Humans of New York
Nemer #HONY
This is 99 Names of Allah. This means: No God but Allah. Sometimes I hold it in my hand, and I count it everyday around three to four thousand times because Allah created us. He gives us eyes, brain, sky, water, everything. All human beings are from one father and one mother; from Adam and Eve, and we’re all supposed to live as a family, as a family.
Everybody is to love each other, respect each other, every single human being in the world. This is my hope. I never ever think, ‘this is black, this is white,’ everybody is the same. Everybody is created by Allah. I respect every human being, every single one; this is my heart.
Gabrielle #HONY
I don’t really like where I’m living at by the Navy Yard by Farragut because it’s the projects, and I don’t like it. It’s not dangerous, it’s just like when you look at it, it’s like ‘damn you really poor,’ but I’m not poor.
I’m in the eleventh grade. I plan on going to college and be a nurse. When you look at school, it’s so expensive. How am I going to afford this if I live in the projects? It’s kind of a daily thought. But I don’t bother, at least I have shelter.
I want to get out of New York. Get to maybe like New Jersey, because I’ve seen some nice houses in New jersey, or Florida, with my dad. But just like get a nice house, a nice backyard, have two dogs, a pool; that’d be nice, that’s my dream. But here in New York, they don’t have that much, just buildings and apartments for a million dollars that don’t make sense.
David #HONY
I’m an electrician. I do commercial electric. I’m in the union local 3 here in the city. I’m currently working on World Trade Center Tower 3. I’ve worked in the Oculus by Santiago Calatrava, who happens to be my favorite architect. For me personally, I was thrilled to work in there.
Anywhere I go, I look him up to see if he has a building there. I want to go to Brazil just to see one of his buildings. And there’s a tower of his in Malmö, Sweden that’s just beautiful. He has a communications tower in Barcelona that I’ve seen.
As soon as I get off from work, I leave the country. I love living in New York, but I love leaving New York more sometimes. I travel a lot; it opens up people to the world. A lot of people in the world today aren’t tolerant. Living in New York makes you tolerant, you have to learn to adjust.