After our class discussion on gentrification, the arts, and the price of free art, I was reminded of Sarah Schulman’s brilliant book The Gentrification of the Mind. In this book, Schulman stunningly connects AIDS in the 1980s to processes of gentrification, personal loss, artistic production, local and national politics, and broader cultural shifts.
Here is a review essay from the Los Angeles Review of Books that offers a fair-minded critique of the book’s central arguments.
I think you will find her arguments provocative and generative even if you do not necessarily agree with her conclusions. Consider the implications of the processes of replacement that the review essay highlights from the book.