(Listen to this post as a podcast above)Welcome back to our Black August series. This week, I’m sharing how I know what I can and can’t control and how that (and the Defying Gentrification Manifesto) are different based on what resources we all have. Let’s tap in for the week!Defying Gentrification would be easy if I had a magic wand.People would have clean, reliable public transit at their door; they would have a basic, humane living situation, subsidized as needed, so that construction and operating costs are adjusted based on income.Said incomes would be equal and equitable, inclusive of reparations for communities marginalized by slavery and other underpayment schemes. Finally, people would love each other unconditionally, and that love would repair so many ideas about body autonomy, creativity, and freedom of movement and existence.But we live in the world we are in.Yet, I know that expressing these words on paper helps me visualize a better world and visualize how I can bring that better world out with both my unique gifts and despite my limitations.Introducing again, my Defying Gentrification Manifesto.I can have faith. I can create and cultivate. I can take care of myself. However, I need community care, infrastructure, access, and convenience to defy gentrification.So how does this connect with the circle of control?The circle of control has origins in several mental and emotional therapeutic practices, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheet/circle-of-control">Therapist Aid</a>.There are two circles, one inside of the other. Inside the circle are the things you can control, and outside of the circle are the things you can’t control.Per the manifesto, I put faith, creation and cultivation, and self-care inside the circle. Community care, access, infrastructure, and convenience are outside.To make that determination, I used money. I need money for the things outside of the circle to defy gentrification, and I can do the things inside of the circle for free.Each person’s circle of control is different. Just like your version of the Defying Gentrification Manifesto may be different, depending on what resources, energies, and life experiences you have. However, you should be mindful that you are listing things you do control, not bypassing things you don’t want to control.If you are a real estate developer who wants to actually provide housing and build community, your manifesto and your circle of control will be different from mine.You have access to capital and probably expertise in building homes, so infrastructure, access, convenience, and community care would all be inside your circle.I can watch YouTubers who build houses. I could join a city program to teach me how to build homes. I could convince a bank to let me build an apartment building. But I haven’t done those things before, and the barrier to entry for me doing them in the midnight hour, when I am in despair about not making enough money or being the kind of person who places want to hire to do a job, is high.However, I’m learning how to be a better prospector and resource-generator, so that I can cultivate and create those kinds of opportunities. But for right now. I can do that with yarn because I have so much of it, rather than wood or even my words.When I’m in despair, I can drive to the Canton Waterfront Park and park, then observe the Patapsco River, much like I used to drive to the Tanger Outlets at National Harbor to have prime access to the Potomac. Or I’d walk to the older areas of the Southwest waterfront and look out to the intersecton of the Anacostia and the Potomac.As my friend Phrie says often, water is the true gateway to our cities.Water often reminds us that it can take over the land whenever it feels like and that we can’t always control it. When we try to control it, like what’s happening with these over-indulging data centers, it becomes scarce.But the things we can control, and control in a way that enhances our natural spaces, then our community building, we absolutely should control.And i realize now that I don’t need to despair when I don’t get press calls or even the money I’d like to have.I can always type on this newsletter and send it out. I can make a portfolio website for free so you can see all that I have done. You all can go paid on said newsletter. I can make my own clothes, do my own hair, and cook my own food.And I can have faith that one day more things will fall into my circle of control and others will recognize what they need to be controlling, for our wellbeing.Next time, I’m going to talk about how I’m determined to continue to be visible in my work, so that folks don’t discover that I was a Black queer feminist disabled urbanist from the South after my death, the way that June Jordan’s contributions to urbanism are erased.Before you go, make plans to join me virtually at 7:30 pm Eastern on this Thursday, August 20 for the inaugural Making New Fantasies: A Workshop in the Pursuit of Defying Gentrification. <a target="_blank" href="https://partiful.com/e/veshU11KwadfF51pboLj?f=1&photo=all">Learn more and register here!</a> We’ll do this again, so stay tuned for more dates. And purchase a PDF copy of the full Playbook <a target="_blank" href="https://5995039007095.gumroad.com/l/thedefyinggentrificationplaybookpdf">here</a>. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe</a>

