Description

Going Home

In 2000, I began a black and white film photography project in Harlem, New York, entitled “Sunday, Sunday.” Sundays! Days when African-Americans traditionally dressed up for church to collectively read The Bible, praise Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, revel in God’s passion, sharing food, fun, conversations and gossip.

During those wretched days of enslavement, Sunday services represented the only day when enslaved African human beings didn’t have to work from sunup to sundown. These church services represented moments where they could enjoy engaging with one another, plot to overthrow the plantation owner and/or plan their escape along the Underground Railroad to the North or into Canada, provided nobody snitched.

It was a cloudy Palm Sunday on 135^th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) when I came across this family, led by their grandmother. There are so many wonderful stories of grandmothers making sure their family attended Sunday church services because grandma knew the transformative power of hope and faith in prayer, ‘it changes things!’