📄 Transcript [show]
Are we going to be around this town?
And let what I said come true If you get up for me, I'll get up If you wanna understand me, I'll get up If you really wanna help me, I'll get up Running to this man, I'm going to get up If you get up for me, I'll get up If you wanna understand me, I'll get up If you really wanna help me, I'll get up Get up, in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up The people who are talking to you Are we gonna make around this town?
And then we say, come shoot Good for nothing, they all figure Just a boyish rope, a ship is a jigger Now we gonna stand for that Oh, is that really what you say?
I'm your brother As you stand and you grow red I hope you don't mind If I tell the whole story Part of the system I know you think you've come a long way I know you think you've come a long way As I'm walking straight to the road You can see my hands ain't shaking And my legs ain't trembling I turn the coin and keep it in trash Look up at the street sign It says San Julien Look back and say Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante of Positive Light Ministry.
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 coming at you from Skid Row Studios.
Our call-in number is 800-893-9562.
Listen to us live or you can download our show and any past show by googling in skidrow.la and hit Qumran.
This week on the Qumran Report, we will be talking about the culture, arts, and after-school programs with Tony Brown, Executive Director of OLA, Heart of Los Angeles, one of the premier culture, arts, and after-school programs here in Los Angeles for our young people.
Sitting in with Tony is Lee Shuby, and also my co-host Earlene Anthony will talk about the Peace Kids.
Tony, I'm glad to be here.
Thank you.
Yeah, Tony, I'd like to jump right in and start with you.
Can you tell our listening audience a little about your background?
My background?
Well, I'll tell you what.
I love the arts.
I love kids.
I loved being a kid, and I don't think I want to grow up.
How's that?
But, you know, I was lucky.
I'm the youngest of four boys.
My eldest brother was 18 years older than me.
My next two, the brother next up for me was 11 years older.
So I guess you could say I came around and had my own life.
My middle brother always says I'm the oops baby.
But, you know, I watched what my elder brothers did.
I always wanted to be with them, around them, like them.
And I was lucky to see an artist in the brother next up for me.
I was lucky to see someone who was aspiring to practice.
I was lucky to see someone who was doing well in law and do well by community.
And I was really lucky to be able to see my eldest brother love his children and want to take care of family.
So I had some really good examples ahead of me.
Unfortunately, two of my eldest brothers passed away.
One early on in the early 90s and another about four years ago.
So, you know, I also learned from the mistakes that we've made in life too.
So I had messages coming at me and through me.
And I was like, oh, I'm going to be a good artist.
Through me both ways.
And I guess you could say that I was blessed in my life to have had many great opportunities that my parents were able to provide for me.
Maybe a little bit different than what my elder brothers had.
You know, my father was a doctor.
But he chose to serve.
He was the clinic director at the Hubert Humphreys Clinic.
Also the Dr. Martin Luther King Clinic.
He was LA County Public Health Officer.
He was blacklisted for some of his work.
For some of his political views in the early 60s and 70s in Pasadena politics, he wanted to always serve those who couldn't serve themselves.
That's how he wanted to be known in terms of how he practiced.
He could have done private practice, but he said, no, that's not for me.
So he probably rubbed off on me a little bit too.
And my mother was a teacher.
So I just learned a lot of lessons in life, positive and negative, and learned to stay away from the negative and turn those into positives.
So when I see the arts and culture, my brother Tim, he was an artist.
And I love this guy.
He was full of life.
He always made me smile.
Most of the time he made me smile.
But all the time I was just so amazed at his talent as an artist.
And I loved to hear him talk about music and photography.
And it was just incredible to me to see how much life he got out of sharing that aspect of his life.
And I would say that society sometimes, particularly when we were growing up, didn't necessarily seem to value a young African-American man who wanted to grow up as an artist as being serious.
So today I just want to make sure that kids can express themselves through art and realize that they can have a very successful life ahead of them and that they can do it.
And that they can absolutely fit in and connect.
Beautiful.
Now, can you tell us a little about the origins of Ola?
The beginning.
Well, Ola was started by a good friend of mine, Mitch Moore.
I met Mitch in the early 90s, though he started Heart of Los Angeles at Old Manuel Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Barrendo.
And he was a tenor soloist there, and he was also doing some other things.
But more than anything, in 1989, there were a lot of kids who were getting shot in and around that neighborhood, in and around that church, just hanging out.
And Mitch thought, that's just wrong.
You know, kids can't even stand outside and just be kids without having to worry about, you know, are they going to live or die?
So he decided he was going to bring these kids in and give them a basketball and let's just play some hoops and let's just get to know one another.
So he started with five kids and a basketball.
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
And that was in 1989.
And, you know, a few weeks later, those five kids brought a nephew, niece, uncle, cousin, all that good stuff.
And Heart of LA grew rather quickly, and Mitch realized, I need reinforcements.
So he brought in all of the friends that he knew who would be willing to just spend some time with these kids, be mentors.
And a lot of those friends happened to be similarly to Mitch, you know, in the music or entertainment business.
And they started to do theater and help these kids to, you know, express themselves by either writing plays themselves or just listening to their stories while they wrote plays.
Wow.
And then they would act those plays out for the kids.
