September 29, 2016
Family members, loved ones and strangers gathered at various locations this past weekend to recognize the National Day of Remembrance for Murdered Victims. Local events began as early as Friday with a 24-hour march from Firestation 65 in Watts to 77th Division Police Station in South Los Angeles. Memorial services were held in Leimert Park and several other venues throughout greater Los Angeles.
The heartfelt weekend ended Sunday at the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro. Organized by Parents of Murdered Victims, Inc. and Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson, about 50 people gathered to pray, recite poems and solemnly ring the bell at the historic landmark. Assemblymember Gipson and Mrs. LeCresha Gipson, whose son was killed by a hit and run driver, spoke encouraging words to the gathering along with Senator Isadore Hall, L.A. City Controller Ron Galperin and Cathy Familathe, L.A. Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.
As the name of each victim was spoken a white dove was released. The afternoon ended with a promise to continue to seek justice, keep their memories alive and return next year.
September 22, 2016
By Charlene Muhammad
Contributing Writer
United Hood Nation, a coalition of clergy, gang members, gang interventionists, activists, families of murdered victims, and community-based organizations held a town hall meeting on solutions to gun violence in their community.
The Sep. 15 gathering at Holman United Methodist Church in South L.A. culminated two months of weekly strategizing sessions. Student Minister Tony Muhammad, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s and Nation of Islam’s Western Region Representative, Danny Bakewell, Sr., Executive Publisher of the Sentinel, and Khalid Shah, founder of Stop the Violence Increase the Peace, convened the meeting.
It was a follow-up to the mid-July gang peace meeting with Crips and Bloods, called by Muhammad.
“Many of you who have been giving your life, all banging gotta stop,” Muhammad admonished.
“If you’re in gang intervention, stop talking against another gang interventionist. If you’re a mother who’s lost your children, don’t talk against another mother who may get a lot of press. All of us are suffering because you suffer,” Muhammad said.
“Political banging gotta stop. Business banging gotta stop. DJ banging gotta stop … Activists banging gotta stop. Black on Brown gotta stop … It’s gotta all stop,” he said.
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said to me to tell you we have produced the best generation ever. We have produced the Joshua generation. They ain’t scared of nothing,” Muhammad continued.
He added, “They may not look like much to you with the condition that they’re in, but with right guidance, those soldiers that you see killing themselves today, Jesus said these words: How would they know except they have a teacher, and how would they have a teacher unless someone is sent to them.”
Real job opportunities, safe housing, and education were among the solutions the group developed to begin to curb the violence. The group applauded James Mitchell, who holds free weekly classes on how to study and get into the trades and construction.
Bakewell encouraged unity to end violence. He fights everyday for the honor and dignity of Black people, he said.
“If we unite with each other, there is nothing we can’t do … We’ve always had businesses to service our community, until somebody came in and told us that we needed to integrate with somebody else,” he said.
“All that’s fine, but we know we’ve got to have our own. For those of us who learned the lessons from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we know that we have to have our own,” Bakewell said.
He said the community could not honor and affirm enough the families who’s loved ones were murdered. He also applauded gang interventionists who put their lives on their line to forge peace.
His father was shot by some gang members, trying to do right, Bakewell shared. “We have to recognize that sometimes, we’re our own worst enemy … It does not matter who killed. The person is dead. But it does hurt just a little more to know that you were killed by your own people,” he continued.
Before facilitator Dr. Shari Randolph opened panel talks, Shah recognized former gang members consistently working to end bloodshed in the streets.
Vicky Lindsey, founder of Project Cry No More, which supports victims’ mothers and families, called them to stand and represent. The audience gave a standing ovation as they held photos of their loved ones, and announced each’s name, when they died, and how.
One mourner’s stepson, grandson and nephew were killed in the last three years, he said.
“We need more than that. We need you guys to understand us, because this hurts ya’ll. This hurts,” said Ms. Lindsey, also a member of the Southern California Cease Fire Committee. Her son Lionel was killed more than 20 years ago.
“We together can make this happen. We’re going to stop it right now. It ends on this day,” Lindsey stated.
Marcus “Big Ship” Bell, former gang member-turned-interventionist, expressed sincere respect for previous speakers, and critiqued the structure of the town hall meeting itself.
He noted many gang members that were in attendance, left the venue. Former gang members should speak earlier next time to keep their attention, because they didn’t want to here the same old thing, he chided. The audience nodded in agreement.
“Everybody up in here done lost … I don’t know if y'all recognize, it was a diverse group up in here earlier. It was Crips and Bloods up in here earlier,” he said.
He said some gang bang still and some don’t. “It always takes, and I’m not dissing nobody. Don’t get me wrong. I just gotta keep it real,” Bell began.
“When y'all have us come up here, and talk about the work that we do … the next time there’s some town hall meetings, whatever this is, a get together for change, you gotta make sure that the brothers get up here and start speaking before everybody get up outta here,” he advised.
