• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

I Love New Haven

Celebrating all things New Haven through photography

Celebrating all things New Haven through photography

founded 2012

  • Home
  • About
  • Events
  • Submissions
  • Contact

I Love New Haven – by Gary Winfield

July 24, 2015 by Gary

Friday posts are usually fun.  They are about fashion or something else that can be visually stimulating.  I really tend to enjoy those posts. This post is different. When I joined I Love New Haven I had just started a site T.I.M.E. (This is My Eye) where I was looking to chronicle the things I see in New Haven through pictures. I was looking to tell New Haven stories. Wanting to do that the opportunity to join this site made sense given its larger audience.  I think from time to time the notion that I was looking to tell stories has been  part of the narrative of my posts. 

Here at I Love New Haven it basically works this way for me…once a week have a photo assignment ready to post. It isn’t stated but making it interesting is implicit in being a regular.  Every week there is much to cover because New Haven is so alive with arts, culture and community. This week was no exception.  I attended JHOP’s Haircuts for the Homeless as well as the Democratic Convention for Mayor and Alder either would have made a fine post.  But…

Meet Keyari

This is Keyari. He is my fiancee’s son and though I am not his biological father and we aren’t married yet I consider him mine as well.  I have been thinking about this young man (and his sister) a lot in the last few weeks.  He is New Haven. Born here. Born to one born here he is New Haven and I love New Haven.  But, I worry too and I guess with all that we are seeing in the news that worry is very surface (let’s face it though as he gets older being Black it would be anyway.) My worry is that he will at some point have to fully don the heavy wardrobe of his being Black. I know what that feels like.  My worry is that this kid who just wants to eat his burger and play doesn’t get to just be a kid but that he has to worry about what that play may be perceived as…yes…here in New Haven.

To use the language of Coates in Between The World and Me I worry about his body. That is a worry about the ultimate though and there is more. This young future, this boy, this son of mine is being introduced to his garb right now. And, even as I try to guard him against things a child should not see while encouraging him, for intense, to surf the internet for answers to his never ending questions it is I that introduce him to a great perversion because I have to…the wearing of that wardrobe.

Keyari wants to play football (and basketball.. and soccer… and lacrosse… and maybe any other sport that has been created) like many boys do. He wants to run and he is full of energy – for now.  But, if we go back a couple of weeks to the incident where 9 Black people lost their bodies in a church I found myself having to explain to this nine year old why people might think that he…who doesn’t really understand what sex is…might want to rape women…no…rape White women. I spoke about that on the floor of our state’s Senate

So, I guess I decided to spend a day with Keyari taking pictures to document the innocent young man who has not yet fully donned his wardrobe both for him and for myself. Because very soon he will know what this all is. He will know about his body and the history of losing it will be more real to him. He will know that as perverse as his situation is his is in some ways privileged as compared to his sister’s because she is both Black and a Woman. There is no call to action here. This is just my reflecting on this boy who is New Haven because I love New Haven.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #history, #ilnh, #NHV, being black, Gary Winfield, racism

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Edgerton Park Luminaries 2020 by Linda-Cristal Young, guest photographer.
  • New Haven Connecticut “Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony” 12-10-2020 photos by Leigh Busby
  • I ♥ New Haven Remembers Eddie Van Halen, 1955-2020, by Mike Franzman
  • Beaver Hills Porchfest 2020 – Chris Randall
  • Sasquatch Sighted in New Haven – Chris Randall

Recent Comments

  • Kandra on Sasquatch Sighted in New Haven – Chris Randall
  • Unknown on Roll Around New Haven – Chris Randall
  • bkeen on Wooster Square Park , Columbus statue comes down By Leigh Busby 06-24-2020
  • bkeen on Wooster Square Park , Columbus statue comes down By Leigh Busby 06-24-2020
  • Unknown on A Photographic Tribute To New Haven’s “Shakespeare Lady” – by Mike Franzman

Archives

  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012

Celebrating all things  New Haven through Photography

Copyright © 2023