Andrew on Reading D.C.'s Cards

"I am originally from Texas and will spend the next few months travelling around the country. D.C. was my first stop because I had an audition for the television quiz show Jeopardy. I think it went really well and I will hear back sometime in the next 18 months if I made the show or not. I like to read and think a lot and play trivia with friends, so I hope that will help me out. If not, I will keep trying until I get on the show. Oddly enough, as a tarot reader, I really want to get a bible category if I do get on the show. I grew up with all of that stuff and usually get them all right. 

"I remember when I was a lot younger and got my first tarot deck. I practiced a lot, but burned out on it. It can be a very intense experience. I ended up picking it up again when I started studying things of a more esoteric nature recently. There were a lot of similar patterns to what I was studying and tarot. It's an art form more than anything else. Now that I am traveling, I use tarot as a way to meet people, make some money, and learn about a place. 

"I am not a fortune teller. I don't tell the future, but I believe that there are echos of the future in tarot. When someone comes to me with a question, we take a few slow and even breaths together and then look to the cards for the answers. I like to touch the person 's hand as I am doing this to get a feel for their energy as I am going through the cards. When I lay the eight cards out, I look at the Major Arcana or the trump cards of the deck as the vowels of the sentence. The Minor Arcana are the consonants. Tarot is looking for the meaning of and between the cards and reading into the person while you read the cards. Seeing their reactions to things can be amazing and helps to add context to the additional cards and meanings behind them. 

(I asked Andrew to read cards for the city. He touched the deck to the ground, took a few breaths, and then laid out eight cards.)

"I think that D.C. is a place that has a lot going on. It is experiencing a rebirth and revitalization. But it is a place that is always under attack from people on the outside because it can be very abstract and elitist until you get here and see that is really a very honest, flesh-and-blood, and brick-and-mortar place. It is also under attack from people on the inside because of the segregation. There is a comfortable rythme that people have with the segregation and vast social and economic differences, but if three of four things go wrong in rapid succession, it could throw everything off in this city. People need to get to know their neighbors and realize that we have much more in common that we do in different. I think that humility is something that is good for everyone, but I wonder if there may be a deficit of it here. This city has so much potential to do great things." 

Lloyd on Washington's Other Monuments

"I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My Dad was an aircraft engineer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base. He eventually got a job on some new thing called computers and we moved around a bit before settling in the D.C. area in 1965. 

"By hit or miss, I became a photographer while in college in Connecticut. When I came back to the area, my work was taking me all over the city and I started seeing these shrines to people who were killed on the streets. To me, it was like watching someone’s heart bleed in public. There is a huge amount of emotional content in them. They are homemade folk art and very specific to D.C. From my relatively small research, there have been shrines recorded back to the early Middle Ages in Europe. The instinct to build shrines varies from place to place, but they are immediately recognizable no matter where you are.

"I started photographing the shrines seven years ago. I have been to over 500 and documented over 200 of them. Many of them are very modest, just some police tape and a teddy bear, but others are huge. I have seen panties and condoms, but typically it is plush toys, balloons, and liquor bottles. I think that a lot of these items represent someone's hope for the deceased and for the community. Maybe it is a hope for a better, safer, and heavenly place for the deceased and a call against violence in the community.

"When newspapers were strong, you could find information about every shooting in the Washington Post. Now, someone getting shot doesn’t make the paper. Three or four people have to get shot before that becomes news. I still drive around looking for the shrines and also use the area police resources to keep up with what is happening. I think that I have been to almost every shrine in the area since I started. I do not document the vigils out of respect for the families, but I take photos of the shrines to capture crime’s aftermaths and how it affects people. I am interested in documenting and sharing the healing aspects of shrines and how people try and rebuild themselves using this folk art.

"Doing this is part of my own way of keeping my priorities straight. I think that our job in life, if we have a job, is to learn and enlarge the consciousness of ourselves and others. I do this with no support, but because it is the right thing to do. I would like to bring this work into a public awareness program and to people who can make use of it, like survivors of street violence.

