from Making Worlds Books
Cities are in the midst of a profound transformation as the wealthy price out the remnants of the urban working class, especially people of color. Defying Displacement, focused on the US but informed by global examples, investigates gentrification from the perspective of the people fighting some of the most powerful institutions on the planet. As mass displacement alters the composition of gentrifying cities, the avenues available for social change become unsettled as well, forcing us to reimagine our strategies for building a better world. Author Andrew Lee will be in conversation with Keyssh Datts of Decolonize Philly.
“So often gentrification is a process understood in limited terms as a flow of people or the impersonal and inevitable flow of capital. In Defying Displacement, Andrew Lee analyzes both in tandem, illuminating how gentrification transforms not only housing markets, but the horizon of possibility for revolt. Regardless of where they are reading from, readers will be able to understand this subject with a fresh appreciation of how global struggles past, present, and future are linked by the making and unmaking of cities.” —Ayesha Siddiqi, editor in chief of The New Inquiry
Advance registration recommended and appreciated.
About the Speakers
Defying Displacement author Andrew Lee participated in a multi-year fight against the construction of a Google campus in San José, California that culminated in the creation of the first community land trust in the so-called Silicon Valley. He currently lives in Philadelphia and is a member of the No Arena in Chinatown Solidarity group opposing the planned 76ers arena. Lee supports grassroots social movements as managing editor for The ARD and his work has previously appeared in Yes! Magazine, The New Inquiry, Teen Vogue, and ROAR Magazine.
Keyssh Datts is a multimedia creator, community organizer, and founder of Decolonize Philly, a racial and environmental justice group using media and direct action to bring changemakers together to build towards a land revolution.
