KENSINGTON BLUES

Tag: Audio Recording

September 1, 2011

Tic Tac and Tootsie

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Tic Tac and Tootsie, 2009.
I met Tic Tac and Tootsie also known as the twins, Carroll (left) and Shelly (right) standing on the corner opposite the Huntingdon Park El Station along Kensington Avenue. At the time I made this photograph, the sisters were 20 years old and had been living on the street for one year.

Edited Audio Transcript:

Shelly: The only reason why we pros, we are out here is so that we can get money so we has somewhere to rest our heads. We look out for each other, if I can’t get money she gets it and whatever money we get we share. Our money is together, my money is her money, her money is my money. There’s are a lot of guys that pick you up and then they try to tell you they’re an undercover cop, that if you don’t have sex with them they’re gonna lock you up. We need quick money cause we need somewheres to sleep every day. I mean trust me we don’t want to be out here doing this. This is the last thing I want to do.  But I do what I have to do to take care of my sister. Cause she’s all I got and I’m all she’s got.

Extended Transcript:

Shelly: We barely prostitute, we do it once in a while so we can get somewhere to sleep. We do one a day.

Carroll: We mess around with Zanies, once in a while we do Wet, sometimes we do Percocet’s and that’s about it. We don’t do no hardcore drugs, dope, crack, none of that. We don’t drink… We’ve been out here a year. My dad lives in a halfway house and my mom lives with her boyfriend. She gives us money here and there but we can’t live with her. We’ve been raped, tied up, guys try to say they’re undercover cops… That’s why we stick together cause we try to be there for each other as much as we can… cause without each other I guarantee we would have been dead by now. We wouldn’t have made it this far.  We were out all this winter. We had nowhere to live this whole winter and we made it, sleeping out on the street… together. And like… we’re twins but like… I’m the older sister. We’re seven minutes apart but still I feel obligated to take care of her and it hurts me that I can’t provide a house for her and stuff like that. So I try to do the best I can to make sure I get money so she has somewhere to rest her head, food, and stuff like that. No matter what I gotta do, any means necessary.

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August 30, 2011

Teri

Teri, Winter 2008.


Edited Audio Transcript

I first came out here when I was 18. Um, I, I haven’t been out here constantly, I mean like of course you know I was locked up here and there and I got clean a couple of times. The longest I ever got clean was 5 years and um most of, most of the ladies that um, I first knew when I came out are either up state doing time or they’re uh, you know they’re, I hate to say it, but dead, you know they OD’d, or you know, they got killed.

I come from an alcoholic family, and I’ve been doing drugs since I was like, oh my God, I don’t even know 12, 13, and um, you know, I started out you know with weed and stuff, and then I graduated, but I started doing heroin when I was 18 and I came down here and I got involved with that, and um, that just like kinda kicked my butt, and um you know so I, I wound up basically this becoming my home down here.

You know I started trick’n because I had to like you know, take care of my habit, you know. But actually I started trick’n when I was 17, when I, when I was hanging in Lindenfield project up in the North East and um I was doing coke back then, you know but that’s where, that’s how I got introduced to you know prostituting and stuff like that.  I started up there in the North East and um, then it just, and that’s an addiction in itself too, you know because it’s easy money, well, I wouldn’t say it’s easy money cause it’s not easy, huh, um it’s fast money. It’s a, it’s an addictive behavior so I mean, the one time I thought well I’ll go make some money and then I, you know but I don’t have to get high, but once I had the money in my hand it was like, ahh I’m gonna go get high so it kinda led to one thing led to another and I was back out here again doing the same thing.

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August 26, 2011

The Beginning, Melissa

Melissa, Winter 2008.
My first trip down Kensington Avenue was in the winter of 2008. It was a fiercely windy day. I saw several women dressed in warm coats standing on corners here and there. Melissa caught my eye as she stood in front of a chain-link fence adjacent to the Ave. As I was embarking on a new project and didn’t know exactly where it would lead me, I decided to bring my audio recorder along to track my thoughts. Instead of recording myself, I wound up recording Melissa.

Audio Transcription

Melissa: I was first introduced to the streets of Philadelphia about 5 years ago.  Um, the prostitution uh, came about probably around the same time the drugs did.  I did finally leave Philadelphia um, and became clean.  I moved to Delaware came back relapsed and um trying to get myself back to, on the right road again.  Um, it does have a lot to do with drugs but I can at least say this time, now I’m stronger than what I was now than what I was before.

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