And then later that evolved into the kids writing and acting out their own plays about their own lives and their own struggles.
Mm-hmm.
So it was a really powerful, great place.
And, you know, that was 1989.
These kids had a safe place to go, a safe haven back then.
So they're coming up to a 24-year anniversary?
25th anniversary.
25th.
Next year, 24 years.
Yes.
Right.
Wow.
Now, how did you first get involved with Ola?
I hope Mitch is not listening.
But he and I shared a business partner back then in the early 90s.
He had a design business.
And I had a sports camp business working with kids.
And he and I shared a partner, a business partner.
And this business partner told me, you need to meet my friend Mitch.
And this is the part that he's probably going to, you know, call in and refute everything I say from this point forward.
But she said, my friend Mitch was really just trying, you know, to keep kids safe.
But Tony, between the two of us, he doesn't know what he's doing.
We need to help him with the program.
No.
So in I came.
I was used to working with kids and creating programs.
And, you know, I asked Mitch, how can I help?
And can I help?
And he was, you know, the place that he's created is one in which volunteers are always welcome.
And we try to maintain that through to today.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
well, Mitch, I can actually probably help you grow it even more.
There's a lot of little kids I see running around, and they're just literally running around this old church.
Let's give them some structured activities.
So we went from having one or two programs that were really full-blown programs to ultimately having nine programs by the time I left three years later.
So I was with them from the end of 92 to 95, and we ended up having about 600 kids we were serving annually in 1995.
At the Emmanuel.
At Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.
And Mitch would always say, you know, when he got into that Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, he started building out room after room of that church.
So it started off with, you know, one room and a gym upstairs.
Then he said, you know what, now that more kids are here, we need to refurbish this other room right next door.
So he started to refurbish that room.
And he said he had a vision.
If he could just fill those halls with the sounds of kids' voices, it would do a lot to lift the spirit of that church, of that community.
And that's what he did.
That's how he started.
And you know what?
He was right.
And you also do an annual music event at the church.
Is it still at the church over there?
They still do it over there?
We do.
You know, we do a number of different events.
But one of the ones that we've done at the church more recently is we have our orchestra program do its holiday show at that church.
But, you know, it's funny.
The orchestra program has grown now.
So they're performing all over the place in and around the holidays and throughout the year.
But certainly Emmanuel Presbyterian is a rich part of our history.
And we continue to try to reconnect with Emmanuel as often as we can.
They're good people.
Let me ask you this.
What do you think?
What difference do you think after-school programs make in the lives of young people?
You know, I told you I like to be a kid for life.
And one of the things I've noticed, you know, LAUSD went on a huge, you know, building spree.
You know, they received all that bond money.
And up went these schools, particularly in the neighborhoods in which we serve.
And the one thing I noticed, and this is just me driving by a school, is they don't look like the schools from my day.
You're right.
They're a little more warm and inviting, right?
You're right.
They look different.
They just have different aesthetic and they feel different.
And when I talk to the kids, a lot of them don't really care to stay at school any longer than, you know, minutes after the school bell rings.
You know, for a lot of the kids that we serve now, you know, school's a place that has a lot of pain and a lot of stress.
There's that idea that, you know, this is why I'm failing in life.
They don't have that feeling of success.
When they come to Heart of Los Angeles after school and when they go to after-school programs, I think it gives those kids an opportunity to reinvent themselves.
Yes.
To have a start over, a do over.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
They're not with perhaps the kids who've been bullying them during the day.
Now they're with kids from a variety of different schools.
They have a fresh start.
And they're getting a lot of things that they're not getting at school anymore.
Mm-hmm.
That's a good point.
Programs are being cut, you know, the arts, music, P.E.
You know, they're getting all that.
And that's their creative outlet.
They don't have that in school anymore.
Mm-hmm.
Because the play that I was talking about earlier, Bronzeville, before it opened up in the L.A.
Theater Center, they did three readings at the Accelerated School.
It's called the Accelerated School over there.
I know.
It's that off of Main Street in there.
And one of the things, I was talking to the music teacher over there, and he was telling me how they cut the theater department.
They're cutting back on all of the culture arts program.
And I thought that particular neighborhood needed an increase instead of a cutback on that.
Mm-hmm.
Now, how can we create, how can the city create more after-school programs like OLA, especially in gang-infested areas, since we know OLA went into a gang-infested area and was successful?
How can we use that as a model for a lot of the little areas in the city of Los Angeles?
Sure.
You know, I think one of the things to do is to start with, you know, someone who really, really cares to spend consistent, time with the kids in that neighborhood, wherever that neighborhood might be.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and I think the consistency is key when you're starting something out.
Now, I get it.
You're a volunteer.
You have other things you have to do.
You know, my predecessor, our founder, probably ran into the same challenges when he was first starting out of Los Angeles.
But if you're going to be there on a Saturday, be there every Saturday.
Pick one day a week.
Start that way.
Don't try to say, oh, I'm going to start.
It's nonprofit, and I'm going to, you know, open the doors.
I'm going to be here every day, and we're going to make this work, and this is going to be incredible.
Do what you can do and do it consistently.
Mm-hmm.
Because, you know, these kids rely upon a lot of hope.
You know, hope for an alternative.
Hope for a brighter future than the one in which they're living.
And we're talking about going into gang-infested neighborhoods.
You know, they've been let down many times in life, and that's part of why they've joined the gang.
Because the gang has come in and said, hey, listen.
I know this person's let you down.
I know that person's let you down, whether it's your parents, your school.
But don't worry, me and the homies, we're there with you.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we won't let you down.
And so if you're going to create something, make sure you don't overcommit and do what you can do and do that consistently.
I think that will help you launch something that kids will want to come back to.
Because trust is a major issue.
That's what's been broken.
You know, I think, you know, our country has this social contract that we're going to take care of our children.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we're going to send them to schools that are safe.
We're going to, you know, create neighborhoods and parks that are safe for them to play in.
We're going to give them outlets to where they can be creative and express themselves without being bullied for it or without being, you know, jumped into a gang.
We're going to do all these great things.
Well, you know, if you're going to take this on and recognize that you have a responsibility then, right, to be consistent and to be someone that these kids can trust.
Mm-hmm.
Let me ask you this.
One of the things I noticed from living in the MacArthur Park, Lafayette Park area is the difference that these two parks are so close to each other.
What do you think one of the major reasons why they're so different?
You know, okay, so we can have a history story.
We can talk about sort of the day-to-day now.
But, you know, first we'll start on the history.
I can remember when MacArthur Park did the Weed and Seed Program, right?
Mm-hmm.
They installed cameras on top of all the high-rises.
Oh, yeah.
Remember that?
Mm-hmm.
So they did that.
And, you know, anytime there was a deal or an issue, the police were right there to be able to manage that situation as best they could.
Well, the criminal element left MacArthur Park and they came over to a sleepier Lafayette Park.
Yes.
Right?
And then Lafayette Park encountered a lot of problems, particularly in the late 90s and early 2000s.
So I can certainly speak to why Lafayette, Lafayette Park has transformed and renaissanced.
And what I see from when I look at MacArthur Park, Lafayette Park transformed, in my opinion, because the community started to, and Heart of Los Angeles is at the heart of this community at the time, started to take pride in investing in the young people in that surrounding neighborhood.
For so many of that, the densely populated buildings, you know, those kids, that could be there, that could be in their backyard, if someone would go in and program it out.
So Heart of Los Angeles, together with LA City Recreation and Parks, we came up with a way together as partners to be able to offer free programming out of that park to the families that would live around it.
That was a huge, huge difference maker right there.
You know, we had the LA 84 Foundation who came in and said, we will build a soccer field.
Nike did the same.
We will come together and we will build a soccer field if Heart of Los Angeles will help to manage Mm-hmm.
the programming and activity that would happen off that soccer field.
And Heart of Los Angeles, for its part, said, we will work together with LA City Recreation and Parks and these foundations, and we will provide close to a thousand kids with soccer every year.
Well, guess what?
That brought kids into that park on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis.
And I remember before we were able to do that, before that soccer field was built, no one but adults would be playing in that park.
And when no one, but adults were playing in a park, the weed smoking in and around that park, the drinking in and around that park, the gang members hanging out in the park, the gambling, it was all, it was on and cracking in the wrong way.
But when we were able to carve out some space, programming, and activity for the young people, you know, that park started to turn around quite a bit.
So when I look over at our neighbor, MacArthur Park, again, I saw somewhat, a similar renaissance when Levitt Pavilion came in and started engaging the community with free concerts in the summers.
And then I saw our art program as one example of a group that went in there and started to do unbelievable music and cultural arts and visual art programming, public art in that park.
And then I started to see other youth groups coming in to do soccer and some of these other things.
So I'm starting to see MacArthur take flight again in a nice way and head more towards the future.
So I'm starting to see MacArthur take flight again in a nice way and head more towards the future.
So I'm starting to see MacArthur take flight again in a nice way and head more towards the future.
So I'm starting to see MacArthur take flight again in a nice way and head more towards the future.
So I'm starting to see MacArthur take flight again in a nice way and head more towards where I think Lafayette Park is in terms of the vibrancy of programming and opportunities that exist for kids living around it.
The other thing I would notice is that, I don't know if you're aware, but sailboats have been sailing in MacArthur Park Lake the last two years.
And then my director of leadership, Lauren Rubin, brought, with Lifesail, brought boat making into our neighborhood.
So kids can actually learn, middle school age kids can actually learn how to build a boat.
And then they take it out.
They culminate by taking it out of MacArthur Park Lake and sailing it.
And that, I think, can you imagine the visual of driving down Wilshire Boulevard now and on certain days looking over your shoulder and seeing beautiful sails?
It just changes the feeling of that neighborhood.
You know, something very beautiful can happen there.
Gives everybody hope.
Yes.
Now, how important is faith-based, the faith-based community to after-school programs?
You know, faith-based community can be great for after-school programs.
Heart of Los Angeles, you know, we're non-Secretarian, right?
Mm-hmm.
But what I'll tell you is this, we have core values.
We have core values.
Our core values are posted up throughout all four of our buildings on campus, as is our mission statement.
And every program looks to, speaks to, reminds kids of, has them really learn and understand our core values.
And I think religions have the same opportunity to teach those morals, those values, and see that they're carried through.
