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Today is September the 14th. We're at Celebrate Petworth. My name is Daiki Tsumagari. I'm with the Humanities Truck and

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American University. Do I have your permission to record this interview? Yes you do. Okay.

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Can you introduce yourself and what brings you out here today? Hi, I am Shawanda Robinson and I came to check out Celebrate Petworth and see what was going on.

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I saw that all of the events were happening, and check out some of the vendors and see some of the people. And I understand you're a long

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time resident of Petworth. Yes. And how long have you lived here? It's been quite a while. So I grew up here, and then I moved away.

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Moved back again. So it's been back and forth and in a sense. My parents have always been in the

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area, so I've always been connected to Petworth in some kind of way. So yeah, Petworth is always home. Do you have any fond early memories of that works.

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Oh, yes. Absolutely. Growing up in Petworth. Petworth has always been a great

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place to live. Always had a great sense of community. The block that I grew up on had

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only eight houses, so we had a great sense of community. Everybody knew each other. We were all around the same ages growing up.

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So we all, you know, got to play with each other. So it's always been a great place to be for-- I think at least it's always been a great place to be.

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So always definitely fond memories all the time of Petworth. What kind of things did you do when you hang out in the area? Well, when we were younger, it was, you know, anything when we were younger-- when we grew up-- when we were younger, you did

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anything. We played kickball. We played tag. All of the different things.

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Chasing, just just being outside with each other was the thing. So we made up our own fun. We didn't have the internet and all of those things.

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So we played with each other. So that was what we did. Yeah. Did you have, like, a favorite park that you played?

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Kickball, tag all these games? We really just played in our in our alleys for the most part. Grant Circle wasn't the way that it is now.

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It was more it wasn't as open as it is now. It was more tree filled and it had the little things that we used to call.

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I forgot what they're called. But it wasn't what it is right now. So we played more just really on

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our own blocks growing up. Yeah. Tell me about your time away from Petworth. Like, did you come back often? Where did those...

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Yes. I always came back often because my parents were always in Petworth. So definitely always came back often to Petworth if I wasn't in

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Petworth. So always often. I've seen the different changes in the community. Definitely a lot more restaurants and shops and things.

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We didn't have as many shops. We had more-- more carry outs and things of that nature. Cleaners and stuff like that.

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Florists, we had things--more so things of that previously. And now we have more restaurants, more coffee shops, more places to eat, more things of that nature now than we used to have. Yeah.

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What would you say-- is there like a first, first impression that you had when you came back full time? Just glad to see more places to hang out at and go to eat and, you know, connect with people.

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So it was good to have more places to hang out and group, you know, be with people. Yeah, so do you think that the community has changed in any way in your time away? Yeah, I would say I mean,

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absolutely. It's definitely more diverse now than it was when we grew up--when I grew up here. So it's more diverse with more cultures than it was when I grew

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up. Yes. What do you think--Would you say that the neighborhood has gained anything in that diversity? Do you think there's things that

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have been lost to that, the changes over time? So yes. I mean, yes and no, I guess. There's been a lot-- of course, there's been a lot of differences

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in the cultures. I think that it's important to embrace all cultures, but to remember that there was-- to not forget the culture that was here previously.

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The black culture. The strong black culture that is in DC should not be erased, although we are diversifying. I think that that should still be prevalent and remain intact.

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And are there places, businesses, restaurants around the neighborhood that that keep you connected to that culture? Honestly, no. As far as restaurant wise, especially I would say in this block there's some--and we were talking about where we are

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immediately. There's probably only one thing from childhood. Probably two things.

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Maybe the Town & Country and Dannie's, honestly, from childhood that still remain. I think everything else is probably pretty new.

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Which is not to say a bad thing, but it's also says that none of the long term businesses are still here from childhood as well. But things do change.

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But you know. In terms of--as somebody who's been from Petworth, who's spent a lot of time here and who has spent time away and came back.

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What would you like to see Petworth go in the next. Five, ten, 15 years? What do you want for the neighbourhood in the future?

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I love that we have these events. I would probably like to see more events where we come together like this. Just continue to see more shops.

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I would love us to have like a Target and, you know, get a few of the bigger stores like that in the area. We definitely need the-- of

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course, we need the small businesses because that's the backbone of the community. But we definitely still do need a Target sometimes or a little bit closer.

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So some-- to get some just a few more stores like that would be great in the area. That's great. That's all the questions I have.

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Is there anything that I've missed, anything that you wished I'd asked? Not really. I'm just glad that you guys are

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doing this and talking to people and getting different perspectives and stuff. So will you-- Where will you use this? Like you.

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Will you put it together or like, how does it work? So we will transcribe and archive these through American University's library, American University's archive, which is also connected through DC Dig, which is part of the D.C.

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Public Library system. Oh, cool. Okay. Yeah.

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Cool.