2008

Dayo Adelaja, Sylvester Collier, Denise Duarte, Adolpho Gonzalez

Doolittle Senior Center- 1950 North J Street

WE ARE HERE (at the gateway)
Beautiful are the hands that remember enough to shape and mold
memorials to the past.
Beyond the memories that may not last
are the monuments
dedicated to the wonderful people who only wanted to lead as they were lead.
To feed as they were fed.
Let no mind go hungry.
Remember.
Ancestral bloodlines like breadcrumbs leading the way home.
Steel and stone
come together under the tutelage of gifted hands.
Gateways;
passages to past places in the heart.
Beyond the confines of modern art
are the makings of hands that remember where hearts are found.
The creation of hallowed ground.
Remember.
Not just those gone past,
but also those living the last...of their days.
In so many ways
their eyes see what we need to see.
Their eyes say what we need to hear.
Time, not measured by the year,
but by the moment.
Each magical, mystical moment where memories are made
as visions fade
just beyond the gateways.
We, the young, can come to see our elders off.
The gateways,
where the old can look both forward and back.
Our time is exact.
It is right now, at the gates;
the future awaits
and our ancestors want what they have always wanted;
for us to live and thrive and be alive...in every moment.
This moment, and this monument, along with these memories
are the nexus of our being.
There is no there; we are here
at the gateway.

Keith A. Brantley
10/22/08