These are times that call on a radical belief in oneself and their community. Back in October just shortly before the US Election, I interviewed Rev. Dr. Andrew Wilkes about his book Plenty Good Room, which invites the Black Church to think beyond electon cycles and go to the root of how it can be a radical force in not just American politics, but the wellbeing of all of us as Earthlings.

Yeah, timely. Unfortunately, because of the recent US Election and regime change, it took me a minute to prepare this episode for you, but it’s here now and ready. Plus, my beloved partner Les Henderson joins me for a moment of reflection on faith and will be joining me in our next few episodes.

Here’s Rev. Dr. Wilkes’s bio

Reverend Andrew Wilkes, Ph.D., is a pastor, political scientist, writer, and contemplative. He is the co-lead, co-founding pastor of the Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, New York, and the former Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute, a social change organization founded by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Wilkes is a 2022 inductee into the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers at Morehouse College and a proud alum of Hampton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, CUNY Graduate Center, and the Coro Public Affairs Fellowship. He is the author of Freedom Notes: Reflections on Faith, Justice, and the Possibility of Democracy; co-author of Psalms for Black Lives; and author of Plenty Good Room: Co-Creating an Economy of Enough for All. His writing and voice have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Essence Magazine, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Dr. Henry Louis Gates' PBS Gospel series. Dr. Wilkes is the elated husband of Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Watch PBS's The Black Church Here

https://www.pbs.org/show/black-church/

Read my recent newsletter spelling out the seven principles of Defying Gentrification (since  i forgot to put them in the episode
https://theblackurbanist.com/this-is-my-house-and-in-it-i-get-to-defy-gentrification-my-way-all-day-every-day/



Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast! And merch and crafting classes via www.kristpattern.com [http://www.kristpattern.com/]

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You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Making Plenty Good Room with Rev. Dr. Andrew Wilkes

Even though this was a rough week for me, I decided that I wanted to let you in a bit and drop a few moments of a chat on how gentrification compounds my grief. This is a raw edit with no full ad and no full segments, just me reflecting on how I've been grieving this week for years and how gentrification adds to that.

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast!

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

The Grief that Gentrification Brings

I knew this week sitting down with Chicago-based journalist Arionne Nettles was going to be a great conversation, but I was very excited about what she had to share, about how Black migration and neighborhood choices past and present are in defiance of gentrification.

And our hot topic this week is the terrible parking meter deal that the mayor of Chicago made in 2008, that’s actually not how you want to pay for parking.

About Our Guest

Arionne Nettles is a university lecturer, culture reporter, and audio aficionado. Her stories often look into Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing, and race & class disparities, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Opinion, Chicago Reader, The Trace, Chicago PBS station WTTW, and NPR affiliate WBEZ.

She is a lecturer and the director of audio journalism programming at Northwestern University’s Medill School as well as host of the HBCU history podcast Bragging Rights and Is That True? A Kids Podcast About Facts. Her book, We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything, will be published by Chicago Review Press in 2024.

Hot Topic Reference article

https://news.wttw.com/2023/07/27/wttw-news-explains-what-happened-chicago-s-parking-meter-deal

Purchase Arionne’s book from my Bookshop — https://bookshop.org/p/books/we-are-the-culture-black-chicago-s-influence-on-everything-arionne-nettles/20193723?ean=9781641608305 

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Past and Present Black Migrations for Liberation with Arionne Nettles

This week on the podcast, I'm joined by Christine Edwards of Civility Localized, a Charlotte-based public engagement firm that is changing the game on so many levels.

But most of all, this is an episode of two Black Southern women who are connected in some shape or form to North Carolina, talking about how we both are motivated and have or haven’t been supported by that state.

About our Guest

Christine Edwards is a civic firebrand who has immersed herself in helping urban communities grow with dignity. Since founding Civility Localized in 2018, her work has affected change nationwide through innovative outreach strategies that support racial equity, reducing barriers to participation, and encouraging sustainable growth for cities. Christine earned her Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Urban Management and Policy from UNC Charlotte. Christine’s work has been featured in Fast Company, Axios, The Business Journals, Queen City Nerve, Mountain Xpress, Pride Magazine, QCity Metro and many other local and national publications. Christine serves as a board member for Generation Nation, an organization cultivating the next generation of civic leaders and is a member of the board of directors for the Humane Society of Charlotte. She enjoys southern food, and loves seeing urban policy theory play out in daily life.

