Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 80, No. 29 - July 22, 2021
Realizing the Amazing Potential with
Lawndale’s Before and After School Program
This day couldn’t get any better. How can our theme for summer camp be R-Kade without gaming? So, we brought in the fun. It was Game truck day. Our middle schoolers were able to play video games in style. Photo courtesy Lawndale Elementary School District.
Tanya Taylor from front page
of hands shot into the air. I welcomed them.
I thanked them. I remain inspired.”
Taylor is a co-founder of the group El
Segundo for Black Lives. Her journey from
Jamaica to the United Kingdom to “Mayberry,”
as most journeys do, took the requisite twists
and turns. She moved to the United Kingdom
when she was a wee lass of three and ended
up garnering her collegiate degree, as well
as a master’s degree. Working as a lawyer,
she focused on tax law, because that was a
proficient way to help pay off the bills (she
talked of trading her soul to get the bills paid)
accrued while she was schooling, but Taylor
said she was always drawn to using her talents
to bring sunshine to social issues.
She made her “world tour” and met Tonks.
She said that once she heard his accent as he
stood behind her in line at the Venice café, she
knew where he hailed from London. As noted,
Taylor and Tonks hit-it-off-immediately, but
Taylor did say that their whirlwind romance
“disrupted my journey,” as she had planned
to continue traveling.
Alas, Taylor said, “Love blossoms. That is
why I am back here again.”
Taylor and Tonks were living in Long Beach
and decided they wanted to move closer to
the Westside. Taylor said that they applied for
residences in Santa Monica and Manhattan
Beach, but, Taylor said, for some inexplicable
reason, their applications were turned down.
So, a little more than a year ago, they settled in
El Segundo with their young daughter Marley.
And about a month or so ago, they welcomed
son Garvey into the family.
When she is not practicing law or spending
family time, Taylor said she likes to read and
travel. She was a first-class competitor in track
and field events in her heyday and gravitates
towards perusing books on the biographical
and historical side while also sneaking in a
read-or-two of fantasy tomes featuring “superheroes
and magical beans.”
When asked why she decided to proceed
with the Black in Mayberry project, Taylor
said that “Knowledge is really important. It
is nice to stand in the street and hold signs,
but you must educate the supporters. There
are really no changing people’s minds in the
middle of a demonstration.” She noted how,
now, many have already made up their mind
about issues, “digging their heels in,” she
said. She said she was looking for a way, a
non-confrontational way, to reach people in
her new community.
Taylor has only lived in El Segundo for a
tad bit more than a year but said that “there
are more people here who are trying to be
positive than perpetuate the ‘sundown town
stereotype,” and is looking forward to getting
to know her neighbors, as most of us shed our
pandemic facemasks and start re-connecting
with friends and family. •
Tanya, Marley, and Lee attend a 2020 El Segundo for Black Lives Protest.