Play reading, music artists, reparations discussion

When I think about the mercy and your love and your grace I thank you, Lord, that you brought me to this place Where I can praise you every day of my life You brought me through the stress You brought me through the strife I'm climbing high I'm on the mountain for you Cause, Lord, I love you for everything that you do For who you are to me My Savior and my Lord Lord, you are really You are awesome Indeed Great and mighty Mighty You are awesome Indeed Full of love and mercy Awesome My God is awesome With a sun-guided sun With a sun-guided sun helps me through the rain and the fog especially when life gets hard he holds my hand walk me through the dark god is great can i get a witness specialize in loving and forgiveness and poverty stress and sickness the young time never late to handle business awesome indeed great and mighty you are awesome indeed full of love and mercy awesome no matter what you're going through pray it up he's helping you jesus on the main line call him up like what it do you awesome indeed welcome to the coom ram 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 live from skid row studios and i'm in the studio with my co-host earlene antony i'll call in numbers 800-893-9562 you can listen to us live or download our show in any past show by googling in skid row.la and hit coom ram report now this week on the coom ram report we will be talking to some creative voices from the community with penny bergman lee beck ola shea banjo young grimy hub face and mr stephen taylor is going to talk to us about reparations welcome to the coom ram report now i would like to start off with uh penny and uh lee over there penny uh which is the director of a play that's coming up and lee is in the play it is called the face in the lantern and lantern which would be performed this sunday march the 9th 2021 at six o'clock at the secret rose theater 11246 mcnollia boulevard north hollywood california 91601 welcome to the coom ram report thank you pleasure to be here it's a play reading play reading piece yes uh let's start off with a opinion can you tell our listening audience a little about your extensive background and then we'll talk a little about the play well my background is basically in the theater as well as in television and i work most of my career on the soap opera called all my children um but of course that pays the rent and the theater doesn't so now at this point in my life i'm having the opportunity to go back to my first love which is the theater and the play is based in a movie that's called the face in the lantern and there's a lot of amazing amazing amazing amazing on the most famous Japanese ghost story, which we've adapted to modern day. So it's very cool, and we're having a great time putting it together. Now, can you tell us a little about what's the play about? I saw something about relationship to a Macbeth type story. The playwright's name is Carol Fisher Sorgert Fry, and she was a professor at UCLA for many years in Asian theater. So she found all these parallels between this very famous ghost play from 17th century Japan and the Scottish play, as we call it in the theater. And so we fashioned a play which takes place around the time of the tsunami in Japan, and the ghost comes back, and it's an evil or an ambitious husband, and so it echoes both plays, and it's kind of a mash-up. It's great fun. Now, how did you get involved with Japanese theater? When I was 16, I was an exchange student in Japan, and one of the cousins of the family took me to a kabuki theater, and this beautiful vision of a geisha came down right near me from the back towards the stage, and I was totally hooked. I said, this is just gorgeous. At six years old? Sixteen. Sixteen? Yeah. So that started my strange passion then. Do you speak the language, too? A little bit, yeah. Now, is there a difference between Japanese theater and from traditional American theater? Much different. Much different, yeah. Can you talk about some of the differences that you think? Well, the Japanese theater is a lot more from the outside, and so they say it's very presentational, versus American theater is more, if you think, of the great theater artists that we know, like Brando or De Niro, who are much more subtle and much more film-oriented. But in the theater, it's much more grander in the traditional Japanese theater. But, of course, there were no microphones then. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I'm sure you've seen all the pictures of the big makeup and the big costumes, and that was to reach far, far back, so that everybody could see, so they'd get their money's worth in the telling of the story. Now, how about a young people's theater in Japan? Is there a young people's theater? Yeah, there's a very... Is it similar to... There's a very active children's theater, but, of course, they're trying to make the theater relevant to the kids now, so they'll take famous folk tales and put them into modern-day dress or somehow tell them in a really cool way. And the whole anime tradition that the kids are into, the Japanese... The Japanese cartoons, that's also another way of telling traditional style stories. Mm-hmm. How did you first get involved? We're going to talk to Lee in a minute about the public works improvisational theater. How did you first get involved with public works? Well, I had moved to Los Angeles, and I saw a performance of public works, and they blew my mind. This was in the early 70s. And I desperately wanted to learn what they were doing and how they were doing it. So... So I prostrated myself at their feet and said, I'll do whatever you want. I'll take whatever classes you have. And eventually I learned all about improvisation and how cool it is to do. And eventually Lee came down to public works, and we all started performing together, and it was glorious. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lee, can you talk about that experience a little bit? Well, when I came, Penny was here, as I recall, and she was in a class that my wife, eventually my wife, but the teacher was teaching, Marlene Rastic, who was one of the founders of public works. And so we did just a lot of improvs, and the company had a regular weekly show on Friday nights at the church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica, in Ocean Park. And so that's, you know, that's kind of where Penny and I connected, and we've been pals and friends for years, and I'm really glad to have her here. She lives in New York, so when I go to New York, I get to see her. Mm-hmm. And when she comes here, Marlene and I went to Hawaii one time when she was doing a play there, and she wanted to, let's see, you wanted to be in it, right? I was in it, yeah. Yeah, you wanted to be in it, so she wanted us to come and direct it. So we did, and we had a great time there for a month, and just it was fantastic. And we did a nice little piece about tourism, and, but I wanted a little more political bite to it, so I got this guy named Kwaipuna Prejean to join us, who was an activist in the Back to Hawaii movement that was going on, you know, to give the islands back to the people, and he had, what was the name of that island where they used for target practice? Mokulele? Something like that. Yeah, Mokulele. Anyway, he had been, he had, you know, the, the, the U.S. Navy had been bombarding this island since World War II, so there were all kinds of armaments on it and stuff, and so Kwaipuna was one of two little boats that went over to the island and claimed it for Hawaii, and this caused quite a stir, and eventually it was won back from the government, and they took all the, all the weaponry that had been embedded in it, you know, all the shells and all that stuff out of it, because it had been kind of a sacred place in Hawaiian lore. It was the place where they taught the, they taught the sailors, the Hawaiian sailors to navigate the seas, because from the highest mountain there, you could see the channels, you know, in the ocean, there are channels that you can get on and ride to the other side of the world. Okay. Like a river. Let me go back, Peony, let me, let me ask you this. Do you, what do you think the major difference in working, I mean, for you, for working in the theater and working in television? Television is much more high pressure, much more high pressure, and at least on a soap opera, we did 100 pages a day, which is a lot of material to put down, to put on tape, and then edit and have out to the public in a daily show. In the theater, normally you get a chance, you rehearse a lot more, get into the characters a lot more, explore more. So, it's more of an artistic pursuit, and you have a little bit more time to put it together, but TV is very, very fast. So, as a television professional, you have to think fast, move fast, and do your job really quickly. Well, let me ask you this about, since you work in soaps, and I always wondered this about soap, because when I was coming, it may have been changed now, but why do you think so many females love soap operas? Fantasy. Fantasy. Hunky men, beautiful clothes, fabulous hair, fabulous makeup. It was fantasy. So, whether you were high up on the economic scale or not as high up on the economic scale, by watching these shows, you had a fantasy, a fantasy life that you would live through another character or another set of characters. Living vicarious. That's it. That's it. Now, let me ask, what is your approach to this particular play in terms of putting it together? Because, you know, I was pulled up on some of the actors. There's some outstanding actors that you guys got reading. Yes, I have a wonderful cast. Some local actors that I haven't met yet who, Emily Kuroda and Tracy Kato-Kuriyama. And some actors I've worked with in All My Children, James Patrick Stewart and Terry Ivins. The director, John Lindstrom. And I'm probably forgetting somebody. I'm meeting another young lady for the first time who's playing the lead, Laura Kai Chen. And Lee is playing the badass detective. Yeah, let's go ahead and see. He started out as a good guy and I asked the playwright, No. No, Lee's playing this. Do you try to get a rehearsal in on the same day? Yeah, we're going to blast it. We're going to come in and read it amongst ourselves. And then I'm going to break the group into smaller groups so that scenes that are a little bit more thorny will have a little extra time. And then take a dinner break. The audience comes in. We read it. And the purpose of the reading, which is probably unlike most of the other plays, is that it's a little bit more like television programs. The purpose of our reading is to get feedback from the audience on what worked, what didn't work, where they got lost, what they thought was really, really cool, what they thought about the characters. So the purpose of this play reading is feedback from the audience. It's not to raise money. It's not to make money, which we eventually hope we'll do. And the money that we do earn, we're hoping to possibly donate to the Japanese, to the Japanese fund for the victims of the tsunami and the earthquake. Are you going to use music stands or just very casual? It's going to be pretty casual. No blocking, nothing like that? A little bit of blocking. A little bit of blocking. But it's going to be very casual. And of course, as a director, I can't wait until I move into the next stage, which is more blocking, live music, costumes, lights, and all of that. But first we want to make sure the script is really solid. Yeah, and you're planning on producing it out here or in New York? Wherever we can do it. Maybe both. Maybe both. So if you want to be a critic, come on out and see this show. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to try to make it Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. You can RSVP. We're going to have a guest list. So you can RSVP on Public Works Facebook page. PublicWorksImprov.com Thank you. And you click on... Or Facebook page. Yeah. And you click on events and that's how you get in. Yeah. Okay, we're going to come back because I got some more questions. I want to get back into a round table because I want to talk about how do we get theater and arts out to our young people and out to our seniors. Yeah, so we'll come back. Thank you, Penny Berman. Berman. Berman, leave back. Okay, let's move on to our community calendar and then I'm going to move over to some of our other groups over here and we'll be back around. Okay. Thank you very much. This is the community calendar for the month of March. The Robie Theater Company is celebrating 20 years of excellent in black theater from 1994 to 2014 and continuing the series Community as History Detective Finding Our Place. Uncovering history using historical markers such as El Pueblo and Biddy Mason and many others. No prior experience in writing is required. To successfully complete this workshop, all you need is a willingness to follow your creative spirit. Robie's artistic in resident, Levy Lee Simmons, will determine how those stories will be used in the final play being developed about Central Avenue and the Dunbar Hotel. Light refreshments will be provided. Workshops are free. The date of the workshop is Tuesday, March the 6th, 2014 from 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. And the location is the Clayton Library and Museum, 2130 Overland Boulevard, Culver City. For more information, you can call Judith Bowman at 626-486-2460 or email gotorobie at gmail.com. Saturday, March the 6th, 2014, at 6.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. for the! And the location is the Clayton Library and Museum, 2130 Overland Boulevard, Culver City. For more information, you can call Judith Bowman at 626-486-2460 or email gotorobie at gmail.com. Saturday, March the 8th, 2014, at 11 a.m. Skid Row 3-on-3 Streetball League present an open house. And this will give you a chance if you want to join a team or just learn about the rules of 3-on-3 Streetball. There will be live entertainment, food prices, and much more. The location is Gladys Park, 802 East 6th Street. For more information, you can contact ron.com. r-o-n.crocket, C-r-o-c-k-e-t-t at yahoo.com. We're asking you to save the date. Tuesday, March the 25th, 7 p.m. Drum and Stage Coon Run Veterans Community Theater Company presents the documentary Wattstack of the 1972 Festival. The all-day concert was part of the Watt Summer Festival, which was emceed by, at that time, a young Jesse Jackson, featuring Richard Pryor, staple singers Isaac Hayes, theme from Shaft, and many more. This is a fundraising event. You're asked to come out with your afro, your bell bottoms, your platform shoes, and laugh, sing, dance, shout, and just come out and network. Suggested donation is $5. The location is the Vortex, 2341 East Olympic Boulevard, in the! For more information, you can contact Drum and Stage 1 at yahoo.com or call 213-479-1764. Upcoming guests on the Coon Run Report, Monday, March the 10th, will be Pastor Thompson, and he's the author of the book, Victory Over the Mind. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to Drum and Stage 1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earline Anthony. And the call in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Hey, thank you, Miss Earline Anthony. Now, I'm delighted to have with us in the studio, Ola Shea Banjo. Also out with him is Young Grimey and Hub Face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me. We're gonna play a song, and then we're gonna talk a little about that song, that song, Elsewhere. Elsewhere is actually... She's gonna play it for us. Oh, she's gonna play it for us? Okay. He's ready to talk. It's for everybody who's searching for love. You ain't got to search. You're searching here. You're searching there. You're searching here. While you're looking elsewhere. While you're looking elsewhere, baby. While you're looking elsewhere, baby. While you're looking elsewhere, baby. You're searching high. You're searching low. While you're looking elsewhere. While you're always looking for love. For love. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Trying to figure out the way. Trying to figure out the way. The emptiness inside. Trying to find your joy. In another life. In another life. In another one. Another heart. Another mind. With a Why you always looking for love? Always looking for love You're searching hard You're searching low Why you looking elsewhere? For love You're always looking for love In the wrong places So many kisses Yeah, so many years wasted And you'll be for a sec And soon you'll realize Put your pride to the side And yeah, you get a pie Live as beautiful as a fish in the ocean Watch the sun set on the ground You know I'm high So no time wasted For the love of my life Okay, Elsewhere. Now, Olashay, let's talk about that song. How did this song come about? And what's the meaning of it? This song actually came about because I was actually about to get into a relationship with a young lady and she was just really seriously not really Not that lady. Yeah, she wasn't. And I was like, Why you always looking somewhere else? And I'm like, Why you always looking elsewhere? Then all of a sudden the words I went to the studio with my boy Rock, Rhyme Over Crime and I had the beat and the words just came out. It just came out and it was perfect and it was right and it said everything that I wanted to say at that time. Okay. Let's talk to the other members of the group that you brought out. Young, Grimey and Hubface. How you doing? They're brothers too. I just found out that they're brothers. Yeah, love brothers. Talk a little how you got off into singing, music and writing and all of that. Well, I learned how to rap just watching my older brother sitting right on the side of me. Growing up watching him rap, so he just felt the music, started off freestyling and next thing you know, you're writing the tracks, jumping in the studio booth. Yeah, I've been creating since about 98, starting in a couple groups and now I'm working on my solo thing. We pretty much got our own label together, got our own studio and that's how we pretty much came together with O'Shea. Started for me back in the day, right now I just started with my solo