Man 1: Here is a linea of-- Man 2: ¿De ellos?

Man 1: Mm-hmm.

[Indistinct] I get up every day, and I feel grateful.

I feel like I've been given a lot to work with, and so I take on a lot.

Every day is a struggle because we've got so many balls in the air.

Oh, OK. OK. Woman: Can we take one of those shelves for the archiver?

Watkins: No.

Tim Watkins.

We made a 30-year commitment to run this farm as a community benefit center.

We haven't started that 30 years yet because until the state signs off, the clock doesn't start ticking.

[T-Mobile ringtone] Tim Watkins.

We're hoping that when the state comes to the grand opening, they'll see this beautiful complex and understand how important it is in a food desert for people to have access to safe food and how we're making that available.

♪ Woman: For me, this community is very nostalgic.

Man 2: We are taught to survive.

Man: We're talking about the cooks, the artists, the music.

Man 3: I had no idea I was privileged to be in Watts.

I actually spoke my future to life.

Man: That dream is coming to fruition.

Woman 2: When I was coming up, I was loved.

In this neighborhood, I was loved.

Announcer: This program was made possible in part by generous support from Carol Shandler, Paula R. Kendrick, and Nikolai Shandler Bokin.

Man: Get from the big pile.

Woman: That's true.

There's some wet soil.

Man: Yeah.

Woman: I feel like, yeah, the trench.

The trench should be good.

Jones: My name's Malcolm Jones.

I'm a PhD student studying physiology at the University of Southern California.

I'm a first-generation American.

My parents are from West Africa, Liberia, and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

I was born there, and that's where I grew up.

Woman: Yeah.

Just set it down here.

My name is Danielle Hoague.

I am a third-year PhD student at UCLA at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and I grew up in Altadena, California.

According to CalEnviroScreen from the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment, Watts is in the 95th percentile of most polluted communities in California...

Letting it go.

and there are areas in Watts that are actually census tracts in Watts labeled as being in the 100th percentile.

♪ Jones: A lot of the homes in Watts are still serviced with lead pipes.

Lead pipes were outlawed in California in the late 1900s.

Hoague: There was a lead smelting facility that was built right next to Jordan Downs, and when the facility was torn away, there was a reading of 22,000 parts per million of lead.

What is legal in California is 80 parts per million.

That's 275 times the actionable level, actionable.

There's no amount of lead that is safe for the human body, none.

Jones: What should it say, like, zero or undetectable?

Hoague: It should say zero.

Jones: Lead does all these terrible things to the body physically and cognitively.

It halts neurobiological development.

Hoague: When a child is exposed to even a lead paint chip no larger than a fingernail, it's enough to lower their IQ for life.

The same size paint chip if ingested by an infant is enough to put them into a coma or induce death.

Mr. Watkins.

Watkins: Yes.

Hi.

How are you?

Jones: What's up, Mr. Watkins?

I originally met Mr. Watkins, like, two years ago just to support him as a physiologist in an event that they were doing during COVID, and he started to tell me about other things, other problems in Watts, and how I could be helpful in other ways, and I would tell him, "Mr. Watkins, I'm not a activist.

I'm a scientist.

I don't know how to get in front of people and make them do these things, but I can write this paper for you," and he shifted my mindset in that anything that you do when you're fighting for the rights of people makes you an activist.

Hoague: There's a quote by Andrew Highsmith that America is a thousand Flint, Michigans, and it's very true.

What happens in Flint happens everywhere.

It's just that not all communities have the same visibility, and Flint really had to fight for that, and we're willing to fight for Watts in the same way.

Jones: Unmeasurable, so that's what we would hope to see.

Hoague: As a young person, I've found my purpose in life from working here, and I can't say that that's true for a lot of young people, especially with the way that the world is right now, so being able to, even if it's just a little piece of change, if it's just a little thing I can do for Mr. or Mrs. Watkins and continue their legacy, I'll do it.

Jones: He's definitely taken us under his wing and is doing the work to make sure that everything that he's been doing for the last 4 decades and that his father started even longer ago, there's a generation of people who can continue it.

Hoague: Hi.

Man: What's up, Mike Mike?

Krikorian: Man, I remember your wedding when you were walking and then you went into your walk.

[Laughter] Man: Oh, yeah.

Oh, what's going on, big homie?

