Sidik Fofana addresses how complicated gentrification is in debut story collection

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Sidik Fofana's short story collection can be best described as "addressing the notion that gentrification is complicated." Those were Fofana's words to NPR's Daniel Estrin as they talked about his debut book, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. Fofana, who's also a public school teacher, uses the emotions he's felt growing up and situations of other people he's known, to ask: "How would I feel if this happened to me?" He writes them down in his collection as distinct voices and characters struggling to get by in a fictional high rise building in Harlem.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Big, big respect for the short story on the pod today.
0:09.7	Novels do end up taking up a lot of the spotlight when talking about books, and of course, we're guilty of that too.
0:16.4	But today's guest, Sadiq Fafana, just put out his first short story collection. It's called
0:21.1	Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. And it's all about these different characters who all live
0:25.8	in the same building in Harlem. A lot of the early reviews so far have praised Fofana's
0:30.6	ability to jump wholeheartedly into the different voices of his characters. And he talked to NPR's
0:36.4	Daniel Estrin about being obsessed with all the different ways
0:40.1	people could talk, even within one neighborhood.
0:43.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:47.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:54.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:58.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:02.1	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:08.0	Days left, 10. Money you got, zero dollars. Money you need, $350.
1:15.4	That is the first line of an electrifying debut collection of short stories by writer and public school teacher, Sadiq Fofana.
1:23.9	It's called Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. All but one story are told by a different resident
1:30.0	in a fictional high-rise building in Harlem. Many of the black residents are struggling to get by,
1:35.6	and they have very distinct voices. The first is Mimi. Bannicker Terrace on 129th and Fred Doug
1:42.8	ain't pretty, but is home.
1:45.1	Until now, it's been the same since you moved here when you was pregnant with fortune.
1:50.2	25 floors, 300-something apartments.
1:54.8	Four elevators that got mines that they own, laundry full of machines that don't wash clothes right,
	...

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