If he were Trayvon Martin (R.I.P.), I would have never heard his music, their music, the sounds of this brother and sister violin duo playing in New York City’s Grand Central subway station at 42nd Street.  Jackie, their mom who was encouraging and open said that they performed at the world renowned, Carnegie Hall. Instantly, I felt my body swaying and my hands clapping once again on Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall stage, where I performed as a member of the Soul Voices Ensemble with jazz pianist and Steinway Artist, Pete Malinverni – a beautiful soul. Snapping out of those memories and back into the rancid, pissy, New York City subway stench, I continued to spectate and listen, and eventually captured these two images with their mother’s permission.

Today in 2012, I cringe at the thought that this young man who chooses to play his violin over engaging in violence could still be targeted for racial profiling, or an unjust, bloody bludgeoning, or worse, getting shot to death simply because he is black.  Although we may have come far as it pertains to race, evident in the president elect – a black man,  the human race continues to be plagued, so long as cases such as Trayvon Martin and Sean Bell proliferates, time and time again.