And those values are very, very powerful for our kids.
It's how they learn.
And like anyone, we all make mistakes, and kids make probably more than most.
But for kids, what's nice is they are absolutely teachable moments.
So when kids have a tough time with a core value, we can go right back to it, and we can explore that core value.
We can talk about it.
We can learn from it.
We can grow from it.
Mm-hmm.
And it's pretty interesting because, you know, we offer programming year-round now.
But in summers, when we usually will have the largest influx of kids who've never been a part of the programs, and you start to see the difference, what a difference a year of having core values and values can mean, those kids are very different than the kids who just come in and bring the lack of values that have been stripped out of education, and they're very different than the kids who just come in and bring the lack of values that have been stripped out of education.
And so, you know, sometimes in religion, they're prominent.
Sometimes in after-school programs like Heart of Los Angeles, they're prominent.
And oh, what a difference.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Can you give us, again, the mission statement of Olunk?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, sure.
I mean, Heart of Los Angeles, you know, we're around to serve after-school, free after-school programs for kids who are living, you know, at risk, you know, or for whatever reason are underserved.
And we want to provide them with the highest quality of exceptional programming.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
And we want it to be academic.
And we want it to be academic.
And we want it to be athletics, whatever it is that gets you in.
And then we want to also make sure that we empower the kids when they're there, And we want to provide them with the highest quality of exceptional programming.
And we want that programming to be in the arts and culture.
We want it to be academic.
We want it to be athletics, whatever it is that gets you in.
And then we want to also make sure that we empower the kids when they're there to pursue post-secondary educational opportunities.
I mean, in short, I want to see that these kids become the first in their families to go to college.
And then we know that if they can do those things, and we'll create a nurturing environment which they can do it in.
But if they can do those things, we know that they're going to probably want to come back and strengthen their community.
Whether their community is the one that surrounds these two parks in this neighborhood, or maybe they move on to another community that has an at-risk or underserved population that they're going to strengthen because of the experience that they had by coming through Heart of Los Angeles.
You know, it's pretty neat.
I've got it.
I heard from an alumni.
I recently, his name is Jermaine Levy.
One, he wants to run for office.
Two, he's in Inglewood.
And three, he started his own program.
And this is a graduate of our program.
Great.
And I love that.
And so that's our mission statement.
That's what we hope will happen.
What do you think, as far as young people are concerned, the age in which they are more at risk?
It used to be we were worried about them in high school.
But if we're waiting for something bad to happen in high school, we've missed the boat.
You know, so we know that third, fourth, and fifth grade, sadly, they're being targeted.
They're being targeted by, in our neighborhood, by gangs.
You know, they're looking, the gangs are highly organized.
And they're looking to find that kid who's sort of floundering out there, that they can go in and try to rescue into the gang.
And it's also a time for these kids, academically, where if they start falling behind, there's no hope.
You know, there's no catching up.
So all of it really comes in and helps these kids, you know, goes into the schools, advocates for them.
How much do broken families or single heads of the household play into at-risk kids?
You know, a lot of times that can be the, that can be a cause of a lot of pain, a lot of struggle at the kids.
Kids will have to endure and try to overcome.
There's no question there.
But the kids can, if they're given that intervention early enough, and early enough meaning actually even through high school, studies have shown that they can actually overcome those things.
They can develop the executive function.
They can work on their ability to be resilient.
They can work on those non-cognitive skills that are so important for them to be able to be continually successful and resilient.
And that's what we're trying to do in life, despite the challenges that are going to come their way later, right?
So they're not without hope.
Yes, that might have been a cause for something, but that's not the reason why you have to stay there.
Okay.
Is there a methodology for measuring the success rate of young people who get involved in after-school programs like OLA, you know, any kind of tracking system, especially in relationship to funding, funding sources?
Okay.
So, well, there are a couple things.
There's sort of the things that you can easily see if you're willing to track over time.
We have a number of alumni.
Our middle school director is an alumni of our program.
She went on to Colorado College, came back to support our arts program initially, then secondarily she supported our elementary program, and now she's our director of middle school.
You know, she's a success story, and you can see that, right?
You can follow that story.
And we have lots of really great stories like that.
We have on.
When we talk about arts and culture, we have a young artist who started off as a tagger in the neighborhood, and he started getting involved with the wrong group of kids, of which there are many, that that could have been the case with.
And, you know, we redirected that expression that he wanted to share and had him convert that onto Canvas.
And now that young man is an artist.
He was just recently shown at Bergamot Station.
He's in.
He's an art teacher as well.
So he helps to teach drawing classes and painting classes to some of our students currently.
So those are all things that we can look at and say, oh, see, it works.
It works.
But the day to day and now what we're having to measure and wanting to measure, so we want to look at data like report cards.
We want to look at how many kids are going off to colleges.
You know, we want to look at how many kids are not only going to college, but how many are moving through it.
Right.
Because retention is a big issue now for the kids that are going to college and having the support system to stay and get through.
So we can measure.
Oh, that's great.
I remember we went to an art show with the little artist.
You remember his name?
He was.
Oh, yeah.
So many great paintings up there.
Something like Javier Carrillo.
Oh, yes.
