Speaker 1: 0:00

One, two, three. You're listening to America's Healthiest City on Mike King, biz Radio Network, on ESPN Richmond 106.1 and Choice 105.3.

Speaker 2: 0:22

106.1 and Choice 105.3. Good morning, happy December and welcome to America's Healthiest City. On ESPN Richmond 106.1, part of the Mike King Biz Media Network, I'm your host, will Melton, and today is a little bit of a different show. I have Sparkle Taylor, a resident of Gilpin Court, in the studio. She and I have known each other for several years and I'm really excited about this conversation because we're going to have a slightly different perspective today.

Speaker 2: 0:49

But before we get started, if this is your first time tuning in, please hop over to americashealthiestcitycom to learn about our 10-year community partnership to make Richmond, the entire region, the healthiest in America by 2033. It takes everybody moving in the same direction at the same time to achieve that goal and there's a lot of different ways that you can get involved. I encourage you to check out our ideas board to see ideas that others have left behind. Leave your comments on those ideas or submit your own ideas on ways that we can make our community healthier. If you represent a business, a nonprofit, a government agency or an academic institution and you're interested in getting involved with this mission, please learn what it takes to become an ambassador. It is free and will help to tell the story of how you are making an impact in the region Without further ado. Sparkle Taylor, thank you so much for coming into the studio today to have a conversation with me.

Speaker 3: 1:33

Well, thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:35

So just to kind of lay the land a little bit, historically, I've interviewed leaders from across the region and recently a leader challenged me to speak to a different type of leader, and you and I know each other. We've had the opportunity to speak a number of times. I originally interviewed you for Leadership Metro Richmond and you enlightened me about your experience accessing the food system here in Richmond, and specifically with regard to COVID, so it's been a while now.

Speaker 3: 2:02

Yes, and what was really cool about that was that shortly after that whole situation took place, within like months after that, that's when the internet started opening up and accepting EBT, which I actually no longer collect now, but at the time being able especially in the heart of the pandemic you know, dealing with family that I'm taking care of to be able to have the safety and the convenience of being able to not have to walk for miles, not have to carry large amounts of food home on the bus. That changed my life, my family's life, significantly. So I feel that I have you guys to thank for that.

Speaker 2: 2:40

We put something out into the ether.

Speaker 2: 2:43

Well, I think you know, the good thing is is that there are people out there solving problems and we try to tell those stories, but but they don't always have the perspective that they need to actually do the work. And so I want to. I want to back up just a little bit, and one of the things that we ask all of our guests is I know you've been here in Richmond for about 10 years Some folks have been here their whole lives but you chose to move here at some point. Can you share with the audience what caused you to move to Richmond and kind of just give us a little bit of a background on what things have been like for the last 10 years for you, I will say I did not choose Richmond.

Speaker 3: 3:19

I had been here once before, for less than a year. I didn't choose then and when I left, you know, sometimes we choose the partners that don't make sense for us to be with and it changes the trajectory of our lives in some very profound and drastic ways. So, because I ended up with a certain partner and everything that ensued as a direct result of that, I ended up settling to remain in a city that I never chose in the first place and doing the best I can, being grateful for what came my way. You know, making it work, doing the grunt work of just making it work, even though I'm in a place that doesn't genuinely align with me. I got to be honest.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Well, something I don't know and haven't asked you have you always lived in Gilpin Court since you've lived in Richmond?

Speaker 3: 4:17

Pretty well, I've gone from homelessness to Gilpin Court, Okay. So this was my first and only permanent residence, since I had dealt with Richmond since even the beginning back in 2013.

Speaker 2: 4:34

So yeah, okay, so you know, I think that you were sharing with me a little bit earlier about kind of some of the things that you see happening in your neighborhood and some of the things that you feel like are in something.

Speaker 3: 4:48

No, it's just to spit out the gum, so I don't want to just do it on camera. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 2: 4:52

So he's going to edit it out, so don't worry about it Okay, thank you. I'll just give you something.

Speaker 3: 4:56

I say he wants to follow it. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 5:01

You're welcome.

Speaker 3: 5:02

All right.

