Tag Archives: Though Our Eyes

My grandpaÕs leathered skin and soft eyes are brighter than most and have seen more sorrow. They’ve seen twelve presidents, a world war that took his father away, a civil rights movement, the stoplight in town be put up then taken back down again when there was no longer a need for it. His hands have helped give birth to hundreds of calves and have carried both his parentsÕ caskets. Now, at 72, with three children and seven grandchildren all spread across the country, the future of his land is uncertain. He reckons it isnÕt time to worry yet. He reckons heÕll just work this land till he dies. He reckons they’ll be buried together. |Skylar Ballard

NASHVILLE, TN – NOVEMBER 12: Running back Derrick Henry #22 of the Tennessee Titans carries the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals at Nissan Stadium on November 12, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. | Shaban Athuman

“I have memories from back at home and putting them together I could tell the difference and Up to now I can remember things from there to here,” Mohamed muketar speaks of the culture difference since moving to the United States from a refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2004 his family moved to the United States in search for a better life. | Shaban Athuman 

From left, Judy Wilkins, Jasmine Wilkins, and Sherry Simmons hold the graduation picture of Gregory Wilkins, who was murdered on Tuesday, November 26, 1996 in Louisville, Ky. He was pronounced dead as soon as he went to the hospital. Jasmine, his daughter, was two years old and in the other room when he was murdered. His girlfriend Sherry was at work, and his mother Judy was at home. “I visit his grave once a week,” said Judy. “I have been once a week for 21 years. I once dreamed that he was reaching out to my hand and I almost reached out to his. I said ‘baby, why did they take you so soon?’ He told me his time had come. Then he was gone.” Judy said. |Michael Blackshire

Bill Santley, 50, waits to get off in North Hollywood on the Green Line Metro Bus in Los Angeles, California. Bill Santley has been blind all of his life. “I would suggest stay in Northern California, there are a lot of people who don’t speak english here. I have to find an address and people I try to communicate to on the train speak Spanish. Very hard to navigate around LA, and being blind makes my days more rough. Unfortunately IÕve lived here all of my life, but the train system helps. Housing is ridiculous. If your going to live in LA you better have a kid, or else people won’t help you. Or your going to get left behind.” | Michael Blackshire

Eugene Monsun, 76, smokes a cigarette before headed back home. He has lived in Bowling Green, KY for 10 years after retiring from carpentry. ” My old roommate died a year ago so now I live with his son. I try not to dwell on death but I can’t help but think about the inevitable since he passed away. Also doesn’t help my health that I chain smoke cigarettes.” Monsun said. | Michael Blackshire

Connor Fadely helps to clear the football field following a Creek Wood victory over the Portland Panthers on October 20, 2017 at Portland East Middle School in Portland, Tn. The Red Hawks won 21-6. | Gabriel Scarlett

PORTLAND, TN – 20: Kicker Camrin Lyle of Portland Panthers sits during halftime of a game in which she did not see playing time against the Creek Wood Red Hawks on October 20, 2017 at Portland East Middle School in Portland, Tn. She is the only female member of the Portland team. | Gabriel Scarlett

Dawson, 6, trick-or-treats with his family on Halloween in Brownsville, Ky.|Morgan Hornsby

“Here, we are not prisoner,” Denise says. “The [refugee] camp was surrounded with bushes.” Since moving to Morehead in 2014, she started a garden that includes her infamous hot peppers.|Shaban Athuman

Hours after Denise Luke was born in Togo, a west African nation, her family thought they were looking at her for the last time. She was born a bit overdue, and had swallowed some bodily fluids during the birthing process. A man passing by asked what was going on and the family told him that she was dead. The man looked at her, then made a cut under both of her eyes and applied some material on the wound. Seconds later she was awake. |Shaban Athuman

Nashville, TN – 4: Runners compete in their race at the TSSAA State Meet at Percy Warner Steeplechase Course in Nashville on Nov. 4, 2017. | Gabriel Scarlett