Javier Carrillo.
I can remember.
Yes, that's right.
He's done an amazing job.
He's part.
So he's now one of a few we call artists in residence.
And, you know, we have a number of alumni who start off with us almost as TAs, you know, learning from some of the master art teachers that we have.
And ultimately, if they enjoy doing it, they find their passion and actually sharing, not only sharing their art, but sharing their ability to do art with others.
They become full fledged teachers.
And Javier is someone who does that.
Mm hmm.
We have another one, Emmanuel Galvez.
And we've got another gal, Henrietta, that there's just some good, good kids coming through the program wanting to give back by becoming teachers and educators.
But we also insist if they're going to do this, that they are enrolled in college.
So they're working their way.
So he's in Javier's in college.
He is.
He is.
Wonderful.
He's sticking with it.
We just graduated an alum from the early days.
You know, back in the day, we used to have kids who, you know, I first came back in 2003.
We had kids who were 17, 18.
They couldn't read and write.
And I said, how long have you been coming to Art of LA?
Oh, since I was eight or nine.
And that's when I knew we needed to start to shift what we're going to do with these kids during the after school hours.
You know, you can't do everything all at once.
So keeping them safe was a good first start.
But we needed to layer in some pretty structured programming to really help them move forward.
But I'm happy to say that one of the kids from the early, early days, it took him a while to graduate.
He must be late 20s, early 30s.
But bless his heart, he did it.
He just graduated this past year from Cal State LA.
Great.
And he'd like to become a teacher.
So to the extent that Art of LA can provide opportunities and programs for our alumni, particularly from the earlier years, he didn't have as much structure.
Oh, that's great.
Wonderful.
We want him to stick with it.
Okay, let's take a break for our community calendar.
And then we'll come back with our in-studio guests and continue our discussion.
This is our community calendar for the month of June.
July.
The Veterans Community Theater Workshop will be held on Tuesday, July the 16th.
Once again, that's Tuesday, July the 16th from 530 p.m.
to 8 p.m.
The location is the Vortex 2341 East Olympic Boulevard.
That's near the corner of Olympic and Santa Fe.
For more information, you can call 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1700.
That's 213-479-1764.
And once again, the workshop will be held on Tuesday, July the 16th.
The Robie Theater Company, in association with the Latino Theater Company and Kathy Foley Myers, present Bronzeville.
Project Bronzeville.
When little Tokyo went bronze, learn how a little-known period in the history of Los Angeles helped shape the city we have now.
The state of Los Angeles is a place of pride.
The stage play Bronzeville, written by Tim Toyama and Aaron Woolfort, directed by Ben Guillory, will run from June 29th through July the 21st.
The location is the Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 South Spring Street.
For more information and ticket information, please contact the Los Angeles Theater Center, 213-489-7402.
For more information and ticket information, please contact the Los Angeles Theater Center, 213-489-7402.
Upcoming guests on the Coon Run Report, Monday, July the 15th, will be CeCe Antinette.
She's one of the actors in the stage play Bronzeville.
Also, she's an author of Brown Gals Rising.
If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DramaStage1 at Yahoo.com.
Attention, Earlene Anthony.
Once again, the call-in number for the show is 850-611-6111.
800-893-9562.
Now, back to our host.
Thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony.
We're back with our in-studio guest, Tony Brown, Executive Director of OLA in Sydney.
And with him is Lee Shuby, also co-host Earlene Anthony.
Okay, I'd like to get back into our discussion.
How do you craft after-school programs that deal with gang intervention?
We've talked about a little of it a little earlier.
Well, you know, first of all, Heart of Los Angeles tries, I think, step one is to do the prevention side.
Right?
I mean, we want to prevent kids from joining them in the first place.
So we start with kids really young.
But we do meet kids along the way who are middle school and high school.
And there are times in which we have to try to intervene.
Right?
The answer to the question, I think, really is create alternatives that are relevant.
Create opportunities, alternatives that will help those kids to feel connected to what's happening in their neighborhood, at their school, in their life.
I think a lot of kids, well, at least in our neighborhood, the gangs tend to prey on those kids who are having problems with the language.
You know, if they have a kid who doesn't speak much when they're spoken to, very shy.
They become a target.
If they see kids who, you know, are trying to push away from their parents, you know, walk a few steps ahead, walk a few steps behind, don't necessarily want to be associated.
If they see kids who are starting to try to emulate this pop American culture, all of those things, and kids don't realize this, but all of those things become identifiers.
Identifiers.
Pick me.
Pick me.
You know, for the gangs.
They say, because they'll come in and their psychology might be something like, so, you know, I see that your parents don't, you always have to walk these five blocks alone.
But your parents, let me guess, your parents aren't around.
They must work all the time.
Let me guess.
They basically tell you to come straight home, turn on the television, and don't go outside.
Man, my dad was the same way.
Oh, you don't have a dad?
Yeah, actually, I don't have a dad either.
And they start to do all those things.
They try to.
Pull away any connection the child has to staying away from gangs.
And they try to drive those wedges in between what connects kids to this culture here.
I bet you're doing really bad in school.
Yeah, I get it.
They don't get you.
They don't get us.
Wow.
And they do that.
And so, after school programs should be the ones to come in and say, hey, listen, we value who you are.
We have all the patience in the world.
We believe that if we give you a chance, you can realize.
Whatever dream you have, you know, it's not a silly dream.
You know, and we support the kids in that way.
And we let the kids be the kids.
And we let them feel important for who they are and who they'd like to be.
And even if they don't know who they'd like to be, we still give them that confidence.
Try to empower them to feel good about who they are right now.
And it's okay not to necessarily know quite yet.
And then we start to expose them with the arts, music, athletics, dance, painting.
You know.
Mm-hmm.
Graphic arts.
Mm-hmm.
Filmmaking.
Anything and everything.
Robotics.
Anything and everything.
Mm-hmm.
To give them alternatives so that they have to then, when they're faced with the alternative of getting involved in some sort of criminal activity, they can say, you know what?
I don't need to do that over there because if I did all of that over there, I'd be giving up all of this over here.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's how we are probably most successful at intervening is that we remind them of what they'd be giving up if they'd cross over.
And most of the time for us when it comes to intervening, these kids, they really do want out.
Mm-hmm.
As a matter of fact, they didn't see how deep they'd be.
And that's the saddest part of it all.
They get in very deep without necessarily knowing.
And they wonder how they got in so deep so fast.
And then they think they don't have any.
Way of getting out.
Mm-hmm.
They don't have that alternative.
And that happens.
That happens.
And that's what we, that's why we're happy to be in neighborhoods where that happens.
And you know what's interesting is we have a lot of gang members who probably feel that way, but they're younger brothers and they're younger sisters.
They don't want that for their younger brothers and sisters.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So they sometimes will suggest to the younger brothers, don't do what I'm doing.
Right.
Go to Heart of Los Angeles.
Mm-hmm.
Let them show you a different way.
Wow.
Now, can you tell our listening audience a little about that great Laker room that you have?
How did that come about?
The Laker Reading Room.
Well, first of all, the Laker Reading Room, it sets the tone.
It has always set the tone for the rest of our campus.
It's an inspiring space, a space where you can daydream and think that anything and everything is possible.
I like it because while we call it the Lakers Reading Room, which is very intentional.
The entire area over there in that building is called the Chick Hearn Resource Center, Learning Center.
Wow.
And our founder, Mitchell Moore, set that space up because he felt like when we move into this neighborhood, I want kids to have a place to where they know they can prepare for the rest of their life and have the resources they need to do it.
And the Lakers came in and said, we love that vision, and we have a vision of building Laker Reading Rooms around this city.
So that other kids might feel the same way.
And we were very fortunate to have the very first Laker Reading Room and have the very first Chick Hearn Learning Center.
They have the only Chick Hearn Learning Center.
And computers and all of that.
It's filled with all the resources you might need.
And, you know, this was back in a time when that was the only building on our campus.
So that's sort of why I say it set the tone.
You know, it's beautiful.
It's colorful.
It has, like I said, just packed with resources.
So every other building.
Every other building that we have throughout our campus, we've tried to model really after that space.
It's such a special place.
And we do all sorts of things out of that, right?
We've done theater.
We've done parent convenings.
We've done college roundtables.
You know, we've done technology classes.
We launch new technology and show kids something that they've never seen before for the first time.
All of that often happens out of that space, it seems like.
Was there any particular Laker that initiated?
Did it come from the Laker side?
You know, well, I can say James Worthy has been fantastic to us.
But that space has seen the likes of some real great NBA legends.
Kareem Abdul-Javar has been there.
The captain, James Worthy, Derrick Fisher.
There's been an impressive list of Laker greats who have come and read to the kids, helped Marge Hearn, the late Chick Hearn's wonderful wife.
We're very, very lucky to have a lot of incredible photographs from the NBA legend photographer, Andy Bernstein.
You know, he's not only an amazing photographer, went to Art Center back in the day, but he's the one that took all of the iconic Showtime era Laker shots.
He's now the NBA director of photography.
He's the Lakers director of photography.
I think he's the Clippers director of photography.
He's an amazing gentleman, but he cares.
And he actually teaches some of our classes and has taught some of our classes in photography, trying to inspire another generation to pursue something that he was very passionate about.
And that probably in his way kept him engaged in the education process.
He'll tell you that.
And I think that's important.
That's why I want so very bad for all of the touch base with the Robey Theater.
Because, you know, that's Danny Glover's theater.
That's right.
Danny Glover.
And Ben Guillory that found this.
And they have been trying to figure out a way to reach out to the young people in the community.
It would be a blessing.
It would be a blessing to partner with them.
There's no question.
Wow.
That's the one thing we miss about Emanuel Presbyterian Church.
They had this beautiful old 19, probably 35 theater there.
And that's how we were able to do so much incredible theater back then.
And when we moved to our new campus, you know, we haven't had the space necessarily to do it.
But we're fortunate.
We've had amazing volunteers who've come in and brought creative drama into these kids' lives.
But we would love to do more of it.
Okay.
And it is partnerships that sustain OLA.
That's right.
And we can leverage those partnerships to expand the number of kids we serve and the programs that we can offer.
And I definitely know that they want to get involved because I've talked directly with them about OLA.
