In Black communities throughout the African Diaspora, streets form the link between "home" and the "rest of the world." Being "in the streets" connotes a state of living in the open, the place where anything can happen. Successfully maneuvering the streets of one's environment requires special tenacity and skill. Here one's personality and "hometraining" make one alert and ready.

In the United States, streets in Black communities often carry powerful and graphic cultural statements revealing basic methods of human survival and creativity--in the midst of economic and political depression.

Much has been said about the pathology of the streets, and its social degradation of the human spirit. This project on Street Culture focuses on cultural forms and the carriers of those forms who use the streets for a way to the rest of the world, for their living and for the celebration of life. A powerful dynamic exists as individuals move into a space within their community, which by definition is of and within the outside world.