Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Lilly Jr.
Hi Derrick, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I would say there are a multitude of things that have led me to where I am today, but the two main vehicles for that journey have been music and gardening.
My first experience with gardening actually happened when I was in school. Someone came to our class for Earth Day and, at the end of the lesson, gave each of us our own cabbage plant to take home. I ultimately killed mine and never saw those teachers again, but that experience stayed with me and sparked an interest in growing things.
My father also played a major role in shaping that interest. He would tell me stories about growing up and how his family would grow their own food. He talked about how good it felt to be able to provide something for yourself and your family, and he always hoped that one day my siblings and I would have the opportunity to experience that same feeling.
Around the same time, my passion for music was developing. Being introduced to OutKast’s “The Wheelz of Steel” really made me fall in love with writing and eventually led me to start recording my own music. Over the years, I had the opportunity to learn from and work alongside artists, producers, and engineers like Cattjacc Productions, RJLA, Vontae X, Beezie Conwell, Michael Kure, Paco, YouGeneWrite, Christyle, and Classified Alias, among others. Those relationships helped shape me not only as an artist, but also as someone who understands the importance of collaboration, creativity, and community.
It wasn’t until 2020, during the food recalls and disruptions brought on by COVID-19, that I decided to seriously give gardening another chance. My father helped me get started. He bought a tiller from a local tool supply store and taught me how to till the soil, create rows, and plant seeds. That first season, we ended up with a pretty substantial harvest of cabbage, watermelon, collard greens, and sunflowers. That experience really sparked my love for growing, and I continued creating gardens on and off until my father’s passing in 2024.
Losing my father left me in a place where I felt unmotivated and without much direction. Eventually, I found myself being led back to gardening and decided to create another garden. But this time, it felt different. I wasn’t gardening simply because I enjoyed it. I was doing it as a way to honor my father and the lessons he had passed down to me through all of those hours we spent working together.
As I continued gardening, I started thinking about the bigger picture. I became more aware of food sovereignty, access to fresh produce, and the ways that communities can become disconnected from their cultural relationships with land and growing food. I also became more aware of Ensley’s position as a food desert and the limited resources and public investment available to the community. Seeing the lack of access to fresh food, agricultural resources, and funding for community development made the work feel even more necessary to me.
I started thinking about how much knowledge can be lost when people don’t have access to land, resources, or even the opportunity to learn how to grow for themselves. I also thought about how disconnected many of us can become from the agricultural traditions and relationships with the land that were once a part of our communities. Those realizations made my resolve even stronger. They gave me a reason to keep showing up day after day and to think about how I could help other people experience some of the same connection and fulfillment that my father helped me find.
That eventually led me deeper into urban agriculture and environmental justice.
Since around 2022, I’ve also been doing work alongside The Flourish Alabama. I started as a frequent performer at their Tea events, then became a Teaching Artist for Creative Writing and Audio Production and worked as a Sound Engineer for their events. Behind their building, The Greenhouse, there was this courtyard space that I thought could be a really cool place to grow food. So I approached Jahman Hill, one of The Flourish’s co-founders, and asked what he thought about the idea. He was receptive and told me to develop a plan, but also emphasized that it needed to be something educational and something the community could participate in.
That idea eventually became a meeting with Eric Marable Jr., another co-founder of The Flourish, and Courtney Riles of Herbs & Happiness. We began talking about how we could work together to turn the idea into something real, and in 2025, Rooted in Ensley was officially started.
We received our first grant from Jones Valley Teaching Farms, which has helped us develop the program, cultivate the courtyard, purchase materials, and host educational classes throughout the growing season. Since then, we’ve been able to bring people into the garden to learn about growing food, herbs, preservation, and other aspects of agriculture while continuing to build the space.
Now we’re looking at the next stage. We’ve acquired a plot and building across from The Greenhouse, and we’re working toward using support from the Public Health Advisory Fund and the Braiding Seeds Fellowship Grant to establish a stronger base of operations, expand our growing capacity, and create a public space where residents of Ensley can come together, learn, grow, and cultivate the garden themselves.
So when I look at how I got here, I don’t really see it as one straight path. Music taught me creativity, collaboration, and how to tell stories. Gardening taught me patience, responsibility, and connection to the land. My father gave me the foundation for both the personal and cultural meaning behind growing food. And losing him ultimately pushed me to understand that what I was doing could be bigger than me.
Today, I’m trying to bring all of those pieces together — creativity, agriculture, education, community, and culture — and create opportunities for other people to develop that same connection to the land and to one another.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely has not been a smooth road. There have been a lot of challenges along the way, both personally and in building Rooted in Ensley. But I think those challenges have also shaped how I approach the work today.
