Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Music 0:35
Come on, tell

Music 0:42
me what's going on. Good

Dave Washington 0:50
day Las Vegas. Good day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I got a couple of guests that I'll introduce shortly. However, going to make a couple quick statements in fact for Veterans Day, Saturday, November 1, there's going to be a Veterans Resource Fair and barbecue. It'll be at 3090 East Centennial Parkway, from 10am to 2pm that's again, Saturday, November 1. So check that out. It's it's free to the public, and they're just trying to do things to certainly celebrate and thank all of our veterans for the work that they've done in protecting our country and our people. With that, I'm going to talk about a few birthdays, believe it or not, we have a number of them. This month we have Winona Smith, Deborah Milburn, Kunta Patterson, Helen Washington, Helen Brown, Dr Helen Brown, Edna Overton, Don heron, Marty Frierson, the great Aaron Anderson, Arrington, Aaron Harrington, I got to get that right. He's doing a lot of he has that the gospel group is, they always doing some good things, stuff in the neighborhood, then we also have Vince Jordan. Reverend Vince Jordan, Jenny Beatty Jeannie. Beatty Cassandra, Bell, Dr Bernard Hamilton, la Francis, Lancey dancy, la Francis dancy, Crystal King, Valerie Oh, Vicky. Vicky. Vicky Butler stunned me, because I couldn't hardly see the name there. Getting old with that, I Las Vegas. I'd like to introduce a couple guests. They got some good stuff going on that they've been working on this documentary that I understand. It's complete now. So I'm going to start out and ask that, Miss Gwen, why don't you introduce yourself and and just give a little bit of background on yourself, and then Zach will come to you. Go ahead, Gwen,

Gwen Walker 3:09
all right, yes, I'm Gwen Walker, and now Abdullah, founder of Nevada's first African American Museum, the walker African American Museum and Research Center. I'm also a former employee of the Clark County Library District, a mother of one daughter, Nika Ayana Sue, and I'm just happy. And thank you, Dave, so much for inviting us to be on your show.

Dave Washington 3:36
Absolutely. How long have you lived in Las Vegas?

Gwen Walker 3:40
I came to Las Vegas in 1962 Wow.

Dave Washington 3:43
You've been here now. You and You know, people say, Oh, I've been here a long time, 1520, years. Now you start getting into them, 4050, years, and then you've been here a long time. Great. Well, it's great hearing from you, and I look forward to asking you a few questions that you can share with our listening audience. All right. Zach, how long have you been in Las Vegas, and were you born, raised here, or where?

Zachary Freed 4:06
Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Mr. Dave, for having me on the show. I'm so yeah. My name is Zachary freed. I'm born and raised here in Las Vegas. 23 years old, graduated a few years ago from the College of Southern Nevada in their film program, and since then, I've been working as a filmmaker, also working as as an advocate for nonprofits and community organizations so events and festivals and fundraising and, you know, community fairs, all of those things I'm really passionate about. And, you know, keeps me going.

Dave Washington 4:52
Great, great, win. I want to come back to you tell us a little bit more about the museum that you and your mom put together. Whereas. Located. What's the current status?

Gwen Walker 5:03
Okay, yes, the museum, the walker, African American Museum and Research Center, is located at 705 West Van Buren, and we anticipate opening by the first of the year, if not sooner. We've been closed for a few years due to several things. As you know, Dave, mom was diagnosed with dementia in 2013 we've had a couple incidences at the museum. We had a busted pipe that flooded the place a couple times, and then part of the roof that caved in, and some of the air conditioning parts were stolen. So we've had some challenges and everything, but we're slowly working to get those things back in order. And then, of course, I recently been diagnosed with lymphedema in my legs, so I'm moving a little slow, but the work hasn't stopped. I've continued, and our committee has continued to do the work of the museum, whether we do it on our Facebook pages or within the community organizations or what have you. So, yes, the walker Museum is still in existence. We're still moving forward. We still looking forward to building our 10,000 square foot facility. We're not sure exactly where that's going to be, but we know where God planted me, and that was at 705.

