Below the Ten: Life in South LA KCRW

Every year, the students at ISLAH Academy, a private Islamic school inside a South LA mosque put on a winter program for their parents.

Tyreek Bilal has gone through many transformations in his life. He’s been a confidant to powerful celebrities, a husband to six wives, father to 20 children and a celibate religious scholar. Now he's taking a stand against changes at his mosque and in his neighborhood.

Throughout South Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods there’s a growing community of underground home chefs who sell food on Instagram. One of those chefs, a guy who goes by the name Mr. Fries Man, specializes in loaded french fries.

Lita Herron, a 69-year-old grandmother of six, witnessed repeated shootings in her community. But her fear turned to anger and then to action.

As a black kid growing up in South LA, Lt. Michael Carodine was regularly mistreated by police. But for Lt. Carodine, bad policing was a problem that could be solved; and he would help solve it.

When someone gets shot in Skipp Townsend's community, he is often one of the first on the scene. Sometimes he knows the victim personally. Skipp works as a gang interventionist with the LAPD.