Title
Chapter 08: Reflections
Files
Loading...
Description
Mr. Coffee concludes the interview by discussing his strengths in creating meaningful conversations reflected in his talents as an educator.
From:
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed., Oral History Interview, June 30, 2021
Transcript
Nina Nevill
I hear that. That’s a great message to have. I think the last thing that I’d like to know and again we’re still a bit in dreamland here, this is more of a fun question than anything that I just like to ask folks, if you had to confidently say that you are better than roughly 10,000 random people at one thing, or a large group of people at one thing, and this can be in a personal or professional or whatever capacity you like, what would that one thing be?
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
Creating meaningful conversations.
Nina Nevill
That seems to come through in all of the conversation that we’ve had up to this point.
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
I grew up as a Christian and in the Bible, it talks about Jesus giving talents. It’s called “The Parable of Talents,” and he gave one person one talent—and talents were money. He gave one person one talent, and he gave another person three talents, and he gave another person five talents. And then he went away and when he came back and engaged each of the three people he asked them, “What did you do with the talents?” And the person who got five said that they multiplied it through some entrepreneurial practice. Same thing with the person who got three. He multiplied it through some entrepreneurial practice. And when he looked at the person who he had given the one talent to, he said, “What did you do with it?” And person said, “I buried in the backyard because I didn’t want to lose it.” So, he took the talent from that person and said, “Since you’re not going to use it, I’m going to give it to somebody else.” So, one talent that I think I have is to create those meaningful spaces, those sacred spaces where you can have a meaningful conversation. That’s my talent. You can call me an educator, facilitator, trainer, or talkative person, motivational speaker, all of the above or none of the above. But my talent is to plant seeds of hope and meaning and engage people in rich conversations. And I’m not going to bury that. So, it doesn’t matter the title the position, and sometimes it doesn’t even matter the pay. But if I can walk away with a person saying, “Wow, this has been beneficial,” then I’m so happy.
Nina Nevill
That’s a great, absolutely a great answer. I can say that I feel that way after our conversation today. So, hopefully that’s affirming for your talent. But before we end today, I guess I’d just like to know if there are any questions that you wished I had asked or anything that you wish to say to be included since this will be on the record, so to speak.
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
Well, first of all, thank you for providing this opportunity, for circling back after we had our technical challenge. How will you use this information?
Nina Nevill
Me in this institution, or personally?
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
Well, yes.
Nina Nevill
Hard to separate the two. I guess I’ll speak to the latter, first, in that I am pursuing a PhD in history right now, and my work focuses on carcerality, the history of carcerality in the United States. And so, specifically looking at mass incarceration, and I hope to use my oral history experience as my primary methodology for conducting history in the next few years, and so, I’d really like to be able to speak with previously incarcerated folks in Texas. And so, for me, just the experience of getting to talk to people and I’m a strong believer in stories being transferred just from person to person, it can be one of the most powerful methods of history, rather than looking at old documents or something like that. So, I’m happy to capture people’s stories that will one day be history. And so, this is all part of my training and all part of my learning. Of course, the disparities in health and this past year and how MD Anderson has approached or navigated through some of these tougher issues plays into my interest. And this is really a local history, if we think of the impacts of this institution. And so, for me, it’s a very comprehensive project. It’s touching a lot of my interests. And then, in a professional capacity, I would say the hope is to collect interviews from yourself and from some others that we have planned for the summer, and then, really to just get a snapshot in time and to be able to remember the events of this past year-and-a-half while it’s still relatively fresh and raw, and to be able to have that in the collection to drawn at later points and to use as a resource, quite frankly. So, that’s where I play into it. And I think that the goals are kind of constantly changing with this project as well, that it’s open-ended enough that whatever may come of it is welcome, as well.
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
We’ve had a great response, I think, a great coordinated response to the tragedies of 2020. Just as a note, I don’t know that he would be comfortable with it but there’s a person lives across the street where I physically am at, right now, who went downtown to court one day to visit with a family member who is going through the court process. He is a Black man. Someone walked down the hallway, saw him, and went and got a constable or a bailiff. They arrested this gentleman on the spot and charged him with a crime, put him through the court systems, put him in prison for 18 years before he was exonerated by DNA. Now, all he was, was a Black face sitting on a bench in a hallway in the county courthouse in Houston, Texas. And somebody walked up and said, “He did it,” and that was enough to get him incarcerated. So, when you talked about incarceration, and that story—there are so many of those stories. And I have often thought about how can I get his story out there so people realize just this black skin can be a death sentence.
Nina Nevill
Absolutely.
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
So, I thank you for the work that you’re doing and will do and if there’s some way that I can help you in the future, I am—when I was invited to the Smithsonian in 2000, 2001, I had an associate degree and I told Professor Alonzo Smith, “I don’t have a bachelors. I don’t have a masters. I don’t have a PhD.” He said, “But you’re a community scholar. I’ve heard you speak in Colorado. What we want to know is, will you come and how much will you charge?” So, if there’s anything—and just like you see this stack along both sides here, I’ve got them all over the room on both sides. So, if I can help you in some small way, you’ve got my name, you’ve got my number, and my moniker is, “Get your coffee early.”
Nina Nevill
Well, thank you so much. I sincerely appreciate that. I truly believe in the power of networking and talking to others. So, I will end the recording here, just to make sure that we have it all saved but, yes, thank you again for taking the time today to speak on your day off.
Lee Coffee Jr., M. Ed.
You’re welcome.
Identifier
CoffeeL_01_20210603_C08
Publication Date
6-30-2021
Publisher
The Historical Resources Center, The Research Medical Library, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Recommended Citation
Coffee, Lee Jr., MEd and Nevill, Nina, "Chapter 08: Reflections" (2021). MD Anderson 2020 Interview Project. 19.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mda2020_interviewsessions/19
Conditions Governing Access
Open
