Dedication to Nikita Price
By Josh Dean, Executive Director of Human.nyc
Photo taken from Nikita’s obituary in the New York Times
This report is dedicated to Nikita Price. Four years ago, I met Nikita for the first time, just as Human.nyc was beginning to take shape. I had reached out to a dozen people or organizations, hoping to get the chance to discuss our project, which at that point, admittedly, was nothing more than a group of volunteers distributing socks to homeless people living on the streets.
Everyone ignored me, and I can’t say I blame them. I was a student and Human.nyc was then a small and unknown project that had only begun a few months prior.
Picture The Homeless, however, and Nikita, specifically, were the only ones to welcome us with open arms.
Over four years, Nikita taught us many valuable lessons. I’d like to share three that I hope have been embodied in our work and through our report.
First, Nikita taught us to document everything. When I’d come to Nikita excitedly with stories I heard and trends I was seeing, he’d put me in my place: “Who is going to believe you? What good are these stories going to do unless you document them?”
Moving forward, we vigilantly documented everything we saw. We tailed NYPD on sweeps, we filmed NYPD harassment on the subways, and we interviewed homeless people living on the streets and subways to capture their voices. Much of that documentation has seen its way into this report. We owe this change in approach to Nikita.
Second, Nikita would always remind me that when we’re talking about homelessness, we’re talking about human beings. Every decision he made, every challenge he faced, every conversation he had, centered on that simple framework which was so deeply ingrained in him. No matter what, we are talking about human beings. Yes, we need to fight for change, and yes, that involves politicking and negotiating, but we can never lose focus on why we do the work we do, and who we are responsible to. “Nothing about us without us.”
We hope the #HumanPlan embodies that principle.
Finally, Nikita taught me the true meaning of the word “family.” For too long, I never thought twice about what Nikita meant when he called me and others, “family.” I took it for granted.
Nikita opened his arms up to everyone. His open arms meant something different to each of us. For me, that meant giving me and my team the light of day when we were trying to figure out how we could help, when no one else would, and doing so patiently. Nikita’s idea of “family” should serve as a reminder to us all of the movement we should be trying to build - the movement Nikita was always trying to build.
We hope that we can continue in that spirit.
Rest In Power, Nik. We miss you and we hope we can make you proud.