Today we’d like to introduce you to Toni Ann Johnson.
Hi Toni Ann, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have multiple stories. I’m a writer, but what think would be most relevant to LA Voyager is the community work I did in South Los Angeles where I bought a house in 2003. At the time I was in the screenwriting business. I wrote the movies RUBY BRIDES for Disney and CROWN HEIGHTS for Showtime, but I was interested in moving out of working for hire and pursuing writing fiction. I left my apartment in the Beverly Hills area and bought a small Spanish bungalow in South Los Angeles.
There were no trees on my property and I heard about a program that would provide homeowners with trees if they’d take a workshop to learn how to plant and care for them. I took the workshop and learned that higher-income areas had many trees while lower-income areas had few trees and a dearth of green space. I planted my own trees and then I was interested in getting more for my neighborhood.
I joined the neighborhood council to find support in this effort. I was encouraged to apply for a Los Angeles Community Beautification grant. I did this with the help of the block club in my neighborhood, which I was vice president of at the time. We won the grant and I became the project manager.
It was mandatory to contract a nonprofit that would assist with the trees. We identified the areas where the trees would go, which required getting permission from the business owners where they’d be planted. The Los Angeles Conservation Corps came out, cut the concrete, and planted those trees.
Another component of the grant was a mural. I managed that project as well. I hired an artist, Robin Strayhorn who specialized in mosaic tile murals. She worked with community members to come up with the design and then she gave us a tutorial on how to apply the tile to the wall. The process took several months because each piece had to be applied by hand and required many volunteers. It was worth it. It turned out to be beautiful.
After that project was done, I endeavored to get more trees for other parts of the neighborhood. I noticed that the Ralphs Grocery in our community had no trees or green space at all. I looked at other Ralphs within a ten-mile radius and saw that the stores on the Westside and in areas north of us had trees and landscaping. I reach out to Ralph’s community liaison and was put in touch with someone who gave me the runaround for months. Then finally I was put in touch with the person who could say yes. They said no. The store would be responsible for watering the trees and that wasn’t possible, according to them.
Then I became angry. Why could they water the trees in Westchester and not on Manchester Blvd. in South Los Angeles? I wrote an op-ed and it was published in the LA Times. I wrote to Kroger corporate and had others write to them as well. I did a blog, shaming Ralph’s for how awful the store looked in comparison to other Ralph’s around the city. Finally, Lisa Sarno, who was running Million Trees LA for mayor Villaraigosa became aware of my effort to get the trees. They came and inspected and agreed that the area was appropriate for and needed a major tree planting. Within a few months, things moved forward.
I cultivated volunteers and people began to help me get their friends and families on board. There were dozens of people from the community who came out to help but people also came from other parts of the city. About one hundred volunteers showed up on the day of the planting.
The same nonprofit I’d previously worked with (LACC) and had tried to get Ralph’s to partner with was hired by the city and they came out with a bunch of Ginkgo trees, gave the volunteers a lesson in how to plant them and we planted about twenty trees in a couple of hours.
That was over a decade ago. A few of the trees didn’t make it. Some were vandalized. But a lot of the trees are still doing well and they make a difference in the look of that street. It’s more inviting, more pleasant. It makes me happy to drive by them and see them thriving.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Omg–the “community” had a lot of opinions about what nonprofit to contract. Some didn’t want to give the job to LACC. And to get the money to support the watering I was trying to go through the Neighborhood Council, but you need a quorum in order to get anything approved and month after month, we could not get a quorum. Some people were resistant to the idea of planting trees. I think they feared it was a sign of gentrification, but I’m speculating here. They were just not helpful and in some ways, it seemed they were trying to sabotage the effort. To circumvent this, I asked for donations to contribute to the watering fund. My generous cousin Elle Johnson donated a big chunk of the money. Eventually, the neighborhood council changed members and later did support the tree-planting event and the follow-up care.
I ran into some obstacles with the mural as well. Some members wanted a different artist. Then people didn’t like the design. Of course, you can’t please everyone in a group project and I did not. Also, I was the so-called “project manager” but I had no formal skills for this job. And I did not get paid. I fumbled my way through it and it did get done because the community stepped up and did their part to help. In order to win the grant, the project had to demonstrate that it was somehow “community building.” And it was. Though there were squabbles along the way, once people began to see how it would look, they became excited about it and wanted it to be completed so the support increased. It took forever, but it was finally finished and it still looks lovely to this day.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a writer. I’m probably most known for writing the movie RUBY BRIDGES about the child who integrated the New Orleans public school system. I also co-wrote the dance movie STEP UP 2: The Streets.
I have been focusing on writing fiction for the last ten years and recently I won The Flannery O’Connor Award for my linked-story collection LIGHT SKIN GONE TO WASTE. It’s my third book. My previous book is a novella, HOMEGOING. My first book, the novel REMEDY FOR A BROKEN ANGEL was nominated for an NAACP IMAGE AWARD. I am most proud of my new book. I think it’s the best example of my work.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
For the neighborhood work, Lisa Sarno definitely deserves credit for her support. Michael Espinosa was also a great mentor. Community members Wanda Coleman, Etheline Burns, and Nicole Burns Henderson were angels who helped get the various projects done as well.
In my fiction career, Leonard Chang, one of my mentors, and Alma Luz Villanueva, another mentor were both instrumental in my development.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.toniannjohnson.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treeladytoniann/
- Twitter: @toniannjohnson
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-missouri-review/miller-aud-cast-38-toni-ann-johnson
Image Credits
Leonard Change Michael Espinosa Rita Hollingsworth Jeff Hollingsworth
