January 13, 2023 • 39 mins
La Tanya on building peace in honor of Nipsey; Latanya on restoring justice after violence & harm.
About Oya:
Oya L Sherrills is a survivor, a lived experience leader in her field, an advocate, and an organizer. Author of "Musings of a Rascal", she works to create a culture where healing practices are centered and valued. Oya likes to pave paths that connect past and future ancestors in efforts to prioritize peace and community-driven solutions that break cycles of violence and address trauma. She's creative, she's a mama, and she's for the trees.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/powerful.as_a_muthafucka/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as king violence and road traffic violence. Please
be kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and or
after care, and remember if you are a loved one
is going through it, you can call the National Mental
(00:23):
Health Hotline at eight six six nine zero three three
seven eight seven or dial eight for the crisis Lifeline.
Thank you. Join us to explore the stories, policies, practices,
(00:47):
and idea Survives. This is Survives held with your host.
Oh yeah, welcome, welcome, welcome, good people. In today's episode,
I talked with two Grassroot goddesses, both named Lataria. How
(01:10):
about that? Our first guest is Latania, award peace builder
and entrepreneur, here to enlighten us on how female members
can help to heal our gang war torn communities and
we in the episode with Latania home a mother, organizer
and a survivor of road traffic violence. She shares with
(01:34):
us a few words on restorative justice in memory of
her son, Brian Hole. Let's jump in. I am sitting
here with a very powerful person. She is the executive
director of war Folk and she's also the founder and
(01:54):
owner of Filthy Rich banana pudding. No about it, get
up on it. She's also been leading the work around
the gut killing circles and supporting the leadership of the
South l A Hilling Collaborative. I like to introduce you
(02:16):
all to Miss Latania Ward. Hi. Hey, how you doing today? Good? Good,
good good? Okay. So I want to just jump right in.
I'm curious if you can unpack the acronym for us.
What is warfo? WARFO stands for we are responsible for
(02:42):
one another? And what inspired you to create this? Loss?
Inspired me a ton of loss as a black gang
member in Los Angeles, California. I wanted to create a
space where something that was lacking happens, which is healing
for black gang members. And I don't see anyone else
(03:04):
really creating that specifically and intentionally for black gang members.
The most unhealed. The whole hurt people, hurt, people think.
So I want to create a space to heal the
people that were obviously the most hurt because they do
the most hurting. Yeah, that's dope. I mean, I feel
like it's really significant we are responsible for one another.
(03:29):
And when you think about like the wise of people
jumping into gang activity, a lot of it is because
of looking for connection, you know, with one another. But
I feel like the responsibility part has not always been
like the front runner of the desire to get involved
(03:51):
like that, right, So I wonder for you, like, what's
the importance of collective responsibility and healing. It's very important
that people come together with their ideas in a way
that can be as big as the issues. It's more
(04:12):
smart to come together than attempt to go at things alone,
like the saying, if you want to go fast, go alone,
if you want to go far, go together. It just
makes all the sense in the world to basically gang
up on the issues and attack it. Would you mind
sharing your experience with gang life, gang culture coming up?
(04:38):
I mean I was a gang banger. Yeah, I mean,
I don't know what what really to say other than
that I was a gang banger. I feel like if
you know, you know, and I know that not everybody
survives that life, you know. So, like what you first
(04:59):
started out with, was you begin this work because of loss? Yeah?
So has there been any obstacles to doing this work? Yeah?
Just being female in a male dominated occupation, the same
type of obstacles that it is when you're gang banging.
(05:19):
You know, you have that it's not the place of
a woman. I mean same in you know, attempting to
provide resources towards the issues that is also predominantly male,
because I mean, the field of gang banging is predominantly male,
So it's obstacles and just even being heard. They don't
(05:39):
they don't always want to hear you and what you
have to say. And and in a big way, I
agree that the efforts of healing issues of gang violence
should be led by men because it's equitable that it
would be led majority by men, because you know, it
involves me. And but I do believe that just as
(06:03):
a black woman, that I have something to offer the
situation in regard to compassion and a softness which is
not something that people will usually describe me as, but
just the the level of compassion that I feel like
only black women have to offer Black men. So I
(06:24):
feel like that's superum on point. And I definitely understand
where you're coming from in terms of like being in
a field where you want to provide service two folks
who are the most impacted and just survivors of crime
in general, mostly they are young men of color. Like
(06:50):
that's who mostly is harmed in this country, and yet
resources are lacking. And I feel like on the other
side of the harm that doesn't often get talked about
is the loss though, because then the women of the
community are left dealing with the loss, the grief. But
(07:11):
also I'm curious, are there other issues that you would
point out that are particular to survivors of gang violence,
like even from a woman's perspective, but also in general,
are there issues that are like that particularly arise when
you are serving this population. I mean, like I said,
(07:34):
I've her people hurt people. When we hurt people the
most in our community, then we must be really hurt.
And I heard I think it was will Smith, but
I think she said people who need love the most
asked for it in the most unloving ways. And so,
(07:55):
like you said, we will risk our lives join a gang,
something that seemingly has nothing to do with you know,
love or what's at the core of what every human wants,
which is acceptance and love and compassion. But it's a
masked version of it. So, yeah, you're dealing with the
(08:15):
extreme of any of the symptoms of someone dealing with pain.
