Photograph courtesy of the City Archives Municipal Government Photograph Collection of the New Orleans Public Library

I drift through spaces—ethnographic, photographic, physical, digital—pausing to notice how bodies lean, how pleasure lingers in the air. What I gather isn’t just evidence but texture: the cracks where art and activism blur, where desire and survival fold into one another. Companions along the way become kin, their gestures and stories entwined with mine. Together, we leave traces more than monuments—queer home movies, portals, and heirlooms scattered like breadcrumbs. In walking, in lingering, we compose blueprints for worlds past to present. And in those worlds, rest, pleasure, and belonging aren’t tacked on at the end. They are the ground beneath our wandering feet. we are the future architects.