Meet Willie Wideman-Pleasants, host of The Village on WBCA and Willie's Web on BNN TV. Learn about how she got involved at BNN, her work as a poet and writer, and how you too can get involved at BNN/WBCA producing for radio and television! Also discussed: country music in Boston, the Great Migration, Boston Public Schools, and more.
WBCA Podcasts
WBCA Producer Spotlight: Willie Pleasants
(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to WBCA Producer Spotlight. I'm your host, Damian, and today we'll be hosting one of our producers, Willy Weidman Lessons, also known as Willy Pea. Willy Pea hosts Willy's Web on BNN as well as the Village on WBCA 102.9 FM. So we're very lucky to have you in the studio today. How are you doing today, Willy? - I'm doing wonderful. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me. - You're very welcome. So I'm just gonna get right to it. Let us know how you got started here at BNN and WBCA. - I started out. I'm an author and I have published a book and I had gone to several community TV stations to be interviewed. And then I liked it. I mean, I liked seeing the host. I said, "I could do that." So I came to BNN probably around 2009 and I said, "What do I need to do to do this?" And so I took some classes and I started hosting my own show called Willy's Web. And I interview authors, poets and producers, directors, playwrights, anything in that genre. And I started doing it. I love it and that's where I am. - Wow, very cool. Can you tell us a little bit about the classes and the courses that you took to get ready to be a producer here? - Oh, there was a hosting class, Barbara Murray. She's excellent in teaching. She was one of the studio managers at the time for Studio A at BNN. And we took a production class with her. She taught us lighting, how to interview, how to do your run sheets. She taught us all of that. And I was able to produce. - Wow. Can you tell us a little bit more about the class, the software that you used in these courses? - Oh, I don't know about software. - Oh, there was no software. - I don't know about software. But at the time, the equipment is old. They since changed it updated, it was old equipment. But they've since then updated. So everything is new technology now. We use all the old things. We used to do our own title. Everything is so automated that one person could run it. We needed a whole studio of people. I need like three camera people. I needed a director. I needed someone to do the titles. So we needed a whole crew. Now, I think one or two people run the host to the year. It's amazing. - All right, well, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the book you wrote? - I do short stories in poet poetry. I'm a poet, I love it, I love it. I do short stories in poetry about real life, true to life events, and with a twist. I like to give the readers something to really think about. They're really short and I really wrote the book after working at a crazy environment at my job. I was so frustrated and I wanted to write about these people and how crazy they are. So I did short stories. - All right, well, yeah, that's relatable. I've definitely worked in some job environments that made me wanna express myself creatively. Let's put it that way. - Yeah, oh yeah. (laughs) - So what's the name of your book and where can people find it if they wanna read it? - The first book was "Ain't That the Truth." And the second was "Make Truth a Habit." And the third one I'm working on is "Lies Between the Truth." - All right, and that. - It's all about the truth. (laughs) People don't do that often enough. - Yeah, I agree totally, I agree totally. - And where can people find these books if they think-- - Amazon. - On Amazon, all right. All right, sounds good. - Amazon. And sometimes in bookstores, I do Dudley Leonard bookstore at Dudley Station. I put some books in the area occasionally. - All right, very interesting. All right, so Willy, why don't you tell us a little bit more about what your show is about, both Willy's Web and the Village? - Well, Willy's Web basically, like I said before, I talked to authors, poets, producers, directors, film, if somebody has a short film, I actually, several years ago, I took a class. (laughs) When I took an early re-time and got frustrated with work, I actually did some work in doing acting. I took a couple of acting classes. I said, I probably could do a, do be an actress. Well, that's probably not where I want to go. (laughs) But I did some acting with CP casting. And at Braintree, and I did some with Boston casting. I was in some films as extra, you know, when they do those cattle calls. I did some extra work with them. I was in Fiva Pidge. Here come the boom. I did some film work with them, you know, just as extra work. So that, and I talked to them playwrights, any film directors, when the film festival come in town, I try to grab some of those directors and do some interviews with them. - All right, so on Willy's Web, more or less anybody with a creative band can come up on your show, but you'd send a focus more on like film and stage production type of stuff. - Not really. - Not really, no. - Not really. - Anybody with a creative inclination can come on. - Anybody creative, I try to book authors, poets, every once in a while doing the month of poetry month. I'll try to have, I've had slams. I've had poetry slams on my show. - Oh wow. - I actually did one. I'll have poets come up and read their, you know, do their poetry. If it's an author, I'll have them read excerpts from their book. If there's an, and we actually did a play, like a excerpt of a play, we've done quite a bit of that. Oh, just anything, and I got political, sometimes I'll get political. - Sure, yeah. - And have, if there's a city council person out there and want to come on the show and talk about their political issues, we'll do that too. - Yeah. So do you tend to focus more on like local artists, local acts, local politicians, or do you-- - Yes. Because in issues, if I haven't, if I think that there's an issue out there like right now, there's an issue that I feel about Blue Hill Ave, what they're trying to do with Blue Hill Ave. Planning on destroying that. I'll talk about that. They do not need to do what they're planning to do. The same situation with Columbus Ave, Columbus Ave, if it, you know, crazy, crazy