Nathan McCall, Them

Harlem (its boundaries are always disputed, but defined here as 110th to 155th streets, Hudson River to East River) has been experiencing a massive wave of gentrification. Gleaming new condominiums selling in the millions, cafes, restaurants, national chain stores, and expensive boutiques are now ushering in a new era of investment in America's most famous black neighborhood.

My maternal family is originally from Harlem, and I have watched the economic reinvestment transformation occur over the past several years, as a graduate student at both Columbia and NYU. While there is much to applaud in the newfound success stories, the fact remains that Harlem is still a neighborhood with a rich and storied history. Increasingly, there has been vocal opposition by some long-time residents, that they will soon be priced out of their own community. With the rapid onslaught of private developer interest, Columbia University's impending campus expansion in Manhattanville, and proposed zoning changes, it is very much an area that has will be different in the forseeable future.

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to see author African American author Nathan McCall, when he visited the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem to promote his newest book Them. McCall's first novel is about the state of race relations in 2007, through the eyes of both African Americans and white neighbors in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nathan McCall's novel, Them, tells a compelling story set in a downtown Atlanta neighborhood known for its main street, Auburn Avenue, which once was regarded as the "richest Negro street in the world."

The story centers around Barlowe Reed, a single, forty-something African American who rents a ramshackle house on Randolph Street, just a stone's throw from the historic birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Barlowe, who works as a printer, otherwise passes the time reading and hanging out with other men at the corner store. He shares his home and loner existence with a streetwise, twentysomething nephew who is struggling to get his troubled life back on track.

When Sean and Sandy Gilmore, a young white couple, move in next door, Barlowe and Sandy develop a reluctant, complex friendship as they hold probing -- often frustrating -- conversations over the backyard fence.

Members of both households, and their neighbors as well, try to go about their business, tending to their homes and jobs. However, fear and suspicion build -- and clashes ensue -- with each passing day, as more and more new whites move in and make changes and once familiar people and places disappear.

Using a blend of superbly developed characters in a story that captures the essence of this country's struggles with the unsettling realities of gentrification, McCall has produced a truly great American novel.

McCall said he titled the novel, Them because “the word is used ambiguously. It worked now as a reflection of how we view each other. We view others as them, and they view us as them.”

The novel explores the issue of gentrification by using a wide-angled lens with perspectives from all parties involved. “I knew how many of us felt about the issue. I also wanted to explore it from the perspective of whites and others. It is a historic reversal, because we usually talk about white flight. We are now talking about those who have a certain comfort level of living around people of color.”

McCall noted that he chose to set the novel on Auburn Avenue, a neighborhood that once flourished when segregated. “It was one of the most thriving black business districts in Atlanta. Auburn was the richest black street in the world.” He said that while integration was a positive for the civil rights of African Americans, the negative impact was that “the number of black businesses is now dwindling.” The novel according to McCall also reflects the ongoing struggle to understand the impact of gentrification in communities of color. “The book is about an exploration, rather than a conclusion.”

Nathan McCall gives a brief tour of the neighborhood in the old Fourth Ward of Atlanta, which inspired the book, which is on sale now. The video can be found here.

NYC gentrification:

Unaffordable NY: tough choices at $150,000 [Crains NY Business]