Barbara Rivera (right) points to the home of a local landlord, NY on October 30th, 2020. Wanda Cooper (center) and her granddaughter Laryanna are tenants living in the 151 Webster Avenue complex, a small 7 apartment building owned by him, which has been the subject of multiple inhabitability suits from the Cooper family, after five years of living there. Members of the Rochester Tenants Union led a protest near his property, shouting to neighboring homes “you live with a slumlord” and citing stories from multiple tenants living in his properties. Wanda adjusts Laryanna’s unicorn hood, easing her stress from the day’s events.
Wanda Cooper (left) dances against sunlight on the floor with her granddaughter Laryanna (right) while her siblings complete their schoolwork.
Wanda Cooper (right) hands Keyrhianna a chewing candy while Laryanna (left) walks into the front room of the apartment, where Larry works on his school work, at 151 Webster Ave in Rochester, New York, on November 10th, 2020. Zavien (bottom) works on his own school work against the couch. With four out of five children usually up at once in the living room, finding a way for each child to focus on their own work at once is an arduous task. Ever since the Rochester City School District (RCSD) announced they would proceed with the 2020 school year fully remotely, Larry and Zavien work very hard each day to focus on their own online learning work which is asynchronous at times, leaving them with different periods of off time from their siblings and cousins. Most of the time, half of them are up and moving while the others work.
JC Cooper hands his grandson, Zavien, a pack of Mamba chewing candies from inside his bedroom, to share with his sisters and brother while they work. Since losing his job because of the pandemic and his grandchildren starting online schooling, JC struggles to find time to work by himself, pursuing future career opportunities to fund their life. Finding ways to keep them occupied is a daily task for him and Wanda, and having small ways to keep them on track with their schoolwork in the meantime proves to be incredibly valuable during the pandemic.
Zavien (left) reaches for a Mamba candy while Keyrhianna (right) works to unwrap her own, while she helps him with his daily mathematics lesson on an online learning platform used by the RCSD. They both work tirelessly on their own computers given to them at the start of the school year by their local public elementary school. Each child has their own computer, and on off hours they lay scattered throughout the house. Sharing candies encourages them to help one another with certain school topics that are the most troubling.
Zavien looks out of the doorway to his room. In the foreground, there is an eviction notice issued to their apartment months prior, when they had not yet paid months of back-rent. However, even after disability benefits for Wanda provided a new source of income for the family, the looming threat of eviction still follows their family, while they pursue legal action against their landlord. As of 2015, 48% of families of color have been rent burdened (defined as over 30% of household income going to rent) and this number has only grown with Rochester having the tenth highest rent spike in the nation during the pandemic.
Larry (right) looks out the back window of his bedroom to see the driveway, where JC Cooper backs out to buy groceries for their dinner. In the foreground, Laryanna and Keyrhianna dance to the music video of “Old Town Road” by musical artist Lil Nas X playing on the television. The television is the family’s central source of entertainment, mostly used for listening to music and watching movies at the end of every day as a reward for finishing schoolwork.
At 151 Webster Ave. on November 10th 2020, KeyShawn (left) lays his head against the cushion of the couch in the living room, while Laryanna (center) jumps across three stacked couch cushions. Zavien, Larry, and Keyrhianna lay across pillows, as they all watch the movie playing on the TV, Disney’s “Mulan” after dinner. Lining the walls are pictures of the family, and frames with inspirational quotes and cards from family members. Laryanna has less schoolwork then the rest of her siblings and cousins because she is the youngest, and so she has more energy towards the end of the day. Still, however, the struggles of living in their home without much time apart are offset by the communal time they spend as a family, watching movies.
Wanda Cooper (right) addresses a local news anchor from the FOX network, at a tenants rights rally outside her home at 151 Webster Ave. in Rochester, New York on October 30th, 2020. Her granddaughter, Laryanna (left), looks away, at the group of protestors from the City-Wide Tenants Union of Rochester who have come to support Wanda and the Cooper family in their fight to have their home renovated for various inhabitability issues, and compensated for the dangers they have faced living there. There are five apartments at 151 Webster Ave. complex, and each has faced a similar amount of neglect on the part of their landlord who lives with his family out of state most of the year. Wanda’s greatest wish for her grandchildren is to be a role model in being assertive in seeing their voices heard by the media, and to put a face to authorities like Malik who she feels would otherwise be left out of narratives like these.