No one else wanted to take a seat near the girl who smelled of a fisherman’s boat hull.

Everyone in that department was white, and it amazed you how many folks who may or may not have had safe drinking water reminded you of your grandparents Weesie or Teeta or any number of their friends.

The first big secret I ever learned was on the night I found my Daddy dead, crammed in the little space where my old bike’s training wheels turned rusted.

Sometimes, things are good. We have hot water and heat and everything else that keeps us comfortable. But other times, mama’s job cuts her hours, or my dad gets laid off and then they’re stuck choosing between what we need most.

Victor J. Blue is a New York based photojournalist whose work is most often concerned with the legacy of armed conflict, human rights and the protection of civilian populations, and unequal outcomes resulting from policy and politics.

Her mother was finally settling into her sixties. At least that is what Yemi told her over the phone. Either that, or she had given up and accepted the fact that she could no longer dance goombay for six straight hours at the hi-life dances anymore.