Displacement

Joy of Life

A few weeks ago, my husband and music partner James Harrell and myself performed some of our music at The Park Slope Armory in Brooklyn. The Armory had been transformed into an evacuation shelter for senior citizens evacuated from the Rockaways during Hurricane Sandy. The Armory was literally packed with seniors and it took so…

The Time In Between

We first met Turner in the People’s Pantry, a community relief center in Toms River, New Jersey. Housed in a cavernous 20,000 square-foot storefront in a suburban shopping plaza on Fischer Boulevard, the Pantry has become a permanent fixture of the community. Like many other middle-class residents in limbo, Turner first came to the Pantry…

Lost

This experience was the most devastating experience I have every had. I lived in Oceanside in a 144-unit garden apartment complex on the first floor. On the night of October 28, I went to sleep after sitting in my living room in the dark. I am a single mother with two teenagers. My son was…