stuff. And I'll talk about maybe the white stadium issue, which we don't need that in our community. And I'll talk about those issues on my show too. All right. - And how about the village? - Oh, I love the village. (laughs) - Well, the village started out, the reason I ended up doing the village, because it was an opportunity for me to do something else. And I said, "Hmm, radio, I don't even need a crew." - Yeah, yeah. - I can talk about the things that I want to talk about, which is crazy sometimes. And I can make it fun. And so that's what I did. I started, and I love music. So playing music, I do. And I like to do Southern music, which you don't hear a lot of Southern music. - Yeah, definitely. - And Boston. And so I had my sister's ex-husband, he lives in the South. So I say, "Send me some tapes." You know, "Send me some tapes of stuff." And so he did, and I love playing it. But although I do do some of the local artists, we had a young girl that went to Berkeley, and I play her music, and I actually got an opportunity to talk to her and did an interview with her. So yeah. - Wow, yeah. That's definitely very relatable. - My brother lives in Texas, so I understand, yeah. - That music? - Yeah, the Southern music. I've always been in Southern. - You don't hear it in Boston. - You really don't. You hear it a lot more than you used to 10, 15 years ago, but still not as much as we should. - And country, I kind of lean. I like country music. - Yeah, I think we have a country station here in Boston now, but that's a relatively new thing, but I also find it relatable how you highlight the contrast between doing a TV show and working with film and working with radio, because I'm an intern here at BNN, and I'm a media student at Bunker Hill, and I took a film production class, and within a couple of weeks, I started to realize how much work it was, how much you have to rely on a crew and a team, and as the director and producer of this movie, it was just so much work heaped on my shoulders. And now here at BNN, as a radio intern, oh my, it's like night and day. It's very self-reliant doing radio shows. - Oh, I love it. I'm like, no crew, I can get somebody to come in and talk to me, oh, I can talk, I can talk. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, to do a radio show, you really just need a microphone and a laptop, and something to talk about, but of course here at BNN is plenty of resources if you become a member here at BNN, so. - A lot of resources. - All right, Willie, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? We heard about your shows, so why don't you tell us where are you from, and like, what's your background? - I'm a southern girl. (laughs) We were part of the Great Migration, the last part of the Great Migration from the South, and we came to Boston because my father had lost his job through, we were demonstrating in the South, and I was 12 at the time, and he got fired, he lost his job because of the protest, so he, we, two choices, we were, three choices, actually, I found out. We were even going to Mississippi, California, of Boston, so my father said, "Whoever sends me the ticket first, that's where I'll go." - Yeah. - And so Boston, my cousin here in Boston, sent him the ticket, and he came to Boston, and he brought all of his eight and one son, nine kids. - Yeah, yep. - And we stayed in a one, two-bedroom flat, and back bay for maybe three or four years, (laughs) 'cause that was the only place to live at the time, and then when Roxbury opened up, we were able to get a apartment on Siva Street, which was lots of bedrooms (laughs) and that's where my history started in Boston. I went to an all-girls school, which was interesting. I graduated, it was girls' high school, I graduated from there, and it's amazing that what people thought, the teachers here, and Boston thought about kids from the South. They said that we were behind, which was not true, which was really not true, and it was interesting, the teachers thought about discrimination. They put us all in business schools, and we all should be secretaries. And I'm thinking, "I wanna go to college." - Yeah, yeah. - So when I told my guidance council, I said, "I wanna go to college." I went, "Oh, I don't think you're smart enough," she says. And I said, "Mm, I had my mother come up "to put me in an agible class." And I said, "You know something, I'm gonna prove to you." So when I graduated, I went to UMass Boston. I ended up going there, I got a BS in management, and I took opportunities, I was a lab tech. I took that opportunity. I think I'm a jack of all trades, 'cause I like to do a lot of things. So I ended up doing that for 30 some years. I was a lab tech, and I also was a accountant for 18 years at the Housing Authority in Cambridge. And that's why I retired when I put my 30 years in. I said, "See ya, life gotta be better than this." - Yeah, so I started doing all these wonderful things. And that's where I'm at, I'm a poet, I like to write, I like to do all kinds of things. So being a host of my own show, being a radio host, that's where I'm at. - Yeah, well that's really interesting hearing about your southern roots. My father was born here in Boston, but his mother, my grandmother was born in North Carolina, so the great migration is such a big part of our history, but it's sort of understated because it's such a recent part of our history. It's still living history, but I think it's a huge thing in African American and just general American history. So I love hearing about that. - Yes, and I think people need to, we need to really talk about it with our kids and let them know, 'cause I think they think they have arrived and they stop pushing the issues. And I look at these shows with JJ and I look at those shows and the same thing that they talked about then. They talk about them now, housing crisis, job crisis. It hasn't changed, and go ahead. - No, I just wanted to add that also your experience with schooling is very relatable. I entered Boston Public Schools, I wanna say 1989 or 1990, which was only a couple years after the federal government stepped in to desegregate Boston Public Schools. So it was 1988, not 1968 people forget how recent that history was. So the Boston Public School System that I went through was a recently desegregated system. So I had a lot of the same experiences as