The Last House on the Block Author Event

Come meet Sharon Cornelissen author of The Last House on the Block: Black Homeowners, White Homesteaders, and Failed Gentrification in Detroit here in Detroit. We welcome the community to a rich conversation about the book. The wounds of displacement and uneven development is real here in the city. We hope the discussion will give insight and hope to readers.

You can join this event with a free or book ticket at this link. The book ticket will come with a copy of the The Last House of the Block. The event will include a conversation about the book, time for questions and a booksigning line.

About the Book:

Gentrification is not inevitable, reveals Sharon Cornelissen, in this surprising, close look at the Detroit neighborhood of Brightmoor and the harsh reality of depopulation and urban decline.

In the minds of many, Detroit is undergoing a renaissance thanks to gentrifying urbanites who’ve been drawn to the city with the promise of cheap housing and thriving culture. But what happens when gentrification attempts to come to one of the most depopulated neighborhoods in the country—a place where every other property in the neighborhood was a vacant lot and every third house stood empty? To find out, Sharon Cornelissen moved to the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit for three years and became the owner of a $7,000 house.

The Last House on the Block takes us to Brightmoor to meet Cornelissen’s fellow residents. She introduces us to the long-time residents of the neighborhood who reveal their struggles to keep a home while keeping violence, tall grass, and yes—gentrification—at bay.

About the Author:

Sharon Cornelissen is a sociologist and national housing expert. As director of housing at the Consumer Federation of America, she leads research and advocacy to help end our housing crisis. She received her doctorate in sociology from Princeton University and previously worked at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Originally from the Netherlands, she now lives in Washington DC.

In Conversation with ~

Malachi Barret is a mission-oriented reporter working to liberate information for Detroiters. Barrett previously worked for MLive covering local news and statewide politics in Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Detroit. He was named Michigan’s 2019 Newspaper Rising Star by the Associated Press. Barrett graduated from Central Michigan University in 2016. Barrett lives in Detroit's Pingree Park neighborhood on the eastside with his wife. He's mostly from Battle Creek, but also lived in California, Wisconsin, West Virginia, South Carolina and Japan.

“This myth-busting book turns the familiar narrative of urban gentrification on its head. It reminds us that there is nothing inevitable about neighborhood change and that the truth on the ground is nearly always more interesting and more complicated than simple stereotypes would suggest. Crucially, it tells a story of neighborhood change that has been ignored: the story of change in the depopulated city.”-Kathryn J. Edin, Princeton University