Urban Communities as Post-Apocalyptic Settings

As far as Brown is concerned, many abandoned urban communities are postapocalyptic in nature. Such places are rife for community-born transformation. "If you look at cities in the US right now, there are cities or communities in apocalyptic situations," says Brown. She references challenged areas in New York City, New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, Cincinnati, and her new home, Detroit. "Detroit used to be this booming industry town. This used to be a big, booming factory town. You could make a living here, probably a better living if you were a black person than most other places. Now there's seven hundred thousand living in the city proper. That's a huge shift.

When Brown first arrived, her first impression was that it Detroit was in a postapocalyptic state. The town felt as if it had been abandoned, she said. But slowly she recognized the supports and humanity. "It made me look at other cities [with blighted communities] differently. There are people living in places that we associate with the end of the world, but it's not the end of the world, it's the beginning of something else. An economy based on relationships and not the monetary value you can place on someone else."