In the 1960s Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood was labeled America’s largest ghetto. But its brownstones housed a coterie of black professionals intent on bringing order and hope to the community. In telling their story Michael Woodsworth reinterprets the War on Poverty by revealing its roots in local activism and policy experiments.
"Aaron, a disgraced rabbi turned Wall Street banker, and Amelia, his journalist girlfriend, live with their newborn in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of the most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in New York City. The infusion of upwardly mobile strivers into Bed-Stuy's historic brownstones belies the tension simmering on the streets below. But after a cop shoots a boy in a nearby park, a riot erupts--with Aaron and his family at its center. Over the course of one cataclysmic day, issues of race, policing, faith, and professional ambition will collide"--
A young African American millennial filmmaker’s funny, sometimes painful, true-life coming-of-age story of trying to make it in New York City—a chronicle of poverty and wealth, creativity and commerce, struggle and insecurity, and the economic and cultural forces intertwined with "the serious, life-threatening process" of gentrification. Making Rent in Bed-Stuy explores the history and sociocultural importance of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn’s largest historically black community, through the lens of a coming-of-age young American negro artist living at the dawn of an era in which urban class warfare is politely referred to as gentrification. Bookended by accounts of two different breakups, from a roommate and a lover, both who come from the white American elite, the book oscillates between chapters of urban bildungsroman and a historical examination of some of Bed-Stuy’s most salient aesthetic and political legacies. Filled with personal stories and a vibrant cast of iconoclastic characters— friends and acquaintances such as Spike Lee; Lena Dunham; and Paul MacCleod, who made a living charging $5 for a tour of his extensive Elvis collection—Making Rent in Bed-Stuy poignantly captures what happens when youthful idealism clashes head-on with adult reality. Melding in-depth reportage and personal narrative that investigates the disappointments and ironies of the Obama era, the book describes Brandon Harris’s radicalization, and the things he lost, and gained, along the way.
From the author of Dear Marcus comes a breathtaking novel about a fated love affair that crosses the divides of race and class. Rashid is a young Black man from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, with a complicated life. Looking for an escape from a neighborhood few ever leave, he finds it in Rachel--married, twenty years his senior, and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It begins with a flirtation and a tryst. It becomes an intense romance, exhilarating and enriching, that defies the expectations of Rashid's friends and family. What draws Rachel to Rashid is his curiosity, his need for intimacy, and his adoration--everything lacking in her crumbling marriage. But as the fault lines of their relationship become more prevalent, so do the inevitable choices one makes when falling in love.
"Photographing strangers on the street is like having an epic novel read aloud to you, only it's real. You're connected. You're involved. And you carry every piece of it with you from then on."--Amy Touchette A resident of New York City since 1997, Amy Touchette started photographing people in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, soon after moving to the neighborhood in 2015. Perhaps best known for being the childhood home of rapper Jay-Z and the setting of Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing, what struck Touchette most about Bed-Stuy was its strong sense of community and the relationships that underpin it. Using a Rolleiflex film camera, friends, family members, and couples often caught her eye. Knowing she was a stranger appealing for their time, Touchette tried to make the encounters as quick and easy as possible, making just two frames of each subject. Whether photographing in Hawaii, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the American South, or in her own adopted neighborhood in Bed-Stuy, Touchette has always used photography to shine the light on others, a strong believer that eye contact is the gateway to empathy and the realization that we are all in this together. Although all of her projects stem from a personal endearment, these photographs, set in the streets she calls home, are especially personal.
The heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant is still found in the near-forgotten settlement of Brooklyn's Bedford Corners, a Dutch township colonized in 1667, where ancient Native American trails determined its now major thoroughfares, and where Colonial patriots fought the British in the country's struggle for independence. Bedford-Stuyvesant remained a quiet farming hamlet until the 1880s when rapid subway transportation, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the burgeoning population of Manhattan combined to forge one of America's first and finest suburban communities. Bedford-Stuyvesant details the evolution of this neighborhood, home to the nation's second largest African American community, and it documents how this urban center is now finally enjoying new regard for its wealth of architecture and its notable place in American history.
The idea to write to you was not an easy one. The scar from where the bullet entered my back is still there. Jerry McGill was thirteen years old, walking home through the projects of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, when he was shot in the back by a stranger. Jerry survived, wheelchair-bound for life; his assailant was never caught. Thirty years later, Jerry wants to say something to the man who shot him. I have decided to give you a name. I am going to call you Marcus. With profound grace, brutal honesty, and devastating humor, Jerry McGill takes us on a dramatic and inspiring journey—from the streets of 1980s New York, where poverty and violence were part of growing up, to the challenges of living with a disability and learning to help and inspire others, to the long, difficult road to acceptance, forgiveness, and, ultimately, triumph. I didn’t write this book for you, Marcus. I wrote this for those who endure. Those who manage. Those who are determined to move on.
Set in Brooklyn during the Depression and World War II, this 1953 coming-of-age novel centers on the daughter of Barbadian immigrants. "Passionate, compelling." — Saturday Review. "Remarkable for its courage." — The New Yorker.
From Caldecott Honor winner Christian Robinson and acclaimed author Renee Watson, comes the inspiring true story of Florence Mills. Born to parents who were both former slaves, Florence Mills knew at an early age that she loved to sing, and that her sweet, bird-like voice, resonated with those who heard her. Performing catapulted her all the way to the stages of 1920s Broadway where she inspired everyone from songwriters to playwrights. Yet with all her success, she knew firsthand how prejudice shaped her world and the world of those around her. As a result, Florence chose to support and promote works by her fellow black performers while heralding a call for their civil rights. Featuring a moving text and colorful illustrations, Harlem's Little Blackbird is a timeless story about justice, equality, and the importance of following one's heart and dreams. A CARTER G. WOODSON ELEMENTARY HONOR BOOK (awarded by the National Council for the Social Studies, 2013)
"After her mother, Mirella, abandoned her family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic, Penelope Grand moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. When she receives a postcard from Mirella seeking reconciliation, old wounds are reopened, secrets revealed, and a journey across an ocean of sacrifice and self-discovery begins"--