Can you talk a little about the YOLA at OLA partnership with the L.A.
Philharmonic?
You know, Gustavo Dudamel, et cetera, like that.
Well, sure.
I mean, so first of all, we would never be able to offer so many kids such a wonderful music experience without our partners at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
And without Gustavo Dudamel's vision of helping to further Maestro Antonio Abreu's vision of seeing El Sistema-inspired programs throughout the world, you know, we wouldn't have this amazing opportunity.
I'll tell you this.
Three years ago, right before we brought this new program to Heart of Los Angeles.
We had close to 700 kids and families on our waiting list.
So when the L.A.
Phil approached me and said, Tony, would you possibly have an interest in creating a youth orchestra program that one day will serve 350, maybe even 500 kids from the community in this really fabulous way through music?
Would you consider it?
I said, absolutely.
Are you kidding?
Are you kidding me?
Right.
You know, when you have 700 families who are trying to get into something that offers hope.
And I knew that this would be a way, an amazing vehicle to helping these kids, you know, matriculate through life.
It was a no-brainer.
It was just a no-brainer.
To see how much these kids have grown.
Every child will ultimately receive an instrument, an orchestral instrument.
We started three years ago with grades one through five.
The first and second graders started off on paper orchestra instruments.
I was there.
You were there.
Yes.
Remember?
And the big kids started off with recorders.
Right.
And they had to bring their recorders home and back, home and back every day.
All of the kids had to do it 10 times without anyone forgetting before they were going to get their real instrument.
And the parents, everyone was involved.
It was such a wonderful community.
It is.
It is such a wonderful community program because everyone becomes invested in helping their kids grow up to be amazing citizens through this vehicle of music.
And they're all learning together.
I'm learning.
So to have Gustavo Dudamel deliver the kids' first instruments and then later in the year conduct those kids playing those real instruments.
And these kids are playing, I mean, oh my goodness, they're playing Mahler.
They're playing, you know, Ravel.
I mean, it's just amazing what these kids can do.
They spend 15 hours a week playing and coming to Heart of Los Angeles to learn to play.
And then, you know, a year later they're playing at the Hollywood Bowl.
They're playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
They're opening for various concerts around the city.
And I can very clearly remember year two.
So Dudamel had come.
Now everyone knows who Dudamel is.
Right.
My parents know who Dudamel is.
My kids know.
So the announcement came as we began the second year.
So we have a very exciting announcement, they say, to a room full of parents and kids.
And I'm thinking, oh, they're going to tell them that, you know, Dudamel's coming back and the room's going to erupt.
They said, this year we're going to be visited, we're going to rehearse with, and we're going to perform with the Simon Boulevard Orchestra.
You would have thought I said...
We're going to have dinner with the president of the United States of America.
This place went bonkers.
And I had to quickly do one of these, lean over to Lee, Lee, tell me a little bit more about the Simon Boulevard Orchestra.
My kids, my families knew more about Simon Boulevard Orchestra and how incredible that was going to be.
So their vocabulary around classical music just became so incredible.
And that, that alone gives them that sense of connectedness.
Oh, yes.
To a world.
To a world that they were probably previously very unconnected to.
Not unconnected to music, but maybe unconnected to, maybe just connected from classical music.
And I think that has to be very good to connect all citizens of our great city of Los Angeles and the world, quite frankly, to an art form that I think sometimes had been viewed as really elitist.
And so now everybody can sit at this table and have a very common conversation and appreciation for the preparation, the richness.
Yeah.
And the sheer effort and talent that gets displayed once one commits themselves to learning it and practicing it.
And what these kids have done is nothing short of miraculous in my mind.
It's incredible.
And to talk to these kids who are seven and eight, what's your favorite piece?
And Stravinsky, how do you know this at seven and eight?
It's just, it's fabulous.
And you know, there's actually a study being done.
We were very lucky.
We were very lucky to be able to participate with the LA Philharmonic again and USC to do a brain study, MRI brain study with the Department of Neuroscience there and also a collaboration with the Thornton School of Music.
But they're actually looking at the effects of early childhood music training on the brain and its cognitive and social development.
And they're doing this longitudinal study that essentially follows first graders from first grade through fifth grade.
And so we're going to really get some amazing groundbreaking data.
I mean, these kids are going in and they're having MRIs and we're, it's very, very exciting for I think the implications of how music should actually not be stripped from schools, but it should probably be thought of as a feedback increase.
So anyways, we're very excited about that as well.
Okay.
Can you, just a couple more little questions.
Can you tell our listeners?
Okay.
Can you tell our young audience about the Every Child Foundation learning spaces in Lafayette Park?
Yes.
We love the Every Child Foundation.
First of all, they're a group of amazing women who each contributed $5,000 a year.
And there are about 225, 250 women who each contribute the 5,000.
And they invite 30 nonprofits around the city to apply on any given year.
And then they gut you like a fish.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they wind this process of 30 down to two.
And then they have the two present at the end of the year.
And they make an award.
And their awards have been usually a million dollars.
And what you have to do is obviously come up with a dream and a plan for how that million dollars would be used and why your community or your project should receive that money.
And so we did.
In 2006, we applied.
And we were very lucky to win.
