The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Tanya Flanagan 0:19
Good morning and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tonya 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. So

Tanya Flanagan 0:47
good morning Las Vegas. Today is a very special day, as is any Sunday morning. But today is extra special to me. It is July 20, and July 20, it's none other than my birthday. So happy birthday to me. It's a joy to be able to share some of this new chapter of my life with you. Embarking upon a new year is always an exciting thing, and I have a great guest in the studio this morning, so it's going to be super cool to have my birthday show day include such an awesome person. I have the Reverend, Reverend, Dr Kelsey West here with me on 91.5k U, M, V, jazz and more this morning for the scoop, and we're going to give you what we can Good morning, Kelsey, thank you for

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 1:30
coming morning. Good morning. Good morning. Happy birthday. Thank you, and I mean that sincerely. What a great way to start this Sunday morning, by being able to wish you face to face a happy, happy happy birthday. If I could sing, I promise you, I would go into possibly my best Stevie Wonder. I may even do some jealousy, but I can't sing, so I would just say happy birthday.

Tanya Flanagan 1:52
You know, folks, I'm going to tell you I asked him, because, you know, all pastors usually can sing from the pulpit, right? It's like a God given talent that you're a minister and somehow you are a musician. So I said to him, Kelsey, can you sing? And he said, No, man, so and I'm gonna give a shout out to my girlfriend, my good girlfriend, Andrea Sala, who's over at Mountain Top Faith Ministries today. And I said I should have had Andrea coming in and serenade me, which I promise you all, it would have been for me, but it really would have been for you. Her voice is such a voice is such a treat, but thank you so much for the happy birthday wishes. I am blessed to be here to celebrate another year and just to have some joy. I'm a summer baby. It used to suck as a kid because all my friends were, of course, out on summer break, and so there was never anyone to come to your birthday party. But as you get older, you realize the joys of a summer birthday because it's vacation time, it's beach time, it's travel time, and it's birthday time. So that part is great. Planning to hook up with the girls later today for Sunday brunch to celebrate the birthday. So wonderful. I'll let Andrea Sing to me at lunch. Hopefully

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 2:56
she made brunch is a beautiful word. It is. I don't always get a chance to celebrate brunches. We're in services on Sundays, eight and 11 o'clock. But when we do get a chance to break Carmen and I, we enjoy a good brunch.

Tanya Flanagan 3:11
Yes, folks, the Reverend, Dr Kelsey West is over at Nehemiah ministries, and that's just one hat that you wear. You are an awesome community advocate, and you do so much for everyone, but you have this wonderful rapport with young people. And I always applaud anyone who has that, because I am more one of those one on one people. So when I see youth, I talked to a young man just the other day in the office over at the county building, and he was looking at me like, not really deer in headlights, but like, well, this lady stopped already talking about he's in the summer Business Institute that Clark County does with kids in the community, where you work four days a week, and then you have a civic engagement project that they do, and then they have a day of life skills on that fifth day of the week, and they're paid through the summer Business Institute program that Clark County offers through various employers around the valley. And he was working for the city of North Las Vegas, over at the RJC building, or NJC building. And so we were just talking about, you know, what's, what's your plan, young man, and his aunt was with him at the time, and she was mentioning about college, where would he go or not go? And we talked about the benefits of HBCUs. So in that, in that vein, a perfect segue. Matter of fact, you do the HBCU College Tour, where you allow families. And I had someone ask me about that too recently, and I sent them some info to get ready with their daughter for next year. But you take families and students around to a portion of the HBCUs on a tour that you do. So let's talk about how what that's all

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 4:45
about. Yes, this is this, thank you. And this is year 30 for us with the unity through knowledge HBCU tour college preparatory program. And as you just stated, yes, each year during spring break, we take up to 150 Six students on a week long trip we are preparing for next spring, March, 14 through the 20th. This is actually my favorite tour. It's DC, Virginia and Maryland. I love that tour because students not only get those eight, it's actually 10 HBCUs, but they also get two full days of sightseeing in DC. So whenever I get back to DC, I'm like a little kid. I want to walk up the steps of the Lincoln I want to stand in front of the Washington I want to go into the museum, spend five to six hours in the new African American Museum. We take them to the National Zoo. A lot of kids, I tell them, when we're in Las Vegas, don't, don't add groan, let the child and you come out. If you've never been to a zoo, enjoy the moment.

