Speaker 1: KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, and God bless I'm Dominique Kaprima.
This show is called First Things First, and my first
thing every single day's prayer, giving, thanksgiving, praises and asking
for blessings from God, asking for the blessings of.
Speaker 1: The ancestors and the elders. And let's go. You know
how we do it. I hope you do. If you're
new here, welcome.
Speaker 2: So it's a Freedman Friday, because that's what every Friday
is around here. On First Things First. That means that
our one we look local, what's going on on the
left coast side of town. Our two we focus on
reparations every week, as we have for over two years.
We want to be up on it. We want to
pass the test. We want to be part of the
vanguard that makes this happen for our people locally, nationally
and internationally. So we will do that. Doctor Quicku Ramel
Smith joins us today and we'll talk about the mental health,
the psychological aspect of repair. And then hour three we
do well, it's kind of a grab bag. On Fridays,
we do a thing, we do something today. I'm really
excited because I get to talk to two young people
who have just graduated from Saint Mary's. The valedictorian and
the salutorian will be here, which I try to bring
more young people's perspectives. I think we talk to our
own generations a little too much and not enough intergenerational conversation.
So Rema tech Le and Sofia Ometo will be here
to chop it up with us, and we'll get their
views on what's going on in the world and also yours.
So you're invited in at eight hundred nine to oh
fifteen eighty, eight hundred nine to oh fifteen eighty, you're
invited in every hour, and not only that, you can
see us on Facebook where we are streaming every day
Monday through Friday, and then on YouTube there's a whole
conversation in the comments section where my kblad allegation has
a lot to say, and you are more than invited.
I love to peep out what you have to say
in real time as we move through this. So go
to YouTube dot com and then KBLA fifteen eighty. We're
starting off live today. We're starting off live and in
studio and giving you just.
Speaker 1: A full Friday as we celebrate.
Speaker 2: However, many years have gone by since nineteen sixty five.
This is the anniversary this week of the Wats Uprising
and certainly the tradition of.
Speaker 1: Rebellion.
Speaker 2: I guess you could say of this area, LA will
celebrate that right now. Joining us right now live in
the studio, we have the pastor of the historic Fame Church.
He serves as pastor one of the nation's oldest and
mostly influential African American congregations. You know that if you
live here, you know that if you track churches. He's
an advocate for justice as well as a preacher committed
to proclaiming the Gospel, he says while addressing spiritual, social
and economic needs within the community, Doctor Timothy Tyler, Welcome,
good morning, Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to be here and have a little tag
along with me.
Speaker 2: Your minders here.
Speaker 3: Yes, the Reverend Judy Wortham is the executive director of
our five o' one c three at Fame First Amy Church,
Los Angeles. Slack Deck and I'll let her tell you
what slack deck stands for.
Speaker 4: Good morning and thank you for having us. Slack Deck
is South Los Angeles Community Development and Empowerment Corporation.
Speaker 3: Yes, and together Fame and Slack Deck will be doing
some great things this weekend.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, thank you for coming in to Reverend
mar them, It's nice to meet you.
Speaker 3: And to her defense, I made her come.
Speaker 1: Killing. I'm not going to ask for the backstory about that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna leave that all the way Ala. But you know,
I think one of the things we think of when
we think of Fame is exactly that, the combination of
worship and activism.
Speaker 1: Would you call it activism, community organizing justice.
Speaker 3: I called it activism, community organizing justice. And I would
even throw the word politics in there. A. It was
Fame that gave birth to the first black mayor of
Los Angeles, Thomas Bradley, who was a trustee at Fame
under the leadership of the then Reverend H. H. Brookings,
one of the famous freedom fighters of Los Angeles, and
then social justice community activism. Of course, everyone knows the
historic cecil Chip Murray, who brought calm to the city
during the Ridney King uprising. And so I would say
that all of that goes into make Fame a very
special place, and I think a very biblical place if
we look at the Jesus, who we really serve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I love that you're not afraid to say politics,
even in this environment that we're in right now, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 3: It needs to be said more than ever. And if
we don't get involved in this politics, we are hitting
down a slippery slope based on where we are in
our society.