 * Social Media & Websites:
   * Websites:
     * https://www.CivilityLocalized.com
     * https://www.CivicImpactAcademy.com
     * https://www.MeetChristine.co
   * Facebook: https://facebook.com/civilitylocalized
   * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civility-localized/
   * Twitter: @CivilityCo
   * Instagram: @CivilityLocalized

Also, I had to have an NC-related hot topic this week and it’s about this new mask and protest banning bill, that’s just the latest of laws making me not want to move home again, despite my love and homesickness.

Read the reference article here — https://www.wral.com/story/nc-senate-votes-to-ban-people-from-wearing-masks-in-public-for-health-reasons/21433199/

And I found two Black North Carolina authors for you to read this week, you can purchase then in my Bookshop.org [http://bookshop.org/] store:

https://bookshop.org/a/5060/9781982163693

https://bookshop.org/a/5060/9780679737889

Never miss an episode, subscribe to my Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find me, Kristen , @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Resourcefulness and Reparations in North Carolina with Christine Edwards

Kristen spends some time this week talking about her personal needs to defy gentrification. And her hot topic is something she’s been boiling over about for decades, teen curfews.

SHOW NOTES

(Apologies for the slightly rough audio, re-recorded and then realized I was on the wrong mic!)

Hot Topic Article from NBC Washington

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/prince-georges-county-fast-tracks-teen-curfew-bill-after-national-harbor-brawl/3600453/

What’s happened since they implemented the curfew

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/its-100-different-national-harbor-marks-first-weekend-of-emergency-youth-curfew/3603452/

What I said in 2013 when my hometown of Greensboro, NC faced the same issue, and what my solutions were then.

https://theblackurbanist.com/thoughts-bringing-youth-downtown/

Parameters of DC’s Summer Youth Program

https://summerjobs.dc.gov/page/faq-hsip

Sins Invalid Disability Justice Paradigm

https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast!

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Kristen's Personal Gentrification Defying Playbook

This week on Defying Gentrification, I, your host Kristen Jeffers, talks to our first guest, Derek Moore, who came by to talk about their experiences with land use and gentrification. Stay tuned to the end to hear what I did after having this conversation! Plus our hot topic this week is how the remaining residents of Chinatown who are Chinese have to take a long bus ride to a grocery store that truly services them. I recorded that part at a store that serves the same role for me and reflect a bit on how that’s affected me over the years, as well as issue a call-to-action for the news site that it came from, as I usually do.

About our guest!

Derek Moore (he/they) is a Central West Baltimore-based Urban Planner and Non-Profit Development professional. He grew up in an Army family and has since lived in many cities across North America. Derek is a transportation advocate - co-founder of local urbanist group Friends of the Underground, Greening chair of Madison Park Improvement Association, and City and Regional Planning master’s student at Morgan State University.

Our hot topic reference article for this week — https://wamu.org/story/24/04/16/dc-chinatown-chinese-residents-leave-city-grocery-shop/

The WAMU takedown that I somewhat reference — https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/04/19/why-did-wamu-close-dcist/

An analysis and webinar on the lack of grocery stores in Black neighborhoods, focused on the Washington region (DMV) — https://ggwash.org/view/89226/premium-grocery-stores-are-missing-from-the-regions-high-income-black-neighborhoods

Learn more about Eden Center — https://edencenter.com/stores/

(Note, they do NOT have an H Mart, but there is one nearby in Fairfax County, VA)

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast!

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Reflecting on Atlanta and Baltimore Gentrification and Community Development with Derek Moore

On this episode of Defying Gentrification, I spend my homeroom time clarifying that gentrification is not a remedy for urban renewal, it’s the continuation of urban renewal, land theft and seizure, forced assimilation, and redlining.

And on my street corner this week, I urge Black women to answer the call for liberation, especially when we are given positions of power, and to do our best to not let it kill us, and honor the memories of those that we have lost to the system despite being in its power structure.

—

Here are some of the things I referenced on the episode:

The Assembly [https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/yolanda-hill-mark-robinson-nonprofit/]  article on Yolanda Hill shuttering her organization helping childcare facilities to receive federal funds so her husband could look more Republican as he runs to be the first Black governor of North Carolina.

Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s full remarks [https://youtu.be/j_12_E3LAeg?si=nQi9Rl39Wv0L3Gzz] at Spelman College

ABC News report on the legacy and the tragedy of Dr. Antoinette Bonnie Candia-Bailey [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUfKVI53fs&t=1s]

My tweet [https://x.com/blackurbanist/status/1780308203768590823]on the depression that comes from reading bad news for a living, even when you have supportive people helping you do so.

