The 411 Live

Imagine a person who has spent several years of their life in prison. What do they do when they finally get out? Many feel although they have no life once they re-enter into society because of a lack of resources, job opportunities and an overall lack of confidence. Now what if a person who spent that time in prison productively by taking education and guidance classes. When this person re-enters...

“I was just this little girl that was trapped. I was trapped in this world and no one heard my voice. No one saw me. I was invisible.”- April Bentley. Join Beverley Taylor "Tuesday night at 8pm" as she talks to April Bentley who is an Artist, Author & Founder of Rubies. She intimately shares how she overcame her childhood trauma of being raped and trafficked in this powerful episode of The 411...

On this week’s episode of The 411 Live, Beverly Taylor talks to Jason Boyd, Life Coach and Author to talk about whether or not relationships suck and if dating is even worse. Jason Boyd is the author of “The Reasons Why Relationships Suck but Dating is Worse” and strongly believes women are naturally meant to be the leaders in a relationship and if they knew this and act accordingly, relationships...

There is no unspoken secrets on how to create a healthier relationship between a man and a woman and there is nothing that is stopping anyone from bettering themselves. Join us as Beverly Taylor talks to certified life relationship coach and author, Tray Kearney. Tray states “I’m not here to judge you, I used to be you”. Her motto is we have all fallen short of the mark. Tray talks about what type...

In this episode of The 411 Live, you will learn that we are seeing several side-effects of racial segregation today in Milwaukee. White people in Milwaukee are 36% of the population, but they have 71% of the jobs in the city of Milwaukee. Black people are 38% of the population, they only have about 21% of the jobs in the city of Milwaukee. This is only one side-effect in only one city of America o...

In the 1930s the federal government began redlining real estate, marking “risky” neighborhoods for federal mortgage loans on the basis of race. Major cities across the U.S. were given different color codes so that their inner cities could be organized into different racial groups. Today, we are still seeing the aftermath from this system. Join us as Beverly Taylor talks to Bethany Sanchez, Senior...

The mental health of millions of Americans are desperately in need of our attention and support because it is so highly mistreated and misdirected in the criminal law system. It is difficult topic to maneuver through, relating law and medical health, but they do coincide with each other and this is vital for our court system to know when making the critical decisions that determine how many Americ...

The National Revolving Bail Fund is a critical tool to prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system. Beverly talks to Jeremy Cherson, Senior Advisor at The Bail Project about a system that criminalizes race and poverty. The Bail Project combats mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system one person at a time. This is The 411 Live. Real People. Real...

Sometimes we approach the politics surrounding police brutality and race through a bias and emotional lens. It is an attorney’s job to evaluate the full length of every case, which means examining our legal and constitutional rights that we all have as U.S. citizens. As our country progress, the laws should be reexamined to innovate change in our society and in our judicial system for the better t...

ALL people have value and bullying denies people of that value. “Bullying” is objectively offensive conduct that includes intimidation, threats, abuse or harm directed by one or more people. It’s a big problem in schools. Cameron Fry is a survivor of bullying and decided to write a book called, Why Bully Me? In this episode of The 411 Live, Beverly Taylor is joined by Cameron Fry, Author of “Why B...

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but Sivad Johnson was larger than life. Time was incredibly valuable to this Detroit Fire Department sergeant, artist and storyteller, author and father of two girls. Sivad Johnson’s life ended tragically in August of 2020 while helping to save three drowning girls. In this episode, host Beverly Taylor meets with Eboni Thomas and Jamal Johnson, sister and broth...

Life can sometimes feel like being stranded on a small boat, no plan, no hope and no help to turn to. One organization that is working to find stranded and hopeless people in our communities is the Jewish Family Services. In this episode of The 411 Live, host, Beverly Taylor meets with Samantha Kovatch, Margaux Baumgarten, and Kjersten Pederson, to introduce a comprehensive community service progr...

