Latest / DA CREW Podcast / SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST_EPISODE _48 _ HOST PATRICE GRIMBALL

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SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST_EPISODE _48 _ HOST PATRICE GRIMBALL · DA CREW Podcast

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No lessing Lisen did all things? I was dustupid enough? Why in all
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the blue Sky's boys from the North? Things? Well, all things and
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what. Aspiring Authors Magazine is a founding sponsor for Doc Crewe podcast. Get
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Aspiring Authors Magazine is an international magazine founded in May of twenty twenty by Queen
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the world. Aspiring Authors Magazine is an international magazine founded in May of twenty
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two. Because I'm back, Welcome to the SC Book gall and Friends Chat.
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We're gonna be talking about the latest and book reviews, off the interviews
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and life. Come on and enjoy life. We're ready. Are you in
2:20
the club? They're getting would from me. Hey everyone, it's another Saturday
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night and you are with me. SC Book gal A four three four Patrese
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Grimble and tonight it is SC Book Gowns and Friends Chat, but it's the
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solo edition, So I say tonight, I'm gonna talk to you guys about
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my first experience of the Public Library Association conference. And there's another part of
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the first experience. Well, you know, this experience has a lot of
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first experiences. So let's just start from the beginning. I've been working for
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my county library for the past nineteen years, and this past October, on
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the anniversary of my mother's death, I was awarded the Cynthia Graham Herd Award.
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Now y'all want to think, what in the world is the Cynthia Graham
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Herd Award. Whoa Cynthia Graham heard was one of the managers of a library
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here in Charleston County, Okay. She lost her life on June fifteenth in
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the Mother Emmanuel Church shooting. She was a dear friend of mine. And
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when I say like sister, like coming to my house, us calling each
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other scandals when scandal is on being there the very next day for the birth
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of my daughter, doing my whole career, that was her. Okay.
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So with that aboard, I was asked if I wanted to go to PLA.
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Okay, PLA stands for Public Library Association. So you're talking about librarians
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all over the country ascending into one place. Okay, So transparent moment.
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I am not a librarian by license. I am a librarian by experience.
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Okay. So in other words, I've learned everything they've learned for free in
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nineteen years, and they paid somebody for five. But I'm gonna be going
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back to school and doing the same thing. Okay. So I was going
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back and forth, back and forth with this if I should go, if
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I should not go, And you would wonder, like, why in the
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world this is a great opportunity to go. You guys, I've never been
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on an airplane for one. For two, i've never been without my kids.
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And for three, I don't feel like I'm big on the total pole
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at that time to do it, because I'm like me in the room of
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all these people who got degrees, have been working there twenty thirty years.
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You're talking about the directors and managers. I didn't feel like, hey,
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this was for me. Okay. But I have a great friend, Gere
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friends tell you truth. My whole library crew, they're wonderful. So Tiffany
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Children's manager album, Oh I missed so much because he's at another branch.
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Was my direct manager and my very best friend. We call ourselves thumba Louise
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Terry like, you should go. You'll be all right, We'll walk you
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through the process. Okay, So y'all you really know me right? You
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know what Trida, that's what Terry and Tiffany said that God said you were
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supposed to be in the room. And I looked at them and I was
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like, look, then God should have made a train because I don't like
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the one. I don't want to be on the plane. Like I am
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definitely afraid to hike you guys, Like if the hotel has an elevator that
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looks out in the lobby, I'm turning my back so I don't have to
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look at the lobby. Okay. So I mean, this experience all paid.
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I'm not paying for anything. Your hotel is paid, your plane ticket
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is paid. Well, you do pay for your food, but you get
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to reimburse him back. So I mean, what's keeping me? So I
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came home. I spoke to my aunt's to see who would be able see
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you treat to you? We here, we are here to say who would
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take care of my nine year old? Okay? I even had a conversation
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with my nine year old and you guys, she was like, oh,
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you should go mommy, and you could call me every day. And I'm
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thinking, well, godly, you got rid of me so quick. I
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mean, you ain't even give me a chance to say, mommy, gonna
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miss you, or you gonna miss mommy? You did what you planning on
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having a party once. I but she was very, very supportive, just
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like she was about five minutes ago. Okay, so here we go,
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right, told them all right, I'll go. Now. Let me let
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me tell you when they really say that God will make room for you at
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the table, he really made room for me at the table because I was
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in the company of all managers. All these people were managers. I mean
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you have a branch manager of the largest library in the system, not as
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in circulation wise, but as in the amount of space. Okay. Then
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you had three other assistant managers. You had an outreach coordinator, then you
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had a children's coordinator. So like when I say I am low on the
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totem pole, y'all, I am down here, okay. And then there's
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another part to that was this beautiful thing I have called melanine. I was
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only black person. I think that scared me more than the height at that
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time. Reason being is because you see these people with degrees and everything.
