By Gary Hume | Apr 26, 2023
Jamal Joseph was used to hearing gunshots and sirens. The crack epidemic was raging hard in Harlem in the late 1980s; gang battles were common. But in 1997, everything changed. A 16-year-old neighbor was shot and killed in a nearby housing project. As Joseph’s...
By Gary Hume | Apr 26, 2023
On a perfect blue-sky day in May, in the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska, a small group of schoolchildren gathered outside Baja Taco, a popular food stand housed in an old red bus. They didn’t join the locals eating halibut tacos at picnic tables. Instead, they...
By Gary Hume | Apr 26, 2023
As a soldier in Vietnam, I would come in from the jungle and play guitar at the service club. This was my main way of coping. My “soldier band,” The Soul Coordinators, played throughout Vietnam, at remote firebases and in hospital wards. Through this, I...
By Gary Hume | Apr 26, 2023
I was a World War II baby born to a prominent Harlem minister. Times were tough and money was scarce, but I remember hearing the gospel choir and soloists at church. I used to clap so long and loud that my hands became bright red. Singing with the choir made me feel...
By Gary Hume | Apr 26, 2023
I became a high-school film teacher in 2000, at 51, after mentoring young film students. I thought teaching would be my encore career, but then the world changed, on September 11, 2001. I felt a sense of urgency, to try to interrupt the vicious cycle of violence and...
