HL90E0 - 30.png Day of Outrage Protests, Brooklyn, 1987.

On October 16, 1975, New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy. With nearly five hundred million dollars of debt due the next day and only thirty-four million in its bank, catastrophe seemed inevitable. Fortunately, the city was able to raise funds and avoid bankruptcy. Nevertheless, New York City was and had been a space on fire—both literally and figuratively speaking—for at least a decade prior. Landlords burned down buildings to collect insurance; Black, Caribbean, Latinx and LGBTQ communities fought for the right to claim space and protections; and precarity turned into a looming weather and, thus, something one prepared for rather than avoided. In the midst of these fires, however, many different communities seized upon cheap rent and abandoned spaces and began to use them as sites of both (re)invention and community making.

This course will contend with how these moments of invention and community making both reinforce and undermine the economic and social ‘history’ offered above. One of our central questions will be to ask what "reinvention" means to the variety of communities and people that called New York City home in both the seventies and eighties. We will ask whether reinvention leads to or is synonymous with renaissance, as so many popular histories suggest. From hip hop, punk and salsa to free health care clinics, breakfast programs and community-run centers, the city's residents took up and, in some cases, invented much of what we take for granted today. Yet, the decades also mark a period of amplified state violence and the continued dispossession of its most vulnerable residents. As such, we will ask what renaissance--or rebirth--might leave out and, more pressingly, what had to die so to engender these proverbial births.

In order to do so, we will look at a variety of media, including stories, memoirs, songs, art installations, architectural drafts, pamphlets, flyers, and secondary sources. In looking at the wealth of material from this period, our goal will be threefold. First and foremost, we will listen to the many different (and often contentious) ways that communities have seized upon language, sound, touch and sight in order to express and describe themselves. Second, we will think about the variety of methods that we might use to think about such expressions, including but not limited to close reading, formal analysis and archival work. Third, we will consider how our examinations of this period are both informed by and might also inform our ongoing present. What might the near past teach us about our current moment, and how might it inform our understanding of the tactics and methods of survival and invention that today's residents use to push against contemporary issues?

This is an introductory course, so there is no expectation that students will have prior knowledge of either New York City or the methods we will be using this semester. More importantly, there is no expectation that students will have mastered these methods by its end. To the contrary, the purpose of this course is to introduce students to the variety of approaches they might take when thinking about different forms of media. You might think of the course as one that allows you to audition any number of methods, so to see which works best. Most importantly, I will provide a variety of handouts that walk through the approaches we will be encountering this semester.

More information about course can be found on the syllabus. Alternatively, I have divided the syllabus into its component parts for ease of reading: course policies, assignments and grading, semester schedule. If you have any further questions, please feel free to email me, as I'd be delighted to both meet you and speak about the course. Alternatively, I will be available to meet with students on Monday, August 17th from 12-2:45 EST pm to answer questions. You can join these conversations through the Zoom link on this Canvas site.

Enrollment in this seminar will be limited to 10 students, and you can apply through this form (Links to an external site.). Applications are due on August 21st, and approvals will be made on August 22nd.

In the meantime, here are some spectacular photos of the communities we will be encountering this semester!

HIST-LIT 90EO: The Reinvention of New York City