Do you remember Douglas Street?

Do You Remember Douglas Street dramatically depicts the home in which young Tarrell lived with his equally young and impoverished parents, Joyce and La’Ron. Kaphar paints the house at nightfall, its walls and roofline like the colors of a bruise. To the right of the canvas, a smaller canvas that replicates the home juts out, its edge supported by the figure of a preteen in profile, his hands raised to the canvas. The child’s right foot is entirely red: his sneaker is soaked with his own blood due to an injury sustained while being forced to work alongside his father on an odd job. Their earnings were eventually used by La’Ron to purchase street drugs. The title of the work alludes to a climactic moment in the film when the now-adult Tarrell asks an elderly Joyce to remember the events of that night and the next morning, including details of La’Ron’s abusive behavior. The violence of these memories is distilled into that single red shoe, and the burdens of Tarrell’s childhood made manifest in his effortful posture.