Reflection
I’ve loved to paint, draw and create for as long as I can remember. I loved experimenting with different art forms, materials and getting messy. Teachers identified my talent early and encouraged me to pursue art. Paintings, film photography, ceramic bowls, and stained glass lamps that I created fill my house. I graduated high school with the completion of a specialized visual arts program. Growing up 13 miles from Manhattan, I have always been interested in street art. But I could not understand why graffiti and street art are categorized differently. Although street art is also illegal, it is socially accepted and often used as an advertisement for cities, while graffiti is criminalized. So, I spent most of my fall semester sophomore year trying to discover why. I wrote an academic research paper that aimed to explore the reasoning for differentiating societal perspectives of graffiti and modern-day street art using a symbolic interactionist approach. Through my research I discovered that street art is more socially acceptable because of the time period in which it erupted and its relation to white artists. I also learned that street art and gentrification go hand in hand, but the constraints of my paper limited my discussion of gentrification. I was still curious about the idea of gentrification and wanted to learn more. For the subject of my experiment cycles in Writing 220 I chose to focus on gentrification in Harlem.
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Before this experiment cycle, I did not have enough knowledge on gentrification to form a reasonably educated opinion. One of my goals for the first cycle was to educate myself about how gentrification is effecting people in their neighborhoods. I read an article titled “Gentrification and Displacement in Harlem: How the Harlem Community Lost Its Voice en Route to Progress”. It was the story of three journalists who visited Harlem to research gentrification. They discussed popular places, policy and changing costs. The most important information I learned was that increases in living costs push community members out of their homes. Instead of rebuilding infrastructure and creating more jobs to fit the culture of the neighborhood by rebuilding the community that already exists, the city has turned to investment that creates overpriced restaurants and housing. Many community members can no longer afford to live in their neighborhood. To understand more of how gentrification is effecting the Harlem community I decided to read a New York Times article titled “The End of Black Harlem”. It was an opinion piece that recalled the story of a Harlemite’s experience with gentrification in his neighborhood. It was important to get a first-hand account of someone who lived in the neighborhood. What I discovered through both articles was that most people were not upset about the investment in the neighborhood. They actually agreed that it needed some rebuilding. The problem is the investment created a new community with upscale restaurants, art museums, coffee shops and organic, pricey grocery stores that serves the white elite, instead investing of in schools, parks and transportation to improve the conditions for the community that already exists. For my first experiment I decided to write an open letter from a teen in Harlem experiencing gentrification to show emotionally how it is effecting the community.
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I enjoyed writing the open letter and gaining a better understanding of how gentrification is effecting the community, but I wanted to show how it is changing the neighborhood physically. The face of gentrification is Whole Foods – an expensive, organic grocery store. I once watched a documentary that said the peak of privilege is when you have so much excess food that you can support only organic farming and push back against the amazing technologies we are fortunate to have to sustain our population. While countries that have no other choice, but to farm organically, because they aren’t privileged enough to have the same technologies, face malnutrition and starvation. This is awful but it honestly made me laugh. Don’t get me wrong, after seeing the documentary “Supersize Me” I went on an organic vegan diet for a few months. But, I am lucky enough not to have to worry about having food on my plate. I can pick where my food is coming from and pay ridiculous prices, so that my food is made free of technology created to sustain the population. Anyway, in 2017 a GIANT Whole Foods erupted on the corner of Malcom X Boulevard and 125th Street – the heart of Harlem. Now, no one can argue gentrification is happening. I found a photo series shot by photographer Camilo José Vergara that captured that corner from 1989 – 2017. I wanted to show how that specific corner had changed. So, for my next experiment cycle I created an outline of the new Whole Foods store overlaid on top of the original building in 1989, using Photoshop. I really enjoyed using my Photoshop skills to create this project and channeling my artistic side, but it failed to show a comprehensive change in culture and demographics.
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My biggest question was how can I show the facts of gentrification, the history of Harlem and the change in culture in one comprehensive piece? I did not want it to just be a research piece on gentrification or be too politically charged. I looked at real estate postings and noticed they contained information about housing prices, demographics and some neighborhood information. Most of them were pretty informative, boring and focused on selling houses. But, I came across this website “Compass” which posts neighborhood guides in addition to its real estate postings. It was so much fun to explore and learn about neighborhoods. A blog style post that attracts savvy millennials displayed the neighborhood information. I instantly knew this would be my inspiration for my final project. I would build a comprehensive neighborhood guide for millennials. It would present a history of Harlem, an occasionally satirical list of places to eat and see, and facts about the neighborhood. It would enable them to draw conclusions about gentrification, without me outwardly stating it, based on reading the history and present information of the neighborhood. It would be fun to browse and visually pleasing. Besides figuring out a way to get everything I wanted to show into one project, I loved researching the places to go and eat. I liked being able to subtly add my opinion into the piece. As someone who was a strictly academic writer, I found a new love for blog style writing. I started this experiment cycle with a mission: to educate myself enough to form my opinion on gentrification. I think I side with the community on this one. The investment in the neighborhood isn’t the issue, it’s that the community is inaccessible to its residents. I am still looking for ways to learn more.
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So, that’s how my final project developed. I hope it enables you to form your own opinion about gentrification and inspires you to learn more.