Speaker 2: 5:12

We're. Thank you, you're welcome. All right, we're good. So before we started talking today on air, you were sharing with me a story about the alley behind your apartment and the life that is bursting out of the ground there, the abundance that seems to want to emerge. But you're seeing a different story with the people who live there and just sort of the environment as a whole. Can you share a little bit about that story? And I really want the listeners to kind of put themselves in your shoes and understand what it's like to live in the big six.

Speaker 3: 5:39

So I shared with you that story for the purpose of showing that there's a lot of good, there's a lot of abundance, there's a lot of beauty that is available within guilt and court, amidst the garbage, amidst the used needles and people nodding out or whatever. It's not just that. I see the very obvious. You know sadness, ugliness of a community in poverty, and I've directly experienced some of that. You know sadness, ugliness of a community in poverty and I've directly experienced some of that. You know being in poverty. But I also, when I walk through Gilpin, I see beautiful things happening. I see very friendly cats that you know want to play with you. I see in back alleys there's little random crops that are growing like totally random, like Tupac's rose and concrete type of thing. There's one alley that I go down and I have kitty friends in that alley and there are two houses that you know create that back alley.

Speaker 3: 6:40

So in one house, if I'm going up on my left as of this year, there is a random, abundant, lush tomato plant growing up out of a crack behind somebody's house. So on their back porch, those people there were people that were living there and then they moved and then the property was vacant for a little while and I was just going to pick tomatoes and then, all of a sudden, you know, people were there coming out of the house. I'm like, oh so I, you know, introduced myself and I was just going to pick tomatoes and then, all of a sudden, you know, people were there, coming out of the house. I'm like, oh so I, you know, introduced myself and I tell them. And I was like, you know, I don't want any. You know, I don't want to disrespect you. You know, can I still have your tomatoes? They absolutely did not care, they were not going to approach those tomatoes and I think they're yours. Thank you for letting me have access to it. Please eat them. This is dead for the winter now because we've already had frost settle in. But you know, give like two, three weeks of 65 degree weather, those tomatoes are just going to come right back.

Speaker 3: 7:35

So that's a source of abundance that comes out of nowhere. That comes from genuinely the goodness of the universe. And directly across from that property there is another property, the goodness of the universe. And directly across from that property there is another property the back of somebody else's house. And there, well, for one thing, their back alley is absolutely scandalously filthy. Like they do it like that, they just there's dog turds, there's all kinds of things. They're not taking care of their own perimeter and I've been seeing that for literally years with the same people. And then one day I was going past and I'm like wait, what's this? There's another tomato plant growing out of a crack right here.

Speaker 3: 8:14

It was a lot smaller and it looked a lot newer, but I know a tomato plant when I see it, so I would keep going back to the alley and I would notice it growing. And then, for the first time ever, I had seen the person, or at least one of the persons I live in the house. So at first I'm like hey, do you live here? Like I'm all friendly and whatnot. She's already very standoffish. I'm like I don't need to know where you live. I need you to know that that right there is a tomato plant Like this is abundance for you and your family. You know what I mean. So you know you don't have to do anything, you just have to let it grow and it's going to look like the one across from there.

Speaker 3: 8:47

And a few days later, when I went back through my alley, as I so often do during the week, that tomato plant was gone and when I looked around the general area, I saw that it had just been tossed. So this person had been blessed with a gift from the universe. As far as I'm concerned, and instead of accepting the blessing, reaping from the blessing or, at the very least, leaving the blessing alone so that somebody else could maybe benefit from it. They were so averse to that gift this is how I'm seeing it that they'd rather destroy it than be sustained by it. That is a big problem and that is a lot of what I see and witness in my community. I see and I witness two things. People are either apathetic completely three things. They're completely apathetic completely three things. They're completely apathetic, you know. Oh, look the tomato plant. Oh, okay, that's cool. Um, they're a little bit suspicious and like skeeved out by it, like you know. Oh, I don't know, is it gonna be okay?

Speaker 3: 9:54

like you know, I've been eating off of this all summer long. Of course it's okay. Go, go for it. I shouldn't just have it by myself, it should be for everybody. And then there are people that are so averted to good things coming into their life that they must destroy it as soon as it comes. Unfortunately, here in Richmond, virginia, which is where that original partner that I mentioned was born and raised, I see that as a very common theme amongst Richmond residents, regardless of socioeconomic status. This is across the board. If you were born in Richmond, I'm already profiling you in my head, and that sucks. I don't necessarily want to do that.

