Before You Go

When searching Richard Press Online Gallery be prepared to experience a powerful variety of an artist's rendition of humanity on canvas. Mr. Press is a renowned artist located in Hampton, VA. This lifelong painter, muralist and educator is busier than ever with his contributions to community. 

Mr. Press' painting "Here Today Gone Tomorrow" is featured in  documentary produced by USA Today. His murals have also captured the attention of the masses.

Before You Go hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh take listeners on a detailed tour of his artistic journey.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles, CA.

At the time of this recording, the Port of Los Angeles has 45,000 jobs available. Working for the Port means being in the company of a business that pulls in $1.5 billion per day. Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh have an eye-opening chat with Joe Gatlin about the Port and the close-knit community that borders it, San Pedro, CA. Gatlin is a member of the family who sued the Port in the 1970s for equitable hiring. The Port--often referred to as the country's economic engine--is a union-led opportunity for numerous careers and for day workers as well. In this interview audiences may be surprised at how this community provided paths toward racial harmony just by being good neighbors.   

Special shoutout to KBLA host and colleague Najah Roberts for the introduction to Mr. Gatlin and this compelling story.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles, CA.

Robert Branscomb is a veteran, pilot and for a number of years--and still today in his 80's--a generous, experienced financial advisor with a specialty in insurance offerings. How do you make financial planning purposeful and profitable? And how do you avoid embarrassing the family when it comes to end of life decisions? Mr. Branscomb, a Purple Heart veteran, speaks candidly on all with Nicole, Bryant and to audience members in need of advice. And Mr. Branscomb's travels in a very special pilot-for-a-day program for children will warm your heart.

This episode premiered on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles, CA.

This episode follows days after a tragic event in the United States--in Buffalo known as the City of Good Neighbors.  Eva M. Doyle writes her column of 44 years "Eye On History" for the nearly 100-year-old Black newspaper The Buffalo Criterion. Ms. Doyle--known as Mother Doyle--happened to change her plans from her routine 2pm Saturday grocery run to Tops Supermarket  and picked up her dry cleaning instead. She avoided death that day. But her colleague, fellow writer Katherine "Kat" Massey, did not. At the time of this recording, Mother Doyle published a column remembering Ms. Massey and the nine other community members fatally shot at the hands of a white supremacist.

Mother's Doyle's work as a writer and historian may be  found at Evamdoyle.com. 

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles.

Isaac Turner, Jr. was introduced to our program Before You Go by KBLA Talk 1580 host Najah Roberts. This 98-year-old war veteran appears with daughter Julia Hardman and recalls war stories from five invasions. Mr. Turner entered the Navy as a cook under Generals Eisenhower, MacArthur and Nimitz and when under attack, all hands were on deck. During one direct hit to their naval ship, Turner survived, but lost five of his best friends all at once. After the war ended Mr. Turner moved his young family from Shreveport, LA to Los Angeles where he at one time held two jobs while fighting for fair wages for women as a member of the UAW union. 

Mr. Turner also built the rocket booster used in the early years of the space shuttle program. He worked on commercial jets and other aerospace projects while establishing a good life for his wife of 71 years and their four children.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles.

When news personalities such as Ted Koppel and Walter Cronkite delivered news from overseas, broadcast audiences probably were not aware of who was manning/woman-ing the foreign desks of network newsrooms at the Big Three:  ABC, CBS and NBC. Eric V. Tait, Jr. and Stephen C. Miller give the inside report on how they made decisions--decisions for which they often had to fight to cover--that brought diverse story coverage into the living rooms during the early years of television news. These two and their African American colleagues played a big role in some exceptional reporting.

Stephen C. Miller went on to write for the New York Times and is now authoring a number of books. Eric V. Tait, Jr. still produces and hosts a weekly series, Media Watch, to monitor the standards of African American present-day coverage. 

We also acknowledge the incredible storytelling brought to us by Eric's award-winning documentary, Then I'll Be Free To Travel Home hosted by the late Lena Horne, which features the uncovering of the African Burial Ground in Manhattan--one of the largest archeological discoveries on the planet. Be sure to visit www.evted2.org for viewing.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles.

The LAUSD has been blessed with numerous dedicated educators, one of whom is Caldwell Williams. Mr. Williams was referred to Before You Go hosts Nicole Franklin and  Bryant Monteilh by a listener and fellow veteran friend of his, Farron Dozier, who considers Mr. Williams a mentor. We quickly learn why.

This 88-year-old educator and mental health expert is very sharp as he carefully recounts his detailed journey through several teaching assignments as a Black male educator in the public schools of Los Angeles. His work--and success--with the "troublemakers" in the classroom quickly lead him to the role of guidance counselor where his students sought out the "cool former athlete" to help make it through the day. It worked. Students excelled, and their confidence soared. Soon adults requested Mr. Williams' meditation and counseling sessions and, as a former veteran, Mr. Williams recognized how he could get through to those military men and women who had closed themselves off after a tough tour of duty.

An episode with Mr. Williams taught us lessons everyone can use for a lifetime.

Before You Go:  Lessons in the LAUSD first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles. 

When Nicole Franklin first met Adger Cowans years ago in New York City she knew other being an extremely talented artist and photographer, he has a welcoming spirit that has put thousands of his subjects through the years at ease. With Adger on the mic, both Bryant and Nicole have a wonderful time recalling his childhood in Columbus, OH, weekend trips to New York to hear jazz greats eventually moving in with his mentor Gordon Parks, and falling out of his seat twice when it was time for a gorgeous nude model to disrobe. From encounters with the Fondas on the set of Golden Pond, to Sidney Poitier running out of the room when setting eyes on Adger's photograph of Diahann Carroll in a bikini, to punching a colleague in the face just to turn around and ask for a signature making Adger the first Black photographer in International Cinematographers Guild Local 600.  Adger Cowans is the supreme example of a life well lived and now, in his mid-80s, he's busier than ever.  

For more with Adger, visit his website @ AdgerCowans.com and pick up his book Art in the Moment: Life and Times of Adger Cowans.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles, CA.

Welcome to Before You Go Season 3!

Early in life things seem to have come easy to military veteran Frank Coats. When drafted to the front lines of the Korean War, Coats was promoted to sergeant within a year. But he quickly found out racism often puts African Americans in harm's way. Staying employed and living life responsibly had  its difficulties--even grave ones--but Mr. Coats and his never-give-up attitude came through. 

Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh are reminded of life's solid principles during this conversation with Mr. Coats who  had to do a deal under the table when purchasing his home as only the second African American family to settle in Compton, CA.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580.

Carmen de Lavallade grew up in a Mexican neighborhood in East Los Angeles and started dancing as a teenager. It was her time with Lester Horton that inspired her teaching and choreography career.  She was so inspired she invited her junior high school friend Alvin Ailey, to study dance with Horton as well. Both dancers moved to New York to star in an all-star cast of the Broadway show "House of Flowers." On this show she met her husband, Geoffrey Holder who was "always chasing after me." Their love story of 60 years captured our hearts. Ms. de Lavallade is also the first cousin of Janet Collins, the first Black ballerina to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. When Ms. Collins retired from her position, Ms. de Lavallade was her replacement. 

Dance under Ms. Carmen de Lavallade's influence became a celebration of Black talent in a variety of spaces. She's got the Kennedy Center Honor to prove it!

Brava, Ms. de Lavallade!

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580, Los Angeles.