The Gentrification of the Mind Witness to a Lost Imagination [Paperback]

In this gripping memoir of the AIDS years (19811996), Sarah Schulman recalls how much of the rebellious queer culture, cheap rents, and a vibrant downtown arts movement vanished almost overnight to be replaced by gay conservative spokespeople and mainstream consumerism. Schulman takes us back to her Lower East Side and brings it to life, filling these pages with vivid memories of her avant-garde queer friends and dramatically recreating the early years of the AIDS crisis as experienced by a political insider. Interweaving personal reminiscence with cogent analysis, Schulman details her experience as a witness to the loss of a generations imagination and the consequences of that loss.

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY, Staten Island, is the author of nine novels, five books of nonfiction, plays, and films.

Sarah Schulman, as always, hits the nail on the head. I can't imagine a more insightful probe into gentrification and its inhumane consequences. Everyone needs to read this book. Martin Duberman, author ofStonewall

Sarah Schulman'sThe Gentrification of the Mindis a bulwark against the collective loss of memory. AIDS, gentrification, the struggle for gay rights, the class war that has driven entire communities of artists, immigrants, and outsiders from the neighborhoods they createdall these things have been erased by the official culture. Schulman's book will make you rage and weep, and thenjust maybeorganize.Luc Sante, author ofLow Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

Hard-headed, sensitive, and informed, this book will make the confused world of urban redevelopment and gentrification make notably more sense. Schulman has a mind as clear as a bell in evening. You'll be glad you read it. I was. Samuel R. Delany, author ofThrough the Valley of the Nest of Spiders

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Making Record from Memory