Yasmine Tiana Goring is pursuing her PhD in anthropology, as she looks to connect to Black people experiencing displacement and gentrification across the diaspora – as far away as Africa and as close to home as Brooklyn.
Her documentary, “222 Macon St.,” released earlier this year, examines the impacts of gentrification in the borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. In the film, shot almost exactly one year ago, Goring speaks with long-time residents to get their voices on the changes of their neighborhood, as well as the perspective of new white developers who are renting out the apartments. Pointing to Vogue magazine shoots in front of her old brownstone, Goring notes that a once historically Black neighborhood “has now become a commodity.”
“How much of change is natural and how much of it is violence,” said Goring, 26. She notes that the difference between the demographic shift from when communities like Harlem were majority white to what is happening today is that in the past, much of that change was “white flight,” in which white residents chose to leave as opposed to being displaced, as is the case now with Black New Yorkers.
Goring grew up at the address, which is a brownstone her family owned in the middle of Bed-Stuy. But they later sold the property as a result of the 2008 housing market crash and mounting costs. She says the selling had a serious effect on her upbringing.
Her extended family, consisting of her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all lived there together in different apartments, a foundation of her childhood. But as the family unit was impacted as a result of no longer being under the same roof. She later moved around Brooklyn to Bushwick, East New York, and Flatbush, where she now resides.
Over the course of her lifetime, she saw firsthand how her neighborhood became unaffordable, from grocery prices increasing to brownstone apartments going for market rate. In the last 20 years, there has been an exodus of 200,000 Black New Yorkers, and Bed Stuy alone has lost 50% of its Black population.
Goring graduated from Syracuse University, and she worked as a news producer for WSTM-TV in Syracuse but eventually she realized she was passionate about documentary and long-form storytelling about her people.
“I’m telling my story, but it’s representative of so many other people’s stories who don’t necessarily have a medium or a platform to tell it,” Goring said. “This isn’t a situation isolated to Bed-Stuy or even Harlem. There are so many instances in which there were thriving black communities, and they built highways through them.”
Goring serves as a journalist with the Palaver Collective, a community and social justice organization that creates awareness about issues concerning Black people happening in Africa, America, the Caribbean, and throughout the diaspora.
On Nov. 30, they will present an Affordable Housing Forum at Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn. At the event, community members will have a space to share their thoughts, and the group will be launching an affordability campaign outlining ways to get involved and find solutions, linking the issues across the Five Boroughs.
Palaver, which she joined in 2024, also educates people about anti-imperialism and Pan-African movements in history. At one of their recent parties against gentrification, they raised more than $5,000 and were able to prevent some evictions in Brooklyn.
This year, Goring has hosted screenings for her film at venues like Restoration Plaza, Cornell University, and with tenant unions in Brooklyn for community members. The film, she says, was made in the tradition of the Latin film movement, Third Cinema, focused on sparking conversation and not for profit, and also being fully available to the community.
“I’m not creating a film just to create a film,” Goring said. “I create a film to create a dialogue so that we can organize and create some forward movement, so that we can stop displacement because I don’t think displacement is inevitable.”
Goring says building community and challenging the notion that gentrification is inevitable should be the focus.
“They want us to believe that there’s nothing we can do,” Goring said. “We can actually take tangible steps to combat the violence, get off the defense, and get on the offense as well. We can’t constantly be defending our communities; we have to protect them.”
In addition to Palaver, Goring works with organizations like Uprooted, a collective documenting stories of gentrification, and Defend Harlem.
Goring is hopeful that Mayor-elect Mamdani can usher in a more affordable New York, but emphasizes that elected officials are only one part of the fight, and that movements like hers must keep up the pressure on the grassroots level.
“There’s always going to need to be more organization,” Goring said. “If you care about something, you can’t just expect it to be fixed. You have to get out there and be a part of the solution because everybody has a skill. Everybody has something that they contribute to creating better conditions for our people.”
The Palaver Collective will host its Affordable Housing Forum Nov. 30, beginning at 4 p.m. at Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton in Brooklyn.
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