Years before I was born, my parents and five siblings found a way to maintain the family and defy a segregated country: by living and traveling in a 1952 New Moon mobile trailer as a home.

They navigated their way between military bases throughout the South, at a time when few black families would take to the road due to the dangers that racism posed to black travelers. 

After 4 years of military service related migration, the next big journey took us abroad to Europe.

As an officer, my father chose to bring his growing family to post war Germany, where I was born in 1956, the sixth of nine children. Four years and as many homes later, we returned to the US as the country grappled with the growing civil rights movement in the 1960s. Although my father was no longer in the service, this return to the U.S. still required my family to be on the move.

In the hopes of owning a home, we renovated houses using our own sweat equity. But due to the Redlining laws in Philadelphia during the 60s and 70s, we were never able to do so. Despite this painful chapter, my parents encouraged us children to be creative and develop our skills in how we crafted our home and opportunities. To this day, I still use these skills in my art.