Changed Skylines, Steadfast Histories: Gentrification and Community Memory in Fiction
11:45 am - 12:30 pm
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Capitol Extension Room E2.016
1100 Congress Avenue, Austin TX

Three new books, each set in a rapidly changing urban landscape: In highly acclaimed debut Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, author Sidik Fofana weaves an interconnected narrative of Banneker Terrace residents as they struggle to create new possibilities while facing the threat of removal from their own community. In Austin-based author Jim Lewis’s Ghosts of New York (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year)—a mesmerizing book with hints of speculative fiction—four New York characters navigate through urban settings familiar yet strange. In PEN America fellow Cleyvis Natera’s Neruda on the Park, a community elder in Nothar Park, a primarily Dominican neighborhood, schemes to prevent luxury condos from rising next door while her daughter, a law firm associate with bougie-lifestyle aspirations, falls for a condo company developer.


Moderator: Heather Jones is the intergenerational program manager at Austin-based literary arts nonprofit Austin Bat Cave. At ABC, Heather leads intergenerational storytelling workshops for teens and elders and teaches writing as a tool for healing, relationship building, and community organizing.Sidik Fofana, Cleyvis Natera, Jim Lewis, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, Neruda on the Park, Ghosts of New York

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