Collection: Neighbors - Westside CARES Fundraiser

This collaborative project was born of a shared commitment to loving our neighbors.

To be still and bear witness is a radical act. We love against our natural tendency to “other” the stranger, to malign, to ostracize, to relegate people to the margins of our society and our consciousness. As we encounter the stranger, caring is predicated on seeing the messiness of people—their courage and their fear, their mistakes and their triumphs, their foolishness and their savvy, their resilience and their hope.

If we strive to love, we must get close to people and see them as they truly are—whole and holy and wholly deserving of that love. We share these portraits and the poems in our book not to imbue these neighbors with humanity, but rather to reveal what is already there—their innate dignity, their grit and grace.

The neighbors you’ll encounter may live in an apartment down the road; they may stay at a shelter or couch-surf; or they may call some forsaken patch of concrete their pillow at night. We cannot imagine all the obstacles they face, but we commit to learning again and again and again that they, we, all of us, are saints and sinners both.

We have used, with permission, photographs and first names of some neighbors. We have changed the names of others who are featured in poetry to protect their privacy and to stir your curiosity.

A portion of all proceeds from this exhibit will be donated to Westside CARES.