The Lede - RFT — Theo R. Welling Photography

"We are all outside because we feel these residents in this facility, the St. Louis city workhouse, they deserve to have air. We don’t know if they're guilty or they're innocent. And even if they are guilty, they still deserve air. I mean, they're baking like baked potatoes. "I saw on a live stream yesterday a lot of people saying, ‘Well, I work in a warehouse where there’s no air.’ But that’s different; you're not constantly in that place. You get to go home. You get to go on breaks. You get to go to your car. Here, this is everyday life for them, 24/7. It’s every day. Every day! So I’m sweating and hot standing out here; I can’t imagine how hot they feel with closed-in windows, lights on, in an old brick building." Precious Jones, photographed with her children and nephews protesting the city workhouse in north St. Louis on July 22, 2017.

"I think there should be more of it because if there were more places like this maybe there would be less hate, less sex crimes, less I don’t know. Then again, I think you got a right to buy anything you want, anytime you want. As long as it’s not illegal. As long as it’s legalized by the government. It ain’t going to hurt no body? Go on a head and get it.” Danny Stevenson found at Pure Pleasure Adult Megacenter on Broadway on February 13, 2020.

"We’re here because of the Muslim ban, and I’m also here to stand against the wall that’s being put up in Mexico. I’m here because I’m against fear and hate. I also believe in America. Yesterday I was really worried. But now I feel overwhelmed with people's reactions — people telling me they have our backs." Hannan Hamed, photographed with her son Omar Mutan at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on January 29, 2017.

“We’re with a group called Overpasses for America. We are pro-Trump, but even if Hillary had won, we would still be out here this President's Day. We’re showing our patriotism. It didn’t matter who won the election. I’m still going to support my country regardless." -- Richard Wampler, photographed on the I-55 overpass in Arnold on February 19, 2017.

"Life is so short. There’s not a lot of time to think about these things that really matter. You don’t want to be 60 and your body is all falling apart and you think, ‘Oh My God What has my life been about?’ Pursuing material things like money and power? All those things disappear when you die. What will you have left when you die? Just you and your consciousness." -Y.S. found in Tower Grove Park at the Hare Krishna Celebration, Chariot Festival, on July 30, 2017.

“It’s the first time I ever cried out there with someone. Elderly woman in her 90s. She always come up here, sitting next to Nathan, start talking to him. And she keep on talking and talking like he was real. And she passed away. I’m gonna start crying now. ... Two of her daughters ... was telling me how much Nathan meant to [their] mom. Because every time they’d visit [their] mom at the nursing home here, it’s all she would talk about — Nathan. ‘Oh, we’ll see. See what he’s wearing? Oh, this and that.’ And they were telling me how much he meant to her.”⁠ ⁠ - Mike Heisler, photographed with Nathan “Wooden Boy” Heisler in Florissant on Saturday, October 30⁠, 2021.

“There’s a great view of Grand right outside this window. This is my reality TV show for $50 a week, and when I’m not busy I’ll just clean up and stare out that window and watch everything go down. I’ve seen everything from people stealing somebody’s bike to unscrupulous activities to whatever on the street. “I’m originally a west county boy. I’ve seen shit down here on the south side that I used to see on the TV news. Now I see it live and in person. You know when you see somebody shot on TV it’s different than when you see somebody shot right in front of you.” —Barry Ellis, a cook at the Buttery in Tower Grove South, photographed on October 19, 2016.

Today it is Mother’s Day but if you’re a mother, you’re a mother every day. So you celebrate that every day. That’s how I look at it. I do the same shit every day. Today is just a regular day, like every day is Mother’s Day to me because I’m still going to be a mother. I still have my kids… I still provide for my kids and I’m going to always make sure they’re okay whether I have to prostitute or anything. Which I’m not because I have a job but I’m just still doing everything that I got to do for my kids. -Eboni Doss and Gregory Doss with their daughter D'Mylaa Doss found at the Riverfront near the old casino on May 14, 2017.

