Lil Afrika Mentoring & Resource Center

I used to do interviews and media for our local hip hop artists here, so that was my name. Loudd, get the word out. Loudd means a lot of things. I tell people, Loudd is a noun, it's a verb, it's a adjective. It's everything. It's in your face, it's to be seen. That's what I get the name Loudd from.

I'm originally from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Born and raised there. Came to Gainesville in 1990, [19]91 after I had my son in [19]89. Back and forth. In and out. Back and forth. I would live in Gainesville, go back to New Jersey. Live in Gainesville, go back to New Jersey. Couldn't make up my mind. Because when you're born and raised somewhere, that's your home. And that's where you wanna be. Finally made a decision to stay here when my daughter was born in [19]96, because things were getting really bad where I was from. So I said, "Okay. I need somewhere safe." Mainly for my son. I didn't want him to fall to the gangs and to the streets and stuff. He was with his dad at the time, so I figured whenever he wants to come back home, he would have somewhere where he wouldn't have to be subjected to those things. Then, I decided to stay in Gainesville permanently. So, my daughter, she was born here. Born and raised here, always lived here. She's never lived anywhere else. She was here. And my son, when he came back to Gainesville with me, he went to Westwood Middle School and he went to Gainesville High School. Then, from on, he was here in Gainesville. And so, I just settled here. I settled here because Gainesville is a nice town. Not too city, not too country. Just in the middle. Just enough. I really feel like Gainesville, at the time—and still now, a little—this is a great place to raise children. If your parenting is good. [Laughter] Right? This is a great place to raise children, and so I decided to stay here, in Gainesville. My home. I've been here for thirty plus years now.

Well, it makes you feel neglected. That's what it makes you feel like. It just makes you feel neglected, like nobody cares. Because, for me, just experiencing Gainesville the way that I experienced it, and from going to a lot of meetings—and being involved in the local political system here, it's like every time money gets handed out it seems like the money runs out when it comes to certain neighborhoods. You know, there's no money. We have to have money. Nobody wants to invest. And so the neighborhoods stay the same. So if the neighborhoods stay the same, and the decline is bad, then you feel bad. You feel just like your neighborhood looks. When you come out, you just don't feel it. At all. But then when you go to the other side, on the West side of Gainesville, you feel different. I know I do! This past week was my birthday. I usually wanna go out West and go to the stores and to the restaurants and things. But I would prefer to be Out East with my friends. But there's nowhere for us to go, really. And nowhere for us to hang out and have a good time. Just a little girls time, or however we do. But when you go Out West, it's like a whole different experience now. So, yeah, the feeling that you have when you're in neighborhoods that are declining is way different when you go to the other side. I believe that the mind and the body responds to its environment. And that's exactly what happens.

What makes me proud to be a part of East Gainesville? Well, I've lived—let's make this straight. I've lived all over Gainesville. I've lived Out West, I lived Northwest, I lived Out East, I lived Southeast. I was struggling. Just, single mom, you know what I'm talking about. Making it day to day. I've lived in a lot of different places. I've lived with people. East Gainesville. Because that's where the homies are. Like, for real. All your friends and people you see. I see me. You know? Our culture. What we talk about, how we dress, what we—you know what I'm saying? Everything is Out East. So, when I'm out there, even though the environment might not be the best—but the people are the best. We are the best. [Laughter] We really love each other. We know each other. Everybody knows everybody. Hey, how you doing? You always feel like you don't have to watch what you say or watch what you do. We connect with one another. We really, really do. So, that's what makes me feel proud about Out East. Because no matter what's going on over there, we got it going on over there. So that's family right there. And even though I'm not from here, and I've been here for thirty plus years, the people that I know, and my friends, and how we—relationships I have developed over the thirty years. That's family. You just have to go and see them. So, Out West—I have some homies Out West, too. But it's just a different feel. It's a whole different feel. I love Gainesville, period. I love the whole Gainesville. This is my city. This is where I live, and this is me. This is Gainesville.

I mean, it's growing. And it's taking—slowly, but surely. It's growing. We going through a lot. We go through a lot of growing pains. But it's exciting, because it's trending. And people know about it. Even though we have this building that's not open. Right? But people know about it. "Oh, Lil Afrika?" Lil Afrika, Lil Afrika. Because, you know... we believe. We believe. So how do you expect for people to believe if you don't believe? So, we believe. And it's exciting to me. It's exciting. Some days you get discouraged. And then other days you feel real hopeful something will happen. But it's the people who need the services of Lil Afrika is what keeps me going. That's what makes me excited about it. Because they need the services, and I can't wait until things are completed and finished, whatever that may look like. Because I know that the people need it and that they're going to benefit from it. Yeah.

Why host events outside on the property of Lil Afrika, before having the building?

Okay. So that was a statement that Julius Long and I made. Even though the building is not open, we was like, "We can still do things in the community right here on this property." If we have this and there's nothing here, and we feel empowered to do something when we don't have, then we can teach other people how to be empowered when they don't have. And so that was the purpose of us having things at Lil Afrika without the building being up to par. And we did that. We had Christmas drives, we had the farmers market. We've had food, we gave away food. I remember when it first kicked off, we had a—I don't know which hurricane it was, but I did the "check your neighbor." And we went around to neighborhoods and helped them clean up. And that was a station right there where people could have food. We gave away food. To show people, "Look. Even though you're lacking resources here in your community, and you're lacking some opportunities, let us show you how to be empowered so that you can provide some of those things on your own." Because that's what we're doing. No, we don't have a building—the building is not open. Nope, we don't have lights. And no, we don't have running water. And no, you can't go in there and sit down and use the computer, but guess what? We gonna be outside. And whatever it is that we need to be outside for you, this is what we gonna do. Because we wanna show you that we gonna love you in the building, but we gonna love you outside the building too. And so that was just a real big statement, and I felt that if others could see it like that, they could really understand why me and Julius decided just to have stuff on the outside. Because you hear people all the time, "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get yourself together." Well, that's what me and Julius was doing. That's what we're doing now. We're pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and we're getting to do what we need to do. Regardless of the building. Regardless of if you can go inside or not. Hey, we gonna get us a generator, and we gonna get some electric going on, and we gonna do what we need to do for the communities. So, that's what it was. Just to show the community that they can be empowered even when they don't have anything. You can still do something.

Yeah, people were surprised. They would come by and they'd be like, "Oh, I didn't know that building was open!" Well, it's not. [Laughter] But we're out here. We've gotten, "This is really good. Y'all keep doing this." Because people in underserved communities, they look for consistency. They don't wanna see you here one day, and then don't see you again for three months. So you get the, "Come back. Keep doing this. Thank you. We appreciate you doing this out here." And it wasn't for a specific person, or a specific group. It was for everybody. And so they really appreciated it. People just walking down the street. Sometimes we would just have something. And we wouldn't even announce it. And people can just come up and you can join in. So it was about love. This is our community. It's kinda like going in your house, and you sit down on the couch, and you turn on a movie? That's kinda like what Lil Afrika was doing. "Come on, let's go home and let's see what we can do at home." And that's what we did. That's what we did.

It has changed my life. It has enlightened me to a lot of things, good and bad. It really, really has. It has opened up my eyes to people. Good people, and not so good people that have not good intentions. It has made me see the people in my community in a whole different light. Yes. We have accountability, that we need to be accountable for. Oh, yes, most definitely. I would never skip over that. But at the same time, it made me really see, they just wanna know that somebody cares. That somebody is going to be there, regardless of their indiscretions. Regardless of what they've done and the mistakes that they have done. We all have made mistakes in our life. I know I have made some choices in my life that wasn't so great. Honey, believe me. I have. But to know that somebody is there, just to say, "Hey. I'm here. So what you need?" Right there in your community. Lil Afrika has opened up my eyes to see that we need everybody in order to make this work. We do. We need everybody in order to make this work. And even though we may argue and fight and not like each other sometimes, that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because the goal is for us to fix our communities. That's the goal. And I really, truly do believe that in everyone's hearts in the community, that they really want change. They just don't know how. So we're all just really trying to figure it out together. Lil Afrika also taught me that I don't always have to be a leader. The people lead. This is their community. So you go in and you join in, and the people lead. And they teach you—we all are leaders. And we're all gonna figure out what we want in our community. So there's really no leader. There can be a facilitator, a host, somebody that gets to start it going. But the main ingredient to all this is the people in the community. And Lil Afrika has really taught me that. That this is their street. This is their community. And what do they want? I like that. Julius used to always say this. We gonna give the people what they wanna do. And that's really important when you know that you have somebody that's willing to listen to you. To say, "Okay. What do you want? What do you need? What can we do to get this started?" That's what us being outside was a starter. How can we get the people to come out here, so then they can begin to tell us what they want? It's kinda like baiting. And I know that sounds horrible, but sometimes you have to do that. People have to know that they trust you, first of all. So they just not gonna start coming up to you and telling you. They not gonna do that. They have to know, "Hey, yo, they cool. They cool." So when the center is up and running, we can go right on over there and get what we need. They need to know that they have a space and it's safe, and we can go and we can talk, and we can just let it all out. Right here. Because we trust them. And we have transparency with them. So this is where we need to be. I mean, we need five or six community centers in that neighborhood if you ask me. And we could all do different things. So if you got Lil Afrika, and then you have Blue Center across the street, it be like, "Wow. We got two centers. I can go over here; I can go over there." You can cross-reference. So it's about the people and what they need. The more that you think about them while you're giving, it just makes the experience even more great. It just does.

Well, with Lil Afrika when it's up and running, we wanna do a resource and mentor center. And an entrepreneur program. And so what that would look like is, on the inside would be resources. Far as, if you need a GED, we can tell you where you need to go. If you need to use a computer, if you need to get food, if you need to get clothes. If you need to come and fax something. Anything that you need for that day, to do. If you need to look up, see how you can apply at Santa Fe, or if you wanna apply for a job. Anything like resources, like that. The entrepreneurship program, which Julius would do—he's going to want to have a car wash or something outside, so that anybody who needs to make money for the day, could come and get a job for the day. When you need some money for the day, come on and wash this car. And start to teach them how to do different things. There's more to making money than just standing on the corner. The mentoring program, that part is my part. [Laughter] Lil Afrika will have a mentoring program. A mentor/mentee program. And the mentors will be from the community. They will be people that you see every day that have gone through things and who have seemed to shift their lives in a different direction. And they will be mentoring people their age, or close in their age group. And mentoring them, to try to shift them in a different way. Because it's about changing mindsets first. And the way that you change a mindset, is you have to get in there. So you have to have somebody, a mentor, who is transparent. And who understands you. So, I wouldn't put a fourteen-year-old young man with a thirty-year-old man. Even though that could work. But, you know, it would work better if I had a fourteen-year-old young man and a sixteen-year-old young man who has gone down that road, or decided not to keep going down that road and turn the other way. And he could mentor that fourteen-year-old. They have something in common, they're young, they know all the little slang languages, you know what I'm saying? They know what's going on. And then, there you are. So, mentorship for adults also. Especially we women in the communities. We go through so many things in our communities. We are just raising children, working every day, coming home, just putting up with the struggles. And sometimes life just gets to you, and you just need someone to talk to. And we also through things. And we also make mistakes. And we also trying to get up off the ground. So it's nothing like having a sister talking to you, that have been through the same things that you've been through. Whose life has shifted in a different direction, and you can talk to them and mentor them, and help them, and guide them. And have lunch with them, and do things. And try to get them to see a different perspective. I believe that people change people. People help people change, if the person wants to be changed. So, people need people. When you put people together, wonderful things can happen. The mentor program is people in the neighborhood. Regular people that just wants to come up and say, "Hey. I'm ready. I can mentor someone and talk to someone." It's nothing like talking to somebody that understands where you're coming from. And then people always say, "Well, what does that look like? Explain that to me." I'm gonna explain that to you. I can get someone from University of Florida who has a doctorate in social work and sit and it can be a mentor. Or somebody who is working at a big company who's a mentor. And sit down and talk to a fifteen-year-old young Black man. And they sit there and they're talking. But as this fifteen-year-old young man is talking to this person, they're gonna want you to break it down, and explain it to me. But if that fifteen-year-old young Black man is sitting talking to a seventeen-year-old young Black man, and he starts talking about his life and what he's going through, and what's going on, and all this kind of stuff. And he look at him, and he be like, "Man, you know what I'm saying." That seventeen-year-old is gonna say, "You know what, I know what you're saying." He doesn't have to go any further. He knows exactly what he's talking about. He knows exactly what he's going through and what he's thinking, and why he's thinking it. Because he's been there before. But he has shifted his life. So he can really be transparent with this young man. This young man can—"Yo, yo. He's cool, man. I trust him. He know what I'm talking about." Because we wanna know that. I wanna know that you feel me. I don't wanna know that you just sitting there, just listening to me. I need to know that you understand. In some kinda way that I feel. So, I feel that mentor programs like that are more effective in people's lives. And that's something that Lil Afrika wants. You're gonna come home, and you're gonna get some mentoring. So that's what Lil Afrika mentorship is about. It's about that.

I hope it inspires them... change. I hope it inspires them to go out and do the same thing. To help people. I hope it inspires them to take care of their neighborhoods. I hope it inspires them to just go out and go into this great big world, and know that they can go out here and they can do anything that they wanna do. And you can! You can. When you have people who love you. When you have a neighborhood who nurtures. When you have neighborhood centers and community members and leaders. When you have people who genuinely, really want to help. Who really wanna see you grow. Who really wanna see you make it. And you feel that? You're gonna make that person feel like they can go out and they can do anything, and they gonna see that. They're gonna feel that from you. They know that you're not just going through a process. "Oh, they're just here, they just wanna do this." No. They really care. So that sparks something in someone. To go out and be the best that they can be. And that's what I'm hoping to inspire. Be the best that you can be. Let your neighborhoods be the best that they can be. You change the narrative in your neighborhood. You do, not us! We're just here to facilitate that narrative that you may have. But you change your neighborhoods. This is what you do. So, we're here to help you change the narrative in your neighborhood. So what do you wanna do? What do you see this looking like? Do you wanna leave? Do you wanna stay? What is it that you wanna do? And so that's what Lil Afrika is. That's what we do. We help facilitate the narrative for the people in the community.

Well, yes. So, Lil Afrika's for everybody. The youth, older generation, millennials, X-Generation. It's for everyone. And the way that we do that, especially with the mentor program, like I explained earlier, is that we bring people of the same generations together to help one another. You have to understand that you are living in times where... everybody's not the same age and everybody don't come from the same generations, right? So different generations need different things. Because when you look at underserved communities, especially underserved Black communities—because that's where I'm from, so I'm talking about underserved Black communities. There are generational things that have gone on for so long. And it's kinda like a recipe. That's what it is. It's like a recipe. And the recipe has been working for all these generations. We finally got it. And then we get to this certain point where we just put too much oil. It's like poison in the cookies. And so the poison is getting more potent each generation. To the point where we're like, "Oh, god! This is getting out of hand." And so, the younger generation doesn't want the same thing that the older generation wants. Millennials don't want the same things that older generations want. Older generations don't want the same thing that the younger generation want. Everybody's vision for their community is different, but if you still come together as a collective, we can grow this thing. That has all these many different things. The younger generation are more visual. They wanna see things. They are instant gratification. We want it now, we wanna see it now. This is what we wanna do. But they are more... they are very inspirational. They just see things. And they just want it to happen. And, you know what, with the right mentoring and the right people in their corner, you'd just be surprised. These young—they just blow my mind sometimes when you sit down and you talk to them. The way they see things, and what they want things. They just need somebody just to help them grow. The older generation, they want the same thing. They wanna see things grow, but they wanna see some things stay in place. And a lot of things are not gonna stay in place, because that's just the way evolution—you can't stop that from happening. Change over time, that's gonna happen. There's nothing that you can do. But you can find ways to feel good about the change that's gonna come. And I think that's what the older generation wants. They wanna feel good about the change that's coming. They wanna know that everything is okay. They wanna know that they're safe, and they wanna know that things are not so much out of order. So, we can learn a lot from older generations. They have been living in the communities longer than us, they have built our communities. They were our community leaders. They were there. They were doing these things, and they learned them from their generations. And generations, and generations, and generations. So, a lot of times community is repetitious. You just want it to keep the repetition. You just wanna keep it going, so we can stay a good neighborhood. But I tell people all the time, sometimes the key to repetition—you have to add a new element. I think when the younger generations are coming in, and they're trying to add new elements to whatever it is that's going on, they get kinda this resistance. Then they start feeling like, "Okay, well, you don't care about what we care about. All you want is what you want. You don't care about what we want." Then you get the older generation, "Well, you know." So then you have this confusion. When, in reality, everybody wants one thing. They want good neighborhoods. They want sustainable communities. And they wanna know that they're safe, and they wanna know that they can keep growing, and they just wanna know that they're gonna be there. This is our communities. This is what we love. And that's all they want. And I figure, there is a way for us to get to that point. We can all do that. Young, the older generation, the middle-aged generation, we can all get to that point. But we just have to find some way where we can all work together. And that's what Lil Afrika wants to do. Lil Afrika wants to bring all ages together and figure out how we all can work together to make our communities thrive. Because it's gonna take all—we all live here. We all live here. So we have to figure out a plan where we can all come together, and make this thing work. Because we don't wanna go anywhere. We don't wanna have to go to another neighborhood and live. I don't wanna have to feel like I have to go to another side of town to live better. Why can't I live better here? So how can we make this happen where we are living good here? In our communities. What does that look like for us? So if it's gonna take a younger generation, and some of the older generation, and some of the middle generation to come together, to make this work out for everybody, then that's what we need to do. That's what needs to take place. Because our communities, they're in trouble. And we need to really, really get it together and do what we need to do to save our communities.

Yes. Right now. We can't wait. We can't wait another two, three, four years down the line. Because too much will happen. We're losing—our people are literally dying. They're dying. If they're going to prison, they're dying. If they're living in poverty, they're dying. If they're struggling really bad and they can't make sense of it, and they full of stress and anxiety, they're dying. So, people are actually dying. So, yes, it is an urgent situation. And we need to have services like this right now. There's something that we need to do now, to go in and rectify the things that's going on in our community. I just can't see five years waiting. "Oh, I'm gonna wait. Five more years." No. They're getting worse by the moment. They're getting worse. People wanna live. They need money! They need money. And that's just the bottom line nowadays. We're in 2019. So let's just be frank with each other. Money is the bottom line. Because money pays the rent. And money pays the bills. And money keeps everything flowing in my life. And when I don't have money, that is a problem. That's a problem, number one. Number two, the problem is that I live in a community where everybody is in the same situation as much as me. The people upstairs, the people downstairs. I go outside, everybody has the same problem. You know? I tell people all the time. Sometimes you are unconsciously flowing into the system of something. Everybody don't live the same. You have people who live in these communities who are homeowners. They have been there. They don't have a problem. They come home. They live good. And that's good, cause everybody don't live the same. And everybody don't see their neighborhoods the same, even people who do live in the neighborhood. They don't see it the same. They look at it different. They look at it as, "Okay, well what I'm gonna do? My opportunity. I can go out here and I can do this." So you have the exception. You have the exceptions. But most people who live in underserved communities are the rule. That's the majority. The rule. It's majority. We have to realize that it's urgent now. We need things right now. So anything that we can do right now to go into the communities and help, that's what we need to be doing. Period. Whatever. If we can do it—so if we have to do it [Laughter] outside of Lil Afrika without a building, well, that's what we did! Because we need help right now. I really felt that us being outside of Lil Afrika without having a building, that made a big statement to me! If you really look at it, from a community point of view. Of course, people was, "Oh, it's people hanging out." Well, people was hanging out there before we decided to have Lil Afrika in the first place. But we were trying to bring that positivity. Hey, we wanna have something positive going over there. And what better way to show somebody that you wanna have something positive over there, is just going over there and just doing something positive. That's what we did! You know, yes, there was gonna be something negative over there. When you have negative and positive things—you're gonna have that. But eventually, they would've seen, "Okay. They trying to change it." They have to see the change coming on. You know, these people live, this is their community. And even though you may look at it, or someone else may look at it, they've been out there. This is their home, they've been hanging out there. This is their home. This is their community. But when you gradually put a change in the neighborhood, and they start to see positively, they'll get the picture. When you just rush in there and you just do it and move everybody out—"Move out the way! This is what we doing. We don't care where you go, what you do. You gotta get out of here. You either do this or you do that." And it's like, "Wait a minute!" It's like being in shock. It's like wait a minute, wait a minute. This is our neighborhoods, too. Did you tell me? Did you send out a letter or a notice? Did you tell me? "No, no, you gotta move. Get out of here. We gonna do this with this building, and it's not gonna be none of this no more." You know? It's kinda like raising your child. You've been letting your child eat chocolate every morning for breakfast. This child has been eating this chocolate every morning for breakfast to the point where the child don't even ask you no more. They get up, they go in the kitchen, and they get this big bowl of chocolate. They fix it every morning. They eat it. They like it, they been eating it every morning for years! And then one day, you come in there and you be like, "You're not eating this no more. Just give it to me. I'm taking it. And you're not eating it no more." Instead of just gradually, you understand what I'm saying? Explaining to them. This is why you can't eat the chocolate no more. And this is what's happening to you. And so we're gonna do this. And we're gonna work to get it to where you be eating fruits and vegetables, and different things. And that's the same way that you have to do with the community. You have to gradually go in there and talk to them. Because a lot of them do not understand what they need to be accountable for. How can you expect for people in the community to be accountable, when they don't know what they need to be accountable for? Because they don't know! They really don't know. Some of them know, but a lot of them don't know what they need to be accountable for. So you need to talk to them, and you need to show them. People say, "Oh, I'm not into holding anybody's hand." Well, I am. And that's what Lil Afrika does. They will hold people's hands through the process. Some people need their hand held through the process. And so when you've been living in a underserved community for so long, where you don't see anything—there's nothing over there. Right? But a store. And we won't talk about the store. And a Blue Center that is open during the week, but you don't go over there. And then you see poverty and blight and abandonment. And you see good houses. There's good houses over there now, I'm telling you. In the Duval neighborhood. It's good houses in Sugarhill neighborhood. It's good houses over in Village Green, that neighborhood, Highland Court. It's some good. But when you come out and you see this spot that is destitute for so long, you have to begin to think. What am I really fighting for? I'm gonna be accountable, and then what's gonna happen? You have to explain, you have to walk them through the process of accountability. What does accountability look like? How do I achieve being accountable? So, tell me what that look like and what is it that I need to do. That's one thing that Lil Afrika would've did. Cause a lot of people don't know what they need to be accountable for. Some of them will tell you, "Man, whatever." You understand what I'm saying? They don't understand the process. -Once we start to change mindsets, and helping people learn what accountability is, and how they can achieve accountability, then we will be able to fix our neighborhoods. Then we will be able to go into our communities and start to change things. But for now, they do what they see. So if you go outside every day and this is all you see, this is what you see. Some people see different. Some people will look at 8th Avenue and Duval, or they go into certain neighborhoods in Gainesville, even Out West, and they say, "I see flowers, and trees." Cause I do! I see a lot of lovely people, and I see friends. I do. I see that. But everybody don't see that. Everybody doesn't see that. They see neglect. They see we've been promised and we don't get. We see some people get and some people don't. We see that we don't matter over here, because this is what we feeling. This is what we see, so we feel what we see. It might not be the situation, but you cannot dismiss how someone feels. So, this is what we see. We're being neglected over here. Even though some people may say, "Well, it's their fault. If they would've act right, and this and this and this." Well, no, no, no, no. No. That's not the right way to say things. So even though you may see it that way, they see it as being neglected. Aw, man, how many times I've heard people just riding around, hanging out, chilling. Not everybody, but, "Man, they don't care nothing about over on this side of town. They don't care if we have anything. They don't care, they don't care. You go up there and you fight at the city hall all the time. For what?" For what? There's really some people that feel that way. And then I have people that are hopeful. Something is gonna happen! We're gonna get something over here. It's coming. And I can't wait until it gets here. And I can't wait to see it because I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. And that's a good way to see things. You have to get into people's heads and say, "Hey. Even though it looks like this now, you have it in you to be empowered. To change how this looks, and see it from a different point of view." So instead of you looking over there across the street and seeing this slab, look across the street and see a resource center. And let that drive you. Look across the street and see flowers. And let that drive you. Look down the street and see kids playing in the street. And see your neighbors outside going to work, and people are thriving in their neighborhoods. When you go outside, try to see that. And that will drive you to change. That will drive you to wanna change your communities. We have to try to get people to see a different point of view. And that is trying to change a mindset. Not to always look at the negative, but to look at the positive aspect of what is a negative. So, if we can do that, then we can be able to begin to change our neighborhoods. We have to do that. And that's our job. That's us who live in the communities, that's our job. Is to go into our communities with the people, and get them to see the positive. To get them to see the flowers instead of the dirt. To get them to see a resource center instead of an abandoned building. To get them to see children playing in the streets instead of children staying in the house, because their parents don't want them to come outside, because they don't want them to see that. So, that's our job. As we coming into the neighborhood. Grassroots leaders, that's your job. Is to get the people to see the positive. Even though the negative is there, get them to see the positive. And that's how action starts. And that's how we begin to move people in our communities. And that's how we'll be able to go and accomplish getting us some justice for our communities. And that's just how I feel.

Oh! I am. I can't really see myself—I could see myself doing a lot of things. I want to go back to school. I do. I'm gonna go back to school. I do wanna travel. But, this is what I do. Cause this is what I love doing. Because I love the people. Well, this is where my heart is. I do this for the people. I don't do this for me. I don't do this to get glory, or be on TV, or to get an award. I don't do it for that. I do it for the people. When I ran for office, it wasn't simply about winning. It wasn't about that. It was about showing people in my community, and showing people that I encountered every day—showing people in the neighborhoods, look! You can do it, too! Just get up and just do it! Showing them that you can be a leader. That you can run for office. That you can be here, and you can make decisions, and you can make sure that your community is okay. That you can start the process of maneuvering your communities to thrive. You can do that! This is what this is about. You don't have to be this person that went to college and did all these things. You don't have to be that. You can run for office. You can stand up for your community and say enough is enough! What's going on? That's the reason that I ran for office. Enough is enough. What's going on? Okay. I'm just gonna throw myself in here. And that's what I did. I was scared. I was confident. I was happy, I was sad. I didn't know. But all I knew, was that I needed to go through it. That I needed to do that for the people, not for me. That wasn't for me. I need to do that for the people. I need to let them see that win, lose, or draw, I was there for you. Period. And that's it. I was there for you. I did it. I went all the way to the end and would do it again if I had to. But next time, if we do it again, we gonna be a little bit smarter about some of the things that we did. But when you are in the community, and if you're not in it for the people, and really to change communities—like, you really care about what they think, and how they feel, and how they live, and how they see? I feel we need more politicians like that, period. That's why I was so in love with Andrew Gillum. Because he showed us how we can have politicians that we can relate to. Somebody that relates to us. He gets it. Yeah, he understands. And we need more people like that sitting in office. We need more people. It gives us hope. Makes us wanna go out and vote. I know a lot of people that voted, that have never voted. But they voted. Why? Because he had transparency with the people! No matter where he was at. And I thought that was just a breath of fresh air. It just really, really was. And it got more people to get out and vote. It really, really did. So, there you go. There you have it. We need a lot of Andrew Gillums in office. That's what we need, like truly. Andrew Gillums in office. We don't need no people who say they're progressive, and you're not working for other communities to be progressive. Like, only your community is progressing. Mine's not. But we need that. We need more politicians like that. More people who actually care. People who look like the people. Who have lived like the people. Who can go in there and say, "Hey! They matter. So how we gonna start to include them in this right here?" When are we gonna start including them? Because they pay taxes, too. And so there's a lot of taxpayers in communities Out East. And a lot of taxpayers in communities Out West. And I'm quite sure that the taxpayers Out East, who live in Lincoln Estates, Sugarhill, Springhill, Porters, Highland Court area, all that area, they wanna see their tax money work for them. The people Out West are seeing their tax money work for them. So I'm quite sure they wanna see their tax money work for them. Because they pay taxes, and they deserve to see that. They deserve to see, "Okay. What's next? What's coming over here? What are we going to do?" So that's what it's about. It's about our tax money working for us in our schools. Our tax money working for us in our streets. Our tax money working for us everywhere. For us. Whoever lives over there. Black, White, Spanish, it doesn't matter. Whoever works or whoever lives over there, we wanna see the tax money work for East. Out East. Not their East. So there's two Easts. There's their East, which is College Park, Depot Park, Porters, let me see. Up a little bit. Springhill. That's their East. We talking about Out East. We talking about cross Waldo Road East. That's what we're talking about. We need to see our tax money come across that big old red line that you got. Right? We need to see the money come across that line right there. That's what we need, and that's what we want. And so, people are looking forward to that. And I'm hoping that change will come sooner than later. But justice is something that is not given. It is something that you have to work for. So you're gonna have to go out there and we gonna have to take it. Gonna have to take us some good old justice. For our community. That's how that goes.

We have had our ups and downs. With people. And Lil Afrika. I don't think that the concept of Lil Afrika was welcomed too much at first. Via City or whomever else may. I think that they think that Lil Afrika was just a place where we wanted to gather and just hang out, instead of seeing the bigger picture. Because they didn't know what me and Julius' plans were, or what we talked about, or what we had planned for over there. I think the resistance is always gonna be with something that will truly change a community. It's always gonna be some kinda resistance, right? That's a good piece of land right there. So I don't care what it looks like. It could have a whole bunch of trash bags and garbage all over it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at that corner and say, "Hey. This is a good piece of land right here." So we know that attraction. I don't think people know what our vision is, and what our goal is. And because we think so different than others who are doing things in Gainesville, because our vision is different—we have a lot of resistance. "Oh, they don't know what they doing." Or, "They don't know what they want." Or, "They just over there." But they don't know. We are truly for the people. Like, for the people, not for you. This is not for you! You understand what I'm saying? This is for the people. And so we just go through holy hell. We just really do. People don't understand what we go through. And we go to the meetings. We go to meeting after meeting. You can't believe everything that you hear. I tell people all the time. You can't believe it. Julius has done what he needed to do. He put the trespass signs out there. He cleaned it up. He provided a job for people out there. He would pay people to clean up! "You need some money? Here, I'm gonna pay you." Instead of people coming over there saying, "Hey. How can we help you? Anything. How can we help you?" And we had a couple of people say that. How can we help you? But, let's get this up. Cause we need Lil Afrika. And we need the Blue Center. We need both of these centers in this area right here. It's more than enough work in that area to go around, like I said earlier, for five or six community centers. So how can we help them? When we have things come, how many events we had where they didn't show up. We let you know we having it, you're not there. But we go to every meeting you ask us to go to. Go to this meeting, go to that meeting. We're there trying to get ideas. Did you come out to support? Or did you tell your friends so they can come out and support? Because, see, numbers speak. So when you get a lot of people in a spot, and they're there for a positive event, numbers speak. And people start to see, and things start to grow. That's all we was asking for. Hey, we gotta get the people out and let them know that something positive is going on over here. Bring attention. We had a strategy, right? And we still do. We still do have a strategy. But it doesn't matter, because once we get up and running, and once we continue to put forth what we are, we welcome everybody. And we don't care who you are. The City, the County, the school board. Any center, any groups, organizations. We welcome everybody. We wanna work with everybody. But it's about the people. So that's what I meant when I said I'm tired of meeting. I'm tired of going to meetings. I'm ready for some action to take place, because the people need that. So, we ready. You wanna have something? Let's go! Let's do it! Let's do it right now. Let's go. The people need us right now. Let's do this. So it's always, "Oh, you gotta do this." We done that! We been doing that—excuse me—we've been doing that shit for years. We've been talking and talking and talking and talking, and meeting and meeting, and this person and that person. And do this workshop. And nothing's changed! It's the same! Nothing has changed. Nothing. Nothing. I have not seen one person in these neighborhoods—and my friends call, cause when they come, they'll call. "Who's this? Who's this knocking on the door?" They do that. I seen some people, but those are not the people that's always at the meetings that I seen that's out in the community. They have their groups. They come out into the community and try to—Indivisible Gainesville, they're one. Good group. I like them. They come out. Have I seen any other groups? Nope. I don't know. I've seen candidates canvass, when it's voting time. Bu—t anybody like a mass movement to come into the communities, and just organize and get people together? No! I haven't seen it yet. Me, neither. I'm just gonna be honest with you. I haven't been able to put together a big enough force to go knock on all the doors you want to. So sometimes you feel like you have to go knock on doors by yourself. And I have done it before. Just go by yourself, and knock on the door and talk to people. Or be at settings where people are. Because I hang out in those settings, so I can always talk. But we just need some action. We need to see some soon. We can't wait another two, three years. We just can't. I'm telling you right now, you can't. You cannot. You can't. And during those two years while you are waiting for something to happen in these communities, and nothing is being done—nothing. No mentoring, no resources, no opportunities, nobody coming in, no accountability. Whatever the City responsibility is, they're not doing their part. You're gonna see things get worse. And all you're gonna do is just see people dying and being hauled off to jail. Now, who wants to see that? That's not something to see. No, you can't arrest these problems away. You can't put all these problems in jail and lock them up. You can't—just seeing people dying, or people hungry. Or people just struggling day-to-day, trying to make it. You can't do that. You have to put something out there for them to be able to benefit from these changes that are coming—that are here in Gainesville! The change is already here. So how can we benefit from these changes? And we need immediate relief. We need a short-term goal that's gonna lead us to a long-term goal. That's what we need right now. Cause we need to see something right now. Because right now, a lot of them is not seeing it. They're just not seeing it. Right? So while you have people who are working in the community with people, like me—and we have so many other good people that work in the community. We have Jhody Polk, we have Chanae Baker, we have groups like Indivisible Gainesville. The Alachua County Labor Coalition. We have the 4A's. We have Black Men United. There are so many groups out here. So while we're out here trying to change mindsets, put on events, getting to the people—getting them ready so when you do need them, they'll know how to attend these meetings. They'll know how to be empowered to stand up, and stand up for their neighborhoods. They'll know what to say, and how to say it, and how to ask for it, and what to do. Because right now, they don't know. So, we get them ready, and then we push them forward, and then they can grow. That's what we need. We need that. A lot of people say, "Oh, you don't go to the meetings?" Well, a lot of them—what are they gonna go to the meeting for? They don't know what you're talking about. So when you say an affordable housing meeting. Let's go! Let's go to the affordable housing meeting. And they get there. Let me tell you something. And even with me. If I didn't go to the meetings all the time, and I didn't know what the process was at these meetings—because the process is horrible. And I didn't know what the process was, I only would have two things on my mind. Affordable housing. Okay, are they gonna get affordable housing? And can I live in it? That's it. That's what people wanna know. Well, they getting affordable housing? But for someone to go to a meeting, and have to go through this process, and these... things that you wanna talk about before you get to the main point—people don't wanna hear that. All that fluff. Because that's exactly what it is. Nobody wants to hear all that fluff all the time. We have been dealing with these issues for a long time. So, it's time for us to hear you say, "This is what we got." That's all we wanna know. This is what you got. So in order for you to get people to be able to sit down at the meetings through the fluff—they have to understand what the fluff is. They have to understand when to speak, when not to speak, what to say, what to ask for, and just to stand up. Otherwise, they not going. Because it's just all a big blur. And I go to the meetings, and I'm just gonna let you know. Some of the times it's just a big blur to me, too. I'll be like, "Well, didn't I go to the same meeting last week?" So you get kinda antsy. You get antsy, and you get impatient. You get mad. You get confused. You get hurt. And you feel all these different things, and then you go back home and you be like, "Man, this is crazy right here." This is crazy! You just cannot believe it. You just can't believe it sometimes. But you keep pushing. You keep fighting. Don't stop fighting. Never. [Laughter]

Not a surprise—okay. Now I know how status quo people, how they really... see you, when you're a regular person. We do this over here. We do that over there. I seen how that works. I see that the people who really need to be in the process for change, the people who really can be important elements for the process of change—they don't go out and—they don't come and get those people. There's a lot of people here in this city that would be a very important piece to the puzzle for transformation for a lot of neighborhoods. That can go in and do the work, and it be effective. Positively effective. They can go out and do the work, and get results. But, I've seen—just being in the trenches, they really don't come. It's like, okay you did that, now we got it. We got it from here. And that's how I feel, because that's what I experienced. So, being on both ends. Me being treated different when I was going to all the meetings, and running for office and being in that circle. Now, I'm kinda on the flip side. "So, now she's over there actually in the streets with the people." I see the difference. I experienced it. Which is a good thing for me. Because I've experienced it holistically. I really have. In all aspects. I've been it all. And I see the difference, I know the difference. So I just sit back and I know that it's gonna take for the people in the community—they're gonna have to be the ones to make the move. Because it's not gonna be the people on the other side, that have the positions and the titles and all that. It's gonna be the people who need those resources that's gonna have to make the movement. They're gonna have to be the ones to say, "Okay, look. We have to go and do this." We have to show them this is what we want. We have to show them this is what we're going to do. And it starts with them. It starts with voting. That's number one. It starts with voting. That one street, 8th Avenue, Duval area—that one street can flip a election. If everybody voted. They can flip the house. They could just flip whoever's in there. They could just flip them right on out if they want to. With any candidate. Whomever they choose. They can just flip it. They need to know that they have that power. But they need to know what that power consists of. People's told them that—I've told them that. Right? And other people have said the same thing to me before. But they need to know, well, what does that person do? What can they do for us? What is the job of a commissioner? What is the job of the mayor? What is the job of the county commissioners? What is the school board's job? What does the Department of Doing does? They need to know that. And that's one thing that will be in Lil Afrika too, is a political enlightenment class. We will have those classes. We will teach people what these is. Are you registered to vote? What does it mean to be a registered voter? How do you get registered to vote? Be informed when you're voting. You don't have to be a Democrat. You don't have to be a Republican. You don't have to be an Independent. Whatever. Vote! Put your two cents in it. Once the people realize that these are the tools, they pick up—it's like a toolbox. You ever seen one of them big toolbox that somebody have? They got all these tools in it. And they use the same tools all the time. And then one day, they pick up this tool, and they be like, "I wonder what this is for." That's exactly what it's like. They need to pick up some of the other tools in their toolbox and learn how to use it. And once they learn how to use all the tools in the toolbox, then they will be unstoppable. They will be able to move in their communities. And they will be able to have whatever it is that they want in their communities that they fight for. And if they don't get it, they'll know how to fight for it again. And if they don't get it, they'll know how to compromise. And if they don't get it—you understand? But they'll know how to work it. They'll know how to work this toolbox that they have. And right now, they just don't know how to work the toolbox, and they need someone to teach them how to work the tools in that toolbox. But the person, whoever is teaching them how to work those tools in their toolbox, is going to have to be sensitive. They're gonna have to learn how to be sensitive to their current circumstances that they in. There's a lot of hurt and trauma in them communities. It really, really is. And you have to be sensitive about how they feel, and how they look at things. You just do. And you have to understand why they haven't been able to use these tools. And that's our job, too. So, we go out and that's what Lil Afrika wanna do is teach them how to use everything in their house. We gonna teach you how to do these things. We gonna teach you what you need to do, to be doing what you need to do. That's what Lil Afrika is for. It's home. That's what it is. It's home. Come on home, so you can get the love and the nurturing, and everything that you need. To be empowered. That word, love, is broad. Love means everything. To me, love means everything. Love means work. Love means information. It means giving information, it means sharing information, it means going out doing what you need to do. Because you love the people. So you gonna do all those things with the people because you love them. And you love this community. So if you love the community, automatically you gonna do the work it takes to do what you need to do for the community. I don't have to sit there and say, "Oh. Okay we're gonna do this." No. If I tell you, you're gonna come to Lil Afrika cause we love you. That means we got you! We got you. So whatever your needs are, we got you. In your neighborhood. Cause people always say, "Well, there's other resources and centers out there that they can go to." If I live in a community, and I get up and I send my kids to school one morning, and I have four kids, and I have five dollars to my name—and I paid all my bills. All I have is five dollars. I looked for a job, I can't find one. I just got five dollars. My kids got on the bus and they went to school. Now, I don't have a bus pass. Because I just don't have one. It's never what the reason is, I just don't have one. But if I take this five dollars and I get on a bus, or I call a cab or whatever, I'm spending some of this five dollars and I need this five dollars. Because we don't have any food. And I was gonna walk over to West Coast and get some chicken with this five dollars so I could feed my kids. That's where the resource center comes in. She should be able to send her kids to school—she wanna look for a job or do something. Get dressed, walk out her house, walk across the street, and go to Lil Afrika or go to the Blue Center and get right what she needs right there. Without even having to spend her five dollars. And maybe Lil Afrika can give her a bag of food to take home to go with that chicken. That's what community is. That's what you do. You're helping people climb up that ladder. Some people just need a little boost, and you just help them get up there. But those are the things that people don't realize when people say, "Oh, you need to do what you need to do to go what you need to go." A lot of times, people be in situations where they can't. You don't know what goes on in their house. Only they know their circumstances. So just because that person is in the house doesn't mean that they wanna be in there all day. They might not have access to go where they wanna go. Even if it is the bus, or they can get a free bus pass, or they can ask somebody or however. You got some people that are pretty prideful. Because I know when I was going through a couple things, I was very prideful. I wouldn't ask anybody for nothing. I would drown first, before I would ask you for something. So, just to know that that young lady, or that man, or that whoever, while the kids are in school, can have a place that they can go. Until the kids get out of school. And then go home with a different state of mind. Even if they didn't get a job that day. They could still go home and say, "You know, I was down at Lil Afrika, or I was down at the Blue Center, or I was down at the church today, or whoever had the resources, and I was just looking on the computer at different things." And your mind starts to change. Things start to be implanted inside your brain right there in your community. You don't have to go outside your community to do anything. So these are the things that's needed. That's another reason why we wanted Lil Afrika in the community right there, because that's where it's needed. And they need a lot of Lil Afrikas in each community. I like that. Kinda like SWAG Out West. That is an awesome program. Those women out there, they rock. They really rock out there. We need that out here. Little hubs, so people don't have to go too far. They don't have to feel like—we live in 2019. It's about convenience. [Laughter] Everything is not convenient, but it is what it is. So, why not? Why not use convenience for something positive?

So, we wanted to show documentaries at Lil Afrika because I know with me—we talked about it. And we talked about certain things that changed your mindset. And documentaries change people's mindsets. Cause when you're not looking at something that's scripted, and you're looking at something that's educational, and about somebody's life, and what's going on in your community, you start to think. And so we wanted to say it because mass incarceration is just a monster. And so there's a lot of people in underserved communities right here in Gainesville that's going to jail. They're just in and out, in and out. Or they're just going to jail. And we just really wanted to show them a film that emphasized on the process of mass incarceration. Because in that area right there, a lot of them have experienced incarceration. And so we thought if we show that film out there, that would be something that they could watch. Be enlightened, and help to change the mindset. And they watched it! A lot of them actually—we had the people in the chairs, but across the street at the store, they were standing there watching the movie! They were standing there, and a couple of them walked over there and they sat down and they was watching it. And we don't know what they were thinking about at that time. We don't know what message that they've gotten from watching the 13th. But we wanted that to be our first documentary because that's what's happening over there. That's exactly what's happening over there. The circumstances in neighborhoods like that. We want them to be enlightened about how these things were put in place. A lot of things that were put in place in order for them to end up in jail. I tell people all the time. We are already incarcerated before you get down—before you even get to 39th. Just living in these communities with no resources and no opportunities and no outlets. And just, people who are struggling day-to-day trying to make it. And these coping skills that we have to do in order to survive. We're already incarcerated. We're primed for incarceration. In school, when you hear of in-school suspensions. When you hear of low test scores. And them putting certain children in certain boxes because they didn't pass this test. When you hear about kids getting expelled from school for ten days, or—they're primed for that through systems. So we just wanted to enlighten them a little bit on that. I'm quite sure they're not home watching documentaries at home. They're not. So we figured we'd give them—it's like coming home. What you watching on TV? Well, this is what we're watching today. And a lot of them were watching it. We hope to do—we're going to do a lot more films out there, documentaries out there. So people can come out and watch and be enlightened. Cause like I said, we're dealing with a generation who are visual. They're not gonna go and sit at a meeting and listen to somebody. They're just not gonna do it. I don't wanna do it half of the time! So it's like you got a whole bunch of generations. And we got these ADHD symptoms, and we just don't wanna do it. We need to be stimulated. And focus. Film stimulates. Pictures stimulate. Doing things stimulate. And they stimulate for you to think with your mind, and to do things. So for someone to go to a meeting, just to be going to a meeting, it's just not gonna happen that way. And I realized that through working in the community. Like, when I was running for office knocking on doors, I had this one young lady. She was about twenty-five. She said, "Hey. This is 2018. Don't knock on my door. Knock on my inbox, send me your information." She was like, "You know, you don't have to do that. Just DM me, I know who you are." So we have to realize that times are changing, and we have to take advantage of the changes that are coming. They're not gonna meet you where you are! You have to meet them where they are. You have to meet them where they are. So if they knocking on inboxes, and all on social media, then okay. We'll meet them. You want social media? I'm on social media, too. Hey, did you know about this? Cause you have to meet them where they are. And I really, truly do believe in that. I really true believe that once someone really gets that, then they'll be able to touch a lot of younger folks. Times is changed. Times is changed. We can learn a lot of good things from history. I love history. So many things we learn from history. Cause we don't know where we going, if we don't know where we came from. Yeah. But at the same time, we have to know that things change. And we can still do some of those things, but in a different way. You have to allow for them to do it in their way. You just have to. You have to let them grow in their way. And let them know that it's beautiful. If that's the way that you wanna do things, okay. If it's gonna create change, okay. Let them know that they do matter, and what they think matter. You have to know how to cultivate that. And that's what Lil Afrika wants to do. We wanna get ahold of everybody. Young, adults, older. We want to have grandparents. People who wanna adopt kids [Laughter] to be their grandchildren. And come over and—my grandmother used to be a grandparent at one of the schools. And they loved her so much. And we wanna do that. We wanna get some of the older folks to come and be grandparents, and talk to the kids. You don't have to be a little kid to get a grandparent. Hey, this seventeen-year-old right here, they need a grandma. So we need to do that. It's gonna take all of us to come together and change our communities. And that's how we change it. Together. All of us together, not apart. So that's why I'm excited about Lil Afrika, and that's why I believe in Lil Afrika. And I'll believe in any center, any place, that has a similar concept like Lil Afrika. I really do. Even if Lil Afrika doesn't happen, I hope that something happens like Lil Afrika. Because that's what it's gonna take. Until you get to the people, nothing will change.

I work because I have to work, like everyone else. I have to work. I have to pay bills. I have to be able to live. Yes, once Lil Afrika comes up and running, yes. My wish is to quit my job and to be there full time. What does that look like as far as us getting money? I don't know. But I'm sure that we will figure it out when Lil Afrika opens fully. Which we're hoping within the next year, Lil Afrika will be up and running. So I'm looking forward to not working jobs—not working and not doing what I really wanna do. I like my job, because I kinda get to do some of the things that I like to do in the community, but I'm not fully doing everything. So, yes, I would like to quit my job, yes. [Laughter] And be at Lil Afrika full time. But at the same time, while I'm at Lil Afrika, like I said, I wanted to go back to school. So, I wanna do that, too. So, yes, I wake up every morning. There's four things that I want. And Lil Afrika is one of those four things. So, yes, most definitely. I want people just to watch real closely the Lil Afrika process. Because it's coming. It's coming. And it might not be in the same place. It might be. But it's coming. And we're working really hard, because this is not for us. This is for the community. This is actually for the people. This is for the people. So, just stay tuned, cause we coming.

What I need from people to do is to get informed. I need them to get unified. Come together. Know what you want. Figure out how you gonna do it. Allow for people to come and help you organize, to get the things that you want. That's what I need. I need for people to get up and get out and get to working. I need for you to be accountable for the things that's going on in your neighborhood, and know that you can change those things. That you change the narrative. That's what I need from people. I need for people to get up and start moving. That's what we need. That's all we need. If the people start moving, then we got you from there. All we need for you to do is just get up. That's it.