 What superlative can I use to describe Mrs. Leonard Brooks Burton one of the most perfect people that I've ever known? Again, it is a great great morning One that has been in the making for I would say 50 years And it seems that she spent most of those 50 years here at the Bayview library in this community I miss her Totally completely and I am Incredibly happy overwhelmingly so that We are here commemorating The groundbreaking of the brand-new Bayview Linda Brooks Burton Library and I want you all now See that applause right there That's not good enough for me. I want you all to give her the biggest Greatest most awesome ovation so that she can hear us right now Yeah Not bad not bad All right, right You will also have a mic though at the end of the program to To talk about Mrs. Linda Brooks Burton So right now I want to introduce Miss Lila or Leah is it Lila where is she? Mrs. Lila miss Lila Pittman who is going to introduce her fantastic dance company I'm going to ask you actually to kind of like swerve in your chairs to like focus your attention on these lovely black beautiful Young ladies over here. Mrs. Miss. Miss. Mrs. Mrs. Pittman, please Hi, my name is Lila Pittman. I run the feline finesse dance company We are predominantly hip-hop dance company We originated here in the Bayview community Our mission here is to create a safe haven for our young women to freely artistically and creatively express themselves through dance while empowering them to reach their full potential so we Thank you guys And we're just so just that we're here to Bless you guys with our spirit and just to uplift your spirit today with just a little little something so thank you Thank you guys, and we also have a website. It's www.felinefinessedance.wix.com Slash LP one two three. Thank you guys have a blessed day My name is Lina and I go to Third good at my show. My name is heaven and I go to George Washington Carver and I go to third good My name is Linnea, and I go to Bessie Carmichael Elementary My name is Mila, and I go to Star King Elementary School My name is Amari, and I go to Malcolm X Academy My name is Amari, and I go to E.R. Taylor My name is Talia, and I go to Charles Drew My name is Mariana Gale, and I go to Charles Drew My name is Jesse, and I go to church every Easter and Christmas Thank you ladies. Thank you again for the ladies you guys and applause, please Thank you. You look beautiful Thank you again miss Lila. Thank you. Okay You know for years I have lived right down the street from the library, and I still do And I think I think that even if I am outside of the community I will still live right down the street from the library Mrs. Linda Brooks-Burden always made me feel like I was a part of her family I can't remember many times being like down to my last dollar and going to this woman and She giving me like a hundred dollars, you know it's like oh my god You know it was easy. It would have been easy to take advantage of her of her generosity And a lot of times I did as a young kid Honestly It's gonna take me a long time To repay her and I look forward to it And I think this entire community looks forward to repaying her love and her effort And I tell you I wish I I wish we weren't here. I wish we were not here I wish she was in that library or downtown doing her thing And in a way I think she is So again, thank you ladies You were awesome. You're beautiful. I hope you don't leave. There's still food inside. There's food. There's food Okay, so I want to welcome you again. We have a couple of speakers here this morning and we are going to get it started I believe with Let me get my little cheat sheet We have Mrs. Teresa Ono who is the library commission president So Mrs. Ono, please Good morning, baby. You This is such a great turnout on behalf of the library commission. I want to add my congratulations and Thank you to your community for this special occasion As you are aware the library commission unanimously approved the renaming of the library branch It was a no-brainer for us after we heard all of your heartfelt sincere warm eloquent comments at our meeting here at the library There was no way we couldn't have Agreed with the rest of the community to rename this the Bayview Linda Brooks Burton branch library your community has such a warm and Bless spirit and we are so grateful that we are able to approve this for you We also want to thank you We know that you always put on a great Community event and with a lot of love and a lot of food, so I appreciate that And I thank you. I'll make it short. So thank you very much Now we have the former chief of branches here He is a very swab and debonair black gentlemen. I want to be him when I get older His name is Edward Melton. Mr. Melton, please Good morning, Bayview. It's It's really a pleasure for me to be back here in the Bay Area in San Francisco to memorialize Linda Brooks Burton and the work that she did for our community here in San Francisco And I can't explain how many different ways that she impacted the community, you know, she was a community advocate She was a community advocate She was an activist and she was one of the instrumental people who really made sure that we have This library that we have behind us today, you know, she was where she worked on the grassroots level She worked with contractor She did everything that she could to make sure that we have this top quality library here for our community And it was all driven because of her passion and her commitment to the community and not in this You know, it's a testament to the impact that she had on the Bayview community But hers reach extended beyond and so went throughout the city of San Francisco is for the work that she did And so, you know it for her For the community and even for the organization as far as librarians, you know, she is inspiration for us You know, how many times do we see where a librarian is memorialized in this type of way? Well, we name a library after her So, you know, it's amazing the work that she did, you know from and it's from children up to senior adults That she impacted as far as having that type of reaches for this band and the breadth of the work that