Ensuring that all community members have a roof over their heads is a valuable but challenging civic pursuit for every city. Nationwide, affordable housing policies are becoming more and more rare. There was a time, however, when subsidized housing was so central to city planning that it facilitated the development of communities that prioritized kinship, mutual aid and art.
In her memoir Just City: Growing Up on the Upper West Side When Housing Was a Human Right, author and filmmaker Jennifer Baum paints an image of this era of New York City by blending personal experience with housing policy analysis. Through narrative, Baum examines her upbringing and the various places she has called home in a way that illustrates the need for deliberate thinking about the housing crisis.
Baum will be visiting Vanderbilt on April 3–4, visiting courses and giving a public talk about her new memoir. She will be in conversation with Professor of Theatre and Curb Center Director Leah Lowe on April 3 at 4:30 p.m., with a reception to follow in the Vanderbilt Library Author’s Room.
This visit is part of The Curb Center’s spring semester programming theme: Art and Democracy. More information about events, guest speakers and programs (including jazz composer Hannibal Lokumbe’s visit and the Windows and Mirrors Curb Scholars showcase) is available online.
Baum’s writing has appeared in New York Daily News, Guernica, Jacobin, The Village Voice, The Phoenix Jewish News, Canadian Jewish Outlook, The Jewish Observer Los Angeles, MUTHA, Hip Mama and NewFound. Her film The Boy Test is available on her website.
Vanderbilt instructors who are interested in having Baum visit their courses should email Curb Center program manager Rachel Thompson at rachel.h.thompson@vanderbilt.edu, and include details about the course and some ideal times on April 3 or April 4.
