Write to the City

[Christa Faust]

I’ve lived in Silver Lake for nearly ten years and grew up in Hell's Kitchen NYC, so urban gentrification is a topic very close to my heart. I have to swing downtown tonight to pick up my BEA badge, so even though I shouldn’t be spending too much time away from the desk right now, I really want to stop in to Gary Phillips’ “gentrification slam” Write to the City.

Here’s what he has to say about it:

Can you imagine Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe hanging out at a gastro-pub? Or Dashiell Hammett writing the Maltese Falcon from a luxury loft?

Today, noir and mystery writers are documenting a common phenomenon.

Their characters’ lives are all facing a big problem: they’re grappling with the changing face of their cities.

The vibrant city celebrated in noir books and stories is fast disappearing. Its residents and local businesses are facing the same fate as those in the non-fiction world.

Gentrification is forcing them out of their communities.

Write to the City is a one-of-a-kind slam that will pair some of the country’s foremost noir and mystery writers with inner-city activists to trade stories in a genre-melding way.

Thursday May 29, 8-11pm
at Gallery g727
727 S. Spring Street
LA, CA 90014