Speaker 3: 10:41

but these are the experiences that I've witnessed across the board, and it's that much worse coming out of my community, because mine is a community. The big six are all communities. I speak mostly for Gilpin. I've only passed the other communities on buses and whatnot, but we're all pretty much one in the same. And when you've been systematically disenfranchised and nobody really wants to talk about that usually nobody really wants to necessarily.

Speaker 3: 11:09

You know, allude to systematic racism, racist policies, redlining. You know, building a big giant highway in the middle of things to separate, you know, communities and so on. You know, and these were some of the more tame ways that people have had, people that look like me, people who live in these communities like me, have been taken from at the height of building, and a lot of these things are starting to come out more in the media. You know, like Tulsa, oklahoma and everything that happened there. You know there are way, way worse stories.

Speaker 3: 11:47

So what do you do when you are dealing with a community that has consistently had the best taken from them, targeted for having the best taken from them? I mean, I still see VCUs sometimes, you know, riding around and plotting on Gilpin because of the location. How, then, do we take systematically disenfranchised and harmed people and get them to a place where they can redevelop their self-concept so that none of this ever happens again? I believe it can. I don't believe it can be done. I know it can be done because I've been working on my own self-concept within Gilpin Court for the entire time that I've been there, especially during the course of the pandemic.

Speaker 3: 12:45

Well, let me ask you about that, because we didn't talk about this, but folks listening might hear that you're from New York. I've lived in a few places, so you came here from New York. I yeah, I came here actually from the first time. So back in like 2012, I came here from New York but I was in Florida. I've lived in different places.

Speaker 2: 13:04

So you've experienced different places I have.

Speaker 3: 13:06

New Orleans, San Antonio, Florida. Yeah, I've been through the ringer in the past decade.

Speaker 2: 13:13

But you've been here in Richmond a good bit. Yeah, almost a decade, and something that you've shared with me, and I want to reveal this to our listeners, is you don't plan to stay in Richmond.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Oh you've shared with me and I want to reveal this to our listeners is you don't plan to stay in Richmond and I think that's a really important thing for us to talk about, because the question I get to ask most people who come onto the show is you know, what do you love about Richmond? And I'm not even going to ask you that question because we've talked so much about this that I know that you're struggling and I know that you have felt frustration with the powers that be, with your neighbors, with the systems that are ingrained, and so I think that's important for folks to know, and I need to take a quick break and we'll come back and I want to talk a little bit more about that, okay.

Speaker 3: 13:49

Okay, no problem.

Speaker 1: 13:51

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Speaker 3: 14:28

That's kind of cool.

Speaker 2: 14:29

Welcome back to America's Healthiest City on ESPN Richmond 106.1. I'm your host, will Melton. Today I have Sparkle Veronica Taylor in the studio. She's a resident of Gilpin Court. We're having a very different conversation.

Speaker 3: 14:41

Right before the break, we were talking about your plan to leave 2024 for me has been that year that, if you know, you know tower card, death card, if you know anything about tarot, everything in my life that was a certain way is now no longer that way. And from the rubble I rise. And I know that I'm not going to be able to re-rise here in Richmond, because Richmond was never a city I chose to live in. It was the city I I settled for having an existence in because of other circumstances that made it a good idea for me to settle. But no, I'm not long for here at all.

Speaker 2: 15:27

So what I think is important about this is that it's not that you just moved here and you said this isn't the place for me. I'm out. You've tried to make it work here Very much, so Tell our listeners a little bit about that experience. Be as specific or as broad as you want to be, but you know what's it feel like to try and to be knocked down and to feel like you know that the environment that you live in is holding you back in a way.

Speaker 3: 15:53

It feels like the last 45 years of my life almost 45 next month For me personally. Normally I hold on to things, I hold on to situations, I hold on to people, I hold on to scenarios that don't work because of a misplaced sense of loyalty, sacrifice. You know just things about me where it's like okay, I'm supposed to be here and I'm supposed to do all of these things, and now I'm going to train to do these things to help the community. And this has been a very tumultuous year, Like at one point I was training to be a CCW, community CHW excuse me, community health worker, and even though I did obtain my certification from that, certain things specifically happened to prevent me from even entering that field.

