Yeah, so the piece that is shown right here is a piece that was created throughout a protest where we were basically going to the Columbus statue in Chicago.

This was also one of the most violent protests that happened in the year 2020. Yeah, so like, organizers were pepper-sprayed and, y'know, they were heavily brutalized and jailed. And so, the moment that you see here is kind of one of the very few moments before the police kind of, like... destroyed everything.

And so, for me, this moment is so powerful only because it really shows just how Black joy is still shown, even in, like, the most... like, craziest moments.

And as a photographer and as a creative, this is something that I've seen at a lot of protests: where even in the face of danger, even when we're uplifting folks that have been killed by the police, we still somehow manage to find some type of Black joy that is really, like—

It's almost, like, never— Like, you never have an idea of when it's gonna happen or when it's gonna show itself, but, like, at a protest, that Black joy always shows itself, and I think this photo is, like, a really good— It's just a really good example of how Black joy is always right around the corner; it's always embedded in the organizing culture when it comes to saving Black lives, so...