“I’d just moved to New York. I was staying in the Bensonhurst...

“I’d just moved to New York.  I was staying in the Bensonhurst housing projects with a woman I met on Craigslist.  And I decided to try to make some money selling art in Union Square.  It was tough.  I think on the first day I sold one print for $20.  But on the second day, I met Smiley.  He was an artist too.  He’d just lost his job.  He walked over to me, looked at my art, and said: ‘I’m trying to be like you.’  So we decided to sell our art together.  We set up in the subway station, right by the Q train.  Somebody was playing live music down there, so we started dancing.  And that’s when I knew I loved him.  Because that’s never something I would normally do.  There was a lot of learning over the next few months.  We both came from single parent homes.  And neither of us had been in a successful relationship before, so we had to teach each other what we wanted and needed.  There was a lot of instability.  At one point we were living in a storage closet.  And it would have been scary if I was doing it by myself.  But it was more of an adventure with Smiley.  We didn’t worry about not having money.  We’d sell enough art to eat for the day, and if we had any left over, we’d buy a spliff and smoke it on a stoop.  On the nights when I had nowhere to go, we’d sleep together in the park.  Smiley could always stay at his uncle’s apartment, but he’d choose to sleep outside with me.  We’d pick a quiet spot, wrap ourselves in my giant sweater, and sleep on the bed sheet that we used to sell our art.”  
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