Essays/short stories on what makes place a community and/or a home

September 2, 2018 11:37 AM

I'm looking for essays or short stories on what makes a place a community and/or a home. It will be assigned high school juniors and seniors in NYC for a seminar on displacement and gentrification. Ideally fiction, and preferably by a black author or another author of color. Does not necessarily have to be set in a city. Tx!
posted by anthropoid to Education (4 answers total)

Maybe Seedfolks by Paul Fleischmann? A set of interlinked short stories about a community garden in Cleveland, intended for YA readers. The author is white as far as I know, but a lot of the characters are people of color.
posted by huimangm at 2:42 PM on September 2, 2018

Best answer: Please read Phantom by Aatmaja Pandya. Contemporary, based in the author's experience returning to Queens after college, very accessible without being pat.
posted by VelveteenBabbitt at 2:21 PM on September 3, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks, y’all! Great suggestions. Seedfolk is a little young for this class (it’s an AP class for juniors/seniors) but is definitely along the lines of what I’m looking for.

Phantom might work!!
posted by anthropoid at 4:38 AM on September 4, 2018

What about James Baldwin's Stranger in the Village? Not about gentrification, but certainly covers displacement beautifully.
posted by dapati at 1:48 PM on September 4, 2018