Kate Capshaw’s portrait of Toddrick Brockington honors the intergenerational work of Henry Street Settlement, a social services organization that has served Manhattan’s Lower East Side for 130 years, helping 50,000 New Yorkers each year.
Brockington joined Henry Street’s staff after serving 26 years in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, having earned a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science while incarcerated.
In 2021, Brockington founded the M.A.N (Mentoring and Nurturing) program, which provides emotional and practical resources to young men at risk. He accompanies these young men around economic, familial, and educational obstacles they face to reach their full potential.
Inspired by Bishop Desmond Tutu’s quote, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in,” Brockington’s work is strongly situated upstream.
Capshaw debuted this portrait at Henry Street Settlement and The Park Avenue Armory in 2023 as a keynote piece of The Art Show, an annual art fair benefitting Henry Street Settlement and organized by the Art Dealers Association of America.