Naima Green By Naima Green ·October 27, 2020October 27, 2020
Martha’s Vineyard is a place I share with people I love. For many, it’s a Black utopia, a place of ease and luxury. I grew up coming to the island with my Aunt Judith and family over 20 years ago. On my first trip here in middle school, I remember sitting in her backseat with my little cousins driving to an unknown island that has changed my life in so many ways since then. Back then, it was a new freedom that I didn’t experience in New York. Now, returning to Martha’s Vineyard this fall amidst a pandemic, after spending seven months in a Brooklyn one-bedroom apartment, it feels like the first time I’ve slept all year—a true nervous system reset. This trip began as an opportunity to be elsewhere with someone I love, to get out of the city, to be at the beach—a place that calls to me more than any other – and to rest and work with a new view.
It has been all of that and more. My girlfriend Sable and I visited island staples like Back Door Donuts and enjoyed a new restaurant, Seaweed’s, but more than that, we’ve chased the island terrain from the cliffs of Aquinnah to the tall grass in East Chop.
While visiting, I spoke with both Sable (who was experiencing the island for the first time) and Aunt Judith about their own discoveries along their personal self-care journeys.
Naima Green is an artist and educator based in New York. Green was one of the first creators to have the opportunity to shoot with the new iPhone 12 Pro from Apple. Each of these images was shot exclusively on the new iPhone.
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