“Actually I genuinely love Halloween and I genuinely love helping people put together interesting things they want to do with either their yard decoration or even creative horror fans that just want to do this awesome custom. This is my 8th season in 10 years. I’m kind of a permanent seasonal guy. I get an employee discount so I can get my kids costumes and do decorating for my house. Plus I generally do contractor work, which starts slowing about now. So I kinda use this is a second gig to sandbag money for Christmas for the kids. Aaron De Clue, employee at Johnnie Brocks Dungeon, on October 23, 2016.

After 500 years of the same shit things gonna change? hahaha! Hell naw! Nothings gonna change. I mean Martin Luther King marched up and down the street. What did do? He stifled their ecumenic base basically. Stifled their capitalism. Basically he made them lose money. But really what that did was fuck us up in the long run by him marching in the streets, love Martin Luther King, but by him marching in the streets it’s why we’re matching in the fucking streets today! Straight the fuck up for no reason! No reason! You get nothing out of marching. What do you get? Tired legs, the same unruly justice. —Words by Johnny Robert Jr. found on Olive St. during the protest of the Stockley verdict at the Metropolitan Police Department on September 17, 2017.

What were trying to do…You’ll see the butterfly’s and you’ll try to figure out what the butterfly’s mean and I want people to realize this earth belongs to all of us. Butterflys migrate north, south, you know? We’re going to have a few other creatures on the mural that migrate north and south. That’s just nature. The world belongs to all of us. We have to think of it that way. We all migrate. A lot of times I don’t think we think of it that way that people are going to go somewhere else where there’s something else better. Just like the bird, just like the butterfly, just like the salmon just like everything else here on earth that goes around in a circle. Words by Gonz Jove(middle), Muralist, with his wife Esthela Mamani(left) and Sister Elvia Jove(right) found at Cherokee St. Cinco De Mayo Celebration on May 5, 2018

"I used to make a lot of money before I did this. But I learned that money’s not everything. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do. It was a cutthroat business: nine to five, suit and tie routine. And I wasn’t having any fun. When I decided to do this I found my passion. And I’d do it again." Jean Haffner, owner of Record Exchange, photographed at his store on July 8, 2017

It’s great that people actually let us have this Holi function out here in the park. Police have come out to help with security. I’ve spoke with a lot of folks asking about the culture, taking interest in knowing what’s happening out here. Good food! That’s something I like about the US is that wherever your from your actually allowed to embrace your own culture, your own religion and have fun. So that’s good! There’s a lot of places you can actually be as you are. Everybody’s changing. I would say back 30 years you might not. The world is changing with the time. -Sai Mukund Ramakrishnan with Dishika Iyer found at the Holi Festival in Stacy Park on March 16, 2019.

Well you know this. There’s nobody here and then it night there’s no light pollution. So see the shooting stars and the meteorite showers. It’s the closest place in the whole county, probably, that’s completely dark. You publicize it though ha! Ha! and there’ll be tons of people out here. —Ken Hawk found walking in the Carrollton neighborhood in Bridgeton on April 30th, 2017.

Honestly, it started a couple years ago. I was hiking around and I passed the same bag four times and I got so mad that, ‘why isn’t anyone picking it up!?’ Then I realized, I hadn’t picked it up myself either so how can I complain about other people not doing it if I don’t do it. Then it kinda snowballed. I started doing these clean ups and people got interested. We’ve got a good little group now that we’re working on building. It’s been a pretty cool adventure. -Rebecca Eslinger, founder of the nonprofit Erase The Trace, with her children found on Cherokee Street on April 30, 2017.

Everybody's rewriting history right now. Artists have a chance to keep history alive. If people don’t know what happened in the past they’re just gonna repeat everything. To me and my point of view you can’t lie about it to something to your kid ya know? -Nickolas Becker, local artist, found at the Shell on Hampton on September 1, 2017.