“See, you had gang members up in here … and they wanted to hear something. I’m not knocking, and it’s a process for everything, but when you have ‘em in here like that y’all, you gotta let us come in here and say something immediately because they get bored,” Bell explained.
He said it takes a lot to stop gang banging, and people are looking for peace, but they haven’t gotten to a healing process yet.
Every time things start looking a little bit better, someone is murdered, and lingering pain from 20-30 years ago, people still want revenge, Bell said.
But the pain can stop with people like him who have turned their lives around. People need to see that if he could do it, they could do it, Bell went on.
He said he began his own introspection after the 1992 Rodney King Rebellion. He changed his reality when he interacted with productive people. He grew tired of hurting his mother and family, Bell reflected.
“So the next time we have this thing, when y'all see them gang members and former gang members mobbing up in here, they doing it for a reason. They wanna hear something. They wanna see who up in here. They wanna see who’s doing the work, if a person’s legitimate out here,” Bell said.
He added, “I used to be on the same level, stuck on stupid, but we were conditioned to do that … and the conditions don’t happen overnight. It took time to get the mentality that we had, just like it’s going to take time to change that mentality.”
Shah saluted Reverend Kelvin Sauls for opening Holman United Methodist Church for the meeting. He also saluted Min. Tony for his over two decades of working to bring peace to L.A.
“If you can’t bleed for me, you can’t lead me, and this man has bled for us,” he stated.
Shah added, “I’m putting you on notice: Our Muslim brothers, our Muslim community has come together. Our Christian community, brothers from the street, brothers from the penitentiary, we’ve all come together! We didn’t invite no politicians here tonight. This is about us. Us! Us! That’s it!”
(Lola Muhammad contributed to this report.)
September 15, 2016
LAWT News Service
The California Department of Parks and Recreation has requested the National Park Service’s Office of International Affairs to consider the Watts Towers, a National Historic Landmark and a State Historic Park, for inclusion on the United States Tentative List as the first step in the process of formally asking the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee to recognize the Outstanding Universal Value of this potential World Heritage site.
The Watts Towers are a monumental mosaic-covered architectural sculpture of reinforced cement spires rising almost one hundred feet from a foundation of only fourteen inches. They were built over the course of thirty years by Sabato (a.k.a. “Sam” and “Simon”) Rodia, an immigrant Italian mason and tile-setter, working alone in his spare time. Once scheduled for demolition by the City of Los Angeles Building Department, Rodia's towers survived the ordeal to become a symbol of freedom and initiative for the Watts community where they stand and are now recognized throughout the world as an extraordinary creative achievement. The late architect and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller hailed Rodia’s engineering for its embodiment of “the beauty of nature... in its principles.”
The Cultural Resources Division (CRD) of California State Parks submitted the Tentative List form for the Watts Towers to the National Park Service on April 29, 2016. In the letter, State Parks made the case that the property meets the requirements for authenticity, integrity, legal protection and management that the World Heritage Convention needs for consideration of potential properties.
Those working closely with State Parks’ CRD Chief Leslie Hartzell to submit the request letter were Watts Towers UNESCO candidacy initiator and independent scholar Luisa Del Giudice, Ph.D.; Watts Towers Arts Center Campus Director Rosie Lee Hooks; Jo Farb Hernandez, Director of Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments (SPACES); Edward Landler, Towers documentary filmmaker and board member of the Watts Towers Community Action Council and Friends of Watts Towers Arts Center; and Danielle Brazell, General Manager of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, administrator for the site.
To celebrate this great step toward universal recognition of Rodia’s Towers, the staff of the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs invites one and all to join them this year for their annual presentation of its two great cultural heritage festivals: The 35th Annual Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival on Saturday, September 24, and the 40th Annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 25.
For more information, see: http://www.wattstowers.org/events
September 08, 2016
LAWT News Service
Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson supports private development of permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals in the 8th District. The project at 507 West 83rd Street is being developed by Haroni Investments, a private firm that has created a portfolio of affordable and supportive housing for homeless individuals — which is sorely needed in South Los Angeles and around the city.
“This is an excellent example of the private sector helping provide housing solutions to homeless Angelenos, and those at risk of becoming homeless,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “If voters pass the new the $1.2 billion homeless housing bond on this November’s ballot, then non-profit and private sector developers can ramp up efforts to provide housing and other facilities, and start getting people off the streets and into real housing solutions.”
Haroni Investments are targeting properties that have been deemed nuisance sites by the city attorney’s office and replacing former problems properties with solutions to the homelessness crisis. Once built, the developer would utilize “wrap around” services to help homeless individuals through The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
Harris-Dawson represents the 8th Council District of Los Angeles, and is Chair of the Homelessness & Poverty Committee. That committee created the city’s first Comprehensive Homeless Strategy earlier this year.