Tanya Flanagan 5:46
It's very cool. It's unlike any other experience. So we're going to talk about so much in that but real quick on your point about the zoo, it's like, it's not like any other experience. To see yourself in the wild, right? To see animals up close, it's so cool, just all the different things, and you need time to really enjoy what they have, the Tigers, the bear, whatever it is, whatever species that they have created an environment and a habitat for that is pretty cool. But you mentioned that tour. I want to go on this trip. So that means they'll go to Howard. They'll get to see Hampton. They'll see is that

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 6:21
you have Bowie State, Coppin State, Morgan State, Virginia. State, Virginia union, Norfolk, Hampton, you said Howard plus Elizabeth City, and we're adding Delaware State.

Tanya Flanagan 6:34
That is an awesome tour, if it's I love a guided tour, no matter how it works? Because when you get a guided tour, things have been vetted for you. So you're getting an opportunity to cut through the weeds, if you will, to get to the best that it has to offer, and to also have a good environment to get your questions answered and to come away with better understanding of the things you're trying to evaluate, whether than trying to in. Can you imagine trying to individually evaluate. This is those 10 and even if it's not the entire network of HBCUs, now, it gives you a glimpse and a better understanding of how to vet That's right, any college, no matter whether you're looking at an HBCU for your child or you're looking at a more traditional American college campus for your child's collegiate experience. It gives you a sense of how to vet this process, whether you're looking at University of Arizona, my alma mater, UCLA, Stanford, Hampton, Howard Spellman, that's right. Clark, Atlanta, Prairie View, FAMU, and there's, you know, there's a lot out there. So that's awesome.

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 7:38
I like to equate it to looking for your prom dress or your prom suit. And I share with students, you know the size, you know the color, you know the price, you know the fit. So when we get on campus, I want you to keep those things in mind, and

Tanya Flanagan 7:54
I want you to pay for it. How's it covered?

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 7:57
The qualified, just high school student, in ninth through 12th grade, minimum 2.0 GPA parents pay for the trip, just like they would any other trip. We do have a portion of our students who require financial assistance, and that's where our scholarships come into play. I want to thank our corporate sponsors, people who make donations so that we can offer scholarships. To date, I am very, very proud to say we've had over 3100 students travel with us. That is awesome. Yeah. So it's been a blessing, and now we're having students of former students attend the tour. And so longevity is it's been a blessing.

Tanya Flanagan 8:41
That's huge. You started with, yeah, you're right. Because, yes, yeah, that's exciting. That's exciting. That's awesome. Congratulations to you so much for having the vision to to make it available, and the tenacity and the dedication to grow it. Because you can have you can plant a seed, but sometimes things grow for a little while. If they're not nurtured, they don't always continue to go forward. So that's true. Kudos to you for doing that. Thank you. So I Dibble and dabble, as we know, and a lot of changes. And as a faith based institution, this new thing where churches can now endorse people just a little bit too, because you have a sense of responsibility when it comes to making sure people understand different issues that affect them, and this is one of the spaces. Education is huge. Politics too. I notice you at a lot of things. As a pastor, how do you see your role in those spaces? I

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 9:35
take it very serious, knowing people depend on me to do my homework, my research. When I bring people before the people, even though I may not be physically verbally endorsing, the people still believe, well, you allow them to speak, and they don't know as a 501, c3, I have to let both sides speak. Now, with the ability to endorse, I have to. Make it even more serious, because I've wanted to endorse to the point where I was really working on my 501, c4, right now, so I could have that voice as a student of Dr King, I stare at a picture every day where he's in a meeting with President Johnson, and I want to be one of those pastoral figures, where, when presidents come to town, my name is on that list of people that they feel obligated to meet with, because I want to be a voice for the voiceless, a voice for the people. And so this is a this is something we have to take serious. It's a blessing, but it can also be a curse if we don't allow our ethics to lead us. And so it's it's imperative that we, as faith based leaders, really understand that just because we can endorse, we have to make sure we are endorsing with no strings attached.

Tanya Flanagan 10:57
Absolutely. I totally applaud that perspective, because you talked about the trust and the expectation that your congregation, the community, they may not even be your congregation, your members, but there is an expectation that this person is going to do their due diligence, and if they're saying that this person is good, some vetting has happened a couple weeks ago, maybe three now, I think it was I was at your church for a conversation that Congressman Stephen Horsford kind of took the lead, along with youth tied to HBCUs as well and to the future of what kids can expect. And you often allow your church to be the backdrop. I was there maybe a few months ago, and Lynn, just Ames, had a sort of women's empowerment night conversation, and you opened up your church and allowed her to come in and have this women's outreach gathering as well. So your church is often the backdrop for a lot of different things, for people to come together. And I'm pleased to say it's actually also in district seven, right which I represent as a Nevada state legislator. So being that, and over the years, just growing the relationships, being a go to person, how what would you say to people? And being a student of Dr King, there's so much wrapped up just into that piece, because Dr King is such a shining example for so many of us, black, white, no matter who we were, the legacy and the sacrifice, that's, what is your motivation? What is your motivation?

