 Good morning. I am Naima Dean. I'm the Branch Manager of the Western Edition Branch Library. Good morning, Naima. Can you describe your ties to the Western Edition community? I can try. Yeah, my roots are in this community. I was born here in 1967 at French Hospital, which then was located on Geary in like 5th or 6th, and now is Kaiser, which is across the street in Upper Block from the Western Edition Branch. So I was born in that hospital in 1967. My dad lived in this area prior to that time, but is actually from Pasadena, California. He moved up here and opened a jazz club called The Both And in the neighborhood, and my parents met in a really weird way. My mom went to get PG&E and saw my dad at the PG&E and was like flirty, and then, unbeknownst to either of them, she went for a job that night at a nightclub as a cocktail waitress, and it was my dad's club. And so they were like, whoa, and then I guess that chemistry led to me. And so I was born at the hospital and raised often on in the Western Edition neighborhood. When I was really little, I lived on Baker and Geary, Lyon and Geary, over on Central, and then in my middle school years, I actually moved to Marin County before that. I moved to Marin County in my elementary school years, but my dad still always lived in the city, so I always came back to the city. In my middle school years, he lived up in Anza Heights, right up there, where Target is now. And in my high school years, I lived on Baker and McAllister. These were my stomping grounds. And then when I was in college, I went to San Francisco State. I lived in what is now called Hayes Valley, but back then that was straight up the Moe. And so I feel like my roots are in the Moe and a lot of my memories and firsts and childhood adventures, teen adventures happen in this neighborhood. What are your fondest memories? Wait, I have one more thing to add really quickly before I get into my fond memories. I didn't live, I feel like I've lived or yeah, I basically lived in San Francisco every decade of my life, with the exception of after the millennial. I did not live in San Francisco, but I have worked at this branch since 2011. I worked in San Francisco Public Library since 2007. So even though I haven't lived here, my foot has always been in this community. I feel like that is important to add. And how long have you been at the Western Edition Branch Library? I've been here since 2011. I came in as a children's librarian and it was one of the places that everybody felt was a challenge, I guess. I didn't know that until I got here. I started at San Francisco Public Library in 2007 and I started the Ocean View Branch as a children's librarian. And I really liked that branch because the community was very similar to this area to me. It felt familiar. It felt diverse but connected. And so I really liked that area. And at that time I wanted a full-time position, so I got hired at the Parkside Branch, but the Western Edition Branch became available before I actually transferred to the Parkside Branch. So I called up my supervisor at the time who was Linda Brooks Burton. She rest in Bayview Branch is named after her. I called her up and I said, is there any way possible that I could instead be reassigned to that? And they said yes, but that counts as two reassignments and that means you have to stay there for two years. And I was like, okay, well then when I got here I realized a lot of people found this branch super challenging, but for me it was home. It was seeing elders come into the library that I knew from when I was a kid. It was people that knew my dad, people that I went to parties with, someone who I had done a rap with. It was seeing my friends come in now with their kids and having them actually start performing at the library through French out in French. That's so special. It's like going full circle. So I came here in 2011 and then I was children's librarian here for three years and then the management position became vacant and managing a library was never, ever not in my room. I'm really good with people and I like working with people. So managing people wasn't really my thing. Engaging with people is one of my things, but we needed a manager and it was either me or get someone new. So I stepped up and went for it and here I am still and I don't know people. I think I'm appreciated here. I think people think I'm crazy for staying here for as long as I have because people like to move on, but I don't know if it's just a home away from home. I just feel right here. Even through challenge. I mean, life is challenging, so work's going to be challenging too, right? I'll leave that there. I'll leave that there. What are your fondest memories of growing up or working at the Western Edition? Growing up first, I have to say there's some cool memories. One of my earliest memories is actually being really, really little and being in my dad's club and because I was a child, I don't know if I wasn't supposed to be there or not, but I remember always climbing through the fence to go through the back entrance of the club. I remember being really little and being in a bassinet underneath the bar of the club because I remember liquor bottles and legs forever, liquor bottles and legs, and there's a, my friends laugh at me because there's something that I inherited from or that became part of me from those days and it's, I can be at the loudest concert standing up in the middle of the room and fall asleep because music is like a blanket to me. It's everything to me. It's the air that I breathe and it's part of my roots and it comes from this area. When I was right across the street from my dad's club was the church of John Coltrane, which still exists in San Francisco. It's been moved around and shifted, but the bishop ran the club or the church and so I would bounce back and forth between my dad's club on one side of the visitero and the church across the street and his wife would do my hair and I just remember like laying on, I don't know if they were pews that they had like put in there or some kind of thing. I just remember laying and always listening to music and then in my dad's, that club came to an end in the early 70s, but my dad still was affiliated with music venues and whatnot. So it was always like being at the shell mound in Golden Gate Park for whatever production he was putting on at that weekend or in