Shatorah Buckman

Shatorah Buckman

Uptown Summer Youth Employee 2016

Project: Orange and Lex

Listen to Shatorah’s audio portrait here:

 

How has your personal connection to the your project impacted your experience of working on it?

Being on Lexington Ave is really emotional for me. I didn’t realize that until we walked through. I sat there and talked about what was there and what is not. . . . I’d never done that before, to walk around and say, “This used to be here. I used to live here. We used to do this.” Just reminiscing, I don’t really like to do all that. So yeah, it’s impacted it a lot.”

 

Is that layer of emotion something you want to bring out in the film?

Actually, in the video I started crying a little bit, so I think they’re going to use that. To be going down there and walking back and forth – I can’t do all that. To say that we used to do this as kids and now it’s not there no more.

 

With this project, do you feel like you are a storyteller?

I don’t think so. I don’t feel like I’m telling a story. I just feel like I’m telling you guys what used to be there and how things used to be before and after.

 

What is a story to you?

I feel like a story is when someone is sitting there and telling you what happened and why it’s like that and what they used to do there. Like if I were to go way back and say, “Oh, when I was a kid I used to do this,” and then it changed into this, it would be a story, but I’m not doing all that. It’s just before and after.

 

What is home to you?

 Schenectady is my top home. After I was 10, from those years onto now, Albany and Schenectady were my home. Troy is not home. I’m not used to Troy. It’s like taking someone out of their habitat and just throwing them anywhere. I grew up in Albany and Schenectady. That’s where I was raised.