Each of us walks on the Earth leaving footprints, not only in the sand but in the minds and hearts of many. We leave our tracks painting the twists and turns of a bumpy terrain, streaking the sky with emotions colored like the rainbow. Our footprints tell our story, the remnants of our journey home.
I was born, Katrina Dorine Clark, at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, blah, blah....to my parents, Janet Ann Dunst and Charles Everett Clark. My mom told me that if I had been a boy my name would have been Everett. Ugh... not for me. Katrina suits me just fine. It means, "pure." Whether I am "pure" or not is up to you to decide. I just know that I would like to be pure in spirit and meaning. Anyways, let me get back to my life.... At the time of my birth my parents lived in Mount Airy, which is a middle/upper-middle class neighborhood in Philadelphia. Although I only lived there until I was about 2 years old I still have this quality about me that says I'm from there. It must be an air of conceit or something..: )
So like I was saying at 2 years of age my family and I moved. Not far though, just over to Manayunk to my grandparents house. I believe my parents split up for a while. I remember my dad picking me up in what I called the Beep-Beep car. I think it was a brown Isuzu.
At around 3 or 4 I went to nursery school in Andorra which is a part of Roxborough. The school was in the basement of a church. I don't remember too much, but I do have a memory of a best friend named Amy. I also remember seeing one of those crawl through plastic tunnels for kids. It scared me cuz I thought that I would get stuck inside. I guess around the age of 4 of 5 I moved to New Orleans. My father is from there. My parents must have gotten back together again cuz we all went. I guess I forgot to mention my brother. He was born 2 years and 3 months after me. I believe my mom told me that my father wasn't around for the birth. That doesn't surprise me.
In New Orleans we lived in a town house. It always flooded there. The water would always come up to about 10 feet from the house. Very scary at the time. I had a best friend who lived a few doors up. I used to remember her name but now it won't come to me. At this time I went to a Montessori school for preschool or something...I remember that I loved it.
At some time we moved to another neighborhood into a much bigger house. I guess it was around the time that I started at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic School. I went there from preschool to third grade. At this time things started going wrong in my life. My mom changed jobs. She had been a nurse at some hospital. But she began to work for a family instead. She took care of a police officer who had been hurt severely. He could no longer communicate or take care of himself. My mom now worked from 1pm to 11pm or something like that. It was around this time that I got a key and my brother and I would take care of ourselves until my dad got home.
Time is playing tricks with my mind I think. So much happened in such a short period of time. I was sexually abused by an older cousin. Actually I don't really remember the details like I used to. My mind has sort of faded them and they are slowly and surely disappearing.
Go to North Light Community Center |
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Focus Philadelphia is a participatory research, social change project, which gives high school aged youth a chance to identify an important issue in their community and make a documentary video about that issue. Then the youth present the documentary to their community. The social change component comes in the development of a community program/ project which addresses the issue. The youth write a grant proposal to the Focus Philadelphia Board for money to fund their project. There are trainings by Focus Philadelphia staff and outside facilitators. I wish I could get a clip of one of the five documentary videos that were made but I don't know about laws which would prevent me from doing that. Maybe I could get some pictures....