The Black Queen Amidst Gentrification

Apr 2

Photographer May Naibo and Model/Stylist Chi Ilochi showcase hope and light for the victims of gentrified neighborhoods with their series "The Black Queen Amidst Gentrification."

Photographed by May Naibo
Featuring, Written, & Styled by Chi Ilochi

Gentrification is the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. Nearly twenty percent of neighborhoods with lower incomes and home values have experienced gentrification since 2000. Forty percent of these neighborhoods, gentrified by 2013, have displaced more than twenty thousand people. While these statistics are disheartening I believe there’s still hope and light for the victims of gentrified neighborhoods and I wanted to showcase that in these images you see before you. It is important for victims of gentrification to see beauty, progress, and courage in their displacement. Realizing that a bad chapter in their life isn’t the end of their story but the beginning of a better one can and will change the entire narrative of a person's life.