Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Picture perfect
Shanna Flowers
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A few months ago, the folks at Calvin Jones' after-school program dispatched the Patrick Henry High School ninth-grader onto the streets of Roanoke with a digital point-and-shoot camera.
His only instructions were to come back with pictures that reflected the theme "All Can Achieve the Dream." The pictures would be part of a youth photo exhibit celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. It opens next week at the O. Winston Link Museum.
Armed with his own imagination and the rich subject of King's dream, Calvin shot ... a house?
"It caught my eye," Calvin said thoughtfully. "It's a mansion with beautiful gardens, and they have wedding ceremonies out there."
Through Calvin's lens, the house on 13th Street off Patterson Avenue with its own greenhouse was much more than just a historic structure where people get married. It denoted success -- and the spoils of it.
"It shows people can achieve big goals," the soft-spoken teen said. He noted deferentially that he lives in a "regular-size house" on Staunton Avenue in Northwest Roanoke.
"Being successful is really my goal."
On this, King's birthday on which he would have turned 79, Calvin and the other high school photographers' work shows that the slain civil rights leader's words still resonate.
King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech means different things to different generations. But it still resonates.
At the time of the speech in 1963, the theme articulated a demand for social justice -- voting rights, equal access to clean bathrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains.
Today's young people were born after those civil rights opportunities were won. Bull Connor's dogs and fire hoses are historic, grainy pictures to them. Prince Edward County is just a place 100 miles east of Roanoke -- not the seat of the state's ugly Massive Resistance movement it once represented to their elders.
These kids have grown up in a global society that no longer is just black and white but black, white, brown, yellow and many multicultural hues. This generation doesn't demand a place in the social and economic mainstream. It expects one.
"We Shall Overcome" was their grandparents' rallying cry. Refreshingly, theirs is "I Believe I Can Fly."
Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
Calvin Jones, 16, took this picture as part of the All Can Achieve the Dream photo exhibit that opens Monday.
Ryan Martin (clockwise from top), Cheyenne Drewery, Maryann Rogers and Danielle Drewery prepare photos for the All Can Achieve the Dream project at the O. Winston Link Museum.
"All Can Achieve the Dream"
- What: An exhibit that features the photographs of 28 area high schoolers as a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
- When: Monday, Jan. 21, through Feb. 29. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday — Saturday; noon — 5 p.m. Sunday.
- Where: O. Winston Link Museum, 101 Shenandoah Ave. in Roanoke
- Cost: Admission to the exhibit is free. For the remainder of the museum, admission is: adults, $5; seniors, $4.50; children 3 to 11, $4; children 2 and under and free.
- For details, call the museum at (540) 982-5465.
O. Winston Link Museum
"I want everybody to be treated equally," PH junior and photographer Shakira Ford said matter-of-factly, "but you also have personal dreams."
Family Service of Roanoke Valley approached museum officials a few months ago about the idea of a youth photo exhibit that would illustrate how young people today interpret King's dream.
"We wanted to find a way to highlight that all really can achieve the dream and to help reduce barriers to diverse populations in the community," said Leah Hatcher, youth coordinator of Family Service.
Using part of a $25,000 grant from State Farm, Family Service is underwriting the exhibit.
The agency asked 28 high school students involved in after-school programs at the West End Center, Presbyterian Community Center, Fleming Community Learning Center and United with Youth to participate in the exhibit.
The youngsters are white, black, boys, girls and attend city and county schools. They will share their experiences as photographers with middle-school students as part of a mentoring project initiated by Family Service.
The museum lent the students cameras, and they were free to shoot pictures that they believed reflected the theme.
Some students tellingly shot self-portraits. Others shot their classmates doing schoolwork, evidence of academic preparation for future goals.
"If you want something, you have to work hard for it, and if you want it bad enough, you'll get it," said Justin Reid, 17, a PH student who wants to be an architect and contractor. Friday, he and his brother, Jason, 15, were holed up in a small conference room at the museum helping select prints for the exhibit.
Shakira's goal is a college education, so she spent an afternoon at Virginia Western Community College with her sister. They shot pictures of students walking across campus. Then she and her sister photographed each other "in deep thought."
Shakira, who aspires to a career working with young children, also took pictures of the young children she tutors at the Community Youth Program at Kingdom Life Ministries.
The pictures, she said, "reflected my dream. I want to work with smaller kids, older kids, any kind of kids."
At the West End Center, Calvin also shot pictures of small children. But unlike Shakira, his pictures don't reflect his dream but his dream for the children in his photos.
"They're learning how to take their pulses," Calvin said, describing the action in one of his pictures. "One day they may become a doctor. This kid could become a doctor and save people's lives."
All can achieve the dream.
Shanna Flowers' column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
