CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

THE SPATIAL PRACTICES OF SOUL REBEL RADIO IN

LOS ANGELES’ THIRD WORLD LEFT

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Master of Arts

Chicano and Chicana Studies

By

Miguel Paredes

August 2012 The thesis of Miguel Paredes is approved:

______Professor Yreina D. Cervántez Date

______Dr. Gabriel Gutierrez Date

______Dr. David Rodriguez, Chair Date

ii Dedication

To the young people in Los Angeles, to the working class communities in the Third World Left throughout

Southern California especially Elysian Valley aka “Frogtown” in Northeast LA, to the over 50 members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective especially the founding members Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito,

Teresa, Hasmik, Jorge, XL, Travis, Oriel, and Lex, to the KPFK staff and audience, to the staff of the

CSUN Chican@ Studies Department especially Dr. Rudy Acuña, Dr. Alberto Garcia, Harry Gamboa,

Fermin Herrera, Dr. Mary Pardo, Dr. Gabriel Gutierrez, Yreina D. Cervántez, Dr. Jorge Garcia, Ruben

Mendoza, and posthumously dedicated to Roberto Sifuentes , Dr. Shirlene Soto, and “Toppy” Flores.

To my family especially my mother Lucila Paredes, my father Miguel Paredes Sr., my brother Adrian

Paredes, my sister Gabriela Paredes and her daughter Dahlila and son Ivan, my brother Daniel Paredes, and his son Diego, to my best friends Mike and Guzman, to my godchildren Juliette, Justin, Isaac, Elia, and

Ehecatl, and to the Fe@s including Pascual, Mixpe, and Chris, but particularly to Ixya Herrera for giving me the motivation and support to complete my Master’s Degree in Chican@ Studies. I Love You.

Aho Metaquiasen- To All My Relations

In Lak Ech- You are the Other I

Zapata Vive y La Lucha Sigue

I Love LA

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

-Arundhati Roy

iii Table of Contents

Signature Page ii

Dedication iii

List of Tables iv

List of Illustrations v

Abstract vi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1- Soul Rebel Radio: Alternative Media for Non Commercial Radio 4

Subheading- The Challenges to Mainstream Media 7 Subheading- The Third World Left in Los Angeles 11 Subheading- The Intersection of Soul and Revolution 15 Subheading- Soul Rebel Radio and Gender Equity 18 Subheading- The Revolution in Prime Time 21 Subheading- Youth Radio in California 27

Chapter 2- Soul Rebel Radio Themes: The Good, the Great, and the Legendary Shows 29

Subheading- Youth Themes 30 Subheading- Gender Themes 34 Subheading- Environmental Themes 38 Subheading- Years as Themes 43 Subheading- People Themes 48 Subheading- Concepts as Themes 54

Chapter/Section 3: Voices of Soul Rebel Radio 68

Subheading- The Ladies of Soul Rebel Radio 69 Subheading- The Fellas of Soul Rebel Radio 79 Conclusions of Soul Rebels Radio Voices 91

Final Thoughts on Soul Rebel Radio 94

References/Bibliography/Works Cited 98

Appendix A: Soul Rebel Radio Terms 100

Appendix B: Results of Quantitative Questions 101

Appendix C: Index of Shows #1-73 102

iv List of Illustrations

(A) Soul Rebel Radio Logo

(B) Soul Rebel Radio KPFK Banner

v ABSTRACT

THE SPATIAL PRACTICES OF SOUL REBEL RADIO IN

LOS ANGELES’ THIRD WORLD LEFT

By

Miguel Paredes

For the degree of Master of Arts

Chicano and Chicana Studies

The study examines the results of the case study analysis of Soul Rebel Radio and the use of space and location by the Chican@ community in the Third World Left in Los Angeles. The term Chican@ is used interchangeably for Chicanas and Chicanos, and the community makes up a part of what the study identifies as the Third World Left in Los Angeles. The concept of the Third World Left in Los Angeles is used to refer to non-majority groups instead of using the term “minority,” and it is used interchangeably with Chican@s and other communities. Soul Rebel Radio transforms the sound of KPFK and redefines the meaning of Chican@ radio to produce cultural citizenship. The collective seizes the listener sponsored community space of the Pacifica Network and reclaims ownership of the public airwaves. The study demonstrates that Chican@s and the Third World Left in Los Angeles challenge the mainstream productions of media, negotiate the limits of the structure and format of radio, and create alternative spaces for themselves and the community. By producing alternative media, Soul Rebel Radio builds community, develops the self-identity of the collective members, and finds new and young voices. Soul Rebel Radio does this through an engagement with radio and a spatial practice that is collective, vibrant, original, and based on the experiences of the Chican@s and members of the Third World Left in Los Angeles. KPFK forms part of the Pacifica Network, the oldest public radio association in the United States, and it remains the only independent media outlet in Los Angeles. “Independent Media” is defined as listener sponsored radio, and the program can be accessed at KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles and at www.kpfk.org. According to the KPFK website, the Mission of the Pacifica Network is to “promote full distribution of public information and to employ such varied sources in public presentation of accurate, objective, and comprehensive news on all matters vitally affecting the community.” By not relying on outside funding, the

vi station and the show are free to present a number of different topics to the community. Soul Rebel Radio liberated a space for youth in Los Angeles, and placed themselves at the core of the narrative to create media that is culturally, politically, socially, historically, and aesthetically relevant. By employing an auto- ethnographic method of analysis, the author utilizes qualitative and quantitative studies of media and other examples of radio to demonstrate that Soul Rebel Radio creates culturally relevant, politically active, and reconceptualized concepts of space, media, audience, community, and radio production in Los Angeles.

The author demonstrates that youth need to have spaces to exercise their creativity in order to develop a powerful voice, and the data utilized in this study is drawn from original programs created by

Soul Rebel Radio. Interviews with members of the collective substantiate my claim that participation in the program was beneficial to individuals and the community. My goal for this study is to demonstrate the significance of the new knowledge created by radio programs produced by Chican@s and other youth in

Los Angeles. The experimental program does not adhere to traditional radio formats, and Chapter One details how Soul Rebel Radio presents a challenge to mainstream media. The Third World Left in Los

Angeles represents a challenge to social hierarchy while helping contextualize the space occupied by the community that makes up most of the Soul Rebel Radio collective. The Intersection of Soul and Revolution explains one of the goals of the group as the expansion of the definition of uprising to embrace all forms of dissent including spiritual challenges, philosophical differences, and revolutionary nationalism that could benefit the community. Another important contribution in this chapter involves Soul Rebel Radio and

Gender Equity. The responsibility for the collective is to ensure the participation of women in every aspect of the program, develop new voices, and unlearn gender norms that the men in the group can take for granted. Soul Rebel Radio created the Revolution in Prime Time as an effort to demonstrate how media shuns the actions of poor, minority, and Chican@ youth in particular, and we confront this by seeking out individuals to participate in the production of collective forms of knowledge. Finally, the section called

Youth Radio in California is a case study of the Oakland organization that most resembles the focus on youth produced media established autonomously by the Soul Rebel Radio collective in Los Angeles.

Chapter Two expands on the original work produced by Soul Rebel Radio proving that when given an opportunity, youth create original programs that help challenge the mainstream representation of

Chican@s and other communities in what Laura Pulido defines as the Third World Left. The purpose of

vii Soul Rebel Radio is to highlight, profile, and present young people on the air, and the section highlights shows related to the core concept of youth. Another key factor for the group is the inclusion of women and a focus on gender equity, and the section presents programs related to historical challenges to patriarchy led by the young women in the collective. One of the most pressing issues for Soul Rebel Radio is the environment, and the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment provides a platform to advocate for sustainability and respect for Mother Earth. In the seven plus years that Soul Rebel Radio has aired, the collective has profiled a number of specific years and individuals. Parts of the chapter demonstrate how the program connects historical moments and central figures that transform our reality. Perhaps Soul Rebel

Radio’s best radio productions revolve around abstract concepts, and the last section of the chapter displays the power of youth to employ creativity and present critical media capable of educating and entertaining the community. The purpose of the program is to present youth on the air, but the goal is to recruit young people to help craft social justice. Soul Rebel Radio, like Chican@ Studies, is a multi-disciplined approach to understanding the contradictions in society related to race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

The final chapter of the study includes interviews with the individuals who participated in the program throughout the years. In general, most members of the collective benefited from the development of their voice with Soul Rebel Radio. Each member volunteered and participated fully in the production of original content, and Soul Rebel Radio provided the stage for Chican@s and other members of the Third

World Left to take ownership of the airwaves and create a space for youth on the radio. The young people who participated took their learned skills found at the intersection of race, class and gender into the community to effect change. Soul Rebel Radio allowed individuals to speak directly to the community and in that way help challenge the mainstream images of Chican@s and other members of the Third World Left that dominate the mainstream television and news media. Even progressive radio stations like KPFK rarely make concerted efforts to create spaces for youth or people of color, and we changed that. Thus, by working as a collective with other members of the Third World Left in Los Angeles, Soul Rebel Radio is able to present each theme as completely as possible. In short, Soul Rebel Radio provides young people in

Los Angeles an opportunity to express ideas and find their voice while producing a monthly show based on a specific theme that is politically relevant to the community. To date, more than 70 original programs in 7 plus years of production have been created by in excess of 50 members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective.

viii Introduction

When Soul Rebel Radio presented the “Election” show in November 2006, the program was airing on a monthly basis for less than a year, and we were still trying to create a space for young people from the

Third World Left at KPFK. We started the process of creating this program when the country was in the midst of re-electing President George W. Bush under questionable circumstances. Few members of the collective participated wholeheartedly in the electoral process, and the show was designed to be a look at elections from the perspective of marginalized communities of color. The “Election” show presented an interview with Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, as well as one of the few known

English interviews with Sub-Comandante Marcos of the EZLN in Mexico. Huerta explained the importance of mobilizing the Latino immigrant community to become citizens and vote, while Marcos pointed the audience towards a revolutionary perspective that involves working every day towards change.

Both views are significant and help provide a breath of perspectives that disputes the false pretense that pretends to empower the American electorate every four years during the Presidential election. Soul Rebel

Radio believes that the youth in the community hold the power and that people have the potential to exercise their collective strength every day. By the time the show aired, we had interviewed Dolores Huerta and provided the audience with a rare English dialogue with Sub-Comandante Marcos. In a fairly short amount of time, I felt that Soul Rebel Radio had arrived on an international and local stage by creating a unique space in Los Angeles that focused on issues important to youth in the Third World Left community.

This master thesis uses a case study of KPFK’s Soul Rebel Radio program to examine the collective structures and spatial practices used to develop the voices of young men and women from Los

Angeles’ Third World Left. KPFK is part of the Pacifica Network and forms the only independent media outlet in Los Angeles, yet the space has tended to reflect an older, white, and left of center principle. As a whole, the programming and the audience is not representative of the entire City of Los Angeles because it lacks young people and communities of color. I felt that it was necessary to take ownership of the airwaves and produce content that was reflective of the youth’s lived experience in Los Angeles. Mainstream media omits or distorts the likeness of young people from the Third World Left, and although the political undertones of KPFK tend to be left of center, ranging from liberal to progressive, the programming demonstrates aspects of class stratification, cultural differences, as well as philosophical disagreements that do not allow the station’s audience to expand past a small aging group of like-minded thinkers. Soul Rebel

Radio is the lone youth oriented program in the history of the only independent media outlet in Los

Angeles, according to the extensive archive records at KPFK, and as such it employs a unique space in radio and the progressive community. This study includes a review of existing research about progressive media, and it contains an index of all 72 original programs with several major themes highlighted. The master’s thesis concludes with interviews and surveys of past and current members of the collective who explain what it was like to work on the show. The members of the collective utilize retrofitted memory to explain how working on the show impacted them as individuals, but more importantly as members of the

Third World Left community that Soul Rebel Radio serves. Many collective members found their voice or refined their skills, and most developed into productive individuals and professionals. The overwhelming majority of members of the collective had a positive experience producing a show that challenged mainstream media and each other to invent new spatial practices in Los Angeles’ Third World Left.

In this study, I utilized auto-ethnography as well as qualitative and quantitative studies of media and other examples of radio to demonstrate that this spatial engagement by Soul Rebel Radio takes place in a public forum such as KPFK. The result is the creation of culturally relevant, politically active, and reconceptualized concepts of space, media, audience, and specifically radio production in Los Angeles’

Third World Left. As the only continuous member of the collective, I approached all the founding members about joining the group, and as the creator and executive producer of the show, the author of this study is responsible for ensuring that a radio show is ready to air each month. Conventional radio has an established format and hierarchical structure that allows few people of color, including members of the Chican@ community, to engage in the process. This is especially true if the individual attempts to express ideas that go against the established norms, but Soul Rebel Radio is a special case. I submitted the original proposal to the Program Director for an 8-week series, and had to confront pressure from the station when the collective decided to successfully plead our case for a monthly time slot to KPFK’s Local Station Board meeting. It was never my intention to create a Chicano@ show because our initial goal was to present young people on the radio, but I must admit that Soul Rebel Radio is an example of youth and Chican@ radio. Although most of the members of the collective are Chican@s, it was never my intent for the group

2 to merely promote Chican@ issues. Instead, the original contributions produced by young people tend to reflect the reality of Los Angeles in general, and the effects of inequality on all working class communities.

Soul Rebel Radio is not just a youth radio show, a Chican@ program, or even a Los Angeles phenomenon, but instead it forms part of what Benedict Anderson refers to as the “imagined community” for social justice that we have nurtured for over seven years on the air in Los Angeles. Soul Rebel Radio does not function as a traditional hierarchy of authority because the structure is more democratic and employs a collective model of organizing that tends to be more egalitarian, horizontal, and communal.

Soul Rebel Radio defies all preconceived notions of what young people can produce, about the interests of the Chican@s and other Third World Left communities, and of how to create a program using a collective model. For over seven years, Soul Rebel Radio has continued to surpass my own expectations for survival by airing an original radio program on KPFK, the only independent media outlet in L.A. By using the model of collective decision making, we provide youth a platform to find their voice and create radical new definition of alternative media. In this way, we created something completely novel at KPFK, resulting in the creation of a radio program that is unlike anything else on the airwaves today. Over 50 different young people have volunteered to develop original content for Soul Rebel Radio, and while some may work for several months, many of the core members of the collective stay on for years. From the beginning,

I designed Soul Rebel Radio with the objective of providing an opportunity to anyone willing to work towards a collective goal of producing original content, and we encourage burgeoning media producers to practice their skills in writing, reporting, hosting, production, and editing with help from experienced members. I don’t know of another space in Los Angeles where youth can freely participate in radio production in a collective manner, learn skills that can last a lifetime, and listen to their work on the air each month. Thus, Soul Rebel Radio is a unique space even on independent media outlets because rarely, if ever, is the freedom created for youth from the Third World Left community to participate and learn how to produce radio collectively. The spatial practices of Soul Rebel Radio in Los Angeles’ Third World Left prove that more spaces are necessary for youth to produce media that challenges preconceived notions of young people and the Chican@ community.

3 Chapter 1

Soul Rebel Radio: Alternative Media for Non Commercial Radio

Soul Rebel Radio was established by the author Miguel Paredes and the collective aired the first radio show on April 22, 2005. The program was originally intended to challenge the lack of participation and representation of young people and youthful voices on KPFK. The program was created after 9/11 when the mainstream media rarely, if ever, presented any form of dissent. The status quo generally viewed rebelliousness as un-patriotic, yet the aspiration of the show was to present a platform for youthful and revolutionary ideas. Meanwhile, the programming at the Pacifica Network consisted of mostly older, white, and male voices that leaned towards a dogmatic left, and this places people of color and youth at the periphery of the core group of media makers. The program was purposefully formed as a collective from the start, and the format for the show would include aspects of news, talk, and music with a Soul Rebel twist that contains skits, interviews, and segments that challenge the audience as well as the mainstream perception of what radio sounds like in Los Angeles. For over seven years, Soul Rebel Radio has aired on the first Friday of the month at 7pm, and produced a monthly radio program based on a theme. In the process, we have created over 70 original programs ranging from Revolution to Marriage and from War to

Peace. Perhaps the most innovative aspect of Soul Rebel Radio is the inclusion of young people, women, and specifically communities of color to tell their stories, find their voice, and help create a space that fosters creativity. Soul Rebel Radio defines youth as being between the ages of 13-35, community as the working class people of the Third World Left of Los Angeles, and the audience as the imagined community created simultaneously by the collective and the listeners.

A better description of Soul Rebel Radio might be a collective of people of color with an emphasis on promoting the perspectives and issues that are important to youth from the city of Los Angeles. The creation of youth, community, and alternative representations of people of color on independent radio stations such as KPFK help document and define the image of Chican@s and others in the Third World

Left that challenge portrayals by mainstream media outlets, the social constructs, and the controlling images. The Pacifica Network began in the Bay Area as KPFA in 1949, and the radio station in Los

Angeles was established in 1959. Due to the reach of the frequency and the largest collection of radio

4 archives on progressive movements, KPFK “is the most powerful of the Pacifica stations and indeed is the most powerful public radio station in the Western United States” according to the website. The network was inspired by a reporter and pacifist named Lewis Hill who was fired from a job in mainstream news and created the world’s first listener sponsored station to report the truth. For over 50 years, KPFK has helped to document and report the facts and the history of progressive movements locally and around the world.

Unfortunately, as movements have evolved, the sound, rhetoric, and style of reporting remained the same at

KPFK and the programming has failed to appeal to the youth that make up the communities of color that represent the majority in Los Angeles today. The need to create a program that would appeal to the youth and especially people of color was absolutely necessary and long overdue, but it would take a collective of young people called Soul Rebel Radio to change that at KPFK.

Most of the founding members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective include individuals who participated in the World Festival of Youth and Students that took place in Caracas, Venezuela in 2005.

The theme of the gathering was “For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War,” and the gathering focused on the creation of 21st Century Socialism that would guide young people in the neoliberal global structure. The youth who participated from Los Angeles helped challenge the Marxist perception of what it meant to be a revolutionary, and although the festival is usually associated with communist organizations, the L.A. delegation was not strictly a socialist group. The Los Angeles coalition worked as a small rebel army within the World Festival structure and operated as a collective to provide the

U.S. delegation with alternative perspectives of “revolution.” The delegation included political influences such as the Zapatista Rebellion, Central American revolutionary struggles, Feminism, and other progressive ideas from the Third World Left. A collective is defined here as a group of people working together to complete a common goal and make decisions without a specific or identifiable decision maker determining the course for the rest of the group. Upon returning to Los Angeles, the group wanted to find a space to practice this model of organizing. The L.A. delegation worked together for months to organize a group of youth that traveled to Venezuela in 2005, so they already had experience working as a collective. This spirit of unity carried over into the budding collective called Soul Rebel Radio, which was originally made up of

Chican@s, Marxists, Vietnamese, Liberals, Jews, Central Americans, South Americans and Armenians members, about half of which were women. The diversity of voices and communities provides a space for

5 collective decision making, creative media productions, and a vibrant program that can attempt to represent the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

As explained in the Radical Reader (2003), Americans have a long tradition of rebellion that dates back to the birth of the United States and the American Revolution. This tradition has been maintained and expanded by marginalized people who were excluded from consideration in the founding documents such as communities of color, women, and rebels who go against the grain. In 1776, the United States of

America was created and the Declaration of Independence emphasized a principle ethic that would sustain democracy thriving after the birth of the new nation, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form” (44). This document written by the founders of the country provides citizens an explicit space to redress grievances and the collective uses radio to expand that definition. The Bill of Rights includes the First Amendment which affirms that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government” (55). The ideas of free speech and freedom of the press are fundamental right in this country, and we feel that they are not exercised sufficiently. After freeing himself both as a physical slave and a spiritual human being, Frederick Douglass proclaimed in his 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, “The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.

Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing”

(142). The abolition tradition continues today, but the metaphor of a freed slave can be used to represent someone with the ability to think critically. In 1911, Emma Goldman wrote in Anarchism: What it Really

Stands For that, “The history of human growth and development is at the same time the history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn” (289). Goldman’s concept of anarchy helped influence Ricardo Flores Magon, who in turn inspired Emiliano Zapata to take up the slogan “Land and Liberty,” and this notion remains the soul of the Mexican Revolution. Goldman believed,

“The individual instinct is the thing of value in this world. It is the true soul that sees and creates the truth alive, out of which is to come a still greater truth, the reborn social soul.” (291). Goldman represents a long line of revolutionary women that have shaped the course of history to also include her story in the narrative.

6 A production of media that is capable of creating what Kalle Lasn describes in the Radical Reader

(2003) as Culture Jamming, or the disruption of mainstream cultural institutions, and also owning the following statement is rare in the 21st Century. It can be said of Soul Rebel Radio,

“We are a very diverse tribe. Our people range from born again Lefties to Green entrepreneurs to fundamental Christians who don’t like what television is doing to their kids; from punk anarchist to communication professors to advertising executives searching for a new role in life. Many of us are longtime activists who in the midst of our best efforts suddenly felt spiritually winded.” (Lasn 632).

A future revolution will not only be fought on the streets, but “It will be an enormous culture jam, a protracted war of ideas, ideologies and visions of the future. It may take a generation or even more. But it will be done” (Lasn 635). Soul Rebel Radio is the attempt to create media art in Los Angeles that is free for youth and community members from the Third World Left to exercise rights that are the basis of an

American tradition of values that emphasizes the responsibility of rebellion, the freedom of the press, a lifetime of wakefulness, and the search for a soul within a space and location.

The Challenge to Mainstream Media

Soul Rebel Radio is a program that includes young people, members of the community, and a fair representation of the population of Los Angeles with a goal of producing a monthly radio show and challenging mainstream media. In the book Manufacturing Consent (1988), the authors Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky deconstruct mass media and illustrate how the marketplace and the publishing companies help shape the news, how issues are framed, and what topics are covered. Having grown up in

Los Angeles’ Third World between the Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, I can attest to how mass media has shaped the news, framed issues, and covered topics with prejudice towards Chican@s. Of particular importance to my study is the “Propaganda Model” in which the authors explain who owns the media, the influence of advertisement, mass media, the roll of “flak” or fluff pieces, the use of anti-communism as a control mechanism, and lastly how the function of propaganda serve to control the masses. In the United

States, propaganda is manipulated for the benefit of the authorities and the wealthy own the media, have influence over advertising, and exploit censure for the benefit of the power structure. The owners of the means of production also use fear tactics in mass media to manage the masses, and communism and terrorism are two ideas that help the power structure to maintain control and create new policies that limit

7 civil liberties. Soul Rebel Radio challenges pre-conceived notions of mass media and this is made possible by operating within the Pacifica Network at KPFK, which is the only independent media outlet in L.A. The collective is able to achieve this because the radio station does not broadcast commercials or adhere to the protocols of the mainstream press in the United States. The policy at KPFK and the spatial practices of Soul

Rebel Radio enables for true freedom of the press, and the beneficiaries are the community and individuals.

The study of Soul Rebel Radio helps demonstrate how to go against what Chomsky explains as the traditional role of the media within the propaganda model. He states, “In countries where the levers of power are in the hands of a state bureaucracy, the monopolistic control over the media, often supplemented by official censorship, makes it clear that the media serve the ends of a dominant elite” (1). In Los Angeles, we see that the media is designed to set an agenda, create a profit, run like a business, legitimize sources, deal with pushback, and produce a dichotomy that places revolutionary ideas outside of the accepted filters.

In short, “a propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a systematic and highly political dichotomization in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic power interests” (35).

Mainstream media has no place for young people or communities of color in Los Angeles despite the fact that it’s the second largest media market in the United States, but we made a place for this diverse population. Chomsky further concludes that unfavorable material and ideas deemed inconvenient by the mainstream media are excluded to serve a political end, but Soul Rebel Radio embraces such concepts.

Examples like Radio Free Europe, Radio Hanoi, and Radio Zinzine are therefore relegated to falling into a dichotomy that serves the interests of the power or in some cases against the structure. Chomsky adds, “The potential value of noncommercial radio can be perceived in sections of the country where stations such as

Pacifica Radio offer a view of the world, depth of coverage, and scope of discussion and debate that is generally excluded from the major media” (307). Chomsky thereby validates the importance of independent media in the United States and specifically in Los Angeles thanks to KPFK, but Soul Rebel

Radio took this a step further. Soul Rebel Radio on the Pacifica Network’s KPFK station in Los Angeles represents an example of a space where the mainstream media is challenged and “Only to the extent that such developments succeed can we hope to see media that are free and independent” (307). The fact is that too few places exist where it is possible for youth or community of color to challenge mainstream media.

Soul Rebel challenges the mainstream media to be more inclusive of youth, women, and members of the

8 Third World Left. The collective understands that media is traditionally designed to manufacture consent, but in contrast, the responsibility of Soul Rebel Radio is to present the truth.

What is clear is that the owners of the media do not provide enough spaces for youth and especially people of color to express their truth in film, theatre, television, or radio. The New Media

Monopoly (2009) is a provocative critique of mass media first published in 1983. The book presents a dire prediction of corporate ownership and advertising of the nation’s news which today transcends differences in language, culture, social class, and literacy to transform social relations, politics, economics, and legal structures. Despite the proliferation of new technology, the mainstream press is controlled by a few owners and the result is a monopoly of media that impacts the message. Soul Rebel Radio has covered the theme of the “media” and the role that the press and the media monopoly play. Each radio show challenges the notion that corporate consolidation within the marketplace of ideas must be accepted, and today the number of corporations controlling the American medium has dwindled down to single digits. Soul Rebel Radio on

KPFK is one of the few spaces in Los Angeles, or the United States for that matter, where young people from the Third World Left can find their voice and tell their stories in a creative and rebellious space on the air, but the collective had to work for many years to earn this space.

Increasingly, the owners of the most significant institutions involved in the production of media including radio, newspapers, magazines, television, books, films, and now the internet, are held in the hands of a select few corporations and individuals. Bagdikian (2009) explains that what we are left with is,

“The major news media overwhelmingly quote the men and women who lead hierarchies of power” (19), so the youth and communities of color in the U.S. are left voiceless and without representation in the media. Soul Rebel Radio is a space where the testimony of a young person is accepted on the same level as an expert in the field. Many groups and issues are left outside of the mainstream press where “Citizen groups issuing serious contrary studies and proposals for mending gaps in the social fabric get only sporadic and minimal attention in the major media” (19). Most of the issues that are important to working class people in the Third World Left are ignored altogether by the media, but they are given attention by

Soul Rebel Radio. Bagdikian adds that from 1934 to 1980, citizens were able to produce their own radio, but once these opportunities ended, one of the best known examples of unlicensed pirate radio became

“Free Radio Berkeley’ based in van that moved to different locations in the hills about that city and

9 broadcast news of interest and notice of educational events to the community and its minority groups”

(141). According to Bagdikian, the youth are not taking this monopoly of the media lightly and “the active political direction for the country has seen the growth, thanks mostly to the Internet, of movements of mostly younger men and women who have had a serious influence on public thinking on policy matters and in voting” (148). Soul Rebel Radio is one such example where a group of mostly youth from Los Angeles located in the second largest media market in the U.S. decided to take matters into our own hands. We agreed to confront the media monopoly as a collective, to exercise the rights of a free press, and we took ownership of the radio to create independent media by any means necessary. The Soul Rebel Radio collective confronted the media monopoly by generating a public relations effort that includes the creation of original fliers for each show, and the collective and community helps us promote the show on social media sites and email list serves.

In News That Matters (1987), the authors Shanto Iyengar and Donald R. Kinder are one of the earliest scholars to articulate the effect that news programs create in regards to order and how this shapes public opinion, thus affecting the way Americans are politicized. The authors demonstrate that issues which are covered extensively by the mainstream press emerge as more significant than themes that are disregarded, and this affects the credibility of our political choices. Of particular importance is the chapter titled “The Agenda Setting Effect” that explains how the public is manipulated by an invisible hand that creates the program we are all forced to follow. It’s clear that mass media on both the right and the left have a political agenda and media is used as the platform to convey those messages. Soul Rebel Radio covers a number of themes and issues relevant to marginalized communities which are ignored by the mainstream media, and in this way, we challenge the perception that an idea without a place, a voice, or press coverage is ignored. By providing revolutionary theory a position of importance in the context of the

Third World Left community of Los Angeles, Soul Rebel Radio helps the youth to become politicized.

Participation in the show or merely listening to the program helps individuals to become politically educated because Soul Rebel Radio has a clear conviction. Each month, Soul Rebel Radio explores a theme using the lens of revolutionary and liberal minded youth from Los Angeles’ Third World Left, and this informs our ability as a group to create news that matters and important programs that help to educate the community and appeal to the young and apolitical.

10 Mass communication has the ability to shape the political course of a country because the news that is covered by the mainstream press is what gains the most importance in the eyes of the citizenship. To that end, Iyengar and Kinder (1987) note, “[Walter] Lippmann was not exaggerating the political significance of this relationship when he wrote that citizens ‘who have lost their grip upon the relevant facts of their environment are the inevitable victims of agitation and propaganda” (3). This lack of information and ignorance enables corporations, the government, and the powerful to take advantage of the general population, but Soul Rebel Radio provides a platform to inform the community and challenge these institutions. Iyengar and Kinder prove that news shapes the public’s political conscious, “Serious and systematic empirical research on mass media and American politics began in the 1930’s, motivated by both the spread of fascism abroad and by what many took to be sinister proliferation of radio at home” (116).

Iyengar and Kinder conclude that although political persuasion is difficult to achieve, agenda setting is pervasive, and “news clearly and decisively influences the priorities that people attach to various national problems, and the considerations they take into account as they evaluate political leaders” (117). What remains clear to Soul Rebel Radio is that the audience expects a level of impartiality because as the authors’ note, “As a professional ideology, objectivity includes three commitments: to independence

(journalism should be free from political pressures); to balance (journalism should present without favor the positions of all contending parties) and objectivity” (131). Unfortunately as we see in Los Angeles, this is not always the case because most media outlets are intolerant of alternative standpoints. Soul Rebel

Radio produces media that is relevant to the audience, and we have an ability to influence political discourse, but the goal is to produce objective knowledge in spite of mainstream media exclusion. Keeping to its original vision, the program does its best to represent communities of color, youth, and the issues that are relevant to the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

The Third World Left in Los Angeles

Thanks in large part to the diversity of the Los Angeles area and the Soul Rebel Radio collective, one of the greatest challenges the group faced was the dismissive notion that it was merely a “Chicano show” on KPFK. A Chican@ is mostly understood as a Mexican American, but I define Chican@s as being

Indigenous people living on stolen land in the United States, and thus my identity extends beyond a strict

11 nationalist understanding. In Making Latino News (1999), America Rodriguez looks at the production of

“Latino news” where Latin@s are creating a cultural, social, and political membership in US culture, and she examines the larger narrative of the cultural production and conception of US born Latin Americans. In regards to meaning, there are several chapters which are important to this study, and especially the theoretical context of “What is Latino News?” Soul Rebel Radio presents an interesting challenge in that the goal is to present a youthful perspective to the KPFK audience, but the result is that we are in essence a

Chican@ program and therein lies one of the fundamental questions that has framed the production of the program: Is Soul Rebel Radio a representation of Chican@ Media or is it merely a reflection of the demographics in Los Angeles? I think that former Los Angeles Times and KMEX reporter Ruben Salazar would agree that the show is a reflection of the staff members at the time of production, but there can be no denying that the show has a linear history that includes a vigorous representation of Chican@ media- makers, writers, producers, and artists throughout the years.

If one is inclined to create media in Los Angeles, it is almost inevitable that the production will include and/or cover the Chican@, Mexican American, and Latin@ population. Based on my experiences in Los Angeles, I can attest that not all the news programs are respectful of the Chican@ community or represent the group accurately. Scholars such as Felix Gutierrez have written extensively on Spanish language radio and other media matters, and his contribution provides a wealth of invaluable information on the subject. And according to America Rodriguez (1999), early pioneers like Pedro Gonzalez created programs like “Los Madrugadores” or (The Early Risers) in 1927 by broadcasting out of KELW in

Burbank, but “For these immigrant radio producers in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the audience was not in any sense an abstract one. Rather, programming was shaped within the immigrant enclave; face to face communication was key” (29). The proliferation of over 5 Million Latinos living in the metropolitan area allows for the creation of such institutions as KMEX Channel 34 operated by Univision, the newspaper La

Opinion, and radio stations like KLVE which typically rank at the top of Los Angeles area radio stations.

Rodriguez explains, “Los Angeles, since the 19th Century, has been a primary destination of Latin

American migrants, and consequently immigration has been a central topic of Los Angeles Latino-oriented news” (109). There are differences between mainstream and Spanish language media according to

Rodriguez, and typically Latino newsmakers tend to provide “attention to news in which Latinos and

12 Mexicans are the central players” whereas “the [Los Angeles] Times gives prominence to the actions of government officials and others of the Los Angeles area majority culture” (114). Unlike most media productions in Los Angeles, Latino news is representative of the market and also “seeks to reflect its imagined audience back to itself through daily re-creation of the Los Angeles area Latino news agenda”

(114). Thus the media producers of Latino news like the members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective are located in the community. Rodriguez believes that Latin@s produce “Latino News” that is grounded in the larger Latin American immigrant narrative and contextualized in the US society. Soul Rebel Radio believes that news produced in Los Angeles matters, and central to the theme for Latinos is cultural, social, and political membership in the United States. Rodriquez’ book, like my study, is created from a location where the Latino is excluded and the focus is on how “structural and cultural globalization forces are manifest in

U.S.” (7). Soul Rebel Radio produces a monthly radio program and creates a space for youth and community to use their voice to create awareness of important issues and remain grounded in the community, yet the goal is not necessarily to create Latino News. Instead, the show profiles members of the collective who originate from Latin American countries or who identify as members of the Chican@ community in Los Angeles, and we provide the space for young people to produce news.

I created the Soul Rebel Radio collective to provide a framework for looking at revolution from a radical and soulful perspective that also challenged the pre-conceived notions of what it meant to be a young revolutionary. Publications like Occupied America: A History of the Chicanos (1988) by Rodolfo

Acuña, A People’s History of the United States (1990) by Howard Zinn, and The Radical Reader (2003) edited by Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian, provide a comprehensive collection of important American radical traditions. I was taught by Dr. Rudy Acuña, exposed to the writings of Howard

Zinn by the Chican@ Studies professor Dr. Alberto Garcia, and I reviewed the The Radical Reader for my thesis study, but the canon of the Third World Left has shaped the lives of other members of the collective.

These books ignited, directed, and refined topics such as Revolution, Feminism, Land, Labor, Communism,

Anarchy, Chican@ Power, Black Power, Counterculture, Radical Environmentalism, Queer Liberation, and

Modern Leftist Movement. The contributions include several important documents, positions, stories, declarations, and manifestos in the American radical tradition that have shaped the US from the American

Revolution to the 21st Century. Soul Rebel Radio has covered over 70 themes in 7 years of existence

13 ranging from Revolution to Feminism and Environmentalism to Anarchy. The subjects included in these and other books are important starting points for the show, and they have provided a space to explore the standpoint of the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

The book Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles (2006) by Laura

Pulido is an important look at the roots of the Third World Left in Los Angeles during the 1960’s and 70’s.

Pulido explains how different groups transformed the concepts of race, class, gender, and alliances between the Chican@, African American, Asian, and Leftist organizations in Los Angeles. For the purpose of this study, I will use the explanation provided by Pulido of what is defined as the Third World Left in Los

Angeles. The book examines the contributions, challenges, and contradictions in Los Angeles to illustrate that the Third World Left made independent and collective efforts to transform the political landscape in the region. The book helps to place Soul Rebel Radio within a historic context of Third World Leftists in

Los Angeles, and this legacy includes past examples of unified endeavors. Soul Rebel Radio has made concerted efforts to be representative of the African-American, Latin@, Asian, and Marxist communities in

Los Angeles along with our working class European-American brothers and sisters, but I can admit that we can always improve the diversity of the group. Our efforts are collective, genuine, and grounded in the experience of working with diverse groups of people, and based on the organizations highlighted in the book and our experience in L.A., Soul Rebel Radio presents a unique effort to include diverse voices and work with other communities to produce an original radio program in a radical and creative space.

Laura Pulido places Black, Brown, and Asian Organizations within the Third World Left community to explain some of the successes and failures of radicals in Los Angeles. Pulido places value in efforts to bring communities together in the L.A. area, “If Los Angeles is able to forge such a movement, particularly involving recent Asian and Latina/o immigrants, it could make a real impact on the city and serve as a model for other places” (227). Soul Rebel Radio has provided a model for youth from the immigrant Latino and Asian communities to express themselves, but we can always do more. One force that is at work in Los Angeles is neoliberalism and “Globalization, the growing integration of capital, commodities, and people across the world. This has become a major concern over the past decade, as it presents both challenges and opportunities” (227). We believe that within every crisis is an opportunity to create change, and Soul Rebel Radio has managed to survive despite a prolonged economic crisis that

14 began in 2008. The city is an important metropolis and center of media production, and as forms of communication evolve, “globalization plays out differently across space. And given that Los Angeles is considered a ‘global city,’ with elements of both the “First World” and the “Third World,” it has a distinctive character” (227). Los Angeles is a unique city with cultural diversity at the intersection of wealth and poverty, and with a large immigrant population, so many of the challenges to the status quo come from the Third World Left. One thing left clear by Pulido is that the lack of spirituality in the movement disallows people to move forward in rough times, “Many saw the need for individuals, organizations, and political cultures to address questions pertaining to existence/nature of souls; humans’ relationship to other beings; healing; peace; and the importance of creating social change from within”

(237). Soul Rebel produces media that includes elements of the Third World Left in Los Angeles and we are representative of an experience that is radical, transnational, globalized, and we try to infuse a spirit that when lacking in a group, has led to the failure of many individuals and organizations in Los Angeles.

At the Intersection of Soul and Revolution

Chicana Art (2007) by Laura Perez is a fascinating look at the evolution of spiritual and aesthetic altarities in the Chican@ community, and this connection between the spirit and art is a central principle in the production of Soul Rebel Radio. Apart from the few examples of youth and Chican@ voices on KPFK, there also seems to be a lack of spirituality that would ground the political rhetoric in the left, and we aim to create a spirit of rebelliousness. Perez explains, “the arts have the potential, in Nahuatl expressions, to create integrity between ‘the face and soul’ of their beholders, as well as in their makers. Likewise, they do indeed mirror the superficial, visionary, or conflicted soul of the societies we live in” (306). This connection between what is seen on the surface and what we feel in the soul is precisely what Soul Rebel

Radio hopes to create when we produce each show. Specifically, the chapter “Spirit, Glyph” and the conclusion “Self, Other” offer valuable insight into the symbolism and self identity created in the production of art. The idea of face and soul is an Aztec (Nahuatl) metaphor of a complete person, and the reflection of spirit, art, change, and transformation. Our goal for Soul Rebel Radio is to create a complete representation of every topic we cover by using political and soulful expressions of art to challenge the established norms presented in the mainstream media and create a Third World Left offering.

15 Chicanas have been at the forefront of creating art that is located within a known sense of spirituality, and they have been producing many examples that illustrate this point. For example, “Chicanas were engaging in the spiritual alongside more familiar areas of social struggle (gender, sexuality, class,

“race”) as another terrain upon which to challenge the cultural blind spots in mainstream values, in our assumptions and dismissals” (Perez 3). The same can be said of Soul Rebel Radio because we too engage in a battle over spiritual terrain along with the more known areas of social struggle, and we do not believe that spirituality is the sole possession of Christian right fundamentalists. Cultural productions of knowledge are prevalent in the Chicano community, but Perez explains “Chicana intellectuals and artists from 1960s to the present have self-consciously referenced spiritual beliefs and practices as culturally complex and contested social terrains where dominant cultural understandings… are reproduced or rescripted” (8). Of importance to Soul Rebel Radio and at the center of our vision is the importance of ways of knowing through spirit, inner knowledge, the divine within, the supernatural, and the spirit world, and they are spaces where Chicanas operate to “contribute to a greater and more healing understanding of ourselves and each other, and that we may be spurred along on the great spiritual, social, political, and artistic adventure of more fully realizing our best selves, societies, and globe” (307). Perez illustrates how altarities that unite the spiritual and political are practiced in the Chicana community and how this impacts the creation of art in Los Angeles including in such collectives as Soul Rebel Radio. Our show occupies a space in Los

Angeles between the rebellious and the spiritual to produce a dialect of art that stands as an offering to the community and a prayer to the spirit world. Our goal each month is to create a complete representation on the surface that touches the heart and soul of each individual in the hopes of transforming Third World L.A.

One of the fundamental aspects of Soul Rebel Radio was the use of what Cynthia A. Young describes as Soul Power (2006) where she presents a history of culture, radicalism, and the making of a

U.S. Third World Left. The U.S. movement borrowed heavily from Third World movements around the world and applied them to the struggle for social and economic justice in the United States and this has impacted our show. Young analyzes a range of figures and organizations including the LA Rebellion, also known as the LA Riots, to place the U.S. Third World Left in the history of the American struggle for social justice. The section titled “Union Power, Soul Power” analyzes class struggle by cultural means and demonstrates the relationship between culture and politics as well as the positive effect of using organizing

16 tactics. Soul Rebel Radio employs approaches learned in our experiences as organizers, collective decision making, and cultural representations to demonstrate our brand of “Soul Power,” and the group examines the intersection of soul and rebellion in Los Angeles within the communities of the U.S. Third World Left.

The book Soul Power (2006) has some gaps, but it serves a number of purposes and provides an understanding of what it means to be part of the Third Word Left. It does not explain how people of color see themselves or how the Third World understands themselves, but according to Young, “Indeed, the very use of the term Third World brings with it (among other things) a history shaped by racism, imperialism, colonialism, and a ruthless capital-accumulation drive that depends on a self /other logic ultimately about the self rather than the other” (12). Soul Rebel Radio does not see the focus on young people from the

Third World Left as starting from a position of weakness, but instead I present it as the recognition of a system that does not accept the Chican@s and other members of marginalized communities. A number of people of color movements in the United States during the 60’s were inspired by the Cuban Revolution. In particular, the Third World Left in the U.S. studied the use of technology and the production of radical media in Cuba and Young notes, “Cubans also heard the news of the guerillas’ progress over Radio

Rebelde, a station the rebel army had set up in the Sierra Maestra to contravene Batista’s censorship codes”

(23). I was completely inspired by “Rebel Radio,” and Soul Rebel Radio members have studied the use of media by the Cuban Revolution and other revolutionary struggles in Latin America. Today, the Cuban

Revolution continues to create an independent culture through the use of mass media such as posters, programs, and radio that influences the Chican@ community and others in the Third World Left. Social change can be achieved where there is resistance to institutions, and in this way, these challenges to mainstream media can eventually help overturn the power structure. Soul Rebel Radio believes that revolution can be realized if enough youth challenge the social institutions and overturn the power structure. Young concludes, “US Third World Leftists built alternative communities that offered transnational forms of solidarity and strength. Doing so required a certain political leap of faith, a transcendence of the outer and the inner, of the material and the spiritual.” (252). Soul Rebel Radio has been inspired by the Cuban Revolution, motivated by struggles around the world, and enthused by the proliferation of the Third World Left in Los Angeles, and the show incorporates both material and spiritual practices in the creation of a cultural, radical, and soulful space that present productions of knowledge.