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 12:30
That's That's it. When this life is over, I want, just like Dr King, what he said, I want people to say that I was a drum major for something good, whether it's education, whether it's youth advocacy, I just want to be known as someone who opened up his doors to the community. I wish I had a larger facility so we could do more. But with what we have right now is for the people, and so when people call and say, Can we have this at Nehemiah. It's an honor. It's an honor because people need a place where they can come and they can meet people, because to be in relationship with people like yourself, my political leaders, that's important, because people see me at meetings, and I like to come back on Sunday and be able to give reports.

Tanya Flanagan 13:21
And I think till you get something that sometimes people don't get and that we just need to get individual it's not about having a title or having a role. When you see something good that's happening, spread the word about that good thing, because now we are inundated with ways to get information. But because we have so many tributaries pouring into the stream, there's it's easy to miss. That's right. It used to be a time when going back and being honest, you only had email, that's right. And that was a new thing, right? Memory used to be dialed up, and so that was a new thing. And as it progressed, you have all these platforms, Facebook and Tiktok and Twitter and our x, whatever it is now, and Instagram, but there's just so many ways that's right, and still commercials, and still radio, and then now radio has advanced to satellite, so sometimes people don't even hear radio commercial. No, you know, I do radio 91.5 because I want to hear what's happening in the community. On purpose. I want to purposely tap in, and that's what 91.5 public radio allows us to do. It provides a way to tap in.

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 14:26
That's right, we just started. I have been flirting with it for a while because our one of our themes at Nehemiah Ministries is in E people think it's for new edition, but it's for Nehemiah everywhere. I try to be everywhere as a community pastor, but I understand I can't. So we have finally developed our Public Affairs Ministry. Oh my and these are the people within the church who want to tap in. So you have listeners within our church. They're not concerned about how many songs you play. How many giveaways? These are the people who want the information. So thank you for being on a station like this, because you do have a captive audience. And I can say that because I work with great people at Nehemiah who listen.

Tanya Flanagan 15:14
Well, that's nice. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for using this platform for what it's for. You know that's super important. It's so much fun always talking to you, because you're just one of those fun people who as the more you peel back the layers of the onion I get to find one of the things we were topping it up about before we even got into the show today, was music, and people often see ministers in this you know, there's robe and the collar and there's the exalted level that we place you on so therefore you don't do anything fun, but you do a lot of things that are fun. Yeah, and one of your loves

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 15:46
is music. Every chance the wife and I get, we love to catch the greats, and so still on my hit list, as I was sharing with you, is Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers. I've never seen hauling notes. I need them to get back together, because I want to see them live my favorite all time writing group are the bee. Gees. You

Tanya Flanagan 16:09
know what? I have to 100% agree with you, and I'm going to date myself, but I have to admit the Saturday Night Fever hands down, soundtrack hands down is phenomenal. Powerful.

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 16:23
I take nothing away from thriller. Thriller is to all time, but if I'm on an island with only one album, I need the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. That's a heck of a question. Saturday Night Fever. Saturday Night Fever. So watch this when you talk about, what do we do for fun? I like concerts. We love to cruise, we love to travel, but I love classic movies. I'm a 70s baby and so favorite all time movies. Watch this. To know me is to know I like Jaws, two over Jaws, one grease is my all time favorite movie. Then Saturday Night Fever, wow. Top Three,

Tanya Flanagan 16:56
those are so Jaws, two over Jaws, one grease and Saturday Night Fever, top three all time. Wow. Okay, I don't know if I can match that, but I will say the thing that used to keep me up as a kid, and my mom would say, I don't care how long you stay up, you're going to get up, right? I don't know how long you stay up, you're going to get up. And TV went off at one point, right? That's how much I know it's my birthday. So yes, am I telling you which birthday it is? I have so much I inherited this silver, platinum that people are beginning to see in my hair. It's, I call it my inheritance, my mom and all my mom's sisters my aunts have white it is. It is just gorgeous white hair. Yes. So I this is my inheritance, but it's my double nickel birthday. You thought I was getting younger. It is the double knuckle birthday information is out there in the world. Cooley high, okay, I would stay up every time Cooley high came on. But one of my favorite movies is the sound of music. Okay, my second grade teacher took me to see the Sound of Music at a theater in Arizona, Phoenix called the Seneca pre and it was that old time theater where the curtains opened back. The movie was so long, we had an intermission, and we got to get out, get up and go out and get popcorn and come back. But I love Julie Andrews and the sound of music. And I took piano lessons as a kid, and I literally learned to play the entire soundtrack for The Sound of Music. Ada wise is one of my favorite songs to play and to listen to. I thought ADA wise was so pretty.

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 18:21
I'm going to share something else with you people before, before pastoring. As you know, I used to write and produce plays. My love for theater happened when I was a little boy. My mom worked at a school, and she took me on one of their field trips to see Peter Pan. I saw Sandy Duncan up close as Peter Pan. So when you sew with things that people don't know about me. I was raised on the black and white, so I love Shirley Temple. Mickey Rooney, I love Jane Kelly. Fred Astaire, I love the Nicholas brothers tapping. If I if I could have studied any type of dance, it would have been

Tanya Flanagan 18:57
tapping. I was like the modern stuff. I love my mom put me in tap. And I didn't love tap, but I loved Debbie Allen when she came along and fame was on. I loved that and then, but by the time I discovered that was a love, she decided that she was tired of paying for all these things I kept discovering and quitting. So we came to an impasse on that. But speaking of old movies, I loved all the Technicolor movies. I loved all of the the Frank Sinatra and the Doris Day and the Tammy tell me true. Tell me true. I loved all of those. Of course, that was the era of the Elvis movies too. Elvis is there too, but it's so funny. I mean, we are practically twins, probably born in the same year, but I'm to a 70s baby, so I, I get all it's, you know, it's nostalgic to walk back as some nowadays kids don't know what any of this stuff is, and it made me think about something when I was thinking about all of the outreach you do, and how often your Nehemiah ministries. Church location over on is a Gowan. We're Yep, Gowan and Rancho. Rancho is a backdrop, but President. And Barack Obama. There was a report on CBS mornings recently that talked about him talking about the amount of energy they poured into young girls and the cultivation, I mean, as a dad, as a as a girl dad, right? I see where his focus would have been making sure there's equality and equity for girls and access, right? But he said he said he felt that maybe there was a miss on what young men needed. And I know the My Brother's Keeper program, I think was born out of his administration. But where do you see, as we continue to prepare family and prepare community, your role in that, in the cultivation of young men, because what's going on in our city, in that space to

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 20:39
lead by example, shouts out to all the groups who are focusing on me and Sean Tory, I'm a proud member of the 100 Black Men, to all of the groups who really, really roll up their sleeves and spend extra time with Our young men. Our families need us. At Nehemiah, I'm unapologetically focusing on making sure when people walk through the door they see me and standing and serving. A lot of my life is built around this. When I was in elementary school, my principal the late Jimmy Randolph, he stood maybe 642, 150 pounds in the 70s, this is a big man, but every day he wore a suit, and he was in charge of the school, and so I wanted to be like him. He would walk into the classroom and say, This is your speech. Learn it. He never asked me, you're going to be in this play. I want you to be in this particular workshop. Sometimes I was the only black kid, but he had such an influence on my life, and I want men to have that influence on our little boys, where they say, You know what, just like and this isn't to take anything away, but the same way a child says, I want to be like LeBron. I want them to say, I want to be like that Dad, I want to be like that Grandfather, I want to be like that school teacher, because whatever space we're in, we should be people of influence, men of influence.

Tanya Flanagan 22:08
And it's so it's not that it's easy to do, but yet it is so easy to do. I was in a conversation recently, and someone was talking about my dad and how for the longest they didn't know my dad's name. They just knew him his daddy, a really good friend of mine, Eric James, and if you ever you know, if you tune in to other shows the grind, he does the grind here on 91.5 and I actually was a guest on the grind about a week or so ago. And in his introduction, he said, as a friend, it we're a lot more like family. And he net, he realized, after knowing me for 20 years, he didn't know my dad's name. My dad is 86 will be 87 in November. I didn't know your dad's name. I just knew him as Daddy. And it was the sentence he lost his father to young at a young age. And so the sense of having that male figure to to connect with and to serve as and my dad for me, for anyone who knows me, daddy Flanagan is a measure of morality and a pillar not far from perfect, a man who's made many mistakes, but a man who stuck and who stayed and did his due diligence to make sure things were provided for, for his family, and lived as an example and taught the lesson that your Name is important, and what you do, your character speaks, you know, volumes to who you are. And I've tried to grow because it takes time to grow to to stand in those types of shoes, to be honest, what you're going to do, do it, what you're not going to do, tell people that's right. You know, you just nothing special, just, he's a good, solid, hard working everyday. You know, retired union dad who took care of his family, but what he said he was going to do carpenters and laborers, he did. That's right, and I think that is sets an example, you know, for who we should want to be and how we should want

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 23:54
to be. And look at you. Look at who you are. You are a woman of principle and integrity. I share with whether it's the church or the community, I wish every little girl had a dad, a big brother, and then that cousin who's just not afraid of anybody. That's just one of my personal wishes in life.

Tanya Flanagan 24:13
I love having I have two I have two brothers, and I love that I have I don't have sisters, but I love that I have two brothers and I am the youngest of three kids, and it was different. Having it made me tougher in a different way, but it also made me safe in a different way, you know. And I had a powerful, crazy conversation the other day. My niece, child was here, and I prepared brunch for them. We also talked about how much we both love brunch, but I prepared what they said. I gave them a sleeping pill because they couldn't even move. I did a real quick I did pancakes with a blueberry reduction, compound reduction that I created on the fly with. Put a little Jack Daniels in it for flavor, some agave, water, cinnamon, lemon, cooked it down, put it over the pancakes with. Breakfast, potatoes, eggs, the whole nine, right? But we had this powerful conversation about relationships, and one of the things that came out of it was the influence my dad has had and what that can do in life as a woman. When you're choosing a maid and choosing a path, it can make it sometimes more difficult than not. But still, I tip my hat to him for all that he did, and not that my mom did any less. She's just been gone for a really long time, and so my dad and I have been together in the 26 years that I lost my mom when I was 29 I don't want to lose the opportunity, though, for people to know how to follow you and things that you're doing, and so we're in the last three and a half minutes of the show. So I want to make sure you give them

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 25:38
that I'm easy. You can find me on all my social media platforms. Kelsey West, K, E, L, C, E, y, West. I keep it simple. You are and this is my this is my word. I'm Google. Yes, I made that word up. Watch this just like you know, you celebrate your mom. I lost my mom a decade ago, but I'm proud when you Google my name. Good things come up. And so whether it's the tours, anything I'm doing in the community, please feel free sir, ma'am, to reach out to me,

Tanya Flanagan 26:10
absolutely, because you do a lot. And folks, it's for kids, yes. So you know that's they are our future. There's that we could talk about the separation of connection. When I used to do a lot of just grassroots stuff for kids, people would say, How can I help you? I would say, come over and give some of your time. And sometimes it would be like crickets, right? Like there's the disconnect of now I'm I don't know 35 or 40, and I don't know how to relate to the kid, but just time spent right building that relationship, and that connection allows you to be a mentor member by Pastor saying back in the day, you never know when someone is watching you. That's right. It cannot. You could just be a little girl that you see going into the grocery store who sees you. And I've seen little girls see me like after work, you know, in the business attire, and get out to run in a grocery store, and the little girl face lights up. It's almost like she saw a living Barbie doll go by and you, I, it always makes me comes to mind that that he said, You never know when someone's watching you. That's right. Always be mindful of the self that you are putting forward. Always last woman in 45 seconds. Um, had some So, had some fun finding out things about you. Favorite food because I just french fries. I get that. I see that most amazing place you've traveled to, or where you want to

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 27:27
go, Greece. I've been to Greece. Have

Tanya Flanagan 27:29
been Italy. I've been to Italy. I feel like I want to eat my way through Italy. Italy.

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 27:34
Italy was fabulous. Greece was fabulous. Africa, the Safari, fabulous,

Tanya Flanagan 27:40
awesome. Most favorite place in Nevada, most beautiful place in Nevada. I don't know if you've been from the top to the bottom. Have you been to the top? You've been to the top, but have you been to the tip of that top? Musty

Rev. Dr. Kelcey West 27:51
is the rocks. It's when you drive down to 95 on your way to mesquite. Oh, the painter rocks. Yes. You know, I used to do weddings over there. It's beautiful.

Tanya Flanagan 28:02
Oh, that's beautiful. I have not seen those. I wrote about those in communications for the county. Um, I think Lake Tahoe takes the spot for me, though, after being up in Carson City, and then it's 25 minute, folks from Carson City, you just run up and have lunch. And it's just amazing place to go up and have lunch. It is amazing that rain and snow put that God is amazing, right? It is just amazing. So on this Sunday morning, my birthday, July 20, I just want to say thank you for spending some time with me, the Reverend, Dr Kelsey, west of Nehemiah, ministries and so much more. It's been a pleasure to have you in the studio today. Enjoy this day. God bless you too. Thanks. Tune in next time, folks, 91.5k U, M, B, jazz and more. I want to thank you for tuning into 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 Tonya Almaty Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu. Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai