In conjunction with the play Buzzer, Tracey Scott Wilson’s tale of an upwardly-mobile black attorney who buys an apartment in a transitioning neighborhood in Brooklyn, The Public Theater asked patrons to mark a map with a pushpin signifying how they felt about their neighborhood. “We thought about how we could connect everyone that comes through this building to this topic,” said Reynaldi Lindner Lolong, the Public’s Membership and Marketing manager. The colored pushpins point out exactly where people are from on the map, and the Post-Its allow them to choose a color (green for those worried about being priced out of their hood, orange for those who feel unsafe, red for both and blue for neither) and make an anonymous comment about their experience with gentrification. “What’s been really fascinating is seeing it’s not that all one neighborhood is green, or all one is red. Within the same block you’ll see all different reactions,” Lolong said.
The Buzzer runs until April 26 at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street.