Unity Rally, Skid Row programs, basketball league

Are we going to be around this town? And that would be true. I get up if you really want to help me. I get up, run in Jesus' name. I'm going to get up if you get off me. I get up if you want to understand me. I get up if you really want to help me. I get up, run in Jesus' name. I'm going to get up. The people who are talking to me. Are we going to be around this town? And that would be true. Good for nothing. They all figure. Just a boyish girl, my shit was a jigger. Now we going to stand for that? Or is that really what we say? I'm your brother. As you stand and you go around. I hope you don't mind. If I tell a whole story. Pardon me, sister. I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante who performed last Sunday, March the 25th, 2012 at the Exchange, downtown Los Angeles. A great show, and we at Drama Stage Qumran would like to express our most heartwarming thanks to Willis and Shante of Positive Light Ministry. A great show. 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. I'm with my two co-hosts, Earlene Anthony and Tyrone Robinson. This week, we will be talking about the cultural life of the downtown community with manual OG man Capito, Lynn Rossi, Coach Ron Crockett, and Miss Emily. But right now, I'm on the line with Georgiana Williams to talk about the Unity Rally in remembrance of the 1992 Los Angeles Civil War. And the rest. This will be held Saturday, April the 25th, 2012, 12 noon to 5 p.m. with keynote speakers, Maxine Waters and you, Georgiana Williams. Georgiana, welcome to the Qumran Report. Thank you, Melvin. How are you? Oh, just fine. Can you tell us a little about the event? Yes, I decided to do something in the community because I see very little change. There's been no changes since the 1992 rebellion. To those who live over there, we know that the oppressor is still oppressing the people. Our kids are still coming out of high school and can't read. We know that drugs and gangs are still in the area. Other people come in the community and open up a business and they never offer to give someone in the community a job. So I would like to see... I would like to see some changes. While we don't have any after-school activities, and I was over there on the weekend, and I told Melvin that you had a teacher who would be willing to come in the community and start an after-school program. So the ones that I talked to was very excited and hope that they'll get a chance to meet her on Sunday. And the police still killing our Mexican brothers and our black brothers. They still sending, building prisons. And we don't need no prisons. We need schools. So the only way to make a change, we have to step forward. We got to stop depending on the system. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're right about that. And so you haven't seen that much of a change in the area since the... No, very little. Very little change. They still no jobs. Kids can't read. The gangs are there. They're not bad like they used to be, but we know that the drugs is there. Mm-hmm. And, you know, people have business over there, but they don't give African-Americans and our Mexican brothers and sisters jobs. It's always from their own family. So I say they coming into the community, they making money, and they taking it back out, and we still see poverty everywhere over there. Mm-hmm. Poverty, poverty, poverty. You see homeless people sleeping on the beach, on the bus bench, and sometimes they just laying down on the freeway. Mm-hmm. So the oppressors, the campaign is still oppressing people. Mm-hmm. Now, can you tell us some... Let me ask you this. How can we help all of our young men that's coming back to prison and trying to adjust back to the community? I think we can educate them if enough people get involved and encourage them and talk to them and let them know that being in the gang, we have a gang who sees fire, and they're talking to them, and they're helping them get jobs. I just think if we start with them when they're little, then when they get 18, 19, 20, we're not going to have that problem. Mm-hmm. Are the churches and the masjids and the synagogues, are they involved in the programs in there? No. Uh-uh. No. There's no Jewish people down there for a synagogue. Mm-hmm. No, I don't know any of the churches are involved in what's going on in the streets. Okay. Okay. What do you think it would take to get some after-school programs in that area? We really need the politicians to get involved, and we need people who can organize. Like, we'll need somebody to write some grants. We'll need a building. We need books. Oh, you know, they still don't give the kids no books over there. You go to school over there, they don't give no books. I live in Fountain Town, and my grandkids got no books. They're naked carry. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, we do have... We really... We got to organize. It's going to take more than one person. Yeah. The street that I lived on, it breaks my heart when I go there because it has gone down. When I was over there, I was always fussing and making them keep me clean and tell me how I need and plant some grass seeds. But now, it looks like the third world. Yeah. And, well, you know, we do have an individual here in the studio. A coach, Ron, who has a reading program. I'm going to ask him about that later on the show. What would it take to put some kind of reading program and activities in that area? Now, can you tell us a little about the program, the event coming up on the 28th? Okay, we're going to go to Florence and Normandy. And Pastor Andrews and Antoine Miller passed away. Pastor Miller passed at Faith United Methodist Church at 78. 