"As one guy said to me at one of the shrines, 'No matter how bad you are, no one deserves this.' When someone is murdered, you don’t just kill a person. You are also killing their entire family. Life is a short, complicated, and mysterious gift. Some lives end too soon. I can’t imagine ending this work unless the murders disappear in this city."

Read more about Lloyd Wolf's work here.

Laura on the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

"My family started in the grocery business in D.C. My great-grandfather came here in 1918, just two days after World War I ended. He opened a grocery store in Trinidad. My grandmother was a bookkeeper, and my grandfather sold milk and eggs at the market. My father was always very proud of being born in Washington and his roots here. I grew up with a strong awareness of local history and an attachment to the places and people here.

"I used to work as an international tax lawyer for the IRS. I loved it, but one day when I was walking home, I thought that these multinationals and all of their tax problems are so divorced from everyday life. I always knew that I wanted to do something that was going to make our community a better place. Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in historic buildings, the environment, and creating a sense of place. When I started to volunteer at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington in 1993, things just clicked. A year later, the curator told me that the executive director was going to retire and I should apply. There were a number of people applying and I didn't think that I would get it. But, at the age of 35, I became executive director. Since coming on, I have been working to build a strong sense of pride in our Jewish community and history in Washington and help build bridges to the wider community.

"The Jewish population was always small here compared to other places. The Jewish community started to form in D.C. around the 1840's. By community, I mean 20 families of around 400 Jews who came in through the ports in New York, Boston, and Baltimore. The presence of the government helped lure additional people. Until World War I, we only had about 2,000 Jews in Washington. Later, the number of Jews grew dramatically, as a lot of Jews came here to work for the New Deal or the newly-formed government agencies. Now, Washington has grown into one of the most educated and affluent Jewish communities in the country. 

"Jews have lived in all four corners of this city. While there were neighborhood enclaves, there was not one particular Jewish neighborhood in Washington that had all of the Jewish life. Jews largely spread to the thoroughfares, where they could open shops. In NW, it was 7th Street. In SW, it was along 4 1/2 Street, which isn't there anymore because of the urban renewal. Jews were also on H Street, NE, and in Anacostia. These were mostly mom-and-pop stores, but a number of the smaller shops ended up becoming department stores like Lansburgh's, Saks, Hechts, and King's Palace.

"In the 1920's, Jews started to move uptown to Petworth, Shepherd Park, and Silver Spring. As more and more Jews were living uptown, many of the synagogues left downtown - specifically I St between 5th and 8th Streets where there was a synagogue on practically ever corner - for bigger spaces and to be closer to their congregants. In the 1950's, that is when the commercial area on 7th Street started to go into decline. Things got much worse after the riots. After that, people were not coming downtown, as they were afraid. In 1969, many of the remaining Jewish groups, mainly the Jewish Community Center (JCC), the Hebrew Home, and the Jewish Social Service Agency, moved out of the city to Rockville. For them, it may have seemed like the clear choice because the Jewish community was largely uptown.

"Because there has been a real push to make D.C. more of a livable city in recent years, that has helped to reestablish some of the important historical Jewish sites in the city. Who would have dreamt that in 1997, the JCC would buy back their building on 16th and Q Street and there would be a downtown JCC again. Moving forward, I would love to see more of an emphasis on arts and culture in the Jewish community here. You look at places like New York, which has a dedicated Jewish museum, and Toronto, where the Jewish Federation has a vice president for culture. We are working to be able to do those kinds of things for the community here."

Laura Cohen Apelbaum is the executive director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. 

John aka Unique on Fighting Back

"I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island. The community that I lived in was overrun with crack cocaine. A lot of my friends got into selling drugs. I, personally, didn't think that was for me, and I went in the opposite direction. When I was eight years old, I joined the Young Marines. When I was older, I remember seeing the Guardian Angels in my neighborhood. I thought they were a gang because of how they looked. They were all wearing the same outfits and looked like gangsters. But I questioned them about what they were doing, and they told me they were out to be role models and help the community. 

"When I was 14, I joined the Guardian Angels. You needed to be 16 to join, but I lied about my age. I didn't have any brothers, only younger sisters, so it was nice to have all of these guys as older brothers to me. Every Angel has a code name. I always thought that John was too common. They call a man without a name John Doe. A toilet is a john. A man who picks up prostitutes is a john. I said that I needed something unique and that's where the name come from. 

"I came to D.C. 21 years ago, when I was 19. At that time, crack cocaine was terrible in the D.C. area. A lady in Bladensburg, Maryland, reached out to the Angels in New York and asked us to come help her keep the Mattapony Apartments safe. The police were outmanned and outgunned, and they heard about the good work that we were doing up in New York. I was just out of high school and offered to move. I came down to patrol the area, recruit people, and start the Guardian Angeles in the area. I had a couple of guys come down from New York occasionally to help me, but I basically did this by myself. It was my duty to stay here and help make the community safer. 

"My goal is to get as many young people involved and keep kids away from drugs and violence. The problem is that we are working against so much negative stuff on TV, in the rap videos, and on video games. Plus, so many young black men don't have black guys to look up to. We are working to be role models for these kids and bring the positive back to the neighborhoods. People want to do something to help their community. They just don't know how. We help provide positive options. We don't want to bring people from outside the community to fix things. We want the change to come from within, which is why we recruit people from the neighborhoods where we work. 

"The truth is that I haven't seen that much of a difference in crime since I got here. Statistics show that crime has dropped, but I personally don't see it. Obviously, it depends on where you are, but we are in Southeast now and people here don't feel safe. There are still murders and drugs on these streets. Years ago, if someone robbed a woman here, you would need the police to come and stop the community from beating the thief. Now, they don't call the police at all because they don't trust the police or because they've given up.

"People always say to me they don't have time to help. Come on, put down that XBox and come and help your community. Right now, I could be home relaxing, but I am here. I drive the Bolt Bus five days a week back-and-forth to New York and I still make time to patrol these streets. If we don't fight back, the criminals will take over."

John "Unique" Ayala is the Director for the D.C. Metropolitan area Guardian Angels.

William on Being a Good and Faithful Servant

"I am originally from South Carolina. I came here by myself when I was 17. I have been living in D.C. about 53 years. I am 71 and the Lord has been good to me. I met my wife here and we had ten children. They all grown now and got their own places in D.C. and Maryland. They occasionally come in and check on me. 

"I raised my kids all over this city: in Northeast, Northwest and Southeast. It was rough in D.C. when I first came here and then it got rougher with all the drugs. Now, things are getting a little better as the police are trying to get them drugs out of this town. When the police got out of their cars and started walking and riding bicycles about four years ago, that made a difference. Hopefully, we can get all of the crime out of here and make this a better place to live. 

"I tried to keep my kids out of this by teaching them discipline and faith. I would sit down and talk with my kids about what was right and wrong. If they did wrong, I would take out the rod. That was back before all of this talk of child abuse. When they stopped people from whooping their children, that's when kids got wild. I was raised with discipline and I raised my kids the same way. If you don't try to keep your children straight, they are going to sassy out on you. They need to know who is the boss. When they grow up to raise their own children, they will thank you for it. 

"I was raised in a Christian home. My father was a preacher. We come from a religious family and I raised my kids in a religious home. Things in this city got worse when they took prayer out of the schools. A lot of kids had parents who worked two jobs and didn't have the time to teach their children about the Lord's prayers. They should put prayer back in schools. The way I see it, you should always keep the Lord first and then everything else will fall in place. I just thank the Lord that I raised my kids before they put the child abuse laws in place and while you could still pray in schools. Now, they are all grown and have good jobs. 

"The older I get, the stronger I believe. Some of the things that I have been through, I would not have made it without the Lord. I was in a car accident and the doctors gave up on me, but the Lord brought me through. Now, I spend my days enjoying Jesus and the space that he gave us to live in. When he calls me home to Heaven, I hope that I will hear him say, 'Well done, William. You have been a good and faithful servant.'

"That's about the best I can tell you." 

William, left, is pictured with his wife, Connie. 

Lonnie on Letting People See Your Greatness

“I love music. I just play music wherever I go and am always carrying an instrument around with me. Today, I got a harmonica, which some people call a mouth organ or harp. I would love to take a piano around, but I can't fit that in my pocket. See, music is healthy for you. I play gospel music, which is good for running the evil spiritsfrom you. I ain't trying to impress nobody when I play on the street, this is just how I am. I don't like to hear all of the negative talking out here, so I prefer to play my music while I am walking on the street. People stop me all of the time and some even give me money. I never ask for it, though. I just play out of love. That is God's honest truth. 

"Whenever I see a mother or father, I stop to tell them to teach their kids to play an instrument. Music helps children be smart in school. It does something to both sides of your brain and will help make your child an A student. Every one of us has so much good stuff inside. You got a gold mine, a diamond mine, and all other kinds of mines down there inside of you. God gives everyone something special. For me, it is music. I know he gave you something, too. 

"I tell you, the graveyard is the richest place in the world. People take with them all kinds of things that they could have done during life: a business they could have done or something to elevate humanity. Don't let your talent die with you. Let people see your greatness."

Lisa on Her Path Back to the Cathedral

"I have been carrying my city swag since I was 8. To me, that is walking with purpose and not showing fear. I went to John Eaton Elementary School in Cleveland Park. My Mom and I were living in Shaw, but she had a friend who lived near the school and we used her address so I could go there. As everyone knows, D.C. does not have the best schools. In the 80's, they were even worse, especially in Shaw. I come from a family of teachers and my Mom was insistent that I get a good education. John Eaton was a diverse school and most of the kids that I knew at school did not live in the neighborhood. I don't know if everyone was using someone else's address to go there. After school, a bunch of the latch key kids would trek across town after school by ourselves. Every day, I took a metro and two buses to get home.

"Ironically, my Mom is a social worker and worked in the child protection section of Children's Hospital. Because she had strange hours, I ended up on my own a lot and had to grow up very quickly. After I made the trip from school to home, I was to stay in the house until she got home. I could not go out, so I would just look out the window at the street outside. Because of that, I was not really able to develop relationships with kids in my neighborhood. Shaw was a very drastic change from Cleveland Park. There was a lot of PCP, or Love Boat as it was called, in the neighborhood. I always thought that the name was interesting because I watched the Love Boat and I never saw people stripping off their clothes and running down the middle of the street naked and high on drugs. And I certainly never saw Captain Stubing, Isaac, and Julie around our neighborhood.

"When I was 10, I got a babysitter from around my way who was 16. I was so excited because she would meet me at my house after school and I could hang out with her. She would take me everywhere she was going. Through her, I learned what boys on my block were hustling and saw people go to jail. I used to think that jail was like a gym because when the boys would come back, they'd be full of muscles. I probably saw a whole bunch of stuff I was not supposed to see. At the same time, I used to go to my friend's houses from school who lived this very sheltered life on the other side of town. Their Moms would always be home with snacks and they had lots of bedrooms and yards. It was very fairytailish and the kids seemed kind of naive to me.

"Even though I felt more comfortable and safe in Cleveland Park, I never felt a part of it. The level of privilege I encountered there, especially when I went to National Cathedral School, was unlike anything I had ever seen. The kids had stuff that was exorbitant to me. I remember going off to my Mom once because some girl in my class spent $8 on a pair of socks. I couldn't believe it. I felt like this was their world and I was just passing through it. What I did not envy, though, was the family dynamics that I saw in a lot of households. I didn't see a lot of loving homes. Even though we had to make a lot of sacrifices, my parents were very loving and attentive. In around 8th grade, kids started drinking in school. The big thing was screwdrivers in water bottles. What kind of situation is a child coming out of where they feel like they need to drink a screwdriver at 1pm?

"After high school, I didn't spend any time around Cleveland Park. I was very rebellious and kind of turned away from those experiences. About ten years ago, I got frustrated about something and went on a long walk. I didn't know where I was going, but I ended up coming back to the National Cathedral. I knew the path here so well from all of my trips as a kid. Coming back helped me to recognize how important this place was for me and my development. Now, it is like home and I don't look at myself as being an 'outsider' anymore. This place is a part of me.

"Now, several of my closest adult friends are friends from my time at Cathedral. In addition to rediscovering the place, I reconnected with the people just like I did with the grounds. We come from different worlds, in many ways, but the foundation laid from our adolescent years makes for a very close bond. It is the place, for sure, but the people are the marrow of my connection to that place. I love it mostly because I love them. Most people that know me will tell you that they have been here at some point because this is where I drag people to hang out or to sit and work. I look around and my footprints are all over this place. I now realize how much a part of me this place is."

Cedric on His Way of Running

"I am a young 57. I was born in D.C. General Hospital in 1952. My family history goes way back in D.C. I was raised in Georgetown and came through the Catholic schools as a three-sport athlete. I played basketball, baseball and football. After high school, I got a football scholarship to play defensive back at the Community College of Baltimore. While I was there, I was recruited to play for the University of Pittsburgh. At the time, my high-school sweetheart was having one of my first babies, so I decided not to go. I dream about that missed opportunity all of the time. Tony Dorsett was there at the time, and I would have won a national championship. It would have changed my whole life had I made that move. I am not mad, though, because I am still happy with what I have accomplished. I've been married for 30 years. I have six kids and four grandkids. I am blessed by my family. Everybody has a destiny, and I think that this was my destiny.

"When I didn't go to the University of Pittsburgh, I came back to D.C. to be a bus driver. Ever since I was younger, I had always wanted to drive a bus. I used to see the bus drivers looking all cool and talking to the ladies, and wanted to be just like them. Four months later, I was driving a bus for the southeast division of Metro. I was always good at my job because I am a people person and an excellent driver. I tell you, my driving is smooth. I have driven every route in the city. I did 25 years for Metro and now I have done 12 years driving the mobile lounges at Dulles Airport.

"A friend at Metro got me into running. Before, I was all about playing sports: tennis, basketball, and touch football. I started running with him in 1975 and said, 'This ain't so bad.' Since then, running has changed my life. Because I knew all the bus drivers, I would race the buses from my place on H Street, Northeast, to the White House. I was crushing them. Running forward, I can beat anyone. In 1984, I said, 'Why not start running backwards?' I started doing the spinning thing while I run to work on my endurance. I wanted to make my body stronger. And I am blessed with incredible peripheral vision, so I always know what is around me. When I am on a run, you will always see me moving. I will run in place or spin around the intersections or in the middle of traffic to keep from stopping.

"A lot of people don't know me, but they recognize me because of how I run. See, I am very vocal. I listen to whatever is rocking on the radio and will yell out, "HOOT! HOOT!" to my bus driver friends and the cabbies. Some people have even stopped me and told that I am an inspiration to them. Because of me, some people started exercising. I tell you, I really feel blessed.

"When I first started running, my wife used to say, 'Why you gotta run all the time?' Now, if I don't run, she thinks something is wrong with me. Just like waking up in the morning and washing my face, running is a part of my life. The only reason that I will ever stop is because God wants me to. Until then, I will keep running the same route every other day. I go straight down H Street, past the White House to 20th Street, and come back the same way."

Cyndee on Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

“I was born in Utah and then traveled around the country with my folks while my Dad was doing graduate school. I moved to the D.C. metro area when I was 8. I left for college and then ended up back in D.C., but did not plan on staying here. Bikini Kill, a band that I was really into, did a benefit concert for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). Throughout my life, I had really close friends who chose to do informal sex work because working the graveyard shift at 7-11 sucks. In doing that, many of them got into abusive situations and did not have the resources to get help. HIPS seemed like the right place for me to volunteer at the right time. I started as a volunteer in 1994 and have been here in different capacities every since. I became the executive director in 2001. 

"At HIPS, we are working to improve the health and welfare of sex workers rather than trying to 'save them' from what they were doing. We work using a harm reduction strategy. At HIPS, we work with sex workers to help them decide what is and is not working in their lives. It’s all about self determination. There are few people who we interact with who are doing sex work in whatever capacity for a new purse or a $600 pair of shoes. Most of the people we work with are trying to feed themselves and their families or pay the rent. Some have chosen to do this over other forms of employment. More often than not, they are doing this because it is a last resort. Some are also supporting drug habits and some have not had access to education or job counseling. It is very hard to live in this city on minimum wage. The myth about upward mobility in employment does not play out all that well. As much as we work with job training, it is challenging for many of these people to find regular employment. 

"The more we push sex work underground, the more dangerous it gets. Since the institution of the prostitution free zones in D.C., which are similar to drug free zones, and gentrification, sex workers are working increasingly in poorer, more dangerous neighborhoods. Now, we are also seeing how technology is changing sex work. When I started at HIPS, it wasn’t really safe to stroll without working for an established pimp or manager. In some ways, technology gives sex workers more ability to work independently if you have the access and knowledge. Yet, in some sense, it has made sex work less visible and more underground. Now, you don’t have that person on the corner who is going to make sure you get back from your date alright. We do outreach to both those on the corners and online to help them stay safe and informed. 

"We have varied interactions with the powers that be in Washington. We are funded publicly by the health department for HIV prevention, needle exchange and victims services. Thanks to their support, we are able to make sure that our clients, sex workers, have the tools they need to reduce the public health problems normally associated with this work. Obviously, our goal is different than law enforcement and sometimes, we can be at odds. Our goal is to help empower sex workers. The only real tool that the police has is mass incarceration, which is a success story to them, but in our view is not a success story in the long run. 

"Our approach is that we want to live in a healthy community that is free of violence, coercion, and disease. Unfortunately, those in sex work get the brunt of those things. By working with that population to address their health and wellness, we are raising the bar for this city. Because we make those conditions less miserable, sometimes sex workers have the ability to do something different. We find that the less coerced and dependent people feel, the more they are able to make informed decision about sex work. The more we can improve their lives, the more they will settle on a job that they like that gives them agency." 

Cyndee Clay is the executive director of HIPS.

Dr. Shoe on his Ph.D in Shoeology

"My uncle taught me how to shine shoes in 1980 when I was 25. He started shining shoes when he was nine years old. During his time, it was illegal to shine shoes on the street. He used to sit out on a big string-bean can and keep the shoe polish in his pocket. When the cops came, he'd lose his chair, but still keep the polish. We call him Sugar Ray Liquor because when he got drunk, he used to think he was a prize fighter. He would also get so stinking drunk, he would shine your damn socks. But he was so damn good that people would still let him shine their shoes. They would just go home and wash their socks! He stopped drinking now and is still shining shoes. 

"I started off shining shoes at the car dealerships up on Georgia Avenue. After that, I wandered down near Dupont Circle and have been here for over 20 years. The thing is that you can't be by the Metro because everyone wants to move fast around there and no one wants to stop for a shoe shine. I set up a few blocks away in the morning, so people can slow down a bit. Then, I work all of the clubs on 19th and M St in the afternoon. After 5:30 p.m., I go by the Palm Restaurant and then head out by the bars until midnight. I get most of my shoe shines at night because, after happy hour, everyone is happy and wants to get a shoe shine. I put that glow on their toe. They call me Dr. Shoe because I have my Ph.D. in shoeology. See, I went to Shoe U. to make those shoes look new. My motto is that if you don't like your shine, you don't pay a dime. I want to make everyone look shiny and bright because, when I finish, everything's going to be alright. 

"In my years here, I have shined everyone's shoes from Muhammad Ali to Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot of politicians and ballplayers. Anybody is a celebrity in my book when they get a shine. I like my first shine for the day to be brown because that gives me luck. No matter the color of the show, though, you know I'm gonna make 'em look good when they put that shoe on the wood. I want to show everyone my shine and make it worth their dime."