Dave Washington 6:19
Well, I'll say this, Gwen, we appreciate your commitment, because museums are important, and we know that there's a number of things that 47 has been embarking upon to try to destroy or replenish or eliminate the history of African Americans. But it's not going to happen because it's already it's too late, man, you can't do that. We are with people like Gwen and others who are very diligent in doing the work to sustain ourselves and and we've been a part of this, this American landscape, for a long, long time, and we're not going anywhere. So Gwen, we appreciate your commitment now. Zach, to you. Where did you get your training? And I assume you you have some training in this area of producing and putting together documentaries,

Zachary Freed 7:12
yeah, yeah, I would say it goes all the way back to going to Las Vegas Academy of the Arts in high school. I graduated there in 2020, and, you know, I need to shout out Mr. Sim Delaney. He was, I wasn't even a filmmaker. Then I was just actually a dancer. And I was, I was training to become like a professional ballet dancer after high school. And Professor Delaney was really adamant about bringing all sorts of kids into filmmaking and just giving them exposure, whether they liked it or not. And after, after high school, I ended up just loving it. And through college, at the College of Southern Nevada, graduated from their film program, and then during all of that time, now catching up to where I'm where I'm at today, about five and a half years of film. You know, I've done freelancing. I have my own LLC. I'll work for other companies, you know, I'll do a whole gambit of social media, convention work. But throughout all of my training and my work experience, I'm always trying to work on some sort of project, be it a narrative film or documentary film. And last year, I had the privilege of working with Miss Gwen for for a year as a co directors on this Clark County documentary.

Dave Washington 8:42
Well, tell us the title of this documentary that you guys work together on. Would you do that?

Gwen Walker 8:47
Gwen, it's called unsung, and it gives an array of snippets and stories of blacks who have made history here in Las Vegas, talks about the neighborhood historic west side, the Moulin Rouge, Jackson Street. It even covers our Indian brothers and sisters and our Hispanic brothers and sisters as well, but mainly is talking about our history. And the Pearson center talks about Dr Pearson and Mrs. Maggie Pearson, and the recognition of all the pillars where Mike, the artist from Los Angeles, has done a beautiful job and putting murals on all of the pillars in the Pearson center. Great.

Dave Washington 9:39
So Zach, would you tell our listening audience? And once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have Miss Gwen and Mr. Zach that talking about a documentary they worked diligently, diligently on that's about West Las Vegas, even though they covered other ethnic groups as well. What? Timeframe or length of this documentary today.

Zachary Freed 10:04
It's a short film, 15 minutes long.

Dave Washington 10:07
Okay, all right. And how did you guys, how did you decide to do this to begin with?

Zachary Freed 10:15
Yeah, well, I could say that the project definitely started with me. Clark County Public Arts, which is a part of our parks and recreation. They put out a call for a filmmaker. They knew that they had money for an artist to eventually put together 21 murals within the Pearson recreation center in the historic west side, but they decided to, you know, kind of tag along a filmmaker to document the whole thing. So in this documentary, you see a year of filming and painting. And when I applied for the grant, I ended up getting it. It was a competitive grant, and I realized that as the project kind of was moving forward, I wasn't really paired up with anyone in the community. Myself, growing up in Las Vegas, I knew bits and pieces of North Las Vegas history or black history here, but I could not give you the depth and the insight of someone like Mrs. GWEN Walker. So when, when the project moved forward, and I had a better understanding of what the film was about, the area I was filming, in the history and the magnitude of it, I ended up finding this Gwen online, you know, she's been on podcast. She's, you know, documented at the UN University of Las Vegas. So we, I, you know, found the museum phone number on Google, and then, you know, the rest was kind of history after that.

Dave Washington 11:52
So give your perspective on all of that, when,

Gwen Walker 12:00
as far as how,

Dave Washington 12:02
yeah, just how he came to your mind to get involved, and why did you feel it was a need to do so?

Gwen Walker 12:10
Oh, absolutely. Well, when Zach contacted me and told me, You know what he wanted to do and the information that he was looking for, of course, you know, I've kept the history for over 50 years, so I was very excited to share with him the pioneers of people such as yourself and the contributions that you all have made to our local history. So I was a yes from the very beginning, and just you know that intuition and and the Holy Spirit, just letting me know that Zach was of good spirit and to go with it, and that's what I did.

Dave Washington 12:49
Excellent, excellent. So Zach, you said you started off as a dancer and then moved over to filming. What inspired? What was the inspiration to that? And again, I'm asking that question to share with our listening audience, because there may be some young person out there that's listening, that they may get inspired by something that you might say with respect to that,

