#community-healing

#community-healing

The installation takes the form of a phone booth that displays intimate family photos and birthday balloons. By lifting the phone receiver, audiences are able to hear audio recordings submitted by loved ones and community members, sharing their sentiments about the man whose life was stolen 17 years ago. "If you want to see something that's amazing," Johnson tells me during a recent conversation, "go look at the booth."

As he stood silently facing the waves on the Bondi shoreline, arm in arm with nearly 1,000 other lifesavers, Lockie Cook let himself feel the pain of the community's most traumatic week in living memory. I feel like that guard's just dropping, he said. Surf lifesavers gathered in their hundreds on Saturday morning to observe two minutes' silence and remember those killed in Sunday's attack on a Hanukah festival.

In this painting, I strive to capture the indomitable spirit of the Brooklyn dockworkers at Red Hook Terminal. Their silhouettes stand resolute against the backdrop of towering cranes and vast cargo ships, symbolizing their unwavering strength and unity.

These conversations were honest, necessary and affirming of their values and commitment to standing with our communities, said Sean Allen, president of NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley.