The Public Theater
2 Hours
Danny Hoch's play about gentrification is much more than the complaints or whines that are usually heard about gentification. First of all, it was my definition of good art. You did not have to, and it was unlikely that you did, agree with everythign he was saygin, or walk out feeling empowered and happy. What this play did was make you think. It was essentailly an existentialist journey through the white-washing of New York City. Danny Hoch, a native New Yorker, is trying to come to terms with what he thinks New York is and what it is becoming, and the fact that one city can seem and exist as so many different and opposing things at the same time really bothers Danny, for if he defines himself by his home, that who is he? Where does he live? Where does he come from? Furthermore, as his New York is quickly being covered up by the New New York, the hipster New York, the white, out-of-towner, disconnected new York, he feels as if his identity, his being, is disintegrating, becoming invisible.
While watching this play, I did not feel attacked. I was not offended when Danny and the various characters that he played screamed at me, in more or less words and various accents, to go home, go back to where I came from. First of all, I don't think I am really who he is yelling at. I know my privilege, I know my skin color. I know that I need to work and that paying rent is not easy, just like my Loisaida neighbors on Avenue C, but I also know that because of both my education and my skin color, the fact that my family immigrated here 150 and not 50 years ago, makes it so that I can march in to this neighborhood and do anything I want, and my biggest problem is not finding a place to work but decidding on a place to work. I am not a trust fund hipster who thinks making industrial music in my Williamsburg loft is counterculture and against the man. I know who I am. I am an educator. And I will probably have many of these confused, evaporating native New Yorkers in my classroom as long as they last, before they get priced out. So I am trying to come to terms with the fact that as neighborhoods get "whiter" for the most part, they get somehow "better." I am not trying to identify or agree with everything Danny is trying to say, but I am trying to listen. I am trying to listen, because I do not want to be that crazy white girl who marches in to the local PS, talks about racism, and tries to "save" people. I do not want to even fall in to the category that anyone or anything needs saving and that I am some sort of saver. I just want to connect, try and see where people are coming from. I cannot stop gentrification, or as I like to say, the Sex in the Cityfying of what is and what I think always will be a city of immigrants. But at least I can think about what is going on, and try to think about how I fit in to it, and try to accept myself for who I am and what I have done.
Finally, I cannot help but think about times in the past when the older immigrants were hostile to the new immigrants. The Irish swept the floors of the German's bakery, the Chinese do the Irish's laundry. But what is messed up, I think, is that this balance of waiting your turn to rise up has been thrown off. Somehow, as the new white immigration moves in, the older, more established, are not being pushed to the top, they, the Hispanic, the Black, are being swept under the rug.
What we are left with is the questions why, and what, as educators, are we going to to about it. What tools can we give our students and our children to fight back.
Amazing show, really confusing...
4 comments:
Hannah, I absolutely loved your reflection on this play! First of all, based on your synopsis, I can see where you're coming from when you say that it really made you think. With all this talk about culture and trying to identify your own culture, what does it mean to be a New Yorker? What part of New York do you identify with? I think these, and all the questions you brought up in your reflection, are actually great questions to bring into the classroom.
I also liked your reflection on being an educated white female entering the public education system. I think too often people try to enter public schools to try and save the kids, but I agree that this is the wrong approach. I think the kids are looking for someone who will try and understand them, listen to them, and teach them in a way that is meaningful to them.
This play sounds SO interesting! I really enjoy plays that make you think and question who you are, where you come from, and how that affects others. For us, more specifically, how it affects our future students and how they perceive us as we enter the classroom that very first day of school. As we've done in Bree's class, really coming to know and accept our own identity and its' implications before we can know our students is so important.
Hannah, this is an incredible reflection and really powerful insight into the issues raised in the play. I was hoping to see this, but feel like you delivered the message! Gentrification is an interesting issue facing urban areas, as evidenced in New York City. Jenn's comment about the questions with identifying as a New Yorker are really interesting, especially at a university that is "in and of the city." The most powerful and PROFOUND :) aspect of your reflection is looking inside yourself at who you are as you step into the classroom, and the ideas of "saving" others. Thanks for sharing this!
hey,
I enjoyed reading your reflection on this play. I had heard about it and really wanted to know what kinds of thoughts a play about gentrification would have on a viewer. gentrification is something that every new yorker(native or new) has come to terms with, has come across or has simply ignored, The fact is it is something that cannot be ignored and everyone who lives here is confronted in one way or another. What does it mean when your new neighborhood is not welcoming becuase of the people who are forced out and whom you have replaced? What happens when new york is constantly changing into something else? what happens to students who are unable to afford to live here in the future?
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