Main entry:

Summers, Brandi Thompson, author.

Title & Author:

Black in place : the spatial aesthetics of race in a post-Chocolate City / Brandi Thompson Summers.

Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2019]

Description:

xxi, 232 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages [177]-219) and index.
Preface : living in and researching "Chocolate City" -- Introduction : Black space matters -- Capitol reinvestment : riot, renewal, and the rise of a Black ghetto -- Washington's Atlas District : inequality, cultural vibrancy, and the new regime of diversity -- The changing face of a Black space : cultural tourism and the spatialization of nostalgia -- Consuming culture : authenticity, cuisine, and H Street's quality-of-life aesthetics -- The corner : spatial aesthetics and Black bodies in place -- Conclusion : A Chocolate City is no dream.

Summary:

While Washington, D.C. is still often referred to as "Chocolate City," it has undergone significant demographic, political, and architectural change in the early 2000s. No place represents this shift better than H Street, one of the neighborhoods devastated by the April 1968 riots after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Over the last decade and a half, the H Street corridor has changed from a historically low-income, African American neighborhood - featuring Black-owned businesses that catered to the local residents - to one of the most sought after commercial and residential areas in the nation, replete with art house theaters, fusion restaurants, and rising property values that have pushed out much of the original population. The author explores this shift from chocolate city to cosmopolitan metropolis, looking at the role of race in urban environments and how the neighborhood's aesthetics - from fashion and language to foodways and Black bodies themselves - have been commodified and branded. Through ethnography, interviews, archival research, and media analysis, the author sheds light on the relationship between race, space, and capitalism. -- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781469654003 hardcover ; alkaline paper
1469654008 hardcover ; alkaline paper
9781469654010 paperback ; alkaline paper
1469654016 paperback ; alkaline paper
electronic book
9781469654027
1469654024
(electronic book)
9781469654034
1469654032

Subject:

Gentrification Washington (D.C.)
Aesthetics, Black Economic aspects Washington (D.C.)
Embourgeoisement (Urbanisme) Washington (D.C.)
Esthétique noire Aspect économique Washington (D.C.)
Economics.
Gentrification.
Race relations Economic aspects.
Social conditions.
Washington (D.C.) Race relations Economic aspects.
Washington (D.C.) Social conditions 21st century.
H Street (Washington, D.C.) Economic aspects.
Washington (D.C.)
Washington (D.C.) H Street.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 308280
Call No.: BIB 253705
Status: Available