AT THIS POINT ISSUE #003

To an unaware viewer, the scenes depicted in the first three panels might seem innocent and even worthy of celebration. The fourth panel reveals that the events unfolding in those panels might not be so innocuous. It recalls for me a racist video meme I saw recently, where a white girl said something to the effect of “No one ever complains when white people move into a neighborhood.” The Black people who found the thread begged to differ.

The presence of the street signs — on a pole that quite obtrusively divides the very fabric of the comic strip, and certainly is at the center of the lives of the older Black couple — was a last minute addition. For one, I thought the loosely sketched brownstone buildings in the background of each panel was enough to locate the comic strip as occurring somewhere in New York (Brooklyn or Harlem), and although my experience and inspiration derives from Brooklyn, I was satisfied with that perception. My other thought was that gentrification is a global phenomenon and the comic might be more universally understood without locating it particularly.

But then I thought — nah. I’m from Brooklyn, and the purpose of creating and sharing this strip is to transmute some of the pain that gentrification has personally caused me, and be a witness for the members of my community that feel this pain, too. I like how the pole conveys the disruptive energy that these arrivals bring, particularly to the communities noted — if you know, you know. The streets that I chose to display are recognizably Brooklyn thoroughfares, located in historically Black and Caribbean neighborhoods that have had impact on my life, and that are rapidly gentrifying, resulting in a devastating loss of culture and community.

This was such a cathartic exercise, and I’m looking forward to using this medium to tell even more Black stories.