Story collector becomes a modern-day Studs Terkel with People’s District blog

Danny Harris was still a novice story collector when he stumbled across Joe sitting on a milk crate outside the Howard Theatre. Joe had an amazing face — bushy browns, creased forehead, gray hair peeking out from a Kangol hat — and a friendly look, so Harris ventured up and explained he was looking for tales of the city. “Yeah, I got lots of stories,” Joe immediately said, launching into a description of U Street in the old days, when it was lined with theaters, pool halls and the best music venues in the city. “We didn’t go downtown because of the segregation, but we had everything right here,” he said.

And with that, People’s District was born. Harris, a 31-year-old self-taught oral historian with a good audio recorder, a fuzzy mike, a red Vespa and an easy smile, spoke to a different person every day and, within months, began posting photos and edited transcripts online daily. People’s District (peoplesdistrict.com) is now home to more than 400 stories about waitresses, bike messengers, musicians, artists, bus drivers, gardeners, religious leaders, business owners, nonprofit administrators, ex-convicts, sex workers, homeless people, teenagers, seniors, old-timers, newcomers, kings of the street corner and neighborhood know-it-alls.

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(Mark Gail/ WASHINGTON POST ) - Danny Harris, founder of People's District interviews Yekaterina Reyzis, 23, as she walked her dog, Rookie.

“I didn’t want to Google the history of my block. It simply started with ... ‘Who knows about these things? I want to talk to them.’ ” Harris said. “I’d lived in this city longer than I had anywhere else, and I wanted to invest in it. It turned out my investment became the people.”

People sometimes say the District is soulless, Harris said, and when he first moved here, he probably would have agreed. But creating People’s District has been like a kind of urban therapy that’s helped him find the city’s spirit. “I really do love Washington, and it’s meeting people that made me love it,” he said.

Sometimes Harris interviews District power brokers — politicians and their ilk — but he’s generally more drawn to everyday people whose incredible stories aren’t apparent at first glance. For example, Sarita (the entries usually bear first names only), is a former Georgetown University basketball player who became mixed up in the drug trade and ended up in prison, rooming — during her last lockup — with Martha Stewart.

BJ, who survived a shooting at 17, speaks starkly about gentrification in Petworth. “For 30 years or better, we lived how we lived. ... Then, the white people started moving in.” (That post garnered hundreds of comments — many angry — after also appearing on another local blog.)

Delores, an African American woman who has worked in a Jewish deli for 37 years, has a substantial Yiddish vocabulary and some strong opinions about sandwich etiquette. “For me, the only way to eat corned beef is on rye bread with mustard. Maybe put coleslaw or Russian dressing, but that is already pushing it,” she says.

Another subject is Blelvis — the District’s black Elvis — and another was, until recently, the longtime pianist at the Mayflower Hotel. Georges de Paris is the legendary tailor to senators and presidents. Guilia talks in her interview about trying to find mental health care for her schizophrenic son. Mistress Domina Vontana is a preacher’s daughter turned dominatrix. “Power is real, and these people in D.C. pack a lot of it. . . . This is the perfect city for what I do,” she says.