May 14, 2025 • 46 mins
Lee Walthall owns Delta of Venus, a happening cafe, music, arts & culture venue in Davis, California, where folks socialize, organize, work, play, eat, love, & celebrate together. Raised in Davis, he served in the US Army in Hawaii as an intelligence specialist & survival school instructor, returning in 1993. He then made a living as a bass player in popular funk, jazz, hip hop, & soul groups. In 2001 Lee bought the cafe & has spent 25 yrs building community, cooking, hosting, & providing space.
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It's Your Voice is broadcast live Wednesdays at 8PM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). It's Your Voice is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
It's Your Voice Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W four c Y Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Lochic, Let's beech logic, Let's speak sure in lottic, let's
preach in lot, let's breach in logic, Let's breech and logic.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Let's lot.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Hello, and welcome to It's Your Voice, the show that
hosts in riching conversations in diversity. My name is Bihia Yaxan,
and I teach, coach and train organizations and individuals and
replacing practices that can be harmful with biases and with
new ones that are more inclusive and create greater belonging.
(01:19):
If you're interested in checking out any of my classes
or offerings, you can go to my website which is
know what you want coaching dot WordPress dot com. Today,
the title of our show is Love and Revolution at
Delta a Venus, and my guest is Lee Walthel Lee.
Thank you so much for being here and I'm going
(01:42):
to be here. Yes, we've been wanting to have you
on the show for quite a while because you're very
inclusive community member who creates a lot of belonging at
Delta Venus. Well, it's just facts I wanted to read.
I'm just going to read your bio because I feel
(02:03):
more confident that I cover everything if I read, so
bear with me. Lee was born in nineteen seventy and
was raised in downtown Davis, California. After graduating from Martin
Luther King Junior High School, he served with the US
Army in Hawaii as an intelligence specialist and survival school instructor,
returning to Davis in nineteen ninety three. Throughout the nineties,
(02:25):
Lee made his living as a musician, performing as a
bass player in a number of popular funk, jazz, hip hop,
and soul groups. In two thousand and one, Lee bought
a small cafe and a converted mid century house in
downtown Davis called Delta of Venus. Here Lee has spent
the last twenty five years building community, cooking food, hosting events,
(02:46):
and providing space for the downtown Davis community to socialize, organize, work, play, eat,
love and celebrate life together. That's so true. I've seen
it myself and been there myself, and so I have
so many questions. But one little tiny thing that is
interesting to think of the name of a house. Was
(03:07):
it called Delta Venus when you bought the place?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
When you got the place? Yeah, it was. I didn't
actually start Delta Venus, but it was started by There
was actually a number of owners before me. There was
six owners in six years before I bought Delta the Venus,
and then one owner for the last twenty five years.
But yeah, it was a cafe in the neighborhood. I
(03:30):
lived at a house in the neighborhood called the Turtle House,
and we did a lot of cool stuff there and
had a lot of events and hosted a lot of
people and a lot of guests. And you know, I
decided that I wanted to go into having space of
my own, a business space on my own that I
(03:51):
could do all the things that I was doing at home,
but kind of more for the general public and invite
people over. At the time, as I said, maybe people
will have to pay me back for the beer they
take out of the refrigerator.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Now, well, my gosh, it's really worked. Twenty five years.
That's a long time to sustain a business, and it's
definitely dearly loved. Did you know, did you think did
you think, well, maybe this will go for five or
ten years. Did you have any kind of preconception of
how long this would sustain.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
You know, at the time, I wasn't even looking, you know,
twenty five thirty years into the future, so I was
just just going day to day. You know, I had
like a ten year plan for sure, right from the beginning.
But running a restaurant is you know, before I was
doing the restaurant I was doing I was playing music
(04:47):
full time, and playing music is a great life and
a great lifestyle. Running a restaurant is really different than that,
and I knew it would be difficult. I maybe didn't
really understand and how complicated it would be, so I
had to just work really hard to pick it up
as I went along. And fortunately the community was super
(05:09):
supportive of us from the very beginning, and we've enjoyed
success since we started, largely because the community around Delta
Venus and in downtown Davis is really still supportive of
small businesses, businesses and community based businesses.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
That's great, that's great to hear. Well, before we talk
more about Delta Venus, I'm always curious about transitions, Like
it's just it's kind of fascinating that a pretty young age,
when you were in service that you were asked to
promoted or working in intelligence. I'm not surprised because you're
(05:50):
very intelligent. It seems like it seems like a like
it happened in a short period of time, and I'm
just curious if there's anything you want to share about
that time and service and what it was like to
transition back out of service and back into Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
When I went into the military, the United States hadn't
been any kind of like combat situation. Well, okay, the
United States is always in combat situations all over the
world that we don't care about, but we hadn't really
been in an official war in so many years of
my entire lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
At that time, I wasn't really thinking of like, oh, yeah,
we might go to war here. As soon as I
joined the military, with that said, we went to war
right as soon as I went into the military. It
was a scary moment. I think for a lot of
people in cleaning my family that was not really prepared.
Like when I went into the military. I was going
to you know, kind of get a job. And I
(06:54):
had a good job in the military, which was was well,
that was a lot of different thing. But I started
going out being an intelligence specialist. They mean something different
by intelligence than what you mean when you say but
I went into the intelligence branch and then immediately we
went into Desert Storm. I was not in the Middle
(07:20):
East theater. I was in the Asian Theater and station there,
so I didn't actually go into combat without war, but
it was a scary moment because a lot of people
were going to war at that time, and I think
Americans really hadn't really seen that sort of thing in
this lifetime. At least. With that said, I actually learned
(07:41):
a lot in the army and I met a lot
of different people, a lot of different types of people.
Growing up in Davis. You you know, Davis is a
fantastic place to be, but California and northern California, Davis
are very very specific cultures. And while it's an accepting culture,
(08:04):
it's not necessarily super diverse. I think that, you know, me,
growing up in Davis, the way I experienced is that
there weren't a lot of different There weren't a lot
of people like me, but there was an acceptance of
who I was. When I went into the military, I
met people from all over the world and all over
the United States and really came to an understanding about
(08:27):
how different things were in different parts of the United
States and how different people were from these different places.
I think that was to me, the most important thing
is just meeting new people and meeting people from different places.
And I think that that's what's most important about travel
and growing up, is just putting yourself into new experiences
(08:49):
and meeting new people and trying to understand them and
trying to understand where they come from. And that can
really have a positive effect on your own understanding of
yourself and your own I there was I was really
successful in what I was supposed in my job in
the Army, and there was this one side of me
wanted to stay there and continue to continue to, you know,
(09:14):
do what I was doing and become successful at that.
At the same time, A lot of my friends back
in California were you know, professional artists and professional musicians,
and that also really appealed to me. And ultimately, I mean,
it wasn't really that hard of a decision when it
came down to but ultimately I came back to California
(09:35):
to play music.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well after having that exposure that the Army gave you
being dimopartial world and seeing there, you know, many more
demographics and feeling less isolated in a certain way, right
because there were more people who maybe shared some of
your demographics. How when you came back to Davis did
(09:57):
you feel did you miss that? Did you feel kind
of a loss of that kind of diversity?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well, you know, California, Okay, So I didn't really miss
anything about the military once I left. My life got
a lot better very quickly after I left the military,
and playing music is an amazing, amazing thing. The thing
(10:23):
about all of the experiences that you have in your
life is that they stay with you if you let them,
you know, if you learn less from them and you
allow yourself to be affected by them and you grow
from them. I think that you know, I mean, you
can only be doing one thing at a time. But
you kind of have the collective power of all of
(10:46):
your experiences kind of at your disposal all the time,
you know, if you allow yourself to so. I you know,
when I left the military or a changed person for
sure in so many ways. I left this very small
town and I've seen a lot of different things and
met a lot of different people. Not all of it
was positive. You know, I had a lot of powerfully
(11:07):
negative experiences in the military. You grow from those also.
