City Hall exhibit reminds us that we are all co-victims of gun violence

We don’t hear enough about the countless co-victims of gun violence.

I’m talking about the siblings, friends, spouses, and teachers whose lives are irreparably scarred by the relentless waves of loss in our city. Research shows that those closest to the victims of gun violence can suffer from myriad ailments including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

But sometimes, it’s as if many of us expect the family and friends of victims — after a period of mourning — to go on with their lives and behave normally. Meanwhile, for some of them, their lives are never the same. They are often left to cope with emotions such as despair and guilt as they navigate the criminal justice system.

That’s why I was glad to hear that a new art exhibit went on display at City Hall on Aug. 8 spotlighting the relatives and other co-victims who have lost loved ones to the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis. The presence of “We Are Here — Stories and Expressions of Healing” literally inside the city’s seat of power will hopefully serve as a daily reminder about another aspect of the human toll of Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic. The story begins with the 562 people who were killed in the city last year. And it expands to include those who they knew and those who cared about them. The number of co-victims increases every day.

Maybe walking past the portraits of grieving mothers such as Karen Robinson, who lost her college basketball-playing daughter Jasmine Lewis in 2020, and Tiffaney Flynn, whose 19-year-old daughter Ojanae Tamia Johnson was fatally wounded last summer while sitting with her boyfriend in a car outside of a supermarket, will serve as a reminder of just how badly many families are being impacted by the nightly shootings.

» READ MORE: One mom comforted another after her daughter was struck by a stray bullet. A year later, the roles are reversed | Jenice Armstrong

Maybe seeing the bright yellow caution tape fashioned into a dress on display just outside the Mayor’s Reception Hall might pierce the consciousness of a city official who might have become numb to our mounting death toll because of gun violence.

Maybe noticing the colorful portrait of Gloria Jones, whose son David Jones was fatally wounded by police in North Philly in 2017 after a traffic stop, might help remind the powers that be about how much he was loved — and how his family is still waiting for justice to be served. Ex-cop Ryan Pownall faces third-degree murder and other charges for shooting Jones but still hasn’t been tried.

The display is the brainchild of Zarinah Lomax, who has experienced more than her share of trauma during her 38 years. A rape survivor whose father is serving a life sentence for murder, she became an activist following the 2018 homicide of Dominique Oglesby, a senior at Penn State who was killed during an altercation outside of a West Philly establishment after she had stopped for takeout after church before going to study.

“I created this because I’m a co-victim. I had to figure out what to do with my grief,” she said Wednesday. “I didn’t know what to do with my grief when Dominique was murdered. I’m not her mother. I’m not her sister. Blood-related, I am not. But I was grieving, and I didn’t know if it made sense. I didn’t know if I had the right to grieve. And I didn’t even know where I was supposed to grieve because you had Moms Bonded By Grief and Mothers in Charge. Everything is so centered around the parents that I felt like I was wrong.”

Attending meetings of Moms Bonded By Grief helped her to understand “that I had a right to grieve and that I was a victim and I needed to define that. It took me a couple of years to get there.”

Along the way, Lomax used a talk show she once hosted on Philly Cam, a local access channel, to showcase the stories of homicide victims. She also created “Apologues,” an art exhibit sharing the stories of survivors of those lost to gun violence that made its 2018 debut at Taller Puertorriqueño and eventually morphed into what’s currently on display at City Hall.

For that project, Lomax commissioned 30 local artists to create artwork honoring co-victims of gun violence. Oronde McClain, who survived a gunshot wound to his head during a drive-by shooting when he was 10, painted an image showing himself as both a victim and a co-victim because he survived.

“We go unseen because they are focused on victims and not on the ones who are still here,” Lomax pointed out.

Thanks to her, they are less unseen than they had been.

The exhibit will be on display until Oct. 14.