Women of Distinction: "I Remember Her in So Many Wonderful Ways": A Tribute to Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery

On Monday, September 28, 2015 I was there to witness the dedication of a mural honoring Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery.  It was truly a moving tribute.  Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery loved his wife and you could see it in his eyes.  His children and family that surrounded him were evidence of  who Mrs. Lowery was.  She was a first class lady who was a leader and giant of her time.  She not only led in the struggle but she also led at home.  Dr. Lowery said of his wife that according to her, her greatest accomplishment was raising her three daughters.  Raise them she did.  They are all outstanding women who reflect their parents and especially the grace and class of their mother.

As I witnessed the dedication of the mural I wondered if those who walked, rode and drove along Auburn Avenue will take time to remember?  Will they stop and read what is on the mural and Google Mrs. Lowery?  Will they take time to remember her?  I sure hope so because she is worthy of being remembered.   While we remember we should not that she yet lives through the continued work of the Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute.  She also lives in each of us as we continue to struggle for freedom justice and equality.  

What I saw was a beautiful moment that I hope we don’t let slip by.  What do I mean?  As I saw the Lowery family remember I asked myself who in my family do I need to make sure we remember?  What murals should be in our family photo albums that make sure that we don’t forget our ancestors?  The women and men whose blood runs through our veins, those who who  fought for us to enjoy the life we live today?  Whose name do you need to call?  When you call the name of an ancestor they yet live!  Who are you going to resurrect today?

Pictures from mural dedication

Follow Your Heart not a Career Path: The Joy of Life

I have been working the past year on the start of a ten-year project.  The project is charting the revitalization of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta Georgia.  The joy of this project has been the good people I have met along the way.  What has been consistent about the business owners along Auburn Avenue is that they have followed their heart.  A case in point is Jennie Rivlin Roberts.  Jennie is has her PhD in Industrial Psychology from Georgia Tech but she is the shopkeeper of ModernTribe.  Her story is one of joy and passion.  She is committed to running her business from top to bottom and she cares for this place like it is her child. She loves the business and the people she works with and comes in contact with on a daily basis.  What you see in her is pure joy.  She has a heart of gold and she is symbolic of what is happening on this street.

There is this relationship growing between the old and new residents on this street and their relationship speaks to the future of our city.  This blend of old and new across racial lines, religious affiliation, age and educational background is what this street typifies.  There is a meeting of the world along Auburn Avenue between the residents of our city and the visitors who come from around the world to The King Center.  This street is a microcosm of promise as we see on Auburn Avenue what was our history and what is our future.  If Jennie and people with a heart like hers represent the future of our city we can say the future of Atlanta is bright.

What makes our future so bright is that in this city you can live your dream, you can follow your heart.  This is a city that encourages people to come and be that thing you really want to be which may or may not be connected to what you majored in in college.   The worse thing you can do in life is get a job to pay the bills.  Jobs suck life out of you.  Following your passion and doing those things you were created to do and be is life giving.  To choose life over death is really what this is all about.  Jennie choose life and when you connect with her you fill the joy of life that oozes out of her.  What about you?  What you doing with the gift(s) God have placed in you? How are you living your life?  Are you living your dream or doing a job?  Is your daily routine giving you life or leading to an early death?  If it isn’t life giving how long can you survive doing it?  What is the cost for not working towards new life?

www.moderntribe.com

The Atlanta Daily World Renovation Continues!!! This Isn’t Kansas: Gene Kansas get’s It!

I had a chance to meet and talk with Gene Kansas last week about the Atlanta Daily World building.  First let me say he is a super guy so my opinion may be  bit biased here but I was looking and listening as we talked.  One of the issues I have been wrestling with is how we remember?  What does it mean for Auburn Avenue to be the “New Sweet Auburn Avenue”? It will not be what it was and it shouldn’t be.  This street has to evolve. As it evolves one of my many questions has been how it remembers?  I’ve especially been asking how will African American history be remembered? 

The work Gene Kansas is doing and the building he owns is a central part of this story I am telling.  We are talking about The Atlanta Daily World Building.  This is the place where the oldest African American owned and ran newspaper resided.  The days of the Atlanta Daily World’s heyday is history but we can’t forget what it was and what it did for our people.  The world has changed and this building has changed owners and it is being changed, in the process of change will we forget to remember? 

The thing that amazed me most about my time with Gene was his keen sense of and respect for history in general and African American history in particular.  He ins’t some fly by night developer and overseer of gentrification.  He is a compassionate soul who is connecting this building with it’s history.  Everything that is going into the building harkens back to a time in past of that very building.  There is this neat integration of the past with the present that breathes from outside to the inside of the building.  Gene get’s it and this is a relief for me.  I think memory is important and the question is how do we remember?  What does it mean and look like to celebrate the past as we live into the future?   Gene has taken questions like thes very seriously and I am happy to see what he is doing.  

Gene is allowing me to walk with him and his team as they do the historical restoration and renovation and I plan to do just that.  I invite you to journey with us on this ride down Sweet Auburn Avenue as it becomes sweet again.  How does a street that has gone through several failed revitalization efforts come out of this one?   We will see?  What is it in your life that needs revitalizing?  Are you getting your construction project started?

