Growth & Grace

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This is a kunv Studios original program.

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The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group, Harris capital Mortgage Group, Tiffany Lloyd consulting and Chris glow, and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jasmine Moore, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even

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better than I was the last time, baby, we back,

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we back and we back and we back.

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Hey, hey, welcome to growth and Grace radio with Leo Crawford and Tiffany Lloyd. How's everybody doing today? Hey, super excited to be joined today with Mr. Aaron Arrington. Say hey to the people, a to the people. And Shonda Johnson, hey, hey, we are going to be talking about souls to the polls and faith in action Nevada. So let's get this party started. You guys have some events coming up. We're moving into the season of elections. Elections, right? Elections. So I want to hear about what your initiatives are, but first, I want to hear about you. Tell us a little bit about who you are. We'll start with you.

Unknown Speaker 1:29
Yeah. So I'm the executive director of faith in action Nevada. I became the director in 2022 after we became a statewide organization after solely being based in Northern Nevada, the Reno Sparks area, and we are a multi faith statewide organization that is working to end racial and economic injustice while also building a more inclusive democracy. Ooh,

Unknown Speaker 1:56
I have questions. How about you, Erin? Tell us a little bit about who you

Unknown Speaker 2:01
are. I am Aaron Arrington, the owner of Aaron Arrington events. I have a luxury event planning company, and I'm a native son of Las Vegas, and I am a man of faith. So I am so excited to be working with Sean Doug Johnson and the faith in action Nevada to help get the souls to the polls.

Unknown Speaker 2:17
So in regards to the faith in action initiatives. What are some of the initiatives that you guys have, that you have found have been successful so far?

Unknown Speaker 2:27
Yeah, so, I mean, really the the tools of organizing is, is the initiative, but for election year, it's a increasingly unique opportunity for us to galvanize communities, since it's being talked about nationally, and so one of our best initiatives during this time is the we will vote initiative, which is our efforts to register, educate and mobilize voters of color, to turn out to vote, so that we increase Our ability to create systems change, to transform our communities. So

Unknown Speaker 3:03
what type of educational aspects Do you infuse into the community? Because a lot of people don't understand policy. They don't understand what's truly going on. All they know is you're telling me to go vote for somebody. But how are they affecting me. How do they benefit me? How do you educate the population that you're in, which is really, you know, and Nevada both, right? Do you do and sparks like all over Nevada? Yes, awesome. Yeah, awesome. So how do you educate the people of our communities? Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 3:36
we do it by engaging faith communities. So we actually go into the congregations and do series of trainings around power, around understanding our you know, our politics, around what it takes to build power, to transform our systems. Right now, we have a civic education program that started, oh, starts today, actually, and goes for the next two and a half weeks, where we're taking folks from the very basics of our political systems all the way through to organizing. So

Unknown Speaker 4:08
are you doing? I have a question for you, because what I hear a lot is people don't know what the offices do, they don't and what they are responsible for, correct? So is that part of your education that say is, so you can't ask the mayor right about a school district question, correct two different issues. And if you want policy for statewide, that is your assembly and senate, exactly. And if you want something federally, that's Congress and your US senators, yes.

Unknown Speaker 4:34
So we go through, actually, each of the the particular positions, their responsibilities, their jurisdictions. We also help folks identify what are, who are their representatives, so that they know, right? If I'm having an issue with you, know, too much trash, right? Collecting, you're not going to call your assembly member for that, as you said, right? There's local, uh. Elected officials that you need to know who you're supposed to talk to about what things you're seeing happen in your community. So

Unknown Speaker 5:06
I have, I mean, I have this famous saying that politics are local always. Politics are always local. And I know during presidential years, people tend to come out more yes for presidential Yes. And this is an interesting presidential race, very least, to say the least, say the least, because we got the same word. I mean her, like the same word. So to say the least, how do you engage people, not only to vote for the top, but to go down

Unknown Speaker 5:37
ballot. Down ballot so important, I think it starts with the education right. To your point, if people know right who's responsible for doing what in their community, that gives them a bigger understanding of why it's important to vote down ballot. So talking to them about those particular races in the education program we do go through all that, right? We're going to be talking to them about what each of the positions do, how they're elected, right? Who should also run for office? So many times, we think that running for office is something that those other folks are supposed to do, but we believe that those closest to the pain are the ones best suited to create the solutions, and so we need more of people who are experiencing the worst of our systems to actually run for office. I