she did So it's a lot that I can continue to say about Linda as far as the great work she did But I definitely want to thank the renaming committee who did so much work to make sure that this happened Also want to take the support from the community as far as getting behind this movement and making it happen And I definitely want to thank the family who shared Linda with the city of San Francisco and with the Bayview area I do have some words from Luis Herrera the city librarian who unfortunately Was unable to be in attendance today And here it goes dear family and friends of Linda Brooks Burton I wish I could be with you today for this joyous occasion as we celebrate Linda's life and honor her legacy by adding her name to the library She loved as city librarians I was truly blessed to know Linda and to appreciate her many contributions She gave us so much She gave so much to the library having worked at the main and many of the branches and touched the lives of so many people in our community Most importantly, Linda had a remarkable impact in creating positive change in the Bayview community Where she worked tirelessly for many years how appropriate and meaningful that a place she cherished and now Now bears her name so that we will always be reminded of her extraordinary Work and gift that she gave to the community May this library continue to be a beacon of knowledge inspiration and learning just as Linda would want it to be Congratulations and thank you to the entire community for supporting the move to add her name to the Bayview library so that we can So that we may honor her memory for generations to come regards Luis Herrera city library I should also mention that uh Mr. Milton flew all the way here from houston Because he is the man Before we move on i want to give a special shout out to the actual committee That put all this together. We have the lovely mrs. Rita collins right there We got the lovely mrs. Fran seen something i forget her last name Carter, yes We have the magnificent mr. Jeffrey betcher Yes, sir, we have mr. Walter the fat domino awesome sauce johnson Did i miss anybody miss lydia viscent right here somebody else Oh, yes, this lovely lady right here Who is a what is she she is a queen in the community? I forget her first name though right I forgot my name my name last night. I'm sorry. Um Next up we have uh an awesome gentleman. Where is he mr. Glenn remisky comes to our library at the mission bay all the time Mr. Remisky, please Hello, baby I'm glenn remisky. I'm uh a member of the friends of the library uh Recently retired longshoreman. This was my branch Before the mission bay library was built. I either went to the main or I came here And it's an honor to be here today helping uh Make this name change and celebrating what libraries are all about I've been a friend of the library all my life And when I came down here and got involved in the branch library improvement campaign The infection just stuck and I stayed with it participated and that's how I met linda I worked near here. So I come over here and use the library on my time off And what is that building? What's that building that we're going to pull the grape off of and rename? That's a safe place for ideas. It's a safe place for knowledge. It's a safe place for community organizing It's a safe place for these young women. We just saw dance go in and become the next Nobel prize winners That's what that library is all about And miss brooks made that happen She was the gatekeeper mother mentor And uh, I guess loan agent from but I Good thing I didn't know about that part, but Anyway, it's it's such a a thrill to be here participating in this celebration On behalf of mckiko the president of our board scott stov the executive director the member members of the friends of the library Thank you very much. I want to throw in a just a shameless plug The spring book sale for the friends of the library is at fort mason the first week of april Come down and own a book. Thank you Or if you would rather rent a book just come to your local library um Okay, uh, do we have miss um virginia marshal in the audience here somewhere? There's oh So, okay in place of the wonderful virginia marshal we have the equally okay first. Yes. Yes Yes Okay This lady i've known uh my entire tenure at the library. She's an awesome beautiful black sister Yeah, I mean there are many many many beautiful black sisters In the bay view and white sisters and latin sisters And asian sisters Did I miss anybody indian sisters alien sisters Okay, myth is emily way thompson Good morning, everyone. Jesse you cleaned that up pretty well So i'm honored and humbled to uh be here to represent the san francisco unified school district But more than anything to talk about uh linda for just a minute how she was such an integral part Of all of our schools here in the bay view Being able to come read to our children making sure that there are sat Workshops here making sure the children had tutoring had homework and they participated in the summer reading program Um to think about the fact that linda is such a legacy in this community And i'm hoping that and i'm speaking to her children now I'm hoping that some way we can figure out a way to write a children's book about linda And wouldn't it be fabulous for that book to be read here? I would love to come and be one of those readers So I want you to think about that because years from now People some people in this community may not know who linda was And we want her legacy to live on for generations and generations to come If you recall that she celebrated many people in this community as heroes and sheroes unsung heroes and sheroes And that was such a special thing for her to look out in the community And see all the wonderful things that many people have done here and to celebrate them yearly now This is our opportunity We now can celebrate her legacy and really claim her as a shero Okay And the last thing I would say is I don't see kusani here today But I know that he participates in bake act and i'm hoping that some way linda's voice Can be taped so when children come and visit this library and we go to different schools They will truly know who she is because she had such a soothing voice and she was so enthusiastic about our babies Knowing that this library Is a hub in our community. Thank you so much And now miss virginia marshal misses miss miss a lovely day Isn't god good. He sent us sunshine today on this beautiful day Why did he send us sunshine today because he knows that the hard work of one linda bruce virgin Will live on our hearts forever on behalf of the san francisco alliance of black school educators You just heard emily way thompson my president Yours truly vice president We are delighted to be here with you today because our office is just two blocks down the street Emily came from carver just down the street here as well Young people I have in my hand or what? A bell, you know before twitter Before we able to tweet and send an email Go on facebook Our forefathers will go out in those small towns in tennessee and mississippi and arkansas and texas And they will ring the bell And lusiana They will ring the bell the bell the bell meant that something good was happening Today something's good is happening. What's happening here today? I'm going to ring this bell for one linda bruce virgin a child of the king I'm going to ring this bell one linda bruce virgin a teacher mentor mother sister beloved wife I'm going to ring this bell because one linda bruce virgin Reading everyone who entered the library with what a great smile I'm going to ring this bell because we know that children will come to display someone said a safe haven to come in to do that homework after school To come in and reading the library on saturday I'm going to ring this bell because I know I know one young person especially who wants to become a librarian She lives here in bayview hunters point and want to be nice family and friends The one day we come back to this facility and you'll see a young woman named tracy parker Who is standing and reading and working in the linda bruce virgin library? So thank you. Thank you Thank you, um I want to welcome, uh, mr. Malik sineparue who will be our musician This morning and this afternoon. He's a community leader as well Okay, thought I lost you for a moment next up. We have miss mrs. Ms. Uh, lashan walker miss miss miss lashan walker. There she is Good morning, bayview. Good morning neighbors In the 15th verse of the 15th chapter of john the lord says I no longer call you servant. I call you friend What things are called is very very important And so this morning's event organized by the friends of the library, but really Libraries are friends to us As people of the african diaspora, we know names are very very important And so the fact that we are celebrating the name change of this institution of learning and reading And learning about oneself to the linda brooksburton Bayview library. It's an auspicious occasion. That is a vocabulary word by the way young people So I am a long time bayview resident I'm also the director of community affairs for the nar urban One of the contributors to this event and I just want to Say something very special about that everything about this name change process has been grassroots And including the fundraising it was $20 here $5 here $10 here and that and two dollars And so it is a true community effort and the nar urban just came in at the end As part of that community effort. So thank you. Good morning and god bless the name I want to welcome up to the microphone at this time District 8 supervisor mr. Scott weiner mr. Scott weiner. Where are you tall guy? Good morning everyone I know that my wonderful colleague supervisor cohen will be here momentarily and so uh, I just wanted to say Congratulations. I actually I remember being here when the ground was broken on this library and when we cut the ribbon On it and we some people say that you know libraries, uh, they're a thing of the past But they're not these are community centers These are places for everyone in our community from from little kids to our seniors to come together to have access to Knowledge and technology and and just to our community and it's uh, it's really really great that it's being Named for linda for all of her work our librarians or unsung heroes in our community. So congratulations to everyone And now the lovely unless mrs. Malia cohen is here. Is she in attendance? No I'm going to um, I'm sorry. What did I say? Malia That's prettier actually like that better um Mrs. Uh, lydia vinson, please Yeah, she's pretty awesome Good morning everybody. Thank you so much for coming out. My name is i was getting My name is lydia vinson white and i'm here To introduce Some people have tried to introduce the committee members and i'm going to ask all of the the committee members who Are present to please Come up around me and while they're doing that um linda Voice is still on my home answering machine to this day at this very moment She called me on the day she passed To to find out one specific thing that she wanted to get straight because she was advocating for program funding for this branch So on the day she passed she had baby with her heart and she had this branch on her mind and From her repass Um, I don't see joffria morris, but you know how people say they have an idea themselves But somebody else ought to make sure it happened So on her repass at her repass A lot of that was floating around somebody ought to have that library named after linda and joffria morris Caught wind or maybe she had the idea herself and she pulled some people that she knew were advocates in the community And she said we need to we need to make this happen. So from that initial um conversation At the repass there was renae gonzales Espanola's husband espanola jackson doris vinson jeffrey betcher, where are you jeffrey? jeffrey betcher mary mcclure Where are you mary? They're over there mary and joe were there at the first conversation and rita collins But for the last year and a half this is a year and a half in the making with consistent constant advocacy and consistent constant part and those people who Were in it for a year and a half We worked in our own strengths We there was no leader We all just did what we did best