Speaker 1: Reverend Wartham, are we do you see us getting more involved?
I mean, I feel like I don't know. I'm not an.
Speaker 2: Expert, but from folks I've talked to and what I've
observed that we are moving into an era when the
Black Church is returning more to it its roots of
help and social justice.
Speaker 4: I think that our roots definitely tell us where we
need to go back to. And I also believe that
I'm looking at your sign then, apologic, unapologetically progressive. That's
who we are and that's who we have to be.
The church has been in a place where we can
do what we need to do as people of color.
Black folk need to get back to our roots, and
that's what we're doing now.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when you say roots, you're talking about all
the way to the roots. It's funny. I was I
was writing.
Speaker 2: Just a little article that I was writing outside of here, Yes,
and I mentioned Biddy Mason, and this friend of mine
was looking at it.
Speaker 1: She's from New York.
Speaker 2: She said, well, not everybody knows who Bittty Mason is.
And I say, what, Maybe.
Speaker 1: That's an LA perspective. So talk to me.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Bitty Mason because maybe people don't know.
And certainly that would be an inspiring thing for your
Friday if you learn.
Speaker 3: Bitty Mason will be the reason for our celebration this weekend.
Biddy Mason. We will be celebrating her birthday coming up
this weekend at Fame Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Betty Mason
was born in eighteen eighteen, and I call her one
of the mother founders of Los Angeles back in the
early day. Betty Mason is our hero and our hero.
She walked all the way from Mississippi to Los Angeles,
literally walk literally walked.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember reading that and thinking, okay.
Speaker 3: Literally literally.
Speaker 1: Give me a few months.
Speaker 3: I told my wife the other day, you left them
ask me to walk, so I don't even like walking
to the bathroom. She walked from Mississippi to Los Angeles
and that walk was revolutionary because she became an entrepreneur
and she founded First Am Church along with other founders
who saw the need for a place of spiritual strength
while they were while they were while they were fighting
for their liberation. And so we're going to lift up, remember,
celebrate and help people to know who Bridget Biddy Mason was.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to also just add a little context.
Speaker 2: Here before we move on. Yes, she walked from Mississippi
to Los Angeles and became one of the founders and
most influential persons in early Los Angeles. But it's not
like she was just leaving Equinox Club and going to
twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: This is a woman who was enslaved.
Speaker 3: She was enslave and she was she was forced to walk,
and in fact, when she got to Los Angeles, they
tried to they tried to drag her back to They
tried to drag her to Texas and put her back
in slavery, and she took the She went to court
over the issue and she won the court case, which
was phenomenal back then. We can't hardly win court cases now.
Speaker 1: Into right, So she she was enslave when she left.
Speaker 2: Came to California, which we know has its own history
of enslaved minifies. If you're unclear on that, just check
out the Reparations Task Force reports about twelve hundred pages.
Speaker 1: But they were trying to when she got here. She
got her freedom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she got her freedom, and she.
Speaker 2: Took that freedom to court and tested it. That's something
that didn't happen too often.
Speaker 1: Did it.
Speaker 3: No, it didn't happen too often. As I said then,
and I want to say it doesn't happen too often
now that we go to court.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even want to try it, you know, I
wouldn't even know you report to Seacott.
Speaker 4: And I'd like to add something about Absolutely, I love
she was a midwife, so as she walked across the
with the wagon train, she birthed all the humans and
all the animals that were born all the way across
the country. That always just makes me like, wow, you
were all that Anta baggageis I have on this dress
today because it has black women on the front.
Speaker 1: Its beautiful dress, by the.
Speaker 4: Way, and it's my she will dress, So I wore
it onn of her.
Speaker 3: That's why I brought her.
Speaker 1: But absolutely, I mean imagine I had not. I don't know.
May I may have read that, but I hadn't.
Speaker 2: Really that detail hadn't sunk in walking from Mississippi to California,
you know, leaving a trail of little babies living, you know,
safe babies in your wake is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: And then giving birth to a great church.
Speaker 2: And yeah, well we'll go a little deeper into that
when we come forward. Reverend one of them is here,
Reverend Tyler is here, and yes it's Friday, not Sunday.
Speaker 1: And listening to the.
Speaker 2: Kids right now, right now, if you're in l A,
you know First day e Church. If you're not in LA,
you're going to get to know it a little right now.
But not just the church. Everything that stands for the
church has been was founded in eighteen seventy two.
Speaker 3: Is that correct? That's correct.
Speaker 2: So Bittty Mason born in eighteen eighteen. I'm not sure
if we know exactly when she arrived in LA.
Speaker 1: But she ends up winning her court case, yes.
Speaker 2: And then somehow, and this is the part that is
not always clear, ends up owning massive swaths of real
estate in LA.
Speaker 3: It is amazing. And I was thinking about that this morning.
A lot of her real estate is right was right
across from what we call Pershing Square today, and there's
a mass effort by the community to have that area
renamed after bridge of Bittty Mason. But it's amazing because
I was thinking, how much would I have to pay
if I purchased the property across from Persian if I
could today, how much money would that be?
Speaker 4: And also fascinating about that is that she was not
just the first black woman to purchase land in downtown
she was the first woman to purchase land in downtown LA.
That's amazing to me. The first woman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is amazing. Do we know how she managed that.
Speaker 4: Through her midwifery, Yeah, she saved it her my name
became a serious entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know one thing about formerly enslaved and
enslaved black folks.
Speaker 1: We were saving, right.
Speaker 6: Yes, people were saving trying to exactly whether we're trying
to buy our freedom or buy land or buy you know,
a whatever it was.
Speaker 1: We were saving our.
Speaker 3: Back and then if we got it, we were saving
it because we didn't know when it was coming back again.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, and some of us are waiting for it today.
Speaker 2: See yeah, yeah, Well, so I mean that at what
point does she become one of the founders of the church.
Connect the dots if you will.
Speaker 3: Now, Well, at one point I don't know the exact year. Uh.
And and we often say she was the founder, but
I'm always prouded by my history historians to underscore that
she was the primary founder, but they were. There were
a group of founders who saw the need to start
a worship center.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: And it did not start out as First Am Church.
That name evolved over years. Uh. There was the one
of the original names, Saint Stephen's uh Church, and so
that name evolved over the years, but it was but
she along with the group of founders, were the primary
prime movers of the worship space that we know as
First Am Church today. Uh. And we've over the years
in our history, we've always tried to live up to
that that high standard that Biddy Mason set for community
activism and for entrepreneur entrepreneurial spirit. And it's just I'm
very proud to be the past of a church, especially
where a black woman is the I call it the
patron Saint.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I also think there is something very
powerful about the mission of First Church, the position of
First Damn Church coming from that ancestor who was, as
you pointed out, not just you know, clearly an activist,
but also an entrepreneur. You don't buy up downtown l A.
I don't care how low the prices were. Those were,
you know, you know those were those price those were
eighteen seventy prices for eighteen fifty.
Speaker 3: Price equivalent for them. Yeah, for them, Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: So the fact that the church has main attained a
commitment to that spirit is quite remarkable.
Speaker 3: It has maintained a commitment to that spirit. And in
the history of First Ami Church, it is no secret
in our community that First Aami Church has had some
major ups and some very creative downs at times. But
I often say to I've been at First Amy Church
as their pastor for ten months now, and one of
the things that I remind the congregation is that you
have had times in your history when you have been bent,
but it is a credit to your history that you've
never been broken. And that's the spirit of Bitty Mason.
She had bad times and good times, but her legacy
is strong, and First Ammy Church is legacy is strong,
and the people there, I just I don't think any
other church could have gone through some of the years
and struggles that First Aami Church has gone through and
even be here today. But it just it it amazes me.
It oftentimes make it. I pinch myself in church to
make sure I am the person that they sent to me,
the pastor, and I'm just grateful for their history and
for how they have overcome so much.
Speaker 4: And our model is first to serve. And I'm so
proud of that because I'm always asking myself what else
can we do to be first to serve? People need
to be able to look at us, and they do
as the place that go to for what they need,
and we need so much right now. So it's a
blessing to be serving at a place where our primary
focus is first to serve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I imagine as a pastor stepping into a spot
with the legacy of you know, Reverend Brookings and you
know pastor of Murray. Yes, you know, it's a little
could be a little daunting.
Speaker 3: Well it's a little it's very dauntant. I grew up
in Los Angeles, uh, and so I'm coming back home.
I was my last stop. I was in Denver for
seventeen years, but I remember growing up in Denver, I
was I was brought into the ministry and ordained under
Bishop Brookins and Cecil Chip Murray helped to finance my
seminary education and he also mentored me during my working
on my doctoral education. And so these men were part
of my preparation. And so I'm very proud of that,
and I honor that as I don't want to say
I'm stepping into their shoes, but I'm certainly aware of
their footsteps at fame and I'm honored.
Speaker 1: So they planted the seeds for their succession.
Speaker 4: What you're saying, I also think, Pastor, you should share
who your mother is.
Speaker 3: So my mother is a longtime Los Angeles activists. She
was then presiding Elder Carolyn Tyler Guidry. She worked with
law Pack and my mother was the first black, first female,
second female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And
it's two hundred and thirty years uh, and she served
proudly in the Caribbean. She served in Mississippi, Louisiana. She
retired and uh, she passed away last year. But thank you,
But my mother has a strong history here in Los Angeles.
And so while I'm dealing with Bishop Brookings ghosts and
Reverend Cecil Chip Murray's ghosts, my mother's ghost office show.
I needed all the shows up in.
Speaker 2: My office full of ancest es, full of ancest but
also your mom, you know, being such a mover and
shaker in law pack as well as you know in
the church. So it sounds like that combination of activism
and church, sort of the classic Martin Luther King Junior
blend Is is a tradition in your own family, it's
a tradition in my family.
Speaker 3: And also the spirit of my father. Carrie Tyler, you
were talking about the anniversary of the wats Uprising in
Los Angeles. My parents moved us here in nineteen sixty four,
eight months after I was born, and they were coming
from Jackson, Mississippi. They were the last people to see
Edgar MegaR Evers before he was shot. They were at
a meeting with him, and they were the last person
to see him before he died. And I think they
may have thought that coming to Los Angeles may have
been kind of coming to a different place than my
dad used to talk about. It was in sixty five
when the Wats Uprising happened that he gathered us all
in the car and was driving around the city looking
for some milk for his babies, and the police pulled
their guns out and told him to go back home.
And then I think that was when reality hit that
you can be in Mississippi, you can be in Los Angeles,
and you can still be in danger. And so I
have all of that inside of me, and I'm grateful
for what my parents gave me because I don't want
to live my life in danger and I want to
help the people of God and the people in the
community not be in danger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we only have a minute here before news, traffic
and sports, and we'll keep the conversation going on the
other side. So it's probably not fair to ask, but
we can do the thirty second version and then continue
on the other side, which is how do those how
does that mission manifest today? Like what are the programs,
what are the services and of course this weekends events
that that are the manifestation of that legacy.
Speaker 3: You want to do that in thirty seconds?
Speaker 1: You want to start it? Okay? Started, Okay, we'll finish it.
Speaker 4: So we we have a dermatology services at the Wellness Center.
We have a Bitty Mason Community wellness center that I
am the proud director of. And in addition to that,
we have mental health services, we have have caregivers program.
We also have a eight bed garden in the backyard
that is flourishing. We have classes that are going to
start on cooking. Amazing quilter is that thirty seconds?
Speaker 1: That seconds? That's good.
Speaker 2: We're gonna keep it going because these are important things
for folks to know about, news, traffic, and sports. Then
more on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty and we are talking
with the folks from First Amy Church. But we're talking
Biddy Mason. We're talking history. We're talking LA history and
service service, social justice activism, the things that First Ammy
Church is known for. The pastor of that church, doctor
Timothy Tyler, is here, and Reverend Judy Wortham is here.
Can you tell me your title again, Reverend war.
Speaker 4: Them executive director of Flack Deck, our nonprofit of.
Speaker 2: An Okay, yes, So we're talking about a lot of things,
really the history of Bitty Mason, which is what you
are celebrating this weekend. And if you don't know who
Biddy Mason is, well now you know you can call
in if you have something to say about it eight
hundred and nine two oh fifteen eighty. I feel like
she should be more known nationally, but even here in
La should be on the level of you know, the
people we talk about all the time, the Tom Bradley's,
the Popicos.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, if it were not for her, I don't think
any of those people would have found their their footing
in Los Angeles. So we owe a lot of our will,
We owe a lot of who we are to Bridgie
Biddy Mason and the reason.
Speaker 2: That she her descendants don't still own Pershing Squores. She
ended up selling that land.
Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, yes she did.
Speaker 2: I mean I say that because we assume, oh it
was stolen from her, you know, she was terrorized, it
was taken by eminent domain. No, she actually made a
business decision to sell it. So in a way I
think of Bitty Mason. I mean, she had a hard life,
but she definitely had agency.
Speaker 3: She had agency. Yeah, and we want to hopefully we
will be able to get will at least mark that
space in a way that will that people will always
know that her legacy and her spirit is still there
even though she had to sell it, or she chose
to sell it.
Speaker 2: Now we were going through the list, Reverend worthm of
the kinds of things that we know for Stammy for
But some people may think, oh, well that was back
in the day, it's not anymore. You said mental health,
a caregivers program. I'm assuming you're talking about the Sandwich
generation and those folks who are caring for elder family members.
You talked about a thriving garden.
Speaker 1: And would you like to add on to that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Tyler First, Amy is still known in the community
to be that church that that we want to be
proactive and not reactive to what happens in our community.
We are still interested in making sure that we have
part a role to play in gang intervention and violence
prevention in our community. I'm oftentimes told the stories of
how Cecil Chip Murray would just come out of his
office and walk around the neighborhood and make sure everything
was in order, and if it wasn't in order, he
would grab some church members and he would get it
in order. And I want to have that kind of
legacy where sometimes I will walk out of Now I
need to walk out of my office also because I
need to walk We all I need to, but it
is it is I see my role as not only
to be the pastor inside those four walls, but to
be a community pastor, such as the Bishop J. H.
Brookins and Cecil Chip Murray. They were community pastors.
Speaker 1: And I have a feeling if we were in Denver,
we would know that that is your legacy already. It's
not something you just started up ten months ago.
Speaker 3: It was a story.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, for those who you know follow these
things which a lot of our KBLA delegation do. The
death of an unhoused man named Marvin Booker, Yes this
is in twenty ten. This was a battle that you,
as a pastor, took up from a social.
Speaker 3: Justice Yes, it was a battle, and the whole church,
the entire shorter community Ammy Church, took up this battle
when very few people wanted to. And it taught us
that sometimes the church has to give leadership. Short as
a historical church in Denver, first black church older than
the state of Colorado.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but that I mean, even though obviously we
couldn't bring back mister Booker, the family was awarded a
sizeable settlement, which was the biggest excessive force yes settlement
in Denver history.
Speaker 3: Right awarded by an all white jury in an all,
in a very white city, in a very white state.
That was telling.
Speaker 2: And I imagine the presence and activism of the church
around this had a huge role in that.
Speaker 3: I think it did. And it was a five year process,
so it didn't happen overnight, but the church played a
major role in that.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's notable too, because there are some folks
that like to, you know, not just in churches, in
community organizing, in the media, like to run out when
a story is so called hot, correct and then leave
it and go to the next so called hot story,
leaving a grieving family or an impacted community to fend
for themselves after the cameras go yes, yes.
Speaker 3: And it happened when when the fight first started, there
there were a lot of leaders who chose and churches
who chose not to be a part of it. And
then when the when the jury came back with their
verdict in that case, a whole lot of people all
of a sudden became a part of that victory.
Speaker 5: And that's okay, Yeah, that's okay, Well it's not okay,
but yeah, it's what happens, right, And so we celebrated
with that family and hopefully that opens the door.
Speaker 3: Denver is a rough place. It's just a rough place.
It's it's a historical place for black people. It has
quite a history in itself. But it's rough. It's not
it's not Los Angeles. It is a very small black community.
So we we celebrate our victories there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think we should celebrate the mayor too. Yes,
but yeah, I actually.
Speaker 2: Spent a little bit of time there. My mom would
teach in Colorado summers, and it is quite a shell
shock if you're used to I was used to the
Bay Area and then lak you know, there's they'd say
we're a small in number here, but eight percent of
four million is a lot of black people. Yeah, yeah,
it's definitely, it's definitely yeah, it's definitely a different energy,
even though they say it's a democratic state. Anyway, Another
thing I noticed, pastor about you, doctor Timothy Tyler's who
I'm talking to in case you're just waking up, is
that you actually have your commitment to black lives matter
in your bio. Most pastors wouldn't want.
Speaker 1: That, how do you?
Speaker 2: I mean, or they would be if they wanted it,
they might be too afraid to put it there.
Speaker 1: Why do you do that and how does that connect to.
Speaker 2: Your way of preaching, your way of reaching your congregants.
Speaker 3: It's important to me because I always, I always marked
the period of Black Lives Matter. First of all, I
think that it should always be in our history alongside
the Civil Rights movement and the Middle Passage, and I
think it was a time and a space in our
country where but I think it also it was a
wake up call to the Black church, because I think
Black Lives Matter was the first and maybe the only
large movement of black people in our nation where the
church did not start it or give leadership to it,
or was not much involved in it. And so Black
Lives Matter always reminds me that that if the church
is not a part of the struggle, then the church
is not fulfilling its mission and its call. And so
I keep it in front of me so that when
I'm preaching, when I'm having a church meeting, when even
when we just downstairs eating fried chicken, God and help us,
we are always reminded that community is first, and that
the struggle should always be that the church should always
have its feet in the struggle. And so Black Lives
Matter I celebrated and we should be reminded in the
Black church that black lives do matter. All lies and.
Speaker 2: Of course the boots on the ground aspect of black
lives matter.
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter. Grassroots was born in la Yes, and yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Do remember the conflict between some members of the church
and the organizers. Now the organization has fifty six chapters,
and there are pastors involved, not too many, but a
few pastors like Pastor Starsky Wilson of the Children's Defense.
Speaker 3: Stark Wizard is my mentee and my student, my seminary students,
and so I'm proud of it.
Speaker 2: Or dots get connected, you know, it's hard to talk
about your own way of preaching or your own way
of organizing. So maybe that's why one of the reasons
why Reverend Judy worthm is here. What would you say
about what he just said?
Speaker 4: So the reason why I want him to about his
preaching is because he is not afraid to tell the
truth about what's going on. And so many times we
want to, as fallowers of Jesus Christ, we want to
sugarcoat things. This man right here, he lays it out.
And anybody who I have friends who are not going
to church, they are watching him because they hear the
truth and we hide the truth streaming.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you can stream.
Speaker 4: The services now, Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I left since twenty twenty exactly.
Speaker 4: But I'm so pleased to hear when they call me
and say your pastor's off the chain, and I say,
why do you say that? Because he's telling the truth.
He tells the truth about Trump, about what we need
to do, about how we should not be afraid, how
this is. We've been through this before, we can do
it again the same God. So we hear that over
and over again, and we leave excited. And I don't
want to use the word pep rally, but that's what
I think about it, right, But we feel like we
feel energized and ready to fight the good fight.
Speaker 2: And for the folks in the chat room, Reverend Judy
worthm is over the Community Foundation, right, some folks are
just assuming that you're.
Speaker 1: At doctor Tyler's life. She might have the last name Tyler.
Speaker 4: They need to meet her though. She's brilliant. I call
him Michelle Obama.
Speaker 2: She's brilliant, the first lady two PC yes, yeah, yes, yeah,
Well she also made the bio, which I mean and
not just like oh and my beautiful ones, not just that.
Speaker 3: You know, her section is probably longer than mine.
Speaker 2: Doctor Juanita Moseby Tyler, who is known for equity and
a usion, which is quite a battle right.
