For the family of four who lives in one room because they can't afford even a studio apartment...
For the two people who committed suicide when they realized they couldn't stop their eviction...
For a near future in which elders are respected and not thrown onto the streets…
For a world in which people are valued more than capital…
These are some of the many dedications I’ve collected from friends, housing rights organizers and folks facing eviction proclaiming why we are fighting displacement fueled by the tech boom. This ongoing project reclaims the buzzword “disrupt” from the tech industry, which flouts its responsibility in unsettling lives and livelihoods. It addresses what’s been lost and what’s at risk of being uprooted as the eviction crisis worsens. The submissions are etched onto bricks from Bay Area demolitions and displayed at sites throughout SF and Oakland.
The project was initially enacted as an intervention at Tech Crunch's Disrupt conference and through SF city streets. The public was invited to touch and read the weighted objects, which were for sale for one’s hourly wage or the hourly gain of one’s net wealth (half of that price if a person had been evicted). Conversations emerged regarding inequality, who is valued in the city, who is deemed replaceable and what is lost as our long-time communities are displaced.
Regarding Uber's move to downtown Oakland, Mayor Schaaf recently said, "Oakland has mad love for disruptors." It isn't clear for whom she is speaking, but it is certainly time to disrupt the inequality, real estate speculation and evictions destroying our neighborhoods. Thus,
Reclaim Disrupt is starting a new phase in Oakland and will become a mobile community archive. If you have dedications to people or places that have been displaced or reasons why you're fighting to stay in the Bay, please submit them via the contact page. If you'd like to bring the bricks to a particular event or site, please contact me. Should a piece of the archive ever be sold, funds will benefit creative direct action and know your rights workshops or will be used to maintain and expand the project.
With love and bricks,
leslie dreyer
...
For the children who were pulled out of school mid-year because of an eviction...
For every apartment that used to be a family home but now is an illegal vacation rental...
For the displaced dishwasher who had to buy a car now that they have to commute from Vallejo to their minimum wage job in the city...
For the homeless who are increasingly criminalized...
For the 98-year old who is being evicted from her home of 50 years by real estate speculators...
For the three art galleries displaced from downtown by a startup who offered their landlord 3x the rent...
For a city and culture that cares for and prioritizes the most marginalized, destitute, disenfranchised, hopeless, and vulnerable among us…
For the homegrown, the family-run, the queer, the working class…
For all of us not some...
For a city in which human rights are valued above property rights…
For a culture that doesn't allow corporations, politicians, militarized police forces and the NSA to feed off our repression…
For the relationships built and solidarity strengthened among the ruins of our beloved homes, neighborhoods, cultural institutions, favorite dive bars, bookstores…
For a city of waves, not particles.
For love not money…
For all the chosen families who are determined to stay together despite the brutal forces trying to rip them apart…
For the visions of our collective resistance…
For the creation and sustenance of the city as a refuge and place to build alternatives to capitalism and imperialism...
...
For the two people who committed suicide when they realized they couldn't stop their eviction...
For a near future in which elders are respected and not thrown onto the streets…
For a world in which people are valued more than capital…
These are some of the many dedications I’ve collected from friends, housing rights organizers and folks facing eviction proclaiming why we are fighting displacement fueled by the tech boom. This ongoing project reclaims the buzzword “disrupt” from the tech industry, which flouts its responsibility in unsettling lives and livelihoods. It addresses what’s been lost and what’s at risk of being uprooted as the eviction crisis worsens. The submissions are etched onto bricks from Bay Area demolitions and displayed at sites throughout SF and Oakland.
The project was initially enacted as an intervention at Tech Crunch's Disrupt conference and through SF city streets. The public was invited to touch and read the weighted objects, which were for sale for one’s hourly wage or the hourly gain of one’s net wealth (half of that price if a person had been evicted). Conversations emerged regarding inequality, who is valued in the city, who is deemed replaceable and what is lost as our long-time communities are displaced.
Regarding Uber's move to downtown Oakland, Mayor Schaaf recently said, "Oakland has mad love for disruptors." It isn't clear for whom she is speaking, but it is certainly time to disrupt the inequality, real estate speculation and evictions destroying our neighborhoods. Thus,
Reclaim Disrupt is starting a new phase in Oakland and will become a mobile community archive. If you have dedications to people or places that have been displaced or reasons why you're fighting to stay in the Bay, please submit them via the contact page. If you'd like to bring the bricks to a particular event or site, please contact me. Should a piece of the archive ever be sold, funds will benefit creative direct action and know your rights workshops or will be used to maintain and expand the project.
With love and bricks,
leslie dreyer
...
For the children who were pulled out of school mid-year because of an eviction...
For every apartment that used to be a family home but now is an illegal vacation rental...
For the displaced dishwasher who had to buy a car now that they have to commute from Vallejo to their minimum wage job in the city...
For the homeless who are increasingly criminalized...
For the 98-year old who is being evicted from her home of 50 years by real estate speculators...
For the three art galleries displaced from downtown by a startup who offered their landlord 3x the rent...
For a city and culture that cares for and prioritizes the most marginalized, destitute, disenfranchised, hopeless, and vulnerable among us…
For the homegrown, the family-run, the queer, the working class…
For all of us not some...
For a city in which human rights are valued above property rights…
For a culture that doesn't allow corporations, politicians, militarized police forces and the NSA to feed off our repression…
For the relationships built and solidarity strengthened among the ruins of our beloved homes, neighborhoods, cultural institutions, favorite dive bars, bookstores…
For a city of waves, not particles.
For love not money…
For all the chosen families who are determined to stay together despite the brutal forces trying to rip them apart…
For the visions of our collective resistance…
For the creation and sustenance of the city as a refuge and place to build alternatives to capitalism and imperialism...
...