But yeah, coming back to California and Davis and Davis
was it was nice. It was nice. California isn't great,
but you know, I grew up in Davis, and you know,
when you're growing up in a small town, you just
think this is like the dumbest, stupidest, little, smallest town imaginable.
(11:33):
And I'm so much bigger than this place. And I
got to go out and do my thing and live
a life of danger and like experience the world. And
you know, people should do that. Kids should leave their town,
regardless of how big or small it is, and go
experience something else. If you're from a big town, small town,
or vice versa. I do plenty of it. After leaving Davis,
(11:55):
and leaving California and living a lot of these things.
You know, I realized that California is a very very
cool place. Man. There's like, there's a lot of great places.
I've been to, so many great places and so many
great people. There's amazing culture and food and people everywhere.
California is top tier. It's like s tire. It's like
(12:18):
one of the best places in the world, if not
the best place in the world. I haven't been to
every place in the world, but almost every place I
traveled to, the things I liked about it most About
those places that I would travel to where things that
you could find in California, like every you know from
you know, the food is great here, the quality of
(12:38):
life is great here. You know, entertainment, technology, agriculture, everything
that you know you can grow here is just elite qualities. So,
you know, progressive thought. This stupid little town that I
came from, I found out was actually one of the
coolest places in the world and filled with amazing, knowledgeable,
(13:00):
intelligent people, talent everywhere that maybe I took for granted
a little bit when I was here as a young person,
but as I traveled more, I really realized that I
wanted to be back in California and in Davis, and
I'm very very happy to be here. I think that
Davis is I mean, I think it's one of the
(13:21):
coolest talents in the world. So again, I feel very
blessed and fortunate to be from here and to call
this my home.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well, thanks for sharing that. That's really interesting, you know,
to underscore how much you appreciate it and love it
to top tier. Well, I want to hear a little
bit more again because I still want to get to
like some of the other topics you're willing to talk about.
(13:49):
But there's a little bit more about being a musician,
because I just happened to know you were a very
and still are probably a very very talented musician, and
I know that you can, like you said, you can
only do one thing at a time. So I'm just wondering,
what was that just say more about your music life
and then moving into this other life which is so
(14:13):
community serving and thank goodness, apparently fulfilling to you.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, well, music is fantastic. I come from a family
of musicians, and I'm very very fortunate that my parents
were okay with me pursuing music as my main occupation
and vocation. My father, whose I talented musician was you know,
it remains very you know, excited and happy for me
(14:42):
that I get to play music like he does, and
we relate and bond a lot over that. So again,
very very fortunate that it was easy for me to
choose to play music. I know a lot of people
have to go against their parents' wishes or go against
their community, uh, in order to be able to play music.
(15:03):
But for me, my community was always very supportive of
my musical career, my family as well. So with that said,
you know, I love art of all types, and you know,
really played around with doing different things. Uh. You know,
there was a time where I thought it would be
(15:23):
an illustrator or a like a two D artist, But
once I really really considered it, music was the best
option for me.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Music you can like make a living playing music, you know,
like poets. It's hard to make a living as a
poet or a painter, you know, but music is something
that that people just like you know, almost universally adore
and uh and I do as well. I think it's magic.
It gets a little corny sometimes, but I think that
(15:58):
is magical, and I love playing it for myself and
being able to express myself through music. And I love
doing it in groups and be being able to interact
with my friends playing music. And I love doing it
for an audience where you get to put people in
touch with something that can be divine quite honestly, through music,
(16:22):
through dancing together, you know, through singing. So I've got
to experience all of these things like I would chase
the as a musician, I would chase these experiences. I
love to play with new people, or play new styles,
or jam out and improvise, or practice really hard a
certain thing and be able to execute it, or you know.
(16:43):
I love to perform music that is maybe challenging to
understand and requires you to listen really hard. I also
love playing music that is easy to dance to and
gets everybody grooving together. Music just is all of these
things and even more. Every but he has a relationship
with music that makes it, you know, and it's usually
(17:04):
one of their most special relationships. We identify music with
it best times in our lives, or with you know,
songs or music that allow us to be able to
get through hard times. Music can like you can be
in a good mood and a sad song will make
you feel sad, you know, or you could be in
a bad mood and a happy song will make you
feel happy. I mean that's powerful, you know, that's magical.
(17:28):
It is like, yeah, so I love all of those
things about music, and it's just it's very meaningful to
me to be able to play and to be able
to appreciate and to join music. I've been able to
thank you for that. Yeah. And when you.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Said something like being in touch, like when you're playing music,
you like the being in touch with the I think
you said. I don't know if you said audience or
crowd for the people. And I'm wondering if if feels
like that when you are serving at Delta Venus, because
(18:05):
I've been able to see several different events there and
I'm just in an su kind of maneuvering through people
while also communicating and being in touch with them and serving,
and I'm wondering if it's is it a similar feel
at all? Like are you getting like a feeling the vibrations?
And I don't know, is there is there a parallel
(18:26):
to to.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know, I mean in a word, yes, Uh, there's
a lot of things that are very similar. I feel
like with what uh I do with Delta Venus and uh,
the way that I would perform when I was uh
everything from you know, the musicality of one's movements and
just doing their job or do what they're supposed to
(18:48):
be doing all the way to have an effect on
the public and the people who are around you, and uh,
you know, partaking in what you're offering. There's a lot
of things that are the same. And I think a
lot of the things that I found success in with music,
I was also able to find with Delta Viena. You know,
(19:09):
for what it's worth, almost anything that I do or
experience I relate to music. So it's you know. So
while I do say, oh yeah, owning Delta Venus is
like music, I also think that all of the other
things that I do that you know, playing basketball or
you know, talking to a friend, all of these things
(19:31):
are musical to me. I mean, I think that the
world is music to me. So yeah, and I think
that a lot of you know, a lot of what
I do at Delta is not about like my goals
are not about in like, for example, selling a certain
amount of products or making a certain amount of money
(19:52):
like in a lot of ways, Delta Venus is the
stage for what for everything that I like to for music,
for art, for cooking, for talking to people, for listening
to people, you know, for meeting new people, for cooking
up with old friends. These are all things that are
(20:14):
all parts of everyone's life, and for me, I just
kind of for me, Delta Venus is about opening my home.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Kind of for everybody to do this at my place.
So with that said, yeah, food is a big part.
You know, we serve food and we sell food. Food
is a big part of life.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Like music, we a lot of events, and I mean
cooking is a lot like music as well, So we
have a lot of events. So I'm still very close
to music. I stopped playing, you know, I did. I
played music still professionally for two or three years after
I got the restaurant. But it became clear to me
(20:58):
that if I was going to become really good, if
I was going to be able to attain mastery at something,
I would need to focus completely on it. And to
me it was very clear that my you know, especially
after a couple of years of doing a thing, my
calling in life and my life's work was going to
be Delta the Venus. So I stopped playing music professionally
(21:22):
at that point and just to focus on the restaurant.
With that said, you know, to me, performing music for
people is just you know, one way to play me.
I have instruments all over my house, and when I
just want to express myself or feel good or feel sad,
(21:45):
whatever I want to do, like, I can pick up
an instrument and play that. So for me, like music
is still everywhere in my life, both playing it. You know,
most of my friends are I should see a lot
of my friends are musicians as well. Most of my
friends before I got the restaurant were musicians. So all
of those folks who are still my musicians, they're still
(22:07):
in my life all the time. I play a lot
of music, and I'm involved in a lot of music.
