Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Irwin.
Hi Margaret, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Early Years:
I was born in Dallas and grew up in Nashville. At the age of 9 years old, late one night, I saw an Ingrid Bergman film. At the end, I knew I wanted to live in the magical land of Hollywood. My mother had a love for the ‘old movies,’ so I became obsessed. I moved to Los Angeles in 1984, the day after graduating from SMU with a Religious Studies degree. Here I was, yet I had no job, no apartment, no friends, and very little money. I found an apartment building that had a view of the Hollywood sign and I knew I was in a new home. I also knew I desperately wanted to work in film/TV. A few months in, after much struggle, I got my first job at the Pantages Theatre. After a year of working in low-paying positions, I was promoted to Backstage Liaison (aka at the stage door) at LA’s most prominent theaters, I began to pick up jobs in varying fields of theatre and film. In 1987, I was asked to work at Center Theatre Group where I worked on pre-Broadway productions that went on to win the Tony Award and every 1980s-1990s Hollywood star came to perform or watch a performance.
For 4.5 years, I was the Backstage Liaison at the Ahmanson for LA’s Longest-running Musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” with Michael Crawford, Robert Guillaume, and Davis Gaines. For the next 11 years, I worked in 57 positions across The Music Center – The Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles Opera, and around The Music Center offices, often working for 2 resident companies at one time. My joy for theatre and opera grew and I found my work love as a Board Liaison at the Los Angeles Opera. My office was 20′ from Placido Domingo’s office.
I worked as Company Manager on 3 productions, including the first tour of Japan, with Sir Matthew Bourne and his English dance company.
As time marched on, I became the Board Liaison at the Autry Museum and eventually as the first (and only) Chief of Staff at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. In 2017, I decided to take a different path enabling me to slow down. I was hired in an Episcopal Office of United Methodist, Bishop Grant Hagiya. Now in my 6th year, his leadership and mentorship has strengthened me in my personal and professional life. I have also been able to take on projects I love outside of work.
Political Career:
In 2019, when women across the country ran for local and state offices – we liked to say, “in 2017 we marched, in 2019 we ran!” I was elected, then re-elected, as a Los Angeles city official as the first Elder Director on the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. In 2020 at the beginning of covid-19 and the shutdown, I turned my dining room into the Episcopal Office while creating ground zero for my work on behalf of the elderly seniors in Eagle Rock.
Pandemic Years:
As ERNC Elder Director, I was deeply concerned about seniors who were isolated at home and had only the news to understand the pandemic. Late at night, I cried. I knew that I had to reach them. I started a Senior Hotline and The Boulevard Sentinel, the local paper, reported on the resources I found. I mailed postcards to every address I could find on a senior. Like an angel coming down, I found a start-up app, Mon Ami, that was beta testing on how to match seniors with volunteers, created by 2 inspiring female Stanford grads. We formed a partnership in the early days. Together, with friends and a couple of board members, we called 3,000 numbers from a list I had obtained with phone numbers for seniors in my area. I wrote a script for the volunteers and the first question was if they had food, then a pet, and does the pet have food. We found seniors who were alone at home and had no fresh food or access to resources. With a local non-profit, The Eagle Rock Association, I found local funding to be able to cater fresh food – 5-7 days a week – from two struggling local restaurants – to dozens of seniors homebound in 2020.
One day, a volunteer called me and asked what I could do for a senior who said that she lived in a room of an apartment with no access to the kitchen, no fridge, and no microwave. The volunteer asked what food she had and she said, “some garlic and crackers.” The next day, I had a freshly-cooked meal from the local caterer delivered to her for every day until she moved. While the local meals were delivered to the seniors, the City and County ran out of the senior meals they were promoting. With much angst and negotiating, and the help of Helene, a Glassell Park contact, she and I were able to find permanent meals for many Northeast LA seniors. In an article about the app Mon Ami, I was also mentioned in The New York Times for this 2022 outreach to seniors. What a ride.
I witnessed a man harassing an elderly Asian man on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock at the height of the pandemic. He was on a bike and slowly following the elderly man while yelling, “You are killing Americans.” It broke my heart. I was inspired to take action to support the seniors in the AAPI community. With funding from the ERNC, I had safety whistles with the ERNC logo made for anyone in the community. I still hand them out to the seniors with holiday meals as outreach.
Coming out of the worst of the pandemic:
I continue to coordinate catered meals during the Thanksgiving and December holidays to seniors at three senior living apartment buildings. Over the past 3 years, local Council Districts 14 and 1 have given The ERNC a total of 100 turkeys which I have coordinated with local shop/caterer Dave’s Chillin N Grillin and The Eagle, the outreach has fed 1,000 meals over 4 years.
