nakupenda

I hadn't made Friday night plans but ended up going down to the Voices Worth Hearing/Art Worth Sharing exhibit at the Wall Eye Gallery/Saigon Plaza. If you haven't, you should, if good photography and the culture of your city is a thing you enjoy. I drank pop and ate amazing Vietnamese food and caught up with Kevin and Francois and my former roommates while watching people from all over Cleveland mingling, hearing Spanish, Karen, Hindi, Vietnamese, Kirundi, and Kiswahili spoken all around me.

One of the families I hung out with this past summer was featured in the show and their kids were on all the promotional flyers. It was weird to see them looking so serious when I think of them running around a soccer field or this little guy dancing to "Baby Got Back" in the living room.



Due to crazy circumstances this past year, it'd been a year since I'd seen the whole family and I realized how much I missed them and that I was missed too. But we hugged and kissed and laughed about how none of us really know a lot of Kiswahili "kidogo, kidogo!" The kids have grown up so much and their English keeps getting better, and their dad got a job and I was so glad to see them doing so well after everything that they've been through and the things that have happened in the past year.

It was such a contrast for me to see these black and white photos juxtaposed with the family looking at them and laughing at the expressions of their kids, the bright colors standing out.

And it's a beautiful summer night full of reconnecting and thinking, riding my bike home as the sun sets, and I want to stay up all night and paint but I'm just too slackerish right now.