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And I've been I'm geechee. I speak that after myze English where it's not
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proper. But guess what, they understand me more than anything, or they
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understand them. So I've been in a circle where me and a manager are
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sitting next to theagether and we're talking, and we're talking to the patron and
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the patron is sitting up there looking at the manager with the look of and
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then when I explained it, they're like, So that's what kind of I
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felt, because when they were when we first got at the airport, God
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qualifies it. Ooh see, Trevida, just keep dropping them because I accept
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them all because he's still working on me. He still thank you for saying
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that God qualifies that call, not the other way around. So you're totally
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right. We get to the airport, you guys, now, I didn't
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know you had to take off shoes. I didn't know you have to take
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off I don't know none, but none of this. All I know is
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I leveled by the airport and I hear planes all the time, so that's
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another thing to freak me out. Once we got there, I see all
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them in the corner and they're using all these oh this this is the such
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and such and a such and and such and a such. And I said,
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oh, really, so we're just going out there and write notes.
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We're just gonna take notes. They's like, oh yeah, Like, well
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you could have just said that. I mean, you don't have to be
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all technical. What if we're just going to take notes, take those notes,
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bring them back to our library and somehow make that work for us.
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Okay, my best friend Terry walk me through the whole process, like,
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all right, I'm about to leave you here. We're gonna follow you on
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the ground and everything. First flight, no problem, smooth, sell forty
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five minutes, touching on the ground. I could do this, Y'all's not
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to that second flight. That second flight got in you guys, nobody's I've
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heard of turbulence, lou shaken. We were going through a storm that was
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being predicted maybe like a week in advance. Okay, So the minute we
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got on the second air, the second plane, okay, the connecting flight,
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and we were going from Charlotte, North Carolina to Columbus, Ohio.
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The first thing the man says, after thank you and welcome to American Airlines.
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We're gonna have a lot of turbulence on this flight. WHOA what bruh,
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I'm gonna need you to ease it in if we're gonna have turbulence on
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this flight. Okay, So the young lady next to me, she is
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going to PLA and she noticed the nervousness. So we're talking. She's like,
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hey, let's just look at the color purple together, we can look
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at it on my laptop. I was all right, I don't know how
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you pull out a laptop. But she actually had a tablet, so I
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don't know what the devil she was talking about. But we sat up there
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and we look at that, and lo and behold. I got a little
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shake. But that was it sounds like I was wonder like, why did
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I feel like God would have left me and forsaken me? He wanted me
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to go here. He made it to where as I had no excuse.
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I had the babysitter, I had everything paid, my job. Wanted me
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to go. So everything is it? So what's your excuse? Why won't
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you go? All right? Cool? So we make it to Columbus,
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Ohio, and this is where reality really slapped me in the face. Okay,
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And I know y'all thinking, what in the world, how does reality
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slap you in the face. So what I'm gonna do is we're gonna take
12:54
a little break, Okay, you guys, and I'm gonna explain how reality
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really kicked in. And this is for those in customer services. So we're
13:07
gonna take a little break. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna tell you
13:11
a little bit about everything else. Okay, come back, you guys.
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I want you to plan to be in the building, to be educated and
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power in, encouraged, come out, support, Turn off the legs,
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bad the candle, tonight, a man, a merchant. Let's take a
15:28
shower, shower together. I was abundeed. You was my dad and some
15:46
wealthy and say, Jayce, turn off. The girl want to care of
16:08
you with a special tread. You're so sweet? Turn on. So now
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remember where we left off. I just touched down in Columbus, Ohio.
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Okay, the weather is very bad because they were talking about tornados and floodings
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and stuff like that. But if you're living at Charleston and you see that
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almost on the daily base, and so it didn't fade us any Here was
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where I had to speak life, and I had to speak the word into
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myself. We walked into the hotel as me and the crew, me and
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everybody from my library. It's like four of us to day four. No,
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there's five of us. Five is us? Okay? So we walked
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into the hotel and the gentleman we was like, oh, we're gonna run
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over get our stuff, come back out registration. So we are in the
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hotel. Okay, I'm on the phone back over here. Talk to an,
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I say, and I touched down, Da da da, hang up
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the phone. So we're next in a minute. Said oh to everybody in
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a row. Now I'm behind them because, like I said, I was
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on the phone my daughter, Oh by one, Oh, you're here for
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the conference. Uh huh, and you are here for the conference. All
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of our names on the same exactly itenerary. There's nothing difference. The man
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has and looked at me and said, oh, and so what are you
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here for the same thing that they're here for. Oh, you're here for
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the conference. And the look that I'm giving you guys, the same look
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that he gave me. You're here for the Public Library Association conference. Yes,
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oh, and your name is for Trees Smith. He looks, oh
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okay, Oh I didn't pull it out, and he still has this look
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up of like, uh really. So I don't know if you guys been
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paying attention to my show and I told you about this documentary that's coming out,
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and matter of fact, it's coming out in Junees and it's called are
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you a librarian? That's the look that he was giving me, like,
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are you really a librarian? Lit? I say. I went in my
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room and all of them are telling me they're sorry. On the elevator,
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like, yo, Teres, we're sorry. He shouldn't have thought that,
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he shouldn't. I was like, yeah, I'm all right, y'all,
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I'm all right. So I went to my room. I had to speak
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life in myself, like you know what God wanted you hear? He made
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everything lineup. Look, take what you can. Soak this information. She'd
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take it back. Use it for work, use it for your podcast,
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use it for your friends, use it, use it, use it.
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So first day of the conference, I'm walking inside this huge convention center,
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beautiful convention center, y'all. I could count how many people look like me.
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I could count. So at this time, everything the gentleman was saying
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in his facial expression all came rushing back to me. And you're wondering,
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like, so, why was that? Why would that offend you? Why
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would you take that? I take that because I've had so many incidents whereas
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my level of knowledge could not operate through my color in my community. That
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is big. And I love the fact that aspiring authors, aspiring authors has
20:06
this platform whereas I can give African Americans author or authors a color of chance
20:14
to talk about their books, promote their books, talk about their brand,
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talk about their journey to become an author. That is why so kind of
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a way me seeing this was a rededication to how I feel about being an
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African American reader. Okay, So we break down into these different conferences and
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these I'm sorry conferences. It's different sessions. And one of my first sessions,
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we're talking about banning books. And if you know and you go to
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public libraries and if you do a lot of reading, you will know that
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book banning is one of the biggest things that came from the dude down in
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Florida, the same when he went into the public library and the school library
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and then't like this book, this book, this book. Okay. So,
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a lot of the books of color that deal with race issues, that
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deal with incarceration, that deal with social justice, that deal with domestic violence,
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books that deal with family issues, books that lgbt Q, a lot
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of the books that challenged the mainscreen thought pattern of American beautiful history. We
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could say all these books are being banned. You haven't. Now there is
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one state that if you give a child a book that the parent feels inappropriate,
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you can get arrested. There are some libraries that I have to pull
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half of this collection because one person, and nine times ten, they're not
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even appearent they challenged the book. And what they do is they go online,
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they find the little juicy inserts and they send it to the school or
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the public library said this book is inappropriate. Well guess what what's inappropriate for
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you might not be inappropriate for anybody else. It might be a conversation starter.
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And I always tell people about the story with my son when he was
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twelve years old, No not even twelve, he was ten or eleven,
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because he was still in elementary school. He got a book and he said,
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Mommy, I can't spell us work. That said, okay, what's
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the word? He said, c O and om hold up? I said,
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what's the word against? He spells it? And I pulled the book
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and the book's called Plan B. And me, as a parent, I
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should have a lot of parents nowadays would have been embarrassed, Oh my god,
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where did you get that book from No it became a conversation starter.
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So I called his dad and I said, look, this came up in
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the book. We need to talk about it, because he shouldn't know what
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this is. I mean, his dad had a conversation with him that night.
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No other parent or no other non parents should tell me how to parent.
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I think the reason for this, and the reason why a lot of
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this stuff is happening in school now is because we got non parents trying to
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tell you how to parent. But we won't go down. That's a whole
23:55
different thing. That's a whole different thing. Start trying me in our kids'
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best friends. We won't have all the situation that we have and nowadays.
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But they took that out of the hands of parents and made us try to
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be the best friend and do that gentle parenting. No, sorry that about
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me, but let's go back. Let's go back. So I'm sitting and
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I'm coming out the conference, and so my next section is about the Black
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Library and Handbook. Okay, So there was a panel discussion that were several
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members of BCLA, which is Black Librariy's Black Library and Association. Okay,
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they were talking about how we should try to get the unconventional weights to become
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librarians, because, to tell you the truth and what I've seen in over
24:51
my nineteen years, your pay sixty thousand dollars to help someone write a paper,
25:00
you having sixty dollar dollars to help some And no, I am not
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downplaying anybody's degree. Hats off to you, great job. Your girl gonna
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be doing the same thing. But I think there are plenty of people who
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will qualify for that job and just can't get that job because they don't have
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that degree. There are some states whereas if I was to go and apply
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for a job at their library, I would have already run a branch manager.
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But in the state of South Carolina, you cannot be that because you
25:34
do not have an MLIS. And that's a master show. It came to
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the point where I had to have a conversation with my manager and I said,
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you know what, I'm doing eight to ten programs a month, where
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you have librarians librarians now that are doing one or two programs, sometimes none,
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And I'm like, why am I doing so much of these programs where
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they have to degree, they should be doing more than me. It was
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crazy. I don't know what gentle parent it is. I know the action
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in accountability. Oh, let me explain to you about the gentle parenting.
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I don't want to go. The gentle parenting is the I call it general
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parenting. It might be another word for it. It's the do you understand
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why you did what you did? Okay, do not do that again.
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I'm not going to I'm going to punish you, but I'm not going to
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punish you hard. Do I believe in corporal punishment? No? I don't.
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But my daughter's on punishment right now. She know good and well,
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don't lie to me about your hork. You lied to me about your hork.
26:55
Now you're doing the weekends of mommy's homework. And she just told me
26:59
early today I actually didn't my homework. Yeah, you should have. So
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wow. I never knew it like that, but it happens. The most
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feels. Yes. Becoming a librarian, Oh my god. So there are
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three ways you can become a librarian in Charleston County Okay, no, South
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Carolina, Charles County, Charleston. One way is get the full mL S.
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The second way is you get a bachelor's and a bachelor's in any field
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you would want to, and you continue to take sixteen accredited hours every year,
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and then the last one is called the non provisional where you get the
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bachelor's and you I want to say that one is six hours per year.
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Okay, But the crazy thing about it is and the biggest debate from me
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and me going back to school right now is to let these kids see who
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use the word what you can't? You can I use the word punishment.
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It's abused. Oh my, that's wow, wow, wow, that's that's
28:34
an that's an eye opener. Mean, black Diamond, you might need to
28:38
talk. I'm gonna talk to you later. So, so the only difference
28:47
between my position in the librarian position is maybe sixty thousand dollars worth of student
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loans and a thousand and a paycheck. You should never say their consequences to
29:00
the behavior, let's talk about it. You should say that there are consequences
29:07
to your behare and let's talk about that. Now. You know, language
29:11
is changed, and I cannot see what I like to see, but you
29:14
get to put you I know, I know, I I oh my god,
29:18
I know, I know that's gonna be it. I'm gonna have to
29:22
you're gonna talk. So back to my trip. I'm getting there. So
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I'm in this in this room with all these liberians, and here's the thing
29:36
that this is what happens. Man and a lady. We're talking, and
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that session was over. We were sitting in the corner and she said,
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all right, everybody who is a librarian, No, she said, everybody
29:51
works at the library. Were all right? She said yeah. She said,
29:55
okay, if you work for a library for five years, sit down.
30:00
If you work for a library for ten years, sit down. If
30:03
you work for a library for fifteen years, sit down. So there's like
30:06
maybe three or four of us left. And she said, if you're a
30:08
manager, sit down. So two of them sit down. She says,
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So tell me why these two young ladies right here cannot be librarians? Said,
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I bet you if I put them in the room, they know as
30:18
much as you know. He said, there has to be an unconventional way
30:23
to let's keep the keep the color in the library. He said, he
30:34
is going to conferences whereas he has sat down, he's telling them that he's
30:40
a director of a library system, not a manager, not a rantished manager.
30:44
He's a director, and he said they look at him like what he
30:52
said, I purposely hire people of color in some cases because we're not represented.