If you're dealing with you know, the most underresourced and
undesirable people. Yes, and so can you share, like, how
do you center healing in the work that you do? Yeah,
I definitely center healing UM with Warfore, our main service
(08:41):
is the gut healing circle, which stands for gaining unity
through transformation. So it's at the nucleus. I'm beginning now
to get into, you know, funneling. My people went to
workforce development and things like that. But at the center,
the nucleus is definitely healing. And how we do that
(09:02):
is the curriculum that we've developed since full time, since
twenty nine, a curriculum that is very specific to black
gang members, black system impacted people in their communities. It's
anything that we send any other resources that will be
a gatekeeper for it. They will have to definitely participate
(09:26):
in the healing Circle curriculum. Um. One of the things
I feel that folks when they hear this and they
hear your name, what they're gonna know about you if
they follow any kind of news in the city, is
that you lead peace rally and you brought together folks
(09:46):
from different sides in the aftermath of Nipsy's murder, and
I just wanted to see if you wanted to either
comment on what made you uniquely pause and to be
able to do that work. I think that the way
that I am uniquely positioned is again, first that I'm
(10:10):
a female and a predominantly male occupation of gang banging
as well as the peace efforts. But I think that
what I did with my experience, my lived experience as
a gang member, is I actually went out and multiplied
it by education in the field of non traditional healing
(10:31):
methods and modalities as well as the structure of systems
and institutions. I went to school for n LP and
hypnotherapy to understand the language of the mind and our
intake of information, and then I also went to school
for community planning and economic development. And I think that
(10:53):
a lot of people, usually, like most people that are
older that go back to school, usually people enter education
with no experience, and um, if you're going out into
the world and lived and then decided to go back
to school, you enter education with experience, and then I
think that that's a difference. Yeah, I don't think I've
(11:16):
ever heard it put like that either, like, because I
do think that in our culture we do tend to
revere education for education sake sometimes and what we get,
unfortunately is folks who lack the experience, you know, coming
into the community without really being able to connect. There
(11:41):
is that and sometimes you know those movies. It's fine,
they can come into the community and over time they
learned some things, but sometimes that's at the expense of
the people who are being served, right, So just thank
you for sharing that, because I think that folks need
to hear that perspective, you know what I mean. I
(12:05):
was going to ask, also, is there anything that encourages
you to overcome the obstacles that you mentioned, Like you mentioned,
you know, just being a woman in a male dominated
space and occupation and also working with personalities that are hurt. Like,
(12:26):
what is the thing that like encourages you to just
like keep going and keep pushing um. The logo of
warfare is adoinnament and it symbolizes strength and humility. So
I know that our host heel of power and I'm
just trying to be responsible with it. So with that,
(12:47):
I try to be, you know the opposite of what
I say that I'm fighting or creating against. I try
to have patience with our people, with myself because not perfect,
I don't always walk around like I'm some meditating healing yogi.
So um, I just I try to remind myself to
(13:11):
do the things that I preach when I can when
I got it in. Yeah, and I just think about,
you know, all the losses that I've taken, and how
I don't want to take anymore, and how just you know,
in honor of the people that I've lost, I want
to live my best and foolliest life. And in order
to do that, I'm gonna have to let some ship slide,
(13:34):
you know, just accept it as it is so that
I can focus on creating and building some ship before
I leave. Yeah, that is very beautiful. So what you
just said to though, like no gurus, right, Like, you
don't have to be meditating yogi. I mean you can be,
(13:56):
you know, no shade for sure, you know, but you
don't have to be that. And you don't have to
necessarily look to those people either to find healing for
yourself and for your community. And hold that thought. We'll
be right back after a word from our sponsors. I
(14:36):
was also going to ask, what are some healing practices
that you really love? Um? For myself, I just like, um,
I like niggafying ship that I find out about whatever
it is, yoga, meditation, motivational speaking, whatever the funk it
(14:58):
is that I learned about our just niggify everything. I
blackify it however you want to say it. But one
of my favorites, though, is active meditation, just because, like
I said, a niggin took so many losses. I try
to make everything mean something. So practices that we all
do daily, I put something on it. I put a
(15:21):
meaning on it. When I'm grooming myself in the morning,
when I'm brushing my teeth, I'm like talking to myself.
They say you speak either life or death. I'm like,
I'm brushing death words. I'm on my fucking mouth. You
know it ain't cuss words like people try to tame
and control you and say like that's where we landed.
We cuss and validly so you know, but I'm brushing
(15:42):
death words of speaking against myself and what I can accomplish.
I'm brushing those words out of my mouth. You know.
I'm giving myself the cleanliness is the life that I'm
gonna be speaking all day. When I'm taking a shower,
I'm washing off the haters, these hating motherfucker's that they
(16:02):
hanging on to. You know, all they got is gang banging.
They don't feel like they could be somebody outside of that,
so they hating. They don't know. Um, I'm rooting for
them too though, But I'm washing that off. And when
I'm putting lotion on, I'm rubbing on love and support.
I ain't thinking with the two park mentality. No more
(16:23):
of me against the world. It's just way more inspiring
for me to feel like motherfucker's is at my back, like,
go funk off. Okay, tie, you do your ship like.
So when I'm rubbing on lotion, I'm literally in my mind,
I'm rubbing that on like I'm wearing that all day.
So just ship like that. That's one of my favorite
healing practices. I talked to myself in the mirror because
(16:47):
all of the motivational speaking that I hear is very
much so from the mountains of Caucus. So I try
to talk to myself motivationally in you know, just talk
to myself. How how you talk? I tell myself, you
got every bit of business being here, Your parents had
every bit of business fucking and making you and you
(17:08):
two ship and who's gonna tell you know, and you know,
talk to myself in the mirror. That's one of my
favorite healing practices and my imagination. Hell yeah, I think
that somebody's going to hear that, and they're gonna take
that in and they're gonna take that on and they're
gonna be like I was inspired by. Oh yeah. One
(17:30):
thing that I do is every day I try to
tell myself in the mirror, I love you, I appreciate you,
I'm proud of you. Those are important things, yeah, because, um,
we don't always hear that. You know, the world can
be really complicated. M So what else is needed to
(17:52):
heal our communities for motherfucker's to stop feeling like they
are above revision? The woke motherfucker's need to I don't know,
like they need to adopt more patients in a humble way.
I'm not talking about the um, you know, because it's
a discernment that's necessary. You know. They talk about in
(18:15):
I mean I'm not Christian, but in the Bible that
doctrine talks about like casting your pearls amongst swine. So
I guess your gifts, you know, your good ship amongst
motherfucker's who won't value it. And it's a level of
discernment though, like you know, understanding of the causation of
like how are people landed where they are behaviorally, you know, mentally,
(18:39):
you know, just having an understanding at least of the
truth of what caused it and that people are able
to change how they said, like, oh, if Malcolm X
would have died at one, he would have died a
criminal hoodlum. And if Miya Angelo would have died at twenty,
she would have died a prostitute. It's like you wouldn't
(18:59):
have even gotten to know these people for who you
know them for, you know, if you were the gatekeeper
to them, you know, sticking around because of your opinion
of who they were. You know, So we have to
take that into mind when dealing with people in there now,
like that people can change. I'm not telling anyone what
they have to do, you know, with their time or
(19:22):
how they should be in service, but just keep in mind,
you know that it's a causation to these things, and
to basically see themselves not as better than people, but
powerful enough to you know, assisting the change of that.