Speaker 3: Now, quite a battle, quite a battle. But she's she
has weathered the storm. And I tell her to her
to her credit in a time when those are bad words.
Evidently the people that have relied on her think that
she's doing her work well because she has she still
continues to do it, and we're very proud of her.
Speaker 2: Indeed, well, we are talking with yes, we're talking with
the pastors.
Speaker 1: But don't be shy.
Speaker 2: If you want to call, you're always welcome in eight
hundred nine to oh fifteen eighty. Eight hundred and nine
to oh fifteen eighty is the number. If you want
to say something, you can hop on YouTube at KBLA
fifteen eighty. Reverend doctor Timothy Tyler, Reverend Judy Wortham are
with me. Betty Mason might be somewhere in here, Yeah,
she's here, might be around here too. We're celebrating la
we're celebrating activism. We're celebrating the birthday of Bitty Mason.
On KBLA Talk fifteen eighty community. But if you need
some church Sunday mornings at nine.
Speaker 3: Sunday mornings at nine am.
Speaker 2: Old school, get up, go to church. But also it's
sounds like very modern in terms of you can stream
it on the website. On the Fame website.
Speaker 3: Is that the first AMI Church Los Angeles website and
see how worship service. I'd love to see you in person, but.
Speaker 2: Absolutely Fame Church La dot org. Famed Church La dot
org show up at nine at YouTube visit or on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Okay is a streaming.
Speaker 2: And a lot of churches are saying that they're having
trouble getting folks in and that people are either leaving
the faith altogether, going into a sort of more generalized
relationship with God that's not tied to any particular institution
or faith tradition, or that they just want to watch online.
And we're still in the post COVID era.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting phenomenon. I have met so many people
in Los Angeles since I arrived who have introduced themselves, Oh, yes,
I'm one of your online members, so I'm like, I'm
glad to meet you. Or we've had people now they're
they're they're joining the church online so they'll tell me, Well,
they were about five people the day and they said
they want to join the church, and they were watching
us online, and so I have somebody to contact them.
So it has forced us to broaden our imagination of
how we include people in church. And I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you also have people showing up, is what
I'm yes, yes, yes, yeah, And maybe I mean I'm
sure it's you know, you're you're preaching, but also maybe
what Reverend Wortham was talking about is that folks need
encouragement right now. I mean people are and it's not
just I mean yes, I don't mean to say just,
but only in the sphere of religion.
Speaker 1: It's also people need encouragement for the fight right politics
and social justice in life.
Speaker 3: A lot of boomers especially, but also young adults. Uh,
we're we're living in a time you're where where military
people are jumping off of ships, you know, and it's
we're living in a crazy time. We're living I call
it in the Trump era, and people need encouragement. People
need hope, and it's my prayer that they're coming to
church and they will come to church in order to
look for that hope and to find that hope, and
so that puts a heavy oness on us as people
of faith to make sure that what we are giving
to people is that thing that they are looking for.
Speaker 2: Willie from Palmdale, what are you looking for? You're home
with Reverend Tyler and Reverend Wortham and me.
Speaker 7: I thank you for taking my call. I was just wondering,
how do you balance serving God and living in the
political world.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting question the way that I balance, And
thank you for that question about balancing, balancing living for
God and living in the political world. I always remind
myself that Jesus had to live in a political world.
Oftentimes they would come to him, remember when they asked
him about, uh give do you give to God or
do you give to the government. He was always balancing
issues about politics and about religion. And so I realized
that I have to do that as well. And the
Black Church has always been involved in politics because it
was our religion that got us through a lot of
political crisis. And so it's not really even a balancing,
it's just a natural, natural sinking up of the things
that we have to deal with in the world and
our goal to get to the other world, and so
it comes very easy for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. Willie appreciate good to hear from you.
Will He usually calls in when he needs some solace,
so I guess he's feeling feeling us today. So tell
me about the weekend. What is going on at the weekend?
I assume folks are invited, Yes.
Speaker 3: And it's going to be a very exciting week And
it starts today at eleven o'clock am. We're going to
gather at the Evergreen Cemetery and we are going to
pay homage to the founders of fame, and we're going
to lay a wreath at the burial place of Bridget
Biddy Mason, and we're going to acknowledge and see where
some of her other family members have been buried. And
so it will be a day of remembrance and a
day of solace as we honor our founder at the
place where she is resting.
Speaker 4: And then on Saturday, on Saturday, we have the Bitty
Mason Birthday Brunch. It is actually her birthday on Tomorrow,
August fifteenth. We will be starting at eleven am going
to two pm and it's like a reception to honor
her and there as a home that we own that
is beautiful.
Speaker 3: Twenty two forty one Home Barks Yes, twenty one South,
built in nineteen ten, and the builder of that house
is also the founder of the Grand Central Market downtown.
It's a historical home that first day and Me purchased
and it's going to become the same community house. So
we will do our gang intervention, We're going to do
a liberation academy stepping in to teach history to adults
and children. We're going to do micro business work, and
all that will happen at the same community house. So
tomorrow we're going to be feeding you and we're going
to ask you to feed us with donations yes, so
that we can renovate that beautiful We're going to keep
it in that nineteen ten spirit, but we're going to
renovate it and we've already started working on that. And
so we're going to ask the community to help us
to remember Biddy Mason's entrepreneurial spirit tomorrow as we celebrate
her birthday. And then on Sunday.
Speaker 4: Our Biddy Nation Worship celebration service, where we will asking
to have an actress who is going to her whole
life is around impersonating Beatty Mason costume and everything. Yes,
so she's gonna come in full costume, and the whole
service is dedicated to honoring Biddy Bridget Mason excited.
Speaker 3: The famed mass choir will will sing on Sunday close
to one hundred and it's gonna be. It's gonna be.
It's gonna be a great worship service. I'm not sure
if I'm gonna be preaching. I think I'm gonna be
preaching Sunday.
Speaker 1: My question.
Speaker 3: Uh uh. They told me. They told me I better
preach Sunday. So somewhere between the dancing, the singing, the acting,
and the celebration, I'm gonna get two or three words
in there. But it's gonna be a great, great weekend.
We wanted everyone to come and share it with us.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
Is this the first annual?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 1: Amen? Yeah, you should say it.
Speaker 2: You should.
Speaker 3: I think it's the first time we've done it in
this way, in this magnitude. Yes, because why why wouldn't we?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: I like that, it just it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 2: Tell us we only time flies when you're on the radio.
We only have a couple minutes left. Tell us about
how to contact you, track you access the services other
than coming this weekend. I mean you've got three opportunities Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, today today at eleven, starting at eleven.
Speaker 1: At the Evergreens Cemetery.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow the brunch is at.
Speaker 1: Twenty to forty one Hobart, Yes South.
Speaker 3: So we're going to give people an opportunity to experience
that space much like it was in nineteen ten and
it's a beautiful space.
Speaker 2: And then Sunday, of course at nine, yes for the
regular services. That won't be the regular services because it
sounds like right right, No, it won't be there and
cosentry and honoring of Biddy Macey.
Speaker 4: Yes, the website is the best place to find us,
famed Church la dot org.
Speaker 3: That's the best place to get our contact information, to
call the church office and to get a handle them
on all of the wonderful activities that will be happening
this weekend. Now, the premier way to find us is
just to get up at about Sunday, get in your car,
Amen pastor seventy Harvard Boulevard.
Speaker 2: So why do we have to get up at Can
we get up at eight forty three?
Speaker 4: Well, okay, that works my wife.
Speaker 3: Wife, My wife would agree with you.
Speaker 1: We'll take it. We just want to see you just
get there. Love to see us get there. Well, it's
been a pleasure talking with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for this opportunity, and doctor Timothy Tyler, thank
you so much for coming in. Thank you, thank you,
and happy h Biddy Mason weekend, all of us, thank
you so much. Indeed, we're talking reparations next hour. Doctor
Quaiku will join us and we're going to look at
the psychological aspects of our repair. Boy, the ancestors are
dancing around here today. It's KBLA Talk fifteen eighty