you with academic advisor basically telling me that my best bet was to leave high school and get a job. So that's why I'm a college student in my 30s now, but I don't regret anything. I'm very glad to be where I am right now, but things have changed, but it was very recently, all this history that people seem to think is so far in the past, but it's definitely living history. So I love hearing that. - Yes, yes, and kids need to. And I don't know how we can, we need to do more, I think, with the public schools because we are allowing the teachers not to teach our students. I say this and I probably people who yell at me. I think black males and black teachers should teach black students more. It should be more, I would say more of it. Because kids get away with murder. They took all the structural, all the discipline out of schools. And what we have is parents wanting to dump your kid attitude off on you and expect you to teach them. My solution, this is my solution. Every parent that has a student in a school need to go and be at that school one day with their kids, one day, it will make a difference. It will make a difference 'cause now you'll see what your kid really act like. And maybe you would discipline, start discipline them at home. 'Cause teachers spend most of the day discipline and not a lot of learning gets accomplished. - Absolutely, yeah, that was my experience at public school most of the time, yeah. - I was lucky I was able to get into advanced work class and eventually go to Latin Academy, but even there, there was a lot of, the teachers spent way too much time on discipline and not enough focus on academics. - Yeah. - All right, so I was good talking about our educational backgrounds, but moving on, let's talk more about your role as a producer here at WBCA. So this is produce a spotlight, so we don't wanna talk about the actual production process for WBCA members, so what message do you have for people who are thinking about starting their own show and becoming members here at WBCA? - Do it. - Do it, yeah, yeah. - Do it, if you like, if you like talking with people, if you like getting messages out that normally would not be aired in the mainstream media, focusing on that, I say do it. It's easy accessible, right here in the community. If you're a resident, you're already qualified. And great teachers here. - Yep. - Very, very good at what he does. - Yeah, Brad is a master of history. - Yes, he, and he's approachable, he's lovable. (laughing) I haven't kissed him though, but he is definitely lovable, and he's friendly and open and easygoing. So the opportunity is, while it lasts, you know, things change in this world so fast that any opportunity that we can, we need to address it and do it, you know? 'Cause someday somebody might get edified by your efforts. - Yeah, yeah, I agree totally. Just go out there and do it. I was so surprised as an intern here at B&N when I started my internship earlier this summer at the amount of resources available right here in the community, I've driven past here a million times and I never realized what was going on inside. So it's pretty amazing and pretty exciting to be a part of this. - Yes, it is. - All right, and we are running out of time, but I just wanted to ask you, I heard you recently got a couple accolades, so I wanted to ask you about that. That sounds like pretty exciting for you. - Well, no one knows this, but in 2017, the city of Boston, I got a poetry award for one of my poems and it was, say it loud, I'm black and a proud about when Martin Luther King got killed and James Brown saved the city, calm the fields. Also, recently G-Boggs, I was honored at their award ceremony for women on the radio, a lifetime achievement radio TV icon host of the year. - Okay. - I was surprised, I'm honored and very humble. - Oh, yeah, of course. - Somebody actually appreciates what I do. And on top of that, the city of Boston, the city council's office resolution gave me a recognition for my show, both shows Willie's Web and The Village for my work with the community and sharing information. So I was very, that was really surprised. I was, yeah, it was very surprised. So yeah, I am honored and humble that someone really appreciates and it will go down in history that I was here. - Very cool, very cool. Well, we're very happy for you. And congratulations on those accolades and achievements and you are certainly deserving of that. - Thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you for having me here. - Of course, of course. Is there anything else you want to share with the our audience before we wrap it up today? - I actually do, I am right now, the president of seniors on the move. We work out of the Y. We're doing some great things with the senior and getting them out from isolation. And I just want to say a shout out to my seniors on the move. - Okay, all right. - They're doing great things at the Roxbury Y. - Okay, and is that a program to get seniors exercising? - Yes. - Okay, I right now. - Very, any information we do speakers, we have speakers, we have information, we put out a calendar once a month and we take them to movies, we take them on trips. And we get them to, and plays, we've seen August Wilson play. People, we've actually had seniors go to plays that never been to plays before. - Okay, all right. - And we get them to MFA, get them educated into the art. And we have a show right here at B&N that I am co-producer of seniors on the move. - Oh, okay. - Yeah. - So it's not so much focus on exercise per se, but just generally getting seniors to participate in all these activities. - Well, wellness. - Okay. - We call it a wellness program. - Yeah, my mother's in her 70s and she goes to the Croc Center. - Yes. - Dudley, she works out there. She's as healthy as you can get for your 70s, but she works out quite often. - Yeah, you gotta move. - That's what I tell them. - Absolutely. - Positive mind and moving is. - Yeah. Get some sunlight, drink a lot of water. - Yes. - And keep it moving. - Keep it moving. - And get enough sleep. - Sleep, definite sleep. - All right, well, Willie Pea, it has been wonderful speaking to you today and we're very happy to have you on WBCA Producers Spotlight. We're gonna wrap it up for the day. This has been WBCA Producers Spotlight. I'm your host, Damon, and you have a great rest of your day.