Diane Burns Sheds Light on Gentrification (1988)

Artist and poet Diane Burns was born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1957: her father was Chemehuevi and her mother was Anishinabe. In the 1970s she moved to New York City where she created art that challenged stereotypes of Native Americans and addressed the complexities of urban life. In this 1988 videotape, Burns recites her poem, “Alphabet City Serenade.” Its title refers to a section of the Lower East Side, known colloquially as the “Loisaida.” Despite decades of neglect by property owners and the city, the area was home to many immigrants and artists, including a thriving Puerto Rican (Nuyorican) arts community and punk and gay counterculture. By the 1980s, Alphabet City and the larger Lower East Side neighborhood began to gentrify and many of the older residents were driven out by rising rents.

Once they built the railroad

the buffalo split

past the horizon line

once they built the railroad

now the railroad’s done.

Brother, can you front me a dime?

I’m down and out in Loisaida 

I’m out of smoke in Loisaida

I’m out of tea in Loisaida

I’m out of luck

I’m out of my mind

all at the same time

in Loisaida

Oh East Village ai yi yi yi yi yi yi.

I’m American royalty

walking around with a hole in my knee

I’m a hopeful aborigine

trying to find a place to be

Oh East Village ai yi yi yi yi yi yi.

Back home now I’d be at the pow-wow

I’d be drinking herb tea and eating deer meat.

Maybe smooching in a blanket with a Potawatamie.

But here I am on Avenue D

Sacrifice of Manifest Destiny

Oh East Village ai yi yi yi yi yi yi yi.

I’m not your steppin’ stone.

Hey man, can you spare a cigarette?

Do you know of a place to sublet?

Do you know where I can cash this check?

Do you know, do you know that

I hate Doris Day 

I hate Chevrolet

I hate Norman Bates

And I hate the United States

Oh East Village ai yi yi yi yi yi yi.

East Village ai yi yi yi yi yi yi.

Oh, so you want to talk about gentrification, huh?