Autour Love, 46, holds a framed photo of his deceased son Javon Saadig Jackson, who was murdered by a drive by shooting on December 1st, 2016, he was 19.”First 20 minutes I heard about my son getting shot, I was Boom, out the house, drove straight from Park DuValle to 12th and Hill Street. All of the anger I let go when I was younger grew back inside me. The coroner didn’t even lay a sheet over my son’s dead body. Had him lounged over the car with his lifeless body, blood dripping on the ground. I left the streets for my son to learn from my past life lessons. All I can do now is lay back; ask God for answers, because the streets won’t give me answers.” Autour Love said while reflecting on the memory of his son Javon Saadig Jackson. October 9th, 2017. |Michael Blackshire

Running back Luke Owen #21 of the Salem Spartans scores a touchdown against Patrick Henry on Friday Oct. 06, 2017 in Roanoke, Va. |Shaban Athuman

Kenneth Forbes Sr., 45, son died a year and seven months after graduating from Valley High School in Louisville, KY. Kenneth Forbes Jr. died on December 23rd, 2012 in a parking lot off of Dixie Highway. “Christmas isn’t a good time for me, my son died two days before Christmas; that breaks me down every year. I don’t celebrate holidays. The closes people to me always ask me whats wrong, and I’m thinking do you know what happened to me man. I only have one son now, and I had to burry my first born. I suffer from grief, anxiety, and depression. Don’t ask me whats wrong, sometimes I just want to lay down in bed all day. I can never accept my son being murdered. I can find closure through reflection but my life changed on December 23rd 2012.” Kenneth Forbes Sr. said. October 8th, 2017. |Michael Blackshire

Reggie Gough, 58, brushes the dirt off one of his horses before going on a ride in Franklin, Ky., on a Tuesday afternoon. “This horse has broken my collar bone, stepped on my hand, and kicked me in the face. I called her Suzy but I nickname her Bull. She’s my favorite horse but I swear the last time she injured me I had to strain myself to not put her down,” Reggie Gough said. | Michael Blackshire

Reggie Gough rides his horse Suzy while his other horse Mustang stays close with a halter carrying the horses to their resting stop. “I’m not a cowboy, I’m a horseman,” said Gough. “Cowboy’s chase cows, I make sure horses have tender hooves and a sore back, plus black man are afraid of ropes.” |Michael Blackshire

Bernard Djuma grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and after moving the Bowling Green, Ky., joined BG Projects United, a local soccer team for African refugees. The team was started three years ago and is sponsored by the Housing Authority of Bowling Green and Christ Fellowship Church. |Skyler Ballard

Dawson stands in his backyard in Edmondson County, Kentucky. Nearby, his mother and father take turns watching Dawson and his little brother Alex as they jump on the trampoline together and fight over who gets to ride their shared scooter. The boys have been in foster care with the Webb-Thomas family for three years. In just a week, the family will find out in court if they will become permanent guardians of the brothers or if they will return to their biological parents. Shot on 120 film. |Morgan Hornsby

Members of Bowling Green Projects United, a local soccer team for African refugees, practice for an upcoming game. The team, which ranges from elementary to high school players, was started by Daniel Tarnagda as a way for the the members to integrate into the community. |Skyler Ballard

Running back Jakairi Moses #29 of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers dives into the end zone to score a touchdown against Ball State on September 23, 2017 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. |Shaban Athuman

Members of Bowling Green Projects United, a local soccer team for African refugees, practice for an upcoming game. The team, which ranges from elementary to high school players, was started by Daniel Tarnagda as a way for the the members to integrate into the community. |Skyler Ballard

My sister Natalie and her Imogen. “When I take her down to the water’s edge, when I hold her tiny foot in the cold, and clear, when I stand in it and splash for her entertainment, all the waters from all these histories collide. From the puddle of amniotic fluid that soaked my toes in the hospital to the puddles I couldnÕt hop over while pregnant, from the laboring hallucinations and flashbacks to the contractions like waves, from the obsidian pools of her eyes just opening to her searching, piercing expressions, all water flows to the lowest point. ImogenÕs eyes dig into me, hollowing and filling me. Her eyes, like whetstones on which I must drag my meanings and hone my understanding, ask and ask and ask. Water always flows to the deepest place.” ÐNatalie. Shot on 120 film. |Gabe Sacrlett

Demetrius and Demontaze Duncan play fight outside on Muhammad Ali Blvd in Louisville, KY. “You can’t steal me though” Demetrius said to Demontaze as they discuss their boxing records. September 11th. 2017. |Michael Blackshire

Demontaze and Demetrius Duncan relax upstairs in their rooms right before they go to bed at night. “I want to get a periscope, that’s my best subject is science, I made a 48 on my last history test, that’s my least favorite” Demontaze Duncan said while discussing class. “School isn’t my best subject, all of the subjects, none of them are my best,” Demetrius Duncan said while discussion school. September 7th, 2017. |Michael Blackshire

This is the Big Bethel AME Church in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the oldest African-American congregation in the area. Its basement was the first African-American public school in the city. |Gabe Scarlett

Louisiana Tech University wide receiver Rhashid Bonnette (86) rects after Western Kentucky University defensive back Joe Brown (7) intercepted a pass intended for him during the Hilltoppers’ 22-23 loss to Louisiana Tech University on Saturday September 16, 2017 at L.T. Smith Stadium. |Shaban Athuman

A focus stacked macro shot of one of the many specimens of Monarch Butterflies belonging to WKU’s own entomologist and beetle expert, Dr. Keith Phillips. |Thomas Helm

Dwayne Webb tries to get his foster sons to bed while Alex plays and Dawson sulks. Though Dwayne wakes up at 3 a.m. every day to go to work, he puts the boys to bed every night, which can take up to an hour. |Morgan Hornsby

Each time I come home, I notice subtle changes in my brother. On this visit, he was proud of the new words that he took from his library book and proud of the squirrel he killed. It still lies in our laundry room freezer, waiting for something. He updates me on his accomplishments as we walk the edge of our grandmotherÕs pond, plucking armfuls of yellow flowers. He begs me to loosen a stubborn front tooth. I reach for his hand as he lunges for a singular purple flower near the waterÕs edge. The distance subsides. This process is, to me, as holy as any ritual. He gifts the green and yellow bundle to our mom; the purple he saves for my hair. |Morgan Hornsby

Harmony Hawks runs through her cousin’s yard in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Harmony has been in foster care with the Hawks for six months, and is on track to be adopted soon. “She should have been named hurricane,” her foster mother Jessica Hawks said of Harmony. The family lives in Grayson, Kentucky but is remodeling a home across the road to be closer to the rest of their family as they care for more children. |Morgan Hornsby.

From left, Dryan Neeley, Danielle Minton, Peyton Neeley, Alexandria Neeley, and Breanna Neeley watch as a solar eclipse takes place at their home in Bon Ayr Estates trailer park near Bon Ayr, Ky. on August 21, 2017. |Gabriel Scarlett.

Davis Lowe was diagnosed with a very rare mental disability at 6 months old. At the age of 3 he was formally diagnosed on the autism spectrum. He was then adopted by the Lowe family and he has been receiving therapy and schooling in order to help his progress. |Mhari Shaw.

Western Kentucky University wide receiver Nacarius Fant will return to take on Eastern Kentucky after injuring his knee last year. |Shaban Athuman.

A family watches the eclipse just before totality begins from the lawn of the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview, Ky. |Skyler Ballard.

Dawson Thomas plays with his cat in his home in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Dawson, 6, has been in foster care with the Thomas family for half of his life. The family hopes to adopt as soon as possible. |Morgan Hornsby.

Brothers Dawson and Alex Thomas play together while their mother makes dinner in Edmonson County, Kentucky. The family lives on what their mother Laura calls a “pleasure farm,” with a few chickens, sheep, and one donkey. |Morgan Hornsby.

Breanna Neeley watches the street lights come on as a solar eclipse takes place above her home in Bon Ayr Estates trailer park near Bon Ayr, Kentucky on August 21, 2017. |Gabriel Scarlett.