DIY on the Lower East Side

Andrew Strombeck is Professor of English at Wright State University.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. David Wojnarowicz, Gordon Matta-Clark, and the Fordist Crisis in 1970s New York2. The Puerto Rican Working Class and the Literature of Rebuilding3. Semiotext(e), Kathy Acker, and the Decline of the Welfare State4. The Rise of the Creative Economy: Art, Gentrification, and Narrative5. Between Fordism and Post-Fordism: The DIY Literature of Between C & DAfterword: ACT UP and the Divergent Possibilities of DIYNotesWorks CitedIndex

"Strombeck taps into a current interest in economic crises as foundations for literary and artistic expression. He discusses conditions of economic precarity as seedbeds for artistic innovation and for innovative ways of organizing daily life and being in the world." — Sarah Brouillette, author of Literature and the Creative Economy"The author traces the complex and agonistic filigree of artistic engagements with gentrification, precisely because these artists are often knowingly contributing to it. He shows there were more social and aesthetic possibilities available within the historical moment of the 1970s and '80s than have been generally acknowledged, and the gentrification of the possibilities is all the more devastating given that the writers and artists documented here were deeply invested in preserving and engaging with extant underclass communities and cultures in the city. This is an important and beautifully written work of literary history." — Tyler Bradway, author of Queer Experimental Literature: The Affective Politics of Bad Reading