It takes me an hour to collect all the fabrics, rugs, cushions, curtains, and saris from my home to pile them into my car so I can take them to Freedmen’s Town for VBB’s Homes and Histories production. At 10 am, Shadi, Carmen, Ariana, Angela, and i begin winding the materials. Just when I think we’ll run out of fabric, Yunuen arrives with her saris and bedcovers. My stack, combined with hers and some African cloth from VBB’s fall 2011 production are just enough for the 23 foot dome that arches higher than 14 feet high.

On the streets closeby, Paul Hester along with Pruitt , Angela, Michael, Than and many volunteers barely finish glueing photos to the asphalt before 2:00 pm when the show is scheduled to start.

The production, packed with activities, ends fast, and at 4:30 pm, we start stripping the fabric and monitors so the dome can return to its skeletal form of iron rods that are then dismantled; I wasn’t there at 4 am when Jim, Eric and JJ began assembling the dome so we could decorate it. On the streets, Paul, Pruitt and Michael strip the photos. Residents on Wilson street want the photos to remain on the ground, while those on Cleveland want the “rubbish” cleared.

For more images go to VBB’s Flickr site.

Prints by Paul Hester and Akbar Baloch; photos by Burnell McCray