Motivating Yourself to Do Your Work: What works for you?

@Ralph Basui Watkins

I am involved in a three-year project documenting the transformation of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta Georgia.  I am nine months into the project.  At times it is hard to get excited about my work. I am trying to find new things to shoot, write about and people to connect with, week after week. Going down to Sweet Auburn every week for the next three years is my life now.  So the question becomes how do I keep myself excited about my work and what are those things that motivate me to keep going?

1. I am passionate about my work.  I care about the work I am doing and the people I am connecting with.  This is central to what I do. I have to care about what I do.  I can’t do it for a grade, money, tenure or some external reward.  My motivation is intrinsic.
2. I have to believe that my work has the potential to make the world a more just place.  My work has to make a difference that transcends the work and me. It isn’t about me but it is about the cause that I have been called to connect with in the process of doing the work.
3. I have to find a sense of joy in doing the hard work.  I have always said that the key to success (however you want to define success) is founded on good hard work.  Not just hard work but good hard work.  I have to make good pictures, tell quality stories, not just take pictures and tell stories.  At the root of this is getting up everyday and putting the work in. You can’t just talk the talk but you must get up and make the walk to that place where you put the work in. Discipline is as simple as doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, as well as it can be done.
4. Finally, to enter my work and creative space I have to read to open my mind up to that creative space.  I have to look at images, read and watch stories and while doing this I make mental and written notes / drawings that inform my work / creative process.

This week I am reading three books:

I am looking at the images of Charles “Teenie” Harris:

I am watching On The Road with Charles Kuralt:

1. What are you passionate about?
2. What can are or you doing that has the promise of making the world a better place?
3. What is that gives you a sense of joy?
4. What is it that puts in that creative space that starts you on the creative process?

These are my four questions.  What are yours? What are those things that move you to get it done?  What motivates you and moves you to do you?  When you identify these things and ignite them in your world your creative output will increase ten-fold!

The Poetic in Street Photography: Living in the Moment

I love the challenge of street photography.  You go out into the streets and you don’t know what you are going to get, if anything.  You walk the street; connect with people and you keep your eyes open.  You are looking for a shot, always composing, always thinking. It is a poetic dance one does as they walk the street.  You can’t control what you see; you can’t move that red truck out of the way.  You have to make the picture as it comes to you in a split second.  There is a thrill in the moment you make a picture and it appears that the stars have lined up. 

This poetic image of street photography has inspired me and Alex and Rebecca Norris Webb have affirmed my metaphor in their latest book.  Their new book On Street Photography and the Poetic Images is a book I have been waiting on.  I received it in the mail last week and fell in love with it right away.  It isn’t your usual photography book.  This book is unique in its format, composition and approach to the subject.

The format of the book is one of a picture on each page with a very short topical reflection.  This isn’t a book composed of how to do what you do but rather it is a book this structured in such away that inspires you to find your why. That “why” that moves you out into the street.  The book turns the artist inside; it calls the photographer to look at themselves in the viewfinder, as they go outside.  Alex and Rebecca make you think about how your worldview influences what you put in your viewfinder.  They don’t approach the subject of street photography as something that can be taught but rather as something that has to be lived and experienced.

One of the many things I love about street photography is that is rooted in the experience.  You experience the streets.  Your feet have to hit the pavement and you have to move, sit, talk, engage, think, act, react and always be in the moment if you have any hope of recording the moment.  It is the experience of the moment(s) that make what I do so exciting.  The work changes me and I hope as others engage the work it moves them.  What moments are you experiencing in your work?  Is your work changing you as much as you hope your work moves others? 

http://aperture.org/shop/alex-webb-and-rebecca-norris-webb-on-street-photography-and-the-poetic-image-books

Change or Be Left Behind!

Stephen Mayes

“Although some changes are painful, we have a rare and privileged opportunity to challenge the conventions that have limited the understanding of photography, and to create new models of visual storytelling.”

Stephen Mayes

“Toward a New Documentary Expression” in Aperture 214, p, 33

Stephen Mayes pushes me to think about how I share the story I am trying to tell. The story of Sweet Auburn is a story rooted in history that is being propelled into the future.  The question we must raise is, “Will we forget?”  Mayes argues that we have to tell powerful stories and place in the context of where our people are comfortable (Flickr, Vine, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, blogosphere).  This means that we can no longer wait for people to find us but rather we must take our message to the people and find our audience.  While Mayes is referencing photography his message transcends photography.  Mayes is saying to us that the world has changed; we have to find away to live into this change and allow this changing time to change us.

The wonderful privileged time I live in, as a storyteller is that I don’t have to wait for a publication or broadcaster to pick up my story.  I can use the tools at my fingertips to tell my story.  Not only can I use the tools at my fingertips but I can also tell more dynamic stories by using a multi / mixed media approach to storytelling.  Moreover if I have the time I can spend time on my story and tell a story over time and not reduce it to a sound bite or single news / documentary story.  I embrace the times and challenge that Mayes lays out.  The question for you and us is are we embracing the changing times in your industry(s)?  How are you changing what you do to take what you do to the people? How will you allow the way the world has changed – change you so that you can hear and be heard?

Stephen Mayeshttp://www.stephenmayes.co

Aperturehttp://www.aperture.org