Rocky Mount

September 25, 2008

David Alan Harvey sits down for a meal in N. Carolina.

Ask Yolanda Evens what she is most proud of and she will tell you two things.

First, her son is a star high school basketball player and may take over the family barbecue chicken restaurant someday, and second, she is so so proud that her restaurant, “Taste of Paradise” in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was a voter registration point.

“We had folks jammed in there to register. Why, there were 15 people I met who told me they had never voted before in their lives. Old people. Yes, we feel hope. Obama hope. But most of us are afraid somebody will try to git him.”

There were only two other customers in Taste of Paradise when I chanced in for a late lunch of chicken wings and potatoes. The guy at the next table, Rory, asked me for the salt and pepper, and of course that is all it took for either one of us to start up a conversation. I had the feeling these folks didn’t see too many white dudes like me eating curried wings and with a camera on the table.

Rory volunteered: “I don't care if a man is black, white or Chinese or green. I just want a MAN a real MAN in office.” I noticed the television was off. I had only seen Fox News almost everywhere else in Carolina.

Sitting next to the TV was a pretty young woman named Bridgette. She wants to be a model someday. Her mother laughed. I did not get anyone’s last name because I just do not like to ask any questions early on when I am working. Besides people just start talking when you listen.

I asked Bridgette if she was a regular customer. She said, “No, I work here. I am not working today, but I just hang here, and my mom is coming to pick me up. You take pictures of famous models?”

Rory and I agreed that Obama had brought black people and white people closer together. “For the first time, black folks know that not ALL white folks are racists. It is mostly white folks votin’ for Obama. We know that.”

I had to leave, I hated to leave. But I always like to make my “first visits” on a shoot brief anyway. Normally, I like to come b ack, maybe with a print to show, gain trust, and do my best work. But I will probably never be back in Rocky Mount in my life. So, since I cannot go back with a print for my new friends, I promised them that their pictures would be on InSight. Now I only took pictures of three people, so I will be asking my Magnum colleageus to please post all that I send.

After all, a promise is a promise.