Description
Like Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place and Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, Sidik Fofana’s electrifying collection of eight interconnected stories showcases the strengths, struggles, and hopes of one residential community in a powerful storytelling experience.
Each short story follows a tenant in the Banneker Homes, a low-income high rise in Harlem where gentrification weighs on everyone’s mind. There is Swan in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend’s release from prison jeopardizes the life he’s been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, who hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe’s and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can’t seem to escape the building’s gravitational pull. We root for these characters and more as they weave in and out of each other’s lives, endeavoring to escape from their pasts and blaze new paths forward for themselves and the people they love.
Thora Casper @hand.henry_505
January 19, 2023
5
Enlightening. I learned much of what I have wondered about during my life. What it is like to be someone else, their thoughts and feelings. I also learned what it odd like to be trapped in an untenable position, what it is like to tumble down from stardom just before it is reached. I learned what it means to have hopes dashed, and yet be part of a community comprised of people who take you as you are. This is a heart wrenching read, yet I highly recommend it.