31:00
Now, for me in my library system, I have to say,
31:03
it's pretty about it. It's pretty diverse. I've been so fortunate to work
31:14
around black male librarians and female librarians. But lately, I will say that
31:21
the crop of people that have come through right now, maybe four or five,
31:33
it's it's totally ridiculous. So continuation of the whole entire trip, this
31:41
is eye opening. Like I'm in sessions and I'm the only person. I
31:48
was once with the whole group, but by the end of the second day,
31:53
I was by myself. It was like it was it was, it
32:01
was. It was very eye open that I can't explain it because I get
32:05
upset and I get angry, and it gives me determination, like all right,
32:08
you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and go to school and I'm
32:10
gonna show y'all how it does. And I attended a lot of sessions and
32:16
that was a mixture of how you can get student loans and how you can
32:21
serve the homeless population, how you can help seniors over fifty five come back
32:27
into the workplace. So it wasn't like I was targeting just programs about African
32:32
American and ap Americans libraries. But I needed to see this for myself because
32:37
I was like, this cannot be the world that we're in. This this
32:44
can't be, and it surely is. It comes to find out that one
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guy said that the library and and the profession that has always been welcomed if
32:59
you were an old white lady, and that's all I saw. All I
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saw. Now we could close up generation grap a little bit because I've seen
33:14
a little bit more of the forty forty fifties, you know, but when
33:21
you saw somebody you give the head nod. I would say I saw about
33:28
maybe five or ten percent of those that were having US Spanish descent. Yeah,
33:47
it was, it was. It was something across the board. Think
33:50
about if we are at the bottom of the tone pole and even the worst
33:53
for African American women, Yes, yes, especially in this little world.
33:59
And you what I mean, being a librarian, you're thinking, oh my
34:01
god, this can't happen. There's one session that was called the Handbook of
34:13
Black Librarians. There's a book that's going to be coming out that's going to
34:16
do a history of those of black librarianship from first library to now seven percent
34:30
African American. So this trip coming back home and was easy. We had
34:42
a little turbulence, but it was birch r on weekend. So I came
34:47
home and it really made me think, like you have to be up for
34:54
this challenge, Trees, and that I am. I feel that I need
35:00
to become a librarian because I need to show these little black boy little black
35:04
girls that hell, okay, we can do it. And I did it
35:07
after nineteen years and I went back. I feel that I have to prove
35:12
people wrong. I feel that this is the path that God has sent me
35:16
on and technically I just don't want to fail my daughter. I just don't
35:25
want to fail my nephew's, my niece, is my cousins, my son.
35:30
So black librarriship is an endangered species and this girl want to put some
35:42
life back into it. So I want to thank you guys for listening to
35:46
my little trip and how I overcome the craziness of the crazy next week until
35:57
I need to be teased. My kids never seen. So I have a
36:00
comment from black Diamond. Until I met you, Patrice. My kids have
36:05
never seen an African American librarian. I'm proud to say I know you in
36:09
an African American woman librarian, and I've never seen one. When I first
36:15
started working at the library, I've never seen one. The first person I
36:20
saw was my mentor, Cynthia brand Heard, and when I saw her,
36:24
I thought she was just like a circulation manager. And she said, no,
36:29
I'm a black librarian. Oh oh okay. And then she introduced me
36:35
to miss Kim Williams. And then I met mister g and he is a
36:38
black librarian. And then I met mister Ray, and then I have mister
36:45
Vaughan and Hayley and Miss Tiffany. So now I'm surrounded by all these black
36:52
librarians. So that's why I said I didn't know the statistics until I actually
36:55
seed it for myself. And even going to Sadig Zibit Hall, when people
37:00
saw me, one lady asked me, can you tell me what a restroom
37:05
is? I've been in your building the whole entire day. No, boy,
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I work, he too. When you tell when you find a restroom,
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you come back and tell me, I'm with you. I'm working this,
37:13
this, this conference too. She Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm
37:17
thinking to myself. Okay, so it is. So I'm gonna end.
37:24
This is nice of y'all. Pray for me, and I'm going back to
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school with books and stuff like that. Oh Jesus, but catch me tomorrow
37:34
night. I'm talking poetree. I'm gonna give you a list of the best
37:37
of the best that we have in Time and Inspiring Authors magazine. Make sure
37:43
you are here tomorrow at eight And you guys, thanks for listening to me
37:49
talk about this, because this when weigh't only heaving me and I feel like
37:52
you guys, we can talk. So I will see you tomorrow night,
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eight o'clock. Back here. Good night, you guys. Is by yes
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a person nursie. All things ain't what they used to be. Where you
38:29
all the blue sky? It's but borism is doping blows from the Lord and
38:36
something see verse