17 The Soul Rebel Radio Collective and Gender Equity

Chicana Power (2011) by Maylei Blackwell presents the contested histories of Feminism in the

Chicano Movement through a variety of disciplines including Chicana Studies, Gender Studies, American

Studies, Sociology, History, and Cultural Studies and in the process is able to illustrate the gap between the rhetoric of equality and the organizational culture. Soul Rebel Radio strives to present gender equity and a balanced female/male perspective and that binary has always served to keep the collective grounded in the community. The men in the group have not always appreciated the focus on gender issues and it has created instance of conflict when it is ignored. Throughout our history on the air, the show examines issues and themes that are important to Chicanas and women, and we include a number of Chicanas on the program as well as an excellent gender balance. I would never imply that Soul Rebel Radio is a Utopian or Feminist stronghold because there is still much work to be done before that is true, but we keep working towards a fair gender balance. The organizational culture tends to be male dominated and hetero-normative, and the members of the collective with the longest tenures are men, but although there is much room for growth, we won’t apologize for the male’s commitment to the program. The fact that Soul Rebel Radio recognizes the importance of gender balance and issue relevant to women represents an important step in the development of the Chican@ Movement because equilibrium is built in and explicitly included by the collective. More can still be done to improve gender relations and develop an even safer space for all women to participate. Unfortunately at times, the men in the group tend to act too familiar and unprofessional and for that I do take full responsibility. Given the fact that there are different levels of awareness, this problem is something that the group must continuously address in order to resolve this issue and keep moving forward as a creative collective of young women and men from Los Angeles.

Blackwell explains that the telling is political and she provides the context for how Chicana organizers were influenced by the Chicano Movement and struggled with issues related to gender and sexuality to produce a new identity. Blackwell’s concept of “retrofitted memory” in the production of knowledge resonates with me because it “draws from other Chicano cultural practices, such as the rasquache aesthetic, that uses older parts to refine existing bodies or frameworks. By drawing from both discarded and suppressed forms of knowledge, retrofitted memory creates new forms of consciousness” (2).

That is not to say that I, or Soul Rebel Radio, are willing to accept anything as truth because we include a

18 rigorous amount of research to validate our claims on the air. Chicana feminists are vital to the struggle, and “Their ideas informed the terrain of struggle across movement sectors, reached into gendered discussions in other regions, and gave other women and men who believed in gender equity within the broader project of Chicano liberation a vehicle for speaking out.” (Blackwell 3). One such space is what some consider “Chicano Radio” and Blackwell employs the DJ tactic to illustrate the answer to Gayatri

Chakravorty Spivak’s question “Can the subaltern speak?, “This third mode of representation- represent’n’- is an enunciative practice of hip-hop culture, used by African American, Chicano, and other youth. When a caller calls in to a DJ on the radio, he or she is ‘located’ as represent’n’ through a sense of place” (41).

Blackwell uses the Art Laboe show to illustrate her point, but Soul Rebel Radio represents for and with Los

Angeles youth. The irony of the Chicano radio show described by Blackwell is not lost on the fact that

Laboe is an Armenian and not a Mexican American. Never the less, in the example, “radio shows have the ability to create relations (family, friends, community) through the effective work across geographic separation, caused by loved ones traveling long distances to look for work and especially mass incarceration of young people of color” (Blackwell 42). This understanding of the power of radio helps transcend gender, race, class, nationality, and culture and provides us with a context to understand the influence of Soul Rebel Radio. “Represent’n’ is not about speaking for (proxy) but speaking from: it performs an embodied knowledge of location or a situated knowledge. It does not operate outside of power relations” (Blackwell 42). The key for Soul Rebel Radio was to create media and find authentic representations of radio within the community that were inclusive of Chican@s and other members of the

Third World Left. I believe that the strength of Soul Rebel Radio is that we tells stories, employ retrofitted memory, and represent while located within Los Angeles’ Third World Left to reveal an authentic example of what can be sometimes be misidentified as Chican@ radio.

In Black Feminist Thought, (2000) Patricia Hill-Collins provides a valuable contribution to the cannon of African American Studies, and the Third World Left. Yet, it is her analysis of the intersection of race, class, and gender along with sexuality that truly define her contribution. Hill-Collins captures the history and voices that have helped shape the knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment that have changed the lives of individual women, but she also captures how this has impacted their families in particular, and the African American community in general. A core theme of black feminist thought and

19 perhaps the most important idea for this study is the chapter titled “The Power of Self Definition” because the author illustrates how, African Americans have been misrepresented, left voiceless, in search of safe spaces, and also explains the power of telling our own stories. Soul Rebel Radio strives to provide youth an opportunity to tell our stories and in that way offer the audience accounts from the streets of Los Angeles and surrounding communities that place the standpoint at the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality. For far too long, mainstream media has misrepresented people of color, and especially women in

Los Angeles, but Third World feminism helps to change the focus to positive representations. Soul Rebel

Radio aims to challenge the notions of mainstream media by using the power of self definition to create a new and powerful form of rebelliousness within the medium of radio production.

The book Black Feminist Thought (2000) by Pat Hill-Collins shook the very foundation of political theory but for this study, the idea of self definition and safe spaces is of paramount value. Hill-

Collins details how “controlling images are designed to make racism, sexism, poverty, and other forms of social injustice appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable parts of every day life” and “challenging these controlling images has long been a core theme in Black feminist thought” (69). This resonates with the working class people in the United States and in communities throughout Los Angeles where Soul Rebel

Radio is heard. According to Hill-Collins, the construction of knowledge for members of the Third World

Left is due to the obligation to “replace controlling images with self defined knowledge deemed personally important, usually knowledge essential” (100). Exercising freedom within a confined room is not an easy task, and “One reason safe spaces are so threatening to those who feel excluded, and so routinely castigated by them, is that safe spaces are free of surveillance by more powerful groups” (111). According to Hill-

Collins, consciousness in safe spaces “becomes one that acknowledges the complexities of crosscutting relations of race, gender, class, and sexuality” because the “efforts at self-definition is the quest to move from silence to language to individual and group action. In this quest, persistence is a fundamental requirement for this journey” (120). Soul Rebel Radio aims to create a safe space where everyone is encouraged to participate in the decision making process in the hope of helping individuals find their voice in a collective space. Change leads to empowerment, but of utmost importance is the engagement in the process, “Whether individuals struggle to develop a changed consciousness or the group persistence needed to transform social institutions, actions that bring about change empower. By persisting in the journey

20 toward self-definition, as individuals, we are changed” (Hill-Collin 121). The power of self-definition for

Soul Rebel Radio lies at the intersection of race, class, and gender along with sexuality and thus we attempt to create a safe space that will allow youth to produce media that replaces controlling images with self- definitions. Soul Rebel Radio aspires to be better, and we challenge participants to make changes within, which can lead to the construction of social justice on the road to equality.

The Revolution in Prime Time

Prime Time Activism (1991) by Charlotte Ryan takes a look at important media strategies for organizing and helps indentify how the community is dependent on the ability to generate and influence the media. Ryan also issues a challenge to liberal concepts of how to best use media to create new ways of organizing. The book outlines the role of media, defines what is newsworthy, illustrates the way media shapes our reality, explains the role of insiders, and generally clarifies the role of routines, gatekeepers, reliable sources, and a media strategy. As constituents of both the media and the community, the members of Soul Rebel Radio are able to walk a fine line between objectivity and subjectivity to remain credible in society. The collective understands the importance of organizing and we have intimate knowledge of what it means to be making stories, gaining access, and also planning for challenges within the creation of the program. Soul Rebel Radio’s form of activism has been to build a community of listeners, or audience, that holds the collective accountable, but at the same time we hope to educate those who listen to the show and in that way maintain the focus of the space on the issues that matter in prime time to young people in L.A.

Prime Time Activism (1991) by Charlotte Ryan examines the media as a contested terrain where the opposition can present alternatives to problems described as the status quo by the mainstream media.

Soul Rebel Radio sees the media as a contested terrain and I would argue that we even had to fight for a space for the youth from the Third World Left with an ally like KPFK. Ryan begins by explaining that,

“Our instincts about the media were right on target; we knew that no organizer could afford to ignore it and that it played a critical part in shaping issues” (4). Ryan outlines the three traditions of media studies as the gatekeeper which is focused on the daily workings of newsrooms, the political economic angle focused on the structure that shapes media production, and the cultural aspects focused on the role of news between people and consciousness. Although “No single theory address all the issues confronting an organizer,” the

21 organizing tools do help us to, “understand the mass media as an arena of struggle” (9). Organizers acknowledge both the forces that work against them and the possibility of change, and “In relation to media, specifically, the models must recognize that modern mass media permit little input from the masses, i.e. mass media opportunities are very limited to those of us not representing powerful, social, and economic group institutions” (Ryan 11). In order to determine if something is newsworthy, the producers must determine if a story has public recognition, importance, and if there exists an interest in the subject because, “Mainstream media seek decisive actions of defined opponents whose confrontation presents clear options in a fast paced drama. Using these criteria, an editor may decide that a strike is newsworthy” (Ryan

34-35). For organizers planning a media campaign, determining what is newsworthy is important, but

“News criteria also vary within a single medium. Radio talk shows, for instance, ask not for dramatic action but for dramatic character, representatives who can present an issue movingly and clearly” (Ryan 41). Soul

Rebel Radio uses actions, characters, and representatives to present an entertaining and educational program. The contested terrain of media and media studies limits appropriate representations of the Third

World Left in the press, and Soul Rebel Radio presents an inspiring example of a program that recognizes the importance of community issues and places value in the production of knowledge that is newsworthy to the community. The collective took ownership of public radio as organizers and transformed the sound of the independent media space known as KPFK in order to present the revolution in prime time.

The Whole World is Watching (2003) by Todd Gitlin presents a look at the mass media in the making and unmaking of the new left by examining how to organize the news for practioners, consumers, and decision makers. Gitlin concludes that media images and narratives are manufactured, and of particular importance to Soul Rebel Radio is the idea of the “mind of the media” or the hidden and deeper structure that governs the rules and assumptions of the producers of the news. The image makers in the mainstream press have an agenda, but Soul Rebel Radio challenge those pre-conceived notions. The issues that are important to young people from Los Angeles who work in the Third World Left within the United States are not usually or extensively covered by the mainstream media. As explained earlier, few spaces exist where the youth can openly express their views without prejudice and be heard by a wide audience. Soul

Rebel Radio can be heard throughout Southern California on KPFK which has the largest antenna range in the West Coast, and our program is heard worldwide at www.kpfk.org. The show represents both a

22 responsibility and an opportunity to produce media that can demonstrate to the local and global audiences that in Los Angeles, we are greatly concerned with the state of the world in the early 21st Century.

In The Whole World is Watching, Todd Gitlin explains how people rely on the press to create their world view, and although the whole world is watching, there exists a battle over control of the public space.

Unfortunately for the general public, Gitlin believes that, “The media bring a manufactured public world into private space” (1). The result according to Gitlin is that, “every day, directly or indirectly, by statement and omission, in pictures and words, in entertainment and news and advertisement, the mass media produce fields of definition” (2). The mainstream media distorts the images of the Chican@ community or completely ignores important issues, but Soul Rebel Radio challenges this norm and profiles young people of color from the Third World Left in L.A. According to Gitlin, creating meaning of the news in a commercialized culture could be the same as helping make value in the world, and “Just as people as workers have no voice in what they make, how they make it, or how the product is distributed and used, so do people as producers of meaning have no voice in what the media make of what they say or do” (3). The mass media defines public significance, but Soul Rebel Radio redefines what is significant and presents it for the whole world to hear. An important and complex aspect of the media is mostly unknown, “Media frames are persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which symbol-handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or visual” (7). This idea thereby lends credence to the concept that we recognize at Soul Rebel Radio of an invisible hand that helps control outcomes in media. The decision makers operate behind closed doors and Gitlin explains this clearly, “The media of the culture industry are ordinarily controlled by members of the top corporate and political elites, and by individuals they attempt (with varying success) to bring into their social and ideological worlds” because “The dominant economic class does not, for the most part, produce and disseminate ideology directly” (254). This is in contrast to the previous generations of the owners of the means of media production who did prefer to appear publicly and back their positions. The result is that,

“the media have a general interest in stabilizing the liberal capitalist order as a whole, and it is this interest, played out through all hegemonic routines, which stands behind the dominant news frames” (280). This helps us to understand why the press has no interest in reporting the truth because it would disrupt the status quo. While the world listens to what we are programmed to hear, Soul Rebel Radio constructs new

23 definitions of meaning, but the media frames for our show are rooted in the Third World Left community of

Los Angeles. The objective of Soul Rebel Radio is to defy capitalism and the dominant hegemony and create spaces within the medium of radio that are representative of anything but reformist media, so instead the show is focused on presenting a spirit of rebelliousness.

In order to challenge the owners of the media and the capital, Soul Rebel Radio employs a number of tactics learned from our previous and continuous work as organizers and activists in and around Los

Angeles. In The Activist’s Handbook (2001), the author Randy Shaw examines how activists help shift the power structure to create transformation and in the process illustrates how everyday people can demonstrate through their lived experience that revolution is possible and that change is imminent. The book examines the structural problems and limited openings that face community organizers and grassroots activists in the existing structure, and it provides tips and ideas that can be helpful to rebels trying to influence the media. I was inspired to created Soul Rebel Radio after understanding the structural limitations and limited spaces for the Third World Left in L.A. and in the mainstream media. Of particular interest for the study is the chapter “The Media: Winning More Than Coverage,” which includes such ideas as using the media for results, choosing media contacts, the use of investigative reporters, tactics for dealing with reporters, responding to media bias, as well as alternative versus mainstream media. The book includes strategies, responses, initiatives, and direct actions that are helpful for activists. Because Soul

Rebel Radio is rooted in an activist spirit, many members of the collective organized in the community prior to and after joining the group. The collective tends to view mainstream radio and the production of media through a lens of active members of the Third World Left community in Los Angeles.

Randy Shaw suggests that “For social change activists, the golden age of media relations came in the 1960s and early 1970s. News coverage advanced the civil rights and antiwar movements immeasurably” (150). Shaw romanticizes an era of heightened political activity, but Soul Rebel Radio doesn’t adhere to such notions because the revolution is ongoing. Unfortunately, “These mainstream media outlets are careful, however, to link the subject’s plight to personal misfortunes rather than social and economic policies” (Shaw 151). Therein lays the problem with organizing anything with an expressed goal of receiving press coverage in an era where the media is not friendly to important issues, therefore, Soul

Rebel Radio does not chose topics based on popularity. As organizers have come to understand, “The news

24 that is centrally featured in the media is determined by the interests of its corporate owners” (Shaw 152).

According to Shaw, until the Third World Left become creators or owners of the means of media production, the best they can hope to do is affect it, so “Although social change activists and organizations cannot totally control the media’s final product, we can significantly influence it” (Shaw 157). Soul Rebel

Radio ensures that the youth and the community control the final product, and this is a radical idea that we established in an era where the media distorts controlling images to discredit civil rights efforts, and where systematic policies are disregarded in lieu of personal stories for the benefit of corporate interests,.

The entire purpose of Soul Rebel Radio was to shake the foundation of what it means to be a revolutionary in Los Angeles. Stir It Up (2003) by Rinku Sen provides lessons in community organizing and advocacy to transform local, regional, and national organizations from traditional grassroots organizing to create systematic, comprehensive, and tactical practices that can affect public policy. The book looks at strategies that can help carry the mission of any group to address the challenges posed by the new global order. Soul Rebel Radio continues to survive for over seven years as a collective because it does not rely on one individual and this ensures its long-term existence. Although I am the responsible party, there is no way that I would want to or be able to produce an entire program by myself, so we work as a collective. In the description about how to design effective media strategies called “Speaking Truth to Power,” Sen shows how most progressives are uncomfortable with mainstream media. Soul Rebel Radio is very comfortable creating media and understands personally the amount of work, research, and effort necessary to report the truth. According to Sen, “Ironically, the same technology that has built media conglomerates enables us to produce our own media” (153), and the author outlines some principles and illustrations that help the reader understand how to use media effectively. The Soul Rebel Radio collective employs existing technologies to produce original radio programs in the hopes of transforming the youth in Los Angeles and effecting social change. Soul Rebel Radio intends to stir it up and the production of alternative and independent media provides valuable advocacy and proves to be an effective organizing tool for community organizations and important causes among the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

Stir It Up by Rinku Sen is a comprehensive guide for community organizers and advocates of social justice, and it offers some propositions for anyone attempting to speak truth to power. Progressive organizations tend to have a prickly relationship with the media and this is in large part to the fact that “it is

25 extremely difficult for grassroots community organizers who want to affect deep social change to get their stories heard” (148). Soul Rebel Radio was created to presents voices from the Third World Left because I understand how difficult it was to get our stories heard. After the Telecommunication Act of 1996, the

Federal Communications Commission has “moved to further weaken broadcasting rules that safeguard media diversity” (Sen 149). This has forced progressives to place more attention on the press because media coverage helps build momentum and organizations design messages, create their own media, study the reporting, and organize resources in an attempt to affect the “official story.” Instead of affecting the official story, we decided to create a version of the truth that is representative of the Chican@ community and the Third World Left. Sen adds that although there appear to be less opportunities to exercise freedom of the press, and “Despite the consolidation in radio, a number of community-based radio stations, such as nationwide networks of Spanish-language stations, will still carry our stories. In rural communities, radio is often the favored medium” (153). The author encourages readers to improve communication mechanisms in order to help stir it up in the media and Soul Rebel Radio provides that opportunity. According to the author, the goal of organizers is to understand communications because, “When we craft media messages, we need to be aware of where the general public stands on an issue and identify shared values we can use to move the conversation, rather than let public opinion compromise the terms of the debate” (156). Soul

Rebel Radio does not shame people or impose a worldview on our audience, but instead the goal is to present a perspective that is ignored by the mainstream press. Finally, Sen offers some advice to activists,

“Traditionally, organizers concentrated on what got said in the neighborhoods, over the fence, and this strategy is still important. Organizers should continue to get messages out to the people on the streets and to make those messages even more political, more inspiring” (164). This serves as both a challenge and an observation to the readers and future media makers because the focus should be on working with the people and not on getting attention from the media. Soul Rebel Radio stirs the pot in the traditional left, within independent media outlets like KPFK, and especially against the mainstream controlling images created by the corporate press. Consequently, the Soul Rebel Radio collective adheres to shared values that shape the debate and public opinion in the Third World Left, and in that way we help redress grievances for the community and the youth in Los Angeles.

26 Youth Radio in California

Finally, Drop that Knowledge (2010) by Elisabeth Soep and Vivian Chavez is a collection of stories related to the history of Youth Radio in Oakland, California, and it is the closest example of a radio program that works directly with young people in the manner of Soul Rebel Radio. Youth Radio is an award-winning organization that produces youth driven media that can be heard both locally and nationally, and according to the authors, “Young people come to Youth Radio from the nation’s economically abandoned, heavily tracked, and resegregating public schools.” (4). The book serves as an ethnographic collection of lessons learned and a framework for examining media through the lens of young people of color in a working class community in California, and it is an example of the power of working with youth to create media. The young people that work with Youth Radio have learned to not bury the lede in the story, and they are also able to converge literacy, create a point of voice, and according to Soep and

Chavez, they explain the art of “dropping that knowledge” (5). The youth present work on the radio for a younger audience in order for them to become productive community members and alumni capable of taking their learned and shared skills to other opportunities in media making. Like Soul Rebel Radio, Youth

Radio is an exciting model for the future of media that includes young people working with adults to create new and important representation. In my study, I found that Youth Radio is the only group that produces radio in a similar manner as Soul Rebel Radio, and one of the main differences has to do with funding.

Drop that Knowledge by Elisabeth Soep and Vivian Chavez explains how Youth Radio places value and recognizes the wisdom of the youth and their lived experience. The example provides an analysis of first hand accounts of what it's like to work with young people on radio production. The book and the

Oakland organization, “Calls for youth to step up and for adults to let go of assumptions about what passes as truth about youth, education, success, and failure, struggle, and conditions young people face” (6). By placing itself along with the youth in an empathetic manner, Youth Radio works with young people, like

Soul Rebel Radio, by speaking with and not for the group. The authors are described in the following manner, “Elisabeth (Lissa) Soep, is a Youth Radio’s research director and a senior producer in the organization’s newsroom” and “Vivian Chavez is a graduate of Youth News, the program out of which

Youth Radio emerged” (8). Due to the omission of youth traditionally associated with the media, there exist some tensions when producing media driven by young people. This includes balancing unapologetic speech

27 with humility, understanding the contradictions between social justice and the entrepreneurial endeavors of traditional radio, intergenerational relationships, and dealing with the gatekeeper adults that control the media spaces where the audience can listen to the work produced by the youth.

Drop that Knowledge (2010) details the concepts associated with converged literacy which entails telling stories and exercising the right to encourage social justice with the goal of changing the fact that young people are rarely full citizens of the media culture. As Soep and Chavez explain, “we bring together these two terms, convergence and literacy, to articulate what it takes for young people to claim a right to participate as citizens of the world and agents in their own lives” (21). The book presents the ideas of media justice, and it takes youth from having a point of view to developing a point of voice where “Making media means translating a vision into a statement; hence our shift from view to voice, from seeing to expressing, from taking in the world to speaking out the word” (83). The book also includes details of original contributions produced by Youth Radio for KPFA, KPFK’s sister station that helps form the

Pacifica Network. Finally, the youth and the authors are able to do what is called “Drop that Knowledge” to explain how Youth Radio expressed media literacy practices that help other producers of youth radio to understand the tools and methods used to produce stories. The phases of production include preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution, and the book provides a foundation for learning about questions related to ethical storytelling, tips on what makes a good story, ideas for finding topics, the construction of commentary, and how to conduct interviews. The youth also learn to create features, frame the contribution, include an introduction and the back announce, and most importantly, the radio broadcast reverberates in the community. Ultimately, Youth Radio aims to “launch emerging and veteran storytellers back into that cycle, to begin again producing with youth, telling new stories” (138). At the same time according to Soep and Chavez,

“researchers in communications, cultural studies, and literacy are increasingly tracking how young people use new digital technologies to create original media, particularly since the advent of new platforms for social networking, user-generated content, and peer to peer distribution, all of which multiply opportunities for youth participants and engagement with media production” (11).

Soul Rebel Radio like Youth Radio is a platform for young people to create original media along with adults, and we guide the youth and teach them skills that can be transferred to other media opportunities.

As alumni of Soul Rebel Radio, participants work in a unique situation where the collective nurtures the individuals to discover their voice as members of the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

28 Chapter 2

Soul Rebel Radio Themes: The Good, the Great, and the Legendary Shows

From the beginning, I decided that Soul Rebel Radio would operate as a collective and that we would focus on a theme each month, rather than cultivate a talk show, discuss the day’s news, or cover current events, and this proved to be both a challenge and a blessing. By covering a theme each month, the collective was confronted with the responsibility of agreeing on a topic, developing the framing or theme, brainstorming on the concept, and developing individual contributions that would air on the first Friday of the month. The format of the program includes interviews, news reports, skits, original musical contributions, commentaries, and editorials that allow the collective to explore the theme and develop a program that appeals to youth, but more importantly includes the voices of young people from the Third

World Left. Each month, two members of the collective would lead the group and host the show, help write the script, and generally keep the rest of the group on task to ensure that the program was the best possible representation of a particular theme. The goal each month was to introduce an original topic, allow a young man and young woman to host the program, and present a show that could potentially serve as educational material for the listening audience. Each month that Soul Rebel Radio produces an original program, we imagine the audience to be a youth in the public school system, and the collective tries to make each program as timeless as possible in order for the theme to remain relevant well into the future.

The Soul Rebel Radio collective has always focused on the youngest members of the community and so far we have covered over 70 themes in 7 plus years of existence on the Pacifica Network at 90.7

KPFK in Los Angeles and worldwide at www.kpfk.org. The purpose of Soul Rebel Radio was help develop voices of young people in and around Los Angeles, and each month, a young woman and young man help host the show and guide the audience through the theme. From the beginning, the focus was on youth and we aired the first show “Options for High School Graduates” on April 22, 2005 and “Militarization of

Public Schools’ on May 27, 2005 as part of the original 8-week series. Although the program provides a platform each month for young people, the group dedicated these two shows in the 8-week series to youth.

Soul Rebel Radio has also produced a “Youth” show in April 2008, the “Voices of Youth” program in

September 2009, “Children’s Stories” in January 2011, and the “Young, Gifted, and _____” show in

29 October 2011. These shows focused on the young people in the Third World Left and helped establish our focus on youth. Another important topic is gender, and the collective has created six programs dedicated to challenges to the patriarchy including “Sexism” on May 20, 2005 as part of the 8-week series, “Women” in

March 2006, “International Women’s Day” in March 2007, as well as programs dedicated to “Young

Women,” “Sheroes,” and “Womyn that Rock.”

Perhaps the most consistent contribution to the show has been the spotlight on environmental issues and the program has included 24 different Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segments, as well as three additional show including the “Environment” show hosted by Kilo Watts and Tiny, “Going Green” hosted by Kilo Watts and Tiny, and the “Sustainability: Think Globally, Act Locally” show presented in May

2012. Soul Rebel Radio has profiled specific years and created programs based on the themes “2005 Year in Review” and the “2007 Year in Review,” in addition to the “1984” show, the “1968” program, and

“2012” show in December 2010. Human beings are another important theme that has been explored by the collective, and the group has created shows dedicated to such people as the “Homeless in Los Angeles,”

“The Life, Contradictions, and Contributions of Che,” “The Trial of George W. Bush for Murder” in

November 2008, the “Workers” show, the “People’s Cup” in July 2010, and “Funk the Police” in October

2010. The most important shows that Soul Rebel Radio has produced include shows dedicated to the following themes, “Fear,” “Elections,” the “Death in the Springtime” show, the “Redskins vs. Patriots” program, the “Prison Industrial Complex,” the ”It’s the Stupid Economy” show, “Revolution,” “Go to

Health,” the “5 Year Anniversary Celebration,” “Soul” and the “State of California’s Economy: The

Prisons vs. The Universities” in April 2012. Soul Rebel Radio has produced or aired an original program on the first Friday of the month for seven years, and each show is focused on a specific theme. Each program strives to be the best, and the shows stand the test of time and allow future researchers of media to understand how Soul Rebel Radio created programs in Los Angeles at the turn of the 21st Century.

Youth Themes

Soul Rebel Radio’s first show helped set the tone for the trajectory that the show would take and the first theme was “Options for High School Graduates.” The goal of the show is to profile and promote youth and issues important to young people, and the first show of the 8-week series provides a clear

30 orientation towards a youthful audience. We included contributions from a number of collective members, and various contributions related to options for graduating high school seniors. It was Soul Rebel Radio’s earliest attempt to develop our collective voice as young representatives of the Third World Left communities in Southern California. The show opened with a report on standard alternatives for high school students including A-G requirements, university, and college options. We interviewed High School seniors, and presented a commercial on the Prison Industrial Complex and a skit on military recruiters. The show concluded with a report on neoliberal economic policies, and educator Jonathan Kozol helped explain how this impacts the poor and minority students in the inner cities. In general, it was the first step on a long road towards establishing our forte as a youth program at KPFK, but it also drew a clear line that the program was going to include youth consistently. It wasn’t our best effort and we were still gaining our footing, but with the help of producer Aura Bogado, I thought it was a successful initial attempt.

The show on the “Militarization of Public Education” helped to further identify Soul Rebel Radio with a younger demographic and a departure from the standard KPFK audience which was older and mostly white. The show opens with an interview with Victor Paredes, the father of a conscientious objector named Pablo Paredes, and it continued with an interview with a mother, professor, and organizer Rosa

Furumoto of California State University Northridge. The show included a number of humorous skits including a parody of the Jerry Springer show called “Berry Stringer” where the Feds are caught cheating on America, a game show about the connection between the economy and the military, and it allowed us to introduce the Soul Rebel Radio Time Machine as we went back in time to see how Indigenous people dealt with xenophobia. The show also included interviews with military personnel, a report on conscientious objectors and suicide rates in the armed forces, and a report on homeless veterans. Perhaps the most important contribution was the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment, which is about two homeboys from the barrio breaking down information on environmental issues. The segment would go on to create 23 original contributions, and the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy segment proved to be very popular with the

Soul Rebel Radio community and the KPFK audience.

The show on “Youth” was an important step in reiterating the purpose and goal of the collective and Soul Rebel Radio defined the youth demographics that we were hoping to appeal to with our show. The program incorporated youthful contributions and we included a number of youth voices and interviews that

31 took place at the El Sereno school “Semillas del Pueblo” and at an Anti-War protest in Los Angeles. Soul

Rebel Radio presented two sketches on the show, one called “Youth Time” which was a parody of the Ask

Jeeves site, and the youth were able to ask the hosts questions about the history of youth. The other skit was called “Bling My Quinceanera,” and it was a parody of the popular MTV show Pimp My Ride. Finally, we presented a report and interviews from the 40th Anniversary of the “East LA Blowouts,” and an interview with Gloria Muniz Ramirez, author of the book The Fire and The Word, about the history of the EZLN, or the Zapatista Army for National Liberation in Mexico. Muniz Ramirez helps to explain how the youth are fighting in Chiapas to improve health, recover education, and create parallel structures of government called the “Good Government Councils,” in the same way Chican@s in Los Angeles struggle for justice.

The show is a great representation of the ability of the collective to connect international youth struggles with local resistance led by young people and in that way educate the community in the Third World Left.

The show “Voices of Youth” proved to be Soul Rebel Radio’s first attempt to hand over the reigns of the show to teenage youth from the Third World Left and we had help from the organization CORAL in

Pasadena. The show included many contributions by teenagers and it was broken down into three sections, environment, street life, and gangs. The show incorporated poetry, an environmental skit, a report on

Global Warming, plus several original songs, a police harassment skit, and a report on violence. The

Voices of Youth show was inspired by an event organized by the Los Angeles gang prevention organization Homeboy Industries, and Fabian Montes and Pascual Torres who worked for the organization explain how poetry helps young people to heal from violence. The youth from CORAL and the Voices of

Youth from Homeboys Industries helped present the pain and suffering that youth face in the Los Angeles’

Third World Left. The program helped to reiterate the importance of providing a platform for youth to develop their voice and supporting the efforts to develop the influence of youth in the community. Our goal for the show was to create a space for youth to tell stories that are familiar and realistic to the Third World

Left in L.A., which is usually ignored or misrepresented by the media. The show is a good example of Soul

Rebel Radio, but the most important development was that we provided the platform for young people and gang involved youth to present topics that were grounded in the community.

The show we called “Children’s Stories” represented an effort to create a program that would appeal to an even younger audience and we imagined a “tween” (not yet a teenager) listening to this show.

32 We opened the show with a skit called Stone Rebel Soup that explained the history of the program as a variation of a popular children’s story, and we continued with a “Pepito” joke, which are popular throughout Latin America and is akin to Dennis the Menace. We also included a parody of the Emperor

Wears no Clothes, a skit about the Genie in the Lamp, another skit about a deaf frog that perseveres, and a

Soul Rebel Radio lullaby. The show included an interview with Lydia Grant, a Sun Valley resident that became involved in the case of Jeremy Marks, an African American youth in an LA area High School who was incarcerated and charged with lynching for videotaping an incident of police brutality. The sharpest contribution of the program was the feminist critique of “Little Red Riding Hood” that explained that the children’s story was originally meant to promote the virtues of chastity in France. The program provided an opportunity to expand our voice and to appeal to a younger audience, and the result was a very well produced show and an inventive program that I believe appeals to youth of all ages.

The show “Young Gifted and _____” was an effort to remind an aging collective that the purpose of Soul Rebel Radio was to create a show for and by youth. We opened the show by interviewing participants of YouThink at a weekend retreat and I provided a space for the youth from LA to provide testimonies for the world to hear. We also interviewed the founder of the youth group Young Warriors, and continued by interviewing older LA area residents reminiscing about their youth in the city. The show included a report on the Mendez vs. Westminster case that made Mexican School in California illegal, but more importantly the case served as the precedent for desegregation in the case of Brown vs. Board of

Education. Finally, the program also included young musicians from Mariachi Plaza de la Raza which is made up of youth around the community of Lincoln Heights. We also provided the audience with a testimony from Mario Rocha, who was falsely imprisoned for ten years as a teenager and struggles to overcome the effects of the penitentiary system. The collective created the show to remind the audience of their potential to be future leaders, organizers, musicians, and activists, so that they could someday look back and marvel at the development of their voice and their contribution to the Third World Left in LA.

The show was an excellent, but not outstanding example of Soul Rebel Radio because the collective needs to include more young voices so as to not speak with but instead provide the space for more youth to speak.

From the start of the program, I created Soul Rebel Radio with the goal of establishing a show that would appeal to the youth, and the collective hoped to expand the audience at KPFK to include young

33 people of color, provide a working example of an organization that worked as a collective, and ultimately create a radio program based on a theme that would air on the first Friday of the month at 7pm on 90.7 FM in Los Angeles. The pilot program on April 22, 2005 was called “Options for High School Graduates” and the show presented options and alternatives for young people that are facing the prospects of the real world.

Another early program from the 8 week series that was geared to the youth demographics and issues was the Militarization of Public Schools program on May 27, 2005 that focused on students, parents, and organizers opposed to the presence of the armed forces at public schools. In April 2008, Soul Rebel Radio presented “Youth” and the goal was to create a program that would represent the youth while respecting their beliefs, values, and ideas. Soul Rebel Radio presented “Voices of Youth” in September 2009 about the role of voice in the development of young people, and throughout the history of the show, the members of the collective had a goal of presenting individuals and members of the community that had a right to be heard by the world. In January 2011, Soul Rebel Radio created “Children’s Stories” and the collective used fairytales as metaphors for the issues that face the youngest soul rebels. Finally, the group paid respects to the “Young, Gifted, and _____” in October 2011, and profiled young and gifted people from Los Angeles who represent aspects of the Chicano@ and Third World communities that should be valued by mainstream media. Soul Rebel Radio has continued to push the envelope and after seven years on the air, and despite proving the value of youth, we are still the one and only youth program on KPFK in Los

Angeles that targets and works directly with the youth from the Third World Left.

Gender Themes

The “Sexism” show was Soul Rebel Radio’s first effort to present a feminist perspective and it included interviews, testimonies, skits, and a faux Public Service Announcement. The group interviewed young women about patriarchy at Cleveland High School in the San Fernando Valley and provided young women a platform to express their views without prejudice. The show also included an interview with

Cherie Gaulke, a lesbian artist and Chloe Gans-Rugerbregt, a reproductive health advocate. The show also included testimonies from members of the collective who discussed issues of domestic violence and helped to heal those individual victims. Soul Rebel Radio presented a poem that helped paint an image of domestic violence in a creative way but in a serious manner. The first attempt to present woman-centered program

34 was a successful initial attempt, and it helped the collective to create programs regularly that focused on feminist and gender issues. From the start of the show, the goal was always to be inclusive of women in the collective, and gender balance was built in and promoted throughout the history of the program, but dedicating entire shows to this theme was necessary and important to the collective. In general, the show was tame and lacked the punch necessary to call it a feminist critique of patriarchy, but we agreed to regularly produce programs focused on gender issues and this was an early effort at that group goal.

The show on “Women” helped to further demonstrate the importance of gender balance and feminist themes for Soul Rebel Radio as a group although some men in the group resisted the effort. The program highlighted some important women voices including civil rights leader Rosa Parks, Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu as read by a 6th Grade student, and a tribute to musical legend

Billie Holiday. The show included the voice of a number of young women from Ventura County and also an Anti-War protest in Southern California, and it profiled many more voices of young women. The show includes a report on Women’s reproductive rights, a description of human trafficking, and an account of the obesity epidemic. Kilo and Tiny created a skit on energy consumption and also an original song called

Mother Earth to demonstrate how we recognize the planet as being feminine. Finally, poetry by Robin

Powers and an original production of the Soul Rebel Radio Vagina Monologues written by member

Chelsea Moore helps present a complete account of women for the audience. The purpose of creating a show about Women was to demonstrate the any production coming from the Third World left of Los

Angeles must include voices of women in the community, and it was important for us to honor some of the leaders that blazed the trail for other females and males to continue the struggle for equality in the Third

World Left.

“International Women’s Day” is a celebration of the contributions of women around the world, and Soul Rebel Radio produced a program that paid respect to the struggle for gender equity. The show included reports on the history of International Women’s Day, an account of reproductive rights, plus a description of the life of the Mexican feminist Sor Juana Ines and American abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

The skits included the use of the Soul Rebel Radio Time Machine to interview feminist and anarchist

Emma Goldman. Soul Rebel Radio also presented a parody of the network show The View, and a segment on the benefits of low impact living. Soul Rebel Radio interviewed Maricela Guzman who was assaulted in

35 the Navy and consequently went AWOL because she feared the consequences of reporting the attack. We interviewed participants of the EZLN’s “La Otra Campaña” or the other campaign in Mexico that was initiated in Chiapas by the Indigenous and egalitarian Zapatista Army. The show continues a Soul Rebel

Radio tradition of highlighting the voices of women and youth from the Third World Left in Los Angeles as well as from around the world.

The show on “Young Women” highlights the voices of youth in and around Southern California and provides a platform to help understand how young women are impacted by the patriarchic society. The show includes a number of reports including one on teen dating violence, an accounts of the effects of domestic violence on the family, and another on the policies of the Bush administration that caused harm to women. The program includes interviews with young men combating violence against young women, we talk with college students talking about gender issues that are important to them, and we speak with a first generation Latinas who provides a testimony about the challenges of being the first to attend the University.

The program was blessed by the Poetry of Slam Champion Sonya Renee, as well as an interview with guitarist Gloria Estrada and singer La Marisoul of the band La Santa Cecilia, and we also presented a report on the Los Angeles Women in Music Organization. The show ends with a quote from Gloria Steinem who said, “The first problem for all of us men and women is not to learn, but to unlearn.” The show on young women and the program in general helped several young women find their voice and take the first step is towards deconstructing the patriarchy, and it helped to demonstrate to our audience how much Soul Rebel

Radio values young women as a collective.

The “Sheroes” show was an effort to present female heroes to the audience without the need to mystify gender. The show was inspired by a conversation with community organizer Fran Zamora, and the interview with her helped her and the audience realize the sheroic values that we pass on to other young women as well as how mentors impact our lives. The program includes reports on women in science, a report on Chinese revolutionary Xiang Jingyu, and an account of the work of abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth. The interviews on the show included participants of the first Womyn that

Rock conference at the University of Washington including punk rock legend Alice Bagg. We also presented young girls talking about their cultural influences, an interview with the Chican@ teacher and performer Jo Ann “Mixpe” Ley, as well as interviews with the Tranny Rock Stars which is a support group

36 for Transgender youth in Los Angeles. The show ends with members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective saluting the women who have served as Sheroes in their lives. The young women and historical figures represent a legacy of women heroes that have shaped the roles of all people around the world and the Third

World in LA and this show was an exceptional representation of the importance of gender to the collective.

The “Womyn that Rock” show was done in collaboration with the Wombyn that Rock conference at the University of Washington and inspired by Soul Rebel Radio alumni Monica de la Torre who helped organize the gathering. The program included a report on the revolutionary writer Angela Davis and Emma

Goldman, as well as retrospectives on singers Etta James and Amy Winehouse. The show includes interviews with participants of the Womyn Who Rock conference and young students at CSUN who talk about important women in their lives. Yenni Diaz and Soul Rebel Radio Alumni Theresa Dang helped produce the documentary “Stop Stealing Our Cars” about the efforts of the community in Santa Ana to stop the police from taking immigrant vehicles, and the interview profiled the important work of two friends of the show. The Womyn that Rock show also included a three part skit where we profiled testimonies by a

Filipina refugee, a Filipina immigrant, and a Filipina-American. The program included a reading of a poem written by Mexican writer Sor Juana Ines, and also a report on the Hyatt Workers strike and the struggle to earn a fair contract from the hotel giant. The most important contribution of the show was the first monthly piece created by the youth of the community organization a Place Called Home in South Los Angeles, and the young people interview Deborah Constance, the founder of APCH. The Womyn that Rock show was an attempt to collaborate with a conference happening at the same time, and the fact that it was a Soul Rebel

Radio alumni who spearheaded the effort made it that much more personal for us. In fact, the inclusion in the show of Soul Rebel Radio alumni Monica de la Torre and Theresa Dang, who developed their voices with us and have gone on the make a greater impact as women in the community and as leaders in the academic and creative circles, is the truest testament of the power of the Soul Rebel Radio collective and the individual members of the group.

In conclusion, women and gender issues have continued to play a central role in the evolution of the show from the start when we were produced by Aura Bogado to the current group of Soul Rebels that includes a number of powerful young women and teenagers associated with the program. Each month, our goal is to include a gender balance in the hosting, in the individual contributions, and as members of the

37 collective, and there exist few shows that did not profile the voices of young women. During the initial 8- week series, Soul Rebel Radio focused on the theme of “Sexism” and aired the first gender based show on

May 20, 2005, and that time we did a fair job of presenting the topic and establishing the importance of sex in the production of the show. In March 2006, we created a show about “Women” and recognized the need to create a minimum of one program a year that would focus entirely on gender issues and challenges to the patriarchy. The next year, the group created the show “International Women’s Day” and honored the unofficial holiday that is typically celebrated on March 8th as a way to recognize all women who help shape the road to equality. The next program the collective made about gender was in April 2011 when we presented “Sheroes” to help balance the male-centric concept of heroes and introduce courageous women to the conversation about the fictional superman. Finally, in March 2012, Soul Rebel Radio presented

“Womyn Who Rock” in conjunction with a conference by the same name that was organized in part by

Soul Rebel Monica de la Torre at the University of Washington. The collective has develop a number of brilliant media makers, but it is no surprise that the women in the group have gone on to do the most essential work like earn their PhD, produce Radio Shows on Mainstream Radio Stations, create

Documentarians, work as Reporters, and even appear on national television programs.

Environmental Themes

Initially, some adults in the audience did not understand the Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment as a humorous sketch, and some people felt that we were portraying stereotypical characters, but it became and remains one of our most popular contributions years after they stopped creating original pieces precisely because we did not adhere to stereotypes of Chicanos. The first Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy

Segment aired on the 4th program of an 8 week series, and it helped establish the protagonists as two homeboys from the barrio that are obsessed with environmental issues. The ongoing contribution was meant to examine energy use, and the second segment explained the different forms of energy including coal, nuclear, and fossil fuels. In the “Militarization of Public Schools Show,” Kilo Watts and Tiny explain why and how the U.S. consumes 25% of the world’s energy and offer some tips to the audience to how to conserve power. The “Internationalism” show included a segment where Kilo and Tiny’s friend Flaca helps the guys to explain the “I don’t care” syndrome” and we encourage the Soul Rebel Radio audience to take

38 ownership of the environment. The final contribution from the 8 week series was in the last show on

“California,” and Kilo Watts and Tiny posed the questions and scenario “What if the power went out permanently?” in California. The Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy segment established the environment as an overarching theme along with youth and women that served as one of central subjects of Soul Rebel Radio.

The initial monthly program in January 2006 was called “2005 Year in Review,” and although the show was not our best collective effort, it established news report, interviews and skits as the central contributions of the show, and the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment as the anchor of the early years. In the first monthly contribution, Kilo Watts and Tiny explained the effects of Coal Burning in the United

States and the harm that it causes to the environment. From there, the dynamic duo created a report in the

“Women” show where Kilo Watts and Tiny create awareness about energy consumption. The first original song by Kilo Watts or Jose Cano and Tiny or Eduardo Arenas was called “EMS,” and it was a rap about the

Energy Management System, and it served to establish their voices and musical aspirations for the future members of the bands Las Cafeteras and Chicano Batman respectively. The next three contributions included a report on natural liquefied gas and its uses from the “4th World War” show, a report on Tree-

Hugger Phobia from the show on “US Militarization,” and they created a report in the “Fear” show that explained how we are running out of fossil fuels while being completely dependant on oil. The first several

Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segments helped establish the range of both characters and with the segment, the pair established themselves as an integral part of the show and the environment as a central theme.

The next contribution related to the environment was from the “Election” show, and Kilo and Tiny created an original song about solar panels called “How Much Does it Cost?” that was a well made reggae song. In the “Los Angeles” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny explained the origins of smog in LA with help from their friend Cati. The “Black People” show included a contribution by Kilo Watts and Tiny that was a report on environmental racism in the Southeast LA City of Vernon where a proposed new power plant is planned. In the “International Women’s Day” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on Low Impact

Living after Tiny goes to Mexico and he comes back to explain how his relatives lived a low impact life. In the “Death in the Springtime” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on how we should not blame ourselves for everything that is wrong with the environment because the system is also responsible for the situation. The “Conspiracy Theory” show included two contributions from Kilo Watts and Tiny that were

39 related to the environment. For the monthly contribution, Kilo Watts and Tiny present a doomsday scenario where the power is shut off, and the duo also filed a report on ingredients in common household items after

Eduardo and Jose visit a supermarket and they explain how the use of aluminum in deodorant, fluoride in toothpaste, chemicals in fabric softeners, and aerosols in fragrances harms the environment. The contribution of Jose or Kilo and Eduardo or Tiny includes aspects of their passion for both the environment and music.

In the “Music” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on climate change and create an original song called “The Carbon Tax” based on James Brown song Payback, and it was a very well made soul song. In the “Censorship” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on how censorship is used to keep true information about the effects of Global Warming from the public. During the “Disease” show,

Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on the community-based group Pacoima Beautiful, an organization that combats Environmental Racism in the San Fernando Valley. In the legendary “Redskins vs. Patriots” show, Kilo Watts and Tiny created a skit that helps answer the question, “Are Indigenous People Better

Off?” today, and it includes a visit to “Native King” for some buffalo burgers. The final original contribution of the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy segment involved Kilo Watts and Tiny interviewing the character of Global Warming to help dispel the rumors about climate change. The legacy of the Kilo Watts and Tiny segment continued despite the fact that both Jose and Eduardo eventually moved on to form bands and create original music. Eduardo explains that he learned to produce thanks to the work he did on our show, and he helped create Chicano Batman’s first album. Jose also learned about production from working on our show, and he went on to form Las Cafeteras along with Soul Rebel Radio alumni Hector Flores.

The “Environment” show was Soul Rebel Radio’s nod to the legacy of the Kilo Watts and Tiny

Energy Segment, and the program about environmental issues was hosted by Kilo and Tiny. The show includes a skit called “Dreams of Energy” which was a dream/nightmare scenario about the combined effects of the energy crisis, global warming, and carbon footprints, another sketch abut a surfer named

“Rolando Mota” that hoped to save his favorite surfing spots from the effects of global warming, and another spoof about water coming alive and talking to individuals about conservation. The interviews in this show included a talk with Susie Chang, the Regional Director of Grid Alternatives which provides low income families with solar panels, a discussion with Rosa Romera who works with the South Central Farm

40 and who discusses the plans to build a Forever 21 warehouse on the grounds of the former South Central

Farm, and we also spoke with Steve Busceli, who worked at Brownfield on a Super Fund site that contains land with hazardous waste that impacts the local ecosystem and human beings alike. The show included two original songs “Where does the Energy come from?” where Kilo and Tiny explain that ultimately, the energy comes from the power of the sun, and also another song called “Burning Out” created by Eduardo

Arenas about the global warming crisis. Finally, the show ends with Kilo and Tiny wanting to go back in time before pollution began to impact the Earth, but they are unable to fix the Soul Rebel Radio Time

Machine and instead offer the following tips to our audience, “Redirect your energy to save energy,”

“Redirect your dollars to save energy,” and “Manage our waste so it doesn’t take up space.” The

Environment show was superb, and it re-established the Soul Rebel Radio collective as advocates of environmental issues independent of the Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment.

In the “Going Green” show, Soul Rebel Radio accidentally did something that adhered to the trajectory of the show and our environmental angle, and Kilo and Tiny agreed to come back to help us host the show along with “Eco Nut” Kianti and “Eco Love” Onamare who are real life off the grid hippies. The hosting was a conversation about the virtues of living off the grid and living on the grid responsibly, and it made for a fascinating discussion about environmental tactics between die-hard hippies and everyday conservationists. The show opened with Los Angeles Councilmember Jan Perry talking about the eco- friendly initiatives she has launched in her district, but she is perhaps most famous for her involvement in the raid of the South Central Farm in 2006. The show includes reports, interviews, and skits related to the concept of “Going Green” and we look at the environment from all possible angles. The reports included in the show demonstrate how to live off the grid, the effects of “Chem Trails,” the advent of genetically modified foods, and a report on how to help the Earth. The show also includes a report on the community based organization Green for All, which is a group that works to provide green alternatives to local residents. The skits on the show consist of a parody of the network game-show Are you Smarter than a 5th

Grader? called “Are You Greener than a 5th Grader,” a Poor Peoples Guide to Going Green, and a skit that explains how inexpensive products end up costing the environment more in the long run called “The True

Price of Cheap Goods.” Finally, we interview community members including City Councilmember Jan

Perry and ask them “How do you go green?” at an Earth Day Festival in South Los Angeles. The program

41 was an excellent environmentally friendly show about the virtues of Going Green and we encouraged our audience to take possession of the planet’s future. In the end, members of the Soul Rebel Radio collective choose to live responsibly on the grid, and although we respect people that are living off the system, it is not our preferred method of survival.

In the show “Sustainability: Think Globally, Act Locally,” Soul Rebel Radio presented a picture of how to best deal with sustainability, which involves being concerned with the planet while doing important work in the community. The group opens the show with a report and skit filed by “Chavela” who is a character representative of a young girl that explains how Laughter is Medicine, and Soul Rebel Radio defines sustainability as meeting the present needs without compromising the future. The show had a report on the BP Oil Spill and the effects of fracking, a report on Genetically Modified Organisms, a description of obesity, and an editorial on carbon footprints. The skits involved were an old Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment called the “Energy Cops” and a skit called “Global Yelp” that highlights the sustainability of the food conditions in Greece, China, Cuba, India, and the US. The youth from A Place Called Home also created a contribution about the sustainability of South Central after the Los Angeles Riots when

APCH was found. Finally, the show included interviews with Luisa Suleman Rodriguez who works with the School of the Americas office in Venezuela, an interview with Revolutionary Autonomous

Communities, which provides food to low income and homeless community members on Sundays at

MacArthur Park, and we also interview teacher Edgar Flores who is an urban gardener who talks about sustainability. The show on Sustainability was an important step in the latest generation of Soul Rebel

Radio, and it re-established the collective as an environmentally friendly program on KPFK focused on the issues that are important to the Third World Left in Los Angeles and the world.

In conclusion, the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment was the most popular and perhaps most practical portion of our show, and it left and enduring and indelible mark on Soul Rebel Radio, the collective members, and the community. Kilo Watts aka Jose Cano and Tiny aka Eduardo Arenas together created at least 23 original segments and came back to host two additional programs on top of that including reports on Coal Burning, Hydroelectric Power, Natural Liquefied Gas, Environmental Racism,

Censorship of Global Warming, Fossil Fuels and Peak Oil along with skits like the “I Don’t Care

Syndrome,” “What if the Power Out?,” “Tree Hugger Phobia,” “Energy Cops,” and a sketch that answers

42 the question “Are Indigenous People Better Off?” plus original songs like the “Energy Management

System,” “How Much does it (solar panels) cost?,” and “The Carbon Tax.” Kilo and Tiny came back twice to host the “Environment” show in August of 2008 and the “Going Green” show in April 2010 where they presented their latest original song called “Going Green.” The last show that we created related to issues of the environment is the “Sustainability: Think Globally, Act Locally” show in May of 2012, and it guides our audience towards a more sustainable way of life for individuals, communities, and ultimately everyone from the First to the Third World. Soul Rebel Radio is proud of the long history of environmentally friendly contributions and thanks to the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy segment, additional contributions, and supplementary programs, our place is secure with third world environmentalists everywhere, and especially in Los Angeles and among the Chican@ community that forms the Third World Left.

Years as Themes

The first monthly show that the collective self-produced is an effort to establish our place at KPFK for Soul Rebel Radio as a youth collective capable of developing our voice and presenting a radio program based on a theme. After pressuring the Local Station Board at KPFK in 2005, the Program Director

Armando Gudiño granted us a monthly show on the first Friday of the month at 7pm. The first program we created on our own was the “2005 the Year in Review” show, and it includes two contributions from the

Soul Rebel Radio Thespians which was the name given to the collective effort to produce skits on a regular basis. The first skit was based on a character named Angry Dave that appeared originally in the 8 week series, and the second skit was by Conquest News which also appeared in the original series. Angry Dave explained the deplorable response from the George W. Bush Administration to Hurricane Katrina in New

Orleans, and Conquest News reported on New Years Resolutions. The show also included a report on the life and legacy of Pope John Paul II and a retrospective on the comedy of Richard Pryor who both passed away in 2005. The final report was an account of the Anniversaries of the Cuban Revolution and the

Zapatista Rebellion which celebrate their existence each year on New Years Day and which were celebrating their 46th and 11th anniversaries respectively that year. The best part of the program was the

Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy segment and their contribution was a report on the effects of coal burning in the United States. The first effort to create a show was not as well produced as future efforts, but it was the

43 first show and also the initial attempt to examine a specific year. The year 2005 represented the calm before the economic storm that would arrive in 2008, but it also provided an opportunity to examine the impact of historical figures like President George W. Bush, Pope Paul John II, and comedian Richard Prior. The show also profiled revolutionary movements like the Zapatista Rebellion, the Cuban Revolution, and the environmental movement, and the impact these groups had on the Chican@ community and Third World

Left in Los Angeles.

The show called “The Year in Review in 2007” was an effort to take the collective to the next level of production and the show included a fair mix of original and new members, and it was an opportunity to introduce our two newest Lulu Kornspan and Monica de la Torre. The show’s first contribution was an interview with Los Angeles MC Medusa who released an album that year, and she discussed the role of women in Hip Hop. The skits included the use of the Soul Rebel Radio Time Machine to make predictions about 2008 and beyond, and a very ambitious Roast of Santa Clause skit that included the Roast-master Santa’s Elf, Jesus, Kwanza, Hanukah, Mrs. Clause, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, and

St. Nicholas. A report on the use of your tax dollars in 2007 and another on the increasing number of ICE raids helped to provide valuable information to the community that serves to explain future trends. The show also includes a review of important developments in the music world in 2007, and we end the program with an original contribution by Kilo Watts and Tiny who interview the character of Global

Warming to help dispel the rumors about climate change. Future shows related to specific years would be more focused on original productions related to specific and impactful years, and less so to reviewing the news from the previous year, but this show demonstrated an important growth for the collective. Despite the shoddy nature of this show, what I took away was that in less than two years, we had established ourselves at the station and in the community as a vigorous voice and advocate of young people in LA.

The Year “1984” was an important time at the height of the Cold War, and the popular culture of that year left an impact that would last for generations to come. The theme of the show was based on the

George Orwell’s book 1984 and the format includes three tenets from the book, “Ignorance is Strength,”

“War is Peace,” and the concept explained by the Ministry of Truth, “Who controls the past now, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past.” The music from the year was used throughout the show, and the program included reports on the proliferation of TV, another report on music in 1984. The

44 year 1984 included the invention of MTV, a vibrant East LA Punk scene that included groups like The Brat and The Baggs, and Prince’s song “Darling Nikki” led to the creation of the Parent Music Resource Center which later created the Parent Advisory stickers. We presented a report on the New World Order that focused on the atrocities of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, the Contra War against the Sandinistas in

Nicaragua, and the Civil War in El Salvador between the Arenistas and the FMLN in 1984. The skits included the use of the Soul Rebel Radio Time Machine to bring a young woman from 1984 back to the present time, a Celebrity Jeopardy parody with contestants George H. W. Bush, Boy George, and Bill

Cosby, and we present a year in the life of the Cold War conflict between the US and the USSR including the Russian Boycott of the LA Olympics and the US Funding of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

The show also aired two sound clips from 1984, one about the AIDS Epidemic which began around 1984 and we present Anti-Gay quotes from Pat Buchanan and the Reverend Jerry Falwell. We also include a testimony from Frank Zappa at a congressional hearing about censorship in music in which he is in opposition to the efforts of the PMRC. Finally, Soul Rebel Radio reiterated to the audience that it is our responsibility to create a radio program that inform people in an entertaining manner and we end the show with the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment. The “1984” show took the collective creativity to another level of production and the incorporation of music, information, and audio from that year help to contextualize the prospects of the book with the reality of the lived experience of individuals from the

Third World Left in Los Angeles. I remember how this show helped the collective to imagine the infinite possibilities that the platform of radio provided for creativity and information, and we did an awesome job.

The world changed completely and in a revolutionary manner in “1968,” and it was the youth that were the driving force in movements throughout the world and at home in Los Angeles. The show represented the second attempt to profile an important year in the world’s history, and Los Angeles was swept up in the political fervor racing around the world in 1968. We open the show with words from Paula

Crisostomo, who was a student leader during the historic East LA Blowouts when thousands of students walked out to demand quality education for the Chican@ community and others in the Third World Left of

Los Angeles. The year 1968 included such landmark events as the East LA Blowouts, the assassination of

MLK along with race riots in over 100 US cities, the assassination of RFK in Los Angeles, the Chicago

Police Riot at the Democratic National Convention, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the Students for a

45 Democratic Society protests, the South Carolina State Massacre, Cesar Chavez’ first fast for the United

Farm Workers, as well as movements in Czechoslovakia, France, and Mexico. That year was the creation of the image of Che the martyr who was killed in late 1967, and in 1968, the Summer Olympics were preceded by the Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City when thousands of students and community members were murdered by government forces. The show includes a number of sound clips from 1968 including a report on the war in Vietnam from January 31st, a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King where he explained that “I’ve Been to the Promised Land,” another sound clip of James Brown who performed in Boston after the MLK assassination and spoke about the need for peace in the streets after several days of violence.

Finally, we present an interview of Huey P. Newton after the police riots at the 1968 DNC as reported by

Bill Watson of the Pacifica Network. The show also includes an interview with David Simpson, a hippie and peacenik from the Bay Area, and youth from the year 2008 at a statewide gathering of activists in Los

Angeles. The program had reports on the assassinations of MLK and RFK as well as another on the murder of Che on October 8, 1967, and his “Guerillero Heroico” image that was turned into works of art and a famous poster by Jim Fitzpatrick that spread around the world in 1968 after it was confirmed that he was killed in Bolivia. The most timely and timeless contribution that we presented on the show was on the East

LA Blowout in 1968, and the 40th anniversary was an opportunity to create a report that focused on the leading causes of the protest. We had an opportunity to interview Paula Crisostomo and Harry Gamboa Jr. who were student leaders who helped organize the walkouts, and they describe what was happening in

1968, what Los Angeles was like, and their memories of the historic walkouts. The year 1968 was important to Los Angeles and the Third Word Left, and the program was an important contribution to the canon of Chicano Studies and Third World Feminism in that Soul Rebel Radio documented a significant year during its 40th Anniversary for today’s audience.

The “2012” show was a response to the predictions and doomsday scenarios associated with the year and the Mayan prediction. On December 21, 2012, the 5125 Long Count Calendar will end/begin at

11:11 when the Earth, the Sun, and the Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way Galaxy are aligned, and nobody knows for sure what will happen that day, but there are a number of theories that we tried to capture in this show. The program incorporated a number of audio clips from throughout the 2012 phenomenon, interviews with an environmentalist and an expert on Aquaponics, as well as an editorial that

46 attempts to deconstruct some of the wild ideas associated with 2012. The show included a report on the

Chilam Balam which is one of the original sources of Mayan philosophy, plus a description of Izapa

Guatemala which is considered the 2012 Mayan site. We also present an account of Peak Oil in 2012, a report on the Hopi’s Blue Star Prophecy that many associate with the Levy 9 comet in 1994, and a story on the “Time Wave Theory” created by Terrence McKenna that incorporates aspects of the I-Ching and demonstrates the end as occurring in 2012. Our interview with Gregory Pettis who is an environmentalist provides a green perspective to the 2012 discussion, and Dr. Julia Rankin explains how Aquaponics can help humanity survive past 2012 by creating self contained and water friendly sources of protein and plants.

The collection of audio clips includes NASA confirming a peak in solar flares occurring in the year 2012,

Terrence McKenna explaining his Time Wave Theory, a portion of the Lost Book of Nostradamus, another piece on “Apocalypse Island” in the South Pacific. Apocalypse Island is the only place in the world where one can witness the Venus Transit, the Solar Eclipse, and the alignment on 12/21/12, and finally we present an existing interview with Rik Clay who explains the phenomenon associated with the time 11:11 and its relationship to the 2012 prophecy. A number of occurrences predicted by cultures around the world explain the following occurrences: on January 31, 2012, the near Earth object 433 Eros comes very close to the planet, on May 20, 2012, there is a Solar Eclipse in the Northern Hemisphere, on June 6, 2012, Earth will witness a Venus Transit in front of the Sun, on November 13, 2012, the Southern Hemisphere will witness a Solar Eclipse, and on December 21, 2012, the 13 Baktun long count calendar ends on 4 Earthquake during the Winter Solstice. This show was a huge undertaking and because I have a personal interest in the theory that dates back almost two decades, I was overwhelmed with the results and thought that the program was as complete as anything related to the year and the phenomenon of 2012.

Initially, the “2005 Year in Review” show and the “2007 Year in Review” program worked as filler material during periods when production was usually slow due to holidays, but efforts became respectable examples of Soul Rebel Radio. The “1984” show used the George Orwell book 1984 as inspiration, and the use of music and events associated with that year was a radical departure from focusing on contemporary issues. The “1968” show was a way to honor perhaps the most significant year of the late

20th Century due to the political activity that occurred around the world and in Third World Left of Los

Angeles, and this was due in large part to the youth driven movements that called for social justice and

47 brewed with revolutionary fervor. Finally, the “2012” show was a program that aired two years before the galactic alignment that is prophesized on December 21, 2012, and we presented a program that attempted to encompass the various theories into a unifying understanding that we are living in what some would call the end times, and which others identify as the start of the next phase in human evolution. Although the years 2005 and 2007 were pivotal to understanding how critical resistance existed prior to the 2008 Great

Recession, it was the show’s ability to connect the events of 1984 and 1968 to 2012 and beyond that truly separates Soul Rebel Radio from other programs on the radio. Coupled with the extensive use of the Soul

Rebel Radio time machine, the recognition of different years was really an acknowledgment and appreciation of history and attempt to connect the past to the present and the possibilities that exist for young people in the future.

People as Themes

Another important theme to Soul Rebel Radio is the concept of people, and the collective feels it has done its best job to highlight the voiceless, the controversial, and the sinister depending on your political perspective. The first attempt to highlight people was the “Homeless in Los Angeles” show that made the invisible people visible and audible by bringing their voice to the masses. The show began with a report from Skid Row and an interview with “Skid Row Bobby” Greene. Other interviews profile homeless people living on the streets, we talk with Kevin Michael Key who is a Community Coordinator with the homeless advocacy groups LA CAN and the LA Poverty Department, and we interview Manoush who is a member of Food not Bombs, an organization that helps feed the homeless. The show also included an interview with Ricardo Juarez, a Case Manager in Ventura County that illustrates the prevalence of mental illnesses among the homeless population. Soul Rebel Radio presented interviews with Nikisha and Susan

Cruz from “Girls in Gangs,” and this is an organization that helps convicted youth avoid homelessness, and

I interviewed Tezozomoc, an organizer with the South Central Farm in Los Angeles which is an organization that ended up being homeless after a push to evict the farmers from the land. The most significant contribution to the show was the interview with UFW founder Dolores Huerta who explains how the overwhelming majority of migrant farm workers are in essence homeless during the work season.

This fact is difficult to digest if we consider that most people don’t think about where their food comes

48 from or what conditions are endured by the workers who pick the fruits and vegetables. The inclusion and profiling of human beings was vital to the future of the program, and the first show to focus on specific people was based on the theme of homelessness in Los Angeles which Soul Rebel Radio felt does not receive enough attention by the mainstream press. The show was outstanding and it demonstrated our ability to empathize with the most marginalized people in the Third World Left of Los Angeles.

The show we called the “The Life, Contradictions, and Contributions of Che” was an attempt to present the life of a controversial figure while at the same time presenting something new and fresh to the

Soul Rebel Radio audience. The show included a short history of Ernesto Guevara, plus three 1st person accounts by important woman in the life of Che including Celia de la Serna who was his mother, Hilda

Gadea who was his first wife from Peru and the mother of his first daughter, and Aleida March who was

Che’s second wife from Cuba and the mother of the rest of his children. We included audio of Che including his first address to the Cuban people, a report on the book that adopted into a film called The

Motorcycle Diaries, a reference to the creation of “Radio Rebelde” which proved to be the public relations unit of the Cuban Revolution. We also share some words from Che about the defeat of Imperialism at the height of the fallout between the US and USSR when the Cuban Revolution was forced to defend the island during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. We also presented audio of Fidel Castro who was pressured publicly to read a private letter when the people realized that Che was no longer involved in the decision making in

Cuba. We also created a few skits, and in the first example, the Soul Rebel Radio Time Machine was used to interview Alberto Korda who is the photographer behind the famous image of Che called the “Guerillero

Heroico,” another spoof was a parody of Family Feud with the category of Che producing some controversial answers. The most fascinating contribution was a poem called “What if Che was Ugly?’ where Soul Rebel Lex wondered if the aesthetics of Che helped him to become a revolutionary martyr. We also presented interviews with youth from Latin America who explain that although the image of Che has been commercialized, Che remains an inspiration to many revolutionary youth in Latin America, and we also included an interview with a young Cuban ex-patriot who explains that the image of Che is indoctrinated in Cuba and the children end each morning by proclaiming “Seremos como el Che” or we will be like Che. Finally we include portions of an interview with Gloria Muniz Ramirez, the author of the

EZLN history book The Fire and The Word who explains that the spirit of Che is understood as that of a

49 comrade who is in the hills, and his life is celebrated every October 8th as the day of the heroic guerilla by the Zapatistas in Chiapas. The show was a critical look at the life of Che and not a glorification of a hero martyr, and this was done well and by design. As a devotee of Che, I wanted to make sure that we presented his life respectfully without trying to idealize his life or gloss over some important contradictions, and we did that in an extraordinary manner.

The “The Trial of George W. Bush for Murder” show was an assignment in the manipulation of audio to create a voice that would resonate with the Third World Left audience at the end of an 8 year reign of terror by the administration. The show was inspired by the Vincent Bugliosi book The Prosecution of

George W. Bush for Murder and Carole Coleman’s interview of George W. Bush for Radio Television

Ireland, and we used actual audio recordings of the George W. Bush and his administration and inserted our questions to create the trial. We also included his infamous quote to open the show, “Fool me once, shame on you… Fool me twice, can’t fool me again!” The show was hosted by News Eyewitness anchor Layla

Califo and reporter Jorge Arbustos who brought us breaking news from the courthouse, and The Trial of

George W. Bush was held in the courtroom of Judge Timmy Tim-Tim. The trial starts with the testimony of the family members of dead soldiers as read by the Soul Rebel Radio collective, and the defense team repeatedly objected to the dramatic testimony. The prosecution team of Monica and Theresa then grills the

Bush Administration cabinet members including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfield, and Colin Powell on the witness stand. George W. Bush took the stand and was accused of failing to adhere to facts before illegally invading Iraq by building a structure of lies, and he was also blamed for his administration’s failure to recognize the findings of 16 different intelligence agencies. The Prosecution team of Theresa

Dang and Monica De la Torre conclude that 4000 soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis had died as of November

2008 due to the false pretenses used by Bush to invade Iraq. The show ended with Vice-President Dick

Cheney breaking “Dubya” out of the courthouse by shooting a bailiff in the face, and they both escape to a getaway vehicle. The show was a substantial undertaking, but Soul Rebel Radio was very proud to be able to take George W. Bush to trial for murder, and I felt we presented a strong case and the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that that the President was guilty of murdering thousands of innocent civilians.

The “Workers” show was about the contributions of the labor force and the working class neighborhoods that many of the collective members came from in the Third World Left of Los Angeles.

50 The show was part of a Trilogy that included the “Capitalism” and “Revolution” shows, and on this program, we focused on the workers. Former KPFK host Jerry Quigley opened the show by explained what it means to be a worker and emphasizing his and the stations pro-labor and pro-union position. The program showcased the voice of AFL-CIO Labor leader Maria Elena Durazo who was interviewed in three separate parts. The first part of the interview was about how she got involved in the labor union, then she explains the current labor situation in the United States which seems to be anti-union, and finally she encourages young people to get involved in the union and organizing work in general. The program also included interviews with workers and union organizers that explain what an ideal work situation would look like and they answer the question “What does it mean to be a worker?” The show also included an interview with Alma Catalan, a young filmmaker and former garment worker who discusses the struggle to survive as an undocumented immigrant. We also interviewed Melody Gonzalez who works with the

Coalition of Immokale Workers and the Chiapas Media Project, and she discusses the labor situation for workers in the fields and we played a clip of the documentary “Paying the Price” about the cost of being a

Farmworker. Finally, the show includes an excerpt from Radio Tijera which is a media outlet that documents the lives, voices, and experiences of garment workers in the United States from the perspective of employees in the sweatshops. The workers show was an excellent program that relates to the Chican@s community and other members of the Third Word Left in Los Angeles, and the Trilogy that it formed was a clear indication that Soul Rebel Radio stood on the side of the workers and against the multi-national corporations that exploit employees.

“The People’s Cup” show was a parody of the pomp and circumstance associated with the World

Cup that tends to ignore the reality of the members of the Third World Communities in South Africa or around the world. The show opened with a commercial voiced by Bono that was commandeered into a plug for Soul Rebel Radio. The show defines futbol in terms of the game and the origin of the sport, explains the history of the FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, and the World Cup, or the world championship tournament that is played every four years. We included skits, interviews, and news report from South Africa or related to the beautiful game to present the perspective of youth from the Third World

Left. Correspondent Xaris Delgadillo interviewed young people living in extremely poor conditions in

South Africa, and they share their thoughts on the reality that is hidden from the public. The show includes

51 an editorial on how the legacy of racism remains rooted despite the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Soul

Rebel Radio also presents a report on the power of the people movements in South Africa that includes

Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress among other leaders. Local futbol players also participated in our show and I interviewed members of the Futbolistas in Los Angeles who play soccer in a community of skilled, unskilled, older, and younger men and women who come together to build a society of healthy people. Every year, the group plays in the “Copa Comunidad” which brings together Futbolistas from Los Angeles and Leftwing Futbol Club from the Bay Area to play futbol. For the World Cup program, they answer the question, “What is the World Cup?” The show includes a fascinating report on

Drogba from the Ivory Coast who helped to create peace in his country by bringing warring sides together using the power of futbol, and another report on how mental training is just as important as physical training in sports and in life. One report explained the madness involved when sport fanaticism and violence come together on the soccer pitch, and we also presented a report based on the essay “An

Impossible Happiness” by Fidel Castro written during the World Cup in 2010. Another description details the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast that wreaked havoc on the environment just a few weeks before the

World Cup started. Soul Rebel Radio also included commercials about how Coca Cola harms communities around the world with a report that details their specific damage in South Africa, Pakistan, and Columbia and another description of the Sony Playstation, which requires an element found in the Congo that creates violence in that country. Finally, we created a skit that explains how the World Cup affects married couples and the community by increasing violence and aggression during the World Cup. The show was an attempt to take a current event and provide a Third World Leftist perspective to the debate, and we did a dazzling job of honoring the sport with a Soul Rebel twist.

The show, public event, and “Community Bill of Rights” related to the “Funk the Police” show was our take on police brutality and a proactive response by Soul Rebel Radio. The entire Soul Rebel Radio show was a skit, and it was hosted by two characters named Officer Justice and Officer Malo, but the idea is not to scream “Fuck the Police,” but instead the collective proposed a Community Bill of Rights to help end police brutality. I write the script and created a program with two fake cops on the beat to guide the audience through the show, and the audience was invited to see the police as human beings with flaws. The program had two reports related to police brutality with one focusing on the lives of Oscar Grant, Rodney

52 King, and Amadou Diallo who along with Manuel Jamines were all victims of Police Brutality. The other report helps explain the relevance of the Chican@ Moratorium during the 40th Anniversary of the event, and we interview Leilani Montes who created the documentary called “Since Salazar” about the Chican@

LA Times reporter who was killed by the police in East LA during the original event. Other contributions to the show included interviews with Fran Zamora who explains the reality of the law enforcement and encourages everyone to “Know Your Rights.” We also did an interview with Joaquin Cienfuegos of Cop

Watch LA who has worked to document Police Brutality since 2004. Finally we conducted an interview with Bill Cudahy, a Constitutional Historian and expert on the 4th Amendment who opposes illegal search and seizures, and fights for the right to privacy. Cudahy explains that, “Cops are ordinary people in extraordinary situations.” The most interesting contribution on the show was the anonymous interview with two female police officers who explain the impact of racism, sexism, and police brutality on their work.

They have witnessed supposedly a minimal level of this kind of behavior throughout their careers in law enforcement, but it was important to seek out a balance to the show. Soul Rebel Radio organized a community event on the night that the show aired, and we also created a “Community Bill of Rights” that evening at the Downtown Los Angeles Youth and Community Center, and we ended the show by encouraging the community to support the 15th annual October 22 Rally against Police Brutality that year.

The show “Funk the Police” presented a Soul Rebel Twist to the topic of police brutality, and the creation of a living document helped the collective to convey the importance of proactive and collective measures to state sponsored violence, so the show was a complete success for the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

In conclusion, human beings are ultimately the most important members and subjects of the show, and although imperfect and volatile at times, Soul Rebel Radio is fundamentally a collective of people that worked together to create an original program each month. Soul Rebel Radio cares about the “Homeless in

Los Angeles” and understands that people in our community are passionate about this subject, so in June

2006, the group aired a show about the dispossessed. Some people in the group traveled together to Cuba together and three members of the collective Jorge Merino, Lex Steppling, and I met Aleida Guevara, but when it came time to do a show about Ernesto Guevara in May 2008, it was called “The Life,

Contradictions, and Contributions of Che.” At the end of two administrations and the “War on Terra” by

President Bush the lesser, Soul Rebel Radio felt it was our responsibility and duty to produce “The Trial of

53 George W. Bush for Murder.” In May 2009, the group created the “Workers” show because it needed to complete the trilogy that included “Capitalism” and “Revolution,” but mostly because we values the contributions of the labor force and unions in the United States. While the world, me included, celebrated the World Cup being played in South Africa, Soul Rebel Radio aired the “People’s Cup” as a tribute to the beautiful game of futbol, but with an eye towards what it means for the Third World Countries around the world and their relationship to California and Los Angeles. The “Funk the Police” show in October 2010 was associated with a public event at a community space in Los Angeles, and it resulted in the creation of a

“Community Bill of Rights” created in conjunction and collaboration with our audience and the imagined community that was nurtured throughout the years on the air. The goal of Soul Rebel Radio is to encourage young people to take ownership of the media and hopefully to impact the community that it serves by creating a program that is both entertaining and informative to the youth and the adults that might be listening, and we have clearly done an immense amount of original programs focused on the people.

Concepts as Themes

The “Fear” show was an early program where I felt the collective had hit its stride, and by this time we had found our niche at KPFK as a youth program. The show was a creative step in the right direction, and it moved the collective towards challenging ourselves to push the envelope and explore ideas thoroughly in each show. The concept of fear is rather abstract, but the group was able to explore the theme by employing skits, interviews, and news pieces to create a complete representation of terror. Soul Rebel

Radio opened the show with a clip from the film Clockwork Orange, and from the start we wanted to set the mood for fear and it carries throughout the show. The most memorable contributions were the skits about fear, and they include a segment called “The Science Rebels” which was a parody of the children’s show Bill Nye the Science Guy, which uses a fun and scientific approach to explain fear. Another sketch about the three parts of the brain that manage our responses to fear with each compartments being represented by a separate character. A number of different types of fears were explored including the youth talking about their fears related to education, social services, gangs, immigration, and the economy, plus interviews with young gay and transgender youth explaining their fears of hate, crimes, HIV, STD’s, and acceptance, plus we also included testimonies from the collective members who share accounts of their

54 fears as women. We interviewed Edward Mercado, a young man from Venezuela who discusses how youth in the US are taught to fear Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. The program also includes a report explaining how the media uses fear tactics to spread terror and another report that explains how Fidel

Castro has been made out to be a boogeyman that people must fear. Many Americans like Angela Davis and Sidney Portiere challenge this notion created by the US media about the Cuban leader, and they openly support the communist leader. Finally, the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment portray a scary scenario of a society that is running out of fossil fuels while being completely dependant on the oil industry. The fear show was an excellent and creative interpretation and presentation of a conceptual program that explored boundaries and challenged the collective to explore a theme completely and present it in a manner that appeal to the audience and educates the community. The “Fear” show was a tremendous effort to create a mood while covering a theme and it informed our future shows to consciously manipulate the sound to enhance the experience for the audience.

The show called the “Elections” show started off as a challenging theme because few members of the collective believed absolutely in the electoral process, but by the end of the program, it turned out to be one of our best shows and a program that included some of our most memorable contributions. The show opened with a shout out from Sub Comandante Marcos of the EZLN speaking in English in one of the few known audio recordings of him speaking to the Chican@ and American audiences, and it ended with the

“Sup” explaining that some people go to sleep and dream about a better tomorrow while others work through the night to create that reality. In between, the show included an amazing interview with Dolores

Huerta of the UFW who sits down with Wendy Carillo to discuss the importance of voting especially in light of the recent immigrant rights marches in the US. The collective interviewed youth explaining their thoughts on elections and voting, and we also presented a report on a woman’s right to choose in light of new rulings that attempt to changes the existing abortion laws. We also included an interview with

Christine Lyon, the Vice President of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Santa Barbara. The show presented a report on the Pros and Cons of Proposition 87, and finally we did an interview with Bill

Paparian who ran as a Green Party candidate for the 29th Congressional District in California. A few skits helped provide a humorous take on elections, and they were “The Mind of a Young Voter” skit which takes us inside the mind of a young voter trying to avoid confusion at the ballot box and in the election process.

55 The “Soul Rebel Café” sketch was a hilarious parody of a poetry jam and it included “Soldier of the

Spoken Word” by Sister Solstice of the Equinox and “Let’s Play House,” and “Piece About the Senate” by

Urban Warrior Mike. The program included a PSA staring Arnold Schwarzenegger where he encourages the audience to vote. I interviewed Sub-Comandante Marcos and participants of a gathering in Tijuana between Chican@ and Zapatista supporters. After helping with security during the day’s gathering, I asked

Sub-Comandante Marcos of the EZLN to share his thoughts in English at the stop for La Otra Campaña or

The Other Campaign in October 2006. We also include the voices of the young participants of the gathering who explain the purpose of their involvement in the struggle for autonomy and against neoliberalism. The show ends with the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment and Kilo and Tiny create an original song about solar panels called “How Much Does it Cost?” The show was an exciting and huge step towards establishing legitimacy and presenting a perspective that was well rounded, and the inclusion of

Sub-Comandante Marcos and Dolores Huerta in an Election show presented a Soul Rebel Radio view of the world from the Third World Left in L.A. The “Election” show is easily one of the finest shows we ever created, and I was very proud when this show aired and for the manner in which we covered the theme.

“Death in the Spring Time” was an attempt to take a topic such as genocide and completely flip it on its side in order to create something innovative, and the show is a great example of the collective creativity of Soul Rebel Radio. Most of the contributions were reports on different activities related to genocide including a report from the Cucapa Camp in Baja California which was an effort to support the

Indigenous community by Sub Comandante Marcos of the EZLN and the Chican@ community in the US.

We also included a report on gentrification in places like the Hill District in Pittsburgh, the Mission District in San Francisco, and Elysian Valley in LA. We presented a report about the Jewish Holocaust which cost thousands of Jews, Gays, Gypsies, and Jehovah Witnesses their lives, and a report that sheds light on the

Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turkish forces. The show included an account that focused on the genocide in Rwanda, and a report on the year 1968 which was pivotal around the world in the struggle for social justice. The show also includes a skit called “The True History of Columbus” where Mr. Deez, a substitute teacher takes over a history class and the students challenge the mainstream notions of

Columbus. We also interview a teacher Jo Ann Mixpe Ley who works at Semillas del Pueblo in El Sereno, which is a school that teaches indigenous philosophy and history and hopes to preserve native traditions.

56 The show ends with the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment and their report on the importance of energy consumptions for the preservation of the human race. “Death in the Spring Time” might seem like a contradiction since the season is usually associated with life, but the attempt to present the topic about the preservation of life. In light of the horrors of genocide, our program was a valuable endeavor that goes against the grain in the style of Soul Rebel Radio and on behalf of the Third World Left in Los Angeles, and we did an impressive job of presenting a complex theme to the audience.

Perhaps the most creative and ambitious effort ever taken on by Soul Rebel Radio was the attempt to present the contributions of the Native American people as a football game between the Redskins and the

Patriots. The football games serves as a metaphor for the history of the Indigenous experience in the United

States, and the group uses real historical figures, locations, and times to place each “play” in the game within a real event. The show opens with Kiko Wativiti from the Taino Nation who speaks of the true history of Columbus as passed on in the oral tradition of his people, and he explains “Our women bashed their heads with their war clubs.” The show takes us to the following places including Florida in 1513,

South Carolina in 1526, Mississippi in 1542, Virginia in 1548, North Carolina (Lost Colony) in 1584,

Chesapeake Bay Virginia in 1607, Plymouth Rock in 1620, Thanksgiving in 1621, Jamestown in the

1640’s, Massachusetts/ Connecticut in 1637, Hudson River (Wall Street) in 1640, Pennsylvania in 1682,

Pima Arizona in 1680, the Pueblo Revolt in 1709, Delaware in 1756, the Shawnee Scalp Act in 1775, the

Christian Missions in 1786, the Northwest Ordinance in 1790, Shawnee Ohio in 1795, the Creek Wars in

1813, the Fort Blunt Seminole War in 1815, the Doctrine of Discover in 1828, the Trail of Tears to

Oklahoma in the 1830’s, Seminole Wars II in 1843, the California Gold Rush and Indentured Servant Act in 1849, the California Indian Treaties in 1850, California in 1862, the Homestead Act in 1862, the Sioux

War Declaration in 1862, Colorado in 1864, Southern Cheyenne in 1865, the Red Cloud’s War in 1866,

Custer against Sitting Bull in 1876, Nez Perce in 1877, the Indian Appropriation Act in 1874, the Apache

Massacre in Arizona in 1871, the Sitting Bull Gathering of Indians in 1876, the Oklahoma Land Rush in

1889, and Wounded Knee in 1890. Redskins players on the roster included Carlos Calusa, Francisco

Chicora, Powatan, Pocahontas, Samoset, Masowet Wampanowa, Squanto, Opechankano Sasakaspetqua,

Iroquois, Chief Tamanend, Lenape Delaware, Tohono Odham, Popeye Pueblo, San Diego, Shawnee,

Sacajawea, Chief Tecumseh, The Prophet, Seminole, California Indian, Manuelito Navajo, Sioux, Roman

57 Nose, Red Cloud, Cheyenne, Lakota, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, and Geronimo. Meanwhile, the Patriot players were Christopher Columbus, Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, Juan Rodriguez Bermejo, Jesus

Christ, Juan Ponce de Leon, Lupe Vasquez de Aylon, Hernando de Soto, Spanish Jesuits, Sir Walter

Raleigh, John Smith, Mayflower, Boston Bay, William Penn, Thomas Penn, Robert Loomis, Measles,

Small Pox, Greenville, Lewis and Clark , Maryweather, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison,

California Legislator, Carson, Homestead Act, Col. Harry Harrington, George Custer, Christianity, Fort

Nebraska, General Crook, and Whiteside. For the halftime report, we presented an interview with Alan Yu, a University of Chicago linguist working with the Wacho Nation, and the postgame report was with Kianga

Lucas, an Indigenous student who explains how Native American mascots in the 21st Century are offensive.

The show included commercials for Pacifigra, a fake pharmaceutical company, and Davey Crocket Hats which help you “Dress to Kill” and in general it had all the elements of a real football game. The Kilo

Watts and Tiny Energy segment was a skit that helps answer the question, “Are Indigenous People Better

Off?” today than before the conquest, and the segment includes words by Quese IMC who is an Indigenous hip-hop artist. We also spoke with drummer Questlove of The Roots crew who gives Soul Rebel Radio a shout out at the Rock the Bells show that year. We end the show with a Leonard Peltier Honor Song to pay tribute to a leader of the American Indian Movement. The research, writing, and collaboration necessary to create a football game complete with plays, analyst, color commentators, and sportscasters was an ingenious way to present a theme and it remains one of our most enduring and endearing programs. Years after the show originally aired, the audience and collective members that participated remember it as one of our greatest creation and one of the most involved productions of radio, and I am very proud of this show.

The “Prison Industrial Complex” show allowed the collective to take a position on a controversial issue and we presented a program that challenges the mainstream notions of the prison system. The show includes skits, interviews, and reports and we profiled a number of voices from the Third World in Los

Angeles including member of the Chican@ community. Critical Resistance defines the Prison Industrial

Complex as the intersection of government and private corporations, and Soul Rebel Radio presented this as our characterization as well. The sketches included “America’s Next Top Prison,” a parody of America’s

Next Top Model where Calpatria, San Quentin, and ADX Florence in Fremont, Colorado vie for the top prize, a spoof of the show “To Catch a Predator” that explains the role of the US system of education in

58 turning youth into prisoners, and a parody of the Art Laboe show which plays oldies and caters to the homeboys and homegirls that come in and out of prisons. Soul Rebel Radio presented a report on the Top

10 prisons and explains that per capita, the USA is ranked first in the world in the number of prisoners. Plus the program includes a report on how the 3-Strikes Law has severe effects on the individuals in prison and the youth in the community. We interview Margaret Dooley Sammuli, the Deputy Director of the Drug

Policy Alliance in California, who explains the effects of the War on Drugs on the people. The show profiled two young men who had parents in prison, Ezra Erlenmeyer works with Project Avery and his father was incarcerated when he was just as a child, and performer Trumain Davis grew up without parents because they were both in prison. We also talk with Lisa Adler who works for the UCLA Community

Labor Strategy Center and she explains how the Runner Initiative would allow youth to be tried as adults for a “Gang Related Felony.” Finally, Mario Rocha is a young man who was falsely imprisoned for 10 years at the age of 16, and he talks to us about how his narrative became the documentary “Mario’s Story.”

The most unique and expressive interpretations on the show were the original songs related the to Prison

Industrial Complex created by four different members of the collective including “Jail Cell,” a parody of

Michelle by The Beatles, “What’s Prison Done for me Lately?” a song inspired by What Have You Done for Me Lately by Janet Jackson, “I’m Behind Bars” a parody of I’m Just a Girl by No Doubt, and “3 Strikes the PIC” which was a song inspired by Soulja Boy that helps explain the Prison Industrial Complex and the

3 Strikes law. The Prison Industrial Complex program was a well produced radio show that demonstrated the range and the ingenuity associated with the informative programming and unique sounds and production of Soul Rebel Radio, and the collective and I consider this one of our better shows.

The “It’s the Stupid Economy” show demonstrated the power of the collective to address the most important issues of the early 21st century from the perspective of young people of the Third World Left communities in Los Angeles. More importantly, the program confirmed the power and the essential voices of young people that are exclusive to Soul Rebel Radio on KPFK. The show aired on September 4, 2008, and the economy would begin to crack within days after we aired the show, and by the end of the month, the program would prove to be a timely and visionary look at the US Economy on the brink of self destruction. The program begins with the testimony of a young mother that explains the struggle to raise her child, the rising food prices, the difficulty in finding work, and the complexity of providing childcare in

59 today’s economy. We spoke with young people who share the experiences and frustration of looking for work and surviving in the US economy. We also interviewed Carl Wood, the candidate for the 65th

Assembly district and a Regional Affairs Director for the Utilities Workers Union of America. The show presented a report on the Federal Reserve, which is a private bank that controls our economy through the use of its 12 national banks that consist of no government oversight. We also included a report on Neo-

Liberalism, the younger and more aggressive sibling of capitalism that drives the socialization of costs and the privatization of profits with assistance from the IMF, the WTO, and the World Bank. We also profiled the black market or the informal sector that helps provide jobs for many people in the US with and without legal documents. The show and the skit is a parody of the Colbert Report’s segment called “The Word,” and in 2008, the financial system began to show signs of breaking down. The host Mike Wall’s gung ho capitalist defense of the economy concludes that, “Everyone knows that the US is indestructible!” By the end of the show, Soul Rebel Radio called for a New Deal for the 21st Century, and my conservative alter ego “Mike Walls” breaks down and admits that “We’re in Big Big trouble. This is a national emergency and we need help. SOS! Help! We are all going to be casualties of the war on poor people.” The most significant factor associated with this show is that it aired days before the start of the worst financial recession in nearly 100 years. Our visionary collective created a show that pointed towards a real concern felt by the youth about the direction of the US and World economy. In very quick succession, the following national and international events took place in the days following our show on the economy that aired on

September 4, 2008. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were Nationalized on September 7, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and Bank of America purchased Merrill-Lynch on September 14, the Global stocks plummeted between September 15-17, the financial institution AIG was bailed out by the government on

September 16, and between September 16-30 the government and the banks negotiated a bail out as portrayed in the HBO film Too Big to Fail, until the hemorrhage of the economy finally stopped on

September 30th. The collective felt like visionaries after we aired the show, and I also sensed as though our show mattered more after this program aired. The show helped the group to understand that the power of the Soul Rebel Radio voice was in realizing that given the opportunity, a collective of people will come up with the best demonstration of media. The group presented a prophetic understanding of the American economy, and although I wasn’t glad to see free enterprise fail, the program was astonishing and farsighted.

60 The “Revolution” show was an enjoyable exercise in imagination and it allowed the group to explore the concept of rebellion without having to be heavy on the dogma. Soul Rebel Radio defined

Revolution as a complete overhaul of the government system or a change to the constitution and the program was a satirical take on insurrection. In the show’s opening, we explained to the audience that ‘We interrupt this program to tell you that rebels have taken over the station” in the spirit of the radio program

War of the Worlds. I wrote the script and created an organization called the International People Union or

IPU to explain revolution by using first person accounts throughout the show. The participants of the show included the following world renowned revolutionaries: Tupac Amaru of Peru, La Virgen de Guadalupe of

Mexico, Sor Juana Ines of New Spain, Gabriela Silong and Andres Bonifacio of the Philippines, the

Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla, Mahatma Gandhi of India, American

Anarchist Emma Goldman, the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, the Mexican hero Emiliano

Zapata, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, the Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, the Salvadoran Miguel Marmol, the Chilean President Salvador Allende, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the

African revolutionary Lumumba, the Cuban Communist Fidel Castro, the American Muslim Malcolm X,

Japanese American Yuri Kochiyama, the American Shirley Chisom, the Black Panther Party of the United

States, the Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton, American gay rights leader Harvey Milk, the Maribal Sisters of the Dominican Republic, Lucio Cabanas of Mexico, the Chican@ Oscar Zeta Acosta, the Nicaraguan revolutionary Nora Astorga, the American Angela Davis, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, plus the EZLN,

Comandante Ramona, and Sub-Comandante Marcos of Chiapas. Soul Rebel Radio tipped their beret to the following rebellions and revolutions including the Bloodless Revolution, the French Revolution, the

American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the American Revolution, the

Cuban Revolution, the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Iranian Revolution, the Zapatista Rebellion, the

Bolivarian Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Technological Revolution, the Islamist Revolution, and the People’s Power Revolution. The show also included interviews where youth and members of the community explain what Revolution means to them, and we end the show by interviewing members of the organization the Hillside Food Cooperative, which does work in Northeast Los Angeles to provide food for the community. The show was very involved and the research and writing was intensive, but in the end

Soul Rebel Radio created an original show that will stand the test of time and provide the listener with a

61 clear understanding of the influences on the Third World Left communities in Los Angeles in the early 21st century, and I was very proud to write, host, and participate in the “Revolution” show.

The show “Go to Health” was a tongue in cheek take on Health, and the show was an opportunity to have some fun with a very serious topic that affects nearly every human being. As usual, the program included skits, interviews, and reports that enlightened the audience and provided the youth in the community with useful information. The show opens with an interview with Coco Kornspan who talks about Mental Health and works with people who suffer from mental issues, and the highlight of the show was a discussion with “Dr. X and Dr. Y” which included 2 male physicians, 1 female medical student, and

1 health care Administrator who spoke anonymously about their experiences in the health care industry.

The two part roundtable discussion was the centerpiece of the show, and it was a great way to allow young professionals a chance to share their real thoughts on the industry. The show also includes a report on the ongoing debate between Conservatives and Liberals about the Public Health Care option, a report based on a publication titled “Sexual and Reproductive Health” that describes issues related to youth and sexual activity, and an editorial about the documentary Food Inc. that changed Soul Rebel Andres’ life and provided the information needed to convert him to a life of Vegetarianism. The show also included a skit where we go on a walk and encounter Soul Rebel Radio Alumni Jose Cano who recently went on a 30 mile run for his 30th birthday. We spoke with Gilbert who works with El Jardin in Boyle Heights, and finally

Raquel recommends spending time in the outdoors plus tips like getting out of your house, eating the right food, getting enough sleep, drinking water, exercising, and quitting smoking. Soul Rebel Radio encourages our audience to move towards health and although the show title appears vulgar, it is actually a call to action for the benefit of individuals and members of the Third World communities in Los Angeles.

The “Peace” program aired during our 5 year anniversary celebration, and it was an entertaining counterpoint to the “War” show that had previously aired. Soul Rebel Radio employed quotes and inspiration from the book “The Art of Peace” throughout the show to help provide wise words towards the practice of peace. The program includes a number of fascinating interviews with people calling for peace, especially the community at the May Day 2010 March against Arizona’s SB1070 law. We interviewed people who respond to the question, “Define Peace and explain how to work towards that?” We also interview Peacemakers from the Urban Peace Institute and the Gang Intervention Workers from the 1st Los

62 Angeles Violence Training Academy who explain “What is Peace?” Finally, we interview members of

Homeboy Industries with homeboys and homegirls explaining “What is Peace?” and Soul Rebel Radio created a YouTube video and interviewed Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries. We conclude the show by presenting the Soul Rebel Radio Lifetime Achievement Award for Peace to Father Greg. We also spoke Dr. John Morton who is a Peace Theologian and the Director of the Peace Theological Seminary,

College of Philosophy, and we even visited the Peace Awareness Labyrinth Gardens in Los Angeles which promotes peace. Based on a ranking of domestic and foreign violence, the US ranks #83 in terms of the

Peace Index, and we felt that our show was a call to be better at promoting peace. Soul Rebel Radio defined the word Peace, explained the history of the peace movement, the peace sign, and the peace symbol, and we hear from both the Dalai Lama who speaks about Peace as opposed to Destruction and Zack the la

Rocha who shares his thought on the destructive racism associated with SB1070 in Arizona. The Peace show was an opportunity to speak about issues of peace as they relate to the Chican@ community and others from the Third World in Los Angeles and we did a magnificent job. The “Peace” program served as an inspiration despite the war waging in the streets, in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we produced it in the hope of providing a message of hope and harmony on our 5 year anniversary, and the show was a superior celebration of the group’s long run on the air at KPFK.

The “5 Year Anniversary” Show was the culmination of many years of work, struggle, and perseverance to continue and produce a monthly radio program based on a theme that we direct towards the youth to be inclusive of young people in the Third World Left communities of Los Angeles. The show opened with a collage of sounds from past programs, and Soul Rebel Radio celebrated 5 years of being on the air at KPFK with clips of the “Trial of George W. Bush,” Sub-Comandante Marcos, and the “Homeless in Los Angeles,” the “Revolution” show, and Questlove of The Roots giving us a shout out. For the format, we contacted several alumni and interviewed them for the program, and their memories served as the backdrop to introduce a number of skits, interviews, and reports related to our five years on the air. We start by interviewing Chuy Torres who remembers the Humor we set out to present, and we re-aired the Mr.

Deez Skit from April 2007. Theresa Dang appreciates the young women in the collective including Wendy

Carillo who interviewed Dolores Huerta in November 2006. From there, Siris Barrios enjoys the collective of youth creating an informative and humorous show and we introduce a skit about political correctness

63 from August 2007. We also recalled the Colbert Report parody about the economy that I created, which proved to be prophetic in September 2008. Soul Rebel Javier valued the youth voices and especially the fallen soldiers’ testimonies in April 2009. Meanwhile, Jose Cano is fond of the original music that we have created over the years and the musicality of the Soul Rebel Café skit in January 2007. Laura Cambron loved the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segments and especially the original song “Where does the energy come from?” that we aired in August 2008. Oriel Maria Siu learned about collective organizing and production, and she especially remembers such examples as when Soul Rebel Radio made a “Call to

Heaven” in December 2006. The original Program Director Armando Gudiño was pleased with our ability to interview Sub Comandante Marcos in English in November 2006. Eduardo enjoyed the freedom and creativity associated with the collective and cited the True Hollywood Stories skit in December 2006 as evidence. Nancy became a real journalist eventually and she recalled the Limbic system sketch from

October 2006 that she found fascinating. Other members of the collective like Mayra Juarez learned to express herself especially by working on her contributions, Luisa Flores appreciates the informal education provided by the program, and others like Robert Loza created many of the visual representations that were synonymous with the show. It seemed anonymous that most of the community appreciated the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment including original members like Manuel Lopez and our newest contributors like

Loyda Alvarado who appeared on the Revolution Show in November 2009. Original Soul Rebel member

Tito Corona was the only one with any real experience having worked for the mainstream radio station

KPWR Power 106, and he appreciated the humor we were free to create like the Dick Cheney interview in

March 2006. Finally, Lex Steppling recognized his own development as a writer and producer of critical art especially after the creation of one of our greatest shows the Redskins vs. Patriots show in November 2007.

We ended the show by extending a huge “Thank You to Everyone” that had ever listened, participated, and supported the program and we especially appreciated everybody at KPFK and the Pacifica Network including Armando Gudiño and Aura Bogado who have since moved on to other endeavors. The 5 Year

Anniversary Party took place at the Downtown Youth and Culture Center in Los Angeles and it allowed us to celebrate with a birthday party precisely because we could count on the support of members of the community including supporters, performers, and artists Meno Man, Joel Garcia, Daniel Lopez, Marcos

Amador, Selene Gonzalez, Ervin Arana, Olmeca, Cihuatl Ce, Gerard Meraz, Chican@ Batman, Las

64 Cafeteras, Alan Minsky, the Pocho Hour of Power, J Revolution, Solidarity Ink, Erick Moreno, Choice of

Chance, and Eddie Gutierrez for our celebration. After 5 years of working to create an original monthly program based on a theme, the community came out in huge numbers in a show of gratitude, respect, and recognition of the hard work and political capital accumulated over our time on the air.

The “Soul” show took place at El Centro Cultural de Mexico, and it allowed the collective to host a small gathering in Orange County with friends and alumni in the midst of an effort to gentrify the downtown Santa Ana area. The group opened the show with a “Soul Glow” commercial which is a faux product made famous by the movie “Coming to America” and Soul Rebel Radio defines “soul” as a spirit and spiritual connection that one feels to the Earth, the community, and the Creator. We interview Carolyn

Coleridge, a spiritual guide and healer who talks about the importance of soul, plus Sun Dancers Luis

Giraldo and Glen Shiffman who pray in the sweat lodge tradition of Indigenous people in North America, and Giraldo explains that “Soul is a prayer of the Earth” and Shiffman adds that “Creator has a Father and a

Mother.” We hosted the show at El Centro Cultural de Mexico or “The Center,” and the community space is the soul of Santa Ana. At the time of our broadcast, it faced gentrification efforts that pushed them away from downtown and we presented their testimony for the world to understand. We also interviewed

Freedom Schools LA where the faculty attempt to create critical thinkers at the facility located at the Chuco

Justice Center in Inglewood. Finally, we also presented an editorial musical interpretation by Jefree who provides examples, first hand accounts, and music to explain the legacy of Soul Music in the United States and we round out the program by interviewing the youngest children who answer questions about Soul in the most honest way possible. By completing an image of the spirit, Soul Rebel Radio had fulfilled producing themes that represented their name by having done shows on “Soul,” “Revolution” and “Media,” and I felt that it somehow created a sense of completion for us. Soul Rebel Radio has created shows about everything under the sun, so it felt appropriate to finally do a program about what may lie above and beyond the material to the spiritual realm, and we did a divine job of presenting the sacred.

One of our most recent shows was a conceptual representation of the economic woes in the state, and it we called it “State of California’s Economy: The Prisons vs. The Universities.” The show attempted to pit the camp associated with the prison system against the group at the universities, but in the end, the consensus was that the state should invest more money into education. Soul Rebel Radio opens the show

65 with words from Angela Davis, and she imagines a future with a more inclusive revolution that would benefit everybody in California. The “State of California’s Economy: The Prisons vs. The Universities” was represented by the characters Nia and Cali who are two young women that represent the prison system and the university system. They help facilitate the content and guide the show, and we also include aspects of the book Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis which provides important facts about the Prison

Industrial Complex. Soul Rebel Alicia Vargas interviewed Angela Davis who is the author of the New

American Revolution, and the feminist and revolutionary makes the connection between the lack of education and an increase in incarceration in California. The show includes an interview with Sam Sidell, the author of Hip Hop Genius who talks about the need to introduce new concepts like hip-hop in

Education. We also ask CSUN students at a rally for education to answer the question, “What should the state of California invest our money into?” Finally, the youth from the South L.A. community organization

A Place Called Home produce a contribution that helps explain how the prisons and the universities battle over the hearts and minds of the youth. Perhaps the most important contribution of the show was the interviews with the men and women from Homeboy Industries who provide testimonies about the prison system and the struggles to survive in the free world as ex-convicts. As the U.S. and California continue to pull out of the Great Recession, it is becoming increasingly clear that the priority of the system should be to invest in public education which benefits the Chican@s and Third World communities in Los Angeles.

In Conclusion, Soul Rebel Radio has been honored to produce 72 original programs in over seven years of existence, and I fashioned the show in order to have the luxury of doing a pre-recorded show based on a theme that allows the collective the chance to do shows about youth, women, the environment, important years, and fascinating concepts. In October 2006, Soul Rebel Radio created a show about “Fear” that shook the foundation of the meaning of radio and entertainment. In November 2006, the “Elections” show presented a critical look at the electoral process and the program included interviews with Sub

Comandante Marcos in English and Dolores Huerta of the UFW. Soul Rebel Radio presented “Death in the

Springtime” as a balance to the life cycles associated with Spring. The “Redskins vs. Patriots” show in

November 2007 continues to remain a very popular show almost 5 years after it first aired thanks to the epic nature of the idea. In June 2008, the “Prison Industrial Complex” show was an examination of the connection between government and corporations, and the program helped to make important links for the

66 community. One of the most important and visionary shows we ever produced was “It’s the Stupid

Economy” just days before the worst economic collapse in the last 100 years in September 2008. In

November 2009, the show was taken over in an act of “Revolution” by rebels from the International

Peoples Union, and the cast of characters helped to present a complete presentation of rebellion from the perspective of Third World Communities of Los Angeles. In January 2010, Soul Rebel Radio encouraged the audience to “Go to Health” and provided solutions and ideas to improve personal and universal wellbeing. Soul Rebel Radio celebrated the “5 Year Anniversary Party” in style at the DYCC in Los

Angeles, and the celebration and show was the culmination of years of unbreakable effort. In September

2011, we reminded the community during the “Soul” show that they have the spirit of rebellion and brilliance within them and it is important to tap into our inner-strength. Finally in April 2012, Soul Rebel

Radio presented “The State of California’s Economy: The Prisons vs. The Universities” as a theoretical battle between the forces of incarceration and the members of the community that favor education. Soul

Rebel Radio represents an important step in the development of the power and voices of young people, in the creativity of collective decision making, and the construction of a community of radio listeners that has the power to exercise their authority over the mainstream media that chooses to misrepresent and exploit the Chicano and African American youth especially. The group and the individuals associated with Soul

Rebel Radio overwhelmingly feel that the show is an important contribution as well as a significant step towards the inclusion of young people in the media, and the development of the individual and collective voice. Finally Soul Rebel Radio created the expectation and anticipation that every effort matters and that together the collective can and will change the world one soul rebel at a time, and I am proud of every single show that we have completed and especially honored that so many of our collective members continue to produce media.

67 Chapter 3

Voices of Soul Rebel Radio

In order to tell the complete story of Soul Rebel Radio, it is not enough to review significant and relevant literature or explain some of the major themes that we have covered, but it is imperative to include the voices of the members of the collective that created the program. After producing for over 7 years and

70 themes, the members of the collective are the true backbone and spirit of Soul Rebel Radio, but it has come as a result of much sacrifice, perseverance, and dedication to the opportunity and responsibility to serve the Third World Left community. The intention of the chapter is to provide members an opportunity to express what their participation meant and how this may have positively or negatively affected them.

The interviews are not so much profiles as testimonies about the importance of having spaces like Soul

Rebel Radio accessible for the Chican@ and Third World Left Communities to learn how to create radio and produce independent media. The young people that have participated in the collective have dedicated countless hours and learned skills that can serve them as both members of the progressive community and as professionals in whatever field they choose. In their own words, members of the collective help explain the value of including young people in media, the importance of producing critically conscious radio, and the growth they each experienced as individuals in the quest to discover their voice.

Each alumni or member of the collective was selected by me based on their participation, and I asked the following qualitative and quantitative questions related to their experience with Soul Rebel Radio:

1- Can you say your name, where you’re from, and how do you identify yourself? 2- Can you talk about your experience working with Soul Rebel Radio? 3- How did working with Soul Rebel Radio positively or negatively impact you? 4- What are your lasting impressions of Soul Rebel Radio? 5- Do you have any final thoughts, suggestions, constructive criticism, or ideas for Soul Rebel Radio?

1- Before working with Soul Rebel Radio, how would you describe your experience? A) None, B) Beginner, C) Experienced, D) Expert 2- How much time during each month did you spend working on Soul Rebel Radio? A) 0-10 hours, B) 10-20 hours, C) 20-30 hours, D) 40+ hours 3- How would you describe what you learned while participating in Soul Rebel Radio? A) Not Much, B) Something, C) A Lot, D) Very Much 4-If given an opportunity to participate in Soul Rebel Radio, would you do it again and recommend it to someone else? A) No, B) Maybe, C) Yes, D) Absolutely 5- On a scale of 1 to 4, how would you rate your experience working with Soul Rebel Radio? A) 1-Negative, B) 2-OK, C) 3-Positive, D) 4-Excellent

68

The Ladies of Soul Rebel Radio

The ladies of Soul Rebel Radio includes a number of intelligent, creative, and driven women that may have started with the collective, but have evolved to become important scholars, producers, and activists that continue to realize important accomplishments that demonstrate the power of the collective.

The show had a built in effort to involve youth, and Chicanas and young women of color in particular were the primary beneficiary of the attempt at inclusion and collective decision making; which is not to say that

Soul Rebel Radio is a utopian paradise for women. The men in the collective are a group of bright individuals, but many adhered to a chummy attitude that excluded women and made some of the ladies feel uncomfortable at times or offended at others. Despite the fact that there existed gender issues, the women took ownership of the opportunity to produce quality work, and a large number of the most memorable programs were produced, hosted, or created by the women in the collective. At the start of the show, the most important feminist voice in the collective was Aura Bogado who produced our 8-week series and supported the efforts of the collective. Her participation helped create an environment of inclusion and respect for the women in the group and gender issues in general, and this propelled the show to become an autonomous entity. Another important contributor from the beginning was Laura Cambron who is a founding member and on of the most vocal and responsible members of the group and someone who always helped ground the collective and focus the group on the task at hand. The inclusion of Lulu

Kornspan and Monica de la Torre at the same time helped the collective to continue and provide a voice of reason when the boys would lose the focal point, and they helped protect the space necessary for women to participate in the collective. Most recently, Alicia Vargas and Anahi Bustillos helped to present issues important to women in the community and hold the space for young women against a group that sometimes adheres to gender norms that allow for men to be more vocal in the collective. The ladies of Soul Rebel

Radio have definitely surpassed what the men have accomplished both as individual media makers and as a group. The reason that Soul Reel Radio is unique is because it is a creative and open space where anyone can participate, but the women who have formed the collective are a special group of young feminist leaders. The women of Soul Rebel Radio have gone on to earn PhD’s, produce radio shows, work as journalists, create documentaries, appear on local and national television, and will surely continue to produce and create important work for the benefit of members of the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

69 Aura Bogado is originally from Argentina but she settled in East LA and considers herself a

Latina and Guarani. Aura was the staff person assigned to Soul Rebel Radio for the 8-week series, and remembers, “I was the original producer and worked with all of you to help develop the show.” From the start she recalls tat it was an equally challenging and incredibly rewarding experience because most of the participants had no experience or were limited to one skill. The collective was very ambitious and Bogado explained, “I was able to witness how quickly young people were able to appropriate all of the skills and that was pretty fascinating.” As a member of the Third World Left in Los Angeles, she experienced some of the limitations of public radio, and having worked at Pacifica for some time, she understood on a personal level how patronizing and condescending KPFK could be. Bogado explained “I remember getting backhanded compliments that really leave one feeling as if they are being insulted and some people made it difficult or nearly impossible to get studio time.” In general Bogado remembers that the station felt threatened by young people and especially young people of color and in her role, she added, “I was the first filter so my goal was different because philosophically I’m opposed to the idea that some people should have control over others. Especially when it comes to public radio.” Soul Rebel Radio challenged all preconceived notions of radio and format, and the group felt that public radio was supposed to be a medium to reach out to the community. The group operated as a collective and Bogado recalls how “Facilitation was done through a lot of meeting and really sitting down with pen and paper to develop ideas.” Bogado’s influence on the collective was thanks in large part to her willingness to undergo the process with the group, “For me it was more about listening and allowing the group to develop their discussions.” Therefore, it was important that everyone had to learn as many skills as possible because as Bogado explained,

“Internally, my fear was that I would be removed as the producer or that I would be replaced with a producer who would make it impossible to sound the way that Soul Rebel Radio wanted to sound.”

After the end of her initial assignment, Bogado continued to support the collective and she explained, “I was able to walk away after about 10 weeks and Soul Rebel Radio was able to continue largely because of the model that we created to facilitate each other’s learning.” Bogado’s contribution was invaluable, and over the years the collective has recruited new people to work on the show and that is a testament to the way that we organized the show form the start to make it really fluid and allow for people to come in and just as easily goes out when they wanted to pursue other projects. Soul Rebel Radio is really

70 different and an alternative to the standard sound on KPFK, and Bogado based this on the fact that she hosted and helped produce a daily newscast and produced for many other programs. More recently, Bogado came to terms with her impact on the group and individuals thanks largely to a reminder from an alumni,

“Lex Steppling recently moved to New York and he was one of the first people to work with Soul Rebel

Radio. He reminded me about the writing process that we all went through and the editing process. He told me that it was the start for him of writing and developing himself as a writer and claiming that space.”

Bogado reminded the author of the study that, “I think about you writing your thesis and this is really important work. You’re trying to be dismissive of this work that obviously means a lot to you and countless people that have been involved with Soul Rebel Radio.” She reminded me of the greater impact outside because what is really telling of the positive impact of the show is not only personal development but also the benefit to the community. Bogado explained the incredibly positive nature of the show, ”You are giving serious scholarly value to an alternative at the time when our local community station did not have one youth radio program and if I understand correctly it still is the only youth radio program.” She admitted that enough time has passed to begin to realize the positive impact of the show. Bogado stated, “I was able to work with a group of young people to facilitate our learning. It’s really uncommon” and she added, “I am humbled by the fact that I was able to work with all of you right from the start.” Although the group considers Aura as the mother of the Soul Rebel Radio, she explained that we propelled each other because it was a valuable experience to work with a group of people that was really open to the process of facilitation. The collective really discussed how each show should sound and those conversations did not come with a manual. The program and the collective are a unique example, and Bogado concludes that “I would place Soul Rebel Radio outside of imperialism and the prescribed alternatives.” Bogado explains that “It doesn’t have that NPR (National Public Radio) sound where everything could be universalized and individualized to everyone. There are a lot of thing that are different about Soul Rebel Radio. In that way it represents a Third World identity within the United States.” Ultimately, Soul Rebel Radio produces alternative media and understands how it wants to sounds, but the collective was able to produce something that was truly reflective of the community, as youth, and mostly as people of color in Los Angeles. Aura

Bogado graduated from Yale University with a degree in American Studies and she works producing media for Colorlines Magazine.

71 Hasmik Geghamyan is originally from Yerevan which is one of the oldest continuously settled cities in the world, but she grew up in LA County and her ethnicity is Armenian. She was part of the original group that formed the founding members who traveled to the World Festival of Youth and

Students in Venezuela and defines the program as, “Soul Rebel Radio is a collaboration of youth. It has become more intergenerational. It is a collaboration of conscious activists that cover local and international issues that bring more awareness to their listeners.” Geghamyan remembers the momentum that was built before and during an international exchange, “Back in 2005, a delegation of us went to Venezuela and we were very inspired over there with the movement, with the social services and change, so we came back with the inspiration to do something here.” Upon our return to Los Angeles, the group wanted to keep working together, and Geghamyan explains, “Several of us got together and covered local issues from different communities in Los Angeles.” Hasmik left the collective to pursue a law degree and graduated from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California.

Theresa Dang from Lynwood and Santa Ana is of Vietnamese descent and an organizer who left the show after the first year to pursue a law degree. Dang explains that “Soul Rebel Radio is youth radio made for youth by youth.” Dang recalls her participation and the origins of the show by saying, “Soul

Rebel has taken various different directions. My most meaningful contribution was early on.” Dang was part of the founding members and worked on the original 8-week series and remembers, “Soul Rebel has had a positive impact on my life. It was one of the first places where I was thinking more about media and different platforms that are available to communicate our message.” Dang would like to see more institutional support for efforts to work with youth to create media because “It needed more support and needed more money and it needs paid staff. I really think it would help it a lot. The work is demanding and some kind of institutional structure would help it to be stable and strong.” The distance from Universal City to Santa Ana made it very difficult for some people to participate, “Orange County involvement has been sporadic because of the distance which is prohibitive.” In the future, Dang would like to see major improvements for the group adding, “Soul Rebel Radio needs an office, a building, you need funding and equipment. It needs to become an institution. I have a lot of love and respect for the people who have worked as volunteers to keep the collective together such as Miguel Paredes and Jorge Merino.” Dang has high hopes for the collective explaining, “I want Soul Rebel Radio to become bigger and better,” but

72 cautions that the challenge will be to maintain the integrity, the spirit, and the autonomy that we enjoy so much, and which is the soul of Soul Rebel Radio. Theresa Dang is an example of the brilliance of the women who left to pursue important scholarly and community work, and we are privileged to count them as members of the collective. Dang volunteers her time as a board member with El Centro Cultural de

Mexico and she still continues to produces media recently producing the documentary Stop Stealing Our

Cars after a long campaign against the police forces in Orange County.

Oriel Maria Siu from Honduras identifies herself as Central American and is one of the founding members of the group having traveled with the original group to Venezuela, and she explains, “I used to define it as a collective of youth, interested in youth issues that worked towards developing new voices and helping develop new radio actors in community radio.” Siu explained that she always felt it was a collective effort and she learned a lot about interview process in terms of how radio works. In general, Siu felt, “That it was a very beautiful experience to allow the youth to come on the air.” The group worked very hard and had a lot of fun doing it and Siu remembers how exciting it was for everyone and how important it was for teamwork adding, “It allowed a space for creation and creativity, and it positively impacted me.”

Soul Rebel Radio was unique because it was an opportunity to create on the airwaves and Siu said, “I really liked the fact that we went through a process of dialogue to create a show.” The program tried a different take on radio format and Siu said the skits that we made were quite fun and very good. Although she is no longer involved in thee show, Siu explained, “I hope that it has continued with its initial mission, which was to create a space for youth. I particularly like that high school students were on the air and given room to create.” The original goal was revolutionary radio and Siu hopes that we are keeping true to the unique spirit of rebelliousness. She offered a challenge to the current and future members of the show explaining,

“Are we continuing to be rebellious and how do we define the rebel in Soul Rebel Radio?” Oriel Maria Siu left the program to pursue a master’s degree in Hispanic Languages and Literature at UC Berkeley and obtained her PhD from UCLA in Central American Cultural Productions. Dr. Oriel Maria Siu will soon publish her first book, and the writer works in the Latin@ Studies Department as a Program Director and

Assistant Professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington.

Nancy Lopez is of Mexican descent and from Los Angeles, and she participated in the collective for several years, but left the group to earn a master’s degree in Journalism at UC Berkeley. Lopez defines

73 the program in the following manner, “Soul Rebel Radio is an attempt to present news and information in a dynamic, creative, and soulful way.” Lopez enjoyed her time on the show adding that her experience overall was positive and it got her to where she is today. Working in the collective was a challenge for her and Lopez explained, “It wasn’t always easy, but I really appreciated the collaborative effort of Soul Rebel

Radio.” Lopez clarifies that, “It was just a really great learning experience in all kinds of way.” The show had a huge impact on Nancy Lopez and helped her decide a career path, and she added, “I would say that it has positively impacted me. I think because of the work that I was doing with Soul Rebel Radio, I decided to pursue journalism. It was a lot of work and since I could see myself doing that I applied to journalism school at UC Berkeley.” Nancy went from volunteering to help produce Soul Rebel Radio as a member of the collective to “Now I am dedicating myself to radio, story telling, and production and it has everything to do with having been exposed to the work of Soul Rebel Radio.” Some of the challenges of working in the group were difficult, but Lopez thinks its not easy working with different personalities. She adds that the group dealt with real situations ultimately, and helped raised a lot of questions. Lopez is pleasantly amazed the group has survived, “I have to say that I am surprised that Soul Rebel Radio has held on. I think it’s awesome.” Lopez added that, “I think the challenge with Soul Rebel Radio is that everyone is so busy and no one gets paid to do this work. We do it because we love it. I feel like what I would love to see is for

Soul Rebel Radio to up their production.” Thanks to the unique nature of the show, Lopez explained, “I think there’s a lot of potential with Soul Rebel Radio because of its freedom of format.” Nancy Lopez went on to earn a Masters’ degree in Journalism at UC Berkeley and she works as a reporter in the Bay Area and credits her time with Soul Rebel Radio for helping her arrive at this career choice

Wendy Carrillo is originally from El Salvador, but she grew up in Boyle Heights and identifies as a Latina and a Chicana. She started off as an ambitious member of the group, but the format, the structure, and some of the personalities clashed with her style of work. According to Carrillo, sometimes Soul Rebel

Radio works and sometimes it doesn’t. She added that “I had never done radio before, and I started going to meetings and getting ideas about what I could do. It was a learning experience for me.” When Wendy joined the group, some of the members had been working together for a long time and Carrillo explained that she didn’t quite feel like a part of the group explaining that “It wasn’t as inclusive to new people.” The experience was not always positive and Carrillo remembers that, “It was tough love, but I am thankful for

74 the experience.” She did explain that “I felt like I wasn’t welcomed. I felt like my voice didn’t matter to the collective.” Some of the contradictions within the group did not sit well with Carrillo because it challenged her to think about what it meant to be in a collective and to be progressive. The greatest challenge for

Carrillo was that the group forced her to confront “what it meant to be a woman surrounded by allegedly progressive men who didn’t really see how they way in which they spoke affected others in the group.” The space was conscious of the involvement of women, but I must admit that we did not always do a very good job of executing that equality. Carrillo did say, “I learned the process, recording, editing, looping, and to produce a solid segment.” Carrillo’s greatest contribution to the show was an interview with the co-founder of the United Farm Workers and she said, “My interview with Dolores Huerta is the best audio I have ever recorded.” The collective did present challenges and opportunities for Carrillo though because “Identity wise it was a challenge trying to work with people, but career wise it was an amazing opportunity,” but ultimately she didn’t feel like she ever immersed herself in the collective, but admits that, ”at the same time, I am thankful. “ In the end, the space and the opportunity made her realize the importance of owning her identity, and she did caution, “The men in the group should acknowledge the lack of women voices in the group.” Although Carrillo’s feelings are valid and I accept the criticism, the sentiment is based on her experience and was not shared in the same manner by anyone else that has participated in the show. Wendy

Carrillo went on to graduate from USC with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, and today she produces a weekly radio show on the Los Angeles radio station KPWR or Power 106 called “Knowledge is Power,” and she continues to creates media in Los Angeles.

Mayra Juarez is originally from Oxnard but has settled in Los Angeles and is of Mexican descent.

Mayra was one of the youngest full time members of the group when she joined the collective, and Soul

Rebel Radio had a huge impact on her, “I define Soul Rebel Radio as empowerment. I feel like there’s a place where people have a voice and somewhere that people can express their ideas. Soul Rebel Radio is power” In general, Juarez has a lot of good memories of her experience and felt like she learned a lot.

Juarez explained that “It gave me something I can use now. I didn’t feel like I had a lot of places to go to express my thoughts. Now I feel like I can give something to the community.” Juarez was generally a shy person when she started but she learned to work with people and to organize herself. Her time on the show helped her to break out her shell and she explains, “From that, I became a promoter and learned to make

75 things on my own. You can’t wait for thing because you have to make it happen.” Juarez recalled the collective efforts to create a solid product and explained, “Every time we would work together and create pieces together. We would talk about issues and we would get into comedy.” She added that the radio in general needs more of what Soul Rebel Radio provides to the audience, “We need more youth voices and more comedy.” Mayra Juarez is a great example of a young woman who came into the group with little experience and blossomed into an outspoken organizer. Juarez is currently a promoter, having created May

Promotions, and she works with bands in both the United States and Mexico to produce shows and events.

Monica de la Torre is from East L.A. and she identifies herself as a Chicana, and she started working with the group after a presentation at CSUN. In her time on the show, she has produced and created important pieces for Soul Rebel Radio and continues to provide important contributions to the show. De la Torre joined the collective on the same day as Lulu Kornspan and together they helped anchor what is perhaps the third generation of the collective. De la Torre explains her participation in the show as if she’s still involved, “Soul Rebel Radio is a radio program that airs once a month on KPFK and we try to be youth driven. That means that we try to incorporate youth voices through interviews and topics that might appeal to young people. We are a radio program that tries to be different and entertaining.” Although she is no longer in the Los Angeles area and unable to work full time on the show, she still considers herself part of the collective adding, “Soul Rebel Radio also tries to educate people about important and relevant topics for young people” and “It’s really unique in that it does strive towards discussing issues that are important and relevant to young people.” De la Torre was one of the few members of the collective who approached us in the recruitment process, and she remembers, “I joined Soul Rebel Radio because some people came to a conference at CSUN and invited people to volunteer and hit them up so I did and I’ve been a part of it ever since.” In general, de la Torre explained that she learned a lot from the experience having arrived without having any knowledge of radio. She added, “Soul Rebel Radio was really positive because I got to explore aspects of technology that I would have not done had I not been part of the collective, but a lot of it I felt was self motivated.” Participation in the collective presented challenges and

De la Torres explains, “One of the things that’s an issue is that women shy away from technology and wanting to produce because production is perceived as a male dominated field. I was able to shadow some great producers and it helped me learn some of the technical aspects of radio production.” Another factor

76 was the lack of attention to more issues important to women, “One of the things that was always challenging on a variety of levels was having a really strong feminist perspective on the show.” De la Torre explains that the show did talk about feminism on some of the shows, but it wasn’t present on all of the shows, and she adds, “I feel that its one of the areas that Soul Rebel Radio can really improve upon.” This is one of the most significant and running themes of the criticism of Soul Rebel Radio, and I accept responsibility that the there are instances that have made women in the group uncomfortable when inappropriate language was used by some men.

The show makes very positive contributions despite some of its shortcoming, and Monica de la

Torre said, “When I look back I always look at it as a really amazing experience. A lot of people that I met through the radio show are now really good friends.” De la Torre values the openness of the collective noting that “The fact that we were able to come into the show without having to have all this experience or a resume of radio production and we could go on the air and listen to our voices on the radio is very unique.” Unfortunately the environment at Pacifica presented challenges to thee collective and individuals from the Third World Left, “Community radio purports to be open to the community, but that doesn’t really happen. At KPFK, I don’t really feel that the door is that open and if it wasn’t for Soul Rebel Radio, I don’t think the doors to the station would be that open to the community.” Moving forward, the collective faces important challenges and apart from the gender issues, one of the biggest is what De la Torre explains as,

“Sustainability is the question for any community driven activity. We have the potential to do something greater, but there needs to be an effort made towards sustainability. Its great to do this as a volunteer but it sucks to do this as a volunteer. We need to establish a more sustainable collective.” De la Torre explains that we need to recognize that our work is valuable because she feels that when it’s seen as a volunteer effort, it’s not given as much value. Monica de la Torre left the show to pursue a PhD at the University of

Washington in Women Studies and she continues to make valuable contributions to the collective, and she serve as an inspiration to other young women in Soul Rebel Radio and the community that it serves.

Lulu Kornspan from Los Angeles is an American of White and Jewish descent that has worked on the show for several years and was one of the few members of the collective that studied journalism prior to joining the group. Kornspan believes that Soul Rebel Radio can be defined as youth oriented programming, and, “We have always tried to cover topics that we felt weren’t getting airplay in the media and we tried to

77 make it palatable to the youth.” In general, Kornspan explained that, “Soul Rebel Radio has been a transformative experience for me. It’s a major growing experience. I learned a lot about myself and other people in my community and different perspectives.” The experience has not always been without issues, but Kornspan said, “I would call it overall a very positive experience and something that will forever have changed me for the rest of my life. Working with Soul Rebel Radio gave me a lot more confidence in my voice and my ideas being worthy of airtime.” Some of the aspects that were less memorable were that,

“Soul Rebel Radio impacted me negatively in that some things don’t air and sometimes you feel like moments are a waste of time but they never really are.” Kornspan continues to participate in the show and she said, “My lasting impression of Soul Rebel Radio is that it affirmed that different people of different mindsets can come together. There’s a sense of community, and there’s a purpose and a need for this show.” In the future, Lulu said that she would feel strong about fighting for shows like this and media that promotes voices like this, and ultimately the show is something that Kornspan said “I’m proud of being a part of. I like telling people about it and I’ll probably be telling my grandkids about this.” Critical reflection is one of the cornerstones of the program and Kornspan explained that “A constructive criticism is that as a group and as people, the show could be more open to change. It’s just a natural part of life and I would consider it more evolving.” There always exists room for improvement, and Kornspan said, “Soul Rebel

Radio has always tried to incorporate youth voices and that is something that should be maintained. In terms of getting things done, we need to focus on quality.” Finally, Kornspan explained that Soul Rebel

Radio could benefit from doing things earlier and putting quality first, but because we are all volunteers it becomes difficult to do that all the time. Lulu Kornspan is an important member of the collective and has helped balance the male dominated nature of the veteran members and her presence is an important factor in maintaining a space for other women in the group. She is currently working in post production for a cable television station, but she wishes to continue working professionally in public radio.

The ladies of Soul Rebel Radio are an exceptional group of women that have carried the collective throughout the seven years of existence. When I created the program, I wanted to ensure the inclusion of youth and young women of color especially, so the collective was formed with the intent of creating a gender balance. I can say that women have clearly played a central role in the creation of Soul Rebel Radio.

Several women pointed to the personal benefit of the space in their development, but also noted that gender

78 issues existed. Of the seven women that took part in the survey, the women were all beginners or had no experience in media production when they started working on the program. All except one participant learned a lot or very much from their experience working with Soul Rebel Radio, and each of the women would absolutely or affirmatively do the show again if they had to go back. Also, only one of the women had an OK time with us and the rest had an excellent or positive experience. A typical young woman that participated in Soul Rebel Radio had no experience working on radio, experienced an excellent time doing the program, and would absolutely do the show again or recommend it to someone else if given the chance.

The collective has a way to go before the community can consider us a feminist stronghold, but we have always maintained the space for youth, instituted the equal participation of young women, and nurtured the room for feminist voices to produce relevant media for the benefit of the Third World Left communities.

Soul Rebel Radio continues to recognize its shortcomings, call out the contradictions in the group, and also check our male privileges at the door before we enter the safe space created by the collective.

The Fellas of Soul Rebel Radio

Meanwhile, the Fellas of Soul Rebel Radio are a group of imaginative, eclectic, and spirited men who have gone on to work in music, comedy, community organizing, and media. The show has rarely lacked male voices and members of the collective have gone on to produce rock, hip hop, and Jarocho music as well as worked for civil rights organizations, social policy groups, and internet sites that have taken Soul Rebel Radio from a localized radio show with a perceived Chican@ bias, to a regional media community, and eventually we hope to form part of the national conversation. The men in the group have done most of the final production work, a good percentage of the writing and research, and they have also created and maintained the signature sound that Soul Rebel Radio is famous for, and that includes original songs, skits, and segments like the Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment. Jorge Merino, Tito Corona and I are founding members of Soul Rebel Radio, and despite prolonged breaks for both of the two main producers, the author of this study never took off more than a month from the show in the seven years of existence. Lex Steppling, Eduardo Arenas, and Jose Cano worked for many years on the show as writers and the latter two as the producers of a number of environmental segments that secured their legacy with the group. Their involvement in the show continues into later generations of Soul Rebel Radio, and even

79 after they stopped working on the program on a regular basis, the three of them are huge advocates of the program. Travis Pinon, Andres Flores, and Hector Flores also made valuable contributions to the show with

Travis providing many voices and humor, and the later two forming part of the Flores family which includes Luisa Flores who at times also provided original pieces to the show. Other contributors like Javier

Cambron, Robert Loza, and Carlos Rubio also helped provide responsible male voices to a group that could always use the help of respectful men in collective spaces. The fellas of Soul Rebel Radio have made valuable efforts in the community as individual producers and as a group, and that is the most important aspect of the show. The men of Soul Rebel Radio have gone on to earn master’s degrees, produce radio shows, work as media makers, work on media projects, design graphics, teach, appear on local and national platforms, and they will definitely continue to produce important work for the benefit of the community.

Armando Gudiño is from Los Angeles and he was the original Program Director that I submitted the proposal to, he was the one who granted us the original 8-week series, and he also assigned Aura

Bogado to the collective. He describes the show in the following manner, “I would define Soul Rebel Radio as a media opportunity that is laying the groundwork for future products.” Gudiño continues by explaining that the show, “Was the first of its kind and the first to reach a younger demographics, and it serves for future generations to build on so that makes it one of a kind.” In his role, Gudiño helped to launch the program, and he explained “As Program Director I did collaborate, work with, and help train members of

Soul Rebel Radio.” He explained about his experience with the show, “It was an opportunity that helped me as Program Director. It helped me grow professionally and I was able to reciprocate that with Soul

Rebel Radio.” Gudiño felt that the program was motivational and explained that “This is the kind of stuff that my kids need to hear as my child gets older.” In general, Gudiño feels that “I dig Soul Rebel Radio. It has created a phenomenal opportunity for something that can be very long lasting. You need to look at professionalizing the group.” Although he felt that the show has done good work, he also cautions about sitting on our laurels, “It’s a good project and you have the potential to make this a great project.” Gudiño granted the collective the opportunity to create a weekly then monthly show, and through negotiation with the group, he allowed the group to create a unique format and governing structure. Even though he moved on from KPFK, the show was never threatened with cancellation and we became fixtures at the station.

80 Tito Corona from L.A. County is of Mexican descent and he was the only member of the collective that had extensive radio experience prior to joining the group. He is responsible for creating our signature sound and helped produce the shows for the first few years of its existence. Corona explains, “I define Soul Rebel Radio as youth radio for youth by youth, discussing issues that are of concern not to the general public but to the youth who will be shaping the future.” Although he served as more of a teacher to the group, Corona said, “I think it was a learning experience, learning patients and learning from people who you may not agree with. We were on different sides of the left and it was really eye opening. It was actually a really good experience.” In his role as teacher of sound production, Corona learned patience from young people who didn’t know anything about radio, but who had expectations of how things should sound without any idea of how to execute that job, and he said, “People had great ideas, but had no idea how to get that from paper to a produced radio spot.” Corona was glad to see individual members of the group evolve into professional producers, “It’s cool to see people come a long way from not knowing anything about how to do radio to putting a show together.” Corona felt that the show positively impacted him because he got to work with people who he would normally not have worked with. Corona adds that, “It was a very eye opening experience” for him. It wasn’t all positive though because “The negative experience was having to get people to come together and meet deadlines to get the show out. Some people didn’t prioritize it because it wasn’t a paid job.” The show was far more of a positive experience and

Corona admits that, “Soul Rebel Radio is a continuous work in progress. As long as the original goal still resonates with the original members that are active, that legacy will continue. Things change with the lineup of people, but youth radio for youth by youth is not a trending thing.” Corona has always been an advocate of diversity and he explained that the group needs to increase membership because there is so much need for additional help, and that it’s easier to diffuse the burden of performing in that way than relying on one or two people. In that way, Corona believes that, “The group needs to grow and the knowledge needs to increase” and he also thinks that, “The show needs to get younger because you don’t want to get out of touch with today’s youth if there is no connection.” Corona is an advocate of diversity on the show and he explains that, “Because this is an LA based show, it has always been centered on certain groups, but we need to add voices from other youth in the area that are not participating. Maybe the Latinos are vocal now, but other groups will want to be heard, and now is the best time to add those extra voices.”

81 In the end, Corona feels that the show “Soul Rebel Radio had no boundaries, no borders, no limitations, and it was just a bunch of people with common interests.” Although Corona moved on from the show to pursue work opportunities, he continues to support the collective and teach new members how to produce our unique Soul Rebel Radio sound.

Lex Steppling is a White Jewish man from Pasadena who is one of the founding members of the collective and one of the handful of people that traveled to Venezuela in 2005. Steppling explains, “Soul

Rebel Radio is a radio collective that aims to create a space for discourse and education via creative means like theatre and satire.” Steppling added that we were seeking to cut out the middle man and reporting on issues and talking to the parties most affected. Steppling explains, “One example would be during the so called race riots that were going on in LA schools. I believe we were the only media outlet to give substantial interview time to the youth that went to those schools.” Steppling lives in New York now, but despite the fact that he is no longer in Los Angeles, he said, “I talk about Soul Rebel Radio all the time actually. It often becomes a reference point for how to do things especially when it comes to cooperating with others.” Steppling feels a deep appreciation for his time on the show and explains, “My time was very inspiring and stimulating. It forced me to look at my surroundings” and added that “I learned that the way things were framed could be challenged. Current events could be reprocessed.” When he worked on the show, Steppling explained, “I would often find myself trying to figure out how to communicate an idea” because it made the way he received current events differently. He said that he would look at issues depending on how they could be translated for the Soul Rebel Radio audience. Thanks to his work with

Soul Rebel Radio, Steppling felt that, “It really turned me into a writer or unlocked the writer that was inside of me. It opened up a creative process that I had ignored and it’s never been undone. It was a definitely a profound change on my life.” Steppling also felt that the lessons he learned went beyond radio production because “When the conversation turns to what are we’re going to do about things and how are we’re going to fix things, I think about how we seized one little sliver of media and worked very hard to do what we could with it.” Soul Rebel Radio impacted Lex profoundly and he added, “I write to this day. I used to think of politics in pragmatic controlling ways. One of the things that Soul Rebel Radio helped me understand was the value of art.” The show also helped Lex look at politics through a different lens because

“If we look at things in a binary sense politically as the right and the left, they both misunderstand the art.”

82 Steppling explained that his father John Steppling believes that the right sees art as entertainment and spectacle, and the left thinks art should be moral instruction, but they are both incorrect.

Thanks to his work on the show, Lex explained, “I realized that we were not going to do art as education. I learned that we are doing something that is high quality and challenging ideas and challenging the way we think about stuff and translating metaphors.” Ultimately Steppling concludes that, “Soul Rebel

Radio is about challenging the way we think that process is supposed to happen. And being process oriented rather than outcome oriented.” Lex explains, “What I came away with is a real understanding that it’s not pragmatics and mechanisms, but it’s about lighting light bulbs as many as we can. We helped stir up a process.” Steppling adds that many times we don’t immediately see the results of our work, but the show operates as a stone in the water and hopefully that ripple turns into a tidal wave that we maybe never see. He is grateful to have participated in the show because, “The fact that I got to help agitate that process with a show like Soul Rebel helped me to never feel powerless as an organizer or activist. We should always be agitating the waters.” Lex feels that the show, “It’s a model that I hope becomes more common place. Collectivism is really challenging but it teaches us an ability to cooperate that I never learned anywhere else including school. I find myself talking about it a lot.” According to Steppling, the show was something that really helped him as an individual, and he values everything he learned and especially the creative process. Steppling explains about the show, “It’s something that successfully spread ideas and continues to do so.” Lex is optimistic about the future of Soul Rebel Radio and he explained that the best is yet to come and added, “My lasting impressions of it are that I’m still waiting to see what’s going to happen.” One of the challenges moving forward will be continuity and autonomy and as Steppling said,

“My hope is that it continues to challenge ideas. My biggest fear when I was doing it was that we were going to conform to the signifiers of activism. That we would play conscious music, create a conscious vibe, and reach out to other conscious people and continue our clique.” Lex shared his concern about catering to certain audiences saying, “My hope is that it continues to allow itself to challenge all status quo and that it doesn’t adhere to signifiers, so that more young people can connect to it an continue to take ownership of it.” Lex Steppling has always been one of the biggest advocates of the show and despite the distance of working in Brooklyn, New York for Equal Justice USA on issues related to the Prison Industrial

Complex, he continues to support the efforts of Soul Rebel Radio and he also writes on a regular basis.

83 Jorge Merino is from the San Fernando Valley, and the Chicano is responsible for continuing the work of Tito Corona and maintaining the unique sound and quality of Soul Reel Radio. Merino defines the show in the following manner, “Soul Rebel Radio is a group of youthful folks trying to put together a radio show that will be informative, educational, as well as entertaining, specifically geared towards a younger audience.” Merino adds that, “The younger audience can be defined as people in high school, people in college, young people out of college, young professionals and anyone who wants to listen to the program we put together.” Jorge is one of the founding members and explains that he’s been working with Soul Reel

Radio since our inception and explains the value of the program in the following manner, “A lot of us have been able to express our creativity in any way we see fit.” Merino thinks that Soul Rebel Radio is original, and what makes us unique is that we’re creating a cohesive product and meeting deadlines. He cautions,

“Our method of working sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t work, but we have to roll with the punches and keep it going and continue our mission. Regardless of who we have with us, we have to keep putting out shows so we can maintain the space and hopefully be able to pass it on to somebody else.”

Merino believes that the show has allowed him to meet different people in areas that he generally might not have the opportunity of meeting and working with. The experience is not all positive and “The negative impact is that it takes away a lot of my time.” In regards to the memories that he has of the show, Merino explains, “I would like to think that I am still creating my lasting impressions of Soul Rebel Radio being that I’m still a part of it. I’m still trying to create my impressions of it.” Merino advises that we have to get together as a group and start building the shows before the month we start doing it and have people in charge of specific shows and would like for us parcel off a lot of the important jobs and not combine all the work. Merino is not an advocate of the process as much as the finished product and adds, “Having one meeting may not be as constructive as having different people be in charge of certain responsibilities.” In the near future, Merino said that “Hopefully we have a format of what our show will look like months ahead.” Jorge Merino continues to produce for Soul Rebel Radio and work on the collective, and although the producer doesn’t always transfer to a role of teacher, he is an amazing producer when he is focused.

Javier Cambron, from Whittier identifies himself as a Chicano Communist, and he is the younger brother of Laura Cambron who is another founding member of the group. Cambron explains, “Soul Rebel

Radio is a show that takes a different perspective to describe what is happening with the world. Soul Rebel

84 Radio has a unique chance to appeal to youth because of the satire and skits, and it’s a lot easier to listen to than the typical radio.” Cambron explained that the group sometimes fails to realize the impact that they have, “This is a radio show that goes out on the air and reaches all kinds of people in Los Angeles and since we do it in a radio station, we don’t immediately see the impact of what you’re doing at Soul Rebel Radio.”

He continued, “Then you go out in the streets and you run into someone randomly and they tell you how much they love the show. I’ve had incidents when I go out to schools and talk to youth about media and information, and Soul Rebel Radio has that immediate connection in the community.”

Javier Cambron values what he learned while he was working on the show because, “Soul Rebel

Radio has allowed me to understand and given me the tools that I need to do my own research. We do so much research before we even present anything” and this helped him with other work. Cambron believes that what we do is a form of art, “I think it’s an art to be able to talk to someone about issues without putting them in a position to be confrontational and to have a conversation about how they see the world.”

Cambron understands that, “My lasing impression would be the amount of work that goes into Soul Rebel

Radio. I would never imagine how much work went into one piece.” He added that “It’s fun and interesting and the people are really fun down to earth people. My impressions are of the amount of time that it took, but also the fun that I had doing it.” In general, Cambron believes that Soul Rebel Radio is a great outlet for information that he would love to see it thrive and flourish the way he imagines it could. There was always an idea of being syndicated and being able to have full time staff in order to make it a weekly show.

Cambron has vivid memories of his time on the show stating, “My suggestion is for Soul Rebel Radio to get syndicated and be able to hire people and do this right because it has the potential. It needs to go out to the community a lot more. I know it’s hard because SRR is a volunteer effort and so we never got paid.”

Cambron adds, “It takes a lot of time, but if it were to go out into the community, it would have a great impact on the youth looking for answers.” Javier Cambron left the show to pursue a degree in Architecture that he recently completed, but his work with the collective and his youthful exuberance and maturity helped to ground the group and legitimize its place in the Third World Left.

Jose Cano is originally from Oxnard, but the Mexican American Chicano has settled down in Los

Angeles, and along with Soul Rebel Radio alumni Hector Flores, form part of the music group Las

Cafeteras. Cano explained, “Soul Rebel Radio is a collective of individuals, youth, and people from the

85 community that come together to produce a radio show. It’s an outlet for youth to be creative and express themselves in a way that they can do so on the radio.” Cano explained that the show presents a unique experience to present a voice through the medium of radio by learning how to produce audio clips, and that

Soul Rebel Radio is a really well rounded experience. Cano adds, “My experience working with Soul Rebel

Radio was a learning experience.” and “My role was producing the Kilo Watts Energy Segment. This piece was of two cholos, to homeys who would ask a certain question about environmental issues. Through a process of discovery and their own research, they come to an answer and a conclusion about a better solution.” As part of the Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment, Cano explained that he worked closely with

Eduardo Arenas who did most of the production, and that it was always a fun and creative experience.

Cano felt that it was always a treat to hear the finished product, and he explained that “It was very challenging being in Soul Rebel Radio and it required a lot of time.” Cano said that the experience helped him learn so much and, “The positive impact of working with Soul Rebel Radio would have to include working in teams, working with groups, exercising communication, decision making, collective thinking, and practicing all these things that are fundamental and necessary in order to get along and function as a community.” Cano understood that the project was challenging and very demanding of people time, but he learned a lot from his time. He also explained that this was due in large part to the fact that “We were a community.” Cano felt that the show wasn’t easy and that “The negative impact is that it took a lot of time, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a negative because it was all a learning process.” Cano recalls the show fondly and explained, “My lasting impression of Soul Rebel Radio is all the times that we spent working together in that sense of taking ownership of our project. What we lived and what we struggled through and all the things we celebrated was a lot of awesome times.” Jose felt that in general there were a lot of awesome times and that we created a good product. Cano added, “It feels very rewarding to have been a part of that. We were all in it and we were all down to work hard. We all worked hard and were very proud of what we were doing and that was really special.” Cano recognizes the impact the show had on the development of many voices, and “Being that a lot of people who started on Soul Rebel Radio have gone on to do other things, all of our experience being in Soul Rebel Radio has undoubtedly helped us. I would love to see it continue to grow and have people have the experience that I had.” Cano is hopeful about the future, and he thinks that in the end, if the show can continue, it has to involve new members and he hopes

86 that it is able to keep going. Jose Cano is an engineer by training and a musician by choice, and he believes that Soul Reel Radio helped him learn to become a better producer of music like his partner Eduardo.

Eduardo Arenas is from Los Angeles, California and he helped form the band Chicano Batman and produced their first album. Arenas credits Soul Rebel Radio with helping him learn how to produce music, and he forms the other half of the environmental duo Kilo Watts and Tiny. Arenas explains “I started producing some of the segments, specifically one called the Kilo Watts and Tiny energy segment that I did with my friend Jose Cano.” Although he never went to school for sound engineering, Arenas used to tell people, “I never went to school to get a Master’s. Instead I joined Soul Rebel Radio.” Eduardo explains that Soul Rebel Radio is an organization that crafts analytical minds that provokes critical thought and uses popular media and popular music to do so. Arenas adheres to the original purpose of the show when he explains, “Soul Rebel Radio has always been youth oriented. Our intention has always been to involve the youth and direct our information at the youth so we can stimulate young minds.” Arenas believes that the show “Soul Rebel Radio is providing an alternative opinion and alternative news and making it really accessible through political satire, comedy skits, and songs and the way we did it by airing it once a months is moving.“ Thanks to his work on the show, Arenas says “I learned how to produce by working on Soul Rebel Radio. For sure, all the skills that I learned on the radio show, I’ve been able to apply them to music production which is what I do now.”

Eduardo Arenas recognizes the unique nature of the program, “When we started doing the radio show, the collective knew that we were on the edge of something. We knew we were doing something new and something fresh that had not been heard on KPFK.” Arenas adds that “Throughout the years it is no secret that we started influencing other radio shows on the station to be more fun. Everybody wants an aesthetic that can attract people.” The space that Soul Rebel Radio has created is valuable and according to

Arenas, “The fact that the show has been around for seven years really speaks for itself and for the value of having youth programming on the radio.” Arenas recalled the early ambitions of the group. “We always had a vision of Soul Rebel Radio TV and Soul Rebel Radio Theatre and I think Soul Rebel Radio can still reach those heights because it has a lot of space to grow.” Moving forward, Arenas feels that the show has room to grow and explains that the radio show needs to incorporate more youth and become more organized so high schools students and older folk can facilitate that process and allow the youth can take

87 ownership of the show. In that way, we can move towards a greater goal, “It’s the direction that it needs to go and the attention that it deserves if people could start getting paid for it.” Arenas stated that the challenge is that if “You’re working your full time job and you’re doing this on top of that, it’s tough. We used to do that.” Arenas knows the heavy load that members of the collective had to carry, and he explains that “People don’t really know the dedication that people put to the radio show. It’s a lot. It’s a hell of a lot of work, and it’s a group efforts and I’m just really happy to have been a part of it.” Eduardo Arenas is a world citizen who recently returned to Los Angeles after living in Brazil and Panama for some time, and he forms part of the rock band Chicano Batman. Arenas produced Chicano Batman’s first album, and he credits what he learned with Soul Rebel Radio for giving him the ability to do that.

Travis Pinon from Los Angeles is a comedian who has participated off and on since the beginning of the show, and he continues to pursue a career in comedy. Pinon defines the groups in the following manner, “Soul Rebel Radio is a collective of people from all different walks of life coming together for one cause which is to educate the youth on subjects and do it in an interesting and entertaining fashion.” In general, Pinon felt that his experience was really good, and he liked working with Soul Rebel Radio because it pushed him to conquer certain areas where he felt he had limitations, specifically when it comes to his writing. Travis said that “Overall it was a good experience,” but he added that “I feel that we went in a direction which I wasn’t too keen on with a specific centrism.” Pinon recognizes how the show helped him evolve as an individual, “I don’t think it had a negative impact at all. It has positively impacted me in a sense because I acquired really great people in my life and I got to learn a whole lot of things about specific issues in the world.” In the end, Pinon explains that “My lasting impressions of Soul Rebel Radio are that we had years where we really shined and years where we really didn’t, but overall it was a positive outlet and I hope it continues forever.” Pinon encourages KPFK to continue to allow the space for creativity and cautions, “The station in general should not so quick to censor people. They need to understand that controversy creates conversation.” Travis Pinon is a comedian who currently splits his time in New York and Los Angeles, and he will continue to pursue his passion and create different forms of media.

Robert Loza is a Chicano from East LA who helped create a number of fliers during his time in the collective that really professionalized the group’s ability to market the show. Loza explained that “Soul

Rebel Radio is a creative process of getting the message out about social and political issues.” Loza

88 understands about Soul Rebel Radio, “It is a unique program on the radio for reaching out to different audiences. It addresses a lot of issues in a creative way and a lot of people can identify with the way it’s created.” Loza appreciated his time with the group and said, “The opportunity is so different in its format, and people can learn something new.” Loza explained that he started with Soul Rebel Radio in 2008 because he knew a lot of people involved, and because he had just completed a Masters’ degree in critical media studies. Loza values the focus on young people stating, “I thought it was trying to focus on the younger generation and youth.” Thanks to his particular expertise, Loza was able to contribute quickly and he explained, “I’m a visual person so I started off as a graphic designer dealing with fliers and marketing and I liked it so eventually I got more involved with voices, research, and I hosted a show with Monica that was a challenge for me to put a whole show together.” Loza recognized his contributions and growth when he said, “My strength was to do the marketing for Soul Rebel Radio. For me it was an easy process to design, but writing stuff for the show was really hard.” Loza understood how the collective affected him positively and he said, “Soul Rebel Radio impacted me definitely in a positive way. I had a chance to explore and practice some of my strengths and it was really great to see a lot of different skills.” Loza said that he learned from other people’s styles, and added “Spending a lot of time and making the time for Soul

Rebel Radio and other stuff was a struggle for me.” Loza appreciates the value of the space and said, “Soul

Rebel Radio is a collective and I think everyone is encouraged to participate in whatever strengths you have.” Finally, Loza explained that the space was welcoming and bringing people in and encouraging them to keep the show going with new ideas was important. Loza continues to work as a graphic designer and lecturer, and he produces media and occasionally helps the group produce original fliers for new shows.

Andres Flores from East Los Angeles is a self-identified Child of the Creator and a member of the

Flores family that has contributed several relatives to the group. He is no longer working with the group having chosen a life of prayer and spirituality, but he remains a huge supporter of the program and a friend of the show. Flores defines Soul Rebel Radio as an outlet for real education and he adds that “I see Soul

Rebel Radio as most definitely revolutionary.” Flores recognizes the space for what it is when he explained, “I see Soul Rebel Radio as an opportunity.” His time with the group was greatly appreciated and

Flores stated, “My experience with Soul Rebel Radio was beautiful.” Initially, when Flores arrived, he was shy and said, “When I walked into Soul Rebel Radio, I was intimidated. There was so much structure to it.”

89 Flores, like a majority of the collective members, said “I didn’t have any previous radio skills” but he very much appreciated the space because “There is always a similar goal within the roundtable of Soul Rebel

Radio.” One thing that Andres remembers clearly is that the space always maintained decorum and that there was always a sense of respect. Andres recalls Soul Rebel Radio as being positive, and despite his personality at the start of his participation, he quickly changed, “I consider myself pretty shy before working with Soul Rebel Radio, and today I work as the communications director for my organization.”

Andres did not stay with the group for too long but, “In the short time that I worked on the show I learned so much.” Flores believes that, “What Soul Rebel provides is a service to the community that never ceases to be” Flores explains that the collective “Soul Rebel Radio bring a lot of truth and there is no way that they can be silenced.” Andres does not want to paint a pretty picture because the show is not easy, but it is very much worthwhile. In the end, the experience “It was different for me to be exposed to a collective and allowed for different ideas to be introduced.” Flores cautions that not everyone will have a good time working in the collective, “Individuals looking to promote themselves, looking to benefit themselves, and looking to take advantage of it become a problem.” Ultimately, Flores believes that Soul Rebel Radio is a force of good and that the collective should keep moving forward, so he encourages the show to continue to evolve. Andres Flores changed tremendously in the short time that he was with the collective, and his transformation from a shy young man to a spiritual human being is precisely the most important and valuable aspect of the spatial practices of Soul Rebel Radio in Los Angeles Third World Left.

The fellas of Soul Rebel Radio are a group of men that have maintained the collective through the seven years of existence. When we started the show, we wanted to ensure the inclusion of youth and young people of color, and the collective was formed with the intent of creating a balance between spirituality and rebellion. The men have played a central role in the history of Soul Rebel Radio, and the development of several of the men’s voices has benefitted from the space. Of the nine men that took part in the survey, the majority was either beginners or had no experience in media production when they started working on the program, with one being an expert and one having experience. Every single man learned a lot or very much from their experience working with Soul Rebel Radio, and each of the men would absolutely or affirmatively do the show again if they had a chance to go back. Also, all of the men had an excellent or positive experience working on the show. A typical young man that participated in Soul Rebel Radio had

90 no experience working on radio, had an excellent time doing the program, and would absolutely do the show again or recommend it to someone else if given the chance. The collective has a way to go before we have an efficient system of production, but we have always maintained the space for youth, instituted the equal participation of young women and men, and nurtured the room for a number of voices to produce relevant media for the benefit of the Third World Left communities. Soul Rebel Radio continues to work towards a more productive collective, does our best to maintain decorum in the group, and must check our privileges at the door in order to create a safe space for everyone in the collective.

Conclusions of Voices of Soul Rebel Radio

For the study, a series of multiple choice questions were asked as part of the interview and the author targeted over 25 core members of the collective who helped shape the production of radio shows throughout the years on the air. Nineteen participants took part in the recorded interviews and they consisted of thirteen self identified or cultural Chican@s, nine women, and ten men that were involved with the collective including the former Program Director Armando Gudiño and the original Producer of the show Aura Bogado. Gudiño and Bogado made the decision to forgo the survey, so they did not answer the quantitative questions, and Hasmik Geghamyan was not able to complete the survey in time. In the end, sixteen total members of the collective from throughout the years answered the survey questions, and nine men and seven women provide the results and help prove the value of the space, the development of each voice, and the importance of the collective effort to produce radio programs. The first question asked,

“Before working with Soul Rebel Radio, how would you describe your experience?” and the result was that nine members had no experience whatsoever with radio, five were beginners, one had experience, and one was an expert. This points to the importance of the space and the willingness to include people who otherwise may have never received the opportunity to work on a radio program. The second question asked, “How much time during each month did you spend working on Soul Rebel Radio?” and the result was that nobody felt that the work was a 10-hour a month responsibility, and thirteen members spent between 10 and 30 hours each month on the show while another three felt that they spent over 40 hours a month working on Soul Rebel Radio. The members of the collective clearly understood the serious time commitment that the program meant to everyone in the group. The next question asked, “How would you

91 describe what you learned while participating in Soul Rebel Radio?” and while only one person felt that they got something out of it, six members felt that they learned a lot from the group, and nine members felt they learned very much from their experience in the collective. If given the opportunity to relive their experience with Soul Rebel Radio or refer someone else, one person felt that might do it, and four members said that yes they would do it again, bit an overwhelming ten of the sixteen members would absolutely do the show again and recommend it to someone else. Finally, when asked to rate their experience with Soul

Rebel Radio, one person had an OK experience, and five members felt that it was a positive environment, but ten of the sixteen participants felt they had an excellent time working on the show. Therefore, a typical member of the collective was a Chican@ that had no experience in radio, who understood the serious level of commitment to the show, learned very much from the preparation, and absolutely would do it again if given the opportunity or refer a friend. Overwhelmingly, the members of the collective felt that working on the program was an excellent experience. The effort proves the importance of having spaces for young people to create media, and the spatial practices of Soul Rebel Radio in Los Angeles’ Third World Left marks an important contribution to the individual members of the community and the Chican@s.

In Conclusion, the Voices of Soul Rebel Radio continue to evolve and the recent inclusion of the youth from A Place Called Home helps to further the cause of youth programs on KPFK. The recent effort to involve more youth also helps to solidify the attempt at including young people in every aspect of production. The latest generation of Soul Rebel Radio has suffered growing pains unlike any previous groups, but there is a lot of hope that the group will continue to exist as a vibrant space for youth and especially young people of color from the Third World Left in Los Angeles. The hope is that the group can exercise their creativity and work on their production skills, so that they too can exercise their talents on local, national and international stages. Soul Rebel Radio represents an effort to create a space for young people to work as a collective and exercise their skills for the audience, and the expectation is that the program will persist despite whatever shortcoming may exist. The old saying is that “the show must go on,” and Soul Rebel Radio will survive in one form or another for many years to come, but it depends on the efforts of the existing group to continue to recruit individuals and foster a collective atmosphere that becomes a space to work and build as a collective. The individuals who have participated for the most part have gained invaluable experiences and learned important lessons thanks to their participation in the group.

92 It takes an extraordinary amount of work and collective effort to produce a monthly radio program that profiles youth, and the challenge for the older individuals will be to have the motivation to keep teaching the younger ones and keep writing the story of Soul Rebel Radio. The ladies and fellas of Soul Rebel Radio are the workers and the collective is the means of production, but the product that we make is the radio show that airs on the first Friday of the month at 7pm on 90.7 KPFK in Los Angeles. Without the community, we would not have an audience that keeps the group grounded, and without the Pacifica

Network, we would not have a platform to air the show, but it is the individual members of the community that are the driving force and the engine behind the Soul Rebel Radio machine. Without the work, effort, and dedication of individual members towards a collective goal, none of the 72 original programs would have been possible. Each person that has formed part of the collective has helped Soul Rebel Radio to air original programs for seven years on the air, and it is safe to say that if any of the core members had not made a concerted effort to make the show happen, we would not have been on the air for so long.

93 Final Thoughts on Soul Rebel Radio

Soul Rebel Radio is an experiment in the creation of media that challenges the representation of young people of the Third World Left in Los Angeles. The initial goal was to create a space for young people to produce media that reflected the experiences and realities of the youth in and around Los

Angeles, and we also hoped to open up a space on KPFK for this community. The show began as a multicultural, multifaceted, and dynamic collective of young people coming out of an experience that formed a united bond, and Soul Rebel Radio ultimately evolved into a representation of Chican@ Art. We are expressly a Los Angeles production of creativity that challenges the mainstream media and free press to present issue that are relevant to communities of color and the working class. Soul Rebel Radio creates a monthly radio magazine that has aired for over seven years and produced over 70 original programs based on a theme with a significant Chican@ influence that includes the voices of Women, African Americans,

Asians, Whites, and other Latinos in Los Angeles. Soul Rebel Radio has been inspired by other historical examples including Radio Rebelde created by Ernesto Che Guevara during the Cuban Revolution, Radio

Venceremos created by the FMLN during the Salvadoran Rebellion, and Radio Insurgente created by the

EZLN during the Zapatista Uprising. We recognize the power of the tool of radio to help expand revolutionary theory and ideas, and we hope to create that environment for our audience. The Self

Determination of youth in the community involves the creation of media that challenges and redefines mainstream and controlling images of the Third World Left in LA, and Soul Rebel Radio has helped

Chican@s and other people find their voice and create a space for revolutionaries and other free souls to create rebellion. The literature proves that mainstream media is owned, manipulated, and exploited by the owners for their economic, political, and social benefit, but the defiance of the corporate press and the focus on youth places Soul Rebel Radio in a unique space. The location of the show within Los Angeles helps Soul Rebel Radio to exist in the context of Third World Left, but it is at the intersection of spirituality and uprising that the program does it best work to produce relevant media. Through the use of a collective decision making model that creates radio on an independent media platform, Soul Rebel Radio attempts to create a safe space for women, communities of color, and the Chican@ population in Los Angeles to practice self definition. Every first Friday of the month at 7pm on 90.7 KPFK in Los Angeles and

94 worldwide at www.kpfk.org., Soul Rebel Radio brings the organizers to prime time for a community of activist and otherwise free human beings to examine a theme in the space of an hour on the air.

Soul Rebel Radio occupies a distinct space in the creation and production of youth radio in that the show has never received any funding or outside help after the production of the first monthly show. The

Program Director Armando Gudiño at the time assigned Producer Aura Bogado to assist Soul Rebel Radio with the original 8-week series, but since the first monthly show in January 2006, Soul Rebel Radio has not received any outside help and remains an autonomous entity within KPFK. The collective effort therefore represents an unconventional and experimental approach to alternative media even within the medium of non commercial radio. The lack of funding or hierarchy has some benefits, and the collective is free to produce provocative contributions and entire programs liberated from adult perspectives of youth, which could impact how the program sounds. Each member is ultimately responsible for pre-production, production, and framing their contribution each month, or they could choose to not produce anything.

Therefore, the young people are free to generate contributions whenever they have the time to produce, and they have the freedom to create whatever they want to present. Soul Rebel Radio does not select a handful of youth, conduct interview with interested people, or screen individuals to determine if they are worthy, and instead the group relies on a system of incessant recruitment that allows contributors to join the collective based on their work ethic and dedication to produce a show each month. My role then becomes more of a caretaker and responsible party for the show, and less of a manager and decision-maker. This structure has its limitations because when the show is not completed in a timely manner, I end up having to make alternative plans or unpopular decisions along with the producer who has the final say each month.

The most important aspect of Soul Rebel Radio is that youth work as a collective to produce an original monthly program, and individuals acquire as much from the experience as they supply to the program.

The goal of Soul Rebel Radio is to create a youth friendly and community oriented radio program that is accessible to people from the Third World Left in Los Angeles, and we create new and self-defined controlling images for the Chican@ population and others on the airwaves where no such space or representation had previously existed. Soul Rebel Radio is unlike anything that is on the air in that it caters to young people, but we also include youth voices from throughout the Los Angeles area and from a number of Third World Left communities. Despite a number of efforts to include youth on the radio, even

95 independent media outlets like the listener sponsored stations of the Pacifica Network including KPFK, have a difficult time including and appealing to a younger audience of color. Los Angeles occupies an important place in popular culture thanks to the success of media institutions that have produced countless films and programs by the likes of the Disney Corporation and Hollywood Studios who create a number of examples of media. Rarely if ever do these media studios accurately represent the realities or issues that are important to the working class, the people of color, and Third World Left communities in Los Angeles.

Chican@ Studies teaches the importance of obtaining an education, challenging the preconceived notions of Mexican American people, and creating new spaces so that the community can exercise self determination. Soul Rebel Radio is an example of that spirit of critical education, Chican@ representations, and a focus on community. As a student of mainstream media and after examining the opportunities in public radio, I concluded that the mainstream media was not inclusive of young people of color and I made an effort to create a space and establish something unique where none had existed. The collective took it a step further by establishing a space and creating a precedent for the youth and other members of the Third

World Left in Los Angeles to create independent media. There may not be another example of a collective of young people that is self sufficient and able to produce an original radio program each month on the air, but that should point to the need for additional spaces. By creating a space for youth and Chican@s at

KPFK, Soul Rebel Radio was able to bridge the gap between the left and other revolutionaries, between the

Third World Left communities in L.A., and especially between the older progressives and a new generation of rebel rousers that demand change. Soul Rebel Radio is an advocate of a revolutionary spirit unlike anything else, and the success of the collective lies in the strength of a group being greater than the power of each individual member.

The study includes stories, significant events, conversations, and the results of quantitative studies to demonstrate that Soul Rebel Radio is one of the best examples of alternative radio in Los Angeles. The first chapter looks at the existing literature and I address what this means to Soul Rebel Radio in regards to how we agreed, disagreed, or challenged these concepts. Chapter Two includes profiles of a number of important programs grouped in sections relating to youth, gender, the environment, years, and people with anecdotes and memories of the process that led to each show. The final chapter allows the members of the collective to share what the experience meant to them and how this impacted their life. Based on the survey

96 questions, most individuals appreciated the opportunity and the section captures the spirit of rebellion, soul, and community that made up the sum of Soul Rebel Radio. The group has met regularly every Sunday at

KPFK and individuals volunteers countless hours each month towards the production of a single show that airs once a month. The individuals, the station, and the entire community benefitted from having a space in

Los Angeles where young people from the Third World Left can produce media. The study helps provide a critical understanding of radio, the impact of including fair representation of the Third World Left in public spaces, and I ultimately prove that Soul Rebel Radio is the antithesis of mainstream media.

Soul Rebel Radio is one of the best programs on KPFK, and a true representation of independent media in Los Angeles. When I wrote the original proposal for the 8-week series, I made it point to create the program as a collective of young people that would include a balanced representation of men and women. As the show evolved, it became a community based program with a focus on young people and youth issues, and we make a point to present news, interviews, skits, and music centered on a theme. Each month, the collective chooses a male and female representative of the collective to present the theme and guide the audience for an hour, and the group has always maintained the space for the youth of the Third

World Left. On the first Friday of the Month at 7pm, Soul Rebel Radio airs an original program on 90.7

FM in Los Angeles and worldwide at www.kpfk.org. For over seven years, Soul Rebel Radio has produced more than 70 original programs and helped develop 50 plus members of the collective, and for that I am very grateful. The goal of the group is to take our work to the next level of production so that a show that is designed for the young people of the Third World Left in Los Angeles becomes part of the national conversation. The focus on youth in Southern California is a fundamental aspect of the program, but the collective would like to see Soul Rebel Radio in Spanish, in the Bay Area, in New York, and anywhere else that the Chican@ community and other members of the Third World Left are ignored or marginalized by the mainstream press. The members of Soul Rebel Radio successfully converted the spatial practices of the group into a representation of alternative media and a unique space for the Chican@ community and other members of the Third World Left, and the study proves the value of such liberties for people and society.

97 Bibliography

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99 Appendix A is glossary of term used throughout the study

Soul Rebel Radio Terms

Key words: Chican@, Third World, People of Color, Working Class, Collective, Independent Media, Listener Sponsored Radio, Youth, Community

Chican@s refers to the members of the Third World community that are from Mexico and Central America, and the author chooses to use Chican@ instead of Chicana/o

Third World Left in Los Angeles refers to the community of mostly minority activists and organizers in LA

Spatial Practices refers to both the state of mind, the physical location, and the cultural location of the group

Topic: Soul Rebel Radio on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles Initial Goal of the Collective: To present “youth voices” on KPFK in Los Angeles

Mission: To create a youth driven and community oriented monthly radio program based on a theme agreed by the collective that reflects the voices and stories of the people of the Third World Left in Los Angeles.

Result: Soul Rebel Radio creates a monthly radio magazine that has aired for over seven years and over seventy topics with a significant Chican@ influence that includes the voices of Women, African Americans, Asians, Whites, Latinos, and other members of the working class in Los Angeles.

Focus: Soul Rebel Radio is an alternative space that helps young people to develop their voice by participating in a collective that produces a monthly radio program on KPFK.

Major Theme: The self determination of the Chican@ and other youth in the community involves the creation of media that challenges and redefines mainstream images of the Third World Left in LA.

Thesis: The creation of alternative representations of media on independent radio stations such as KPFK help document and redefine the images of Chican@s and others in the Third World Left that challenge the social constructs illustrated and exemplified in mainstream film, television, radio, and art productions.

100 Appendix B is the result of the Quantitative Study and it demonstrates the findings of the interviews

Soul Rebel Radio- Appendix A

Topic: Soul Rebel Radio Multiple Choice Questions

1- Before working with Soul Rebel Radio, how would you describe your experience? A) None, B) Beginner, C) Experienced, D) Expert

2- How much time during each month did you spend working on Soul Rebel Radio? A) 0-10 hours, B) 10-20 hours, C) 20-30 hours, D) 40+ hours

3- How would you describe what you learned while participating in Soul Rebel Radio? A) Not Much, B) Something, C) A Lot, D) Very Much

4-If given an opportunity to participate in Soul Rebel Radio, would you do it again and recommend it to someone else? A) No, B) Maybe, C) Yes, D) Absolutely

5- On a scale of 1 to 4, how would you rate your experience working with Soul Rebel Radio? A) 1-Negative, B) 2-OK, C) 3-Positive, D) 4-Excellent

Results: Name # 1 # 2 # 3 # 4 # 5 Andres Flores None 20-30 Very Much Absolutely 4 Armando Gudiño N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Aura Bogado N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Eduardo Arenas None 40 Very Much Absolutely 4 Hasmik Geghamyan N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Javier Cambron Beginner 40+ Very Much Maybe 4 Jorge Merino Beginner 40+ Very Much Yes 3 Jose Cano None 20-30 A Lot Maybe 4 Lex Steppling None 20-30 Very Much Absolutely 4 Lulu Kornspan Beginner 20-30 Very Much Absolutely 4 Mayra Juarez Beginner 20-30 A Lot Absolutely 4 Monica de la Torre Beginner 20-30 Very Much Absolutely 4 Nancy Lopez None 20-30 A Lot Yes 4 Oriel Maria Siu None 10-20 Very Much Absolutely 4 Robert Loza None 10-20 A Lot Absolutely 3 Theresa Dang None 10-20 Something Absolutely 3 Tito Corona Expert 10-20 A Lot Yes 3 Travis Pinon Experienced 10-20 Very Much Absolutely 3 Wendy Carillo None 10-20 A Lot Yes 2 Findings A) 9 A) 0 A) 0 A) 0 A) 0

B) 5 B) 6 B) 1 B) 2 B) 1 19 Total Interviews (9 Women and 10 Men) C) 1 C) 7 C) 6 C) 4 C) 5

D) 1 D) 3 D) 9 D) 10 D) 10 16 Surveys Completed

101 Appendix C is the result of the Index of each found show 1-72 and it shows the program number, the theme, the hosts, the producer, the date, the individual contributions with a brief description, and some musical selections that were used on each show

Show Number #1

Theme: Options for High School Graduates

Hosts: Oriel Maria Siu and Lex Steppling

Producer: Aura with help from Engineer Stan Masraji

Collective Members: Laura, Teresa, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Oriel and Lex Plus Oso and Chuy

Air Date: April 22, 2005 Earth Day

Contribution Description Theresa and Oso report on HS Graduates The report presents the options that young people have upon graduating High School including A-G Requirements, learning approaches, and University and Community College options SRR interviews HS Graduates The youth explain their future plans after graduating SRR Thespians present a PIC commercial The Prison Industrial Complex has 33 state facilities in California alone, and the skit explains prison politics, cultural self awareness and commitment to diversity present in prison SRR Thespians skit “Adventures of Sergeant Ron The two military recruiters try to recruit high school and Private Pile youth Laura and Miguel report on Neoliberalism and the The report explains how the neoliberal policies Working Class pushed by multinational corporations affect the working class in the United States SRR sound clip of author Jonathan Kozol The public education advocate and author explains the difficulties for minority and poor people in inner city public schools as they overcome race and racism

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Black Star Respiration Bob Marley Soul Rebel Wu Tang Clan CREAM

102 Show Number #3

Theme: Racism

Hosts: Oriel Maria Siu and Lex Steppling

Producer: Aura

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Teresa, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Oriel and Lex Plus Sick Sense, Oscar Reyes, Jason Rev Lewis, Oso and Chuy Big Ups to KPFK including Jennifer Kiser, Matt Perez, Jerry Quigley, and Derek Boykins

Air Date: May 6, 2005

Contribution Description Oriel report on the “race riots” at LA schools The media hyped “race riots” at Jordan, Jefferson, Grant, Locke, and Santa Monica HS was more likely gang or turf conflict and not a racial crisis, but the presence of the police and cameras seems to have escalated the violence Miguel report on the Korean perspective of the LA On the 13th anniversary of the LA Riots, Suntae Lee Riots documented the Korean perspective in the film Sa I Gu SRR skit PSA by Governor Schwarzenegger The Governator tries to explain his views on Immigration which seem to contradict his experience as an undocumented immigrant SRR Commercial for the “Cop Out Kit” The Cop Out Kit will help any racist get out of the most racially sensitive situation SRR Thespians skit “Diary of Mr. Racist” Mr. Racist is unapologetically prejudiced and he explains the impact of racism on the economy and the ability to find work Miguel report on Fred Hampton Chairman Fred of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party was 20 years old before he was jailed and assassinated by the pigs SRR sound clip of “The Murder of Fred Hampton” The documentary explains the role of Fred Hampton in the development of the Black Panther Party and Chairman Fred proclaims “All Power to the People” and we hear chants of “Free Fred Hampton” You dig?

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Vico C Carapicu Kaiser Chiefs I Predict a Riot Franz Ferdinand This Fire

103 Show Number #5

Theme: Sexism

Hosts: Hasmik and Jorge

Producer: Aura Bogado

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Jose, Teresa, XL, Travis, Miguel, Oriel, Lex, Hasmik, and Jorge

Air Date: May 20, 2005

Contribution Description Oriel- Interviews Young Women at Cleveland HS How does sexism and patriarchy affect young women on a daily basis? Lex- PSA Parody of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Hasmik- Interview with Cherie Gaulke Gaulke is a lesbian artist that works with the Feminist Studio Workshop out of the Women’s Building Laura- Interviews Chloe Gans-Rugerbregt Gans-Rugerbregt is the Co-Chair of the UCLA Reproductive Health Interest Group and they discuss reproductive rights. Oriel and Teresa- Personal Accounts Discuss Incidents of Domestic Violence and Teresa reads a poem called “I Swear I Love You” Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Discuss Energy including coal, nuclear, and fossil fuels

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Ben Harper Oppression Erykah Badu Certainly Susana Baca El Mayoral Indie Arie Video Gangstarr Above the Clouds Ulali Mother

104 Show Number #6

Theme: Militarization of Public Schools

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Aura

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Tito, Teresa, Hasmik, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Oriel and Lex Plus Sick Sense, Oscar Reyes, Jason Rev Lewis, Oso and Chuy

Air Date: May 27, 2005

Contribution Description Miguel interviews Victor Paredes Sr Paredes is the father of Pablo Paredes who was the 1st Conscientious Objector in the Navy after the invasion of Iraq, and his father explains the family’s undivided support Oriel interviews Rosa Furumoto Furumoto is a professor at CSU Northridge and of the organizers of Coalition Against the Militarization in Schools in the San Fernando Valley SRR Thespians skit “Berry Stinger” US Government has been cheating on America with Hali Burton and all their children are paying a heavy price for it SRR skit “Connect the Dots” The game show skit helps the participants to understand the connection between the military and the local and global economy SRR interviews military personnel The four ex-military personnel talk about their experiences in the US military including an openly gay soldier who was honorably discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy Teresa report on Conscientious Objectors and The report explains that CO status helps some suicide rates military to avoid depression and suicide attempts which are on the rise Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny explain why the US consumes 25% of the world’s energy and offer some tips to the audience SRR Thespians skit “Time Machine” What if Indigenous people received Europeans with modern day Xenophobia” and add “What would happen if Black People were armed at the US- Canada border ready to defend their homeland” Hasmik report on Homeless Veterans The report explains the circumstances and issues that lead veterans to become homeless

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The White Stripes 7 Nation Army Radiohead Go to Sleep Pink Floyd Money Quetzal Die Cowboy Die Aaron Neville Tell It Like It Is Nas Get Down Bob Marley War

105 Show Number #7

Theme: Internationalism

Hosts: Yvette Macias and Ollin Juarez

Producer: Aura Bogado

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Tito, Teresa, Travis, Lex, Jorge, Jose, Yvette, Ollin, Hasmik, Oriel, and Miguel

Air Date: June 3, 2005

Contribution Description Missing First Half of the Show

Hasmik reports on CAFTA Impact of Central American Free Trade Agreement Hasmik Interviews the Band Slow Motion Reign The group discuss their cultural and national backgrounds and the impact on their music SRR Thespian- IMF and WTO skit Conquest News reports on the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Flaca helps Kilo and Tiny to explain the “I don’t care” syndrome

Musical Contributions:

Artist Selection Unknown and Unsigned Local Artists

106 Show Number #8

Theme: California

Hosts: Oriel Maria Siu and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Aura Bogado

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Teresa, Hasmik, Ollin, Yvette, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Travis, Lex, and Oriel. Plus Kevin Huss

Air Date: June 10, 2005

Contribution Description Oriel Editorial on Education The Report is about Public Education in California Hasmik interviews Rodrigo Garcia Garcia is the author of “Urban Politics,” a book about the politics of gangs in the inner cities Miguel interviews Pascual Torres Torres works for Homeboy Industries, a gang prevention organization which helps young people escape conflicts in the streets of Los Angeles SRR Thespian- Angry Dave Skit Angry Dave skit helps Americans understand the reality of the immigration issue SRR Thespians- Connect the Dots The skit helps the audience connect the dots to better understand gentrification Ollin and Yvette Report on the Minutemen The minutemen is a racist organization that works in Orange County to prevent immigrants from coming into the country Ollin Report about the History of California The Report explains the history of slavery and conquest in California from the Spanish Invasion to the North American Free Trade Agreement Teresa Report on Immigration Policy The report explains immigration policy in California and she highlights reactionary organization like Save Our State and the Minutemen SRR Original Song The SRR Collective created a song called “Protestors Got Run Over by a Racist” Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment What if the power went out permanently? Kilo and Tiny answer the question about one of our greatest fears

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Doors Break on Through Cypress Hill Insane in the Brain and Lockdown Lootpack When I’m on the Mic Jurassic 5 Quality Control Red Hot Chili Peppers Under the Bridge Tupac To Live and Die in LA White Stripes 7 Nation Army The Coup Dig It Ice Cube 24 wit an L Quetzal Elegua NWA Express Yourself Santana Oye Como Va

107 Show Number #9

Theme: The Year in Review 2005

Hosts: Hasmik Geghamyan and Javier Cambron

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Hasmik, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, Lex, and Oriel.

Air Date: January, 6, 2006

Contribution Description SRR Thespians- Angry Dave Skit Angry Dave helps explains the response from the Administration of George W. Bush to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans Lex Retrospective The retrospective examines the life and contributions of Richard Prior who passed Lex Report The report discusses the life of Catholic Pope John Paul II SRR Thespians- Conquest News Conquest News report on New Years Resolutions Miguel Report on the Zapatista Rebellion and the The report explains that the EZLN and the Cuban Cuban Revolution Revolution celebrate anniversaries of their respective movements on New Years Day Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny explain the effects of Coal Burning in the United States

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection White Stripes 7 Nation Army Barbara Streisand Stranger in a Strange Land Sheryl Crow Where Has All the Love Gone Eminem Mosh Kanye West Crack Music The Rolling Stones Sweet NeoCon Green Day Wake Me Up When September Ends Legendary KO George Bush Don’t Care About Black People Marvin Gaye Inner City Blues Nas I Want to Talk to You Public Enemy Rebels Without a Pause Caetano Veloso Triste Bahia Shuggie Otis Ice Cold Daydream John Lennon Imagine

108 Show Number #10

Theme: Women’s Month

Hosts: Oriel Maria Siu and Eduardo Arenas

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Hasmik, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, Lex, and Oriel. Plus Shawn Aquino, Chelsea Moore, Mayra Juarez, Hector Flores, Luisa Flores, Robin Powers, and Laura Cosio

Air Date: March 3, 2006

Contribution Description Mayra Juarez interviews youth in Ventura Park Mayra asks youth about the legacy of Rosa Parks Excerpts of “I Rigoberta Menchu” As read by 6th Grader Juliette Romero SRR Original Song Eduardo and Jose create a spoken word piece called “Mother Earth” Shawn Report on Women’s Rights The report explains on the privacy policies and women’s reproduction SRR Thespians Skit- Dick Cheney SRR does a sit down interview with Vice President Dick Cheney Chelsea creates the SRR Vagina Monologues Chelsea asked high school students “What is a Vagina?” and the SRR collective did dramatic read of their answers Eduardo retrospective on Billie Holiday The life and contributions of the musical legend Billie Holiday Chelsea Report on an Anti War Protest The report documents the responses from young people to the war machine at a protest organized by the “World Can’t Wait” on January 31, 2006 Robin Power reads a poem Robin reads a poem written by Karli Sheehan Hasmik report on Human Trafficking The report examines the effects that human trafficking has on the individuals and their families Hasmik and Hector report on Obesity Hasmik and Hector help explain the obesity epidemic and the prevention methods Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny bring awareness to energy consumption

Musical Contributions:

Artist Selection Gangstarr Above the Clouds Eminem You Don’t Want to Fuck with Shady Billie Holiday Strange Fruit Midi Midis Ambulance Café

109 Show Number #11

Theme: Violence

Hosts: Chelsea Moore and Shawn Aquino

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Teresa, Hasmik, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, and Oriel. Plus Shawn Aquino, Chelsea Moore, Hector Flores and Laura Cosio

Air Date: April 7, 2006

Contribution Description SRR Thespians- The US Invasion of Heaven The SRR Skit documents the US Invasion of Part 1 Heaven after an Anti War Protest led by God Hasmik and Hector Health Report Hasmik and Hector explain the effects of partially hydrogenated oils on our health Shawn interviews Helen Greicol Greicol is the Executive Director of the National Organization of Women Hasmik report on the Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide continues to be denied by the Turkish perpetrators and their US allies Hector Flores poem about violence Oriel reads a poem written by Hector about domestic violence SRR Thespians- The US Invasion of Heaven The SRR Skit documents the US Invasion of Part 2 Heaven after and interview with Satan Corporate Killer of the Month The US Government is this month’s corporate killer of the month Miguel interview Teresa Dang The interview with SRR alum Dang documents her attack at the hands of the Minutemen Kilo Watts and Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny create an original song called “EMS- Energy Management System

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Mobb Deep Infamous Tierra Gangstarr

110 Show Number #12

Theme: Human Migration

Hosts: Hasmik Geghamyan and Hector Flores

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Hasmik, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, Lex, and Oriel. Plus Shawn Aquino, Chelsea Moore, Mayra Juarez, Hector Flores, Nancy Lopez, and Wendy Carillo

Air Date: May 5, 2006

Contribution Description Mayra Juarez interviews youth in Ventura County Mayra interviews youth about why they staged walk outs in Ventura County Miguel report on HR 4437 House Resolution 4437 awakens the sleeping giant immigrant community in the US Oriel, Hasmik, and Miguel document the historic On March 24-25, a huge protest against xenophobia immigrant marches in 2006 led to a student walkouts in Los Angeles on March 27th, which culminated on May 1, 2006 with a Historic March that included 100,000’a of protestors in downtown LA Hector and Nancy Report on Nationalism Hector and Nancy discuss the pros and cons of using the Mexican flag during the immigrants rights movement Wendy Carillo interviews Montezuma Esparza Esparza is a filmmaker, director and film distributor Corporate Killer of the Month- Halliburton Shawn discusses the activities and profiteering of Halliburton Corporation Wendy Blogs about HR4437 Wendy creates the Migration Monologues, a dramatic reenactment of immigrant stories Nancy interviews Soul Rebel Laura Cambron Cambron discusses immigration in Venezuela and how it differs from the United States Travis Editorial on Immigration The editorial sheds some light on the hypocrisy of the immigrant rights backlash Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny bring awareness to energy consumption

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Nas If I Ruled the World

111 Show Number #13

Theme: Homelessness

Hosts: Wendy Carillo and Travis Pinon

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Jose, Wendy, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, and Oriel.

Air Date: June 2, 2006

Contribution Description Eduardo report on Homelessness in LA including an The report discusses the causes of homelessness interview with Bobby Greene including how gentrification affects the number of homeless and Eduardo interviews “Skid Row Bobby” Hector interview Manoush The interview focuses on the work of Food not Bombs and their efforts to help feed the homeless Nancy interviews Kevin Michael Key Key is the Community Coordinator for LA CAN and is with the LA Poverty Department Mayra report on Mental Illnesses in the homeless Juarez is a Case Manager in Ventura County and the population including an interview with Ricardo report illustrates mental illnesses among the Juarez homeless population Nancy, Hector, and Eduardo Report from Skid Row The SRR members interview homeless people in in Los Angeles skid row and the report focuses on the realities of living on the streets Miguel interviews Tezozomoc Tezozomoc is an Organizer with the South Central Farm in Los Angeles and the interview discusses the push to evict the farmers from the land Oriel interviews women involved in the system Nikisha and Susan Cruz reveal how “Girls in Gangs” helps convicted youth like Nikisha avoid homelessness Wendy Carillo interviews Dolores Huerta Huerta discusses how the overwhelming majority of migrant farm workers are in essence homeless

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Rage Against the Machine Housin Marvin Gaye Inner City Blues DJ Kam Gangsta Shit

112 Show Number #14

Theme: 4th World War

Hosts: Nancy Lopez and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Jose, Wendy, Javier, Tito, Hector, Mayra, Nancy, XL, Miguel, Travis, and Oriel. Plus Cristina Lopez and Stamina

Air Date: July 7, 2006

Contribution Description Hosts Explain the 4th World War World War I, World War II, and World War III (aka the Cold War), and the current war between Neo- Liberal corporations and the working poor people Nancy report on Free Trade and interview with The report focuses on the Free Trade Conference in Hyong Suk Hung Washington DC and South Korea’s response according to Hung of the Korean Peasants League Javier skit on Walmart The skit is a mock interview with Walmart CEO Lee Scott Oriel interviews Alfonso Gonzalez Gonzalez is from UCLA and Juventud de FMLN and he discusses the impact of the Central American Free Trade Agreement Travis original poem Travis reads a poem called “Open Your Eyes” Hector interviews Samuel Samuel works with the cooperative Casa del Pueblo and they combat Neoliberalism by operating an autonomous community space in Echo Park SRR Thespians Skit- Conquest News Conquest News explains how the IMF and World Bank shakedown countries Wendy report on Military The report focuses on military dissent Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny explain natural liquefied gas and its uses

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Ceelo Crazy Kanye West Drive Slow James Brown It’s a Man’s World Cypress Hill Pigs

113 Show Number #15

Theme: US Militarization

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Hector Flores

Producer: Tito Corona

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Travis, and Lex Plus Zoila

Air Date: August 4, 2006

Contribution Description Open with Dwight D. Eisenhower Speech Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Speech on the Military Industrial Complex SRR Skit on Militarization by XL and Lex The skit parodies the pressure that youth face from military recruiters Hector and Mayra Interview Youth The youth from Oxnard and from the East LA area explain how the military recruiters have invaded public schools SRR Thespians- The Making of a Soldier The skit explains the process of breaking a soldiers spirit to become a hired killer Cristina Lopez interviews Johnny Figueroa Figueroa works for Jovenes Inc. Cristina, Nancy, and Wendy Original Song Accentuate Democracy parody of Bing Crosby Lex skit about George W. Bush The skit presents the news as a old newsreel SRR Thespians skit “Cribs- Gitmo Edition” The skit presents the Guantanamo Prison in Cuba as an edition of MTV Cribs SRR Commercial Pacifigra “Drug Your Worries Away” Miguel Paredes interview with Pablo Paredes Pablo Paredes was the first “Conscientious Objector” in the Navy during the War in Iraq Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo and Tiny explain “Tree Hugger Phobia”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Beatles Come Together Marilyn Manson Usher featuring Lil John and Ludacris Yeah Ry Cooder Chan Chan The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldier War Edwin Starr

114 Show Number #16

Theme: Post 9/11

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Hector Flores

Producer: Javier and Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, and Lex Plus Denise Carlos

Air Date: September 1, 2006

Contribution Description Open with audio of 9/11 Plane Crash and George The events of September 11, 2001 forever changed W. Bush speech the world, and the speech by President George W. Bush on the same day foreshadowed the future of US foreign policy Lex interviews Korey Rowe Rowe is the Producer of the film Loose Change: 9/11 An American Coup Part 1- Rowe served in the military, created the film Loose Change, and War Games being played out on the actual day of 9/11 Part 2- Talks about the conspiracy of planes crashing, and questionable nature of the flight lists SRR Skit “Security Homeland” Security Homeland is a fictional theme park complete with Pirates of the Middle East and Its Our World rides, color coded threats, and characters from the George W. Bush administration Nancy mock interview George W. Bush Bush defends his right to wage war in interview Miguel interviews New York artist Akir Akir of One Enterprise talks about the attack on September 11 and the role of the artist in creating discussion Laura report on Neurolinguistic Programming The report explains the use of Neurolinguistic Programming by the Bush Administration Wendy interviews people in Hawaii On a trip to Hawaii, Wendy interviewed people at the Pearl Harbor memorial and asked if there are any comparisons between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor Travis as Borat Borat does a Soul Rebel Radio drop Hasmik interviews community at March On August 12, 2006, Hasmik interviewed people at a pro peace march End the Show with Allende and the Other 9/11 Soul Rebel Radio remembers the original 9/11 tragedy when the US backed forces removed Salvador Allende from power in Chile

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Portishead Café Tacuba Akir The Animals The House of the Rising Star Immortal Technique The Cause of Death Israel Kamakawino’ole Somewhere Over the Rainbow

115 Show Number #17

Theme: Fear

Hosts: Hasmik Geghamyan and Eduardo Arenas

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, Lex and Oriel. Plus Zoila, Pedro Jaguar, and Carolina Huacan

Air Date: October 6, 2006

Contribution Description Open with audio of Clockwork Orange The mood of fear was created with the opening Hector interviews Youth The youth from the Eastside talk about their fears including Education, Social Services, Gangs, Immigration, and the Economy The Women of SRR share their fears Wendy, Nancy, Mayra, and Hasmik share accounts of their fears as women Lex report on men’s fears The report dispels some misconceptions about fear and insecurity facing men Zoila report and interviews about the fear of The report explains the fear of homosexuality and homosexuality she interviews young gay and transgender youth and their fears of hate crimes, HIV, STD’s, and acceptance Laura skit “The Science Rebels” The skit is a parody of Bill Nye the Science Guy and uses a fun and scientific approach to explain fear SRR Thespians The science of fear and the 3 parts of the brain that manage our responses to fear Wendy report on fear tactics The report explains how the media uses fear tactics to spread terror Oriel and Miguel report on Fidel Castro including The report explains how Fidel Castro has been made audio of Angela Davis and Sidney Portier out to a boogeyman that we must fear, but some people like Davis and Portier challenge this notion Miguel interviews Edward Mercado Mercado is a youth from Venezuela and he discusses how young people view Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy explain how we are running out of fossil fuels while we are completely dependant on oil

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Boston Pop Orchestra/ John Williams Jaws Theme Music The Pixies Where is My Mind? Amores Perros Soundtrack Wolfmother The Pharcyde Otha Fish Marvin Gaye Got to Give It Up Geto Boys Mind Playing Tricks

116 Show Number #18

Theme: Elections

Hosts: Mayra Juarez and Jose Cano

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, Lex and Oriel. Plus Zoila

Air Date: November 3, 2006

Contribution Description Open with Shout Out for Soul Rebel Radio by Sub Sub Comandante Marcos speaks in English in the Comandante Marcos only known audio of him speaking to the American audience Hector interviews Youth The youth explain their thoughts on Elections and voting Javier skit “The Mind of a Young Voter” The skit takes us inside the mind of a young voter trying to avoid confusion on the ballot and the election process Wendy interviews Dolores Huerta Huerta sits down with Wendy and discusses the importance of voting especially in light of the recent immigrant rights marches Zoila report on Proposition 85 and interview with The woman’s right to choose law would make Christine Lyon changes to the abortion laws and Lyon is the Vice President of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Santa Barbara SRR Skit by Lex The skit is a parody of a PSA staring Arnold Schwarzenegger Hasmik interviews Bill Paparian Paparian ran for the 29th Congressional District in California SRR Skit “Soul Rebel Café” The skit is a parody of a poetry jam including “Soldier of the Spoken Word” by Sister Solstice of the Equinox and “Let’s Play House,” and “Piece About the Senate” by Urban Warrior Mike Miguel interviews Sub-Comandante Marcos and Sub-Comandante Marcos of the EZLN shares his participants of the Encuentro in Tijuana thoughts in English at the Tijuana campaign stop for La Otra Campaña in October 20006, and the participants explain the purpose for their involvement Hector as Vato report on Proposition 87 Proposition 87 is the Clean Energy Act and Vato explains the Pros and Cons Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment- Original Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy create an original song Song about solar panels called “How Much Does it Cost?” Sub Comandante Marcos Final Thoughts In English, Sub Comandante Marcos explains that some people go to sleep and dream about a better tomorrow while others work through the night to create that reality

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection

117 Moby Porcelain The Hollywood Studio Symphony Sin City End Titles Quetzal Nirvana All Apologies Rage Against the Machine Take the Power Back

118 Show Number #19

Theme: Commercialization of Culture

Hosts: Nancy Lopez and Tito Corona

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Travis, and Lex. Plus Zoila

Air Date: December 1, 2006

Contribution Description Open with a collage of commercials and cultural The opening established the bombardment of audio commercialization of culture that we face daily SRR skit “True Hollywood Stories” The skit is a parody of “True Hollywood Stories” and we look at 3 icons of the 1990’s and ask where are Ferbie, Play Station, and Tickle Me Elmo now Laura, Lex, and Eduardo interview youth The youth explain the pressure of having the newest and latest items SRR skit “Connect the Dots” The skit is a parody of a game show on pop culture and asks contestants who are the faces on their favorite T-Shirt? Hasmik interviews Laura Palomares Palomares works with El Puente and she organizes the yearly “Anti Mall” which promotes conscious shopping Hector and Jorge report on 5 de Mayo 5 de Mayo has become more popular in parts of the US and it is not widely celebrated in Mexico Travis interviews Alter One Alter One is a musician with Burning Star and he discusses the commercialization of culture and dedicates the interview to DJ Dusk One SRR Skit “Dial Up God” The hosts of the show dial up heaven and try talking to God about how the Creator is being commercialized Cristina report on the Oaxacan Resistance The report explains the Teachers Strike against Ulysses Ortiz, and the role of APPO and FIOB Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present the “Energy Cops” parody of the show “Cops”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Twilight Zone Theme Music Jay Z Lucifer Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You and I’m Every Woman Body Count Body M/F Count Nirvana The Man Who Sold the World The Roots What They Do

Show Number #20

119

Theme: Los Angeles

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Travis Pinon

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, Travis, and Lex. Plus Cati and Pedro Jaguar

Air Date: January 5, 2007

Contribution Description Lex interview Mike Davis- Part 1 The Author of City of Quartz explains that Los Angeles was shaped by the immigrant community Miguel skit “Huell Browner” The parody of the Huell Howser show “California’s Gold” focuses on the city of Los Angeles SRR skit “Top 10 List” Top 10 ways you can tell if someone is from LA Lex interview Mike Davis- Part 2 Davis discusses Gangs and Gang Culture in LA including the effects of Neo-Liberalism on the African American and Chicano community with the creation of the Crips, Bloods, and Chican@ Barrios Laura, George, and Lex report on Drugs in LA The SRR crew breaks down the proliferation of drugs in Los Angeles including how a report documented the Iran Contra Affair and the connection that drugs in South Central had with guns in Nicaragua Christina interview Victor Narro Narro is the Director of the UCLA Labor Center near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles Nancy interviews Yancy Quinones Quinones opened Antigua Cafe in Northeast LA SRR Thespians skit “The Roast of LA” The skit includes Roas-tmaster Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and contains such luminaries as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Daryl Gates, Rodney King, Eli Broad, and Roger Mahoney SRR skit by Javier and Tito “Law and Order- The The skit helps explain how Firestone, GM, and Death of Public Transportation” Mack Trucks conspired to murder the public transportation system in LA Soul Rebel Cafe The Cafe hosted by Joaquin Not Free presents a poem by Travioli called “Gentrification” Lex interview Mike Davis- Part 3 Davis explains the Ecology Theory and how Los Angeles became a Mediterranean climate Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny with the help of Cati Fu explain the origins of Smog in LA

Musical Contributions: Artist Artist Ozomatli Dr. Dre Jurassic 5 Dru Down Colors Quetzal Ice Cube NWA The Doors Lighter Shade of Brown Shad featuring Shayde Cypress Hill Rage Against the Machine

120

Show Number #21

Theme: Black History Month

Hosts: Christina Lopez and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Wendy, Jose, Tito, Hector, Hasmik, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, Travis, and Lex.

Air Date: February 2, 2007

Contribution Description Opens with a Testimony of Racial Profiling An African American male testifies about an incident of racial profiling Lex report on Richard Prior Richard Prior is one of the most influential comedians and the report recalls his legacy Eduardo interviews Lionel Jean Bautiste Bautiste is a recording artist who was racially profiled by the police Lex interviews Tanya Williams Williams is the granddaughter of former Black Panther Michael Zin Zin Chelsea report on Mumia Abu Jamal Jamal is an activist who was convicted for murdering Philadelphia Officer Faulkner in 1981 Lex editorial “I Hate Valentine’s Day” The report explains the history of the “Teddy Bear” and Blood Diamonds Nancy report on African American singers The report profiles Billie Holiday and Nina Simone Javier skit “Soul Rebel Time Machine” SRR travels back in time to listen in on a debate between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Steven Douglass on the merits of slavery Christina report on Campaign for Justice and The Campaign for Justice calls for fair contracts for interview with Lola Smallwood Cuevas security guards and homecare workers Lex interviews Cynthia Carr Carr is the author of Our Town and her book deals with the awful history of lynching Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on Environmental Racism in Southeast LA in the City of Vernon because of a proposed new power plant

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection James Brown This is a Man’s World and Get on the Good Foot Rage Against the Machine Know your Enemy and Fuck the Police Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze Billie Holiday Strange Fruit Nina Simone Brown Baby Erykah Badu Drama Lauryn Hill Freedom Time Dr. Dre California Love Cypress Hill Kill a Man James Brown Funky President and Payback Eric B and Rakim Eric B is President Kool Moe Dee How Cool Can One Black Man Be Total featuring BIG Can’t You See

121

Show Number #22

Theme: International Women’s Day

Hosts: Chelsea Moore and Jorge Merino

Producer: Nancy

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, and Lex. Pus Rafa Aguilar

Air Date: March 2, 2007

Contribution Description Christina report on International Women’s Day The report focuses on the origins of International Women’s Day in the labor struggle SRR reports on women Sor Juana Ines and Harriet Tubman are two important women in the history of the Americas Jose and Laura skit on the Soul Rebel Time Jose uses the time machine to interview Emma Machine Goldman and her contributions to Anarchism, Feminism, Women’s Suffrage, and Environmentalism Chelsea report on Reproductive Rights The report explains the use of hormonal contraceptive pills Lex interviews Maricela Guzman Guzman was sexually assaulted in the Navy and went AWOL and was subsequently jailed Nancy report on current events The report focused on women making news SRR Thespians skit “The Better View” The parody of The View showcased four different women with different views Miguel interviews participants of La Otra Campaña La Otra Campaña kicked off in Oventic, Chiapas with 4000 Zapatistas and 2000 Integalactic@s from LA, California, Norway, Canada, and all over the world Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on Low Impact Living when Tiny goes to Mexico and explains how his relatives lived a low impact life

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The White Stripes Passive Manipulation Mazy Starr Fade Into You Pixies Gigantic Bessie Smith Blue Spirit Blues Cranberries What’s in Your Head Divinyls I Touch Myself Janis Joplin Summertime Dr. Dre Explosive Christina Saverwein Dj Vadim and Sarah Jones Your Revolution

Show Number #23

122

Theme: Death in the Springtime- Genocide

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Lex Steppling

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, XL, Miguel, and Lex. Plus Jesse Chavez

Air Date: April 6, 2007

Contribution Description SRR Thespians skit “The True History of Mr. Deez is a substitute teacher who takes over a Columbus” history class and the students challenge the mainstream notions of Columbus Miguel report on the Cucapa Camp The Cucapa Camp in Baja California was part of La Otra Campaña and was supported by Sub Comandante Marcos of the EZLN and the Chican@ community in the US SRR interviews Joann Mixpe Ley Mixpe works for Semillas del Pueblo which is a charter school in El Sereno that teaches indigenous philosophy and history Miguel report on Gentrification Gentrification is a problems in places like the Hill District in Pittsburgh, the Mission District in San Francisco, and Elysian Valley in LA Nancy report on Rwanda The report focuses on the genocide in Rwanda Lex report on the Jewish Holocaust The report explains that the Holocaust cost thousands of Jews, Gays, Gypsies their lives Hasmik report on the Armenian Genocide The report sheds light on the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turkish forces Christina report on 1968 The year 1968 was pivotal around the world in the fight for social justice Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on how we should not blame ourselves for everything because the system is responsible too

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit Café Tacuba Tropico de Cancer Living Legends Nothing Less The Beatles Norwegian Wood David Gray Babylon Janis Joplin Summertime The Beatles Revolution Jarocho Luna Negra Edwin Starr War Credence Clearwater Revival Fortunate Son Portishead Pharaoh Monch Simon Says The Cinematic Orchestra Man with a Movie Camera Red Hot Chili Peppers Under the Bridge Show Number #24

123

Theme: Conspiracy Theories

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Lex Steppling

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Mayra, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, XL, Miguel, and Lex. Plus John Bower

Air Date: May 4, 2007

Contribution Description Open with a Disclaimer Warning- Do your own research! SRR interview young people We asked the youth “What is a Conspiracy?” SRR Report We explain the history of conspiracies going back to the Spanish-American War, the Mexican-American War, World War II, and 9/11 Chelsea interviews Cindy Sheehan Sheehan is an Anti War activist SRR Original Song “Diebold Day” The original song is the SRR take on the stolen election in Florida Miguel skit “Grandpa Joe” Grandpa Joe tells conspiracy theories to youth including Masons, the New World Order, 9/11 Attacks, UFO’s, and the Moon Landing SRR Thespians skit “Space- the Final Frontier” The conspiracy to colonize space including the moon and Mars Nancy and Christina report The report explains that Operation Paperclip which led to the creation of NASA was created by Werner von Braun who was a Nazi engineer SRR editorial on Sumerian The Sumerian theory of creation refers to reptilian UFO’s, Planet X, and a Great Flood Lex report, interview, and original song related to The Bus Riders Union is led by youth like students the Bus Riders Union Haewon Asfaw and Richard Edmond who help explain that the lack of public transportation is a conspiracy against the poor, and the youth create an original rap about the latest fee hike Chelsea report on Potable Water The Beef Industry has a huge need an global footprint on the use of potable water SRR Roll Call SRR calls out the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, NAFTA, the European Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, the Trilateral Commission, the Knights Templar, the Skulls and Bones, the Bilderberg Group, McDonalds, Coca Cola, Nike, Exxon Mobile, Walmart, and others Jose and Eduardo report on Deodorant Jose and Eduardo visit a supermarket and explain the use of aluminum in deodorant, fluoride in toothpaste, chemicals in fabric softeners, and aerosols in fragrances Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a doomsday scenario and ask What if the Power was Shut Off?

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection

124 Dr. Dre Dre Day Goodie Mob Cell Therapy Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal Nine Inch Nails Rodrigo y Gabriela Cypress Hill Lockdown The Roots REM It’s the End of the World as We Know It

125 Show Number #25

Theme: Music

Hosts: Nancy Lopez and Eduardo Arenas

Producer: Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex. Plus Shawn Aquino

Air Date: July 6, 2007

Contribution Description Open with a Collage of Music A myriad of musical selections is included in the mix SRR Thespians skit Music Class Mr. Deez substitutes for a Music Class and tries to compare Elvis to Eminem, talk about American Idol, and he gets schooled by the students about the history of music from Blues to Rock and Roll to Hip Hop Christina interviews Banda Juvenil Sologa Banda Juvenil Sologa fro Oaxaca includes three high school students SRR skit “Celebrity Jeopardy” The parody of the game show includes celebrities Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, and Carlos Mencia Eduardo report on Fela Kuti Kuti produced 77 albums and was the leader of his kingdom and is credited with creating Afro-Beat SRR editorial SRR gives props to South African Jazz, Funk, Tropicalismo, Bob Marley, and The Beatles Lex interviews Davey D Davey D of Hard Knock Radio on KPFA in Berkeley talks about the history of Hip Hop Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on Climate Change and create an original song called “The Carbon Tax” based on James Brown song Payback

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Jimi Hendrix Star Spangled Banner Muddy Waters Gustavo Cerati Tabu Fela Kuti Sorrow, Tears, and Blood Fela Kuti Expensive Shit The Africa 70 featuring Fela Anikulapokuti No Agreement The Beatles Come Together Dilated Peoples Big Business James Brown Bob Marley Soul Rebel Dr. Dre Leon Haywood I Want to Do Something Freaky to You

126 Show Number #26

Theme: Censorship

Hosts: Christina Lopez and Javier Cambron

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex.

Air Date: August 3, 2007

Contribution Description Open with Roll Call Collage of past Intros We begin by using past shows openings to create this introduction and discuss Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl Javier interviews youth The youth were asked about their views of Censorship Nancy report called the SRR Book Corner Nancy profiles the book The Language Police by Diane Ravich about how pressure groups restrict what children learn in school but also affects how words, ideas, images are censored in texts SRR Skit on “Horry Povich” The skit is a parody of the Maury Povich show and the topic for the show begs the question “Is my spouse politically correct?” SRR Thespians skit “PSA on the US Army” The parody of the military recruitment advertisement is our take on the Army commercials Miguel report on censorship in Hip Hop The report quotes Black Thought, Ice T, and Chuck D and highlights 4 examples of censorship in Hip Hop including- NWA’s Fuck the Police, 2 Live Crew’s Me So Horny, Ice T’s Cop Killer, and The Coup’s Party Music album cover Lex report on Censorship and the FCC The report focuses on how the FCC regulates censorship in the media Laura skit “Spy Fly” The skit details history of censorship at the hands of the government through the eyes of a fly on the wall Jorge editorial on Censorship in Venezuela The editorial looks at the history of censorship in Venezuela including the case of Radio Caracas TV Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on the Censorship related to Global Warming

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Beatnuts and Big Punisher Off the Books Pacha Massive Don’t Let Go Dead Prez The Pistol Pharcyde Passing Me By Devilz Species Pathological Drinker Gangstarr Above the Clouds Nas Get Down Akir Kunta Kinte Jurassic 5 Interpol Pharaoh Monch Immortal Technique The 4th Branch

127

Show Number #27

Theme: Diseases

Hosts: Lex Steppling and Jose Cano

Producer: Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, and Lex. Plus Cati Fu, Pedro Montes de Oca, and Luz Feliz Marquez

Air Date: September 7, 2007

Contribution Description Open with explanation of STI’s Sexually Transmitted Infections is better than STD SRR Thespians- HPV The skit is a first person account by genital warts Miguel report diabetes The diabetes includes Type 1, Type 2, Gestational Diabetics, and Pre-Diabetes and could include genetic factors, environmental issues, and other causes of the epidemic SRR Thespians- Herpes The skit is a first person account by the herpes virus SRR Thespians skit “The Great Burger” The skit is a parody of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and their quest to seek the great one Bob’s Big Boy SRR Thespians- Chlamydia The skit is a first person account by Chlamydia Eduardo and Cati Fu interview Celia Gloria The report examines the reality of nurses in El Rodriguez Salvador and Rodriguez is the President of the Community Health Council in San Fernando Morazan SRR Thespians- Syphilis The skit is a first person account by syphilis Eduardo interviews Dr. Juan Camarena Dr. Camarena explains the diseases caused by a fear of visiting the dentist SRR Thespians- Gonorrhea The skit is a first person account by Gonorrhea Chelsea report on Intersexuality The report on intersexuality or hermaphrodites explains how parents are not included in the decision to assign gender to children because this is based on appearance SRR Thespians- HIV The skit is a first person account by HIV Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present a report on Pacoima Beautiful, an organization that combats Environmental Racism

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Gap Band You Dropped the Bomb on Me Zapp and Roger More Bounce to the Ounce One Way Cutie Pie Digital Underground Humpty Dance Parliament Unfunky UFO

128 Show Number #28

Theme: Borders

Hosts: Chelsea Moore and Jorge Merino

Producer: Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, and Lex.

Air Date: October 5, 2007

Contribution Description SRR Report on Border and Immigration Act The 2005 Sensenbrenner Bill created Anti- Immigrant hysteria and placed non-citizens in limbo Christina interviews youth about Immigration “Tam” is a UCLA Graduate who has family in Vietnam, was born in Germany, and moved to the United States but the German refugee remains without a country so she fights for the Dream Act Nancy report on the documentary Stop the Bite by Stop the Bite is a campaign to eliminate malaria Aliyah Levin and Edward Lyman along the Zimbabwe-Zambia border SRR Skit Conquest News Conquest News presents Angry Dave as he advocates for immigrants and against racists Nancy interviews Camilo Ontiveros Ontiveros created the film Ear of the Pollo about border crossing along the Mexican US border Christina report and interview on the Sanctuary The report explains that the Sanctuary Movement Movement has roots in the 1980’s and Christina interviews Daniel French of the New Sanctuary Movement and members of the Clergy and Leity United for Economic Justice and presents the story of Elvira Arellano who sought sanctuary in Simi Valley Laura report on Hawaii The theory of Manifest Destiny pushed the United States to expand their borders west into the Pacific Ocean Miguel reads an original poem “Time and Space” The poem explains that there is no border between time and space because they are one Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny presents an original song “The EMS” about the Energy Management System

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Doors City of Night Stealers Wheel Stuck in the Middle with You Jarocho Pollito en Arroz Dinka Superstitious Pink Floyd Money DJ Shadow Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

129 Show Number # 29

Theme: Redskins vs. Patriots- The Native American Experience

Hosts: Laura Cambron, Lex Steppling, and Miguel Paredes as Michelle Rebelde, John Fatten, and Mike Walls

Producer: Eduardo and Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Chelsea, Miguel, and Lex.

Air Date: November 2, 2007

Contribution Description Open with words by Kiko Wativiti Kiko from the Taino Nation shares the version of Columbus shared in the oral tradition of his people, “Our women bashed their heads with their war clubs!” Redskins vs. Patriots Show Skit The football games is a metaphor for history of the Indigenous experience in the United States, and we use real historical figures, locations, and time to place each “play” in the game Redskins Players include Carlos Calusa, Francisco Chicora, Powatan, Pocahontas, Samoset, Masowet Wampanowa, Squanto, Opechankano Sasakaspetqua, Iroquois, Chief Tamanend, Lenape Delaware, Tohono Odham, Popeye Pueblo, San Diego, Shawnee, Sacajawea, Chief Tecumseh, The Prophet, Seminole, California Indian, Manuelito Navajo, Sioux, Roman Nose, Red Cloud, Cheyenne, Lakota, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, and Geronimo Patriots Players include Christopher Columbus, Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, Juan Rodriguez Bermejo, Jesus Christ, Juan Ponce de Leon, Lupe Vasquez de Aylon, Hernando de Soto, Spanish Jesuits, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Smith, Mayflower, Boston Bay, William Penn, Thomas Penn, Robert Loomis, Measles, Small Pox, Greenville, Lewis and Clark , Maryweather, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, California Legislator, Carson, Homestead Act, Col. Harry Harrington, George Custer, Christianity, Fort Nebraska, General Crook ,and Whiteside Shout Out by Questlove Questlove of The Roots crew gives Soul Rebel Radio a shout out at the Rock the Bells show Nancy halftime report and interview on the Wacho The report includes an interview with Alan Yu, a Nation University of Chicago linguist Location and Time of each Play Florida 1513, South Carolina 1526, Mississippi 1542, Virginia 1548, North Carolina (Lost Colony) 1584, Chesapeake Bay Virginia 1607, Plymouth Rock 1620, Thanksgiving 1621, Jamestown 1640’s, Massachusetts/ Connecticut 1637, Hudson River (Wall Street) 1640, Pennsylvania 1682, Pima Arizona 1680, Pueblo Revolt 1709, Delaware 1756, Shawnee Scalp Act 1775, Christian Mission 1786,

130 Northwest Ordinance 1790, Shawnee Ohio 1795, Creek Wars 1813, Fort Blunt Seminole War 1815, Doctrine of Discover 1828, Trail of Tears to Oklahoma 1830’s, Seminole Wars II 1843, California Gold Rush and Indentured Servant Act 1849, California Indian Treaties 1850, California 1862, Homestead Act 1862, Sioux War Declaration 1862, Colorado 1864, Southern Cheyenne 1865, Red Cloud’s War 1866, Custer vs. Sitting Bull 1876, Nez Perce 1877, Indian Appropriation Act 1874, Apache Massacre in Arizona 1871, Sitting Bull Gathering of Indians 1876, Oklahoma Land Rush 1889, and Wounded Knee 1890 Miguel postgame interview with Kianga Lucas Lucas is an Indigenous student who explains how Native American mascots in the 21st Century are offensive Commercial for Pacifigra and Davey Crocket Hats Pacifigra is a make believe pharmaceutical and Davey Crocket Hats help you Dress to Kill Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny’s skit helps answer the question “Are Indigenous People Better Off?” and it includes words by Quese IMC End the show with Leonard Peltier Honor Song Free Leonard Peltier

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Monday Night Football Theme Music Star Wars Theme Music

Final Score- Patriots 45- Redskins 21 Patriots 7 14 10 14 45 Redskins 0 7 0 14 21

131 Show Number #30

Theme: The Year in Review 2007

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Jorge Merino

Producer: Tito and Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex.

Air Date: December 7, 2007

Contribution Description Open with Collage of Soul Rebel Radio members The voices of the collective are heard at the start and introduce Lulu and Monica Lulu interviews Medusa Medusa is an LA MC and the creator of the “Gangsta Goddess” album talks about the role of women in Hip Hop Miguel musical review The Musical Year in Review including Top 10 live shows, Top 3 Musical Festivals, and Top 3 Stories Lulu skit “SRR Time Machine” The SRR Time Machine is used to make predictions about 2008 and beyond SRR Thespians skit “The Roast of Santa Clause” “The Roast of Santa Clause” includes the Roast- master Santa’s Elf, Jesus, Kwanza, Hanukah, Mrs. Clause, Rudolf the Reindeer, and St. Nick Christina and Monica report on ICE Raids The Immigration raids are reported and information and discussion points were presented Laura report on your tax dollars The report focuses on how much money as invested in the Defense budget Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny do an interview with Global Warming and help dispel the rumors

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Medusa My Momma Raised a G and Gangsta Goddess Radiohead Weird Fishes and 15 Steps Deftones Rodrigo y Gabriela The Shins Mezklah The Beastie Boys The Police Roxanne Interpol The Muse Mars Volta Manu Chao Facilis Descenus Averni Rage Against the Machine Bombtrack Wu Tang Clan Shame on a Nigga Public Enemy Kanye West Nas Hip Hop is Dead Blondie Follow Me Michael Jackson

132 Looney Tunes Theme Music Aretha Franklin Save Me Ice Cube Santana Evil Ways Moby Porcelain The Doors Light My Fire Todos tus Muertos Mandela AntiCon 6.2 Simulated Snow

133 Show Number #31

Theme: The Year “1984”

Hosts: Eduardo Arenas and Laura Cambron

Producer: Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex. Plus Pedro Montes de Oca, Camilo Romero, Reynaldo Godoy, and Arturo Cambron

Air Date: January 4, 2008

Contribution Description Open with Time Machine to travel to 1984 and The theme of the show is 1984, so we used George bring Laura back to 2008 Orwell’s book “1984” to format the show and used stories and music from the year Ignorance is Strength War is Peace Ministry of Truth- “Who controls the past now, controls the future. Who controlled the present, controls the past.” SRR Thespians skit Celebrity Jeopardy Celebrity Jeopardy includes George Bush, Boy George, and Bill Cosby Nancy skit TV in 1984 The skit explains that for every hour spent in school, children spent 2 hours watching television in 1984, (This Skit was later discussed in the collective and it and how since the creation of Hollywood in 1948 led to a change in the next show and an apology and (the same year as the establishment of Israel) anti- explanation) Arab depictions have existed on TV Monica and Lulu report The report is a conversation between Monica and Lulu about Music in 1984 including MTV, the East LA Punk scene including groups like The Brat and The Baggs, Prince’s Darling Nikki which led to the creation of the Parent Music Resource Center which created the Parent Advisory stickers SRR Soundclip In 1985, Frank Zappa testified at a congressional hearing about censorship in music SRR Soundclip The AIDS Epidemic began around 1984, and we present Anti-Gay quotes from Pat Buchanan and the Reverend Jerry Falwell SRR Thespians skit “How does the Cold War end? In 1984, World War III was called the Cold War, and we present a year in the life of this conflict between the US and the USSR including the Russian Boycott of the LA Olympics and the US Funding of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein Christina report on the New World Order in Latin The report focused on Pinochet in Chile and the America Sandinista-Contra War in Nicaragua, and the Civil War in El Salvador between the FMLN and the Arenistas SRR Philosophy It is our responsibility to do a show to inform people Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Eduardo calls up Tiny and asks him a few questions

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection

134 Michael Jackson Thriller The Smiths And the Air Prince Darling Nikki Cindy Lauper Girls Just Want to have Fun New Order Understand Prince Let’s Go Crazy Madonna Like a Virgin Beverly Hills Cop Theme by Harold Fattermeyer “Axel F”

135 Show Number #32

Theme: Stereotypes and Prejudice

Hosts: Monica de la Torre and Travis Pinon

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex.

Air Date: February 1, 2008

Contribution Description Disclaimer The show was a response/reaction to a contribution in the 1984 show that insinuated that Hollywood was created by and for the benefit of the Jews Lex interviews Jason David David and Lex have a conversation about Jewish identity in LA and the challenge to overcome prejudice and combat racism Monica interviews George W. Bush played by George W. Bush talks about his prejudice and Travis stereotypes Lulu report on the Science of Stereotypes The report explains the scientific origins of stereotypes XL skit the “Cop Out Kit” The cop out kit created by Conquest Incorporated helps you respond to racially sensitive situations, “Some of my best fiends are black!” Miguel interview Fred Hampton Jr. The son of the legendary Fred Hampton and current member of the Black Panther Party talks about his life since the death of “Chairman Fred” Nancy interviews poet Hector Rivera Rivera of the Welfare Poets is from Chicago and is a Puerto Rican activist SRR report on Homeland Security Homegrown Terrorism is created by the Department of Homeland Security in the US Laura, Nancy, and Christina interview Youth The high school students explain their experiences with stereotypes and prejudice Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny re-present Tree Hugger Phobia We end the show with words by the EZLN Un Mundo donde quepan muchos mundos (A world where many worlds co-exist)

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Bob Marley War Fat Freddy Hope Gangstarr Above the Clouds Beatnuts Public Enemy Fight the Power

136 Show Number #33

Theme: Marriage

Hosts: Christina Lopez and Jorge Merino

Producer: Jorge and Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Jose, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex. Plus Cati Fu

Air Date: March 7, 2008

Contribution Description Cati de los Rios interviews HS youth Cati interviews students in Pomona and asks them about love and marriage Monica report on Defense of Marriage Act The report explains the contradictions of having heterosexual men making laws for gay couples, and it includes a clip of the short film “The Sanctity of Marriage” SRR Thespians skit “The Flavor of Bill” The skit is a parody of the “Flavor of Love” and includes Hillary Clinton as one of the contestants campaigning for Bill’s love Lulu interviews 3 engaged couples The 3 couples share their dreams, hopes, and fears related to marriage Miguel interviews married couples Miguel targeted 35 couples, 16 agreements, and 6 total couples that talked about the best part, the worst part, and the advice they would give newly married couples Timmy skit the “Marriage Counselor” Timmy is a counselor at the Liz Taylor Clinic and helps couples addicted to glamorous marriages and provides 7 tips for wedding rehab

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Dream Lovers When We Get Married Sade Ordinary Love Common Break My Heart Amy Winehouse Led Zeppelin Dixie Cups Chapel of Love Big Momma Thornton Hounddog Aterciopelados The Complexions The Flamingos I Only Have Eyes for You Al Green Love and Happiness The Doors Love Me Two Times The Students I’m so Young

137 Show Number #34

Theme: Youth

Hosts: Hasmik Geghamyan and Javier Cambron

Producer: Jorge and Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Tito, Monica, Hasmik, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Jorge, and Miguel

Air Date: April 4, 2008

Contribution Description Open by explaining the original goal of the show This show was about youth but we called on KPFK which was to showcase youth and created to open up more spaces for young people to create interviews, skits, and news media Define Youth 15-24 according to the United Nations which translates to 1.2 Billion people SRR Thespians skit “Youth Time” The skit is a parody of the Ask Jeeves site and the youth ask the hosts questions about the history of youth Eduardo and Miguel interview students and Semillas del Pueblo is a charter school in El Sereno administrators at Semillas del Pueblo that teaches Nahuatl, Mandarin, and Aztec Dancing, and we interview the students and the director Marcos Aguilar Miguel report and interviews about the East LA The report on the 40th anniversary of the East LA Blowouts Blowouts included Sal Castro Harry Gamboa Jr., and current student and teachers Laura and Monica interview youth about War The youth speak at an Anti War rally about the War in Iraq and what they would tell President Bush Christina skit “Bling My Quinceanera” The skit is a parody of the Pimp My Ride show and it helps one young lucky girl get the Quinceanera of her dreams Miguel interviews Gloria Munoz Ramirez Ramirez is the author of The Fire and The Word, a book about the history of the EZLN, and she talks about the “youth” fighting in Chiapas to improve Health, Education, and the Good Government Council

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Jurassic 5 Rage Against the Machine Voice of the Voiceless Dr. Dre Explosive Red Hot Chili Peppers Coneheads Song Ray Charles Hit the Road Jack Santana Coldplay Postal Service Such Great Height Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit

138 Show Number #35

Theme: Che: The Life, Contradictions, and Contributions of Ernesto Guevara

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge and Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Jorge, and Miguel Plus Cati Fu, Suzy Roteman, and Nami

Air Date: May 2, 2008

Contribution Description Open with a short history of the life of Che The hosts explain origins and early life of Che Suzy 1st Person account of “Celia de la Serna” Celia de la Serna was the mother of Ernesto The Motorcycle Dairies Che takes a trip from Argentina throughout South America Nami 1st Person account of “Hilda Gadea” Hilda Gadea, a Peruvian, was Che’s first wife Che established Radio Rebelde Radio Rebelde is the media arm of the Cuban Revolution and transmitted his first greeting to the Cuban people Suzy 1st Person account of “Aleida March” Aleida March de la Torre, a Cubana, was Che’s second wife During the Revolution, Che took on a number of Che oversaw executions of traitors to the responsibilities including various violent and brutal Revolutionary forces, he suggested the executions acts of the wealthy who had violated laws previously, he initiated the Agrarian Reform, led the National Bank, and was an Ambassador in Africa and Asia Monica skit “SRR Time Machine” Monica uses the Time Machine to travel back in time to interview Alberto Korda who took the famous image of Che “Guerillero Heroico” Lex original poem “What if Che was Ugly?” Lex wonders if the aesthetics of Che helped him to become a revolutionary martyr Che speak about the defeat of Imperialism At the height of the fallout between the US and USSR, Cuban Revolutionary forces defend the island during the Bay of Pigs Invasion Fidel reads the Farewell Letter from Che Fidel was pressured to read a private letter when it was noticed that Che was not involved in the decision making in Cuba Eduardo interviews Cuban ex-Patriot The young man explains that the image of Che is indoctrinated in Cuba and the children end each morning by proclaiming “Seremos como el Che” or we will be like Che Miguel interviews Gloria Munoz Ramirez Ramirez is the author of the EZLN history book “The Fire and the Word” and she explains that in Chiapas, the spirit of Che is that of a comrade constantly in the hills, and he is celebrated every October 8th by Zapatistas Eduardo interviews Latin American youth The youth talk about how the image of Che has been commercialized, but Che remains an inspiration to many youth in Latin America SRR Thespians “Family Feud: Che” The skit is a parody of Family Feud and the category of Che produces some interesting answers by the two families

139 Monica and Christina report and original song about The report explains the Immokale Workers the Immokale Workers campaign against Burger King and create an original song “Immokale”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Radiohead Cuban Sons Peruvian Andino White Stripes Café Tacuba Carlos Puebla Que Pare el Son

140 Show Number #36

Theme: Prison Industrial Complex

Hosts: Christina Lopez and Lex Steppling

Producer: Jorge and Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Javier, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Robert, Jorge, XL, Miguel, Travis, and Lex Dedicated to George Carlin

Air Date: June 6, 2008

Contribution Description Open with the definition of the Prison Industrial Critical Resistance defines the PIC as the Complex intersection of Government and Private Corporations SRR Thespians skit “America’s Next Top Prison” The skit is a parody of America’s Next Top Model as Calpatria, San Quentin, and ADX Florence in Fremont, Colorado vie for the prize Lulu original song “Jail Cell” The song is a parody of Michelle by The Beatles SRR Top 10 SRR present the Top 10 prisons per capita and the USA is #1 SRR Commercial for PIC The commercial is a parody of the old Jack Stephen plumbing commercial and the announcer repeats “The Prison Industrial Complex” SRR interviews Margaret Dooley Sammuli Dooley is the Deputy Director of the Drug Policy Alliance in California and she explains the War on Drugs and its effects on the people Laura original song “What’s Prison Done for me The song is a parody of What Have You Done for Lately?” Me Lately by Janet Jackson SRR interviews Trumain Davis Davis is a performer who grew up without parents because they were both in prison Lex interviews Ezra Erlenmeyer Erlenmeyer works with Project Avery and his father was incarcerated when he was a child Monica and Lulu skit “To Make a Prisoner” The skit is a parody of the show To Catch a Predator and it explains the role of the US system of education in turning youth into prisoners Miguel interviews Mario Rocha Rocha was falsely imprisoned for 10 years at the age of 16, and his narrative became the documentary “Mario’s Story” Laura interviews Laura Adler Adler works for the UCLA Community Labor Strategy Center and she talks about the Runner Initiative that would allow youth to be tried as adults for a “Gang Related Felony” SRR report on the Safe Neighborhoods Act The 3 Strikes Law has drastic effects on youth and the community XL original song “3 Strikes the PIC” The song is a parody of Soulja Boy and helps explain the PIC and the 3 Strikes law Eduardo skit “Art Laboe” The skit is a parody of the Art Laboe show which plays oldies and caters to the homeboys and homegirls that come in and out of prison Monica original song “I’m Behind Bars: The song is a parody of I’m Just a Girl by No Doubt

141

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Jimi Hendrix Star Spangled Banner/ Purple Haze R Kelly I Believe I can Fly The Beatles Michelle Borat Theme Janet Jackson What Have You Done for Me Lately White Stripes The Roots Don’t Say Nuthin and It Just Don’t Stop The Pharcyde Officer A Tribe Called Quest Everything is Fair Cold War Kids Saint John Tone Loc Funky Cold Medina I’m Your Puppet It’s Just like Heaven Reunited Pete Wingfield 18 with a Bullet No Doubt I’m Just a Girl

142 Show Number #37

Theme: The Environment

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Lulu Kornspan with Kilo Watts and Tiny

Producer: Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Robert, Jorge, Miguel, and Lex

Air Date: August 1, 2008

Contribution Description Lulu and Robert skit “Dreams of Energy” The skit is a dream/nightmare that Robert had about the energy crisis and global warming and he begins to worry about his carbon footprint SRR skit “Rolando Mota” Rolando is a surfer who is concerned about the effects of global warming on his favorite surfing spots around the world Monica skit “Water? Is that you?” Thee skit involves Monica taking a shower and leaning from the water that only 2% of the world’s water is fresh drinkable water Eduardo interviews Susie Chang Chang is the Regional Director of Grid Alternatives which provides low income families with solar panels Christina interviews Rosa Romera Romera works with the South Central Farm and she discusses the plans to build a Forever 21 warehouse on the grounds of the former South Central Farm Eduardo original song “Burning Out” Eddie and the Sands perform Burning Out about the world’s global warming crisis Kilo and Tiny original song “Where does the Kilo and Tiny perform an original song where they energy come from? explain that ultimately, the energy comes from the power of the sun Eduardo interviews Steve Busceli Busceli worked on Brownfield at a Super Fund (Land with hazardous waste that impacts the local ecosystem) Site affected his health Kilo and Tiny try working on the Time Machine Kilo and Tiny want to go back in time before pollution began to impact the Earth, but are unable to fix the machine Robert comes in to offer some wise words about getting back up, and Celestial Rose Tiny offers the audience “Redirect your energy to save energy,” Spring Flower Kilo says “Redirect your dollars to save energy” and Eco Laura of the Sequoia tells us to “Manage our waste so it doesn’t take up space”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Sade Your Love is King Death Cab for Cutie I Will Posses Your heart A Tribe Called Quest What? Encore and Handsome Boy Modeling School Waterworld The Doors When the Music’s Over

143 Show Number #38

Theme: The Economy- It’s the Stupid Economy

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Mike Walls

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Laura, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Robert, Jorge, Miguel Plus Siris

Air Date: September 4, 2008

Contribution Description Open with Testimony of a Young Unemployed The young mother explains the struggle to raise her Mother child, the rising food prices when paying for groceries, finding work, and providing childcare in today’s economy Monica and Lulu report on “Federal Reserve” The Federal Reserve is a private bank that controls our economy through its 7 member board with 14 year terms, and 12 national banks with no government oversight SRR report on Neo-Liberalism The younger more aggressive sibling of Capitalism includes the socialization of costs and the privatization of profits with the help of the IMF, the WTO, and the World Bank Christina report on the underground Economy The informal sector or black market helps provide jobs for many people in the US Mike Walls editorial skit “It’s the Stupid Economy” The show and this skit is a parody of the Colbert Report’s “The Word” and it his a gung ho capitalists defense of the economy which in 2008 began to show signs of breaking down but Mike Walls explains, “Everyone knows that the US is indestructible!” SRR interviews the youth about the economy Young people share their experiences finding work and surviving in the economy SRR interviews Carl Wood Wood is the candidate for the 65th Assembly district and as a member of the Utilities Workers Union of America and the Regional Affairs Director SRR calls for the New Deal of the 21st Century Mike Walls breaks down and admits that “We’re in Big Big trouble. This is a national emergency and we need help. SOS! Help! We are all going to be casualties of the war on poor people…”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Beatnuts Off the Books Portishead Pink Floyd Money Dr. Dre Lolo and Forgot about Dre Marvin Gaye Inner City Blues Luminaries Peace Karsh Kale One Step Beyond Coldplay Nas America

144

After the Economy Show: September 7 Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are Nationalized September 14 Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt and Bank of America purchases Merrill-Lynch September 15-17 Global stocks plummet September 16 AIG is bailed out by the government September 16-September 30 The government and the banks negotiate a bail out as portrayed in the film “Too Big to Fail” September 30 The bleeding finally stops on the economy

145 Show Number #39

Theme: Young Women

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Monica de la Torre

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Robert, Jorge, Miguel Plus Siris and Luisa

Air Date: October 3, 2008

Contribution Description Christina and SRR report on Abuse The SRR women talk about abuse in relationships and teen dating violence Robert and Jorge report The report explains how domestic violence affects individuals and families including a poetic interlude Monica interviews young men Monica interviews young men from the My Strength Program “Peace over Violence” about violence against young women Luisa interviews young women Luisa interviews young college students issues important to young women SRR report on George W. Bush Policies The report explains that the policies of George W. Bush have negatively impacted young women and females in general Siris report on 1st Generation Latinas in College The report interviews young women facing the decision to go away to college and how their families sometimes do not support them completely. Nancy interviews Marisoul and Gloria Marisoul and Gloria are member of La Santa Cecilia an up and coming LA band Lulu interviews Sonya Renee Renee is the National Poetry Slam Champion and she reads “What We Deserve” about how women deserve better treatment than the one they receive SRR report on Los Angeles Women in Music The organization helps women make music in Los Organization Angeles We end the show with a Gloria Steinem quote “The first problem for all of us men and women is not to learn, but to unlearn”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection DJ Shadow Building Steam with a Grain of Salt Atmosphere In Her Music Box MIA Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs Little Miss Sunshine Music Amel Larrieux Giving Something Up

146 Show Number #40

Theme: The Trial of George W. Bush for Murder

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Jorge Merino as Layla Califo and Jorge Arbustos

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Javier, Laura, Tito, Teresa, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Robert, Jorge, Miguel Plus Siris Barrios and Angela Flores

Air Date: November 7, 2008

Contribution Description Open with quote by George W. Bush “Shame me one, shame on you… Fool me twice, can’t fool me again!” News Eyewitness anchor Layla Califo and reporter The Trial of George W. Bush presided by Judge Jorge Arbustos bring us breaking news Timmy Tim-Tim Trial starts with testimony from family members of The defense team repeatedly objects to the dramatic dead soldiers as read by SRR testimony but the judge sustains the statements SRR Prosecutors question the defense witnesses The Bush Administration cabinet members including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfield, and Colin Powell are grilled on the witness stand using SRR questions and actual audio of each cabinet member SRR Prosecutors question George W. Bush SRR Prosecutors question the President on the stand and he responds using actual audio recordings regarding his views of the War in Iraq SRR Prosecutors make their closing arguments The Prosecution team of Dang and De la Torre conclude that 4000 soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis had died as of November 2008 due to the false pretenses used by Bush to invade Iraq George W. Bush failed to recognize the facts before The invasion of Iraq was built on a structure of lies, illegally invading Iraq and the Bush administration failed to accept the findings of 16 intelligence agencies Angela skit “Sarah Palin” Palin shares her views on the legacy of George W. Bush Dick Cheney breaks Dubya out of the courthouse VP Cheney shoots a bailiff in the face and escapes to a waiting getaway car with George W. Bush The show was inspired by the book by Vincent Bugliosi’s book “The Prosecution of George W. Bugliosi and the interview by Carole Coleman Bush for Murder” and Coleman’s interview of George W. Bush for Radio Television Ireland inspired the show and mock trial

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Snoop Dogg Murder was the Case Cold War Kids We Used to Vacation The Muse Knights of Cydonia Coldplay Viva la Vida Manu Chao Tristeza Maleza The Last Shadow Puppets Black Plant Mezklah Bestia Dick Dale and his Deltones Misirilou

147 Show Number #41

Theme: 1968

Hosts: Monica de la Torre and Robert Loza as Old Man Sam

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Laura, Tito, Teresa, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Robert, Jorge, Miguel, and Travis Shout Out to KPFK Archives

Air Date: December 5, 2008

Contribution Description Open with Paula Crisostomo talking about 1968 Crisostomo describes what was happening around the world and how this was an inspiration for the Chican@s in Los Angeles Lulu interviews David Simpson Simpson worked with the performance group The Diggers and is an older hippie who is an advocate of sustainability and he talks about the politics, music, and movements associated with 1968 SRR audio clip KPFK Archives We play of clip of the War in Vietnam from January 31, 1968 Miguel report and interviews about the East LA The report focused on the leading causes of the East Blowouts LA Blowouts and spoke with Paula Crisostomo and Harry Gamboa Jr. who were student leaders who organized the walkouts, and the describe what was happening in 1968, what LA was like, and their memories of the walkouts SRR audio clip MLK MLK was assassinated in 1968, but not before he explained “I’ve Been to the Promised Land” SRR report on significant murders in 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about his own mortality the day before he was killed and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in LA, and David Simpson remembers what it was like to hear this tragic news SRR audio clip James Brown James Brown performed in Boston after MLK was assassinated, and he spoke about the need for peace in the streets after days of violence Miguel report on the image of Che Che was killed on October 8, 1967, and his Guerillero Heroico image was turned into works of art and a famous poster by Jim Fitzpatrick that spread around the world in 1968 SRR audio clip Huey P. Newton Huey was accused of killing a pig and 4000 followers came out to support him SRR report on the Chicago Police Riots in 1968 The police riots at the 1968 DNC as reported by the Pacifica network in 1968 includes audio of Bill Watson of Pacifica and Huey P. Newton Christina interviews youth in 2008 The interviews focus on student activism in 2008 at a statewide gathering for CYFO 1968 East LA Blowouts, MLK assassinated- 100 cities in US rioted, RFK assassinated, Czechoslovakia, France, Mexico, Che, Chicago Police Riot at DNC, Tet Offensive, SDS Protests, South Carolina State

148 Massacre, Cesar Chavez’ first fast for UFW, Columbia University, 1968 Olympics, and Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps The Beatles Piggies Jimi Hendrix All Along the Watch Tower The Doors Spanish Caravan The Beatles Lady Madonna

149 Show Number #42

Theme: Best of Soul Rebel Radio 2008

Hosts: Soul Rebel Radio

Producer: Jorge and Tito

Collective Members: Eduardo, Javier, Laura, Jose, Tito, Teresa, Monica, Hasmik, Lulu, Cristina, Nancy, Robert, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, and Lex Plus Siris and Luisa 2008- 18 Collective Members participated

Air Date: January 2, 2009

Contribution Description January- 1984 1984 Censorship by the PMRC and Frank Zappa’s Testimony February- Stereotypes and Prejudice Stereotypes collage including many SRR voices March- Marriage Pomona Youth talk about their thoughts on Marriage April- Youth Semillas del Pueblo youth talk about the school May- The Life, Contradictions, and Contributions of We air several continues pieces that take us from Che when Che was in Mexico and met Fidel through the 1st person account of Aleida March July- Prison Industrial Complex 3 Strikes-PIC Song August- The Environment Original Songs Burning Out by Eddie and the Sands and Where Does the Energy Come From by Kilo Watts and Tiny September- It’s the Stupid Economy The Word parody “It’s the Stupid Economy” October- Young Women Sonya Renee reads her poem “What We Deserve” November- Trial of George W. Bush for Murder Testimony of George W. Bush using real audio December- 1968 Paula Crisostomo talks about the East LA Blowouts in 1968

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Michael Jackson Thriller Beck Summer Girl Remix Jurassic 5 Larry Graham The Jam

150 Show Number #43

Theme: US Presidents

Hosts: Cristina Lopez and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Laura, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Robert, Jorge, Miguel, Travis, and Lex Plus Sandino Navarro and Joy Simpson

Air Date: March 6, 2009

Contribution Description George W. Bush is Out and Obama is IN Ex-President George Bush is out as the newly elected President Barack Obama is inaugurated The hosts explain that the show will focus on 5 George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew specific eras Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush Report on George Washington Washington is the 1st US President who led the Scorched Earth campaign and also held 650 acres and owned 317 slaves Report on Abraham Lincoln Lincoln is credited with freeing the slaves thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation, and he is also credited with maintaining the Union Report on Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt is the 32nd President and served for 4 terms and although he is credited with the New Deal, but also responsible for the Japanese Internment camps Report on Technocrats President from Ronnie to W. The era is highlighted by anti-communist sentiment, Neo-Liberalism, the New World Order tax breaks for the wealthy, and trickle down economics Famous First Ladies Including Dolly Madison who was the premier “First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt who helped the poor and women and hosted a radio show, Jackie Onassis Kennedy who supported arts and culture until the assassination of JFK, and Hilary Clinton, the wife of Bill who was raised in a privileged home and grew up to become a prominent lawyer who even ran for President in 2008 Report on how death has touched President The report explains that 8 Presidents have died in office including 4 natural deaths and 4 successful assassination in 90 attempts Cristina report on Women’s suffrage The right to vote for women was a long fought struggle to combat patriarchic values Report on the 5 Greatest scandals of all time 5) 9/11/Katrina/War on Terror on W’s watch, 4) Iran Contra Affair during Reagan administration, 3) The Watergate Scandal associated with Nixon, 2) Harry Truman drops two A-Bomb, 1) Thomas Jefferson fathers children with his slave Top 5 worst president skit as read by George W. Franklin Price, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Bush played by Travis Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection

151 The Pharcyde If I was President Interpol Rodrigo y Gabriela Manu Chao Senor Presidente

152 Show Number #44

Theme: War

Hosts: Laura Cambron and Javier Cambron

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Javier, Laura, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Jorge, and Miguel Plus Sandino Navarro, Robin Garcia, Phillip Jean Marie, Arturo Cambron and Rosanna Cambron

Air Date: April 3, 2009

Contribution Description Open with Soul Rebels Javier and Laura being Soul Rebels reporting for Emergency Duty called to duty Monica interviews youth Monica asks the question, “War, what is it good for?” SRR commercial for Army Strong The commercial is a parody of the Army Strong TV ads, “There’s trickery, and there’s complete deception” Monica interview Pomona HS youth The youth provide testimony about how the military recruiters target them Laura interview with Ann Wright- Part 1 Wright is an ex Army Colonel who resigned in March 2003 due to the invasion of Iraq and she explains how she faced sexism, assault, and rape in the military Laura and Javier report “The War at Home” The report discusses their brother’s military deployment and it includes clips of the documentary “Arlington West” SRR report on PTSD PTSD affects 20% of the 1.6 Million soldiers, while suicide rates are 2 times greater for ex-veterans Station ID by Lonnie Jordan Jordan is a musician with the band “War” Pomona High School students discuss impact of The students discuss the impact that war has on the budget cuts economy, education, and available resources and it includes a poem by Juan Carlos Rodriguez “Life of War” Laura interview with Ann Wright- Part 2 Wright explains why she resigned in March 2003 due to the invasion of Iraq Miguel interview with Pablo Paredes Paredes is the 1st Conscientious Objector in the Navy and he refused to board his ship to Iraq Lulu and Phillip read “This is my Conscious” The mantra is parody of the scene in Full Metal Jacket “This is my Gun”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Bob Marley War Rhymefest featuring Citizen Cope Bullet

153 Show Number #45

Theme: Workers

Hosts: Cristina Lopez and Jorge Merino

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Laura, Tito, Monica, Lulu, Cristina, Robert, Jorge, and Miguel Plus Sandino Navarro and Alma Catalan

Air Date: May 1, 2009

Contribution Description Open with Jerry Quigley of KPFK Quigley explains what it means to be a worker and emphasizes his pro-labor and pro-union position Cristina interviews Maria Elena Durazo- Part 1 Durazo is the leader of the AFL-CIO and she remembers how she started getting involved in the union Miguel interviews labor leaders The interviews explain what an ideal work situation would look like Miguel interviews Melody Gonzalez Gonzalez works the Coalition of Immokale Workers and the Chiapas Media Project, and she discusses the labor situation for Farmworkers and plays a clip of the documentary “Paying the Price” SRR audio Clips of Radio Tijera Radio Tijera is a media outlet that documents the lives, voices, and experiences of garment workers in the US Cristina interviews Maria Elena Durazo- Part 2 Durazo is the leader of the AFL-CIO and she explains the current labor situation in the US Miguel interviews Alma Catalan Catalan is a filmmaker and former garment worker who discusses the struggle to survive as an immigrant Cristina interviews Maria Elena Durazo- Part 3 Durazo is the leader of the AFL-CIO and she encourages young people to get involved in the union and organizing Miguel interviews workers The workers answer the question “What does it mean to be a worker?”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Arctic Monkeys 505 The Postal Service Julieta Venegas Lila Downs Minimum Wage Café Tacuba The Roots Rage Against the Machine

154 Show Number #46

Theme: Mentoring- Pledge it Forward (KPFK Fund Drive Show)

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan, Monica de la Torre, and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Christine Blosdale

Collective Members: Monica, Lulu, Jorge, and Miguel

Air Date: June 5, 2009

Contribution Description Open with a sound clip on the importance of The testimony explains the value of being mentored Mentors and mentoring History of Soul Rebel Radio SRR is a youth collective that creates a monthly show based on a theme Fund Drive Show The goal for the hour is to raise $3000 KPFK Giveaway “Show me the Way”- Part 1 about Show me the Way is a mentoring DVD and Fund LA Drive gift and it establishes the theme SRR skit on “How to Pledge” SRR creates a cheesy commercial that explains the process o pledging to KPFK KPFK Giveaway “Show me the Way”- Part 2 Show me the Way is a mentoring DVD and Fund Mentoring and Mentees Drive gift helps develop the theme Best of Soul Rebel Radio The clips present the best parts of Soul Rebel Radio including Stereotypes, Marriage, Che, and Youth KPFK Giveaway “Show me the Way”- Part 3 about Show me the Way is a mentoring DVD and Fund War, Education, Homelessness, Violence, Youth, Drive gift explains issues that have all been covered Los Angeles, and Workers extensively by SRR Best of Soul Rebel Radio The clips present the best parts of Soul Rebel Radio including PIC, the Economy, 1968, the Trial of George W. Bush for Murder Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment Kilo Watts and Tiny present an original song “Where does the energy come from?”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection U2 One Notorious BIG Get Money

155 Show Number #47

Theme: Capitalism

Hosts: Monica de la Torre and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Javier

Collective Members: Javier, Laura, Monica, Lulu, Jorge, and Miguel

Air Date: August 7, 2009

Contribution Description Open with Pledge of Allegiance “… And Justice for All?” Define Capitalism for the Audience The workers sell their labor to owners who own the means of production including hourly wages, rent, food, transportation, Lulu and Monica report on the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve is private/public Central Bank that was created in 1913 Laura interviews The Count The Count discusses his favorite numbers are not all good SRR report on Walmart Walmart profits to the tune of Billions $12.7 in 2007 and $13.4 in 2008 Private Ownership of Property Rent, Car Notes, Land, Oil, Precious Metals, Water If the World was 100 People 50% of the world is Men and Women, 20 youth, 14 elderly, 61 Asians, 9 Latin Americas, 5 North America, 1 College Graduate, 1 computer, 1 man owns $40, Report on Media as the 4th Arm of Government The media is the marketing department of Capitalism Monica “Corporate Killer of the Month” Exxon Young people from the Pico Youth Family Center Mobil and beats by Pneumonic help produce the original song “Crimes Against Humanity” SRR report on Globalization Since World War II, Bretton Woods, IMF, Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, and Neo-Liberalism SRR report on Neo-Liberalism Neo-Liberalism is the socialization of costs and the privatization of profits, and involves trade linearization, deregulation, protection of property rights, NAFTA, and the European Union including a Marxist Environmentalist perspective that argues that the system is not sustainable Miguel skit “Time Machine” The time machine helps answer the question, “When will capitalism end?” and discovers that in 2012, the Chinese Invasion of the US occurred and put an end to US capitalism after China reclaimed the body of Bruce Lee during the Dragon Wars SRR interviews the community The community explains “What is Capitalism?”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Citizen Cope Let the Drummer Kick Andrew Gold Spooky Scary Skeletons Wu Tang Clan CREAM Nappy Roots Po Folks

156 Dilated Peoples Trade Money Quetzal Elegua Nas featuring Lauryn Hill If I Ruled the World Beatnuts Jay Z Lucifer Pink Floyd Money Jimi Hendrix Star Spangled Banner Michael Jackson Bad Music from Enter the Dragon

Note- Soul Rebel Radio raised $1000 during the Fund Drive last month

157 Show Number #48

Theme: Voices of Youth

Hosts: Monica de la Torre and Lulu Kornspan

Producer: Monica and Lulu

Collective Members: Eduardo, Monica, Lulu, Jorge, and Miguel Plus CORAL Summer Film and Media Program and Homeboy Industries

Air Date: September 4, 2009

Contribution Description Open with Voices of Youth Young people express themselves including a poem by Robert of Homeboy Industries “Where I’m from makes me Strong” Lulu and Monica worked with youth from CORAL The show was broken down into three sections Environment, Street Life, and Gangs Environment Jonathan and Devin report on Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases Lolo, James, Naya, present “Eco Man” skit with a talk to penguins in the Arctic and an ADOPT A TREE commercial Original song by Urzi called “What do we need to Do” Street Life Jared, Cody, Juan, Jose, Simone, and Chris present a testimony on Street Life Original song by Chris, Momo, and Triple P called “Street Life” Report by youth on impact of street life on youth including gangs, violence, and drugs “Driving While Black” skit created by youth Skit called “Slang Game” from 1920 to 2001 Gangs Pascual, Fabian, and Joseph of Homeboy Industries help explain the power of poetry to help people heal Report by Jordan, Paco, Arianna, and Ramiro about gang violence, domestic violence, and community violence Original song “What can we do to Stop the Violence” Jordan’s poem called “My Fear” about gang violence Report on how Los Angeles is the Gang Capitol of the World with over 120,000 active members Voices of Youth interview about ‘Voice of Youth” March 4th original song Olmeca original song Counter Culture Shabuya Roll Call Members of CORAL that participated in the show

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Superman Soundtrack

158 Show Number #49

Theme: Revolution

Hosts: Loyda Alvarado and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Javier, Laura, Monica, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, and Travis Plus Loyda Alvarado, Carlos Rubio, Danielle Kelley, Luis Lizarga, Sara Mathews, and Graciela Perez Thank You to KIWA, Gerard Meraz, Ernesto Arce, Ricky Garay, DJ Sol, DJ Jedi, and Ervin Arana for the help with our fundraiser

Air Date: November 6, 2009

Contribution Description Open with News Flash ‘We interrupt this program to tell you that rebels have taken over the station” Define Revolution Revolution is the complete overhaul of the government system or a change to the constitution SRR report on historical Revolutions Bloodless Revolution, French Revolution, American Revolution, Russian Revolution, Chinese Revolution, American Revolution, Cuban Revolution, Nicaraguan Revolution, Iranian Revolution, Zapatista Rebellion, Bolivarian Revolution, Cultural Revolution, Technological Revolution, Islamist Revolution, and Peoples Power Revolution The IPU take over the station and show The International People Union explains Revolution in first person accounts throughout the show Revolutionary First Person Accounts- Part 1 Tupca Amaru, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Sor Juana Ines, Gabriela Silong, Andres Bonifacio, Tecumseh, Nikola Tesla, Mahatma Gandhi, Emma Goldman, and Rosa Luxemburg SRR interviews the community about Revolution- The community explains Revolution according to Part 1 their understanding at Hollywood Forever Revolutionary First Person Accounts- Part 2 Emiliano Zapata, Frida Kahlo, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Miguel Marmol, Salvador Allende, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Lumumba, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, Yuri Kochiyama, Shirley Chisom, Black Panther Party, Roque Dalton, and Harvey Milk SRR interviews the community about Revolution- The community explains Revolution according to Part 2 their understanding at Hollywood Forever Revolutionary First Person Accounts- Part 3 Maribal Sisters, Lucio Cabanas, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Nora Astorga, Angela Davis, Hugo Chavez, EZLN, Comandante Ramona, Sub-Comandante Marcos, SRR report on Hillside Food Cooperative The organization works in Northeast Los Angeles to help provide food for the community

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Common The 6th Sun Gangstarr Above the Clouds Yeah Yeah Yeahs Gold Lion

159 Maldita Vecindad Pachuco GZA 4th Chamber Very Be Careful Andrea Bocelli Por ti Volare Fela Kuti ITT Café Tacuba Ozomatli Coldplay The Coup Dig It Immortal Technique Sierra Maestra Rage Against the Machine Renegades of Funk Rodrigo y Gabriela The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

160 Show Number #50

Theme: Art Attack @ Xocolatl in El Sereno

Hosts: Danielle Kelley and Luis Lizarraga

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Monica, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, and Travis Plus Carlos Rubio, Danielle Kelley, Luis Lizarga, Sara Mathews, and G Thank You to Xocolatl including Juan Ochoa and Thomas Cazares for flier

Air Date: December 4, 2009

Contribution Description Open with Definition of Art Attack Art Attack is defined as the creation of Art, Music, Literature, Film, Design, and Painting Miguel interviews Juan Ochoa of Xocolatl Ochoa works with Xocolatl and he described the Grand Opening celebrations scheduled for December 12, 2009 Sarah report on Art History Sarah explains Western Art history including Classic Art, the Renaissance Movement, Leo Tolstoy, Salvador Dali, and Surrealism SRR interviews Artist Part 1 Poet Fabian Montes, Musician Hilda Delgado, Photographer Jay Davis, Musician Laura Cambron, Artist Lili Flor, Computer Programmer David, Artist Alicia Siu, Art Historian Brenda Zamora, Animator Daniel Antonio Lopez, Musician Brian Deepwaters, Musician Jose Cano, Artist Ben Webb, Model Amanda, Dancer Carolina Sarmiento, DJ Skeet, Artist Ericka Martinez, and Ingrid Kornspan Carlos report on the Mexican Muralist Movement The report focuses on “Los Tres Grandes” or The Big 3 Mexican artists Orozco, Siqueiros, and Rivera SRR interviews Artist Part 2 Artist Ashtron, Graphic Designer Allen, Artist Eugene Cooperman, Musician and DJ Evan Bourgeois, Musician Eduardo Arenas, Comedian Jason Rouse, Singer and Poet Ruben Funkahuatl Guevara, Poet Felicia Montes, Artist Gala Kim, Graffiti Artist Hayze, Musician Gabriel Tenorio, MC Rod Starz of Rebel Diaz, MC Javis the Bravest of the Luminaries, Actor and Dancer John Jones, Actress Melinna Teatrina, Artist and Photographer Coy Soldier, Kyle of Studio Renaissance, MC Mental of TUS, Maricela of Teatro Breath of Fire, Lulu report on street artist in LA The report profiles Galo of Los Angeles Travis interviews Percussionist Bobo Bobo is a member of the Mighty Cypress Hill Crew as well as percussionist with the Beastie Boys and he shares his thoughts on art and music

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Café Tacuba Esa Noche NWA I Aint tha 1 Beastie Boys Sabrosa Dedicated to Gregor Geghamyan (Hasmik’ Father)

161 Show Number #51

Theme: Go to Health

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Carlos Rubio

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Monica, Andres, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Sara Mathews Ana Marie, Nami, and Coco Kornspan Thank You Thomas Cazares for flier

Air Date: January 1, 2010 (New Years Day)

Contribution Description Lulu interviews Coco Kornspan Kornspan talks about Mental Health and working with people who suffer from mental issues Miguel report on Public Health Care The report focuses on the ongoing debate between Conservatives and Liberals George report on Sex and Youth in America The reports is based on a “Sexual and Reproductive Health” report that describes issues related to youth and sexual activity Miguel roundtable discussion with Dr. X and Dr. Y- The Dr. X and Dr. Y discussion included 2 male Part 1 physicians, 1 female medical student, and 1 health care Administrator who speak anonymously about their experience in the health care industry Alicia skit “A Walk in the Community” Alicia goes on a walk and encounters Jose Cano who recently went on a 30 mile run, Gilbert who works with El Jardin in Boyle Heights, Raquel who recommends spending time in the outdoors SRR Health Tips The tips include getting out of the house, eating the right food, getting enough sleep, drinking water, exercise, and quit smoking Miguel roundtable discussion with Dr. X and Dr. Y- The Dr. X and Dr. Y discussion included 2 male Part 2 physicians, 1 female medical student, and 1 health care Administrator who speak anonymously about their experience in the health care industry Andres editorial on Food Inc The documentary changed Andres’ life and the information provided helped to convert him to Vegetarianism Andres Flores original poem “Sad Bird” written and read by Andres

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection AM Arctic Monkeys Dr. Dre What’s the Difference Pedro Infante Guitaras Lloren Guitaras

Dedicated to Tia Nena (Miguel’s Aunt)

162 Show Number #52

Theme: All My Relations

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Andres Flores

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Monica, Andres, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Onamare and Kianti Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: March 5, 2010

Contribution Description Miguel interview Ti George La Guerre Ti George talks about his relationship to Haiti Lulu interviews George W. Bush We ask George W. Bush about his relationship to the Skulls and Bones fraternity Miguel interviews the Jefferson HS community The students, parents, and teachers talk about their community and what education would like in an ideal situation Erick report on “6 Degrees of Arizona Bacon” The report highlights the relationship between Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the immigrant community in Arizona Miguel interviews Norma Vega of the US Census Vega is the Office of the US Census Director in Los Angeles and she explains the importance of the US Census and the relationship to social services Kianti and Onamare commentary The two talk about the power of words and the relationship to people, thoughts, and actions

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Rodrigo y Gabriela Hanuman Robin S Show Me Love Melani Pain Ever Fallen in Love Wilco Julieta Venegas Seria Feliz Public Enemy Can’t Trust It Arcade Fire La Santa Cecilia Jack The Postal Service We Will Become Silhouettes

163 Show Number #53

Theme: Going Green

Hosts: Kilo Watts and Tiny plus Onamare and Kianti

Producer: Eduardo

Collective Members: Eduardo, Jose, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Onamare Newsome “Eco Nut,” Kianti “Eco Love,” and Adafe Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: April 2, 2010

Contribution Description Open with LA Councilwoman Jan Perry Perry is the Councilman is South LA most famous for helping evict the South Central Farm, but here she talks about the eco friendly initiatives she has launched in her district Miguel interviews the Community The community responds the question, “How do you go green?” Andres skit Are You Greener than a 5th Grader The skit is a parody of the game show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” Erick skit on “Poor Peoples Guide to Going Green” The Poor Peoples Guide to Going Green provides environmentally friendly ideas that poor people already practice Eco Nut and Eco Love report on Living off the Grid The report explains how these two environmentalists live off the grid and do not rely on the system for electricity or water Lulu and Monica report “How to Help the Earth” The report includes an interview with David Simpson who is an older hippies who worked with a group called Human Nature that created climate change theatre Kilo Watts and Tiny original song Kilo Watts and Tiny present “Going Green” Andres and Adafe interview and skit “Radio The report interview with Evan Ray of KPFK’s Roy Alchemy” of Hollywood show discusses climate change and Chem Trails Carlos report on Green for All Green for All is a community based organization that works to provide green alternatives SRR announcement on Earth Day South LA event The event took place on April 17, 2010 at Normandy Elementary School Alicia skit “The True Price of Cheap Goods” The skit explains how inexpensive products end up costing the environment more in the long run Kianti report on GMO’s in Foods The report focuses on the work of Students for Social Justice that combats genetically modified foods

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Al Green Let’s Stay Together NWA I Ain’t tha 1 Flying Fish Zenatude Kermit the Frog Its not easy being Green K-OS The Rain Manu Dibango African Battle and The Panther

164

Show Number #54

Theme: Peace

Hosts: Monica de la Torre and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Travis Carlos, and Alicia Plus Onamare, Kianti, Alifa, Jefree, and Adafe Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: May 7, 2010

Contribution Description Open with Happy Birthday Song for Soul Rebel SRR celebrates 5 years of being on the air on KPFK Radio Miguel interviews the community at the May Day The community responds to the question, “Define 2010 March against SB1070 Peace and explain how to work towards that? Act I- The Theatre of Peace Based on the book The Art of Peace Lulu and Carlos define the word Peace Lulu and Carlos use the word Peace 51 times SRR report on the Peace Index Based on a ranking of domestic and foreign violence, the US ranks #83 in terms of Peace Index SRR sound clip Zack the la Rocha shares his thought on SB1070 SRR report on the “V-shaped” peace sign and the The history of the peace movement, the peace sign, circular peace symbol and the peace symbol are all explained SRR interviews Homeboy Industries The homeboys and homegirls explain “What is Peace” and SRR created a YouTube video Act II- Individuals working for Peace Based on the book The Art of Peace Andres, Adafe, and Alicia interview Father G Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries is presented the Soul Rebel Radio “Lifetime Achievement Award for Peace” Miguel interviews Peacemakers from the Urban Gang Intervention Workers from the 1st Los Peace Institute Angeles Violence Training Academy explain “What is Peace?” Kianti report on the Nobel Peace Prize The Dalai Lama speaks about Peace as opposed to Destruction and Gandhi the “Soldier of Peace” never won the award Act III- Organizations Working towards Peace Based on the book The Art of Peace Jefree interviews Dr. John Morton Dr. Morton is a Peace Theologian, Director of the Peace Theological Seminary, College of Philosophy Adafe report on the Peace Awareness Labyrinth The Peace Awareness Labyrinth Gardens is a Gardens physical place in Los Angeles that promotes peace

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Asa Peace Rage Against the Machine People of the Sun The Beatles Come Together The Luminaries Peace Gangstarr Dwyck, Above the Clouds, and Mass Appeal Rodrigo y Gabriela 11:11

Dedicated to Guru of Gangstarr and Angela Paredes (Grandmother of Miguel Paredes)

165 Show Number #55

Theme: 5 Year Anniversary Show at the Downtown Youth and Culture Center in LA

Hosts: Anahi Bustillos and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Laura, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: June 4, 2010

Contribution Description Open with collage of Soul Rebel Radio SRR celebrates 5 years of being on the air on KPFK with clips of W., Sub-Comandante Marcos, Homeless, Simpsons, Clockwork Orange, Revolution, and Questlove SRR interviews alumni from throughout the 5 Years Chuy remembers Humor- Mr. Deez Skit (April on the air 2007), Theresa appreciates the young women- Wendy interviews Dolores Huerta (November 2006), Siris Barrios enjoys the collective of youth- Wildaughter skit (August 2007) and Colbert parody (September 2008), Javier values the youth voice- Fallen soldiers testimony (April 2009), Cano is fond of the original music- Soul Rebel Café January 2007), Laura loved the Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment- Where does the energy come from (August 2008), Oriel learned about collective organizing- SRR calls Heaven (December 2006), Armando was pleased with Sub Comandante Marcos words (November 2006), Eduardo enjoyed the freedom- True Hollywood Stories (December 2006), Nancy became a real journalist- Limbic system (October 2006), Mayra learned to express herself (November 2008), Luisa appreciated the informal education, Robert created many of the fliers- Kilo and Tiny Segment- (January 2006), Manuel was an original member, Loyda expressed herself on the Revolution Show (November 2009), Tito was the only one with experience and loved the humor- Dick Cheney interview (March 2006), Lex recognizes his own development as a writer- Redskins vs. Patriots (November 2007)

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Beatles Birthday Song

Thank You to Everyone that has listened, participated, and supported the show and especially everybody at KPFK, the Pacifica Network, Armando Gudiño, and Aura Bogado Thank you to Everyone for the 5 Year Anniversary Party including Meno Man, Joel Garcia, Daniel Lopez, Marcos Amador, Selene Gonzalez, Ervin Arana, Olmeca, Cihuatl Ce, Gerard Meraz, Chican@ Batman, Las Cafeteras, Alan Minsky, Pocho Hour of Power, J Revolution, Solidarity Ink, Erick Moreno, Choice of Chance, and Eddie Gutierrez

166 Show Number #56

Theme: The Peoples Cup

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Erick Iniguez

Producer: Monica

Collective Members: Anahi, Laura, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Xaris Delgadillo, Adam, Sam, Jefree and Adafe Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: July 2, 2010

Contribution Description Open with Bono World Cup Commercial The FIFA World Cup commercial is given a Soul Rebel Radio twist Definition of Futbol or Soccer The hosts define the games and the origins of the sport Adam and Sam report on FIFA and World Cup The Cup Check report explains the history of FIFA and the World Cup Lulu vignette on Coca Cola Coca Cola reeks havoc around the world and the report details their damage in South Africa, Pakistan, and Columbia Jefree editorial on Apartheid in South Africa Apartheid in South Africa was outlawed but the legacy of racism continues today Xaris Delgadillo report and interview from South Xaris speaks to young people living in poor Africa conditions in South Africa and they share their thoughts on the reality that is hidden from the public Adafe editorial on the Power of the People The movement in South Africa was led by many including Nelson Mandela Miguel interviews participants of Copa Comunidad The Copa Comunidad teams the Futbolistas from 2010 Los Angeles and Leftwing FC from the Bay Area and they answer the question, “What is the World Cup?” Lulu vignette on Sony Sony Playstation requires an element found in the Congo that is causing problems in that country Carlos report on Drogba Drogba of the ivory Coast helps create peace in his country by cringing warring sides together using the power of futbol SRR skit “How does the World Cup affect The skit explains how the World Cup affects couples?” couples and affects the community SRR Halftime report on BP Oil Spill The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast destroyed the habitat weeks before the World Cup Miguel report on Nuclear Proliferation The report is based “An Impossible Happiness” by Fidel Castro written during the World Cup Anahi report on Hooliganism The report explains the madness involved when sport fanaticism and violence come together Andres editorial on Mental Toughness In sports and in life, mental training is just as important as physical training Miguel interviews the Futbolistas in LA The Futbolistas in LA play soccer in a community of skilled, unskilled, older, younger, men, and women that come together to build of society of healthy people

167 Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Bobby Womack Across 110th Street A Tribe Called Quest Can I Kick It?

The Temptations Masterpiece Yaku Zap Mama Hepcat Hooligans POS The Brave and the Snake Nas Mastermind Talib Kweli

168 Show Number #57

Theme: Anarchy

Hosts: Anahi Bustillos and Carlos Rubio plus Andres

Producer: Lulu

Collective Members: Anahi, Laura, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Alifa, Omar Ramirez, Rico Muerte, and Joaquin Flores Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: August 6, 2010

Contribution Description Open with Travis as Borat Travis as Borate greets the audience Andres the Anarchist interrupts the show Andres represents an Anarchist that has little patience for the rebellious SRR collective SRR report on the Black Flag and the “A” anarchy The anarchist philosophy proclaims that Anarchy is sign Order and that is what the A is for Monica report and interview on Anarchy in Ventura The report and interview focus on the work of Omar County Ramirez and Rico Muerte in Oxnard and help explain how the Immigrant Movement has affected anarchists Miguel report and interview on La Red La Red in El Sereno is an effort to organize against the 710 freeway expansion and it includes interviews with Hector Flores and Beto Flores and announce the August 14, 2010 Music/Arts Festival Alicia report on Anarchist connection to Punk Rock The report focused on the historical anarchist roots of punk rock and how they connect to modern events like the Visionary Sounds Music Festival SRR sound clip Emma Goldman Goldman spoke upon her return to the US from exile in Europe Lulu report on Emma Goldman The report explains that world renowned feminist and anarchist come from a tradition established by Bakunin and Kropotkin who were Russian Anarchist who imagined a world without leaders Rico Muerte report on Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War was fought between Anarchist and Nationalist forces, but it remains the best example of an Anarchist society Miguel is an embedded reporter with Todos Somos Todos Somos Arizona is an organization that Arizona formed in Los Angeles as a response to the SB1070 Law in Arizona, and the interviews took place during an action that resulted in shutting down Wilshire Blvd. at the Wackenhut offices

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK Tu Mira Punch Track Piano Lucha Sin Deskanso Por Que No Soñamos Todos Nancy Sinatra These Boots are made for Walking The Clash Spanish Bombs Bob Marley Soul Rebel Sesame Street Rebel “L”

169 Show Number #58

Theme: Knowledge is Power

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Andres Flores

Producer: Lulu

Collective Members: Anahi, Laura, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Alifa, Omar Ramirez, Rico Muerte, and Joaquin Flores Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: August 6, 2010

Contribution Description Open with original song “Education” by CORAL The song is parody of Boom Boom Pow Alicia report on Freedom Schools Los Angeles The movement for public education includes schools like Freedom Schools LA Miguel interviews Cindy Bendezu Bendezu is an advocate of the DREAM Act which helps immigrant students obtain a higher education Miguel interview Celes King IV Celes King is of the Congress of Racial Equality California about The Urban Oasis Michael and Donny of CORAL report on Education The report is about the K-12, Private Schools, Charter Schools, and Home Schooling Carlos report and interview on Home Schooling Home schooling is an option for parents and children and the report and interviews provide guidance on best practices Taylor Mali poem “What Teachers Make” Mali is a teacher and poet and he explains what teachers make CORAL report on Education The report answers the question “What would change the world?” Anahi interviews SRR about their influences SRR members talk about education and influences. SRR goodbye to Monica de la Torre heading to the Mad Props to Ruben Salazar and the 40th University of Washington Anniversary of Chican@ Moratorium and the battle cry remains the same “Schools Yes, Guerra No”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Everly Brothers All I Have to Do is Dream Santo and Johnny Sleep Walk Ayo Down on my Knee Mos Def New World Water The Roots Water The Pharcyde Soul Flower and Otha Fish Sesame Street Theme Music Jurassic 5 Lesson 6- The Lecture NWA I Ain’t tha 1 Sublime KRS-One Wu Tang Clan CREAM Lauryn Hill Just like Water Wonkamobile Wonkavision Soundtrack Oompa Loompa Woody Guthrie This Land is Your Land Erykah Badhu Appletree

170 Show Number #59

Theme: Funk the Police at the Downtown Youth and Culture Center in LA

Hosts: Miguel Paredes and Andres Flores as Officer Justice and Officer Malo

Producer: Lulu and Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Thank You Robert Loza for flier

Air Date: October 1, 2010

Contribution Description Open with the Funky the Police theme The idea is not to scream “Fuck the Police” but instead SRR proposes a Community Bill of Rights to curb Police Brutality SRR show as a skit Officer Justice and Officer Malo Two cops on the beat help guide the audience through the show Interview with Bill Cudahy Cudahy is Constitutional Historian and expert on the 4th Amendment and he is opposed to illegal search and seizures, and for the right to privacy and he explains “ Cops are ordinary people in extraordinary situations” Lulu report on victims of Police Brutality Oscar Grant, Rodney King, and Amadou Diallo along with Manuel Jamines are all recent victims of Police Brutality Miguel report and interview on the 40th Anniversary The report helps explain the relevance of the of the Chican@ Moratorium Chican@ Moratorium and interviews Leilani Montes who created the documentary “Since Salazar” Erick interviews Joaquin Cienfuegos Cienfuegos of Cop Watch LA has worked to document Police Brutality since 2004 Alicia interviews Fran Zamora Zamora explains the reality of the law in this “Know Your Rights” contribution Carlos interview 2 female officers The 2 cops explain the racism, sexism, and police brutality that they have seen but nothing earth shattering Announced 15th October 22 Rally The Annual anti-Police Brutality March, Rally, and Vigil takes place across in the US End the show with Richard Pryor Pryor talks about his experiences with Police Brutality

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Bad Boys Inner Circle NWA Fuck the Police Bob Marley I Shot the Sheriff Charley Patton Tom Rushen Blues KRS One Sound of da Police Bruce Springsteen 21 Shots John Holt Police on Helicopters Le Tigre Bang Bang Ratatat Mi Viejo Gangstarr Discipline

171 The Black Keys Tighten Up John Legend and the Roots Humanity Go Go Bordello Not a Crime Yeah Yeah Yeahs Runaway Harold Faltmeyer Axel F The Pharcyde Officer

172 Show Number #60

Theme: 2012

Hosts: Miguel Paredes and Anahi Bustillos

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Monica, Andres, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Thank You Thomas Cazares for the flier Thank you to La Mina for T-Shirts

Air Date: December 3, 2010

Contribution Description December 21, 2012 The 5125 Long Count Calendar will end/begin on December 21, 2012 at 11:11 when the Earth, the Sun, and the Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way Galaxy SRR sound clip NASA Nasa confirms that in 2012, Solar Flares will be at their peak Lulu interviews Gregory Pettis Pettis is an environmentalist and he provides a green perspective to the 2012 discussion SRR report on Time Wave Theory The 2012 phenomenon can be linked to the Sumerians, Egyptians, the Kolbrin Bible, Hindus, Terrence McKenna, and the I-Ching SRR sound clip Terrence McKenna McKenna is the protagonist of the Time Wave Theory SRR report on the Chilam Balam The Chilam Balam is one of the sources of Mayan philosophy Alicia report and clip on Peak Oil The report explains that we are approaching Peak Oil in 2012 and it includes a clip from South Park that urges people to “Drill!” Carlos editorial on 2010 skepticism The editorial provides a skeptical look that proposes that nothing will happen in 2012 and that the Prophecy is not real SRR sound clip Lost Book of Nostradamus The clip includes references to images that we’re rediscovered recently that are believed to be associated with Nostradamus, and it includes the Oracle Sybil’s Prophecy and the Mother Shipton Prophecy Miguel report on Izapa in Guatemala The Izapa site in Guatemala near Chiapas is the “2012” site in the Mayan world SRR sound slip Apocalypse Island Apocalypse Island in the South Pacific is the only place in the world where one can witness the Venus Transit, the Solar Eclipse, and the alignment on 12/21/12 SRR sound clip 11:11 by Rik Clay Clay explains the 11:11 phenomenon and its relationship to 2012 SRR report on the Blue Star Prophecy The Blue Star Prophecy is a Hopi Prophecy that many say is related to the Levy 9 comet in 1994 Miguel interviews Dr. Julia Rankin Dr. Rankin is an expert on Aquaponics and the interview explains how Aquaponics or fish farming could be the solution to future food shortages 2012 Fun Facts On January 31, 2012, the near Earth object 433 Eros

173 comes very close to the planet, on May 20, 2012, there is a Solar Eclipse in the Northern Hemisphere, on June 6, 2012, Earth will witness a Venus Transit in front of the Sun, on November 13, 2012, the Southern Hemisphere will witness a Solar Eclipse, and on December 21, 2012, the 13 Baktun long count calendar ends on 4 Earthquake during the Winter Solstice SRR Goodbye to Anahi and Andres

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Pink Floyd Time Interpol All Fired Up Beastie Boys Intergalactic Planetary Ratatat Mirando The Postal Service Such Great Heights The Doors The End Radiohead Idioteque Nirvana The Man Who Sold the World REM It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Rest in Peace to Professor Roberto Sifuentes

174 Show Number #61

Theme: Children’s Stories

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Lulu Kornspan

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Monica, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Phillip Jean Marie Thank You La Mina and Robert Loza for the fliers and happy Birthday Thank you to Joel Garcia for the silk screen

Air Date: January 7, 2011

Contribution Description Open with Miguel skit “Stone Rebel Soup” Stone Rebel Soup is a parody of Stone Soup, and it is a metaphor for how the show comes together each month Erick skit “Pepito” The skit is an old Pepito joke used to explain the role of the government Monica feminist skit on “Little Red Riding Hood” The feminist critique is a dramatic recreation of the Little Red Riding Hood story with a feminist SRR twist explains that the story is actually a story about the virtues of chastity Anahi skit called “Young Breezy” The skit explains Male Vanity and is a parody of the Emperor Wears no Clothes Carlos skit “The Genie in the Lamp The skit is a parody of the Genie in a Lamp story Miguel interviews Lydia Grant Grant is a supporter of Jeremy Marks who was arrested by LAUS police for videotaping an incident of police harassment Erick skit on the Most Deaf Baby Frog The skit explains how the deaf frog was able to get to the top of the mountain because he did not listen to any pessimists Alicia and Lulu original song SRR Lullaby The original song is based on the Hush Little Baby lullaby

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Arcade Fire The Suburbs Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs Lil Red Riding Hood (Pure Gold) Don Omar Guayaqui Rodrigo y Gabriela Hora Zero Reazn En Mi Vida Edit Music for a Film Unkle Sounds A Flock of Seagulls I Ran Grandmaster Flash The Message Black Star Children’s Stories Minors into Fire Song and Sons Sick Rick Children’s Story

RIP to Dany Lavila

175 Show Number #62

Theme: Soul Rebel Award Show

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Travis Pinon as Joan Rivers and Tracy Morgan

Producer: Jorge and Lulu

Collective Members: Anahi, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, Travis, and Alicia Plus Phillip Julissa and Jusdeep Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: February 4, 2011

Contribution Description Award to Todos Somos Arizona Award for Best Collective Award to Ti George Award for Best Comeback Award to James Fugate of Eso Won Books Award for Best Bookstore Award to Cache Award for Best Street Artist Award to Ernesto Yerena Award for Best Artista del Pueblo Award to Jacob Applebaum of Wiki-Leaks Award for American Hero SRR commercial skit for Hip Hop commercial The skit encourages you to call 1 800 Get Free Award Show retrospective on Musicians SRR honors Lena Horn, Buddy Collette, Gregory Isaacs, and Guru SRR presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Zinn is heard in an SRR audio clip where he talks Howard Zinn about the Declaration of Independence Interviews with each award recipient Each of the Award recipients takes the opportunity to share some words of appreciation to their friends, fans, and family

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection LL Cool J Mamma said Knock You Out Mos Def UMI Says Pete Rock and CL Smooth They Reminisce Over You Lena Horn The Man I Love Blue Sands Gregory Isaac Black Against Black Guru Lost Souls El Chicano Viva Tirado Bob Marley Soul Rebel Erykah Badu Window Seat

176 Show Number #63

Theme: Sheroes Show

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Byron Jose plus the Sand Ninja

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Monica, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Byron, Julissa, and The Sand Ninja Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: April 1, 2011

Contribution Description Lulu skit “Time Machine” The Time Machine is used to interview Xiang Jingyu who was a Chinese Warrior Miguel interviews Fran Zamora Zamora explains the origins and inspiration for the show’s theme plus reflects and her role as a Shero Carlos report on Women in Science The report explains the origins of women in science from the Egyptian Empire to modern days Monica report and interviews from Womyn Who The Conference took place in Seattle and Monica Rock Conference asks the participants “Who is your musical hero?” including Alice Bagg of The Baggs Anahi interviews young women The young women talk about their influence and musical interests Byron interviews the Tranny Rock Stars The Tranny Rock Stars are a support group for Transgender youth Women in Los Angeles Miguel interviews Jo Ann Mixpe Ley Ley is a teacher at Semillas del Pueblo and an artist and actress Lulu report on Sojourner Truth The abolitionist and feminist leader was famous for freeing a number of slaves and she wonders, “Ain’t I a Woman?” SRR collective members speak The members salute the women ho are Sheroes in their lives

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection James Brown It’s a Mans Man’s World Chen Dacan Chinese Ensemble My Home Town The Duke Spirit Dog Roses Lily Allen Cheryl Tweedy The Postal Service We Will Become Silhouettes Portishead Glory Box Yeah Yeah Yeahs Runaway The Beatles Girl

177 Show Number #64

Theme: Media- the 4th Arm of the Government

Hosts: Anahi Bustillos and Lulu Kornspan

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Eduardo, Anahi, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Byron Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: June 3, 2011

Contribution Description Open with a question for a college class “In an ideal world, what would you want the media to cover?” In unison without prompting, they responded “The Truth!” Explain the theme- Media: the 4th Arm of the The hosts explain that the media serves as the public Government relations branch of the government Miguel and Eduardo interview CSUN students Professor Mendoza’s college class explains “What is the Media?” Report on Big 6 Media Corporations GE, Disney, NewsCorp, Time Warner, CBS, and Viacom Carlos report on Radio The state of news radio at the present includes over 3400 talk show stations, and the report includes a clip of the film “Goodnight and Good Luck” Erick skit “Alma’s Rebelde” The skit is a parody of Mexican novelas and includes two acts Alicia interviews Dr. Laura Triplett Dr. Triplett is the Head of Entertainment Studies at CSU Fullerton and she focuses on Reality TV Shout Out to Arab Spring The use of Facebook and Twitter during the Egyptian Revolution was unprecedented SRR report on the FCC The report explains the role of the Federal Communications Commission Byron interviews Karla Che Mejia The campaign “That’s My Abortion” explains how modern day activists use social networks as a tool SRR says goodbye to Eduardo Eduardo is heading to Brazil indefinitely SRR sound clip Gil Scott Heron “The Revolution Will Not be Televised”

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Fats Waller Georgia on my Mind Immortal Technique The 4th Branch Nas Sly Fox Franz Ferdinand 40

178 Show Number #65

Theme: Freedom- The Myth Busters Edition

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Miguel Paredes

Producer: Jorge and Lulu

Collective Members: Anahi, Erick, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Byron, Care, and Jefree Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: August 5, 2011

Contribution Description SRR defines Freedom Freedom is simply the condition of being free SRR sound clip Assata Shakur Shakur explains, “Freedom? I know what it isn’t?” Freedom- Myth Buster #1 Is Freedom Free? The SRR Myth Busters challenge the idea that freedom is free and this myth is busted and proven untrue Carlos report on the Price of Freedom in Iraq and The report details the economic and human impact Afghanistan of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and it includes a clip of George W. Bush on the eve of the War in Iraq Alicia and Care commercial for “Liberated Minds” The commercial for Liberated Minds encourages the audience to get free Freedom- Myth Buster #2 Are we all born Free? The SRR Myth Busters challenge the idea that we are born free and this myth is busted and proven untrue Byron report on Mothers giving birth behind bars The report explains how some women give birth in plus interview shackles and it includes an interview with Farah Diaz-Tello, author of “Birth Justice as Reproductive Justice” Freedom- Myth Buster #3 Are we born spiritually The SRR Myth Busters challenge the idea that we Free? are born spiritually free and this myth is busted and proven untrue Jefree editorial on the choice of Freedom The editorial proposes that Freedom is a choice and to some extent we can choose to be free Alicia and Care commercial for “Liberated Minds” The commercial for Liberated Minds encourages the audience to get free from abusive relationships and provides testimonies Freedom- Myth Buster #4 “Is Education Free and is The SRR Myth Busters challenge the idea that food accessible? education is free and that food is accessible and this myth is busted and proven untrue Miguel interviews members of the South Central The members of the South Central Farm continue to Farm farm in a plot of land near Bakersfield and they have not given up on the idea of reclaiming the old South Central Farm Alicia interviews 2 undocumented students from the Julio Salgado and Janet Gonzalez are two “I Exist” campaign undocumented students who decided to risk their freedom and speak out about their legal status

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Common A Song for Assata

179 New Order Love Vigilantes The 5th Dimension Up, Up, and Away Ohio Players I want to be Free Tom Petty Free Fallin Aretha Franklin Think Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson The Liberation Song

Dedicated to the Freedom Riders on the 50th Anniversary of Freedom Fighting in the US

180 Show Number #66

Theme: Soul @ El Centro Cultural de Mexico

Hosts: Care and Jorge Merino

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Anahi, Theresa, Erick, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Byron, Care, and Jefree Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: September 2, 2011

Contribution Description Open with “Soul Glow” commercial “Soul Glow” is a faux-product made famous by the movie Coming to America SRR defines Soul and the impact of Soul music SRR defines “soul” as a spirit and spiritual connection that one feels to the Earth, the community, and the Creator Alicia interviews Carolyn Coleridge Coleridge is a spiritual guide and healer who talks about the importance of soul Miguel interviews members of El Centro Cultural El Centro or “The Center” is the soul of Santa Ana, de Mexico and the it faced gentrification efforts that pushed them away from downtown and three members of the space testify to SRR Jefree report on Soul Music Jefree provides examples, first hand accounts, and explains the legacy of Soul Music Care interviews young children about Soul Young children answer questions about Soul in the most honest way possible Miguel interviews Sun Dancers Luis Giraldo and Giraldo and Shiffman pray in the sweat lodge in the Glen Shiffman tradition of Indigenous people and Giraldo understands that “Soul is a prayer of the Earth” and Shiffman explains “Creator has a Father and a Mother.” Alicia interviews Freedom Schools LA The interview focuses on the efforts of the Freedom Schools LA faculty to create critical thinkers at the facility located at the Chuco Justice Center in Inglewood

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection The Killers All the Things that I’ve Done The Strokes Heart in a Cage One Day a Lion Sam Cooke A Change is Gonna Come Ray Charles What I’d Say Little Richard Keep a Knocking James Brown Super Bad Michael Jackson Rock with You Aretha Franklin Say a Little Prayer Isley Brothers Lay Away Ike and Tina Turner A Fool in Love Jackie Wilson Lonely Teardrops The Temptations Ain’t Too Proud to Beg

181 The Staple Strangers Let’s Do it Again Little Anthony and the Imperials I’m on the Outside Looking In Ice Cube Good Day Warren G Regulators Dr. Dre David McCallum The Edge The Sequence Funk You Up The Gap Band I Don’t Believe you want to get up and Dance

Peace, Love, and Soul

182 Show Number #67

Theme: Young, Gifted, and ______

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Byron Jose

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Erick, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Byron, Care, and Clara Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: October 7, 2011

Contribution Description Miguel interviews youth from YouThink The YouThink youth explain what they want the world to know about young women, young men, and young people Erick report and interview Young Warriors The Young Warriors program started out of Tia Chucha’s in the San Fernando Valley and focuses on mentoring young men and young women Clara report on Mendez vs. Westminster The report explains the role of the Mendez case on youth in Orange County, Mexican children in California, and communities of color in the US Miguel interviews Mariachi Plaza de la Raza Mariachi Plaza de la Raza is a youth mariachi in Lincoln Heights that has won awards and competitions in its short life and the interviews include the director and the youth musicians Lulu interviews people from LA The community members from Los Angeles explain what it was like growing up in LA Alicia interviews Mario Rocha Rocha was falsely imprisoned as a teenager and now he works with youth and towards a career where he can help steer others from the same fate

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Maldita Vecindad Pachuco Mariachi Plaza de la Raza Blackalicious Automatique The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Love Album)

Dedicated to Jamal Navarro

183 Show Number #68

Theme: Relationships

Hosts: Lulu Kornspan and Erick Iniguez

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Laura, Jose, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Care, Clara, Jay Davis, Moises, and Samuel Oh Thank You Robert Loza for the flier

Air Date: February 1, 2012

Contribution Description SRR defines Relationships A relationship is defined as a connection or an association Erick skit on “RelationShip” The skit is based on the definition of a relationship from the urban dictionary Miguel interviews RFK High School students The students from Robert F. Kennedy High School discuss their relationship to technology Jose and Laura and skit “On the Doorsteps” The skit looks at one man’s attempt to begin a relationship and some wise words from his neighbor an older woman Lulu skit “Dear John to Reality Television” The skit is a Dear John or goodbye letter to reality television from a former fan Moises report and interview from Operation Skid Operation Skid Row was an event meant to Row highlight the relationship between Homeless people and Los Angeles and it includes words by Chuck D Erick editorial skit Penny for your Thoughts The skit explains the how the elimination of Chican@ Studies in Arizona along with 50 books including Occupied America by Rudy Acuña affects the relationship that the school has with the students Clara skit on Relationships The skit highlights some of the main arguments and misconceptions related to monogamy and poliamorous relationships Lulu skit “Love Letter to Cell Phones” The skit is meant to explain the intimate relationship that people have to their phones Laura and Jose report on Generalizations The report explains how generalizations affect both men and women Care skit “Psyche” Psyche is a fortune teller that helps the audience understand relationships Erick and Carlos report and interviews on The interviews and report attempt to answer the Relationships question, how long does it take to get over a relationship?

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Radiohead Lotus Flower (Jacques Greene Remix) Sling and Imchi Our Fight Zapp Mo Bounce to the Ounce Public Enemy Can’t Truss It Pink Floyd Money Mary Wells Two Lovers Al Green featuring Anthony Hamilton You’ve Got the Love I Need

184 Outkast Prototype Nirvana All Apologies The Beatles Within You without You (Love Album) The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows The Beatles All You Need is Love The Beatles The Word The Beatles Step Inside Love/ Los Paranoias The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever The Beatles Honey Pie The Beatles Oh Darling The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps The Beatles Yer Blues The Beatles For You Blue The Beatles All My Loving The Beatles In My Life The Beatles If I Fell The Beatles Michelle The Beatles This Boy The Beatles I’m so Tired The Beatles Things We Said Today The Beatles Why Don’t we do it in the Road The Beatles I’m Looking Through You The Beatles Norwegian Wood The Beatles Something The Beatles Don’t Let Me Down The Beatles Real Love The Beatles When I’m 64

185 Show Number #69

Theme: Womyn that Rock

Hosts: Alicia Vargas and Clara Urion take over for Brock and Dirk

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Laura, Jose, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Care, Clara, Jerick, and A Place Called Home youth Thank You Chayo Luis for the flier

Air Date: March 2, 2012

Contribution Description In collaboration with the Wombyn that Rock The theme for the show was inspired by the U of W conference at the University of Washington conference that SRR Alumni Monica de la Torre helped organize Monica interviews women at conference The conference participants talk about the conference and the theme of the show Lulu retrospective on Amy Winehouse The retrospective helps remember the musical legacy of this young songstress who passed Alicia repot on Angela Davis The report explains the life and contributions of the Revolutionary Angela Davis APCH Youth The youth from APCH create the first monthly installment and they interview the founder of APCH Deborah Constance Alicia and Clara report on Emma Goldman The report explain the legacy and contributions of the Anarchist and Feminist Erick report “A Penny for Your Thoughts” The report on the Hyatt Workers strike explains the struggle to earn a fair contract against a corporation Miguel interviews Yenni Diaz and Theresa Dang Diaz and Dang are the Executive Producers of the documentary “Stop Stealing Our Cars” about the efforts of the community to stop the police from taking the immigrant’s vehicles Jerick skit on Immigrant Mothers Nanais Filipina grandmothers or Nanais are presented in a three part skit that includes letters from a Filipina refugee, a Filipina immigrant, and a new Filipina- American SRR interviews CSUN students about Womyn that CSUN students answers the question who is a Rock famous and unknown women that rocks Lulu retrospective on Etta James The retrospective helps remember the musical legacy of legend who passed away after a long life full of progressive work Miguel and George create Beatles Collage The Beatles have created music about Relationships and this musical mash-up Chayo reads a poem Sor Juana Inez The poem was written by the first of the Feminist in Mexico and Latin America

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Amy Winehouse Halftime Amy Winehouse Love is a Losing Game Amy Winehouse Wake Up Alone Amy Winehouse Our Day Will Come

186 A Place Called Home A Place Called Home City Lights Pink Floyd Money Yeah Yeah Yeahs Zero Yeah Yeah Yeahs Soft Rock Yeah Yeah Yeahs Dragon Queen Sade Paradise Sade Hang on to Your Love Sade Cherish the Day Alicia Keys Rock with you Alicia Keys Loving U Alicia Keys A Woman’s Worth Alicia Keys Never Feel this Way Etta James Something’s Got a Hold on Me Etta James Don’t Cry Baby Etta James At Last Etta James I’d Rather Go Blind Etta James A Sunday Kind of Love Alicia Keys Butterflyz

187 Show Number #70

Theme: State of California’s Economy: The Prisons vs. The Universities

Hosts: Miguel Paredes, Eli and Kasandra Delgado-Carillo as Nia and Cali

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Tito, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Clara, Jerick, Eli, Kassandra, and A Place Called Home youth Thank You Chayo Luis for the flier Thank You DJ War for the Music

Air Date: April 6, 2012

Contribution Description Open the show with Angela Davis Davis speaks about a future and inclusive revolution State of California’s Economy: The Prisons vs. The Nia and Cali are two young women that represent Universities the prison system and the university system and the help guide the show Cali and Nia debate throughout the show The two characters guide the show and the book “Are Prisons Obsolete” by Angela Davis provides facts about the Prison Industrial Complex Alicia interviews Angela Davis Davis is the author of “New American Revolution” and makes the connection between the lack of education and in the increase in incarceration in California Lulu interviews Sam Sidell Sidell is the author of Hip Hop Genius and he talks about the use of Hip Hop in Education APCH Youth The APCH youth’s contribution helps explain how the prisons and the universities battle over the hearts and minds of the youth Miguel interviews CSUN students at education rally The students answer the question, “What should the state of California invest our money into? Miguel interviews men and women from Homeboy The men and women provide testimonies about the Industries prison system and the struggles to survive in the free world as ex-convicts

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Talib Kweli Hot Thang Common The Light Saul Williams Lalala NWA I Aint tha 1 A Place Called Home Girl Like Me Rodrigo y Gabriela The Black Keys Money Makers and Stop Stop The Black Keys Run Right Back and Nova Baby The Black Keys Mind Eraser and Lonely Boy Snoop Dogg The Shiznit The Foreign Exchange Come Around

RIP KRCA TV Executive Jesus Javier, Journalist and Father

188 Show Number #71

Theme: Sustainability: Think Globally, Act Locally

Hosts: Jerick Ybuan and Alicia Vargas with help from Chavela (Kassandra)

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Tito, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Clara, Jerick, Eli, Kassandra, Janet Chavez, and A Place Called Home youth Thank You Chayo Luis for the flier

Air Date: May 4, 2012 (Celebrating 7 Years on the Air)

Contribution Description Jorge talks to Chavela Chavela explains that Laughter is Medicine but the young girl asks George some questions SRR defines Sustainability SRR defines sustainability as meeting the present needs without compromising the future Kilo Watts and Tiny Energy Segment reprise Kilo Watts and Tiny present the Energy Cops SRR report on the BP Oil Spill and Fracking The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast and Fracking has drastic effects on the Environment Janet Chavez interviews Luisa Suleman Rodriguez Suleman Rodriguez works with the School of the Americas office in Venezuela and she explains how sustainable the Venezuelan revolution has been by demanding that Chavez be returned after the attempted coup Jerick skit on Global Yelp The skit highlights the sustainability of the food conditions in Greece, China, Cuba, India, USA Alicia interview and report on GMO’s Neyeli Guzman and Sam Henna talk about alternatives to GMO’s like Permaculture and sustainable ways to take care of moon cycles Lulu editorial on Carbon Footprints The editorial explains how our carbon footprints has a negative impact on sustainability Kassandra interview with Edgar Flores The teacher and urban gardener talks about sustainability APCH youth contribution The APCH youth interview founder Deborah Constance who found APCH after the LA Riots and include a shout out to Trayvon Martin Alicia interviews Revolutionary Autonomous RAC provides food to low income and homeless Communities community members on Sundays at MacArthur Park Eli report on Obesity in the US The obesity epidemic in the US is causing a number of health problems including diabetes and heart disease and exercise and healthy eating is the best option to solving the problem

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg Young, Wild, and Free Ultimate Ringtones Laughing Baby Remix Unknown Healthy Choice LMFAO I’m Sexy and I Know It Kermit the Frog Its not Easy being Green

189 Show Number #72

Theme: Technology: the Digital Divide

Hosts: Miguel Paredes and Alicia Vargas plus Jasmine and David from A Place Called Home

Producer: Jorge

Collective Members: Tito, Erick, Lulu, Jorge, Miguel, Carlos, and Alicia Plus Eli, Kassandra, Daniel Olivares, and A Place Called Home youth Thank You Alicia Vargas for the flier and Ixya Herrera for the voices

Air Date: July 6, 2012

Contribution Description We open by thanking the audience and collective The show celebrated 7 years on the air recently and for 7 years rediscovered that our first show aired on April 22, 2005 Alicia and Miguel open the show and introduce the The theme of the show is the digital divide and it theme deals with individuals and communities that have access to technology APCH Contribution The youth of A Pace Called Home explain what the digital divide means to them since the youth are the most involved in the technology Jasmine and David of APCH take over Miguel and Alicia hand over the hosting duties to Jasmine and David who are two youth that have helped produce segments over the last several months for Soul Rebel Radio Miguel interviews the youth of the Children’s The Children’s Institute serves youth and children Institute in the Echo Park and the Mid-City area, and we interviewed young people in the community center Eli report on Digital Divide Eli presents a report on the Digital Divide and she explains that there exists inequalities among the different communities that have access to technology Kassandra and Eli skit on Facebook divides the The sits helps explain how technology is dividing Family families but the grandmother comes in and adds that technology has always divided families Alicia skit on Facebook TV In the not too distant future, subscribers to social media will be able to play out there lives on Facebook TV and earn points that could buy them their wildest dreams Miguel interview with Dr. Ramesh Srinivisan of The UCLA professor teaches technology a and also UCLA writes and blogs about home people around the world use and access technology for the benefit of entire communities DJ Music Mix DJ War of Spincycle presents a music mix that helps bridge the divisions in technology through the use of Hip Hop

Musical Contributions: Artist Selection A Place Called Home Original Music Radiohead Jackson 5 I Want You Back

190 Libraries Machine Shop Jake One featuring Little Brother Bless the Child Tevin Campbell Could it Be

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