The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Tanya Flanagan 0:19
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

You Good morning Las Vegas, and welcome to the show and welcome to the first Sunday morning with me in 2025 it's always amazing to realize that we have crossed into another year looking at resolutions, plans, goals, past, accomplishments, memories, experiences, but it is always a blessing to be a part of the next year moving forward and to have another opportunity each day is a blessing. And realizing that another year has arrived, and we are just five days into it, it's truly delightful. It's amazing sometimes, how time flies. And with that coming into 2025 and being in January and going into sort of the holiday season, the second wave of, I guess, the first quarter. But MLK day is approaching, Martin Luther King Junior's holiday celebration is approaching, and it is a big deal here in the Las Vegas Valley. We love our cultural legacies, and so this morning, we're going to be talking about that cultural legacy and some some things pertaining to it, related to it, that I think are of great historical value. And as always, I like to share information that you may know a little bit about, allow you to learn a little bit more in that area, and expand your knowledge and expand the reach of organizations here doing great work. So this morning I have a young woman who has been in the studio before, so I'm excited to welcome Miss Camila bywaters back to the show. Quick. Good morning to you, and then we'll get to some introductions in a second.

Kamilah Bywaters 2:16
Good morning. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. You're my favorite radio personality. Thank

Tanya Flanagan 2:22
you. Oh my gosh, I think I'm someone's favorite radio personality. Well, let me just park up and wake up for real and take the toothpicks out my eyeballs that I put in so early in the morning. But no, I'm always excited to be here. Thank you. That's it's. That's really kind. We also have joining us this morning, and we have him on the on the phone, and I'm glad he was able to get up and call in to hang out with us, Mr. Rodney Smith, and I've known Rodney for a long time, and he is a jewel in the community, and just one of the most conscious people that I know, and will engage you in conversation and teach you while talking to you. So be ready, folks, to learn a lot. He's a wealth of information. Rodney, welcome to the show.

Rodney Smith 3:08
Good morning, everyone. It is so good to be here and yes, we have known each other for quite a long time. Yes.

Tanya Flanagan 3:16
So thank you. Happy New Year to you. I hope it ranked in cheerfully and you had a good time with family and friends and whatever you both decided to do. But let's get into it. So today, you guys have an event that you're working on that's coming up in the community. A lot of things are going to be coming up in the next few weeks as we march toward january 20, to celebrate the King holiday here in the valley. Dr, King was born on January 15, but this year, his birthday is being celebrated on that Monday, which is the third Monday, and the month of January, which is always when it is celebrated. So it falls on january 20 this year. And so you guys, as we get ready for King week and everything else is going to start going on, and then we move into Black History Month, the King holiday is always a great segue into Black History Month as well, because it begins to set the tone of appreciation, of of legacy, of celebration, of reflection and accountability atonement. What have you So, what do you guys have going? Going on? Thank

Kamilah Bywaters 4:19
you again. My name is Camila bywaters. I am the co chair of the Las Vegas alliance of black soul educators, for short, known as lavapsy, and also the co chair for the National Association of equal justice in America. And I'm really excited about the events that are coming up around Martin Luther King Jr. I'm always rejuvenated. Given a fresh awakening to re to restart my thinking and my service around our community, I really wanted to give our community an opportunity to just learn more about. The candlelight vigil that is hosted within our community. And you know, Mr. Rodney is the founder of that event, and I really wanted him to explain the history around why he has been so dedicated to the work and ensuring that our community always has an opportunity to participate. There's many events that will be happening around Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and in celebration of his life and legacy and his justice work, some of the events are not free, and we want to make sure that we offer an opportunity for our community to come together, to rejuvenate, to celebrate and really honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, and I would love for Mr. Rodney to talk a little bit about the history around our candlelight visual. Absolutely.

Tanya Flanagan 5:46
So with that, Rodney, tell us a little bit about you, tell the share with the audience a little bit about who you are, and then go into the history of the candlelight vigil.

Rodney Smith 5:57
Okay, and again. Happy New Year everyone. This is the holiday season. We tend to think of February is Black History Month. But I tend to think that our black history celebrations actually start with Christmas as we go into Kwanzaa, because if you know the true history of Christmas, you remember the Black Madonna. So that gives you an idea of who Jesus really was. So for I am typically associated with the gathering that was started by the late great Sam Smith. He was a fire marshal here in Las Vegas, and also the only owner of the black bookstore in the state. And Sam started the gathering so that we could have a place to meet, and that was 18 years ago. Well, it just so happens that that's right about the time that a young lady came to me named Stephanie Washington and says, Rodney, can you believe there is no celebration right in the community for Dr King? And I thought about that, and I says, wow, you know you're right. And she says, I've talked to the politicians, and nobody's doing anything. Can you help? And I says, Well, sure. What can I do? And she says, Well, we need to put on something. And that was the genesis of the first Reverend, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, candlelight vigil within our community. It was designed to be something in our community, for our community, put on by people of the community, and for it to be free, educational, and then something unique in it is we give people opportunity one minute to share what Dr King's legacy means to them. And one reason why, another reason why this became so important is that in going to schools, she and I both realized that some of our young people didn't really know who Dr King was. Some people actually thought he was a president, and we thought that we would lose losing his legacy, and for us to have one of the most unique Reverend, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, statues in the world, right here, literally in our backyard. We thought it was a shame for that to waste and for his legacy to die, and we thought by putting on the candlelight vigil would be a way to educate and also to keep his memory alive.

Tanya Flanagan 8:21
Well, I love all that. I'm glad that you mentioned that there's a statue that was erected in honor of Dr King. It sits, for those who are not familiar with the statue of Dr King, it sits at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carrie Avenue, at the border of I guess it's kind of still the historic west side, but kind of in the border between the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. At that intersection direct. It's diagonal to the Pearson Community Center, and so it sits on the campus of the Clark County Community Resource Center that's right at the north east corner of Kerry and MLK. And that statue was unveiled, I want to say it was 2002 maybe 2001 now, but almost 20, about 25 years ago, that statue was unveiled in the community Tina Allen, the sculptress, may she rest in peace, designed it and for our community. I love that. And Tina

Rodney Smith 9:29
Allen was a black woman who designed the statue and had the statue constructed. The statue was actually put in place. I believe it was on

Tanya Flanagan 9:42
2001 okay? I knew I was working with, yeah, I could remember. That's awesome. I'm glad you remember the exact year, yeah,

Rodney Smith 9:51
so this statute, I'm glad that you pointed out the location, because the location was purposeful. It is where law. Vegas, North Las Vegas, and, of course, West Las Vegas sort of meet in one spot right there at the corner of Carrie and Martin Luther King Boulevard. And that was to show the unity. And it was to bring unity, literally in the community of this Las Vegas Valley. So that was very purposely done in placing it there.

Tanya Flanagan 10:22
Yeah, and I want to give some props to as we talk about the statute. Be remiss if it's not mentioned that that is a project that came online under the direction of former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson gates, and she found Tina. Tina Allen has pieces that are throughout the country because she has a Alex Haley, a James Alex Haley statue in another part of the country, and she does these huge life like bronze statues and Commissioner gates found her and commissioned her to do the piece. I love that. So over the years, members of the King family have come out to be a part of our Martin Luther King Jr celebrations. They were there the day the statue was unveiled. So it is only befitting that the candlelight visual in honor of him happens at that location in this community, because it has such a presence. And I want to say thank you to you, Rodney, for continuing to carry the torch and making sure young people, and it was really surprising when you said that you were going into the schools, and children were unaware of the history. And I think that surprises me, because as a child, I attended an elementary school named for Dr Martin Luther King Jr. So I went to the Dr Martin Luther King Jr elementary school. So you can only imagine that 300 you know, year round, it was the big deal, but especially going into the time of his life when we would celebrate his birthday, it was a huge deal to do essays and tell stories and understand different aspects of Dr King's life, the purpose and the work that he did, and then my family, being from the south, and reading those stories about the sweltering heat of oppression and the right for civil the fight for civil rights and voting access and things of that nature. When you travel to the south, you you can see the stories that you have been told you're now. Can visualize pieces of this, because when you go south, you still see shanties. You sometimes still see people who haven't taken down out houses that may be on their properties. You see 10 roofs. You see broken structures, and you just you see the red dirt, and so you see it. And then you even see, like the old bridge, sometimes, that a new bridge has been erected, but the old bridge hasn't been taken out. And so you see these pieces of history, and you see the homes that remind you of the stories that have been told. And so it's powerful. But when you hear that children really don't know, and this is such a popular piece of history, it's not like you're learning about I don't know Phyllis Wheatley, who was the first black woman to have something published. You're talking about popular history. So it's surprising when you say kids don't know popular history.