I have provided City, County, State, and Federal resources to as many seniors as I can reach.
In late 2021, Eagle Rock resident Alexis Spraic and I published an article in The Boulevard Sentinel about housing scams against seniors. The housing scams, especially “cash offers,” has skyrocketed in our area. The article was the most clicked in the online paper for 2021. We hope seniors are getting the message to always be cautious.
I have 2 projects in the works I hope to bring to fruition with our ERNC Youth Director at Eagle Rock High School. This includes oral histories of our seniors and pen pals between seniors at the high school and seniors in the community.
The outreach I love the most is during the December holidays. For the past two years, I have asked three local schools to create “Thinking of You” handmade cards for the seniors. I deliver them to the senior apartment buildings with the holiday meals. The cards have been created by 1st graders, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders, and a high school club “Girls Can Create” at ERHS. The cards are beautiful, and the messages are heartfelt and exactly what so many seniors living alone need during the holidays.
38 years, and finally a filmmaker:
Recently, Stephen Hale, a videographer asked me if I had any interest in making a documentary about, “Where was the church during the AIDS crisis?” Was their silence intentional or was it calculated against the men dying in the early days of a “gay plague?” I lost many friends to AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s and had always wanted to tell a story that would honor their short-lived lives. After hearing how a small group of United Methodist pastors with a Rabbi and several nuns created a camp at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, I knew this was the story I wanted to make.
In addition to the heart-wrenching yet inspiring camp story, we are finding deeply personal stories in different denominations of Christian rebels who cared for the dying men and then dying women of color. We are co-producing and co-directing “The Body of Christ Has AIDS.” The title comes from the rallying cry of the clergy in the early 1980s who stood in the pulpits and declared that all Christians must care for the dying because when one is ill, we are all ill.
On December 4, World AIDS Sunday, we premiered the 5-minutes demo reel at Hollywood UMC. The church has displayed a large, red AIDS ribbon for almost 30. The sermon that day was the launch of our fundraising campaign to get the full 90-minute documentary made.
From the day I arrived at 21 with a dream and little to my name to today at 60 with a life well-lived, I am humbled. Here I am 38 years later and I am finally fulfilling the dream of my nine-year old self and I am making a movie I care deeply about. I am serving my community in the ways my mother inspired me to do, I am representing my community, my faith, and my family.
Highlights of this life:
I once spent half an hour small talking backstage with Rosa Parks. THE Rosa Parks.
I sang the National Anthem with the cast and crew of “The Phantom of the Opera” at the 100th anniversary of the Dodgers. I sat next to Sandy Koufax and chatted with him because I had no idea who he was so I thought he was just a man sitting alone in the dugout before the anthem.
To a California Angels game, I flew a privately-owned Vietnam replica helicopter for 2 minutes. My signature as one of many pilots is now in a Smithsonian Museum.
My dad and I attended game 4 of the NBA Finals which was a match up Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Afterwards, at the Century Park Hotel, we were introduced to Rev. Jesse Jackson by their mutual friend, Lamar Hunt, former KC Chiefs owner.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being so naive in the first few years, maybe decades, helped me to just plow ahead. I made huge mistakes, but I just kept trying. I followed my instincts. Looking back, the struggles were always financial. I had the love and support of my parents, especially the years my mom lived and worked in LA. The most difficult thoughts looking back are missing out on my nephews’ and niece’s defining moments in their youth, and being away from my father, sister, and brother. The road is definitely paved with hardships and what ifs. But I did what I thought was best for me in those moments.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am somewhat of a success story of someone who came to LA with very little and created a life that has been utterly amazing. Did I reach super stardom as a director? No. Has my work been fulfilling? Yes.
I am most proud of the quality of time I was able to spend in LA while my mother was alive. She moved to LA and was a psychiatric nurse. She held the hands of dying AIDS patients in the hospital when their own families and medical care left them alone out of fear. She was a small yet mighty strong Southern woman of great faith. We traveled all over California and she taught me the history of our city and state. Her stories and these memories formed how and why I work.
I was invited this year to join the Board of LA’s Cornerstone Theater Company, a renowned company that produces plays within diverse communities. I also serve as a Field Advocate for AFSP, since my brother’s passing from suicide.
What matters most to you?
That every human and animal on earth can have fresh water to drink.
That minority communities can get the equity they deserve
That everyone struggling with depression and addiction can know that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. That no one is alone. There is ALWAYS help.
Most importantly, I will always be grateful for my friends in LA, and my family in Tennessee and Texas. My grandparents, mom, and dad supported me along this journey until each has now passed. What matters most is that I continue to make them proud by serving others and fulfilling my childhood dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebodyofchristhasaids.com
- Instagram: @thebodyofchristhasaids
Image Credits
Margaret Irwin
