Cities | Discussion Group: Sarah Schulman - The Gentrification of the Mind

Sarah Schulmann - The gentrification of the mind and screening excerpts hosted by Ainslie Roddick

Sarah Schulman’s book explores the landscape and infrastructure of American cities during the 1980 and 90s HIV/AIDs crisis. The book explores how the lack of rights for LGBTI citizens contributed to physical and spatial change to the city, and how this process of mental gentrification was perpetuated by neoliberal and conservative processes. It discusses not only the lack of governmental response to the plight of thousands of its citizens, but how this tragedy physically manifested within the architecture of the city.

The books 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, filling the pages with vivid memories of her 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 generation's imagination and the consequences of that loss.

The reading group might discuss the more complex issues surrounding subcultural space and urban dialects under capitalism but we also might discuss the more problematic and subjective issues surrounding this historical moment, where cultural representation, democracy and structures of power were constant elephants in the room.

Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network