Listen to Eze’s Story

Eze Amos 

Hi, my name is Eze Amos. I'm, uh, I'm a freelance photojournalist in Charlottesville. Um, I've called Charlottesville home for the past close to 14 years now, if not more. This photo right here brings some. It's actually making me smile. Yes, it's my photo. But it still makes me smile every time I see it. The gentleman in this photo, Uriah, first time I met him, actually, was in 2016 at, uh, at the gathering, the city council had the base of the, the then Lee monument when they were reading Zyana’s petition and, and the Flaggers came to town. And I remember vividly that he was there and he had a, he had a gray shirt on and at first he actually irritated me cause he was shouting at the top of his lungs singing Amazing Grace and, and all this, you know, church songs and songs to like bring us all together. And I was there thinking, “Who's this man?” But it took no time at all for all of that's all his singing to make sense to me, because I quickly realized that what he was trying to say was, “Hey, I know there's a lot of division here. People are angry, people are mad at each other…” But he was trying to bring love into the circle and tell us to let's remember to love one another and to and to be, you know, to be nice to one another. This photo actually was taken in 2018, the first anniversary of the sad events of August 11 and 12 of 2017. And he was on Fourth Street where the car attack happened. And there he was singing Amazing Grace at the top of his lungs doing the same thing. And it was just so beautiful to see him doing that again, trying to call us together as a community to love one another. Uriah, just thinking about, you know, what his his mode of operation is. Normally, he he walks the mall singing. And when you give him any attention or you make eye contact, he walks up to you and hands you a piece of paper that had either his website or a verse or Bible verse or something to inspire you or uplift you. And I had to include him on this this project because he reminds me of what we are and what we what we should keep striving to be as a community, to, you know, to come together. Really, I would say to live by Uriah’s preaching: coming together and living as a family. So, yeah, this this is this is what Charlottesville looks like. Thank you.

Music credit: Amaranth Cove / Divine / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com