



Moving from New Orleans, La was a crazy culture shock. I was so used to everyone speaking to everyone even if we had never seen that person a day in our life. That was not my experience at all when I left, even in other southern states. Me and my family would go years living in a place and the most progression my parents would have in relation to our neighbors was a possible wave or head nod.
This is also the closest in proximity me and my family had ever been to white people. It was a strong unfamiliarity and looking back at that time, we probably were looking for a “warm welcome”, to be greeted first, and shown that
it’s a safe place for our family.
Being from New Orleans makes me a direct descendants of slaves. From the time the slave ships docked in New Orleans and black people were dragged off and sold in the French Quarters up until now, none of my family ever left.
Those were my family members, my ancestors, and generation after generation we’ve stayed put and held the same trauma, traditions, etc. Generations of oppression and systemic racism definitely left a passed down fear and disliking
towards white people for us which should be throughly understood.
We’ve been labeled as people you should run and hide from. Saggy pants, gold teeth, tattoos. Things that we’ve accepted as cultural norms has been weaponized and stigmatized as red flags. But the truth is we’re the epitome of Southern Hospitality. Those same people white people run from greet strangers, help elders, and deep down are good human beings who have just adapted
to their surroundings and picked up survival instinct due to the curve balls that come w/ living in the “belly of the beast”. A Capitalist society.

Emiree' Sexton's father & his friends, Early 2000's, New Orleans, LA
Reading books like Black Archives(Renata Cherlise) I’ve noticed how much home
means in the black community. It’s sacred, our most expensive bill, something
that we have to work extremely hard for. Most of the black community in The United
States are a paycheck away from homelessness. That struggle has made a simple
home a trophy. A unspoken gratefulness. No matter the condition, how hot it may get, holes in the wall, peeled tile, stains, living under a roof and having a place to call home gives us a level of gratitude. I want to pay homage to that in a reference time of the 60’s and 70’s. Which is why we shot this project in a mid-century modern home.