"I’ve been having some energy troubles with all the hate in the atmosphere in St. Louis. We just have to connect to nature when it gets bad like that." Niesha Mathis, photographed with her daughter Rosie Savage at the Midwest Crystal Festival in Kirkwood on October 8, 2017

This is also my first time at the History Museum. So this is a great first experience for me. [I’m] here, just to learn the history about this place. Knowing that the past is part of the now. And she’s(the woman in the painting) part of the past and I’m part of the now so ultimately, I’m a reflection of her.” — Brianna Hamilton, found at the History Museum’s exhibit #1 in Civil Rights on November 19, 2017.

I’m born and raised in Brazil and this is one of the places, that I know, that you can be as natural as you are watching soccer. You can scream, you can bring your horn, you can bring drums and just make noise. And cheer for your team and it’s a friendly environment and it’s no big deal. Like no fights, no people that…even though we curse a lot that’s part of the game. So this is one of my favorite places. After the last World Cup I was a little bit upset because I couldn’t make it home. So I decided that this time I’m not gonna miss a game. I’m here everyday so far. Swear to god! Haha! —Gina Lima found at the Amsterdam Tavern during the world cup on June 26, 2018.

"Check on your friends. They might seem like they're fine or OK, but you don't really know until you talk to them and get a deeper perspective of what they're dealing with.Because none of us saw what was going to happen with our friend. We had no idea. Nobody even suspected he was hurting." —Mikayla Gilliam and Chris Santiago found at Creve Coeur Lake at the Out of the Darkness Walk on September 30, 2018.

Well my husband always liked them. He had a nice [place] in his mothers sun room. He lived in Florissant Missouri. He made a desert scene in there. He liked them from a little boy then on. Several times he talked about it after we were married and I said, ‘well I want to raise my family. I don’t want to leave here and go out and work.’ He said, ‘let’s raise them here then.’ So that’s how we started. Like, I said the terrariums were first. Then our friend with the hen and chicks. And then we started to get in the cactus because he loved them. I said, ‘Oh there only good for sticking me.’ But it didn’t take long and I started loving them too! [Laughs] Gladys Drummond owner of Drummond Nursery and Greenhouses in De Soto MO on May 2, 2019.

Bryan: I mean if I was to give advice to other queer brown kids it would be to like to be true to yourself and ride it out because you don’t fake anything to where your faking a big chunk of your life. Just be honest and then everything will fall into place. That’s kind of what we do. Jimmy: I think no matter what color you are your going to go through trouble with any of this non straight stuff. As far as acceptance I think you have to first accept yourself, who you are, and the rest doesn’t matter. Like I know you still need support from family and everything but if your okay with yourself then you’ll be fine no matter what. —Jimmy McFan and Bryan Diaz found at the South County Mall Carnival on May 19, 2019.

"This is the first summer that I've not been able to bring my kids to the park once. And they love coming over here. They love playing on the equipment. My daughter keeps asking me, "Mommy, when can we go to the park?' When it's not flooded and they clean it!" —Katie Sellmeyer found near her home close to Lemay Park on Sunday June 9, 2019.

"I feel like there's some magic here that we're creating here together, the city and me. Like the city wants this to happen. But it also feels crushing at times, because it's more work than I've ever done, and I'm more broke then I've ever been. Right now I feel we're at a point where it's turning, but it's turning so slowly. I can see it. I can see all the pieces that are coming together." —William Thomas Pauley with Confluence Kombucha on June 21, 2019.

Hanna: It’s really nice. It feels like nothing has changed. Like we we’re friends then and we’re friends now. There was just this time period where we we’re maybe all figuring things out. We did our own things. John: bish! you gonna make me cry! Hanna: But as soon as we reconnected it was just like being friends like we were. John: I think for all of us we’ve all had different ranges of being ourselves. ---Alice Charatonik, Hanna Luechtefeld, and John Edwards at the Tower Grove Pride Festival on June 29, 2019.

Meditation [is] Breath in. Breath out. Happiness [for] everyone. In the morning, meditation. Evening/afternoon meditation. Sitting meditation, standing meditation, walking meditation, sleeping meditation. Watering the flowers meditation. --Phrakhruvjittara-Siakhun Vijit found watering flowers at the Cherokee Street Buddhist Temple on July 13, 2019.

"I was laid off, and I wasn't making no money, and I thought, 'I got all these comic books here, and why don't I start putting them out here?' ... It's like the good Lord said, 'It's not what you got but how you use what you got.' You know what I mean? It's like he's telling me I got all these comic books - well, use them efficiently." —Gary Lee Dunn found on Bates St selling comic books on July 28, 2019.

"This wasn't meant to happen. Naw, he's supposed to be in college somewhere. Mike Brown's supposed to be at home laying down, probably eating, chillin', working on his second degree in college or something. Ain't none of this supposed to happen." —Taveon Edwards found at the Canfield Apartments on August 9, 2019.

"This is my daily attire. Every day you can catch me like this for the most part. But I like to get comfortable some days." —Samuel Williams found in downtown on North 13th St in St. Louis on Sunday October 28th, 2019.

"Some people laugh at me. Some people say I'm crazy. Some people don't understand. But there's a lot of people that do. —Kenan Bell Sr., known as the Superhero ‘UNIIMO’ which stands for ‘Understanding Nurtures Intelligence, Intelligence Motivates Objectives and or Opportunities when the arise.’, found in the Delmar Loop on November 22, 2019.

"We've gone to powwows our whole life. At school, people would be like, 'Did you see this game or movie ...' and I'm like, 'No I was in Nebraska. No, I was in Montana. No, I was in Wisconsin.' And you think you're missing things, but then when I look back, I think they missed everything." —Barbara Whitehead O'Rourke of the Winnebago/Sioux Tribe, PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE FALL Native American Holiday Market at Cahokia Mounds on November 30, 2019.

I just really think about all the stuff that people do here. Like everything that goes on like other stuff that goes through peoples heads. It give you a lot of thinking time up in here. You can think a lot about things you want to do and things you want to be done[with]. It gives you a lot of thinking. It’s a good thing. It’s a really good piece of mind. Like even if you don’t have a lot of stuff on your mind it’s like, ‘hey I don’t have time to think…Everything’s just busy moving to fast.’ Every now and then it might get busy then it slows down and you still got that time to sit and think. It’s pretty cool. I like it. I like working down here it’s really nice. I like to see on the sunny days you get to see all the bright sun but I’ve seen rainbows hit the water [and] reflect off the water. It’s really pretty. On a really good day [laughs] I guess all the cloud and the fog and the rain done washed everything off today. But usually at night you can see the moon and everything it look really nice. Like on a clear night it’s really nice down here and it’s nice to sit and look at it. Reflect on things. —Davette Larue, parking attendant, with St. Louis Parking on the Levee on November 30, 2019.

“It’s a beautiful spring day, and we wanted to celebrate it amongst the flowers. ... St. Louis is unlike any other city I’ve ever visited or heard about. It’s just so family-driven. It really is. There’s just so much to do on any given day, and most of it is low to no cost. So it’s perfect.”⁠ ⁠ Angelica Earl with daughters Iris and Sammi, photographed at the Missouri Botanical Gardens on Saturday, April 10, 2021.

“I’m just enjoying myself. I got divorced. Kids are finishing college finally now. I’m getting loose, so I need to relax a little bit. It’s tough at work and tough at home. House has to go for sale because I need to sell half of it and split it. You know how it goes. So it’s just a nice day to enjoy it on the hill. Enjoying today’s evening, and you just don’t even want to go home. ... Flying is kind of more like ‘falling with style,’ as Woody in Toy Story said.”⁠ ⁠ - George Tronicek, photographed flying his model airplane on Art Hill in Forest Park on Saturday, April 17⁠, 2021.

