Doriandra Smith

Local artist Doriandra Smith shares some family stories while sitting at Oakshire Brewing company in the Whiteaker Neighborhood of Eugene, OR. Her interview partner for the evening is in the following episode! 

You can read more about the project, about Wordcrafters in Eugene, about our sponsors and community partners, and send in your own Lane County, Oregon stories at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org.

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

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 You're listening to StoryHelix: Intertwining
 stories past, present, and not yet
 
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 imagined, in Lane County, Oregon.
 What's up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez,
 
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 and I'll be your host. The
 story we're about to hear was recorded at
 
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 Oakshire Brewing Company in the Whiteaker neighborhood
 of Eugene, Oregon, in early 2022.
 
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 Let's open
 up our ear nuggets and give it a  listen.
 
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 My name is Doriandra Smith
 and I am outside of Oakshire. My
 
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 grandmother was a loner and very unique. She spent a lot of her time out on Warm
 
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 Springs Reservation. So she was a
 hunter and a scavenger, and I learned how
 
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 to pick things and find things and
 it didn't quite match up with my grandmother,
 
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 because this was my great-grandmother... and
 that she... Betty Haggardy was her name. She became
 
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 a realtor here in Eugene, and
 she drove a white Cadillac, and had
 
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 a beehive and blood-red nails and
 was epic in what she did.
 
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 And she was really pivotal because she
 dated an African American man from
 
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 the Ink Spots,  this band from Texas, and so she would drive in her
 
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 Cadillac to Texas. And the reason
 we actually are here, though, is
 
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 because she encountered a plague of locusts
 along their way on this one trip to
 
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 Texas and it scared the living
 bejeezus out of her because the insects were
 
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 just all over the Cadillac. So
 that's how we ended up here in
 
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 Eugene. And then, lived other places, and eventually made my
 
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 way back here. So I came
 back about five years ago and got a
 
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 house with my then partner, who
 we'd been together like nine years, and
 
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 then he began to suffer from a
 pretty severe mental illness that he would not
 
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 treat, and so it became worse
 and worse.
 
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  I never really knew what I'd come
 home to find in the house. So
 
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 finally, right before the pandemic,
 I asked him to move and so he
 
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 did, and then I had to
 really fight to stay in my
 
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 house, but I did, and it's
 been two and a half years and I
 
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 think I'm okay. But I really
 learned a sense of community here again because
 
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 even through like some of that dark
 time, I could literally just walk across
 
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 the street and give my neighbor a hug or
 cry on their shoulder. You know,
 
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 people would bring me pies and I
 just feel so good about being in 
 
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 Eugene. I feel like, you
 know, I'm I'm fifty two and I
 
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 had never felt community like I do
 here. I feel like if the end
 
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 of the world happens, it's good. The reason I came back to Eugene
 
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 specifically was I was living down in
 California under the High Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains.
 
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 It was weird. It was like they
 had a kind of fear of drought
 
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 and people, and like all the things going
 on. I felt so good about saying,
 
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 you know what, I'm going home
 to Eugene.  I can grow food.
 
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 I grow asparagus, I have pears growing
 in the tree. I have everything I
 
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 need and I'm just, I'm so glad. I'm just so glad to be here.
 
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 I feel like if it all goes
 to hell, like, we have each
 
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 other, we have community with so
 much goodness here. I'm third generation Oregonian
 
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 and I lived in the Whiteaker when
 I was in my 20s. I was
 
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 pregnant with my son here. I
 lived in a in an attic rental over
 
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 there on fourth and Jackson. I
 think and yeah, I had a weird
 
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 and transential time thing where I was
 sitting in the attic we were renting,
 
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 looking at the father of my child
 and it was broad daylight and then all
 
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 of a sudden it was night and
 we were very confused. But I digress.
 
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 But what I learned from then
 moving to Los Angeles and living in
 
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 Amsterdam, and all these different places,
 when I came home here, I finally
 
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 felt the sense of community that I
 never had living all over and in different
 
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 places. And I think the biggest
 part it gave me is,  work that matters.
 
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 That really really matters. Taking the
 collective goal that's moving towards social
 
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 justice, towards health equity, and
 like being able to enact it. Where
 
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 my work prior, which was wonderful with
  producing operas and music festivals and whatnot,
 
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 this is work that matters. It
 matters on a fundamental community base level,
 
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 which I think is really like some
 of the most exciting work I've ever done.
 
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 A sense of equanimity, the ability
 to perceive with a calm grace, and
 
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 just be okay with things and carry
 yourself with dignity through them. In terms
 
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 of looking at all the things that
 are wrong in the world because there's also
 
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 so much good. But I think
 especially with thinking about our unhoused folks and
 
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 folks suffering from mental illness and difficulties that
 we see in Eugene. Working and being
 
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 in the Whiteaker has taught me a
 certain humility and understanding that we're so not
 
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 removed from what we may feel uncomfortable
 by. So it's like kind of a
 
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 stepping into it and accepting and just
 like a greater sense of empathy and love
 
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 for everybody. Whether we're in a
 good place or a struggling place. 
 
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 Thanks for listening. You can find us
 wherever you listen to your podcasts. If
 
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 you've got your own Lane County story
 to tell, we'd love to hear it
 
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 at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.org.