Krikorian: What's up, man?

Antwine: Everything all right.

Krikorian: Yeah?

Antwine: All Watts up.

Krikorian: I started working for the "Times."

My cousin got me in.

He was a staff writer at the time--Greg Krikorian.

Somebody got shot in Jordan Downs.

Nobody wants to go.

I said, "I'll go get your story."

I didn't say that I used to live in Compton and I have friends in Watts, so I got the story, got other stories, and it kind of became my beat.

How many years you do?

Antwine: Total, 15 1/2.

I keep living my life the way that it is today to try to make up for some of the wrong that I did in the past.

Oh, I truly believe that every time I do something good, God erases one of those Xs out of my bad-boy boxes, and I got a chance, know what I mean?

Krikorian: It was a lot of Xs there for a while.

Antwine: It was a whole bunch of Xs.

My health issues, you know, I can't write.

I can't type like I once did, but, um... life is good today.

That's all I can say, man.

Krikorian: No.

You look good.

Antwine: My life is good today.

Krikorian: You're walking all right?

Anywine: Yeah.

Krikorian: Many times, I'd see stories-- "Robert Johnson--19, gang member--was shot and killed," and that was his whole story--19-year, gang member.

Who was Robert Johnson, you know?

He had a mom.

He had dreams, so I tried to find that out.

Sometimes I would.

Sometimes I would be shut out but, you know, the thing was to make the effort.

Antwine: What's up, Red?

Krikorian: Can we come in?

Red: You guys want to come in?

Krikorian: Sometimes talking to somebody, and they'll say, "What do you do?"

You know, I say, "I'm a journalist."

I like it when they say, "Well what do you cover?"

and I say, "I cover the gangs in Watts.

I cover Watts."

It makes me feel good--ha ha ha!--and they're usually impressed if they have any ears that work.

Lot of people don't have ears that work, so-- Red: I just turned 60.

Krikorian: All 60 here?

Red: Yep.

You know where everybody is, just different units... Krikorian: Yeah.

All right.

Red: but this one is just pretty.

All my bandanas have history, events, learning the ropes, whatever going on around in the hood, Project Babies all along the wall.

Antwine: Flipside, that was one of the little, young homies, you know, some little wannabe gangbanger, and when he turned to walk back in the house, they shot him in the back like the cowards they was and took his life.

Krikorian: At Low's house, right?

Antwine: Yeah.

He was at Low's house.

Krikorian: Right across the street.

Antwine: Yeah, but... Krikorian: People just hear the snippets and the flash on the news--"Shooting in Watts."

You know, if you're old enough, even if you're not old enough, you heard of the Watts riots, and it's the bad part of town for many people who've never been here.

If you come here, it's different, you know?

People are proud to be here.

Part of it is that it is rough, and, you know, you surviving in a rough place makes you proud.

Antwine: We in the heart of Watts.

This is the land that I roam, and I've been here, surviving through it all.

Oh, that's enough out of me.

I'll see you later, Mike.

Yeah.

Rodriguez: I'm Johanna Rodriguez.

I am from the Watts community.

I was born and raised here and did move out when I was 18 years old, went off to college, came back.

I remember my dad convening meetings with leaders from the Housing Authority, bringing LAPD, and managing to get donors to come and donate food, and I think now thinking back, I mean, I'm doing pretty much a little bit of the work that I saw, you know, growing up.

♪ Hi, Sonya.

It's Johanna with the Mayor's Office.

How are you?

With my role now in the city, I oversee Watts down to San Pedro, and it's just so great to get up every morning just to say I'm doing the work in the community that watched me grow, that helped me grow, and it's just something I love.

♪ Man: I'm always the one that's running a little behind, right?

Rodriguez: We're always waiting on you.

Man: I know, I know.

Rodriguez: I see myself as a connector.

I wouldn't say a leader.

I feel like it is my responsibility to make it easy for the future generation to have an easier pathway to leadership positions.

Guerrero: Sounds good.

♪ Rodriguez: How are you?

Man: I am doing good,actually.

Rodriguez: Good.

I'm hot.

Man: Ultimately, it's a job, you know?

Like, these teens, like, you get them to sign up for the youth employment and maybe have them doing it, but they get paid for it, you know?

Rodriguez: Oh, that would be great.

OK, so I can help with the refreshments, the snacks.