Stern Grove or on Mount Tamapayas. One of the coolest things I think about that is it helped to really develop my identity because I'm biracial and my mom is white from England and that's not American so that's a whole other chapter. But when I moved to Marin and lived with my mom, I was the only black child in school until I got to high school. There was like one or two that came in and out, but not other than myself, but in my school I didn't have a black teacher until I got to high school. I didn't have black friends at school. I didn't run the streets in Marin with black friends, but because my dad being black African American, deeply involved in jazz and music and I had a wide array of friends, but I had a lot of friends that looked like me that were also biracial and so it gave me a sense of comfort in identity and allowed me to embrace my culture safely and actually in a really safe open-minded group of people. The name of my dad's club was the both and and that's who I am. I'm both and and that's how I was raised and you know I'm urban and rural. I'm beach and city and like and it all ties back to that there at my parents' idea my dad's ideology and what he was trying to achieve. Best of both worlds. Yeah it really was and another good memory that I have here that I can't leave out was like being a teenager and again on Divisito or Gary there used to be like the hair product store and this big man I can't remember his name I wish I would remember his name is Light Skin brother he was older he smoked a cigar and he did hair heavy sent me when he sold his hair products there and he had good hair products and I would go there and get my hair products and then go home and get my pressing comb and work my hair on the stove you know like we did and I remember going there during high school to get my hair products because I was going to go see Run DMC and Houdini and LL Cool J and the fat boys on their first tour and I went to the hair supply store which happened to be next to KPOO radio station the radio station that we serve and a limo pulled up and out walked LL Cool J and Run DMC and I friggin died because I had seen Crush Groove and LL Cool J was in that movie for all of like two minutes and so were the Beastie Boys and I loved them beyond believe they were hard they were punk rock and at that time like they were hip hop but they were punk rock and at that time that was exactly where I was at it was them and fishbone and so seeing that right in my neighborhood just solidified more that this everything that I love and breathe and what not all happens in this hood it's really the heartbeat of the city but people don't really know it it's true central it really is you know from working here it's like you don't know what's gonna come at you right and that's the way this whole entire neighborhood has it's a it's a flux we learned that recently from that San Francisco model that we had and the red lining of the area that you would never know now that this was a redlined area because it's completely changed it's completely development mm-hmm some call it that some call it displacement yep and I feel like I toggle between both and I appreciate good things and and nice neighborhoods and but I also think that it would be nice if people of color were welcome to that and that leads me to the last question with all the changes that this community of the neighborhood has undergone and will continue to go through what are your hopes and dreams for it for yourself and for the community I think would be cool to own a house in this community I would love to own a house in this community it's not even I used to look at Craigslist just to look to move back into this community especially after working here and and and I don't look anymore because it's just not a reality not even for just me on a librarian's holiday but for even people that make more money than me there people that make a lot of money are sharing very small spaces you know and so I think it would be cool to be able to have a fair shot at living this neighborhood or in San Francisco I one of the things I I trip off of lately is because now the western edition has kind of merged into all these different NOPA and low die and lower pacific heights and and pacific heights pacific heights has always been there I've lived here my whole life I've never in my entire life been into a home pacific heights never that's weird to me I live in mill valley I've been in a lot of homes I've lived in been in Sausalito since adjacent homes not that that's anybody that's how much of a divide there is in this city so I'd like to see the city actually be as diverse and as people have claimed and progressive as people have claimed that it is on a humane level on a human level I don't see that I see that waning so I'd like to see that restored the both and yes it's still one organic food I still want ice cream from buy right you know but I I want to go in there and and see people that look like me that don't think about it's just that way and what you were saying before that there's diversity yet a connected diversity I want to connect the diversity I I think on the one hand yeah we are accepting of each other and for in general with the exception of the police department live pretty harmoniously amongst one another police department is having some issues in the city I keep waiting for them to change but we'll see what happens um but I do think that like throughout the years like you you have north beach you have china town you have japan town you have film or you have the sunset you have pacific heights you have the marine we all live here but how much do we really merge like Brett Easton Ellis said people are afraid to merge and it it really is true it's one of those things that has stuck in my mind since that that quote well let's hope people learn how to merge yeah for the future well isn't that part of the idea of this project is to get people to understand exactly someone to merge there you go for different worlds to collide yeah it's important be that you don't have to agree but you have to be able to find a way to understand and accept connect so that's I would like to see that for the world but you know at least in in the Bay Area because we are leaders we are in the forefront so yes and especially because this community is such a hub it's a good place to start thank you Naima welcome