thing. Yeah. Okay. Now, can you tell us about the name, your name and your name that you use? Okay. Well, yeah, I'm Young Grimey. I just live, you know, I'm from Compton, so it's a grimy place, you know what I'm saying? I love my city. So, you know, I just, you know, I just really want to represent my city and know that, you know, I'm grimy, but it ain't as bad as it look, you know what I'm saying? I don't get it wrong. I love Compton, man. I'm Compton. Love it every day. There's a lot of love out there, you know. It's just a lot of things going on. But her face, you know, I got face because of my facial expressions, you feel me? First I was called Two Face, you know, and then tried to use that name. That was already taken, you know, who would have thought? But, you know, so, you know, I'm from Compton, you feel me? I already was stuck with the name Face, so I just do the Hub, you know. If anybody from Compton, they know what the Hub is, you know. You know, if they from Watts, they know what the Hub is. The Hub and the Dub. Now, how would you classify this type, the type of music that you do? Worldly. See, we talk about things that we go through, you know. The negative with the positive, you know. We try to focus on the positive, but you can't focus on the positive without letting everybody know the negative. Yeah, because I got a Black Power album, you know, which is really going towards the youth, you know. And I got a gospel album. So I got hip hop, regular hip hop. So I try to branch out. I don't want to stick to one genre, one type of thing, because I feel like God blessed me to, you know, tackle anything that I, you know, that the world, I can say worldly. Well, how would you classify the piece that we just heard? Is that gospel, contemporary gospel, fit into rap? I would classify it as, you know, as like it's all about life. Because the music that I create, especially with the song that we did, it's about things that, you know, that people can relate to. All people can relate to. I wasn't on the song, but what I created, what I got from the song, it's just something that everybody went through or are going to go through, you know. It's just that love, you feel me? Sometimes you think you got it. Sometimes you find out it ain't that. You know, sometimes you got to do your research deeper into it to figure out if that person is really for you. Yeah. Now, let me ask you this older shit. What exactly, what is gospel? Gospel to me is good news, telling about all the things, you know, about Jesus, about God, and about the good news, and about, but also gospel to me is things that I go through. Is it a, have they added a rap element to gospel? Yes, they have. Or is it all the way around? Did rap get a lot from gospel? Because gospel is an old... I think they go hand in hand. ...music, black spirit. Hand in hand. Because, you know, because spirituals, like you said, spirituals have been around for a long time. And gospel's been around for a long time. And like back in the day, they used like songs, to like give messages to people. Like back in the... Yeah. Just like rap gives messages to people. And I especially give a shout out to Lecrae, one of my favorite rappers, because he's a Christian rapper, gospel rapper. And his music is not just about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, it's about what's going on in the world and how we as young people relate to, you know, the world. Do you think that's, you know, we lost a lot of people, turned away from these three major religions, because I guess with the internet, they got so much information about them now. Do you see this particular type of music, the rappers being able to reconnect with the younger generation? Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, like when I first started, really, really got me listening to gospel when I, at the younger age, was Kurt Franco. When he came out with Reason Why We Sing and, you know, Reason Why We Sing and Stomp and all that stuff, because it was like something that I could relate to at that time. It was like hip hop. It wasn't just glory, glory, hallelujah. It was like in your face, happy music. You're like, yeah. He made it cool to be a Christian. Okay. Let's hear another song. Let's hear the next one. And then we'll talk about it for a minute. And then we're gonna talk about this reparation thing. Hey, y'all. This song is for everybody. It's a walking miracle. You've been through something and you survived. Thank you, I'm in your life. You're what you call a walking miracle. Thank you, Lord. Walking miracle. I'm in your life. I'm a walking miracle. Blessed by God to see today all the things that I deserve. With a grace that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I believe that I You've been with me Lord You've amazed me Lord Even when I was down to the count You stepped in Lord You showed me That I'm a walking I'm a walking miracle I'm a walking miracle Yes my God to see today All the things that I've been through Have made me who I am today I'm a walking miracle Lord I'm a walking miracle You've been with me Lord You've amazed me Lord Even when I was down to the count You've amazed me Lord Even when I was down to the count You've amazed me Lord Okay, walking miracle. What are some of the plans? Can you talk about what you guys got coming up? I'm kind of doing some more shows with y'all At the Vortex, you know. Hopefully get out and do some more shows And you know, find it on Facebook SoundCloud soon. Very, very soon. Matter of fact, this is actually the first single From my album, Two is Better Than One. It's a long title, Two is Better Than One The duet's album. Two's time, this will be out June 3rd. And I was like, man, we went to the studio I was like, my mother had like, Because I don't know what happened. She gave me the title, Walking Miracle. And all of a sudden, Grimey played the beat. I said, you know what? This is the title of the song. And all of a sudden, the words came together. We just meshed together. And it's crazy because I haven't seen these brothers. We worked together back in like 2000. Yeah, three or four years. And then all of a sudden, Grimey hooked me up. Grimey hit me up and talked about, Let's do a song together. I said, okay, cool. And the next thing you know, we're at his place. And it just came together. It's maddening. I mean, every time we come together, I call them my musical brothers. Every time we come together, it's like we just vibe off each other. Okay. I also got two shows coming up this week. I got one at the Brewdog. It's with Anye. Sunset Wednesdays, you know, in Beverly Hills. And then I got one also on Friday at the Pasadena Terrorists. The promoters record. Can you give us the address? What's the address? Got the address to do? Oh, come back later in the show. I'll get the address. Okay. All right, then. We're going to come back around for some closing, some more comments and contact information. At this time, I want to move over to Mr. Stephen Taylor and talk a little about his organization and representation. Stephen, welcome to the Coon Round Report. Well, thank you for having me. Now, before we get into our discussion about representation, I want to talk about reparations. Can you tell our listening audience a little about yourself and about your organization? Sure. Well, to begin, when we start off anything that we do, we begin by saying reparations in memory of our ancestors. So we have to make sure that we do honor our ancestors for all the hard work that America did to them as slaves. So I got involved with reparations through Mr. Peoples, Ms. Molly Bell, Big Money Griff, and a number of other individuals that were involved with the reparations movement. And, you know, what I tell people all the time about reparations is if slavery was immoral, we can all agree that slavery was immoral. Reparations is morally right. It's the right thing to do. I mean, we take the argument away. This is one of the things that we haven't done with reparations. We haven't done a great marketing job on selling reparations, not only to... We haven't done a great marketing job on selling reparations, not only to... not only to... not only to... not only to... you and you, but to all of us as a whole, because we're not asking for nothing. We're not asking for nothing. What we do is America owes this to us because of slavery. You know, we can all relate to the Holocaust. And the Jews got paid for the Holocaust. They got compensated for it. But the Holocaust never happened in America. It was a European problem. And the United States helped it. pay the bill. Slavery happened right here. We have to keep that in mind. We have to keep that in mind. Slavery happened here, and there's not one black person's got compensated for slavery. Okay. Let me also ask you this. I want to play a clip from Dr. Claude Anderson in a minute, but can you tell us about this event coming up? Yeah, we have an event. It's our second annual Day of Demand, National Reparations Day, that's going to be held this Thursday, March 6th, from 11 to 5 at Tragnew Park in the city of Compton. It's located at 839 South Central Avenue, right on the corner of Alondra and Central, and it's a free event. We offer a number of things for all our vendors that can come out free, groups, organizations, speakers, and the good thing about it, it's free. We don't ask anybody to come up with anything. Yeah, I'm from Compton. We love free. And we still have room for more entertainers if you guys want to show up. Oh, yeah. Put me down. Yeah, just let me know. Just show up, because it's going to be, actually, the stuff is really going to start around 12 o'clock. 11 o'clock, we'll introduce the vendors. See, it's not only about reparations, but it's about us telling people about black businesses, black groups, black organizations, because it all ties into reparations. And then we give you young people an opportunity to perform, because we have a stage. We give you guys an opportunity to perform, to show your talents and stuff like that. And like I said, everything is free. The city's waived all the fees, so it gives us the opportunity to offer this thing to everybody free of charge. And what we did last year, we did a reenactment of young people getting captured in Africa and brought over to America. So it was a real great program that had exceeded past 5 o'clock, but we'll cut it off at 5 this year. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. With a The issue is not social integration, it's economic integration. But again, nobody listened. The black leadership didn't listen then. The black civil rights leaders didn't listen then. They continued to pursue a trail of social integration. And social integration meant that I am willing, I am willing to give up everything I've got just to sit in somebody else's restaurant, to go to somebody else's school, to live in somebody else's community, to work for somebody else's business, to be next to them. I'll give up everything I've got. And I said, you're wrong. Because if you go into social integration, it's going to happen as if you're going to kill yourself. You can become a deprived, poverty-stricken people if you do it. Because you see, social integration is not just a platform that you believe in, it's a platform that you believe in, that you believe that you believe in, of your music. It's going to strip you of your sports teams, your basketball teams, your football teams. It's going to strip you of your culture, your heritage. It's going to strip you of your uniqueness as slaves. The general segregation statuses that you have, where you can demand reparations and demand justification. Okay, that's Dr. Claude Anderson talking a little about reparation. Let me ask you this. How would reparations, how would that be implemented? Well, what we have is the implementation of reparation basically has to come through our congresspeople, our senators, our legislators. So they have to actually come up with a bill. So what we've done is we have a survey that we produced, and out of this survey, we're asking you, what do you want for reparations? Instead of, you know, two or three or four or five congresspeople sitting in a room deciding on, this is what I want for reparations. Now we're asking the people what they actually want for reparations. So out of this survey, we're going to tally it up. We're going to look at it, and then we're going to have a group of lawyers to come up to write a reparations bill. So we're going to take it out of the hands of our politicians because basically I shouldn't even be here tonight. This is a politician's job. This isn't my job. This isn't my job to come out and talk about reparations. We elect our officials, just like the Republicans elected the Tea Party. I mean, they're steadfast on cutting taxes. We should be steadfast on reparations because we can build our black businesses. We can hire black folks. I mean, if you look at our major problems in this country, I'm a firm believer that our problems stem from slavery, and we have to attack slavery. We have to attack what happened to us in slavery. Well, let me ask you this, Stan. Why do you think the descendants of the slaves of Americans, the African-American, never received any kind of reparations? When groups like Native Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, et cetera, like that received? Well, you know, that's probably a great question, but you also have to understand that we have a cancer in America, and that cancer is called racism. And if we can not lick that cancer, we're going to be in the same boat from years and years from now. We can't eliminate racism. I don't know if we could ever control it, but the government has always been a friend of the people. And so I think it's a great question. I think it's a great question. Well, the federal government has always been a friend of the ex-slave, or descendants of black African slaves, because he's passed legislation to protect us, and that's why it's so important not to let the states take over and control each individual state. The federal government has always been a friend to us. And if you look throughout history, it'll tell you. They passed the Civil Rights Bill. They passed the Voting Rights Act. So, I mean, they've done things to help us along the way, while the states have, if you look at the states today, they're taking away the Voting Rights Act. So you have to look at some of these things that they're doing. All the things that you've gained can be taken away just as quick as if we allow the states to do that. Okay, let me ask you this then. Do you think that our African-American leaders took us down the wrong path by seeking social integration instead of building a separate economy by practicing group economics like all of the other groups do? We're probably the only some one that don't practice group economics. But it comes with maturity. You know, I guess one of the things that we're faced with is we have always been a spiritual and a Christian people. So when Dr. Claude Anderson talks about the socialization integration, I guess he doesn't mention that the groups that control our economic base are the Christians, the black church. The black church has a big economic base in this country. And they've always been a part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And I think that's a big part of it. And so they have a big voting power. Because all you have to do is just look at where does the politicians go when they come to town? They come to the black church. So that's one of the things that we're hitting up too. We're hitting up the black church so we can be right there with them. But Claude Anderson is right. We do need an economic base. Because the dumbest person can be the richest person. But you'll follow him forever. And just because he's a Christian, he's a Christian. Because he has money. Just because he has money, you think that he has something that we don't have. And which he does. Okay, look, let's play another little one-minute clip by Dr. Anderson. I want to talk to you about that. How do we go about not only trying to hold them accountable, but using the best opportunities that black folk have ever had to get some economic justice? And that is going back to 1866. Indian Treaty, which spells out very specifically that black freedmen and black free people in general and black Indians were entitled to be treated just as American Indians, to be put into a protected class and be given all the benefits and privileges that American Indians have been receiving for the last 140 years. And yet, I have tried desperately to get the attention of black leaders from the highest to the lowest. And to this day, I've only found one black in Congress out of 43 that even spent a minute, trying to find out what are those opportunities for black folks to get economic justice under the 1866 treaties. And when this door closes and this treaty is passed over, and the white Indians continue to get benefits, black people someplace in the future must look in the eyes of their children and the black masses across this country and say, I am guilty of having abandoned my people and placed them in an untenable position from which they cannot recover. Mm-hmm. And by the way, the only congressman was Maxine. Maxine Waters. Yeah. That they could talk about in relationship. Yeah, would you like to comment on that? And then I got one more question I want to ask you about reparations. Okay, well, this 1866 treaty, Mr. Claude Edison has been fighting that in the courts for years. That along with all the other organizations that we need to come on board, because when the Jews got reparations, when the Indians got reparations, when the Japanese got reparations, when they rebuilt Europe, when the Japanese got reparations, when the Japanese got reparations, when the Japanese got reparations, when the Japanese got reparations, how many black people you knew wrote letters to the government and said, don't make this happen? So we need to stretch out and we need to reach out to those organizations and say, look, we weren't against you getting reparations, so help us get reparations. You need to reach to the Japanese and say, hey, help us get reparations along with the 1866 treaty. I mean, we have to reach out to all of us because, you know, the thing about this, we're all in this thing together. And reparations is not a handout. It is not a handout. You have to keep that. But in mind, it will never, ever bankrupt this country. It will never, ever bankrupt this country. Never. So don't let people tell you that it will because it won't. Reparations is not a check. Let me just tell you what reparations means. Reparations means to repair. And what does repair mean? Whatever it takes to make you whole. So you might want, you might want to check. You might want to have a free education for your child for the rest of your life. You might not want to pay taxes. You see what I mean? You might want land. So reparations is not just one thing. It's a combination of us being compensated for slavery. Okay. Steven, beautiful, beautiful. We could come back around for some closing comments. I kind of want to open it up on the floor now. I want to talk about how do we get our young people more involved with the arts? The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. The arts. With that said, would you like to start off with that, Annie? Well, first is the availability of the programs for the kids. If the programs are not in places for the kids to go to, whether it's music, art, drama, dance, then the opportunities are way limited. With that said, I believe that there's a lot of opportunity for them to access that opportunity And so that's either through religious groups or ideally through the public schools. And keeping funding for the arts in schools is crucial to give the kids the opportunity to first take the classes. And even with, you know, people who are in the arts are not in it for the money. We're in it for the passion. And to spread that kind of creative juice to everyone. But you need a venue to be in and you need an organization. So for any kids in any communities, it's crucial that money for arts and education is available. Let me ask you this question. Since you're talking a little about Japanese theater and we know that the Japanese were interns. They went through that over that. They got reparations, I think, what, $20,000 or $30,000 each. And then they were able to build, to practice this group economics thing. So where today, especially in the city of Los Angeles, they're very strong from an economic and a cultural point of view. What do you think made that possible? Do you think it had a lot to do with their culture? Their background? I think it's probably great lawyering. Great lawyering. Yeah. Good answer. I think it's probably great lawyering and a lot of passionate effort on the part of people to keep pushing forward. And keep your foot in the door saying, this is what we need. This is what we deserve. This happened to us. This was wrong. This was wrong. And if there's any way we can make it right, we as a nation should try and make it right. Do you detect any difference when you're experiencing theater and the cultural arts when you're over here among the Japanese Americans in Japanese theater or when you're in Japan? Is there a connection? Well, there's a connection in the sense of familiarity. But it's just like, you know, I'm Jewish. So my generation is not very familiar with our two generations ago of the Yiddish theater, which were all the immigrants that came over and were passionately involved in the theater. And so I can't really speak to the Japanese community because I'm not essentially a part of that community. But I'm certainly an appreciator. Mm-hmm. And so why I feel that my mission is to fuse these American theaters. And I think it's because I think it's the Japanese, the traditional classical tradition is so cool that I want to make it accessible to everybody. Okay, Lee. And to do that, she's doing this reading of her play, The Face in the Lantern, written by Carol Fisher Sogren Fry. Did I say it right? Pretty close. And it's being presented. Sunday, March the 9th, next Sunday afternoon at 6 o'clock. It is a new play reading followed by refreshments and feedback. There's no charge. And this is going to be presented at the Secret Rose Theater at 11246 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood, 91601. And you can also see if you didn't get that. You can go to publicworksimprov.com and see a flyer about that coming up. You play a detective. Yeah, I'm going to be a detective. Boy. And an entertainment guru. How long is the play? How many pages? Right now, I think it's about 75 pages. So it should run an hour and a half. Looking forward to it. I'm sure you'll have a good time. Also, I want to invite everybody out to my show, Story File. Which will be this coming Thursday night at 8 o'clock at Art Share in the Arts District downtown. We do Story File the first Thursday of every month. We have storytellers, poets, and musicians. And it makes for a nice eclectic evening that I think you'll really enjoy. And it's a good fellowship as well. So come on out and join us. Go ahead. Okay. And we'll also be producing Voice in the Well the following Thursday. The 13th of March at the Warzawa Restaurant in Santa Monica on Lincoln Avenue. It's in the attic there. And it's a literary salon. And it always has interesting musicians, poets, and performers there too. So come on out. That's at 730 on the 13th on the second Thursday of every month. Okay. And let her face. The contact information. He was going to get us the address. Yeah. Yeah. Any closing comments you got? Yeah. The Brew Dog Wednesdays. Sunset Wednesday. You can catch that at Brew Dog Pub. 8300 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills. And Pasadena Terrace on Saturday. You can catch it at 443 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. You know. And I do got a mixtape coming out. It's called, well, it's already out. You know, y'all can come and get it. Y'all got to get it. Get in contact with me to get it right now. I'm trying to get on the bigger issues where I can get it out to more people. But contact me on my website. You know, you got Hub Face 310. At Hub Face on Twitter. You know. And it's pretty much Hub Face 310 and all the links you can think of. Okay. And you can check for more shows. Hey, Brian. Closing comments, contact information? Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to say something about. Starting with the youth. I think that the younger we can get. Get them started in stuff like acting and music and dancing. I think that that will help. I don't think that we should start at teens. I think we should start. Like my daughter, she four. And she dance and she sing and she rap. So I think that we should start, you know, young. I think that'll help. You know, so help us get to the youth a lot better. Yeah. And on the point, I do want to agree with Penny. Because it's all about having that. Location that where you can go, you know. Yeah. You know, because, you know, when I'm growing up, when I heard somebody was in a special arts school, they were deep in Long Beach or had to go all the way to downtown L.A. You know, and then, you know, growing up in a family like mine, you know, we really came back and forth to certain situation. You know, moms were single parents. So, you know, we can always look for her to get us there. So we had a place close. I'm pretty sure we would spend a lot of time there, you know. And then and also with Bro, it's about noticing that talent when they're younger and then grooming that talent. Getting all involved. Because they already like it. All you got to do is give it to them, you know. Right. Okay. Olashay. Closing comments, contact. I agree with them because I actually started my mother. And my mother and my sister and I started when I was just one and a half years old. We started in church. And she groomed my talent. And because of her, now I'm singing everywhere I go. You know. There you go. And also, I have a show coming up March the 19th at the Silver Link Lounge, 2906 West Sunset Boulevard. 26. 2906 West Sunset Boulevard. 26. 26. 26. 26. Los Angeles, California. And if you need any information, you can contact me on Facebook or my website www.olashaybanjo.com. And also look out June 3rd my album II is Better Than 1, the duets album, Volume 1, II's Time that's a long title. But it's my favorite album. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and it features our song. So just like, just guys, look out. And I want to say thank you to Grimey and Hubface, man, because they are the best. All right. We thank you too. One more thing, one more thing. Oh, you can reach me at Grimey Raps, you know, my Yahoo, so Facebook and everything. So if you want to get in touch with me, Grimey Raps at Yahoo.com. Okay. I forgot one thing. Steven. Well, just to give everybody a better understanding of what reparations is, let me just read our brief mission statement. Our mission is to enlist educate, promote, inspire, and secure reparations for descendants of black African slaves. We will carry out this mission in unity to enrich a positive attitude toward reparations. We believe access to reparations is a legitimate right to all descendants of black African slaves. And we will enhance the dignity and quality of life for our future generations. Reparations will repair the wrong for the intentional holy cost of slavery. Make us whole and establish the respect we deserve. We do we deserve in memory of our ancestors. Okay. Can you give us quickly your contact information? You can contact Mr. Peoples who's our face of reparations. His phone number is area code 310-632-0577. And he's been around in the movement for over 30 years. Actually, he was in show business. He was called the Black Hillbilly at one time. So he was a comedian. A well-known comedian. All right. Okay. I would like to extend a special thanks to Penny Bergman. Lee Beck. Ola Shea Banjo. And Grimey. Yeah, Grimey. Yeah, Grimey. Grimey's face, right? Her face. Her face. And Mr. Stephen Talem. Interesting conversation about reparations. So glad for all of the guests that came out. Thank you. Please listen. And please listen to our podcast shows of the Coon Ram Report on iTunes, Stitcher, Tumblr, Google, and Skid Row. Thank you for tuning in to the Coon Ram 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. And I leave you with the song, what? It's called We're Gonna Make It. It features me and my biological sister, my big sister, Ola Boomi. Thank you very much. All right. And the song. It's for everyone who's going through. We're gonna make it, yo. We're gonna make it one day. We're gonna make it no matter what people say. We're gonna make it just keep your head on high. We're gonna make it. Yeah. We're gonna make it, yo. We're gonna make it. Like some scientists discouraging. So many bills are coming at you. You can't see. You don't have no hope at all. But I'm here to tell you your problems will be small. Keep a positive mind and outlook. Cause you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it. Never, never, never, never, never, never give up. No matter what. No matter what. Seems like. Just believe it. Just believe it. It will happen. You're gonna make it. Yeah. We're gonna make it one day. We're gonna make it no matter what people say. We're gonna make it just keep your head on high. We're gonna make it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna make it, yo. I've cried for my life every day. Even though I see my body decay. Even when I feel my dreams dissipate. I'm blue. Always got people trying to tell me what to do. Never wanna see my point of view. But I got my feet on solid ground. Ain't nobody here to show I found. Let me play it out now. Used to be homeless. Used to feel helpless. Used to let those voices say I'm not as good. But I'm not as good as I used to be. Used to say, would I drop the pain if they ain't in a little slacks? Uh. Yeah. I won't let nobody pull me down. Cause I found my worth in my poor ground. But when this life is done, I know I'll say, need it. We're gonna make it one day. Need it. Yeah. We're gonna make it no matter what people say. Used to be homeless. We're gonna make it. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. With aaded eyes that believe you're a hit upon. Hey, let's do this. Never give up.