Speaker 3: 16:45

Here, where, hey, we're going in a better direction together, the universe made it exceedingly, even violently, clear to me that this is no longer my responsibility. And once I really understood that as hard as it was for me to really understand that and accept that, for what it was like this is not just me leaning onto my own understanding, this is just clear neon signs like nope, nope, nope, take off the cape, Don't do it anymore. You've done what you could and whatever seeds have been planted have been planted. Now it's time for me to replant myself, to nurture my own garden in various and sundry ways that I have not been able to do when I was focused externally on the community and adjacent affairs.

Speaker 2: 17:44

So they're very much two Richmans. One could say, as you did earlier, that that was created with some intentional decisions many years ago. I'm certainly somebody of privilege. I wasn't always Growing up. Things weren't easy for my family, but I fought to make it out. Could you see well, thank you, thank you. Could you see a world where, if you lived in a different neighborhood in Richmond not in the big six a different community, could you see a world where it might pull you?

Speaker 3: 18:18

along. No, actually no. No, because even some of the nicer neighborhoods out here and the demographic of richmonders that live in these neighborhoods, that they're not to the standard of people that I want in my life and want around, other people that I care about and want to necessarily call friends Like. It's not just Gilpin, it's not just the Big Six, it's not just going up Chamberlain or you know down anywhere else that I can't think of right now. It's not just, you know, the yuckier parts of Broad Street, it's really Richmond, and I can honestly say that because, as you know, I've been through the class spectrum of this city on foot.

Speaker 3: 19:08

I will walk from my little ghetto neighborhood into some of the nicer neighborhoods. You know especially where some of the little private preschools are, you know, up by the monuments and stuff like that. And no, no, it's not a vibrational match and it doesn't make sense for me, especially in light of everything that has happened, to completely give me a fresh slate to start over with. It does not make sense for me to continue to allow my energy to wither here.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Well, I appreciate that and I certainly am not encouraging any direction for you, I think you know what you need, but I do think it's important to ask the question because for other people to understand that perspective, you know that there's a lot that we celebrate as a community that not everybody gets to enjoy.

Speaker 3: 20:05

Second Street Festival. I got to enjoy it for the first time this year. It's something I would consider coming back for every year to visit. I would consider that because, even though I grew up around it I mean I grew up, I lived around it all this time I didn't get to enjoy it until this year, and that was really, really special. So I'm not going to sit here and throw Richmond completely under the nothing's redeemable Pardon, but but yeah, go on.

Speaker 2: 20:35

So no, that's okay. I think that this is, this is a good conversation and these details matter to me because that is, that's a gift.

Speaker 2: 20:42

You know that is something that, that to hold on to. So, yeah, you know, I, I'm, I'm somebody. Obviously I've committed to this project for 10 years. I'm going to be at it for another eight and I have to hold on to the hope that things can be better, and certainly again, I live in that other Richmond and I acknowledge that. But as I look around, as we, a community, look around for solutions to these challenges that you've experienced, that have made you feel like you're being pushed out, where can we go? What are some of the conversations that we need to have? What are some of the places that we need to look for solutions to be able to move past this point of stuckness?

Speaker 3: 21:26

I don't know that's what's so stressful and upsetting and hurtful to me, because I'm not. This is not, you know, oh, you know everything bad against Gilpin Court. You know there's nothing in that community that's redeemable. This has been a community that has sustained me, that has sustained my family for a very, very long time, and still does in many ways. There are people it's kind of like. It's kind of like the Sodom and Gomorrah story in the Bible. You know what I mean. I understand a lot more now. That was a lousy pun, I'm sorry, but I understand quite more now what Lot and his family went through.

Speaker 3: 22:08

And I'm not a religious person, I'm not here to soapbox and preach from the Bible, but I do know it. And knowing that I knew certain things, I was privy to certain information. Why? Because I was passionate about the information. The information was introduced to me.

Speaker 3: 22:24

You know, as far as you know, I talk about a lot of law of attraction stuff. You know a law of assumption, those those types of things where it's like you're living in a simulation. You can honestly change your life. I have the keys, I have been given the keys to do this and even though you still see me here with you. That doesn't matter, because I'm still in good places. I want you to have the opportunity to come with me and have it. So I'll be walking through.

