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Photo
I feel as though we all keep our cultural identities closer to the chest than we let on, which limits our ability to communicate. I personally find images are artefacts that lead me to analyze my own identity. Imagery can evoke emotions, stimulate memories, and provide personal examples of our experiences. One such image for me is a photo of my mother and I at Pier A Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, just a few days before 9/11. This image has been on my fridge since I was a little boy in New York City. Despite not being able to remember the day of 9/11, its presence helped me understand the complexity of grief and remembrance. Proximity is a big factor in the ways we relate to our emotions, and our surroundings. Having this image of life before 9/11 helped me empathize with those who lost loved ones. It also helped me visualize the impact that the towers had on battery city, and immortalized their symbolism.
Keychain
There are fewer things that are more symbolic than names on a plaque, but in the tristate area there are a lot of plaques and a lot of names. Field trips to Ellis Island to find your last name on the emigration list, countless WW1 & WW2 memorials, these lists of names are endless and everywhere. It’s strange to think just how normalized these mass memorials are. How we educate and teach our kids about death through media that dehumanize those who have passed down to names on a list. I brought this key chain because It brings back memories of visiting The Ground Zero Memorial on its opening day to see the outlines of the towers dotted with the names of 2,977 souls. Moreso it is a reminder of the countless stories we heard about first responders, heroes, and normal everyday people whose names all had a different meaning because of what they contributed to the world around them when it really mattered most. It is a reminder that one day people will speak on my name too, and I want them to have good things to say.
Pendant
Sadness and anger are great catalysts for creativity, and creativity is a great way to express complicated emotions at times of stress. I believe that art is an unfiltered look at one’s own processes with emotion, and with growth. When I was in a metals class my senior year of high school I started working on something for the 15th anniversary of 9/11. At first I believed that I knew the emotions I intended to convey, but as I worked through version after version I began to realize that I was hitting a wall. Things started to change when I changed my perspective and began expressing the difficulty I was having to my teacher. In the end I created something that symbolizes the strength of New York, an unbroken heart, and the strength needed to rebuild, the twisted gold rebar.
Metrocard
Despite the narrative I seem to be building throughout my other artefacts, this card’s meaning to me is quite simple. I grew up between my mothers home in Hoboken, and my dad’s loft in Greenwich Village. This meant most days I had to take the subway to the PATH so I could get to Hoboken for school. I think this dual living situation led to this strange attachment I have with my New York identity, in addition to providing me with so many differing life experiences between wildly different environments.
Class Ring
Probably the most personal of the artefacts is my K-8 class ring from Elysian Charter School in Hoboken, New Jersey. I spent the first 9 years of my actual education amongst some of the smartest, nicest, and most diverse kids in New York & New Jersey. I think it was the diversity of my school, its community centered atmosphere, and the mentors I had there that really developed my empathy. I got to grow up around kids who didn’t look like me, didn’t have the same religion as mine, and I never once felt ashamed to feel loved and cared for by a family of friends. Sadly after 8th grade I went to a Catholic high school where that wasn’t necessarily the attitude most people there had towards people I’d call my friends. This is actually one of the main reasons I ended up coming to Massachusetts, and I vowed that I would keep that ring to symbolize what that period in my life did for me.
