WHEN: Thursday, September 29, 2016, 6 - 8 PM
WHERE: Knox Hall, 606 W. 122nd Street, Room 509
Gentrification is a layered, complex process that includes various dimensions: displacement, economic development, architecture, urban planning, and history -- just to name a few. The effects of the process are different for each person who is, wittingly or unwittingly, involved. So how can oral history help us understand one person's concrete experiences as part of the larger, much more abstracted phenomena of gentrification? How does oral history help us understand what gentrification looks like as it plays out in our daily lives? What meanings does each person assign to the idea of "gentrification"? And how do hours of recorded material with one person, producing 40-50 pages of transcript, get translated into a taut chapter with a fraction of the text?
DW Gibson is the author of the awarding-winning book The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century and Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way in Today’s Changing Economy. He shared a National Magazine Award for his work on “One Block” for New York Magazine. His work has also appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Village Voice, and The Caravan. Gibson has been a contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and “There Goes the Neighborhood,” a podcast co-produced by WNYC and The Nation. His documentary film, Not Working, a companion to the book, is available through Films Media Group. His directorial debut, Pants Down, premiered at Anthology Film Archives in New York. Gibson serves as director of Writers Omi at Ledig House in Ghent, New York, and he co-founded Sangam House, a writers’ residency in India, along with Arshia Sattar.
INFORMATION: For more information, please email Amy Starecheski at aas39@columbia.edu.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED.
NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, BUT RSVPS ON THE EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE ARE APPRECIATED TO GAUGE ATTENDANCE.