Speaker 3: 22:48

Everybody knows I walk through Gilpin, I walk through downtown Richmond and everything and I'll talk to anybody about pretty much anything, because I'm just that person. But when can see a trajectory for the rest of those problems resolving? I'm not a gatekeeper, wasn't a gatekeeper At this point I'm on the fence about that. But I was very passionately preaching the gospel, the law of assumption, and you're living in a simulation. And how, look? I'm going to send you these links. Give me your number. I'm going to show you these video links because these are the gurus that have changed my life and brought me to a place where I know something's better. I know I can have more for myself. Nobody disrespects me in guilt and court. Everybody's actually very kind and respectful towards me for the most part and has been all this time. But they will surely smile in my face, never even touch those links. I know they're on TikTok and YouTube all day, just like me. And no, it's not always uplifting self-help content that I'm watching, you know, sometimes I'm watching.

Speaker 3: 24:00

Yeah, come on, we can't do that 24 seven. Sometimes we have to have a little fun. So people are watching videos, people are watching extra things, but they're not necessarily even thinking to engage in the content. So what is it? When you come to me and you complain about the hardships of your life and you're hurting and you're broke and your kids are all screwed up and doing X, y and Z, and I can commiserate with a lot of what's being said, while also knowing that there is another way I might be going back home to not the perfect situation, but I still know that there's a possibility that all this can be better.

Speaker 3: 24:42

So let's work on your self-concept. Let me show you these things so that you can get towards the place that I want to be and, just like Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah trying to see if there was anybody that can come with him on the journey, there was no one. There was no one and they had to leave. And you know the story it got burnt out and it was crazy. The idea of that, the idea of leaving that behind like a little fishbowl, it hurts me, but I can't allow it to hurt me to the point where I continue to stay because I've done everything that I could and I did it from my heart. So I guess the only way that I can help improve anybody else's self-concept is by leaning hard into my own and doing the things that I know are going to get me to the place where I deserve to be, because I do have the information, I believe in the information and I'm. You know, I might backslide, I might fall, but I'm going to pick myself back up again and I'm going to do the things that I need to do, and unfortunately I don't know of anybody in the community that does that. And maybe if there are a few people that do that's what, they're staying in their houses and they're not interacting with the rest of the community because it's not for them. So there's not a whole big sense of you know. There's unity here. There's people that you know will understand. I can give them this gift. Maybe I can turn it into a program of sorts.

Speaker 3: 26:22

I had that idea too. It's like you know, step is in the Calhoun center with you know Christian stuff, which is great. I love the step program. But you know what? There's other realms of spirituality too, and maybe I can start something and so on. But, like I said, I had gotten my signs earlier in the year, I want to say around the summer, when it was made clear to me that no, this is no longer your mantle to take up. So I literally have no choice. I mean it's a choice, but trying to continue to crusade for all of that is going to be my downfall. If I choose to let that be, yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:04

Well, this conversation should continue for another hour if I had the time.

Speaker 3: 27:09

Of course.

Speaker 2: 27:12

And I really I hope yeah, I know it is fast, isn't it I hope our listeners got a chance to listen and absorb a little bit of your experience. I I. There's something that resonates with me in all of this, and that is that your mindset is everything, and I'm inspired by you. I have been inspired by you. I have recommended your name to to other people who are looking for leaders in the community and I'm grateful for you sharing with me in the past, with the groups that I've been involved with and with our listeners. I absolutely wish you the best in the future.

Speaker 3: 27:46

And I am expecting to stay in touch with you. I would say to you all too, to stay in touch with you.

Speaker 2: 27:52

I would say to you all too. I'm going to sign off, but I welcome you back and I know you might not be here for much longer, but we've got some new programming we're going to do in the new year and maybe there's an opportunity, before you go, to do something.

Speaker 3: 28:05

Maybe because, to be honest with you, I'm looking at spring basically. So I'm still definitely going to be here for the winter, because making big, giant moves in the winter is just a dumb thing to do.

Speaker 2: 28:16

So I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 3: 28:17

I still have some preparing and working out of things to do, but I'm open because I really like working with you.

Speaker 2: 28:23

Well, sparkle Taylor, sparkle, veronica, Taylor, thank you.

Speaker 3: 28:27

Thank you for joining me in the studio today. Appreciate it. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2: 28:30

This was America's Healthiest City on ESPN Richmond 106.1, part of the Mike King Biz Media Network. If you haven't already, hop over to LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, any place you get your social and subscribe to America's Healthiest City.