Harlem on our minds: place, race, and literacies of urban youth

Language and Literacy

by Valerie Kinloch

In her new book, Valerie Kinloch investigates how the lives and literacies of youth in New York City's historic Harlem are affected by public attempts to gentrify the community. Kinloch draws connections between race, place, and students' literate identities through interviews with youth, teachers, longtime Black residents, and their new White neighbors. Harlem on Our Minds is a participatory action narrative that brings emerging theories of social ecology to life for the high school English classroom. Vividly drawn lessons show how teachers can engage urban youth in school-based literacy by linking canonical text, particularly of the Harlem Renaissance, to current events. Centered on the literacy stories of two African American youth and their peers, this book:


Showcases the multimodal literacy practices of urban youth through photographs, writing samples, student-designed research projects, and more. Weaves in multiple voices and perspectives through response pieces by project participants, local teachers, a graduate student, and a community activist. Features summaries of teaching strategies.

Genres: Teaching

208 pages

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made me really angry at first. The key to defusing some of that anger was to understand that the author used gentrification as a teaching tool to get two urban teens to engage in critical thinking. From what I can tell, she wasn't really trying to teach them about gentrification. She was trying get them interested enough in a subject that they were willing to engage their community in a dialogue and sort of become teachers themselves. As far as I can tell, this was WAY more about teaching kids than about gentrification.

If you are interested in the teaching parts, go ahead and read the whole thing. I was NOT interested in that part. Definitely skip the intro and start with chapter 1.
For a quicker read, try p148-174.

One of the most interesting points was that for African-Americans gentrification is understood to be a race issue and for Caucasians its viewed as a class issue.

This book included no references to past areas gentrified (in or outside of NYC) or past ethnic neighborhoods reborn as something else. No mention of Little Italy's shrinkage/demise in the face of Chinatown, or the slow takeover of upper Harlem by the Hispanic community of Washington Heights. This was strictly Black Harlem vs White interlopers. There were no suggestions for how to realistically fight gentrification, or how to lessen its effects.

Go elsewhere if you are more interested in gentrification then teaching practices. Trust me.

[Erin Reilly-Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written by one of my professors at OSU about her research in Harlem New York. I really enjoyed reading about her experiences interacting with two youths and other community members and her explorations of multiple literacies. The book has a lot of suggestions for how to incorporate multiple literacies and connections to places outside the classroom as well as the benefits of these practices which is really great for teachers. However, I found that coming from the perspective of a potential qualitative researcher, I was left wanting to know more about how she did her research and the actual data collected. It seems that the goal of the book was very much toward ideas of praxis rather than investigating a phenomena. I would really love to see her research turned into some multi-media format that maximizes the potential of the multimedia data she collected and shows more of the original photographs, movies, journal pages, transcripts, and interviews she and the two boys collected. I found the organization of the book to be somewhat circular, repeating back on itself to view an issue from different viewpoints rather than progressing linearly toward a point. At the same time, Kinloch's research is fascinating and she proposes many great ideas in the area of alternative literacies.

[Sarah Catto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely changed the way I think about gentrification. LOVE Valerie's work.