- I think just because someone's ordinary doesn't mean they haven't thought through things, and they don't understand things.

In fact, it can mean completely the opposite.

They've lived it.

They know it.

(Happy Music) Growing up in South Carolina was beautiful.

I mean, I loved it.

I was the first child of integration, so therefore I had a way of segueing from the battles of my forefathers into my own life.

So I was able to recognize why the fights had happened so that my path would be clearer.

I was able to take whatever happened to me and shape that into what I wanted it to be.

Sometimes the experiences I had were discriminatory, but our home remained positive.

It wasn't “us and them.” It was, "This is where “we are, so we must move forward."

When I graduated from college, I got a job at the BBC, and when I first went to the UK, I just got on buses and I traveled.

I'd get questions like, "Why do you do this?"

Meaning, "Why do Americans do this?"

So I became all of America.

It gave me a lot of reason to be proud of who I am.

And that was why I was attracted to a particular area in the BBC.

Working on Video Diaries and Video Nation was amazing.

They were video programs that allowed members of the public to bring forward an idea within a documentary.

This is the same camera that we used.

They represented voices that were not being heard.

And that was centrally important to me because of my experience.

And when I got back to the States to be with my family, I thought, "I need to write."

I wanted to represent a voice that I'd not seen represented just like with Video Diaries and Video Nation.

So I wrote a children's book.

And when I realized that my book was in the library that did it for me.

I just thought: "I've got to work in this place."

The library was the place.

Don't ever pull away from your own experience because that's where you'll have your greatest foundation.

Your experience tells your story and allows you to tell the stories of others, but from different perspectives.

Go and write.

We'll come back in five minutes.

I don't think people realize just what goes on in a library.

Everything happens in a library.

It's becoming a firm and strong and safe place for not only the unhoused, but all of those who feel in some way unsupported, unguided, uneducated, or in need of something that they haven't been able to find.

With Hurricane Helene, we became the downtown safe space for so many people.

People who didn't know where to go to even be supported, there was no information.

So the library was a place that they felt they could come and be supported.

Supported with questions, supported with possibilities.

That feeling and connection with community is my passion.

South Carolina sets the foundation for who I am.

And that is because of my experiences growing up.

It's because of my experiences coming back to it, having grown up here.

Please stand as you're able to sing our closing song (singing) Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven (VO Patrice) Of all the commandments, it's to love one another.

It's simple to say it, but it's not always easy to make it happen.

That has been my goal, is to strive toward love in everything I do.

My purpose is to serve.

And it took me a while to get to that point of understanding that.

But it was living in South Carolina that taught me that.

(relaxed strumming music)