Zachary Freed 13:14
yeah, well, I think speaking on both dancing and filmmaking that all stems from, you know, being fortunate enough to have parents and mentors in my life who supported my journey in the arts, who who told me and reassured me that, you know, it's an industry, it's a livelihood. It doesn't just have to be a hobby. So definitely want to let people know out there if, if the arts is you know whether you're in middle school or if you are, you know an adult with children, I don't think it's ever too late to begin a journey in the arts, and I think it has nothing but positive benefits, but specifically from dance to filmmaking. It really was inspired by the pandemic. When I graduated high school in 2020, I was beginning my auditioning career as a dancer, and there were very limited auditions. And I felt almost discouraged to even find auditions, because, as I was graduating, you know, here at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, and in Las Vegas, we have some of the best youth dancers in the world. And I definitely want to shout out the West Las Vegas Art Center I had gone to, I'd gone to school with some of those students that have gone on to now dance on the strip, that have gone on to accept awards from, you know, Michelle Obama, like one of my former dance mentors, Avery Walker, appears in the film, and I. During that time, I just sort of felt like I was in a in a hole of what I wanted to do and how I was going to pursue work in the pandemic. So then I realized, well, what's the safest way I could do art that you know kind of fits my skill set, and video cameras were kind of natural. I grew up with a cell phone in my pocket, which typically had a camera in it, and that kind of made me feel, you know, more comfortable that you know, what if I was going to explore something new. This is something familiar to me, and, you know, can't recommend enough the College of Southern Nevada, when I looked into their courses for filmmaking, they were probably the most affordable that you could get, you know, compared to other universities or other institutions, especially outside of Nevada, you know, I think the most I spent on my two year degree at CSN was like seven to $11,000 maybe somewhere in that range. And, you know, it was invaluable. Great equipment, state of the art training, state of the art opportunities. So I so, yeah. So that was that journey from dance to film.

Dave Washington 16:17
Well, I can tell you that a lot of people don't, probably don't recall, but we started out with what was called the Nubian confencic cultural community. At the time. It was called Highland Drive. Before it became ml King, we had the and then we changed our name to where we did a DBA, doing business as a West Side Art Gallery and bookstore with under the leadership of now ancestor, Benny Cassell, myself, Orlando Hogan, Mike. I forget Mike's name, but these are artists, and we so we did the visual arts as well as the performing arts with respect to dance. And it was really something that people really to include. We were some of the first ones to do Kwanzaa in the community. This is back in the late in the late 70s, early 80s, and we were around for about five, seven years. And you know, Vicki, Vicki Richardson has an art gallery still to this day, out on Allen road that I trust and hope that people would go and visit, because vision the arts are very important to to any societies, their longevity, if you will. I just believe that, and that's why I always participate. And if I'm not involved, because, certainly not as a as an artist in any form other than I am an author. And I got a couple books that I have in the hopper, but I always try to contribute to it. And and Gwen, I want to know about you, and would you share with our audience? Because you and your mom have been a driving force in ensuring that the whole idea of a museum exists within our community. So what was your What was that driving you? Gwen, there's something, because we always have something that drives us to deal with the purpose that God put us here on earth to do.

Gwen Walker 18:11
Well, you know, for a long time, Dave, I really didn't realize a museum was the direction that I was going to go in. I know, you know, page 13, going to JD Smith junior high school, and I had to do a book report for Black History Month, and went to the library, and there was very little in the library, except on George Washington Carver and just a little bit on slavery, right? So when I went home and told my mom that I couldn't find much on our history, she said, Well, I'll take care of that. And she ordered me a set of the Negro Heritage Library, which I have in the museum. And I've been lucky enough in my travels and hitting thrift shops and yard sales and things like that, I've acquired a second set. So in doing that report and starting to read and plus, mother was always subscribing to Ebony and Jet, so we always had that in the house as well. So I would always read those things. And was just thrilled at the information. The more I read, the more I kept finding information. And I was just thrilled and to find out that we come from kings and queens and the royalty, and I mean, just so much history, and the fact that almost everything we use on a daily basis, an African American invented it. So that was, that was the motivation and and the drive is like, you know, my husband says, Now, when I'm going through boxes and trying to pull off things. You say, babe, you in Heaven. I say, I'm in heaven. And when I get people that might call and say, Well, you're not open, you ain't been open, when you're going to be open, or whatever, I said, you know, we plan on opening, and we're working on that. Matter of fact, we have to be at the hospital. As you know, my mom is definitely ill in the hospital, right? Now, and we were going to leave the hospital and go to the museum to keep working and, you know, getting things ready. But we, you know, got interrupted with an emergency call, right? But the fact that, you know, we gonna continue as long as I'm breathing, but if I, if we never opened up the museum doors. Guess what? Dave, I enjoy sitting and looking at the 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of pieces of our history because I collect daily. I'm always ordering and I'm finding treasures like you know, just before my wedding, I looked up and was able to get an obituary of Coretta Scott King, Dr Martin Luther King. Someone donated obituary on Dennis Edwards from the temptations, we asked people to donate obituaries to us for our genealogical side of the house, anything black, memorabilia, books, dolls, the old T shirts that represent blacks in any form, figurines and statues and anything. And I say it like this, anything that's by us, about us, or for us, is what we collect.

Dave Washington 21:17
I'm sitting, I mean, I'm sitting here smiling green because I got some stuff that I need to box up and get to you, because we have multiple copies of a number of different things that have occurred within our community, and I admire what you're doing, and we will continue to pray That ultimately it will open up do do both, or either one of you guys have websites that people can go To to find further information on what you're

Gwen Walker 21:41
doing, that are working on,

Zachary Freed 21:48
yeah, we're actually, I'm collaborating with Miss Gwen on on a new website. So definitely stay tuned for that. Of course, Miss Gwen, you can find her on Facebook and Instagram for myself, you can find my work anywhere that are SIBO films. You can find my website at Arecibo films.net my other social media at Arecibo artists, the county film is now available on YouTube, and they may start showing it on their TV station. And I just wanted to say really quick, Mr. Dave, that you brought up left of center Art Gallery and Vicki Richardson, it's I'm excited to let listeners know that Vicki Richardson, Sylvester, Collier and Harold Bradford were all artists who were featured on the pillars at the Pearson center, they had a mural done in their appearance and actually featuring the left of center logo and some of the the How would you call them, like the committee members or board members who helped pitch ideas For what would be on the Pearson pillars. They made sure to highlight, you know, the the accomplishments of left of center Art Gallery, and even extending to Lou Richardson, whose construction company built the Pearson center, some sculptures in the area, as well as where we permit, premiered the film at the West Las Vegas Library theater. So, you know, it was really cool to see all that come together, and if people watch the film, we did an interview with a small interview with Mrs. Vicki Richardson, but we definitely made sure to showcase that part of of our local history.

Dave Washington 23:43
Great, great. Well, admire you both for the work that you're doing, and we can't talk price or anything like that, but Zach, I assume you do contract work.

Zachary Freed 23:55
Yes, I do. I work on on budgets of all sorts. I I'm more than anything. I'm passionate about community. So if anyone wants to consult with me for free on an idea, a project, you know you can see me around. I actually really need to shout this out. I through this film. We featured the West Side Oasis Restaurant, formerly the seven seas, and we also featured the multicultural bookstore, and in this area of near what is it? Lake Mead and H Street, we I'm continuing to work with people like Miss Gwen Rodney Smith, the Sam Smith Legacy Foundation and the gathering of helping protect those small businesses and grow them. So you can actually find me every week, every Friday, the West Side Oasis at the gathering, and I'm helping Mr. Terry Adams and MS hero Adams with community engagement. We're looking to bring all sorts of community. D to the west side Oasis and the bookstore with Miss Carol Santiago, we really want to use the momentum and the exposure of this film to remind people that, you know, history doesn't stop in a book or in a movie. Every day. We all have an opportunity to to push our history forward and the best ways possible, and and for me and Miss Gwen, it's become a real effort to make sure that, I mean, Miss Gwen's been doing it. I'm late to the party, but you know, for getting all residents informed and excited about preserving our historic West Side and making sure those small businesses don't have to go with any rising costs or development in the area.

Dave Washington 25:43
Well, Said, I greatly appreciate it. I trust that all those small businesses appreciate you as well. Any exposure that one can get when they're in business is a good thing. I trust that Wes will be giving me a signal here soon on our timeframe, but you guys have done a great job in terms of the interview, but is there any closing remarks that each of you may have Go ahead?

Gwen Walker 26:09
Gwen, yeah, I was gonna say yes, just for your listening audience to just keep your ears and eyes open for the grand reopening. We will release, have press releases announcing that and letting everyone know about it. It takes time, and of course, because we're not depending on any governmental money, we have to do it out of our pockets, which we've done the whole 30 plus years that we've been doing it. But we welcome donors, or whatever. We are, 501, c3, nonprofit organization, and just look for us. Support us. Anything black that you might have that you don't want, your black magazines, your Black Books, your dolls, anything with a black face on it, if it's about us, for us or by us, to please consider donating it to the walker African American Museum and Research Center.

Dave Washington 26:59
Well said, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and Morehead, Miss Gwen, Mr. Zach. And Zach, I think I've met you before. I think I've seen you around the WSO, you're kind of tall gentleman. And yeah, I think I've seen and met you before. So continue the great work that you're doing, and I trust that folks out there who are interested in doing something will certainly make contact with you in respect to doing some things that documentaries are important, because it helps, again, to capture some of the history of whomever the group may be that is trying to lay down some track to be maintained when we're all gone at some point. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, we had Miss Gwen and Mr. Zach, who are doing phenomenal jobs in the community, with respect to, most recently, doing a documentary on West Las Vegas. So thank you guys, so very much appreciate you, and we'll get you back on again when, as well as you, Zach, to talk about further things that you all are doing. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Dave Sure. And as we close you guys, I want you to pray for our resource, not resource, but our benefits. Officer, Mr. Tony Marshall, like I he's in the recovery mode, so we're going to continue to pray for him. So once again, Veterans Affairs plus 190 1.5 jazz and more, we'll talk to you next weekend. You you

Music 29:04
all the smoke in the air, till the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai