Street memorial, Dorchester
Digital photograph (photograph collaged in PS)
Pigment ink printed on canvas

Journey to Peace
Digital photograph (photograph collaged in PS)
Pigment ink printed on canvas


Artificial flowers. Teddy bears. Candles. Liquor bottles. 

In parks, playgrounds, and on street corners throughout Boston’s predominately African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, informal shrines memorialize victims of gun violence. This memorial takes its inspiration from one of 30 such memorials photographed by Hakim Raquib during the summer of 2005. 

At the crossroads of a busy commercial district in Dorchester’s Codman Square, 75 red plaques adorn a wrought iron fence surrounding a neighborhood charter school. Each of the approximately 11×17 boards is mounted with a pair of black shoes and engraved with the name of a community member lost to homicide that year. Of those memorialized, 35 were under the age of 25.

The two heads in this composition are embellished with traditional Ghanaian Adinkra symbols, representing a return to values grounded in love, home, and family. At the center, a single flower and a powerful plea for peace serve as offerings of hope for a future free from violence.

This memorial was created by four students of the Codman Academy, class of 2006. In their words, ‘We should use these shoes as the beginning of our journey to Peace.’ This work extends their plea. The power of these metaphorical tombstones demonstrates how art can change the way we see ourselves.”

—Hakim Raquib