New York Rituals

These are a few shots from around town and where I lived in Williamsburg for four years, after moving to Brooklyn from downtown Manhattan for the previous four years. As a nomad, these were the longest times I stayed in one place (or two) since I was 17 years old. I used to love walking along the river and viewing the brilliant sunsets. I miss things like the Afropop festival, riding my bikes to Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, biking to my painting class at Pratt with sculptures scattered across the school grounds, passing all the old architecture that I so love and the general quirks you're likely to find on the streets at any and all times - at least where it's not entirely been taken over by development gone wild. I still visit often, do my usual strolls, visit my favorite bookstores and places and look at all the new places that have popped up in just six months or less. My rituals definitely involved movement - biking, walking, running and at times dancing.

Sometimes I'd look up, other times down - and all around. In New York, and Brooklyn especially, you see art everywhere. You already know that you are stimulated constantly there - you just have to go outside. Which is why a cocoon of your own is so important to recharge. It's often gray and rainy in the city but even that can be a relief and you can find a particular type of beauty in it. Going deep inside the borough will teach you history if you're an explorer and want to know the stories of who was there when and who came before you and walked those streets and lived in those houses and dwellings. As they say, it's a place and a life that can grind you up and spit you out if you don't learn how to manage it, but it never disappoints.