A series of acrylic paintings inviting conversations on topics that are necessary, yet not generally welcome for discussion, specifically social injustice, starting with the Pullman porter emerging from slavery to the hip-hop generation confronting police brutality by Richmond artist Stephanie Trimiew Ruffin.

Paintings, drawings, and collages of eyes along with interviews from a wide diversity of participants by Richmond artist Susan Singer.

Selected profiles of participants:
__________

Emma Lou Martin, 83, Empathetic. Creative. Still vertical. Still driving which I’m very thankful for. A leader and caring and enthusiastic.

S: What is it like to be you?

EL: I’m getting old. It’s really hard getting old.

S: What’s hard about it?

EL: You just know that you don’t have much time left in this world.

S: What do you want to do with your remaining time? What would you do if you had more time?

EL: I’d like to go back, go backwards.

S: What would you do if you could go back and redo?

EL: Travel. I don’t feel like I’ve got the energy to travel like I’d like to.

S: Where would you go if you could?

EL: I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt and travel to the pyramids and the tombs. And I’d like to go to more museums in the world like the Louvre. I’ve been there once, but I didn’t see it particularly thoroughly.

__________

John Alonzo Jones, energetic, loving, frustrated, friendly, having a great outlook on life, optimistic

SS: John, what matters to you?

JJ: Equality. That goes from kids to adults, race, age, anything. It’s about how we treat each other. We all can work out problems amongst each other.

SS: What is it like being you?

JJ: Frustrating. Yeah. Think about it – this is just to be honest. African-American man, 6’2”, almost 200 pounds. Most people see me – they get the wrong impression. I’m not always smiling. Don’t get me wrong! I interact with people which is lovely, but when a lot of people see me, they try to avoid me. It gets extremely frustrating.

SS: I can’t imagine how that would feel. I am really sorry.

JJ: Well, that’s the world we live in though. All I can do is give you a good morning and let it keep going.

SS: I’m getting chills thinking about that. I’m so sorry.

JJ: You have no idea. It is extremely frustrating, especially because I’m a people person. I love the fact we get to exist. This could be a barren planet. This could be a planet with just animals and vegetation. We literally get a chance to exist. We get to think. We get to grow. We get to be better, and I don’t think there is no greater gift that we can have than to be in existence. And for us to treat each other the way we do.

This has nothing to do with – no, I apologize, I guess it does have to do with social class and economics.

SS: What do you do personally to get past the differences?

JJ: I say “hello!” – every morning! No matter who. Just speaking to people. “Can I help you?” That does something – just speaking and saying hello. Like you saying hello if we’re walking past each other, and me saying hello back. It might not be some great feeling, some overwhelming feeling, but 1) some people might not have somebody speaking to them all day long. 2) To me, it makes me feel good. Speaking to people. So that’s just me, interacting, and trying to help where I can. It’s the most I can do at this moment.

SS: I like your vision of the world.

JJ: We only got one – right now anyway. We only got one.