For a long time, I struggled with imposter syndrome, especially when it came to stepping into the things I felt God was calling me to do. I would get excited about a new challenge, but that excitement would eventually turn into a fear of failure, especially when it meant putting myself or my ideas out publicly. I would find myself not showing up wholeheartedly, and that would ultimately take the joy out of the experience.
My dad noticed that pattern in me. At one point, he pulled me aside and had )what I didn’t know would be our last) a one-on-one conversation with me that really changed the way I looked at myself and the things I wanted to pursue. He reminded me that I had always been capable of something greater and that, in many ways, the biggest thing standing in my way was myself. He told me that if I truly wanted to make something out of my passions, I had to do three things: show up wholeheartedly, take the lead in bringing my own ideas to life instead of waiting for other people to believe in me first, and establish healthy boundaries for myself and others so that I could build a life I was actually able to navigate and sustain.
That conversation pushed me to break a six-month hiatus from writing and dive deeper into my artistry. But eventually, I was faced with another major challenge: grief.
Losing my father has been the greatest personal struggle I’ve experienced up to this point. Our relationship had been complicated over the years, and there was a lot of distance between us. Ironically, the period leading up to his passing was also when we began talking to each other the most. There were conflicts, misunderstandings, and struggles with addiction on his behalf that contributed to the distance between us. We both wanted to bridge that gap, but neither of us really knew how. I filled that space with music, and he filled it with alcohol.
Even with all of those difficulties, the love, respect, and admiration I had for my father never went away. That made losing him and processing everything that came with that loss even more complicated. For a long time, I was carrying grief while also trying to figure out who I was and what I was supposed to do next. Honestly, I didn’t begin to feel like I was really making progress with that until July of this year.
And then, over the last few months, life changed again in some pretty major ways. I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant with our first child, and shortly after, we became husband and wife. Stepping into marriage and preparing for fatherhood has brought its own set of challenges. I’m learning how to be a husband, preparing to become a father, and figuring out how to balance those responsibilities with the work I’m already committed to.
It’s been a lot to take on in a short period of time, but it has also strengthened my resolve. Becoming a husband and knowing that I’m about to become a father has made me think even more seriously about the kind of life, knowledge, and opportunities I want to create and pass down. I want my child to inherit more than just the things I can provide materially. I want to pass down knowledge, skills, culture, creativity, and a connection to the land and community. That has given me an even greater reason to keep building.
Building Rooted in Ensley has brought its own set of challenges. This is my first time developing a program at this level, so I’ve had to learn as I go. There’s a big difference between knowing how to build and maintain a garden and figuring out how to take that knowledge and turn it into a two-and-a-half-hour class that people can actually learn from. On top of that, I’ve had to learn how to manage media, marketing, branding, administration, funding, community outreach, partnerships, event coordination, curriculum development, and long-term planning.
And I’m doing a lot of that alongside Courtney, so we’ve also had to learn how to divide those responsibilities between two people while making sure the larger vision stays intact.
We’ve also faced some physical challenges with the spaces themselves. One of our most recent projects has been transforming the courtyard at The Greenhouse from a space primarily used for growing herbs and vegetables into a pollinator garden filled with perennial plants, including echinacea coneflowers and gaillardia. At the same time, we’ve been preparing the plot across the street to eventually become our base of operations and a larger vegetable-growing space. The amount of work involved in making those ideas a reality has been significant.
Fortunately, we haven’t had to do it alone. The Flourish has continued to support the work, and our garden family has consistently shown up throughout the season to help us turn these ideas into something tangible. That community support has made a huge difference.
Another challenge I’m still working through is figuring out how Rooted in Ensley can continue to bridge generations and bring residents together around something we can all participate in. I want the program to create more opportunities for people to learn about growing food, food sovereignty, and environmental justice while also creating a space where knowledge can be shared between generations.
So no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. I’ve had to work through self-doubt, grief, major life changes, the challenges of building something for the first time, and the reality of balancing family, work, and purpose. But each challenge has taught me something different. More than anything, they’ve strengthened my resolve. I’m learning that the goal isn’t necessarily to have a smooth road. It’s to keep moving, keep learning, and keep showing up wholeheartedly—not just for myself, but for my family, my community, and the generations that come after me.
The loss of my father is the greatest struggle I’ve had up to this point because we hadn’t had the greatest connection over the years and leading into his passing was the most we spoke to each other. Conflicted feelings, battles with addiction on his behalf and misunderstandings gave way to distance that we both wanted to bridge the gap between but felt we couldn’t. So I would fill the gap with music and him with alcohol. But even despite our grievances , the immeasurable amount of love, respect and admiration I’ve had for him stayed and made the process of processing these emotions along with grief even harder. In all honesty, This is something that I didn’t really start to see improvement in until July of this year.