(Listen to this post as a podcast above) Welcome back to our Black August series. This week, I’m sharing how I know what I can and can’t control and how that (and the Defying Gentrification Manifesto) are different based on what resources we all have. Let’s tap in for the week! Defying Gentrification would be easy if I had a magic wand. People would have clean, reliable public transit at their door; they would have a basic, humane living situation, subsidized as needed, so that construction and operating costs are adjusted based on income. Said incomes would be equal and equitable, inclusive of reparations for communities marginalized by slavery and other underpayment schemes. Finally, people would love each other unconditionally, and that love would repair so many ideas about body autonomy, creativity, and freedom of movement and existence. But we live in the world we are in. Yet, I know that expressing these words on paper helps me visualize a better world and visualize how I can bring that better world out with both my unique gifts and despite my limitations. Introducing again, my Defying Gentrification Manifesto. I can have faith. I can create and cultivate. I can take care of myself. However, I need community care, infrastructure, access, and convenience to defy gentrification. So how does this connect with the circle of control? The circle of control has origins in several mental and emotional therapeutic practices, according to Therapist Aid. There are two circles, one inside of the other. Inside the circle are the things you can control, and outside of the circle are the things you can’t control. Per the manifesto, I put faith, creation and cultivation, and self-care inside the circle. Community care, access, infrastructure, and convenience are outside. To make that determination, I used money. I need money for the things outside of the circle to defy gentrification, and I can do the things inside of the circle for free. Each person’s circle of control is different. Just like your version of the Defying Gentrification Manifesto may be different, depending on what resources, energies, and life experiences you have. However, you should be mindful that you are listing things you do control, not bypassing things you don’t want to control. If you are a real estate developer who wants to actually provide housing and build community, your manifesto and your circle of control will be different from mine. You have access to capital and probably expertise in building homes, so infrastructure, access, convenience, and community care would all be inside your circle. I can watch YouTubers who build houses. I could join a city program to teach me how to build homes. I could convince a bank to let me build an apartment building. But I haven’t done those things before, and the barrier to entry for me doing them in the midnight hour, when I am in despair about not making enough money or being the kind of person who places want to hire to do a job, is high. However, I’m learning how to be a better prospector and resource-generator, so that I can cultivate and create those kinds of opportunities. But for right now. I can do that with yarn because I have so much of it, rather than wood or even my words. When I’m in despair, I can drive to the Canton Waterfront Park and park, then observe the Patapsco River, much like I used to drive to the Tanger Outlets at National Harbor to have prime access to the Potomac. Or I’d walk to the older areas of the Southwest waterfront and look out to the intersecton of the Anacostia and the Potomac. As my friend Phrie says often, water is the true gateway to our cities. Water often reminds us that it can take over the land whenever it feels like and that we can’t always control it. When we try to control it, like what’s happening with these over-indulging data centers, it becomes scarce. But the things we can control, and control in a way that enhances our natural spaces, then our community building, we absolutely should control. And i realize now that I don’t need to despair when I don’t get press calls or even the money I’d like to have. I can always type on this newsletter and send it out. I can make a portfolio website for free so you can see all that I have done. You all can go paid on said newsletter. I can make my own clothes, do my own hair, and cook my own food. And I can have faith that one day more things will fall into my circle of control and others will recognize what they need to be controlling, for our wellbeing. Next time, I’m going to talk about how I’m determined to continue to be visible in my work, so that folks don’t discover that I was a Black queer feminist disabled urbanist from the South after my death, the way that June Jordan’s contributions to urbanism are erased. Before you go, make plans to join me virtually at 7:30 pm Eastern on this Thursday, August 20 for the inaugural Making New Fantasies: A Workshop in the Pursuit of Defying Gentrification. Learn more and register here! We’ll do this again, so stay tuned for more dates. And purchase a PDF copy of the full Playbook here. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

