Reflections-A Community Portrait of Durham-One Year Later

See. Listen. Love.

When I walk the streets of Durham, I see people, businesses, and even empty spaces that hold personal meaning to me.  The acts of walking, greeting and photographing this place has created a series of memories and experiences that for me have wed me to this place.

My experience is not unique, we all have our perspectives and our own weaving of  experiences.  And, we all have our own personal reasons for choosing to be here, to create and live here.

I am drawn to these stories of place.  And I am not alone.  There are those among us that serve to gather and share these stories - art and educational institutions, non-profits, businesses, places of worship and many individuals that are compelled to capture these stories in their work, art and archives.

A Community Portrait of Durham was in part a way for me to be able to engage a community to connect and acknowledge these gifts, these storytellers.  Each one of us possesses our own complex and individual expressions of what is our own truth.  What strikes me as unique in this community is the general acceptance and interest in celebrating the overall diversity and difference in perspectives.

I don’t know if there will ever be a repeat of A Community Portrait but I do realize that the intent of it - the act of celebrating ourselves and our stories-is something that I am grateful to see taking place all around me.  Personally, I am still compelled to create opportunities to share these stories of this place, its building, people and organizations. 

I sense that our greatest connections come from being in the presence of one another.  The challenge sometimes lies in putting aside our personal agendas enough to listen and perhaps see where we share common ground.