After the Iraq war began I followed a personal prayer/memory/grieving ritual for all those lives lost, but wanted to do something more public as well.  So, I made these signs, loaded them onto my bike, and set them up down by the White House for a few hours one day.

My neighborhood, Kenilworth, sees its share of graffiti, usually of a mundane and non-wholesome sort.  During my time there I stumbled across a couple pieces that particularly irked me, and I decided to do something about them.

One graffiti 'mural' I came across depicted one stick person shooting another stick person, and this in an alley where such an image is no idle threat, and where children regularly play.  I got out my paint and changed this to the image you see here.

Another graffiti that I didn't enjoy was a slogan painted on the pedestrian footbridge everyone uses to cross over Kenilworth Avenue to the Deanwood subway station.  I took out the cuss word and added some text to make it a positive message.

For full picture documentation of these graffiti modifications, go to the "Gallery" link under the main menu and click on "peace art," or simply click here .

When my childhood friend Dosha was shot and killed in the spring of 2003 as she hung out on 'her' corner at Quarles Street and Kenilworth Avenue, I had to do something in response to the violence that claimed her and that regularly claims young blacks in Kenilworth Courts and in other neighborhoods like it around the city.  I noticed that such deaths are, unfortunately, part of the urban 'hood culture, with cultural-specific rituals in response, including erecting a memorial of stuffed animals on the spot of the murder.  So I went out to the thrift store and bought a whole pile of stuffed animals, made some hand-painted signs, and set myself and my signs and animals out on the street corner, talking to passerby and asking them to sign a small pledge card that listed things they would do to promote peace.  For more pictures of this "Memorial To End All Memorials" click here .