“This is where I live ... I mean, I’m a Cardinals Fan, I’m a Blues Fan. ... But for people here in St. Louis, if we are people who believe in human rights ... and I think there are a lot of good people in St. Louis, then we in St. Louis should really feel the tie between St. Louis and Palestine..."⁠ ⁠ - Banan Ead, photographed at the Rally for Palestine at Kiener Plaza on Friday, May 14⁠, 2021.

“I want all to know that, with my Iraqi flag, we are Iraqis; we support Palestine. That’s where we came from. That’s all we know. When I was younger, all we knew was that �Palestine needed to be free and needed justice.”⁠ - Ali Jabber, photographed at the Rise Up with Palestine March and Rally in the Delmar Loop on Sunday, May 16⁠, 2021.

“I come up in the city. Downtown was the place to be. It’s where all the action was — all up and down the roads here. This time of day, [it would be] just like a baseball game, but it would be 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and there’d be people walking this way, both sides of the street. But things change. Hopefully, I’ll be around when it makes a comeback.”⁠ ⁠ - Robert Moody, shoe repairman, photographed at Broadway Shoe Repair on Wednesday May 26⁠, 2021.

“When I was a kid, my uncles, they used to always watch Westerns. I thought I was a cowboy. I want to be a cowboy. Honest truth, I just started looking into [it] when I got older, just on the internet, and I found her volunteer work. And I went there about three or four years now.”⁠ ⁠ - Jonathan Thomas, volunteer horse handler with Meadow Crest Farms, photographed at the Hispanic Festival at Knights of Columbus, in Florissant on Sunday, October 3⁠, 2021.

“There’s this one quote that one of my friends said that ‘America’s 9/11 is our every day, every single day.’ That’s what happens in our country, where people get killed and kidnapped or, you know, just lose a loved one. And we’re just here [today] to be heard. And hopefully America does something about it.”⁠ – Fatema Khwaja (right) with her sister Mariam Khwaja at the SAVE Afghanistan, Our Flag Our Identity rally outside City Hall on Sunday, August 22⁠, 2021.

“I lean into public art... The most heartwarming part is when I spoke with one of the bus drivers and a couple of the other folks working here, and [they were] like, you know, ‘Just warms my heart to see a sister doing this, or a woman doing this.’ So it’s really affirming, and it just feels very wonderful when people feel excited.”⁠ ⁠ - Simiya Sudduth, visual artist and healer, photographed with her mural at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Friday, October 8⁠, 2021.

“I look at the world and you look at all the pretty rocks out here, you know, and how complicated the animals are, and all I think [is] there has to be a creator.”⁠ ⁠ - John Ashcraft, Edwardsville union laborer and amateur rock tumbler, photographed collecting rocks at Chouteau Island on Sunday, October 17⁠, 2021.

Let's see-what can we say about the new year? I'm always hopeful. For the new year, and peace know I'm getting emotional. Yeah, when I think about New Year, it's, it's always a hope for something better. ‘Madame Mae Palmist’, Phyllis Davis-Bon, Psychic in the Wellston Loop on December 20, 2021.

“We’re still doing our ceremonies, singing our songs, speaking our language. And often we [native people] don’t have a place at the table. And what I want people to think about is if you don’t see someone at the table, ask ‘Why not?’ Be a good ally. This whole thing about climate change has been in our spectrum for hundreds of years. We’re here praying for the water, because this is something we all need. ... But what I want people to know is we need water, but water doesn’t need us. So we need to take care of water and treat it as kin.”⁠ ⁠ - Saundi McClain-Kloeckener (right), of the Native Women’s Care Circle, photographed with Basmin, performing their weekly water prayers, at Lincoln Shields Recreation Center on Sunday, November 21⁠

“I get people yelling at me: ‘Good job! Good job!’ We’ve had people give us things in the mailbox, thanking us every year — stuff like that. We’ve had church groups say that is one of the best they’ve seen ... That makes it feel good.”⁠ ⁠ - Jeff Stevenson, photographed outside his “Gingerbread House” holiday display in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood on Thursday, December 16⁠, 2021.