Who gets to decide that the ghetto is an endangered habitat? And why does salvation need to come in the form of Starbucks and yoga studios and brunch spots with bottomless mimosas? Why is the only way to save the ghetto through the power of white money and high-priced real estate and the white gaze? This essay collection aims to provide a nuanced gentrification narrative, a platform for voices who do not want to be confined by the term victim. Let’s seize the heart of the narrative from the conqueror and return it to the witness.

Editor's Note, by Vanessa Willoughby
The Ghost Town In Me, by Leslie Contreras Schwartz
On Public Space, Race, and Belonging, by Kaila Philo
Displacement: A Hypothetical, by Tochi Onyebuchi
Gently-fied, by Lizz Huerta
Faggot & the City: A Black Queer Agitation of Gentrification, by Myles E. Johnson
The Eating Scene, by Lilian Min
Southern Colonization and Why My Mama and a Few People Ain't Got No Peace of Mind, by Kariyana Calloway

Curated by Vanessa Willoughby

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If These Streets Could Talk