Back in the Neighborhood Labor Day Weekend

I went back to visit Horace and Christine and deliver pictures to them and their neighbors. Some pictures got delivered to friends and neighbors because I knew I didn't have time to keep looking. I also posted poems with pictures on the laundromat wall and talked to Xai about doing that  more in the future. She was open to it and her kids helped me put some of them up.

In the park I took some pictures of kids playing in a fountain and doing cartwheels down the street. I had the usual problem whey they approached me and asked me to take pictures.

"I need to talk to your parents first and make sure they are o.k. with it."

We walked a block down the street to get permission. Then they swarmed me with "me first, now me, take my picture, I want to be a model."
I had a hard time with wanting to keep them happy while also wanting them to take turns. At some point one cried and I felt rediculous.

Then another parent came over and asked me who I was, said she watched over all the kids in the neighborhood and wanted to know who I was. It was strange to say that I lived in Iowa now, made me wonder why I was back in Syracuse. I still feel connected, but having to verbalize the reality of the distance and say it would be some time before I could deliver pictures was hard.

"Maybe by Holloween I will be back."
Sometimes even when I lived in Syracuse the hospital swallowed my time and I had trouble getting things delivered in a timely manner. Sometimes the surprise of getting them later is o.k. and sometimes I lose people.

Masterworks of Ming

Kay Ryan

Ming, Ming

such a lovely

thing blue

and white

bowls and

basins glow

in museum

light

they would

be lovely

filled with

rice or

water

so nice

adjunt

to dinner

or washing

a daughter

a small

daugher

of course

since it’s

a small basin

first you

would put

one then

the other

end in. 

Poetry is Not a Luxury

The title of an essay by Audre Lourde published in Sister Outsider I read twenty years ago in college. I still remember the astonishment I felt at reading just the title. The idea that something as refined as poetry was essential struck a chord in me that reverberates still. The essential experience of beauty or joy in the expressive power of words.

Today I went in search of poems to post on the wall of the Laundromat. Thinking of all the children I watch walk home from school through the neighborhood, I wonder what awaits them from tender love to rough and tumble. This poem by Gwendolyn Brooks I thought should be among them.

 After School

Not all of the children
come home to cookies and cocoa.
Some come to crack cocaine.
Some come to be used in various manners.
One will be shot on his way home to warmth, wit and
                   wisdom.

One teacher mutter "My God, they are gone."
One is ripe to report Ten People to the Principal.
One muses "How have I served or disturbed today?"
One whispers "The little Black Bastards."
One sees all children as clothing: the blue blouse --
the green dress -- the tight-fitting T-shirt.

One will take home for homework each of the
twenty, the thirty, the forty one.


from In Montgomery and Other Poems 2003. 

Iowa, the Interrupters, a short visit to Syracuse.

I'm in Iowa now and missing Syracuse.

I went to Chicago and saw the film the Interrupters, a documentary about the efforts of community residents and former gang members working towards reducing the violence in some of Chicago's neighborhoods.  Ceasefire is one of the organizations represented.  After watching the film and meeting Dr. Gary Slutkin, I was inspired to think again about what I want to do with the precious time I have here on the planet. I wish so that I had more clarity. Questions are my constant companion these days. My friends say I have too much time on my hands. How that can be in the throes of residency, I don't know.

Hula in Madison

I'm away from Syracuse and missing home, but finding music and making new friends in the midwest.  Went up to see Greg Brown at Sugar Maple Music fest and made it just in time for the two encore songs. I figured it was better than nothing. Took this picture of a girl with her hula hoop and met Lewis Koch.  His Garageography show provides me with an interesting model for future shows.

Old Pictures, New Cuts

I've only two weeks in Syracuse full time before I head out to Iowa. I've been procrastinating on cleaning up my work space. Denial takes many forms. In the process of packing what I have so far, I've enjoyed sorting back through hard copies of photos as well as reorganizing a handful of digital files in a effort not to loose too much in the move. I came across these images from Gifford St a few years back. These kids went to Ed Smith with my kids, but lived across town. 

Art Rage June 8th, 2011 @ 7 Pm

I'll be talking about the Lodi Laundromat Project tomorrow at 7:00 pm at Art Rage.  View from the street: