Summary of “Fort Greene Dreams”

In “The Place Where We Dwell” 3rd Edition by Juanita But, Mark Noonan, and Sean Scanlan there is an excerpt called “Fort Greene Dreams” taken from “City Kid” by Nelson George. In this excerpt Nelson George takes us through his accounts of his life when he moved from Jamaica, Queens in the spring of 1985 to 19 Willoughby Avenue in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn until 1992. Nelson uses his growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and time living in Queens to give us a feel of how Fort Green is like. Being in Fort Green made his life a lot easier. It was the closest he had been to Manhattan and able to live a lavish lifestyle. The crime wasn’t as bad as he had known in Brownsville although crack was spreading all over Brooklyn, and never in his life was he robbed except for his own fault for leaving the door open. He left the business of hip hop in Queens and immersed himself in music, film, writing, and sex. Fort Green became internationally known as the place to be for Nelson’s generation of artists. The uprising in black culture throughout that period inspired Nelson and kept him working extra hard to keep ahead of the competition. Nelson was able to get a grasp on what kind of writer, lover and son he was; as well to his surprise he developed into a mentor. He did not only write about the artists, but helped them with tough love, collaboration and networking. This role as a mentor gave him an outlook of lessons that he could apply to himself. He wants to achieve sustained excellence and by being productive he would ensure to have a full and active life.