The full article [https://inclusivehistorian.com/urban-renewal/#:~:text=Urban%20renewal%20is%20the%20process,HUD)%20grant%20and%20loan%20program]from the Inclusive Historian’s Handbook on urban renewal

History of the Warnersville neighborhood [https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/planning/learn-more-about/historic-preservation/heritage-communities/warnersville#:~:text=Named%20for%20Pennsylvania%20Quaker%20Yardley,them%20available%20to%20%22freedmen.%22]

The Amendment Podcast episode [https://19thnews.org/2024/04/errin-haines-the-amendment-podcast-kim-teehee/] on Representation for the Cherokee Nation in the US Congress

—

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers] and support the podcast! Also, the Rothstein [https://bookshop.org/contributors/richard-rothstein]’s book is called Just Action, not Just Law.

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112]

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

The Urban Renewal to Gentrification Pipeline

On the third episode of the Defying Gentrification podcast, your host Kristen Jeffers (she/they), spells out why we need to treat gentrification like a disease and eradicate it.

But first, on our street corner, the hot topic is the need to call in our Black siblings who think that verbal transit and street harassment, especially the queer antagonistic kind, is ok, the need to care for our communities over policing them when they err in this manner, and why we should continue to support public transit and increase access to it.

Here's the news article about the incident [https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/washington-dc/man-yells-homophobic-slurs-at-metro-passengers-in-dc-metro-police-investigating/]. 

Read my tweet about this situation. [https://twitter.com/blackurbanist/status/1777324926376026543] (CW: The recording of the incident discussed is in this tweet, which I quote tweeted)

(Also I misstated in the audio that the couple who intervened was heading from Silver Spring, they were heading from Dupont Circle, one of our legacy gayborhoods, to Silver Spring, Maryland)

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers].

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack  [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112].

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Why We Must Eradicate Gentrification.

In this episode, Kristen takes us to school and breaks down who gets to defy gentrification. Spoiler alert, It is those who have been colonized, which generally are indigenous populations of color.

Also, on the Street Corner, the hot topic is both the Kansas City and Washington DC stadium/arena deals and how they are different.

Read the Kansas City Defender article on the stadium vote [https://kansascitydefender.com/politics/kansas-city-rejects-billionaire-stadium-tax/].

Read the KCUR article and see the poster. [https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2024-04-02/royals-chiefs-stadium-sales-tax-question-1-results-jackson-county-kansas-city-election]

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers].

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112].

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern]

Join the Defying Gentrification Fellowship powered by Podia. [https://defyinggentrification.podia.com/defying-gentrification-fellowship]



Who Gets to Defy Gentrification?

On this inaugural episode of the Defying Gentrification podcast, your host Kristen Jeffers (she/they), takes you to school in our homeroom to learn exactly what is gentrification, and why should it be defied and eradicated.

But first, on our street corner, the hot topic is how not to leave Baltimoreans of color behind in the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge tragedy, as well as honor their competence in leadership during disaster situations.

Read our street corner hot topic article from Capital B [https://capitalbnews.org/key-bridge-collapse-baltimore-turner-station/].

Read the Curbed article referenced in our homeroom section [https://archive.curbed.com/2014/11/5/10028070/tracing-the-history-of-a-word-as-gentrification-turns-50].

Purchase from Kristen's Bookshop.org store [https://bookshop.org/shop/kristenejeffers].

Never miss an episode, subscribe to our Substack [https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/]or on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6906573611889754112].

You can also find Kristen @blackurbanist [https://twitter.com/home] or @kristpattern [https://www.instagram.com/kristpattern].

Join the Defying Gentrification Fellowship powered by Podia [https://defyinggentrification.podia.com/defying-gentrification-fellowship]



WTF is Gentrification?

Love living in cities, but tired of feeling like you don't belong or don't understand why and how they work? Want to understand more about what gentrification means and how to both defy and eradicate it? 

Join me, Kristen Jeffers, Black queer feminist, disabled, urbanist essayist, editor, and urban planner from the South, living in the MidAtlantic, each week, along with some special guests, to discuss gentrification: what it is, and what it isn't, and how we as Black folks and our co-conspirators, can not just survive on a changing planet but thrive.

We'll discuss hot topics in urban planning, real estate,  housing, and transportation. We will teach you everything you need to know about complex and complicated topics in the field, so you can be equipped to help your community thrive.

We are committed to justice and liberation and we hope you'll feel better and empowered after listening. 

Follow Kristen

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@blackurbanist

LinkedIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenejeffers/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@defyinggentrification

Defying Gentrification

Kristen Jeffers's Show

Kristen talks about who can defy gentrification. Also, she sounds off about city stadium deals and why they are a bad deal for people.

Kristen Jeffers

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