So I'm sorry, I I'm now just ranting about music.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Uh was a question, you know, it's all, it's all,
it's all related, and it's interesting that you you you
still play a lot of music.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, I feel way way uh more comfortable expressing myself
through music than through like talking or writing or doing
anything else. Like I actually feel kind of like I
can't express myself well accepted for music sometimes, although I
love work as well. You know, one great thing about
(22:47):
Delta Van is that provides me with an unlimited list
of chores, and I'm really good at you know, I
like doing. I like I like working. So if if
you want a job that takes up every moment of
your time, I recommend opening a restaurant.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yes, that sounds that sounds accurate. For a while, my
family ran two or three restaurants, and yeah it's endless. Yeah, yeah,
it was less for us. So I would love to
dive now more into Delta Venus itself. I'm glad listeners
and viewers. No, No, it's like a cafe. It's a restaurant.
(23:28):
It's a music venue. There's also art. It's like an
art gallery too. Do you always feature local artists when
you have an exhibit?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, I do both with music and with of art
on the walls, the to d art on the walls.
I uh, you know, I don't. I don't. I'm not
strict with myself in terms of guidelines on those things,
but I definitely favor local musicians and local artists. We're very,
very fortunate in dave Us again to have incredible local
(24:03):
music and incredible local art, like you wouldn't know necessarily
from going out to Delta Venus that everything that all
of the art, it's all world class stuff. We have
Greg Reschilling showing right now. The stuff is the best
art you will see in any cafe in the world anywhere.
Very very proud to have this show. The music that
(24:26):
we have on Friday nights is the same thing we had,
you know, Boca do Rio, if Frida rice Zorelli, like
all of these are like they're exceptional bands that if
you were to go out to any restaurant or bar
any place in the world, you would be excited to
be able to see band like these, and they're just local.
(24:50):
We have like incredible Patty on the Binge. Everybody lives
within three blocks of Delta Venus or something like that.
Not everybody. A lot of the band lives in Downtown Davis,
I should say so, like we have world class music
just on just in the neighborhood here. I feel really,
so so fortunate to be able to have a full
(25:10):
music calendar and great art on the walls and to
need to go no further than Downtown Davis or this
general area.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
That's amazing. That's amazing. I feel the same way about
podcasts guests. It's this area is rich when it was.
I'm drawing more people from Sacramento and Woodland and Winters
and sometimes from other countries. But it's definitely a full
of very creative thinking people. And you have to want to,
(25:44):
like you do, reach out and connect to people to
find more diversity. But I'm thankful to be able to
do that. I'm curious about I'm looking at some of
the topics you mentioned that I would love to hear
more about that. One of the phrases you use is
facilitating resistance to tyranny in the present era. So I
(26:08):
wondered if you could say more about that and to
see what comes up, because I certainly have thoughts about that.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, for sure, I'd love to hear them for me.
You know, my whole life, I've really been fortunate to
be surrounded by progressive thinkers, very very smart people with
great ideas about how to improve systems of power and
just aspects of life on planet Earth and in America,
(26:38):
in California, and so I've just been influenced by a
lot of very heady revolutionary thinkers, very like once again,
this is growing up in Davis. I think that, you know,
if I had grown up someplace else, I wouldn't necessarily
have access to the level of revolution. I thought that
(27:00):
I have had Davis in the eighties and nineties and
to be part of it sometimes. You know, I love
a lot of different playing a lot of different types
of music, but to me, like music that carries a
political message. I've always seen some of the most powerful
types of use. We talked about music that can change
your mood. These are types. There are musics that have
(27:23):
changed the world, human systems, you know, have changed systems
of power. Popic like revolution throughout the history of the
world has been the modern world has been accompanied by music,
you know. So even before Delta Venus, I was very
(27:44):
involved in different social justice movements throughout the eighties and nineties,
and early adds played. You know, my bands played a
lot of rallies, and we marched a lot of rallies
and tried to do everything that we can for the
causes that we thought were important at the time, and
a lot of the things that we were fighting for
(28:08):
and against at that time are still very relevant today.
Others are different because the world has changed. But for me,
all of life has been accompanied by a fight for
freedom and this idea that none of us are free
unless we're all free. And the great thing about Delta
(28:31):
Venus is that there is a lot of organizing that
goes on in Delta Venus that I don't necessarily like.
I'm not involved in the organization. I just open the
space for it to happen. And then a lot of
times I think of myself as kind of a as
(28:54):
a gardener, right in charge of a garden, and I'm
weeding and feeding and taking care of soil and water
and the things that the garden needs. But it's the
plants that are the beautiful thing going on. And if
I can get the plants to be at their most
(29:17):
beautiful and their most productive, then that's success for me
at Delta of Venus. You know. So you know last
year that pro Palestine encampment that came up, So there
was a massive movement last year of pulp they called it,
which I'm not sure people united the Deliberation of Palestine.
(29:39):
I'm not sure what it stands for, actually, But these
encampments started popping up at different universities throughout the United States,
and the Davis encampment was like very very successful, like
very big, very strong, very well supported by the community,
(30:00):
and I you know, I got to like witness the
organization of this at Delta Venus because the students who
organized it used Delta Venus as a as a spot
to do their thing. So to me, like, that's very exciting.
So to me, like, you know, there was a time
(30:21):
in my life where I could be kind of more
on the front lines of doing stuff. But as I've
gotten older, I kind of see my role as I mean,
you know, young people are just the ones with the
great ideas and the great energy, and we are so fortunate.
I am so fortunate to live in Davis and surrounded
by these energetic, intelligent, thoughtful young people. I am energetic
(30:47):
and intelligent, but not like I was when I was
twenty five, when I was twenty two, you know, So
to me, like I really recognize that for young people,
this is their world also, like they're the ones that
are going to have to be living in this and
they're taking it seriously, you know. So to me, like
I'm looking for ways that I can facilitate and help folks.
(31:09):
Young people and old people are like do what they
feel like they need to do kind of in light
of what's going on in the world right now. So
a lot of you know, a lot of people were
affected by the election. I was definitely, I would say
that in my community and in my friend group, in
(31:30):
my family, there was a lot of confidence that Trump
would not win the election. I was thought so sure.
I was fairly confident Trump would win the election. In fact,
so I've been kind of preparing for this for a
little while now, and I'm ready. There's other people who
the election impacted definitely, But we're already in these struggles,
(31:50):
in these fits before the election, even in the previous administration,
and even in the administration before that. A lot of
these a lot of folks struggles have continued for generations
and generations, and they haven't stopped fighting for them. So
there's a lot of infrastructure in place already when the
election happened. But I feel like when the election happened
(32:13):
and it turned out the way that it did, a
lot of people who weren't necessarily in the embroiled daily
in these in these social justice issues suddenly became. And
then of course, with the actions of the administration incarcerating people,
and I mean, tons of people in Davis. A lot
(32:36):
of my friends and peers have lost their jobs because
of grants going away or funding going away. So suddenly
it's really impacted everybody, and everybody is motivated to do
whatever they can to resist this and to fight it.
So I'm seeing this every day in the cafe and
(32:59):
dealt venus, Like different groups in your citizen groups, student groups,
students of color, you know, white senior citizens in Davis,
and also you know students of color who are just
here for school, like, are all working on similar aspects
(33:22):
of resistance at the cafe every day. And it's very
very exciting for me. So there's a lot to be
down about, a lot to feel defeated about, I think,
But for me, where I am at every day is
that I see the energy for resistance and the energy
(33:43):
for revolution and the energy for a response to all
of this. And again, to me, very very exciting to
be doing that and to and for me, like, all
I'm trying to do is get all of these folks activated.
You know, we're feeling like they're supported and that there
(34:04):
is space and a place for them to meet and
to organize. Uh. And we've been successful with that adults
of venis and it's very very exciting to me.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Wow, that's amazing that you get to witness a lot
of organization that's organizing to resist tyranny and authoritative executive
orders and illegal actions like removing people who can legally
be here and should be protected. And that's just I
(34:36):
don't know, I'm just imagining your kind of bird's eye view,
except it's closer to the earth of like, you know, feeling,
kind of feeling the drum beat of organizing resistance. And
I know that people have mentioned to me that they
feel safe at the Delta Venus, which isn't true everywhere,
not even everywhere in Davis. And I know there was
(34:59):
an a I'll just share that some people who were
Palestinian and wanting to organize were so grateful to you
because they felt like they were being misunderstood. And while
they were trying to say, hey, children are being killed now,
it's now, it's three months. I heard the board member
of the Doctors Without Borders this morning saying three months
(35:20):
of aid being blocked, children are starving. She was actually
saying it realate and so and for people to be
able to say that's that we're just we just want
people to live. We're not against any other people, and
you provided a place where that kind of organization can happen,
and Ano there was a lot of gratitude for that.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Yeah, I think that I really appreciate that, you know.
I think the one thing that the uh you know,
the powers that be right now want to do is
also like separate people, just like you're saying, like they
want people to fight against each other, and that's another
thing that we have to resist.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Like being divided.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean definitely there's differences of opinion. Uh,
there's wrong opinions. I'm not trying to say that, you know,
I'm not trying to say that, uh you know that
that that there isn't but I think that we have
to at least accept each other and take care of
each other and try to understand each other before just
(36:19):
kind of flying off the handle with hatred or with
violent I definitely, I mean there's a time for violence,
and there's certainly, you know, things that I hate, but
I have to like resist that even in myself and
just trying to listen first, you know, understand first before
(36:41):
maybe coming to a conclusion or before acting, especially Uh,
you know, if you're feeling angry or if you're feeling rash.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Yeah, And for me, it helps to remember, like separate
the air conditioning from the from from from the people.
Like if someone's really angry about something, I remember, you know,
they might have different conditioning for me, but they're human.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I love them too.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I want them to be safe too, and just build
the ability to stay present and for everyone and to
you know, be love for everyone and help me kind
of expand, Like, guess what, we don't have to be divided.
We don't have to follow some biases that we're not
supposed to like each other. We all need to fight
(37:28):
anti Semitism. We all need to fight you know, confusing
pro Palestinianism with anti Semitism.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Not what it is.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
We can love everybody, we can love everybody from everywhere.
It's not always easy, like you said, which reminds me.
You were nominated for an award where you're not.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I was trying.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
I thought you already recipient, but I don't know if
it's been.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That it has it? Has it? I got for confirmed
uh last week uh Me and three other parties received
the tom he quinn UH Tom Haquinn Award from the
City of Davis, UH Human Relations Commission. Definitely, definitely, very
(38:11):
very honored to receive it along with Dylan Horton and
en Bloc and the Davis Night Market, all of whom
are excellent people and organizations that that really helped keep
Davis the type of place that I like living in
and like being in. Just very very strong people and
organizations there. The uh, you know, for me, I was
(38:35):
I was nominated by you know a lot of this work.
You know, I was talking to Dylan about this. You know,
you don't You're not trying to get awards for this stuff, right,
You're like, it's it's almost for both of us. It
felt kind of weird to receive because because the payoff
for the work that you do is just seeing an
active community or engaging uh you know with the community
(38:59):
uh over these issues. So with that said, you know,
I was nominated by, so I just really have to, uh,
you know, show my appreciation for Professor Melissa Marino and
Mayor Bapu Vita and council Person Gloria Partita. They are
(39:19):
the people who nominated me. These are like heroes of
mine and people that I really admire. So to be
acknowledged by the people that you respect and admire and
try to be like I think is you know, it's
something that we all aspire to and it's very moving
to me.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
And you know, with that said, uh, I'm ready, you know,
I'm ready to move forward. Uh with this stuff. I
think that it's it's great to take a moment and say,
you know, thank you, and I appreciate. I appreciate this,
and also to be appreciated, and I certainly do. There's
(39:59):
a lot of work that it still needs to be done,
and I'm excited to move forward and start working on
on those things.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Well, thank you. Before we leave that topic, I just
want to read a little what the origin of the
award to honor the young man, and again when I'm
afraid I'm going to mix up words I read, so
I'm going to and correct my pronunciation. I'm not sure
if I'm pronouncing his name right, Hongguhaihwan.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
That's good, Okay.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
This award it honors community members whose actions exemplified diversity, community,
social justice, and equal rights, which is why you were
very valuably nominated by people who are also strong activists.
But it was established in nineteen eighty six as a
memorial award, you know, recognizing local individuals because sadly, very
(40:48):
very sadly, this young man life was taken from him
in Davis in nineteen eighty three, he was stabbed to
death at the Davis High School. So I just wanted
to well, uh, that piece of a story to honor
him and his family while we were talking about the award.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yeah, that murder happened. So he was about five years old.
So I was in junior high school and that murder happened,
and it really rocked David. Uh, and it really rocked me.
You know. I my mother's Chinese. I come from an
Asian household on mixed race, and uh, I would say
(41:30):
that you know, among Asian people particularly, it was very scary,
and the hatefulness and the aggression and violence of it
was just something that we were used to seeing in Davis.
And in fact, uh, you know, my parents moved from
downtown Sacramento to Davis in order to uh kind of
(41:52):
avoid this type of violence. So it was just a
very yeah yeah, yeah, so just a very impactful moment
it in my youth and childhood, and it's likewise very
meaningful to me. You have his name associated with.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
So meaningful. Yeah, well, I am realizing we only have
four minutes left. I cannot believe it. There's so many
other topics that we were going to talk about, so
we have to come back on sometime. But let me
just make sure I give you time to share any
other that's my high Like the title like love and
Revolution at Delta Venus, you kind of like described the
(42:34):
atmosphere and that like the climate, the cultural climate that
you cultivate, and you said the talent helps, you know,
keep it alive. But would do you have any like
clothing closing thoughts that you would like to share of
you know?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Well, one thing actually about the uh the Tongue Haiquin
award that I want to mention before going is that
you know this award is given to Delta Venus, uh
not specifically, Well, it's both me and Delta a Venus.
(43:11):
To me, I'd like to accept the award on behalf
of the Delta Venus community, which, as I said, really
does a lot of the work that Delta Venus that
is associated with Delta Venus. A lot of what I
do is I say, yes, the great ideas in my
(43:32):
people approach me, you know, the Palestinian community approached me
about doing events, and you know, uh, it feels very
You mentioned that people feel safe at Delta Venus. There's
really no greater compliment I feel like to me than
that people feel safe. Uh A, Delta Venus is just again,
(43:55):
it's very very meaningful to me. So these students felt
safe there, they felt like they could have solidarity events here.
So I just said yes, and then it happened indivisible
Yolo a similar situation of where they needed a place
to meet. I really liked what they were about and
(44:16):
what they were trying to do, so I just say yes,
and then they meet there. Artists want to show on
the walls of Delta Venus, and I say yes. And
so I think that it's very you know, saying yes
is a very powerful thing to do. I regularly that
people do it great ideas. I put myself in a
(44:37):
position where I'm surrounded by people with great ideas, strong spirits,
strong minds, with a very very soulful community around Delta Venus,
and then I just you know, open the doors and
say let's do it together, and people do. And I
feel very very fortunate about that night Market. Are we
(45:00):
out of time?
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Sorry, we are at a time. Okay, you can throw
it out though, just throw it out.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
I just you know. Night Market was another conversation that
happened at Delta two people wanted to do this thing
out of the patio. I was there, they were talking
about it, and then so many years later we have
an exceptional program like non Market happening every day at
Central Parking Davis. So very very proud of this community
and very very proud that my community accepts Delta Venus
(45:29):
as a place to do.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
The thing fantastic. I love saying yes, it is a
very powerful thing to do. That should be a bumper sticker. Well,
thank you so much, Lee of Delta Venus, and thank
you listeners and viewers for this time, and be sure
to share the story and to tune in next Wednesday,
eight pm Eastern Time on talk for TV or W
(45:50):
fourcy dot com. And thank you to our engineer and
our producer, and may we all have enriching conversations every day.
Thanks again.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Girl Let's speech a artic Let's speech of the in
Artic girl Let's speech enlargic girl Let's speech on the
in lantic let's pitch a logic, girl Let's speech of
(46:23):
the
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Lochic, Let's beech logic, Let's speak sure in lottic, let's
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Speaker 3 (00:49):
Let's lot.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Hello, and welcome to It's Your Voice, the show that
hosts in riching conversations in diversity. My name is Bihia Yaxan,
and I teach, coach and train organizations and individuals and
replacing practices that can be harmful with biases and with
new ones that are more inclusive and create greater belonging.
(01:19):
If you're interested in checking out any of my classes
or offerings, you can go to my website which is
know what you want coaching dot WordPress dot com. Today,
the title of our show is Love and Revolution at
Delta a Venus, and my guest is Lee Walthel Lee.
Thank you so much for being here and I'm going
(01:42):
to be here. Yes, we've been wanting to have you
on the show for quite a while because you're very
inclusive community member who creates a lot of belonging at
Delta Venus. Well, it's just facts I wanted to read.
I'm just going to read your bio because I feel
(02:03):
more confident that I cover everything if I read, so
bear with me. Lee was born in nineteen seventy and
was raised in downtown Davis, California. After graduating from Martin
Luther King Junior High School, he served with the US
Army in Hawaii as an intelligence specialist and survival school instructor,
returning to Davis in nineteen ninety three. Throughout the nineties,
(02:25):
Lee made his living as a musician, performing as a
bass player in a number of popular funk, jazz, hip hop,
and soul groups. In two thousand and one, Lee bought
a small cafe and a converted mid century house in
downtown Davis called Delta of Venus. Here Lee has spent
the last twenty five years building community, cooking food, hosting events,
(02:46):
and providing space for the downtown Davis community to socialize, organize, work, play, eat,
love and celebrate life together. That's so true. I've seen
it myself and been there myself, and so I have
so many questions. But one little tiny thing that is
interesting to think of the name of a house. Was
(03:07):
it called Delta Venus when you bought the place?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
When you got the place? Yeah, it was. I didn't
actually start Delta Venus, but it was started by There
was actually a number of owners before me. There was
six owners in six years before I bought Delta the Venus,
and then one owner for the last twenty five years.
But yeah, it was a cafe in the neighborhood. I
(03:30):
lived at a house in the neighborhood called the Turtle House,
and we did a lot of cool stuff there and
had a lot of events and hosted a lot of
people and a lot of guests. And you know, I
decided that I wanted to go into having space of
my own, a business space on my own that I
(03:51):
could do all the things that I was doing at home,
but kind of more for the general public and invite
people over. At the time, as I said, maybe people
will have to pay me back for the beer they
take out of the refrigerator.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Now, well, my gosh, it's really worked. Twenty five years.
That's a long time to sustain a business, and it's
definitely dearly loved. Did you know, did you think did
you think, well, maybe this will go for five or
ten years. Did you have any kind of preconception of
how long this would sustain.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
You know, at the time, I wasn't even looking, you know,
twenty five thirty years into the future, so I was
just just going day to day. You know, I had
like a ten year plan for sure, right from the beginning.
But running a restaurant is you know, before I was
doing the restaurant I was doing I was playing music
(04:47):
full time, and playing music is a great life and
a great lifestyle. Running a restaurant is really different than that,
and I knew it would be difficult. I maybe didn't
really understand and how complicated it would be, so I
had to just work really hard to pick it up
as I went along. And fortunately the community was super
(05:09):
supportive of us from the very beginning, and we've enjoyed
success since we started, largely because the community around Delta
Venus and in downtown Davis is really still supportive of
small businesses, businesses and community based businesses.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
That's great, that's great to hear. Well, before we talk
more about Delta Venus, I'm always curious about transitions, Like
it's just it's kind of fascinating that a pretty young age,
when you were in service that you were asked to
promoted or working in intelligence. I'm not surprised because you're
(05:50):
very intelligent. It seems like it seems like a like
it happened in a short period of time, and I'm
just curious if there's anything you want to share about
that time and service and what it was like to
transition back out of service and back into Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
When I went into the military, the United States hadn't
been any kind of like combat situation. Well, okay, the
United States is always in combat situations all over the
world that we don't care about, but we hadn't really
been in an official war in so many years of
my entire lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
At that time, I wasn't really thinking of like, oh, yeah,
we might go to war here. As soon as I
joined the military, with that said, we went to war
right as soon as I went into the military. It
was a scary moment. I think for a lot of
people in cleaning my family that was not really prepared.
Like when I went into the military. I was going
to you know, kind of get a job. And I
(06:54):
had a good job in the military, which was was well,
that was a lot of different thing. But I started
going out being an intelligence specialist. They mean something different
by intelligence than what you mean when you say but
I went into the intelligence branch and then immediately we
went into Desert Storm. I was not in the Middle
(07:20):
East theater. I was in the Asian Theater and station there,
so I didn't actually go into combat without war, but
it was a scary moment because a lot of people
were going to war at that time, and I think
Americans really hadn't really seen that sort of thing in
this lifetime. At least. With that said, I actually learned
(07:41):
a lot in the army and I met a lot
of different people, a lot of different types of people.
Growing up in Davis. You you know, Davis is a
fantastic place to be, but California and northern California, Davis
are very very specific cultures. And while it's an accepting culture,
(08:04):
it's not necessarily super diverse. I think that, you know, me,
growing up in Davis, the way I experienced is that
there weren't a lot of different There weren't a lot
of people like me, but there was an acceptance of
who I was. When I went into the military, I
met people from all over the world and all over
the United States and really came to an understanding about
(08:27):
how different things were in different parts of the United
States and how different people were from these different places.
I think that was to me, the most important thing
is just meeting new people and meeting people from different places.
And I think that that's what's most important about travel
and growing up, is just putting yourself into new experiences
(08:49):
and meeting new people and trying to understand them and
trying to understand where they come from. And that can
really have a positive effect on your own understanding of
yourself and your own I there was I was really
successful in what I was supposed in my job in
the Army, and there was this one side of me
wanted to stay there and continue to continue to, you know,
(09:14):
do what I was doing and become successful at that.
At the same time, A lot of my friends back
in California were you know, professional artists and professional musicians,
and that also really appealed to me. And ultimately, I mean,
it wasn't really that hard of a decision when it
came down to but ultimately I came back to California
(09:35):
to play music.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well after having that exposure that the Army gave you
being dimopartial world and seeing there, you know, many more
demographics and feeling less isolated in a certain way, right
because there were more people who maybe shared some of
your demographics. How when you came back to Davis did
(09:57):
you feel did you miss that? Did you feel kind
of a loss of that kind of diversity?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well, you know, California, Okay, So I didn't really miss
anything about the military once I left. My life got
a lot better very quickly after I left the military,
and playing music is an amazing, amazing thing. The thing
(10:23):
about all of the experiences that you have in your
life is that they stay with you if you let them,
you know, if you learn less from them and you
allow yourself to be affected by them and you grow
from them. I think that you know, I mean, you
can only be doing one thing at a time. But
you kind of have the collective power of all of
(10:46):
your experiences kind of at your disposal all the time,
you know, if you allow yourself to so. I you know,
when I left the military or a changed person for
sure in so many ways. I left this very small
town and I've seen a lot of different things and
met a lot of different people. Not all of it
was positive. You know, I had a lot of powerfully
(11:07):
negative experiences in the military. You grow from those also.
But yeah, coming back to California and Davis and Davis
was it was nice. It was nice. California isn't great,
but you know, I grew up in Davis, and you know,
when you're growing up in a small town, you just
think this is like the dumbest, stupidest, little, smallest town imaginable.
