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“Mainstream media tends to leave race out of the conversation because it’s an uncomfortable conversation for a lot of folks,” Leon told City Limits.
Last month, performer and storyteller Joél Leon joined attorneys Keith White and Ken Montgomery at JACK Arts in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, for a conversation examining the intersection of gentrification and race in New York City.
During the discussion at the nonprofit Brooklyn Combine, the three advocates reflected on their personal experiences with gentrification after witnessing the neighborhoods they grew up in transform into more commercial and white-adjacent spaces. The conversation touched on the importance of community involvement in preserving the health, culture, and diversity of New York City neighborhoods.
After the event, City Limits caught up with Leon—author of the essay collection “Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man’s Reimagined Soundtrack for the Future”—to discuss what’s often missing from mainstream media conversations about gentrification and race, and which historic movements have most inspired his work.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
CITY LIMITS: What stories do you think are missing from mainstream conversations about gentrification?
JOEL LÉON: I think the conversations we’re missing in mainstream media about gentrification—there’s a few. A lot of them just lack transparency, right? Like where gentrification starts, where it comes from. Mainstream media tends to leave race out of the conversation because it’s an uncomfortable conversation for a lot of folks.
We don’t talk enough about the history of gentrification. We’re especially at a point now in America where there’s assumed knowledge around a lot of topics, and there’s an opportunity to talk about where gentrification comes from. Something we talked about inside here is that it’s not just gentrification. Gentrification is the output of a lot of other things—of colonialism, capitalism, fascism, right? A lot of those things are interconnected in the conversation around gentrification that I think are missing.
CL: What are some examples of community-led resistance to gentrification that inspire you?
JL: Some of those things are not present right now, but when I think about the Black Panther Party’s work around the free breakfast program. When I think about The East —I think they might have just had a showing for the documentary of The East—but The East was a Brooklyn based program, an art center, that was very much centering Black and brown voices. Very much taking a page from the Black Panther Party. I think there were actually some members from the Black Panther Party that helped to create The East, and so I think about that.
I think about what Brooklyn Combine is doing in the community, right? Community-based initiatives that are focused on the community at large, but also are in the community. It’s one thing to talk about the societal issues and things that ail a block or a neighborhood; it’s another thing to have the folks who are talking about those issues also in the community as well, which I think changes the trajectory of the conversation and also changes the color of the conversation, for lack of a better term.
CL: What gives you hope when it comes to protecting communities and their cultural vitality?
JL: Events like tonight. There are a lot of intersections here. We’re at JACK, an art space in Brooklyn, and Black men and women are at the helm of that. It’s in conjunction with programming from Brooklyn Combine, also a Black-led initiative. We have folks who’ve never been to JACK before, who walked by, heard about this program and are now going, ‘Oh, I wonder what else JACK has to offer?’ There’s an intersectionality in that that gives hope. It opens up the opportunity for bigger and broader conversations around the arts.
I often think about how we can find access points. How do we access things that matter? So much of that is just showing up for the conversations and events happening in our community.
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