She's been out here 7 - 8 years. "Growing up I was very sure of myself but also afraid of failure which is why I'm an addict now." She is the mother of two young children. "My dream is to walk away from Kensington happy and healthy. That's the ending I want. I'm a big believer in my faith so the Lord will lead me."
"Today it's pretty bad. It's disgusting here."
Lost. A Portrait of Addiction
Virginia Allyn | United States
Photographer: Virginia Allyn
Exhibit Title: Lost. A Portrait of Addiction
Location: United States
Addiction could be called a plague. It blights the land. It ravages lives. Missing flyers ask "Have You Seen Me?" The toll it takes is devastating. lt is visible night and day. In Philadelphia, the poorest of our nation's largest cities, the plague has worsened. It is more out of control now. Ten years ago one man on Kensington Avenue remarked "I would call this the suffering, the suffering. The only hope I see is that people get to heaven when they die."
On Kensington Avenue in north-east Philadelphia many women walk the Avenue looking for "dates", surviving by and supporting their addiction by prostitution. The risks are great, the dangers ever present. Women can be trafficked, kidnapped, even murdered. "You've got 13 year-olds prostituting out here, mothers looking for their children, missing girls..." Drugs are used out in the open. People pass out on the sidewalks. Bus shelters become temporary lodgings. In the winter people freeze to death when temperatures plummet. Garbage fills the gutters, covers the streets and sidewalks. Needles are everywhere. Crime rises. It is 30% higher in Kensington than in other parts of the City. The economic realities cause businesses to close their doors. Home values fall. Buildings are left in disrepair and abandoned.
Some arrive here with histories of abuse, neglect and violence. The scars both physical and psychological may never heal. Rehabs are full. Shelters have closed. It's hard to get the help you need. Regrets flow like rivers. Hope is a balm. Some stay for a week or months, even years. Some never leave. Women, separated from their children, hold on to the hope of reuniting with their sons and daughters, of finding themselves and leaving here. Time and again I heard the statement on the street "everyone here lost themselves."
As women walk in the shadows of the El on this sad and lonely road, in the fall of 2021 a new mural appeared a block from Kensington and Allegheny (K&A as it is known). It is visible for blocks and is entitled "Reaching Out." What will stem the tide?
Additional interviews and videography by journalists documenting this struggle aired on youtube.
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