#narrativeshifting

[ufitleaders-blog]

Homewood Nation, a hyperlocal news experiment, is citizen journalism focusing on economic development, sustainability, education and the arts.

[ufitleaders-blog]

Narrative Shifting

Imagine two different ways of telling the story of the South Bronx, one of New York’s poorest and most “colored” neighborhoods. One could describe it as a place of entrenched intergenerational poverty, high rates of crime, and despair. All of this would be accurate but insufficient to capture the spirit of the community. One could also describe it as the birthplace of a groundbreaking Parent Action Committee devoted to demanding the better-quality schools for South Bronx children; the birthplace of one of the most popular forms of music in history, hip hop; an unusually integrated community in the United States, home to African Americans, English- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean people, and, before them, waves of European immigrants; and the birthplace of the Fashion Moda Gallery, a seminal institution in contemporary art. The way one narratives what the South Bronx is impacts both how residents and outsiders see the location and what value we place in it. The history of self-activity among those living below the poverty line in the South Bronx defies any description of those who live within as looking for a handout, and yet also requires an acknowledgement of the inequality they experience.