(11:33):
And I'm so much bigger than this place. And I
got to go out and do my thing and live
a life of danger and like experience the world. And
you know, people should do that. Kids should leave their town,
regardless of how big or small it is, and go
experience something else. If you're from a big town, small town,
or vice versa. I do plenty of it. After leaving Davis,
(11:55):
and leaving California and living a lot of these things.
You know, I realized that California is a very very
cool place. Man. There's like, there's a lot of great places.
I've been to, so many great places and so many
great people. There's amazing culture and food and people everywhere.
California is top tier. It's like s tire. It's like
(12:18):
one of the best places in the world, if not
the best place in the world. I haven't been to
every place in the world, but almost every place I
traveled to, the things I liked about it most About
those places that I would travel to where things that
you could find in California, like every you know from
you know, the food is great here, the quality of
(12:38):
life is great here. You know, entertainment, technology, agriculture, everything
that you know you can grow here is just elite qualities. So,
you know, progressive thought. This stupid little town that I
came from, I found out was actually one of the
coolest places in the world and filled with amazing, knowledgeable,
(13:00):
intelligent people, talent everywhere that maybe I took for granted
a little bit when I was here as a young person,
but as I traveled more, I really realized that I
wanted to be back in California and in Davis, and
I'm very very happy to be here. I think that
Davis is I mean, I think it's one of the
(13:21):
coolest talents in the world. So again, I feel very
blessed and fortunate to be from here and to call
this my home.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well, thanks for sharing that. That's really interesting, you know,
to underscore how much you appreciate it and love it
to top tier. Well, I want to hear a little
bit more again because I still want to get to
like some of the other topics you're willing to talk about.
(13:49):
But there's a little bit more about being a musician,
because I just happened to know you were a very
and still are probably a very very talented musician, and
I know that you can, like you said, you can
only do one thing at a time. So I'm just wondering,
what was that just say more about your music life
and then moving into this other life which is so
(14:13):
community serving and thank goodness, apparently fulfilling to you.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, well, music is fantastic. I come from a family
of musicians, and I'm very very fortunate that my parents
were okay with me pursuing music as my main occupation
and vocation. My father, whose I talented musician was you know,
it remains very you know, excited and happy for me
(14:42):
that I get to play music like he does, and
we relate and bond a lot over that. So again,
very very fortunate that it was easy for me to
choose to play music. I know a lot of people
have to go against their parents' wishes or go against
their community, uh, in order to be able to play music.
(15:03):
But for me, my community was always very supportive of
my musical career, my family as well. So with that said,
you know, I love art of all types, and you know,
really played around with doing different things. Uh. You know,
there was a time where I thought it would be
(15:23):
an illustrator or a like a two D artist, But
once I really really considered it, music was the best
option for me.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Music you can like make a living playing music, you know,
like poets. It's hard to make a living as a
poet or a painter, you know, but music is something
that that people just like you know, almost universally adore
and uh and I do as well. I think it's magic.
It gets a little corny sometimes, but I think that
(15:58):
is magical, and I love playing it for myself and
being able to express myself through music. And I love
doing it in groups and be being able to interact
with my friends playing music. And I love doing it
for an audience where you get to put people in
touch with something that can be divine quite honestly, through music,
(16:22):
through dancing together, you know, through singing. So I've got
to experience all of these things like I would chase
the as a musician, I would chase these experiences. I
love to play with new people, or play new styles,
or jam out and improvise, or practice really hard a
certain thing and be able to execute it, or you know.
(16:43):
I love to perform music that is maybe challenging to
understand and requires you to listen really hard. I also
love playing music that is easy to dance to and
gets everybody grooving together. Music just is all of these
things and even more. Every but he has a relationship
with music that makes it, you know, and it's usually
(17:04):
one of their most special relationships. We identify music with
it best times in our lives, or with you know,
songs or music that allow us to be able to
get through hard times. Music can like you can be
in a good mood and a sad song will make
you feel sad, you know, or you could be in
a bad mood and a happy song will make you
feel happy. I mean that's powerful, you know, that's magical.
(17:28):
It is like, yeah, so I love all of those
things about music, and it's just it's very meaningful to
me to be able to play and to be able
to appreciate and to join music. I've been able to
thank you for that. Yeah. And when you.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Said something like being in touch, like when you're playing music,
you like the being in touch with the I think
you said. I don't know if you said audience or
crowd for the people. And I'm wondering if if feels
like that when you are serving at Delta Venus, because
(18:05):
I've been able to see several different events there and
I'm just in an su kind of maneuvering through people
while also communicating and being in touch with them and serving,
and I'm wondering if it's is it a similar feel
at all? Like are you getting like a feeling the vibrations?
And I don't know, is there is there a parallel
(18:26):
to to.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know, I mean in a word, yes, Uh, there's
a lot of things that are very similar. I feel
like with what uh I do with Delta Venus and uh,
the way that I would perform when I was uh
everything from you know, the musicality of one's movements and
just doing their job or do what they're supposed to
(18:48):
be doing all the way to have an effect on
the public and the people who are around you, and uh,
you know, partaking in what you're offering. There's a lot
of things that are the same. And I think a
lot of the things that I found success in with music,
I was also able to find with Delta Viena. You know,
(19:09):
for what it's worth, almost anything that I do or
experience I relate to music. So it's you know. So
while I do say, oh yeah, owning Delta Venus is
like music, I also think that all of the other
things that I do that you know, playing basketball or
you know, talking to a friend, all of these things
(19:31):
are musical to me. I mean, I think that the
world is music to me. So yeah, and I think
that a lot of you know, a lot of what
I do at Delta is not about like my goals
are not about in like, for example, selling a certain
amount of products or making a certain amount of money
(19:52):
like in a lot of ways, Delta Venus is the
stage for what for everything that I like to for music,
for art, for cooking, for talking to people, for listening
to people, you know, for meeting new people, for cooking
up with old friends. These are all things that are
(20:14):
all parts of everyone's life, and for me, I just
kind of for me, Delta Venus is about opening my home.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Kind of for everybody to do this at my place.
So with that said, yeah, food is a big part.
You know, we serve food and we sell food. Food
is a big part of life.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Like music, we a lot of events, and I mean
cooking is a lot like music as well, So we
have a lot of events. So I'm still very close
to music. I stopped playing, you know, I did. I
played music still professionally for two or three years after
I got the restaurant. But it became clear to me
(20:58):
that if I was going to become really good, if
I was going to be able to attain mastery at something,
I would need to focus completely on it. And to
me it was very clear that my you know, especially
after a couple of years of doing a thing, my
calling in life and my life's work was going to
be Delta the Venus. So I stopped playing music professionally
(21:22):
at that point and just to focus on the restaurant.
With that said, you know, to me, performing music for
people is just you know, one way to play me.
I have instruments all over my house, and when I
just want to express myself or feel good or feel sad,
(21:45):
whatever I want to do, like, I can pick up
an instrument and play that. So for me, like music
is still everywhere in my life, both playing it. You know,
most of my friends are I should see a lot
of my friends are musicians as well. Most of my
friends before I got the restaurant were musicians. So all
of those folks who are still my musicians, they're still
(22:07):
in my life all the time. I play a lot
of music, and I'm involved in a lot of music.
So I'm sorry, I I'm now just ranting about music.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Uh was a question, you know, it's all, it's all,
it's all related, and it's interesting that you you you
still play a lot of music.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, I feel way way uh more comfortable expressing myself
through music than through like talking or writing or doing
anything else. Like I actually feel kind of like I
can't express myself well accepted for music sometimes, although I
love work as well. You know, one great thing about
(22:47):
Delta Van is that provides me with an unlimited list
of chores, and I'm really good at you know, I
like doing. I like I like working. So if if
you want a job that takes up every moment of
your time, I recommend opening a restaurant.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yes, that sounds that sounds accurate. For a while, my
family ran two or three restaurants, and yeah it's endless. Yeah, yeah,
it was less for us. So I would love to
dive now more into Delta Venus itself. I'm glad listeners
and viewers. No, No, it's like a cafe. It's a restaurant.
