When I Dream Portrait of Charles Andre' Johnson by Nathalie Miller

From Movita Johnson-Harrell, Charles’ mother: Charles Andre’ Johnson was born September 20th, 1992. He was the youngest of four children. On January 12th, 2011 at 10:40 p.m. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania two young men walked up to the car that Charles was sitting in waiting for his sister and opened fire. At 12:55 a.m. on January 13th 2011 Charles Andre’ Johnson, 18 years old, died of fatal gunshot wounds at the Albert Einstein Medical Center. The Philadelphia police found that Charles was killed in a total case of mistaken identity by two young men 23 and 25 years old with previous arrest records. Prior to his death, Charles worked full time in the family business. He worked every day caring for over 100 chronically mentally ill adults every day. Charles had applied to school and his family received his acceptance letter the day after he passed away. Twenty six days after Charles died his only child was born.

From the artist Nathalie Miller: While I have always been deeply concerned about gun violence and its tragic results, meeting Charles's mother, Movita, has been an opportunity for me to further meditate on the ways in which gun violence forever alters the lives of the victims, their families, and their assailants. Charles was an amazing man, emerging into life as an adult, and his life was tragically and so needlessly cut short. My heart goes out to Charles and his family and friends, and in this piece, I have strived to honor him, his life, and his love of his family.

From the curator: This small, multi level collage celebrating Charles is superimposed with a poem that Charles wrote at age 12. It is hard to see in the photographic reproduction here. It reads:

When I dream

I dream about what

I would be ten years from now.

if I would be rich

if I would be married with kids.

When I Dream

I dream about the world

would it come to an end

or be a riot?

These last words send a chill through me. In a sense, I hope, the world is coming to its senses and not an end. The riots are not that but protests.We need to persevere in the quest to take targets off the backs of young men of color.

As for Movita, Charles’ mother, this project, Souls Shot: Portraits of Victims of Gun Violence would not, in all likelihood, exist without her. At the birth of this project she was instrumental in connecting us with a core group of brave, grieving families that were willing to share their stories with our artists so that we could honor, memorialize, and humanize these souls. It is largely through word of mouth that we have grown to include more and more families and friends of victims in our project and continue to lead the viewers of our portraits to a place of empathy and a desire to take action.

When I Dream Portrait of Charles Andre’ Johnson by Nathalie Miller assemblage 10” x 10” 2017