WhatImHereFor | o2 Community Dedication
This is where I pick one thing I’m here for.
What’s crackin’ in my life? What’s chill? What’s dope? What’s good? All of that and more embodies what I’m here for.
Honestly, life is wack sometimes, and it’s nice to have one little glowing light in this dim ass void that we’re all just tryna slang through. Clawing through this darkness.
So without further ado, this week I am here for:
Places That Actually Cater to the Community Around Them
So I’m on my third week working at my new job at a county library. And this library continues to blow my mind EVERY DAY!
The library is situated in an underserved and under-resourced neighborhood. There are a lot of homeless people, as well as multi-generational families that live in this area. It’s majority Black, Latinx and Pacific Islander populated. Even basic internet is hard to come by in this neighborhood.
This library, knowing the demographics of the community around them, truly goes above and beyond with the services they provide. I remember being shocked (I still am a bit shocked) when I learned about some of the things that this library does. It’s VERY lenient on late due fees. VERY lenient (because honestly, why deter someone from reading). It hands out free meals every day for kids and the homeless. There is an after school program, free of charge (after school programs usually cost an arm and a leg)! There are laundry services every week. There are wifi hotspots that can be borrowed, as well as laptop and wifi combos (You can theoretically not pay for internet!! What!?). Even the book selections aptly reflect the community that frequents the library (which is more than I can say for a certain SF bookstore that refuses to carry books in Chinese in a street that people call the “2nd Chinatown”)! There’s a no shushing policy! You can eat in there. Sleep in the chairs and not be bothered. Homeless people are not demonized in this space. There are 3D printers! There are ongoing veteran programs and English as a second language programs for adults. All of these in a comparatively small library! And this is the only library (this is what I hear) providing all of these services in the county area.
Up to this point, I’ve only ever encountered libraries that provide books and the occasional arts and crafts activity, movie showing, author reading, etc. It’s incredibly refreshing to see a library that actually thought about the basic needs of the surrounding community (especially ones that are less affluent) and for it to go that extra mile to try and provide those needs.
I’ve only been at this library two and a half weeks and it has already challenged my perception of what a library can be to the community that it serves. The people who work there are so passionate about helping others and shit, I was starting to forget what decent human beings were like. And there are other places out there that are trying their best to serve the people around them, doing good work. And that’s what I’m here for this week.
And so that’s my spiel about my new workplace lol. I’m not disclosing what exact library I work for because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to.
Another quick thing I’m here for this week is:
Childish Gambino’s This is America music video.
I think Donald Glover is one of the most talented and inspirational people of our generation. The modern day renaissance man. I fuck with this.
And as always, thank you so much for reading my feels! I would love to listen to your thoughts in the comments. Let’s all just try to vibe on another level shall we?
