck of the woods, it is a farce. What we know public education to be is not what it should be here in our community, and therein lies the crux of the problem. I agree because my granddaughter was also taken out of private school and put in public. She never studied and stayed on the honor roll the whole two years she was in a public school. And she graduated early because she turned 16 May the 4th and graduated two weeks later from the 12th grade. So it is a big difference in the public schools than in the private school. So I say that to her mother. If you can afford to keep your kid in a private school, you forget football, you forget basketball, you keep them in the public school because once you let go, it's a big change. It's a big change going to take place. Okay. Let's take a little break for our community calendar, and then we'll come back and have a roundtable discussion like we're doing now on our subject's job in the L.A. Rebellion. This is the community calendar for March. On Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 3 p.m., Drama Stage Coombran presents, The Community Calendar for March. The Community Calendar for March. The Community Calendar for March. The Community Calendar for March. The Community Calendar for March. The Community Calendar for March. Donald Bakir. A special book signing of I, too, can create light. A memoir in music, poetry, and prose by the author of the novel, Crips, and co-writer of the movie adaptation, South Central. Special musical guests, The Passion Band. Hosted by yours truly, Andrea Ross and Melvin Ishmael Johnson. The location at the... The Exchange, 114 West 5th Street in Los Angeles. This is a free event, and all are invited to attend. For more info, call 323-850-4436. On Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 3 p.m., Drama Stage Coombran presents, Willis and Shante, featured in a mini-comic, The Concert. There will be performances of open mic as well. The location, The Exchange, at 114 West 5th Street in Los Angeles. And this, too, is a free event, and all are invited to attend. For more info, call 323-850-4436. And finally, on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, at 9.30 to 10.50 a.m., Drama Stage Coombran will be on the campus of USC doing a performance of Nailheads for the Department of American Students and Ethnicity. If you would like to attend, please call 323-850-4436. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the info to... dramastage1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earlene Anthony. And once again, our call number for the show is 800-893-9562. And now, back to our host. Thank you, Andrea Ross. Now, we're back with our guest, Georgiana Williams and Kay Ong Sumi of News and Letters, key organizers, for the upcoming Memorial and Block Party coming up on Saturday, April the 28th, 2012, from 12 to 5 p.m. at the corner of Florence and Normandy, the center point of the 1992 L.A. Rebellion. Now, I want to open this back up to a roundtable of discussions, and I want to try to look at some solutions to a lot of these things. And I want to talk about the community. First thing I want to talk about is how can we get the churches and the community organizations more involved in these underserved areas like Florence and Normandy? You want to take off, Kay? Well, okay. Today, we have an economic crisis, and it's a crisis, not a crisis. It's not a crisis. It's not a crisis. Not only, it's largely a crisis of unemployment, and a lot of people that have jobs have part-time jobs. These companies that hire people for part-time, they don't have to pay benefits, health care, nothing, so they want to have part-time workers. It's the nature of the world that we live in, the system that we live in, and I could go into details. why but meanwhile we need to change the system where everybody everybody could have a job I had I could see that if everybody had a job and we produce what we need now what companies make money for but what the people need and the people decide by committee but I mean okay that's great we don't get to do we don't talk about the job thing in details in a minute yeah I want to know how do we call these because one thing that they always tell me about the communities that I see at all of these inner cities yeah you're gonna have a churches and liquor stores bunch of those everywhere all around so what I'm seeing because I know when I was coming up or early the black church especially black church in the community was a very important organizational structure now out here we have bunch of churches we got so many community organizations that I I just can't name is so many of them so what I'm trying to say is how can we get these organizations and these churches and stuff to step up you know to step up to the plate let's talk about that for a while George and you we we couldn't go knock it on doors at the churches we've already asked in the community when I was over there as the owners who had business in our community to give someone a job it doesn't always work some of them do and some of them don't and then we have a problem with our young men and young women they don't want to work for minimum wages so I think what we really need to do is get our kids educated so that they can qualify for a good job that's the main thing they need to go after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after an education they need life skills right they need to know how to do something so you know if you give them a job and they can't read instructions how they gonna do it we gotta we we gotta get on them schools we we from kindergarten these kids need to learn to read and write and know math okay we're going to talk about that in a minute tyrone okay um let's put it this way i've been here for after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after and starting stuff and problems and not providing any solutions for them. What you have to look at in the inner city, I believe, is you have to look at the problem of greed. You take care of that greed problem because every church, it seems, in the South Central area is out for themselves. It's not like they want to work together to come up with a common solution. They seem to be building schools all over the place in South Central, but what kind of education are the students getting out of those schools? They're just pushing them through to make numbers. The end product is fodder for the jail systems, the prison systems. Back in 83, thoughtful observers agreed that racial intolerance and siege mentality by many police officers towards the community was not a good thing. They were opposed to the idea that the community was supposed to protect and serve, use excessive force, police abuse, racism, poverty, lack of opportunity, crime, drugs, and loss of hope in the inner city. This was back in 1983 when they came up with these reports. The conditions still exist. There's no change. Emma. Andre. And therein lies the problem. There is no change. How do you... How do you say to a bootless man, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you have no shoes on? So it's left to our wiles to try to come up with creative solutions for our own children. They need rehabilitative programs when they are liberated from the penal system that most of the time they're just recycled, recycled, institutionalized, and it's a revolving door. So when they come out, they have nothing. They have nothing else but to resort to the crimes that got them there in the first place. Right. So you need an intervention right there. And even prior to getting to prison, the young children, and I cannot preach that highly enough, young children ages five to 12, you gotta get them early. You gotta have hope early. So when you do become a young adult, you can make a rational choice and decision. Okay. We're gonna talk about that in details in a minute. I don't wanna leave this to you. I'm gonna leave it to you. Okay. I don't wanna be so pristine yet about churches and community centers, but I don't wanna put it just on churches, because I remember a lot of cities on the East Coast and the Midwest, like Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, at one time, the nation of Islam was very, very strong in terms of being in the community and so involved in the community. So I just don't wanna put it on churches and Christians. I don't wanna be so pristine yet about churches and community centers, but I don't wanna put it just on churches. I don't wanna be so pristine yet about churches and Christians. I don't wanna be so pristine yet about churches and Christians. I think religious organization as a whole have an obligation also. And let me ask you this, what is the involvement of the groups like the Nation of Islam in these areas, especially over there? Well, I noticed that they take our brother off the street, educate him and clean him up. And so... Okay. I'll tell you this, they teach him how to take care of himself. They don't mind selling papers. They don't mind getting on the corner selling pies. But the average black man is not gonna go on the corner and sell no pies. So we need to have something to offer them. Yeah, structure for them. For an example, they took BF, what was that, Goodyear? That's where the post office is on Florence and Gage. They used to make tires, now it's the post office. And how many African Americans are there? Americans now can pass that post office test. Okay, let me bring up the next point that I want to throw out for discussion. Because I stay pretty close to the downtown area. I used to stay in the Skid Row area. Now I stay pretty close to the MacArthur Park area. And one thing that I've noticed in that area, the couple years that I've been staying there, is that they have excellent after-school program called OLA, right? It's about 98% Hispanic, even though an African-American is the executive director. And it grows and grows and grows, very involved in the community. And they take these little young people, volunteers, teach them computer training and all. They got a Laker room up in there where the Lakers get involved and all that kind of stuff. Why? What would it take? To put an after-school program right in these areas that we're talking about, like Florence and Normandy. A same kind of program, just what we was talking about earlier, what you was talking about, how important it is to grab these little youngsters when they're young to teach them how to read and become computer literate and all that kind of stuff. What do you think it would take to put a program there in these communities? Some parents getting together with some community, people, some politicians and the churches, the entire community need to get together. And get some kind of after-school program. What do you think, Tyrone? Well, the program you're talking about, OLA, I believe their focus is different overall. I don't know how to say this without being politically incorrect. It seems that a majority of the people that attend OLA are Hispanic. That's okay. That's okay. I just feel that Hispanic culture has a different outlook on family than most black families in the inner city. They stay tighter. To me, it seems that there's no more grandmothers. Yeah, extended family. There's no more extended families or grandmothers in the black community. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they have to leave the dollar and cents at the door and just be able to go in and say, okay, this is what we're going to do, but we're not going to line our pockets with the money or the donations. We're going to make sure that our community gets this. We're not going to put this in our garage or put this in our storage unit like a lot of people do or a lot of organizations do. But we're not going to name those. Go ahead. But one, and then I want to open it up to Andrea, one similarity that I do notice, and you're definitely right about the extended family thing, but that's something that used to be a central part of the African-American cause, especially everywhere but Los Angeles, as far as I'm concerned. But the MacArthur Park area, the similarity to the MacArthur Park area. To say, for example, the Florence and Norman area is that one time, you're talking about a gang, I mean, the 18th Street, I mean, it used to be so gang over there. You didn't even want to ride through there, even on the bus, just traveling through. And I think what they were able to do, and that's one of the other points I want to bring up about this area, because that's where Earlene is at now, right at the neighborhood council meeting, is do they have... Do they have a neighborhood council in that Florence and Norman area? If they do, then where is it? Who's involved with it? Do anybody know anything about that? I guess I'll have to run next time. Yes. Well, you know what, Melvin? I'm thinking about when Ola came into being and that whole MacArthur Park renaissance started to kick in. That was following the breakup with Rampart Division. Yeah. When they had... When they had all that stuff come up with the cops being involved with the drugs and all the local gangs, 18th Street or whatever. And once that problem was neutralized, Ola shows up, the park cleans up, the city, that area becomes family oriented once again. So maybe you have to look at what kind of corruption is going on in South Central still. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Who's paying who to keep what's going on there going on? Yeah. And where are all the... Where are all the funds? Exactly. Where are all the funds? Exactly. From the city, from the state, from the federal government. Exactly. Where have they been misdirected to? Because obviously they are not finding their way to where they were meant to be. You know, back during the Watts riots, because I grew up in Compton, Kennedy had a little thing called the Model Cities Program following the riots. He put money into the city of Compton. This was back in the 60s. That money did not show up until the late 70s, early 80s. With the redevelopment of Compton Boulevard... What happened to that program, No Child Left Behind? Exactly. Exactly. Now, also, let me say this about the next one that I want to move into. And I want to bring up something because we was involved just a few months ago with the prison hunger strike, where they wanted to call attention to the inhuman condition that was tortured. Yeah, and the prison was nasty, dirty. Yeah. Yeah. The guards mistreat the inmates. Exactly. And what I wanted to bring up, because when I used to sit down and talk to some of the people in the planning committees, and I wanted them to expand it farther than that. Because most of the people, it was a known fact for a long time that at these high-level security housing units that they call SHU, what was going on can be defined as torture. That's a good question. But I wanted to take it farther. I wanted to take it to the extent that all of these young men who have gotten caught up and they find themselves at the level one and level two section, these are the ones that are coming back to the community. See, and this is what I want to talk about now. How can we push for job training programs, not only job training, but retraining programs? Because we've got a lot of young men out here in the community. That need to become computer literate because of the high-tech side that we live in now. Okay, but they used to train them in prison. That's right. Until they got rid of them. Because I know some brothers came out with a PhD. But all those classes that they had in the prison, they got rid of them. All the activities they had outside, the gym activity and the family visits, all that's been taken away. They don't have anything now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after like to know system go ahead are we supposed we're not the number uh as we're supposed to be the lowest number in the united states right if we're the lowest number how come we got more african american men in the prison we're not now we got because we got the black and the brown yeah but the spanish-speaking brothers now are number one but a few years ago they had more african-american men in prison than anybody so i said if we're not the minority how how can we have so many men in prison that's right well that goes back to what we were talking about earlier this is the best way for our government excuse me for our government to come in and bust up the family unit if you understand what i'm saying whatever happened to the atomic family the mother the father you know little joey or little two car garage it's non-existent now the united states has turned into a a a consumer we don't make anything anymore and if we do make stuff it's crap you know and that's why we have all of our businesses and all our jobs have gone overseas outsourced exactly the manufacturing base that used to be the staple of the middle class here in the united states has been outsourced to every other country but our country okay before we uh i want to jump right back to uh the memorial event come back we want to just highlight a few of these things uh about the memorial and the block but i won't tell me about the oh pastor andrews passed away pastor andrews was the pastor of faith united yes the police the sheriff to everybody told him not to associate with me and my friends that we were violent we were drug dealers we just everything you can name they told pastor andrews but he stuck with us till the end so he passed away and i want to remember him uh antoine miller was killed lance parker died dorothy freeman was the chair she died miss petty helped me cook she died so we're gonna remember all of them saturday april 28th and then we come into our old block where i used to live and we're all gonna cook we're all gonna we're gonna have poetry we're gonna have music and we're gonna we're just gonna have people just voice their opinion what can we do to make a change ourselves that's right you can't pin on the politicians you can't depend on the school so we got to do like we did when i first moved over there you was everybody's mama everybody looked after everybody's kid if you had to work then i kept your kids when it was time for me to go to work you kept my kids we got to go back to it because if you if you depend on somebody else to help you get done you can just forget it we need that grass i left the neighborhood in the 90s and every time i go back i want to cry it's going down when i first moved over there it was mostly white people it was considered a middle class neighborhood and then they all moved out it was all black and now most of the blacks are gone and it's brown people and no one is encouraging the brown people to keep the neighborhood up when i was there i used to come home every morning and make them clean the street up i said i don't even have no baby kids over here running around the neighborhood i didn't have any kids over here running around the neighborhood after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after Thank you very much. Really enjoyed. I think we covered a lot of ground here. Now we're going to move into our last section, Voices from the Ether portion of the show. If it's Monday night, about 15 minutes to 9, then you're listening to Voices from the Ether. My in-studio guests tonight are Miss Andrea Ross, poet, writer, and illustrator of children's books, and joining her tonight will be Melvin Ishmael Johnson. They are going to be reading from the play Nailheads. Nailheads, the play, is the result of a project that was started at the USC Peace Center a few years ago, and the idea was to collect building nails, the kind of nails that are used in the construction of a house. And the number of nails that were collected were close to what, Melvin? 130,000, 140,000? Yeah, 80 to 100,000 nails. We collected 80,000. Right. The number of nails represented the number of homeless that sleep on the streets of Los Angeles on any given night. So what Melvin and Andrea are going to perform here is an excerpt from the play, and Andrea is going to perform. She's going to perform the character of Feminine Head, and Melvin is going to be the social worker. So, with further ado, Miss Andrea. Thank you. And I am the feminine nailhead. And oh yes, I do exist on Skid Row. I symbolize the women of Skid Row, seeking to keep our heads above the water, seeking to raise our kids, be good mothers and watch them grow up. We got families, and we love our children, and we got to be strong to survive the nickel. You see, it's a struggle to keep our femininity down here. Skid Row don't discriminate by gender. It's hard on males and females. That's a fact. And don't think you know me just because I live down here. I'm trying to survive. I'm trying to better myself. You don't know me. I have dreams and aspirations just like you. I love children, family life, and all that stuff you see on TV. You better get out of that TV world and get real. Who said that? I said that. And you know who I am. I'm the one who looks out for the children who can't look out for them. They can't look out for themselves. Well, I take care of my children myself. Same old song. Until that guy called, until you hit that pipe. I don't hit no pipe. How did you get down here in the first place? I'm not making any excuses. Are you in a program? Let me tell you something, Mr. Social Worker. I'm down here because I have made some bad choices. But I'm not going to let you beat me. I'm down with your negative thoughts and your too many forms. You're just trying to find out about me because you don't know about yourself. What do you mean? I have faith in God and in the goodness of human beings. And believe me, this situation, it is just a temporary test. And I do plan to pass. Yes. Now, I am the social worker. I am the social worker for the recovery zone. We try to separate the wheat from the tares. And I must admit that sometimes we uproot the wheat trying to pull up the tares. I'm here to document and evaluate what is happening down here. How else can we find the answer? I must ask the right question trying to find the solution to the puzzle called skid row. Let me see now. 80,000 homeless. 30,000 beds. Hmm. That just don't add up. Now, skid row is a puzzle made up of many pieces. Pieces like babies, children, the elderly and the poor. The sane and the insane. The good and the bad. Believers and non-believers. A laboratory. A laboratory. The wheat and the tares. The failure of the tares to support the wheat. Time allows the wheat to get strong and separate from the tares. Now, feed and nourish the individual. The individual will nourish the family. The family will nourish the community. The community will nourish the nation. And the nation will nourish the world. I'm here to tell you that I have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of work to do. But after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after Truck driver was pulled from his truck and beaten at the intersection. A news helicopter also captured a beating on a videotape of a Fidel Lopez, a contractor and Guatemalan immigrant. He was beaten on videotape near his home near the same intersection. Chow Tsao Cho, an immigrant from Hong Kong, was dragged