AISHA COUSINS
June 18, 2016
If This, Then That...
If This, Then That: Collective Writings on the Personal Woes, Discoveries, and Periodic Upsides of Gentrification as Experienced by One Native New Yorker Named Anise. Aisha Cousins asks people to create an open ended “if this, then that” kind of collectively generated story about a young woman named Anise who decides to move into the walls of her beloved home rather than move away with her family when gentrification strikes their neighborhood in the early 1900’s. Anise remains in the neighborhood as it changes and eventually undergoes another wave of gentrification - the one we are experiencing now.
Photography by Stephanie Orentas
Aisha Cousins is a Brooklyn based artist. Her work has been performed on the streets of historically black neighborhoods from BedStuy to Brixton, as well as in conjunction with institutions such as the Museum Of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston’s Project Row Houses, the Kitchen, MoMA|PS1, and most recently Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program. Her work has been featured on television and in print, including coverage in The New York Times and The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Magazine. Artifacts from her 365 day project “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand” can be found in the in the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.