By Praxis and practice are what we humans do, and even then, perfect is only an illusion. Folks, I would like to start this first public long-form update of the calendar year with a poem. I am a ghost of lives present. A ghost of the carceral and racist and classist
I’m actually good at selling things. But defying gentrification is really a movement.
Thoughts and reflections as I turn 40 this week, and learn how to dwell at peace in space. In my fifth week of working in mall retail for the first time, I have learned that I am excellent at selling things. Actual things, like soap shaped like balls. And sometimes pink
Defying Gentrification Demands I Tell My Truths and We All Stay Generous
Since my last email where I talked about being soft evicted, picking up work at the mall for the holidays, moving in temporarily with one of my best friends, and battling with IngramSpark so my book could come out, and getting but possibly not being able to use a DC
On Releasing The Defying Gentrification Playbook and Letting It Pivot Me Into My Next Chapter
Just days after I uploaded my final copy of The Defying Gentrification Playbook to IngramSpark, so that it can be in your hands by December 16, I received spectacular news and terrible news. Pre-Order on Bookshop First, the spectacular news. I’m a DC Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grantee for the fiscal
The Defying Gentrification E-Book Pre Order Is Here
This is a book written, typeset, and designed by me.
It’s the rawest, most real thing I ever expected to write for professional consumption.
And it’s the book I’ve needed for myself as I’ve done my best to defy gentrification, that refuses to be destroyed.
So many Black folks, especially the women and other gender marginalized ones, are heads of households, but those households don’t get enough salary and benefits to really thrive.
We get called welfare queens and uppity for just wanting a decent place for us and those we care about to lay our heads.
Many of us, despite working since our teenage years, cannot afford the average market-rate apartment or home in any US city or state.
And, as someone who’s been in rooms with some of the real estate and development decision makers, many who can’t comprehend folks that can’t afford their products, I decided it was time to get real about what’s needed to make sure Black folks are housed.
And, instead of just yelling at those folks in that room, I made sure that I gave gentle advice and encouragement to my fellow sista-siblings, that we aren’t broken and we are enough.
Housing is a human right, and there are more than enough things to use to play with money and build our wealth. Our backs, without our full consent, are not one of them.
So here I am, publishing what I think is the first self-help architecture and planning workbook for Black folks of marginalized genders (and the people that love and support them).
I’m Autistic, I Have Trust Issues, and I’m Self-Publishing My Defying Gentrification Playbook on December 16, 2025
Regular readers and longtime supporters. I told you I would come back to this newsletter when I had a date for pre-orders and a place to launch the book. Well, I do have a release date, December 16, 2025, the Tuesday after my birthday. And in my next email, you’ll
Yes, gentrification is fascism. But it’s not too late to shut down both.
Listen/watch an annotated version of this newsletter above or on your favorite podcast player. https://youtu.be/MsfnWGbPr7E Yes, gentrification is fascism and I don’t need to cite any other sources besides my own life experience to say it. I will include this link to the Hampton Insittute’s policy paper from 2021 that makes
On The Radical Faith It Takes To Defy Gentrification
Welcome back to Defying Gentrification, Crafting Liberation — an art, design, and policy newsletter/journal of myself Kristen Jeffers, a Black queer feminist disabled millennial (US southern)urbanist. In each of these newsletters, I share a reflection on how I see one of my six principles of Defying Gentrification work in my
This is my house. And in it, I get to defy gentrification my way, all day, every day.
In my last email/post, I had all but given up on this idea of defying gentrification. Then it hit me, my very existence in a world hostile to everything I am is defiance. I am enough. And when I thought about that I was like hey, there’s still something I
I Wish I Really Could Defy Gentrification in 2024
Hey y’all. I haven’t felt jolly for months, years even, and all of my wishes for you this year, have been very profane and anguish-ridden. I wanted to spare y’all those, but I did let loose in a semi-private online forum. Also, my apologies for ghosting y’all here. Technical difficulties
