Statement
I made Harlem my home in 2018, and I have watched it change the way it always has. But its roots run deep. You feel it walking down 125th Street, taste it in the soul food, the Caribbean food and the African food, and see it in the lights of the Apollo and the brownstones of Strivers' Row. You see it in kids playing in Marcus Garvey and Morningside Parks, and in families on their way to church and to prayer.
Harlem is alive. You can hear it breathing early on a Sunday morning, when gospel choirs echo through the streets, or in a crowded jazz brunch full of laughter and conversation. This is the pulse I am measuring and preserving. Black culture is still the heart of this neighborhood, and new communities keep arriving. That raises the questions this project is built on: Who is here? Who is carrying this history forward? What keeps this neighborhood together?
I answer them slowly, returning to the same streets and faces over time. You can catch me at the amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park, at Open Streets in the summer, at parades and protests and everything in between. I show up, build relationships and give back the love this neighborhood has shown me.
I organize the work in five registers: Harlem Light, Harlem in Transit, Faithfully Yours, Harlem, Jubilantly Yours, Harlem, and Forever Yours, Harlem. Each one holds a different tie: the light, the street, the faith, the celebration and the family that bind this community.
This project is ongoing.
Harlem Lights
The neighborhood in its own light, at the hours when it slows down.
Harlem in Transit
Public life and change: the corners, stoops and streets that carry Harlem forward.
Faithfully Yours, Harlem
Worship and the places that hold it, from the sanctuary to the sidewalk outside.
Jubilantly Yours, Harlem
Harlem celebrating itself, in parades, block parties and days of remembrance.
Forever Yours, Harlem
Family and the private ties that hold everything else together.
