Toward Camden

Mercy Romero's book, Toward Camden, explores the largely African American and Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood in New Jersey, focusing on the relationships that make and sustain it. She engages with the aesthetics of fragment and ruin and resists narratives of crime and decline.

Format: Hardback
Length: 136 pages
Publication date: 17 December 2021
Publisher: Duke University Press

Mercy Romero s Toward Camden is a lyrical meditation on the complex web of relationships that shape and sustain the predominantly African American and Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood in New Jersey, where she grew up. Walking through the city, Romero writes outdoors to ponder the collapse and transformation of property. She revisits abandoned and empty houses, including her family s home, the Walt Whitman House, and the landscape of a vacant lot. Throughout, Romero engages with the aesthetics of fragment and ruin; her writing resists the idioms of redevelopment. She challenges narratives of the city that are inextricably linked to crime and decline, and witnesses the everyday lives lived at the intersection of spatial and Puerto Rican diasporic memory. Toward Camden weaves together official reports, government data, and personal anecdotes to create a nuanced portrait of a city in transition. Romero s writing is a testament to the power of storytelling to capture the complexities of urban life and shed light on the often-overlooked communities that make up our cities. Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient Mercy Romero s Toward Camden is a lyrical meditation on the complex web of relationships that shape and sustain the predominantly African American and Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood in New Jersey, where she grew up. Walking through the city, Romero writes outdoors to ponder the collapse and transformation of property. She revisits abandoned and empty houses, including her family s home, the Walt Whitman House, and the landscape of a vacant lot. Throughout, Romero engages with the aesthetics of fragment and ruin; her writing resists the idioms of redevelopment. She challenges narratives of the city that are inextricably linked to crime and decline, and witnesses the everyday lives lived at the intersection of spatial and Puerto Rican diasporic memory. Toward Camden weaves together official reports, government data, and personal anecdotes to create a nuanced portrait of a city in transition. Romero s writing is a testament to the power of storytelling to capture the complexities of urban life and shed light on the often-overlooked communities that make up our cities.

Weight: 340g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478013785