from the series Phillips Oral History Project…
The Phillips Community Oral History Project aims to document, amplify, and empower the multicultural and multi-generational voices of those in the Phillips Community to tell their own stories on their own terms.
This month, the alley will begin featuring voices from the Project in our monthly papers. To start, we are sharing excerpts from an interview with community member Derrick Herod, who was interviewed at Franklin Library.
Okay so could you just introduce yourself, your name, and your age if you want?
Derrick: My name is Derrick. They call me black. I’m 45.
Perfect. And what’s your relationship to this library or the area? The community?
D: I was uh, I ain’t got no relationship with this building but I come here often to charge my phone up or just get out and get away from the riff-raff outside.
Totally, totally.
D: I’ve been coming around here since the George Floyd incident and COVID. I used to be in the downtown area but now I’m over here. I live over here now, technically. I stay over here, but I’ve been coming around here before. About four or five years ago, yeah. Four or five years ago? Yeah.
Four or five years ago?
D: Yeah.
So what has kind of made you stay in this area?
D: It made me stay — the people, yeah the people. The homeless — I can relate to them. I was once one of those people and now a lot of my acquaintances are, you know, still in that bind. So I don’t want to make them feel like I’m abandoning them just because I have a place to stay and stuff. So I just come around anyway to help out when I can.
…What’s something that brings you joy?
D: Waking up. Life. Living. That’s what brings me joy.
Can you, like, tell us what it feels like when you come into the library? What brings you back here? Why does it feel like a place to decompress?
D: It’s peaceful here to me, regardless of everything that’s going on outside. I don’t know. I like coming here. You know, better than the main library. It’s cool here. It’s a little small. I like it.