jeffrey was the pr person. He got our he was our wordsmith He had um on bay view footprints getting all the information out on the hub Fran and rita who are standing right next to me They made sure that you guys came out to fundraising dances and they asked the right questions Then there was walter johnson who anything we needed boots on the ground for this brother came through My mom doris vinson was a tremendous fundraiser and then me I was the facilitator in the organizer so we all but It was you the community family and friends who came out signed petitions came to commissions meeting downtown Came and filled this place up when the commissioners were here Got in your pockets and gave gave gave of your time and your treasure and for you We say all of us together Thank you Now I want to call up It is like mrs. Linderbrück's burdens spit this spit this girl out because she looks just like her Mrs. Jamila rose You are a part of this community forever you and the rest of your family and we love you Come on this microphone and say something girl Don't be shy The community would want to put something together like this in honor of my mother My mother was a special person as we all can see and as we all know And I'm just completely floored because I can't but there's no words that can Really express how I truly feel except for thank you. I love you all there's the community. I grew up in This is the building that was a lot of the background of my my childhood because I spent a lot of time here You know, I see a lot of faces here that I saw growing up So it's like a homecoming and my mom would be completely completely ecstatic to know that you guys love her this much um My mother also grew up in the library. My mom's mother was a librarian So her love of books started way early her love of her community started way early And my grandmother couldn't be here today, but she wanted um Just to say a little something just There are no words to describe the gratitude our family feels and our hearts during this time of bereavement This is such an honor for our family to have Linda's legacy continue In the community she served and my grandmother's a real big person on quotes and books and stuff So she has a quote from A book A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy for there in a book You may find encouragement and comfort a library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided For there in a book you may have your question answered Books are good company and sad times and happy times For books are people people who have imagined to stay alive by hiding between the covers of books And my mom's love of books and her love of the community was shared, you know, so um, like I said again I just want to say thank you for doing this for her Yes, ma'am Love that family with that being said, um, his name is on the side of the building And I just wanted to come up quickly Before that We have our very own district 10 supervisor mrs. Malia Cohen Everybody and by the way, it's ms. Malia Cohen. Not quite there yet Hello, baby you Oh my god, you guys look amazing. How are you feeling? Today is the day that we are going to go down in history where we are honoring the memory The lifetime commitment of ms. Linda Brooks Burton Today is awesome I'm so excited It wasn't actually wasn't very long ago that many of us gathered right here to open up the library if you remember So it's an incredible day. I want to give a special shout out to the To two groups first I want to recognize the committee Who came to me very early on right after the passing of ms. Brooks Burton and said they wanted to rename The library after her they did a phenomenal job of fundraising of organizing of telling the story And um, I also want to thank some of our our corporate sponsors that met dollars to make sure that this happened This list naming is something that we as a community can be very proud of because the committee did it themselves We did it ourselves. We didn't need handouts Just a hand up and I think that's very important to remember as we honor the memory of linda And I also want to recognize the family and the family members that are here today I want to again. Thank you for sharing such an incredible woman with us in this community Just a personal story. I spent many Many hours studying in the bay view in the old bay view branch library studying for For the elsat. I ultimately didn't go to law school but nonetheless I did I did dedicate many hours and there are many people that will tell me how the library saved their life Because libraries actually provide a very safe space for people to come and get information share information And there is a cultural exchange. So this library is our library. It's incredible Asset to our community. Let's make sure we take care of it and we love it and with that said Let's celebrate the day. Thank you everyone Okay, we have yet another supervisor in the audience I believe her name is miss missus or miss London breed. Where is she? Where are you miss miss missus miss She's not here Or she was here Oh, well, huh London breed was the former executive director of the ymca And while this branch was closed she allowed us to use their branch temporarily And we just want to acknowledge the Gina come on up Gina. Come on up name my apology It was Gina from who was the executive from her. Come on. Come on. Come on. I could be london breed I'm in emerge california I just want to say um linda meant so much to me and this community. He raised my kids And this is the place where my kids came after they left school after every day to be safe So three african-american males survived bay view by coming to this library. So I just want to say That this means a lot to all of us and the ymca is a partner and will always be So if you ever need to shut down again, I'm sure they will let you you the third floor. All right God bless you all and I just want to say thank you Okay, everyone has a voice and I know we all want to say something But for now we are going to enter the library. We're going to follow mr. Malik Seneferu who is going to Play us into the library. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen