During KPCC's Spring member drive, hear the best of Off-Ramp both on air and online: South Bay student poems, Tom Jones, "Columbo" and more!
"We are ...:" Inspiring San Pedro sophomores write collective poem
Last year a San Pedro teacher asked me to visit his high school English class to talk about being a reporter. I did. And on the visit I also gave the students a writing exercise inspired by my days as a performance poet nearly 20 years ago. The teacher and I were surprised by what the kids wrote. I went back to the campus a few weeks ago to revisit that poem and record it for Offramp.
The first thing you notice when you walk into Peter Riehl’s 10th grade English class at Port of L.A. Charter High School is that the classroom had no windows.
It took a few minutes to realize that didn’t matter.
On the ledge that holds the dry erase markers at the front of the class, Riehl has lined up about 15 feet of books, side by side. These are the windows to the world. What’s there? "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s collected stories, "Night" by Elie Wiesel, and "Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros.
Teacher Peter Riehl says the selection’s as diverse as the students. "There’s the students who read and let everyone know about it, there’s the students who read and don’t let anyone know about it, there’s the students who love videogames, the students who love their music, hip hop, rock, oldies. There’s the students who are happiest when no one knows they’re there and there’s the students who make themselves very well known through their words, through their actions," he said.
After I talked with the kids about my job at KPCC, I gave them a straightforward writing prompt, write the words “We are...” and complete the sentence. You could write it in Spanish too. They put pen to paper. I explained to them that in the mid 1990s the poetry group I’d been a part of, the Taco Shop Poets, wrote a collective poem based on the same prompt. This is what the students wrote.
we are the new age
we are the inspired
we are sparks
we are passion
we are the students
we are one
we are the athletes
we are the smile of our parents
we are the environment
we are the colors in a rainbow
we are the beads in a bracelet
we are the ones that want to move ahead
we are one in so many
we are just like everyone else
we are a community
we are the voices that cannot be ignored
we are the most spirited
we are the innocent
we are the neglected
we are our own sense of nostalgia
we are the tight grip on an adult’s conscience
we are the pen that reveals our own stories
we are the sun peeking through the clouds
we are the raindrops that cause the flood
we are the kids who dare to dream
we are crying out for help
we are ready to face a challenge
we are the people of tomorrow
we are lightning striking the ground, unpredictable never striking twice in the same spot
we are there
we are everywhere
we are nothing
we are everything
we are the young people
we are the foundations of society
nosotros somos valientes
we are the dreamers
we are the future
we are the laughter
we are the strangers
we are not alone
nosotros somos la luz de nuestros padres
we are immigrants
nosotros somos Mexicanos, los hispanos
we are the dreamers that dream forever
nosotros somos los guerreros
we are the strong believers
we are one
we are forever changing
we are the future
we are individuals
we are similar
somos muchos
somos el fuego en la alma
somos el presente
somos grupos
somos diferentes
we are the target audience
we are unorthodox
we are many
The first person singular “I” blends with the plural. Maybe it’s easier to begin writing about oneself by beginning a sentence with “we.”
While Port of L.A. High School is a high-performing campus, with a college prep curriculum, Riehl says there are plenty of things that worry them. "Family issues, grades, uncertain future, even at the sophomore level the future’s uncertain, not necessarily career wise but where am I going to be in three years."
"San Pedro, and as well as our schools is mostly Latino, Hispanic, mostly Mexican, as well as Guatemalan, Salvadoran, etc. But heavily Mexican, Mexican American and you know within that there’s a lot of experiences. Some are English only in the household, some are very, very bilingual in Spanglish, maybe trilingual, English, Spanish, and Spanglish."
Books have taken these students on Latin American magical realism trips and through a memoir of the Holocaust in World War Two. Teacher Peter Riehl says they also have a taste for tales of gritty, urban life, like "Always Running" by Luis Rodriguez and "Edgewater Angels" by Sandro Meallet.
"I wish we could do more creative writing necessarily but as a college prep school and things like that, it’s more of the analytical writing, more of the straightforward writing, which is obviously crucial, but they love being able to express themselves. You look at their binders and they have their pictures, and they got their nickname there written in big letters, any way to express themselves," Riehl said.
With that, my writing exercise with the students in Peter Riehl’s 10th grade English class at Port of L.A. Charter High School in San Pedro came to an end. For that moment, it felt like we had done justice to the writing in the books lined shoulder to shoulder at the front of the classroom.
The poets:
Carlos Gomez
Tyler Gloyne
Teiara Buford
Zaira Gurrola
Vianey Valdez
The Notorious Nery Del Cid
Joe Centeno
Nohemi Payan
Agustin Ortiz
Oscar Ramirez
Brianna Arquette
Gabriel Joseph Martinez
Miguel Salgado
Alex Espinoza
Robert Taylor
Melissa Hurtado
Angel Morales
Brittany Gomez
Yani Llamas
Viri Lopez
Leslie Valentin
Angela Wade
Matthew Lavarini
Skyler Bennett
Jennifer Garcia
Michael Pirozzi
Fighting bullying with jiu-jitsu in East Pasadena
Off-Ramp host John Rabe visits Gracie Barra, a jiu-jitsu center in East Pasadena that teaches kids self-defense skills, but – more importantly – teaches them self-respect.
Hard Times: Marshelle Mills
Marshelle Mills is a mother of three. Her husband works for LAUSD and — until recently — she worked in child development. She's been unemployed for some time, and she's even gotten a few job offers — offers that she says she was forced to decline.
“I have three kids. Rebecca, she’s seven. My son Austin is three years old — he’s autistic, really sweet, really sensitive. And I’ve got the mean one, A.J. He’s one. A.J. is bad to the bone," said Marshelle.
Marshelle was pregnant with her youngest son when she found out she was laid off. “It was heartbreaking. I don’t want to sound over dramatic, but to me losing a job was a little bit like what I imagine going through a divorce is when you love what you do. And I loved what I did,” said Mills.
The toughest aspect of unemployment for the Mills family was the lack of affordable child care, previously provided by her former employer. With three young kids, it weighs heavily on their decision making.
"For child care per week, it's about 300 dollars a week, so about 1200 dollars a month. And frankly I don't pay that much for rent," said Mills. "That's just for a child care center certified by the state of California. That just means if they do something inappropriate, there's a watchdog. There's rules on the education level, there's rules on how many adults need to be in the room. My very fist administrative job in child care was an unlicensed facility, and that meant I'd literally be alone with 50 children. There were no rules."
"I’ve gotten some offers. Not great. My husband and I sat down and did the math," said Marshelle. "What would we make? What would the expenses be? Transportation? Wardrobe? On my best offer, we find out that I would save 100 dollars a month staying home. And frankly my kids were happier when I’m at home, it just made sense."
Marshelle remains optimistic about the future, “I think I’m good at my job, and I desperately want to go back. I just know that that the only way I’m going to be competitive is to get education, and so I’ve got to bide my time,” said Mills. “And if I’m going to bide my time to get the education I need, I have to choose not to be bitter and enjoy the moments I have with my kids at home.”
Goodbye, Columbus Day. Hello #ColumboDay!
It's Columbus Day, honoring, as anthropologist Jack Weatherford puts it, the man "who opened the Atlantic slave trade and launched one of the greatest waves of genocide known in history:"
Autumn would hardly be complete in any elementary school without construction-paper replicas of the three cute ships that Columbus sailed to America, or without drawings of Queen Isabella pawning her jewels to finance Columbus' trip.
This myth of the pawned jewels obscures the true and more sinister story of how Columbus financed his trip. The Spanish monarch invested in his excursion, but only on the condition that Columbus would repay this investment with profit by bringing back gold, spices, and other tribute from Asia. This pressing need to repay his debt underlies the frantic tone of Columbus' diaries as he raced from one Caribbean island to the next, stealing anything of value.
After he failed to contact the emperor of China, the traders of India or the merchants of Japan, Columbus decided to pay for his voyage in the one important commodity he had found in ample supply - human lives. He seized 1,200 Taino Indians from the island of Hispaniola, crammed as many onto his ships as would fit and sent them to Spain, where they were paraded naked through the streets of Seville and sold as slaves in 1495. Columbus tore children from their parents, husbands from wives. On board Columbus' slave ships, hundreds died; the sailors tossed the Indian bodies into the Atlantic.
-- Anthropologist Jack Weatherford, Macalaster College
So instead of Columbus, let's honor Columbo!
Here's my 2010 interview with William Link, co-creator of "Columbo," along with "Mannix" and "Murder, She Wrote." Link explains how he and his partner came up with the idea of Columbo, and why they didn't approach it as a "whodunit."
Massage tour of L.A.: "The Spa Less Traveled"
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Gail Herndon and Brenda Goldstein, who tried dozens of ethnic spas across L.A. for their new guidebook, "The Spa Less Traveled."