In regards to Rooted In Ensley, a few challenges faced along the way have been going through the motions of learning how to build out a curriculum for the first time, going from just doing the steps it takes to form a garden to. now condensing it into a 2 and a half hour class that I also have to teach while also figuring out media, marketing, branding administrative work, properly planning out the future of the program, funding, community outreach, partnerships, and coordinating events them dividing these jobs between two people, Myself and Courtney.
Two of our most recent obstacles have been converting the Greenhouse’s courtyard from where we housed herbs and vegetables into a pollinator space full of perennials from Echinacea Cone Flowers to Galleria Spin top Flowers and lastly prepping the plot across the street for our base of operations and vegetable plot. The amount of work and that has been taken to carry out these tasks has been a lot but with the help of The Flourish, our garden family that has showed up throughout the season to make these ideas come to life, we’ve been able to tackle the work.
Another thing is figuring out how to make the program bridge the gap between generations and continue to bring the residents of Ensley together more than they already have been and bring interest to food sovereignty and environmental justice.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work is rooted in creativity, community, and a willingness to keep learning. In music, I am a recording artist, producer, sound technician, and audio engineer. I create primarily from my home studio in Brierfield, Alabama, while most of my professional work and business takes place in Birmingham.
Throughout my career in music, I have had the opportunity to work across several different areas of the creative process. I am especially proud of having three opportunities to teach Creative Writing and Audio Production through The Flourish’s Full Bloom Summer Academy. I was also invited to participate in a Writers Camp and Producer Showcase led by Grammy-nominated producer and Vibe Tribe founder Luke Crowder. Those experiences allowed me to not only develop my own skills, but also share what I have learned with others while making life long connections.
Another part of my work that I am particularly proud of is the opportunity to provide sound for and work alongside so many talented individuals. I have had the honor of running sound for artists and creatives including Jahman Hill, Eric Marable Jr., Dear Silas, Kennie Black, Hemp The Artist, Beezie Conwell, Christyle, Classified Alias, Mya Noelani, and Jaeden Henderson, among others. Being trusted to contribute to someone’s creative process, even from behind the scenes, is something I value deeply.
Outside of music, I am the Founder and Co-Director of Rooted in Ensley, an urban agriculture and community learning initiative facilitated by The Flourish Alabama. Through community gardening, educational programs, workshops, and partnerships, Rooted in Ensley creates opportunities for people to learn about growing food, develop practical agricultural skills, reconnect with ancestral knowledge, and build community around the garden.
A significant part of my work with Rooted in Ensley involves working alongside my dear friend, business partner, and co-founder Courtney Riles. Together, we organize events, develop partnerships with local growers and organizations, seek funding to sustain and grow the program, and facilitate classes and workshops. Building the program has taught me a great deal about leadership, collaboration, community engagement, and what it takes to turn an idea into something that people can actually participate in and grow with.
What I believe sets me apart is my tenacity and my willingness to start from scratch. I am not afraid to try something new, even when I do not know exactly what I am doing at first. I genuinely enjoy learning, experimenting, and going through the uncomfortable stage of being bad at something until it starts to click.
For me, that persistence has become one of my greatest strengths. I understand that meaningful growth does not always happen quickly or produce immediate results. Where some people may stop when they do not see the outcome they hoped for, I tend to keep showing up. I believe in building slowly, learning from the process, and remaining consistent enough to see where that effort can take me.
Whether I am making music, teaching, building a garden, developing a program, or learning something completely new, I try to approach it with the same mindset: start where I am, learn as I go, and keep building.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I’ve never really had a formal mentor, so my experience has been more about building relationships naturally and being open to the people and opportunities that come into my life.
For me, showing up authentically has made networking much easier. When you are comfortable being yourself, it becomes easier to recognize the people, organizations, and opportunities that genuinely align with your personality, values, and vision. You also learn to recognize what does not align with you. When you show up as who you are and work with what you have, you do not have to constantly maintain an image or compromise yourself just to pursue an opportunity.
I would also encourage people to be open to new experiences and to step outside of their comfort zone. Many of the relationships and opportunities I have built came from simply putting myself in new environments, meeting people, and interacting with the world around me. There are so many places to experience, things to learn, and people to meet, but you have to be willing to put yourself in a position to encounter them.
I also believe that being present and participating in your community is a form of networking. You never really know who you are going to meet or what a simple conversation might lead to. More importantly, you never know how what you know, create, say, or bring to the table might help someone else or inspire them to do something meaningful.
So while I cannot speak from experience about finding a mentor, my advice for networking would be to be genuine, stay curious, and put yourself in places where you can connect with people. Build relationships without always looking for something in return, and let those relationships develop naturally. Sometimes the most meaningful opportunities come from simply showing up and being yourself.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Personal – https://www.instagram.com/dehwick/ Rooted In Ensley – https://www.instagram.com/rootedinensley/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ITSDEHWICK/featured