(Listen to this post as a podcast above)Welcome back to our Black August series. This week, I’m sharing how I know what I can and can’t control and how that (and the Defying Gentrification Manifesto) are different based on what resources we all have. Let’s tap in for the week!Defying Gentrification would be easy if I had a magic wand.People would have clean, reliable public transit at their door; they would have a basic, humane living situation, subsidized as needed, so that construction and operating costs are adjusted based on income.Said incomes would be equal and equitable, inclusive of reparations for communities marginalized by slavery and other underpayment schemes. Finally, people would love each other unconditionally, and that love would repair so many ideas about body autonomy, creativity, and freedom of movement and existence.But we live in the world we are in.Yet, I know that expressing these words on paper helps me visualize a better world and visualize how I can bring that better world out with both my unique gifts and despite my limitations.Introducing again, my Defying Gentrification Manifesto.I can have faith. I can create and cultivate. I can take care of myself. However, I need community care, infrastructure, access, and convenience to defy gentrification.So how does this connect with the circle of control?The circle of control has origins in several mental and emotional therapeutic practices, according to <a href="https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheet/circle-of-control" rel="noopener noreferrer">Therapist Aid</a>.There are two circles, one inside of the other. Inside the circle are the things you can control, and outside of the circle are the things you can’t control.Per the manifesto, I put faith, creation and cultivation, and self-care inside the circle. Community care, access, infrastructure, and convenience are outside.To make that determination, I used money. I need money for the things outside of the circle to defy gentrification, and I can do the things inside of the circle for free.Each person’s circle of control is different. Just like your version of the Defying Gentrification Manifesto may be different, depending on what resources, energies, and life experiences you have. However, you should be mindful that you are listing things you do control, not bypassing things you don’t want to control.If you are a real estate developer who wants to actually provide housing and build community, your manifesto and your circle of control will be different from mine.You have access to capital and probably expertise in building homes, so infrastructure, access, convenience, and community care would all be inside your circle.I can watch YouTubers who build houses. I could join a city program to teach me how to build homes. I could convince a bank to let me build an apartment building. But I haven’t done those things before, and the barrier to entry for me doing them in the midnight hour, when I am in despair about not making enough money or being the kind of person who places want to hire to do a job, is high.However, I’m learning how to be a better prospector and resource-generator, so that I can cultivate and create those kinds of opportunities. But for right now. I can do that with yarn because I have so much of it, rather than wood or even my words.When I’m in despair, I can drive to the Canton Waterfront Park and park, then observe the Patapsco River, much like I used to drive to the Tanger Outlets at National Harbor to have prime access to the Potomac. Or I’d walk to the older areas of the Southwest waterfront and look out to the intersecton of the Anacostia and the Potomac.As my friend Phrie says often, water is the true gateway to our cities.Water often reminds us that it can take over the land whenever it feels like and that we can’t always control it. When we try to control it, like what’s happening with these over-indulging data centers, it becomes scarce.But the things we can control, and control in a way that enhances our natural spaces, then our community building, we absolutely should control.And i realize now that I don’t need to despair when I don’t get press calls or even the money I’d like to have.I can always type on this newsletter and send it out. I can make a portfolio website for free so you can see all that I have done. You all can go paid on said newsletter. I can make my own clothes, do my own hair, and cook my own food.And I can have faith that one day more things will fall into my circle of control and others will recognize what they need to be controlling, for our wellbeing.Next time, I’m going to talk about how I’m determined to continue to be visible in my work, so that folks don’t discover that I was a Black queer feminist disabled urbanist from the South after my death, the way that June Jordan’s contributions to urbanism are erased.Before you go, make plans to join me virtually at 7:30 pm Eastern on this Thursday, August 20 for the inaugural Making New Fantasies: A Workshop in the Pursuit of Defying Gentrification. <a href="https://partiful.com/e/veshU11KwadfF51pboLj?f=1&amp;photo=all" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more and register here!</a> We’ll do this again, so stay tuned for more dates. And purchase a PDF copy of the full Playbook <a href="https://5995039007095.gumroad.com/l/thedefyinggentrificationplaybookpdf" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_4" rel="noopener noreferrer">theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe</a>

Knowing what I can control is how I continue to defy gentrification.

Kristen Jeffers, a Black Queer Feminist Disabled person from North Carolina living in the Baltimore-DC metro region ("the DMV") loves cities. But, she's tired of the rent being too high, transit being nonexistent and Black lives not mattering at all in most cities, even though we created many of the arts and cultural institutions in them. Learn more about how she will be using this podcast to discuss hot topics and resources to help defy AND eradicate gentrification. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe</a>

Kristen Jeffers, a Black Queer Feminist Disabled person from North Carolina living in the Baltimore-DC metro region ("the DMV") loves cities. But, she's tired of the rent being too high, transit being nonexistent and Black lives not mattering at all in most cities, even though we created many of the arts and cultural institutions in them. Learn more about how she will be using this podcast to discuss hot topics and resources to help defy AND eradicate gentrification. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Kristen Jeffers, a Black Queer Feminist Disabled person from North Carolina living in the Baltimore-DC metro region ("the DMV") loves cities. But, she's tired of the rent being too high, transit being nonexistent and Black lives not mattering at all in most cities, even though we created many of the arts and cultural institutions in them. Learn more about how she will be using this podcast to discuss hot topics and resources to help defy AND eradicate gentrification. Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_4" rel="noopener noreferrer">theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe</a>

Trailer: Introducing Defying Gentrification

Love living in cities, but tired of feeling like you don't belong or don't understand why and how they work? Want to understand more about what gentrification means and how to both defy and eradicate it? 

Join me, Kristen Jeffers, Black queer feminist, disabled, urbanist essayist, editor, and urban planner from the South, living in the MidAtlantic, each week, along with some special guests, to discuss gentrification: what it is, and what it isn't, and how we as Black folks and our co-conspirators, can not just survive on a changing planet but thrive.

We'll discuss hot topics in urban planning, real estate,  housing, and transportation. We will teach you everything you need to know about complex and complicated topics in the field, so you can be equipped to help your community thrive.

We are committed to justice and liberation and we hope you'll feel better and empowered after listening. 

Follow Kristen

X, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads

@blackurbanist

LinkedIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenejeffers/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@defyinggentrification <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">theblackurbanist.substack.com</a>

Arts

Government

Design

Love living in cities, but tired of feeling like you don't belong or don't understand why and how they work? Want to understand more about what gentrification means and how to both defy and eradicate it? Join me, Kristen Jeffers, Black queer feminist, disabled, urbanist essayist, editor, and urban planner from the South, living in the MidAtlantic, each week, along with some special guests, to discuss gentrification: what it is, and what it isn't, and how we as Black folks and our co-conspirators, can not just survive on a changing planet but thrive. We'll discuss hot topics in urban planning, real estate, housing, and transportation. We will teach you everything you need to know about complex and complicated topics in the field, so you can be equipped to help your community thrive. We are committed to justice and liberation and we hope you'll feel better and empowered after listening. Follow Kristen X, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads @blackurbanist LinkedIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenejeffers/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@defyinggentrification theblackurbanist.substack.com

Love living in cities, but tired of feeling like you don't belong or don't understand why and how they work? Want to understand more about what gentrification means and how to both defy and eradicate it?&nbsp;

Join me, Kristen Jeffers, Black queer feminist, disabled, urbanist essayist, editor, and urban planner from the South, living in the MidAtlantic, each week, along with some special guests, to discuss gentrification: what it is, and what it isn't, and how we as Black folks and our co-conspirators, can not just survive on a changing planet but thrive.

We'll discuss hot topics in urban planning, real estate, &nbsp;housing, and transportation. We will teach you everything you need to know about complex and complicated topics in the field, so you can be equipped to help your community thrive.

We are committed to justice and liberation and we hope you'll feel better and empowered after listening.&nbsp;

Follow Kristen

X, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads

@blackurbanist

LinkedIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenejeffers/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@defyinggentrification <a href="https://theblackurbanist.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer">theblackurbanist.substack.com</a>

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