Kris Brown take s break as the skate night ends at the RollerCade roller rink during R&B night on Tuesday, Dec, 29, 2020, in Detroit. "Friday nights as a little kid after school with my fiends skating and enjoying the time in a place you grew up in," he said. "It's just me and my skates for those four or five hours."

Sasha Cassadine does his make up before performing at a weekly drag show hosted by Flip Phone Events At Crave on Sunday, June 20, 2021, in Minneapolis. Cassadine has been performing for 15 years.

“When it was stolen and I didn’t have anything to play on, I was depressed,” said Mike Johnson during an impromptu jam session on April 23, 2019, while taking a break from driving his semi-trailer. An on-and-off trucker since 2005, Johnson got his second guitar five months earlier from the money he’d saved up by living out of his truck. At the age of 42, Johnson started playing the guitar roughly 14 years ago, “but I ain’t never played in any clubs or anything.”⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ He spoke about his troubles of being addicted to sex and also being a loner. “You ever seen ‘Inception’ where you don’t know where you are or what’s real,” Johnson said while he explained the troubles of being in the music industry in Kansas City, struggling with homelessness, and having his truck repossessed. Music is what he does to escape it all. ⁣⁣Johnson’s goal is to eventually get to a point of stability and start performing his own music for small crowds.

Luis Iman, front dest agent, poses for a portrait at the Hotel Valley Ho on Thursday, September 1, 2022, in Scottsdale.

Sabira, a university student who immigrated from Afghanistan, poses for a portrait while protecting her identity out of concern for her family back home. She was a part of a cohort of female students who came to Arizona State University as refugees as the country experienced a wave of emigration after the return of the Taliban as a result of the U.S. Military withdrawal.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee poses for a portrait, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, in Houston. (Antranik Tavitian / Houston Landing)

Ahmad Naeem Wakili poses for a portrait on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in Tucson. Wakili was a judge in Afghanistan and helped sentence and imprison members of the Taliban and ISIS. With the help of Council-member Steve Kozachik, Wakili has been trying to relocated his wife and daughter to Tucson from Istanbul, Turkey.

Chefs and brothers, Roberto Centeno, left, and Rene Andrade at Bacanora on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, in Phoenix.

Lee Earley poses for a portrait inside his home on Thursday, April 8, 2021, in Detroit. Earley, 65, has been trying to start a private security guard agency, but his two felony convictions from over 20 years ago for cashing a bad check and carrying a concealed weapon are holding him back from getting a Concealed Pistol License and a business license from the state. New Michigan laws will take effect on Sunday that will expand eligibly for criminal record expungement. Earley hopes that it will finally erase his record and let him start his business.

Jeff Barton, Phoenix City Manager, poses for a portrait outside his office on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, in Phoenix. Barton, who grew up in public housing in a poor Pennsylvania neighborhood, became Phoenix’s first ever Black city manager and took on the job of managing nearly 15,000 employees and a nearly $2 billion budget.

Makaiya Eley has her make-up done by Getisa Ross, right, during the fourth annual Self-Awareness Appreciation Day put on by the non-profit, Take My Hand at the ShayBaby Make Up Bar on Sunday, March 21, 2021, in Warren. Eley was nominated to be one of 20 people to receive services for the day.

Marcelino Vasquez Rios looks out as the sun sets at Hacienda Carreño on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2021 in San Dionisio Ocotlán, Oaxaca, Mexico. "Each agave has its own personality. You drink a little bit of the soul of the plant and the soul of the maestro, the mezcalero," Daniel Soria, a mezcal representative of Oaxaca said.

Narjes Al Hraishawi, 14, middle, grabs onto her sister's Fatima, 8, face while holding her four-year-old brother, Baqer, on Wednesday, August 7, 2019, in their home in Columbia, Missouri. Narjes is the oldest daughter in a family of nine children ranging from one to 17-years of age who immigrated to the US roughly two years ago from Iraq after their father received death threats from Iraqi militia. Her mother is usually cooking dinner, cleaning, or taking care of the babies, which leaves some of the other maternal duties on Narjes. Her father spends months on end in Iraq continuing his work as a project supervisor for the US Army Core of Engineers in order to provide financial stability for the family who lives in public housing.