He's Alive
John talks with international music superstar Tom Jones about his new album, "24 Hours," and about being one of the best pop singers ever...for forty years.
A day in the life of a pair of giant scissors
LA County continues to struggle with deficit issues. With cuts left and right, one thing they're not getting rid of is the giant pair of ribbon cutting scissors that they hold near and dear. They have special handlers. And they are stored in special places. Kevin Ferguson--Off-Ramp's Producer--spent the day with one of those pairs from the warehouse to the ribbon cutting and back again.
A game with Dodger Stadium's ball hawks
UPDATE: Raghu Manavalan won a Golden Mike for this touching story for a man who doesn't let repeated failure stop his dream of catching a money ball at Dodger Stadium.
Most of the focus on the Dodgers’ season has been off the field than on. But if you’re one of the ball hawks at Dodger Stadium, every game is only about baseball…or baseballs. That’s because ball hawks try to grab as many baseballs as they can, whether it’s in batting practice, a foul ball, or a home run. The most successful ball hawk in the country has caught more than 500, this season alone.
Bobby Crosby is sitting in the first row in left field, two hours before first pitch at Dodger Stadium. He wore a baseball glove on one hand, and held a camcorder in the other.
“I actually film myself catching home run balls. I have a popular YouTube channel called DodgerFilms, I film myself catching over 50 home runs at batting practice, and one in the game, last year Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates hit me one in the game last year that I caught filming”, Crosby said.
Since 1997, Crosby has been a season ticket holder at Dodger Stadium’s left field pavilion. Crosby explained the competition over baseballs since then.
“There’s about 500 season ticket holders in the left field pavilion and I’d say at least 30 of them are ball hawks who try to come out here to try to get home runs at batting practice and during the game. It’s not easy. And the camera makes it harder,” he said.
Ball hawks especially look out for money balls, milestone baseballs like a player’s first homer. They’re the most valuable you can catch because the team wants it back. And they’re willing to barter for it, usually for a signed ball, bat, or maybe a jersey in return. At today’s game, Dodgers rookie Jerry Sands has yet to hit a home run.
“I’ve gotten 8 game home runs in 15 years of sitting out here for almost every game but never a money ball so I really want one of those. I had my glove on a money ball. And then someone dove out of nowhere, dove between the rails and stole it right out of my glove. Then the security comes and says, “Hey you know the Rockies want that ball”…so that was over 10 years ago,” Crosby said, with a look of frustration on his face.
John Artuller of Arcadia was also in left field during batting practice. He explained the story behind his favorite baseball, an in-game home run from Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp. “I didn’t actually catch that ball. I just picked it up off the ground,” he said. “But I happened to have a batting practice ball in my hand at the moment. And I had to drop the batting practice ball as a decoy and the crowd went towards the batting practice ball and I picked up the home run ball. It was all planned out that way.”
Jerry Sands did end up hitting that first home run, but it was on the road in Chicago. The fan who caught it graciously gave it back for a handshake and a different signed baseball. He’s probably an amateur.
Weeks later, the Cincinatti Reds are in town. The Reds’ first baseman Joey Votto, a rising star, is sitting on 99 career home runs. This time, Bobby Crosby has his eye on catching number 100, which Votto will definitely want back. “Hopefully it’ll be in a Dodger victory,” Crosby adds.
After three hit-less Joey Votto at-bats, he’s back up to the plate. It’s the 8th inning. A tie game. For a Dodgers fan like Crosby, things can get a little complicated.
“Here we go Votto, money ball opportunity, don’t want it though, don’t want it. Gotta win this game,” he said, sitting on the edge of his seat.
Votto’s bat makes contact with the ball. “That’s a single. That sucked, no money ball but he did the damage and put the Reds ahead late in the game. Rather he just hit a home run. But he’s gotta hit it to me though, I gotta catch it,” he said.
His glove empty yet again, Bobby walks back to his car. For him, there’s always the next game.
Here's a photo of Raghu receiving his Golden Mike at the award ceremony:
Credit: Henk Friezer
Al-Salaam Polleria: Where cultures converge
When you're driving down Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, look for the huge fiberglass rooster sitting on a roof. It's the Al-Salaam Polleria. It's a live-poultry shop that sells halal chickens slaughtered according to Muslim dietary laws. What's a halal chicken shop doing in a mostly Latino neighborhood? Sabiha Khan reports for Off-Ramp.
You can visit the famous polleria yourself! Info below.
3980 Whittier Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90023
(323) 267-1857