Halloween SZN

I've always had this weird relationship with death. I don't even know if I'd call it a relationship. It's more like proximity. A lot of the work in this series relates to the violence that happened in the neighborhood where I was raised.

Death has always been close, not just to me, but to the people around me. I've shared these stories before. Getting caught in a drive-by shooting at six years old while playing outside. Being nine the first time someone I knew was killed. Playing video games and having bullets come through the walls. Between the ages of 9 and 17, more than a dozen people I knew in my neighborhood died from gun violence and suicide.

There are countless stories I could tell. What matters is that all of those experiences have stayed with me. They still shape how I move through the world, and so much of it still haunts me.