Be nice, be kind, you know, you're not qualified to judge.
(19:42):
You know, I don't think that because you're so fucking
woke or accomplished or have an accolade or two, that
you are radiating at some higher fucking level than them.
It's it's not true. The fact that you think you
are makes it even less true, you know. And don't
be a buff Like I said, revision, we all got
(20:02):
blind spots, so be open to you know, looking at that.
And really to answer your question, Number one is be kind.
But it takes a realization of the things that I
just talked about in order sometimes to be genuinely kind
instead of feeling as though anything you do that's not
funked up or mean to the undesirables is a favor
(20:24):
to them. I've had something ringing in my head for
the past couple of days, like just because the service
is free doesn't mean it's for me, you know, because
sometimes it's like people think that just because they give,
you know, yeah, we're supposed to be beholden, you know.
(20:45):
Sometimes there's like a trick bag in the giving. And
sometimes when things are free, people don't value it because
it's free, but it's priceless, you know. Yeah, And I
think that comes back to the relationship. I feel like
what I'm hearing from you is that like, in order
to be kind, there's first a relationship that has to
(21:06):
be established, and that relationship starts within yourself, you know,
and having the authenticity you know, in order to be
kind to yourself, you know, it's like being abundant. It's
like then you can give from your cup of kindness,
you know. But there's work that has to be done.
M hm. So I know we did say, um, well,
(21:30):
I said no gurus. But are there any people in
present or history or in the future that you would
feel like mentors your ability to do this or that
inspires your walk in any way? Yeah, I mean definitely
(21:52):
my grandfather. I have too many people to name. Name
the name the first ones that come up in your spirit. Um,
my grandfather. My grandfather's name is Lawrence Albert. My big
home girl, Big Danye. She taught me and led me
so gracefully and ghettoly if my gang banging. Yeah, she
(22:17):
did a great job. When my little home girls talk
to me about what type of big home girl I
am for them, I tell them me because I had
a good one. Oh, it is somebody else that I
want to shout out. I have a mentor and she's white,
and um, I feel like the work that I've done
(22:40):
with her in hypno therapy, I probably I don't even
think I would be who I am. So I invite
non black people. I'm super into white labor anyway, and
I'm open and honest with my own now I'm black,
and especially my white people's about that. So she no,
(23:00):
But yeah, I invite some of the things that they
have to offer that oftentimes we couldn't get our hands
on because of the oppressive nature that is the system
with us, you know. So she taught me a lot
about the things I needed to know to take back
to my niggas. So I want to show her out,
(23:21):
Mary Sergeant. Yeah, UM, can I affirm that, you know,
I feel like it does take a multi cultural approach.
I know that there are some folks out there who might,
you know, jump back at that term. But the thing is,
as humanity, you know, we're dealing with real human issues,
(23:44):
you know, and we have to acknowledge that some people
have access to things that we don't. And in order
for that to open up and there to be flow,
we do have to have a sharing culture. Um. I
will be honest, my phone focus and my attention is
definitely centering black African American people. But I do think
(24:10):
that I know that we can use and utilize other
people's gifts and resources in order to center black people,
and that's what I do, and I do have compassion
for other groups of people. It's just that my efforts
at this point in my life and probably for the
rest of my life, will be for who. I don't
(24:31):
think that anyone else has that forward Black people, and
it's needed. So there you go. So we still got
to get to your your last words with some last
words of peace, last words of healing however we want
to call it, but just make sure that you also
(24:52):
tell the people how to find you and how they
can support this healing centered, black centered work. People can
find me on Instagram at Powerful as a Motherfucker p
O w e R f U L dot A S
underscore A Underscore m U t h A f U
(25:13):
c k A, and um follow my dessert page at
Filthy Rich Banana putting dot com f I L t
h y r I c h b A n A
n A p U d d I n g oh
the Healing Circle page good Healing Circle g U T
T h E A l I n g c I
(25:36):
r C l E and war Folds page, war fold
dot org and on Instagram it's just w A R
f o A Alright, So yeah, ain't got no excuses
because she just gave y'all auto info that'll reach out,
look it up. This is this is good work that
needs to be supported. There's so many people out here
(25:58):
talking about what could be done, what should be done.
This is an expert giving it to you right here,
so reach out. UM. Final words maybe in regards to
like when you talked about the march, A lot of
people that know that I organized it would tell me
(26:19):
like that's good, funk off, Like I can't believe you
doing that, and that's cool for you, Like, but I
just ain't there yet, and I'm like, you're not there yet,
You're gonna be there, and wishing that a peace treaty
and a non aggression agreement and all of that would
have went through when you laying on the ground taking
your last breaths or your people's you know, when I
(26:40):
know that they know better than what they either teach
the motherfucker's that come after us, or allow them to
think like, you're not gonna tell them that when they
go over there and poof somebody somebody they don't like,
because where their mama could pay rent, which is crazy,
not ignoring the fact that now you know, people didn't
(27:00):
died and it's because my cousin on my soul and
so it got killed. But I'm talking about like the
initial reasoning, like, but you're not gonna tell them that
when they go over there and poof them over there,
that they find have to be in the pen with
them back to back. And if they budge like they're
trying to super gang bang how they do on the
(27:22):
streets and be big fuck them over there still and
starting ship they own homies will attack them for trying
to attack the quote unquote enemy that they encourage them
to attack on the streets. It's a lie, is the
point to not tell them, you know that it's a
dead end. It's just it's unfair, and I know that
(27:45):
niggas know that, and to not say it just let
me know that they just not brave and that it's
just like it was when I was banging that I'm
just braver than half these niggas anyway. Still, you know,
if you're not saying the truth because you don't want
niggas to assume that you're I don't know, less tough
(28:06):
or that you're not with it no more, I don't know,
Like you're trying not to look like a yee. You're
trying not to look like a buster. And when you're
trying not to look like a buster or a yee,
that makes you a fucking buster and a yee. I
just don't even get it. Like it's just the truth.
You can't be scared to tell the truth, like you're
gonna be held accountable for that. So yeah, a wonderful
(28:31):
example of speaking truth to power. And we ain't gonna
just act like the power is just in these institutions
or these you know, political arenas. No no, no, no, no, no,
no no. We got a lot of power right in
our streets, right in our community. And you just gave
a bomb mass dose of that truth pill for people.
(28:52):
Thank you, thank you. We're gonna take a short break
to hear from our sponsors. I'm sitting here with Miss
(29:23):
Latagna Hole and it is actually the World Day of
Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, and MS Hole is a
lot of things so a lot of people. You know,
she is a parent leader in South l A, a
parent leader with the organization Cadre that stands up for
(29:46):
parents and students and fights too in the school to
prison pipeline and ms Hole is also a mother. You know,
she has been standing up for her children since they
were born. She's been She's been doing what she could
you know, to take care of her people with what
(30:09):
she has. UM, I'm stumbling all over. I've been a
parent of six children, five boys and one girl, and
I'm a grandmother of two boys. There we Go. I'm
also a core parent at Cadre, became a senior parent
at Cadre, and I'm trying to lead new parents to
(30:32):
be a voice for their children and students black and
brown in South l A. Also would best start as
an Archie off member. I also helped organize the you
know organizations to get funded. UM Archief members want to
make sure there are communities be successful and actually get
(30:55):
the funny that we rightfully need. There we Go. Also,
I'm my real drive is hidden run drivers. I am
a survivor of my son who was killed in two
thousand and sixteen June thirty of two thousand and sixteen.
He was crossing the street and was hit. And so
(31:16):
now I'm trying to make some changes with the lights
and how they drive. I just got reached out with
a young girl lost her two children from a hid
and run and so we are going to me and
John and her want to sit down and talk about
this and see if we can make some changes in
(31:36):
on Broadway in Manchester area. Yeah, you know, and John
that you're speaking of is an organizer with Safe Street
what you've also been participating in, correct, And Um, they
actually just got the city to um light up City
Hall with yellow lights and honor of the World Day
(32:02):
of Remembrance for Road traffic Victims. And you've been a
part of, you know, causing all of this attention to
bring our loved ones that have fallen on these roads
into memoriam. You've also been a very dear person to
me over the years, and I've done what I can
(32:26):
to be there for you guys. But today what I
was hoping, um, that we would share with the people
is some words of yours that truly moved me. Earlier
this summer, um, along with Safe Streets l A, there
(32:47):
was a rainbow halo that was put in place for
Brian Hall and um, you had some words to share
that day, and so I want to spread it all
around no problem. I hope that my words can touch
the world and let them look at the real reason
(33:10):
of what restorative justice really mean to humanity. And so
what I said was good afternoon everyone. My son Brian
was born August seven years ago. On June is the
anniversary of the accident that took his life, and I
want to present this rainbow hollow to the community to
(33:32):
recognize hid and run victims. I've been thinking about this
question what is restorative justice, and partly what is restorative
justice for me as a mother who lost her son
to a person who left the crime scene. At first,
I had flustration and anger, and I wanted the person
(33:53):
who did this to be put in jail. But as
I started healing, I started one knew what restorative justice
could be for me. Then as I started healing, justice
started taking on a deeper meaning to me. So I
started feeling like humanity needed rehabilitation, not not jail, because
(34:15):
prisons are just another form of modern day slavery. I
began to come to the understanding that whether or not
we found this person who took Brian's life, Humanity would
still need rehabilitation. If we had restorative justice, we would
have a culture and humanity that wouldn't create the type
(34:36):
of people that could hit somebody and leave. We need
that kind of restorative justice that can real abilitate humanity
so that we can create human beings that would be
accountable to the harm they caused and that would amend
the families they hurt. What restorative justice looks like to
(34:59):
me is a world where if you hit someone, you
would even think of running. Restorative justice to me is
creating a humanity where people have empathy and heart and
care for one another, not a world that is so
in fear of being locked in a cage that would
leave a beautiful young man to die in the streets.
(35:22):
What a free stort of justice for a mother who
lost her son to someone who ran. It is creating
a world where healing and accountability is praised over fear
and violence. So restorative justice, to me, is what we
are doing today. We are starting today a memory of
my son, Brian Hull, and through me and my family's pain,
(35:46):
we are starting today to remember Brian and marking this
tragedy as a reminder to the community that change is possible,
especially when we come together. The change starts with us.
Thank you all in part all right, beautiful, beautiful? Are
there any other words that you would want to share?
(36:09):
I just want people to really think about the word.
We want the restorative justice look like to you, Whether
you are mother, brother, sister, uncle, or auntie. What does
that restorative justice look like for you if it was
your child or uncle, or whoever it is. I just
want you to really think about that and make some
(36:32):
changes as change as possible for everybody. Thank you. To conclude,
every Novemr. Twentieth is the world they remembrance for road
traffic victims. There are national efforts being made to address
the alarming rates of road traffic fatalities. Between twenty and world,
(36:59):
traffic in reason in the United States grew by nearly
thirty four thousand incidents to some two point twenty eight million.
Road traffic related injuries in and in particular, hit and
run depths in the US have increased in average of
seven point two percent each year since two thousand and nine.
(37:22):
The U S Transportation Secretary Pete Buddha Judge said, we
know road weight depths are preventable because some places are
doing a much better job at preventing them, both abroad
and within certain US communities. The U. S. Department of
Transportation is committed to making real progress towards ending traffic fatalities,
(37:46):
and we call them everyone to join us in this
national effort that can only succeed when we work together.
And in that vein, the U. S. Department of Transportation
launched the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program,
which will provide five billion dollars over five years to
communities to plan and implement road safety actions, and it's
(38:10):
funded by the President's Bipartisan Infrastructural Law. The first round
of awards for this program is expected to be announced
in early and if you'd like to learn more about
these initiatives, please visit Transportation dot gov. And if you're
a local to l A or if you would just
(38:31):
like to get up on some best practices, please look
up the organization headed by John k Y, Los Angeles Walks,
and you can find them at Los Angeles Walks dot org. Disclaimer.
(38:53):
My views, beliefs, and opinions on my own and do
not necessarily reflect the views of my guest, resource organizations
or sources shared. You've been listening to the Survivor's Hill podcast.
Join us next episode for our midnight session live from
(39:17):
Survivor Speak, California. Two last thing every day we survive
is a new chance to see killing. Peace to your journey.
Good people a share
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as king violence and road traffic violence. Please
be kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and or
after care, and remember if you are a loved one
is going through it, you can call the National Mental
(00:23):
Health Hotline at eight six six nine zero three three
seven eight seven or dial eight for the crisis Lifeline.
Thank you. Join us to explore the stories, policies, practices,
(00:47):
and idea Survives. This is Survives held with your host.
Oh yeah, welcome, welcome, welcome, good people. In today's episode,
I talked with two Grassroot goddesses, both named Lataria. How
(01:10):
about that? Our first guest is Latania, award peace builder
and entrepreneur, here to enlighten us on how female members
can help to heal our gang war torn communities and
we in the episode with Latania home a mother, organizer
and a survivor of road traffic violence. She shares with
(01:34):
us a few words on restorative justice in memory of
her son, Brian Hole. Let's jump in. I am sitting
here with a very powerful person. She is the executive
director of war Folk and she's also the founder and
(01:54):
owner of Filthy Rich banana pudding. No about it, get
up on it. She's also been leading the work around
the gut killing circles and supporting the leadership of the
South l A Hilling Collaborative. I like to introduce you
(02:16):
all to Miss Latania Ward. Hi. Hey, how you doing today? Good? Good,
good good? Okay. So I want to just jump right in.
I'm curious if you can unpack the acronym for us.
What is warfo? WARFO stands for we are responsible for
(02:42):
one another? And what inspired you to create this? Loss?
Inspired me a ton of loss as a black gang
member in Los Angeles, California. I wanted to create a
space where something that was lacking happens, which is healing
for black gang members. And I don't see anyone else
(03:04):
really creating that specifically and intentionally for black gang members.
The most unhealed. The whole hurt people, hurt, people think.
So I want to create a space to heal the
people that were obviously the most hurt because they do
the most hurting. Yeah, that's dope. I mean, I feel
like it's really significant we are responsible for one another.
(03:29):
And when you think about like the wise of people
jumping into gang activity, a lot of it is because
of looking for connection, you know, with one another. But
I feel like the responsibility part has not always been
like the front runner of the desire to get involved
(03:51):
like that, right, So I wonder for you, like, what's
the importance of collective responsibility and healing. It's very important
that people come together with their ideas in a way
that can be as big as the issues. It's more
(04:12):
smart to come together than attempt to go at things alone,
like the saying, if you want to go fast, go alone,
if you want to go far, go together. It just
makes all the sense in the world to basically gang
up on the issues and attack it. Would you mind
sharing your experience with gang life, gang culture coming up?
(04:38):
I mean I was a gang banger. Yeah, I mean,
I don't know what what really to say other than
that I was a gang banger. I feel like if
you know, you know, and I know that not everybody
survives that life, you know. So, like what you first
(04:59):
started out with, was you begin this work because of loss? Yeah?
So has there been any obstacles to doing this work? Yeah?
Just being female in a male dominated occupation, the same
type of obstacles that it is when you're gang banging.
(05:19):
You know, you have that it's not the place of
a woman. I mean same in you know, attempting to
provide resources towards the issues that is also predominantly male,
because I mean, the field of gang banging is predominantly male,
So it's obstacles and just even being heard. They don't
(05:39):
they don't always want to hear you and what you
have to say. And and in a big way, I
agree that the efforts of healing issues of gang violence
should be led by men because it's equitable that it
would be led majority by men, because you know, it
involves me. And but I do believe that just as
(06:03):
a black woman, that I have something to offer the
situation in regard to compassion and a softness which is
not something that people will usually describe me as, but
just the the level of compassion that I feel like
only black women have to offer Black men. So I
(06:24):
feel like that's superum on point. And I definitely understand
where you're coming from in terms of like being in
a field where you want to provide service two folks
who are the most impacted and just survivors of crime
in general, mostly they are young men of color. Like
(06:50):
that's who mostly is harmed in this country, and yet
resources are lacking. And I feel like on the other
side of the harm that doesn't often get talked about
is the loss though, because then the women of the
community are left dealing with the loss, the grief. But
(07:11):
also I'm curious, are there other issues that you would
point out that are particular to survivors of gang violence,
like even from a woman's perspective, but also in general,
are there issues that are like that particularly arise when
you are serving this population. I mean, like I said,
(07:34):
I've her people hurt people. When we hurt people the
most in our community, then we must be really hurt.
And I heard I think it was will Smith, but
I think she said people who need love the most
asked for it in the most unloving ways. And so,
(07:55):
like you said, we will risk our lives join a gang,
something that seemingly has nothing to do with you know,
love or what's at the core of what every human wants,
which is acceptance and love and compassion. But it's a
masked version of it. So, yeah, you're dealing with the
(08:15):
extreme of any of the symptoms of someone dealing with pain.