Let me figure that out.

If anything, we can try to see if we can get the neighborhood council to, like, help out.

My first year in college, it was our first class.

We were kind of just sharing your name, where you're from.

It gets to me and like, "Oh, OK.

I'm Johanna.

I'm from Watts," and it was like, "Oh, so are you always under your bed because there are so many shootings?"

and it was all these, like, stereotypes, and, I mean, it made me mad.

It made me mad.

[Sniffles] I knew this was, like, a really good moment to share that Watts is not just violence.

It's hard-working people that are just trying to make ends meet and better themselves and better the lives of their future generations.

[Women speaking Spanish] Rodriguez: I think it's so important that we're aware about these stereotypes that our community has, and it's just a time to just prove them wrong.

That's the Watts pride.

We know where we come from.

We know that Watts is not just a gang-infested community.

It's so much more.

Krikorian: I don't have many rules in my life, but one of them is to not leave when somebody first says, "Get the [beep] out of here," you know.

You might eventually have to leave, but don't leave on that first one.

They call you what?

Mendenhall: Big Mama.

Krilorian: No more sister-- You'll always be Sista Soulja to me.

Mendenhall: I'm Big Mama now.

Remember, the last time I seen you was at the wine tasting... Krikorian: Yeah.

Mendenhall: with Deshawn.

They invited Deshawn... Krikorian: Right, yeah.

Mendenhall: and then when Deshawn came out, and that's what I'm doing, that, too.

I'm here housing gay and lesbians and trans.

Krikorian: Well, you go to 10 guys, and you're not going to get to trust that way, but then you talk to them individually and talk to them as a human being, you know, it was like, "Hey, I just want to get your side of this story," and they would get there.

Mendenhall: We got a lot of trans in our community.

Krikorian: In here?

Mendenhall: All over because a lot of them want to commit suicide because their family, if they Christians, they turn their back on them.

Even regular people, they turn their back on them, but they're not monsters.

They're human beings.

All they need is love.

Krikorian: Just take a lot of effort, you know, repeated attempts, them maybe sometimes telling me things and say, "Don't write this," and I didn't and getting to slowly getting the trust of somebody like you would in any situation.

Mendenhall: Deshawn, you look pretty.

Deshawn: Thanks, Mama.

Lunch?

Mendenhall: Uh-huh.

Krikorian: How long ago we do that story?

Deshawn: Um, it was a minute, huh?

Krikorian: 10 years?

So has it gotten any easier for you for just being, you know, who you are?

Cole: Yeah.

Yeah.

It get easy, you know, but there's always a challenge.

Krikorian: Remember when-- Of course you do.

You told me.

It was rough.

Cole: You know, there's always a challenge, you know, but-- Krikorian: How old were you?

Cole: Then?

I was probably, like, 20-something.

Krikorian: You had to prove to them that you could fight, too, right?

Cole: You already know.

You got to prove that everywhere.

Krikorian: Every day still.

Cole: Every day everywhere, you know, and some people get to really know you-- Krikorian: Do people still [beep] with you?

Cole: Uh-uh.

Krikorian: No.

This is not something that you're going to get in a week or two.

I mean, I've been coming here for, you know, 25 years.

Few things happened at the beginning that I earned my respect, and I was just Mike.

I wasn't the white guy.

I was just Mike, you know?

So Sista says now they calling her something else.

Cole: Big Mama.

Krikorian: Big Mama.

Yeah.

Where'd Big Mama go?

Let's go see.

Cole: She's about to set up.

You know, she do the afterschool program with the kids and stuff.

♪ Jones: Anything that's accepted as a branch of science today just started off as an observation, so the people who are living here in Watts, if they feel that something is wrong, that's the observation, and they start making these hypotheses of, "Everybody who's drinking this water is getting sick after they drink the water," so they start investigating it, and they're getting closer to what they think the hypothesis of the root issue is, and now we come in, and we test the water for lead, which we did.

20% of the homes that we found are above the actionable level, which is already the legal level that the government has to intervene to clean the water.

I think the first thing I'll do is, I'll get your blood pressure, and I'll get your body composition.

We--as scientists from UCLA, USC, CSUN, and Charles Drew University--all we're doing is applying our validated methods to the research that they've already done.

We're going to be measuring the lead in people's bones, the lead in people's urine samples, and the actual lead in people's water to corroborate these findings.

This is measuring your heart activation.

One of the things that lead can do is, it disrupts your nervous system and essentially how your heart operates.

LADWP, they write a report every year, and they tell people about the safety of the water.

They tell everybody about their process, so I looked at the report for 2020, and I said, "OK.

Cool.

They said that it's clean.

Let me see how they decide," and Watts was considered Central L.A., and the findings were averaged in with some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in L.A. [Beeping] That's how you blunt that there's an issue.

If there's a neighborhood that's more likely to have an issue, mix it in with this neighborhood that's really good, and then it'll average out, and it won't look like there's an issue.

OK, so we'll do 3 on the right as low as you can get it and then 3 on the left.

Instead of working with us to corroborate our information, they're telling us that, "We understand, but we already wrote this report, and it says that there's no lead contamination."

It is my responsibility to be really clear and provide irrefutable evidence of that, and then I also have the solution for them, and that's what we're doing as BWI.

We're not just shouting and telling people that there's a problem.

Literally, we're packaging it up.

We're putting a bow on it.

We can put that into the hands of the politicians in the area, and now they can advocate to solve the problem.

There is no longer an excuse for these environmental and health injustices to continue in Watts.

Mr. Watkins opened our eyes, all of our PhD students who are in the program.

Yeah.

He's like Morpheus pulling this out of the Matrix and saying, like, "Yeah.

You're doing these things that will change the world, but you have to know the people that you're doing them for, and you have to be able to get this into their homes and get this into their hearts," so we've been given this opportunity to make sure that everything that we do has purpose because now when I'm looking at the words that I'm writing and I'm looking at the data that I'm analyzing, I have this picture of the people in Watts that I'm doing it for, and it gives us purpose that we definitely did not have before we started doing work here.

Woman" The Last Lady Standing, that's my e-mail address until I leave this Earth.

Hoague: Being a researcher and being someone that looks like they could be from the community, being someone who can be trusted, that's, like, another really important piece of being able to do scholar activist work.

Woman: Ujima Village was built on top of a oil tank... Hoague: Mm-hmm.

Woman: and according to the attorneys, we should have known the place was contaminated.

Hoague: I read the case that you sent to me.

Woman: Right.

We should have known?

Hoague: I feel like it's my responsibility to use my research skills to be able to advocate for the people of Watts...

I was going to ask if you have a faucet that hasn't been run as much today.

Like, I know that you said that you have two bathrooms.

Woman: Maybe outside faucet.

Hoague: Yeah.

[Water running] Woman: OK. Hoague: OK. ...being a researcher and going into the community with the project that I want to do, asking the community members, "What is it that you need?"

and then being able to use my position as a student and becoming an expert to give voice to community.

I told you that I called Kleinfelder, right, the ExxonMobil people who did the-- Woman: No.

You didn't tell me.

Hoague: They sent me these new maps.

They said that they couldn't send me the ones from 2010... Woman: Mm-hmm.

Hoague: because we needed them digitally, and, because they wouldnt send them to me, we had to go and get them scanned for $750.

I think my work as a social scientist has really drawn me to this place because I'm interested in how lead ends up in a place like Watts.

I'm going to test the tap water because if this house has lead pipes, it'll read.

Any kind of lead that is brought into the home from water, soil, dust, or lead paint is harmful.

It's harmful to anyone's health but specifically children, who have more hand-to-mouth contact and ingest more.

That is what is so detrimental to the population here, and it is why people have a truncated lifespan, so if the water doesn't get you, the soil will get you.

Woman: And then my daughter, she done had 3 operations, tumors in her throat.

Initially, I asked, "Where did I get this from?"

and what they said firstly was like, "It could be environmental.

We don't know."

Hoague: To be able to provide facts based on what we do know is true, we're able to give veracity to the claims of the residents here.

I can drive us in my car.

Smith: Thank you, because my car is-- Hoague: My car's a mess right now.

Smith: This is Ujima Village.

Aint it nice?

All of this was apartments and townhouses, and my apartment was right over here.

♪ Hoague: Environmental justice is something that has been kind of cropping up, especially, like, with what the EPA is trying to do, what different state agencies are trying to do, and our job is to get Watts in front of them to make sure that this marginalized community is being pushed to the center of what's going on.

Smith: That's what people say-- "What are you fighting for?"

I'm fighting for justice.

Justice need to be done.

Hoague: Mm-hmm.

♪ Krikorian: I always say that Watts is just just a good place with a lot of warmth, and I know people.

They're my friends.

I call them up, you know, call them up just to check on them or go by.

Man 1: Oh, hey, this is my boy Mike right here, man.

Man 2: Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember.

I met him unofficially a few times.

What's up, Mike?

Krikorian: Yeah.

How you doing, man?

Man 2: I'm cool, man.

Yeah, absolutely.

Man 1: Hey, let's get a picture right here by this.

This is history, Mike.

Krikorian: I should throw the Watts sign.

Watkins: Yeah.

Throw it out.

Throw it out.

What the hell?

Come on.

It's on my camera.

Throw it up.

Watts up, y'all.

It's my man Mike.

This is a building--the Mafundi Building.

This is where rap started at.

This was the Watts Writers Workshop, where Budd Schulberg used to shoot the movies.

Krikorian: "On the Waterfront."

Watkins: Yeah, "On the Waterfront."

Yeah.

He's the one that started the Watts Writers Workshop.

He's the one that came after the '65 riot and started the Watts Writers Workshop.

Krikorian: That's my favorite movie.

Watkins: Yeah.

Yeah.

Krikorian: "It was you, Charlie."

Watkins: Yeah.

Ha ha ha!

Krikorian: "It was you."

Watkins: This is Otis right here from the Watts Prophets.

He's just the one who just passed.

Krikorian: Yeah.

Watkins: Rest in peace, my man.

Krikorian: Yeah.

Watkins: He did a lot for a lot of people in this community.

A lot of artists and a lot of actors came out of here.

Krikorian: Created that movement for the--you know, let the art come out.

Watkins: That's right.

That's what it was all about--the art, man.

Art is what's keeping this history alive.

♪ Krikorian: I was at this party and talking with some other guy, and I said, "Where are you from?"

and he kind of, "Well, I'm, uh, um-- Well, I'm from Beverly Hills."

I said, "Man, you from the place everybody kind of wants to live at, and you're ashamed of it, sounds like.

If you were from Watts and if I say, "Where are you from? "

then youd say, "I'm from Watts, You know?

And be proud of it Woman: The seventies, early seventies, I was in plays on that stage right in there.

Krikorian: OK. Woman: I grew up in the Jordan Downs from '58 to '65, the year of the riot.

I saw so much, I got a story to tell.

I'm going to tell my story.

Watkins: That's right, Queen.

Woman: Bless you.

Krikorian: Well, tell it to me.

Ha ha ha!

Luja: There's so many misconceptions about Watts.

People always think, "There's nothing good comes from Watts.

It's all bad."

No, it's not.

It's greatness.

It's magic.

It's soul.

It's a ebony people that are creating.

From 1905 to 1955, for 50 years, Central Avenue in Watts was the hallmark of jazz, poetry, culture, creativity in the whole world right here.

Watkins: Look what this say right here--"Rap established in 1971 in Watts, California"... Luja: Absolutely.

Watkins: right here.

Krikorian: This is the roughest neighborhood in Los Angeles and the proudest.

Watkins: We in our fifties, and we still right here, still riding for Watts, still representing for Watts and tryin to teach our kids there's a better way, but ain't no place better than Watts.

I'm happy to be with you, brother.

Luja: I love you, brother.

Watkins: I love you, too.

Luja: To be continued, man.

Watkins: That's right.

Yes, sir.

Luja: To be continued.

Watkins: Watts forever.

♪ Wong: Welcome to MudTown Farms free produce giveaway.

Thank you so much for volunteering your time, your efforts to help the community.

Tim Watkins: Poverty is not the cause of poor quality of life in Watts.

Poor public policy is the cause.

Poverty is a symptom.

We've been manipulated into thinking that we're poor people when actually, we're just stuck in a poor place.

If I end up being known for anything, I want to be known for setting examples of how people can work their way through seemingly impossible challenges.

Wong: See this onion here?

It's obviously moldy.

It's not something that you would eat.

Put it in the compost bin.

We bring it to the farm, and then we put it in our compost bins to make compost for the soil.

♪ Announcer: This program was made possible in part by generous support from Carol Shandler, Paula R. Kendrick and Nikolai Shandler Bokin.