1718 West 108th Street. He allowed the LA 4 Plus to meet there every week. He went to court with us, and he also protested with us. So we would like to just, you know, make sure that everyone remember him. And Antoine Miller was one of the LA 4 Pluses that got killed. Then we're going over to Florence and Normandy and your band, and we're going to have a lot of food, and we're going to have music, we're going to have poetry, and we're going to have open mic, and we're going to talk about the program, and we're going to talk about the problems. If someone has an idea they want to share, we want to hear it. Yes, that's wonderful. Okay, let me see if Tyrone, and then you have questions for Georgiana? Georgiana, can you tell me something about that multicultural potluck you're going to be having? Yes, we're going to have Mexican food, and my kind of food, and your kind of food, and every kind of food they bring. That sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Can you give us your contact information for those who want to get more information? 310-590-6468. And everybody know I can cook. And everybody know everybody in the neighborhood say, Mama and Grandma, so don't ask me. I'm in the kids you got. I'm like the lady in the shoe. I got so many, I don't know what to do. All right, Georgiana. Okay, thank you very much, Georgiana. Okay. Looking forward to it. Okay. Okay. See you soon. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay. Georgiana Williams. Great event that we're looking forward to. Now, I'm delighted to have with us in the studio artists, activists, and one of the driving forces behind the three-on-three basketball league at Gladys Park, Manuel O.G. Mancapito. O.G., welcome to the Coombran Report. Well, thank you very much. I've been looking forward to getting there, Melvin. All right. Now, first of all, tell us, how did you get down here in the Skid Row area? Well, I came back from New York. I was out there, and I had a case, an eight-year-old case. I got extradited back out here in 93, and I came back out here to do my time. Ended up back out here. I'm born and raised here, and couldn't find my way back to New York because of political reason, probation department, parole department, things of that nature. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up back here. So, I ended up, you know, staying here in California with my family, and came on down here to Skid Row because I wanted to, you know, have something of my own down here, you know, low-income and stuff like that. So, I ended up down here, and then I got involved with Lillian Karamari, which is the SRO art project, and then I got involved with the Lamp Art Project, and things just went on and on. You know, I ended up writing Peace in the Hood, you know, about my coloring book, and then in 2000, we got involved with Struction OGs and Service Association, trying to uplift the men on Skid Row, and that's what kind of kept me here. I haven't got away yet. Still trying to get away. Let me ask you this. What is the biggest change you've seen in the Skid Row area since you've been down here? Probably the grassroots movement, the positive movement. You know, when I got down here, most of the voices, the voices that were being heard off of Skid Row came from the local service providers. You didn't have no grassroots movement, and it was a lot of, it was some activists, it was some brothers that had been members of the Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, you know, involved in different kind of organizations. They had organizational skills, so that's basically what OGs and Service Association was about, to create a grassroots organization where self-help would be the motivating force, you know, so we can lift ourself up. And from there on, you know, you've been hearing about General Jeff, you know, you got Coach Ryan Crockett in the house, you know, you know about Lawrence, you know, and even this, Emily, I mean, it's been a snowball effect, you know, yourself, you know, Earl, you know, you just, we can just talk about a lot of other people that's not here today, but the grassroots movement is really what I see as changing Skid Row. The people that are on Skid Row are, that's residents, are starting to take pride in themselves and in building a community. You know, other things like the case study came out making a case for Skid Row culture. You know, for decades, people said Skid Row was just a spot, you know. You go, like I always tell people, you can go to Texas, you can come down here and you see the jewelry district, the fashion district, you don't even see a sign saying you're now in the Skid Row. There's a reason for that. So again, this positive movement that's going on Skid Row, you know, we're still in the Skid Row. We're still in the Skid Row. We're starting to take pride in our community. You know, even now when you're talking about cleaning up the streets, you know, we had to go clean up our own streets. So people are taking pride. That's what I see as a major change. Also, our networking and partnerships with agencies and, you know, like I say, we just talked a little about a little Tokyo law, all the law people moving down here. Rather than being hatred and pointing fingers at them, you know, we're starting to collaborate and work together on building a new Skid Row. So, network, now you were one of the driving forces behind the three-on-three basketball league. How did that come about? I was listening to the ladies you just had on the phone. One of the driving forces were gangs. You know, Skid Row has people from all over L.A., from all over around the world, coming from different neighborhoods. And we wanted to work with some younger people. We were like, oh, Jesus, how many different services is 40 years old? So it started off as just a simple tournament. But people came from everywhere. Different gang members came, you know, gang members that were on rivals at the time. And so we talked about it and said, you know, that's why our slogan came around, it's going to be more than just a game, because just to have the game, just for them to have respect for each other, it was going to have to be more than just a game. So when we seen all these different gang members come by, we talked to them, you know, I didn't even want to do it at first, you know, because this is going to be more than just a game. It's going to be too much work. And so I told them to go back and think about it. And they came back and they said they wanted to try. So when we put the structure together, I was talking to Charles Porter. I was saying, man, if we could get these people to work together, you know, you got gang members all throughout the United States, you know, over half a million of them. And if they begin to work together, they'll be their own solution. Could you imagine if 400,000 gang members just set a dollar aside every day? I know. And you got an event coming up, right? A basketball game coming up, three on three, coming up soon. This is our off season right now. And like I say, it's more than just a game. So we get involved, you know, Coach Ron is going to be talking about funds on Reading Club, you know, groom for success. But off season. The league runs all year round. It's not a basketball league per se. We play basketball. Basketball is really just where everybody get together at. Where people that probably would never met. But we're off season right now. Our actual season will start in July. So, but on the 21st of April, Pismo Beach, which is part of this kid wrote three on three. Most people wouldn't think you have a team from Pismo Beach. They'll be out here to play. Pastor Doug, they have a great team too. They'll be out here. They'll be out here on the 21st of April, the 21st. So we haven't decided where we're going to play at. We might play in the URM, Union Rescue Mission, or we might play at Gladys Park, which is our home court, depending on what the weather is. If it's going to be cold, we'll probably play indoors, which is another thing we talk about. Some of the things I've seen changing, where people from the neighborhood go inside the gyms now and actually run our own programs too, in partnership with those agencies. Now, when you play inside of the gym, do it revert from three on three to five on five, regular basketball? Or do it still stay three on three? Well, three on three is what we started with. Gladys Park, those that didn't know, in 2006, there was only two small courts. They were half courts. And so all we could play was three on three. Since then, Nike has built us a full court. So we play five on five, but the name of the league is still three on three. But we play five on play. And three on three is now like a special event, just like co-ed is a special event. Mm-hmm. Okay. So how important is Michael Blais and the Skid Row Photography Club to the programs that you're running down there? Well, Michael Blais and Skid Row Photography Club is another group that allows players to become involved in something that's outside of basketball. We try to encourage people, it's more than just a game. We know you can do more than just play basketball. So a lot of players, like myself and Ron, General Jeff, we're all members of the photography club. So now we get a chance to do a lot of things. We do our own film, do our own photography. When you go on our Facebook, you see our own stuff. So Michael Blais, by encouraging that stuff, you know, allowed us to take another venue and set up another program. So plus Michael Blais puts stuff on YouTube. Just go to YouTube, hit Michael Blais, you're going to see all kind of video. So in that sense of getting the message out and allowing people to see what we're doing, he's been very important, you know, very supportive of what we do. So, you know, we can see. As a matter of fact, in the league, you don't have to be a professional. You can be a professional. You can be a player to be part of the league. The fans are part of the league. So Michael Blais is part of the league. Now another person, almost like the Chick Hearns over there, is Coach Ron. Glad to have you in the station. Coach Ron, can you tell us a little about yourself and the famous Fun Zone Reading Club? I would love to. And once again, just thank you. It's very honorable to be here. Drama Stadium is Qumran. The Qumran Report. Come on now, give it up. And you're really making the general public aware of how they can get involved in assisting the homeless community here in downtown Los Angeles. Remember, Skid Row is the homeless capital of the United States of America. But back to the Fun Zone Reading Club. It really is a growth of a three-on-three street basketball league. Once all the men came together, we honored the motto. It's more than just a game. And for me, it's about being a service and meeting a need that's unmet. And Fun Zone Reading Club for homeless kids is just that. You will see that when homeless families, especially vets, when they're homeless, they have a disconnect from their educational pursuits. And we're seeking to meet that. And we're doing an excellent job at that. Yeah. Now, we were talking to Ms. Georgiana Williams a few minutes ago on the phone. And she's really trying to do something in that area of Florence and Normandy, which was one of the hot spots for the riots, the unrest that jumped off in 1992. What would it take to create a reading program out there to help our young men, our young people get more involved in creating, in the community? Yeah. And that's a really important thing, improving their reading abilities. Well, what we like to do is a well-tested recipe for positive engagement, which is, you know, working with the pastors, working with community leaders, people who has a foothold in the community. We connect with them. We actually do a site visit, tour the community, let them know that, hey, we're in the community. We can connect with them. We can be trusted. And what we provide is essential. Yeah. And see, one of the things we want to do since Maxine Waters will be the keynote speaker there that day is we want to ask her for a building or something in that area and let her know about the individuals who have programs, some of these programs we can bring from the downtown area to network with the community. Our things. Yeah. Like what we're talking about now. After school programs for young people, some computer rooms, you know, things like that they have in other communities. You know, things that we'll always be fighting for down here in the Skid Row area. But let me just move on to Ms. Emily. We'll come back. Ms. Emily, I have Ms. Emily. She's dealing with the grooming for success. Can you tell us a little about that program? Yes, I can. It's a pleasure to be here and talk about the grooming for success program. The grooming for success is really providing grooming, hair care services to the homeless in Skid Row. It provides services for men and for women. We do haircuts, blow dry styles, facials for the men. And one of the things that's really a blessing to me. I'm a woman. I'm a woman. I'm a woman. And one of the things that's really a blessing to me about being down here in Skid Row and doing the service of grooming for success is the gratitude of the people once they receive the service. A lot of them are on their way to the doctor, to a job interview. Some of them are on their way out to get housing. And they are so grateful when they get a free haircut or they get their hair styled. They stand up. They think they look so much better. And they just tell us, I feel so much better after getting this haircut. They look good. And as we all know that do grooming for ourselves regularly when you look good, you feel good. You mentioned facial for men. What is that? Yes, we groom the facial hair. We cut their beards and their moustaches. Make sure that they look totally groomed. So that they can have a total hair loss guarantee. So that they can have a total hair loss guarantee. total look, you know, so that they are not going out looking raggedy and tattered. And as we go downtown on Skid Row and we pass through all of the hundreds of people who are just looking so lost and their hair is matted and uncombed and uncut for months at a time. And when we announce them, we're doing free haircuts. They come in and our lists are just long. And sometimes we can't even get to all of them. We can do like 20, 30, 40 people a day, you know, and cutting their hair and grooming them. And it just makes such a big difference downtown in Skid Row. Yeah. Great program. Yes, it is. Yeah. We also have Lynn Rossi here in the studio with us, a photographer. Now, how did you get down in Skid Row? How did you get involved down here working? Thank you for inviting me on the show. It's a great honor. You're welcome. I first found... I was living in Skid Row. I was living over in Lincoln Heights and I was going through a lot of depression and I was in recovery myself. And I looked online and I found out about Skid Row Photography Club. And I went down to my first meeting and met Michael Blaze and OG and just kind of re-inspired my life. And it really helped turn around my whole inspiration and my own, you know, need to heal. So to me, being part of the Skid Row artist community has always had a lot of personal value in my life. Oh, yeah. I'd like to see some of your work displayed in some of the art galleries down there also. Okay. Let's move back to OG, man. I want to talk a little... Can you tell us a little about the Artist Collective? What is that and what's happening with it now? Well, Skid Row Artist Collective, for years, there have been... I mean, you got musicians, you got, I mean, singers, you got actors, you got comedians, you got people that do arts and craft. Me, myself, you know, I'm an artist and I can draw, I do acrylic and oils. And years past, there would always be somebody that would come over to the program for the musicians, local, or for the actors. And something would ever happen to the money or whatever, the group would fall apart. So when Art Walk started, we were talking about... I just happened to go to a meeting with D-Link and they were giving away some money and everything. And I was upset about it. I was upset about it. I was upset about it. I was upset about the fact that there were galleries down on Skid Row, all up on Main Street, because Main Street's part of Skid Row. But there were no artists from Skid Row being featured in none of the galleries. Okay? Nobody was taking their portfolios or anything. And so I remember talking to Russell Brown, people from D-Link, about the fact that Skid Row artists had gone unnoticed. So an event had happened. They asked me, could I pull some artists together at