(23:28):
It's a music venue. There's also art. It's like an
art gallery too. Do you always feature local artists when
you have an exhibit?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, I do both with music and with of art
on the walls, the to d art on the walls.
I uh, you know, I don't. I don't. I'm not
strict with myself in terms of guidelines on those things,
but I definitely favor local musicians and local artists. We're very,
very fortunate in dave Us again to have incredible local
(24:03):
music and incredible local art, like you wouldn't know necessarily
from going out to Delta Venus that everything that all
of the art, it's all world class stuff. We have
Greg Reschilling showing right now. The stuff is the best
art you will see in any cafe in the world anywhere.
Very very proud to have this show. The music that
(24:26):
we have on Friday nights is the same thing we had,
you know, Boca do Rio, if Frida rice Zorelli, like
all of these are like they're exceptional bands that if
you were to go out to any restaurant or bar
any place in the world, you would be excited to
be able to see band like these, and they're just local.
(24:50):
We have like incredible Patty on the Binge. Everybody lives
within three blocks of Delta Venus or something like that.
Not everybody. A lot of the band lives in Downtown Davis,
I should say so, like we have world class music
just on just in the neighborhood here. I feel really,
so so fortunate to be able to have a full
(25:10):
music calendar and great art on the walls and to
need to go no further than Downtown Davis or this
general area.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
That's amazing. That's amazing. I feel the same way about
podcasts guests. It's this area is rich when it was.
I'm drawing more people from Sacramento and Woodland and Winters
and sometimes from other countries. But it's definitely a full
of very creative thinking people. And you have to want to,
(25:44):
like you do, reach out and connect to people to
find more diversity. But I'm thankful to be able to
do that. I'm curious about I'm looking at some of
the topics you mentioned that I would love to hear
more about that. One of the phrases you use is
facilitating resistance to tyranny in the present era. So I
(26:08):
wondered if you could say more about that and to
see what comes up, because I certainly have thoughts about that.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, for sure, I'd love to hear them for me.
You know, my whole life, I've really been fortunate to
be surrounded by progressive thinkers, very very smart people with
great ideas about how to improve systems of power and
just aspects of life on planet Earth and in America,
(26:38):
in California, and so I've just been influenced by a
lot of very heady revolutionary thinkers, very like once again,
this is growing up in Davis. I think that, you know,
if I had grown up someplace else, I wouldn't necessarily
have access to the level of revolution. I thought that
(27:00):
I have had Davis in the eighties and nineties and
to be part of it sometimes. You know, I love
a lot of different playing a lot of different types
of music, but to me, like music that carries a
political message. I've always seen some of the most powerful
types of use. We talked about music that can change
your mood. These are types. There are musics that have
(27:23):
changed the world, human systems, you know, have changed systems
of power. Popic like revolution throughout the history of the
world has been the modern world has been accompanied by music,
you know. So even before Delta Venus, I was very
(27:44):
involved in different social justice movements throughout the eighties and nineties,
and early adds played. You know, my bands played a
lot of rallies, and we marched a lot of rallies
and tried to do everything that we can for the
causes that we thought were important at the time, and
a lot of the things that we were fighting for
(28:08):
and against at that time are still very relevant today.
Others are different because the world has changed. But for me,
all of life has been accompanied by a fight for
freedom and this idea that none of us are free
unless we're all free. And the great thing about Delta
(28:31):
Venus is that there is a lot of organizing that
goes on in Delta Venus that I don't necessarily like.
I'm not involved in the organization. I just open the
space for it to happen. And then a lot of
times I think of myself as kind of a as
(28:54):
a gardener, right in charge of a garden, and I'm
weeding and feeding and taking care of soil and water
and the things that the garden needs. But it's the
plants that are the beautiful thing going on. And if
I can get the plants to be at their most
(29:17):
beautiful and their most productive, then that's success for me
at Delta of Venus. You know. So you know last
year that pro Palestine encampment that came up, So there
was a massive movement last year of pulp they called it,
which I'm not sure people united the Deliberation of Palestine.
(29:39):
I'm not sure what it stands for, actually, But these
encampments started popping up at different universities throughout the United States,
and the Davis encampment was like very very successful, like
very big, very strong, very well supported by the community,
(30:00):
and I you know, I got to like witness the
organization of this at Delta Venus because the students who
organized it used Delta Venus as a as a spot
to do their thing. So to me, like, that's very exciting.
So to me, like, you know, there was a time
(30:21):
in my life where I could be kind of more
on the front lines of doing stuff. But as I've
gotten older, I kind of see my role as I mean,
you know, young people are just the ones with the
great ideas and the great energy, and we are so fortunate.
I am so fortunate to live in Davis and surrounded
by these energetic, intelligent, thoughtful young people. I am energetic
(30:47):
and intelligent, but not like I was when I was
twenty five, when I was twenty two, you know, So
to me, like I really recognize that for young people,
this is their world also, like they're the ones that
are going to have to be living in this and
they're taking it seriously, you know. So to me, like
I'm looking for ways that I can facilitate and help folks.
(31:09):
Young people and old people are like do what they
feel like they need to do kind of in light
of what's going on in the world right now. So
a lot of you know, a lot of people were
affected by the election. I was definitely, I would say
that in my community and in my friend group, in
(31:30):
my family, there was a lot of confidence that Trump
would not win the election. I was thought so sure.
I was fairly confident Trump would win the election. In fact,
so I've been kind of preparing for this for a
little while now, and I'm ready. There's other people who
the election impacted definitely, But we're already in these struggles,
(31:50):
in these fits before the election, even in the previous administration,
and even in the administration before that. A lot of
these a lot of folks struggles have continued for generations
and generations, and they haven't stopped fighting for them. So
there's a lot of infrastructure in place already when the
election happened. But I feel like when the election happened
(32:13):
and it turned out the way that it did, a
lot of people who weren't necessarily in the embroiled daily
in these in these social justice issues suddenly became. And
then of course, with the actions of the administration incarcerating people,
and I mean, tons of people in Davis. A lot
(32:36):
of my friends and peers have lost their jobs because
of grants going away or funding going away. So suddenly
it's really impacted everybody, and everybody is motivated to do
whatever they can to resist this and to fight it.
So I'm seeing this every day in the cafe and
(32:59):
dealt venus, Like different groups in your citizen groups, student groups,
students of color, you know, white senior citizens in Davis,
and also you know students of color who are just
here for school, like, are all working on similar aspects
(33:22):
of resistance at the cafe every day. And it's very
very exciting for me. So there's a lot to be
down about, a lot to feel defeated about, I think,
But for me, where I am at every day is
that I see the energy for resistance and the energy
(33:43):
for revolution and the energy for a response to all
of this. And again, to me, very very exciting to
be doing that and to and for me, like, all
I'm trying to do is get all of these folks activated.
You know, we're feeling like they're supported and that there
(34:04):
is space and a place for them to meet and
to organize. Uh. And we've been successful with that adults
of venis and it's very very exciting to me.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Wow, that's amazing that you get to witness a lot
of organization that's organizing to resist tyranny and authoritative executive
orders and illegal actions like removing people who can legally
be here and should be protected. And that's just I
(34:36):
don't know, I'm just imagining your kind of bird's eye view,
except it's closer to the earth of like, you know, feeling,
kind of feeling the drum beat of organizing resistance. And
I know that people have mentioned to me that they
feel safe at the Delta Venus, which isn't true everywhere,
not even everywhere in Davis. And I know there was
(34:59):
an a I'll just share that some people who were
Palestinian and wanting to organize were so grateful to you
because they felt like they were being misunderstood. And while
they were trying to say, hey, children are being killed now,
it's now, it's three months. I heard the board member
of the Doctors Without Borders this morning saying three months
(35:20):
of aid being blocked, children are starving. She was actually
saying it realate and so and for people to be
able to say that's that we're just we just want
people to live. We're not against any other people, and
you provided a place where that kind of organization can happen,
and Ano there was a lot of gratitude for that.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Yeah, I think that I really appreciate that, you know.
