
The little boy was crying unconsolably outside of the Greyhound Bus Station in Philadelphia. As I watched him, numerous other people passed him by, as if he did not even exist. I began to approach him when a woman wearing a hijab came over to him and pulled him to her. In broken English the woman asked me for money to catch a bus. She kept saying , ‘New York City, Rykers, New York City, Rykers.’
They were both dirty, disheveled and seemed frightened. I asked them to come and have lunch with me but the woman refused, repeating her request for money. I offered her twenty dollars if she would allow me to take their photograph and tell me their names and she agreed. I asked her where she was going and where they were from, but as she spoke very little English it was difficult for me to understand exactly what their situation was.
I met Aaqif and his Mother during a time when I was creating an exhibition of homeless individuals; but I was already starting to see the connection between incarceration and homelessness. Over the next few years, I could not get this little boy out of my mind, and I kept coming back to this portrait - wondering who he was, who they were, where they were from, and what their connection to Rykers Island was. It was perhaps this not knowing that caused me to want to dive deeper into the issue of incarceration, and then to educate myself about mass incarceration.
This link between incarceration and homelessness is now well known. Research indicates that there is a reciprocal relationship between incarceration and homelessness in which the likelihood of both experiences is heightened by the other. Experiencing incarceration exacerbates challenges in securing housing, increasing the likelihood of experiencing homelessness. And experiencing homelessness leaves one increasingly vulnerable to interactions with the criminal justice system, heightening the chance of arrest and effectively incarceration.
Hand sewn Art Quilt with hand dyed fabric; @5 ft. x 4 ft in size