Unknown Speaker 6:32
love that I love that I love that I love that because, yeah, I love that because I do have because I also work in campaigns, and I do have some clients that are currently running, but what I can say is the everyday person is challenging, though, because of the money that you have to

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raise. And I was going to order right down that right

Unknown Speaker 6:57
in order, you know, now, there were situations where you know, if you it's grassroots and you got to walk your district, yes, right, but educating them to know that you got to be able to connect with everyone. Because this is a very diverse the districts are diverse here, very, very diverse. So you have to be able to connect with everyone, yeah, in order to run for office. But that's a whole different show. But back

Unknown Speaker 7:21
to engaging, that's a whole different show. I was going was like, I was going to rebut that with, no, you don't, but that is a definitely a different show. And

Unknown Speaker 7:30
I'll ask you about Tiffany. You do because the thing about these districts are they are not like and we had this conversation. It's different when you're in some of the major cities. And so in my neighborhood in Philly, it's all black neighborhoods. So our person in our neighborhood was representing all the black people, and it was all black neighborhood, 90s percent black, 10% other. And you go to the next neighborhood, it was something different. So our representative just had to interact with the black folks in the neighborhood. That's not the case here, right? Most of the districts are very diverse. Are very diverse, and you have to be able to connect with everyone, because everyone has different issues. So it makes it a little bit more, you know, challenging, but I agree more people need to run, need to be groomed to run for all that part, because it's not just I, you know,

Unknown Speaker 8:20
I go and sign up, right, right? And the other big piece, though, is why organizing is so important, because once these folks decide to run, we as a community have to come behind them, right, and actually put them in office. Yeah, it's not enough just for someone to decide. It does take the community being educated, being aware and being activated, to go to the polls and vote, because

Unknown Speaker 8:44
you can't run for office and think you're gonna do it on Facebook and Instagram. Gotta hit the street. Well, I said, Yeah. I said, what I said? I said, what I said? No Tiktok, well, because the

Unknown Speaker 8:59
talk might get you.

Unknown Speaker 9:03
But the thing about it is, No, you really have to get out there and walk you do and knock on doors, because the people that I've seen that have been successful are the ones that hit the street. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 9:16
and I would like to take it a bit further, for those who are actually running for office. It's not enough to canvass. It's not enough to knock on doors. What you say you're going to do, the initiatives that you say are yours, your empowered passion. Let it translate once we get you into the office, because so many times they're running their mouths and it sounds good, and then they get into office, and it's a whole new ball game. And I think a lot of Americans are disenchanted by that, not just at the local level, but by our by DC, there's always a bunch of talk. We all these promises. We're going to do this. We're going to do this for you. We're going, you know, we're going to cancel student debt. We're going to and it sounds good to an uneducated voter be. Because, oh, I'm gonna get we're gonna get Trump back in office. He gonna give us another stipend, another stipulate. What is a stimulus check? He gonna give us another stimulus check. Do you even know what that would cost you if he were to do that? But most people don't know. They don't understand. They go for the bells and whistles of what sounds good. So I love that your organization educates from the ground level, so people understand the role of the representative, but I want to put the onus on the representative as well, do your job, do your job,

Unknown Speaker 10:28
but also in doing your job, what I can say is, for them, I see, when you go into those offices and you have said agenda, it might not be easy to move that needle. It's never easy to move right, never. And you can have but no, but you can have a passion right, and you want to do and you could be really trying to it might take you five years to move that needle right, because you have to power, because once you get up, you got a politic wherever you go,

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this is long term. It's long

Unknown Speaker 11:00
term, long term gain, but I put you in Office, Office under a certain initiative. I need to see where you going over those five years. Are you actually working? And so many get in office and they forget what got them there and and it's okay sometimes that you realize, oh, I can't do this. That's when you go back to your constituents and say, Hey, this is what I originally tried to do. This happened, communicate with us, truly a democratic society, and we're putting you there as a representative for us. You need to actually share information with us more openly and honestly. Got it so you can, I talk about honesty?

Unknown Speaker 11:39
Okay, you've been listening to the film. You've been listening to growth and grace with me, Leah Crawford and Tiffany Lloyd, and we have these amazing guests here with us. We have Miss Shonda Johnson with faith in action and Mr. Aaron Arrington, thank you for the introduction. I truly, truly appreciate it

Unknown Speaker 11:59
when I bet Shonda, I said, I've got somebody that you have to be just not even on about radio, just your personalities are just you two are just powerful, super women.

Unknown Speaker 12:09
Thank you. Thank you. But all right, so back to your to the education. So we someone's someone signs up to get more information. Is there a website that we need to go to. What is your website? Yeah.

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So do we still say the www? I'm aging myself. I'm aging myself.

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And sometimes I think if I do, you have to, because

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Siri, you do not have Yeah, right.

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So it's faith in action. Nv.org,

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so is faith? Spell out faith, yes. Faith. I A,

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I T, H, I N, A, C, T, I O, N, N, v.org,

Unknown Speaker 12:51
so faith in action.org. Is there a contact number? If someone wants to reach out, can you share the contact? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 12:56
so our number is 7754402, 54401662,

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say it again, 775-440-1662,

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so I want to talk about this event that's coming up, because I really want to talk about this because when I read this, I saw the Facebook grab with that air.

Unknown Speaker 13:19
You know it's

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y'all are bringing the noise so, you know, because the Facebook chorale was, was very popular,

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tell us how it began. Yeah, tell

Unknown Speaker 13:32
Yeah. Tell us where we did it stop, where I don't humble begin. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 13:37
well, I would like, I told you all when I introduced myself, I'm a faith based kid. I grew up in the church all my life, but you know, you kind of fall out of the church as you grow older. And in my 30s, I was just coming back from LA and that kind of wasn't doing church, if that makes sense, that I wasn't doing church. So God says there were some things that I've asked God for, and he says, you've got some back work to do. And I just, I'm over the, you know, just singing to the Choir, Choir Director, choir musician. And so I just missed seeing so many and working with so many friends that I grew up with and I was turning 40. Where did

Unknown Speaker 14:13
you meet these friends? Though? Just in a church. Childhood, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:16
just growing up Tiffany, her mom. And, I mean, just, I was citywide, citywide, yeah, and going to church. Our churches were like brothers and sisters. We

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were so interconnected. We really we would sing and

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go to hamburger heaven, right, talk in the parking lot, go back, go

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back to somebody else.

Unknown Speaker 14:33
I'm going to say this. I'm saying this out loud. Hi, Miss Jocelyn Oates, if you listen Absolutely, hi, Miss Jocelyn. Yeah. TT Jocelyn, we

Unknown Speaker 14:41
I mean, it would, it was nothing for to be in church from 11 o'clock or Sunday school to Sunday night service. And they had church choirs. I love, I love choir music.

Unknown Speaker 14:51
Go ahead. Henrietta, go ahead. Uh huh. We

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hear you. Henrietta, choir director, who's an incredible choir director. So anyway, I asked 40 friends to come and sell. Pray with me for my 40th birthday. I'm going to do a big concert. All I asked them to do is invite four of their friends. I love it. And Facebook was new. It was a 92 it was, you know, so I hadn't seen people, yeah, 2002 so I would, did not know who would come. And the turnout was absolutely amazing. I mean this and so the concert was over. They we want more. We want more. And I was like, No, we've only practiced six songs. We're done. So they were like, No, do it next year. And it grew even, you know, so on my stage, I've had probably up to 300 400 voices at one

Unknown Speaker 15:33
time. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, I know that sounds good. Did you ever think about recording it? We're

Unknown Speaker 15:38
preparing for that. Okay, yeah, God blessed us. Two years. Last year, we were in London. We were able to travel with the Donald Lawrence, well, he's taken over the Edward Hawkins music and arts seminar and his, you know, God blesses so wretched soul. Edward Hawkins passed, and Donald wanted to take the music and arts abroad. Okay, so we were in London last year, and that was an experience. When I tell you I have never seen I

Unknown Speaker 16:05
have an idea for you, but I'm not going to share it on the air. I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you because and this idea, yeah, I'm going to share with you. So go ahead. So talk, talk. So that's, that's the background. That's a y'all are coming here.

Unknown Speaker 16:17
Well, we're here. I mean, so being in China, she, as a faith organizer myself, she wants, she wants to do a big kickoff to get sold to the polls, to push early voting. So we came up with this great concept. And I don't know if anybody our special guest on this day, on September 29 Yes, will be Vincent bohannanny, and he has a hit song that says, We will fight. We will win. We will fight. Okay, so when she gave me her vision, I says, Hey, I've got the perfect guy to come in and collaborate with Facebook corral. So it's going to be an amazing praise and worship experience. And we're going to, you know, download some information on what people need to do and register people. Will be registering people to vote, to vote, to vote, and Phone Banking and canvassing. We have we've got work to do. Got work.

Unknown Speaker 17:10
Yes, it's a free gospel concert, free. That is amazing. Aaron said he don't do for free. So you come out to this free concert, you will also receive a free T shirt. Yes, you will for for signing your voting pledge.

Unknown Speaker 17:26
It's a day of unity. So we've gone to churches, and congregations are coming, okay? So they're all wearing the same uniform, the same uniform, but the t shirt will be the uniform for the day, and I'm calling it your ticket to get in. So we're at the church to go to 11 o'clock service. Okay, support. And you know, we have stuff for them to do at their church and campaign and and then come to four o'clock and Let's all celebrate as a city

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like we did back in

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the day.

Unknown Speaker 17:54
The location is unity Baptist Church, 543, Marion drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89110, again, that's unity, Baptist Church, 543, Marion drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89110, and the doors open at three. The concert starts at four. Yes, and if you

Unknown Speaker 18:12
don't have a T shirt, I suggest that you get there two, 230 because you could, you know, we'll have time to change. But wear something casual. It's a casual event. You can just pretty much slip your T shirt right over your outfit. I mean, over your you know, whatever you're

Unknown Speaker 18:23
wearing, nice. But wait,

Unknown Speaker 18:24
there's more. Tell us about the canvassing event. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 18:28
souls to the polls. So for those not familiar, souls to the polls is a is a project that was created within the black church to try to get people of faith and their broader community to turn out to voting. So we actually took a delegation of folks to Miami to see one of the biggest souls to those in the country, and took great notes, and we coming back to Las Vegas to put together implement and a program that I don't think Vegas is ready for, although Vegas is, you know, it's showtime,

Unknown Speaker 19:05
capital of the world, common, yeah, entertainment of capital the world, yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 19:10
it's really, it's, it's, it's part of our effort to make voting part of the fabric of who we are. Voting is something that you do for yourself, but also for your community, right? It's a communal decision that you're making for who your represent, who your representatives are, and what issues matter to you, and we think that that should be something celebrated, just like we do anniversaries, just like we do graduations. It is, it is something that we can do as a as a group of people, to transform our communities. So we are making sure that the celebration happens in a major way. And so congregations are going to meet and parade over to the polling location, and then we're going to throw a big old party for those that go in, drop off their ballots, vote, and then all the festivities. I love this.

Unknown Speaker 19:59
So. Much. So if you're just tuning in, you're listening to growth and Grace radio with Tiffany Lloyd and Leah Crawford, and we are joined today with Mr. Aaron Arrington. I want to hear more about your events. Okay, so we're gonna skip a little bit and with Shonda Johnston. Today we're talking about voting in the community, education in the community, and the events that are coming to our valley to help support that initiative. So excited about this,

Unknown Speaker 20:29
so souls to the polls. Is that nucleus Plaza? Because we didn't say nucleus Plaza 900 West Owens, I know that. I know the address box because I love nucleus Plaza. Nucleus Plaza um, 900 West Owens. It's 89106, so it's in, um, it's there. And I want to tell you I think that is amazing, because I have girlfriends I know for me, me and my son go to vote. Me and my daughter used to go to vote, because when a show, you know, hey, and I take them and know, you can put, you know, look at the buttons and see. And what I love about Nevada, everybody's going to get a mail in ballot. Everybody, everybody gets a ballot, yes, so you can read your ballot and understand the questions. Tiff. We got to have a show talking about the questions. We got to bring somebody in that's an expert on the questions. Okay? Because that's actually really good. Yeah. We need some Yeah. Because yeah, understand the question

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that be you.

Unknown Speaker 21:20
I know some folks that know even more than I know definitely, because I have a few thing about because we really want to understand the questions that are on this very important, because you don't know, because yes don't mean yes. Yes means no, right, which is very tricky. Language is interesting, but we want to understand the language so that we understand what we are voting for, yes,

Unknown Speaker 21:42
especially for the younger voters that are uneducated, and then the elderly voters who are just marking what they think they should be marking. That's brilliantly one

Unknown Speaker 21:52
of the questions

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that was raised in Miami was, does your community look like your voting record? Does your community look like or bear your voted record

Unknown Speaker 22:05
so that low voter turnout has a direct correlation with why your community doesn't have the services and supports that it needs,

Unknown Speaker 22:13
cleaners, restaurants, good,

Unknown Speaker 22:16
good one. Miami,

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okay, Miami,

Unknown Speaker 22:19
no, you don't have but the thing about it is that so one thing I can say about the Las Vegas Valley, having lived in a whole bunch of different cities, this is the one city where most neighborhoods are self contained, because I know where I live. There are four grocery stores, a bunch of restaurants, a bunch of stuff to do. There's a gym, schools. You know, Vegas has been real good at planning communities, to me, having lived in other cities where you had to drive across town to go to the grocery store, there's

Unknown Speaker 22:49
up here also that you have to drive across town, yeah, but

Unknown Speaker 22:56
it's not a lot, it's not a lot of them, but they're here. They're here, okay, got it understood,

Unknown Speaker 23:03
historical neighborhoods.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
Okay, you

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just I mean it rhymes with near nucleus on Saturday, October 19, for our canvassing event,

Unknown Speaker 23:19
we are making some noise.

Unknown Speaker 23:22
Is from 10am to 5pm you guys get some education while you're having a great time. You have food, you have a DJ, you have raffles going on, entertainment and entertainment. Yes, yeah. Oh, entertainment.

Unknown Speaker 23:35
No, not. Facebook crowd. This is this gonna be worldly? Frankie Beverly, baby,

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may rest? May he rest? No

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white shoes allowed.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
No white shoes allowed. Labor Day is over. Let's talk white no white shoe after Labor Day.

Unknown Speaker 23:55
No, you white sneakers. White sneakers Can't they can't go, but the

Unknown Speaker 24:01
white shoes, okay, let's go. Let's go.

Unknown Speaker 24:02
Got the white pants, and I'm only messing with you. I had to go there, though.

Unknown Speaker 24:08
Okay, but before we run out of time, if you need more information, faith in action, Nevada, Faith action. NV, I'm gonna spell it out, but you're right. Faith in Action. Nv.org, so it's F, A, I T, H, I N, A, C, T, I O, N, N, V, dot, O, R, G. So we have two events, October 19, at nucleus Plaza, 900 West Owens, and then we have the faith in action. We will vote event on September 29 and that's at Unity Baptist Church at 543, Marion drive, Las Vegas again, faith in action. Nv.org. And I want to also

Unknown Speaker 24:49
tell people that even though you registered to vote, please, or you have been registered to vote, please go in and verify that you are still registered to vote. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 25:00
very, very important, very

Unknown Speaker 25:02
and we'll be doing that right shot. Other 20, yes,

Unknown Speaker 25:04
we'll be doing that as well. Because I know people, because I understand that some of the records have been purged, and I know I vote in every election, and we're and sometimes I just have to vote. I mean, it's just the one thing, not a problem. Y'all gonna hear what I have to say about this dog catcher? Yep, I want to, I'm gonna hit it, but you want to go in and verify that, especially if you've been moving around different you want to verify that you are still registered to vote. And the other thing is, when you do register, those are provisional ballots when you register, especially on election day. So you want to ensure that you know your vote gets counted. I have the deadlines. Can't pull them up right now, but I know it's like 10 days prior to the election. Is the last time that you can register, like with another organization or online, but you can register in person same day voting november 5. But understand it's a provisional ballot, because they have to verify that you are indeed a resident So, but if you have been please check your registration to make sure you have not been purged.

Unknown Speaker 26:05
Yes. So, and both events, you can register to vote, correct? Yes. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 26:10
yes. And October, the October 19 is the first day of early voting. Well, okay, we

Unknown Speaker 26:14
can talk about one. You got one? Come

Unknown Speaker 26:15
on. Got one? Give me one. Las Vegas. Las Vegas tinters is coming back for the holiday show this December, the 1010, 10. You gotta give

Unknown Speaker 26:26
us a date and give us more information. I

Unknown Speaker 26:28
believe it's Saturday, December 14.

Unknown Speaker 26:31
Can we introduce

Unknown Speaker 26:37
Absolutely, this

Unknown Speaker 26:38
year's show? Okay, I

Unknown Speaker 26:40
got something for y'all absolutely, absolutely

Unknown Speaker 26:42
appreciate it. Well, you've been listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, I'm Tiffany Lloyd, and we will see you next week. Peace and blessings Las Vegas, have an amazing, amazing Saturday.

Unknown Speaker 26:55
You're listening to community programming on Public Radio, K, U, N, V, we still need a few moments to get the next show Ready. In the meantime, enjoy This moment of Smooth You

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