TAKE IT BACK: Documenting Brooklyn - Fighting Gentrification (B4G) updated March 2015

Donate here http://www.gofundme.com/Before-Its-Gone

Talking Points about BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK: Documenting Brooklyn - Fighting Gentrification (B4G) updated March

Main Objectives

Before It’s Gone // Take It Back is a neighborhood and web-based response to the crisis of gentrification of Brooklyn, NY. Our main goals is to 1. to keep Brooklyn residents in their homes by any means necessary through our grassroot organizing “No Eviction Zones” campaign - block by block , building by building and 2. to launch an anti-gentrification website hub, that will serve as a documentary archive as well as provide vital legal, housing and community organizing resources. We define ‘gentrification’ as a concerted, deliberate effort to price out of low-to-middle income residents from neighborhoods by city government, corporations, real estate developers, and landlords in favor of renting, selling, and catering to people of higher and/or more flexible incomes. We know from first-hand experience that the same unscrupulous property owners who use tactics to force long-time older tenants of color out of their rent-stabilized apartments will turn around and illegally overcharge incoming younger white tenants for the same apartment. For this very reason, we believe that all of us- long-time and new residents, communities of color and white communities, low-income and middle-class people - have a stake in the urgent struggle to save affordable housing in Brooklyn.

1. How do we define Gentrification?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK defines ‘gentrification’ as a concerted, deliberate effort to price out of low-to-middle income residents from neighborhoods by city government, corporations, real estate developers, and landlords in favor of renting, selling, and catering to people of higher and/or more flexible incomes.

§ We see gentrification as an intersectional issue that is deeply connected to the ways that race, class, gender, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, nation of origin, immigration status, physical and mental capacity, etc. impact individuals and our communities.

§ We also see a distinct difference between the historic voluntary migration of working and middle class families from cities to the suburbs as opposed to the current situation where existing communities are being involuntarily priced out, bought out and forcible removed from their neighborhoods by corporate developers.

§ For this very reason, we believe that all of us-long-time and new residents, communities of color and white communities, low-income and middle-class people - have a stake in the urgent struggle to save affordable housing in Brooklyn.

2. What is BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK all about?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK is a self-documentary art archive, resource and organizing project that will allow everyday people to respond to the crisis of gentrification of Brooklyn, NY.

§ By utilizing a four-pronged strategy: 1. The creation of a documentary archive http://beforeitsgone.co/ and feature film; 2. Engaging in a multilingual grassroots organizing and social media campaign; 3. The creation of a resource and advocacy library and 4. Social justice activism, we believe we will effect long-term change and social impact.

3. How does the 4-prong strategy work together to make social change?

We see BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK as a unique artistic project for social change.

§ We see the solicitation of video footage, photographs, and artwork as the first level of engagement for a longer-term strategy of creating a feature length documentary on the gentrification of Brooklyn.

§ People viewing the video and photo archive will have access to our housing, legal and advocacy resource library, which is organized by neighborhood.

§ We will also provide news articles and research so that community residents will have the latest information about gentrification.

§ Most importantly we want to support and aid existing community organizing efforts for affordable housing and against gentrification by getting more people involved in social justice activism in their neighborhoods. In 2014 , B4G launched a series of communities of forum

4. What is a self-documentary project?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK wants everyday people to shoot and submit short videos, photos, and artwork that document and celebrate life in Brooklyn.

§ We want people to use accessible technology like their smartphones and cameras to interview their family members and neighbors about what it was like to grow up in Brooklyn or when they first arrived from Haiti, Bangladesh, Puerto Rico, Italy, Korea or elsewhere. We want people to take pictures and videos of The Norwegian-American Parade on Bay Ridge Ave, The Brooklyn Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Trans Pride March on Fifth Ave and The Caribbean Day Parade on Eastern Parkway. We want footage of Old-Timers events in Red Hook, Brownsville and Bushwick. We want people to send us videos of your Quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, high school graduations, weddings, baby showers, and Lunar New Year celebrations.

§ Along with people’s celebrations of Brooklyn life, we also want photos and video that document the changes in neighborhoods due to gentrification. From the closing of small businesses to the construction of luxury condos, we want your footage. We want people to document their stories about the unjust practices used by property owners and developers that are forcing people out of their homes. We want to see pictures of the unsafe and hazardous conditions that many Brooklyn tenants endure. We also want to see footage of all the ways that communities are responding to gentrification in their neighborhoods—from organizing meetings and rallies on affordable housing to the rent parties and fundraisers to save a neighbor’s home or community center.

5. Why are we doing this project in the first place?

§ Roughly 2.6 million people live in Brooklyn. It is the most densely populated borough of New York, rich in cultural, social, and linguistic diversity. It is also boosts the 2nd highest cost of the living in the country after Manhattan yet 1 out of 5 residents live below the poverty line. [1]

§ We want to break the isolation that comes with coping with the effects gentrification on your own and provide people the hope that comes when we stand together to make social change. In these difficult economic times, regardless of whether you rent or own, we all want an affordable place to call home. While the Brooklyn housing crisis is a hot button topic in the media, most community residents do not have a forum to express their feelings about this unfolding development. For most of us, as tenants and homeowners, we are left to cope on our own with skyrocketing rents, rampant foreclosures, and the fear of displacement from our communities. To add insult to injury, Brooklyn is sometimes depicted in the press as “uncharted” territory, where only what is “new” and “trendy” is culturally relevant, artistic, and/ or quintessentially Brooklyn. For all these reasons and more, we believe it is urgent and necessary to mount a large-scale Brooklyn-wide community response to the crisis of gentrification.

6. How will the project help people who don’t live in Brooklyn ?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK will also offer news articles, social media blogs, and statistical data about gentrification in Brooklyn, the five boroughs of New York, across the US and internationally. This is currently happening on the BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/BeforeItsGoneTakeItBack

§ The website will feature research, news articles, and information about intersectional oppressions interplays with gentrification and affect our communities. We want to demonstrate how historic systemic oppression, along with negative governmental policies and law enforcement practices like Stop and Frisk furthers the agenda of gentrification.

§ The website will also include a “Wall of Shame” section to expose greedy corporations, real estate developers and landlords whose lust for profit, for example orchestrates the tearing down of low-income or senior housing to build luxury apartments. We will also use this section to highlight current lawsuits brought against landlords by tenants.

§ Another section of the website will be devoted to best practices for building better alliances among neighbors. Entitled, “I want to be part of the solution: How to live in a consciously anti-oppressive way in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods” will offer tips, political writings, and resources for strengthening the cultural awareness of both new and long-time residents.

7. What do we hope to achieve?

§ We have no illusion that our website hub documentary project alone, will stop the multinational corporations and real estate developers’ rapid efforts to gentrify the borough. What we are determined to do is to create a community response large enough that it will slow down and impede their process. By utilizing a broad strategy utilizes four major components: 1. The creation of a documentary archive and feature film; 2. Engaging in a multilingual grassroots organizing and social media campaign; 3. The creation of a resource and advocacy library and 4. Social justice activism we believe we will effect long-term change and social impact.

8. What is The “International Anti-Gentrification Selfie” campaign?

§ We believe that gentrification is a worldwide issue and wanted demonstrate the struggle for affordable housing across the US and the around the world. To date there are over 90 pictures and videos that have been sent in to our International Anti-Gentrification Selfie Campaign that fit into 2 criteria: 1. a PHOTO of a person holding a sign with the words “Before It’s Gone // Take It Back” featuring their neighborhood, city, or country OR 2. a short VIDEO of why they support the project and/or their thoughts about affordable housing and/or against corporate gentrification in their area.

Who is Equality for Flatbush?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK is a Brooklyn-wide project of The Equality for Flatbush Project, (E4F) a new people of color-led multi-national grassroots organization which does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in the Flatbush and East Flatbush sections of Brooklyn, NY. Equality for Flatbush was founded in June of 2013 and is a volunteer–run organization. We seek to organize our communities for social change and justice through street outreach, social media campaigns, political advocacy and direct action.

9. Who are the Before It’s Gone Collaborators?

§ BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK is voluntarily staffed by a multinational, multi-gendered, inter-generational group of New York City residents many of whom have personally experienced displacement or housing discrimination because of gentrification. These are people who agree to commit 4 hours a week for 3 months or more to the project. They are highly skilled web, film, fundraising, community organizing, and social media professionals who believe in this project. There are also project collaborators who are volunteering their services from other parts of the US and other countries.

10. Why are we raising money?

On May 20th 2014, we began an Indiegogo campaign to raise 15K for the project, which ended on July 19th 2014. Roughly $9,000 was raised in online donations and checks for the projects mostly from Brooklyn residents. While in general most of the money came from New York City residents, donations were sent from all over the US and as far as Australia. On July 23rd a Go Fund Me campaign was started to continue to raise $12,000 for the project.

§ We are raising money in order 1.To build, design, and maintain a website with enough bandwidth to host videos and photos; 2. To utilize the most interactive technology so our website is easy to navigate and use; 3.To our promotional materials translated so we can launch our multilingual grassroots organizing and social media campaigns this summer; 4.To ensure BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK palm cards and stickers get into every coffee shop, beauty salon, barber shop, mosque, temple, church, and community center in neighborhoods across Brooklyn to assure that our project reflects the borough’s diversity.

We are also in the process of writing grants with the hope of one day being able to offer modest stipends to our fabulous organizing and administrative teams so they can put in the hours of labor needed to make the project happen.

11. Who is Imani Keith Henry and why did he create BEFORE IT’S GONE // TAKE IT BACK?

§ Imani first moved from Boston to New York City in 1993. He is the first to be born in the US of either side of his working class Jamaican family. Imani has lived full-time in Brooklyn since 1998 and in the Flatbush community since 2002.

For over 20 years, Imani Henry has worked as a social service professional and community organizer in the cities of New York and Boston. Since 1992, he has worked as an organizational development consultant and cultural competency trainer providing technical assistance to private businesses, educational institutions, hospitals, community organizations and direct service agencies. As a playwright, performer and guest lecturer Imani has toured across the US and internationally. His fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in several publications including the books, Does Your Mama Know; Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 years of Black LGBT Writing; and Marxism, Reparations and the Black Freedom Struggle. Imani is also a journalist, known for progressive coverage of various domestic and international issues. In 2013, Imani founded The Equality for Flatbush Project, which does grassroots anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in Brooklyn, NY. Imani holds both a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public Administration from New York University.

§ This project’s launching was inspired by the 25-year anniversary of Spike Lee’s Do Right Thing in 2014, and how due to drastic changes of gentrification, that movie is now a historic document of the social, cultural and political significance of the neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant for peoples of African descent. The movie was released on June 30 1989.

[1] Kotkin, Joel. “The Hollow Boom Of Brooklyn: Behind Veneer Of Gentrification, Life Gets Worse For Many.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25

Equality for Flatbush

Contact us:

Equality for Flatbush 237 Flatbush Ave #193 Brooklyn, NY 11217

flatbushequality@gmail.com or call /text(646)820-6039

En Español (513) 445-8532

to Get Involved with us:

http://equalityforflatbush.tumblr.com/

facebook.com/BeforeItsGoneTakeItBack

‪#‎Beforeitsgone‬ #NoEvictionZone #NoGentrificationZone ‪#‎Takeitback‬ ‪‬ ‪#‎TakeBackBrooklyn ‪#‎BrooklynIsOURS‬ ‪#‎BKfightsback‬ ‪#‎Gentrification‬ ‪#‎EqualityforFlatbush‬ ‪#‎Brooklyn‬

Google Groups:

Open to the Flatbush/East Flatbush residents and supporters: equality-for-flatbush-organizing-list@googlegroups.com

Open to All Brooklyn Residents and Organizers

b4g-volunteers@googlegroups.com

Support us:

http://www.gofundme.com/Before-Its-Gone