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Harlem electeds and housing advocates took to the streets for the Juneteenth holiday in continued protest against the expansion of Columbia University’s campus into Black and Brown neighborhoods—a grassroots student movement that has received legislative support from Senator Cordell Cleare.
The school has since used eminent domain and the courts to acquire large swaths of property in the community, and has been highly criticized for its role in gentrification of the area and the decrease of affordable housing stock.
In 2022, student-led groups such as United Front Against Displacement (UFAD), Student Worker Solidarity, and Columbia Housing Equity Project gathered on Columbia’s campus to protest the land development of Harlem. Many cited the intended closure of the Red Balloon Early Childhood Learning Center, a local low-cost preschool, as a clear sign that the university was no longer for the community. The preschool’s space was provided by Columbia free of charge back in 1972.
“I have heard from the community repeated concerns—rents are astronomical, families are finding it more and more difficult to live in our community and are rapidly being pushed out,” said Cleare. “Small businesses are failing because of rents. Not only is affordable housing disappearing; housing is disappearing, according to the (Community Service Society (CSS)) report. We are in a housing crisis and as we struggle to find ways to build affordability, one of the greatest tools in our toolbelt is to preserve the housing that we already have. This Columbia expansion is a direct threat to the preservation of affordability in Harlem.”
Cleare introduced Senate Bill 9028, which calls for a pause on further projects from the 2008 Columbia plan, last year. Other Harlem electeds chimed in with their support at the rally.
“I am supportive of what the senator is doing to demand on behalf of the entire diverse community to call for an investigation and a reopening of what was passed in 2008,” Assemblymember Inez Dickens said in a statement. “This deal was not inclusive and has not met the needs of our community, whether we are talking about affordable housing, small businesses support, and the availability of community space for programs such as the youth, senior, small business programs. Residents and businesses can no longer afford to stay in the community they were raised or started in.”
According to the CSS, Harlem’s demographics have changed drastically. Community District 9 lost about 14% of its Black population and 10% of its Hispanic population between the 2010 and 2020 census tallies. Conversely, the area has seen an influx of high-income Asian and white residents with incomes above $200,000 moving into the district, reported the CSS.
Adding to the issue is a decline in affordable housing stock available for rent. The district’s private rent-regulated housing stock has shrunk while residents grapple with the city’s Rent Guidelines Board’s (RGB) perpetual rent hikes on their units. Meanwhile, Columbia “bought out and emptied” at least two residential buildings in the neighborhood (602 West 132nd Street and 3289 Broadway), paying residents for relocation costs and moving expenses at about two months of median asking rents in the area, reported the Columbia Spectator.
“The demographic and affordability changes in Upper Manhattan, including in West Harlem, are alarming and moving in the wrong direction,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said in a statement. “Black, Hispanic, and lower-income residents whose families have weathered the toughest years uptown are being replaced, unable to afford rents uptown. We must protect vulnerable tenants, build much more affordable housing, and assist small Black and Brown-owned businesses that are also being displaced.”
Harlem advocates at the rally don’t think Columbia has lived up to the CBA’s promises to invest in the community.
In response to “land grab” accusations, a Columbia University spokesperson said that the Manhattanville project has “benefitted from the strong support” of elected officials and residents.
“We are exceedingly proud of the successes of this project to date and grateful for these partnerships[,] which have created thousands of jobs for the residents of Upper Manhattan, brought new local businesses and economic opportunity to an under-resourced and underserved community, and led to the development of new affordable housing as well as opportunities for long-time local residents to become first-time homeowners,” said the spokesperson in a statement. “But unfortunately, our community is not immune to the affordable-housing crisis playing out in neighborhoods across New York City, and we all bear the responsibility of helping to address it.”
The spokesperson said that the university’s CBA contains a historic $24 million investment in local affordable housing.
“Along with our partner, the West Harlem Development Corporation, we welcome the input of elected officials and other local stakeholders to help maximize and leverage the impact of that investment,” said the Columbia spokesperson. “Beyond the CBA, we have always seen the need and opportunity to do more to address the needs and priorities of the local community. To that end, we engage daily with elected officials, government partners, community leaders, and local groups and we will always welcome any opportunity to engage with additional stakeholders to hear their ideas for how the university can address the needs and priorities of the local communities, including through the development of affordable housing, improvements to public transportation, support for local small businesses, and improved quality of life.”
Before there was “B-Boy Blues,” there was an admirer of “The Color Purple” who was so put off by an AmNews reader’s misogynistic critique of the film after its 1985 release, he clapped back in a letter to the editor. A few months later, the letter-writer became an AmNews contributor, expanding the letter into a full-fledged commentary reminding Black consumers of film and TV that there’s more than one way to tell a Black story—and earning his first published byline in the process.
“The AmNews was the only newspaper I purchased; I looked forward to it every Thursday,” says James Earl Hardy, the letter-writer, the commentator, and then-future author of “Blues,” a bona fide classic in Black gay literature. “I loved how the paper covered us and made no apologies for that, so seeing my byline in it was a big deal to me, as well as my family. It felt like I had arrived as a writer, both professionally and culturally.”