In this episode of The 411 Live, host Beverly Taylor chats with Bridgett Wilder, CEO of Perseverance Health and Wellness Nutrition Consultation Services LLC, who is a widowed mother of nine children, dietitian, author and motivational speaker. Wilder is an exceptional woman who was dealt a huge storm since she was young. Bridgett Wilder shares her story of finding herself throughout taxing life mi...

With the COVID-19 vaccine out, there is hope for lives to return to normal. That word, “normal”, means a lot of different things to our communities, and for the community of Metcalf Park, normal means playing catch up. In this episode of “The 411 Live”, host Beverly Taylor is visited by Jarrett English, the director of Housing Development for Metcalf Park Community Bridges, and Melody McCurtis, th...

It has been over a year of the COVID-19 virus wreaking havoc in the lives of the worlds’ residents. With everything we are learning and adapting to it, there is still so much unknown now with the few emergency vaccines released and slowly being administered to the public. Host Beverly Taylor is joined by Dr. Kevin Izard on the 411 Live’s 4th season to answer a lot of the big questions: what is the...

Society tends to forget the minds that get locked up in correctional facilities. In comparison to the amount of change happening in our world today, little of that is focused on the people who are trying to establish their lives after months or years in prison. Dr. Robert Smith, professor and researcher, says “We’ve crafted this notion that if you’re incarcerated, you’re different, you’re on the m...

For Black History Month, The 411 Live highlights an innovative app created by Deborah and Geraud Blanks that promotes the African-America journey through time. The mother and son duo uncover the origins of the app as well as their hopes and plans for it as well. “Knowledge of history can go a long way. It can help us as black folks feel more power and pride about who we are.” It can help expand kn...

Can one man fight for justice for equality? Dennis Biddle joins host Beverly Taylor to share a one of a kind experience as the youngest player in the Negro Baseball league, which has only recently been officially included in the major leagues. He shares personal stories about Jackie Robinson, his efforts to bring recognition and honor to his fellow players, and his plans to preserve the rare exper...

Beverly Taylor speaks with filmmaker and former TV journalist Joanne Williams in this episode of The 411 Live. Joanne Williams is finishing up a documentary about a controversial play that included two very different schools of Wisconsin, one white and one black, collaborating in a production in 1966. She initially started the film to tell the story of that production but through her research foun...

For Human Trafficking Awareness Month, Beverly Taylor meets with Jenny Almquist, the executive director and founder of Fierce Freedom – an organization that is working to educate and move people to work towards the abolishment of human trafficking. In this episode of The 411 Live, Jenny shares the devastating truths of sex trafficking hidden in middle and high schools of the rural communities. She...

In this episode of the 411 Live, Rose Ernst, Ph. D., and Angelique Davis, J.D., expand on the phenomenon that’s been floating around in the shadows for years: Racial Gaslighting. It has affected people of color all over the world, and while many recognized it, they did not have the term to name it. Join Beverly Taylor as she discusses examples of racial gaslighting and how to address them, especia...

In this episode of The 411 Live, Beverly Taylor addresses the demographic disparities that exist in those who are sentenced to incarceration and those given probation with Dr. Tina Freiburger, Dean of the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Young black men are more likely to be incarcerated than sentenced to probation than any other gender, race or ethic...

In this episode of the 411 Live, Dennis Walton, founder of Made Men World Wide, a social entrepreneur and activist by trade, shares his knowledge on how balanced families in our community really set the foundation to a greater world. “There are a lot of things that have come from specific circumstances where we can see just so much systemic dysfunction that exists in our communities.” He and Bever...

Deborah Blanks, former CEO of the Social Development Commission, author of the research report Project Central Voice, and partner of Kairo Communication, gives a bit of her time to dive into the issue of grant money given to organizations to support our communities. Deborah shares some shocking revelations about how the funding is used, the organizations on the ground that are left out of the fund...

In this episode, Beverly Taylor dives into the story behind the controversy surrounding a social media post by Milwaukee Lutheran High School. She chats with Milwaukee Lutheran Alumni Carl Greer, Karon Sims, and Monte Berry who describe racism they say they endured at the school. Not only do these alumni share similar stories, but they come together to make the community aware...