If you're dealing with you know, the most underresourced and
undesirable people. Yes, and so can you share, like, how
do you center healing in the work that you do? Yeah,
I definitely center healing UM with Warfore, our main service
(08:41):
is the gut healing circle, which stands for gaining unity
through transformation. So it's at the nucleus. I'm beginning now
to get into, you know, funneling. My people went to
workforce development and things like that. But at the center,
the nucleus is definitely healing. And how we do that
(09:02):
is the curriculum that we've developed since full time, since
twenty nine, a curriculum that is very specific to black
gang members, black system impacted people in their communities. It's
anything that we send any other resources that will be
a gatekeeper for it. They will have to definitely participate
(09:26):
in the healing Circle curriculum. Um. One of the things
I feel that folks when they hear this and they
hear your name, what they're gonna know about you if
they follow any kind of news in the city, is
that you lead peace rally and you brought together folks
(09:46):
from different sides in the aftermath of Nipsy's murder, and
I just wanted to see if you wanted to either
comment on what made you uniquely pause and to be
able to do that work. I think that the way
that I am uniquely positioned is again, first that I'm
(10:10):
a female and a predominantly male occupation of gang banging
as well as the peace efforts. But I think that
what I did with my experience, my lived experience as
a gang member, is I actually went out and multiplied
it by education in the field of non traditional healing
(10:31):
methods and modalities as well as the structure of systems
and institutions. I went to school for n LP and
hypnotherapy to understand the language of the mind and our
intake of information, and then I also went to school
for community planning and economic development. And I think that
(10:53):
a lot of people, usually, like most people that are
older that go back to school, usually people enter education
with no experience, and um, if you're going out into
the world and lived and then decided to go back
to school, you enter education with experience, and then I
think that that's a difference. Yeah, I don't think I've
(11:16):
ever heard it put like that either, like, because I
do think that in our culture we do tend to
revere education for education sake sometimes and what we get,
unfortunately is folks who lack the experience, you know, coming
into the community without really being able to connect. There
(11:41):
is that and sometimes you know those movies. It's fine,
they can come into the community and over time they
learned some things, but sometimes that's at the expense of
the people who are being served, right, So just thank
you for sharing that, because I think that folks need
to hear that perspective, you know what I mean. I
(12:05):
was going to ask, also, is there anything that encourages
you to overcome the obstacles that you mentioned, Like you mentioned,
you know, just being a woman in a male dominated
space and occupation and also working with personalities that are hurt. Like,
(12:26):
what is the thing that like encourages you to just
like keep going and keep pushing um. The logo of
warfare is adoinnament and it symbolizes strength and humility. So
I know that our host heel of power and I'm
just trying to be responsible with it. So with that,
(12:47):
I try to be, you know the opposite of what
I say that I'm fighting or creating against. I try
to have patience with our people, with myself because not perfect,
I don't always walk around like I'm some meditating healing yogi.
So um, I just I try to remind myself to
(13:11):
do the things that I preach when I can when
I got it in. Yeah, and I just think about,
you know, all the losses that I've taken, and how
I don't want to take anymore, and how just you know,
in honor of the people that I've lost, I want
to live my best and foolliest life. And in order
to do that, I'm gonna have to let some ship slide,
(13:34):
you know, just accept it as it is so that
I can focus on creating and building some ship before
I leave. Yeah, that is very beautiful. So what you
just said to though, like no gurus, right, Like, you
don't have to be meditating yogi. I mean you can be,
(13:56):
you know, no shade for sure, you know, but you
don't have to be that. And you don't have to
necessarily look to those people either to find healing for
yourself and for your community. And hold that thought. We'll
be right back after a word from our sponsors. I
(14:36):
was also going to ask, what are some healing practices
that you really love? Um? For myself, I just like, um,
I like niggafying ship that I find out about whatever
it is, yoga, meditation, motivational speaking, whatever the funk it
(14:58):
is that I learned about our just niggify everything. I
blackify it however you want to say it. But one
of my favorites, though, is active meditation, just because, like
I said, a niggin took so many losses. I try
to make everything mean something. So practices that we all
do daily, I put something on it. I put a
(15:21):
meaning on it. When I'm grooming myself in the morning,
when I'm brushing my teeth, I'm like talking to myself.
They say you speak either life or death. I'm like,
I'm brushing death words. I'm on my fucking mouth. You
know it ain't cuss words like people try to tame
and control you and say like that's where we landed.
We cuss and validly so you know, but I'm brushing
(15:42):
death words of speaking against myself and what I can accomplish.
I'm brushing those words out of my mouth. You know.
I'm giving myself the cleanliness is the life that I'm
gonna be speaking all day. When I'm taking a shower,
I'm washing off the haters, these hating motherfucker's that they
(16:02):
hanging on to. You know, all they got is gang banging.
They don't feel like they could be somebody outside of that,
so they hating. They don't know. Um, I'm rooting for
them too though, But I'm washing that off. And when
I'm putting lotion on, I'm rubbing on love and support.
I ain't thinking with the two park mentality. No more
(16:23):
of me against the world. It's just way more inspiring
for me to feel like motherfucker's is at my back, like,
go funk off. Okay, tie, you do your ship like.
So when I'm rubbing on lotion, I'm literally in my mind,
I'm rubbing that on like I'm wearing that all day.
So just ship like that. That's one of my favorite
healing practices. I talked to myself in the mirror because
(16:47):
all of the motivational speaking that I hear is very
much so from the mountains of Caucus. So I try
to talk to myself motivationally in you know, just talk
to myself. How how you talk? I tell myself, you
got every bit of business being here, Your parents had
every bit of business fucking and making you and you
(17:08):
two ship and who's gonna tell you know, and you know,
talk to myself in the mirror. That's one of my
favorite healing practices and my imagination. Hell yeah, I think
that somebody's going to hear that, and they're gonna take
that in and they're gonna take that on and they're
gonna be like I was inspired by. Oh yeah. One
(17:30):
thing that I do is every day I try to
tell myself in the mirror, I love you, I appreciate you,
I'm proud of you. Those are important things, yeah, because, um,
we don't always hear that. You know, the world can
be really complicated. M So what else is needed to
(17:52):
heal our communities for motherfucker's to stop feeling like they
are above revision? The woke motherfucker's need to I don't know,
like they need to adopt more patients in a humble way.
I'm not talking about the um, you know, because it's
a discernment that's necessary. You know. They talk about in
(18:15):
I mean I'm not Christian, but in the Bible that
doctrine talks about like casting your pearls amongst swine. So
I guess your gifts, you know, your good ship amongst
motherfucker's who won't value it. And it's a level of
discernment though, like you know, understanding of the causation of
like how are people landed where they are behaviorally, you know, mentally,
(18:39):
you know, just having an understanding at least of the
truth of what caused it and that people are able
to change how they said, like, oh, if Malcolm X
would have died at one, he would have died a
criminal hoodlum. And if Miya Angelo would have died at twenty,
she would have died a prostitute. It's like you wouldn't
(18:59):
have even gotten to know these people for who you
know them for, you know, if you were the gatekeeper
to them, you know, sticking around because of your opinion
of who they were. You know, So we have to
take that into mind when dealing with people in there now,
like that people can change. I'm not telling anyone what
they have to do, you know, with their time or
(19:22):
how they should be in service, but just keep in mind,
you know that it's a causation to these things, and
to basically see themselves not as better than people, but
powerful enough to you know, assisting the change of that.
Be nice, be kind, you know, you're not qualified to judge.
(19:42):
You know, I don't think that because you're so fucking
woke or accomplished or have an accolade or two, that
you are radiating at some higher fucking level than them.
It's it's not true. The fact that you think you
are makes it even less true, you know. And don't
be a buff Like I said, revision, we all got
(20:02):
blind spots, so be open to you know, looking at that.
And really to answer your question, Number one is be kind.
But it takes a realization of the things that I
just talked about in order sometimes to be genuinely kind
instead of feeling as though anything you do that's not
funked up or mean to the undesirables is a favor
(20:24):
to them. I've had something ringing in my head for
the past couple of days, like just because the service
is free doesn't mean it's for me, you know, because
sometimes it's like people think that just because they give,
you know, yeah, we're supposed to be beholden, you know.
(20:45):
Sometimes there's like a trick bag in the giving. And
sometimes when things are free, people don't value it because
it's free, but it's priceless, you know. Yeah, And I
think that comes back to the relationship. I feel like
what I'm hearing from you is that like, in order
to be kind, there's first a relationship that has to
(21:06):
be established, and that relationship starts within yourself, you know,
and having the authenticity you know, in order to be
kind to yourself, you know, it's like being abundant. It's
like then you can give from your cup of kindness,
you know. But there's work that has to be done.
M hm. So I know we did say, um, well,
(21:30):
I said no gurus. But are there any people in
present or history or in the future that you would
feel like mentors your ability to do this or that
inspires your walk in any way? Yeah, I mean definitely
(21:52):
my grandfather. I have too many people to name. Name
the name the first ones that come up in your spirit. Um,
my grandfather. My grandfather's name is Lawrence Albert. My big
home girl, Big Danye. She taught me and led me
so gracefully and ghettoly if my gang banging. Yeah, she
(22:17):
did a great job. When my little home girls talk
to me about what type of big home girl I
am for them, I tell them me because I had
a good one. Oh, it is somebody else that I
want to shout out. I have a mentor and she's white,
and um, I feel like the work that I've done
(22:40):
with her in hypno therapy, I probably I don't even
think I would be who I am. So I invite
non black people. I'm super into white labor anyway, and
I'm open and honest with my own now I'm black,
and especially my white people's about that. So she no,
(23:00):
But yeah, I invite some of the things that they
have to offer that oftentimes we couldn't get our hands
on because of the oppressive nature that is the system
with us, you know. So she taught me a lot
about the things I needed to know to take back
to my niggas. So I want to show her out,
(23:21):
Mary Sergeant. Yeah, UM, can I affirm that, you know,
I feel like it does take a multi cultural approach.
I know that there are some folks out there who might,
you know, jump back at that term. But the thing is,
as humanity, you know, we're dealing with real human issues,
(23:44):
you know, and we have to acknowledge that some people
have access to things that we don't. And in order
for that to open up and there to be flow,
we do have to have a sharing culture. Um. I
will be honest, my phone focus and my attention is
definitely centering black African American people. But I do think
(24:10):
that I know that we can use and utilize other
people's gifts and resources in order to center black people,
and that's what I do, and I do have compassion
for other groups of people. It's just that my efforts
at this point in my life and probably for the
rest of my life, will be for who. I don't
(24:31):
think that anyone else has that forward Black people, and
it's needed. So there you go. So we still got
to get to your your last words with some last
words of peace, last words of healing however we want
to call it, but just make sure that you also
(24:52):
tell the people how to find you and how they
can support this healing centered, black centered work. People can
find me on Instagram at Powerful as a Motherfucker p
O w e R f U L dot A S
underscore A Underscore m U t h A f U
(25:13):
c k A, and um follow my dessert page at
Filthy Rich Banana putting dot com f I L t
h y r I c h b A n A
n A p U d d I n g oh
the Healing Circle page good Healing Circle g U T
T h E A l I n g c I
(25:36):
r C l E and war Folds page, war fold
dot org and on Instagram it's just w A R
f o A Alright, So yeah, ain't got no excuses
because she just gave y'all auto info that'll reach out,
look it up. This is this is good work that
needs to be supported. There's so many people out here
(25:58):
talking about what could be done, what should be done.
This is an expert giving it to you right here,
so reach out. UM. Final words maybe in regards to
like when you talked about the march, A lot of
people that know that I organized it would tell me
(26:19):
like that's good, funk off, Like I can't believe you
doing that, and that's cool for you, Like, but I
just ain't there yet, and I'm like, you're not there yet,
You're gonna be there, and wishing that a peace treaty
and a non aggression agreement and all of that would
have went through when you laying on the ground taking
your last breaths or your people's you know, when I
(26:40):
know that they know better than what they either teach
the motherfucker's that come after us, or allow them to
think like, you're not gonna tell them that when they
go over there and poof somebody somebody they don't like,
because where their mama could pay rent, which is crazy,
not ignoring the fact that now you know, people didn't
(27:00):
died and it's because my cousin on my soul and
so it got killed. But I'm talking about like the
initial reasoning, like, but you're not gonna tell them that
when they go over there and poof them over there,
that they find have to be in the pen with
them back to back. And if they budge like they're
trying to super gang bang how they do on the
(27:22):
streets and be big fuck them over there still and
starting ship they own homies will attack them for trying
to attack the quote unquote enemy that they encourage them
to attack on the streets. It's a lie, is the
point to not tell them, you know that it's a
dead end. It's just it's unfair, and I know that
(27:45):
niggas know that, and to not say it just let
me know that they just not brave and that it's
just like it was when I was banging that I'm
just braver than half these niggas anyway. Still, you know,
if you're not saying the truth because you don't want
niggas to assume that you're I don't know, less tough
(28:06):
or that you're not with it no more, I don't know,
Like you're trying not to look like a yee. You're
trying not to look like a buster. And when you're
trying not to look like a buster or a yee,
that makes you a fucking buster and a yee. I
just don't even get it. Like it's just the truth.
You can't be scared to tell the truth, like you're
gonna be held accountable for that. So yeah, a wonderful
(28:31):
example of speaking truth to power. And we ain't gonna
just act like the power is just in these institutions
or these you know, political arenas. No no, no, no, no, no,
no no. We got a lot of power right in
our streets, right in our community. And you just gave
a bomb mass dose of that truth pill for people.
(28:52):
Thank you, thank you. We're gonna take a short break
to hear from our sponsors. I'm sitting here with Miss
(29:23):
Latagna Hole and it is actually the World Day of
Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, and MS Hole is a
lot of things so a lot of people. You know,
she is a parent leader in South l A, a
parent leader with the organization Cadre that stands up for
(29:46):
parents and students and fights too in the school to
prison pipeline and ms Hole is also a mother. You know,
she has been standing up for her children since they
were born. She's been She's been doing what she could
you know, to take care of her people with what
(30:09):
she has. UM, I'm stumbling all over. I've been a
parent of six children, five boys and one girl, and
I'm a grandmother of two boys. There we Go. I'm
also a core parent at Cadre, became a senior parent
at Cadre, and I'm trying to lead new parents to
(30:32):
be a voice for their children and students black and
brown in South l A. Also would best start as
an Archie off member. I also helped organize the you
know organizations to get funded. UM Archief members want to
make sure there are communities be successful and actually get
(30:55):
the funny that we rightfully need. There we Go. Also,
I'm my real drive is hidden run drivers. I am
a survivor of my son who was killed in two
thousand and sixteen June thirty of two thousand and sixteen.
He was crossing the street and was hit. And so
(31:16):
now I'm trying to make some changes with the lights
and how they drive. I just got reached out with
a young girl lost her two children from a hid
and run and so we are going to me and
John and her want to sit down and talk about
this and see if we can make some changes in
(31:36):
on Broadway in Manchester area. Yeah, you know, and John
that you're speaking of is an organizer with Safe Street
what you've also been participating in, correct, And Um, they
actually just got the city to um light up City
Hall with yellow lights and honor of the World Day
(32:02):
of Remembrance for Road traffic Victims. And you've been a
part of, you know, causing all of this attention to
bring our loved ones that have fallen on these roads
into memoriam. You've also been a very dear person to
me over the years, and I've done what I can
(32:26):
to be there for you guys. But today what I
was hoping, um, that we would share with the people
is some words of yours that truly moved me. Earlier
this summer, um, along with Safe Streets l A, there
(32:47):
was a rainbow halo that was put in place for
Brian Hall and um, you had some words to share
that day, and so I want to spread it all
around no problem. I hope that my words can touch
the world and let them look at the real reason
(33:10):
of what restorative justice really mean to humanity. And so
what I said was good afternoon everyone. My son Brian
was born August seven years ago. On June is the
anniversary of the accident that took his life, and I
want to present this rainbow hollow to the community to
(33:32):
recognize hid and run victims. I've been thinking about this
question what is restorative justice, and partly what is restorative
justice for me as a mother who lost her son
to a person who left the crime scene. At first,
I had flustration and anger, and I wanted the person
(33:53):
who did this to be put in jail. But as
I started healing, I started one knew what restorative justice
could be for me. Then as I started healing, justice
started taking on a deeper meaning to me. So I
started feeling like humanity needed rehabilitation, not not jail, because
(34:15):
prisons are just another form of modern day slavery. I
began to come to the understanding that whether or not
we found this person who took Brian's life, Humanity would
still need rehabilitation. If we had restorative justice, we would
have a culture and humanity that wouldn't create the type
(34:36):
of people that could hit somebody and leave. We need
that kind of restorative justice that can real abilitate humanity
so that we can create human beings that would be
accountable to the harm they caused and that would amend
the families they hurt. What restorative justice looks like to
(34:59):
me is a world where if you hit someone, you
would even think of running. Restorative justice to me is
creating a humanity where people have empathy and heart and
care for one another, not a world that is so
in fear of being locked in a cage that would
leave a beautiful young man to die in the streets.
(35:22):
What a free stort of justice for a mother who
lost her son to someone who ran. It is creating
a world where healing and accountability is praised over fear
and violence. So restorative justice, to me, is what we
are doing today. We are starting today a memory of
my son, Brian Hull, and through me and my family's pain,
(35:46):
we are starting today to remember Brian and marking this
tragedy as a reminder to the community that change is possible,
especially when we come together. The change starts with us.
Thank you all in part all right, beautiful, beautiful? Are
there any other words that you would want to share?
(36:09):
I just want people to really think about the word.
We want the restorative justice look like to you, Whether
you are mother, brother, sister, uncle, or auntie. What does
that restorative justice look like for you if it was
your child or uncle, or whoever it is. I just
want you to really think about that and make some
(36:32):
changes as change as possible for everybody. Thank you. To conclude,
every Novemr. Twentieth is the world they remembrance for road
traffic victims. There are national efforts being made to address
the alarming rates of road traffic fatalities. Between twenty and world,
(36:59):
traffic in reason in the United States grew by nearly
thirty four thousand incidents to some two point twenty eight million.
Road traffic related injuries in and in particular, hit and
run depths in the US have increased in average of
seven point two percent each year since two thousand and nine.
(37:22):
The U S Transportation Secretary Pete Buddha Judge said, we
know road weight depths are preventable because some places are
doing a much better job at preventing them, both abroad
and within certain US communities. The U. S. Department of
Transportation is committed to making real progress towards ending traffic fatalities,
(37:46):
and we call them everyone to join us in this
national effort that can only succeed when we work together.
And in that vein, the U. S. Department of Transportation
launched the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program,
which will provide five billion dollars over five years to
communities to plan and implement road safety actions, and it's
(38:10):
funded by the President's Bipartisan Infrastructural Law. The first round
of awards for this program is expected to be announced
in early and if you'd like to learn more about
these initiatives, please visit Transportation dot gov. And if you're
a local to l A or if you would just
(38:31):
like to get up on some best practices, please look
up the organization headed by John k Y, Los Angeles Walks,
and you can find them at Los Angeles Walks dot org. Disclaimer.
(38:53):
My views, beliefs, and opinions on my own and do
not necessarily reflect the views of my guest, resource organizations
or sources shared. You've been listening to the Survivor's Hill podcast.
Join us next episode for our midnight session live from
(39:17):
Survivor Speak, California. Two last thing every day we survive
is a new chance to see killing. Peace to your journey.
Good people a share
Host
Oya L. Sherrills
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