I think the one thing that the uh you know,
the powers that be right now want to do is
also like separate people, just like you're saying, like they
want people to fight against each other, and that's another
thing that we have to resist.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Like being divided.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean definitely there's differences of opinion. Uh,
there's wrong opinions. I'm not trying to say that, you know,
I'm not trying to say that, uh you know that
that that there isn't but I think that we have
to at least accept each other and take care of
each other and try to understand each other before just
(36:19):
kind of flying off the handle with hatred or with
violent I definitely, I mean there's a time for violence,
and there's certainly, you know, things that I hate, but
I have to like resist that even in myself and
just trying to listen first, you know, understand first before
(36:41):
maybe coming to a conclusion or before acting, especially Uh,
you know, if you're feeling angry or if you're feeling rash.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Yeah, And for me, it helps to remember, like separate
the air conditioning from the from from from the people.
Like if someone's really angry about something, I remember, you know,
they might have different conditioning for me, but they're human.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I love them too.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I want them to be safe too, and just build
the ability to stay present and for everyone and to
you know, be love for everyone and help me kind
of expand, Like, guess what, we don't have to be divided.
We don't have to follow some biases that we're not
supposed to like each other. We all need to fight
(37:28):
anti Semitism. We all need to fight you know, confusing
pro Palestinianism with anti Semitism.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Not what it is.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
We can love everybody, we can love everybody from everywhere.
It's not always easy, like you said, which reminds me.
You were nominated for an award where you're not.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I was trying.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
I thought you already recipient, but I don't know if
it's been.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That it has it? Has it? I got for confirmed
uh last week uh Me and three other parties received
the tom he quinn UH Tom Haquinn Award from the
City of Davis, UH Human Relations Commission. Definitely, definitely, very
(38:11):
very honored to receive it along with Dylan Horton and
en Bloc and the Davis Night Market, all of whom
are excellent people and organizations that that really helped keep
Davis the type of place that I like living in
and like being in. Just very very strong people and
organizations there. The uh, you know, for me, I was
(38:35):
I was nominated by you know a lot of this work.
You know, I was talking to Dylan about this. You know,
you don't You're not trying to get awards for this stuff, right,
You're like, it's it's almost for both of us. It
felt kind of weird to receive because because the payoff
for the work that you do is just seeing an
active community or engaging uh you know with the community
(38:59):
uh over these issues. So with that said, you know,
I was nominated by, so I just really have to, uh,
you know, show my appreciation for Professor Melissa Marino and
Mayor Bapu Vita and council Person Gloria Partita. They are
(39:19):
the people who nominated me. These are like heroes of
mine and people that I really admire. So to be
acknowledged by the people that you respect and admire and
try to be like I think is you know, it's
something that we all aspire to and it's very moving
to me.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
And you know, with that said, uh, I'm ready, you know,
I'm ready to move forward. Uh with this stuff. I
think that it's it's great to take a moment and say,
you know, thank you, and I appreciate. I appreciate this,
and also to be appreciated, and I certainly do. There's
(39:59):
a lot of work that it still needs to be done,
and I'm excited to move forward and start working on
on those things.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Well, thank you. Before we leave that topic, I just
want to read a little what the origin of the
award to honor the young man, and again when I'm
afraid I'm going to mix up words I read, so
I'm going to and correct my pronunciation. I'm not sure
if I'm pronouncing his name right, Hongguhaihwan.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
That's good, Okay.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
This award it honors community members whose actions exemplified diversity, community,
social justice, and equal rights, which is why you were
very valuably nominated by people who are also strong activists.
But it was established in nineteen eighty six as a
memorial award, you know, recognizing local individuals because sadly, very
(40:48):
very sadly, this young man life was taken from him
in Davis in nineteen eighty three, he was stabbed to
death at the Davis High School. So I just wanted
to well, uh, that piece of a story to honor
him and his family while we were talking about the award.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yeah, that murder happened. So he was about five years old.
So I was in junior high school and that murder happened,
and it really rocked David. Uh, and it really rocked me.
You know. I my mother's Chinese. I come from an
Asian household on mixed race, and uh, I would say
(41:30):
that you know, among Asian people particularly, it was very scary,
and the hatefulness and the aggression and violence of it
was just something that we were used to seeing in Davis.
And in fact, uh, you know, my parents moved from
downtown Sacramento to Davis in order to uh kind of
(41:52):
avoid this type of violence. So it was just a
very yeah yeah, yeah, so just a very impactful moment
it in my youth and childhood, and it's likewise very
meaningful to me. You have his name associated with.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
So meaningful. Yeah, well, I am realizing we only have
four minutes left. I cannot believe it. There's so many
other topics that we were going to talk about, so
we have to come back on sometime. But let me
just make sure I give you time to share any
other that's my high Like the title like love and
Revolution at Delta Venus, you kind of like described the
(42:34):
atmosphere and that like the climate, the cultural climate that
you cultivate, and you said the talent helps, you know,
keep it alive. But would do you have any like
clothing closing thoughts that you would like to share of
you know?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Well, one thing actually about the uh the Tongue Haiquin
award that I want to mention before going is that
you know this award is given to Delta Venus, uh
not specifically, Well, it's both me and Delta a Venus.
(43:11):
To me, I'd like to accept the award on behalf
of the Delta Venus community, which, as I said, really
does a lot of the work that Delta Venus that
is associated with Delta Venus. A lot of what I
do is I say, yes, the great ideas in my
(43:32):
people approach me, you know, the Palestinian community approached me
about doing events, and you know, uh, it feels very
You mentioned that people feel safe at Delta Venus. There's
really no greater compliment I feel like to me than
that people feel safe. Uh A, Delta Venus is just again,
(43:55):
it's very very meaningful to me. So these students felt
safe there, they felt like they could have solidarity events here.
So I just said yes, and then it happened indivisible
Yolo a similar situation of where they needed a place
to meet. I really liked what they were about and
(44:16):
what they were trying to do, so I just say yes,
and then they meet there. Artists want to show on
the walls of Delta Venus, and I say yes. And
so I think that it's very you know, saying yes
is a very powerful thing to do. I regularly that
people do it great ideas. I put myself in a
(44:37):
position where I'm surrounded by people with great ideas, strong spirits,
strong minds, with a very very soulful community around Delta Venus,
and then I just you know, open the doors and
say let's do it together, and people do. And I
feel very very fortunate about that night Market. Are we
(45:00):
out of time?
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Sorry, we are at a time. Okay, you can throw
it out though, just throw it out.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
I just you know. Night Market was another conversation that
happened at Delta two people wanted to do this thing
out of the patio. I was there, they were talking
about it, and then so many years later we have
an exceptional program like non Market happening every day at
Central Parking Davis. So very very proud of this community
and very very proud that my community accepts Delta Venus
(45:29):
as a place to do.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
The thing fantastic. I love saying yes, it is a
very powerful thing to do. That should be a bumper sticker. Well,
thank you so much, Lee of Delta Venus, and thank
you listeners and viewers for this time, and be sure
to share the story and to tune in next Wednesday,
eight pm Eastern Time on talk for TV or W
(45:50):
fourcy dot com. And thank you to our engineer and
our producer, and may we all have enriching conversations every day.
Thanks again.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Girl Let's speech a artic Let's speech of the in
Artic girl Let's speech enlargic girl Let's speech on the
in lantic let's pitch a logic, girl Let's speech of
(46:23):
the
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