Greetings whoever is reading this, including my future self who may be the only audience.

I was invited earlier this year to take part in an exhibit called [“Compass Roses”] (https://www.compassroses.art/), which will be on view at Opalka Gallery in Albany, NY this Fall.

“Compass Roses: Maps by Artists is a national artwork co-curated by Nadine Wasserman and Renee Piechocki. The project offers a selection of maps created by visual, literary, and performing artists. “

I chose to make a map of Gun Violence Memorials in Albany. I was inspired by a memorial called Chyna’s World, a mural in memory of an 18-year old high school senior named Chyna Forney. Chyna was killed in crossfire in an incident when her boyfriend fired over 30 rounds at another man. The mural is painted at the location where the incident took place. After seeing this mural, I wondered if there were others like it.

I have been aware of the problem of gun violence for this entire century. I have perceived it from three aspects that touch but are distinct: school shootings, the eclipse of streetfighting, and police murder. I might say more about those three in this diary over the next few months, but for now I will just say that these have been buried the past five years by the sheer numbers of tragic gun deaths in this country, in my city, in my neighborhood, on my street. There were 10 shootings on my street when the world broke down during New York Pause, from April 27 2020 a few weeks into the pandemic through December 19, 2021. The nadir was the late night murder of 15-year old Destiny Greene, on a magical little street called Wilbur. I remembered the temporary monument that Destiny’s family had set up on Wilbur Street, and the attempts by some neighbors to set up a permanent memorial for shooting victims.

I decided to spend the summer looking for some other permanent memorials like “Chyna’s World.” To my surprise, I could not find them; at least, not with the definition of memorial that I had at the beginning. Walking, and more often, biking around locations of shootings, I found many small, subtle markers and memorials - a sticker in a window, a wooden sign attached to a light pole, and in one instance, a photograph of a loved one, laminated in a zip-lock bag and pinned onto a light pole. Memorials are not only monuments in stone or bronze. They are also piles of stuffed animals, collections of candles and brandy bottles, and events in time like the annual “Stop the Shooting Barbecue” in my neighborhood.

My map is due for Compass Roses now. I have many data points but few memorials. I need to extend my project, to keep searching during the exhibition. Maps are always an invitation, but this one is explicitly participatory: Will you add your point on the map? Here is a link to contribute a common monument to this map of Albany –> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Zlw0-XJESJb4jId3b8jut3c1DV5TAlCed8d_mhVQrzg/edit