Hardy grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant a block away from where Spike Lee filmed “Do the Right Thing,” but has called Kips Bay home for the past 30 years. He’s written for several publications and published book after book along the way, but earned a permanent place on bookshelves with his debut: “B-Boy Blues,” first published in 1994, which is noted as the first hip-hop love story centering Black gay characters.
It hit like a hurricane with young Black gay readers at the time; 30 years later, it still finds its way into the hearts of the generations of readers that came after.
“Back then, I received hand-written letters mailed in envelopes with stamps of Ella Fitzgerald and MLK; today it’s social media posts and DMs,” he said.
Not that it was easy. The 1990s were an uneasy time for Black authors; Alice Walker, “Purple” author, publicly beefed with Terry McMillan after the success of “Waiting to Exhale,” dividing Black readers of more literary-minded works aligned with the former and the rush of contemporary storytelling associated with the latter that came to dominate the decade. Hardy entered the sphere and would go on to be one of the most visible gay authors of the era.
“You were expected to walk through one door—Black or gay—and the novel unapologetically embraced and celebrated both,” he said. “For them, as well as the rest of society, ‘gay’ was a white thing while ‘Black’ was specifically seen through a prism of heterosexuality. ‘B-Boy’ was too gay for some heteros, too Black for some whites—as well as the wrong kind of gay for certain white gay folk and the wrong kind of Black for certain Black hetero folk.”
Hardy added that “The question was always, ‘Who is going to read a Black-on-Black gay love story?’ The answer, it turns out, was everybody. I knew something special, transcendent was happening when I’d travel to Brooklyn and there were sistas reading ‘B-Boy’ on the A train. Many folks who aren’t Black and/or gay and/or male have told me that they got 50, 60 pages into the novel and totally forgot it was about two men.”
“Blues” has spun off into a series penned by Hardy, a film adaptation that debuted on BET+ in 2021, and a stage adaptation off-Broadway in 2022.
Black gay representation in the media is having a little bit of a moment, but is far from saturation. While “Blues” marks 30 years of shelf life, few Black gay authors have been presented alongside Hardy in the same timespan.
“We’ve definitely moved from the ‘Invisible Men’ era of the ’90s; it truly was a desert back then,” he said, referencing his late counterpart, E. Lynn Harris, and Harris’s debut novel, “Invisible Life.”
“Today, we’re featured more in corporate entertainment, but too often we’re the sidekick—if not an outright accessory—to a heterosexual woman. I’m interested in seeing us at the center of our own narratives, where we’re not only presented but represented.”
Before the year 1867, Flatbush and Ninth Avenues were separated by an unusually large, clumsy section of grass—a scene that hardly benefitted those commuting toward Prospect Park. With funding from the New York State Legislature in the early 1860s, the city of Brooklyn embarked on a project to create an entrance that would effectively separate the bustling downtown city from the borough’s largest natural attraction.
With these intentions, or perhaps in defiance of them, Grand Army Plaza has over the years doubled as an assembly point for protesters and demonstrators, spreading awareness of movements for equality throughout the city and the nation.
Among the attendees was Joseph Khon, a Jewish rabbi and pro-Palestinian activist, who frequently joins protests at the plaza. “It’s important to be out here for those who can’t,” Khon declared.
Brooklyn’s history is steeped in activism, with issues of gender, race, and identity equality often at the forefront. As the community grappled with these challenges, public voicing of opinions became crucial. Grand Army Plaza, designed as a space for heightened awareness, has played a pivotal role in these expressions. Suffragists fought for voting rights in the 1910s, with protests continuing until passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Civil rights leaders later blocked off the same intersection, advocating for racial equality until significant progress was made in the mid-1960s.
The plaza’s significance as a site of protest continued into modern times. A protest in the Abner Louima case drew 7,000 protestors and began at Grand Army Plaza before proceeding across the Brooklyn Bridge to New York City Hall in Manhattan. In 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, supporters gathered at the plaza, showcasing unity and resilience in the face of adversity.
“For generations, Grand Army Plaza has been a platform for voicing unheard issues,” said Jean-Louis.
As important as the need to vocalize public opinion on certain matters is, there have been instances where the goal of these demonstrations gets lost within heightened emotions. However, in the 21st century, technology has provided efficient communication outlets. It is in the best interest of all parties that these demonstrations maintain the support and safety of public authority. This is possible, as Jean-Louis remarked, through “securing permits, communicating with public safety about protest routes… and in some cases even police escorts.” Coordination and cooperation between protesters and authorities at Grand Army Plaza can ensure that demonstrations remain peaceful and effective, allowing voices to be heard without compromising public safety and vice versa.
Grand Army Plaza was not originally conceived to honor progressive activists like Abraham Lincoln or JFK, nor was it intended as a venue for protests and demonstrations against inequality. However, as the fight for equality among all races, genders, and identities remains an ongoing struggle, Grand Army Plaza has evolved into maintaining a profound social significance in Brooklyn and beyond. It now stands as a symbol of hope and peace, emblematic of what can be achieved through perseverance and bravery.