from his car, beaten and robbed on videotape. The question is, what happened to those perpetrators? Why didn't they get as much publicity? As Miss Williams' son did. To close out, I found a little poem. It's a poem written by a young man who's probably not that young anymore. The gentleman's name is Grinit. The poem is called Twilight. This is the piece that's based on his reflections. From the riots. Twilight. Excuse me, excuse me. I am a human that lives in this country. My culture and background is of diversity. But people in this country told me about pursuit of happiness, freedom and liberty. So can I get some peace up in this piece? Because in 1992, signs were held up by my peeps. Protests screamed, no justice, no peace. L.A. scorched. Indicators. Degrees. By fires and riots and bloody beats. Broken glass. Broken faces. Broken hearts. And broken streets. Broken purposes. Broken futures. Broken dreams. And L.A. streets. Please, described in one word, I'll say mayhem. Described in a sentence, I throw the world. I threw the world. Was gonna end. Oh, okay. Okay. I thought the world was gonna end. That's so much better. In this case, no justice had a verdict named destruction. Destroy buildings. Blacks, lats and Koreans. Punishment set from the poe now to life. Set, no bell set. Just served the time. 1992 was struck in twilight. Fingers hit triggers while eyes hit cries. Bullets hit bodies while smoke hit the skies. God couldn't see what was happening. Smoke covered. God covered his vision. God couldn't hear what was happening with all the screaming. He couldn't listen. I've heard actions speak louder than word tones. That means the riots spoke in the microphone. Here's a Maxine Waters quote. Riots is how the people spoke. By fists and gats and by mouths and throats. It's no joke. Violence is how we got the attention cuz. How else would anybody listen to us? So with that, I'd like to return the show. after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after after Thank you for having me. And it's one question I always ask. I've been a white man they have in prison for the wrong that he did to the black. I hope to see you April 28th. And let's try to heal what happened years ago and get a good future for the future kids that are coming. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, some of our kids will be in the bank. If God is good, we'll have another black president. And I sure want him to be able to read and write. God bless. And remember, Jesus love you. I do too. And there's not a thing you can do about it. God bless. All right. Kay. Well, I just say come out to the event on April 28th. That's it. Have a good time. You got a phone call. You actually have a phone call now. Oh, let's see who we got on the phone. I just say come out to the event on April 28th. Hi. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Let me cut this down. I can't hear you. Hello. Hello. Hi. I'm calling for Miss Andrea. Andrea's here. Yes. Hi, Andrea. Hi. Hi. I wanted to know. My name is Talitha. And I just wanted to know, like, how many kids do you have? How many females do you actually come in contact with on the Skid Row? And how long have you been doing the nail head thing? You know what? Statistics don't bear out exactly how many females we have down on Skid Row. They really don't have an accurate count. I mean, like, how many do you guys, like, help from time to time? How many do you guys actually interact with? You don't keep count. Well, once a month, we do clothing. We do clothing. We do a drive where we open up our doors to the exchange and we give away clothes to the community. And we do that the last Sunday of each month. And you'd be surprised how many people are so thankful how many females with children come in and are very grateful for what we do. And if I had to guess, I would say well over a third of the people residing on Skid Row are females and children. So we still have a lot of work to do. And thank you for calling. And thank you for your question. No problem. I think what you guys are doing is an amazing job. I actually had the chance to come and see one of your plays at the college in L.A. And I really enjoyed it. So keep up the good work. And I wish you guys all the best. Thank you so much. And thank you for calling in. We do appreciate it. God bless you. That was your comment anyway, Andrea. That's great. Absolutely. Yeah. Tyrone. I would say any question. I still go back to Gil Scott here on the revolution will not be televised. It will be live. It will be live. So that's it. L.A. Okay. I would like to extend a special thanks to our in-studio guest, Georgiana Williams, Kay Usumi, Andrea Ross. One of our guests, Mr. Lee Shaw. My co-host, Tyrone Robinson. And a special thanks to Jeremy Sonia and the Skid Row Studios. You can check out our past shows of the Coombran Report on iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, skidrow.la, or www.dramastage-coombran.org. Thank you for tuning in to the Coombran Report. And I leave you with the song that opened the show, Darker Than Blue, by Willis and Shante. What does that mean? Are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true? I don't get up if you want to understand me. I don't get up if you really want to. I don't get up if you want to help me. I get up, in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. If you get off me, I'll get up. If you want to understand me, I'll get up. If you really want to help me, I'll get up. In Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. The people who are darker than me, are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true? Good for nothing they all figured. Just a boy and she. I don't get up. The boy has grown, my shit is jiggered Now we gon' stand the day Oh, is that really what we say? I'll be right back