the last minute? And we pulled, you know, Crucial came. He came on there with me. I know Ron was there with me. Mr. Washington, he's a DJ. You know, he was with me. And we went and did a small event. And then it led to us doing something that they exchanged in an alleyway. They gave us an alleyway, the Harlem Place Alleyway. And we set stages out there. We had arts and crafts. I mean, inside we had, you know, featured artists, you know, clothing line, all kinds of stuff. We set it almost like a boutique. What we would have if we owned our own. Which that's what... Yeah. That's what Skid Row artists need. We need to own. And we went on for about three or four months, you know, until, you know, Art Walk kind of got out of hand and stuff like that. But we were able to feature artists from all, you know, we call ourselves Hidden Treasures because that's actually what we are. There are treasures down here, you know, just like you and Earl, you know, treasures down here that people have not seen. And it kind of goes along with what, you know, we call community development because the fact that you don't know. You don't know. You don't really know. But the art is just Skid Row artists down here has to do something with the way things are structured. You know, you got all these missions down here. These artists are in recovery sometimes. They're in the missions, but there's no art projects going on in there. And even if they are, there's no art shows being featured. No, nothing's been done. Again, it goes back to ODs and servers. Our thing is to uplift the people. So when you got all these talent down here that's being squashed, it's like Miss Emily said, people walking around with matted hair. Come on. You know, where's the barbershop? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Where's the nail shops at? You know, it's not like people down here don't have no money. Like these institutions got millions and millions of dollars. But they're not set up to empower their people. You know, there's no way in the world we should be walking around here with your hair ain't done. We ain't got no nail shop. Won't nobody give us no space for no nail shop. You know, and it go back to the lady was talking about one thing that Miss Georgia had put, we do gotta get organized. But based on the same thing she's talking about, people having builders, you know, they're not trying to give us a building down there. Where's all these black agencies and black businessmen, black commerce coming? Why is there no black owned nothing down on Skid Row? You know, where's the M&Ms at? You know, where's it at? It's not like people ain't got no money. So again, we gotta invest in ourself. You know, we gotta organize, but we gotta organize to the point where we invest in ourselves. If it's not about a dollar a day, every community start doing that, we'll have some at the end of the year that we can go do something for ourself. But if we keep waiting on the politicians to help us, it's not gonna happen. Yeah. And I know this is some of the things that, and I wanna talk about him, I've been introduced to individuals because he always emphasized that when I hear him talking about the Skid Row area and that's General Jeff with issues and solutions and Charles Porter with Yousef. Can you talk a little about how they involved with your organizations also? Charles Porter, you know, with Yousef, when we seen that it could be a basketball league. And again, it's not just basketball, it's an organization to bring people together. I went to Charles Porter because he's the commissioner. I'm one of the commissioners and Charles Porter, another one of the commissioners. We kind of like to do, you know, we like opposites. So being opposite, we're able to cover everything. General Jeff, he was with us in the very beginning too, as well as Ron. He came on as a marketing director, okay? And, you know, we all had that vision that the Skid Row 303 Streetball League would be a business. It would be provide the vehicle, a way out for the men to own their own. And we really realized, you know, we're gonna have to do this. We're gonna have to understand the structure, the general do. Every team is their own business, which goes for clothing line, all kinds of things that you want to do. You know, so once the men can catch on to that and understand it's more than just about bouncing the ball. Also they're entertainers, you know what I'm saying? They entertain the fans. So all that fighting and fussing, you know, like this year, we don't even use referees. Let's respect your own call. Somebody make a call, respect that. Because you don't have no referees. When you're in a marriage, you don't have no referees. When you're on a job, you know, we don't need referees in our life. We need to know how to take care of our own business. So General Jeff, Ron, Charles, they understand the structure. They help put together the structure, you know, and they understand our philosophy. You know, our winners and losers, you know, we got 16 words a week, like teamwork, family, respect, you know, camaraderie, those type of things. And so that's what makes the organization run. And those are very key people in the organization. Now, a lot of people don't know, but you were right there at the beginning when Drama Stage Coon Round started, because you was in our first production. Yeah, me and Charles, yeah. Surviving the nigga, going to. My acting debut, surviving the nigga. I still haven't got to do that backdrop for you. I want to do that backdrop. Turn me into an actor. But yeah, Drama Stage Coon Round, you know, we love you and everything, you know, even when we talk about the Operation Facelift 2008, you know, your name, you know, Earl came down and painted. Everything on there, you know, so y'all been around. So y'all getting part of that whole positive movement. Even to be here today in Skid Row Studios, it shows that Skid Row is constantly moving forward. And also, everything that we do, you do, we're prototypes for the rest of the neighborhood and around the country. We can do it on Skid Row. Y'all should be able to do it out there, ladies and gentlemen. That's right. Now, can you tell us a little about the Skid Row Brigade? Skid Row Brigade is like a special unit of OG's, you know, OG's services. OG's services consist of 200 men, 40 years and over, okay, that wanted to do something for the community, basically uplift the community. We got tired of standing in people's lines. We said we'd create our own line. You know, we wanted to mentor to the kids and mentor to each other. So one of our events that we're well known for is Father's Day Affair slash Juneteenth. That's what we're really known for, to promote responsible fathers. A lot of people take every man down here as a deadbeat dad, you know, and that's contrary to it. So, but during the year, you know, that's every June, but during the year, there's all kinds of other issues come up and there's a lot of men that's part of OG's services that want to do something. So how would I say, the street brigade is like the Spartans. You know, we step in and do what's gotta be done. So that's why we got involved in the funky trashcan campaign. Didn't nobody want to give Skid Row no trashcan. You know, everybody ride around, come through. Everybody that's out there and listening, when you come through Skid Row, you see all that garbage on the street, ask yourself, do you see any garbage cans? And for a neighborhood to be deprived of garbage cans, they're trying to put us in that situation. Now, if you living in garbage, then of course you're gonna think lowly of yourself and you gonna end up like Ms. Emily said, walking around with matted hair. You don't think of nothing else. You think you just, you know, so those kinds of things, you know, so the Skid Row Brigade, you know, is part of that. It's a movement where we don't just sit around and wait till June to do anything. During the year, we're doing other stuff. You know what I'm saying? You know, the funky trashcan campaign. Then we turn around and we did cleaning up the streets of Skid Row for eight months, day and night. Also doing the mural, you know. And you know, this is all kinds of stuff we got on mind right now, you know, but I ain't gonna tell everything. But that's basically what the brigade is. It's a special unit of OGs and services. Okay. Now, one other person that was very important, important to drama stage was Leslie Taplin. And we met Leslie at a three on three basketball game in South Park when you guys went up there to play. And I think Jan Perry was out there. And that's the first time we met Leslie. And then it turns out that I find out, cause I was working on this play about Marcus Garvey, and she pulled me to the side and she sent me out some information that surprised me. Cause I found out that 10 years earlier, Leslie and a writing partner had wrote a screenplay on Marcus Garvey. They went all the way to Jamaica and they got it all the way to the top producer, but they turned it down because they didn't want two white people dealing with a black nationalist like Marcus Garvey. But we really got close by, she was a wonderful person. Yeah. Leslie was my mentor. I met Leslie. She wanted to do a Father's Day event with me. And for about six months, we communicated over the emails. I had met her and that's how I got to know her through our emails and everything. Then Leslie, when she brought all these dictionaries, Spanish dictionaries, and you know, later on, she's like Ron brought books. And she was the one that showed me that a lot of people, homeless people that sleep on the street be reading. They be reading, you know, on TV. So, and so, you know, she got into that, you know, and then when the league started, she used to come down and take pictures, you know, she always tell me, you know, I'm not a professional, she'd take all these pictures and give them to me, but she also took the pictures and she shared them with people on the other side of Main Street. That's how all the law people began to know about the league because of Leslie. So Leslie, you know, she always gave me a lot of credit, but Leslie's the reason why the two worlds, you know, started coming together, you know, from one side to the other. So, and there's a lot of other things about, Leslie did a lot of stuff for us that she never wanted people to know. You know, we didn't have this, needed this, Leslie would go out and get it for us, you know? And what you just told me is a surprise, but also I found out later on, after Leslie passed, that's why we hold a Leslie Taplin Classic as part of the league, that Leslie people had a publishing company, you know? So she was involved with Peace in the Hood and me getting Peace in the Hood, you know, and I'm gonna get this, you know, and I'm gonna get this, you know, and I'm gonna get this, you know, larger and changing some of the grammar and stuff like that, you know? So, you know, her spirit still lives on. That's why we hold to the line of discipline that we try to instill in the men, you know, because she was a great example. Yes, she was. Okay, we're gonna come back. At this particular time, I wanna turn it over to Ms. Earlene Anthony for our community calendar. This is the community calendar for April, Saturday, April the 7th, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is known as World Health Day Los Angeles. You'll get a chance to meet Olympic athletes and an Olympic-themed game for kids. There will be free health education and screening for cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, bone and dental care, and much, much more. It's a family-friendly entertainment and activities will be going on all day. And this is a collaboration of many organizations in the area. The location of this event is the Los Angeles Expo Center next to the Coliseum, 3980 Bill Robertson Lane, Los Angeles. The contact information, 323-865-0419. And on Thursday, April the 12th, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Drama Stage Kun Run will participate in the Arts Walk. Some of the exhibits will be, from the United University Church, the Peace Kids will be exhibiting peace art. Also, the Downtown Women's Center will be displaying some of their photographs. And many, many more artists will be exhibiting their art. And from 7 to 10 p.m. on the same day, the Arts Walk will have spoken word, open mic, and live music. The band Passion will be playing, and they're from the downtown area. The location is, home of the Garrick Morris Comedy Club, The Exchange, 114 West 5th Street. For more information on this event, you can call 323-850-4436. And this has saved the date. Saturday, April the 28th, marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion. You're courageously invited to attend a unit, rally, and block party. Keynote speaker will be, Maxine Waters. Also speaking on the event will be, Georgiana Williams. And we're gonna have more information coming up in the next few weeks. And on Sunday, April the 29th, Drama Stage Kunwan will be performing a dramatic reading of memos from the War on Terror, from the script, Reckoning with Torture. The location of this event will be the Neighborhood Unitarian Church of Pasadena, 301, North Orange Grove. For information on this event, 323-850-4436. And if you have a community event that you would like announce on our show, just send the information to dramastage1 at yahoo.com, attention Earline Anthony. And once again, our call in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. Okay. Thank you, Miss Earline. Thank you, Miss Earline. Thank you, Miss Earline. Now we're back with our in-studio guest, Manuel O.G. Mann Capito. Before we continue our conversation, I would like to play a short poem by Donald McKeer, who had a book signing entitled, I, Too, Can Create Light at the Exchange, Sunday, March the 18th, 2012. And then we will continue with our discussion. You are pregnant, Miss Beck. You are pregnant, Miss Beck. Listen to where it is really at. Your blood is polluting our soil. Your lust need not keep your blood to boil. Your blood is polluting our soil. Your lust need not keep your blood to boil. Call up 8-Trains and Roller-60s. Yeah, call up all the O's. Call up 9-O's. Call up Roller Hunnocks. Mm. Mm. Yeah. Call up 8-Trains Hovers and 7-Ball Hovers and 5-Nine Hovers and 5-Dance Hovers. Call up 11-2's Hovers. Yeah. Call up Roller-30 Harlem Cracks. Call up East Coast. Call up 6-9-6-2's East Coast. Call up Watts Crips, too. Call up Grave Street. Grave Street. Yeah, call up Bloods, too. Call up Mountain Hunters, Swamp. Mm. Call up DMG's, Denver Lane's, Roller-20. Mm. Mm. We need you. Call up all NHB's and NAC's. We want you. We love you. Yeah. Going to jail does not prove your bravery. Jail is just 21st century slavery. That's all it is. That's all it is. Mm. Going to jail does not prove your bravery. Be what's supposed to be trapped inside of you. Be governor, captain, neighborhood star. Mm. But you must learn to love peace. Mm. Mm. And hate war. That's right. That's right. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. with OG, man. What is the key in getting the Crips to blood and bloods? I think you mentioned a little of it early, to work together in the three-on-three basketball league. The main ingredient is simply respect. It boils down to just that, respect. In the book that I wrote, Piece of the Hood, it talks about if dogs and cats can live together, so can bloods and Crips. Those of us that's pet owners know dogs and cats can live together. It's about respect. Some years ago, when I got extradited back out here, I was out in Compton and I was listening to some young gangbangers. They was talking about they didn't like this neighborhood or that neighborhood because they killed their uncle, they killed their cousin and stuff like that. A lot of them claimed they sold this and stuff like that. When you're in a war, people are going to die. You can't take it personal. A lot of times, they take it personal and they hold these grudges for decades. I'm going to hate these people for the rest of my life. You can't have it both ways. You can't join a war and then take it personal. Even around the world today, you look over the Middle East, people are trying to make peace. At some point, you're going to have to try to make peace. It's going to have to be a degree of respect. What we found out in the league was these different people from different neighborhoods, I don't care if you're from Chicago, New York, I don't care if you're from West Coast, East Coast, what happens is once you start respecting each other, you find out you've got more in common than you've got differences. This is why when we talked about the Skid Row Artists Collective, the rappers, we've got rappers that's blood and crimson wrapped together. What happens is once they respect each other, they fight. find they got more in common and it goes back to what we talked about the words of the week one of the words is camaraderie friends you know respect so those that's the main ingredient if you can respect the person then you'll find you got more in common with them and you better do more things with them okay um i think we better i know i want to get a question in with uh tyrone well a question for tyrone and earl and then we want to go into uh maybe we'll go into our ether section now and then we have a little time to catch some questions at the end if it's monday night 15 minutes to nine then you are listening to voices from the ether tonight's segment recorded performances captured by drama stages blind faith productions you can find the video on youtube just do a search for homeless eye or dsq tv the first performance is a duet played by night and day classical guitar duet featuring a good friend of mine named marlon brewer this was captured live at the midnight missions third annual 2008 talent show this is all part of bringing some culture waking up the cultural scene in skid row for those interested there's a thing called make me a music la.org you might want to look them up at www.makemusicla.org and now our featured artists night and day! Oh, you're a daddy's rich And your ma, she's good So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're gonna rise up singing And you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky Oh, baby Oh, my baby There's nothing can harm you With daddy and my baby Staying by Oh, my baby Staying by Oh, my baby Staying by Oh, my baby Staying by Oh, my baby Your family is so fine And the cotton is fine It's fine Your daddy's rich Your daddy's rich and your ma, she's good looking. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So hush, little baby, don't you cry. So that was Night and Day, performing live at the Midnight Missions 3rd Annual Talent Show back in 2008. So if you need more information, more information about Make Music L.A., visit the website www.makemusicla.com. Also meeting once a month, Patty Berman from D-Lank. They've got a committee together to help form a group of talent that can be displayed around various venues in the Old Bank District and during Art Walks. So if you're interested, please contact Miss Patty Berman at patty.berman at dlank.com. And now, that ends our show. This is tonight's episode of Voices from the Ether. I return the mic back to our fearless host, Mr. Melvin Ishmael Johnson. Thank you, Tyrone. Yeah, we've still got a couple minutes before we fade out, so I want to start over here with Miss Emily. Just a quick little closing comment and give us your contact information. Okay, great, great. And I thank you once again, Melvin, for having me. Thank you for having me on the show. And along with the Grooming for Success that we provide for the homeless and for the vets down in Skid Row, we also provide the job creation for those who are part of the realignment. And there are so many of them being released down in Skid Row. So with Natural Beauty Solutions, we are providing a lot of services. You can reach us at emilysbeauty at gmail.com. Also at 310-940-7956. And we'd love to have you donate some of the things that are needed to help us with our Grooming for Success, such as clippers and towels, combs, brushes, styling chairs, and just donations to help us to service the vets and the homeless and those coming out of prison so that they can be uplifted and inspired to go out and restart their lives. And also to feel good about themselves. So we thank you once again for having me on your show. Yeah, thank you, Ms. Emily. And we definitely begin in contact with you about helping us out with the vet stand down coming up. Absolutely. We'd love to do it and we look forward to being a part of it. All right, Coach Ron. Hey, once again, thank you, young man. Coach Ron in the house, the one and only, making it happen live and in color right here in downtown Los Angeles, Skid Row. And what we do clearly is seeking volunteers. I mean, it's all about the 50,000 book giveaway we do. And we'd like to bring it to your community. We provide free books to all the kids, okay? We need volunteers to come out and read out loud to the kids every Thursday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in West L.A. So if you'd like to get involved, you'd like to donate books, see me, the one and only Coach Ron, 626-277-3457. Thank you once again, young man. Yeah. Quickly, we got the OG. Give us about 30 seconds. Well, I just want to send a shout-out to everybody, Skid Row Unit, College Division, General Jeff, you know, the Skid Row 3-on-3 Basketball League, everybody that's in the Skid Row Artists Collective, you know, G-Nut, you know, Chucky B, and the whole Skid Row community, really. You know, we love y'all. You want to get in touch with me, you know, OG, in service, LA3 at yahoo.com. Go to the link. Go to the link. If you're one of those that want to get involved with the basketball portion of our program, just go to www.skidrowstreetballleague.webs.com. Okay. And then we also got Lynn, but I'm going to have to close out. Glad to have you here with us also, Lynn. And I would like to extend a special thanks to our in-studio guests, Manuel, OG, Man, Capito, Coach Ron, Miss Emily, Lynn, and Rossi, on the line with George Anna Williams, and my co-hosts, Tyrone Robinson and Earlene Anthony, and a special thanks to Jeremy, Sonia, and the Skid Row Studios. You can check out our past shows at skidrowstudios.com. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.