And our dream, our project was to, as we talked about around Lafayette Park, was to help renovate that park, create every child learning spaces within that park so that kids would have free opportunities to ultimately be successful in life through education as the vehicle that helps them get there.
So we are grateful for the Every Child Foundation for creating these really amazing learning spaces.
We have elementary, middle, and high school, primarily middle and high school, who utilize it daily.
We have a lot of our STEM programming, science, technology, engineering, math, happens out of that building out of the park.
And then, of course, we have a lot of athletic programs that happen there too.
But they are the every child learning spaces within that park.
And they are designed to serve a community that, if those rooms weren't there, they otherwise wouldn't have opportunities to have the types of programming that gets offered.
And the thing that was so unique about this project, and frankly, the Every Child Foundation took a little bit of a risk.
And they were concerned because it's a public-private partnership and hadn't been done in LA before or really anywhere in the country.
And so it's really precedent-setting and innovative and it's working.
And, you know, the pay-for-service model in this neighborhood doesn't work.
So to be able to offer free programming in the park has really transformed the neighborhood.
Mm-hmm.
Now, Lee.
Lee Shubin, can you tell us a little about how you got involved with OLA?
I think the same way you guys did as a volunteer.
My kids were growing up and I was looking to go back to work.
Not really sure.
Knew I didn't want to be a lawyer anymore.
And met OLA at a friend-raiser and started volunteering with the grants administrator.
And her life took a different turn and I eventually ended up stepping into her position.
And...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's been good since then.
Enjoyable experience.
The rest is history.
Exactly.
That's right.
Thank you.
Okay, we're going to come back for some closing comments in a minute.
We're winding down.
I want to get just a couple of things from Earlene over here, my co-host, and she's going to talk a little about the Peace Kids at USC Peace Center.
First of all, what are the Peace Kids?
It's a group of young people, age, age-old, range from 5 to 17, in the USC and they're surrounding areas.
They learn about peace heroes, such as Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Mattie Stefanik, and many others, and also how to be peacemakers.
And for the summer, it's Monday through Friday.
And when the school session is on, it's like every Saturday.
And they have a light breakfast and a lunch.
And also the policy is no one is turned away because of finances.
And they also have scholarships available for the youth.
What are some of the things that you try to achieve with the Peace Kids?
We try to teach them programs such as youth practice and leadership, conflict resolution, violence prevention, meditation, and taking care of the planet.
Okay.
Now, how do you use your theater workshop within the context of after school programs over there?
We try to make it fun with art, music, and acting.
And also in the process, they learn how to read and read better, and also help them not to be so shy, and also work and interact with others and learn how to share.
Okay.
One other question is, what do you find to be the biggest challenge working with the Peace Kids over there at the Peace Center?
I think for a lot of us is letting them be their own person.
Letting them be creative.
And also letting them know it's okay to color outside of the lines that we have been taught not to.
So we just, you know, want them to use their own creativity and be themselves, individuals.
Okay.
Thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony over there with the Peace Kids.
Now we'll get some closing comments from both Tony and Lee.
Let's start with Lee, and then let's have Tony close it out in and contact information for those who would like to get involved with OLA.
I just, first of all, want to thank you guys for the opportunity to join you on your show.
You guys do some really great work.
And to tell your audience, we're out there on Facebook and Twitter.
And our website is www.heartofla.org.
And we are always looking for volunteers.
So just give us a yell.
Okay.
And what I would say is, first of all, thank you very much for having me today.
This was a lot of fun.
And I would just say to anyone who's wanting to start a nonprofit that works with kids, make sure that you bring role models in for these kids.
I think that's really important.
I don't know that we talked a lot about that today, but I think it's really important.
And when I say role models, I don't mean someone who says you have to do it my way or the highway per se, but I just mean someone that kids can identify with and emulate and not repeat mistakes, but rather have a path, find a path, find their own path from looking at that role model.
There's a lot of great kids in this city.
This city can be so much stronger and the future can be so much brighter than I think some people were worried about.
And we're seeing a lot of that during these afterschool hours.
We're seeing a lot of that hope.
And do please visit us on our website, you know, heartofla.org.
You'll see a lot of that.
We're going to see what we're doing every day.
We also have scholarships that we offer the kids for college.
Now we have a number of kids who are waiting to try to receive these scholarships, so we actually need more scholarship support.
And then also if folks are so inclined to want to fund or support a program, we could use it.
There are many kids that we're trying to serve now, and there are many kids who want to, you know, enter into the program.
And I guarantee you the small investment that we make in these kids' lives, we're going to reap the benefit a million fold.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Tony Brown, the Executive Director of OLEM.
Lee Shuby's sitting in with him.
Now I would like to extend a special thanks to both Tony and Lee and my co-hosts, Earlene and Anthony.
Please listen to past shows of the Qumran Report on iTunes, Facebook, skidrow.la.
Next week we'll have Cecilia Antoinette, one of the lead roles in the program.
And we'll have Ron Zvere here in the studio.
So thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report.
And from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family.
I leave you with a song that opened the show darker than blue by Willis and Shante.
Thank you.
Darker than blue Are we going to be around this town?
And that would only be said, come true 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 Running to this land, I'm going to 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 understand me, I'll get up
