National

Saving Lost Souls on Skid Row with Karaoke Songs and Coffee

Published

9 years ago

May 12, 2015

In this Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015 photo, Pastor Tony Stallworth, left, and Ronnie “Sidewalk Slim” Shepherd sing along with Robert Verdine, foreground, during karaoke night the Central City Community Church of the Nazarene on Skid Row in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Darkness is falling on another long, depressing night in one of America’s most marginal neighborhoods.

For the 200 or so battered souls lining up outside the aging street-corner edifice housing the Central City Community Church of the Nazarene, however, this one will seem neither quite as long nor as harsh as the others.

This is “Karaoke Night” on Skid Row.

There will be break dancing, waltzing, even an impromptu conga line, as people sing everything from country to rock to R&B. The music locks out the ugliness outside, where a misdirected look can launch a knife fight, where the streets reek of urine, where some 1,700 people lay their heads on dirty sidewalks every night to sleep.

“It’s a little bit of a return to normalcy in an area that’s just absolute chaos,” says Andy Bates, who heads Skid Row’s Union Rescue Mission and says he’s seen the power of these weekly songfests to bring joy and even change lives.

“People kind of lose themselves in that moment and get to display their talents,” he says.

As a crowd gathers outside, the graying, bearded, ponytailed Pastor Tony Stallworth breaks into a soulful sound-check version of the pop-gospel song, “I Love You With My Life.” The crowd outside can hardly contain itself. Pounding rattles the front door as Ronnie Shepherd, aka Sidewalk Slim the doorman, declares: “It’s almost show time!”

Minutes later, Shepherd is greeting a rumpled mass of humanity, including some people pushing shopping carts filled with belongings. As a startled rat escapes under a side door, they make a beeline to “Cowboy” Jonathon Brown’s songbook, where they’ll pick their tunes for the night.

Then for the next three hours, they’ll rock the joint.

Some of the singers, of course, are profoundly awful: They croak off key, lose the beat, stumble over the lyrics.

Then there’s that handful who leave the audience shaking its collective head, wondering why they’re not in a recording studio.

“I’m just a homeless person,” one of them, James Walker, says modestly after wrapping up a stirring duet performance of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Joani Dahmen, a Washington State University senior spending her spring break volunteering at a homeless shelter.

“I live in a tent on the sidewalk just a couple blocks down the street,” he volunteers, although he doesn’t want to talk about how he got to a place teeming with drug addicts, prostitutes and the mentally ill.

Following him to the microphone is Patricia Turner, who earns a standing ovation for “All I Ask of You” from the musical “Phantom of the Opera.”

She would like to pursue a singing career someday, but the 22-year-old struggles with a mild form of autism and is living in a welfare-subsidized apartment.

Cowboy, keeper of the song list, lives in another. He’s been coming to Karaoke Night since Stallworth launched the first one 17 years ago. He was living in a tent near the door then and heard there was free coffee and snacks.

“Since I happen to like coffee, that got me in the door,” says the laconic Cowboy, whose preference for 10-gallon hats, blue jeans and Jim Croce songs earned him his nickname.

For Stallworth, Wednesday’s Karaoke Night was a natural for a minister with a booming voice. “When I came to the Lord back in 1989, I prayed and I told him I’d like to make my living singing,” the church’s senior pastor recalls.

“Of course I was referring to I’d like to be a recording artist,” he adds, bursting into laughter at the realization God gave him a karaoke machine and a congregation instead.

About a year into it, he began to have his doubts. Was this about his own vanity? Or, worse, were people only showing up for the free coffee?

The next Karaoke Night a homeless man gave him $3 and told him: “I was on the way to the dope house one night when I heard the music and walked in, and now I come here every week, and I just want to help out.”

“I just looked up in the sky and said, ‘Thank you, Lord,'” Stallworth recalls.

And Karaoke Night continued.

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza 

On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

By California Black Media

“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.

“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.

The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.

Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.

“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.

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Commentary

Commentary: Republican Votes Are Threatening American Democracy

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We needed to know the blunt truth. The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening. That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

By Emil Guillermo

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We needed to know the blunt truth.

The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

And to save it will require all hands on deck.

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening.

That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

No man is above the law? To the majority of his supporters, it seems Trump is.

It’s an anti-democracy loyalty that has spread like a political virus.

No matter what he does, Trump’s their guy. Trump received 51% of caucus-goers votes to beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who garnered 21.2%, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who got 19.1%.

The Asian flash in the pan Vivek Ramaswamy finished way behind and dropped out. Perhaps to get in the VP line. Don’t count on it.

According to CNN’s entrance polls, when caucus-goers were asked if they were a part of the “MAGA movement,” nearly half — 46% — said yes. More revealing: “Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?”

Only 29% said “yes.”

That means an overwhelming 66% said “no,” thus showing the deep roots in Iowa of the “Big Lie,” the belief in a falsehood that Trump was a victim of election theft.

Even more revealing and posing a direct threat to our democracy was the question of whether Trump was fit for the presidency, even if convicted of a crime.

Sixty-five percent said “yes.”

Who says that about anyone of color indicted on 91 criminal felony counts?

Would a BIPOC executive found liable for business fraud in civil court be given a pass?

How about a BIPOC person found liable for sexual assault?

Iowans have debased the phrase, “no man is above the law.” It’s a mindset that would vote in an American dictatorship.

Compare Iowa with voters in Asia last weekend. Taiwan rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing and elected pro-democracy Taiwanese vice president Lai Ching-te as its new president.

Meanwhile, in our country, which supposedly knows a thing or two about democracy, the Iowa caucuses show how Americans feel about authoritarianism.

Some Americans actually like it even more than the Constitution allows.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1.