Rodney Smith 13:02
So the one thing that we've learned most recently from the election cycle is just kind of use it or lose it. And if you're not actively engaging with young people and on a continuous basis, or for anyone, for that matter, a lot of these things we may think they have, but they don't really have, and then they conflated with other things. And for, like you said, for Dr King to be such a popular figure that actually has a holiday that we're about to celebrate, for young folks not to know who he is, well, that means a generation. If that generation doesn't know, then how could we expect the following generations to know. So there was a sense of urgency, almost that fierce urgency of now that Doctor King spoke about that for our community with one of the most, if not the most unique, Reverend, Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior statue in this country outside the one that was unveiled later in Washington, DC, we have it right here, and a lot of folks didn't know about it, and I thought that if we did the candlelight visitor, we could sort of reinvigorate and remind people of what we have, and that we would then people would start to come out. And it's a pavilion, it's a park. It's where you can come and sit, you can walk around. It's almost like a rotunda where you can see the different quotes, some of the different quotes from Dr King. It's a it's an opportunity to reflect on not just the dream that he had, but the lives that we're living now, which was just a dream to him. So

Tanya Flanagan 14:34
when will the candlelight vigil take places? I want to make sure, in case anyone ever you know, has to not hear everything we're talking about this morning. I want to make sure we insert the date, the time and things of that nature as often as we can. So can you share when it is? Yes, times things that they can expect to experience when they come out for it.

Kamilah Bywaters 14:53
So we're planning our event for Sunday, January 19, at 4pm and it will. At 1344, West Kerry Avenue, North Las Vegas, Nevada, 89030, and you're welcome to join us. We will plan. We have a great event planned. I'm looking to have some organizations come and share some of their work and in the community, so resources will be available for our community. So we're hoping that you will come out and share with your friends and family. So again, that's Sunday, January, 19.

Tanya Flanagan 15:26
Okay, so there'll be different organizations with tables set up. Is that what I'm hearing? Will there be artwork performances?

Kamilah Bywaters 15:35
Yes, we are going to have a few perform. A few performances. We'll have Martin Luther King speeches being played, and just an opportunity for our community to get together, and we'll hear from some of our community elected officials and our community members, and just have a great time together as we celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tanya Flanagan 15:56
I have been to a couple of several of the candlelight vigil programs, and it really is a beautiful it's a beautiful display, quite a beautiful tribute, to see all the people take a moment to acknowledge the past sacrifices, and then to light the candles and to stand together. Used to be chillier. Now I don't know if it will actually be chilly. You never know where we're going to get anywhere this day of climate change and global warming, but it used to be freezing. Now it is mild, but it is just a nice time to come together. And the statue area is, as Rodney has mentioned, very beautiful. So it's a great backdrop for a momentous occasion. And everyone is welcome. It's good for children. It's good for parents. It's just, it's really a great family event. So in addition to the candlelight visual you guys, is there anything else that we want to also make sure people know that you guys are working on or they can expect that you're tied to as we head into the king week, month, and everything else beyond Absolutely.

Kamilah Bywaters 17:01
Mr. Rodney, you want to go ahead and start with you. You have a lot of great events coming up.

Rodney Smith 17:07
Well, there's an initiative that Dr Theodore ranso and I've been working on, and we're doing it now in conjunction with Carol Santiago at the multicultural bookstore, which is also part of the historic west side. And we want to turn reading into a sport. We see that a lot of our young folks don't know things, certain things about Dr King and others, and a lot of that is that a lot of them are not reading. And so we want to turn reading as a sport where we can challenge classes. Eventually we'll be able to have Schools Challenge schools. They'll get Letterman's jackets, and it's really an initiative of love on both our parts. We're both readers. Sam Smith was the reader, and was quite knowledgeable from all that he read. So that's something that we are working on now, and we will unveil it to the world shortly. I

Tanya Flanagan 18:09
am really I'm excited to hear how that particular project turns out and what it will entail. You mentioned the multicultural bookstore that Mrs. Santiago has

Rodney Smith 18:22
nails. Carol Santiago, where

Tanya Flanagan 18:24
is the bookstore? Rodney, like tell us more about where this is, because I don't think a lot of people realize there is a multicultural bookstore. And bookstores are making someone you know, they were kind of becoming dinosaurs, becoming somewhat extinct, and it was so easy to grab it all on your Kindle. Having a journalism background, I love to turn the pages and I want to open the heart back. So when you mention Sam, it always is a warm spot for me. Sam Smith, because I went to victory for so many years, and I would just get out of church and go down the street and any other day as well. But you could always count on Sam to be at the bookstore on that Sunday with the doors open and come in there, talk with him. And he say, Miss Flanagan, I know I'd pick up a book and he would have the paper back. And he said, Ms Flanagan, I know you want the hardback. I do. Mr. Smith and Sam would order the hardback for me. No matter what that book was. He would order the hardback copy for me, and it would come in, and I would go back and get it. But you just would spend a couple hours of the most interesting people were always at the native Sun bookstore, and it was just this cool heart of historic West Las Vegas at the corner of Monroe and D. And you pop into the store, and he's always there playing chess and teaching people and cultivating the mind and encouraging folks to become firefighters, to pursue their dreams, to seek education, to understand what has been written in any number of books. But I've gotten some jewels from him, black of the buried Swedish, I mean, just all kinds of books. So it's really cool that you are put. Pushing to encourage and cultivate this behavior in our children, because I think it is a lost, somewhat of a lost appreciation, because they're just so technology, they're so technologically driven right now, and they don't slow down the same way that they used to.

Rodney Smith 20:19
Well, one thing that we know from studies is that children who read off of tablets and screens, though they are reading, they don't have the same comprehension level as if they're reading from the old fashioned book paper, and we find that a lot of children don't read outside of school because their parents don't read and Sam, as you just mentioned, was a great proponent of reading. Typically, he would give you something to take home with you to read, and then he would quiz you on it when you would come back to the bookstore. So one of the other initiatives that we used to do with the late Shirley Barber is we used to collect books and then redistribute it and give them back to the community. And then I continue that later on, where we would give, because Sam says children are less likely to be touched by the ills of society and the legal system if they have a personal library of 10 books, and preferably 10 books of people that look like them, that they choose for themselves. So for years, we used to give 10 books out to 1000 people, and those books were books that were repurposed from within our community. So it was to take sort of the old adage, one man's garbage and turn it into another man's treasure, and to see the children read. And then, of course, we would have books for parents to read. And we thought that was a way to carry on Sam's legacy of literacy. And also with this initiative with Dr ransaw and I, is another opportunity to expand on that and just make it fun where children will want to do it, because we know when there's a competition, everybody wants to win that competition. And so that's why we're going to make it as a competition, a sport and this, yes, I'm glad you said it, because all of this that I have done goes back to Sam Smith in one way or the other, and I'm just doing my part as best I can to continue his legacy and the things that he shared with me. Well,

Tanya Flanagan 22:16
I want to say thank you to you for continue for having such respect for Sam's memory and what he contributed to the community, that even though some have come along now and they have no idea who he is, to continue and he was so humble, because I remember inviting Sam to receive, like a Humanitarian of the Year Award from the commissioner's office, and he said, okay, okay. I mean, I talked to him, he didn't, you know, he didn't show up to get this award, but we still recognized him because he was always so humble. He never wanted any praise for what he was doing. It was more of a this is what you should be doing. And I think that's the message that resonates from someone like Sam and from the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King. It's not to be praised for it. This is really what you should be doing, exactly, you know, giving, working, cultivating, growing, pouring into your community. This is the lift, and it is heavy, but collectively, this is the lift that we should all be doing.

Rodney Smith 23:14
And if more of us do it, there is less to be done. And Carol Santiago saw that we needed our own bookstore where children could come and pick their own books. And so she started the multicultural bookstore, and she has a portion of it that she is a corner that she calls the Sam Smith corner, and she has a portrait of Sam there because I, I shared the bookstore with her. And of course, she wasn't here to experience that. And that was sort of what helped her make the decision to start the bookstore. And it is called the multicultural bookstore, and it's located at 2027 revere Street in Las Vegas. 2027 revere street Las Vegas. So

Tanya Flanagan 23:58
I'm trying to picture a cross street that something Revere. And is that Carrie, or where

Rodney Smith 24:06
the, if you know where the Old Seven Seas is, which is WSO, West Side Oasis, absolutely, actually on the back side of that building. It's attached to it, or right across the street from the Nevada Partners being on the east side of Revere, and then on the

Tanya Flanagan 24:24
west side, it's basically Lake Mead and revere. So it's on the northwest corner of Lake Mead and revere. Yes, it is okay. That gives us some point of identification. I like to make sure we don't rush through social media. So I'm going to ask you now, because I'm sure people will find that the things that we've talked about very interesting in both of you, dynamic and just curious about what you're doing going forward, because there's a lot of innovative solutions that both you, Camila and Rodney, put forth for our community. But anyone who's interested in learning. Any more about you or following or getting more on these events that are coming up. Would you guys like to share some social media information if you have any, or just sure

Kamilah Bywaters 25:08
you can find Camila by waters. If you're interested. You may find me at my website. Camila the number four nevadans.com you may also find me. I'm on Tiktok. Oh, my goodness, I love a good Tiktok. If you want to come on Tiktok and see me out there doing what I do, you may join and look for me at Camila bywaters Three, and also on Tuesdays. You can find me on Facebook, live talking about education. So if you're you're invited to join myself and Rodney and Tracy Lewis and we have great conversations about education that's on Facebook Live.

Tanya Flanagan 25:44
So Rodney, we know we can find you on Facebook Live for commit with Camilla by waters. Where else can we find you?

Rodney Smith 25:51
Well, you can also find me at our own voices on Facebook. And of course, Rodney Smith on threads, because I am popping on threads.

Tanya Flanagan 26:03
I like that, Rodney, it's popping on threads. That's what's up. So folks, that's how you can find either one of these individuals and get connected with them and just see what's going on. If you're looking for a way, people sometimes call me and say, I want to get involved with the community. What can I do? And there are so many outlets and resources to tap into the community and find your your niche for giving back. If cultural awareness is one of them centered around the history that African Americans have contributed to this community, I think teaming up with the folks I have here on the show this morning, Camilla by waters and Rodney Smith is a great way to do it, if you want to see how they do what they do, and get down planning to come out to the candlelight vigil on January 19, 4pm at the MLK statue at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Cary Avenue, 89032, is really the zip code area. But again, what's the address on the Clark County Resource Center where the statue is located? Individual will be the

Kamilah Bywaters 26:59
address is 1344, West Cary Avenue, North Las Vegas, Nevada, 89030,

Tanya Flanagan 27:07
so there you have it. Just a great way to engage yourself with the community. If you're looking for a way to give back, and I know some folks are often looking for that, that that niche. So I want to thank you both for coming on the show. We have a little bit more time to talk about a couple of things we're going to run into, but I think I want to ask you, since we're talking about Dr King, leave the audience with each of you sharing your fondest memory of Dr King's legacy, or what touches you, whether it's a quote or whatever. So Camila, as a woman, have you go first ladies first and then Rodney will close out with yours.

Kamilah Bywaters 27:46
Thank you. I found a quote, and it says, make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a great a greater nation of your country, and a final world to live in. And this was spoken at the March for integrated schools on April 18, 1959 and what resonates with me is to make a career of humanity.

Rodney Smith 28:12
So for me, for me, the quote is the fierce urgency of now, and that urgency is no fear, sir, now than it has ever been before, and we need to all act accordingly, I believe. But Dr King also started something that touched me in my youth, and yes, I was alive when he was alive, and that was the Poor People's Campaign. And the Poor People's Campaign touched me because he was talking about a group of people who rarely got talked about. And if it was, it was somewhat used as a pejorative. And he talked about him as if not that, you know, the tides lift all boats, but this is the people that really hold up this country, and these are the people who are often seen as the least of these that provide for the most of us, and so that poor people's campaign that he didn't get a chance to finish. But there are still poor people, and they still need help. They still need attention. And after all, when it's all said and done without them, there could be no wealth from the wealthiest people, because that's where they get it from.

Tanya Flanagan 29:21
Absolutely folks with that, we're out of time. Have a great week. I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.