Reclaiming Your Community

You Don’t Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One

De: Majora Carter

Narrado por: Majora Carter

Majora Carter shows how brain drain cripples low-status communities and maps out a development strategy focused on talent retention to help them break out of economic stagnation.

How can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have. Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a strong local economy that can resist gentrification. But, too many people born in low-status communities measure their success by how far away from them they can get.

This is a profoundly personal audiobook. Carter writes about her brother’s murder, how turning a local dumping ground into an award-winning park opened her eyes to the hidden potential in her community, her struggles as a woman of color confronting the “male and pale” real estate and nonprofit establishments, and much more. It is a powerful rethinking of poverty, economic development, and the meaning of success.

"My musical, In the Heights, explores issues of community, gentrification, identity and home, and the question: Are happy endings only ones that involve getting out of your neighborhood to achieve your dreams? In her refreshing new book, Majora Carter writes about these issues with great insight and clarity, asking us to re-examine our notions of what community development is and how we invest in the futures of our hometowns. This is an exciting conversation worth joining.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda)

©2022 Majora Carter (P)2022 Majora Carter

Inspirational, relatable and highly guiding call to action. Loved it.

I loved the inclusion of bloopers! Majoras work resonates heavily with me although Im in a questioning stage. I want more for my community. I live in a building with mixed income residents. Around me are two giant structures fraught with problems, 100% low income. I question why we dont offer incentives for existing buildings to convert their rental structure to 30-60-80 units. After listening I have a good guess. Thank you for the inspiration. Im working hard as a union leader at work and will soon retire. I want to do community development work.

Must Read for Rebuilding Neighborhoods

Majora Carter shares her experiences - good and bad - and her vision of “self gentrification” in this compelling narrative.

editing nightmare

I wanted to finish this book and review it based on content but i literally couldn't deal with finishing it, that's how many editing issues there were. Over and over there were random words that were clearly supposed to be edited out, sections repeated but slightly different sometimes? I was trying to have grace for the experience but at a certain point it became really hard to follow what was even being said, and sensory wise it was exhausting.